Star Trek: Picard is certainly deserving of an Emmy, especially its final season.
Fans of Star Trek: Picard, specfically its third season, were hoping for some Emmy nominations for the actors and the series itself. Though Picard was nominated for Emmys this year, it was for Outstanding Contemporary Makeup (Non-Prosthetic) and Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup. So the outstanding acting and incredible story that showrunner Terry Matalas created for fans weren’t acknowledged.
But at least Picard received some kind of recognition even though it was lower than its previous two seasons. Other Star Trek series weren’t so fortunate as Trekmovie reports. Normally, the series have a good showing, but this year, PIcard is the only series to be nominated for an Emmy. Usually the franchise averages around five nominations each year.
So why wasn’t Star Trek: Picard and other series in the franchise recognized?
As I previously mentioned in my post about Emmy predictions, the Star Trek series just haven’t been given the thumbs-up by the members of the Television Academy. Patrick Stewart told Variety (via Trekmovie) back in 2017 that “there was an albatross around the necks of projects like this where they were not taken seriously.”
"“We experienced something very similar with Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the last season I was very fortunate to get a Screen Actors Guild nomination. That is the only creative award that series was nominated for – one award in seven years…people explained to me “it’s the genre, show’s like this are not taken seriously.”…Although I look at the work of my colleagues – of Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes – outstanding award material it always seemed to me, but it didn’t happen. There was an albatross around the necks of projects like this where they were not taken seriously.”"
And there has been much talk previously about how prestige dramas (television that everyone is talking about) get the nominations while genre television like science fiction tends to be overlooked. But when it comes to being overlooked, Star Trek seems to have cornered the market on that.
It certainly can’t be because the acting isn’t good enough or up-to-par with other actors in different series. So that leaves us all asking why. And, most likely, it’s not a question that will ever get answered.