Was It A Mistake?
Star Trek: Picard Episode 1 Review
Spock had enough respect for his friend to tell him it was a mistake to accept promotion. The question is, did Picard make the same mistake? With its giant budget elevating it to higher ranks, is it a mistake? It’s no real secret that Star Trek: The Next Generation has been a central part of my identity and world view for a long time. I can still see my 6-year-old self sitting on the floor watching Encounter At Farpoint all those years ago. It was a special moment as I became a second-generation fan. Those ideas, principles, and motivations travel with me every day. So much so that when I led the project to build a briefing center for Cisco, we named it The Bridge. It’s more than a TV show to me; it’s a shining example of how art projects an optimistic, aspirational goal for how you want the world to be. That was Gene’s dream from day one. When word came down that Patrick Stewart would be returning, the anxiety was palpable. As an actor of high creative standards, I had confidence that he wouldn’t come back if the goal to sell merchandise. But studios and marketing can ruin the creative process. Star Trek has no theme park that it needs to sell tickets to desperately; those are the places we live and work every single day. Chances are if you’ve ever met someone in the technology field at one point, you know they are a fan and are in that field because of it. I watched episode one twice to try and fully absorb what might become the greatest capstone for a franchise in the history of modern television. Or it could be a greedy attempt to cash in on something that’s been decomposing in the basement of a studio desperate to clink to relevance in a streaming age. Let’s evaluate how they did.
A few minutes into the first scene, the tone is apparent and radically different than any other science fiction I’ve seen so far. The fact that we didn’t get a space battle, and yet we got two dear friends having a conversation and playing a card game is very on-brand for Star Trek. It’s always been about the people. A hero shot of the ship in the first sequence felt like a bit too soon on fan service, but I must admit the 6-year-old still alive and well was overcome with chills having last saw her crushed to pieces on the surface of Veridian III. Like seeing an old friend in their prime back in the day, you can’t help but smile. It works so long as they don’t do it every single episode or in every single scene, as would be the case for that other franchise that wouldn’t exist without Star Trek. What I’m stuck with is the contrast in the setting, lighting, and music for the entire episode. It looks so rich and offering potential depth unrealized at this stage, that if you were to watch episode one and then go back and watch season 1 of TNG you might think the show is a parody of Picard. When we arrive at the Chateau, it’s a conflicting, almost disappointing thing to see. The property itself is stunning and vibrant with so much of Picard’s family history and trauma, yet he truly does not belong there. And he knows it. What I find myself wondering is who these people he has surrounded himself with are. They clearly know him and what he is capable of, and even say so very overtly like grown children might. One obvious opportunity is to build out that network of people who are around Picard at this stage in his life, and I hope they do. Otherwise, it feels like the temptation to skip over the acknowledgment of where he is in his life. My mind fills with all the ways they could bring this connection in, but I hesitate to speculate. Either we will get a high emotion swearing-in moment as the Admiral becomes reinstated, or he will, therefore, go anyway like another famous Admiral. Whichever it ends up being will be a definite moment in the character who earlier in his career and life centered around duty and obligation.
As the rest of the episode moves along, I enjoyed the pace. We see a bunch of major cities on earth with a luxurious feeling to them. The production budget is well spent, making these locations feel real in their time in a way the older TV show never could. We know that pivot will happen to space, but the question remains on how space-centric the show will become. In my opinion, they have an opportunity to double-down on characters and make the planet specific location more critical. Star Trek: Picard would be a significant departure compared to Discovery and other shows. That will take skilled writing to deliver, and without it feeling like a collection of away missions. It can be a meaningful tour of culture and people with dynamics and depth we haven’t seen, and since we know that just in this first episode, the universe is different and values have shifted, this matchup seems like an ideal fit.
The music is spot-on as it introduces complexity and almost wholly hides a theme. Understated is the right choice as is masterfully allowed Stewart and the other amazing actors to rise to the surface and not feel packaged and ready for the next batch of action figures. What moved me almost to a tear was 6–8 notes as Picard walks across Starfleet Headquarters grounds that instantly has me flashing back to every person that’s ever worn the uniform. Every sacrifice made and every triumph. It’s an instant acknowledgment that there are people out there still doing this job, but we haven’t met them yet and that Picard is not standing with them. It also adds a layer of complexity that will be interesting to watch as there is an explicit acknowledgment that Picard is at odds with the new way of doing business.
The arc so far from this brief introduction appears to be moving in the direction of the ethics and unanswered questions around artificial life. While I adore Westword can’t wait for the third season, the angle here with Picard feels like a fresh take. The franchise universe has flirted with this over the decades that they have a rich history to draw on. HBO has to build all of that from scratch. Commander Data is family, but Dolores would never make it to a courtroom battle over her rights with her closest colleagues standing next to her.
This early in the show shows a massive amount of potential to be genuinely different and layered in a way that will have us debating the nature of the show in a nuanced way. Not over the connection to cannon, or uniforms, or timeline, although those things matter. The debate will be how much of ourselves do we still see in this piece of art that reflects life.
