i'm not super into star trek novels and the beta canon and whatnot but i'm so glad that i read Last Best Hope because it really makes Picard s1 infinitely better on rewatch (and i say this as a Picard enjoyer/defender). like 100% recommend if you're even a little bit interested in Picard era worldbuilding.

Is Star Trek Picard S3 good on its own? Do you need seasons 1 and 2 to get into it or can they be skipped? I ask cause I tried to watch S1, twice, but I got bored. And I’ve heard mixed opinions about S2, mostly very negative. And now I’m just left curious.

Season 1 is meh. Not terrible, but okay. Season 2's first episode is great - well-paced, has an intriguing premise that could sustain an entire season if this was a normal show... aaaand then flops on the ground hard, abandoning that premise to keep putting in NEW premises and plot cul-de-sacs full of TOS nostalgia, unnecessary retcons, nonsensical plot points, writers who clearly forgot stuff that happened in TNG, rehashing plots done better elsewhere, and then ending on a complete nothing that is completely ignored in season 3. Like, I'd watch the final episode of season 1 to provide some context for season 3 (and honestly the finale for a certain character is beautiful IMHO and pretty good closure). Season 3 is... a ride. It's really the full nostalgia-bait that it's been wanting to be for a while, but it accomplishes that a lot better even if it's still a bit nonsensical and baffling in spots. The episode "Imposters" is probably the best episode of the entire series because it's proper resolution on a TNG story and it's so damn well done and well-written with phenomenal performances. It's goofy and full of contrivances, but it's overall fun... with one exception - Captain Shaw. I fucking hate him. A lot of other people seem to absolutely love him but I despise him at every moment and every time someone said "Oh, you'll like him by the end" I found myself more and more confused about what the hell they were talking about because the best parts of the show are when he's not on screen and the less he was on screen the more I liked the show. But hey, you might like him.

What do you think of the new season of picard

Well with only one episode so far there isn't enough data to form a solid opinion about s3 however here some thoughts about episode 1

I liked the many Easter eggs spread throughout the first episode that are connected to ToS and TNG. I am sucker for that type of thing

Not a fan of Troi and Riker marriage in trouble. The fact the writers have gone down that route is lazy and boring. Let them be happy

S1 & S2 characters have either been completely pushed ignored or sidelined I feel that's disrespectful. But there is only so much you can fit in an episode

*chef kiss* to the Seven doesn't feel right in Starfleet. Because most fans including me I've always wanted to see her in Starfleet now she most of us like yeah let's get her away from it. Which means we feel her discomfort. And that writer and actors have done an epic job with it.

Can't be bothered with this might be and probably is Picard son storyline

This is either gonna be the best series of Picard or the worst but everyone defends because of nostalgia.

I’m rewatching the TNG movies and the wasted potential of the third season of the Picard show is, once again, killing me. They included everything I would have wanted back when I was obsessed with TNG! Honestly, if s3 of Picard was all that existed of it, I would have been overjoyed to watch it. But it was not all that existed, and I genuinely enjoyed s1 and s2, and s3 just completely ignored the earlier stuff. It could have been so good!!! They could have just had the same fucking plot/TNG nostalgia stuff In Addition To things like including Laris and involving Soji in the Data plot and remembering Agnes’s Borg exist. It could have been so goooood

This is sad news because Prodigy, despite being made for younger audiences, was in my opinion the best of the nuTrek series, and now it appears it could be the shortest lived Trek series (previous record holder in terms of episode count was the 1970s animated Trek series).

Due to aspects of fandom now reaching the point where anything with a certain person's name as producer is to be rejected outright, many have chosen to ignore this series which is actually the closest to what people actually wanted from a "nuTrek" but, sadly, quality is no longer being taken into consideration. This is due to earlier nuTreks such as Discovery and the first season of Picard "poisoning the well."

What's odd here is that Prodigy aired on Nickelodeon as its primary network and wasn't a P+ exclusive, but Paramount/CBS still owns the thing. The concern I have is despite S2 having been completed (part of a disturbing trend of shows being cancelled after renewal), there are media reports that it will not only be immediately removed from streaming but it will be a "tax write off", which has some people worried it might be destroyed (google the cancelled streaming series "Final Space" (voice actors included David Tennant) to see what happened with that). Trekmovie's report is actually the first I've seen to indicte that S1 may still end up in circulation if another network/streamer can be found (and at least the first half of Season 1 is on DVD and Blu-ray too). The big problem is (I can't avoid the spoiler but I won't give detail) Season 1 had a cliffhanger ending because a 2nd season was, they thought, guaranteed, so if they can't find a home for Season 2 that story will remain incomplete.

Not a good week for shows I enjoy: although it gave it a reprieve (technically running an extra 2 seasons, or rather a 2-part 5th season), the revival of Magnum PI co-starring Perdita Weeks has been cancelled too, though it's still expected to air its final episodes in 2024 and is unlikely to disappear off the face of the earth.

About to watch ep2 of Picard S3, and I just gotta say, I hate when shows do the thing they did in EP one; where the last season ended with characters in a good place, happy, finally well adjusted, and then the new season starts and oh no it's a few months later and everyone is sad and everything sucks again. Like, Picard didn't do it too badly, Raffi & Seven not being together (although her saying that might have just been part of her cover and they just aren't literally together on the same ship) and whatever is going on with Riker & Trio that he said his family would be glad to have time away from him.

That trope I guess you'd call it is just a big pet peeve of mine, like I completely ignored Megalobox S2 after reading the description, cause it just sounded like "the MC spent literally every second from the end of the last season to the beginning of the new one undoing everything they learned in the first season and are now in an even worse place that they were the first time" and like, that just doesn't do it for me. If you want to go there with your story (cause like I can admit, I've totally done that in my life cause I'm a dumbass) then at least earn it; give me some time with the character happy, or "in a good place" or whatever, then show me the thing that breaks them, so that I'm actually invested instead of just going "what did you do?"

I hate that whole "a happy character is a boring character" bullshit that tv execs seem to think is gospel or some shit. Like, yea you need conflict, but like it should be in waves, not blow after blow after blow. I remember watching A Million Little Things (IIRC the one with the dude from Psych) and it was like a soap opera with how non-stop it was. It'd be halfway through one catastrophe, and suddenly three more spring up. I got like 3/4 through S1 and felt like I'd watched 4 seasons worth of show.

I'm bad at essays so you don't get a conclusion.