Picard - Engage Full Speed Ahead? Or Abort Mission!

Star Trek TNG was MY Star Trek.  Yes, I watched the originals, and the odd one of the sequels, but none came close to my love for Captain Picard and his crew!  I mean we are talking about a girl who a few years ago thought she hit the jackpot when she was able to snag the complete set of VHS copies at a garage sale for FREE! 

So when I heard that they were making Star Trek: Picard, after an initial burst of horror that this might actually be the thing to force me to sit through the awful Star Trek: Discovery episodes, (Side note - it was NOT required - Picard is a force all on its own!), I was excited.  My captain was coming back, and I couldn't wait!

The first trailer popped, and it looked promising.  Focussed on an older, retired Jean Luc in France, snippits of Number 1 that implies he will be a guest but not part of the crew, and Data .... wait what? He's dead ....... OK Panic over - it's a dream sequence.  I mean that would have completely been a no-go for me!  For those that might have been living in a bubble, or just not really care but want to know what I am talking about, here is the trailer, and then below my almost spoiler free review of Episode 1.

**Video courtesy of the official CBS All Access YouTube site - all rights reserved and content owned by them. **

Finally the wait was over, at least for the premiere, and it was SO worth it!  Epsiode 1 gave me everything I hoped for and it looks like it is setting up for an amazing season.  We get to see a different side of Jean Luc than the one we are used to.  It's been almost 30 years, this life is nothing like it used to be, and as he himself states, he hasn't been living, rather waiting to die.  But all that is about to change!  A connection to the past is about to allow a new journey that I am excited to be a part of.   Glancing around the interwebs yesterday I saw a plethora of naysayers, who have already decided this is not what they want, and after reading a few of their comments, I have to question if they even watched the original series, and I definitely question their comprehension of the pilot in general. 

My advice is if you were a TNG fan, then this is for you! If you weren't, I don't see this being the breakthrough that will change your mind.  I feel it is very heavily geared towards the original fans, maybe dragging back the ones like me that have been lost along the way with the new seasons that they can't stand so have switched to The Orville.

Well it worked!   I can't WAIT for next Thursday and episode 2.  It IS different, but in the ways it needs to be.  This is less "space adventure of the week" and more "Picard", and considering the title, doesn't that make sense?  Before I leave I do just want to give the production team huge kudos for their dog selection!  Picard has a loyal, devoted, pit bull (called Number 1!), who he trusts for character judgment, and it is SO nice to see this picked upon breed featured in such a positive light.  Maybe it will take moving that far into the future for it to actually happen, but I love the idea.

As always I would love to read your thoughts in the comments, whether you are a fan or not, and with that I will leave you with one of my favorite autographs from when I was lucky enough to meet Brent Spiner himself at RocCon.  (For the record he is charming, and hilarious!)