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Star Trek: Picard - Make It So Engage Earl Grey Hot
- Thread starter SpoonyBard
- Start date
John
(he/him)
One of my few quibbles with this season is that Deanna Troi has been a mostly non-presence. She got one good breakout scene in the penultimate episode last week, but beyond that was the damsel in distress/symbol of Riker's grief. I wonder how much of that was just intentional writing, or if there were scheduling/pandemic conflicts.
Anyone know if this season was written/filmed differently than S1/2, where the writers just got vague "here's what's gonna happen previously" and they had to riff on it? It does seem much more competently written, like they had a plan the whole time. Make S1/2 middling, so that S3 will look fantastic in comparison.
Anyone know if this season was written/filmed differently than S1/2, where the writers just got vague "here's what's gonna happen previously" and they had to riff on it? It does seem much more competently written, like they had a plan the whole time. Make S1/2 middling, so that S3 will look fantastic in comparison.
I don't remember where I read it (and it may have even been earlier in this thread) but apparently Marina Sirtis' schedule was the hardest to accommodate due to her living in the UK. Regardless of the real-world difficulties involved I agree with you that the end result is a kind of disappointing showing for Troi, especially when she and Beverly were so under-served in the series and the movies, and this season could have been an opportunity to correct that. I guess I'm just glad we didn't watch her get psychically assaulted again.
I posted about it previously based on Matalas' tweet, where he said lack of Troi is definitely down to difficulty in scheduling Marina Sirtis, so they kind of saved her for the end.
I think something to keep in mind with ST: Picard is that it has essentially had three showrunners in as many seasons, and all of the production and writing shifts that come with that... (forgive me if some of this sounds like the wiki article, but I was double-checking my memory with some stuff) Season 1 was run by Michael Chabon, who left to take over a TV adaptation of his novel Kavalier and Clay, but that move was probably welcome after the poor response to his Romulan/Synth/Eldritch Ancestral AI story plans (he probably had some big plans focused on Romulan society based on the stuff he was writing on blogs). Season 2 and Season 3 were filmed back-to-back due to Covid-19-related delays, with Matalas and Akiva Goldsman co-running season 2 until Matalas needed to focus on Season 3, leaving Goldsman in charge of season 2. I have to imagine a lot of the pre-production mapped out Season 2's arc early, so I am going to pin some of the nonsense on both of them and not just blame Goldsman for S2 kind of unraveling but.... ya know.
Not to get into some like, auteur view of a television showrunner or anything, television is definitely a group medium even in "the age of peak TV", but there's been some pretty clear examples in nuTrek (and old Trek! ... looking at the shift in production from Roddenberry to Braga and Berman, for example) where shifts in showrunners and production execs have corresponded to major changes in how those shows seem to play out (namely Discovery season 1 and its revolving door of showrunners after Bryan Fuller quit until it stabilized into what we know now)
Edited to add: also want to reiterate how much the delay after season 1 aired until season 2 started production definitely changed the course of the show. There was plenty of time to incorporate all of that loud feedback. Otherwise, we probably would've gotten more Romulan diaspora politics and AI stuff (and probably ruminations on the nature of Picard's existence post-S1). So much of season 2's first ep was like "Uh, sorry you didn't like season 1, let's try again" While the back-to-back production schedule means probably none of the feedback from season 2 really got into season 3, it's just... made better.
I think something to keep in mind with ST: Picard is that it has essentially had three showrunners in as many seasons, and all of the production and writing shifts that come with that... (forgive me if some of this sounds like the wiki article, but I was double-checking my memory with some stuff) Season 1 was run by Michael Chabon, who left to take over a TV adaptation of his novel Kavalier and Clay, but that move was probably welcome after the poor response to his Romulan/Synth/Eldritch Ancestral AI story plans (he probably had some big plans focused on Romulan society based on the stuff he was writing on blogs). Season 2 and Season 3 were filmed back-to-back due to Covid-19-related delays, with Matalas and Akiva Goldsman co-running season 2 until Matalas needed to focus on Season 3, leaving Goldsman in charge of season 2. I have to imagine a lot of the pre-production mapped out Season 2's arc early, so I am going to pin some of the nonsense on both of them and not just blame Goldsman for S2 kind of unraveling but.... ya know.
Not to get into some like, auteur view of a television showrunner or anything, television is definitely a group medium even in "the age of peak TV", but there's been some pretty clear examples in nuTrek (and old Trek! ... looking at the shift in production from Roddenberry to Braga and Berman, for example) where shifts in showrunners and production execs have corresponded to major changes in how those shows seem to play out (namely Discovery season 1 and its revolving door of showrunners after Bryan Fuller quit until it stabilized into what we know now)
Edited to add: also want to reiterate how much the delay after season 1 aired until season 2 started production definitely changed the course of the show. There was plenty of time to incorporate all of that loud feedback. Otherwise, we probably would've gotten more Romulan diaspora politics and AI stuff (and probably ruminations on the nature of Picard's existence post-S1). So much of season 2's first ep was like "Uh, sorry you didn't like season 1, let's try again" While the back-to-back production schedule means probably none of the feedback from season 2 really got into season 3, it's just... made better.
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Guys. I had a big live-blog typed up. But I think all I'll say instead:
They stuck the landing.
Also Captain Seven spinoff or we fucking riot.
They stuck the landing.
Also Captain Seven spinoff or we fucking riot.
zonetrope
(he/him)
The signal ID said "Anton Chekov," so I figured it was his son or another descendant.
A stellar finale, and a beautiful sendoff to a crew of legends. I said before that I already got what I wanted last episode. Well, this was more of that.
President Chekov! Eeeeeeeverybody gets a cameo except DS9. I see how it is.
Boy, Spacedock's a fucking beast, huh? Yeah, it eventually went down, but the combined might of all of Starfleet had to pound it for like half an hour first. Forget the starships, just weld some warp nacelles onto that motherfucker and sail it around the cosmos, laughing all the way.
"Target Lock: Philadelphia." That's me!
I feel like I missed a chapter of Borg history. The Queen says that she was left at the edge of space, alone. When and how did that occur? Is this somehow tied into the Jurati Borg situation? (I'm honestly glad that wasn't brought up, as I'm disinterested in spending time on PIC continuity when there's so much else to do.)
Data Millenium Falcon'ing the Enterprise through the Borg cube was exhilarating. The old girl's never looked so good.
Before this season aired, I half-jokingly said that if they bring Worf back and have him stand at tactical, it'd be the final proof that the writers have no idea what to do with these characters. Turns out what I really wanted was Beverly standing at tactical.
Troi finally got to do something cool!!
They are very clearly setting us up for a Captain Seven spinoff, which I guess will take Discovery's place once that wraps up. I'm all for it.
I didn't quite tear up as we powered down the Enterprise D, and during the final lovely shot of the crew playing cards, but it was close. Maybe we didn't need to end on Q? Well, it's fine.
