Alex Kurtzman’s plan for Star Trek is appearing before our eyes, as the Senior Executive Producer oversees the expansion of our beloved universe with the next installment – Star Trek: Picard.
Lets tiptoe through this review in a non-spoiler fashion.
From the very first moments of this new adventure, we’re shown a Jean-Luc Picard who is very different to the man we last saw picking up the pieces following the devastating Shinzon incident in Nemesis. We see the old-D in all her beautiful glory, not re-imagined, not redesigned, just the ship floating effortlessly across space. Of course, this is all a bad dream that Picard’s having culminating in the attack on Mars which we saw in the Children of Mars Short Trek. Over the course of this first episode – barely a pilot by the true definition of the word – we learn about Dahj and her quest to discover her true identity, spurring a very reluctant Picard into an adventure that will see him leave his vineyard for the first time in a long time it seems.
It becomes impossible from here to not spoil plot lines and character development, but I think that Picard is going to be Star Trek‘s answer to The Mandalorian… one character on a quest with a supporting cast, in a slowly developing scenario that will be the most unique thing to come out of the franchise.
Despite all the doomsayers, there’s no overt references to Brexit or Trump in the first episodes – nor do I see it happening at any other time, there’s no unexplained shift of Federation policy, there’s nothing to indicate that the changes we saw to the universe in Discovery have rippled through time and eroded the stories we were told before – it truly is a Federation and Starfleet that has been devastated by conflict after conflict for near on thirty five years.
Now we here at Trekzone HQ have to wait for the world to catch up, before we can continue with episode 4!
Star Trek: Picard is streaming on CBS All Access in the US and Amazon Prime around the world, as well as broadcasting on CTV and streaming on Crave in Canada.