Television Review: Picard Season 1

I’m a fan of Star Trek, though I’m also far from a Trekkie. I’ve seen most of the movies, and a lot of the television shows, though not nearly all of them. Denisa and I watched some of The Next Generation together a while ago, and it was fun, but also not riveting enough for us to stick with it. The “Problem of the Week” style of television that used to be dominant just doesn’t quite do it for me. But I’d heard good things about Picard, so we decided to give it a shot.

We finished the first season last night, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It definitely leans heavily on the nostalgia factor to make it feel really great, but the story stood alone pretty well. Picard, long since retired, heads back to space to try and save the galaxy one more time. It was a lot of fun to see many of the old crew members pop up here and there, and the new crew members Picard assembles are each pretty well done.

Is it a show that will make a Star Trek fan out of anyone? Probably not. But if you’re into sci-fi shows and have dabbled in Star Trek off and on, it’s worth your while. It was odd to have them make the decision to throw in random F words into the show. I suppose they thought that’s what it takes for a show to be taken seriously these days? I mean, I’m glad they didn’t decide to make Picard suddenly start swearing like a pirate, but still. There’s something about profanity that feels antithetical to me in Star Trek. I’d always looked at it as a show that’s family friendly in nature, more or less. Maybe I missed something in the later series that I’ve never seen. Still, good to be aware of, since the show’s officially rated TV14, and I could see a number of people being surprised and unhappy to have the bad language pop up. (Again, not everywhere. Just once or twice an episode, which somehow made it stand out even more.)

The bottom line is that I’m up for season two, and I look forward to seeing what exactly they do with the show from here on out. 7/10.