He quotes his father at one point, so I believe we're meant to understand this is Pavel Chekov's son (named for the late Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in the Abramsverse movies.)
Boy, Spacedock's a fucking beast, huh? Yeah, it eventually went down, but the combined might of all of Starfleet had to pound it for like half an hour first. Forget the starships, just weld some warp nacelles onto that motherfucker and sail it around the cosmos, laughing all the way.
"Target Lock: Philadelphia." That's me!
I feel like I missed a chapter of Borg history. The Queen says that she was left at the edge of space, alone. When and how did that occur? Is this somehow tied into the Jurati Borg situation? (I'm honestly glad that wasn't brought up, as I'm disinterested in spending time on PIC continuity when there's so much else to do.)
Data Millenium Falcon'ing the Enterprise through the Borg cube was exhilarating. The old girl's never looked so good.
Before this season aired, I half-jokingly said that if they bring Worf back and have him stand at tactical, it'd be the final proof that the writers have no idea what to do with these characters. Turns out what I really wanted was Beverly standing at tactical.
Troi finally got to do something cool!!
They are very clearly setting us up for a Captain Seven spinoff, which I guess will take Discovery's place once that wraps up. I'm all for it.
I didn't quite tear up as we powered down the Enterprise D, and during the final lovely shot of the crew playing cards, but it was close. Maybe we didn't need to end on Q? Well, it's fine.
He quotes his father at one point, so I believe we're meant to understand this is Pavel Chekov's son (named for the late Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in the Abramsverse movies.)
Sprite
(He/Him/His)
I believe it's a reference to the end of Voyager.
General thoughts behind the jump:
I'm so relieved that the Borg we got here were a pathetic shell of their former selves. I was worried they were going to roll back the Season Two stuff, but nah, Borg Classic are finished, and Jurati Borg are a time-displaced, completely separate branch that came to terms with the fact that they're the universe's biggest losers and turned their fatal flaw into a strength. I really hope we get to see more of them in the spin-off, mainly because I want to see the Borgia O'Keefe ships again but also because there's a lot to mine about what it means when assimilation is optional. Also, the new Enterprise has a lot of former Borg on it now, so any interactions with a kinder, gentler Collective are bound to be tense.
I love that Q got a chance to flirt with Picard's son and so he decided to procrastinate about the thing that already happened. Pretty on-brand.
Brent Spiner does an amazing job of sounding like Data while also sounding completely changed. Dude has the best acting gig on Star Trek by far. He apparently hesitated at the role when he was originally cast because he was worried he'd be stuck playing a one note character. He plays sooo many different characters!
Troi got to do a thing! The character was woefully underserved for practical reasons so I'm glad they made her vital to this mission and the only reason half of the gang survived.
Let Elnor join the Enterprise, please and thank you.
I love that Q got a chance to flirt with Picard's son and so he decided to procrastinate about the thing that already happened. Pretty on-brand.
Brent Spiner does an amazing job of sounding like Data while also sounding completely changed. Dude has the best acting gig on Star Trek by far. He apparently hesitated at the role when he was originally cast because he was worried he'd be stuck playing a one note character. He plays sooo many different characters!
Troi got to do a thing! The character was woefully underserved for practical reasons so I'm glad they made her vital to this mission and the only reason half of the gang survived.
Let Elnor join the Enterprise, please and thank you.
It's very good. I have a lot of thoughts, not all positive. While I sleep on em, I'll just say... Stewart doesn't really understand the appeal of his character. So while he was fighting against this very thing, this is the spot it should of started. I also think that the show pretty much memory holes the first two seasons. Especially perplexing as 2+3 done back to back.
Still very much loved it. MVP is Seven.
Still very much loved it. MVP is Seven.
Terry Matalas has said in no uncertain terms that as of right now, there are no spin-offs in development right now; that it hasn't been greenlit or in production. But it's very obvious that this is his pitch for a spin-off. And depending on fan reaction, that may be enough to get CBS to greenlight a spinoff in the same way what happened fairly organically with SNW spinning out of S2 of Discovery. It took the CBS bigwigs about a half a year to greenlight and announce to the public SNW. I assume it'll take a while before we hear anything about a "Star Trek: Legacy" spinoff since it'll take the bean counters time to crunch numbers and for Matalas to better script out a pitch.
In the Voyager series finale "Endgame" - Admiral Janeway uploaded a supervirus to the Collective which messed everything up. Then the Voyager destroyed the Borg's transwarp network. Earlier seasons of PIC and PRO establish that this one-two-punch has crippled the Borg to the point where they haven't been heard from since. There are derilect, unconnected cubes where all of the drones are in sleep-mode, but no active Borg activity. The entire setting/premise of PRO is made possible by this described "power vacuum" in the Delta Quadrant. The Borg are assumed to be alive but licking their wounds. This season of PIC shows that they're alive but barely hanging on. What we just saw was essentially their vengeful death throws.
I think all of them did a marvelous job in this respect through the season (and Picard in particular through the whole show) but Data is where the change is most stark and noticeable.
I think this is a very unfavorable evaluation of a man of immense talent, who wouldn't have been able to imbue such life into a character for so long without having a core understanding of who the character is that he's playing. Like, you don't do the kind of work Stewart has done for over 30 years through sustained coincidence/happy accidents. I could probably write a graduate thesis on this very subject. But I'll leave on the fact that while a lot of the superfluous trappings of S1 and S2 were retired from PIC as a show, the emotional and thematic core of the show and its characters directly informs the events of S3 in ways that just wouldn't have been as convincing or impactful without using S1 and 2 as its foundation. Especially the emotional climax that used S1&2's exploration and rehabilitation of a broken Picard to put him in a position to really convincingly sell the thematic final defeat of the Borg, and the spiritual rescue of his son.
More than fair. But he has often bristled against it. I think he knows the character, but wanted things that I would say are not always value adds. Ie Picard the action hero in the movies. And it seems he needed convincing to do what they did in S3. I assume maybe he got bored, or "we've done that"
Anyhoo - I'd love to read your thesis!
I enjoy your takes always, even if I don't agree with them all the time.
Anyhoo - I'd love to read your thesis!
I enjoy your takes always, even if I don't agree with them all the time.
In one of the Wheaton Ready Room segments, he suggests a Star Trek: Data spinoff where he plays every character.
Anyway I’ve been watching along the entire season but haven’t said much because I’m usually a couple days late an y’all have the reactions and speculation covered at that point. But I’ve enjoyed most of this season and the last few eps were amazing. Not a dry eye in the house at the finale.
Didn't get to watch it until now but I exercised an uncharacteristic level of restraint and kept myself spoiler-free on the events of the finale so I am very proud of myself.
Goddamn what a banger of a season. I am and will continue to be a supporter of the first two seasons of PIC but it would be foolish of me to try and say they did not make missteps. This third season really felt like coming home and came together as a wonderful farewell to the cast.
