'Star Trek Picard' S1 DVD, BD, Steelbook: TNG: The New Class

 

The CBS Home Entertainment September 29, 2020 separate DVD/BD/BD steelbook releases of S1 of the CBS All Access series "Star Trek Picard" truly shows what become a legend most. This is not to mention the titular once (and future?) Starfleet admiral and his rebellious alliance boldly going where (almost) no man has gone before in search of new life and a new civilization.

Although Covid-19 is delaying the painfully highly anticipated S2 premiere, All Access already has committed to at least three seasons. ​

The following trailer pays wonderful homage to "Star Trek: The Next Generation" by featuring scenes of Picard, who only works in outer space, enjoying a peaceful existence at the family vineyard in France until duty once again harshes that particular mellow. The subsequent new faces and visits from old friends gives a sense of the "New Class" element. One spoiler is that Pulitzer Prize winning creator/head writer Michael Chabon spares us any appearances by Neelix, aka the Screech of the Trekverse.

The opening scene, which is far too awesome to even remotely spoil, immediately grabs Trekkers, Trekkies, and anyone who likes a good story. This first of countless love letters to TNG provides the perfect context for a central relationship that drives much of this perfect 10-epidose season that easily passes the "one more" test and leaves us wanting so much more, These payoffs include visiting Mr, and Mrs. Riker in their idyllic home. 

A true rude awakening soon comes for Picard when student Dahj visits in the wake of a puzzling attack. This ambush triggers an equally mysterious "activation" in Dahj that leads to kung-fu fighting in which she is fast as lightning. Although this is exciting; it is a little bit frightening.

The rest of the groundwork for the rest of the season is the 14 year-old incident that is behind Picard leaving Starfleet. His role in a controversial humanitarian mission to relocate "Trek" baddies the Romulans to Mars, which no longer needs women, leads to a catastrophic uprising by synthetic lifeforms that leads to a ban on their further development. This is akin to the "Star Trek: Enterprise" story arc as to superhumans; that one is memorable for the classic line "actually, Mother was a botanist."

An especially awesome aspect of this portion of the S1 saga is Picard following the "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" philosophy that you need a Klingon to fight a Klingon. 

The reimaging of the "Trek" verse that the must-see home-video special features mention includes the Starfleet brass surprisingly rejecting the request of the man who saved the world (a lot) to reup and fulfill the humanitarian mission of the Federation. We also get tech. that is borrowed from the "Stargate" universe. 

This rejection leads to Picard taking the desperate measure of enlisting the services of the blatantly Han Soloesque Cristobal Rios to use his version of the Millennial Falcon to help Picard find TNG enemy turned research collaborator Bruce Maddox; the is the first of several time that this series drifts into "Wars" territory. The holograms that augment the skeleton crew awesomely evoke thoughts of the current "Flash" series.

The maiden voyage for this motley crew is to a planet to recruit fighters for the action to come. This reunites Picard with a 20-something Romulan who still has Daddy issues as to that father figure from his youth. This adventure ends with a sequence that has highly predictable elements with a surprising twist that reverses the awesome tradition of having TNG characters pop up on "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager" ala Chrissie of "Three's Company" visiting former landlords the Ropers after they sell their apartment building. 

"Picard" also borrows from the ancient past by twice using "the old fake prisoner as a Trojan horse" trick from "Wars" and many, many, many, many other films and television series. 

All of this leads to an season-ending three-episode story arc that is one of the best in the entire "Trek" history. Picard is facing enemies on both sides as the events behind his leaving Starfleet begin to replay; of course, this screams for omnipotent mischief-maker Q to appear to further stir the boiling plot. Certainty exists as these events involving a strong element of the classic TNG series finale.

Team Chabon fully earns its pay as to how it wraps up these episodes that serve equally well as a season or series ender. Suffice it to say that we get Picard 2.0 and all is brought full circle. 

The aforementioned bonuses are too numerous to fully address; a personal favorite is one in which engaging (of course, pun intended) prop master Jeffrey Lombardi essentially shows us how the sausage is made. Great aspects of this includes looks at props from the TNGverse series, showing how technology has allowed making those toys even better, and meeting crew members who have been on the team since TNG days.

We also get a feature of Team Picard that clearly do not adhere to Starfleet protocol, a look at the Emmy-winning prosthetics and make-up, a tour of the sets. CBS augments (of course, pun intended) with deleted scenes and a gag reel.