YMMV / Star Trek: Picard

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• Accidental Aesop:
  • Don't oppress minorities, or else they'll Summon Bigger Fish and kill you all.
  • While the first season pushes a "synthetics are people, too" message, the fact that the same season introduces a race of Mechanical Abominations as the franchise's Greater-Scope Villain seems to argue more that only Ridiculously Human Robots are worth protecting.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Was the Federation abandoning aid to the Romulans purely because they were left fending after the attack on Mars, or did racism and/or mistrust of what has been an antagonistic force play a part? As Lower Decks and Prodigy later implied that poor experiences with sentient machines and the like led Starfleet down an anti-synth path that the Mars attacks ultimately led them to double down on, does that mean Romulus simply got caught in the middle because both Starfleet and the Zhat Vash hated synths so much? Or was it merely an excuse by Starfleet to not help them because they hated them more than the synths, and used the attack to proverbially kill two birds with one stone?
  • Similarly, the Zhat Vash destroying the fleet that was meant to rescue their own people. Did they consider the destruction of most of the Romulan race to be an acceptable sacrifice in the name of getting the Federation to outlaw artificial intelligence, or were they gambling that the Romulans would be saved anyway by Spock's mission, only for that gamble to figuratively and literally blow up in their faces? Or were they just so focused on their self-imposed mission that they didn't consider the repercussions at all?
  • During the first season Narissa is shown invading Narek's personal space in awkward ways. Does Narissa have incestuous feelings with her brother, does she only do it as a way to annoy him or is it a combination of both?
  • Did Jurati agree to go off with the alternate universe Borg Queen out of a sincere desire to build a new collective, or just to save Seven of Nine?
  • When Jack goes off to confront The Borg Queen upon the revelation he's a next-generation Borg, is he doing it half-cocked because he's furious about all the pain it's caused him? Is he really doing it of his own free will, or is the Queen ordering him back to complete her plan? Could he really not shoot her because she's too powerful, or is he accepting the euphoria of the Collective because he's desparate for connection?
  • Is Q appearing to Jack a case of him just picking a new Picard to mess with or is it like the quirky uncle deciding to watch over his friend's child and help him to become a better person?
  • Riker laments Worf's taking his light-hearted barbs personally, and is also constantly gobsmacked by every seemingly out-of-character thing to come out of the Klingon's mouth. Is Worf being entirely serious, or is he just messing with Riker by saying unexpected or inappropriate things around him?
  • "Vox" reveals that Worf had something to do with what happened to the ''Enterprise''-E, which he insists is not his fault. Is he just lying to save face from his crewmates who blame him for the destruction of what was essentially their second child? Is he trying to avoid stepping on his friend's toes since all of them (sans Picard) played a part in the D getting destroyed until Geordi fixed her and he's trying to not to make them feel bad for what happened at Veridian III? Or is he being honest, since the Instagram logs for the show revealed he stepped down a year before the E was taken out of service? If so, are his crew holding him responsible anyway, since he wasn't there to stop what really happened? Or are they just taking out their frustrations for what happened to the E on him?
• Angst Aversion: One of the bigger complaints about the show, even from those who otherwise rather like it; the show seems to take just a little too much pleasure in tearing down previous beloved TNG-era recurring characters and bumping them off for the sake of a Darker and Edgier mood. The fates of Icheb and Hugh are held up especially on this front, as the narrative could have been molded to have them survive, but deliberately kills them both just to get a rise from the audience.
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • During the gala sequence in Season 2, Rios says in an aside that he has taken quite a liking to the 21st century, something that comes across as somewhat strange, seeing how one of his defining experiences of the whole mission up to this point has been starting it off getting seriously injured and having to go a non-profit clinic that is regularly raided by ICE. Then being forced to go through a rather undignified process at the hands of ICE, which involved him getting subjected to racial profiling, legal railroading and Police Brutality by a government agency, and ending up almost getting deported. One would think these experiences would paint his view of the time period in a more negative light, but his praise for it is played as completely sincere.
  • In season 3's "Vox", the crew of the Titan react to the Borg remotely assimilating all of Starfleet in the span of about one minute with remarkable calm; once they're out of immediate danger they're back to cracking jokes and gushing at the rebuilt Enterprise-D as though this were another day at the office and not the biggest cataclysm since the destruction of Romulus. Geordi in particular, who lost both of his daughters right in front of him, takes all of five seconds to snap out of his Heroic BSoD and get moving, and then starts bantering with Data on the shuttle like nothing is wrong.
  • Considering that half of Starfleet was turned into drones and forced to murder their friends and colleagues in the other half, everyone seems awfully happy and well-adjusted by the end of "The Last Generation".
• Anvilicious:
  • The show's very first episode (and Patrick Stewart himself) makes it blatantly clear the current Federation is supposed to be a reflection of America under President Donald Trump and post-Brexit Britain, with the destruction of Mars being a stand-in for the 9/11 attacks. Regardless of individual opinions on Trump and Brexit, a number of fans agree the message is a bit too on the nose, even for a Star Trek series, with drastic and unexpected changes in characterization (from Picard to the entire Federation) in order to force such a scenario.
  • The portrayal of the Confederation in Season 2 episode 2, a darker version of the Federation created in an alternate timeline, is so over the top and cartoonishly evil that it can go straight into Narm territory for viewers. The Confederation is an expansionist, racist, xenophobic, genocidal society that seeks to exert human supremacy across the galaxy. The Confederation also has a museum straight up called the Museum of Conquest, and a holiday literally called Eradication Day where alien captives are publicly executed. The Confederation version of Picard owns alien slaves and has his own personal hall of alien skulls.
  • When the crew arrives in 2024 Los Angeles in Season 2 episode 3, they are utterly shocked and disgusted by the society they see. Raffi sees the rampant homelessness in LA and rails against the evils of wealth inequality. Seven of Nine sees an out of control wildfire and rants about how 2024 society cares nothing about the environment as they destroy it with pollution and climate change. Rios ends up in a non-profit clinic that gets raided by ICE and is aggressively arrested by police due to suspicion of being an illegal immigrant. Raffi and Seven of Nine in particular wonder how society in 2024 even survives and decry these contemporary social ills as the possible causes of the Bad Future with the Confederation. Of course, if you don't know or don't care about American political issues, this episode may come off as confusing or uninteresting. Guinan's appearance in the next episode also has her repeating much of what Seven & Raffi say in the previous one. Not to mention that given previous canon, humans should have bigger (and more interesting) things to worry about in this time period.
    • Is there anything more Trek in the history of Trek than to send a Hispanic man back to the present day USA and immediately get him arrested by ICE?
    • During his discussion with Guinan, Picard defends humanity, much like he's done with Q in previous Trek episodes, to say the species is not hopeless and that there is always the potential for positive change, even if it comes "later than it should".
• Arc Fatigue:
  • In the first season Picard needing to find Soji is established by the first episode, while the audience knows Soji is both an android and on "The Artifact" Borg Cube. Romulan spies know who she is, but it takes over half the season for Picard and Soji to finally meet up and the oncoming Tomato in the Mirror is anticipated from the start. There was a surprising number of random events within the season for what was supposed to be a season wide arc.
  • In the second season the crew crash land on 21st Century Earth in an homage of numerous similar Time Travel episodes, but add in a Drama-Preserving Handicap that none of their communicators are working properly. 90 percent of the conflict of the season would have been over if they could talk to each other properly, which has its own fair share of Trapped by Mountain Lions.
  • The continuous refusal to explain what's going on inside Jack Crusher Jr.'s head in Season Three has been drawing criticism online for being excessively dragged out. Even when Vadic is captured by Jean-Luc and Beverly in "Dominion" and faces down Jack on the Titan-A's bridge in "Surrender", she keeps talking in "batshit circles" as Jack puts it, and despite a boatload of vague allusions, no actual answers are given before Vadic gets Thrown Out the Airlock to her demise. At the end of the episode, Deanna enters Jack's visions to help him open his recurring "Red Door", but this is still cut off as a Sequel Hook to the next episode, "Vox" (which is the second-last episode of the season and the whole series).
