TELEVISION REVIEW: Star Trek Picard: Season 1
(Ammonia Avenue - Alan Parsons)
I've been waiting to write this review for weeks now. Oh, sure, I wrote the review of the pilot episode, but that was nine episodes ago! Things have happened since then!
Let's discuss them, shall we?
For starters, you should probably go and read said review of the pilot. It sets up quite a bit as far as this show is concerned and I'm going to try really hard not to rehash anything.
'Picard' had a lot to live up to as Star Trek shows went. He's widely considered to be one of the best, if not THE best captain that has ever commanded the Enterprise, and he's grown on me a lot as the years have passed. I mentioned before, but when the trailers for this show came out, I was sort of terrified that they were going to sacrifice another beloved character and feed their blood to the roots of the Star Trek money tree.
Thankfully, I needn't have worried.
As Star Trek goes, this was a triumph. Yes, there were a few things they could have done better -- you can scroll down to the Spoilers section for that -- and yes, there were some things they could have done a LOT WORSE. As Star Trek goes, however, this is pretty much exactly what I wanted.
'Picard's first season is full of thought, debate, humor, action, fan-service, and ... well, Star Trek. None of it should be spoiled unnecessarily. The pacing was brilliant, the characters were well-developed, and the show was just overall very well done. I cannot wait for season two, especially because there's a very good chance that Guinan will be returning.
Please, PLEASE make it so.
HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!
These are just some of my thoughts about the really GOODO and really BAD parts of Picard. All in all, the good far, far outweighed the bad.
VERY GOOD: Picard dies a good death. Far better than they gave Kirk, to be sure. Fitting for him.
VERY BAD: They didn't let Picard stay dead. Not only had they publicly confirmed season two long before this episode came out so you KNOW he's not staying dead, but you take all of the piss out of the very, VERY good death that you wrote for him. Plus, that plot point with the golem sort of tipped anyone paying even half attention off...
GOOD: Pretty much everything about the Pilot.
GOOD: Pretty much every part of this show with interactions between Picard and Data. The dreams and the epilogue were both heartbreaking, and I cried openly during both. The epilogue in particular just tore me up.
BAD: Soji was an idiot. Full stop, an absolute moron. I cannot believe that they couldn't have thought up a better way for her and Narek to form a bond and move that plot point forward. Just a freaking lump of useless, that one.
GOOD: Pretty much everything with the Riker-Troi clan, and I do mean all of it. Including captain Big Balls Riker showing up in the finale. HOLY SHIT, that was a good moment for me.
GOOD: I know I mentioned the Riker-Troi clan, but I have to give a shout-out to Lulu Wilson's amazing Kestra. That whole episode is...ugh, SO MANY FEELS.
BAD: You...named a character Bjayzl? That's a... choice.
BAD: Can we talk about Sutra, please? Can we talk about how her existence completely throws a lot of what the show is trying to do out the window?
- First, she's an evil android. Let's not fuck about here. She's a bad guy. That's such a betrayal of Data's legacy.
- Second, how the hell do you play fast and loose with the Vulcan Mind-Meld? Don't you need A MIND to do that?! Don't you need to be trained? Need years of experience?! What..the hell?
- Third, Sutra goes from Zero to MURDER, all in the name of releasing Narek to...do what? She wanted to call the uber aliens in to clean house, so all she had to do was leave Narek there to die.
GOOD: Techno-Cthulu!
BAD: Techno-Cthulu. Really?!
GOOD: When Seven becomes an interim Borg Queen!
BAD: The fact that they didn't do more with Seven becoming an interim Borg Queen.
BAD: I love Allison Pill. I love her to death. Unfortunately, her character wasn't written with much more thought than Soji's was.
BAD: What, we don't get any fallout from suddenly realizing that Oh is a Tal Shiar spy?!
GOOD: Picard's house keepers. Oh yes.
BAD: Another Soong? Really?
GOOD: YAY! ANOTHER SOONG!
GOOD: I freakin' loved La Sirena. Awesome ship, awesome design.
VERY GOOD: The character of Chris Rios was amazing, as were all of his holograms.
VERY GOOD: Raffi. Yep.
BAD: Uh...Can we talk about what Jirati does with the eyeball please? Or not. That was no good.
BAD: RIP Hue. Missed opportunity, that one.
GOOD: Elnore was pretty good fun.
