Season 1
is a failed show from 18 producers that wants to be a character-driven drama about an old sick man coming out of retirement, but also wants to be a mystery secret agents prophecy cyborg action show where the universe is at stake. It distorts the values of the Federation and it's packed full of issues that don't get explored in detail - you know, like Star Trek does.
(cybernetic life vs. Human life, android rights, Brexit, secret organizations, quasi-religious cults, external threat to end all life in the galaxy, feminism, coming-of-age, spies in love, incestual relationship between brother and sister, substance abuse because of trauma/PTSD, rich vs. Poor, isolation because of setbacks, immigration, refugee crisis, Picard as an old man, what it means to be an ex-Borg, moving on from depression, identity/Jason Bourne, chosen one story, racism, being a parent/losing a child and so on)
It's supposed to make you care about synths but doesn't take the time to set it up properly. The main synth almost kills all organic life in the galaxy by summoning robot tentacles from a hole in space.
A muddled mess with a romulan lady's despair destroying a Borg cube, incompetent people, murderers getting away scot-free, gouging out eyes, drug abuse, classism, f-bombs, bloody swordplay and the season has a lot of consistency and pacing issues. It's just a mess from the beginning (Picard has no friends and is a hermit who gets bullied by Fox News) to end (Picard sacrifices himself for murderous synths but not really because there's a convenient synth body we can get him).
It's a 4/10 at most and the makers of this mess should be ashamed.
Season 2 was - to my surprise - an even bigger mess than the previous one. How you can mess up Star Trek so royally is beyond my comprehension.
It's a low budget season, filmed in LA with tons of side plots that go nowhere and eat up screentime, unnecessary car chases, unsophisticated psychology, lame twists, actors play other roles for no good reason, time travel rules that change from episode to episode, no good Q scenes (maybe 1), heavy-handed social commentary, witchcraft, 2-minute therapy sessions, making characters geniuses who astound with impossible leaps of logic or making them absolute imbeciles whenever needed and a climax that is so unprofessionally filmed it boggles the mind.
21 producers plus the writers made a 10-episode season with material for maybe 4 episodes. Congratulations, people, for producing the worst season of Star Trek and TV that I had the misfortune to watch.
3/10 at the most!
Season 3 is a different beast. The new showrunner Terry Matalas wants us to have a nice nostalgia ride with the old crew. And if that's all you want, then you'll get it.
For me, there was just too much nostalgia put in there. It's like Star Trek is a museum and not a living thing.
The overarching story is kind of weak, though. Three quarters of the season consists of a mystery plot that is completely irrelevant in the last two episodes.
Vadic just gets spaced and apart from two sentences in the Borg Queen info dump, nobody seems to care anymore about Section 31, how long this conspiracy has gone on for or exactly how this alliance between the Borg and the changelings even worked. What was the benefit for the changelings if the Borg "not just (want) to assimilate, but annihilate"? Why did I have to endure Vadic and her shenanigans for 8 episodes?
But these things get drowned out by explosions and a ridiculous scene where Picard can free his son that he knows for a week because he hugs him. It gets really pathetic when they show flashbacks of these few days when they drank at the holodeck or had an argument. Ah! The good times!
And this is the antithesis of TNG. Yes you can reproduce the bridge or render the old Enterprise-D but when love makes Borg nanoprobes go away, we are indeed not in the Star Trek universe anymore.
Or what about that stupid secret Section 31 station/horror warehouse full with doomsday weapons and crazy creatures where the only security measure is a defunct AI with personality disorder that conjures up a Sherlock Holmes villain who shoots at you with bullets from a revolver. And the only way to stop this is to whistle a tune that only one person in the universe might know. This is the level of writing that we got.
That backdoor pilot at the end just didn't work for me, though. Why rename the ship to Enterprise? Why have a former murderous alcoholic vigilante that Starfleet rejected "because Borg" as the captain? Why have Raffi, the worst Starfleet officer I have ever seen as a First Offficer? And then being so uncreative that a former Borg on a ship called Enterprise is being tested by Q (who apparently survived his teary-eyed death in S2). Is that it? No more new ideas?
Listen, I applaud Matalas for trying to do a Star Trek show at least but there are too many stupid things in here.
Worf and Raffi disappear for an episode with only the flimsiest excuse, only to make a "surprise" appearance later and stab at changelings that somehow suddenly also fight with swords and somehow can be hurt by them. It really boggles the mind!
It is the season that started with Beverly Crusher shooting a phaser pump gun that runs out of ammo after 6 shots! This is almost as bad as in season 1 romulan agents putting a bag over the head of a synth that can 'activate'.
I'm not here to give ratings to good intentions but to review the season. And this last one was lacking. Trading novelty for nostalgia is not a good idea for a Star Trek tv series.
5/10
Sadly, this was probably the last time these characters come together. I would like to say it was worth it and they've made some instant classic episodes, but alas!
This show was poorly thought out: Picard died but then lived like it didn't matter, Q died but came back, Data died but came back, Ro Laren and Shelby died but got a reprieve via social media by showrunner Matalas and Jurati became a cuddly Borg Queen but a season later we're back with the old queen, no Jurati in sight. 24th/25th century morals, values and even technology have deteriorated without any reason, like phasers working like shotguns with limited ammo you have to reload every shot or poverty being back in our utopia or a 24th century doctor (Crusher) failing to use a contraceptive.