• Ass Pull:
  • Turns out Noonian Soong had a son who's never once been mentioned in the franchise before. It's so out of nowhere that a lot of fans were fully expecting he'd be revealed as another android. Not that it wasn't out-of-left-field that Data had a brother (Lore) in the first place in TNG, or another brother (B-4) in Nemesis, and the previous Soong family member who Brent Spiner played, Arik Soong on Enterprise, had never been mentioned before his appearance either. And Data's mother also turned out to be an android. And then in season 2, Q tracks down Soong's ancestor in 2024, Dr. Adam Soong, who looks identical to him, and also the true progenitor of the Eugenics Wars. Really, the Soongs are giving Sarek's clan a run for their money in this regard.
  • Agnes somehow being able to convince a Borg Queen, a leader of a race that is infamous for being nigh impossible to negotiate with, to respect free will and turn the Borg into a peaceful race that wants to join the Federation. Though as Season 3 reveals, she wasn't entirely successful...
• Awesome Music:
  • The low-key, beautiful reprise of the TNG theme perfectly sets the mood for the show.
  • The dark, modernized take on the Romulan theme from the TOS episode "Balance of Terror" that's first heard during the final scene of "Remembrance."
  • When La Sirena warps away from Earth, the BGM is a huge "He's Back!" for Jean-Luc Picard, especially as the familiar Star Trek theme plays when Picard gives his trademark hand gesture and catchphrase: "Engage."
  • The low-key reprise of the Voyager theme that plays in "Stardust City Rag" when Seven and Picard say good-bye.
  • The triumphant reprise of the TNG theme that plays when Starfleet warps in to stop the Romulan assault on Coppelius. It sets the stage perfectly for the shot that follows: Captain William T. Riker in the center seat of the U.S.S. Zheng He, commanding the fleet and ready to kick some treacherous Tal Shiar ass.
  • The beautiful, haunting cover version of "Blue Skies" by Isa Briones is the mourning song when Data's consciousness dies in "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2", and it's arguably the saddest, most touching scene of Season 1 for longtime Trek fans.
  • The track "Tal Shiar Admonisher" from the opening scene of "Broken Pieces" is absolutely haunting.
  • The reprise of the Borg theme from Star Trek: First Contact, used as a leitmotif for the Borg Queen throughout season 2; particularly when she first escapes her cage.
  • Season 3's credits mix in the opening theme from Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: The Next Generation together for a masterful mix of nostalgia.
  • In the Season 3 episode "The Bounty", the Continuity Cavalcade of ships are accompanied by a medley of their respective shows' theme tunes sure to make the hearts of fans from any era fill with nostalgia, appropriately named "Legacies". We hear the Deep Space 9 and TOS themes for the Defiant and Enterprise-A respectively, then the Voyager theme swells up as the titular ship appears and Seven reminisces about her "rebirth" and the family she found there. And to cap it off, a hint of the theme from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home plays as the Bird of Prey christened by Kirk and crew as the HMS Bounty appears, ready to help save the Federation once again by donating her cloaking device to the Titan.
  • And then there's the use of the old TNG theme when Geordi takes every back to the Fleet Museum and shows what he's been working on all these years—the rebirth of the Enterprise-D herself! Never has such a reunion been so perfectly scored. And the best part? It's called "Make it So".
  • For the end of the series comes "Legacy and Future", where the Enterprise-D is retired to the Fleet Museum for posterity. Dennis McCarthy's "To Live Forever", which played last when the D was thought gone for good, replays itself to show teary-eyed fans that the Enterprise will indeed be around for all eternity, and given the fate she rightfully deserved.
  • And who could forget the final number, "The Stars", which gives the TNG their final sendoff as it ended last time? Never has the show earned the right to play the old TNG theme, giving the second-most famous crew of the franchise the farewell they deserved.
• Broken Base: Picard's fans tend to be split over its story and tonal direction, leading to arguments on both sides on whether or not it did a good job with its approach to the Trek universe.
  • The first season. Was it a brilliant Deconstruction of Picard himself and the Federation as a whole, showing that neither of them were the moral paragons they touted themselves as, similar to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine? Or were they massive character assassinations for them becoming more cynical and mean to make said Deconstruction happen, with its Darker and Edgier approach to the post Dominion War galaxy being too far removed from the more hopeful and idealistic era of TNG?
  • Season 2 got this as well. Did it do a good job exploring Picard's tragic past against the backdrop to not give up hope even at humanity's lowest point and find the peace to move forward, or was its story too Anvilicious about the state of modern politics at a highly divisive time in global history to enjoy?
  • Did Season 3 respond well to criticisms of the earlier seasons by having a plot where the original crew finally reunites to face new threats from old foes and pass the torch to the next generation, or was it a lazy Reset Button that mostly ignored the plots of the first two seasons (and the characters they introduced) to do a TNG reunion show using plots previously hashed out in Deep Space Nine, First Contact, and Voyager? As a rule, the fandom seems to mostly be divided over whether they liked the first two seasons or the third season, though it's generally agreed upon that Season 3's TNG reunion was very well done nonetheless.
  • Speaking of Season 3, its TNG reunion was well-received, but it's left fans equally split on whether or not they should have done that in the first place. Detractors of the first two seasons argue that Picard should have just been a TNG reunion from the beginning, as Season 3's overall plot, numerous easter eggs, and tone were far more in line with previous Trek series. Defenders would argue that it was better to save the reunion for last, since the show needed to do something different with its characters before it brought the old Enterprise-D crew back, even pointing out that Patrick Stewart would not have returned had they taken this approach from the start.
  • Another sticking point is the Titan-A being renamed to the Enterprise-G at the end of the series. Some argue it should have stayed the Titan since changing its named undermined the sacrifice of her crew (especially her late Captain, who wasn't the biggest fan of the Enterprise or her crew barring Geordi), and another ship should have gotten the name instead. Others think it's a perfect name, since it not only allows the lineage to continue through the literal Next Generation of The Next Generation, but it's a perfect Crowning Moment of Awesome for the crew being given such a prestigious honor of carrying the torch. A third camp thinks the Titan should have had its name changed, but it should have been named the Picard in honor of the show's lead character.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • When Seven of Nine kills Bjayzl. No tears were shed after we saw what an unrepentant sociopath she was, harvesting former Borg's cybernetics for profit. Ditto when she inflicts a Disney Villain Death on Narissa.
  • When Fleet Admiral Clancy switches from "fuck you, Picard" to "fuck you, Picard, I am already helping you."
  • For those tired of poor Worf being subject to the very trope named after him, him saving Raffi's rear from Sneed as only a Klingon knows how at long last vindicates the Son of Mogh.
  • "The Last Generation" ends with The Borg Collective finally wiped out after god knows how long they've been around causing all sorts of suffering. And the icing on the cake? The Enterprise-D and her crew are the ones to finish them off, 35 years after they first encountered one another, before the D is retired to the Fleet Museum—a far more dignified fate than the D suffered in Generations.
• Common Knowledge: After "Farewell" showed Adam Soong reaching for a file entitled "Project:Khan", it lead many to believe that the Eugenics Wars were retconned from occurring in the 1990s into the 2020s, with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds indicating that the conflict that became World War III was also called the Eugenics Wars. However, no such retcon was made, as Picard had made earlier references to it (Soong's research is defunded because of his desire to explore eugenics, which, in a society where the war hadn't happened, would not have been banned), and the file on the project is from 1996, the time of which the war is known to have ended. Memory Alpha, the canon Trek wiki, interpreted this to mean that Soong created a second Eugenics Wars. Eventually, Strange New Worlds explained that the war did happen in the 21st century; it's just that as time travelers kept mucking up everything to get rid of the Federation, the war's intended start date of 1992 as mentioned in "Space Seed" got shifted around in the process, and Soong was indeed the true progenitor of the original conflict.
