Star Trek: Picard/YMMV

• Acceptable Political Targets: As said under "Anvilicious", the show is not kind towards right-wing politics. The Confederation of Earth in Season 2 only ups the jabs at right-wing nationalism and xenophobia.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Starfleet refusing Seven a commission on the basis that she was ex-Borg. Given that Icheb joined, some fans question whether it was more that Seven is standoff-ish and prone to disobeying orders.
  • As is asked several times in Season 2, is Raffi an overprotective Mama Bear with some moments of Tough Love? Or a possessive Manipulative Bastard?
• And the Fandom Rejoiced: Guinan returning in Season 2.
• Anvilicious: As Patrick Stewart himself said on more than one occasion, the Federation's attitudes in the first season of the series are based on Donald Trump's America, with the attack on Mars being a 9/11 analogue, along with post-Brexit Britain. Regardless of one's opinion on those subjects, some, even those who agree with Stewart's viewpoint, feel that it's a bit too on the nose.
• Arc Fatigue: For all its high points, Season 2 does seem to suffer from a few Plot Detours and uneven pacing that makes the story a bit longer than it needs to be.
• Author's Saving Throw:
  • After the Grand Finale of Star Trek: Voyager implied that the Borg Collective had been destroyed, this show confirms that they're still very much active, if crippled. Following many "They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character" complaints about the Borg in Season 1, the Season 2 opener has them dramatically return as the Dreaded once again and the Collective becomes the True Final Boss in Season 3.
  • Relating to the 2009 film:
    • Nero got something of an Unintentionally Unsympathetic treatment given his desire for revenge on an organization that, based on all available evidence, genuinely tried their best to save Romulus from the supernova and it was the Romulans' own arrogance that did them in. The opener reveals that Starfleet did abandon Romulus.
    • Spock's dramatic claim in the film that the supernova was going to destroy the whole galaxy was, to put it mildly, a big source of Snark Bait. Picard dials it down to merely the Romulans' own sun and their core systems being in danger.
  • After Star Trek: Discovery reimagined the TOS aesthetics, Picard is much closer to TNG's designs.
  • In the Season 1 finale, Data and Picard say a proper goodbye.
  • Following the USS Copy/Pasta memes in the Season 1 finale, the Season 2 opener has a fleet assembled of unique designs.
  • The differing style in Romulan makeup across the saga is explained by them being Romulans of different regions. They even appear side by side.
  • Geordi gets to reunite with Data in Season 3.
• Awesome Music: "Blue Skies" by Isa Briones.
• Contested Sequel: Like Discovery before it, is Picard a worthy addition to Trek canon or should be it discarded on account of "They Changed It, Now It Sucks"?
• Continuity Lock Out: Zig-zagged. Per Word of God, explicit references to the Dominion War had to be cut precisely to avoid this but the show is still very serialized and relies on many call backs and references to prior Trek media, many of which aren't explained in large detail and require the viewer to fill in the gaps.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Captain Liam Shaw. His popularity was akin to Captain Pike becoming the Breakout Character of Season 2 of Discovery.
• Evil Is Cool: Lore has only gotten more terrifying.
• Evil Is Sexy: Narek and Narissa are worse than the standard Romulan but quite easy on the eyes.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Seven/Raffi.
• Fandom Rivalry: Joins the intra-fandom rivalry over what the best post-2387 timeline was between Star Trek Online and the Star Trek Novel Verse.
• Franchise Original Sin:
  • Many cried "They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character" when Geordi sat out Season 1, citing that, as Data's best friend, he should have been there. But even in Star Trek: The Next Generation, most times that Data went through major Character Development, he did so with Captain Picard at his side, despite his friendship with Geordi. Even Star Trek: First Contact had several moments of Ho Yay between Data and Picard while Geordi was a non-entity in Data's subplot. The difference here is that, since Geordi didn't appear at all in Season 1, it looked like he'd been ignored completely.
  • A lot of complaints about Season 2.
    • All the complaints that the show has "gone woke". Putting aside that Star Trek was always firmly on the political left since forever, the only difference was that Season 2 made its left-wing talking points in a show (then) set Twenty Minutes Into the Future, making them seem Anvilicious instead of Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped that the previous shows pulled off.
    • Bringing in real-world politics to Trek‍‍'‍s 2024. It was done because the real world timeline was catching up with the dates of Trek‍'‍s Alternate History which caused many who didn't want to see politics in Trek - whether just viewing Trek as escapism or it being the real world views of the Misaimed Fandom finally understanding that they were Trek‍'‍s Acceptable Political Targets - to cry retcon. Yet TNG all the way through Star Trek: Enterprise, and the Star Trek Expanded Universe, were already doing this, turning the Eugenics Wars into a Secret War and even showing that 9/11 happened, whereas Star Trek: The Original Series hinted that Earth in the 1990s and early 2000s was a dystopian wasteland due to the Eugenics Wars. The difference is that Picard makes this "Like Reality Unless Noted" take on Trek‍‍'‍s past disprovable while the earlier hints were either in the ignorable EU, resigned to the background lore of earlier shows or one-off Time Travel Episodes.
