Star Trek Picard: Every Season One Death Ranked
A surprisingly blood-thirsty first season for the newest Star Trek...
Star Trek was never shy when it came to killing characters. It's just that the majority of them in the olden days were set apart by being either bad guys or red shirts. These days, the universe that has sprung out of Gene Roddenberry's Original Series is a lot more blood-thirsty and the first season of Picard proved to fit that model.
Over the course of 10 episodes, we got to meet a host of new characters, welcomed back old, familiar faces and watched as the universe, once more, tottered precariously on the edge of a mass extinction event. This wasn't a show so much just about seeking out new worlds (though one obviously formed a key part of it) but about preserving the old one.
In a pleasantly meta way, it was about reviving the past not merely to preserve it as a museum exhibit but to make it relevant. And whenever anything seeks new life, there is ALWAYS death involved. For Picard, those deaths were of new characters, old characters and bit-parts and they all mattered for different reasons. They just weren't all on equal footing, exactly.
But which ones were the most affecting, the most important to the plot and the best executed, if you'll pardon the pun?
This should go without saying, of course, but there will inevitably be HEAVY SPOILERS from this point on...
11. Dahj's Boyfriend (Caler)
Poor Dahj's Boyfriend - a character deemed so insignificant to the show overall that he wasn't even given an official name in the credits - we barely knew thee.
The character - a Xahean played by David Carzell - actually DID have a name, Caler, which only turned up somewhat incidentally in Dahj's contacts list in her communicator, but it's sort of the POINT that he doesn't have a name.
He was part of the elaborate twist opening that pulled the rug out from us all when it was revealed that Dahj wasn't actually the star of the show and was also going to be murdered very quickly. Establishing him as backstory for her and a tragedy for us to pin our affection for her on was perfectly pitched and it all helped to sell the trick.
But Caler didn't matter, ultimately (and sadly for him), and that sort of comes across in the way he's killed also. He goes for a drink and all of sudden he's stabbed in the heart. Life is harsh.