I was dubious going into this video. I was expecting a tirade about how Picard should’ve doubled down on nostalgia from day 1 and villainizing Patrick Stewart for wanting to do something different.
Instead I got a very thoughtful analysis about fundamental mistakes made by the writers that put them in the train wreck that it became—wanting to try something new, but not committing; over thinking TNG and under thinking Picard as it’s own thing.
I also strongly agree that Picard as a space Indiana Jones series would’ve worked so much better than a washed up vineyarder. I’m honestly surprised that I never considered this until watching this video.
One great thing about Coleman is that while he appreciates the value of nostalgia, you will never hear him arguing for more of it.
If you haven't seen it yet I highly recommend Rowan's Star Trek Retrospective series.. That's how his channel became famous.
While I think the video raises some good points, I'm not sure it actually follows through on the promise of its clickbait title. Though I suppose, "What I would have done with 'Star Trek: Picard' if anyone asked me" isn't likely to grab as many viewers.
But yeah, seeing Picard as an adventuring archaeologist would have been great. Especially after LDecks established that Picard was funding an independent archaeological association while serving as an admiral. Still, I feel like a lot of fans who objected to season one would still have many of the same problems regardless of what they got if it wasn't the fanservice firehose of season three, but that's really neither here nor there.
I’m not sure it actually follows through on the promise of its clickbait title.
Rowan's videos are always very good, but he does know how to play the algorithm game.
I haven't seen this one yet, but Rowan's videos are always worth a look.
Having now watched it, I agree this was a good video overall.
I do think Rowan gives the season one premise a little less credit than it deserves - Picard didn't spend his entire post-Starfleet life moping around on the vineyard, but rather wrote a number of books on history, and was presumably somewhat involved in promoting them. This is at least adjacent to his passion for archaeology.
I like to think that Picard was more interested in the painstaking reality of genuine archeology than raiding / treasure hunting.
Running around (with or without Vash) in an Indiana Jones kind of way flew in the face of Picard’s core respect for other cultures and civilizations in context.
I’m always surprised when I see how many otherwise thoughtful fan critics ignore the moral conflict in ‘tomb raiding’. On the other hand, Patrick Stewart the actor would have liked the excuse for swashbuckling adventuring at any age.
I didn’t watch this video but to me, the “where Picard went wrong” was clearly revealed in the first after show about it: one of the main writers was rock hard with excitement to tell us all about how he really wanted to prove he could do a dark star trek show, which to me, seems to miss the whole point of star trek. That guy is what went wrong with it
It’s not so wrong as to not be worth watching, but it does drive a need to be ready for it rather than a need to consume it, and so I have still not seen the whole show yet
To the people that have finished it. Is it worth it to continue if I disliked Season 1?
Just for context: I hate STD, but really like SNW. I also really like all the old stuff apart from the original series. Yes even Voyager and Enterprise.
Season 3 of Picard was produced by a new showrunner and it's really noticeable. It's like night and day. The show still has a couple of problems but overall season 3 was really good. There was an emotional moment towards the end of the season (I don't want to spoil anything) that let me relive my childhood while staring at the screen in disbelief, in a positive way. It's hard to put into words. But on an emotional level season 3 really delivered.
Also, take a look at the IMDb episode ratings. I think that speaks for itself.
tl;dr – skip season 2, that was trash. Go straight to season 3 and enjoy.
