Episode 1: Remembrance
At the end of the 24th Century, and 14 years after his retirement from Starfleet, Jean-Luc Picard is living a quiet life on his vineyard, Chateau Picard. When he is sought out by a mysterious young woman, Dahj, in need of his help, he soon realizes she may have personal connections to his own past.
Review:
The pilot episode opens to a dream sequence with Picard and Data playing cards on the Enterprise D. It’s poignant and special to those of us Next Generation fans who loved this version of the Enterprise. Picard is now living on his family vinyard in France, along with a couple Romulans – who we later learn are refugees.
I appreciate that we don’t get a data-dump of what happened between Star Trek: Nemesis and today. Instead, Picard gives an emotional interview about what happened to the Romulans and how he has lost faith in the Federation. It turns out that Synths (androids) attacked the Mars colony (and we still don’t know why) at the same time the Federation was offering aid to the Romulans after their sun went supernova. There is mention of this in the JJ Abrams Star Trek reboot (aka Kelvin timeline). However, after the Synth attack, the Federation abandoned the millions of Romulans now without a home.
This is the set-up for the season. What happened to make the androids attack? And what has happened to the Romulans? Meanwhile, a young woman named Dahj comes to Picard for help. It’s soon obvious that she is a synth as well, and Picard learns has ties to Data, his deceased friend.
This pilot episode is full of nostalgia, drama, action, mystery, and intrigue. A lot is packed in to this first episode, yet it’s over all too soon. Patrick Stewart is just as amazing as ever. While it’s been 18 years since he last played Picard, he makes it look effortless. Despite getting on in years, he still has the same commanding presence – yet obviously a lot has happened to harden him.
I’m really excited about this new cast and that we finally have a new Star Trek set post previous series. And I hope this will usher in a whole new generation of Star Trek fans.