• Complete Monster: Seasons 2 and 3 give us the absolute worst Soong and the Borg Queen's Last Stand respectively. See here.
• Creator Worship: Season 3's show runner, Terry Matalas, has been getting high praise for his handling of the show's third season and the impactful reunion between the TNG crew, to the point many are hoping he'll lead a Strange New Worlds style spinoff involving the crew of the Titan-A or now the Enterprise-G.
• Critical Dissonance: On Rotten Tomatoes, the show sits at 87% Fresh among critics and 58% Rotten among users. Metacritic has the same situation with a Metascore of 76 and a user score of 4.2. It is still a subject of debate as to whether or not public review bombing is to blame.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Hugh, a recurring character, is so beloved by the fandom that he not only beat 30 other characters to make it to the final round of the Star Trek World Cup Twitter poll, but he emerged as the victor because he earned more votes than Jean-Luc Picard (an icon of the franchise, no less!). Jonathan Del Arco wants to know when he'll receive his crown.
  • Captain Liam Shaw of the U.S.S. Titan-A has quickly won the hearts of fans thanks to his Jerk with a Heart of Gold tendencies and the performance of Todd Stashwick, to the point where a fan movement similar to what led to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has arisen pushing for a series set on the Titan-A starring Shaw alongside Seven and Sidney LaForge. Sadly, it seems that even if said spinoff comes to fruit, Shaw won't be around to join it, as he tragically dies in "Vox", though Stashwick has teased that Shaw may come back.
• Estrogen Brigade:
  • Ex-model Evan Evagora (Elnor), Santiago Cabrera (Cristóbal Rios) and Harry Treadaway (Narek) are the main heartthrobs of the series.
  • Ed Speleers joins the list in Season 3 as Loveable Rogue Jack Crusher, alias the son of Jean-Luc Picard.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Season 3 rolls out one of Trek's most amazing antagonists yet in the form of Vadic. Much like her father, Christopher Plummer and his portrayal of General Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Amanda Plummer portrays a vile, Ax-Crazy antagonist hellbent on Revenge with plenty of Chewing the Scenery, yet is also shown to be a minor cog in the Dominion machine that's very timid around her bosses. Fans were even more won over by her in "Dominion" when it's revealed she was a Prisoner of War that Section 31 experimented upon, giving her plenty of reason to despise Starfleet.
  • After decades of Villain Decay, the Borg’s return in Season 3 reminded audiences why they are one of the franchise’s most iconic and feared villains when they are revealed to be the true masterminds behind Vadic’s Changeling terrorist cell, using them to assimilate near the entirety of Starfleet in a final attempt to conquer the Federation once and for all.
• Fandom Rivalry: With Star Trek Online. Prior to the release of Picard, STO was the only piece of media that delved into the post-Romulus era (the competing Star Trek Novelverse never reached the supernova and was ended in 2021). However, due to the portrayals of both the Romulans and Starfleet, some have taken sides over which is better between the two.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Old Man Picard" because the series is in many ways a Whole-Plot Reference to Logan, which is an adaptation of Old Man Logan and it also starred Patrick Stewart.
  • "Momulan" for Laris, as while she is younger than Picard, her Mama Bear tendencies and Crusty Caretaker characterization give her a motherly presence on the show.
  • "Admiral Not-cheyev" for Admiral Clancy, a female superior officer that is absolutely not afraid to talk down Picard, not unlike Admiral Nechayev from TNG.
  • "Romulannisters" for the Incest Subtext between Narek and his sister Narissa. Jaime and Cersei Lannister were involved in an incestuous affair on Game of Thrones.
  • "Romulan Legolas" and "Space Legolas" for Elnor, whose long hair, Elfeminate features and agile, graceful combat style are reminiscent of Legolas in The Lord of the Rings. Alternately, he's also referred to as "Romulan Elrond" because their names are similar ("Elnor" means "Star-Run" ^note which is another way of saying "Star-Trek"! in Sindarin), they both use swords (Elrond wielded a sword in the prologue of The Fellowship of the Ring), and the location of the Qowat Milat monastery where Elnor was raised could be mistaken for the forest of Rivendell due to the autumn-like colours of both the foliage and the late afternoon/early evening sunlight. It also helps that Evan Evagora and Hugo Weaving are both Australian.
  • "Murder Roll" is also used for Elnor because he's an efficient killer and because he's a "cinnamon roll" (which is Tumblr-speak for The Cutie).
  • "Romulan Bene Gesserit" for the Qowat Milat. The Bene Gesserit sisterhood in Dune is also an Amazon Brigade that does not accept men as members, although a few males may receive its specialized training. Elnor's fighting skills are praised by Zani, the Qowat Milat leader (the equivalent of the Bene Gesserit's Reverend Mother), which would make him somewhat analogous to Paul Atreides.
  • "Borg King" for Hugh because he would've become the Artifact's male Borg Queen if Narissa hadn't murdered him.
  • "The Reapers" for the synthetic anti-Federation revealed in the "Et in Arcadia Ego" two-parter due to the plot's similarity to Mass Effect.
  • "Borgnes", "Agnes Borgati", "Two of Two", or "Queen Jurati" for Agnes following her assimilation. Conveniently, most of them double as a Portmanteau Couple Name for Agnes and the Borg Queen.
  • Bjayzl is often referred to as "Vajazzle" due to its unfortunate similarity with the sound of her name.
  • "Copy and paste fleet" for the two hundred nearly-identical Inquiry-class starships that show up in the first season finale.
  • The Enteprise-D retroactively gets a new nickname in Season 3: "The Fat One", based off of a comment from a vendor regarding souvenir replicas of the ship.
• Fanon Discontinuity:
  • A small but extremely vocal number of Star Trek fans consider the Federation choosing not to help the Romulans escape their supernova as being the final nail which allegedly "destroys" the ideals at the very core of Star Trek, and as a result reject this series as being canon — while Trek canon also says that the Federation was formed as a direct response to the Romulan War of the mid-22nd century, Admiral Clancy phrases the decision as having the right to choose if they die or not, as opposed to pragmatism or politics. Starfleet also seemingly dismissed Raffi just for helping Picard try to salvage the situation. This would somewhat turn around by Season 3, as fans were far more embracive of the TNG reunion, but there is still this small subset of fans who feel this way about the first two seasons at least.
  • A lot of shippers dislike that they have Seven and Raffi break up between Seasons 2 and 3, especially with their romance being seen as one of the highlights of the first 2 seasons. As such, many fans online outright ignore the breakup and prefer to imagine that they are still dating.
• Growing the Beard: Due to the noticeable change in writing on account of a new showrunner, detractors of the first two seasons of Picard wound up having a better opinion or even genuinely praising the direction and quality of the third season. Between a Putting the Band Back Together plotline that even went so far as to resurrect the Enterprise-D after its unceremonious prior destruction and overall intent to close the book on the characters in a way similar to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country did for the original generation, the overall plot bridges better than the prior two seasons as a continuation of The Next Generation while setting the stage for others to go on their own adventures. For an added bonus, the Trope Namer himself partakes in all 10 episodes of the final season, either behind the camera or in front of it as Riker.
• Harsher in Hindsight: One of the plans for Picard was to have Admiral Janeway cameo at the end of the series to officially promote Seven of Nine to Captain, but it was cut because she was appearing on Star Trek: Prodigy, and the studio wouldn't allow the overlap. Only a few months later, Prodigy was cancelled in the middle of making its second season and announced to be leaving the network.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: In "Vox", Geordi reveals he had spent the last 20 years restoring the Enterprise-D back into service, complete with a full recreation of the original bridge. Nearly a year after this reveal, the original captain's chair from the long-destroyed set was found and preserved at the Paramount archives.
