And that goes back to something posted earlier here. l'd argue all of those issues present in
Picard season 3 are able to work because that segment of the audience is able to move past them because of how much they
care about those characters. The writing and acting over the years built a connection with a significant amount of fans, and if you have that you're able to go with it. If you don't have that affection for those characters or their version of
Trek (which some in this thread have made clear they don't feel for TNG) then it's not going to work for you. And I think that's why it doesn't work for those that have issues with
Discovery and
Strange New Worlds. They just don't feel it for those characters or those series.
I found it a poor season in the latter half (I enjoyed the first half) because the direction became so transparently focused on the nostalgia to the detriment of the story. It got to the point of a shameless plug for a new series by the end, with the horrid dialogue along the lines of "Gosh, what wacky and exciting adventures our totally interesting crew will get up to; now let's head for the star system which has a name sounding just like our show runner's", which made the whole thing feel especially cynical (especially when combined with cuddling up to hateful members of the fanbase before the season began).
To me, season 3 was never been about blowing up bad guys, or the "mystery box" of the Changeling/Borg plot. Criticizing the plot dynamics of how well the Borg Queen's plan functions misses the forest for the trees. Season 3 was about these characters finding each other again, the characters realizing what they’ve lost in distancing themselves from the closeness they had with each other once upon a time, and re-finding their strengths and growing as people once they come together to deal with this problem.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is not about the mystery box of the probe. At the end of that movie, we don’t know who sent the probe, we don’t know why the probe wanted to talk to humpback whales, and we don’t even know what the whales and the probe said to each other. It's not a failing of that story that it doesn't answer any of those questions, or that there are many plot "conveniences" that get the audience to the ending. Leonard Nimoy and Harve Bennett realized none of it matters to the themes of that movie. All the mystery of the probe and the hijinks which occur serves is to set up the conditions to watch the interaction of the TOS characters, see how they work together after all of the years, and reinforce how they stand together as a family, where at the end of the movie we know why Kirk deserves to be in the captain’s chair of the Enterprise-A with Spock and the rest of them at his side.
That’s exactly the same story dynamic in season 3 of
Picard, where the story is a means to an end with reuniting these specific characters and seeing how they’ve changed, but how they’re a family and meant to be on the bridge of the Enterprise-D together again in the end.
And just speaking for myself, it worked. When Riker readies himself for his own death and says: “I love you, Imzadi. We’ll be waiting. Me and our boy.” I felt that and it hit me. When Data talks about Spot teaching him love, that worked for me. The entire climax hinges on the audience caring about Picard’s desire to have a connection with Jack. I cared about those things because I cared about those characters having a good ending.
