‘Star Trek: Picard’ boldly, slowly treks into the future

PASADENA — Set your phaser — and expectations — to stunned if you come to “Star Trek: Picard” expecting a series that resembles “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Tonally the latest “Trek,” now streaming on subscription service CBS All Access, lingers in the dark, similar to season one of “Star Trek: Discovery,” albeit with more dense conversation (although minimal Treknobabble).

“Picard” looks great, and there are plenty of small pleasures for longtime fans, from the name of Picard’s pooch to a location used in the original series that gets recycled but this time plays itself.

But “Picard” also is top-heavy, with long stretches of dialogue that explore Big Ideas, lay track for a fetch quest, or explicate the backstory of a clandestine organization that’s not new in “Trek” lore but still needs explaining because it’s pretty deep in the “Trek” weeds (and then goes deeper still in Russian nesting doll style).

As the series begins, former USS Enterprise Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), promoted to admiral but retired, is living at his Chateau Picard vineyard in the French countryside, waited on by Romulan aides while beset by dreams featuring the late android Data (guest star Brent Spiner) that turn nightmarish.

Viewers learn the details of why Picard, as he says, “hasn’t been living. I’ve been waiting to die,” after calamitous events that followed an attempted humanitarian rescue mission.

A young woman, Dahj (Isa Briones), arrives on Picard’s doorstep, which snaps Picard into action once he connects the dots and deduces her identity — fans will likely put the pieces together faster — setting the stage for the mission to come.

The first two episodes of “Star Trek: Discovery” served as setup for its first season, but it takes “Picard” three episodes to get to a point where it feels like the show is really ready to engage after introducing new characters, filling viewers in on past events that impact the present and explaining the current political state of Starfleet. That’s asking for a lot of patience from viewers in an era of more than 500-plus scripted series released per year.

There’s also some suggestion that this first season could be the “Next Gen” version of the original cast’s “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” but substituting Data for Spock.

Producers, including University of Pittsburgh grad and novelist Michael Chabon, keep insisting these new “Treks” are hopeful and positive and while there are elements of hope in “Picard,” as there were in the first season of “Discovery,” the overall tone is dark and relatively bleak. (“Discovery”

lightened up in season two with the addition of the supportive leadership style of Capt. Pike, played winningly by Anson Mount.)

Stewart and Spiner — the two major “Trek” players of the past featured in the first three episodes — slip back into their roles with ease. Among the newcomers, Alison Pill (“The Newsroom”), as cyberneticist Dr. Agnes Jurati, makes the strongest impression by bringing some much-needed levity to the often weighty proceedings.

“Picard” certainly introduces a deeper “Star Trek” that has its appeal, but at times it also seems a little convoluted with talk of a “shared mythical framework.”

For viewers relishing the brighter, more optimistic ’90s “Trek,” well, there’s always “The Orville,” aka “Star Trek” by another name, which returns for its third season late in 2020 on Hulu.

Eye on ‘Dispatches’

Viewers who miss the feel-good whimsy of “Pushing Daisies” should keep an eye out for AMC’s “Dispatches From Elsewhere” (10 p.m. March 1), a new drama written/created by and starring Jason Segel (“How I Met Your Mother”) as a milquetoast guy who gets involved in an alternate reality game with three other puzzle-solving players.

Filmed in Philadelphia and stocked with beautiful dream-like visuals and characters who break the fourth wall and even bits of animation, “Dispatches” is unlike 90% of what’s on TV, cable or streaming.

“We’re inundated with so much television that it is very easy to zone out when you’re watching something, especially by the end of the episode. … And you’re also encouraged to binge-watch shows, which is the only time “binge” is ever used positively,” Segel said last week during the Television Critics Association winter 2020 press tour. “I tried to use unconventional storytelling to force you to pay attention. … When you’re thrust into a situation you haven’t seen before, your brain activates a little bit and you might be receptive to the theme that we’re trying to communicate.”

Channel surfing

NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” returns for the new year this weekend with Adam Driver as host and Halsey as musical guest; JJ Watt hosts Feb. 1 with Luke Combs; RuPaul hosts Feb. 8 with Justin Bieber. … Animated series “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” from showrunner and 1992 Mt. Lebanon High School grad Dave Filoni, returns for a final 12-episode season Feb. 21 on subscription streaming service Disney Plus.

Tuned In online

Today’s TV Q&A column on the blog responds to questions about “Mindhunter,” “Letterkenny” and “The Village.” This week’s Tuned In Journal includes posts on press tour parties and “Awkwafina is Nora From Queens.” Read online-only TV content at http://communityvoices. post-gazette.com/arts-entertainment-living/tuned-in.