People have said that this is the next chapter of Picard’s life, but honestly if feels
more like a whole new book. Hi, Ric here with my review and retcons on Star Trek Picard,
now streaming on Amazon Prime and CBS All Access for those within the States.
I’ll give a spoiler warning before we get to them, so for now, there’s no spoilers.
To explain my opening statement a bit more, where this series picks up, some 20 years
after Star Trek Nemesis, a lot has happened to Picard, most of it referenced and seen
in flashbacks. It’s these events that happened in the interim years that have changed him
so, but not so drastically that he is unrecognizable as the Captain we once knew. Patrick Stewart
has said that he’s turned down returning to the role before as people just wanted him
as a cameo with no real change to his character, so I went in with the assumption that this
was not going to be “Star Trek The Next Generation Season 8”. And no, no it is not,
although the first few scenes do create a direct link to the show to ease in the TNG
era to this new series. The first act has this air of melancholy around
it, from the opening score to the past-drenched dreams of Picard and we have a juxtaposition
of his idle lifestyle compared to events unfolding elsewhere on Earth. Fortunatly, this weary
Picard, haunted by past tragedies does not last until the end of the episode as he gets
wound up in events related to the long-ago past of the Enterprise. As the narrative unfolds,
we see him engaging more with the world around him, one that has definitely changed in the
years since his withdrawal. That’s another key theme here. Not only
does Picard say that Starfleet has become more withdrawn than it used to be but he himself
has pulled back to his family villa in France where he’s been writing books on history
to while away the years while time moves on without him. Fortunately, as I mentioned earlier,
he breaks out of his idling and although now clearly a 94 year old Picard, he reignites
that heart of an explorer and poet’s soul that the character always had. So anyone who
was worried about watching a whole series about a despondent Picard I think should be
relieved to see that the story has glossed over those years and although his age has
caught up with him, his spirit is reignited. The inclusion of legacy characters, although
we don’t see that many this episode seems to be done well with characters not merely
being mentioned as an Easter egg for fans to point at and say “I get that! That is
a thing that I know!” Their inclusion so far seems to be integrally tied to the story’s
premise with ample exposition deposited to try to clear up any missing gaps for first
time viewers and hardcore Trek nerds alike. Although there are a few references in the
background that will draw they eye of people in the know.
The way exposition is delivered can feel very much like a bit of an expo-dump at times,
but I didn’t have a hard time following it at all so I guess it did its job and as
this is the first episode, it’s going to have a lot of setup to get out of the way.
Supporting characters are serviceable and like the main man himself, many of these people
are mid-way through their own stories. They’re not just starting out, they’ve had their
own histories and past and they are just now converging on Picard’s. The mystery of who
the young girl that rocks up at his villa is answered rather quickly, but at points
the way its delivered can seem a little rushed, but overall the pacing issues weren’t jarring.
There is a lot of setup at work here with old lore being tied in logically and old plot
threads, some dating back 30 years, being pulled on to weave this new tapestry and I’d
say that if this episode had a weak point, that would be it, it has a lot to convey to
the viewer in a short amount of time. Spoiler talk now and I thought I’d address
these points in a bit of a different way. I thought I’d included a section here about
the show’s new canon and how this retcons previous stories.
First of I’ll point out that the Star Trek TV shows have always had priority over the
other media that springs up around them and to this end, I expected the airing of Picard
to overwrite and replace some areas of continuity that have been established by books, games
and novels. So I thought I’d take a minute at the end of this review to look at the impact
of the new series on the assumed canon. Number One is a very good boy. Sorry, Number
one is the supernova that wiped out Romulus and Remus, as was originally mentioned to
have occurred in the background to the 2009 Star Trek film. This never gave a date nor
point of origin but reversing the information given marked the year as 2387 and the Countdown
prequel comic book established the Hobus system it’s the point of origin, a Romulan system
near the Federation boarder. This date and local was treated as a foundational event
moving forwards with various other projects, including Star Trek Online. Picard gives a
hard confirmation that the supernova occurred in 2386, seemingly a year earlier. What isn’t
mentioned is the name of the system, they only refer to it as a Romulan Sun, not the
Romulus System’s sun. The new date given could have been late 2386 making the discrepancy
only a month or less, or at the start of the year so a timeline amendment may be needed
moving forwards. Not that they would, the whole reason Trek uses stardates is to mask
those sorts of continuity issues to begin with. Althoutgh we may see continuity that
references this event amend their dates and times. Shame I can’t do that for my channel.
