STAR TREK: PICARD Season One
Make it so-so?
RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | 12 | Blu-ray/dvd/download
Showrunner Michael Chabon
Cast Sir Patrick Stewart, Isa Briones,
Michelle Hurd, Santiago Cabrera
Credit is due to Picard’s producers for trying something new. Presenting us with a Federation that’s stepped back from its highest ideals and a Jean-luc who’s grief-stricken, angry and has lost his passion for life is an intriguing approach.
The motley crew he assembles to track down a “synth” girl who may be Data’s descendant – all carrying so much baggage they could use a team of porters – are likable. Elnor, a Romulan ninja whose commitment to “absolute candour” basically puts him on the spectrum, is the stand-out. Cigar-chomping pilot Rios (Han Solo if he read Camus) is also a hit – though whoever let Santiago Cabrera voice five Emergency Holograms should have checked if he can actually do accents.
With a Borg Cube, Hugh and Seven of Nine all popping up there are fan-pleasing treats aplenty, though while an episode-long sojourn chez Riker and Troi feels like a warm hug, it does slow things down unnecessarily. The journey is pleasurable, but it all falls apart once we reach the final destination, whereupon everything, it seems – character allegiances, long-held prejudices, massive space fleets, an allpowerful threat – can just be switched on and off, creating the feeling that nothing has any weight or permanence. Casually tossing in the biggest development in the history of human science like it’s no biggie doesn’t help.
What holds it altogether is a magnificent central performance by Sir Patrick Stewart. Though croaky-voiced, his Picard is still the kind of man who can load three philosophical epigrams into a paragraph of dialogue and deliver them with stirring gravitas. It’s so good to have him back.
Extras Five decent featurettes (totalling 70 minutes) cover the birth of the show, the former-borg “XBS”, props, sets and the cast. There’s some neat footage here, including Jeri Ryan having her Borg implants applied, and the creation of a key prop by pouring silicone into a body-shaped mould. All 10 episodes have a short “episode log” on a relevant topic (total: 59 minutes). Six deleted scenes are inessential, but do reveal the fate of Romulan xb Ramdha. You also get the Short Treks prologue.
Highlights are a socially distanced video commentary on episode one, and the gag reel. The former’s like being in a Zoom chat – but a fun one – with four producers and the director, who all pop up in-vision. The latter (eight minutes) showcases banter between Stewart and director Jonathan Frakes, with “Johnny” declaring, “What kind of sentence was that?” at a gaffe and the star retorting, “I’ve got four Olivier Awards.” Delightful.
The name of crimelord Bjayzl was derived from Big Jim Slade, a character in 1977 comedy The Kentucky Fried Movie.
There are fan-pleasing treats aplenty here