"I don't like Star Trek, but I like Money"

[Sci]

Picard season 3 reminded me a great deal of modern comic book storytelling, where a creator wants to tell a story -- or, sometimes, retell a story -- with the characters and situations as they were when he was a kid, oftentimes tossing inconvenient things away (sometimes in extremely hamfisted ways--cf., One More Day) to get there instead of building on the past. It seemed to me that Matalas's vision was to do his own version of "Best of Both Worlds," and I know that much of fandom creamed itself at the recreation of the bridge of the D, but the promo shot of the bridge, with everyone in their places, looking older (as we all are), struck me as a complete failure of imagination and a waste of potential. Like, his idea of a "grand finale" was just to go back to where it all began and play with the toys he remembered as a kid. (See also: Geoff Johns' love for Barry Allen and Hal Jordan, shoving aside their far more interesting successors to get there.)

Of course, my platonic ideal of Picard was three seasons of Jean-Luc Picard as a vintner, competing against a rival (ideally, Ian McKellen) in interstellar wine competitions, dealing with the business of a winery, and fending off grumpy customers. Very 1980s BBC. So I might not be the best judge.

I broadly agree what PIC S3 was a bit too nostalgia-obsessed.

I do think that there's a place for some nostalgia, and I do think bringing back the TNG cast for the final season of PIC was the right creative choice. If PIC was supposed to be about Jean-Luc Picard near the end of his life, then I think ultimately you have to deal with the fact that those seven years commanding the Enterprise were the most important years of his life to him and those relationships were the most important and most enduring.*

Where I think Matalas didn't hit the mark was, his final season was just so fixated on that past. Bringing back Beverly, et al is fine, but the narrative was just so fixated on the past. Like, finding a contrived excuse to revive Data... again. Not only did it lack the emotional punch it should have had, but it completely undermined the dramatic integrity of "Et in Arcadia Ego, Parts I & II," two of the greatest episodes of Star Trek ever produced. I get bringing back Brent Spiner, but just have him play Altan! Or, if you have to have him play an android, have him play a new one who looks like Data.

Another big mistake was ditching all of the PIC-original characters instead of keeping them and pairing them up with the TNG characters. How lovely would it have been to, say, pair Elnor with Worf? Soji with Geordi? Agnes with Beverly? Cris with Will?

Ultimately, what really struck me was the difference in thematic preoccupations between Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Star Trek: Picard: "The Last Generation." Whereas the "thesis statement" for TUC was this exchange between Kirk and Azetbur:

Azetbur: What's happened? What's the meaning of all of this?

Kirk: It's about the future, Madame Chancellor. Some people think the future means the end of history. Well, we haven't run out of history quite yet. Your father called the future "the undiscovered country"... People can be very frightened of change.

Azetbur: You've restored my father's faith.

Kirk: And you've restored my son's.
​

Whereas the "thesis statement" for "The Last Generation" (and PIC S3 in general) was this exchange between Picard, Riker, and LaForge:

Picard: If ever there was better evidence that the past mattered... it's right here.

Geordi: How many times has she managed to save the world?

Riker: No doubt more than the years will allow three old men to remember.

Geordi: You know, it's difficult to imagine what we all might have been without her.

Riker: Different, certainly. But certainly not better.
​

They're both nostalgic to some extent, but TUC is ultimately concerned with how the characters to whom we're saying goodbye are going to build the future. PIC S3 is obsessed with proving how much better it was in the past.




*(I mean, okay, maybe realistically those years and those relationships wouldn't be the most important, but it's a TV show and those are the characters from his past whom the audiences knows, so we ought to just accept it as a conceit of television that the years we saw in the previous TV show were the ones that meant the most to him as a character, because, like, no, the audience will not care if, like, the 5th through 14th years he commanded the Stargazer that we never saw were actually his most important years and relationships.)

 

[Stevil2001]

Picard season 3 reminded me a great deal of modern comic book storytelling, where a creator wants to tell a story -- or, sometimes, retell a story -- with the characters and situations as they were when he was a kid, oftentimes tossing inconvenient things away (sometimes in extremely hamfisted ways--cf., One More Day) to get there instead of building on the past. It seemed to me that Matalas's vision was to do his own version of "Best of Both Worlds," and I know that much of fandom creamed itself at the recreation of the bridge of the D, but the promo shot of the bridge, with everyone in their places, looking older (as we all are), struck me as a complete failure of imagination and a waste of potential. Like, his idea of a "grand finale" was just to go back to where it all began and play with the toys he remembered as a kid. (See also: Geoff Johns' love for Barry Allen and Hal Jordan, shoving aside their far more interesting successors to get there.)

Of course, my platonic ideal of Picard was three seasons of Jean-Luc Picard as a vintner, competing against a rival (ideally, Ian McKellen) in interstellar wine competitions, dealing with the business of a winery, and fending off grumpy customers. Very 1980s BBC. So I might not be the best judge.

Oh man, Terry Matalas is totally the Geoff Johns of Star Trek.

 

[The Wormhole]

Another big mistake was ditching all of the PIC-original characters instead of keeping them and pairing them up with the TNG characters. How lovely would it have been to, say, pair Elnor with Worf? Soji with Geordi? Agnes with Beverly? Cris with Will?

Definitely this. For me, part of the appeal to bringing back the TNG gang would be to see with interacting with the new characters introduced in Picard, which we didn't get since a majority of those characters were written out. As it is, one of the highlights of the season was Worf and Raffi working together, but that was limited mostly to the early episodes, and overall Raffi did have rather limited interactions with the rest of the TNG cast.

 

[DonIago]

...I may just leave S3 on my wishlist until someone opts to gift me with it. Between the abandonment of the original premises and the abandoment of the original characters, I get annoyed when I think about it, and 'We brought back the TNG regulars!' isn't really doing it for me right now, especially as I've also heard the story logic of S3 is pretty dubious.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Sure, I have thoughts on Picard S3 too, but we have a whole Picard forum where such discussion should go.

Or if you want to talk about how it specifically related to the novelverse, then there's this thread.

 

[DEWLine]

Hell, I remember when Michael Chabon (probably jokingly) talked about wanting to have Picard on adventures with Laris and Zhaban as they solved local small town mysteries. That's a show I'd love to see.

I have no problem with that as a series premise. Assuming the actors are willing and available, and they can line up everything else to support that safely.