Star Trek: 10 Behind The Scenes Decisions We Can't Forgive

The show was called Star Trek: Picard for a reason – it was the first Star Trek series focused on a single individual over the ensemble of a starship crew. And yet Jean-Luc Picard was oddly sidelined for much of his own series' inaugural season by near-weekly diversions to the Artifact, the Borg cube that tantalized in the trailers and bored in the series.

For a show advertised as a character study of Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: Picard spent its first season forcing that character to jockey for time with Soji and Narek's chemistry-free romance aboard the derelict Borg cube. Any semblance of Picard's running arc, either his quest to save Data's daughter or his failing health, were continually undercut by the side story on the Artifact that had the dual effect of robbing Picard of the spotlight and removing the mystique of his quest. Picard was seeking out Data's daughter in order to save her from the Romulans, but we the audience never experienced that threat because we were constantly given glimpses of Soji's 9-to-5 aboard the Artifact.

And then there's Jean-Luc's visit to the Artifact in "The Impossible Box" – one of the series' best episodes despite the fact that the cube had been defanged by the preceding four episodes. "The Impossible Box" depicted Picard boarding the Artifact with deep dread, but the audience was unable to feel that tension because the show spent so much time portraying the Artifact as basically just a workplace. The audience knew Picard's dread was misplaced because, hell, the Artifact had a bar that served Romulan ale.

Star Trek: Picard could've shared Picard's eagerness to track down Data's daughter, his fear at what terrors the cube may have in store for him, and his catharsis when he discovered the Artifact wasn't a a nightmare factory, but a place of hopeful restoration. Instead the producers inexplicably chose to interrupt the show's narrative with pointless diversions that ultimately hurt the show and Picard himself.