• He Really Can Act:
  • Not that John de Lancie's acting capabilities were ever in doubt, but he really shows off his range as Q's mental state unravels.
  • Brent Spiner received nothing but praise for all the many roles he portrayed and managed to make each character distinct from all the others.
• Ho Yay:
  • Hugh and Elnor are awfully close, considering that they just met. Hugh's actor, a gay man himself, even played the scene as Hugh crushing on Elnor.
  • Overlapping with Foe Yay, Seven and Bjayzl are very familiar with one another. It was outright said that Bjayzl got close to Seven to harvest Borg tech.
  • Seven and Raffi hold hands as the first season closes and are later Undercover As Lovers in Season 2. The Season 2 finale has them become girlfriends. Though they broke up by Season 3, the finale has the two bickering and flirting Like an Old Married Couple.
  • Picard never got to tell Data that he loved him.
• Just Here for Godzilla: When Picard and Seven of Nine showed up in the trailers, some fans tuned in solely for them.
• Like You Would Really Do It: That Picard would die from the Irumodic Syndrome. One quick bout of Brain Uploading later and the old man is fine.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Sheer. Fucking. Hubris."
  • Seven the Terminator.
  • USS Copy Pasta.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Q's unhinged state in Season 2. Beware the Silly Ones is in full effect. When a Reality Warper decides to stop being an imp, he's terrifying. Thankfully he was just putting on act for yet another Secret Test of Character.
  • Agnes' mental assimilation in the appropriately titled "Assimilation". Mind Rape does not even begin to cover it and it somehow makes the Borg's usual Body Horror seem tame by comparison.
  • Lore taking over the Titan. With the new generation of Starfleet ships being so interconnected, Lore is now a Person of Mass Destruction. Even the Changelings are small potatoes next to him.
  • The Borg's final plan to save the Collective: Medical Rape and Impregnate on a galactic scale.
• Older Than They Think: The implicit corruption of the Federation. Ever since the Borg showed up in Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Federation has been becoming more militant. And even in Star Trek: The Original Series, there were plenty of morally dubious experiments.
• Pandering to the Base: A common critique of Season 3. After the Vocal Minority blasted "They Changed It, Now It Sucks" trumpet as loud as they could during the first two seasons, Season 3 has a much more overtly fanservice-y feel, turning the show into a TNG reunion special. No one considers Season 3 to be bad but there is a feeling that it played it way too safe instead of growing and experimenting with new stories.
• Testosterone Brigade: Like in Star Trek: Voyager, Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine was a big drawn for viewers. And not just the men this time around.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Some rather vocal parts of the fandom made this complaint about Season 1 known in short time. It was actually at Patrick Stewart's request that this be done as he didn't want the show to just be a TNG reunion special.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks: A lot of people have seen similarities between the first season and Mass Effect such as the Apocalyptic Log concerning a Robot War and La Sirena‍'‍s physical resemblance to the SSV Normandy. That mass of Reaper-esque tentacles, belonging to an entity that wants to kill all organic life, emerging from the portal doesn't do much to deter this viewpoint. Though for some, this was hardly a problem, appreciating the show as a Spiritual Successor and/or the closest thing to a Mass Effect show.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Icheb, Bruce Maddox, and Hugh are all Back for the Dead.
  • Data was still alive, his mind preserved within a simulation only for it to soon be turned off after Picard discovers it. Though this have the justification of how much it costs to make Brent Spiner look like he did in 2002. Thankfully they found a way around it in Season 3.
• Uncanny Valley: Brent Spiner's Data makeup in Season 1. Though one could argue that is an Intended Audience Reaction given Data's android nature.
• Unexpected Character:
  • As a Sequel Series to Star Trek: The Next Generation, Seven of Nine was on no one's short list.
  • Bruce Maddox appeared in one episode of TNG and was mentioned in one more. Safe to say, not many called him being part of this series' backstory.
  • The season 1 finale shocked everyone by showing that Data was still alive. And another version of him shows up in Season 3. Pulling a Fusion Dance with the equally unexpected Lore.
  • Wesley Crusher returns in the Season 2 finale.
  • Given that, per Word of God, overt references to the Dominion War had to be cut, no one called rogue Changelings returning as the antagonists in Season 3.
  • Given that Q was Killed Off for Real in Season 2, the leak of him showing up in Season 3 was thought to be an error. But then he really did show up. As he even lampshades, a Non-Linear Character can't be Killed Off for Real.
• Win Back the Crowd: Season 3 won over much of the show's Vocal Minority of skeptics.

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