Verdict
Summary
Plot: The series is set 20 years after the events of Picard (Patrick Stewart)’s last appearance in the film Star Trek: Nemesis and finds him deeply affected by the death of his best friend, android officer Data (Brent Spiner), as well as the destruction of the planet Romulus. After uncovering some twisted details, he will have to enlist older colleagues like the brilliant Raffi (Michelle Hurd), Romulan warrior Elnor (Evan Evagora) and Seven of 9 (Jeri Ryan) as well as newer faces, Capt. Rios (Santiago Cabrera), his holographic doctors and Dr. Jurati (Alison Pill), to venture out and dangerously resolve this unusual conspiracy.
Review: Star Trek fans are an odd lot (I partially know because I am one). They might not be as over-opinionated as Star Wars fans but they’re sometimes are exactly the goofy sort as lampooned in Trek-inspired works like Galaxy Quest and Stargate SG-1. Trek had been confusingly introduced over two decades ago by incorporating previously unused philosophical themes, far more intense battles and sexy yet talented actors in The Next Generation, Deep Space 9 and Voyager. But after the TNG crew had four big-screen movies and the prequel series Enterprise ended its run, the Trek franchise was having trouble staying relevant, let alone competing with other big and small-screen SciFi epics. After J.J. “Jar-Jar” Abrams rebooted the franchise with three other Trek films for today’s generation, CBS felt the need to launch its own streaming platform with an exclusive new Trek TV series called Discovery, that had the style of the new movies and the old themes of the original shows. Some liked it while others found similar shows like The Orville and The Expanse to be far superior. And some liked it all, but now enter the second newest Trek TV show with most of the beloved TNG cast returning. Did it measure up to high expectations and merit the wait? Was one beloved titular character enough to make one epic show about?
Oh, why yes it soooo did! It also had a mature audience 17+ rating but it’s only because of brief language and partial blood in the fight scenes and more of a mild PG-15 if you will. Coming out not too long after the Star Wars saga let loose an acclaimed streaming-only series called The Mandalorian, the press releases for Picard alone indicated some serious yet surprising competition with the rival franchise. Each episode of the 10-episode event series did a masterful job of building up equal parts suspense and rewarding character development- all which allowed the viewer to be in the properly engaging mood for when you encounter the inevitable battles and surprising plot twists. I did cringe at some of the manipulative villains getting romantic but it wasn’t too annoying, overdone or self-indulgent (after all, a good villain is supposed to be unlikable).
The whole series also does stellar at updating itself for today’s generation while being extremely consistent for its hardcore fanbase who will be keeping an eye on any slightest bit of continuity error. It also updates the franchise without going the style of Abrams’ lens-flare styled films or even the unusualness of the Discovery series. Much thought is even put into the quieter moments and dialogue, allowing for each scene to feel needed as opposed to testing ANYONE’S patience or risk feeling like this will be a one-time watch. The main overall storyline feels so much like the Federation conspiracy material previously seem in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and the android segments will appeal to fans of Cyberpunk genre installments like Blade Runner or Westworld. Cast-wise, Patrick Stewart might not be age-less but his effort as not only returning to his well-known role are hardly shabby and his presence leading the big cast of semi-known faces, returning original cast and newcomers has merit as he has much personal drama to rectify besides barking the usual orders. Another supporting talent that really stole each scene was veteran actress Tamlyn Tomita (of the Karate Kid and Stargate SG-1 franchises fame) in her uncanny shady role here. Executive producer Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) stated in one of the website video interviews that they were going for a mature yet darker tone much like with the X-Men spin-off film, Logan, and I’d go so far as to say this was a gritty style similar to the new James Bond films and other TV series comebacks of late.
For those who will never get an All-Access account, you can likely wait and buy the series when it gets released to Amazon or wait for an inevitable DVD/Blu-Ray release. For those dying to see it, you can wait for a week where you’ve got some free time so you can binge all 10 episodes and then cancel your free trial. Or keep the account if you feel like better things are around the corner to merit the monthly fee. But, regardless, see this 10-episode event as it’s the epic kind of follow-up missing from so many franchises these days. Plus, it gets straight to the point and its rare to get into a series without finding annoying and excessively slow episodes. This installment has no time to play around and neither should you: make it so!