Picard’s Return: Why Star Trek’s 6-decade-long legacy continues to move at warp speed
If you find yourself at Piccadilly Circus station today, you might notice a change of name has taken place: in a stunt organised by TFL’s PR partner, Global Media, the newly-revealed ‘Picardilly’ Circus is in honour of Star Trek: Picard, a new revamp of the globally acknowledged franchise. The 2-day takeover also includes large posters, video footage lining the escalators, and new audio announcements, ensuring passengers ‘take care when using stairs, escalators and transporters’.
The new series, which had its London premiere last night (January 16th), will be available on Amazon Prime from January 23rd, and the general consensus amongst fans is a feeling of hot anticipation. Following Patrick Stewart’s character, the much-loved Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the show will pick up 20 years after where 2002 feature film Star Trek: Nemesis left off; set at the start of the 24th century, we will join the USS Enterprise captain as he is called to intergalactic adventure once more after a period of retirement, spent coping with the death of fan-favourite crewmate Data (Brent Spiner). Spiner will also be making a return for the series, as will Jeri Ryan in her role as Seven of Nine, the Borg crewmember onboard Voyager.Despite not yet airing, the series has already been commissioned for a second season.
What started in 1966 as a niche Tuesday evening sci-fi drama has become one of the most recognisable franchises of all time. So why has Star Trek managed to attract — and keep — such a large and varied audience? Seen by some as ultimate geek-a-vision, Star Trek is beloved by a whole range of people, and recently has tapped into a younger generation due to the popularity of Netflix’s Star Trek: Discovery, as well as the three more recent films starring Chris Pine recast as original Commanding Officer James T. Kirk (William Shatner). ‘The best sci-fi deals with the human condition and relationships whilst painting a future with tech you can only imagine today’, said Relish Creative, a design agency whose office is full of self-confessed ‘Trekkies’, ‘We can’t wait to see where Picard is now’.
Captain Picard was first seen in Star Trek: Next Generation, which aired from 1987 to 1994, and is widely regarded as one of the best characters the franchise has produced. ‘To many, Jean-Luc Picard represents the finest captain in Starfleet… having Stewart back as Picard for another adventure is fantastic,’ says Jack, an administrator on fansite TrekCentral, who believes that the series will always be relevant as ‘Star Trek offers many a look at what we as a species could become; a society where everyone is treated equally’.
Star Trek has never been afraid to cover difficult psychological, social and political issues, right from episode 1; its first season introduced to the world a multicultural crew, of whom the opinion, safety and contribution as experts in their respective fields was just as important as that of the white male characters. Superfan Simon Meeson says that ‘Star Trek for me is about the inclusion of all, it’s a ship of multiple races and genders and they are all equal… the Starfleet stands for kindness to all, even at your own expense.’
It is no coincidence either that London in particular might be celebrating the return of Picard; Patrick Stewart recently made a comment stating that he thought the Captain would have been an ardent remainer in regards to Brexit, and many have since drawn comparisons between Star Trek’s United Federation of Planets and the European Union. It will be very interesting to see if this similarity becomes a storyline in the upcoming instalment.
There are other plotlines that could be featured as well; being set in a Utopic universe that looks increasingly different from our own fractured society, we can predict that the show might as it has in the past, address recent real-world movements, which this time could include #MeToo and Black Lives Matter, as well as potentially the climate crisis.
In 2020, as much as in 1966, the importance of having a popular series that values its female, disabled and POC characters just as much as it does every other cannot be understated. The future — in the ‘Trek universe at least — looks bright. Will the Star Trek franchise ever come to a definitive end? At the moment, it seems unlikely. In Captain Picard’s famous final words at the end of Next Generation: ‘The sky’s the limit.’
