Hi All, this is my very first post here! I had to seek out an online Star Trek forum for the first time because I just wrote the below essay to vent on my increasing frustration on Star Trek: Picard and how I think it needs to be rebooted now in favor of a forward looking show that captures and honors the magic of classic Trek - let's call is 'Star Trek: Legacy' for arguments sake...I've read some here saying that Picard Season 2 can't be judged until the finale later this week, but I'm posting this now as I'm pretty sure the finale can't save what I have unfortunately come to accept is the worse season of any Star Trek show which I've had to endure...
Let's face it (or should I say my opinion?) - Star Trek: Picard just doesn't work. It was a mistake to base a multi-season Star Trek show on a single character, even Picard. While nostalgia is great in doses (see Professor X in Doctor Strange), stretching and focusing on it across 3 seasons forced the writers to create a really pointless Picard childhood trauma backstory and do absolutely nothing to advance Star Trek universe-building. What's more, the other fan favourite character 7 of 9 is completely unrecognizable from her time on Voyager and what they've done with her exceeds even the gross mis-use of Picard - it is undeniably the greatest waste of a great legacy Star Trek character. I believe that Star Trek needs a total reboot to properly take it into the 25th century (Picard Season 1 was set in 2399) and make it as relevant again over the next decade as it was in the nineties...
Here's my quick take on how to save Star Trek:
(1) Create a new show that finally looks forward and not backwards (no more prequels and no more padded seasons spent completely in 2024 - a story that could have all been addressed in 1-2 episodes of classic Star Trek)
(2) This new show should introduce us to a new set of characters that can take Star Trek forward (e.g. Star Trek: Prodigy & Lower Decks have both introduced us to new characters - crew on a starship as usual - whom we can grow to love. Why can't they do this and get it right in live action? By the way, forget about Prodigy being for kids and go watch it right now - it's the best Star Trek out there right now, true to the spirit of 90's trek)
(3) The legacy characters can and should return, but mostly as supporting characters or just having guest starring appearances on a couple of episodes each to advance/update their story arcs and/or help with Universe building
(4) The right combination of serialized and episodic storytelling. Again, Prodigy is the best example of this in Star Trek at the moment - there is a season long story arc but many of the episodes stand alone enough, with an interesting 'concept or challenge of the week' that still advances the story arcs of the different characters within the season long story. Here's to hoping Strange New Worlds get this right with their heavily advertised return to episodic storytelling
(5) Hire a new 'Kevin Feige' to take Star Trek forward - someone who is a fan of and gets the canon completely, and understands how to hire the right creatives, writers particularly (If Patrick Stewart did have creative control on Picard as many have suggested then that was a big mistake - could you imagine him having any influence whatsoever with telling Feige what to do with Professor X?). At the very least, get the Hageman Brothers who are doing an amazing job with the writing, characters created and storyline of Prodigy to do a live action show to take Star Trek forward - I would not trust the writers from either Discovery or Picard to get it right.
Here's how my quick take can translate to create a great new show which can finally move the Star Trek universe forward in a more impactful way:
(i) Star Trek: Legacy - Cool new title/theme which captures the essence of the new show moving forward - it could be about keeping alive the legacy of the old guard like Picard and Janeway (now Admirals in Starfleet Command) through new Captains/Leaders like Rios and Seven of Nine (and of course, saving the legacy of Star Trek altogether by rebooting new Trek!)
(ii) Keep the good ideas from Picard; Reboot everything else - Promising story ideas from Picard, such as (1) the "rise of the Synths as a new race" in Season 1 and a new type of "Co-operative Borg" that wants to join the Federation in Season 2, but do both over completely - possibly as one multi-season Good Borg vs Evil Synths storyline that puts the Federation in the middle of the conflict (We could even have a Borg civil war between the new Good Borg vs the traditional Evil Borg) - Of course this means we likely need a Time Travel pilot that completely erases Picard Seasons 1-3 and starts everything over
(iii) Create the next Kirk/Picard/Janeway - Keep the new characters that are promising, Captain Rios of the Stargazer looked awesome in the first season of Picard Season 2 (a charismatic Hispanic 'space cowboy' who plays fast and loose with the rules), and it's a big shame they've stuck his character in a season long 21st century love story (hopefully he'll learn she's his ancestor so they can put an end to that, lol). But seriously, they need to retcon the whole show and give him his command on the Stargazer - they really need to focus on creating the next great Star Trek captain and not relying on nostalgia alone. As Captain Rios would say, "Dale!"
