The changes Star Trek: Picard went through between seasons is emblematic of its failings

The changeover from Star Trek: Picard's second and third seasons frankly "saved" the show's reputation. Now, it's still not the best show in franchise history, far from it. It's still a bad show. The third season was a mess, with convoluted story notes, terribly written character interactions, and a desire to tear down some of the greatest characters in history. It was very much Star Trek's version of the modern Star Wars trilogy; an entity that just wanted to live off of nostalgia, but not knowing how.

Just like with the new Star Wars films, all Picard tried to do was two things; develop enough content for a spinoff, and find ways to bring back iconic concepts that were better off being left 30 years in the past. It failed, in many ways. Some fans loved the nostalgia-bait that they were given but upon further review, the third season doesn't cut the mustard, especially with the handling of the show's titular character being made to look like an absentee father.

Yet, that still wasn't the worst part about the third season. While you can easily say the show put too much stock into a reunion season, the cost that they paid to get there was a travesty. No one should argue that all Picard should've been was a reunion show of sorts for the cast of The Next Generation, but it hardly was. In fact, series star Patrick Stewart only did the show under the condition that it wouldn't be as such.

Yet it was, or at least it would be. Yet, the concept originally was a new offering that was supposed to be beyond the concepts of the Next Generation and there were ideas there. The characters of Raffi and Elnor were differernt from what we've seen before, and Picardr being out of the Federation and no longer a commanding officer gave him a new purpose as a character.

Yet, instead of letting him be a source of inspiration for the new cast, he was the character with the most screen time. It became all about him and his character. Which is fine, the show was named Picard after all, but there was a lot of potential with creating new characters that could thrive and strive without being attached to a series that started nearly 40 years ago.

It's the same issues that the original film franchise had with the likes of Savvik and others. Instead of giving characters a chance to shine on their own, they were coupled with other, more popular characters, and not really given a chance to shine.

It's pretty telling that the only "new" character that got any real hype from the fanbase at large was the one they needlessly killed off. Of course, we're talking about Captain Liam Shaw. He was seen as an equal to Picard, and a man who had a legitimate gripe against the legend. It gave him an essence and aura all of his own.

That's the kind of thing that every character could've had if the series wasn't such a mess. Showrunners were rotated in constantly it seemed like, and no one person could cobble together three coherent seasons with much continuity, without each season feeling like a major departure from one another.

From dropped characters, like the aforementioned Elnor, Dr. Agnes Jurati, and Cris Rios, to the dropped story lines of Picard's Romulan love-interest and of course the likes of Soij and her entire family line. The lack of any consistency from season one to season three will forever haunt the Picard franchise.

While it was a great dopamine drip when it was dropping new episodes, history will not be kind to this franchise as people realize that it was a shameless nostalgia bait. Just like with the latest Star Wars trilogy.