Also goddamn Terry Matalas, you troll. Janeway was namedropped SO MANY times all season, and the Borg Queen directly references the events of the series finale of Voyager where Janeway dealt a deathblow to the collective that she is still smarting from and despite all that you don't bring Kate Mulgrew in for even a voice cameo. I'm honestly kind of impressed.
Alsoalso goddamn Terry Matalas, you troll. Cutting away right before Seven says the line. I guess we'll have to wait for your series to be greenlit to find out what her captainy catchphrase will be.
Alsoalsoalso goddamn Terry Matalas, you troll. When Guinan was namedropped as being literally offscreen I assumed that officially put a cap on any of the season 2 cameos showing up in season 3, and the episode was winding down so my guard was totally dropped when goddamn Q showed up in the post-credits scene.
Anyway, 10/10 great Star Tracks. Paramount give this goddamn troll his spinoff.
Goddamn what a banger of a season. I am and will continue to be a supporter of the first two seasons of PIC but it would be foolish of me to try and say they did not make missteps. This third season really felt like coming home and came together as a wonderful farewell to the cast.
Also goddamn Terry Matalas, you troll. Janeway was namedropped SO MANY times all season, and the Borg Queen directly references the events of the series finale of Voyager where Janeway dealt a deathblow to the collective that she is still smarting from and despite all that you don't bring Kate Mulgrew in for even a voice cameo. I'm honestly kind of impressed.
Alsoalso goddamn Terry Matalas, you troll. Cutting away right before Seven says the line. I guess we'll have to wait for your series to be greenlit to find out what her captainy catchphrase will be.
Alsoalsoalso goddamn Terry Matalas, you troll. When Guinan was namedropped as being literally offscreen I assumed that officially put a cap on any of the season 2 cameos showing up in season 3, and the episode was winding down so my guard was totally dropped when goddamn Q showed up in the post-credits scene.
Anyway, 10/10 great Star Tracks. Paramount give this goddamn troll his spinoff.
Matalas said in an interview yesterday that he wanted to bring Janeway back for Seven's promotion, and a bunch of other ideas. But his line producer told him no and that a lot of his ideas wouldn't be in budget or feasible for their production schedule. I don't know if that's true or he's just trying to use producer-talk to address fan complaints. But I'm pretty ok with this particular one. Janeway as a character, and Kate Mulgrew as an actress, deserves the spotlight and to be more than a short cameo footnote in someone else's story.
I get that perspective and understand where it comes from. At the same time, I 1) don't actually think those things were counter to idea of who Picard is as a character as you state, and 2) I don't put those decisions squarely at Patrick Stewart's feet either. To elaborate:
1) If you follow the (often flagrantly/blatantly misinformed) RLM school of thought about how "Action Picard" is a fundamental misread of the character, I am of the complete polar opposite mind, and I have receipts.
Jean-Luc Picard starts TNG as this very stoic, very stolid, intensely emotionally guarded, by-the-books Captain. It's his defining feature as a character. He doesn't like kids, he's awkward with women, but he's super good at his job. As we learn through the series, via his own testimony and appraisal of his youth, he was very much a completely different man some 30-40 years prior. He was brash, reckless, a skirt-chaser, extremely athletic, daredevil, etc. It's a pretty consistent throughput theme in TNG that Picard is now an older, wiser man who changed because of a lot of mistakes and loss in his past - getting stabbed in the heart by a Nausicaan; losing his best friend Jack; losing his first command. And at the same time, the show also essentially explores how that change was an over-correction. He begins warming up to his subordinates and begins treating them like peers, and then friends, and then family as the show goes on. He gains a warmth and friendliness when dealing with other people, particularly children. He opens up to romantic trysts in ways he was incapable of early in the show. And as the show goes on he begins going on more away missions, disobeying orders, and caries out increasingly daring and physical missions. IMO TNG with respect to Jean-Luc is fairly subtlety, the story of a guy who is recovering from a midlife crisis, rehabilitating himself by reconnecting with others and getting more in touch with a lot of his core personality that he had denied himself of. By the time of the TNG films, as a character he'd grown much more comfortable with his crew to the point where he's allowing himself to indulge yet again in the kinds of things he would have enjoyed as a young man like bouncing about on a dune-buggy.
2) I'm sure Patrick had input on Action Picard scenes, but at the end of the day, those movies were just that - movies. Theatrical products intended to make as much money at the box office, targeting a general audience that doesn't necessarily care about Star Trek or enjoy it on the level as you and I. And even then, I remember being a kid/teen in the 90s, and there was this unspoken expectation among most fans that when we went to the theater to watch a Star Trek movie, we wanted to see a "Movie" with a capital M -- and not a glorified TV episode. We can, after all, just go watch Star Trek at home. We're going out of our way to the theater, and spending premium money to watch a film, we want to see things and experience things that wouldn't be possible on the small screen. These expectations are, I think, probably way more responsible than one of your actors saying, "let's do something fun please." Because the studio has to write off on things, and open their wallets to make this stuff. And the producers have to do the balancing act of pleasing the suits and giving them what they want while trying to make a commercially viable product that won't tick off the fans. People wanted action in their Star Trek movies. Action Picard is kind of the natural outcome of all of that. You've got this franchise that's seen and supported like a major tentpole at the studio, and they and the fans want something exciting to go watch, but your collection of actors are a bunch of middle aged boomers, staring down father time. It's just kind of is what it is, you know? Seems weird to me to lay 'blame' for this idea solely at the feet of the actor when it was a group effort as much as anything can be.
Sprite
(He/Him/His)
FYI, to anyone interested in this sort of conversation, I highly recommend The Fifty Year Mission, an unauthorized oral history of the franchise. If the accounts there are to be believed, Stewart indeed pressed the writers to give Picard more cool stuff to do, which is how you end up with Die Hard in space. Which is fine! It’s good when actors can influence their characters, even if they don’t get the final say.
The Picard in Picard is very much not an action hero, though, which I like. Most of his pivotal moments come from talking.
The Picard in Picard is very much not an action hero, though, which I like. Most of his pivotal moments come from talking.
Sounds like a good read. Added to my wishlist. Thanks!
So I saw a video from IGN (I know) about 'Why Patrick Stewart had to be wrong for Picard to succeed' which, while indulging waaaaaay too much in self-confirmation of their own beliefs, I think is a pretty clear example of this mentality that exists regarding the first two seasons. This almost gleeful way they are torn down, and how this third season is 'proof' that they were right all along. In other words, a lot of things I pretty much hate about modern media discourse. Don't bother watching unless you want to see some goof tooting his own horn, I guess.
But it does give me an excuse to talk about those first seasons again. They are flawed, they don't really succeed with what they clearly were trying to do, but I do think that the basic premise of season 1 was not fundamentally misguided. I absolutely do think you can make a show where the 'trappings' of Star Trek take a backseat that nevertheless focuses on a beloved legacy character and tell a compelling story about said character. You don't NEED the starfleet uniforms, or the catchphrases, or the usual things to make a good show. But unfortunately, while season 1 clearly wanted to tell this more grounded story about Picard away from starfleet the show also just could not help itself. This more grounded story eventually got lost in the weeds of this much larger, frankly bonkers, conspiracy about AI and the remnants of the Romulans and it was all just at odds with the much better story of Picard dealing with his legacy and letting go of grief.
