Star Trek: Picard

This is a show that is more complicated and mature than what came before, but in the best ways, ways which do not discredit the past, but show it’s always possible to change and grow — whether you’re a 79-year-old man, or a 54-year-old franchise.

On the basis of the three episodes out for review, it promises to be a satisfying voyage.

Stewart’s just lovely in this. He has spent his post-"Next Generation" and post-"X-Men" career staking out various corners of the indie and studio film world, to mixed success. Picard suits him wonderfully, still. Just as the first round of “Star Trek” movies, the ones with William Shatner and the gang, made hay on the old idea of old dogs learning new tricks, “Picard” too has some of that in its synthetic DNA. And it works, because the actors are the right actors, and it’s treated seriously but without a crushing sense of solemnity.

"Picard" is a delight. ... Slipping back easily into the role (although not often into the actual uniform), Stewart makes a seamless transition to an older, weathered Jean-Luc, and remains the Federation's most valuable player. .... "Picard" explodes with heart, using its sci-fi trappings to tell a deeply human story about love lost and potentially found.

An enjoyable and accessible pilot episode, one that brings the iconic admiral down to earth (literally), gives him lots of great dialogue, and reunites him with an old ally and monstrous adversary that even those of us not schooled in all things Trek will remember.

Picard’s lack of faith in the institution he once looked to for guidance is a very 2020 mood. It’s not the show’s subtlest play, but it is classic Trek. For the most part, Picard is strongest when it is trying on other genre trappings—like the mystery element, which feels partially imported from Chabon’s best-selling novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union, or the unwitting-synthetics-in-disguise element, which could be Blade Runner, Terminator, or Battlestar Galactica (take your pick). ... [Sir Patrick Stewart] is in fine fettle at the helm of a new crew.

"Picard" is anything but dour and pessimistic. On the contrary, the 79-year-old actor is as vital and determined as ever, returning our beloved Jean-Luc into the fray with a renewed purpose.

Picard is Trek through and through, full of thorny ethical quandaries, social allegories, sinister admirals, and an undercurrent of optimism in spite of it all. ... [Stewart] is in fine form as a man not content to be a “benign old codger” for the rest of his days.

[Stewart's] gravity, empathy and dignity ground “Star Trek: Picard,” and make it surprisingly moving. ... If the dialogue sometimes veers into the geeky, for the most part, “Star Trek: Picard” benefits from keeping the characters front and center.

Any new Star Trek faces the impossible task of appealing to a demanding pre-existing fanbase while making sense in a modern context. Picard often comes close to pulling off that balancing act. Even when it doesn’t Stewart is sensational.

Picard, the second streaming “Star Trek” series (after “Discovery”), is a peak-TV experience, and it immediately feels — on the surface, at least — as if it could be the franchise’s best small-screen offering.

Although the pace is at times too deliberate and many of the story elements seem familiar (earning the dubious raised eyebrow Mr. Spock put to such good use), it’s not difficult getting to the end of this third episode. For one thing, the series looks terrific. For another, you’re in great company all the way. The cast is marvelous, starting with Stewart, the finest actor ever to wear a Starfleet uniform. His aging and conflicted Picard is an endlessly intriguing revival of the character. He not only keeps you involved but also (to borrow the captain’s trademark phrase) engaged.

If you accept the methodical pacing, the series is structurally elegant.

Despite the cameos and Easter eggs, Picard never feels like nostalgia for its own sake. The creative team — including Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon, Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, and Kirsten Beyer— have clearly given a lot of thought to the idea of an elderly Picard.

It’s hard to judge an entire season of television off its opening act, but so far, Star Trek: Picard is off to a fine, if not engaging, start. There’s a lot of potential here — Stewart’s triumphant return as Picard, some interesting sociopolitical wrinkles — that’s let down by some convoluted plotting and cringeworthy dialogue.

It’s a true pleasure to see Stewart in his element again, and it’s a relief that Picard has managed to build a new universe around him that we’d actually like to spend more time in. By the end of Episode 3, I was starting to feel those familiar Next Generation vibes again.

Smart, well-crafted, layered — verging on over-layered.

Together, these stories make for one of the most rousing installments in the franchise, and potentially one of the most powerful.

Star Trek: Picard may represent a new chapter for Patrick Stewart’s beloved Jean-Luc, but it’s not trying to enlist new fans as much as it’s catering to old ones. For franchise die-hards, that’s likely OK.

While I wish it didn't take three full episodes of heavy exposition to get the fabled Next Generation captain, later admiral, into space, the crew of rogue fellow travelers he assembles is promising. [3-16 Feb 2020, p.9]

It moves within three hours to a place that promises as much excitement and movement as there already has been insight into its beaten-down protagonist, a show that suggests it’ll be worth sticking around for.

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

In between the ruminative Picard scenes are promising action sequences.

A heavily serialized, densely plotted affair, one that only finally begins taking shape after the third episode.

The show seeks to pull together notions of mythology, personal lore, and futuristic considerations of very modern problems, but often trips over itself in the process. But every time Picard was starting to lose me, there would be a spark of interest across the screen — a line, a gesture, a moment — that felt piercing and true.