Star Trek: Picard - 7 Ups & 5 Downs From Season 1

2. The Next Generation

For all Star Trek: Picard is its own show - and should be judged as such - it's impossible not to view it through the lens of a Next Generation legacy piece. It stars its most prominent figure, and its story picks up the narrative threads that ended with its last movie.

It took a while for us to get there, but the episode on Nepenthe will have given fans of the show a terrific and nostalgic trip down memory lane. The lives of The Rikers and their young daughter acted a perfect pre-finale refuge for Picard and a timely reminder of why so many fans loved TNG in the first place.

From centering the story around Bruce Maddox, to the way Data's ghost haunted every narrative beat, the big and small elements of the old show were present throughout Picard. It did enough to stand on its own two feet, but there was enough for long-term fans to still get excited about.