Thoughts on Season Three.

Picard and the crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation, back on the bridge of the Enterprise-D.

THOUGHTS ON SEASON THREE:

In its first two seasons, Star Trek: Picard carefully balanced TNG-era nostalgia against being a new show with an identity of its own. I had my issues with the series, specifically with Season Two, but this balance was something the writers handled extremely well.

In Season Three, Picard goes in a different direction. This season is less the conclusion to Picard and more Star Trek: The Next Generation - Epilogue. In theory, this should leave me feeling a bit disgruntled. I can always re-watch TNG, and I sometimes do rewatch the better episodes. In theory, I far prefer to see something new.

In practice, however, Season Three turns out to be by far the best season of what's been a rather uneven series.

Fears for his family make Geordi reluctant to help his old captain.

AN ENSEMBLE PIECE:

In my Season Two overview, one of my top wishlist items was a hope that the returning TNG characters would not be exactly as they were when that series wrapped up. Happily, I get my wish. The characters are recognizably the same people, but the passage of time and the lives they've led have changed them in ways that are believable and often interesting.

Geordi is a father, and his protectiveness toward his two daughters informs his actions. Riker is more confident in his own decision making; while he respects Picard, he no longer automatically defers to him. Worf has taken a philosophical turn; he's not quite a pacifist (he's literally introduced killing bad guys), but he's more thoughtful than in the past. Beverly Crusher has transformed the most, her twenty years of protecting Jack having made her fierce and assertive in a way that wasn't often true in TNG - and Gates McFadden seems to thoroughly enjoy playing this new side to her personality.

Inevitably, some characters get more focus than others, but everyone gets something significant to do. It helps that the season re-introduces the cast gradually. Beverly and Riker appear as early as the first episode, and Worf enters the action in Episode 2. It isn't until the second half of the season that Geordi and Data receive anything more than a name-check, though, and it isn't until the final three episodes that Deanna gets more than a cameo. This allows each returning regular to get a reasonable amount of focus when they appear without leaving them competing for attention. It also helps to keep the narrative fresh, with the overall dynamics changing with each reintroduction.

Finally, I have to applaud the story making a plot point out of Picard's synthetic body, with the corpse of his original body forming a major part of the changelings' plan. It's not quite what I wanted to see. I still think it was a missed opportunity to not explore Picard's feelings about being transferred to a synthetic body. His greatest fear and shame was his past assimilation by the Borg, and now he's ever-so-slightly not quite human; that remains something that both he and the other characters should have reacted to.

But at least this season uses that misjudged plot turn as a major part of its story. I continue to wish more had been done with it... but I fully expected Season Three to just repeat Season Two in making one or two references and nothing more, so I was glad to see something of substance done.

Vadic (Amanda Plummer) harbors hatred that can't be reasoned with.

THE KID, THE VILLAIN, AND THE DIP**** FROM CHICAGO - NEW CHARACTERS:

Season Three offers three significant new characters: Jack, Picard's son; Vadic, the changeling leader, and Liam Shaw, captain of the USS Titan. All three characters end up working, though not to the same extent.


JACK:

The well-worn "reunion movie" tropes of the old lead having a son/daughter ready to take the mantle is one that rarely works. It's never been what viewers want. They didn't tune into a revival of an old series to watch the son or daughter of the character they loved. It doesn't help that, in most cases, the kid characters are either insufferable or faded carbon copies of the old leads.

Jack largely sidesteps this trap. First, he's a genuinely well-written character. He's not a carbon copy of Picard, but neither is he self-consciously different. His swagger carries an echo of the young Picard who got into a near-fatal brawl with a Naussican. However, the surface cockiness is convincingly mixed with just the right amounts of both resentment and insecurity.

Also, Jack is an important part of the season, but he's firmly part of the supporting cast. His frank conversations with Picard develop him as a character, but the focus is kept on Picard and his reactions. Because of this, Jack's screen time never feels like it's coming at the expense of the old regulars. It helps that actor Ed Speleers does an excellent job of bringing the character to life.


