I’m still working through my thoughts about Star Trek: Picard’s first season. Forgive me if this all comes out in a jumble. I gorged on the series, due to CBS All Access’s free month offer, and now that I’ve seen the finale, I’m still trying to process my overall thoughts about it. I don’t think the series is the abomination that some of the You Tubers I listen to review it, is. I don’t think it’s a great series-yet-or that it is even close to my top three (DS9-TNG-TOS) but Patrick Stewart’s performance-at times uneven-was still resonant, the production values were mostly good, and the ensemble cast was better, and faster, developed than in Discovery. It was also great seeing Data, Riker, Troi, and Hugh (didn't like how his character was treated, or Icheb either for that matter) again, and learning tidbits about what happened after Nemesis.
I was happy that JJ/Kurtzman Trek isn’t as afraid to use the Romulans as I felt Berman Trek could be sometimes. I also liked that they used the TOS Romulan look again, and that we got a mix of TOS and TNG Romulans. I do wish we had gotten more prominent TNG Romulans though and I didn’t love the somewhat indistinct ‘northerner’ look, I wish there had been more of a v-shaped brow. I was iffy on the Romulan uniforms. They weren’t bad, but too generic. I also was iffy on the Romulan starships. The designs didn’t do it for me, though I was happy to see more Romulan starships. However, I wish we had gotten the Valdores (that design is too cool to just be in one film) and the D’deridex-class warbird is one of my favorite starships and I would’ve loved to see that again. I did like the 23rd century bird-of-prey. Seeing more of them would’ve been nice as well.
I also liked the focus on Romulan culture and mythology even if I didn’t care what they did with it necessarily. Perhaps the Picard series will be like how TNG fleshed out Klingon culture or DS9 did for the Cardassians, Bajorans, and Ferengi.
I thought Zhaban, Laris, and Number One were cool characters, and it didn’t make sense to push them to the side. I think they would’ve been invaluable to Picard and I think it might have helped the ensemble congeal faster. With them, the side quest to Vashti wouldn’t have been necessary, but perhaps they were too knowledgeable, or should’ve been, that it would’ve stretched credulity to even have the first season run 10 episodes. As it stands, I don’t think the story or relationship with the Romulan swordsman really worked. I did like his childlike, or innocent reaction and wonder at times, but then it felt strange juxtaposed to his deadly fighting skills. And I don’t think the relationship with Picard was built up well, with Picard basically, and selfishly coming back mostly because he needed him (if even underneath he was just wanting to see him one last time; he didn’t really tell him that), and then the series separating them too much. I actually thought him breaking down and Raffi hugging him was a good scene. He needs a parental figure and she is missing her son and they both could be surrogates for each other.
I’ve seen some dislike of Narissa, but I liked her. I’ve liked the actress in other things, and I thought she did fine here. I didn’t care for the weird vibe between her and Narek, but I did like how toward the end she placed her trust in him. I also liked the scenes with her aunt. Narissa was not a one-dimensional villain. I didn’t have a problem with Narek either. Neither are my favorite Trek villains, but neither are my worst.
When it comes to Picard’s crew, I thought the La Sirena ensemble was better developed compared to the Discovery ensemble in Season 1. But if Picard wasn’t part of this crew, would I care that much about them as a whole? I would say no, but if Picard wasn’t there, the writers might have spent even more time developing them.
The writers did give them all flaws or challenges. Unfortunately, I think the short season and also the focus on one overarching story didn’t allow for the kind of episodic storytelling where you could devote an episode to each of them. So, we got snatches, with the best being Raffi’s tortured reunion with her son, and to some flashback stuff with Jurati and Maddox. Rios’s painful past was left just to exposition. Despite this small crew, perhaps there were too many characters still.
