Among the big science fiction franchises with huge fandoms, Star Trek is somewhat odd compared to the others. Most are usually predicated on humanity existing in varying degrees of dystopia, with Trek instead commenting on the human condition by depicting an optimistic future in which humanity is a mostly enlightened, altruistic species which has turned Earth into a quasi-utopia. By the 23rd and 24th centuries, all the old sins of Earth have passed away. There is no crime, racism, sexism, poverty, or war among the peoples of Earth. Humanity’s leadership was critical in creating and maintaining a massive interstellar government—the United Federation of Planets—which explores the galaxy through Starfleet.
Star Trek, as a franchise, has an underlying secular humanist philosophy which has faith in "Man" as a species. That we, as human beings, can be better through compassion, tolerance, logic, science, and boldly going where no one else has gone before. Its ethos, in almost every iteration Trek has taken, is that to be human in the fullest sense of what that word means is to do more than mind one’s own business. Hence the reason almost every week we watch the voyages of a crew who travels from world to world trying to help people while having fidelity to the truth, whether it be scientific truth, historical truth, or personal truth.
Star Trek: Picard asks what happens if that utopia we’ve seen and grown to know over the past half-century were to ever lose faith in itself and turn inward? To that end, it finds Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard estranged from a Federation and Starfleet much different from The Next Generation, with Picard living in isolation after these utopian organizations decided to withdraw from those qualities which have defined their existence.
On a day when the Trump administration seems to be co-opting imagery from the franchise for their own ends, it’s interesting the latest entry in Gene Roddenberry’s saga is about as direct a response to the nationalism and xenophobia which has defined this particular portion in history.
From Daniel Holloway at Variety:
“The Next Generation” presented a humanist future in which issues like poverty, race and class have long been sorted out, and conflicts are more often resolved through negotiation and problem-solving than at the point of a phaser pistol.
Stewart had no desire to go there again.
“I think what we’re trying to say is important,” he says. “The world of ‘Next Generation’ doesn’t exist anymore. It’s different. Nothing is really safe. Nothing is really secure.” … “In a way, the world of ‘Next Generation’ had been too perfect and too protected,” he says. “It was the Enterprise. It was a safe world of respect and communication and care and, sometimes, fun.” In “Picard,” the Federation — a union of planets bonded by shared democratic values — has taken an isolationist turn. The new show, Stewart says, “was me responding to the world of Brexit and Trump and feeling, ‘Why hasn’t the Federation changed? Why hasn’t Starfleet changed?’ Maybe they’re not as reliable and trustworthy as we all thought.”
While sentiments about it are much improved, the first two seasons of Star Trek: Discovery have been very divisive among Trek fandom. This was evidenced in a fractured Trek fanbase which has argued online about whether Discovery is “real” Star Trek, with some even pointing to Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville as being truer in spirit to what the franchise is supposed to represent. Alex Kurtzman took over the day-to-day duties for season two of Star Trek: Discovery and has been put in charge of expanding Star Trek with both continuing, limited, and animated series, along with Trek short films, for the CBS All Access streaming service. Among the shows reportedly in development are a series set at Starfleet Academy (which would try to appeal to the younger Arrowverse/Riverdale demo), both a children’s and adult animated series set in the Trek universe, and a limited-run miniseries which would tell the tale of Khan Noonien Singh’s rise to power and dictatorship on Earth during the Eugenics Wars.
"As you know, one of the joys of Star Trek, for me, has been the variety of our fans. When I go to conventions and I see people of all sizes and shapes and abilities, and when I see people with nerve disorders that can’t really sit properly and so on, I still know what’s in their mind. They are saying, "In a better world, I can do anything. I’ll be there in a better world. In a better world, they will not laugh at me or look down their nose at me."
