The end of Star Trek Picard Season 3 is a bittersweet thing for me. I got the first six episodes of the show and I was blown away by how much nostalgia there was in it. Alex Kurtzman and especially Terry Matalas knew what fans of this long-running IP wanted. After being let down in season two they had a lot of work to get fans back on board with this series. Everybody involved from the writer, director, and actors knocked this season out of the park.
After episode nine the original cast of the USS Enterprise 1701-D had to resort to stealing their old ship from a Federation Museum. The cast who reunited during the season come together to fight what they have realized is the Borg Queen (Alice Krieg). She has lured Jack Crusher (Ed Spaleers) to Saturn where she is hidden in the last Borg ship. While Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and a ragtag crew of survivors try to retake the USS Titan from its Borgified crew which took it as part of a new collective.
As someone who is an admonished true blue fan of Star Trek Generation, I was amazed at how much I loved this season of Star Trek Picard. Each character of the original Next Generation cast had their own arc which expanded on their characters. New information and or philosophical beliefs were given to each of the original cast. Word (Micheal Dorn), Data (Brent Spiner), and Riker (Jonathan Frakes) were some of the best from my perspective. They all brought their A-game when it mattered in the end.
Seeing the Season/Series Finale in IMAX was an epic experience. It brought this season to a new level. This giant IMAX screen I saw the final two episodes in was an out-of-body experience. I grew up with these characters as a teen and young adult. The movies came a little later. Seeing this on such a large scale brought me back to when I saw my first Star Trek film, Star Trek 6: An Undiscovered Country in a movie theater. It was great!
Even though I had a feeling this was going to be the beginning of the end for the Next Generation cast was still bittersweet. Each of the main characters went out to a satisfying conclusion. There is still more to come for some of the characters introduced in this season of Picard and the series as a whole. I’m sure Alex Kurtzman and Terry Measles have something up their sleeves going forward. This season finale proved we need more from some of these characters.
I know the word epic is thrown around a lot these days when describing television shows or movies but Star Trek Picard was truly an epic season and in episodes nine, Vox, and ten The Next Generation, we’re as epic as epic can get. The scale of this show was off the charts. The IMAX Live Event proved that in spades. Having a big crowd cheering, laughing, and clapping together during certain memorable scenes was pretty awesome. This Season and Series Finale was everything I could have ever imagined it could be.
5 stars
Dan Skip Allen
From the Fourth Row! 