Spoilers An argument that the problem with the first two seasons was...

[Citiprime]

... Patrick Stewart.

Before anyone starts writing angry comments, let's stipulate that Stewart is an amazing, legendary actor, and the character of Picard and Star Trek wouldn't be what it is today without his contribution towards it. But IGN has an interesting video which argues the big problem with the direction of Star Trek: Picard in its first two seasons was Stewart's instincts about where the story of the Picard character and the bigger universe should evolve.

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Reportedly, Stewart basically had 3 conditions for doing Star Trek: Picard.

1. No uniforms
2. No Enterprise
3. Not a TNG reunion

If you now look at season 3, it basically throws all of those conditions out the window, while also reversing everything season 1 intended to do. They didn't want the show to be a TNG reunion. Its become a TNG reunion. When you couple that with season 3 reversing the death of Data in season 1, gets rid of most of the characters from season 1, and had Riker and Troi making fun of their circumstances in season 1, it sorta seems like the powers that be, as well as Stewart, know how a huge chunk of the audience reacted to the first two seasons and are purposely going the other way.

Also, when it comes to Stewart's instincts for Picard, I do remember reading around the time of the TNG movies there were stories that Stewart pushed for the movies to feature a version of Picard that was more an action hero, instead of the cerebral speech-maker from the TV series. He wanted Picard to be the one that was in the middle of fights, carrying a phaser, and the driver of the action within the stories. That's why Generations, First Contact, Insurrection, and Nemesis all feature "final fights" where Stewart is face-to-face with the villains, or Picard driving a Starfleet dune buggy in the desert, or Picard having the love story with the Baku woman. And there's an argument to be had for sure of whether or not that worked or was a good choice.

 

[Tosk]

Stewart had been pushing for a different Picard ever since (at least) season three of TNG. Captain's Holiday partially came about because P.Stew wanted there to be more fighting and fucking. When it came time for the last three movies, he had enough clout to make it a stipulation rather than a request.

These days, I view the movie-Picard as a man having a mid-life crisis, partially due to losing his family.

 

[KennyB]

Yup. Been saying this all season when people said THIS IS WHAT IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIRE KURTZMAN MAKE TERRY IN CHARGE

 

[thribs]

You'd think Patrick would want a good story as well.

 

[Alexander Corrino]

The first thing I have to say is the most important one, one that people seem to dislike hearing sometimes: You have to keep in mind that Sir Patrick is an actor. He is not a Trekkie. He does not have any deep knowledge of Trek. He's not even a fan of science fiction as a genre. As shocking as this might be to some.

Also: Actors want to work with things. They don't want to play the same thing over and over again. It bores them and it makes them frustrated. Which is why Sir Patrick demanded for a change for Jean-Luc after the second season of TNG - he felt the character was stagnating and there wasn't much for him to do other than sitting in the captain's chair giving stoic orders. Given how massively popular season 3-7 Jean-Luc is in the Trek fandom, his instincts seem to have been correct. (Personally I prefer first and second season JLP, but that's just me, and I do realize that it would have been rather strange if the character had remained the same for seven seasons.)

Yes, it is true that Sir Patrick demanded for changes regarding the movies after Generations. But that's also understandable from his perspective. He operated under the premise of "if these people want for me to come back they're gonna have to listen to my demands". Which is what most big names in Hollywood do when they're asked to come back to the franchise that made them big. It's nothing out of the ordinary. It's Hollywood. He was busy with other things. He wanted for his career to move on. Again, he is an actor, and actors want to do different things with a character. OneTrek fandom complaint that I will agree with is that Jean-Luc is not an action hero, and someone should have stood up to Sir Patrick and made that clear to him, even at the risk of alienating him. However, the studio wanted to milk TNG for more money and they needed their main star for that, so, they gave in until Nemesis tanked so hard that they couldn't ignore the facts any longer.

And now we had the same situation. They only got him on board because they promised him he wouldn't have to play the same old stuff again. This was the only way to get him to play Jean-Luc again. And he stopped his "no uniform" demand pretty quickly, we see Jean-Luc in uniform in season 1 already, and Sir Patrick has admitted that this demand was pretty presumptuous of him to make.In fact, it was he HIMSELF who suggested he should be in uniform. So there.

I believe a lot of what people perceive as "off about Picard" regarding PIC has to do with the fact that Sir Patrick's image of Jean-Luc Picard is the (somewhat inaccurate) pop culture image everyone who is only loosely familiar with Trek has. He hasn't watched TNG. He catches a few episodes every now and then, but that's it. He's not involved in the franchise. Hence his - at first glance - rather surprising take on where Jean-Luc would be in the first season of PIC. However, in his defense... he only did what he has always done when it comes to Jean-Luc Picard: He added a lot of elements of himself to the character. He did the same thing on TNG after season 2. And he did it again with PIC. If you know things about Sir Patrick's life you won't be that surprised to now find them in Jean-Luc's life, too. The two of them have always had this connection, for better or worse. You cannot love one without loving the other because they share so much. And when you talk to Sir Patrick you can feel Jean-Luc's aura all around him. It's weird to explain, but he himself has said that Jean-Luc is always with him. Can confirm.