VADIC:

Amanda Plummer's Vadic is the most prominent villain for the bulk of the season. When she's introduced, she is in a position of power, her ship clearly outmatching Picard and the Titan. She presents a genial front, speaking softly in an exaggeratedly sweet Southern drawl, even as it's clear that she revels the thought of violence. She seems to be having great fun pursuing the starship, and she plays with the humans like a cat with a mouse, letting the Titan run free just enough to enjoy the thrill of pouncing on it all over again.

This is all enjoyable villainy, and Amanda Plummer has a whale of time chomping on scenery, but there doesn't seem to be much depth beyond "villain." Episode 7, Dominion, changes that, with a well-scripted and wonderfully acted confrontation between Vadic on one side and Picard and Beverly on the other. In this scene, Vadic reveals all the hatred she's fostered for humanity - and as we glimpse her backstory, that hate becomes understandable. At that point, we comprehend why she is so sadistic and angry.

None of which makes her less villainous, it should be noted. In fact, once Picard knows what drives her, he gives up on trying to negotiate. Vadic's hatred runs so deep that reason is impossible.

Capt. Shaw (Todd Stashwick) takes great pleasure in pointing out
a few less-than-shining moments of Picard's and Riker's careers.

CAPT. SHAW:

I hated Shaw on sight. With the benefit of hindsight, it's clear that the writers wanted me to have that reaction. Shaw was meant to come off as a typical "pompous bureaucrat," with later revelations changing that perception. Even in hindsight, though, I think his early scenes are overwritten. The Shaw of the season premiere is pointlessly antagonistic and punchably smug. Rudeness and smugness are present in the rest of the season, but never again to that same extent.

Starting with Episode Two, he emerges as a three-dimensional character. He's still adversarial to Picard, but his points have validity. Once Picard reveals that Jack is his son, Shaw stops arguing, resigning himself to the battle to come. Episode Four is both the season's and the series' best installment - and its single best scene belongs to Shaw, as he recalls his brush with "Locutus of Borg" during the Battle of Wolf 359. The scene explains his initial disdain for Picard, and it also shows the survivor's guilt that's left him entirely willing to be seen as the jerk by his own crew.

By the second half of the season, he has become a full ally to Picard. He continues to argue with the regulars, but it's mostly to point out inconvenient truths, from the unintended consequences of some of Picard's and Riker's past heroics to the potential need for Seven of Nine to sacrifice people for the greater good: "You are a Starfleet officer. You don't have the luxury to only make choices that feel hunky-dory."

Actor Todd Stashwick leans fully into the character's abrasive nature, but (Episode One aside) he also shows the character's intelligence and the emotional turmoil from his past. A layered performance combines with good writing, making Shaw into the most memorable of all of Star Trek: Picard's original characters. I'd happily watch a full series about the self-described "dip**** from Chicago."

Picard is reunited with Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes).

ARCS WITHIN A BIGGER STORY - SEASON STRUCTURE:

One reason why Season Three works better than the previous two seasons is its structure. Instead of pulling a single story across ten episodes, the story is divided into smaller arcs. This keeps the story from feeling overstretched, a common problem with seasons of streaming shows, by allowing the overall focus to change regularly.

The first four installments form a Star Trek action thriller, with the Titan evading Vadic inside a nebula. I worried that this setup couldn't sustain a full season. Then Episode Four did something I hadn't expected: It resolved the situation, ending that arc in an entirely satisfying manner while still leaving loose ends for future episodes.

This continues through the rest of the season. The middle episodes shift to a conspiracy story, with the changeling presence within Starfleet leaving the crew with no allies. Episodes Seven and Eight form a two-parter that's dominated by a hostage crisis. Episodes Nine and Ten end the story with another two-parter, this one pitting Picard and his crew against the Borg (again).

The structure works well. Each smaller arc feeds the overall story, so it always feels as if the season is building. At the same time, each arc receives some form of resolution, so that it rarely feels as if the show is just wheel-spinning.

Which isn't to say that every element works perfectly...

The Enterprise targets the heart of the Borg Cube.

A BAIT AND SWITCH THAT DOESN'T ENTIRELY SATISFY:

The season does an excellent job of establishing the changelings as a threat. The tension between Picard and Ro is partially because of their past, but each is also testing the other, wondering if they are who they claim to be. This is echoed later in the season, in the outstanding Seven/Tuvok scene, with Seven uncertain if her old Vulcan friend can be trusted.

