Star Trek: Picard — Are the Naysayers Wrong?
In my last week’s editorial “Star Trek: Picard — A Wake Up Call for Trek Universe,” I mentioned that this new show has reawaken the trekker in me. I had lost interest in the franchise half way through the Enterprise series and the new generically themed movies (starting in 2009) failed to win me over. However, with the introduction of this sci-fi mystery thriller, helmed by Patrick Stewart, I am hooked.
I am aware that this show has created a polarity among the fans. Many of the hardcores seem to flat out hate on the new show and complain about every nuance. The core thread running through these negative comments seems to be a disappointment that the show is not a relaunch of the TNG. The nostalgia factor ran very high after SD Comic-Con ’19, specially with both Data and Seven of Nine (fan favorites) being present in the trailer, added to that was confirmation of Riker and Troi characters making appearances as well. That sent a misleading message that the dark era of ST: Disco was over and the franchise was going to right itself again and follow the theme of “real Trek,” such as TNG, Voyager and DS9.
With Trek you have a 54-year-old spin, that’s deeply rooted in our collective psyche, as the positive blueprint for humanity’s future. Therefore, it’s understandable that any gesture away from this totally unrealistic and overtly simplistic and vastly hypocritical theme would disappoint the purists.
Let’s look at some of the key complaints about Picard. 1. Slow pace. 2. Occasional and brief gratuitous violence. 3. Not enough nostalgia. 4. Too much showing of couples in bed and they specially hate the Narek and Soji scenes as they are disturbed how she is being manipulated by that Tal Shiar (Zhat Vash) agent. 5. Every one is hating on Admiral Picard. 6. Raffi’s substance dependency. 7. Use of today’s language and slang, specially the f word, in the future. 8. The realistic, more grounded and adult approach to Trek canon. In short I can sum all the 8 points above into a simple phrase, they don’t seem to like the show because it isn’t TNG.
In contrast, I am really enjoying it, because it’s such a clever mix of old and new. It’s obvious that the creators put a lot of thought into this new theme. They came up with a recipe of some nostalgia and familiar TNG-style effects mixed with an upgrade to holographic UI, plus updated romantic and violence scenes (though still PG or PG-13). And of course a badly needed doze of reality, that humans aren’t robots or computer programs and the entire planet is not going to turn into Girl Scouts, just because Roddenberry hallucinated the concept during the heyday of the short lived “free love” and hippie era.
Don’t get me wrong; Picard is far from great. I would rate it as 6/10. It has too many plot holes and questionable character decisions. One YouTuber “that star wars girl” cleverly pointed out why it took Seven, 13 years to seek vengeance against the cartel lady, even though she had a bar on Free Cloud the whole time. That’s just too funny. Personally, I don’t believe the plot that Maddox was able to create totally hyper realistic androids without the help of Data or Dr. Soong (both are dead). Just because Soong could do it (Data’s mother), it doesn’t mean anyone else can in such a short time. And there are many other such plot holes that one is asked to ignore and simply enjoy the show.
So, are the naysayers right or wrong? I think they are right that it’s not great Trek but ultimately wrong, here’s why. We will never have another TOS, TNG. Vorager, DS9 or the Wrath of Khan with Ricardo Montalban. We will never have another Spock as iconic as Nimoy. Shatner’s Kirk can never be duplicated. He was the most authentic, true to cause and unapologetic captain the franchise will ever have. All other captains are hypocrites in comparison. (Cpt. Picard destroyed 39 Starfleet ships and killed over 10K Starfleet crew in a matter of days and he was given command again). It wasn’t their fault of course, there were just written that way.
Trek will only get worse from here. The Disco and those recent movies weren’t the exception, they are the norm. What has turned out to be the exception is Star Trek: Picard. ST: Picard is a good show and a badly needed kick in the Trek universe. Live Long on this planet only if you can Prosper spiritually.
#picard #startrek #startrektng #trekkie #startrekpicard #startrektos #startrekvoyager #startrekdiscovery #sevenofnine #starfleet #startrekfandom #startrekdeepspacenine #truth #love #startrekmemes #data #enterprise #cbs #borg #youtube #jonathanfrakes #trekuniverse #thatstarwarsgirl #radroddenberry
