Star Trek Fans Explain Why They Hate Patrick Stewart's Picard Series

10.02.2024 - 00:15 / gamerant.com / Mark Hamill / Patrick Stewart

Star Trek: Picard has never quite landed smoothly with major Star Trek fans, with many voicing their dislike online. Now that the series is finished after season 3, fans aren’t straying away from their original opinions. They’re doubling down on them and using season 3 to justify it further.

There had been major excitement for Star Trek: Picard long before CBS even released the official trailer for season 1. However, anyone familiar with the franchise knows that it has gone through many reincarnations and that the new series had much to live up to if the creators wanted it to trump other Star Trek shows and movies. Even though fans talked about not liking season 1, more hype for the show was trying to be created, specifically with an entire Uber Eats campaign featuring Sir Patrick Stewart and Mark Hamill being pitted against each other.

While Star Trek: Picard has been finished for almost a year, threads about it are still popular on r/startrek. A thread started by u/safe-viewing regarding why the series gets so much hate has garnered over 500 comments in under 24 hours. While the original poster admitted Picard is not perfect, they enjoyed the show and wondered why it received so much hate from some fans. In response, Redditor u/4thofeleven wrote:

I think it struggled to ever stick the landing on any of its season arcs, which is disappointing and means all the set-up feels like it goes nowhere. And each season almost felt like a reboot so it never had a chance to find its feet.

Other Redditors tied their reasoning back to Star Trek: The Next Generation. Redditor u/truthputer mentioned that they thought anyone who is a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generationknows that Picard's character is best remembered as one who is gentler and more thoughtful. They wrote, “… When I imagine a Picard series, I can see him finally living out retirement (as hinted at in flash-forwards in TNG), perhaps solving gentle mysteries around his farm — or perhaps consulting with Star Fleet as they bring him a situation to give his input on. We saw in some of the movies how badly suited his character was to being an action hero. So of course, Picard tries to make him into an action hero. It fails spectacularly on every level.”

Additionally, other Redditors felt that Picard's role in the series fell flat for them. Redditor u/FrugalFreddie26 wrote, “In the first session, I struggled to relate the Picard we were seeing to the captain of the enterprise we know and love. I kept hoping to see his leadership and presence but it never came. It felt pretty hollow.”

While some opinions were harsher than others, the consensus was the fans felt a disconnect between Star Trek: Picard and the character and storylines they originally loved and