“Picard” Comes Up Short

by Ray Keating

The Keating Files – April 10, 2020

Warning: Spoilers

The CBS All Access series Picard wanted to boldly take Captain Picard, and by associationThe Next Generation portion of the Star Trek universe, into new, uncharted space. And Picard’s creative crew almost pulled it off, but in the end, fell short by succumbing to some key Next Generation weaknesses.

Star Trek: The Next Generation ran on television from 1987 to 1994, followed by four movies – Star Trek: Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). Of course, throughout, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart, sat in the captain’s chair of the Enterprise.

As a Star Trek nerd who came on board with the original Star Trek series in reruns in the 1970s, I forgave a great deal in retrospect. For example, 16-year-old Ray actually defended Star Trek: The Motion Picture against criticisms, even though that film is indefensible. And then there was 24-year-old Ray, who was so pleased about the return of Star Trek to the television screen that he forgave just how bad many of the Next Generation episodes were, especially during its first two seasons. 

And while some episodes were excellent – such as “Yesterday’s Enterprise” in season 3 – Next Generation suffered from a future in which humans were bland and largely subscribed to an insufferable, leftist utopianism; lived in boring, sterile surroundings; and quite frankly, flew through space in a ship – the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D – that looked awkward compared to the Enterprises that came before and after. And as for the movies, well, First Contact flew at light speed, but the other three Next Generation films never got out of drydock (don’t get me started about Captain Kirk’s ridiculous death in Generations).

Picard, in effect, amounts to an extra season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, taking place some twenty years after the last Next Generation movie. And throughout the first nine episodes, we are, in fact, treated to something far better than most of what was served up in the Next Generation television show and movies. 

In Picard, humans are far less than perfect. The annoying utopianism that plagued the television show seemed to have been jettisoned – at least until the final episode. Picard wrestles with his past. Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Voyager steps into a far richer and darker role than typical for a main character in any Trek.  The United Federation of Planets is flawed, and even infiltrated by enemies. 

And to complete his mission, Jean-Luc Picard assembles a crew that ranks as, at best, ragtag. At one point when visiting Riker and Troi, Riker asks Picard about the new crew. Picard replies, “Well, I would have to say they are decidedly motley. There’s been nothing but drama since we left Earth’s orbit and, I’m told, it’s been continuing since I saw them last. They seem to be carrying more baggage than all of you ever did. But then, I’m not the one to talk.”

It's all very engrossing – well, until we hit that tenth and final episode of this first season. Not only is too much shoved into the episode, but it all reverts to what we became accustomed to, and largely disappointed by, in the Next Generation. 

The flawed humans all wind up doing what’s expected of them in a Next Generation kind of way, as does a planet full of synthetic beings that are kinds of offspring or siblings of Data. Without getting bogged down in the details of the climactic decisions, they turned out to be painfully predictable. Choosing the unexpected decision, but actually more in line with what had come before in the series (i.e., allowing the Romulan prophecy to come fully true), would have taken the upcoming seasons of Picard in a far more interesting and exciting direction, with enormous consequences for the characters, the Federation, the Romulans and beyond. (The show has been renewed for seasons 2 and 3.) That would have been a big “Wow” factor. But alas, that was not the case.

And the other items in the rushed wrap-up to Picard’s season 1 also ranked as typical Next Generation stuff.

For example, while Data died in the last Star Trek: Nemesis, he popped up in Picard’s dreams and is talked about a great deal during the series, given that Picard is trying to save Soji, who more or less is Data’s daughter. The Data focus in the final episode could have had a Harry Lime in The Third Man feel to it, but it never gets close to being that interesting. It turned out that Data’s consciousness, program or memories had been hanging around in a kind of android simulation/purgatory, and he’s still trying to figure out how to be human. 

Oh, yes, and Picard dies, but his consciousness conveniently is transferred into an android body that happens to replicate his own in all ways but for the fatal disease that killed him in the first place. Picard in an android body? Really? Perhaps he can pick up on the android angst now that Data is gone ... really gone.

And Seven of Nine turns on a dime from a character willing to dole out some severe, vigilante justice to seeing what was wrong in doing so. That, of course, would be fine, but we don’t see how her actions troubled her to any real extent – it’s just one view at this point, Picard dies, and then another view afterward. 

It’s all very Next Generation, and not in a positive way.

For good measure, we’re treated to a couple of things tossed in at the very end that either make no sense or come out of nowhere, including one of the characters never having to deal with the consequences of murdering someone earlier in the show. These subtracted from the overall story and the characters.

It’s a shame thatPicard ended so poorly. We’ll see what comes in seasons 2 and 3 – more of what we appreciated in the first nine episodes of season 1, or more of the same old, same old Next Generation that was dropped into that final episode?

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Ray Keating is a columnist, an economist, a novelist (his latest novels are The Traitor: A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel, which is the 12^thbook in the series, and the second edition of Root of All Evil? A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel with a new Author Introduction), a nonfiction author (among his recent works is Free Trade Rocks! 10 Points on International Trade Everyone Should Know), a podcaster, and an entrepreneur. You can also order his forthcoming book Behind Enemy Lines: Conservative Communiques from Left-Wing New York – signed books or for the Kindle. The views expressed here are his own.