Final season finally gives the <em>TNG</em> crew a better send-off than 2002's <em>Nemesis</em>.
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In the end, <em>Picard</em> became the fan-service <em>TNG</em> reunion it always should have been
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Wasn’t a fan of S1, and S2 even less. S3 was what I was looking for this whole time. Perfect? No, but a fun revisit to characters I enjoyed watching years ago.
I even found that I was OK with the way Data was brought back. All through S1 and S2 I was strongly in the “let Data be dead and stop cramming random Soongs into things” camp . . . But what they did worked for me. I didn’t love the Lore “cameo” (is that the right word?), but I can live with it.
I even found that I was OK with the way Data was brought back. All through S1 and S2 I was strongly in the “let Data be dead and stop cramming random Soongs into things” camp . . . But what they did worked for me. I didn’t love the Lore “cameo” (is that the right word?), but I can live with it.
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I almost missed the pitch at the end, after the credits, when Captain Seven and her bridge crew are set, with Raffi as Number One to her right and Jack in Deanna Troi’s seat to her left.
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Star Trek: The Previous Generation. 10/10
Edit. Tardy pun on my side. Watching the episode now I noticed the title makes the same one. This being said, 9/10 because they made the Enterprise bridge dark. The brightly lit bridge of the TNG Enterprise was part of the magic for me, it was was setting apart the "submarine-dark-spaceship experience" of most other movies and the "dark bridge for the bad guys' ships" from the Enterprise's "this ship is something else, it's a brightly lit, comfortable place". They could have kept it brightly lit without removing any of the suspense.
Edit. Tardy pun on my side. Watching the episode now I noticed the title makes the same one. This being said, 9/10 because they made the Enterprise bridge dark. The brightly lit bridge of the TNG Enterprise was part of the magic for me, it was was setting apart the "submarine-dark-spaceship experience" of most other movies and the "dark bridge for the bad guys' ships" from the Enterprise's "this ship is something else, it's a brightly lit, comfortable place". They could have kept it brightly lit without removing any of the suspense.
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I'll admit that for a moment, I thought they would do homage to Janeway and she would use that line but not as a flub. Leaving it open seemed like another hint that they may have a new show with Jeri Ryan and in the opening scene we hear her own catch phrase.
As this was called "Picard" I get why 7of9 was not a lead role, but I would honestly want to watch a series with her as a starfleet captain. When you think of the few female captains that have been on the show, I don't think one has held the history and life experience of 7of9. I feel like she would have the cockiness of Kirk and the fire of Janeway but be actually more vunerable as she struggles still with her inner identity.
With good writing and getting away from major story arcs (episodic please), having her and her crew explore new space along with dealing with maybe the Tholians, being sent back to planets TOS visited like the Earth alternate story (Omaga Story) or my favorite (god how much fun could they have with the Iosians in "A piece of the action" and having them do Science, but get trapped, caiught what ever and they have to think their way out.
Time will tell.
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The potential's there. They just need the writing and will to make it happen. The potential audience is already there.
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I wouldn't bother at all...
What I really hate about this? Maybe this is some sort of weird delusion, but I'd have liked to have known that some of the performers sat during a table read of the horrible drek that this season was and said "I've inhabited this role for decades, I've figured out how to portray this character, and there is no way this character would ever have behaved like you've written"
Full disclosure: I attempted to watch this show. 3 times, and didn't make it 15 minutes in to any of the episodes I tried. It was just so egregious, (and so obvious, and so telegraphed) and I"m saying that as a hard core TNG/DS9 guy.
And from some of the other reviews out there in the 'net I am not, pleased, maybe, satisfied? that I'm not the only one who has hated this mess.
Just because it says its Trek, doesn't mean you need to fawn all over it.
Edit. added 'obvious and telegraphed' to the egregious...
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Oh yeah, I would love a series with her in the lead. she’s always been one of my favorite characters.
Here’s hoping whatever the next trek show (legacy?) will be more Strange New Worlds, and less Discovery/Picard. While I loved Picard (especially this season), I agree with you that episodic is better, it’s just so much lighter to watch.
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Yea, Sisko would be an awesome series. I really wish we could have more DS9 love.
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To see the D fly one last time, and in such spectacular fashion - all forgiven.
