Round Two: Star Trek: Picard

Star Trek: Picard: Season 1, Episode 2 “Maps and Legends” (B)

I’m eager to get into this show because I think it’s going to be very popular, and I’d like to continue watching it. I only made it through the first half of the first season of “Star Trek: Discovery,” at which point I just wasn’t all that invested anymore. I remember watching late episodes of “Star Trek: Voyager” with my parents during my childhood and loving that show, and my experience with “Star Trek: The Next Generation” is more limited simply because I didn’t watch as much of it. But I like Patrick Stewart and I think that he still has sufficient energy to anchor a show like this. Picard’s interview didn’t do him any favors when he later went to Starfleet to try to get reinstated so that he could use their resources to solve this mystery, and I imagine that other characters that we know will be similarly conflicted about the idea of working with him again because of these negative sentiments. It’s often hard to recognize guest actors on a show like this because of their alien makeup, but it was easier to spot two who looked as they usually do: David Paymer playing Dr. Benayoun, and Peyton List as Lieutenant Rizzo, who is part of an elaborate plot that’s designed to help the Romulans eventually be victorious against the unsuspecting humans. I’m going to stick with this show for a bit, but I’d like to see a bit more of the energy of the first episode present in successive episodes.