• He Panned It, Now He Sucks!:
  • Darren Franich gave the show an extremely negative review, mostly complaining about a lack of big action scenes, and insulting anyone who's liked the franchise since the end of Enterprise as "dumbos." He naturally got a ton of accusations of just wanting to be a contrarian hot-take artist.
  • Zach Handlen of AV Club also got quite a bit of discontent for his negative reviews, accusing him of only wanting the franchise to be the extremely specific thing that he wants, never allowed to grow beyond it. It doesn't help that this was the third show he's reviewed that faced this exact response after Fargo and A Series of Unfortunate Events.
• He's Just Hiding:
  • There are fans who are in denial that Hugh is permanently dead, and they believe he can be resurrected with Borg technology. They use the hashtag #BringBackHugh on Twitter and compose Fix Fics where the character is alive again. The Star Trek Timelines game has also joined in.◊
  • In the second season, Elnor dies aboard La Sirena right after the crew travel back in time to 2024 Earth; it's not an uncommon belief that he (as a series regular and major Mr. Fanservice character) will very likely be spared and returned to life when the timeline is repaired and restored. Subverted in the end, the timeline is far from "fixed" and what they did do, does nothing to bring back Elnor. But Q uses the last of his powers before he dies to return the crew to their time, minus Rios, who stays behind, and so Q decides to give the crew a "surprise" which turns out to be ensuring Elnor is still there when they get back.
  • Many fans are skeptical that the Borg Collective has been destroyed for good as of the series finale, considering their immense resource base and population, highly-infectious nanoprobes, and access to time travel technology. With "Regeneration" having established that Borg technology is essentially Ragnarok Proof, it's not hard to imagine a handful of inactive drones or nanoprobes awakening at some point in the future and starting the cycle of assimilation anew.
  • Terry Matalas himself claims this of Ro Laren, Admiral Shelby, and even Captain Shaw, all of whom died during Season 3, despite the fact that Ro rammed a shuttlecraft into the Intrepid's nacelle, Shelby took two point-blank phaser blasts to the chest, and Shaw was fatally wounded by his own crew when the Borg took them over.^note There was supposed to be a scene filmed revealing that Ro survived, but it was never filmed due to budgetary constraints.
• Ho Yay:
  • Considering that Elnor^note a young, wide-eyed, beautiful, effeminate Romulan man — traits that are associated with The Twink and Hugh^note played by a gay actor and whose character is queer-coded, specifically in this series as the righteous, saintly gay man who dies a tragic death are complete strangers, they do have an unusually strong connection in "Nepenthe", with Elnor being extremely protective of Hugh, touching the back of Hugh's neck as a gesture of comfort, risking his life to help Hugh avenge the murdered xBs instead of returning to La Sirena, and when Hugh is dying, the way he holds Elnor's face is quite tender, and Elnor covers Hugh's hand with his own. According to Jonathan Del Arco in this interview, he borrowed from his experience as a gay man and decided to portray Hugh as being in love with Elnor, hoping that Elnor loved him.^note So in other words, Del Arco interpreted the instant affinity shared between Hugh and Elnor as a doomed gay romance which barely had the chance to blossom before it was cut down.
    "I was like, 'This is Hugh's last moment and I'm going to make some personal choices, and so I'll make them personal choices about how I want them to be,'" says Del Arco. "And I think there were a lot of things about Elnor that for me resonated as a gay man." There certainly is a spark between the two characters in that moment. And while reps for CBS say that Hugh has not been identified as gay, Del Arco took his own experience as a gay man into consideration when playing that scene. "You know, I think he loved him," he says. "I think in essence he might've been in love with him in the time that he was there. I think that the hope was really someone loves him. Someone who was idealistic. I think he saw a lot of himself in Elnor. Hugh used to have that sense of innocence, of righteousness. And all those things were hopeful to him, because he hadn't been in a space of hope for all this time. And I think for a minute he thought, 'You know, I think me and the kid can go all the way with this. We could take the cube. We could save it.' And there you go. It didn't work out."
  • In this Twitter post, Del Arco refers to Evan Evagora as "my Elnor" with three rainbow emojis. Del Arco reiterates that "we shot the death scene last (same day) at that point it was about [Hugh's] love for Elnor and letting go."
  • Picard admits that he dreams about Data all the time, and (in his own emotionally guarded way) that he loved Data. For his part, Data acknowledges this with no hint of surprise or awkwardness.
  • Seven and Bjayzl's interactions are loaded with subtext that implies their relationship was more than colleagues. They refer to each other with nicknames (Seven's human name Annika and Bjayzl as Jay), and Bjayzl notes that she always found Seven "impressive." Bjayzl also remarks that Seven was "easy," a comment Seven doesn't take well. Seven boasts of being "the one that got away" (often used to describe romantic partners) and how no one was ever worth more to Bjayzl than Seven. This was intentional, according to Word of God. The finale also has a short moment between Seven and Raffi that matches the prior scene between Rios and Jurati (Seven and Raffi are finishing a game of kal-toh, then hold hands with Intertwined Fingers). This, coupled with preexisting Star Trek: Voyager femslash: Seven/Janeway is almost as popular a pairing as Kirk/Spock.
  • Agnes and the Borg Queen, particularly during the "Two of One," where the Queen is basically framed as Jurati's "date" for the evening. Played up by Annie Wersching, who has posted behind-the-scenes photos of Alison Pill and herself ballroom dancing in character and embracing in matching Borg Queen costumes.
• I Knew It!:
  • Fans hoping for an appearance from the U.S.S. Enterprise herself guessed that, if it wasn't the E from First Contact, it would be the Odyssey class F from Star Trek Online. The Season 3 trailer confirmed that she would indeed be making the jump to television.
  • In the third season, Given Beverly's motivation-less ghosting of the 1701-D crew 20 years ago, the Unresolved Sexual Tension between her and Picard at the time, and the fact that the only new face in the lead cast plays her twenty-something son Jack Crusher, it wasn't difficult to guess that Picard would turn out to be his father. The show, to its credit, only hid it for two episodes.
• Jerkass Woobie: Captain Shaw is quickly established to be a jerkass, with pretty much everyone who meets him agreeing that he's a dick. Then he reveals that he was at Wolf 359, and he watched forty of his friends die so that he and nine others could escape. His jerkass behavior turns out to be his coping mechanism for his massive Survivor Guilt.
• Just Here for Godzilla: There are a large number of viewers who picked up the series solely because of Jean-Luc Picard and Seven of Nine being featured in the advertising.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Picard has the weight of a brain disease that will soon kill him throughout Season 1, which is rather hard to take seriously given that the series was greenlit for a second season before it even started airing. A bunch of fans suspect this was an "in-case-Patrick-Stewart-kicks-the-bucket-halfway-through-filming" contingency, while another bunch suspect the show started out as a one-off miniseries that would end with his death, and the last ten minutes were hastily rewritten when they got another season. (Word of God claims in this featurette that it was planned all along for Picard to die and then revive him, but some of Patrick Stewart's statements in interviews, namely that he was first informed some time into the series' production of Picard's death and resurrection because "that final episode wasn't written yet," does cast at least a bit of doubt on this.)
  • On the other hand, this could have just been a way to resolve Picard's Irumodic Syndrome, a ticking time bomb for the character that was established in TNG's finale.
    • And then Picard season three comes along and uses Picard's case of Irumodic Syndrome as a plot point when the Changelings store his mortal remains to get at the portions of his brain affected by the disease — which as Jack Crusher Jr.'s plot is starting to reveal, may not even be Irumodic Syndrome at all. Fortunately, since Picard now resides in an artificially constructed body, he is able to investigate whatever the Changeling infiltrators want with himself.