It was also just the second 'nuTrek' series to come about, right after Discovery season 1, and Paramount clearly still did not quite know what worked best for Star Trek in the modern era yet, so much of the season feels a bit scattershot. I still maintain that the heart of season 1, Picard's grief over the loss of Data, works really well. Individual character moments throughout the season are, I think, still stellar bits of acting. And even the big stupid climax at the end with the Romulans and the AI tentacles, and the weird flower ships from synthworld, still give us one really good line from Picard ("The way children learn most things, from example!") as he prepares to sacrifice himself.
Then we had season 2 which did clearly try to learn lessons from the first season but ran into troubles of its own. Namely a big world-interrupting thing called COVID which absolutely affected its scope. I honestly don't think we would have had nearly as much time in the modern day in season 2 if not for that. But it is what it is now I suppose. Season 2 still suffered from some loopy plotting, I think Q's overall plan would have worked better with a second draft. And I especially think we should have gotten an additional scene between Picard and Q in the middle of the series just to help things flow better so the final scene between them feels a bit more earned. I know a lot of Big Youtube Talking Heads absolutely despise the Q-Picard hug in the season finale, and while I disagree with the sentiment I do think it could have been set up a bit better.
Ultimately, with season 3 seeming to be doing gangbusters with folks who both liked and hated the first two seasons of Picard, and getting seemingly universal praise, it's my hope that fantastic troll Terry Matalas gets his spin-off series. I'd love to see more Trek stories in this era. But more than that, I'd love to see some plot threads from the first two seasons of PIC that were seemingly dropped for season 3 picked back up. I'd love to see Elnor brought aboard on the crew of this possible new series (it is pretty human heavy after all), I'd love to see the plot thread of the Jurati-borg collective picked back up and expanded upon. Hell I want Soji brought back to do literally anything, especially now that we have Data again, that's a meeting that NEEDS to happen. There's a lot of possibilities leftover from the first two seasons and I hope future Star Trek projects doesn't just ignore them all because of some loud people online who seem to have some stupid vendetta against them.
But it does give me an excuse to talk about those first seasons again. They are flawed, they don't really succeed with what they clearly were trying to do, but I do think that the basic premise of season 1 was not fundamentally misguided. I absolutely do think you can make a show where the 'trappings' of Star Trek take a backseat that nevertheless focuses on a beloved legacy character and tell a compelling story about said character. You don't NEED the starfleet uniforms, or the catchphrases, or the usual things to make a good show. But unfortunately, while season 1 clearly wanted to tell this more grounded story about Picard away from starfleet the show also just could not help itself. This more grounded story eventually got lost in the weeds of this much larger, frankly bonkers, conspiracy about AI and the remnants of the Romulans and it was all just at odds with the much better story of Picard dealing with his legacy and letting go of grief.
It was also just the second 'nuTrek' series to come about, right after Discovery season 1, and Paramount clearly still did not quite know what worked best for Star Trek in the modern era yet, so much of the season feels a bit scattershot. I still maintain that the heart of season 1, Picard's grief over the loss of Data, works really well. Individual character moments throughout the season are, I think, still stellar bits of acting. And even the big stupid climax at the end with the Romulans and the AI tentacles, and the weird flower ships from synthworld, still give us one really good line from Picard ("The way children learn most things, from example!") as he prepares to sacrifice himself.
Then we had season 2 which did clearly try to learn lessons from the first season but ran into troubles of its own. Namely a big world-interrupting thing called COVID which absolutely affected its scope. I honestly don't think we would have had nearly as much time in the modern day in season 2 if not for that. But it is what it is now I suppose. Season 2 still suffered from some loopy plotting, I think Q's overall plan would have worked better with a second draft. And I especially think we should have gotten an additional scene between Picard and Q in the middle of the series just to help things flow better so the final scene between them feels a bit more earned. I know a lot of Big Youtube Talking Heads absolutely despise the Q-Picard hug in the season finale, and while I disagree with the sentiment I do think it could have been set up a bit better.
Ultimately, with season 3 seeming to be doing gangbusters with folks who both liked and hated the first two seasons of Picard, and getting seemingly universal praise, it's my hope that fantastic troll Terry Matalas gets his spin-off series. I'd love to see more Trek stories in this era. But more than that, I'd love to see some plot threads from the first two seasons of PIC that were seemingly dropped for season 3 picked back up. I'd love to see Elnor brought aboard on the crew of this possible new series (it is pretty human heavy after all), I'd love to see the plot thread of the Jurati-borg collective picked back up and expanded upon. Hell I want Soji brought back to do literally anything, especially now that we have Data again, that's a meeting that NEEDS to happen. There's a lot of possibilities leftover from the first two seasons and I hope future Star Trek projects doesn't just ignore them all because of some loud people online who seem to have some stupid vendetta against them.
FelixSH
(He/Him)
I know, I should watch these videos myself to learn, but I honestly don't want to torment me with this nonsense. Why do people have a problem with that? Do they think Picard should never stop being angry at Q, or what? I really don't understand. I loved it.
Also, nice writeup. I really need to rewatch that whole thing.
I do hope future series take some of the better ideas from Picard and flesh them out in a way Picard wasn't capable of doing. The Qowat Milat is a great example, as is honestly most of Chabon's Romulan lore - These are ideas that can be made great, given a good writing team and perhaps a move away from the season-long story arc format that hasn't worked great for Disco or Picard.
A few good stand-alone stories with any of these Picard threads - Jurati's Borg, the Qowat Milat, the Romulan Free State, the Federation's fall into Fox News / Section 31 conservative ideology, maybe even a final conflict against Section 31 as an idea - would be perfect material for Star Trek Legacy.
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Agreed on pretty much all counts. Chabon is an incredible novelist and thinker. I think it was probably a poor idea to give him the reigns of running a TV show which was so far out of his skillset and comfort zone. In a different future, they probably would have had him write out all this lore stuff and an outline or novelization version of what happened in S1, and then let talented screenwriters adapt all those ideas into a TV show instead.
Captain Shaw was Seven of Nine's Roy Focker and I'm totally ok with that/happy with how that worked out.
Overall wasn't nuts about this show, but I'm glad to see there were a lot of people that enjoyed it.
I'm gonna put my wall o' gripes under a spoiler block here.
In general, I think the cast did great work across the series, despite really rough material, and it can't be understated how far a good actor to elevate a character. We've seen it a lot in Discovery, and the same power-of-charisma was on display through every season of Picard.
I'm gonna put my wall o' gripes under a spoiler block here.
In general, I think the cast did great work across the series, despite really rough material, and it can't be understated how far a good actor to elevate a character. We've seen it a lot in Discovery, and the same power-of-charisma was on display through every season of Picard.
