It’s incredible to believe that after 18 years, Jean-Luc Picard would return. Every Saturday at 7, me and the family would watch Star Trek: The Next Generation since we moved down to Florida. When it was over, the movies took TOO LONG to come out, and Star Trek First Contact was the greatest movie imaginable. Well, it actually happened. Jean-Luc Picard is back and it’s a strong outing for him, trying to teach another crew old tricks, and him being taught new tricks from old friends.
To sum up Season 1, Picard is thrust back into action, but this time without his old crew and Starfleet. He fails to help a young woman he believes is an old comrades daughter, and races off without Starfleet‘s help to find the sister, who is in grave danger. Along the way, he seeks help from old friends like Riker, Maddox, Troi, and Hugh from the Next Generation Series. But in the end, it’s Picard’s lust for Humanity to look within itself and see the truth that will save the day, or destroy it.
The one thing that’s made clear is that this is NOT Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s gone, done, fin, Au Revoir. But the sweet and well thought out scenes with Picard and Data are overwhelming nostalgia defined. From the very first scene in the series with him playing cards with Data, to the final scene with him agreeing to let Data die finally, there’s the sense that there were unresolved issues from the old series that Picard had to deal with before he could move on with the new series.
Indeed, they took care of the major ones: Haunted by Data’s death, his hate and fear of the Borg, and a brain abnormality that will soon take his life. In the end, Picard does indeed die, but what happens next shifts the series into something new for him. It’s supposed to be a sad moment, but it’s only the moment that brings everyone together. He also meets up with Hugh, the Borg he helped find a new purpose for two decades ago. Hugh is killed in the series, but he starts a chain of events that thrusts Elnor and Seven of Nine into action. But the biggest issue was resolved... Data. He was the driving force of Star Trek The Next Generation. And even though Picard has been given a new body to work with, has resolved his issue with the Borg, and even got rid of his brain abnormality, there’s no moving on until the issue with Data is resolved, which brings me to the finale.
The show was great for me. It’s different and I imagine people will not get used to it so quickly. It was the same when Star Trek The Next Generation came out. It was a push back with lots of original Star Trek fans saying, “That’s not Star Trek.” Well, it is. It’s just for a new generation, and for those others that realize that if Star Trek doesn’t change, it’s not moving forward. So, in the end, Picard pulls the plug on Data, ending his life. It’s a metaphor to me that says they’ve pulled the plug on Star Trek The Next Generation. Those times are gone. It doesn’t mean we stop though. We forge ahead, not sit back on a vineyard and wait for death.
I wait in the midst of this Corona Virus outbreak here on our real planet Earth for Star Trek Picard to return with more adventures into the unknown. It’s gonna be fun.