Remembrance

"Blue sky, smiling at me... nothing but blue sky, you remember me..." I know technically the lyrics is not correct, but watching the first episode of Star Trek Picard that is where we really left off. Star Trek Nemesis ended with Picard leaving his cabin knowing that B4 still holds some of Data's memory at some form and that his friend is still alive it is just a beautiful ending in my opinion. But we are here to talk about Star Trek Picard and not Nemesis, and there's a lot to unpack here, so let's see what we are at in the very first episode of this amazing series. Engage!

First Impressions

As many of us, waiting for this series to begin I felt quite overwhelmed by what I've seen and discovered. I have been excited, overwhelmed and also very scared that this might be something different that I might not like, despite my optimistic view and passion towards this particular show. And what can I say... I was amazed, I was entertained, I was surprised and also emotionally touched at many level. The first episode was titled very well as Remembrance, there was a lot that we got back from this episode to wrap up the "legacy" of this character. Was it emotional? Ohh yeah! Seeing Jean-Luc paying cards with Data in Ten Forward, seeing the model of all he ships he was a captain of and discovering some facts about the past that possibly will be the future of the show was extremely nice. I was overwhelmed by joy and of course I left wanting more after watching the episode. The supporting characters feels real and very well put together so far and we only seen a few of them. The tone of the show was way far off Discovery which I admired a lot, felt more like "going into the future" this time, rather than lingering over the past and creating "anomalies of inconsistency" which bothers me until this day. The tech remained modern and feel more like what we seen in Nemesis and what it seems to be a very nice evolution to it visually speaking. No negative points from me in that regards. What can I say, I want to see more and I don't want this to end so far. :)

Story

I must say that there's a lot to unpack here as well. Dahj as a very sophisticated life form who she does not know who she is, also her sister as we got to know Soji is the twin creation just makes everything fascinating. We got to learn that the Synthetic life forms  were the ones attacked Mars and that Bruce Maddox was the creator in behind who we got to know from the TNG episode "Measure of a Man" desperately want to examine Data to create more of him... and seems like he did not gave up on his dream, which is a nice call back and also a nice touch on thinking forward to the future. When Picard start the investigation to find out more about Dahj and who she could possibly be a total surprise of all... a painting that portraits her and created by Data, also named as "daughter." My thoughts were immediately went to the direction of Lal whom we got to now the episode "The Offspring" I was wondering that maybe Data kept perfecting his idea or maybe he have had some collaboration with Maddox. I know all speculations at the moment, but it very much could be and it would be a beautiful thing to connect the dots. Data was not able to do it on his own, so maybe he kept researching in his free time and working together with Maddox who he actually kept in touch as we got to know from other episodes of TNG. Picard realising that Dahj might be really Data's daughter it really broke a nerve in me as I do remember how dearly and passionately he defended him during Lal's life whether to obey the Federation and gave her away from his father or stand up for what he believes the right thing to do. That is a really emotional notion that came back in this episode over the interview as well where Picard expressed his disagreement how the Federation dealt with the Romulan mass evacuation. Picard is the person who we knew, but indeed he disappointed about Starfleet the organisation that he always believed. But indeed the organisation has been wicked a few times, messing around with others... his disappointment is the driving force in this series that I have a feeling will come back a few times as we learn that Starfleet as not as good as it used to be. That is - sadly - a natural thing to happen. Just think about how nations are under different management r companies under different CEO's.  An organisation like Starfleet exist in a massive scale and of course it's not perfect and the more and more they need to deal with thing can get more complicated. 

Music

I have to admit, the intro music is much different than I expected. It's something else that I cannot really get my head around right now. Its not bad, but it will take time to get used to it - I still did not get used to the Discovery intro music either. I'm an old school guy, give me the Voyager or DS9 theme song and I'm in heaven. ;) Kudos to Jeff Russo though for resurrecting the TOS version of the Romulan theme which gave the story a bit of a surprise Easter egg feel and deepened the connection with the franchise far more than TNG. Well done good sir. I just hope that he will do the same with the Borg as well... ;)

Teasers & Future Excitements

Obviously this was just the first episode and ohh boy, what a first episode it was. Having that said we got a few teaser right at the beginning at the episode, where Data flashed his five Queen's to the table. Is that a possible spoiler that Q is indeed coming back and maybe he will mess around a little bit with Picard as well? If that will happen I don't think he will be back before the finale... maybe he will pose a new challenge that Picard will have to deal with in Season 2? That would be wicked. Look forward to see how the Dahj/Data/Maddox paradox will play out and off course we still about to find out what are the Romulans are up to, what is happening with the Synths and generally what is happening with the Federation.  

My Verdict

I loved the episode, every single bit of it. It was amazing and heart-warming, and some point made me even drop tears. It's a new show and it has a massive advantage, we know the characters at least the lead that we care about soo deeply. Seeing him returning with the qualities and values that he represent and represented over the last 30+ years and him being part of a different society is definitely a take that I'm more than happy to see. In a sense, at some level he is more or less the representation to us, the older fans whom having difficulties with the new and what it represents. I'm extremely happy about this new show and even so, having it on a weekly basis makes it even more precious... almost like re-living the old days once more. :)

I'd love to know what did you think about the first episode of Picard. Did you like i? Did you not? Do you want 7 season? Let me know your thoughts below. Also as you know I'm currently still in hiatus with the channel and if you follow my updates than you know that I will not be doing any episode reviews on the channel. There's a lot of material out there and I hope that you will still enjoy my little brainstorming here in the blog too in a weekly basis. One things for sure, a Season review will surely be coming in a video format when the time is right. :) _\\//