It took a while for me to settle with the crew, and that’s still not done. I liked how Raffi displayed more emotion and we saw her hardened edifice crack as the season went on. I don’t think Rios got enough focus but there was stabs at getting to what makes him tick. Less so with Jurati (who reminded me of a less annoying Ensign Tilly at times), and the swordsman was like a babe in the woods. I did like the growing bonds of affection between Picard and Soji, though I do think that was rushed. I liked when Soji admitted that she didn’t trust Picard, Troi, Riker, or even Kestra (to be honest Kestra was annoying to me, there I said it), but then they glossed over having her learn how to trust them.
It was great seeing Seven of Nine again, but I’m iffy on what they did with her after Voyager. In Kurtzman Trek there’s a whole lot of badassery, hard drinking, and swear words going around (this from the guy who just wrote badassery I know). I could’ve easily seen a Dr. Annika Hansen working at the Daystrom Institute in the place of Jurati. Just like I could’ve seen Ro or Tom Riker in the role of Rios. Ro could’ve also been in the role of Raffi. I also could’ve seen Janeway, Nechayev, or Shelby in the Clancy role. It might have screamed small universe, but I would’ve loved to see Picard play off some of these old familiar, beloved characters. For me, seeing the old characters, even in these new roles, I would’ve cared more and that would’ve freed more time to work on the story because a lot of the character work, the relationships had been established. They would just have to be reintroduced instead of built from scratch.
I also think the short season forced them to just speed through things. There were times, at the end, where Raffi had all this information, had figured all this stuff out, and I was like, how did that happen. Or the scene where they are all sitting around the table and explaining what the Admonition, etc. are all about. Or how they speed through Sutra’s villainy, Alton’s change of heart, and his shutting down Sutra (but no one intervenes? This storyline was played out better with Arik and the Augments on Enterprise).
I thought the climax with the La Sirena facing the Romulans was well done, and it was great seeing Riker on a starship as captain, though I wish we had seen different kinds of starships, and the Enterprise. The stuff happening on the planet wasn’t as well executed. The Borg were wasted, after there was some promising stuff about the xBs. I also wasn’t a fan of the space tentacles, but seeing Chabon’s name for them, the “Alterity”, that’s cool. I just wish more ambition would’ve been placed in designing them, but also more ambition when it came to storytelling overall.
I also think the lack of worldbuilding impeded my enjoyment. I would’ve liked to have gotten more comics or novels, at worst, to lay out why the Federation had become more isolationist and its denizens more rough and tumble. Besides the cursing, I didn't like how just about everyone upon meeting Picard insulted him, cursed at him, or cut him down to size in some way. Even Riker said that Picard was an 'arrogant' person. Certainly there was some arrogance during the TNG years, but Q famously disabused Picard of that in "Q Who", and being arrogant wasn't really Picard's thing. Also, when an android pushes a 90-year-old man, Troi said he deserved it. Really? Being upset with Picard, understandable, but physically pushing a frail senior citizen? Come on.
Speaking of the Federation, and Starfleet, I wasn’t a big fan of the 2399 Starfleet uniforms, though they looked better in live-action. I like the Star Trek Online take on the 2399 uniforms and hope Season 2 of Picard takes heed. I actually liked the 2380s uniforms and would’ve been fine if those were still being used in 2399. Regarding starships, I thought La Sirena was a nice looking starship, but didn't really say "Trek" to me. I don't think it felt iconic enough. It was a starship you could see in just about any other science-fiction series.
I thought the finale really helped hammer home the idealism, optimism and Trek feeling, even if getting there was haphazard, and led to some great Picard speech making. I didn’t care for them making Picard an android, even though I enjoyed Data’s goodbye a heck of a lot more than I did in Nemesis. I wish that Star Trek: Picard had just ran one season and that this was it for Jean-Luc. It felt too much like Terminator: Genisys for Picard to be reborn, but in a new body. Granted, this new body will supposedly die at some point, so the Picard golem is still mortal. However, I didn’t buy the idea that it wasn’t Picard’s time yet. How can any of them know that? If both Picard and Data had said good bye together, that might have been a nice way to go, and a second season-if necessary-could’ve been about Picard’s legacy.
