Picard: Going Out Boldly!

In the first episode of the third and final season, Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), retired admiral of Star Fleet and infamous captain of the USS Enterprise, receives a distress call asking for his help from his old crewmate and friend, Doctor Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), who mysteriously cut ties with her known associates twenty years before.  Instructed not to involve Star Fleet, Picard does enlist his old first officer, Captain William Ryker (Jonathan Frakes) and the pair, with the help of Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), set out to save Doctor Crusher. Elsewhere in the universe, Raffi (Michelle Hurd) is undercover for Star Fleet trying to locate an advanced stolen weapon that could wipe out a whole planet.  Are the two events connected? Who or what is hunting Beverly Crusher and why did she go on the run in the first place? Can the old crew remember where they parked the Enterprise? What and find out!

To be honest, I liked season 1 of the show, but just didn’t get into season 2 and saw very few episodes, more because of time constraints than plot, but I was really surprised at how intriguing and compelling the first episode of season 3 was.  It starts with action and laser fire, but more than the excitement, I felt the story complimented the cast.  The banter between Picard and Ryker was fun and made me laugh on several occasions and they aren’t afraid to poke fun at the fact that it has been more than thirty years since The Next Generation premiered and the actors fully acknowledge their age.  Seeing Gates McFadden return as Doctor Crusher is fun and we get to see a rougher side to her character right from the start. I am also looking forward to seeing other favorite characters like Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) and Worf (Michael Dorn) in future episodes.  We have already met Alandra La Forge with Mica Burton playing Geordi’s daughter who is LeVar’s real-life daughter as well.

The actors all seem to easily slip into their previous characters as if it hasn’t been years since we last saw them. And the newly introduced characters are all well performed, and it will be interesting to see how their dynamics will fit into the plot. The look and feel of the show are reminiscent of The Next Generation but appropriately upgraded to match the more modern aesthetic.  It is darker and richer in tones than we saw in the 80s and 90s, which matches the tone of the whole series with much more dire and serious plot lines.  This can be seen as a good and bad thing.  Gene Roddenberry envisioned a future of hope and acceptance, where humanity’s drive was no longer wealth, but personal development and growth.  Picard shows us a kind of decline in Star Fleet with a seedier underbelly.  Where this adds interest and complexity to the characters, without the hope and optimism Roddenberry originally included, Picard sometimes just doesn’t feel like Star Trek. All that aside, I did love the first episode and eagerly await the second (I am going to try my best to keep current with this series).