The season consistently shows that the changelings' infiltration of Starfleet is significant. The result is that Picard and his crew have almost nobody they can actually trust, leaving them on the run and with no allies as the culmination of the enemy plan draws near.

...And then the final two episodes drop the changelings almost entirely in favor of Borg Invasion Attempt #360. Once the Borg are reintroduced, the changelings cease to be relevant to the story at all. Yes, Vadic is defeated - but by this point, we've already seen that changelings have enough control in enough places to be formidable without her. Where did all of those changelings go, and why don't they do anything after the Borg attack fails?

I don't actually mind the show bringing the Borg back. Overused though they are (the Borg are invoked in three out of three Picard seasons), they're still the TNG villain with the greatest personal connection to Picard, and their connection to Jack is nicely set up and revealed. But the show needed to keep the changelings active in the final two parts. Alternatively, they could have just made this a Borg story from the start... something that could have been entirely doable by replacing the changeling infiltration with Borg assimilation. Season Two already showed Jurati being assimilated pyschologically, with no immediate physical signs; that could have used as a template for an "invisible" Borg infiltration in Season Three.

As it stands, the changelings are built up as a threat, and then they're transformed into little more than an afterthought - something I can't help but feel disappointed by.

Picard and his old crew enjoy a final game of poker.

IN CONCLUSION:

My frustration with the dropped changeling arc notwithstanding, this season is an excellent ending, both as the final season of Star Trek: Picard and as a postscript to Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The season makes good use of its cast, including finding strong roles for characters who weren't well used by TNG, and it features fine performances all around. It also benefits from solid structure, with the mini arcs maintaining freshness and energy throughout - something that I was extremely happy to see after the structural/pacing mess that was Picard's second season.

I doubt we'll see these characters again beyond a potential cameo or two, and I would be very surprised if we saw them all together again. So, most of all, I'm happy that Picard's third season gives a satisfying close to the TNG crew members' respective stories.


Previous Season: Season Two

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Thoughts on Season Two.

Picard gives a speech about second chances.

THOUGHTS ON SEASON TWO:

Fair warning: This is a look at the season as a whole. If you haven't seen Season Two yet, know that there are spoilers throughout!

I mostly liked Season One of Picard, which felt like a legitimate attempt to do what good science fiction has always done: Used the idea of the future to reflect on the present. The show opened with Picard disillusioned and resigned to a world moving in the wrong direction, with the story gradually bringing him back to his old self over the course of the season.

There were certainly flaws. Not all the characters were well used, and the general idea of a Starfleet suffering from moral decay seemed to vanish midway through. Even if I didn't like every creative choice (such as Picard's synthetic body), I still enjoyed the story and at the very least respected the ambition.

I found Season Two to be more of a mixed bag. It fixes many of the first season's problems, but it replaces them with all new missteps. I found most of it to be entertaining, and even the worst episode remains watchable... but I didn't find the story to be as interesting. In the end, I was left feeling underwhelmed.

But before I explore the reasons for my disappointment, let me start with what the season did well...

Seven and Raffi struggle to reconnect amidst an ocean of personal issues.

FORWARD PROGRESS - CHARACTERS:

The cast is much better used in Season Two than in Season One. Every member of the ensemble gets at least a few moments in the spotlight, and the scripts allow them some enjoyable and well-written interactions.

Now, this is likely helped by the early episodes culling a couple of "extra" characters. Soji, the central character of Season One's story, is seen in the first episode just long enough to establish that she's on a diplomatic mission and won't be joining the rest of the characters. Elnor is present for the first stage of the mission, but he gets killed in Episode Three.

I think this was a good choice. Had both characters been retained, they would have just been additional crew members in need of things to do. Removing them makes it more viable to give quality material to the other regulars. Elnor's death also fuels Raffi's character arc, while Isa Briones gets a decent supporting role through the magic of time travel doppelgangers.

I complained about the Season One finale just establishing Raffi and Seven as a couple without having ever shown any interaction between them. Season Two takes this clumsily created relationship and makes it work. Having missed the chance to show their initial connection, the writers do the next best thing. They start the season with them estranged, broken up by the multitude of personal issues each of them has. Then the rest of the season sells them as a couple by showing them overcoming those barriers. It even ties in with the season's theme of revisiting the past. As Picard observes in a graduation speech early on, second chances are rare. Seven and Raffi get one, because although their relationship already failed, their feelings for each other remain.

