Patrick stewart oh my star trek series#
And the subtextual question running through this series is: Why has Picard never found a space wife (or, because it's the future when people are more open minded, several space spouses and a sex robot)? Why do all modern telly heroes need to be broken in some way? Why can't Picard just prefer being single? It never seemed to bother him much in The Next Generation, what with his holodeck escapades, poker nights and best friend Commander Ryker who was great at sitting backwards on a chair. Unfortunately, it seems to be a truth universally acknowledged that a man in possession of a space vineyard and an interstellar starship must be in want of a wife. If I wanted the final frontier to be someone’s heart, I’d read a stupid boring book or go to a play.” To which I shout: “NO! NO! NO! The final frontier is SPACE and space monsters and weird science stuff. She suggests that all along the “final frontier” was in his heart. Guinan sees that Picard is troubled and asks him why he’s never found love as they gargle space hooch. Why do all modern telly heroes need to be broken in some way? Why can't Picard just prefer being single? But the wine Picard makes is called Chateau Picard not Space Wine, because modern Star Trek is doing its best to be no fun. At times I dare to hope that it’s drifting into Last of the Summer Space Wine territory. Star Trek: Picard is partly all about cameo appearances from elder Star Trek characters fondly recalling days past. Later, after giving a speech to some literal space cadets, Picard visits space barwoman Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) who, though an ancient and ageless alien, informs him that she has chosen to age in sympathy with humans. Picard and his employee nearly kiss but Picard resists and looks worried. But she does say "Sláinte!" while raising her glass (seriously), something I am mentioning here because they will use it in the headline and that's probably why you're reading this article. Actually, she's playing a Romulan, which is a type of space person. She has an Irish accent and weird ears which means, of course, that she's playing someone from Carlow. Part of me wants a whole series that features Picard pottering around like Jeremy Clarkson on Clarkson’s Farm, marvelling at the beauty of his space grapes and his space vineyard.īack at the big house Picard's housekeeper/bodyguard, played by the excellent Orla Brady, bonds with him over a glass of space wine. The golden age of television has apparently taught production companies that what people want is shapeless dramas where people look pensive for long periods of time.Īt the outset of Picard, our elderly hero is wandering the fields of his vast estate. Amazon's Star Trek: Picard (Friday), on the other hand, has decided that they invented enough stuff back in the olden days and thinks that what's needed instead is lots of introspection. The beauty of the original Star Trek, the Next Generation was that the makers came up with new aliens and challenges almost every week for 26 episodes a series. They just go on interminably, weighed down with their own plot baggage. The glory of the Star Trek franchise in its midlife period (The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager) was that they were programmes made by nerds for nerds and, in among the shaky props, dated effects and sometimes thin characterisations, there were genuinely mind-bending sci-fi ideas, moral conundrums and big philosophical questions.īut franchises never die now. Instead of seeking out brave new worlds and then riding them, like his Trekkian predecessor Captain Kirk, Picard was more inclined to give new species a stern talking to about the inevitability of space social democracy, like Francis Fukuyama.Īt times I dare to hope Star Trek is drifting into Last of the Summer Space Wine territory The creators had imagined Picard as a sort of sci-fi hipster, dropping the names of intellectuals and insisting on drinking Earl Grey tea (the far future equivalent of riding a penny farthing and taking snuff). Stewart was of course brilliant in it, facing up to bluescreened space anomalies with a completely straight face as though the space anomaly was from William Shakespeare's Space Anomaly IV Part II. "Oh you've trodden the boards with the RSC, have you? Well, now say these gibberish words to a man with green face paint and a rubber glove taped to his chin." It sometimes felt like a lowbrow pop cultural prank. In Star Trek the Next Generation, the fact that Patrick Stewart was a respected Shakespearean actor playing a space sailor never really came up.
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