I have to admit, I was super stoked about the release of yet another Star Trek series. I was especially excited that it would focus around MY captain, the very British Frenchman Jean-Luc Picard. Then when I found out that it would also feature two more of my favorite characters, Data and Seven of Nine, I nearly creamed myself. To watch the premier, I hushed my family and explained that the first episode of Picard was the most important thing going on in the universe at the moment. Then the opening sequence started, and "Blue Skies" began playing. Fucking perfect. Tear in my eye already. Let's do this!
Immediately though we find that we've been trolled, and Data is still very dead. He only appears in dreams/ hallucinations, and Brent Spiner is merely a "special guest star." I'm ok with that though, because I can barely stand to look at his puffy face. I don't know how else they would have addressed this, because I get that Data doesn't age but Brent Spiner definitely does. Since Data's face needs to be smooth, and Spiner's probably isn't (nor is it likely the same size as it was 30+ years ago), so much makeup has been applied that Data now looks like a yellow marshmallow. I don't have a solution for this problem, nor is this even an actual criticism, I'm just saying that the situation exists and that it's very difficult to ignore. But anyway....
I guess while we're bitching about people being older, we might as well talk about Picard. The show makes no attempt to downplay Picard's age. In fact, the first few scenes highlight it. There are jokes about "old dogs," and Picard orders his earl grey in decaf now. He struggles running up stairs. I actually like that they aren't trying to make the old Picard the same as the....old Picard. He's more of a caring nurturing person now. Though his heart has always been in the right place, he's no longer afraid to express it. He cherishes the "Captain Picard Day" banner that once mortified him. He is noticeably different. He's aged. He speaks slower. But all of that is completely appropriate.Now let's talk about the setting. As someone who has complained DISCO unnecessarily trapped itself within a very narrow and extremely well-documented time period, it's refreshing for the first time since DS9 to see...the future. The Picard series represents the furthest the Star Trek timeline has progressed, outside of any temporal shenanigans. But this is a future that more closely resembles our own time than any of Trek has ever presented. It has a feel that is not so futuristic at all. Sure there's replicators and aliens, but there's also the quiet peace of a vineyard, and annoying television shows with gotcha journalists. Boston certainly doesn't look like Boston, but it does look a great deal like Dubai or Shenzhen. And the pacing is slower. We have some decent action scenes, but you can tell that this series is going to be more character driven than action driven. I'm fine with that. Another of my criticisms of DISCO has been that I felt like I'm watching a superhero movie rather than science fiction. However, the Rodenberry vision of a near-perfect future has again been abandoned. We learn early on that the former Admiral Picard has left Star Fleet because Star Fleet is no longer Star Fleet. Pity.
Now about the recent goings-on. We learn that the Romulan's sun exploded, and the Federation, under Picard's urging and ultimately direction, began the evacuation of Romulus. Picard draws the parallel to Dunkirk, and then criticizes his interviewer for not knowing what happened at Dunkirk. I admit that I also am ignorant on Dunkirk, though I know there was a recent move made about it. So excuse me while I go Wikipedia that whole thing, brb.......Ok, I only read the synopsis of the article, but basically it's a French WWII battle where the Germans stopped advancing and gave the British time for a massive evacuation. Right! Basically the same as a planetary evacuation of an enemy state due to supernova. Sure. But then, "the synthetics," a new term for androids, went berserk during the operation and killed everyone and set Mars on fire. Because of this, synthetics were banned, and the rest of the Romulans were left to die.
Now on to the plot. Data somehow has a covert daughter. So secret a matter is this, that even she doesn't know that she's a synthetic. But one day Romulan assassins come to execute her, and she is "activated." She fights them off, and has visions of Picard. She seeks his help, but is murdered by the Romulans nonetheless. Picard then has an activation of his own, where he realizes that he's been hiding out and not helping while the world needed him. He is ready to come out of retirement and kick some ass! So he goes to the Daystrom institute to find out how in the world Data's daughter might have been created. There they have a B-4 Data model in a drawer, just chillin. So maybe we aren't being trolled about the return of Data after all. Basically, they don't have the technology to create a being like Data unless they had access to an actual Data. But there's a missing guy that might be able to do it with just a single neuron from Data. This is probably how Dahj was created. Oh also, he made two of them. The other one is working with the Romulans...on a Borg cube. Dun dun dunnn.All in all, "Remembrance" is an Adequate series premier. I had no expectations going in, and the series delivered a very unique premier. So far we have a very different feel than DISCO, or any Trek show to date. Yet somehow I'm left lest stoked after watching it than I was before.
Published Jan 25, 2020
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