Discovering Picard

Nice video... at a minute and half in he comes out and reminisces about TNG and it's about the 7 minute mark where he begins his announcement of the new series featuring Picard.

When I first heard about the character of Picard making a return I first thought that they were bringing him into the show Star Trek Discovery. I've never watched it because I don't like streaming services or watch streaming only shows. I looked into the show itself thinking that bringing Picard in would be a bad idea and then realized that I had to be wrong since Discovery takes place pre-TOS in the prime timeline. Even though I've never seen it, I don't think I'd really like to since it appears to have gone in the direction of everything else nowadays - all action, no substance and what substance there is being a balls out, liberal, SJW, fantasy land. They redesigned Klingons for no good reason that I can see... simply a vanity move of the new producers to "make the show their own." This show seems to have passed what the character of Picard represented behind. But even after I realized that Picard would have his own show I found that I still don't think it would be a good idea and for the same reasons above.

The franchise has clearly moved on to another generations' interpretation and I think it would be harmful to the character of Picard to bring him into a world that he's not a part of anymore. After all... this character should be developing Irumodic Syndrome by now so that'll take some of the cheer out of it. And I know people don't think it's appropriate to judge the aesthetics, but I don't really want to see a Captain Picard gone completely to seed. I won't have to though because it'll be a streaming show as well. I know that having an opinion of shows that I don't watch and don't intend to watch seems arrogant or even moot, but my opinion is more on the evolution of these fandoms I've grown up with.

I've seen other detractors of Stewart's return to Picard accuse him of just being in it for the money but I don't think it's absolutely true in his case. I've been in the entertainment business (indi-professional wrestling) long enough to surmise that the actors just want work and usually aren't personally invested in the characters as the fans are. Sometimes it's just that they want the paycheck but the writers and directors pull the strings of the characters and sometimes I think the actors just like their visions and storytelling enough to go along with it. After all, they're the kids creating the play and we're just watching so they tend to go with what pleases themselves first. It's not necessarily a bad thing. Some of the greatest works have classically happened when the creators and participants are just trying to amuse and entertain themselves. However, in recent years when the only way the creators can please themselves is to do fan fiction rebooting or one-upping each other with how drastically they can change a concept, the works are becoming increasingly vapid, tiresome, and lazy. I'm just afraid that the new Picard show will go in that same direction. There'll always be a group of people that will love anything certain actors or franchises do, but it's just not me.

I'll finish with a Mojo list of Stewart's best roles. I would still put Picard over Doctor Charles Xavier, but this list illustrates the point that Stewart not only has more range, but that he survived being pigeonholed into Picard. The fact that he's returning to him now seems like a step backwards.