REVIEW: Season one of ‘Picard’ arrives on Blu-ray
Photo: Star Trek: Picard stars Jeri Ryan and Patrick Stewart. Photo courtesy of Aaron Epstein / CBS ©2019 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved / Provided by press site with permission.
If a person is not into Star Trek at the current moment, that person is no Trekkie. This will undoubtedly go down as the busyness time period for the franchise, with Star Trek: Discovery season three rolling out, the inaugural season of Star Trek: Lower Decks recently wrapped and the well-received Star Trek: Picard now arriving on Blu-ray. (That’s in addition to the countless other projects in development.)
Patrick Stewart reprises his role as Jean-Luc Picard. The events of this new series are set 14 years after the former captain retired from Starfleet. He enjoys his time tending to a winery in France, but his past comes back to haunt him. To find answers to what happened during his final days in Starfleet, he needs to employ the help of a ragtag crew, including Alison Pill as Agnes Jurati, Michelle Hurd as Raffi and Santiago Cabrera as Chris. Isa Briones also plays a pivotal double role, and there’s also Evan Evagora as a Romulan named Elnor.
Spoiler alerts surfaced some time ago about the beloved characters of Star Trek: The Next Generation who were returning to the franchise for a cameo. Yes, Jonathan Frakes is back (to direct, too!) and also the wonderful Marina Sirtis. Riker and Troi are married and enjoying a tucked-away life of seclusion and outdoor pizza. Jeri Ryan also turns up as Seven of Nine, the popular character from Star Trek: Voyager.
Of the assembled actors, there’s no beating Stewart, a Shakespearean-trained performer who has pitch-perfect line delivery. Cabrera also has a lot of fun with the role, the same with Hurd. Pill takes some getting used to with her character, but she gets there eventually. Other high points: Briones and Harry Treadaway as Narek, another Romulan.
The new Blu-ray set has several special features, including Star Trek: Short Treks: Children of Mars, story logs, deleted scenes and a look at Picard’s props. It’s a fitting collection for superlative sci-fi entertainment.
Star Trek is back, in more ways than one.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Picard: Season One is now available on Blu-ray. Click here for more information.