Number two. Data’s revival. Likewise in various post-Nemesis stories Lt.Commander
Data was revived in numerous ways. Whether it’s “the Persistence of Memory” Novel
by David Mack which saw Geordi LaForge and Bruce Maddox transfer Data’s memories from
B4 into a new Body, or Q simply bringing him back, Data in Picard remains very much dead.
Also, the aforementioned Countdown and Star Trek Online narratives saw Geordi upgrading
B4’s capacity in his spare time and eventually creating a body which could support Data’s
positronic matrix by 2385. While Bruce Maddox seems to be an important
role in Picard, it’s revealed that matrix was simply too much to for the inferior model
of B4 to support and that after remaining so long in its positronic brain, the matrix
been corrupted and seems to be unrecoverable. However not all is lost as Maddox had a theory
that data’s entire matrix could be reconstituted from a single positronic neuron, like the
ones potentially within then minds of the twins. Personally I don’t think we’re
going to see the reconstruction of Data, but his essence preserved in later models.
Of course the biggest changes are going to be within Picard’s predicted timeline. Well,
so far, the comics prequels to Picard remain very much in line with the show with several
of the characters crossing over into live action. As this series takes place 20 years
after Nemesis, there’s still plenty of room for a variety of ventures and actions to occur
before we face any conflicting issues. In continuity established by books and the path
to 2409, in 2386, Picard retired from Starfleet, which mostly lines up with the show, but in
the former stories he did so to accept the role of Federation Ambassador to Vulcan in
order to continue Spock’s work on reunification between Romulus and Vulcan. This he continued
until 2402 when he fully retired back to LaBarre, France to tend the family villa.
Now the official timeline still has Picard retire around the same time, after making
Admiral, but he does so out of protest, which leads me to the final point I want to mention,
number four, the state of the Federation. With the attack on Mars being a completely
new addition to the storyline, we witness a surprising turn for the utopian Federation,
but one that I think is understandable. Consider that this Federation has, only a decade earlier
been engaged in a war against the Dominion that devastated Starfleet and lost many lives.
Then, an armada of ships was constructed, not to replenish or bolster the Federation,
but to evacuate Romulans who are in danger. Finally an attack on Mars destroys Utopia
Planetia and they’re unable to work out why, I think a faltering Starfleet is understandable.
Slightly disappointing but I get it. So instead they cast a reactionary ban on the development
of Synthetic life, something Humanity also did with Genetics and other experimentation
in the past, and Starfleet withdraws more from the galactic stage to lick its wounds.
Angry at the direction that the Federation is taking, Picard resigned out of protest.
Thing is, by the end of the episode, Picard has realised that his indignation changes
nothing. I don’t mind this view of the Federation as long as there is the notion that it can
be directed back to the right path and I hope Picard’s actions as the series progresses
serves as a wakeup call for the organisation. The Federation’s error is inaction and It’s
okay to hold up a mirror to contemporary issues, but where Star Trek always shone was that
it provided hope for a resolution, even when a solution was not apparent, to at least inspire.
Then again, it’s only the first episode and that would be a hella-lot extra baggage
to drop on it so we’ll have to see where it’s going. Of course, it could just all
be a plot device to keep the Federation out of the picture to add more tension to the
heroes. As for predictions? I haven’t ruled out
the possibility that there is a political or military entity within the Federation that
wanted to manipulate its people into a state that benefits that group or individual and
having Picard out of the picture for so long eliminated him as an obstacle, considering
the sway Picard had within the Federation, let alone Starfleet. They do go out of their
way to emphasis, no one knows why the “synths” as they’re now called, (Fallout 4 anyone?),
attacked so I think someone within the Federation reprogrammed them, a Federation insider is
also hinted at within the Picard comics. Sort of a successful, slower version of what we
saw in DS9’s Homefront when the Dominion War was used as a platform by Admiral Leyton
in an attempt to further militarise Starfleet. Although the twist could be that there was
no insider and the simply fear got the better of Starfleet.
Thanks for watching my review of Star Trek Picard’s pilot episode and I’m curious
to see what you all think. Sufficed to say that I really enjoyed the first episode and
am happy with this continuation of Star Trek so far. Here’s to hoping the rest of the
series follows suit. Thanks again, and goodbye.