10 Star Trek Debates That Tear The Fandom Apart

The glorious return of The Next Generation crew was met with near-universal acclaim upon the release of Star Trek: Picard’s third season. This was a complete shift from the first two seasons of the show, both of which had met mixed reviews, with some of the discourse focusing on the tonal shifts from The Next Generation, while others felt the lack of familiar elements was the issue. The inclusion of the Discovery-era Constitution-class ship in the show’s second episode did little to quell these fires. 

So, the Terry Matalas helmed third season seemed to listen to all of these criticisms and take them on board. We had far more familiar looking starships, with the Titan-A clearly inspired by the movie-era Constitution-class Enterprise. We knew going into the season that the entire main crew would return, and as the show went on we were treated to more Easter eggs than Cetacean Observations could really handle. All of our dreams came true, you’d think?

The discussions online in the aftermath of the season have been varied. There are those who only view it as the true Star Trek sequel since Enterprise, fuelling cries for Star Trek: Legacy to be greenlit, following the crew of the Enterprise-G. Then there are those who feel it relied too heavily on nostalgia, sacrificing logic to suit the adventure. Still others felt it suffered a lack of imagination, and yet more had serious concerns over the themes of family and identity that were presented. 

Picard’s third season is one of the most discussed seasons of Trek in years, for all of the above and more. Now, over a year since its airing, the calls for Legacy seem to be falling on deaf ears, while the creative team have begun to move away and book other work. It is an oddity in Trek history - at once beloved, and decried, by a fandom that, if nothing else, certainly engaged with it.