Star Trek Picard: 7 Ups & 3 Downs From Episode 1 'Remembrance'

4. The Nostalgia

Arguably the hardest job Remembrance had was how to find the right balance of nostalgia. Too much and it was just going to feel like trivial fan service that should have been restricted to a one-off special web episode, too little and it just wasn't going to feel like a natural continuation of the world we left behind in The Next Generation.

Opening with the Enterprise-D in a dream sequence was a smart opening and using Data in short and important bursts fell just on the right side of cynical. But the real masterstroke on the episode was leaving everything else to a living vault of Picard's service; metaphorically (and literally) locking away all of the nostalgia in an almost museum-tour of a scene. One that's already been paused, screengrabbed, and shared ecstatically online.

More subtle references to the Daystrom Institute, Utopia Planitia, problematic replicators, and, of course, Earl Grey tea will have rewarded long-term fans. Every location and nod feels perfectly judged as the show attempts to push forward into something new, and hopefully what's introduced here will become important Trek lore on its own terms for years to come.