Jean-Luc Picard coming back to Star Trek. But WHICH one?

This is important.

If it’s the indefinably annoying, curiously passive, and vaguely preachy Jean Luc Picard of the first couple seasons of Star Trek: Next Generation, well.  Yay?  On the other hand, if it’s the NOW I HAVE A MACHINE GUN MAKE IT SO Jean-Luc Picard of First Contact, well.  OK, I can dig it.

Guess we’ll see.

Moe Lane

PS: I like Patrick Stewart as an actor just fine, actually.  I just, you know, reserve the right to trust, yet verify.

15 thoughts on “Jean-Luc Picard coming back to Star Trek. But WHICH one?”

  1. … I’ll admit, I’d really prefer to see the snarky Sir Patrick chew some of The Orville’s scenery.
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    All of the ‘Star Trek’ Star Trek franchises, at this point, are taking themselves just a *tad* too seriously for my taste.
    .
    Mew

    1. I did not like The Orville when it first came on. In fact, I only kept watching it out of loyalty to Adrianne Palicki. But as time went on, I came to realize three very unsettling things:

      1) The dumb humor, which was sold as the point of the series, felt more and more tacked-on. In fact, by the last episode of the season, it was basically obligatory. Mostly, what was left was Star Trek. Watered down, but still there.

      2) The plots were pretty classic sci-fi, and some of them dealt with, or at least touched on, very serious issues. In fact, it’s obvious to me now (as it wasn’t at the beginning) that what Seth MacFarlane really wants to do is not to parody Star Trek: The Original Series, but make his own version of it. The only thing preventing him from doing so is copyright issues. And the humor is there just so his lawyers can say “They don’t do that juvenile crap on Star Trek!”

      3) The Orville is now fighting for the title of fourth-best Star Trek show ever made. It’s definitely behind the first three, but it’s already ahead of Enterprise and the animated show, and it’s certainly better than the latter seasons of Voyager. As for Star Trek: Discovery…that’s not actually Star Trek, so The Orville is kicking its humor-deprived, inspirationless butt all over the map.

      In sum, I am looking forward to the Orville more than I have looked forward to anything Trek-related since the fall of 2001. This flabbergasts me. But what else can I say?

      1. I have a somewhat different opinion on your point 2 .. I suspect it’s more of a “Redshirts” scenario .. but don’t really care.
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        I’ve managed to see enough of Discovery to .. not really care about that, either.
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        Certainly not enough to give CBS money that’s better given to Moe.
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        Mew

        1. Also, After the idiots involved with discovery decided to disrespect Avery Brooks, the whole show can go Fack itself. Never watched it and never will.

          2. The star of Discovery said something about how she was the first black lead on a Star Trek series, presumably to score some wokeness points for the producers. Unfortunately for her, it would be kind of hard for her to pull that feat off that since Avery Brooks had already done it a quarter century before her.

          3. Oh. Oh, dear.
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            I don’t suppose I’m lucky enough to live in a universe where she followed up that comment with a correction stating she misspoke, and she was actually the first female lead? I mean, at that point, you might as well go for the two-fer.

      2. My wife and I watched the Orville with a sense of SJW dead hanging over it and were… Quite surprised at the many times they took up a conservative (even by non Hollywood standards) position.

      3. Back in the 90s, DC Comics ran an extended series of Batman where Bane broke Bruce Wayne’s back, and he found a replacement while he went off to heal and do some other stuff. The replacement Batman changed up the costume, became more violent, and IIRC let a criminal die, before Bruce came back and challenged him for the cowl.

        After it was all over, they printed a bunch of letters with people complaining about the other Batman, and simply responded “you guys kept saying you wanted a darker, grittier Batman, and we gave it to you.”

        This is how I like to think the people behind ST:D went into it.

        I actually liked the show, but it was more kind of a meta thing based on how it made so many peoples’ heads explode.

  2. Sir, I believe you spelled “guy who surrendered the Enterprise in the first 20 minutes of the first episode” wrong.

    I mean, you were close, but spelling does count.

  3. Maybe we’ll get the Mirror Picard that some recent Star Trek comics have given us. No one would expect that.

  5. Being on the same pay-only network as ST:D (which I’ve heard episodes described to me and don’t want to watch) and some of the same creators as that, I have zero expectations that this will be any good.

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