Finally, there's Agnes Jurati. Despite second name billing and a role in the story that should have made her central, Season One often shunted Alison Pill's neurotic scientist to the periphery. She gets a much stronger role in Season Two. Like Seven and Raffi, her relationship with Rios has failed between seasons, but she is not looking to reconnect. She's alone - and despite an apparent yearning for connection, she seems determined to stay that way.

This not only makes her vulnerable to the Borg Queen's manipulations, it also allows the scripts to thematically parallel her with the Borg. Many of the season's best moments come from this: the connection with the Borg Queen in Assimilation, Jurati's attempts to co-exist with the Queen in Two of One, and her appeal to the Queen in Hide and Seek. Alison Pill is excellent throughout, and she plays particularly well opposite Annie Wersching's Borg Queen.

There's really only one character whose arc didn't work for me in Season Two. Unfortunately, it's kind of a big one...

Picard struggles to learn lessons he already learned before.

PICARD'S JOURNEY:

I see what the writers were attempting with Picard. Q takes him and his crew into the past to save the future, while at the same time Picard is forced to confront his own past to overcome emotional issues interfering with his happiness in the present. On paper, it sounds fine, even clever.

Other opinions are certainly available, but I didn't think the execution of it worked at all.

One problem for me is that much of the material regarding Picard's past has no real connection, either in terms of plot or theme, to the external threat he's dealing with. Only Hide and Seek manages to overcome this problem, thanks to Picard using the tunnels from his childhood against the villains. Monsters, on the other hand, resorts to dream sequences/flashbacks that feel thinly motivated at best.

The other problem is that those are the only two episodes that significantly address his past and his need to confront it. This is the basis of his arc, and yet aside from these two episodes it is only occasionally even mentioned. It's hardly surprising that, in a ten-episode season, an arc that's ignored for full episodes at a time doesn't get a chance to properly build.

My final complaint might also be my biggest issue: TNG already trod a lot of this ground, and frankly in better episodes. Picard's strained relationship with his family was at the core of Season Four's Family. There, he (somewhat) mended his relationship with his brother. Here, he comes to realize that his late father wasn't the stern monster of his memory but was actually dealing with considerable emotional pain himself. It's a worthy enough lesson... but I can't escape feeling like we've done this already!

The other lesson Picard must learn is that, however badly he may wish to, he cannot change the most painful moments of his past. Even if he could change them, the results would probably not be to his liking. Again, he's already had this realization - thanks to Q, no less! - in Tapestry. Now, it's fair enough to echo past episodes. Given how much Star Trek was cranked out in the 1990s, some echoes are inevitable. But if you're going to retread old ground, maybe don't make it some of the old series' very best episodes?

For the record, none of this keeps Picard from working as a character the bulk of the time. When the scripts aren't laboring to make him (re-)learn a Very Important Lesson, both Picard and actor Patrick Stewart are a joy to watch. I loved his protectiveness of Jurati, or his wonderfully scripted pep talk to  Renée at the gala. The character was at his best in these scenes, or when ultimately choosing to deal honestly and compassionately with the FBI agent holding him and Guinan prisoner. At the end of Hide and Seek, I almost got chills from his vow not to accept a bad outcome before it happens.

So yes, the character still works splendidly when Picard is simply being Picard: literate, obstinate in ways sometimes good and sometimes not, compassionate, and with the ability to turn hopeless situations to his advantage. Problems only sneak in when the writers try to force him into an arc that fails to convince.

Rios gets arrested by ICE. I'm glad the show has time for this,
and that the actual plot won't get badly rushed later on...

A PROBLEM OF PACING:

Season Two opens extremely well. The first three episodes are quite good, and they set up almost everything that the rest of the season will follow.

The opening episode efficiently shows how the characters have progressed since Season One. The bulk of the episode establishes character arcs and relationships. Then, at the end, Picard encounters a crisis involving the Borg, culminating in the sudden intervention of Q. Episode Two expands on Q's role, as he angrily declares that this not a test or lesson, but rather a "penance" for Picard. The rest of the episode follows the character in a dystopian alternate reality. By the end of the episode, we know that this reality is the result of a single change Q made to the timeline in the year 2024. Episode Three brings the characters to their past/our present and starts the main plot moving, while at the same time establishing Rios's relationship with Teresa and drawing parallels between Jurati and the Borg Queen.

