Star Trek: Picard - The Final Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.0

Star Trek: Picard - The Final Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 22, 2023

Picard, like Discovery, feels like it's been all over the map in terms of season storylines and angles. While all the seasons in both of these shows evolve one to another and elements reverberate from one to the next, the broader storylines have been by-and-large disconnected and without much obvious flow. The result is that both shows have felt somewhat up and down, but Picard certainly ends on the upswing in what is an imperfect but nevertheless wildly imaginative and fun final ride for the title character and, here in season three, nearly the full roster of The Next Generation's primary characters.

It has been 20 years since Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) dropped all contact with Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the rest of her former Enterprise crewmates. When Crusher and her son Jack (Ed Speleers) find themselves in grave danger at the hands of the formidably powerful starship The Shrike and her devious captain, Vadic (Amanda Plummer), she sends Picard an encrypted set of coordinates which he breaks with William Riker’s (Jonahtan Frakes) help. Picard and Riker, with the help of Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), surreptitiously reroute the U.S.S. Titan to rescue Dr. Crusher and Jack and find themselves at odds with the Titan’s new captain, Shaw (Todd Stashwick), but soon discover that an old enemy has infiltrated Starfleet, an enemy that will stop at nothing to achieve its goals and destroy the Federation from the inside.

Longtime Star Trek fans will note both structurally overt and underlying thematic similarities between this third season of Picard and the very best that Star Trek has to offer: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. There's no point going through all of the subtle winks and nods (which certainly do not stop with Khan) but rather it's essential to point out the similar themes of age, loss, and other dramatic elements that, to mention here, would constitute significant spoilers for the show. Suffice it to say, the show both knows its similarities to Khan and it is unashamed to mimic even small touches -- on-screen text, musical cues, and the like -- to reinforce the idea that even as things change, the core human elements do not. Fans will delight in the many great touches, the musical flourishes, the callbacks, and the memories that are the driving forces behind the season. There's a good bit of Deep Space Nine here too, and much of the DS9 influence comes more in terms of raw plotting than the dramatic undercurrents, so Picard essentially, in this reviewer's eyes, has taken the best of Trek's cinema and TV ventures and fused them together in a way that is very much like a fan service endeavor but with all of the bells and whistles of a legitimate production.

However fun it may be, the season sort of goes off the rails in the final few episodes when the true "story behind the story" is revealed. The fan service vibe kicks into serious overdrive and, perhaps, to the detriment of the season. One of the reasons the show's primary influence, Khan, worked so well was because it didn't devolve into a tangled mess that tries to push a massive lump of "stuff" into the plot. It was a straightforward tale of revenge blended with the underlying themes of age and death. That's why the first seven episodes work so well, but the final three just crank up the fan service to the proverbial "11" and it's difficult to get behind the big twist and a final episode in particular that starts to feel more like it's borrowing from Aliens and Return of the Jedi and less Star Trek. It's still an undeniably fun ride, but the finale seems forced.

Star Trek: Picard - The Final Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Picard's season three Blu-ray generally looks very good except for the pervasive banding that is fairly rampant throughout the season. The banding can be dense and destroy a scene at any given time. It's not so frequent as to ruin a watch, but when it comes it usually comes rather thick and heavy. There is some mild aliasing on various digital ship exteriors, too, but the banding is real killjoy here. Otherwise, outside of the banding, the rest of the image would probably rate a very solid 4.5/5.0. The image offers exemplary detail in close-up, offering facial features with all of the intricate qualities and characteristics one would expect of a high end, digitally shot TV production. The show can be fairly dark, but even still there are many opportunities to explore fine panel and environmental texture about various starships, the fabric elements on the new Starfleet uniforms and jackets, and small touches like Seven's eyepiece. Colors are nicely rendered. As noted, the show is dark, but bold reds, vivid blues, and colorful display readouts are plenty brilliant and tonally rich. Blues, blacks, and grays dominate the proceedings, but the splashes of color, notably on starship exteriors, offer a nice sense of robustness and vividness. Black levels are deep and rich and skin tones are healthy and full.

Star Trek: Picard - The Final Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Star Trek: Picard - The Final Season beams onto Blu-ray with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The track is very proficient, handling duties admirably, but it is a hair on the tepid side of things. There is some positive thump to phaser fire, space battles, ships jumping into warp, and the like, but never does the track push to the level of high intensity, surround extravaganza type action, favoring instead a good but maybe "play it safe" sort of sonic posture. Excellent atmospherics are in evidence as little bleeps and bloops sing around the stage while on the bridge of the Titan, marking some of the finer environmental details in the show has to offer, and indeed the little touches throughout the season do a great deal of work to gently draw the listener into any given environment. Music is rich and pleasing, from light score to heavy action music. Stage width and depth are commendable, and the subwoofer offers just enough push to make itself known. Dialogue is clear and centered for the duration.

Star Trek: Picard - The Final Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This season three Blu-ray release of Picard contains a wonderful assortment of extras: audio commentaries, deleted scenes, and a number of lengthy featurettes. No DVD or digital copies are included. This release does ship with a slipcover.

Disc One:

• Audio Commentaries: For "The Next Generation:" Jonathan Frakes, Jerri Ryan, Todd Stashwick, Terry Matalas, Ed Speelers, and Stephen Barton. For Seventeen Seconds:" Gates McFadden Michelle Hurd, and Terry Matalas.
• The Gang's All Here (1080p, 19:08): A look at how each of the TNG characters returned to Picard. The piece looks at how the characters were written and evolved and how they were performed.
• Villainous Vadic (1080p, 20:44): A full-length extra devoted to the season's primary villain, Vadic, played by Amanda Plummer.
• Gag Reel (1080p, 6:11): Humorous moments from the shoot.
• Picard: The Final Season Q&A (1080p, 42:36): Scott Mantz moderates a huge panel featuring Patrick Stewart, LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorn, Brent Spiner, Jeri Ryan Alex Kurtzman, and Terry Matalas.

Disc Two:

• Audio Commentaries: For "No Win Scenario:" Jonathan Frakes, Todd Stashwick, and Terry Matalas. For The Bounty:" Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner, and Terry Matalas.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p): Scenes from "The Bounty:" (2:53) and "Dominion:" (3:02).

Disc Three:

• Audio Commentary: For "No Win Scenario:" Jonathan Frakes, Jeri Ryan, Ed Speelers, and Terry Matalas.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p): Scenes from "Surrender:" (0:47), "Võx:" (3:29), and "The Last Generation:" (1:46).
• The Making of "The Last Generation" (1080p, 42:50): A comprehensive look at characters, story, plot and character dynamics, key scenes, casting, and much more.
• Rebuilding the Enterprise-D (1080p, 16:54): A wonderful look at practically rebuilding the bridge.

Star Trek: Picard - The Final Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Picard's final season is a blast of nostalgia blended with high end entertainment that teeters on going off the rails at the end. It's undeniably fun, and the various structural themes, plot devices, and of course the full circle return to the TNG era are well done, but it's easy to see the final episode in particular as very forced and contrived and it doesn't even feel all that much like Star Trek in a lot of ways. Nevertheless, it's certainly the best of the three Picard seasons and, even with some reservations, a show that every Trekkie needs to see. Paramount's Blu-ray delivers adequate video, solid audio, and a rock-solid collection of extras. Highly recommended.