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The Super Mario Bros. Movie suffers from being a two hour movie cut down to 90 minutes while Picard S3 suffers from being a two hour movie boated up to a 10 hour series, but they are similar in that they both rely entirely on fan-service over well-written story and dialog.
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MedicinalGoat
Ars Centurion
It was fan wankery to the point where it hurt the show. The first four episodes taken by themselves were fantastic and we got to see Jonathan Frakes really stretch his acting legs and Amanda Plummer chew scenery in such a delicious manner I'm left wanting more.
After that? Poop. It tripped over itself to get more references in. It gave us Shaw who was FANTASTIC because of the actor and not the writing and then blew him out the airlock in the penultimate episode. Worf was comic relief. I feel it my gut that this was not Trek but a messy nostalgia listicle turned into a show somehow.
After that? Poop. It tripped over itself to get more references in. It gave us Shaw who was FANTASTIC because of the actor and not the writing and then blew him out the airlock in the penultimate episode. Worf was comic relief. I feel it my gut that this was not Trek but a messy nostalgia listicle turned into a show somehow.
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No.
Just No.
First off, Will Wheaton is an amazing person who had over coming some intense life issues and he continues to be a good person. Will Wheaton ...
Is Not a Writer On Star Trek.
He was an actor, is an actor, and as such could only portray what was given to him by producers, directors, and writers and they, them....decided how the Traveler interacted in S2 and you are aware he was not ever considered to be written in for S3. I feel it was mistake, but I'm not the producer.
I would accept that Wesley, as the traveler would have created confusion (from a story line) since he would have had the ability to change even the time line, but if I had to write it, I would have had a scene between Jack and Wesley where Wesley, not wanting to change The future too much stands with Picard in that same moment to tell Jack he is not alone, he has family. I would have given Wheaton his chance to be present, but then .... I'm not a writer for paramount.
His Ready Room show is fantastic. He is honest, well researched, and just a damn good man. So, your comment is... illogical.
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It was pure nostalgia pandering regardless of whether it made sense or not. While it was better written than season 1 or season 2, that's not saying much. Even for a show like this, I'm really looking for more from Star Trek.
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Mungus the Unhyphenated
Ars Tribunus Militum
That would be amazing, and it has the precedent of the Star Trek TOS set pieces and costumes that were put on display in a special exhibit at the Air and Space Museum in 1992. I took some time off from work to make a special trip to see it.
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Shinzakura
Ars Scholae Palatinae
No. Shaw himself points out that this isn't "whatever happened out on the Stargazer, no, I'm talking about the real Borg."
So the Jurati Borg are real to the timeline, just pretty much a different species (apparently even to the main Collective.)
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Photon_plumber
Ars Tribunus Militum
Well holy crap. They really did set up the premise for The Next Generstion. With a touch of Q.
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The Queen Jurati Borg of S2 are an alternate timeline branch due to time-travel shenanigans. The core Borg Collective are the ones they haven't heard from in a decade, and are the eventual antagonists of S3.
S1 was a Cube that had been cut off from the Collective for years, so that doesn't count either.
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If you are being sincere, then you should know the showrunner already said they wanted to include more characters (Janeway, for one) and more scenes with other guests (Ro Laren), but the budget was too tight and they couldn't afford them. That's one reason Wesley didn't show up.
If you're just here to shit on the character & actor, the door is over there.
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Potential spoiler below.
It seems to me Agness was intentionally ignored for Enterprise G stuff.
With the new captain etc etc
It makes sense to already set that up, plus the post credit stuff ofc.
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definitely hoping for a ST Legacy series in whatever form they take it if for no reason other than Jeri Ryan. every time she's been on the screen she's killed it. many of the TNG characters were often as compelling, but i was surprised at Tuvok's calling her captain sparked some imagination in me. seems absolutely perfect. do it Paramount please and thanks.
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The overall plot arc and writing for the season was pretty terrible with gigantic plot holes and loose ends all over the place.
Unlike the writing, the visuals and sets were top notch (from the recreated enterprise d bridge to the reveal of the borg cube).
I could go on for hours about all that was wrong with the writing (like a true trek nerd), but dammit it was all worth it to see the gang back together again. There was lots of fan service, winks, nods, and jokes for long time fans of the series. It was worth watching for that alone.
Looking back on it is a little sad, as it is probably the last time we will ever see that group on screen again.