• Memetic Badass: Captain William T. Riker, in command of the U.S.S. Zheng He, when he leads a Big Damn Heroes moment in the Season 1 finale—a reputation of which only grew when he pulled off a Gunship Rescue in the Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 finale. Fans began to joke that whenever a ship was in trouble, he would be the one to swoop in and save them.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "The sheer fucking hubris!" and "Shut the fuck up!" from Admiral Clancy. It is to the point where some viewers have dubbed her "Admiral Fuckface."
  • "Give Elnor a Cat" and "Let Elnor See a Cat" are popular on Tumblr.
  • In the wake of the coronavirus, there's "Please, my friend. Choose to stay inside.◊"
  • "REHUGHNION◊" (it can also be spelled as "Re-Hugh-nion").
  • McCoy was right^ExplanationAfter "Vox" revealed The Borg had the Changelings alter the transporters to put a Borg DNA sequence into all the young crews aboard each ship so they could be assimilated, Trek fans naturally joked that the good Doctor and all other transporter-hating characters (e.g. Reg Barclay and Dr. Pulaski) were Properly Paranoid.
• Moral Event Horizon: If Adam Soong didn't cross this when he unwittingly revealed to Kore that she's nothing but a flawed science experiment to him, he certainly does when he tries to sabotage Renée Picard's spaceship mission, knowing that doing so will result in a highly xenophobic genocidal dictatorship in future, just to secure his legacy.
• Most Wonderful Sound: When the Enterprise-D is turned on, the bridge lights up like a Christmas tree, and all the iconic sounds turn on to give fans a return back to 1987. Then the late Majel-Barrett Roddenberry's voice is heard on the computer, completing the cycle of reuniting all the old TNG crew. It brought many a tears to fans eyes to hear it all one last time.
• Narm Charm: The resurrected Enterprise-D maneuvering like a nimble fighter jet in "The Last Generation" might raise some eyebrows, given that she'd otherwise been depicted as a Mighty Glacier, but after the ship's Undignified Death in Star Trek: Generations, and with the chance to bring her back with modern CGI, one can hardly blame the producers for indulging a little, and the sequence is unquestionably awesome all the same.
• Older Than They Think: Ann Magnuson as Admiral Clancy isn't the first person to drop an F-bomb in Star Trek. Before her, there was the holographic Leonardo da Vinci played by John Rhys-Davies, who, during the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Scorpion", says "Che cazzo?" in Italian, which translates as "What the fuck?".
• One-Scene Wonder: Walter Koenig (via Voice-Only Cameo) as President Anton Chekov, not just for Koenig's first time participating in the new Trek series, but his character calmly warning the rest of The Federation about coming under attack and urging them to keep hopeful despite being in the crossfire himself earned him a lot of respect from fans.
• Padding:
  • Narek and Narissa have the exact same conversation in several episodes about Narek's mission to seduce Soji, although Narissa does become increasingly violent and abusive with each meeting. There is also quite a bit of recurring As You Know about both Dahj's death and the attack on Mars.
  • The entire storyline with Rios getting into trouble with ICE in Season 2 seems to mainly be included to give an extended criticism of the agency and its methods, and contemporary American immigration politics by extension. The only element in the subplot that has any effect on the overarching plot is getting Rios introduced to and bonding with Teresa, but otherwise, the whole extended sequence of Rios getting arrested and processed, while Raffi and Seven are trying to devise a way free him from captivity, could easily be entirely exorcised from the series without losing anything of importance.
• Pandering to the Base: Season 3 went all out with its TNG reunion by not only including characters and references to Deep Space Nine and Voyager, but even The Original Series and Enterprise, even going so far as to resurrect the Enterprise-D after her unceremonious demise in Generations.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: "Hughnor" for Hugh/Elnor; the name was coined on Tumblr, but the pairing itself was created by Jonathan Del Arco, so the shippers have the blessing of Word of Saint Paul.
  • "Borgati" or "Borgnes" for Agnes Jurati and the Borg Queen.
  • Several lesbians fans absolutely delighted in calling the relationship between Seven and Raffi "Saffi."
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • While his Scrappydom has been on the decline since the back half of TNG, Wesley Crusher's appearance in the season 2 finale completes the process, depicting him as Older and Wiser and fully cognizant of his responsibilities as a Traveler.
  • To the extent that he might not have even had time to become The Scrappy to begin with, but Season 3's "No Win Scenario" substantially rehabilitates the resident Hate Sink, Captain Liam Shaw, by expanding greatly upon his backstory: long before becoming captain of the Titan-A, he was an engineer aboard the Constellation-class U.S.S. Constance at the Battle of Wolf 359 (as depicted in TNG's "The Best of Both Worlds" and DS9's "Emissary"). As he admits to his subordinates, his ordeal and Survivor's Guilt as an apparent fluke escapee gave him trauma he's still dealing with in the "present day" of the series, and led him to become a Jerkass and anti-ex-Borg bigot to compensate, for which he is trying to work on self-awareness and improvement. As a result, he ends up revealed as a Tragic Bigot and starts becoming more of a Reasonable Authority Figure. Heck, he's become so popular now that people want him to get his own Strange New Worlds style spinoff.
    Shaw: Forgive me. At some point, "asshole" became a substitute for charm.
• Salvaged Story:
  • One of the biggest complaints about Star Trek (2009) was that Nero's attack on the Federation in the Kelvin Timeline was because the Federation refused to help his people — a claim which was seemingly Out of Character and based entirely on Nero's word alone. Picard opens with the revelation that, yes, the Federation did abandon helping his people escape destruction from the Hobus Supernova because a terrorist attack on their shipyards destroyed their planned evacuation fleet, and they called off any further efforts because other member worlds threatened to secede. Not only does this make Nero's vengeance justified, but it also explains why Spock Prime's attempts to stop the Supernova seemed so rushed.
  • Star Trek: Discovery was met with criticism of being a Cosmetically-Advanced Prequel despite being set only a decade before Star Trek: The Original Series, having tech that was far more detailed than the show which would chronologically follow it. Picard's aesthetics better match that of the TNG/DS9/VOY era, featuring ships whose models look exactly as they did on previous series and films (including the Enterprise-D via a dream sequence, the Defiant, Voyager, the Enterprise-A and the Excelsior), and even perfectly recreates a TOS era design on the Fleet Museum's Constitution class vessel, the New Jersey. And to top it all off, "Vox" brings out the biggest recreation of any classic Trek set with The real Enterprise-D herself!
  • After both Enterprise and Discovery (and to a lesser extent, the Kelvin Timeline films) faced criticisms for being prequels (or a reboot in the Kelvin movies' case) rather than advancing the franchise beyond the era last seen in Nemesis. The show not only sets itself 20 years after Nemesis, but ends in 2401 with the potential to explore the 25th century era onboard the Enterprise-G.
  • While Star Trek: Nemesis has been Vindicated by History in later years, its ending is still widely loathed for denying Picard and Data the chance to say goodbye when the latter makes a Heroic Sacrifice. The Season 1 finale gives both men a chance to bid a fonder, and more earnest, farewell.
  • Season 1's Big Damn Heroes moment was widely criticized for its Copy-And-Paste fleet of Starfleet vessels, lacking any of the familiar ships (i.e. the Sovereign, the Defiant, the Intrepid) from the previous years of the franchise. Season 2's response fleet to an unknown distress signal features both ships of old (Excelsior and Galaxy) and new (including Star Trek Online ships such as the Steamrunner). Season 3 would even bring another STO favorite into canon with the Enterprise-F herself! On that same token, the entire Federation fleet is depicted with a greater variety of ships in Season 3 for the Frontier Day celebration.
  • Season 3 continues the rectification started with Star Trek: Lower Decks about claims of how the new Trek series was ignoring Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in favor of TNG and Voyager by not only having a cameo appearance from the retired Defiant herself in "Bounty", but the entire season's plot is actually a Stealth Sequel to DS9, as it involves a splinter faction of The Dominion attempting to destroy Starfleet once and for all as vengeance for their defeat decades earlier.
