Good morning everyone! Happy Friday! I'm back for my review of Star Trek: Picard. There will be some spoilers for the most recent season, which is the final season, but for the most part I'll be talking about the show as a whole. So let's get into it.
When Star Trek: Picard was originally announced back in 2018, I was excited because my captain was coming back for another Star Trek TV show, after 16 years away from any onscreen Star Trek appearances. But, being that season 1 was produced and aired during those early seasons of Discovery where they did everything they could to make Star Trek not Star Trek, I was extremely disappointed with the first season of Picard. Sadly, season 2, which aired last year, was even worse because of behind the scenes production stuff. So I did not have high expectations for the final season even though the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation was returning for this final season. I simply did not trust this production crew to give us anything that even remotely resembled Star Trek. But season 3 actually stuck the landing.
Nostalgia is a tricky thing because if you rely on it too heavily in a franchise like Star Trek, you risk alienating new fans who haven't seen every episode of TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise or any of the movies, but still want to get into the franchise. Especially when the franchise has had a history of finding it difficult to get new people interested in it since TNG ended in 1994. But at the same time you don't want to alienate the core fanbase by deviating too far from what Star Trek has always been about. The exploration of the Human Condition, finding peaceful solutions to our conflicts, accepting diversity in all of its forms, and learning to overcome our own shortcomings. Which is not what the early seasons of modern Star Trek were about.
Season 3 was fantastic. While Seven of Nine, played by Jeri Ryan and Raffi Musiker, played by Michelle Hurd, returned from previous seasons, this season was about Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D and their final mission against a decimated Borg Collective leftover from the series finale of Star Trek: Voyager, "Endgame" while Picard also deals with the fact that he has a son that he'd had with Beverly Crusher, played by Gates McFadden, that she'd hidden away from him, similar to what Carol Marcus had done to Kirk in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
It was a joy seeing Picard, Riker, Troi, Crusher, Data, La Forge, and Worf all together again after them not being together in 20 years. But more than that, seeing Ro Laren, Shelby, Tuvok, and Q back was unexpected since, with the exception of Q, who we saw in season 2, and Shelby, who we saw in an episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks, we haven't seen these characters in 20 to 30 years, and it was wonderful. But what made me tear up was finding out that La Forge had rebuilt the Enterprise-D. We only saw the ship's exterior and the Bridge, but seeing all seven of them on that Bridge again, manning the same stations we'd seen them in for seven seasons and four movies, with all of the sound effects that are so familiar to those of us who grew up with Star Trek: The Next Generation.
However besides the nostalgic parts, the best thing was the commanding officer of the USS Titan-A, Captain Liam Shaw, played by the fantastic Todd Stashwick. The character was an unlikeable prick at the beginning of the season, similar to Captain Jellico in the TNG season six two parter, "Chain of Command", but by the time he was killed by the Borg in episode nine, I loved the character so much.
I also really enjoyed Picard and Crusher's son, Jack, played by Ed Speleers. He was an interesting character. I'm glad he wasn't a complete carbon copy of Wesley Crusher though, because we already had Wesley on TNG. I hope we get more of him in the rumoured Star Trek: Legacy TV series that's supposedly in development but hasn't been officially confirmed or announced yet.
Unfortunately, Seven and Raffi's relationship was ignored this season, but I think that's par for the course with modern Star Trek shows. They want to be progressive and embrace all forms of diversity, they just can't seem to do it justice in instances like this. But really that's my one big gripe with this season.
Honestly I could talk about season 3 of Picard all day. The first two seasons were rough to say the least, but I think they're worth watching. As an epilogue to the most well known Star Trek TV show ever, this show delivers, regardless of the quality of the writing and acting. I definitely recommend watching all three seasons. It's an easy watch since there's a total of 30 episodes, 10 per season. I love the interpersonal relationships between all of these characters and it was fantastic seeing all of them together again.
And that my friends is going to be it for me for today. I will be back on Sunday for my review of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always. Until then have a great rest of your day, and I will talk to you all later. Take care.
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