I think if this was just like 8 hours of the writers jerking off, it wouldn’t be as masturbatory as this. Granted, the show is called Star Trek: Picard, so there’s some expectations. But at least in the last two seasons we had mostly new characters and even Seven wasn’t a TNG legacy character. This show takes a minute to get there, but we get pretty much everyone but Pulaski.
Before go a-dunking, there’s a few good things to point out. Captain Shaw is an excellent foil for Riker and Picard in the beginning and he’s just fun to watch all around. Amanda Plummer does an incredibly good job at giving Vadic a unique menacing quality. I like that they redesigned to Borg Queen to be extra gross body horror. Using modern CGI for the Changeling goo form makes it way cooler looking than in DS9. Having a Vulcan gangster (played by Kirk Avacedo!) is kinda fun, albeit not as fleshed out as I’d like.
The elephant in the room in terms of characters of course is Data. Nemesis had Data get killed off, but with a hook with B-4 that he could come back. Season 1 of Picard finally confirmed that, and then killed him off For Real This Time I’m Serious Guys. But here we are 2 seasons and 3 years later and he’s back! And now we have an excuse as to why he looks older now! Yaaaay!
Dr. Crusher also deserves special mention because she is done quite dirty by the writing. She doesn’t speak to any of the original crew for over 20 years. We find out a few episodes in that’s because Picard got her pregnant and she didn’t want her son to be wrapped up in being involved in his extreme life. This is pretty flimsy and is obviously just an excuse to have the character of Jack Crusher exist and explain why Picard never mentioned him before.
The main story line in this season is not exactly good, but it is pretty well executed. I don’t like the fact that this is the third season in a row that leans heavily on the Borg. But in terms of setting up immediate stakes with being chased by Vadic in the Shrike, it’s good. It never feels like we’re waiting for the plot to happen, which is a problem a lot of modern TV has.
There’s a lot of excuses to spend time with the original cast. And yeah, that’s what this is for, but I just kinda wish they’d done anything else. Repeating the end of “All Good Things…” just goes to show how unnecessary all this is. Having the show be all actors pushing 70 doesn’t exactly feel vital. Bringing back the Enterprise-D is the most masturbatory of all.
One thing I realized while watching this season is that TNG itself was an attempt to follow up the sensation that was TOS. It didn’t reuse any characters outside of a handful of episodes. It cultivated its own identity and is celebrated for it now. But Star Trek: Picard is only interested in reminding you of where it came from and not building much new for itself.
Anyway, I could probably nitpick a lot more. Overall, I’d probably the most well put-together season of the show, but it doesn’t really make it good or worth watching.