10 Times Star Trek Hit The Reset Button

Star Trek: Picard divided fans when it aired in early 2020. Here was a version of Captain Jean-Luc Picard who was jaded with Starfleet, bitter at their failure to step in a save the Romulan people in advance of the Supernova, the one introduced in Star Trek 2009. One thing that the show did very well, as agreed by much of the audience who followed the show, was addressing the anti-climactic ending that Data received in Star Trek: Nemesis.

Data went out in a sudden blaze of glory in Nemesis, though the shock was not matched with an earned feeling of pathos. Added to this, the fact that it was the last cinematic outing of The Next Generation left a sour taste in the mouths of much of the audience.

Star Trek: Picard opens with a dream sequence, in which Picard and Data (featuring a returning, de-aged Brent Spiner) play poker. There is another dream sequence later in the episode, though it is the final scene between the two in the series' ending that sets the story to rights.

In a quiet, emotional scene between the two, Picard and Data manage to muse on the existentialism of death, along with the fact that to appreciate life, one must accept that it ends.

It effectively retcons the death of Data, giving him a beautiful send-off that truly feels earned, rather than a twist ending to shock the audience.