(iv) Rescuing the legacy of Star Trek's best characters - The legacy of both Picard and Seven can still be saved with this complete retcon. Picard needs to be used sparingly as part of Starfleet Command or Intelligence...an easy storyline would be that he's brought out of retirement (or from Starfleet Academy) to consult on the new Good Borg's request to join Starfleet, thanks to his experience as Locutus of Borg. No need to focus too much on him, apart from perhaps at the climax of a Borg vs Synths arc, and maybe 1 or 2 episodes that show the inner workings at Starfleet HQ rather than on a starship
(v) Seven as Captain Hansen of Voyager - Seven totally should be the career woman in Starfleet as Captain Annika Hansen, possibly even of the next Voyager starship in the show, who is a central figure for the Federation in the new Borg wanting to join the Federation or in a Borg civil war conflict - in fact they could explore her having to answer to her human name to progress in starship and how uncomfortable she is with it, but she accepts it because it is the best way to have others more comfortable with her in Starfleet once she returns to Earth (of course her Senior Officers or friends still call her Seven). This would be much more plausible than claiming she wasn't allowed to join Starfleet because she used to be Borg! Another easy layup would be to add that she and Chakotay got married and then divorced, partly because she decided she wanted to focus on her career and perhaps go to command the new Voyager. Maybe she even had a child with Chakotay who is now a teenager? They also need to bring back her ice cold Borg personality and continue the exploration of her humanity, even as a Captain of a starship after many years back on earth, which also perhaps makes her not the greatest of parents? That would be interesting to see. One more thing - bring back Icheb and put him on Seven's Voyager too! Such a poorly handled legacy character in Picard Season 1 (who did happen to be in Starfleet, even though Season 2 claimed Seven couldn't join because she was a former Borg!) By the way, Seven's relationship with Raffi is completely inconsistent with the Seven we knew from Voyager and needs to be exorcised from existence. I'm also not sure if Raffi's character can be salvaged at all, but it is definitely not believable in any way that she and Seven are love interests. No chemistry, it just doesn't work...I'm not against LGBTQ characters being depicted on Star Trek - I welcome it - but the depiction so far has been one of the biggest mis-steps made by Picard in the development of Seven's character, it's simply awful...I've spent just a couple of hours writing this and I'm already certain that "What if a former Borg had a baby and was trying to be a parent and a Starfleet Captain" would have been a far more interesting direction to take Seven's character - do it! (By the way, it's still possible for Seven to be bisexual or gay with my storyline, but it ought to be depicted within her character's arc of continuing to explore her humanity, and realising - perhaps after marriage and a child - that she's bi/gay. The development needs to be shown on screen to be believable - you can't just say she's now gay because that's what some fans want, without even showing on screen how that developed!)
(vi) More legacy characters for more doses of nostalgia that make sense - There are so many legacy characters and races that new Star Trek needs to update, delve deeper into and get right - so far Discovery has failed to do so because it started off as a prequel, and Picard has failed to do so because it is too focused on Picard and has grossly mishandled some of the best lore of classic Star Trek, such as the Borg, Q & Synths - those all need to be redone in a reboot, as well as updates on the Klingons, Romulans, possibly the Vulcans:
(vii) Doing right by Q - It's an interesting idea that he's suddenly dying but why? Picard Season 2 in 9 episodes have failed to demonstrate any ability to expand the lore of the Q - how were they created? Why and how are they omnipotent, and what if anything, can change that? Why is Q dying? Is he the only Q dying? Perhaps the Q can be explained by some far future tech which created them and made them quasi-omnipotent, which even they aren't even aware of that origin themselves? Maybe the timeship Relativity has something to do with it (maybe they found a way to 'live forever' on timeships?), and they can actually bring back the actor who played Ducane again for a properly done Time Travel story (perhaps a 2-parter rather than a season-long arc which lacks substance?)
