Can The Next Generation Crew Save 'Star Trek: Picard'?
The Rest Of Star Trek: The Next Generation Cast Will Be Joining The Fun - Or Lack Thereof - On Paramount + Star Trek: Picard - But Do Fans Really Care?
Star Trek: Picard isn’t setting the streaming world on fire. If it was a supernova, it would probably be mostly ignored by astronomers. Face it: the official sequel to Star Trek: The Next Generation hasn’t performed as well as its producers or CBS hoped.
To say it’s a boring, confusing dud may be too harsh, but here’s just one critic who is even less kind. Click and read if you dare.
Star Trek: Picard Is Garbage. Red Alert! Ouch! Some people just can’t hold back.
The powers that be must have howled like a Klingon during a death wail, Wait a minute! Fans aren’t responding to our new characters or to a ridiculous revamping of legacy ones, what now? Here’s an idea! Let’s bring it home by warping in the cavalry!
ST: Picard brought on Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) along with the android, Data (Brent Spiner) with all that funky de-aging tech to make us think androids don’t age. Or maybe just age slowly. Or just age badly.
They brought on former Borg Drone, Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) to mix it up. What was once a contemplative, highly logical and in control former member of the dread, yet still enigmatic Borg race, would become a rip roaring, hell raising rebel with virtually no resemblance to her popular character. Yeah. That’ll work. Sure.
Did it?
Next season, the rest of our Enterprise D crew supposedly comes to Jean-Luc Picard’s assistance. They’ll rescue the former Starfleet Captain from his own weakly realized program of muddiness. It’s a near universal Star Trek: Picard complaint. The nonsensical charge stuck. It makes little to no sense charge runs rampant among long time Trekkers - especially with those who know and love classic TNG.
What’s happening here? Are we sweating it out in a fever dream? Is it a bad joke? Are we being Punk’d? Where’s Ashton Kutcher?
I’m slightly more forgiving. I know the calculating corporate masters here at busy work. Hollywood is a business lest we ever forget such an important economic reality. Do you work for free? The Gordon Gekko like Ferengi would invest in movie studios. They make money and lots of it.
CBS and Paramount suits know longtime hardcore fans rarely ever abandon a franchise as beloved as Star Trek. They gamble on luring in newbies. Their logic: People who never watched Star Trek before won’t respond to the same old same old. Hell, they didn’t before. Simply change it up as much as possible. Make it different. Make it daring. Make it controversial. Make it confusing.
Make it dopey?
The 3rd and last season of Star Trek: Picard has yet to air. We hold our collective clucking tongues and blistering analysis till then. Will Jean-Luc Picard’s Starfleet cohorts in cosmic crime bring it up in esteem? Maybe it’ll come together. Some are hoping it’s all a bad dream or holodeck fantasy. Where’s Professor Moriarty?
Above all, I’m glad Next Generation actors are getting a nice payday. It’s a salary I suspect CBS/Paramount never wanted to pay out - thinking the new (cheaper) actors would set the fan world ablaze. They bring back John de Lancie as Q, yet recast the Borg Queen - choosing a new (cheaper) actress than employing the phenomenal Alice Krige who created and who still owns the role. Yes, my kiddies, that’s Hollywood. Bring in the new (cheaper) and ignore the (expensive) old. A studio ignores the old - as in fans - at their peril. With Star Trek: Picard, there may never be a more stark example of legacy vs new (cheaper) in all of Hollywood.
NOPE