The alternate future is a bit of a generic "evil future"; that aside, this opening Act is pretty close to impeccable.

Too bad that the midseason is the opposite of that.

The middle four episodes do an awful lot of water treading. Watcher, my pick for the season's weakest episode, devotes half its running time to pointless side trips. Rios has an extended misadventure with ICE while Seven and Raffi steal a police car and essentially play real life Grand Theft Auto to try to rescue him. None of this even particularly goes anywhere; once Episode Five rolls around, Seven and Raffi rescue Rios with all the effort of pressing a button, and the whole incident receives only a single mention later. A mention that makes Rios look like an imbecile, at that... though the overall treatment of Rios this year makes me wonder if he hit his head really, really hard between seasons.

The final three episodes pick up the pace again. Episodes 8 and 9 see a welcome return to the high quality of the early episodes, and Episode 10 ends by bringing the story full circle with some excellent character epilogues.

Unfortunately, those character epilogues come after some final plot mechanics that are badly rushed. Episode 10, Farewell, opens with Picard and Tallinn trying to stop the villainous Dr. Soong from interfering in the launch of a very important space mission. This should be tense and exciting, with Picard and Tallinn relying on their wits to evade security to beat Soong to the goal while the not-so-good doctor just as desperately tries to bluff his way through using his credentials and attitude. Because it's all crammed into about twenty minutes, though, neither heroes nor villains experience any obstacles. This should be a highly secure area in the midst of enormous activity, and yet we barely even see any evidence of basic staff. Meaning, yes, the pre-launch party was locked down like Fort Knox while the launch itself has less security than a 7/11!

Ideally, this should have been the focus of one full episode, with the character epilogues and resolution of the initial Borg contact left to be an episode in itself. But I guess we really needed that big car chase and that episode about bad dreams, even if it left the actual season climax feeling like a tacked-on afterthought.

Elnor dies. But don't worry - He gets better.

CONSEQUENCES ARE FOR REDSHIRTS:

Something unexpected happens in Episode Three: Elnor dies. This sends Raffi into a season-long spiral of guilt and anger, with her clinging to the gossamer-thin hope that if they fix the timeline he'll somehow be brought back to life.

I really hoped that the death would stick. Not because I don't like Elnor; I've actually liked the character since his introduction. However, I am a believer that, with only the rarest exceptions, dead characters should stay dead. In my review, I observed that Elnor's death was a vastly more effective unheroic "pointless death" than Tasha Yar's in TNG, and I appreciated the way it was used to kick off Raffi's character arc. I even liked the ways Elnor was used in the later season, with a flashback in Episode Eight and a hologram in Episode Nine developing Raffi's guilt and, finally, resolving it as much as such issues can be.

Then Q brings him back to life in the finale, because why should there be any lasting consequences? I'm reminded of Q Who?, another story in which Q whisked Picard's crew away from familiar surroundings and put them in danger, as the Enterprise experienced its first contact with the Borg. Eighteen crew members died. When an outraged Picard confronted him about that, Q responded perfectly:

"It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross - but it's not for the timid."

But it turns out that Mr. Magic will resurrect the dead - provided they are people close to Picard and provided Q is in a sufficiently sentimental mood. So Elnor gets to live! But it sucks to be one of those eighteen redshirts.

The hilarious thing? I'm pretty sure Elnor isn't in Season Three, so there wasn't even a contractual reason to do this. With regard to the larger series, the resurrection appears certain to end up being less than pointless. And had the group been remembering Elnor in that final scene with Guinan, I think it would have been considerably more effective.

Starfleet faces a threat that isn't exactly as it seems...

SEASON THREE WISHLIST:

As was true when I made up my "Season Two Wishlist," I'm not going to pretend not to know what was in every single promo for Season Three. I already know that Season Three is, to all intents and purposes, TNG Season Eight.

This is not my preference. One aspect of Picard I've consistently appreciated is that it's balanced nostalgia against being its own series with its own set of regulars. I would have preferred that the series continued doing that. Yes, I enjoy guest appearances by members of the old cast where appropriate - but I would have liked them to remain guest appearances.