Anyways. The reason why he gave in with season 3 is rather simple: He says that after "Nepenthe" he realized that the show needed the other TNG characters, too. The original idea was always to bring them in as guest characters if given the chance, but this idea changed as well. It's part of an ongoing process for him - he has said that he has changed his mind about a lot of things regarding the show, but he DID express regret at the fact that all the other actors were dropped to make room for the TNG crew. (I believe he said something about "our family" being "torn apart" or something.)

I do fully expect for his upcoming autobiography to shed some light on how PIC came to be and how exactly the process of changing his mind re: season 3 worked - unless he's still under contract to not reveal anything, of course. Interviews can only reveal SO much, and if they're interviews that are done before a season airs they usually involve a great deal of "this will be the best thing ever" promotion speech, hyping things up and "I had to say this, I was under contract", so... I would take a lot of what's circulating at the moment with a massive grain of salt and advise waiting for his autobiography to hear what he REALLY has to say.

As for him returning to the franchise after PIC's third season - I believe Goldsman said it in pre season 2 interviews already that the door is open for a return of Jean-Luc Picard if Sir Patrick wants to. It's neither a secret nor a massive revelation.

 

[Tosk]

You have to keep in mind that Sir Patrick is an actor. He is not a Trekkie.

Whaaaaaat?!

 

[thribs]

I don’t think any of the TNG cast are “Trekkie’s”.

 

[Alexander Corrino]

Whaaaaaat?!

You don't want to know how many Trekkies I've seen yelling things like "has he never watched TNG? How dare he not know this mini detail about JLP's life!!! I expect for everyone who gets to star on Trek to be a massive Trekkie!!!!"

Even the ones in charge of the franchise knew how dangerous this "he's not a Trekkie at all" sort of thing can be back then... I mean they went as far as making him tell a blatant lie before TNG first aired - there is that now infamous interview on the battle bridge before season one aired where he claims he would watch TOS with his kids in the afternoon whereas the truth is that he had no idea what Trek was aside from "that show with the people in colorful shirts that my kids watch all the time" (or something like that) and his kids had to explain it to him.

 

[thribs]

I usually see those questions asked to Shatner about what he feels about the other shows and he says that he hasn’t watched them. He watched Arrow and Flash though. You can ask him about that.

 

[gweeps]

I'm glad Stewart wanted Picard to be a different person for Seasons 1 and 2. You can still feel that a little bit in Season 3, although this season also feels like a completely different show, almost as if Picard was slumming it for the first couple years.

There are a few series where their retoolings in final seasons are controversial, including Earth: Final Conflict, Roseanne, Fringe and, even dare I say, Babylon 5.

Season 3 has felt like a reboot, especially since most of the regulars are gone and Seven is no longer a Fenris Ranger. Even Raffi seems like a different person, but maybe, again, this is because the season is TNG Season 8.

Anyway, I really dig the idea of Picard being an anthology show.

Why does he keep leaving Laris, dammit? I never got the impression that Crusher was anything but cordial with Jean-Luc. There's no passion between them, well except for that one episode where their minds were linked, and even then it was just awkward.

Man, Trek writers really have a hard time writing romantic relationships.

 

[Danja]

You don't want to know how many Trekkies I've seen yelling things like "has he never watched TNG? How dare he not know this mini detail about JLP's life!!! I expect for everyone who gets to star on Trek to be a massive Trekkie!!!!"

If TNG was anything like Xena, he probably saw each episode about 4-5 times before it aired.

After a while, he probably thought, "Please, for the love of God, I don't want to watch it anymore!"

That said, time has a way of healing all wounds (a few years before she died, Mary Tyler Moore said in an interview that because she did The Mary Tyler Moore Show so long ago, she was able to enjoy it fresh right along with the fans).

 

[KennyB]

The first thing I have to say is the most important one, one that people seem to dislike hearing sometimes: You have to keep in mind that Sir Patrick is an actor. He is not a Trekkie. He does not have any deep knowledge of Trek. He's not even a fan of science fiction as a genre. As shocking as this might be to some.

Also: Actors want to work with things. They don't want to play the same thing over and over again. It bores them and it makes them frustrated. Which is why Sir Patrick demanded for a change for Jean-Luc after the second season of TNG - he felt the character was stagnating and there wasn't much for him to do other than sitting in the captain's chair giving stoic orders. Given how massively popular season 3-7 Jean-Luc is in the Trek fandom, his instincts seem to have been correct. (Personally I prefer first and second season JLP, but that's just me, and I do realize that it would have been rather strange if the character had remained the same for seven seasons.)

