Star Trek: Picard (2020)

Rating: ⭐⭐

Many of us are confined to our homes with lockdowns imposed in the global fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. For some that means more time to catch up on what's on the television apart from the real life horrors that the news channels broadcast on a 24 hours basis. There are plenty of great TV series to binge watch if you are into that sort of pass time. The new Star Trek: Picard has 10 episodes ready for viewing if you are a Star Trek fan.

Patrick Stewart heads the series as retired Star Fleet captain Jean Luc Picard who gets drawn into a dangerous mission to save what appears to be a legacy left behind by his best friend, the artificial human, Data. Along the way he assembles a ragbag team to travel into space with him into the unknown. Sounds like typical formula for a science fiction adventure done a thousand times before, so the question here is whether you wish to take this well worn journey again? Well .. I guess its a no and yes. "No" because you probably can find far better TV series to place your valuable time in, and "Yes" because you are a die hard Star Trek fan and there is something about Patrick Stewart which makes just trust his judgement in materials that he works in. I had to confess that I am not a Star Trek die hard fan. While I really enjoyed the recent cinema series with Chris Pines, I have not been following the TV series which Patrick Stewart starred in, notably Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) to which this new series is supposedly followed up from.

Happily there is no big loss in coherence without the benefit of knowledge from the earlier series. Picard is pretty much a standalone adventure with some loose reference and characters from the early days. While the first episode sets the tone nicely displaying some decent level of special effects and action along with a mysterious plot to entice the viewer, the subsequent episodes moved along slowly taking its time introducing the various characters Picard picks along to assemble his new team of space travellers. The series only picked up momentum in the second half of the season with some neat twists and as the characters begin to grow on the audience. One character in particular which I thought was a standout was the sword weaving kung fu fighting sidekick Elnor. While his character of devoted protector to Picard who cannot lie is pretty one dimensional, young Australian actor Evan Evagora manages to invoke a delicate mix of humour, and emotions while providing some amazing kung fu chops in the process.

On the whole Picard was not entirely a big hit with me. It offered a standard and safe storyline coupled with some neat action and characterisation but beyond that I think it will be a series I would not remember in years to come. The series conclusion implies more to come as it looked very much like the whole thing was an introduction to a new Star Trek series. Fans of Star Trek can rejoice but I think I will count myself out as there are more interesting and original science fiction and fantasy series in the market.