I just started this show. I haven’t really liked any Star Trek show since STNG, so I kept putting this one off. Mostly because Picard hasn’t been well received

I am halfway through season one. I am not sure what to say about this show. I don’t love it. Parts have a lot of promise and parts are just so clumsy. It has a serial story, but it is clear that whoever is writing it is still thinking episodically. Things are really sped up and the writers have an obsession with illustrating backstory in the worse way. So many scenes with laborious dialogue.

The show is also a lot more realistic view of the federation than previous Trek products I have seen.

Overall there is enough goodness to keep me watching and again, I don’t love it.

  • Iced Raktajino@startrek.website
    4·
    29 minutes ago

    I had similar thoughts on it, but then I read the prequel novel which fills in a LOT of blanks. The backstory in PIC S1 is only touched on in dialog but I feel like it should have been the first half of the season. It makes so much of the story in the show make sense.

    Specifically:

    • Why Picard had such a dramatic, passionate, and public split from Starfleet
    • Who Raffi is, why she’s actually way more awesome than she was portrayed in S1, and why she and Picard are such BFFs now (and their falling out / why Raffi is angry at Picard)
    • How Worf got command of the Enterprise-E (not really relevant until S3 but still good addition to the backstory).
    • The full scope/scale of the aborted Romulan evacuation
    • The absolute political shitstorm that was happening within the Federation because of the amount of resources being (re) allocated for the effort. In the show, we got one line from Admiral Clancy but it’s a very important part of the backstory that’s covered in detail in the novel.
    • Why neither Picard nor Starfleet Command are really in the wrong. The situation was shitty / “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” no matter what way you looked at it. The show clearly takes Picard’s side, but it’s much more complex than that.

    All of that context was lacking in the show and only vaguely touched on in either throwaway lines or cryptic dialog.

    I read the prequel novel (and the rest in the series that happen between seasons) and am on ep 3 of a PIC S1 rewatch. Everything just makes more sense this time around with all of that in mind.

    So if you’re only a few episodes in, do yourself a favor and pause that. Go buy, pirate, and/or otherwise obtain the prequel novel and read it first.

    Link: https://www.ebooks.com/en-us/book/209722657/star-trek-picard-the-last-best-hope/una-mccormack/

    • aeronmelon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      1 hour ago

      The series (the first two seasons) was mostly written by Akiva Goldsman. The book was written by Una McCormack, someone who has written a lot of Star Trek tie-in books. That’s most of the reason why her books elevate the property so much.

      It’s a shame that book writers are not tapped to write the shows.

      • Iced Raktajino@startrek.website
        1·
        17 minutes ago

        I realize there’s major differences between writing a novel and writing a screenplay, but yeah, they should definitely try to involve them. Maybe it’s just cheaper to hire screenwriters than it is to license a novel and adapt it?

      • Iced Raktajino@startrek.website
        1·
        10 minutes ago

        Awesome. I really enjoyed it as well as the other tie-in novels for PIC.

        If you’re planning to buy (you should but I won’t judge lol), here’s a tip if you use ebooks [dot] com. Put everything you’re interested in into a wish list (might need to register an account) and check in on it every few days. Sometimes books randomly go on unannounced sales for $1.99. It’s listed at $13.99 now, but I got “The Last Best Hope” for $1.99 by sheer luck when someone recommended it to me a few months ago.

    • pimento64@sopuli.xyz
      41·
      1 hour ago

      If a show or movie isn’t good unless you get a supplemental book, then it’s a failure. A story that can’t tell its own story should just be thrown away.