I was dubious going into this video. I was expecting a tirade about how Picard should’ve doubled down on nostalgia from day 1 and villainizing Patrick Stewart for wanting to do something different.
Instead I got a very thoughtful analysis about fundamental mistakes made by the writers that put them in the train wreck that it became—wanting to try something new, but not committing; over thinking TNG and under thinking Picard as it’s own thing.
I also strongly agree that Picard as a space Indiana Jones series would’ve worked so much better than a washed up vineyarder. I’m honestly surprised that I never considered this until watching this video.
If you haven’t seen it yet I highly recommend Rowan’s Star Trek Retrospective series… That’s how his channel became famous.
One great thing about Coleman is that while he appreciates the value of nostalgia, you will never hear him arguing for more of it.
I haven’t seen this one yet, but Rowan’s videos are always worth a look.
Having now watched it, I agree this was a good video overall.
I do think Rowan gives the season one premise a little less credit than it deserves - Picard didn’t spend his entire post-Starfleet life moping around on the vineyard, but rather wrote a number of books on history, and was presumably somewhat involved in promoting them. This is at least adjacent to his passion for archaeology.
I like to think that Picard was more interested in the painstaking reality of genuine archeology than raiding / treasure hunting.
Running around (with or without Vash) in an Indiana Jones kind of way flew in the face of Picard’s core respect for other cultures and civilizations in context.
I’m always surprised when I see how many otherwise thoughtful fan critics ignore the moral conflict in ‘tomb raiding’. On the other hand, Patrick Stewart the actor would have liked the excuse for swashbuckling adventuring at any age.
While I think the video raises some good points, I’m not sure it actually follows through on the promise of its clickbait title. Though I suppose, “What I would have done with ‘Star Trek: Picard’ if anyone asked me” isn’t likely to grab as many viewers.
But yeah, seeing Picard as an adventuring archaeologist would have been great. Especially after LDecks established that Picard was funding an independent archaeological association while serving as an admiral. Still, I feel like a lot of fans who objected to season one would still have many of the same problems regardless of what they got if it wasn’t the fanservice firehose of season three, but that’s really neither here nor there.
I’m not sure it actually follows through on the promise of its clickbait title.
Rowan’s videos are always very good, but he does know how to play the algorithm game.
