Spoilers Are the first two seasons of 'Picard' unnecessary?

I think you could watch season 3 without having seen the others first and glean everything you need to know to enjoy the season in and of itself.

Personally I won't ever revisit seasons 1 or 2, but I have already rewatched season 3 as well as various episodes of it multiple times.

 

For someone new to the show? There's no reason to burden them with the S1 and 2 stuff.

 

I just rewatched season 1 and enjoyed it greatly. If the show had continued on in that vein, I would have been happy with it. It is necessary to the Picard season 3 narrative because it explains how and why Picard no longer occupies his original body. It also features the most badass moment in the entire history of the character of Seven of Nine. Season 2 is a total mess that can probably be skipped.

 

Season 1 = Chabon's Picard

Season 2 = Matalas & Goldsman writing out most of the characters from Chabon's Picard. Zhaban? Died off-screen. Soji? Off representing AI Rights. Isa Briones is Kore for the rest of the season. Elnor? Dead for most of the season and otherwise off to the Academy. Jurati? Turned into a Borg and forms the Jurati-Borg. Rios? Stays in the 21st Century. Orla Brady gets more to do as Tallinn than as Laris. Only Picard himself, Seven, and Raffi make the cut. And even there, Raffi is only the character originally introduced in Picard left.

Season 3 = Matalas' Picard

I love PIC Season 3. It's my favorite season of the series. BUT... In any other Star Trek series, if they wrote out most of the cast like that, it wouldn't have gone over well at all. Matalas was lucky because he dangled the TNG Cast in front of everyone and said, "You're getting them back instead, plus a new crew on the Titan!"

DSC kept the same cast, LD kept the same cast, PRO is keeping the same cast, and presumably SNW will keep the same cast until anyone who's not in TOS is replaced with the rest of the TOS Characters. With SNW, it's to be expected, because that's the way it has to happen, and probably won't until the very end.

But with Picard, there's no two ways of looking at it: One version of the show (S1) was replaced with another version of the show (S3), with a buffer in-between (S2).

 

The YouTube channels trying to do viral marketing to get disgruntled Star Trek fans back to try season 3 very much made the argument they can skip seasons 1 and 2.

Now, are there legacy Star Trek fans out there that might very well like PICARD season 1 (or say DISCOVERY) that just haven't given it a try? Perhaps. But season 3 will appeal to a much larger proportion of the legacy fanbase than season 1. If nothing that's been produced since 2009 / 2017 have brought them back yet, season 3 is a much better gateway.

Just to give a personal example... I found most of season 1 and the beginning of season 2 of DISCOVERY under Goldsman, Harberts, and Berg to at least be interesting watching -- with the caveat there was no way it could fit into the pre-established continuity. But when Kurtzman and Paradise took it over, the tail end season 2 fell off a cliff for me. I was out of NuTrek. I followed the reviews of PICARD season 1 from afar, and it looked like something I should stay clear from.

PICARD season 2 actually brought me back because of Terry Matalas' involvement. Season 2 is my second favorite season of live action NuTrek. Yes, it's very flawed... but in a way it reminds me a lot of DISCOVERY season 1, where Akiva Goldsman also took over an outline established by a legacy Star Trek veteran and then ran it through the ringer. But coming at it having seen Matalas' work on 12 MONKEYS, I can see the remnants of a lot of things that they likely wanted to do that ran into the buzzsaw of executive interference and COVID restrictions.

PICARD season 1 I only watched a few weeks before season 3 premiered. Let's just say I like TNG season 1 more than that effort!

So, my advice would be... watch PICARD season 3. If you want a little more, see season 2. And if you're still game, watch season 1 with the safety valve of knowing how things turn out.

 

S3 could be seen as a direct sequel to S1, due to the presence of Dr Alton Soong, Data, Riker and Troi. S1 even references Geordi and Worf, who appear in S3.

S2 doesn’t really matter, aside from referencing Borg tech integrated into Starfleet ships, and following up on S1 in the first episode. Cut out all of the parts taking place in the 21st century and you still got the jist of the story. And Shaw’s words of “weird shit on the Stargazer” would still rings true. Removes S2 altogether and you'd think Rios handed La Sirena off to Raffi instead of Seven. Jurati was either punished for her actions or went back to Daystrom. And Elnor went back home

 

Funnily enough, I suggested this as an option to someone this afternoon who has just started to watch Picard. I didn’t say that they *should* do this, though.

 

Maybe the finale of Season 1 (Both parts) are necessary. Season 3 made Picard an anthology series so I don't think you need to see Season 2.

 

On reflection, despite the bad/rushed/deus ex machina/weird tentacle thingy ending, Season 1 was obviously better than Season 2 and surprisingly better than Season 3. 3 was color by numbers. It had all the originality of a JJ Abrams script, relied almost entirely on nostalgia, had a convoluted plot that only makes sense to apologists and was exactly what fans wanted.

Apart from from some what I think were a couple of unnecessary character murders, and the last episode, Season 1 is a coherent story, with great new characters.

And as usual a touching death scene must be resolved in the next story by resurrection.Shaxs knows how you feel Q, Data, etc. The best thing would have been to let Picard die at the end of Season 1 and carry on without him. For a show named after him, he sometimes seems to be the least important character, in many ways. Ok, he hugged Crusher Skywalker back to the light side of the force . He did that. And apparently he hugged Q back to life. That man can hug.

 

Based on how well-received the return of the Enterprise-D was, I think the SNW Enterprise will eventually be wrecked in a battle in its next-to-last episode and turned into the TOS Enterprise.

