I think it’s safe to say that Picard has had a shaky run thus far. The main culprit has been uneven storytelling and character development, taking a universally beloved character in Jean-Luc Picard and saddling him with a story that doesn’t work alongside new characters who don’t pop the way his former crew members of the Enterprise did. With the caveat that you need time to develop any characters to turn them into a crew worth watching (pop back in on the first and second seasons of any Star Trek series from the 80s and 90s and you’ll likely find those episodes less than stellar when compared to a fourth or fifth season installment, because it takes time for writers to discover what their cast is capable of and for both writers and actors to figure out who their characters really are), Picard’s first two seasons had great promise but ended up an absolute mess by their conclusions. Even the re-introduction of Q and Guinan, while a fun dose of nostalgia, couldn’t save convoluted storytelling and uninteresting new characters.
But here we are, in the ostensibly final season of the series, with the cast nearly completely pruned of “new” characters (and not surprisingly, the Raffi portion of this episode was far and away the weakest piece of the storytelling – again, not nearly enough time was spent crafting this character to be something other than a broken woman who wants redemption, not the fault of Michelle Hurd, but boy we could have used some actual character development over the last two seasons for her), and Picard set to go on an adventure with his remaining Enterprise crew members (and maybe Seven, who continues to have delightful chemistry with Picard – Jeri Ryan is also clearly having a blast with this new, complex version of Seven), the series feels wholly different in all the best ways. It wasn’t a shock when the best episode of Picard’s first season (and probably whole run, up until season three) was the episode that took Picard to visit Troi and Riker. The easy banter, the trust, the care between these three characters – and three actors – was palpable. While I firmly believe a character like Picard should be allowed to grow and change over decades away from viewers, it was the first time in the series named for the character where we actually got to see him be himself. To take center stage and star in his own television series.
From the jump here in season three, things feel different. The story is able to sing – with a few bumps characteristic of this particular series as a whole – because we don’t need to spend a couple episodes trying to build a narrative and characters at the same time. Opening with Beverly Crusher, estranged for 20 years with the entire Enterprise senior staff*, in her very own Ripley from Aliens sequence was awesome. One of the hallmarks of Next Generation was that the writers rarely knew what to do with Crusher. Sure, she’d get occasional spotlight episodes, but they never knew if they wanted her to be the Bones of the series – and use the Crusher-Picard history to have the pair butt heads on occasion–, the capable and unflappable doctor who showed up when needed and spouted medical jargon and left, or the potential love interest for the Captain (again, the chemistry between Gates McFadden and Patrick Stewart was great and while I understand why the series didn’t want to go there, I’m still annoyed it didn’t). So, to start off this season with Beverly getting a chance to shine, on her own, and prove herself capable of combat, was so darn cool to see. It also doesn’t hurt that McFadden is a genuinely great actress and seeing her stretch beyond a lot of what she was asked to do on the series and the subsequent films (which really gave her a short shrift), was awesome.
*There’s still the question of Beverly’s new son. I’m begging all the deities of the world that it doesn’t turn out to somehow be Jean-Luc’s child. Not only would the timeline not track (frankly, the timeline doesn’t track at all for Beverly to have had a son in the ensuing 20-year period she’s been gone, simply because there’s no way that man is only 19), but it would be such a stupid choice. Time travel? God no. Adoption? I’ll take that as the best option of those left.
Now, we knew that the chemistry between Stewart and Jonathan Frakes is still gangbusters thanks to the first season of the series, but it was such a joy to watch Picard and Riker pal around and play off one another again. I could have watched an entire series just centered around the pair doing fleet inspections. But there’s also a deep sense of familiarity for us as the audience. We’ve watched this duo for years and it’s comforting to see that they still have that same level of trust and understanding when they’re working together to come up with a plan (a shoddy plan, but still a plan). It’s also telling that Beverly’s coded message to Jean-Luc was one that he needed to go to Riker to fully decode – whether she knew that would be the case or not, it speaks to the closeness of the senior staff family from the Enterprise, knowing that if he couldn’t figure it out on his own, he would find one of their trusted friends to do so.
While this episode is only setting the table for what is to come, it’s a welcome change from the past two seasons. The writing, on the whole, feels stronger and more focused. And it doesn’t hurt that we have a set of characters to watch who we already have a long history with – so there’s not a ton of need for expositional character work. Would I have loved the show to drop Raffi completely? Sure, she’s just not nearly as compelling as the original Next Generation crew and Seven, but I guess we can’t get everything we want. No matter. I’m here for this final journey with the Star Trek crew of my childhood. I can’t wait to see what they get up to.
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