1, 3, 2
A factor in coming to this decision is imagining if the roles were reversed.
If the PIC characters were in the role of the TNG characters and PIC antagonists in S3. The seasons till turns out the way it does. I could see Rios in the Shaw role if he had several more years of command under his belt. Jurati in the Geordi role at the Fleet Museum and having some sort of close relationship with Sydney. Elnor in the Worf role working for Starfleet Intelligence as a seasoned veteran and working with Raffi. Soji in the Beverly role (or even Teresa from S2 in the Beverly role if she was brought to the future) being hunted by Changelings with Jack being a part of the crew (or Ricardo all grown up). And I could see Commodore Oh or Narek or Narissa in the Vadic role working with Changelings and the Borg. I can even see Hugh in Ro’s position and sacrificing himself.
Now, imagining if the TNG characters and PIC S3 antagonists were in the role of the PIC S1 characters, its a much harder sell to me. I can’t see Geordi complaining about having to finding Data’s daughter and calling her “that fucking synth.” Or inducing cardiac arrest on Bruce Maddox. Or Geordi overdosing on noranium hydrade to remove a viridium tracker he was order to eat from the head of Starfleet Security, who turns out to be the antagonist; he’s too smart and seasoned for that. I can’t see Picard chastising Worf for beheading a Romulan on Vashti after all these years together and Worf just accepting it. I can’t see there being a planet of android clones of Beverly Crusher, and these clones being hunted down by Romulans, Changelings, or Borg, though android clones of Beverly Crusher would make for an interesting premise at first. And I struggle to imagine Ro being shot on the Borg cube and having a pointless death, perhaps the most pointless in the entire franchise.
Now I could kind of see Shaw in Rios’s role (more with his relationship with Jurati and staying behind in the 21st century to find a new purpose and calling someone a puta madre (in English of course
), less with the smoking of cigars and the La Sirena holograms). And Vadic in either Oh’s role as an infiltrator of Starfleet and Zhat Vash, or in Narek’s role. Or even emulating Hugh’s role at the Borg Reclamation project. But again, it’s a hard sell
That reflects on how only the PIC characters could do S1, and how anyone could have done S3. That's why originality matters. Certain stories can only be told by certain characters.
) in S1, not just bring the band back together. S3 did better than I thought it might in that regard, but I'm still happier with S1's aspirations, even if it fell short of them, than I am with S3 going for arguably the path of least resistance, especially at the expense of so much of what S1 and S2 built. It reminds of the way Rise of Skywalker either deliberately or inadvertently undermined so much of what The Last Jedi had built.