Worf, the most sterotypical Klingon warrior who cares only about honor, is some sort of spy? Changelings just disappear after the borg are introduced? Borg DNA inserted to people in transporters was a particularly large popcorn throwing moment. And apparently Starfleet is comprised primarily of crew under 25? Jack throwing a temper tantrum and running to the borg like a teenage dumbass instead of the intelligent adult survivor he was cast as was egregiously lazy writing.
Unlike the writing, the visuals and sets were top notch (from the recreated enterprise d bridge to the reveal of the borg cube).
I could go on for hours about all that was wrong with the writing (like a true trek nerd), but dammit it was all worth it to see the gang back together again. There was lots of fan service, winks, nods, and jokes for long time fans of the series. It was worth watching for that alone.
Looking back on it is a little sad, as it is probably the last time we will ever see that group on screen again.
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Bah! They could've had the producers dig in their pockets a little deeper to give us (head cannon) Master Chief Miles O'Brien.
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Besides, do we really want to muddle the season with the additional drama of Wesley dealing with the half brother he never knew he had and carries the name of his dead father even though he was sired by his mother's boss (who got him kicked out of the Starfleet Academy)?
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I'll say the only things that disappointed me about this finale:
1. No Barclay showing up to be able to be all I told you so about transporters.
2. A lack of a saucer separation on the Enterprise D when having to do the Death Star trench run.
3. Doing a Nu Trek dirt slide to transport them out rather than finding a way to make the main deflector dish do a Deus Ex Machina to suppress the interference or whatever.
1. No Barclay showing up to be able to be all I told you so about transporters.
2. A lack of a saucer separation on the Enterprise D when having to do the Death Star trench run.
3. Doing a Nu Trek dirt slide to transport them out rather than finding a way to make the main deflector dish do a Deus Ex Machina to suppress the interference or whatever.
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For the most part, I've enjoyed Picard. Some of the episodes were draggy compared to what came before, and I agree that they could have pared it down to maybe two long movies per season and stepped up the pace a lot.
But as has been so aptly mentioned before, Star Trek has ALWAYS been as uneven as a country road, so in that vein, it was VERY true to form. So that didn't exactly detract from the fun.
I've yet to see the last (I think) three episodes, but I liked where it left off, and it seemed to be focusing much better overall. This post-view review helps solidify my impressions that they were finally beginning to mesh.
I'm looking forward to watching the finale.
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The hubris of Star Trek is that homo sapiens is the ultimate sentient species of all warp-drive, space faring societies, and that is the most disappointing aspect of all the new series. Discovery tried to get away from that mentality, but it never pushed the idea and fell back to the usual universe needs to be saved trope. I found the first season of Picard much more interesting than two or three. The character that seemed to evolve the most and for comic relief, was Worf. The best part of S3 was the warning about linking everything together, but was it a warning or just our fear of the unknown? I sure hope SNW pushes towards more diversity with Number One being an Elyrian and it had Hemmer, an Aenar, as a chief engineer in addition to Spock. You never see a Tellurite in a Star Fleet uniform, or so it seems nor a Zindi despite what happened in Enterprise.
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This short statement is emblematic of all the misguided criticism of Picard.
It was a show called “Star Trek: Picard.” It was not called “TNG Season 8.” They were clear from the beginning that it was about Picard and not just a hidden attempt at a TNG reunion show. Of course things happened from Picard’s perspective in a show centered on Picard.
It does ultimately set up a final, full, honest-to-gods bridge reunion in a truly fanservicey way at the end. But even that is full of energy and life because of the setup that gives it emotional payoff.
Picard as a character, was never before allowed to process his feelings on losing Data. Worse, he wasn’t depicted as much more than a captain, one was deeply loyal to his crew, but never truly bonded with it. You got hints that he started trying (finally joining the officers’ poker games in the final season), which only reinforced how walled off he usually kept things.
Allowing him a better chance to experience and grieve Data’s loss, to have and confront his reasons for remaining distant despite a deep capacity for love, to meet characters like Riker and Troi not as shipmates but as humans who had loved and grieved in his absence, to reframe and witness the importance of family to him by trying to save one (Data’s) and by forging another (Seven and Raffi and Rios and Jurati), to see him learn to appreciate family on a deeper level, and to want it (and feel worthy of it!) for himself…
Without all that, having Dr. Crusher estranged from him, loving him while hiding a child from him, would just feel like cheap soap opera. You would just demand to know how Picard allowed such a thing to happen, if it wasn’t at the end of a journey meditating on family with Picard. There would be no path to him spontaneously having a family, accepting his role in his estrangement, yet having the growth now to be what he wasn’t yet then. It would not feel right.