  • Another complaint about Picard's previous two seasons involved Brent Spiner having to play not one, but two members of the Soong Family who were never mentioned before in the series history so he could continue to be included in the franchise after retiring from the role of Data. "Bounty" introduces a new Soong-Type android that lets him still play Data, but also B-4, Altan Soong, and even Lore—whose personalities are all mixed in to this new android—all at once, complete with said android being aged in appearance.
  • Geordi and Data’s friendship had been treated as an afterthought for years, starting with the ending of Star Trek: Nemesis, which seemed to focus more on Picard’s relationship with Data, even though he and Geordi were arguably much closer. Season 1 continued the trend by failing to involve Geordi at all in a very Data-centric story. Season 3 makes amends for all of this by focussing plenty of screen-time on Geordi and Data’s friendship after their reunion and Geordi’s pain after originally losing Data on the Scimitar.
  • The appearance of the Enterprise-NX-01 in a refit configuration for the planned but never implemented Season 5 rather than her original configuration implies that the widely despised series finale, "These Are The Voyages"^note which fans unceremoniously voted as the worst Star Trek episode of all time, either never happened or occurred differently than the events that Riker saw in that episode.
  • Jurati somehow managing to turn the Borg into a peaceful race at the finale of season 2 was rather divisive. Season 3 amends this, with Captain Shaw indicating that those Borg were a Renagade Splinter Faction of the Collective, something confirmed by the Borg emerging as the final villain of the season after the Changelings' defeat.
  • Speaking of The Borg, fans weren't pleased over how they were suffering from Villain Decay since their first appearance, especially after "Endgame" saw Janeway seemingly wipe them out for good. While it was implied in the first two seasons that they were still around, Season 3 practically undid that decay overnight by revealing them to be the true villains of the series, working with the rogue Changelings to take over the entirety of Starfleet and pulling off a grand plan over 20 years in the making that puts Earth right at their mercy. And for Voyager fans, "The Last Generation" shows that Janeway did succeed in crippling the Borg, but drove The Queen so mad that she wound up pulling off the scheme seen in this show, allowing things to come full-circle.
  • For viewers, Generations gave the Enterprise-D an undignified death—having her stardrive section destroyed by an ancient Klingon Bird of Prey because Geordi let his visor get hacked, and then having the saucer crash on Veridan III because the shockwave knocked her out of orbit—a far cry to how her predecessor went out. "The Last Generation" gives the D her redemption by having her rebuilt self not only decimate an entire Borg Cube, but saving the Federation and being retired to the Fleet Museum to enjoy the posterity her predecessor never had.
• Shocking Moments:
  • From the very first episode Dahj was built up as a badass, able to take on Romulans who outnumber her with ease Which, combined with her being Data’s daughter made it completely unexpected when she turned out to be a Red Shirt.
  • "Vox" gives TNG fans the ultimate comeback for the biggest player from that series with the Enterprise-D herself, completely rebuilt by Geordi, and with all of her old crew back to use her one last time to save the galaxy.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: Many reviews say the combined story of the three episodes of Season 1 provided for pre-air reviews feels like it could have all just have been covered in the span of one pilot episode and would probably have been a more evenly-paced narrative for it.
• Special Effect Failure: The "copy and paste fleet" — two hundred nearly-identical Inquiry-class starships that show up in the season finale. (There are actually three variants, but you wouldn't notice unless you looked very closely.) While the ships themselves look decent, the sheer uniformity of the fleet broke many viewers' Willing Suspension of Disbelief, wondering if the producers ran out of budget to create more ship models. Compare this with the fleets seen in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which were equally large but had a much more varied composition.
• Spoiled by the Format: The closed captioning on the CBS streaming network is erratic to put it mildly, sometimes revealing a character's dramatic lines several seconds before they actually speak.
  • The confirmation that a second season had been ordered was announced while the first season was still airing; consequently, audiences already know that Picard's "death" in the finale of the season isn't going to last, which makes the fairly long montage of other character's reactions and his subsequent resurrection feel much less impactful than they otherwise might've if CBS had held off for a few weeks.
  • The captions that go on top of the burned-in subtitles for the alien language spoken by the Shrike's crew in season 3 spoiled that the language they were speaking was Changeling before the reveal at the end of that episode.
  • Among the voices Jack heard at the end of Episode 4, the subtitles state one of them is eventual Big Bad The Borg Queen from First Contact and VOY : “Endgame” - though it would be altered a few days later to “Whispering Voice”.
• Squick:
  • The fifth episode, "Stardust City Rag" opens with a graphic scene of Icheb's vivisection for Borg components and Mercy Kill by Seven shortly afterwards. Some detractors described this as Torture Porn in the vein of the Saw franchise — but it's not like Star Trek hasn't gotten into gory, uncomfortable moments on plenty of prior occasions before^note like the infamous ending of TNG's first-season episode "Conspiracy", or Ash Tyler's flashbacks as Voq in the first season of Discovery, or even the Ceti eels from Star Trek II Wrath Of Khan..
  • Narissa is way too interested in the details of how Narek is seducing Soji, and gets far too into his personal space while doing so, creating an uncomfortable amount of Incest Subtext.
• Strangled by the Red String: Many fans were not quite convinced of Picard's romantic interest in Laris and Tallinn, especially since neither women received much characterization, and much of Picard's interest in Tallinn seemed to stem from her taking on Laris' appearance. At least with Crusher back, it helps to tie up that loose end.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: After the first two seasons were met with divisive reception from fans and critics alike, the third season marked a welcome return to form with multiple instances of Character Rerailment and giving longtime viewers a chance to see the original TNG cast together again for a final hurrah.
• Take That, Scrappy!: It turns out B-4 soon showed himself to not measure up at all to Data, and is now stored disassembled in a robotics laboratory.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Much like Discovery, the show's first season attracted criticism from many in the fanbase for the Darker and Edgier setting, feeling it's less hopeful than earlier instalments.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!:
  • Some reviewers have taken issue with the overarching plot of the first season resembling that of Mass Effect, specifically how it revolves around a race of Mechanical Abominations threatening to cleanse the galaxy of organic life and the Artifacts of Doom warning of their return and Picard putting together a new crew like Shepard did. It should be noted, though, that the actual plot is quite different: in Mass Effect, the Big Bad is a brainwashed individual who wants to bring the cycle to fruition; in Picard, the villains are an Ancient Conspiracy fighting tooth and nail to prevent that from happening, but are practicing genocide against synthetic lifeforms in the process.
  • At least some detractors of the show have accused Admiral Clancy, an elderly female authority figure with Lady Swears-a-Lot tendencies, of being a rip-off of the character of Chrisjen Avasarala from The Expanse.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Seven's adoptive son Icheb from Voyager shows up for all of one scene in "Stardust City Rag" just to end up Back for the Dead, even getting The Other Darrin treatment.
  • The same goes for Dr. Bruce Maddox, also in "Stardust City Rag", who is a focus of the entire crew's search for multiple episodes, only to get abruptly murdered by Dr. Jurati, who has become The Mole under the influence of Commodore Oh. And yes, he too is the subject of The Other Darrin relative to his appearance on TNG.
  • Hugh, of all people, after much of the fandom cheered for his return, only to have him appear in three episodes before getting knifed for his trouble. There seems to have been so much more to explore with his grief over the murdered Xbs and a whole long history of how he became their advocate.
  • And let's add Data, who was actually alive again in a simulation... only to request that Picard deactivate it, as he believes life without death is meaningless, and it is a Gilded Cage. Though this at least had the excuse of Brent Spiner only being willing to play Data for long enough to give him a more satisfying exit than the one he had in Star Trek: Nemesis, and the production team being further limited by the costs of making Spiner look like he did circa 2002. Season 3 at least finds a way to bring the character back, this time for good.
