Picard: Is it really that dark?

[Charles Phipps]

I mean aside from the one scene of impromptu eye surgery.

One of the things I've noticed in a lot of writings about ST:P is that people tend to think it's a very cynical and dark reinterpretation of the TNG era--which I do not get at all. People comment about the Federation betraying its ideals, Captain Picard's failures, and so on but I think the show actually handled most of it with a very light touch. The majority of the show is a kind of Pulpy space adventure on the Millennium Serenity with Picard as the Obi-Wan/Book of the group. I admit part of that may be motivated by my favorite of the series being "Stardust City Rag" and it's deliberate over-the-topness.

But even most of the criticism of the Federation is kind of weak-handed because it turns out that the Federation's worst actions (which is abandoning an evacuation because they just lost an entire member world and outlawing AI research) were precipitated by the Romulans. It's not even Section 31 as the excuse but Brexit turning out to have been masterminded by Assad or Russia if I were to use a perhaps tasteless metaphor.

Even the end wraps it all up in a nice little bow with the Synth ban overturned and the Federation coming to the rescue. As deconstructions or cynicism goes, it's not really that toothy.

 

[fireproof78]

Because it is not. It lacks that full on punch of being a deconstruction and more centers on consequences of our choices, something that Star Trek is intermittent in its application. Picard is a little more serious, owing in part to Stewart's age, and the ideas around Picard aging and choices he made. As far as themes go it's a pretty classic tale.

As for deconstruction, I don't see it either. The Federation failed and responded to fear and they made it right by the end of the episode/season. I appreciate the design and story of Picard but the claims of darkness are greatly exaggerated.

 

[dupersuper]

Yup.

 

[plynch]

I didnt like it. Finally someone here used the word "joyless."
An aha moment.

 

[fireproof78]

Doesn't equal dark. At least for my money.

 

[Tuskin38]

If Picard is dark, than DS9 is dark.

But DS9 isn't dark, so Picard isn't dark.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I didnt like it. Finally someone here used the word "joyless."
An aha moment.

Freecloud was my favorite part. I also think Allison Pill and Jeri Ryan were a welcome relief. I'm actually sad the romance with the Romulan didn't go anywhere.

Just because it's not realistic doesn't mean it wouldn't have made good television.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Not really. I think a lot of die-hards were furious that Picard, in his older years, finally started to see the cracks in the Starfleet system. ENT season 3 was much darker, they had Jonathan Archer torture a prisoner and pirate an innocent craft.

Picard was a show about an elderly dying man taking one more mission, and putting to rest the memory of a beloved friend. It's not gonna be jpop.

 

[Coops]

I don't think so, as I said in a different thread, it covered things like having a meaning to your life as you get older and how we deal with things coming to an end but it was hardly 'Gran Torino' in space*

*Now THAT would've been an interesting TV show.

 

[The Wormhole]

It's not dark, it's just not the feel good utopia TNG was. Which unfortunately to a lot of fans means the same thing as being dark, as well as being Blasphemy Against Roddenberry or something.

 

[valkyrie013]

wouldn't qualify it as "Dark" but more realistic in its scope, showing some of the darker underbelly of a clean utopian society.
Now I'm not saying I agree with what happened in the show, I don't believe the federation would have given up, and I defiantly don't believe Picard would have given up after the Fleet was destroyed. Even if he was rebuffed and resigned if the federation gave up, he would have used his celeberty to form a "Dunkirk Fleet" of private, various planets ships to go and help. I just don't believe he would have given up, and went to his Chateau, and forget it all for 20 years.
I especially didn't like the outright ban on androids when it comes to medically nessicary like Riker's son disease. And i do believe Riker would have moved heaven and earth, and went wherever he needed to to save his son. Even his in Troi's settling on a nice planet and hope for the best.. Troi's thing of losing her dad, then losing her sister, now losing her first born son.. just to much.
Show had good moments, but in general I didn't enjoy it to much, and is the weakest series of them all to me. Now I'll still watch S2 and hope for better, but we'll see.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I actually also note that I think the Federation also gets way too much anger for their decision regarding the Romulans too. As I said in my review of Una McCormack's book, "It's not the Federation refusing to empty their pockets for the Romulans, it's the fact they did and then they got mugged. No wonder they're not doing it again." I don't even think the, "40 planets would have withdrawn if we'd continued!" was necessary because they made an enormous effort for the Romulans and lost an entire world over it.

 

[fireproof78]

So, I have been enormously curious about this conversation and how much I see as a pure rejection of Picard because of a variety of factors, most of which get lumped in to the category of dark. But, some of the posts have given me a bit of pause in thinking it through. So, in a small meta way this is my effort to try and understand why there is such attitude towards Picard being dark.

One, is as noted above, the idea of the Federation giving up, Picard giving up and Riker giving up. And for many that is something not only unfathomable but nearly offensive; that's not what the good guys are supposed to do. Right? So, that is one place I see that.

The other is showing less than savory aspects of human nature in the Federation and that cuts against the more evolved sensibility, specifically the sensibility shown in TNG. Use of smoking, vaping, alcohol and other substances. Poor treatment of synths which seems out of step with the egalitarian nature of the Federation.