Without Picard reconnecting with Riker and Troi first, there would be no deeper bond forged between Picard and Riker than merely loyal crew. There would be no genuine learning by Riker that he needs Picard as much as Picard needed him, to overcome his own loss in the intervening years, and be Captain Riker again. There’s no bond where Riker meaningfully understands the final choice Picard faces, and makes, to be a father for Jack. All those words would be empty. They wouldn’t feel right.
There would also be no meaningful growth for Riker and Troi. Without Picard reconnecting with them first, they’d just return as a married couple again. The reunion would happen without a family that has lived the best and worst of times already, and has deeply strained, yet never broken. Anything just shoehorned in would feel empty. Or, they’d have to be divorced and back to will-or-won’t-they to manufacture that much tension between them. Attempting that would be empty. It wouldn’t feel right.
Geordi and Data finally having their moment, is also free from the repetition and compression of wedging in Picard’s also necessary moment with Data, because Picard has already had it on his own. Picard has already grieved Data, sought redemption through saving Data’s family, and been granted a much better chance to say goodbye. By allowing Picard all that first, it’s unoffensive for him to not be in Geordi’s way, when Picard ends up bringing Geordi and Data together again.
It’s also—through Data’s family, through fighting for it—that Picard becomes ready in S2, to confront the reasons he made Starfleet his family while still failing to forge deeper bonds with his crew—which sets up all of his capacity when interacting with these families in the reunion—Riker and Troi’s family, Geordi’s family, his own family revealed to him unexpectedly—to appreciate all of them without it feeling hollow.
It’s why you can easily accept that Picard loves Beverly so much, yet couldn’t be with her. And why Picard is able to understand the meaning of everyone else’s family to them. And why he is willing to commit the ultimate personal horror of reconnecting with the Borg to try to save both. To potentially sacrifice his life to save his and Beverly’s family and everyone else’s. The life he previously learned he was willing to sacrifice for Data’s family. A life that feels genuinely put on the line as a result.
This is a Picard we never knew before, but is the one we want to end with.
And also … Seven of Nine on a Starfleet bridge would be meaningless. She’d have no rich backstory, no meaningful struggle once her Voyager family parted ways, one in which she and Picard need each other to find family again. One that ends with her not just carrying on Starfleet’s legacy, but Picard’s legacy. Just reuniting the TNG crew would deny Picard the chance to forge new bonds, unless they kept gradually replacing the old crew with new ones, which would become a repetitive sad story of parting ways that overshadowed the new members.
This show was never TNG Season 8, and that’s what made it so satisfying.
Even if it wasn’t as franchise-crippling-ly bad as Nemesis, “more TNG” would feel like Insurrection over and over, rehashes without serious drama, without satisfying conclusions, eventually just saying goodbye one character at a time as their actors age out.
This deeper, emotional, personal story centered on Picard, and bringing in others he can genuinely experience loss and pain and growth with, it creates new stakes. It expands the universe. It sets up and builds toward one final powerful reunion as a truly special event, far from just another TNG episode reaching its inevitable conclusion. Each character gets to affirm who they are and have become, who they will always be, because it is what they each came back to after hitting their deepest lows—starting with Picard.
And in the meantime, Picard got to forge a new family, who you truly feel are prepared to carry on his—and his crew’s—legacy (please please please Paramount do this).
Really, wanting a whole bunch of the end of Picard S3 is like saying you want a whole bunch of Avengers: Endgame without Infinity War or the individual backstories. You can only have one payoff that powerful, and you only get it by building it up properly. The real reason people hated Picard before now, isn't because it was actually the worst thing ever, but because they had no faith in the endgame.
I predict that Picard will stand up better for a lot of people on rewatch, now that they can let go of their disappointment and anxiety over where it was going, and can give it a chance for what it was.
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Good article. I share the thoughts. We'll see if 7 and friends of both generations get a new show.