For the future: plan your seasons not as movies, don't just ride on nostalgia, don't let actors pitch their own family problems, only use characters if you really have to something for them to do!
Star Trek is not just a bunch of tropes and things.
(cybernetic life vs. Human life, android rights, Brexit, secret organizations, quasi-religious cults, external threat to end all life in the galaxy, feminism, coming-of-age, spies in love, incestual relationship between brother and sister, substance abuse because of trauma/PTSD, rich vs. Poor, isolation because of setbacks, immigration, refugee crisis, Picard as an old man, what it means to be an ex-Borg, moving on from depression, identity/Jason Bourne, chosen one story, racism, being a parent/losing a child and so on)
It's supposed to make you care about synths but doesn't take the time to set it up properly. The main synth almost kills all organic life in the galaxy by summoning robot tentacles from a hole in space.
A muddled mess with a romulan lady's despair destroying a Borg cube, incompetent people, murderers getting away scot-free, gouging out eyes, drug abuse, classism, f-bombs, bloody swordplay and the season has a lot of consistency and pacing issues. It's just a mess from the beginning (Picard has no friends and is a hermit who gets bullied by Fox News) to end (Picard sacrifices himself for murderous synths but not really because there's a convenient synth body we can get him).
It's a 4/10 at most and the makers of this mess should be ashamed.
Season 2 was - to my surprise - an even bigger mess than the previous one. How you can mess up Star Trek so royally is beyond my comprehension.
It's a low budget season, filmed in LA with tons of side plots that go nowhere and eat up screentime, unnecessary car chases, unsophisticated psychology, lame twists, actors play other roles for no good reason, time travel rules that change from episode to episode, no good Q scenes (maybe 1), heavy-handed social commentary, witchcraft, 2-minute therapy sessions, making characters geniuses who astound with impossible leaps of logic or making them absolute imbeciles whenever needed and a climax that is so unprofessionally filmed it boggles the mind.
21 producers plus the writers made a 10-episode season with material for maybe 4 episodes. Congratulations, people, for producing the worst season of Star Trek and TV that I had the misfortune to watch.
3/10 at the most!
Season 3 is a different beast. The new showrunner Terry Matalas wants us to have a nice nostalgia ride with the old crew. And if that's all you want, then you'll get it.
For me, there was just too much nostalgia put in there. It's like Star Trek is a museum and not a living thing.
The overarching story is kind of weak, though. Three quarters of the season consists of a mystery plot that is completely irrelevant in the last two episodes.
Vadic just gets spaced and apart from two sentences in the Borg Queen info dump, nobody seems to care anymore about Section 31, how long this conspiracy has gone on for or exactly how this alliance between the Borg and the changelings even worked. What was the benefit for the changelings if the Borg "not just (want) to assimilate, but annihilate"? Why did I have to endure Vadic and her shenanigans for 8 episodes?
But these things get drowned out by explosions and a ridiculous scene where Picard can free his son that he knows for a week because he hugs him. It gets really pathetic when they show flashbacks of these few days when they drank at the holodeck or had an argument. Ah! The good times!
And this is the antithesis of TNG. Yes you can reproduce the bridge or render the old Enterprise-D but when love makes Borg nanoprobes go away, we are indeed not in the Star Trek universe anymore.
Or what about that stupid secret Section 31 station/horror warehouse full with doomsday weapons and crazy creatures where the only security measure is a defunct AI with personality disorder that conjures up a Sherlock Holmes villain who shoots at you with bullets from a revolver. And the only way to stop this is to whistle a tune that only one person in the universe might know. This is the level of writing that we got.
That backdoor pilot at the end just didn't work for me, though. Why rename the ship to Enterprise? Why have a former murderous alcoholic vigilante that Starfleet rejected "because Borg" as the captain? Why have Raffi, the worst Starfleet officer I have ever seen as a First Offficer? And then being so uncreative that a former Borg on a ship called Enterprise is being tested by Q (who apparently survived his teary-eyed death in S2). Is that it? No more new ideas?
Listen, I applaud Matalas for trying to do a Star Trek show at least but there are too many stupid things in here.
Worf and Raffi disappear for an episode with only the flimsiest excuse, only to make a "surprise" appearance later and stab at changelings that somehow suddenly also fight with swords and somehow can be hurt by them. It really boggles the mind!
It is the season that started with Beverly Crusher shooting a phaser pump gun that runs out of ammo after 6 shots! This is almost as bad as in season 1 romulan agents putting a bag over the head of a synth that can 'activate'.
I'm not here to give ratings to good intentions but to review the season. And this last one was lacking. Trading novelty for nostalgia is not a good idea for a Star Trek tv series.
5/10
Sadly, this was probably the last time these characters come together. I would like to say it was worth it and they've made some instant classic episodes, but alas!
This show was poorly thought out: Picard died but then lived like it didn't matter, Q died but came back, Data died but came back, Ro Laren and Shelby died but got a reprieve via social media by showrunner Matalas and Jurati became a cuddly Borg Queen but a season later we're back with the old queen, no Jurati in sight. 24th/25th century morals, values and even technology have deteriorated without any reason, like phasers working like shotguns with limited ammo you have to reload every shot or poverty being back in our utopia or a 24th century doctor (Crusher) failing to use a contraceptive.
For the future: plan your seasons not as movies, don't just ride on nostalgia, don't let actors pitch their own family problems, only use characters if you really have to something for them to do!
Star Trek is not just a bunch of tropes and things.
