"The Next Generation" was my introduction into the world of Star Trek. Captain Jean-Luc Picard was always decisive, always in control, never wrong. He was as close to a living saint in Starfleet as a society without religion can get. So what happens when his halo becomes a little tarnished?
It's clear that the United Federation of Planets isn't quite the utopia it once was. A war with the Dominion (Deep Space 9), and skirmishes with the Maquis and Klingons would leave any idealistic society a bit disillusioned. So for someone like Picard, who absolutely holds dear the ideals of the Federation, it makes for an uneasy existence within it now that things have greatly changed.
This show, however, begins with a brooding, retired, Admiral Picard who recalls in an interview that he was leading a mission of mercy to rescue and relocate Romulans after their sun had gone supernova when, without warning, androids (synthetics) working on Mars had become murderous. The ships being built there for the relocation were destroyed, and the relocation of the Romulans was brought to an end, much to Picard's dismay. So much so that Picard openly criticizes Starfleet and greatly embarrasses himself in the process.
It's at this point we're introduced to Dahj, an android that doesn't realize she's an android until some super secret Romulan agents enter her apartment, kill her boyfriend, and activate her ability to defend herself. As she's running from her apartment she sees an image of Picard and seeks him out.
After Picard and Dahj meet, he has a dream in which he sees his friend Data painting a picture. That leads him to Starfleet archives where he finds the painting, and finds out it was painted by Data and is titled "Daughter". Picard concludes from this that somehow Dahj and Data are linked together, but before he can find out for certain Dahj is killed by more Romulan agents.
Picard eventually goes to the Daystom Institute where he finds out that Dr. Bruce Maddox, who at one time wanted to disassemble Data in order to study and replicate him, believed that it was possible to make a synthetic life form, one that could be confused for being completely human, from a single neuron from Data's positronic matrix. And that such life was made in pairs, meaning that Dahj had a twin who might be in danger.
So Picard gives himself a mission: find Dahj's twin, find Bruce Maddox, and protect them from the Romulans. But as he's figuring out exactly how to do that, Starfleet refused to reinstate him and give him a ship. So he forms a ragtag crew made up of people he pissed off, but follow him anyway, and people he picks up along the way, such as Seven of Nine from Voyager, who has now become a vigilante.
Along the way they discover what's really going on. A shadow organization behind the Romulan Tal Shiar had learned that several hundred thousands of years ago, artificial life had nearly wiped out all organic life. This organization committed itself to safeguarding the universe from such a threat again. It was this group that had been behind the synthetics attacking Mars, and by extension sabotaging their own rescue. And now, from Dahj's twin sister android Soji, they have learned the location of the planet where these new synthetics are being built. So, for a nearly destroyed empire, they manage to assemble 218 heavily armed warships and deploy them to the planet in order to eliminate the threat that is represented by the synthetics.
But the Federation sends a fleet of ships, led by Picard's former first officer Will Riker, shows up. Meanwhile, the synthetics are preparing to defend themselves by summoning the artificial lifeforms that nearly destroyed organic life, that is until Picard gives one of his speeches and Soji shuts down the array that summoned them. But then not long after Picard, who had been suffering from an incurable disease the whole time, ends up dead. But not really because his consciousness was transferred into an android body, so that the show can go on.
I liked that Picard showed a broken, disillusioned man who had made some mistakes. I liked that the Federation and Starfleet had changed, and Picard had to deal with that. But what I didn't like is that even when it was revealed that the people Picard was trying to help, the Romulans, were responsible for ending their own rescue, Picard doesn't admit that he was wrong and that Starfleet was right. A people who would put an end to their own rescue and in such a violent way is capable of anything, and Starfleet had a responsibility to the Federation to protect it. But Picard would not concede that, he bought into his own hype and convinced those that joined him that he could not be anything but completely right.
The Romulans also, to an extent, were right. If given the opportunity the synthetics could and would destroy all organic life. So their actions, ironically enough, were to protect not only themselves, but the Federation and all the other races of the Star Trek universe. And they even showed themselves not to be the helpless refugees that Picard saw them as, as they assembled an impressive fleet of ships ready to battle the synthetics.
When you take a step back, you realize that this definitely isn't The Next Generation. Too much has happened in the world both inside and outside of Star Trek for it to be. So, I applaud the writers and producers for understanding that. But at the same time they make old, brooding, disillusioned Picard someone who, despite being wrong and pissing people off, someone who ultimately can't be wrong, and his self-righteous behavior and even wrong conclusions are simply glossed over. Having to deal with how wrong he had been should have been the way this show went. It ultimately wasn't.
