When I found out there would be a Star Trek series which focused on the character Jean-Luc Picard, I was very excited. During this past weekend, I got the chance to watch the whole first season and could not wait to write about it. Well let's get on with it then.
Brief Story Line
Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart - The Kid Who Would be King, Charlie's Angels 2019 version etc) had retired from Starfleet for 20 years and was living in a chateau in France. When a mysterious young woman named Dahj (Isa Briones) somehow came to his place, Picard had no choice but to find out her background as well as try to save her life.
With the help from his former Starfleet First Officer named Raffi (Michelle Hurd - Blindspot TV series etc) and her friend Captain Rios (Santiago Cabrera - Merlin TV series etc) who owned a ship, they embarked on a journey to help Picard on his "latest mission". They were also joined by a synthetic life expert Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill - Vice, Scott Pilgrim vs the World etc) and a Romulan refugee Elnor (Evan Evagora).
So what would happen during this mission and what was the actual mystery surrounding Dhaj? Find them all in this space adventure series.
End of Brief Story Line
I have been a major fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation series for a long time (see my post on My Favorite All Time 80s TV series earlier) and so the name Picard immediately stood out when I heard about the news. When I watched the first episode, I was so excited, but then I felt a bit sad because it really hit me how different Patrick Stewart now compared to the good old days. It was after all more than 30 years since the series started. He did not change a lot in the 4 other movies released few years later but in here his change was real apparent.
Anyway, the first episode to my surprise was fast and suspenseful especially after Dhaj character appeared, with intriguing mystery. But then it slowed down a bit, until Captain Rios came into the picture. Since then onward the series became truly exciting as he really brought so much life and fun (episode 8 was absolutely delightful). The other characters were also interesting like Raffi whose history with Picard was nice to see. And I also loved Elnor's character. Oh aside from those names mentioned above, there was also another character of Romulan descent named Narek (Harry Treadaway) who should not be missed out on. All in all, I thought the characters here were mostly nicely portrayed by the actors and actresses, though obviously the main star would have to be Patrick Stewart who amazingly showed how good he is as an actor.
Amazingly, this Star Trek series was totally different from The Next Generation in term of style. It has more action and violence (some of them were pretty graphically shown) plus it was darker with some harsh language as well. The action was seriously done like in a movie released for theater with some good enough special effects, exactly like we would see in space adventure films. And what really made me so happy was the appearance of some surprise special guest stars. Of all the 10 episodes, I loved the pilot episode, the lovely 7th episode and my most beloved was the season finale. My God that was an episode with so many emotional moments that made me very sentimental and could not hold my tears.
In the end, this was a great series for me. It focused a lot on Picard in his old days with some classic Star Trek: The Next Generation references. If you are a fan of those, then I believe you would love this one too. But if you have never watched that series before, you could give it a try and probably could understand the story, though I doubt you could relate to it as much as me or other fans. Btw Star Trek: Nemesis would also help better understanding on the first season plot.
This series also had a good critical rating which was really wonderful as it would help justify more seasons in the future. Second season is due to be broadcast by end of 2020, but I think early or mid 2021 would be more likely seeing that other series also have stopped production for a while due to the covid-19 pandemic. So if you love the character Jean-Luc Picard, then you would enjoy this series and it is certainly a must see.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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