RTR Blog: Matt's Hopes and Dreams for Star Trek Picard

It's been about a year and a half since the Star Trek world was shaken by the news that Patrick Stewart would be returning to television to reprise his iconic role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. I've been excited since the news hit and in only two days, the wait will finally be over as Star Trek Picard hits the airwaves .. err, streaming waves.

It's no secret that Star Trek: the Next Generation was the Trek that got it all started for me and that I'll always have a soft spot for the crew that got me loving Star Trek. Even though I enjoy the shades of gray on Deep Space Nine more as an adult than I did 20 years ago, Picard is a character that I have become more able to identify with as I've grown older. His solitary tendencies and strong sense of morals are two traits that I think many of my friends would also attribute to me. I am indeed very intrigued to see what has happened to Jean-Luc since we last saw him in Nemesis and how he has changed.

As the trailers and other news of the series has trickled in over the past six months, my mind has been going at warp nine thinking of the possibilities for characters, plotlines and nearly everything in between. With the new series now just over the horizon, I've put together some of my hopes and dreams for Star Trek Picard.

It is more than fan service.

I can hear the groans already. Don't worry, I'm not going to be the guy who writes this off before even seeing an episode. I'm very optimistic this will be more than fan service. Patrick Stewart doesn't need to do this. Jean-Luc Picard is already a beloved character and one of the most quintessential Star Trek characters of all time, probably behind only Kirk and Spock. He had done his job. Had this been a pointless Next Generation reunion I am quite certain that Stewart never would have agreed to do it. The producers presented something that stirred Stewart's imagination and something that stirs his imagination is certainly good enough for me. We are going to get a piece of Jean-Luc's life that will be a worthwhile story to tell, I'm almost certain of it.

We see that Picard has changed, grown and we see why.

Twenty years is a long time. We have seen in the trailers that something drastic took place in Picard's life. He has abandoned Starfleet and lead a life of solitude on the family vineyard. I hope we get an opportunity to understand what led Picard down this path. I hope it doesn't end there either. There's a great opportunity here to fill in a large period of an iconic character's life while continuing to chart a path for him going forward.

It has a good story.

Without question, my biggest gripe about the recent iteration of Star Trek has been the ... less than stellar stories and writing. I often describe the newer Star Trek as fun and satisfying when I want to turn my brain off. I hope that I don't have to turn my brain off to enjoy Star Trek Picard. It seems pretty obvious that this is going to be a more introspective character driven show which intrigues me greatly. My hope is that we get this character development within the framework of a great story that doesn't rely on flashy effects and massive space battles to capture your imagination (see more about visuals below). I also hope this isn't yet another crusade to save all sentient life in the universe. High stakes can make for good drama and all, but this doesn't strike me as that kind of a show. We have been promised this would be more introspective which I think better matches up to a character pushing 80 than the shoot 'em ups we've seen recently. Here's hoping the writers have come up with something interesting and that has some substance rather than fluff.

The cameos are meaningful.

So far we know that Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, Jeri Ryan and Jonathan Del Arco will be reprising their roles in the first season of Star Trek Picard. That number would ordinarily frighten me into thinking this could be too fan service-y, but footage from the trailers gives me hope that each of these has high potential to be meaningful. The Borg are obviously going to play some part in the show, so Seven of Nine and Hugh make perfect sense to appear. Data is almost certainly going to appear in dreams and/or flashbacks which I tend to think will influence Picard's decision making over the course of the show. Finally, it seems obvious to me that Riker and Troi will appear as a send off to whatever mission Picard embarks upon, getting advice from his old number one. Given that the cameos seem to be well woven into the story and aren't just there for old times sake, I'm optimistic that this dream will come true.

The supporting cast get a chance to shine somewhat.

Okay, I get it. This show is about Picard. I fully expect him to be front and center almost all of the time. Patrick Stewart isn't going to come back unless it is worth his while. But one gripe I have about Star Trek Discovery is the near dearth of character development outside of Michael Burnham and I hope that isn't repeated here. I do hope that the supporting characters are given an opportunity to be more than just people in the background who make the ship go and solve problems when they are needed. I want to see some character development and growth outside of Jean-Luc. I want to care about the other people involved in this mission. Hell, I'd even like to know their names. One thing that the Next Generation did so well was allow all of its characters to develop and grow over time. I realize we are in a different era of television which limits what you can do with supporting characters, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do any.

The show is not overwhelming visually.

As great as Star Trek Discovery looks on the screen, I do find that the visual effects tend to get a bit zany, especially when there are battle scenes involved. This is probably a pipe dream, but I do hope the producers try to tone things down a bit with Star Trek Picard. I'm all for taking advantage of technology when creating visual effects. With high definition televisions and the computer effects technology that are out there now, television is going to look a lot better than it did in the TNG days of physical models and post production effects. But when you have hundreds and thousands of moving parts on a screen at once during a frantic battle, I think it is easy to lose focus on what is really happening. Making a visual effects scene as busy and complicated as possible isn't always necessary and I hope the producers tone things down and give the audience a chance to follow the action.

The Borg and/or Romulans are not butchered.

Both long time adversaries are surely going to play a major role in this story. Now, I'm not going to say that every previous alien race has been butchered by Discovery, but ... well anyway. My hope here is that we don't see wild deviations from the established lore. I get that 20 years has passed in the Star Trek universe. Things are not going to be the same. The Collective is in shambles (we think) and Romulus has been destroyed. Both adversaries I'm sure will have evolved over those 20 years, but my hope is that we still see the core values and traits play a big role in the characters we see from those civilizations. These are adversaries that have both played a huge part in shaping Picard's life and I really hope we don't see drastic departures from the norm with both races.

This truly is an exciting time to be a Star Trek fan, especially one that grew up on the Next Generation. There is a lot of interesting possibilities re-visiting Picard 20 years after we last saw him in Star Trek Nemesis. I'm quite excited for the series and very intrigued to see what is in store for Picard, some old friends and a new crew. Only two more days until we find out!

If you are looking for more great Star Trek content check out Andrew & I's review of the Next Generation episode "Thine Own Self" here:
http://randomtrekreview.blogspot.com/2020/01/rtr-37-dishevelled-podcast.html