‘Star Trek: Picard’ Illustrates Why The Franchise Doesn’t Do Revivals
by Frank Martin
With the advent of streaming, a new age of sequels and revivals has been born. Audiences are hungry for nostalgia, so many actors are reprising their roles to keep their respective franchises alive. In most instances, this means a continuation of a story and the character’s journey. This was the case with Dexter New Blood as well as the long-in-development Matrix Resurrections. A revival of sorts has also come to Paramount+ in the form of a Star Trek: Picard. However, because of the nature of Star Trek as a franchise, the show isn’t so much a revival as it is merely filling in the gaps of the title character’s life because the chronology of Star Trek has long been established.
As a character, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) took over as captain of the Enterprise some 70 years after Captain Kirk’s tenure. This era was depicted over the many seasons of The Next Generation. Picard then appeared in spin-offs and several Star Trek films that starred this new generation of characters. His story more or less ended with the movie Nemesis, but the Star Trek universe carried on. So Jean-Luc Picard would undoubtedly have lived out his life somewhere during this time. Picard picks up the story many years later, but it’s not so much a revival of the character and his allies as it is just depicting another period of his documented life, one which would have already passed given the timeline of the franchise.
There are numerous shows that take place years, decades, and even centuries after Picard. So the captain and his life are a matter of Starfleet record. Hypothetically, future characters would know about the events of Picard even before they were written. So the show isn’t so much a revival as it is an older Patrick Stewart filling in the gaps in the character’s life. A similar thing is done for Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+, but with a notable difference. That show bridges the gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, but the character’s time on Tatooine was left largely open and untold, detached from the galaxy at large. For Picard, this new adventure solidifies his place in what for the universe would be already existing canon.
Star Trek: Picard is now streaming on Paramount+.