(viii) Updating Worf and the Klingons! Forget all the prequel Klingon stuff on Discovery that attempted to retcon the look of the Klingons yet again - where's Worf and what happened to him after DS9? It's only fitting that the character that appeared on the most Star Trek episodes ever gets a great update...I heard Michael Dorn once suggested a Captain Worf show, but instead why don't we get Chancellor Worf instead, who has left Starfleet and risen to lead the Klingon High Council? This would be a great 2-parter in a new Star Trek: Legacy show. It could focus on how Worf leads the Klingon race in the face of rising threats from the Borg vs Synth war - does he keep them in the Federation or decide to do things a different way? (ps. I haven't watched all of DS9, but if I did, I'm sure there are so many other exciting new ideas and directions for Worf and the Klingons going into the 25th century!)
(ix) Can we have a whole race of Synths, both good and evil? Soji I believe is a likeable character who could carry the legacy of Data forward, but was unfortunately completely sidelined by the awful season-long 2024 story arc of Picard Season 2 in favour of the completely dispensable Kore Soong character, who at most could have been addressed as her 'ancestor' in likeness in a single bottle time travel episode! Building on the Soji character, can we have more synths and build on the Picard Season 1 plot point on the need to accept Synths as their own life form? How many are there? Who decides how many get activated and how powerful are they allowed to be? Do they get to have a home world? Perhaps an evil faction takes control of the new Synth government and becomes the biggest new threat to the Federation, which only the new Borg that wants to join the Federation can help them save? (See Orville Season 2 for a wonderful treatment on the Keylon robot race origin and ever enduring risk of AI becoming a threat to other living beings). So far, there seems to be no rationale to have made Picard a synth himself, and that should not be repeated unless it services the "Good Borg vs Evil Synths" story or any other new compelling story regarding the synths. My take? Forget about revolving the Synths story around Picard in any way, and focus on using him more for the new Borg storylines instead. The Synths should all be about Data and Lore's legacies - perhaps most/all of the evil Synths are somehow directly descended from Lore? (How come Lore hasn't been addressed in 2 seasons of Picard at all?)
x) Romulans to join Starfleet/Federation and make peace with Vulcans? Elnor was another character with great potential who was sacrificed for the terrible season long 2024 time travel story in Picard Season 2 (couldn't they have just covered his ears, in homage to the previous Spock time travel stories, rather than killing him off only to bring him back as a hologram who somehow remembers his dying emotions? *shaking my head*). Elnor joining Starfleet as the first Romulan would have been a nice way to advance improving relations between the Romulans and the Federation in the face of a bigger new threat such as the evil Synths, and he would be continuing the legacy of the 'former adversary on the inside' which Worf started in TNG as the first Klingon in Starfleet - imagine the great Romulan storylines that could advance from a former Qowat Milat warrior joining Starfleet and having to adjust to not killing enemies by the sword? Can we also get to see more of the fruit of Spock's unification storyline, and the beginnings of the coming together of the Romulans and Vulcans given their shared ancestry? This could make for very rich storylines going into the 25th century (and frankly more interesting than Discovery's 32nd century take on this, which already shows the 2 races unified)
In summary, Star Trek can still be salvaged - I just hope that the right decisions can be made to create the "Next Generation" of our era - a new exciting show that protects and honours the "Legacy" of Star Trek and knows how to carry it forward into a new era, and into the 25th century without constantly relying on prequels and nostalgia only to keep Star Trek alive - Star Trek: Legacy. All the ideas I outlined above are clearly enough for a solid 10-20 episodes of Star Trek - have an overarching 1-2 season storyline, such as the Borg vs Synths, and then interweave all the nostalgia and legacy characters you want within that - as long as it all makes sense and serves the wider story you're telling!
While I do hope that Strange New Worlds will be good, it is still a prequel that is tethered by the fate we already know that Captain Pike will meet (unless they do some more timey whimey stuff to change that, lol), and if it has the same writers as Discovery and Picard, then I fear it may be doomed from the start - I do hope not. I gave up on Discovery after Episode 1 of Season 4 ("The Burn" of Season 3 was the last straw for me), and I'm about to give up on Picard - I just feel obliged to watch the finale of Season 2, which I believe is now worse than even the worst of Discovery. Since they shot Season 3 at the same time, I do feel all hope is lost there already. If they already know it's going to be as bad as Season 2, they should just bin it and reboot now!
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