Producer: Michael Chabon
Released: 2020
Format reviewed: DVD (library copy)
Episodes: 10 episodes
Rating: 1/5
As with most things cultural, I am well behind on my Star Trek viewing. I tried watching the third season several months ago when it was first released on DVD, but I did not like the first episode at all and stopped there. Nonetheless, for some reason, as I was browsing in the library the other day, I impulsively grabbed the first season of this show despite the many negative reviews. It was a bad decision.
Star Trek: Picard S1 is an awful show on many levels. The story, at its core, is a retread of themes already explored in previous series, but without anything remotely like a new perspective. The plot as written isn't enough to fill more than two or three classic Trek episodes, but nonetheless it is stretched out over 10 episodes. The new characters are uninteresting and underdeveloped. The old interesting characters are made dull. The dialogue is forced and awkward. The emotional moments are unearned. The rousing speeches are boring and trite. The endless 'member-berries are infuriating. Conventions about space travel - distances and times - which were well establish in TNG, DS9, and VOY, are discarded. The actors are poorly directed. The 3D ship interfaces are unnecessary and distracting. The early pacing is overly slow, and the ending is rushed. And on and on and on.
The only positive aspects of the show are some of the visual elements. Unlike other recent productions, the audience is actually treated to a decent amount of color. At times it is a little over-saturated for my taste, but at least it is there when appropriate. Many of the sets are attractive and seem quite real due to them being well-filled with props and detailed surfacing. And while I don't really care for the 3D interfaces that have everyone tapping in the air constantly, they do seem plausible. The CGI also looks fairly good, even if the ships and other design elements aren't great. But a lot of the camerawork is too close, and the number of camera changes within scenes often makes them lose cohesion.
Basically, if you are a classic Trek fan, there is no reason to watch this show. It has characters most classic fans want more of - Picard, Data, Seven of Nine, even Riker and Troi - but all of them are given absolutely atrocious dialogue. In the case of Seven, the character is actively regressed and degraded from what we knew of her at the end of VOY. And Picard's development is disappointing as well. I now see why the reviews (at least from people I trust) were so negative. This is a bad season of television that nobody should waste time consuming. It should be purged from the Star Trek cannon as soon as possible, and the creators blacklisted from the franchise.
