In all the Star Trek
series since The Next Generation finished nearly thirty years ago
there’s never been a character quite like Jean Luc Picard. His thoughtful
demeanour, emphasis on talk rather than phaser blasting and fondness for Earl
Grey tea (hot!) made Next Gen the Trek series for me. Bringing him back
all this time later was a risky decision but in terms of audience interest
seems to have paid off. It took me a while to watch it (typical) partly because
I wasn’t sure. Television’s default treatment of former icons is to show them
broken at the end other career before making some miraculous yet barely
credible return to action. Instead what this series, limited from the start to
three seasons, has done is to engineer a Next Gen reunion with enough
panache and love to make it seem a believable addendum to the series. Best of
all it’s still the same Picard we remember, older for sure but with the same
values and beliefs he always had. He does take decaf Earl Grey now though!
Well he’s ninety three according to one episode!
