With Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard now airing and manufacturing on the ultimate season wrapping up proper now, the ultimate days of essentially the most beloved Starfleet Captain are quickly upon us. What we have seen to date has been a implausible mixture of journeys down reminiscence lane with Riker or Seven and glimpses at what Earth and past seem like within the aftermath of the tales we have consumed during the last 35 years, however what comes subsequent? Admiral Jean-Luc Picard has touched quite a lot of Starfleet historical past, and lots of of these actors are nonetheless round to assist inform these tales, however there’s one specific level within the timeline I would like him to pay respect to greater than anything. Picard must pay his respects to Ben Sisko in a significantly better means than we noticed on this week’s episode.
When Commander Benjamin Sisko was launched to the world as the primary character for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, a number of seemingly huge (on the time) dangers have been taken. Sisko was being performed by the inimitable Avery Brooks, making him the primary Black lead in a Star Trek collection in a time the place Black leads occurred very sometimes, particularly in science fiction.
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But greater than this, Ben Sisko hated Jean-Luc Picard. Viewers are handled to an offended dialog between these two unbelievable characters within the very first episode, adopted a number of episodes later with a rebuke of the way in which Jean-Luc conducts himself as Ben Sisko punches the godlike alien Q proper in his face. Q’s response of “You hit me! Picard by no means hit me.” adopted by Sisko’s half-angry, half-excited “I’m not Picard!” has caught with me ever since. It could not have been extra clear that this new present was not like the opposite Star Trek exhibits you’d seen earlier than, and that break up audiences in a reasonably vital means on the time.
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It’s comprehensible that Picard’s first season would deal with two of essentially the most vital ongoing tales in Jean-Luc’s life and profession, the persistent struggle to have his greatest pal and all different artificial life revered as sentient lives the identical as ours and the infinite wrestle with the Borg’s want to have all life exist as a single compelled consciousness. Episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation the place Data’s personhood was known as into query are a few of the most profound within the collection, a notion Star Trek: Voyager continued fantastically with Seven of Nine. Jean-Luc’s legacy is outlined by the popularity of the person, no matter race or origin, and what we have seen within the present to date pays nice respect to that legacy whereas enjoyably extending it some. But earlier than this story is over, I actually hope the struggles of Deep Space Nine and its lengthy departed Captain are acknowledged with better respect than this most up-to-date episode.
Spoiler forward, clearly. Episode 2 of Picard will get darkish quick as Q takes our principal characters and strikes them to a timeline the place Earth was not a part of an enormous Federation of planets however as a substitute humanity had taken over the galaxy in essentially the most brutal methods potential. A stroll via this darkish Picard’s trophy room revealed the skulls of Gul Dukat and General Martok, each made notorious in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Later within the episode, Confederation President Annika is requested if she desires to seek the advice of with General Sisko. It’s assumed on this one like that on this alternate timeline, Ben Sisko is each alive and attacking Vulcans. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine did have Mirror Universe episodes through which Sisko was an evil overlord of kinds, however that world and this are unrelated. Either means, Ben Sisko and the characters of Deep Space Nine deserve so significantly better than this informal reference in a damaged timeline.
As intense because the Borg conflicts might be at instances, the Dominion War informed all through Deep Space Nine needed to have lasting results on the Alpha Quadrant and Starfleet. In some ways the Dominion was held up as a darkish reflection of the Federation, a set of races aiming towards a typical survival objective. Where the Federation demanded all planets and cultures had a say in how the entire would conduct itself, the Dominion led by concern and energy and solely existed for conquest. Its very existence would have challenged the way in which the Federation carried out itself, particularly after the Dominion efficiently infiltrated Starfleet Headquarters. That battle ought to have completely modified the Federation and Starfleet in a means that will be apparent on this future world we see in Picard, and never within the bizarrely xenophobic means outlined early within the first season of this new collection.
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But greater than some reference to the Dominion War, I feel some form of decision between Picard and Sisko is so as. I do not imply that I need to see Avery Brooks stroll as much as Sir Patrick Stewart and have a dialog. Sisko is gone, and greater than that Avery Brooks seems to be fortunately retired. Instead, I might like to see some monologue the place Picard reckons with that chapter of his life and the way he was unable to assist Sisko not directly. In Deep Space Nine, Sisko usually felt restricted by Starfleet. With his passing, somebody like Admiral Picard would have had entry to his private logs. Seeing a Picard who felt like he owed Ben Sisko one thing could be extremely highly effective, each to followers of the collection and to determine some lasting connection between these two unbelievable characters. This may even current itself within the type of a dialog with Ben Sisko’s son Jake, particularly with how engaged actor Cirroc Lofton is within the Star Trek fandom although his podcast recaps of each Star Trek episode.
Or perhaps, simply perhaps, Jean-Luc ought to take a swing at Q the subsequent time he sees him and inform him it was recommendation he received from somebody he revered an ideal deal greater than the godlike alien in entrance of him.