Still, the producers made their choice, and overall reception to Season Three indicates that it was the correct one for a lot of fans. Knowing that, my main hope is that the characters are properly utilized. Let's not repeat the mistake of Enterprise's These Are the Voyages, please, in which years had passed but all the characters were still exactly the same. It's been a long time. I hope the show acknowledges that by showing that the characters have moved on in various ways in the interim.

I also hope that the background set up by Picard's first two seasons is not forgotten. Synthetics are now a part of the Federation, though that has come after more than a decade of their mere existence being outlawed. This is an issue that deserves some follow-up. Picard has a synthetic body, which received only a couple of references during Season Two. I don't expect any meaningful follow-up, but I consider the lack of follow-up to have been a missed opportunity. There have been references to a mysterious threat in both seasons, and that absolutely should be addressed.

But my biggest hope is just that Season Three is good. Season One had plenty of flaws, but I liked it overall. I found Season Two to be a bit disappointing, but I still enjoyed more of the episodes than not. In all likelihood, Season Three will be the last time we ever see all of these characters together again, much as was true of Star Trek VI and the TOS cast. As such, I hope it follows in Star Trek VI's footsteps by delivering a final adventure that's worthy of them.

If nothing else, it's almost certainly going to be better than Nemesis. And I say that as someone who mostly liked Nemesis on its own terms.

Q and Picard say farewell.

IN CONCLUSION:

"Potential" was my keyword for Season One of Star Trek: Picard. The season was swimming in interesting ideas, intriguing elements, and enjoyable characters. It didn't always use them as well as I'd have liked, but it was clear that there was the foundation for a legitimately interesting series that went beyond just "TNG nostalgia."

Unfortunately, my keyword for Season Two is "disappointment." I don't think Season Two is bad in the way its worst detractors insist. There are several good episodes and a few very good ones, and even the weakest entries remain watchable (something that wasn't always true of TNG). But the whole ended up feeling like less than the sum of its parts, and I came away feeling... honestly a little discouraged by it.

I'm hopeful that Season Three will stick the landing, and will manage to do so in a way that fits Star Trek: Picard and not just Star Trek: The Next Generation - Reunion. But I have to admit that, even though I enjoyed it well enough on an episode-by-episode basis, Season Two has left me feeling just a bit hollow.


Previous Season: Season One
Next Season: Season Three

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Thoughts on Season One.

Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (retired) uncovers a conspiracy...

Star Trek: Picard was a highly awaited show. Boasting the return of Patrick Stewart to an iconic role, and with award winning writer Michael Chabon in charge of the story, the series promised much. Pre-release promotion indicated that the series would offer storytelling that was intelligent and adult, while still providing plenty of fast-paced action for genre fans.  Basically, Picard would satisfy old-school fans and new ones alike.

That was probably always going to be a tough promise to live up to, so it's little surprise that the results were a bit... mixed.


"NO LONGER STARFLEET":

Though the series' premiere suffers from uneven pacing, there is much promise in the initial episodes. Science fiction generally is written as a reflection of modern society.  That's very much the case here; released in a divided time in which many feel pessimistic about the future, Picard presents a decaying Federation that is moving in the wrong direction.

The series opens with a sense of disillusionment. Picard has renounced Starfleet, condemning them for turning their back on their own ideals. "They were no longer Starfleet," he angrily proclaims during an interview. When he later goes to a Starfleet admiral for help, she throws that interview back in his face and tells him that Starfleet "is no longer your house," all but dismissing his concerns as the fantasies of a senile old man.

The first half of the series follows up on this. Absolute Candor shows us the Romulan refugees left to fend for themselves after Starfleet decided not to continue lending aid to their one-time enemies. The contrast between the hopeful refugees shown in an opening flashback and the bitter, angry ones seen in the present brings home the consequences of this. Even Stardust City Rag - the season's most standalone episode - reintroduces a Seven of Nine who has joined a vigilante outfit to try to keep some semblance of order in territories that Starfleet abandoned.

Romulan refugee Ellnor resents Picard for abandoning him.

A DROPPED THREAD:

This is an interesting thread, even just as a background to the main action. Unfortunately, it's all but completely dropped midway through the season.

