TV shows we love: Star Trek: Picard by Alix Norman

Say what you will, Picard is the best of the captains by far. I mean, where’s the series called Kirk? My point exactly! I was worried when I heard the Star Trek franchise was launching a new show based completely on the iconic captain of the Enterprise, Jean-Luc Picard. I was concerned the screen hero of my youth would suffer at the hands of a modern-day director.

But my apprehension was all for naught. Picard (both character and series) is, quite simply, superb. It’s everything you want from Star Trek: intricate plots and intimate moments, peopled by a cast of the familiar (Riker, Troi, Guinan, Data, and Q have cameos, while both Commodore Oh and Seven of Nine take a more major role), and new (aka a host of unfamiliar Romulans, synths, and otherworldly beings all set on destroying the universe).

Initially, Sir Patrick Stewart refused the role, feeling that Picard’s journey had run its course. But when the producers pitched a revised concept that took into account an ageing Picard – troubled by the events of his youth – Stewart signed on…

The eighth series set in the Star Trek universe (ninth including the companion series Star Trek: Short Treks), IMDB currently rates Star Trek: Picard as a 7.5 out of 10 (pretty damn high), billing it as the “Follow-up series to Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) that centres on Jean-Luc Picard in the next chapter of his life.”

But die-hard Trekkies (of which I am a communicator badge-carrying member) would probably give this CBS Studios effort (on Amazon prime) a solid 9, if not higher. Not just for the plots and the acting, but for the way in which the series caters to fans new and old…

If you’ve never watched a Star Trek show (seriously? Where have you been for the last 50 years?), skip The Original Series, take a glimpse at TNG, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine, ignore Enterprise and Discovery, and then dive into Picard. You’ve the whole first season to binge-watch before you catch up with the rest of us in season two. Where we’re currently enjoying an alternate timeline set in LA, circa 2024…