CBS won’t listen to some lowly blogger, but hey, I’ll put my request on the web for all of virtual eternity.
Don’t want to rehash my dislike of Star Trek: Picard, but the show described in the paragraph below sounds like the Star Trek I’d still love to watch … if only it existed.
“Assuming that the Titan is still in service â probably a reasonable assumption â she’s nearly a decade in Riker’s rear-view, and he in hers,” Chabon says. “It’s off somewhere in the galaxy exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life, etc. This brand new Curiosity-class ship was freshly crewed up and ready to go.”
Star Trek: Picard Showrunner Explains Why Riker Wasn’t on the Titan in the Finale
That’s right (bolding in quote above is mine), you can keep Picard. Thank goodness Patrick Stewart is lobbying against a pandemic plotline for season two (Star Trek: Outbreak!).
Give me Riker before he was retired in charge of the Titan. Give him some synths, perhaps Brent Spiner as some other Data-relative or having his memories implanted, Worf at tactical, Geordie Laforge as the Scotty of the engine room, Counselor Deanna Troi as the new Number One, Dr. Crusher in charge of medical or as a hologram assisting a new doctor. Send this crew out into the great unknown.
There we go. That’s the series that, with the right humanity and solid writing and acting, would be worth seeing. Those of you reading that stayed with Picard longer than me, what do you want to see happen for the next Star Trek?
Go ahead. We can always dream.
Movies, Movies, Movies 
Dude, this isn’t the 80’s anymore, why would you want to see more of the same old same? If you want a Starfleet ship, with, a crew exploring , we have Discovery. I have watched Star Trek my entire life, I have my favorites, and, least favorites, but, they are still part of the Star Trek family. Star Trek has to change and be fresh in order to remain relevant. What’s more Star Trek than seeing a legend deal with his biggest mistake and regret? Watching him challenge the very system that he was part of? Assemble a crew of other broken misfits, and, together, become a family and help each other heal? That sure sounds like Star Trek to me. Seeing Riker and Troi again was one of the many highlights of the series, the secret is, seeing these old familiar faces in ways that move the story arc forward, something, that was done with complete and total perfection. We finally see Picard deal with being assimilated by the Borg, with some help from Hugh and Seven of Nine. Both characters also used to perfection and worked within the story arc. I’m sorry, as a life long Trekkie, I can’t disagree with more. I love Riker, but, the Titan has sailed, just like Captain Sulu and Captain Worf, those are dreams of the past. If CBS gives us another ship based series, I would like to see Pike. That’s a piece of Star Trek history that could be explored. Star Trek Picard and Star Trek Discovery, both, deal with issues going on right now, it’s like looking in a mirror. That’s what Star Trek has always done so well, I find, that the fans that claim it’s not Star Trek, are often the ones, that don’t like what they see in the reflection. What makes Star Trek so good, is, you can sit back and enjoy the story as entertainment, or, you can see it for the undertones that are beneath, the surface. No matter what you choose to see in Star Trek it’s, still, Star Trek. At it’s core it has hope and believes that we can be better that we are today. That discrimination and hate can be defeated, and, that, Infantile Diversity in Infinite Combinations makes us stronger.
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Thank you for the heartfelt comment.
lol What’s wrong with the 80s? đ In truth, I’d rather go back to the 60s with TOS (I like your Pike idea, therefore), but if they’re going to give us Picard, at least give us believable character arcs. You’d have to read my Picard reviews to understand all that I disliked with Picard and why. It’s far too much to get into here.
Discovery? Tried watching, and maybe didn’t give it enough chance but what little I saw was the same terrible writing as Picard, I couldn’t get through more than the first few episodes of Discovery. The problem is the cast weren’t nearly as likable as TOS, TNG, Voyager, heck give me the people aboard DS9, all better casts with (much!) better writing. What did you like about the Discovery crew? What am I missing out on there? I’ll accept that it might be at least worth a couple more episodes to give it another chance. Not the same with Picard, I hung in there for 7 of the 10 episodes and that was 5 too many. What is your absolutely favorite Discovery episode?
The best Star Trek illumination about the current world is done less obviously and on the nose. Visit alien civilizations and let those be the reflection of issues and concerns in the real world.
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As for Riker and believable character arc. This all makes me think about what other wasted opportunities existed with his character.
What did he spend 7 seasons in TNG doing? Training to become the captain. He learned under the best and yet what do we get to see of him captaining his own ship in a series? Almost nothing, We see him in retirement making pizzas and mourning the death of a child with his wife Troi.
Maybe that would have been more rewarding if we understood what his career was like as a captain — rather than the awful, weak usage of flashbacks and exposition in Picard — but we were never really given that type of storytelling. Instead, we skip his major character arc that we spent 7 seasons of TNG building toward and miss out on dealing with how he used that expertise in any meaningful work experience and personal growth.
It was 7 years spent learning how to make pizzas. We didn’t even get to see if he learned how to play the trombone better!
My biggest problem with Picard was terrible writing. There are some amazing science fiction writers around — both veteran and new — that could have done 100x better with the wealth of material available to them. Chabon? If he’s so good, why is he bailing after the first season? Kurtzman Trek is all lens flares and hyper-action with no character development, growth and common
F-bombs from Starfleet admirals toward the great Picard is not the illuminating, hopeful Trek Roddenberry created. I have no problems with profanity in a series, go read my Harley Quinn reviews, I love that, but it doesn’t fit any Star Trek universe I’ve ever loved and known. Am I open to going some new direction? Yes, just do it with brand new characters in a new timeline, don’t take older, established characters and try and twist and morph them into some new story just because you can. That’s being creatively stupid, not creative.
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