Also, there're more swears!

Are fans not digging Picard? I ask because I was reading this thing about-huh? Yeah, we're going to talk about Star Trek. Yes again, and yes, in the middle of-you know. Speaking of, and I sincerely don't want to be speaking of, you'll be glad to know that Gap, Barnes and Noble, Warby Parker, Target, and GameStop have all sent emails about how they're closely monitoring the outbreak and how they're taking steps to protect their valued customers.

Yeah, but no one was going in to GameStop before
there was a highly contagious virus so...

"Here, let's disengage with the news.
Do you, do you uh, see what I did there?"

-Picard, being clever

So Star Trek. Usually this is the part where I warn you that I'm going to talk about some nerd thing, and then give you the option to back out but something tells me you're going to ride this one out. Seriously, it's this or we talk about the pandemic some more. Still with me? Super. So Indiwire interviewed Micheal Chabon about Picard, a show he's writing for/show running, and he mentioned some negative fan reactions to the series for being too different from Star Trek TNG, and I guess I hadn't clocked that there was a backlash. Oh, and spoilers if you're not caught up.

So Picard is super different. I mean, for one thing everyone says "fuck" a lot more than on TNG. To be clear I don't mind the no longer bound by standards and practices freedom the writers have, I just question the in-universe explanation for the sudden rediscovery of 21st century slang. It'd be like us saying zounds.

"Welcome to my fucking office."

-Admiral Clancy, Starfleet

Pictured: that time they blew
up Commander Remmick's head.

Obviously there are more differences than casual swearing. Picard for example, a character who seemed so old when I was ten, is now elderly and not the captain of anything. And with a couple notable and brief exceptions, we don't really see him interacting with familiar characters and that's all fine. Also the show's tone is much more cynical and grounded with way more violence and gore. And at first blush it might strike fans as not in line with Gene Roddenberry's utopia, but I don't think Roddenberry's utopia was as utopia-y as we remember it being. 

I don't want to tell Oh how to mastermind a
conspiracy, but if you want to be taken seriously,
maybe find sunglasses that fit your face?

Sure, Admiral Clancy says fuck a lot, but-so far anyway-she's apparently not in on the big conspiracy that motivates the show's plot. Which would be a first for a Starfleet Admiral. Admiral Cartwright from Star Trek VI was in on the assassination of the Klingon Chancellor, Admiral Pressman on TNG tried to cover up a secret experiment that killed his crew and Admiral Leyton on DS9 tried to pull off a coup. Sure, Commodore Oh appears to be the big bad, but what I'm getting at is that Starfleet internal affairs needs to get their shit together. 

"Just uh...just thought I'd drop by."

-Lando Calrissian, seen

here collecting a check

Ok, so graphic violence: check. Duplicitous, high ranking Starfleet officers engaging in murder and cover-ups: double check. Feels pretty Star Trekky to me. As for the absence of familiar characters, Chabon describes a pressure to include more, but doesn't want to do it just to do it. Like, remember how Lando Calrissian showed up in Rise of Skywalker, but didn't really do anything other than chuckle avuncularly and have his scenes deleted? I want to see Admiral Janeway and Captain Worf again too, but I get why Chabon is reluctant. 

"Hey, how's it going? Did you know
people are panic buying toilet paper?"

-Twitter, ruining your day 

I'm not really able to be objective about Picard. As long as Jean-Luc Picard is doing space stuff, I'm there for it. All the guest appearances and call backs are icing. I suppose I can see why it's rubbed some people the wrong way but I don't know if it's really all that grittier or more cynical. Chabon points out that it's a darker world we live in than it was in 1987 when TNG started but is it really? Some really not great things happened in the 80's too. I think it's just that we're more aware of today's shitshow thanks to the unrelenting background radiation of social media. 

Too Short a Season also dealt with the
tragedy of bad age make-up. I mean, had
the make-up team never seen an old?

America in 1987 saw the Iran Contra Affair and the AIDS epidemic and lived with the ever present threat of nuclear war. Some pretty dark stuff and all of it came through on TNG, just Star Trek-ified. The Romulan stood in for the USSR and had a Cold War relationship with the Federation. The Iran Contra affair inspired Season 1's Too Short a Season. And AIDS? Ok, they didn't talk about AIDS until the second season of Enterprise and even then they fumbled it hardcore, but I guess what I'm saying is that Picard is what TNG would be if it was being made now. Which it kind of is. But with more swearing. So much swearing.

And look, I don't work for CBS and have no stake in you watching Picard, especially if Star Trek isn't your cuppa. What I am saying is that if you are a fan and you're feeling butthurt that it's not a straight continuation of TNG, maybe give it a shot and bear in mind that the last time we saw these characters was Nemesis. Which was garbage. I don't care how long we're all stuck at home, skip Nemesis.

Didn't see that one? Here, I'll sum up: Picard's secret clone takes over the Romulan
Empire and vows to destroy the Earth for some reason. Also he needs Picard's blood
to live, I guess? The movie was kind of unclear on that point. Oh, and Data explodes.