I think overall, just a lot of the story didn't hit, and it really has to make sense story-wise for me to feel something. By contrast, the recent ending to His Dark Materials - a 3 season show - had me completely sobbing, because lord, that show earns it.
Picard did have a lot of good ideas - Hugh rehabilitating the XBs is something I loved, a refugee crisis with the Romulans was perfect for Jean Luc, Riker and Troi's losing a son was perfect for Frakes and Sirtis - and though they weren't done well, I was happy to see them, and hope to see some of them followed up later.
Bleak Future for the Federation
There’s this continuing throughline to all Picard - particularly S1 and S3 - about like, how the Federation is completely unwilling and/or unable to do good in the galaxy, and it’s up to rogue groups like the ex-borg Fenris Rangers or Section 31 or even medical supply/arms sellers (like Beverly) to make any difference out there.
2400 Earth is 2023 America, right down to it operating and condoning an ICE-like secret agency that is accountable to nobody. Lord almighty, that is a bleak place to put Star Trek. I caulk this up to this, in essence, being a CBS drama that isn't really about Star Trek, it's a vehicle for Patrick Stewart to explore a tortured character who was maybe meant to be in the modern era, and having that idea sorta awkwardly wrapped in Star Trek.
The part that really drives me up the wall with this is that like, every other Trek show, even the good ones, all now have to operate under the lore that, no matter what kind of universe they build in Lower Decks or SWN, it’s all doomed to come apart in the 20 or so years between LD and Picard, as the Federation collapses into ignornace and fear and conservative isolationism. Feels bad!
Villains Want Revenge
Picard and Discovery have been operating off the formula that you always need a villain to drive the action of a story, no exceptions. That villain has to die or be completely defeated by the end for the heroes to succeed. I think, in both DS9, TNG, and other sci-fi shows I've enjoyed like Babylon 5, there aren't clear-cut, mustache-twirling villains that are the main boss monster for each story. There are certainly antagonists - Gul Dukat is a great example of a Trek villain, a banal, fascistic strongman politician who the cast must work with and work against time and time again, just like in real-life politics.
As much as it would rule to blow Ted Cruz up with a photon torpedo, it's not going to unravel the entire conservative death cult we have today. It's just boring and pointless for a usually heady series like Trek to pretend that having Seven of Nine shove Rizzo off of a ledge to her death, or big dogging Commodore Oh into running away with a big warship fleet, solves any actual problem in this series, or would satisfy anyone.
Kill Your Enemies, Win the Day
The stories in each season of Picard has been really mind-numbing shlock, and since Trek is a series you tend to come to for the story, that sucks.
The first season had some kind of promise with the Romulan factions possibly going somewhere interesting, or the synth factions going somewhere interesting, but instead, the Romulans were, once again, the bad guys, and the Federation was in fact shown to be 100% justified in abandoning their humanitarian mission after the Mars attack, because the Romulans are indeed always scheming to destroy the Federation and were responsible for the attack.
Now, a better show would've shown some internal politics to the Romulans and possibly expanded on the difference between the Romulan Free State and the Tal Shiar (are they the same organization, for example? Using Star Trek Online lore doesn't count), but Picard got pulled down two separate rabbit holes and lost the plot completely. Anyways, the Romulans are revealed to be scheming, a Federation fleet shows up to show them that having a massive standing military is great because you're always going to need it to fend off the latest fate-of-the-universe existential threat, and we come away from this season with the lesson being "always have a gigantic military" and "don't trust the refugees".
As a side note, I can imagine a vastly better version of Picard that is just about Jean Luc leading the effort to protect and resettle the refugees during the Romulan supernova crisis. It would've taken everything he has learned, every relationship he has built up, to navigate this political hellscape, establish alliances, fend off rivals coming to strike the Romulans while they're down... it would be a perfect story for this series to explore.
Season 2 of course was about how Q wanted to mend Picard's unresolved issues with his mother, so he created a vast, doomed alternate universe, where thousands of years of suffering occurred, then were blinked out of existence. I think we're supposed to imagine this as not having any weight or not being "real", which, if that's true, makes it just not seem like a plausible threat to the Trek universe. About halfway through the season, we're introduced to Brent Spiner's character, who is a mustache-twirling bad guy that tries to kill an innocent woman so he can be famous in the far future, long after his death. When they defeat him, the driving action of the season is resolved.
Season 3 was about changelings justifiably wanting revenge for being tortured by Starfleet at Starfleet Intelligence's Federation-sanctioned black site. Picard and Beverly then try to execute their prisoner (as Raffi and Worf did earlier), which sorta makes you realize that, yeah, the Federation are pretty evil in this. All the other races should indeed fear them, as they do indeed keep a vault of all the worst, most illegal weapons they've ever encountered, presumably to refine them into weapons and deploy them upon their rivals. This was the stated purpose for the changelings they were experimenting on, and I had to image the purpose of rebuilding Data.
Anyways, Vadic is killed, the changelings are all killed, solving that war crime and making it so nothing is needed to be done to account for or address this great sin of the past. We are then introduced to a second villain in the final two episodes - the Borg Queen - who is at her weakest, is desperately lashing out in revenge for the second biological weapon the Federation has deployed on their enemies. I actually recall that Geordi and Data came up with this same idea back in the ep that introduced Hugh, and Picard decided it was immoral, and did not use it. But! This war crime is put before Picard this season, and he proceeds to blow up the Queen and all remaining Borg, and that is our solution to all problems this season. The moral is, "you have to kill everyone who is aware of your war crimes".
I dunno, this is all to say that I don't really blame most of the villains for wanting revenge on the Federation, and that's kind of a big problem, especially if you don't intend on having any kind of apology or consequences or restitution for these great sins of the past.
Raffi
Not entirely sure why this character was in the show. I think the actor did a great job, it was just, looking back on her arc, he was disappointed with Picard for S1 and S2 for his fairly insane decision to leave the Romulan refugees on Planet Sad Hooverville to turn himself in to the cops, get stripped of his rank, and get exiled to his vineyard.
This is never really resolved. Picard feels regret, but he feels regret that the Federation has being a Fox News-brained conservative organization that does not assist their allies or fight evil in the universe.
You'd think this tension would be the subject of an episode, or a story arc, but it's just sorta forgotten. Raffi is then moved into a strange, unearned romance with Seven, then into a similarly unearned maternal role with Elnor, then into real reckless action hero stuff for the rest of the S2 and S3. I guess she's supposed to be the take-no-names badass now? Just seems so random.
Picard
While Patrick Stewart does fantastic work as always, his character arc is just so strange. He has never, in TNG or the movies, been a character filled with regets. I think we actually see all of his existing regrets resolved or addressed within TNG and its movies, and he sure as hell doesn't seem like he's got any regrets in Nemesis. So when we see him in Picard just constantly overwhelmed with a lifetime of failures, well, it's very unearned.
