Warning: this review features spoilers from season 2 of Star Trek: Picard
Whether you liked it or not, we can all agree that the first season of Star Trek: Picard had some flaws. The pace and plot weren’t always consistent, a few characters went nowhere (we still must figure out where Narek is at this point) and, in the end, it felt quite incomplete.
But its glimpse to the post-Nemesis setting, a less naive and more complex look at the Federation, and its character study surrounding the older Picard -with one of Patrick Stewart’s finest performances as the eponymous character- more than compensated and were enough to make the season memorable enough.
The second season, with Akiva Goldsman and Terry Matalas as showrunners, was set to resume many of the older Trek characters and tropes the first trailers featured Q, Guinan, the borg queen, time travel and a dystopian version of the Federation.
It was clear that the showrunner decided to go take an even more nostalgic approach than the first season.
A CONFUSING TIME TRAVEL
The season starts well and does a pretty good job in establishing its characters’ new lives and relationships: a year has passed since “Et in arcadia ego“, and most of the main crew has returned to their Starfleet duties.
Picard is chancellor of Starfleet Academy with Elnor as the first fully Romulan cadet; both Raffi and Elnor serve aboard the USS Excelsior, Rios is in command of the brand-new USS Stargazer as he investigates an anomaly with Dr Jurati, Seven is back to the Fenris Rangers aboard the La Sirena.
But as life as a retired Admiral continues, Picard resumes past insecurities and traumas, rejecting what the present may offer him, including a romantic relationship with Laris.
It takes a sudden Borg crisis to force him out of retirement but, as always, nothing is what it seems and soon all of them find themselves in an alternate, dystopian version of the Federation they knew, due to the unexpected return of Q.
The Conferedation, the fascist and xenophobic version of the Federation, while similar to the Mirror universe but is unique enough. While the Mirror Universe is often used as a fun escapade in an over-the-top setting with cartoonish characters, the Confederation is portrayed as more brutal and crudely efficient than the Terran Empire and ultimately more serious and terrifying.
But as soon as La Sirena arrives in 2024 by the third episode, the season begins to lose cohesion and the biggest problem of the season becomes evident: it is not clear what the main story of the season is supposed to be.
Crafting a complex season story consisting of multiple threads and adding subplot over subplot are two very different things, and the show often finds itself wandering through secondary stories that either serve no real purpose or are clumsily executed.
The biggest culprit -and main example- is probably Rios’ detention by ICE officers: this subplot could have easily become the boldest and most political story Star Trek has told in the last few decades, but this wasn’t the case and it leaves with the bitter taste of a wasted opportunity; after Rios is freed thanks to Seven and Raffi, the whole ICE subplot is never mentioned again, and Rios doesn’t seem to be affected by it in any way.
Surely the intention was to portray Rios as the ideal optimist the franchise has always embodied, as he sees the best of humanity despite its very real and contemporary wrongs; but this required the show to acknowledge the whole ICE detention beyond the few episodes where it happened, and to make it a consistent part of the character; and this is not what happened.
While this subplot is the main example, it is not the only one: the main historical event the characters have to correct in 2024, the Europa space mission led by Jean-Luc’s ancestor Renée, seems to be resolved by episode 6 leaving space to further threads, but it suddenly becomes relevant again in episode 10; or even Picard’s inner demons and guilts regarding his mother are treated unevenly.
It would be unfair to state that the authors had no idea how to move the story forward or to use its characters, in fact, it’s quite clear they had plenty of ideas for their characters; but, similarly, to the first season, it messy storytelling leaves the impression that a lot of the characters went nowhere.
A few subplots end up quite successfully: the relationship between Jurati and Annie Wersching’s Borg Queen leads both characters in a very intriguing place,
-thanks also to Allison Pill’s great performance-, and Jeri Ryan is still one of the highlights of this show.
THE ONE WITHOUT THE WHALES
Building an entire season around a journey to the past means by default dealing with a sci-fi trope Star Trek has explored many and many times: especially a time-travelling story with social contemporary implications. And, for the most part, that’s true for this season too Star Trek has already featured a lot of successful time-travelling adventures, as well as dystopian parallel earth and other plots and characters we already know.
The problem arrives when this familiar Star Trek tropes are given little to zero new room to expand, either to explore original ramifications or to properly homage past stories: their fanservice-y nature is too obvious and awkwardly clashes with the rest of the show.
This isn’t to say all of the reuse of old characters is handled badly, in fact, some of it is actually pretty great: everything about Guinan is genuinely well acted and well written, and reveals a new and very interesting facet to a character we already know.
Whoopi Goldberg is a welcome return as an older Guinan, but the true surprise is the great Ito Aghayere as a younger and cynical version; it might seem odd considering the wise and calm character we already know, but it only makes sense considering she’s forced to stay in 2020s Earth…
Another well used legacy character is the Borg Queen brilliantly played by Annie Wersching-, both faithful to previous versions of the villains and with added layers. Q, on the other hand, is a mixed bag: John de Lancie is as charismatic and compelling as ever, and its final farewell to Picard is very touching, but his (surprisingly sparse) appearances serve little more than plot advancements.
Its purpose in the greater story is resolved too late in the season, leaving John de Lancie to recite vague and pointlessly unclear lines. And the whole Soong subplot is just another example of a storyline that would have benefited from more attention.
This use of familiar Trek elements, and the season as a whole, can be best exemplified by the surprise return of Wil Wheaton as the Traveler Wesley Crusher in Farewell: a warm, well-intentioned and affectionate fanservice, that doesn’t make much sense in the context of the episode and doesn’t feel like a natural part of the main story it’s in.
ONE STEP FORWARD, ONE (AND A HALF) STEP BACK
Obviously, the sophomore season of Star Trek: Picard was written by people who love Star Trek and its mythos and wanted to give new twists and depth to classic characters. But, while its storytelling doesn’t change much from the messy first season, the key difference is that the latter had managed more successfully in pushing the franchise in new directions; this journey to 2024, on the other hand, felt like a step backwards both literally and figuratively.
This season is not in any way inherently bad and there’s much to appreciate, from its likeable cast to the clever use of some characters: but unfortunately, all the good things are put down by what doesn’t work and its clumsy execution.
And the indisputable love for the franchise by its writers is mostly misplaced, fanservice for fanservice sake rather than some clever homages. It doesn’t help that much of the main cast have already confirmed they are not returning for Season 3 we guess to leave more space for the big TNG reunion, and it’s a shame that some of these characters we have seen for the last time weren’t given a more satisfying conclusion.
A lot of fans will surely enjoy this travel to the 21st century, and for good reason; but the show would have probably done better looking forward.
