After 18 years, Jean-Luc Picard returns: retired and relatively powerless, but willing to do what needs to be done and whatever it takes. Star Trek: Picard is a journey back, but also a modern story.
The trailer for the series promised plenty of melancholy, hiking across vineyards, reflecting on the past. But Star Trek: Picard is not 2001 – a Space Odyssey (and neither is Star Trek: The Movie). The series plays with Picard’s displeasure at living here because he has never really felt at home in his family’s estate. He is drawn into space. Out into a galaxy where there is still something to discover. Into an adventure that is action-packed, even if you can already see that you had to do a little trick when it comes to hand-to-hand, as Patrick Stewart is getting on in years.
Leading actor Patrick Stewart was only available for the Star Trek: Picard series if the character was developed further. He just didn’t want to repeat what he had done in seven seasons Star Trek: The Next Generation and four films. But with that he ran open doors for Alex Kurtzman, who developed the series with Pulitzer Prize winners Michael Chabon, Kirsten Beyer and Akiva Goldsman. Because Star Trek: Picard should do what science fiction has always done best: reflect the present through a future story.
The Story
It’s been 18 years since Patrick Stewart last played Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: Nemesis. The new series begins 20 years after the events of the film. The world has changed – with ours, too, that of Star Trek.
The stories of the next generation still told of a utopia, of tolerance and humanism, of being together instead of facing each other. Star Trek: The Next Generation has always been the dream, the ideal state of what mankind can achieve and create. This world got broken with the ninth movie Star Trek: The Uprising when Picard and his crew had to face the Starfleet, because conspirators wanted to use force to relocate a people in order to enjoy a fountain of youth. Now everything is definitely different.
Brexit and Trump have also left their mark on Star Trek. The Federation seals itself off, it forgets what values it is based on, it is hardly recognizable. Jean-Luc Picard struggles with this, but also with the viewer – and in our world, the actor Patrick Stewart. “The European Union always felt like we were heading towards our own version of the United Federation of Planets at some point in the future. I am angry, disappointed and ashamed of my country’s decision to leave the Union,” said Stewart in an interview with the Weekend Edition Sunday.
The Federation has become isolationist in Star Trek: Picard. An electrifying sentence because it is so very contrary to what Gene Roddenberry’s vision for the future has been. Star Trek: Picard shows that nothing stays the same forever. The Federation is now a mirror and a distorted image of a world that has gotten out of joint. The series is no longer pure escapism. Rather, she holds her finger directly on the wound.
Picard stands out from Star Trek: The Next Generation in virtually every way. At that time, serial television was primarily a collection of self-contained stories, but now there is an action that develops over ten episodes.
It is 2399. Jean-Luc Picard is a retired admiral. He runs his family’s winery. He left Starfleet because he believed that it had betrayed its principles. But already in the first episode he wants to return to space. He wants to get to the bottom of a mystery related to data and a young woman named Dahi, who plays an important role in the new series.
Tonally and formally, the new series is very different from Next Generation. The look is reminiscent of the classic series, but has also evolved. The San Francisco of the future looks even more futuristic than in the older films and series – the technological progress has not stopped in the world of Star Trek. The Golden Gate Bridge is a relic of the past, the gigantic buildings appear as if Apple had taken over the world. Everything is different, but somehow familiar.
We will see known characters again
Therefore, there is also a nostalgic feeling when you grew up with Picard and Co. The winery, but also Picard’s archive with the mementos of a lifetime are reminiscent of the good old days. And there is a reunion with Brent Spiner as Data in the first episode.
You notice that the actor has just got older, even if the Android body shouldn’t actually age. But the finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation showed more than 25 years ago that Data is trying to mimic aging. It is always nice to see him interacting with Patrick Stewart. The first scene could bring tears to some fans.
In the course of the series you will also see other familiar faces. Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis will be there as William Riker and Deanna Troi and Jeri Ryan will play Seven of Nine again.
We have already seen the first three episodes and can say one thing: The story is big. The creators take some time to bring the aged Picard closer to the viewer, but also to show what the world around him now looks like. Much is still unclear, as the past 20 years have been an uncharted territory for fans.
All of this is interesting from the start, however, since conspiracies are also used here and a mystery is built up around the figure of the synthetic woman Dahj and her sister. The first episodes of the series establish exciting questions that also have to do with what has changed in the Federation, but also with the remnants of the Romulan Empire. At the end of the third episode, it starts, so to speak, not on a Federation ship, but on an impressive spaceship. Picard gives the order he had heard dozens of times before: “Energy!”
The Saga continues…
The first episode of the new series can be seen on Amazon in Germany from January 24, 2020, the further episodes will be published every week. And it goes on. The advent of numerous streaming services has spurred Star Trek on, as the franchise is one of the extra pounds that CBS-Viacom can use. Accordingly, the author and producer Alex Kurtzman was given the task of continuously expanding the world of Star Trek. Star Trek: Discovery is produced for the streaming service CBS All Access and runs on Netflix in Germany. Various other series are in production, including the cartoon format Star Trek: Lower Decks and – not yet officially confirmed, but strongly implied – a series around Captain Christopher Pike and Spock, both of whom are part of the second season of Star Trek: Discovery.
The future is also planned for Star Trek: Picard: Even before Star Trek: Picard made its US debut at CBS All Access and the rest of the world at Amazon, it was announced that a second season had been approved and was already being prepared. According to the Hollywood reporter, the third season, which is to be filmed together with the second, is already being worked on. Certainly not a bad idea, as Patrick Stewart is no longer the youngest at 79.
Did you guys watch it already? Then please share your opinion in the comment section below 🙂