Everyone Loves Picard

Do you remember the days when the Enterprise was always "the only ship in interception range" to take on a sudden new threat?

Do you remember the days when it took three different command-level officers to complete the self-destruct codes on a star ship?

Do you remember the days when narratives were straight-forward and character development took place as part of the development of the plot, not in place of the development of the plot?

Do you remember the days when Star Fleet was even remotely competent as a fleet of exploration and, when necessary, war?

Now go watch the "Stargazer", the first episode of the long-awaited second-season of Star Trek: Picard (STP). Oh so much has changed!

The first season of STP went into the toilet about two-thirds of the way through, after a fairly strong start.

The second season? We waited 18 months for this -- a saccharine sweet, Everybody Loves Picard show that treats plot like a deadly disease and action like a commercial interlude before another otherwise intelligent, capable female character comes on screen to moon over the main character?

Worse still, STP seems to want to have it both ways with its title character: it wants to spend most of its time venerating the aged gentleman who is way past being ready to retire while still making us believe he is an action hero.

"Stargazer" uses that now tried-and-true Star Trek plot structure: start with an action sequence that gives you just enough info to know all of your favourite characters are together again and facing incredible peril, then jump back some period of time (in this case, 48 hours) to tell us how we got there. 

This gives them a chance to make it feel like there are actually two action sequences when, in fact, there is only one. Used skillfully, the structure can create significant tension and suspense. But that's only if you use the interim period effectively to drive your viewers at breakneck speed to that final precipice.

STP throws the opening action at us, then spends the next thirty full minutes following a doddering old admiral as he moves from supportive woman to supportive woman to supportive woman, trying to figure out why he is alone at 100 years old.

When the episode finally gets back to the plot it promised at the outset, Picard arrives on the scene to find his many friends waiting for him, plus an armada of Star Fleet ships that somehow were all within interception range, facing yet another threat like nothing we've ever seen before. Only it's a threat we know only too well and, despite his deep, devastating knowledge and understanding of this threat, Picard and his pals manage to mess it all up again, leading to the self-destruct order that Picard alone can issue, on a ship over which he has absolutely no direct command responsibility.

Did I say there were two action sequences? Sorry, there were three. Wedged into the story for no other reason than that we need another action sequence is a hand-to-hand combat scene featuring Seven of Nine battling two apparent pirates on the ship she now owns. Funny that Seven has absolutely no modern weapons available to her on her own ship; funnier still that Seven can remove the safety protocols on her one holo-crew-member so that he can join the battle -- why she wouldn't just create an army of holo-crew for just such an occasion I will never know.

And that ending! You tell me: was it all a dream? was it reality, only to be circumvented by the interference of another old friend? are we in an alternate timeline and will be eventually returned to the original, catastrophic one?