 

I've thoought for awhile the easy answer is the TOS flat gray look and simple struts are easily explainable as some kind of ablative coating and simplification measures as Connies had to take on more and more serious roles. The Klingon War wiped out a lot of ships and unlike the later era, it must take time to build them, considering how long the TMP refit took.

 

To give non-Trek examples of this ....

I love Parks and Recreation. One of my favorite comedies of all-time. But you can really skip the first season of the show and lose almost nothing. In fact, season 1 is kinda jarring compared to the rest of the series, since they hadn't really figured out the tone of the series and the dynamics between the characters yet, since it was stuck in trying to emulate the American version of The Office instead of being its own thing.

I know some Babylon 5 fans will argue vociferously otherwise, but you can probably throw out the entire fifth season, with the exception of the finale (which they shot at the end of season 4 when they thought it was going to be canceled), and it wouldn't alter the show all that much, since the fifth season is for all intents and purposes an epilogue to the main narrative.

I took her inclusion to be a function of seasons 2 and 3 being shot back to back. If it had been a normal situation where there was a hiatus between seasons, and production was spread months apart with actors being asked to come back and work an appearance into their schedule, I have a feeling that Laris scene probably doesn't happen.

I thought season 2 was a disaster, but I think it's an open question how much of it was a creative disaster because of choices made by those running it versus the circumstances they were forced to operate under. I cut season 2 some slack because it was done under COVID protocols which may have limited what was possible. Although, my biggest problem with it is that it's hyped as a Q-Picard season, and Q is hardly in it.

 

I would argue that season 1 suffers in the eyes of a lot of fans because of the version of Picard it's based in, as well as presenting a version of the Federation and the Star Trek universe that seems off in ways.

I think season 1 Picard is a continuation of the TNG movie Picard who still feels the desire to be out there in the middle of the action. Season 3 of the Picard character brings him back to being more like the TNG series version where he's the leader of the "family" that brings out the best in that family when he's their contemplative figurehead to rally around in ways that didn't work for the new cast of characters introduced in seasons 1 and 2.

 

Season 1 is necessary because of Raffi, needing to know the backstory involving Riker and Troi's kids and their family, Laris, and Picard's body. Sure you could read a summary of who these people are and the story but it works better having seen the season. Two doesn't matter at this point.

Count me in as one of those who, as we get a little distant from season 3, thinks season 1 is the better season and the best of the three. It certainly had better writing, characterization, and actually had something to say. I really enjoyed season 3 for the most part and had a good time, but it only made me appreciate season 1 more. Raffi has never done a lot for me and Elnor was kind of a flop but I thought Rios, Agnes, and Laris were good additions to Trek. I enjoyed seeing seeing a more disillusioned Picard, a hardened Seven, and a more world weary Riker and Troi. It's not 1992 anymore and I think seeing the heroes in that frame of mind and state is important and, at least for me, what I'm looking for in shows these days. I thought the goodbye to Data was really well done too. That they basically keep all the plot points but reset all the characterzation is a shame to me.

I think it's a shame Patrick Stewart, the producers, or whoever got scared off because of certain reactions and basically gave us TNG Season 8 fan fic edition. Again, I enjoyed it in the end and had a good time. I'm grateful we got a fitting goodbye for them. I just find myself wishing it had been a little more in line with season 1 than what season 3 ended up being. I certainly wish it had had more of season 1's thoughtfulness and insight. Season 3 had a lot to say about family, but not much else in the end.

 

the dark tendancies of the federation we saw in Season 1 would not have bothered me, if there had not been some kind of resolution that the Federation was back on course to improve itself and try harder to achieve its ideals

but then we got season 2

and then we got season 3 which just seemed to dial everything Matalas cherry picked from other series (or even this series) to 11. Sec 31 sketchy with changelings in ds9? We'll have them torturing babies in Pic3. You like that crabby guy Lorca? Meet Shaw. He's an asshole! You'll love him! Discovery kind of dark for you? You'll need a flashlight to see around Titan. Remember incompetent corrupt admirals? Ours destroys half the fleet and potentially anyone under 25! Remember when TNG didn't know what to do with Crusher and had her in inexplicable emtionally disturbing scenarios? We just made her a bat shit crazy paranoiac that hid Picard's son from him. So she'll be the next Admiral, obviously.

 

I'm pretty sure that some producers everyday curse not being able to dump Raffi.

 

Though, if Terry Matalas wanted to get rid of her, he would've found a way to come up with something. He wanted his show, and he didn't care what he had to do to get there.

 

It's been so long since I've seen Parks and Rec, but I do remember that first season being incredibly different from what came after. The introduction of Ben and Chris was probably the best thing to happen to that show, and the rest was history. At least the first season was only like 6 episodes so you can get through it in a sitting.

 

They both have important plot points like Picard snyth body, Seven return to Starfleet etc but to be fair Season 1 & 2 are nowhere near the level of season 3.

 

He couldn't just leave Picard and Crusher as one of those two ships passing in the night unrequited love couples. No, we had to double down on them having some new romantic backstory that was straight out of General Hospital so two senior citizens could have an unplanned pregnancy and Crusher could have another magical son. Other then when Picard was mad for 10 minutes, everyone is also fine with her ghosting for 20 years and then just airdropping back in and dragging them all into danger. Picard never feeling like he needed a legacy or children? That's all gone so we can have Jack Crusher, the super powered Han Solo wannabe of Starfleet and the oldest looking 22 year old around.