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Three easy ways to fix Star Trek Picard
Note: this was written before Episode 9 was released so whatever maybe I’m wrong about everything who knows.
Star Trek Picard has a few interesting ideas smothered in boring, derivative nonsense. I liked the pilot. I liked the Troi-Riker episode. I even liked this last episode, in a way. The Holo-Rioses were endearing and when Raffi isn’t a stereotypically offensive drug addict welfare queen, she’s pretty great. And in a meta moment, Picard as a character seemed to really find himself after visiting the Troi-Rikers. But let’s be real — the show is still largely a big ol’ mess. So let’s fix it!
It’d be cheating to say “ugh just rewrite the whole damn thing,” so let’s work on the premise that the overall story and characters have to stay the same. Even with that limit, there are three easy changes that would make the show a lot better.
1 — Make the Zhat Vash a different alien race
Having them be Romulan is meaningless to the story (so far, anyway). There’s no reason Commodore Oh is Romulan and she’s only “half-Vulcan” because they wanted a dumb mind-meld scene for five seconds.
Maybe the Zhat Vash Race were conquered by the Romulans, and now that Romulus is dunzo they’re finally free to practice their cult in the open, I dunno. Maybe their refugee…