Star Trek: Picard ran for three seasons and 30 episodes on CBS All Access and then Paramount+, from January 2020 to April 2023. It is the eighth Star Trek series, and it was built around a deliberate gamble: take the franchise’s most recognizable captain, Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard, and make him old, retired and unsure he still has a place in the galaxy.
The bet mostly pays.
Trailer, via CTV Sci-Fi Channel.
A Vineyard, a Dead Friend, and 2399
Picard begins in 2399, 20 years after the character’s last appearance in Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). He is living on his family’s vineyard, retired from Starfleet in protest after the United Federation of Planets refused to aid the Romulans when their homeworld was destroyed in Star Trek (2009). He is still marked by Data’s death in Nemesis.
That is the smartest thing the series does. It does not hand Picard a new ship and a new crew and pretend nothing has changed. It gives him grief, a terminal diagnosis, and a cause: a synthetic “daughter” of Data, one of several new synthetic beings called synths, whose right to exist he fights for.
Stewart is the reason any of it lands. He plays the slowness honestly rather than fighting it.
Alison Pill, Jeri Ryan, and the New Cast
The first season surrounds Picard with new faces: Alison Pill as Agnes Jurati, a former Starfleet doctor and synthetic-life expert; Isa Briones as the twin androids Dahj and Soji Asha; Santiago Cabrera as Cristobal “Chris” Rios; Michelle Hurd as Raffi Musiker; Harry Treadaway as Narek; Evan Evagora as Elnor.
The creative team initially discussed not bringing back any Next Generation characters at all, so Picard could stand alone and newcomers could enjoy it without homework. They changed course, deciding they were missing opportunities, and added returning guests who served the new story — Brent Spiner as Data, Jonathan Frakes as William Riker, Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi, and Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine.
Ryan is the best of the returns. Seven arrives with history the show actually uses.
A Death, a Wiki War, and a Synthetic Body
Picard dies at the end of season one, and his consciousness is transferred into a synthetic body. That choice sparked real argument over whether the synthetic version was still the same person. Co-creators Michael Chabon and Akiva Goldsman both said he was. Other commentators disagreed.
The fight got specific. Debates ran for more than a week on the Star Trek wiki Memory Alpha over whether the synthetic Picard needed his own page. The information stayed on the same page.
That is the most interesting question the series raises, and it is worth ranking the three seasons against it:
- Season one — the strongest. Picard’s age, Data’s death and the synth question all pull in the same direction.
- Season three — the most satisfying for longtime fans. Picard learns he has a son, Jack Crusher, played by Ed Speleers, hunted by mysterious enemies, and reunites the former Enterprise crew against a new Borg invasion.
- Season two — the weakest. Q traps Picard and his companions in an alternate reality, sending them back to the 21st century. The trauma of his mother’s death by suicide, drawn from Stewart’s own experience of childhood domestic violence, is serious material. The season around it is a detour.
What the Show Gets Right
Season two appoints Picard Chancellor of Starfleet Academy, which is a strange fit for a man the show keeps insisting is finished with institutions. The series was designed to be slower and more character-focused than earlier franchise installments, with each season examining a different part of Picard in old age. That design is the show’s identity, and it holds.
The nostalgia is the noise. The good part is a franchise willing to let its hero be diminished, diagnosed and doubted, and to ask what remains of a person after the body that carried him is gone.
Star Trek: Picard is uneven across 30 episodes, and its middle season loses the thread. Its first and third know exactly what they are.
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