Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Patrick Stewart, Jeri Ryan, Michelle Hurd, Brent Spiner, Ed Speleers, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFaden, Todd Stashwick, Mirana Sirtis, Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Amanda Plummer, Alice Kriege, John de Lancie, Tim Russ, Stephanie Czajkowski, Orla Brady, Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut, Jospeh Lee, Jin Maley, Maeline Wise, Dylan Von Halle, Steve Gutierrez, Mica Burton, Tiffany Shepis, Chad Lindberg.
It is easy to be cynical, but even a hardened deferential will look upon certain Star Trek projects and think that the timeline would have been so much better without the anguish of films clouding the mind. The fifth film in the original series is one such low point, barely even registering on the conscious of many, and unfortunately the final two films in The Next Generation franchise, Insurrection and Nemesis could be the cinematic nails that almost drove the long running franchise unto its undeserved early demise.
If only there was a way in which the crew of The Enterprise could be given a shot at redemption, to be given that glorious send-off that was promised at the end of First Contact, that Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Will Riker, Beverly Crusher, and the indomitable Data truly deserved.
Whilst the first two series of Picard were enjoyable yarns, earning the respect that had lost its way, even in retrospect, of the last two feature films involving the 90s cast, it is with honour that the third series is an exciting, reverential, dutiful fan feast to which all that made TNG great, which made First Contact one of the two brutally brilliant films from the franchise’s earlier films so compelling.
Imagine as a fan getting almost you could ever wish for in one ten part series, a series so strong and full of pathos and joy that it brings a fitting conclusion to the guard of old, to the likes of Worf, to Counsellor Troi, that you get to see the underneath of Tribbles, that a brief glimpse to the skeleton of Captain Kirk is on show in a museum, that the explanation of what happened to the stolen Klingon ship, aptly renamed The Bounty is one that fills many holes, and that the grand lady herself, the beautiful Enterprise D is given pride of place in the script, and then hug yourself as the Changelings and The Borg Queen return….
…This is what makes the final series of Picard so dynamic, so pinpoint incredible…and only then do you realise that the very nature of this television behemoth is the reveal of what happens to the youth of Earth, of those under 25, and you have the microcosm of reflection that concludes of how much older people can still offer, and how alienated we have made our children by treating them as experiments.
Picard is The Next Generation’s honour restored, a slug fest, an assault, a loving caress all wrapped up three series which becomes in the end, as one of the ships of Starfleet proudly exclaims, a Titan.
Ian D. Hall