The big regret he has is that he let the Romulan refugees down when they got dropped off a Planet Sad Hooverville. He then went to Starfleet HQ and turned himself in, and got stripped of his command, so he couldn't go back and help them. So that was a pretty big fuckup on his part, but, the show doesn't seem to present that as being his mistake. Instead, it presents his mistake as having, I dunno, gone against the will of the Federation? And that's why everyone's mad at him? Or in Raffi's case, she's mad at him for going against the will of the Federation and then leaving the job half-done and getting fired.
Beyond that, what does he have regrets about? There's the unresolved trauma of his mother dying, and then... I think that's it. There's the stuff with Beverly but he wasn't aware of that until the middle of S3.
So, looking into the interviews with Patrick Stewart, he wanted to do a version of this character that was different that we'd seen on TNG, and he wanted to show Picard wracked with doubt and regret.
And we do see that, it's just, they never come up with a good reason as to why he's feeling this, and without the reason, it really does not hit at all, beyond what the actor to push on charisma alone.
The takeaway here is, "please do not let your actors drive the story"
Data Dying 3 Times
Look nobody liked his death in Nemesis, and we all wish he got a better send-off, but every time they revive him, it just makes it hard to take seriously, because he keeps coming back.
He got "clones from the single neuron" in S1, existing on a hard drive, so Picard was able to visit his clone and give him a pretty nice sendoff. While a little shaky, it was nice to undo that bit from Nemesis.
But, he gets brought back again in S3, and they don't really come up with a reason/source for Data's mind this time around, and yeah, the S1 death just doesn't hit at all anymore now that he's back in S3.
I did like the Data/Lore merging though! And it's fun having Brent Spiner back all the same.
Terminator-ass Seven
I am really not sure where the writer's got this idea that Seven of Nine loves to be a take-no-names action hero badass who vaporizes people all the time. Her entire arc in Voyager is about her having BEEN a murderous, dispassionate killing machine for the Borg, and finding her humanity. It was a great story!
I truly cannot believe that this series saw that story arc, and decided the direction Seven should go was "more bitter" and "more gritty" and "more cold", because like, she started cold! That was her thing! And then she warmed up with her found family! It was great!
I don't think this writing team knew how to write someone who was both strong and not bitter or not tortured, and that hurt the character.
Sorta chalk this one up to the writers not knowing much about Seven of Nine as a character.
Shaw
Looooved this actor, loved the potential this great character had. He is a dick and a professional and I just loved watching him on-screen.
Clearly the show never wanted him to be anything more than a grumpy guy that deadnames Seven and gets killed off so she can become captain.
TNG Character Deaths
So, any time a non-core-cast TNG character shows up in Picard, they are killed off. This happens every time. It sucks!
There were pretty bad! Not sure why the show really wanted to do this.
Mass Death Events
Because Picard needs to have big end-of-the-world stakes each season, there's quite a number of high-casualty Wolf 359-type events in this show. It really puts it at odds with this "fun adventure" vibe they keep trying to go with when the tone whips between that and "spectacular numbers of people died here".
For yuks, I came up with some numbers for the mass-death events in this show:
92,143 + 179,000 + 200 + [I’m not counting the doomed universe] + 152,500 is…
GRAND TOTAL DEATH COUNT FOR PICARD: 423,843 DEAD DUE TO PICARD MISADVENTURE
Conclusion
I don't want to imply I didn't love seeing the core cast back in S3, that was wonderful, particularly Dorn and Frakes. I do really wish the show had started there, even if it wasn't what Patrick Stewart wanted.
Seeing the D back was also moving, and though it wasn't really used well (it was turned into the Millenium Falcon for a re-do of the Return of the Jedi scene), it's a cool-ass ship and it was great what they did to bring it back.
Riker, and everything his character did in this show, was a real delight for me, and reminded me how much I love that actor.
So, there were things here I enjoyed, I just feel that overall, this team should not be involved in any future Trek projects, hopefully. I think the best-case-scenario is, like Strange New Worlds, a Star Trek Legacy series could be handed off to a series of writers for episodic stories, with Goldsmith coming in to present an incredibly underwhelming finale episode from time to time. Obviously, we all pray Berman never has anything to do with any Trek series again.
My hope is that the success of Strange New Worlds will show to CBS that there is a big appetite for good, tight, well-told stories that carry an impact. I think if those lessons are taken from SWN's success, Legacy would be in a good place.
Picard did have a lot of good ideas - Hugh rehabilitating the XBs is something I loved, a refugee crisis with the Romulans was perfect for Jean Luc, Riker and Troi's losing a son was perfect for Frakes and Sirtis - and though they weren't done well, I was happy to see them, and hope to see some of them followed up later.
Bleak Future for the Federation
There’s this continuing throughline to all Picard - particularly S1 and S3 - about like, how the Federation is completely unwilling and/or unable to do good in the galaxy, and it’s up to rogue groups like the ex-borg Fenris Rangers or Section 31 or even medical supply/arms sellers (like Beverly) to make any difference out there.
2400 Earth is 2023 America, right down to it operating and condoning an ICE-like secret agency that is accountable to nobody. Lord almighty, that is a bleak place to put Star Trek. I caulk this up to this, in essence, being a CBS drama that isn't really about Star Trek, it's a vehicle for Patrick Stewart to explore a tortured character who was maybe meant to be in the modern era, and having that idea sorta awkwardly wrapped in Star Trek.
The part that really drives me up the wall with this is that like, every other Trek show, even the good ones, all now have to operate under the lore that, no matter what kind of universe they build in Lower Decks or SWN, it’s all doomed to come apart in the 20 or so years between LD and Picard, as the Federation collapses into ignornace and fear and conservative isolationism. Feels bad!
Villains Want Revenge
Picard and Discovery have been operating off the formula that you always need a villain to drive the action of a story, no exceptions. That villain has to die or be completely defeated by the end for the heroes to succeed. I think, in both DS9, TNG, and other sci-fi shows I've enjoyed like Babylon 5, there aren't clear-cut, mustache-twirling villains that are the main boss monster for each story. There are certainly antagonists - Gul Dukat is a great example of a Trek villain, a banal, fascistic strongman politician who the cast must work with and work against time and time again, just like in real-life politics.
As much as it would rule to blow Ted Cruz up with a photon torpedo, it's not going to unravel the entire conservative death cult we have today. It's just boring and pointless for a usually heady series like Trek to pretend that having Seven of Nine shove Rizzo off of a ledge to her death, or big dogging Commodore Oh into running away with a big warship fleet, solves any actual problem in this series, or would satisfy anyone.
Kill Your Enemies, Win the Day
The stories in each season of Picard has been really mind-numbing shlock, and since Trek is a series you tend to come to for the story, that sucks.
The first season had some kind of promise with the Romulan factions possibly going somewhere interesting, or the synth factions going somewhere interesting, but instead, the Romulans were, once again, the bad guys, and the Federation was in fact shown to be 100% justified in abandoning their humanitarian mission after the Mars attack, because the Romulans are indeed always scheming to destroy the Federation and were responsible for the attack.
