Star Trek: Picard — A Wake Up Call for Trek Universe
The new Star Trek: Picard on CBS All Access has reawaken the trekker in me. I had lost interest in Trek after the latest film franchises (since 2009) turned the series into just another shoot them up and beat them up even harder run-of-the-mill sci-fi flicks. It’s so easy to create a new guaranteed cash cow from these popular brands, just pepper several familiar catchphrases into any sci-fi script and Bang! you got a semi-hit. You want to turn a Lego movie into Star Trek, have you Lego doctor say, “I am a Doctor and not a plastic block fixer,” and your so-called Science Officer to say “fascinating” a few times. Yep, it’s that easy.
The Star Trek: Picard breathes the badly needed breath of wake up call to the long held Roddenberry pitch that the future for humanity is rosy. Even though the future was never portrayed as genuinely peaceful in Trek. Since the original series the various humanoid species have been trying to wipe each other out. And it got even more vivid and apocalyptic with the introduction of the Borg in TNG. The only reason our species could survive a single Borg cube attack even though they destroyed almost 40 Starfleet vessels in The Best of Both Worlds is not because of our ingenuity or luck, it’s because the story was written by humans (yes, it was rigged). Before Picard, the Star Trek: Deep Space 9, may have been the most authentic vision of a dark future that might await humanity in space. I am aware that DS9 is widely respected among the fans as the authentic gritty Trek. I liked it too. But somehow the grit and lack of sugarcoating in Picard is rubbing the diehards really wrong.
To think the future of humanity is about all of us turning into Girl Scouts, selling cookies to each other for Social Credit is naive and ultra simplistic. I am glad that the Picard has forever shattered the illusion that money doesn’t exist in the future, even though it has always been a part of the Trek universe. Again thanks to DS9 we were exposed to an active universe that relies on trade, consumption and entertainment. All of which require transaction currency of one type or another.
The Star Trek: Picard didn’t just pop out of nowhere and try to spill the Kool Aid for the fans, it has been brewing series by series for 50 years. And I salute Patrick Stewart for being at the helm of this massive wake up call. We are not changing radically any time soon, and no, our smart phones or future holographic games aren’t going to save us from the massive plagues of violence, corruption and oppression that manifest every second of every day on Earth. Seven of Nine is right, when she mentions in S1-E5 of Star Trek: Picard that she was merely humoring the Picard character by agreeing with him on believing in a docile and peaceful galaxy, before she disintegrates a cartel leader.
The ST: Picard story so far seems to be pointing to the mainstay of every futuristic sci-fi movie that AI and androids are dangerous and will try to destroy us. But I believe the danger of “synthetics,” as they’re called in this series, is secondary to the harshness of the reality of deep space where thousands of species are competing for the same slice of cheese. Kudos to the Star Trek: Picard team, specially Patrick Stewart, for being so gutsy and taking such a big chance to bring this franchise a step close to the reality of life, on Earth or deep space.
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