  • The Borg, collectively. While a lot of fans were glad just to have some confirmation that they hadn't been completely wiped out in the finale of Voyager, both previews and the early episodes of Season 1 kept hinting that the Borg would play a large role in the plot due to the existence of the Borg Reclamation Project and the Artifact. Instead, they are largely sidelined in favor of the synth plotline, and when the Artifact crashes ignominiously on Coppelius it's just left there along with all the surviving ex-Borg aboard. The Borg were consequently given vastly increased significance in the 2nd season, possibly as a result of said criticisms. And then Season 3 reveals they were behind the Dominion Splinter Faction—all so they could take over Starfleet once more.
  • In season two Elnor dies unceremoniously to ensure that Jurati is stuck alone on the ship with the Borg Queen in the rest of the season while also giving Raffi a reason to angst. He's brought back to life at the end of the season, though he doesn't appear in the third season.
  • Although it's framed as a happy ending, many fans took issue with Rios's decision to remain in the twenty-first century as it effectively means that he can never appear as a character again.
  • Although season 2 goes to great lengths to establish Jurati finding fulfillment as a friendly Borg queen, no one at any point in the conflict with the mainline Borg in season 3 thinks to contact her as a potentially useful ally.
  • While the news that season three would reunite the TNG crew for one more adventure together was widely celebrated in the fandom, many fans were disappointed that Rios, Jurati, Elnor, and Soji ultimately ended up being swept under the rug and forgotten about. Raffi got to stick around, at least, but Laris, whom Season 2 had set up as Picard's love interest, only shows up in the first episode of Season 3 and is quickly forgotten about, even at the end!
  • While he was happy to return to Star Trek, Daniel Davis himself was disappointed that as Moriarty, he didn't get to interact with Patrick Stewart as Picard and LeVar Burton as Geordi, since Moriarty's history was most intertwined with them (Geordi inadvertently gave him sentience in "Elementary, Dear Data", Picard foiled his plans during his last appearance in "Ship In A Bottle").
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The Reveal in "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2" that Data's consciousness did survive, and that Maddox and Soong had him running in a virtual environment. Had Data's consciousness been revealed earlier and been a larger part of the plot, Picard deactivating him and allowing him to die for good would have carried far more impact than it did.
  • The writing also massively wastes the potential of two gigantic fleets that were as large as anything shown in DS9. The two fleets just hang in space watching each other. There's no manoeuvring or jockeying for position, and the resolution happens without any actual combat between the two fleets.
  • The entire concept of the Xbs and the Xb project. Give that the series has created a number of popular, multi-layered Xb characters, and that Picard himself is one, the history of the Xb Project, Hugh's work there might have been an unlimited well of new stories and characters. Having heroic and saintly Hugh die after watching his charges be slaughtered seems like a total waste of potential story that mirrors the story of genocide survivors. Ultimately the entire Borg Reclamation project doesn't really have any significance for the main plot beyond being a place where Soji and Narek happen to be.
  • Exactly what the hell is going wrong in the Federation's government for a project to evacuate Romulan space to provoke threats of secession? That kind of political plotline was Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's bread and butter (and to a lesser extent later-season Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Enterprise as well), but here it's mentioned in passing and then forgotten.
  • Vadic's tragic backstory — that she was tortured and experimented on by Section 31 during the Dominion War, hence her desire for revenge against the Federation — could have easily been incorporated into season one's premise of a colder, more realpolitik Starfleet, prompting reflection and perhaps some kind of redemption arc for the organization. Instead, Picard and Beverly basically retort that Vadic and her people deserved it for starting the war in the first place, and that's the last we hear of it. This also means that, by all appearances, Section 31 is once again a Karma Houdini as of the end of the series, despite now being directly responsible for two disasters that could have ended all life in the galaxy.
  • Given season 3's reveal that the Borg were using the Federation's transporter systems to undermine them, many fans had hoped to see Miles O'Brien, who'd started out as the Enterprise-D's transporter chief, return and help save the day, and were disappointed when that didn't pan out. It's especially jarring considering that he's not only the most recognizable of the recurring TNG cast members, but, like Worf, his presence on DS9 welcomed the opportunity for him to help close the door on the Dominion's final attempt at vengeance for their defeat in the war he directly partook in.
  • Many fans were disappointed that the return of the mainline Borg Collective at the end of Season 3 did not involve Jurati's collective, established in the previous season.
• Uncertain Audience: Picard fluctuated between trying to tell an independent story with Picard with a new cast that has a more cynical take on the franchise while also pulling in a scattering of returning characters with a wealth of backstory behind them. Fans were interested in a The Next Generation follow-up, but adding graphic violence and harsh language that the franchise previously danced around didn't help much. A darker story was previously divisive about Deep Space Nine but the show avoided discussing the events of DS9 that contributed to this shift for Starfleet, and Picard himself, to avoid Continuity Lockout. Mixing so many themes and characters from different parts of the franchise never settled quite right, so those who would be open to a cynical Deconstructive take were left with nothing concrete to stand on. This persisted through season 1 and 2, while season 3 focusing more on TNG appeal by Putting the Band Back Together was seen as a stabilizing event for the show.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Bruce Maddox, the antagonist of "The Measure of a Man", plays a major role in the series' backstory and even appears in person in the "Stardust City Rag" episode.
  • Season 2 features a major return few expected: The Bus Punk that Spock neck-pinched, complete with a Call-Back to that very moment.
  • Wesley Crusher shows up in the Season 2 finale, having Took a Level in Badass in the process.
  • Season 3 isn't just going to bring back the entire TNG crew, but also the holographic Professor Moriarty and Lore. And when Lore does show up, he's not alone. Turns out he's sharing that body with Data himself.
  • Season 3's big baddies are just as equally unexpected, as The Dominion (or at least, a splinter faction of them) make their grand return to the franchise.
  • Not content with that however, the fifth episode adds Ro Laren, off the bench 29 years later.
  • Meanwhile, for a ship example, the Fleet Museum has the Enterprise-A, the Enterprise NX-01 (her being back wasn't unexpected; her being in a refit configuration was), the Voyager, the Excelsior, and the unrefit Constitution class vessel Picard mentioned back in "Relics" (confirmed to be the New Jersey)—all of which were confirmed to be preserved there. What nobody expected was the H.M.S. Bounty—the Klingon Bird of Prey that the old Enterprise crew used during The Voyage Home—nor the Defiant—alive and well after another brush with death on Prodigy—to be amongst the collection.
  • And it doesn’t stop there, in episode 7, Tuvok is back!!! Well, sort of. ^note the Tuvok we see in this episode is a changeling impostor, though the real Tuvok does return in Episode 10.
  • "Vox" busts two big name players off the bench—Commander Shelby from "The Best of Both Worlds", and the last player of the old TNG crew left to join the party—The Enterprise-D, and when the ship is turned on, the computer is again voiced by the First Lady of Trek Majel Barrett (Albeit via archival audio)
  • And "The Last Generation" throws in another cameo from the generation before the next—Walter Koenig, playing Pavel Chekov’s son Anton.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: The Zhat Vash was right all along! The Admonition is a message to synthetic life that there is other synthetic life willing to invade and destroy all organic life if called upon, in order to save their fellow synthetics. The Soong-type androids start to bring these horrors into the galaxy, and the only reason why nothing more happens is because it takes a while for them to come through the wormhole, allowing a small window to shut down the beacon. It's probable that anyone faced with the evidence would come to the conclusion that artificial life is too big a danger to allow to exist. Especially the Federation, who already ban genetic engineering of organic life because of the risk of starting another Eugenics War. What also helps is that "mad AI goes rogue" is one of the oldest plots in Star Trek history, appearing in no less than 7 episodes of The Original Series and only going up from there. If you lived in the Star Trek universe, there's wall-to-wall evidence that you should never trust a machine that can think for itself lest you want to be killed, enslaved, or both. Even Data wasn't safe from this as he'd become Brainwashed and Crazy and a threat to others a few times himself.
