Spoilers for Star Trek: Picard “Remembrance” ahead
“Star Trek: Picard,” the first Star Trek property based in the TNG timeline since Star Trek: Voyager went off the air is finally here. Debuting episode one on CBS All Access the series doesn’t so much boldly go as much as it takes its time meandering around Picard’s vineyard.
Star Trek: Picard is the sort of series that lives and dies with its established fanbase from the TNG era. If you haven’t watched the show or are up-to-date on the films and the connections in the J.J. Verse then you are going to be lost from beginning to end. But this is a streaming platform and you are here to see what has become of Star Trek’s greatest captain, and it seems CBS is hoping that fans stick along for the ride.
What’s interesting is that for a debut episode (“Remembrance”), Star Trek: Picard does very little to explain much of what is being set up, especially for non-fans. We are introduced to a Picard who has left Starfleet because it lost its moral core, and while many expected this to be influenced by the destruction of the Romulan homeworld (it partially is), the real reason is the fall of Mars and the destruction of the Utopia Planitia shipyards.
It seems that during the mayhem that was the Hobus Supernova, synthetics built by the Federation and inspired by the dead Commander Data all went rogue, brought down the shields of the shipyards, and laid waste to the entire Romulan rescue fleet. This led to the fallout from the destruction impacting Mars leading to nearly 100,000 deaths on the planet.
It’s an interesting concept, just not for Star Trek. It feels like something out of Blade Runner and everything in the debut of Star Trek: Picard feels like it’s pulled from some other science fiction mainstay. Starfleet ends up banning “synths,” a name that feels off being used in the Star Trek universe, and Picard pulls away over that (Data was his best friend) and his failure to save Romulus, and event that led to the Star Trek movie reboot timeline.
Picard is a man haunted by his memories and the show focuses on this with flashbacks on the Enterprise D (looking as beautiful as ever in full CG) and with Data. The problem is that Data being considered human, or at least sentient was already explored on Star Trek: The Next Generation in several instances. It was essentially his entire arc in the series and movies and not Picard’s, Still, it wouldn’t be so bad if the show was smartly written. Too bad it’s not smartly written.
The first part of the debut is so poorly written there were multiple times I audibly cringed to those around me watching. The show clocked in at just around 45 minutes but it felt as long as a feature film, and not in a good way. Much of the writing feels like it’s pulled out of a bad fan-fiction. The best way to describe this is like writing Captain Picard based only on the speeches that he gave over the course of TNG.
Stweart is acting his heart out as Picard but it feels overly melodramatic and more in line with a stage production. It’s like he is acting so even those in the cheap seats can see and hear him, giving his all to a script written for the lowest common denominator. The show’s writers are giving the idolized version of Picard that we’ve all built up in our minds. The sort of Picard you get from a YouTube compilation of Picard’s best moments on TNG forgetting that he was a well-rounded character.
The first half of the show feels like bad Shakespeare in between long stretches where not much happens to move the story forward. Star Trek: Picard moves at a lethargic pace up until we get to San Diego Comic-Con. When I say this show is for fans I mean it as many of the filming locations for the action scenes were clearly done on the steps leading to San Diego Comic-Con. The producers know their target nerd audience.
Characters who are nuanced and rational simply make decisions and talk about absolutes within minutes of meeting and without evidence. Dhaj, the girl from the trailers simply shows up and within a few scenes, Picard is claiming her to be Data’s daughter. This isn’t Picard, a man who questioned everything and relied on facts. Here, he simply tells her she’s Data’s daughter because of a painting he has locked away.
But what’s crazy is that the second half of the debut episode feels like a totally different show handled by totally different people. We go from this glacial pace to moving at warp speed trying to cram tons of information about Data’s daughter who is killed off in the show’s first major action set piece. It’s a shocking moment that’s lessened a bit as we watch a Patrick Stewart stunt double running around like a younger man. It also doesn’t help we haven’t had time to process who she is before her twin is introduced on a Borg cube.
You could have cut out a good fifteen-minutes of meandering and still come away with a complete episode. But it does feel like this slower pacing is intentional and a response to Star Trek: Discovery which is like a non-stop Star Wars battle from beginning to end. Star Trek: Picard might become what fans want from Star Trek, but that is still up in the air. I’m still up in the air as the major fight scene in the show happens without anyone knowing even though it features massive explosions at the Daystrom Institue. Oh, Picard just fell down and bumped his head. Okay, chief.
This show seems to want to take its time and straddle this line between the ‘New Trek’ and classic Star Trek and risks becoming neither. I’m holding back on an overall opinion until I see more but I’m not holding my breath as the people behind the show are the same people responsible for killing Star Trek on television in the first place. I just hope that this series doesn’t end up being a really long episode of TNG.
Star Trek: Discovery might be all about drawing in new fans by playing (or destroying) the Star Trek television mythos and Star Trek: Picard is for those die-hard TNG fans wanting more of what they grew up with. Still, they say you can never really go home again and these next nine episodes might just be the litmus test for that and the TNG universe.
“Star Trek: Picard plays it safe almost to a fault while still worrying fans with the potential of upending the canon”
Grade: C+
“Star Trek: Picard” airs Thursdays on CBS All Access.“
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