When they revealed his Irumodic Syndrome (though weirdly not stating it as such as a quick throwaway line), I figured it would be this long-running thing in the back of Picard's mind, and it would become serious in season 3 or 4.
I was thinking it would be more of a focus as well. He had like what, two spells and that's it? It didn't really affect it, and if they're going to introduce him having a disease like this I would have liked to have seen it treated a little more seriously and have his illness carry some weight, rather than just have it as an excuse advocate for lifting the synth ban and have a melodramatic death finale that lasts for 5 minutes.
And why
didn't they refer to it as Irumodic Syndrome?u
Picard showrunners are getting impatient and showing all their cards, after just 10.
To be fair, they probably feel they have to pull out all the stops to get people talking about it. Look at the other science-fiction television they have to compete with.
Westworld which also deals significantly with AI is so much more complex and yet it premiered four years ago. So having a lot of so many melodramtic moments, fan service, forced action sequences, cute F-bombs (this ain't your grandpa's Star Trek!) gets people talking, and if not, at least feels closer on the surface to modern shows.
Why bother showing Agnes and Rios develop a relationship like normal people would? Nah, let's have them kiss in an extremely WTF and sudden way the episode after they first meet.
To be fair "normal people" can enter into one night stands. However, it's very much in the heteronormative Hollywood cliche tradition, where the man and the woman
have to get romantically involved. It becomes even more cliched when nothing really changes between Agnes and Rios, even after she's revealed to be a murderer. They even share a happy ending kiss at the end.
Furthermore, if Picard had Irumodic Syndrome for multiple seasons, that would be mulitple seasons where we'd start to question whether or not he had all of his mental faculties intact. Clearly PIC is in a galaxy that's been jaded by the events of DS9 and what happened afterwards, so do you really want the person fighting for what's right in this changed "world" to be someone who's lost his mind and who no one should take seriously? I don't think you do. I don't think most people do.
That's the writing challenge, and involves taking risks. I would be far more interested in a former Starfleet Captain Picard who's very slowly losing his mental faculties yet is struggling to fight it as best he can, especially in light of Starfleet and the Federation losing its core values and beliefs. Why would they take a "senile old man" seriously, former Captain or not? I think it would send a strong message that older people, and even those suffering from disease or disabilities can still be viable citizens and contributors to society. That struggle itself is a good representation of humanity. The concept was done in
Still Alice (2014) and I can easily see something similar incorporated into Picard's story.
So either they have to find a miracle cure for the Irumodic Syndrome, or he has to die if there's truly no cure.
That makes it far too simple. Does he have to die in this season? Do they have to find a miracle cure? In the first season too?
They could have ignored the Irumodic Syndrome completely since they didn't actually name it. They just mentioned some incurable disease. Or reintroduce it in season 2. Or have him dealing with it throughout the series. Or have him looking for a cure. Or have that be an element in season 2, that with the synth ban lifted can they find a cure for his disease?
But if you can accept Spock being resurrected through something as wonky as Genesis, then you can accept Picard being resurrected by having his essence transferred into another body.
I still haven't seen all of Star Trek III. But if you believe Spock's resurrection is "wonky," how is that justification to repeat something similar, with even lesser weight and impact?
They wrapped up the "old business" before going into the "new business". If they get the chance, I think they want this to be more than just an epilogue to TNG. But in order to get this series going, that's where they had to start. Or as they said in a tagline before the series premiered, "The End is just The Beginning."
It feels very much like the "reset button" of TNG. Especially how neatly so many things get solved in the finale. It doesn't need to be "old business" before "new business." This is an era of serialized storytelling where things occur more naturally over the course of several seasons.