—Gene Roddenberry
Set about two decades after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis, Jean-Luc Picard lives a secluded existence on his family vineyard in France. At the beginning of Star Trek: Picard, the now-retired Admiral Picard has only his Romulan house-staff and pit bull terrier named “Number One” to keep him company. We come to learn Picard left Starfleet and withdrew from society after the Federation decided to abandon hundreds of millions of Romulan refugees fleeing from a supernova that destroyed Romulus. Picard had been put in charge of directing relief efforts, but opinion about the operation apparently soured after synthetic artificial intelligence, similar to the late Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner), used the crisis and Starfleet being out of position, to stage an assault against Mars, which destroyed the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards and left Mars uninhabitable, with the atmosphere of the planet still on fire years later.
The Federation abandoned the rescue operation, reasoning its resources could be used better for its own people than on “Romulan lives,” and aiding a people whose war against Earth was responsible for the creation of the Federation. The aftermath of the supernova’s destruction and ultimate decision of the Federation seems to have twisted the culture inward, with the attack on Mars leading to a ban on the creation of any synthetic life.
Interviewer: 92,143 lives were lost, which led to a ban on synthetics.
Picard: Yes. We still don’t know why those synthetics went rogue and did what they did that day, but I believe the subsequent decision to ban synthetic life-forms was a mistake.
Interviewer: Lieutenant Commander Data, operations officer on the Enterprise, was synthetic. Did you ever lose faith in him?
Picard: Never.
Interviewer: What was it that you lost faith in, Admiral? You’ve never spoken about your departure from Starfleet. Didn’t you, in fact, resign your commission in protest? Tell us, Admiral. Why did you really quit Starfleet?
Picard: Because it was no longer Starfleet.
Interviewer: I’m sorry?
Picard: Because it was no longer Starfleet! We withdrew. The galaxy was mourning, burying its dead, and Starfleet had slunk from its duties! The decision to call off the rescue and to abandon those people we had sworn to save was not just dishonorable. It was downright criminal. And I was not prepared to stand by and be a spectator … You're a stranger to history. You're a stranger to war. You just wave your hand and it all goes away. Well, it's not so easy for those who died, and it was not so easy for those who were left behind.
Picard is roused to venture away from the vineyard when a young woman named Dahj (Isa Briones) comes to his home seeking help and seeming to have a connection with him neither she or Picard can understand. The answer of who she is and what she represents has far reaching implications and connects to much of the lore of the Star Trek franchise.
What I found the most fascinating about the first hour of Star Trek: Picard is the idea of someone we know of as a patriot, and who espoused faith in a system over and over again in speech after speech, having nowhere to really go to when his world changed. Whether in Britain watching a country pulling away from Europe, or the moral rot here in the United States, many have experienced moments just like Picard’s disillusionment, where we feel like strangers in our own societies. Where we walk around seeing the same symbols and institutions we once believed represented the highest ideals, but have been turned into something … different. The fact Star Trek has decided to continue a trend, started in Deep Space Nine, of considering how good the Federation actually is may lead to some fascinating destinations.
Beyond this point, I’m going to get into some spoilers.
- The Romulan Supernova: The J.J. Abrams Star Trek films are set in an alternate timeline from the “Prime” timeline of the TV shows, called the “Kelvin Universe.” However, they are connected. As Abrams’s 2009 Star Trek explains, Romulus was destroyed by a supernova near the end of the 24th century. The United Federation of Planets attempt to stop it with “red matter” failed, and caused Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and a crew of Romulans led by Nero (Eric Bana) to be thrown back in time. The changes in the past caused by this created a separate timeline, which is distinct and severely altered from the “Prime Universe.” While it hasn’t been mentioned yet, the destruction caused by the supernova would be occurring not that long after the end of the Dominion War. That war is the most destructive conflict within the fictional history of Star Trek. Whether the strain caused by both the supernova and the Dominion War compounded on each other with the attacks of the rogue synths, and caused the Federation’s turn inward is something to think about.
- Based On Star Trek: The Next Generation: This is the first Star Trek television series to not (officially) be based on The Original Series. It is specifically in the credits based on The Next Generation.
- B4 Didn’t Work: Star Trek: Picard resolves whether Data’s attempt to copy himself into B4 in Nemesis would allow Data to survive in a way after his death. It didn’t. B4’s positronic brain was inferior and not capable of supporting Data’s consciousness. But research based on B4 seems to have been important in attempts to create other forms of artificial life, including Dahj and Soji.