There are going to be things to dissect about this show for awhile, methinks. Want to talk about it more? Hit me up in the comments!
I've been waiting to write this review for weeks now. Oh, sure, I wrote the review of the pilot episode, but that was nine episodes ago! Things have happened since then!
Let's discuss them, shall we?
For starters, you should probably go and read said review of the pilot. It sets up quite a bit as far as this show is concerned and I'm going to try really hard not to rehash anything.
'Picard' had a lot to live up to as Star Trek shows went. He's widely considered to be one of the best, if not THE best captain that has ever commanded the Enterprise, and he's grown on me a lot as the years have passed. I mentioned before, but when the trailers for this show came out, I was sort of terrified that they were going to sacrifice another beloved character and feed their blood to the roots of the Star Trek money tree.
Thankfully, I needn't have worried.
As Star Trek goes, this was a triumph. Yes, there were a few things they could have done better -- you can scroll down to the Spoilers section for that -- and yes, there were some things they could have done a LOT WORSE. As Star Trek goes, however, this is pretty much exactly what I wanted.
'Picard's first season is full of thought, debate, humor, action, fan-service, and ... well, Star Trek. None of it should be spoiled unnecessarily. The pacing was brilliant, the characters were well-developed, and the show was just overall very well done. I cannot wait for season two, especially because there's a very good chance that Guinan will be returning.
Please, PLEASE make it so.
HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!
These are just some of my thoughts about the really GOODO and really BAD parts of Picard. All in all, the good far, far outweighed the bad.
VERY GOOD: Picard dies a good death. Far better than they gave Kirk, to be sure. Fitting for him.
VERY BAD: They didn't let Picard stay dead. Not only had they publicly confirmed season two long before this episode came out so you KNOW he's not staying dead, but you take all of the piss out of the very, VERY good death that you wrote for him. Plus, that plot point with the golem sort of tipped anyone paying even half attention off...
GOOD: Pretty much everything about the Pilot.
GOOD: Pretty much every part of this show with interactions between Picard and Data. The dreams and the epilogue were both heartbreaking, and I cried openly during both. The epilogue in particular just tore me up.
BAD: Soji was an idiot. Full stop, an absolute moron. I cannot believe that they couldn't have thought up a better way for her and Narek to form a bond and move that plot point forward. Just a freaking lump of useless, that one.
GOOD: Pretty much everything with the Riker-Troi clan, and I do mean all of it. Including captain Big Balls Riker showing up in the finale. HOLY SHIT, that was a good moment for me.
GOOD: I know I mentioned the Riker-Troi clan, but I have to give a shout-out to Lulu Wilson's amazing Kestra. That whole episode is...ugh, SO MANY FEELS.
BAD: You...named a character Bjayzl? That's a... choice.
BAD: Can we talk about Sutra, please? Can we talk about how her existence completely throws a lot of what the show is trying to do out the window?
- First, she's an evil android. Let's not fuck about here. She's a bad guy. That's such a betrayal of Data's legacy.
- Second, how the hell do you play fast and loose with the Vulcan Mind-Meld? Don't you need A MIND to do that?! Don't you need to be trained? Need years of experience?! What..the hell?
- Third, Sutra goes from Zero to MURDER, all in the name of releasing Narek to...do what? She wanted to call the uber aliens in to clean house, so all she had to do was leave Narek there to die.
GOOD: Techno-Cthulu!
BAD: Techno-Cthulu. Really?!
GOOD: When Seven becomes an interim Borg Queen!
BAD: The fact that they didn't do more with Seven becoming an interim Borg Queen.
BAD: I love Allison Pill. I love her to death. Unfortunately, her character wasn't written with much more thought than Soji's was.
BAD: What, we don't get any fallout from suddenly realizing that Oh is a Tal Shiar spy?!
GOOD: Picard's house keepers. Oh yes.
BAD: Another Soong? Really?
GOOD: YAY! ANOTHER SOONG!
GOOD: I freakin' loved La Sirena. Awesome ship, awesome design.
VERY GOOD: The character of Chris Rios was amazing, as were all of his holograms.
VERY GOOD: Raffi. Yep.
BAD: Uh...Can we talk about what Jirati does with the eyeball please? Or not. That was no good.
BAD: RIP Hue. Missed opportunity, that one.
GOOD: Elnore was pretty good fun.
There are going to be things to dissect about this show for awhile, methinks. Want to talk about it more? Hit me up in the comments!
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