With Star Trek: Picard nearly through Season 1, plenty of fans of the Star Trek franchise have had a chance to form an opinion on it. Jonathan Frakes recently shared an insight about one key way Picard and Star Trek: Discovery are different from past shows that is certainly worth thinking about.
Jonathan Frakes, who has directed episodes for both Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Discovery and reprised his role as Riker for Picard, brought up how the new shows are subjected to a level of scrutiny with a slight bias. Frakes explained the situation to Syfy, and how the Picard experience was positive compared to Star Trek: The Next Generation.
A lot of the feedback is coming from your generation and maybe the one after it. If you grew up in a Star Trek house, our show was the Star Trek of your generation. And that has impacted the viewers of both Discovery and Picard, but specifically Picard. For the first time, the audience was inclined to be accepting and was looking forward to and not dreading it or suspicious. Which hasn't always been the case! Our show [TNG] was received with great skepticism, some would say, hostility. People wanted their Kirk, Bones, and Spock. Discovery was received with skepticism because fans had just adjusted to the J.J. world of Trek. But Picard brought with it, your generation, my generation, and whoever else we could bring along. There was a very palpable and positive appetite.
Audiences were very excited for Star Trek: Picard, possibly because Patrick Stewart returning for a Star Trek series felt like an improbable dream. Of course, Jonathan Frakes' statement about Star Trek: The Next Generation being a series that a generation of fans grew up on is definitely also on point. Regardless, it's interesting to hear someone with great experience between new and old Trek giving their perspective on the fan reaction to both shows.
Of course, there may be a double-edged sword in fan excitement and anticipation in relation to Star Trek: Picard. While there was plenty of optimism ahead of the series, and still many excited during, there has been a vocal number of fans upset with the overall product. Similar to the way classic Star Trek fans reacted to Star Trek: The Next Generation, though a bit more personal because the new series contains a number of the same characters. With that said, it wouldn't be a fandom if the community universally agreed on every direction a show took, so it's not like some dissent wasn't to be expected.
Star Trek: Picard airs new episodes on CBS All Access Thursdays. Continue to stick with CinemaBlend for more updates on it, and other happenings in the Star Trek universe.