Now, a better show would've shown some internal politics to the Romulans and possibly expanded on the difference between the Romulan Free State and the Tal Shiar (are they the same organization, for example? Using Star Trek Online lore doesn't count), but Picard got pulled down two separate rabbit holes and lost the plot completely. Anyways, the Romulans are revealed to be scheming, a Federation fleet shows up to show them that having a massive standing military is great because you're always going to need it to fend off the latest fate-of-the-universe existential threat, and we come away from this season with the lesson being "always have a gigantic military" and "don't trust the refugees".
As a side note, I can imagine a vastly better version of Picard that is just about Jean Luc leading the effort to protect and resettle the refugees during the Romulan supernova crisis. It would've taken everything he has learned, every relationship he has built up, to navigate this political hellscape, establish alliances, fend off rivals coming to strike the Romulans while they're down... it would be a perfect story for this series to explore.
Season 2 of course was about how Q wanted to mend Picard's unresolved issues with his mother, so he created a vast, doomed alternate universe, where thousands of years of suffering occurred, then were blinked out of existence. I think we're supposed to imagine this as not having any weight or not being "real", which, if that's true, makes it just not seem like a plausible threat to the Trek universe. About halfway through the season, we're introduced to Brent Spiner's character, who is a mustache-twirling bad guy that tries to kill an innocent woman so he can be famous in the far future, long after his death. When they defeat him, the driving action of the season is resolved.
Season 3 was about changelings justifiably wanting revenge for being tortured by Starfleet at Starfleet Intelligence's Federation-sanctioned black site. Picard and Beverly then try to execute their prisoner (as Raffi and Worf did earlier), which sorta makes you realize that, yeah, the Federation are pretty evil in this. All the other races should indeed fear them, as they do indeed keep a vault of all the worst, most illegal weapons they've ever encountered, presumably to refine them into weapons and deploy them upon their rivals. This was the stated purpose for the changelings they were experimenting on, and I had to image the purpose of rebuilding Data.
Anyways, Vadic is killed, the changelings are all killed, solving that war crime and making it so nothing is needed to be done to account for or address this great sin of the past. We are then introduced to a second villain in the final two episodes - the Borg Queen - who is at her weakest, is desperately lashing out in revenge for the second biological weapon the Federation has deployed on their enemies. I actually recall that Geordi and Data came up with this same idea back in the ep that introduced Hugh, and Picard decided it was immoral, and did not use it. But! This war crime is put before Picard this season, and he proceeds to blow up the Queen and all remaining Borg, and that is our solution to all problems this season. The moral is, "you have to kill everyone who is aware of your war crimes".
I dunno, this is all to say that I don't really blame most of the villains for wanting revenge on the Federation, and that's kind of a big problem, especially if you don't intend on having any kind of apology or consequences or restitution for these great sins of the past.
Raffi
Not entirely sure why this character was in the show. I think the actor did a great job, it was just, looking back on her arc, he was disappointed with Picard for S1 and S2 for his fairly insane decision to leave the Romulan refugees on Planet Sad Hooverville to turn himself in to the cops, get stripped of his rank, and get exiled to his vineyard.
This is never really resolved. Picard feels regret, but he feels regret that the Federation has being a Fox News-brained conservative organization that does not assist their allies or fight evil in the universe.
You'd think this tension would be the subject of an episode, or a story arc, but it's just sorta forgotten. Raffi is then moved into a strange, unearned romance with Seven, then into a similarly unearned maternal role with Elnor, then into real reckless action hero stuff for the rest of the S2 and S3. I guess she's supposed to be the take-no-names badass now? Just seems so random.
Picard
While Patrick Stewart does fantastic work as always, his character arc is just so strange. He has never, in TNG or the movies, been a character filled with regets. I think we actually see all of his existing regrets resolved or addressed within TNG and its movies, and he sure as hell doesn't seem like he's got any regrets in Nemesis. So when we see him in Picard just constantly overwhelmed with a lifetime of failures, well, it's very unearned.
The big regret he has is that he let the Romulan refugees down when they got dropped off a Planet Sad Hooverville. He then went to Starfleet HQ and turned himself in, and got stripped of his command, so he couldn't go back and help them. So that was a pretty big fuckup on his part, but, the show doesn't seem to present that as being his mistake. Instead, it presents his mistake as having, I dunno, gone against the will of the Federation? And that's why everyone's mad at him? Or in Raffi's case, she's mad at him for going against the will of the Federation and then leaving the job half-done and getting fired.
Beyond that, what does he have regrets about? There's the unresolved trauma of his mother dying, and then... I think that's it. There's the stuff with Beverly but he wasn't aware of that until the middle of S3.
So, looking into the interviews with Patrick Stewart, he wanted to do a version of this character that was different that we'd seen on TNG, and he wanted to show Picard wracked with doubt and regret.
And we do see that, it's just, they never come up with a good reason as to why he's feeling this, and without the reason, it really does not hit at all, beyond what the actor to push on charisma alone.
The takeaway here is, "please do not let your actors drive the story"
Data Dying 3 Times
Look nobody liked his death in Nemesis, and we all wish he got a better send-off, but every time they revive him, it just makes it hard to take seriously, because he keeps coming back.
He got "clones from the single neuron" in S1, existing on a hard drive, so Picard was able to visit his clone and give him a pretty nice sendoff. While a little shaky, it was nice to undo that bit from Nemesis.
But, he gets brought back again in S3, and they don't really come up with a reason/source for Data's mind this time around, and yeah, the S1 death just doesn't hit at all anymore now that he's back in S3.
I did like the Data/Lore merging though! And it's fun having Brent Spiner back all the same.
Terminator-ass Seven
I am really not sure where the writer's got this idea that Seven of Nine loves to be a take-no-names action hero badass who vaporizes people all the time. Her entire arc in Voyager is about her having BEEN a murderous, dispassionate killing machine for the Borg, and finding her humanity. It was a great story!
I truly cannot believe that this series saw that story arc, and decided the direction Seven should go was "more bitter" and "more gritty" and "more cold", because like, she started cold! That was her thing! And then she warmed up with her found family! It was great!
I don't think this writing team knew how to write someone who was both strong and not bitter or not tortured, and that hurt the character.
Sorta chalk this one up to the writers not knowing much about Seven of Nine as a character.
Shaw
Looooved this actor, loved the potential this great character had. He is a dick and a professional and I just loved watching him on-screen.
Clearly the show never wanted him to be anything more than a grumpy guy that deadnames Seven and gets killed off so she can become captain.
TNG Character Deaths
So, any time a non-core-cast TNG character shows up in Picard, they are killed off. This happens every time. It sucks!
Maddox: Died screaming when he lover, Jurati, shut off the machine that would've saved his life.
