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Tripwire Reviews Star Trek: Picard Season Three Out Now On Blu-Ray and DVD

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3 years ago

December 3, 2023

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Spirit Of Enterprise

Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows takes a look at CBS’s Star Trek: Picard Season Three out now on Blu-Ray and DVD…

Picard season three
Executive producer/ showrunner: Terry Matalas
Stars: Patrick Stewart, Jeri Ryan, Michelle Hurd, Ed Speelers, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Todd Stashwick, Michelle Hurd, Ashiel Sharpe Chestnut, Michael Dorn

Stewart returned to the role that made him, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, in the series that bears the character’s name back in 2020 for the CBS show. The first two seasons were of varying quality and enjoyment: the first run was entertaining up to a point while the second one started strongly but tailed off towards its conclusion.

Here showrunner Terry Matalas takes things back to its source: Season three kicks off with Picard receiving a distress call from the Enterprise’s former doctor Beverly Crusher (McFadden), who is stranded and in danger from an unknown foe just outside of Federation space. So Picard contacts his former righthand man Will Riker (Frakes) to commandeer a ship and offer his teammate assistance. They choose the USS Titan for their mission, a ship captained by the wonderfully sarcastic Liam Shaw (Stashwick) which also includes as part of its crew a familiar face – Seven Of Nine (Ryan). When Picard and Riker arrive to help Crusher, they get a surprise: the Enterprise’s former doctor is there but so is her son Jack (Speelers). So things kick off in a suitably dramatic fashion.

Pictured: Amanda Plummer as Vadic of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: Trae Patton/Paramount+

The season’s main threat is that Starfleet has been taken over by the changelings that we saw back in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the 1990s and so Matalas and co have concocted an exciting sci-fi spy epic in which Picard doesn’t know who he can trust. We also get to see the former Captain reunited with all of his Enterprise crew here in his new mission to free the galaxy and Starfleet from this latest threat.

So season three is basically an exercise in nostalgia with only Jack Crusher, Shaw and Raffi Mussiker (Hurd) offering characters who aren’t connected to the Next Generation run. So how much a viewer will enjoy it depends on their connection to the original TV show and the films that followed it.

Matalas, with the assistance of his production team, manages to infuse this run with the original spirit of STTNG. Jack Crusher, who it turns out is Picard’s son (not a huge shock here), is a suitably damaged figure with a very dark secret that connects with the third season’s other major threat: the return of some very familiar adversaries for Picard.

Seeing the other cast members reunited one more time does give the viewer a very warm and fuzzy feeling and there are a number of scenes that will bring tears to people’s eyes. Michael Dorn’s Worf plays his role for laughs, a move that works well here, while Stewart still has a unique screen presence despite the fact that he is a little too old now to be a credible action protagonist. However the introduction of son Jack is a very canny move as it passes the baton for any future adventures. Frakes as Riker offers a second in command that is far more flawed and interesting than he was during his appearances in the original TV show, although we have seen the older iteration in Picard before. The show plays to the fact that the entire cast are older but not necessarily wiser than they were the last time we saw all of them together. Stashwick’s Shaw is a brilliantly sardonic foil who pops a pin in some of the more earnest scenes here, offering a new take on a familiar story. It is a shame that his story seems to have ended here but this is Star Trek and so characters can get resurrected.

Picard season three does leave things open for future adventures with Jack Crusher, Seven Of Nine and Raffi. This third season gives fans a warm and inventive wrap-up for Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise, mostly setting things right after the flaws of its two progenitors. It has the right balance of humour and adventure too, building its pacing to an exciting crescendo. There are echoes of Jean-Luc Picard in his son and this story also gives Picard the chance to wipe the slate clean and atone for his past wrongs.

The extras here are fun including a look at how they recreated the USS Enterprise from ST TNG and a number of deleted scenes and featurettes.

Picard: season three is on Blu Ray and DVD now