When Picard the show was first announced and its first trailer introduced the question, "why did Picard (the person) leave Starfleet?", I blindly assumed the show wanted to do a "retro" of sorts on TNG, mainly because TNG is 35 years old at time of writing and its age is really showing.
I would've found it really interesting to go back and question a bunch of 90s Trek's ideas about stuff – such as the horrendous way they do first contact, or the ethics of the prime directive, or how Starfleet was basically invaded by them purple things in that one episode and they never brought it up again? Also the weird military vibes, or the odd colonial vibes, or the bit where Starfleet tried to genocide the Founders by poisoning a citizen of a Federation-allied planet that one time and no one even resigned over it?
Instead it seems like we've had a bait-and-switch every series: the first series might've been about the questionable ethics of Starfleet, and it was, but related to a bit of exposition from the '09 film. The second series might've been a character study into Picard's part in the above, but was instead about Q/his mum – characters who hardly need a 2020s-style critique. The third series seemed like the best opportunity yet, but the focus has been on newly constructed plot points from after TNG, and how those have affected our characters.
TNG itself tried to do commentary on what came before, even it only amounted to a couple of blokes in miniskirts in the first couple of series (and then never again) and a McCoy cameo that made him seem like a weird racist old uncle. The closest Picard has come is the sheer fucking hubris scene (which is a great scene!) which is also completely discarded later, as we cheer Picard's decision to hijack a whole ship for a personal mission.
Obviously Picard can be whatever it wants to be, but it seems a shame to bring back all these characters for stories that ultimately could've been anyone else's.
I wrote the previous block before the end of show. I have now finished the show. A handy summary of what are, for my purposes, the most important beats in the show:
- Episode 7: Picard is informed by Vadic that Starfleet created a virus to genocide the Founders before the war even started and then knowingly refused to provide the cure.
- Episode 10: Picard waves his son and ex off as they start/continue their Starfleet careers; 0 mention of structural change to address the massive fuckups.
This is right down there with the Harry Potter closing epilogue. I don't understand why this hasn't annoyed more people – the show even gave a monologue about the virus to Amanda Plummer. Amanda Plummer! How are people rationalising this?
I wrote the previous block before I had realised that this opinion of mine was much less popular than I thought it would be. Like an idiot, I went onto Reddit to moan about it there, and then it turned out that what I really wanted to say was that TNG didn't deserve a nostalgia play, and so of course it would do it badly and fail to actually be about something.
Turns out I've watched not many TNG episodes and so can't justify that opinion at all. So I'm now watching them all, joining the likes of @jcolag – though with far less care and skill because my writing is normally arse.
My current thoughts about Picard (the character) in particular is that he's just a weird character because the show nearly always presents him as the near-perfect human, and yet all that seems to separate him from most people is that he's mostly emotionally detached and 'very smart' – plus he knows a bit of moral philosophy and Shakespeare.
The question for me is going to be what the story in TNG says to me as a (straight white male) viewer. How has the universe of Trek been shaped to cater to the "perfect human" concept that applies to Picard? Does TNG end up lying to the audience when it tries to present the "perfect" human? Do I as a viewer take away "bad" ideas about what it means to be perfect?
Maybe this'll be of interest to someone who knows – and I'll share other writings on the same topic as I find them.