- Lal: Both Dahj and Soji are implied to be attempts to create cybernetic versions of Lal, Data’s daughter from the TNG episode “The Offspring.” The characters have a resemblance to Lal, and their appearance is specifically based on a painting of Data’s named “Daughter” which is presumably of Lal.
- Who Attacked Dahj?: The attackers Picard sees are Romulan, and at times speak a language other than English, implying this is some sort of Romulan special forces team operating on Earth. But is it likely a Romulan force could be operating on Earth, and cause an explosion near Starfleet Command without being detected? Is it possible they’re working with the Federation and Starfleet? Is it connected to Section 31?
- The Borg: Whether the Romulan Star Empire still exists in some form is yet to be revealed. The end of the episode occurs at what on-screen is named a “Romulan reclamation site” and has a symbol of the empire (i.e., a bird holding the worlds of Romulus and Remus in its claws) on the outside of the facility. Since Soji is working at the base, located on a Borg cube, it’s possible (and probably likely) Borg technology was used to create synthetic life with flesh and blood. Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) will appear in future episodes, and reportedly part of a group that is trying to pick up the slack by Starfleet’s decision to withdraw from matters.
- The Ban: The synthetic ban seems out of character for the Federation, but it is in keeping with other bans in the show’s history. A prohibition on genetic engineering is well established within the franchise as a result of the Eugenics Wars of the late-20th century, of which Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) was one of the people borne out of it, and the resulting destruction of “augments” caused human society to pull back from modifying the genome artificially. The implications of such a ban was explored in Enterprise and Deep Space Nine, with Doctor Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) being an “exception.”
- The Measure Of A Man: This episode of Picard connects to TNG’s “The Measure of a Man” as well as instances in Voyager where the rights of The Doctor (Robert Picardo) were questioned. Both Dahj and Soji are implied to be the creations of Dr. Bruce Maddox (Brian Brophy), who tried to have Data dismantled to study in order to create more Soong-type androids. The implications of creating a “slave race” in TNG may have been realized in the destruction wrought through the destruction against Mars. This was, in a way, already realized in Voyager, where the Emergency Medical Holograms were shown to have been re-purposed to mine dilithium, even though through The Doctor we know the programs are capable of sentience. Whether Maddox came to believe synthetic life is sentient (e.g., he repeatedly referred to Data as “It” instead of “he or him”) or was simply pursuing the science in spite of the dangers is yet unknown. But it seems Maddox eventually did it in cooperation with the Romulans and it connects to the Borg.
- Angry Conservatives: The Variety article linked to above, and Stewart name checking Trump and Brexit specifically, pissed off conservative elements of nerd culture something awful. This is not surprising, since Star Trek: Discovery has been on the receiving end of hostile male audience members claiming the presence of female lead characters of color is a form of “social justice warrior” liberal propaganda, which is strange for people who are supposedly fans of a Gene Roddenberry franchise known for its history of progressive stances. This sort of cognitive dissonance isn’t without precedent. Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, an anti-federalist who killed 168 people and was tied to white supremacist groups, was also a huge fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, a show centered on a united, multicultural humanity leading a socialist, interstellar superstate, which McVeigh claimed should be a “a Utopian model for the future.” Just spend a moment trying to square that circle.
- Dunkirk: When Picard name checks the Dunkirk evacuation, it might be a sly test, since the analogy he uses is not a perfect parallel. At Dunkirk, the British were evacuating their own forces and allies, not refugees of a population from a belligerent force. The fact the interviewer doesn’t drive a truck through the analogy probably tells Picard she is ignorant of history.
- Moving Forward: Star Trek: Picard is the first iteration of Star Trek in almost two decades to move the story of the franchise forward, since it is neither a reboot or prequel, and set after the events of Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and the TNG movies.
- Guinan: Patrick Stewart wants Whoopi Goldberg to return as Guinan for season two. Both Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis will show up as Will Riker and Deanna Troi respectively this season, and there's been hints of a Worf cameo at some point in the future.