The second half of the season barely references the changes in Starfleet since the TNG era. Only Broken Pieces remembers it, and then only long enough to tie up some plot issues. Other than that, this might as well be the Starfleet of the 1990s series. In that same episode, the previously dismissive Admiral Clancy promises Picard her support, and neither Picard nor his crew ever seem in any doubt of it. The finale then sees Starfleet represented by the friendly face of William Riker... which oddly echoes Star Trek: Insurrection, in which Riker also secured a reversal of a prior Starfleet decision entirely off screen.

I would have preferred the series to have kept alive the idea of a Starfleet that Picard couldn't necessarily count on. As much fun as Riker's cameo in the finale was, it might have been more interesting if Starfleet had arrived at the android planet with the same goal as the Romulan fleet: to try to curtail a threat. Then Picard could have been left trying to negotiate with three potentially hostile parties: the androids, the Romulans, and Starfleet. That might not have left much time for climactic action scenes... but it would have been more of a piece with the start of the season.

Picard visits old colleagues Will and Deanna Riker.

AN EFFECTIVE BALANCE OF STORYTELLING AND NOSTALGIA:

The greatest strength of Star Trek: Picard's first season is in how well it manages to feed nostalgia for the TNG era while still retaining its own identity as a very different series.

The series' opening scene features Picard playing poker with Data on the Enterprise - spiritually picking up exactly where the final scene of TNG's finale left off. It quickly becomes apparent that this is a dream sequence, and Picard is left waking up to his current life and situation, which is very different than his days as a starship captain.

The next several episodes focus on furthering the season's story and on introducing the new characters. These characters work well for the most part. Santiago Cabrera's Capt. Rios emerges as the standout; but all of the new regulars are well-played, and every character gets at least a few good moments throughout the season.

Even as Picard develops its new cast, it continues to drip-feed nostalgia from 1990s Trek. Episode Two references Picard's former crew members and explains why he won't just turn to them for help. Episode Four ends with the return of Seven of Nine, arguably the most popular character from 1990s Trek series Voyager. Episode Seven, Nepenthe, plays the most directly to TNG nostalgia, with Picard visiting old colleagues Riker and Troi and spending an entire episode as their houseguest.

This last should be a complete momentum killer, an episode-long wallow in nostalgia. However, the script makes it work. Not so much in the cutaways to Rios and the other crew members, whose scenes mostly feel like an intrusion - but in the primary material, with Picard, Soji, and the Rikers. Though these scenes have a pleasantly relaxed atmosphere, the focus remains on Picard's efforts to gain the trust of the traumatized android Soji. By putting story and much character emphasis on Soji's trauma and her wariness of Picard, the episode manages to balance the demands of being the fan-pleasing "Riker/Troi episode" against those of being a part of this series.

Picard has a conversation with Data that sums up the season's themes...
just in time for the rest of the episode to undermine it.

THE ENDING (YES, SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT):

While Picard's finale was far from perfect (Example: Seven's plotline ends with her having a catfight against a character she never previously met, in order to avenge a character with whom she never shared a second of screen time), it was satisfying overall, particularly with regard to Picard's character journey. The man who had started the season as a bitter shell of his former self ends it making an impassioned plea about the responsibilities of being alive. He does this fully expecting it to be his last act, and it is a fine ending to his season journey. Had this been Picard's end, it would have been a substantially more fitting than the one Kirk received.

Then the last 10 - 15 minutes wrecks it by transferring Picard's brain into an android body.

It's not that there isn't dramatic potential in this. Earlier in the season, we see again the scars of Picard's assimilation by the Borg. He almost collapses when he beams onto The Artifact, the dormant Borg Cube claimed by the Romulans. He admits to Seven that he's never felt 100% human again after his experience of being Locutus of Borg.

In short, this should be Picard's greatest horror come to life: He is now something not quite human. Entirely without his consent, he has been "assimilated" by Dr. Soong. And there might be potential in that, except... the ending downplays this entirely. It's spelled out in painful detail that Picard is entirely unchanged. He's exactly as he would have been, with exactly the remaining life span he would have had, minus the terminal disease that's been hanging over him all season. And Picard is entirely OK with it, voicing not even a single reservation.

