The first season of Star Trek: Picard is now available on Bluray for those who either didn’t get a chance to see it on CBS or are still trying to get caught up.
If you’re hoping for a sequel to Star Trek: The Next Generation, this is not it. Familiar characters do arise, but there are differences. The first and most palatable is that hope is a more limited commodity. When we first return to Jean Luc Picard, he is living on a vineyard with two Romulan companions. Almost immediately it becomes clear he is no longer associated with Star Fleet. Data is dead, and synthetic humans are a thing of the past. A young woman comes to him at the vineyard and he recognizes her as the subject of a painting Data once made entitled “daughter.” As Picard begins to dig into the truth behind the young woman, he rapidly discovers a great deal of what Star Fleet has tried to hide since he left.
If you’re looking for the hopeful beautiful promise of Star Fleet, you are going to be disappointed. Like most things in the real world, there’s corruption in their ranks and its left to those scattered out of their ranks to rise up and prove it. There’s a whole lot of swearing. There’s also a scene where Romulan has his eye pulled from the socket so, this definitely is a lot darker and probably not kid friendly. The coloration on the show follows similar work to the recent films; that sort of super-saturated color scape where the warm colors capture moments of depth and emotion, and the blues show the colder reaches of space and isolation. The aspect of Star Trek that this show definitely keeps is an eclectic cast that isn’t completely white washed. The show does place a great deal of the acting chops on the shoulders of Sir Patrick Stewart, but it feels like its meant to. While we do see familiar faces throughout, and a variety of references to past Star Trek lore, the show is more story and less fanservice. As such, this is far from a reunion show.
Star Trek: Picard is a divided topic. Some fans absolutely loved the first season. Others…not so much. I enjoyed it.
Star Trek: Picard is a different type of Star Trek, but enjoyable and fascinating. The Bluray and DVD sets are available now. Thanks to CBS for providing us with a review copy.