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Wil Wheaton doesn’t control the show. He’s not the Traveler in real life. If you watch his “Ready Room” episode that matches the S2 finale, he is clearly ecstatic that they actually found a way to work him back into Trek again. “Good person” or not, I highly doubt he’s the reason there isn’t more Wesley on Star Trek right now.
We don’t really fully know the power or purpose of the Travelers much anyway. It’s not clear that he could have “stepped in” without breaking something. When he does return, he mentions having to be extremely careful with where and when he shows up at all—he told a joke once, and the consequences set a civilization back 100 years. That’s a pretty big oops!
Which is part of the difficulty of having vaguely defined, seemingly omnipotent characters. They’re so powerful they can just do anything, all the time. Why didn’t Q snap his fingers and transport Voyager to Earth? The real answer is, it’s because if he did there would be no story.
Which is why these characters are always written with constraints on when and why they use their powers. It’s because “good storytelling” requires it.
Q sees himself as the product of millennia of evolution, he doesn’t want to deprive humanity of that journey by making life too easy on them (and to the contrary, he seems to relish pushing them harder).
And the Travelers, well … we don’t know much, but we do know they have a “prime directive” of their own, to avoid catastrophic unintended consequences of their intervention.
All that aside …
Wil Wheaton was a child traumatized by his parents, literally forced into an acting career he didn’t want so his actress-wannabe mom could live vicariously through him. He found a loving family for the first time in the Star Trek crew, and then had to endure years of fanboy hatred and contempt, and the closest to a valid complaint about his character is the poor writing that wasn’t his fault.
At what point do people like you stop blaming Wil Wheaton for everything wrong with Star Trek??
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As soon as the Enterprise G name was revealed, my first thought was, “why that piece of shit ship? They said, I think, in episode 2 that it was not a battleship and was a piece of junk compared to the shrike. The Titan is a downgrade from the Enterprise E’s Sovereign-class ship.
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I was still pretty underwhelmed personally.
Just like season 1 and 2 the story was a mess from start to finish; just a few particular annoyances off the top of my head:
Thank goddness Strange New Worlds is actually good, otherwise the live action offerings would be a total wash IMO. Lower Decks and Prodigy however are both fantastic, and I pray every day that Kurtzman never gets involved in them.
Just like season 1 and 2 the story was a mess from start to finish; just a few particular annoyances off the top of my head:
- Old data, because we're too lazy to use de-aging tech even though a frickin' android is such an obvious character to use it on – because even if it's not perfect it won't matter.
- Worf has apparently forgotten how to talk like a normal person.
- Raffi apparently invented transporting phasers for the first time… 20+ years after they already featured prominently in TNG. But good of the writers to remind us they didn't watch the TNG or consult anybody who did, I guess.
- Geordi has kids, but we don't get an answer to the most important question – who's the mother? Because TNG pretty much established him as completely hopeless at romance.
- Seven etc. transported the assimilated off the bridge, but didn't bother to use the transporters to un-assimilate them (use previous patterns to reverse the changes)? I mean why introduce a macguffin and not use it?
- Continuation of 5, but blowing up the beacon just magically fixes everybody. Half-arsed much? Why not use the transporters to reverse it, and hijack the fleet control system to force the other ships to do the same. There, just used your own macguffins to write your story for you. Took two seconds to come up with.
- The USS Titan is apparently a refit into a 100% different ship for no reason, but apparently they kept a major design flaw that nearly got them all killed (just so captain "Shouldn't be in Starflet" McAsshole could save everyone while still being an asshole the entire time), oh and the chair so he could complain about jazz in the scene establishing just how much of an asshole he was. If you were just going to name it Enterprise anyway, why have it be the Titan at all?
- Why remind us of a better season finale at the end by shamelessly ripping it off?
Thank goddness Strange New Worlds is actually good, otherwise the live action offerings would be a total wash IMO. Lower Decks and Prodigy however are both fantastic, and I pray every day that Kurtzman never gets involved in them.
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I am being sincere. And what the show runner wanted to do is not cannon.
The inescapable point is Wesley Crusher existed somewhere in the galaxy in S3, and based on everything that was developed around his character we can safely assume he knew what was going on (and we know he knew about the events of S2) but consciously decided not to intervene. There is not a lot of room for ret-conning this fact even if the show runner "wanted" to do something different. Cannon is cannon.
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