Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Star Trek behind the scenes

There's an interesting history behind the scenes of "Star Trek: Picard." It turns out that Patrick Stewart had a lot to say about where he saw his character going, and Seasons 1 and 2 were mainly a reflection of Stewart's own ideas. In his zeal to explore a more tragic side of Captain (now Admiral) Jean-Luc Picard, Stewart inadvertently(?) created a broken man with no agency, and audiences hated the new Picard. He seemed as defanged and impotent as Rian Johnson's Luke Skywalker. A lot of the reason Season 3 ended up being so good was that writer-producer Terry Matalas stepped up and gave us the Picard we'd been wanting to see—the legendary hero of Starfleet, off on a final adventure. While the writing for the season was a team effort, by all accounts, it was Matalas who saved the show and allowed "Star Trek: Picard" to end on a high. Thanks, Terry, for the herculean effort.

Moral: don't let actors hijack your show. Stewart is without a doubt a great actor, but he obviously shouldn't be writing story treatments.

ADDENDUM: some vindication here.



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