The whole thing feels like a cheat. Not only does it cheapen the sacrifice Picard was willing to make; it undermines the sentiments Data made just one scene earlier, in which he notes that the value of life is that it ends and that "a butterfly that lives forever is really not a butterfly at all." The entire structure of the season was that this was Picard's last adventure, and he explicitly states that he's giving his life to Soji and her people. By reversing that sacrifice so clumsily, it undermines much of what went before.

Narek manipulates Soji in the season's best episode.

THE CURSE OF A TEN-PART MOVIE:

To an extent, many of my issues with the season have to do with the structue of most modern series, particularly those made for streaming. Star Trek: Picard is less a television series than it is an elongated movie. Like a movie, most of its efforts go to furthering its central plot - one main plot that covers the entire season.

There are a couple breaks from this. Absolute Candor focuses on the displaced Romulans. Stardust City Rag comes close to being a standalone, centered around a sting against a dangerous criminal. But those are the only two exceptions. The rest of the season is centered around Picard's efforts to save Soji (and later, her people) from the Romulans.

I recognize that this kind of long-form storytelling is one of the advantages television has over movies. Stories can cover more ground, involve more characters, and deal with more complexity than can be fit into a 2-hour movie. At times, Star Trek: Picard makes this work. The Impossible Box, in which the various threads finally come together, is an excellent episode, easily the season's best, and its success comes in large part from it being able to pay off what was set up by previous installments.

However, I worry that the focus on long-form storytelling has led to neglect of television's other advantage: Its ability to pause and tell stories that are intimate, personal, and even small. This is far from a fault unique to Picard - but when everything is focused on showing some large-scale epic, then there isn't time for people sitting in a room talking, working through a conflict or a moral quandary in a quiet, contemplative manner.

I enjoyed (most of) Picard. But I didn't award a single "10," and I can't help but wonder if part of the reason is that everything had to fuel the plot. I think back on some of my favorite past Star Trek episodes, and so many of them are unimaginable in the framework Picard has employed. I can't imagine this series ever having room for episodes such as: Tapestry, The Inner Light, Duet, The Visitor, It's Only a Paper Moon, or Mortal Coil.

Again, that's more a comment on the trend of shows in general - but if there's no longer room for small, quiet storytelling gems, then I'd argue that more has been lost than has been gained.

Picard, back in command.

SEASON TWO WISHLIST:

Given that Q was in every promo for Season Two, I'm not going to feign total ignorance of what's to come. I know that Q will return, and I know that the next season will deal with some alternate universe shenanigans. I've managed to remain unspoiled beyond that.

My biggest hope is that they take what I felt was a disastrous ending and turn it into an asset.  I do not want to see it overwritten - Please no "Q handwaves it away" solution.  Instead, make use of it.  I still feel that Picard should be greatly troubled by what was done to him.  Take as a starting point that Picard, who has stated that the Borg left him feeling less than fully human, now actually is other than 100% human.  I don't like that it was done; but since that route was taken, I hope they follow it and make something interesting out of it.

I also hope that they continue to make good use of the regulars they have established. I actually quite like Picard's cast. Even the underused characters have potential, and all of the actors are at least competent. I'd love to see more of Picard's ex-Tal'Shiar housekeeper from the first three episodes; the actress was terrific, and I was actively disappointed when she didn't return later in the season.

I would also love for the series to revisit the idea of a Federation that has gone slightly wrong. That was one of the strongest elements of the season's first half, and I feel it was a major missed opportunity to drop that thread for the second half. If they could pick that thread back up and do something with it, I think it could be potentially interesting.


IN CONCLUSION:

"Potential" is a word that comes to my mind a lot when thinking about Picard's first season. There was a lot of potential here for a fine show. Unlike some, I found this to be an enjoyable season; I'd rank it above at least three seasons of TNG (and I think Trek fandom sometimes forgets how uneven much of TNG really was).

That said, this season only occasionally realized its potential. The ideas were present for Season One of Picard to be a remarkable piece of television, and there are glimpses of that in Maps and Legends, The Impossible Box, and Broken Pieces. The rest of the time, however, the series contented itself with being merely serviceable.

It was still better than three of the four TNG movies, mind you... But I'd like to see that bar set just a bit higher than that.


Next Season: Season Two

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