I Watch TV: Star Trek Picard

Star Trek Picard Season 2

There’s seven episodes of a decent near-future science fiction thriller set in Los Angeles here, slightly awkwardly sandwiched into a Star Trek time-travel narrative. Which is cool, though I don’t watch Star Trek for near-future SF thrillers! Especially as it looked like it was going to be a disorienting jump through various times and places for the first two episodes.

So how does it go? It’s (obviously) still Picard-centric, based on our old friend Q seeking him out to involve him in a weird time-paradoxical story that also teaches Picard a lesson, but in the end isn’t actually about that at all. Those are just pleasant side effects.

The other characters struggle against this, each trying to find their own story, and each inevitably contributing to Picard’s. Thanks to one of them immediately getting injured on arrival in Los Angeles and constantly getting into trouble, three of them head off on what’s basically a side-quest for a couple of episodes, only to do the same again after one of them goes rogue (too much karaoke at a reception). Splitting the party! It’s better focussed than season one, the stories weaving back together in a sensible way. After the first couple of episodes in LA almost all the pieces and players are there and things develop rather than new weirdos turning up to change everything.

Other than affection for ST:TNG is there any reason to watch this? Well as I said, there’s a decent near-future SF thriller here, and some fun side stories. Seven of Nine goes through some stuff, learning about what she might have been if she’d not been Borged, coming to terms with herself. But then I guess that’s affection for Voyager, which admittedly I let slip through my fingers at some point during the run. Despite this I’m not immune to nostalgia.

Watch This: Patrick Stewart’s continuing swansong on Star Trek is a fun romp with sacrifice and growth and exciting fights and explosions
Don’t Watch This: You don’t watch Star Trek for seven episodes of a thriller in near-future Los Angeles