Star Trek: Picard's Plodding Pace Is Its Most Urgent Problem
WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Star Trek: Picard Season 1, now streaming on CBS All Access.
Star Trek has always been more about relationships than wall-to-wall action, and Picard is definitely true to that ethos. But after six episodes, it's starting to look like the series might not have enough action for its own good.
So far, Picard has been more of a slow-burning space drama than sci-fi epic, more akin to a leisurely reunion with an old friend than an intergalactic epic. But more than halfway into season 1, Picard and his crew are only arriving at the Borg Cube that seems so pivotal to the series after a laborious journey through its first half.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Start nowWhile series has clearly cast Soji, the android daughter of Star Trek: The Next Generation's Data, as an important character, her sudden realization about her lineage comes after her character developed at a glacial pace in preceding episodes.
Perhaps part of the problem is that many viewers are accustomed to the pace of Star Trek: The Next Generation, where most episodes were self-contained, and just about ever crisis was resolved in roughly 45 minutes with a healthy dose of action. Three decades on, the nature of television has changed, of course. While Star Trek: Discovery puts an emphasis on cosmic action, Picard has swung too far in the other direction.
Soji isn't the only character who's suffered through a labored development arc either. Raffi's uncomfortable meeting with her son felt like it came out of pretty much nowhere, and those didn't really land because we didn't know that side of the ex-Starfleet operative well at all. Overall, Raffi seems to be a stock jaded, heavy drinking character with a hurtful past and anger issues, but she still seems out of place among the other characters.
Other characters are suffering from the show's strange pace, too. Evan Evagora's Elnor, Picard's loyal bodyguard, just hasn't been given the necessary screen time to build up any gravitas with viewers.
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To be fair, the show has had a few truly unexpected, more action-packed moments like Bruce Maddox's unexpected murder at the hands of Agnes. Likewise, Seven of Nine's assault on Freecloud was brief but legitimately thrilling. However, those moments have been the exception to the show's otherwise leisurely pace. And with just four episodes left in the first season, it's unlikely that we'll see any course correction in this season.
Despite its plodding plot, the show has introduced several elements that are potentially engaging. Cristóbal "Chris" Rios, played by Santiago Cabrera, seems to be kind of an analog of Star Wars' Han Solo; he's just missing his own Wookie. Chris seems to be one of the most intriguing, likable characters in the show, but he could really benefit from a bit more back story, too. And Agnes, played by Alison Pill, will probably be an exciting character to explore, as his reasons for killing Maddox, who she obviously had feelings for, are revealed. The potential romance between Rios and Alison Pill's Agnes Jurati also has the potential to get quite interesting.
Picard has left so many plot threads dangling that it's almost certainly looking like the end of season 1 is going to leave some big unanswered questions. Beyond Agnes' reasons for killing Bruce, we still don't know much about Soji and her connection to Data or the Romulan "Destroyer" prophecy that she's been linked to.
While each new episode could theoretically address any of these concerns, the show's plodding pace could mean that viewers will be left hanging, at least until Season 2 arrives.And when that second season does arrive, it could definitely benefit from a bit of a reset that could include a faster pace, fewer episodes, more action and more exploration of its characters to help move the story along at a brisker pace. If Picard means to carry on the Trek tradition of going where no one has gone before, it's going to need to get there a little faster.
Source: www.cbr.com