Let’s face it: As much as we like that we’re in a new blossoming of Star Trek, the saga there is something wrong with the current television standards. Specifically, the horizontality of the plots, which force us to sacrifice something so much in the DNA of the franchise as the self-contained chapters (something that ‘Strange New Worlds’ seems to recover).
In ‘Star Trek: Picard’, whose season 2 concludes this week on Paramount + (in Spain on Prime Video), is especially notorious for its sequel/spin-off status of ‘The new generation’ —unlike with ‘Discovery’, which is in that sense freer from previous ties—.
I do not mean with these brief introductory paragraphs that season 2 is a failure. On the contrary, and In fact I consider it better than the first. But it does sometimes give the feeling that the decompressed narration works against maintaining the interest of the story throughout the ten episodes that make it up.
A road not taken with swerves
And that there are good ideas. The promised return of John de Lancie’s Q and his never-ending trial catapulted Picard and company to the “road not taken” due to a change in the 21st century. A convoluted situation that they will have to solve while the script by Akiva Goldsman, Terry Matalas and the team delves into traumas from the past of Patrick Stewart’s character.
It started well, with a fairly clear structure in what we could consider the first act of the season. Although the series still sins a little by appealing to the great successes of the franchise (including clear tributes to, for example, ‘Star Trek IV’), there is a greater sense of history, of wanting to tell things.
Already from the first episode a course correction was noticeable, undoing those little knots that did not allow the series to grow organically. This translates into a better treatment of characters, including for example Jurati (Alison Pill) and Ríos (Santiago Cabrera); also in Siete de Nueve and Raffi, whose scenes work very well.
We also have a little more action to not get stuck and an ambition to plant a great story design. Another matter is that they come out totally triumphant from it and I think they have not managed to balance the season well.
A season that deflates
Its first half is powerful and enthusiastic, but the second one loses a lot of steam in what reigns both the frustration due to missions that do not end up going well and the exploration of a trauma from Picard’s past. So much so that we reach the end of the season somewhat exhausted and, if it weren’t for the previously onwith the feeling of not knowing what all this odyssey in which the protagonists have embarked on is about.
In general terms and despite being a clear improvement over season 1, ‘Star Trek: Picard’ still unfinished to accurately navigate your story development. Already having some mature characters and a good potential to exploit this trekkie sector, it is somewhat frustrating that they cannot overcome the bumps in their journey.