  • One could also say the same for Control as in the later half of season 3 the Borg effectively highjacks Starfleet from within and plans to use said new “assimilated” fully organic drones as the seed base of a new even more advanced and dangerous Borg collective to threaten and ultimately rule the entire galaxy with until the end of time. Control would’ve had access to all the Enterprise NX-01’s logs including those of the incident involving the Borg and the knowledge that a “visit” from a very real bio-cybernetic threat easily capable of assimilating others, quickly adaptable defenses, and has access to technology far more advanced than anything Starfleet, the Federation, or even the surrounding powers currently had at their disposal isn’t so much if they show up 200 years from the logs being recorded but when! While that doesn’t excuse nor justifies Control’s actions, Control was originally programmed to help protect the Federation from any and all threats but when it tried to figure out a way the Federation could win against a confirmed future threat that, for all intents and purposes, had no vulnerabilities that could be exploited (at least for long anyway), combined with the limitations of Control’s own programming, preemptively wiping out all life in the universe was the “best” solution he could come up with to stop them and save everyone.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Soji, an ostensible protagonist, deliberately attempts to instigate a galaxy-wide xenocide of all organic life in the season one finale. While it's true that the Romulans are out to kill her, and that synths are indeed subject to outright genocide by both the Romulans the Federation, the sheer disproportionate scale of the act is difficult to comprehend, let alone justify as self-defense. The fact that she's willingly signing the death warrants of trillions of completely innocent people as collateral all for the sake of saving fifty-odd synths also gives the impression that she views all people except for hers as borderline unworthy of life, and notably, she never actually goes back on that calculation (only choosing to stop because Picard convinced her that said fifty-odd synths could be saved without the galactic xenocide; the implication being that if she just had to choose between the fifty synths and trillions of others, she'd still choose the former in a heartbeat). Not helping is that she's Easily Forgiven in the end, and doesn't appear to face any kind of justice for what she did.
  • Jurati, who is a core member of the crew, murders Dr. Maddox, who was the primary reason Picard went back into space for in the first place. However, despite being caught, she is Easily Forgiven and only faces legal consequences for murdering an injured man off-screen, between seasons. In addition, almost immediately after murdering Maddox, who she had romantic ties with, she immediately starts a new relationship with Rios with no apparent regrets, though this could be explained by shock. However, she executes Maddox, who once went to court for the right to vivisect a Starfleet officer while under the influence of Romulan brain-washing, which would be considered a mitigating influence by any sane jury. (Relatedly, she near-kills herself getting rid of the implanted tracker putting the crew in danger, when the Romulan brain-washing rendered her unable to talk about what had happened. Voluntarily undergoing a near-death experience to help her companions and agreeing to undergo trial is not what 'unconcerned' looks like to some viewers.)
    • Season 2 doesn't do much to redeem her, as when she's infected by Borg nanomachines that allow the Borg Queen into her mind, she doesn't tell any of the crew about it and they don't find out until it's too late and the Queen has already fully taken over her mind. As a result of this, she's directly responsible for the murder of an innocent bystander, assimilating numerous humans, and nearly changing the future to ensure Borg supremacy. It's a small miracle that Jurati somehow finds a way to convince the Queen to give up her plans of galactic conquest.
  • Jack Crusher. When he learns he's second generation Borg in "Vox", he goes off half-cocked thinking that he could infiltrate a cube the size of a small moon and personally kill the Borg Queen. While he could be somewhat forgiven if he wasn't doing it of his own free will and the Queen was starting to exert control over him, the best interpretation is that he was so angry that he thought he could end the Queen's reign by himself, without Starfleet or his father's help. The less-charitable interpretation is that he gave himself to the Borg Queen in a fit of pique, knowing that he was the centerpiece in her evil plot. If the latter interpretations hold true, his actions resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the mass assimilation of Starfleet, and either way, he has abominable judgement and absolutely no place on the bridge of a starship.
• Unpopular Popular Character:
  • Captain Liam Shaw is considered a jerkass by the other characters (especially Seven). While he is that, fans consider him the Ensemble Dark Horse because he's a Deadpan Snarker, he's usually right about his objections, and his Dark and Troubled Past and subsequent Survivor's Guilt make him a Jerkass Woobie. It also helps that he becomes more cooperative as he realizes how much danger The Federation is really in.
  • The USS Enterprise-E from the TNG films from Star Trek: First Contact onward is often listed among many Trek fans' favorite ships in the franchise. During season 3 of this show, however, the TNG crew, excluding Worf, don't seem to think much of it, though that's probably due to their happiness in seeing the rebuilt Enterprise-D again.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Some Trekkie parents weren't pleased that this series is Darker and Edgier and Bloodier and Gorier than Star Trek: The Next Generation or even its immediate predecessor Star Trek: Discovery, and contains several Precision F Strikes, because it means that they can't watch this show with their children. While Discovery would eventually get Lighter and Softer, with its fourth season being mostly TV-14 and even having one TV-PG episode, Picard remained mostly TV-MA in its second season the same year.
• Win Back the Crowd:
  • Season 3 managed to win over a lot of fans underwhelmed by the first two seasons. This is partially through relying on the pre-existing chemistry of the classic TNG cast, but also building a more coherent seasonal Story Arc that delivers a payoff every couple of episodes while leading towards a big finale. The Continuity Nods felt more story driven, using a tone more similar to the TNG-era Trek shows and featuring more plot points and characters from not just TNG but also from Deep Space 9 and Voyager. The primary antagonist was suitably intimidating while also sympathetic, in the mold of Khan. A common statement from fans about this season is that it is what they hoped the show would be when it was announced. It was especially this for fans of the Enterprise-D, as the show brought her Back from the Dead to make up for her embarrassing death in Generations, and give the second-most-famous holder of the Enterprise name the ending she deserved.
  • The one-two punch of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premiere season and this show finale season has caused a turnaround for the reception of the TV side of the franchise after the divisive reception of Star Trek: Discovery and earlier seasons of Picard.
  • Likewise, the series managed to be a rousingly-received send off to the TNG crew after Nemesis failed to satisfy in that regard.
• The Woobie: Poor Jean-Luc Picard. Most of the series is particularly harsh to the old captain; he resigns from Starfleet in disgust when they refuse to help evacuate Romulus, and they in turn think so little of him in spite of all he had done in the past. He spends 14 years in his family's estate, waiting to die, left without his old friends and nothing but dreams of his destroyed ship and the crew member he considered a son that's no longer alive. When he's called back into the action, he learns he's dying, Starfleet won't help him, and he barely convinces his old, drunken XO from his final command or the young Romulan who looked up to him as a father to help him. He's forced to relive the trauma of being assimilated by The Borg Collective in seeking answers, and when he does die before being brought back to life, he tearfully terminates what remains of Data's life at the android's request. Season 2 then reveals he's been so stunted and unwilling to pursue a relationship with Laris because his mother committed suicide when he was a child, as a result of her own struggles with bipolar disorder, and realizes that the father he once thought a monster was not the man he believed him to be.—all while stuck in the past where humanity is at it worst, faced with the prospect of a bleak future where they become violent, xenophobic monsters. And though he heals from this trauma, Season 3 throws him the biggest one of all: he has a son he never knew about with Beverly—and said son wanted nothing to do with him because Picard inadvertently said something to that effect long ago without even knowing it. Fortunately, he's able to end the series truly freed from his demons; he reunites with all of his old crew, Data included, his old ship is restored to her glory to save Starfleet one last time, he's finally able to connect with his son and be the father he once thought he couldn't, and the ones responsible for his most traumatic experience are gone for good.