That said, the show’s called Star Trek: Picard, so you can’t say they didn’t warn you.» Fakultas Pertanian UMJ Jakarta » FE MH Thamrin Jakarta » FISIP UMJ Jakarta » FK MH Thamrin Jakarta » IAI Abdullah Said Batam » IKIP Widya Darma Surabaya » IMWI Sukabumi Is it accessible to Trek newbies? Despite the writers’ best efforts to keep everyone up to speed, it does assume a lot of prior knowledge, so having Memory Alpha on hand could be helpful. Meanwhile, Bruce Maddox, the AWOL scientist seemingly responsible for creating Dahj and her sister, appeared in classic season two episode “The Measure of a Man”, over 30 years ago. Nods to the show are everywhere, from the numerous mentions of Earl Grey, to a model of Picard’s first command, the USS Stargazer. Rather than simply being Picard’s last hurrah, the show is going where no Trek has gone before – a totally satisfying evolution of the Next Generation story.Īnd make no mistake, Picard is a show made with TNG fans in mind. But by making Data absolutely pivotal to the plot, revealing that Dahj is not only the android’s super-advanced daughter but that she also has a twin sister introduces an intriguing Blade Runner-like element to Star Trek. As iconic as Jean-Luc Picard is, simply bringing him out of retirement for another adventure in a starship was never going to cut it. While it looks like the end for Dahj, however – she’s going to struggle to come back from being vaporised, even in a sci-fi show – it’s the moment that feels like the beginning of Star Trek: Picard. But when a vision in her head prompts her to take a trip to Picard’s vineyard and he starts to realise she’s somehow connected to Data, you’re instantly drawn in – and then utterly confused when, in the episode’s big ‘what the hell?’ moment, a character who’d been the focus of the Picard trailers is killed by Romulan assassins as Jean-Luc looks on, helpless. At first glance, Dahj (Isa Briones) appears to be the latest in sci-fi’s very long line of young people who discover they possess latent superhuman abilities. It’s easy to see why the producers lobbied so hard to persuade Stewart to resurrect his most famous role.įor their part, the writing team have found the perfect reason for Picard to get back to saving the galaxy. This is an actor who could make even the worst excesses of Trek technobabble sound Shakespearean, so armed with such emotionally charged scenes he’s in his element. In fact, the shades-of-grey world of Star Trek: Picard provides an intriguing contrast with the comparative utopia of The Next Generation era – TNG writers frequently complained about the challenges of writing for characters in the conflict-free environment of the Enterprise-D – and gives Sir Patrick Stewart some wonderfully meaty material to work with.
#Memory alpha measure of a man series#
That’s not to say Picard’s feels small – the beautifully cinematic widescreen vistas and cityscapes are light-years from the beige Enterprise sets of The Next Generation – but that the focus is tighter, locked on the former starship captain who gives the series its name. Indeed, aside from a brief coda on a Borg Cube under Romulan management, the whole episode is Earth-based. It’s still unmistakably part of the same canon, yet this is purposefully slow and thoughtful television, more driven by dialogue than spaceships. Star Trek: Picard, the eighth Trek television series, marks another major shift, even from Discovery. Black Friday game deals: see all the best offers right now!.When Star Trek: Discovery arrived in 2017 it felt like a shift to a darker, less idealistic vision of the future – as much Battlestar Galactica as boldly go. Star Trek’s been through more makeovers than most over its long history: The Next Generation was radically different to the more gung-ho Kirk era, while JJ Abrams’ 2009 reboot added an injection of Star Wars-like blockbuster fun to the mix. With the possible exception of the Rolling Stones, pop culture phenomena don’t last for more than half a century without a capacity for frequent reinvention.