And, finally, it isn't happy. It simply doesn't leave people with that feeling of escapist joy that was largely associated with TNG.

Now, I have counters to all of that but ultimately it comes down to a highly subjective expectation of what Star Trek is and for some it needs to be that optimistic sense that things will get better, rather than acknowledging the difficulties that could come.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Failure is an interesting thing to examine in Star Trek and something we obviously don't see very often. Previously, the biggest example of failure in Star Trek was THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS where the Federation gets absolutely pulverized by the Borg and doesn't even land a successful hit until the end. We also have plenty of controversial moments in the Federation like when the Bug Aliens almost took it over via parasites and the various Deep Space Nine plots where the Federation was panicking over the Domininion and enacting stupid laws. That's the actual government vs. "Insane Admiral of the Week."

Here, the Federation just utter flumoxes the job after a really game effort that apparently involved the entirety of the UFOP chipping in. They could have padded it a bit more like "we have to evacuate the Martians too!" and so on but I don't think they really needed to. This is an organization that has repeatedly stood aside when "internal matters" are involved and doesn't lend a hand to even allies during civil wars or natural disasters that involve Warpless societies.

But the Federation is not fans are concerned with:

1. Why did Picard give up?: This is something that I analyzed with the view that he wasn't looking at it with pure despair but actually awareness his failure was on HIM. Picard resigning was an attempt to blackmail the Federation and they actually outmanuevered him. Maybe he could have done more but I think Picard realized he'd played it all wrong and shutting him out was what they'd wanted all along. One thing that the recent politics that Patrick Stewart was drawing from was a lot of good men resigning and then getting immediately replaced by people willing to toe the line.

2. Did Riker give up?: I'm not sure that he did. There's possibly a reason that Riker ls living on the far end of Federation space, in the equivalent of 20th century Alaska versus closer to Earth or Betazoid. Probably it'll be among the novels this gets explored (EDIT: And was it turned out) but all we know is that Riker COULDN'T save his son, not that he didn't try.

3. Decadence in the Federation: Raffi is a hot mess and unhappily living in a national park in her 24th century equivalent of a trailer (I wouldn't be surprised if it could fly) but there's no indication that she wants for anything. She's miserable but that's because of the failure to find out the Romulan conspiracy and prove it, which turns out to be her 100% correct. All the smoking and drug use takes place outside of the Federation in one of those TOS-era esque places that Seven seems to be patrolling. Indeed, freeloud seems very much like TOS.

4. How much is the EVIL Romulans at work?: I don't know how much of this is intentional but the whole "Russian Federation agents influencing the USA and votes" is certainly subtext that can bne read into it. The synth ban is something the Zhat Vash influenced the Federation into with their agents and possibly could even be behind the fact the refugees weren't given any more aid. Even beyond blowing up what is probably Earth's first or second space colony.
(How populated was Mars anyway? Was it like The Expanse's Mars or just a shipyards above it and some domes?)

5. Seven: It doesn't surprise me at all that Seven chooses to live outside the Federation in what seems to be like those Marquis planets or the world Ezri is from. We've always known some humans don't LIKE civilization, evolved or not, and the biggest thing the Federation provides is, "Go live somewhere else. Here's a ticket." Kirk himself was one of these people and living on a starship was because eh wasn't just a lifelong explorer but living on Earth made him bored spitless.

The thing is that TNG was always "The Federation inside the ship" while Star Trek has mostly always been "visiting places outside the Federation." I wonder if that influences things because Picard is about the only representative of the idealistic federation in the Mermaid.

 

[JesterFace]

It's not dark, it's just not the feel good utopia TNG was.

There's nothing wrong with a positive attitude towards future, right?

 

[fireproof78]

There's nothing wrong with a positive attitude towards future, right?

It's not a matter of right or wrong. It's matter of believability and investment. For some, TNG will be that investment, no questions asked. For me, TNG begged a lot of questions and never felt like sharing many answers.

 

[JesterFace]

It's not a matter of right or wrong. It's matter of believability and investment.

Well, I like to have a good feeling about the future and TNG does have that, something in common. =)

 

[fireproof78]

Well, I like to have a good feeling about the future and TNG does have that, something in common. =)

I like good feelings too.

But, for me, TNG was too fantasy world for me to find it believable. And, to be perfectly clear, that is fully a me thing. I do not value escapism as many I have seen post around here so my perspective is give me optimism but also give me challenges. Otherwise, for me, the good feeling is extremely shallow.

 

[The Wormhole]

Whether or not one likes the Feel Good Utopia is neither here nor there. The point is, this not not a either/or binary situation. Because Picard is not the Feel Good Utopia of TNG does not make it automatically dark. Because, guess what, a majority of television is not that Feel Good Utopia. Does that make the majority of television dark? Hell, not even the other Trek shows are quite as utopian as TNG, does that mean they're dark and Anti-Gene?

 

[fireproof78]

Hell, not even the other Trek shows are quite as utopian as TNG, does that mean they're dark and Anti-Gene?

It does, actually. Especially TOS and DS9. That is why they are regarded as lesser canon.