I know Star Trek: Picard isn’t supposed to be “The Next Generation,” but I would have appreciated a continuation of story lines from Trek series, not just the films.
Sure, Picard is about the titular character. But, as eager as fans of the character were to revisit him, many like myself were just as eager - if not more so- to get a look at the Star Trek universe at present. After leaving it in Nemesis we haven’t been allowed back since! Instead bouncing along from prequel to even earlier prequel.
There’s much that I could cover but as this ridiculous Romulan refugee angle continues to be beaten to death I wonder, “Why couldn’t the creators pick up with the Cardassians and see how they were fairing 20 years after the end of the Dominon War?” You know...since Dominion genocide killed 800 million of them.
That would be a great segment for the Federation News Network, right?
Maybe Jake Sisko gives us his best Ed Bradley and catches us up on the Cardassian rebuilding effort. Surely they were aided by the Federation after the Cardassian’s dramatic turn at the end of the war helped win it in the Federation’s favor. And Picard would certainly have assisted in the relief effort. I think this would be a nice way to hearken back to the familiar, bring us up to speed, and push the story forward.
It’s also a great way to incorporate, and further, universe lore without forcing the Romulans into this unbelievable position when everyone knows they had an empire spread across multiple words.
The Cardassians should definitely be Picard’s failed refugees. Instead, the Romulans were chosen in order to shoehorn the events from Star Trek ‘09 into this narrative. Unnecessary and, personally, unwanted.
Other (better?) ideas for this series include:
Episodic entries into a season that features a long running central story. That or just dump the season on the platform all at once, because this story is moving at a Tribble’s pace. The show has got to stop rehashing the same information to different characters, it’s so repetitive as a viewer. The structure of this is clearly off. Nearly every episode starts off with something that happened over a decade ago and, at times, looks much more interesting than what we’re presented with as the main story.
Including more from DS9. I mentioned Jake Sisko before and that’s partly because he’s the son of my favorite Captain. And as great as I believe that series is, it seems to get no love from Trek creators of today. It’s like all they took from it was a bit of the tone and some of the lighting. Id have loved it if Dr. Zimmerman finally got around to making a Bashir EMH and it was installed in La Sirena.
Instead we have different versions of its captain doing various (eye-roll inducing) accents.
The inclusion of Alexander Siddig aside, this series could learn from how DS9 handled the grim themes of war and death, since it wants so desperately to be ‘edgy,’ with its mass murder visuals and having Raffi say “Goddam” every five minutes.
Do you have compliments or critiques about Star Trek: Picard? Engage!