Yes, it is true that Sir Patrick demanded for changes regarding the movies after Generations. But that's also understandable from his perspective. He operated under the premise of "if these people want for me to come back they're gonna have to listen to my demands". Which is what most big names in Hollywood do when they're asked to come back to the franchise that made them big. It's nothing out of the ordinary. It's Hollywood. He was busy with other things. He wanted for his career to move on. Again, he is an actor, and actors want to do different things with a character. OneTrek fandom complaint that I will agree with is that Jean-Luc is not an action hero, and someone should have stood up to Sir Patrick and made that clear to him, even at the risk of alienating him. However, the studio wanted to milk TNG for more money and they needed their main star for that, so, they gave in until Nemesis tanked so hard that they couldn't ignore the facts any longer.

And now we had the same situation. They only got him on board because they promised him he wouldn't have to play the same old stuff again. This was the only way to get him to play Jean-Luc again. And he stopped his "no uniform" demand pretty quickly, we see Jean-Luc in uniform in season 1 already, and Sir Patrick has admitted that this demand was pretty presumptuous of him to make.In fact, it was he HIMSELF who suggested he should be in uniform. So there.

I believe a lot of what people perceive as "off about Picard" regarding PIC has to do with the fact that Sir Patrick's image of Jean-Luc Picard is the (somewhat inaccurate) pop culture image everyone who is only loosely familiar with Trek has. He hasn't watched TNG. He catches a few episodes every now and then, but that's it. He's not involved in the franchise. Hence his - at first glance - rather surprising take on where Jean-Luc would be in the first season of PIC. However, in his defense... he only did what he has always done when it comes to Jean-Luc Picard: He added a lot of elements of himself to the character. He did the same thing on TNG after season 2. And he did it again with PIC. If you know things about Sir Patrick's life you won't be that surprised to now find them in Jean-Luc's life, too. The two of them have always had this connection, for better or worse. You cannot love one without loving the other because they share so much. And when you talk to Sir Patrick you can feel Jean-Luc's aura all around him. It's weird to explain, but he himself has said that Jean-Luc is always with him. Can confirm.

Anyways. The reason why he gave in with season 3 is rather simple: He says that after "Nepenthe" he realized that the show needed the other TNG characters, too. The original idea was always to bring them in as guest characters if given the chance, but this idea changed as well. It's part of an ongoing process for him - he has said that he has changed his mind about a lot of things regarding the show, but he DID express regret at the fact that all the other actors were dropped to make room for the TNG crew. (I believe he said something about "our family" being "torn apart" or something.)

I do fully expect for his upcoming autobiography to shed some light on how PIC came to be and how exactly the process of changing his mind re: season 3 worked - unless he's still under contract to not reveal anything, of course. Interviews can only reveal SO much, and if they're interviews that are done before a season airs they usually involve a great deal of "this will be the best thing ever" promotion speech, hyping things up and "I had to say this, I was under contract", so... I would take a lot of what's circulating at the moment with a massive grain of salt and advise waiting for his autobiography to hear what he REALLY has to say.

As for him returning to the franchise after PIC's third season - I believe Goldsman said it in pre season 2 interviews already that the door is open for a return of Jean-Luc Picard if Sir Patrick wants to. It's neither a secret nor a massive revelation.

Sometimes it just seems like too many words

 

[dinzy]

Spiner is the one who killed Data in NEM. Giving the cast too much input on the story is problematic.

 

[locborg]

Stewart always striked me as someone who cared about the opinions, people had on his work. Age wise, Picard is probably the very last big budget production he will work for in his life. This is about his legacy as an actor and his signature role. Ofc Stewart wants to leave with a bang, thank god they found Matalas, so he could save the show from the Kurtzman boredom.

Stewart realized that, S1 and S2 have been received lukewarm at best, he did the right thing for the show and his legacy…

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I personally find Matalas' accomplishments to be overhyped. He was responsible for the second season, and looking at both seasons, we can looking forward to a slow drift towards less innovative, less challenging narratives and fascist politics. What might be different is that the constant reunions and ship porn won't be sustainable, revealing the still darkly lit sets and mystery boxes.

 

[thribs]

He only really worked on the first two episodes of season 2. Goldsman took over so Matalas could start work on season 3.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Let's remember that Matalas has been buttering up all the Fandom Menace people.

 

[locborg]

Let's remember that Matalas has been buttering up all the Fandom Menace people.

So? Fandom Menace is the only thing that can still save the franchise. CBS keeps making bad decisions both creatively and business wise. Someone’s gotta kick them where it hurts…

 

[Campe]

So? Fandom Menace is the only thing that can still save the franchise. CBS keeps making bad decisions both creatively and business wise. Someone’s gotta kick them where it hurts…

Has Star Trek as a franchise been in danger since 2017? Five different series with each speaking to different audiences with over 150 episodes in that time? Whether or not you like the direction it’s taken is a completely different topic as opposed to if it’s successful or not. Not sure it needs “saving.”

 

[donners22]

Three seasons of nostalgia-bait would have well and truly worn thin. Matalas only has the freedom to do what he has done this season because it is the third and last, and the nostalgia value is papering over plenty of flaws.

If it wasn't backed by a TNG reunion, the complaints over a drawn-out mystery box, killing of legacy characters, galaxy-threatening event etc (which other seasons have been bashed for) would be endless - let alone the secret son!