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Fleets of starships looming impressively over bright and brilliant planets, Shakespearean actors confidently babbling about the ethos of space travel, and aliens with funny ears scheming against humanity. I am not a fan of Star Trek, having never followed any of its prior incarnations on television, and yet I somehow know to expect all of these tropes from the franchise. These are the elements that have stood the test of time even amongst the most disinterested of audience members, and Star Trek: Picard boasts a healthy dose of all three, with the added bonus of a ludicrous special effects budget and a sharp performance from Sir Patrick Stewart in the leading role. Needless to say, the show has a huge range of features working in its favour, which is why I am admittedly slightly baffled as to how the resulting show could be this thunderously dull.
The series follows Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), the protagonist of Star Trek: The Next Generation from 1987 to 1994, as he is tempted out of retirement by a galactic conspiracy, the root of which quite literally lands on the doorstep of his tranquil home on the outskirts of society. This version of Picard is much older and frailer than in his original starring run, and one of the primary conflicts of the first three episodes of Star Trek: Picard concerns his inability to reconnect with old allies and resources from his youth. The world has written him off as a man long past his prime and its systems have turned on him entirely, which makes his fight to solve the central mystery a challenging and potentially devastating ordeal.
This scenario is ripe with dramatic potential, and Stewart does everything in his power to tease hints of melancholy and fatigue in a character who is struggling against circumstances which would have barely registered as obstacles 25 years ago. Unfortunately, the show’s writers appear to be content to coast on this performance alone, and for their part offer minimal substance to the various beats of his journey. The second episode in particular stands out for its thoughtless screenplay, being shaped almost entirely around a series of near-identical conversations. This formula, which quickly becomes frustratingly obvious, sees Picard pay an old acquaintance a visit in the hope that he might be assisted in his mission and disarming their attempts to deflect his request with nostalgic reflections, before being cruelly rejected and labelled as a man with no cards left to play. These scenes, while interesting in isolation, become exhausting when inelegantly strung together in a stagnant loop. At no point in the show’s first three hours does showrunner Alex Kurtzman attempt to suggest that there is anything more to Picard’s world than what initially meets the eye, and consequently it begins to feel incredibly small and artificial.
Fortunately, the show does offer up one strong scene partner for Stewart in Dahj (Isa Briones), a young woman being hunted by masked killers who briefly crosses paths with Picard in the show’s first episode. Their dynamic is a refreshingly warm one, with Stewart and Briones bringing out the best in each other’s cagey performances. Every frame they share on screen positively brims with an energy that lends nuance to even the most stilted dialogue. This makes the decision to separate them for the second and third instalments feel like a fatal error, serving only to emphasise just how frail the rest of the show is outside of their rapport.
There is no question that Star Trek: Picard is a beautiful show supported by the finest production values money can buy, but unfortunately what lies beneath the surface is a paper thin narrative with no forward momentum. It has been 18 years since Patrick Stewart last reprised the role, and it is truly a shame that his return could not have been met with more than a story built out of a mediocre formula thinly veiled by nostalgia.