Icheb: Famously tortured to death by having his eyeball torn out of his skull, and all borg parts peel from his body, in a gruesome cold open to an ep where Patrick Stewart puts on an eyepatch and does a goofy french accent for yuks.
Hugh: Tortured to death by Narissa, a character the show forgot was the main villain. Hugh was forced to watch his fellow XBs first executed one by one before his eyes, then collectively vented into space, ensuring none of the work he struggled for all this time amounted to anything. Thankfully, Seven had an ADRed-in line after killing Narissa that said "this is for Hugh".
Q: Died for reasons that were never explained, which made it hard to feel anything but confused when he's spending his last moments with Picard. But! Then he came back, and he was old there, so it wasn't him from before his Picard adventure, so I guess he didn't die? Alright, good story with that "I'm dying" thing in S2.
Ro: Ultimately forced to suicide bomb her own ship after having it overrun with changelings. This was caused by the Federation allowing Section 31 to perform war crimes on the changelings during the war, and then never doing anything to address it, instead covering it up until it killed Ro and like half a million people during Picard.
Shelby: Shot twice in her gut by her own bridge crew, confused and shocked.
There were pretty bad! Not sure why the show really wanted to do this.
Mass Death Events
Because Picard needs to have big end-of-the-world stakes each season, there's quite a number of high-casualty Wolf 359-type events in this show. It really puts it at odds with this "fun adventure" vibe they keep trying to go with when the tone whips between that and "spectacular numbers of people died here".
For yuks, I came up with some numbers for the mass-death events in this show:
Mars and the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards: 92,143 dead as the Romulans blow up their own rescue fleet and activate all androids to bomb (?) the planet and wipe out the shipyards.
Cause: The Romulans have an ancient cult that discovered an ancient artifact called the Admonition that drove them to suicide if they ever touched it. They saw visions of synthetics, so they decided to kill all synthetics. As a result, apparently, the Romulans never use AI. The use of Maddox’s synths on Mars made them attack.
In truth, the artifact was meant for artificial minds, and it described an ancient synthetic civilization 1 that could summon a Reaper from Mass Effect will come through a portal and wipe out all organic life. So, the Roms were kind of right! The Reapers get summoned but are then immediately sent away so it’s not a big deal.
The Venting of the XB Borg Cube: 179,000 XBs died when their cube was intentionally opened to the cold void of space.
So there was this odd sub-plot where a borg cube had assimilated a member of the Romulan cult that had seen the visions, and “the weight of their despair” caused the “matrix to collapse,” leading to an inert borg cube. The Romulans they started recovering the borg, now called XBs for Ex-Borg. This project was helmed by Hugh.
Cause: Seven of Nine decided to sneak onto the borg cube, plug herself into the “Queen Chamber” where the queen would typically be, and this caused a bunch of fail-safes to kick in to stop the borg cube from ever re-activating. This killed like… everybody that show has introduced us to up until that point. They later flew this ship into a planet so I don’t actually know why they needed to cube at all.
The Creation and Destruction of the Confederacy Universe: Trillions of lives are brought into being and then snuffed out as a disasterous fascistic timeline is created and then ended.
Cause: Q makes a doomed alternate universe in order to get Picard to deal with the time his mom hung herself. I'm gonna take this out of the equation because Q might've already done this that one time he showed Picard an alternate universe where he didn't get stabbed in the heart.
Changeling Infiltration: Hundreds killed through sabotage of the transporters and through replacement. I’m gonna say 200.
Cause: During the Dominion War, Starfleet let Section 31 perform grisly torture experiments on the changelings in order to make “the perfect weapon” that would be “deployed onto the planets of our enemies”.
Frontier Day Uprising: For the starbase, that’s 15,000 officers and 35,000 civilians. For the fleet, it’s EVERYONE ON EVERY SHIP ABOVE THE AGE OF 25.
So that’s like, there’s 250ish ships in that big wide shot they have (“The entire fleet”), and each ship has like, roughly, 820 crew members on it (using the Sovereign-class as a baseline), so that’s 205,000 people, which I’ll cut in half, based on the fact that age doesn’t seem to really matter much in the Federation ships we’ve seen before, so let’s say that there are 102,500 over-25 Olds on these ships.
That would put us at 152,500 total killed during this season finale.
92,143 + 179,000 + 200 + [I’m not counting the doomed universe] + 152,500 is…
GRAND TOTAL DEATH COUNT FOR PICARD: 423,843 DEAD DUE TO PICARD MISADVENTURE
Conclusion
I don't want to imply I didn't love seeing the core cast back in S3, that was wonderful, particularly Dorn and Frakes. I do really wish the show had started there, even if it wasn't what Patrick Stewart wanted.
Seeing the D back was also moving, and though it wasn't really used well (it was turned into the Millenium Falcon for a re-do of the Return of the Jedi scene), it's a cool-ass ship and it was great what they did to bring it back.
Riker, and everything his character did in this show, was a real delight for me, and reminded me how much I love that actor.
So, there were things here I enjoyed, I just feel that overall, this team should not be involved in any future Trek projects, hopefully. I think the best-case-scenario is, like Strange New Worlds, a Star Trek Legacy series could be handed off to a series of writers for episodic stories, with Goldsmith coming in to present an incredibly underwhelming finale episode from time to time. Obviously, we all pray Berman never has anything to do with any Trek series again.
My hope is that the success of Strange New Worlds will show to CBS that there is a big appetite for good, tight, well-told stories that carry an impact. I think if those lessons are taken from SWN's success, Legacy would be in a good place.
It's A Macross reference, but more broadly, he's the flawed, mentor character that's a bit of an ass but also likable and has a good core. And he dies to both signify to the audience that nobody in the story is safe/the stakes are high, but also as motivation for the main character as they're now suddenly thrust into carrying on their mantle/responsibilities. Obi-Wan Kenobi was a more wholesome version of this in Star Wars to Luke. Imagine if Ben had a bit more Han Solo in him.
I also don't really consider it cheap. He's a great character and had good character development, but to what end? He's not a main character here in this story, he's an auxiliary to Seven. The way his story ended in Season 3 I thought was thematically pretty strong. We get this impression of him as a man at the beginning who is overly cautious to the point of perhaps being cowardly and self-interested. We learn it's more about how he's processed his trauma as a young officer, and how his leadership style is more about trying to avoid putting the people in his care into the position he was foisted into. At the beginning of S3 he seems like this impediment to Seven's career where his style of leadership is going to cause her to washout of the service. At the end however we see him step up to the plate and be able to do for his subordinates what that one officer did for him 30 years before. And rather than being the cause of Seven washing out, he's the reason for Seven getting a promotion. He leaves his ship in her care because he knows it's now in the best hands and he faces his fate with a lot of courage and composure. It's honestly a pretty beautiful and thematically rich storyline. That it hurts because we're emotionally attached to the character and want to see more of him, just kinda tells me how successful his character arc was.
*quietly applauds*
A joy to read that essay; thank you from the bottom of my hopeful-future Star Trek fan heart.