It's clear that the United Federation of Planets isn't quite the utopia it once was. A war with the Dominion (Deep Space 9), and skirmishes with the Maquis and Klingons would leave any idealistic society a bit disillusioned. So for someone like Picard, who absolutely holds dear the ideals of the Federation, it makes for an uneasy existence within it now that things have greatly changed.
This show, however, begins with a brooding, retired, Admiral Picard who recalls in an interview that he was leading a mission of mercy to rescue and relocate Romulans after their sun had gone supernova when, without warning, androids (synthetics) working on Mars had become murderous. The ships being built there for the relocation were destroyed, and the relocation of the Romulans was brought to an end, much to Picard's dismay. So much so that Picard openly criticizes Starfleet and greatly embarrasses himself in the process.
It's at this point we're introduced to Dahj, an android that doesn't realize she's an android until some super secret Romulan agents enter her apartment, kill her boyfriend, and activate her ability to defend herself. As she's running from her apartment she sees an image of Picard and seeks him out.
After Picard and Dahj meet, he has a dream in which he sees his friend Data painting a picture. That leads him to Starfleet archives where he finds the painting, and finds out it was painted by Data and is titled "Daughter". Picard concludes from this that somehow Dahj and Data are linked together, but before he can find out for certain Dahj is killed by more Romulan agents.
Picard eventually goes to the Daystom Institute where he finds out that Dr. Bruce Maddox, who at one time wanted to disassemble Data in order to study and replicate him, believed that it was possible to make a synthetic life form, one that could be confused for being completely human, from a single neuron from Data's positronic matrix. And that such life was made in pairs, meaning that Dahj had a twin who might be in danger.
So Picard gives himself a mission: find Dahj's twin, find Bruce Maddox, and protect them from the Romulans. But as he's figuring out exactly how to do that, Starfleet refused to reinstate him and give him a ship. So he forms a ragtag crew made up of people he pissed off, but follow him anyway, and people he picks up along the way, such as Seven of Nine from Voyager, who has now become a vigilante.
Along the way they discover what's really going on. A shadow organization behind the Romulan Tal Shiar had learned that several hundred thousands of years ago, artificial life had nearly wiped out all organic life. This organization committed itself to safeguarding the universe from such a threat again. It was this group that had been behind the synthetics attacking Mars, and by extension sabotaging their own rescue. And now, from Dahj's twin sister android Soji, they have learned the location of the planet where these new synthetics are being built. So, for a nearly destroyed empire, they manage to assemble 218 heavily armed warships and deploy them to the planet in order to eliminate the threat that is represented by the synthetics.
But the Federation sends a fleet of ships, led by Picard's former first officer Will Riker, shows up. Meanwhile, the synthetics are preparing to defend themselves by summoning the artificial lifeforms that nearly destroyed organic life, that is until Picard gives one of his speeches and Soji shuts down the array that summoned them. But then not long after Picard, who had been suffering from an incurable disease the whole time, ends up dead. But not really because his consciousness was transferred into an android body, so that the show can go on.
I liked that Picard showed a broken, disillusioned man who had made some mistakes. I liked that the Federation and Starfleet had changed, and Picard had to deal with that. But what I didn't like is that even when it was revealed that the people Picard was trying to help, the Romulans, were responsible for ending their own rescue, Picard doesn't admit that he was wrong and that Starfleet was right. A people who would put an end to their own rescue and in such a violent way is capable of anything, and Starfleet had a responsibility to the Federation to protect it. But Picard would not concede that, he bought into his own hype and convinced those that joined him that he could not be anything but completely right.
The Romulans also, to an extent, were right. If given the opportunity the synthetics could and would destroy all organic life. So their actions, ironically enough, were to protect not only themselves, but the Federation and all the other races of the Star Trek universe. And they even showed themselves not to be the helpless refugees that Picard saw them as, as they assembled an impressive fleet of ships ready to battle the synthetics.
When you take a step back, you realize that this definitely isn't The Next Generation. Too much has happened in the world both inside and outside of Star Trek for it to be. So, I applaud the writers and producers for understanding that. But at the same time they make old, brooding, disillusioned Picard someone who, despite being wrong and pissing people off, someone who ultimately can't be wrong, and his self-righteous behavior and even wrong conclusions are simply glossed over. Having to deal with how wrong he had been should have been the way this show went. It ultimately wasn't.