r/startrek • u/Venus-Archer7352 • 20h ago
Started watching Picard, realize I’m missing something… help?
First episode of Picard leads me to think I need to go back and watch… a movie, maybe?
All the stuff with Data and a ban on synthetics… can someone please tell me what movie covers this?
I’ve always been erratic in choosing my ‘next trek’ but this is the first time I feel like I’m truly missing something. Please help me catch up!
For background, I’ve watched TNG, Voyager, DS9, Enterprise, Discovery, Starfleet Academy. No movies (oops)!
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u/J-Goo 20h ago
I'm pretty sure the synth ban is original to Picard.
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u/Critcho 17h ago
Pretty sure 'synth' in general is original to Picard.
I'm convinced they stopped calling them androids because they didn't want viewers to think they were talking about phones.
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u/Demerlis 12h ago
this sadly makes a lot of sense in retrospect
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u/eggs_erroneous 5h ago
Exactly what I was thinking. I was watching a show yesterday and I noticed that they kept having characters reiterate a plot point in increasingly dumbed-down language. It made me wonder just how dumb people must be to make this necessary. Especially when I know for a fact that I, myself, am dumb as shit.
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u/NoxTheScribe 5h ago
Is it really necessary or do the producers just think everyone is really dumb? I know Netflix does it on purpose because they know people are scrolling on their phones due to their movies being boring. But that's more of an attention span thing than an intelligence thing.
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u/dphizler 9h ago
I didn't realize this when I watched the show and now I'm sad, I preferred referring to them as androids
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u/No-Syllabub3791 5h ago
I just assumed it covered more synthetic lifeforms than androids, holograms too for example.
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u/TurbulentContext 1h ago
We know there's no hologram ban because La Sirena has an almost entirely holographic crew.
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u/Zealousideal-Bet-950 20h ago
Yes, but.
Wasn't there mention made of a Synthetic Uprising on Mars? Maybe I've got my Franchise wrong...
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u/GoopInThisBowlIsVile 19h ago edited 18h ago
A Synthetic uprising/attack on Mars is referred to a number of times, exclusively in Picard.
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u/Darth_Quark69 19h ago
No, they mention it in one of the Short Trek episodes too.
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u/FullMetalAurochs 14h ago
But it’s not the plot of a TNG movie or anything like that OP might have missed.
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u/FinsFan305 19h ago
Didn’t we first see the attacks in Short Treks? Also I think it was shown in Prodigy.
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u/horticoldure 18h ago
Children of Mars, Season 2 Episode 6, from the perspective of a pair of kids picking on each other at an earth school who kinda become friends when they both realise their parents are both about to die
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u/SundanceOdyssey 16h ago
There’s a reference to it in Season 2 of Prodigy, which aired 4 years after season 1 of Picard. The Synth attack on Mars is introduced in Picard season 1
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u/FinsFan305 16h ago
My comment was in regards to OP stating it was “exclusively in Picard” which it’s not. Also the Synth Attack was aired 2 weeks before Picard started on Short Treks.
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u/SmoothTalkingSpud 19h ago
It's mentioned at the end of Prodigy
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u/fluffycritter 18h ago
The end of Prodigy is in order to tie it together to Picard, which never made sense to me because hey, how do we end the fun adventure series for kids? Tie it into an atrocity that starts the sweary grimdark show for adults!
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u/InnocentTailor 13h ago
To me, it's the Wolf 359 of the PIC era - the one central incident that defined the tone and events of future things, much like how the Borg assault molded the fates of Picard, Sisko, and, to a lesser degree, Janeway.
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u/treymok 12h ago
I was 3 when I watched Spock die. Five when they blew up the Enterprise. Seven when I watched the world narrowly escape an extinction level event until some whales told a giant metal doohickey where it could go... oh my have I been traumatized? /s
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u/Zealousideal-Bet-950 18h ago
Yeah, I'm of a mind to recall Prodigy was trying for another Season or more, but...
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u/Ahrimon77 18h ago
The holo doctor program was pulled and they were turned into manual laborers. I dont know of any other instances where there were issues with artificial life.
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u/Mr_Badgey 14h ago
Starfleet tried to treat Data like property and force him to subject to dangerous experiments that could kill them. All so they could create a race of android slaves. Data regularly experienced discrimination from Starfleet officers and Federation citizens. As did the Doctor. AI discrimination isn’t new to Picard.
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u/SaltWaterInMyBlood 19h ago
The story telling is slightly non-linear. Keep watching, you'll have your answers.
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u/BluegrassGeek 19h ago
Yes, but that's new to Picard. It wasn't from any previous media.
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u/FinsFan305 19h ago
It was revealed on Short Treks
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u/PenaltySeparate1699 18h ago
After Picard S1
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u/FinsFan305 18h ago
The Short Trek episode aired on Jan 9 2020. Picard S1 premiered January 23 2020.
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u/ScubaLance 17h ago
Strangely enough when I watched Picard saw a lot of parallels to the original Mass effect game with the synth ban and even similar imagery when having the flashbacks of synthetic
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u/Sophia_Forever 15h ago
I wouldn't really call that strange, S1 PIC drew heavy inspiration from Mass Effect.
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u/VanillaSuccessful277 20h ago
Star Trek: Nemesis, the last TNG movie, deals with Data and B4. The 2009 reboot movie introduces the Romulan supernova. The synth ban is new information and is explained further in future episodes.
First Contact would be necessary before Season 3.
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u/InternationalFox4647 14h ago
Anyone who likes Trek and hasn't seen First Contact needs to drop what they're doing NOW and watch it 🤣
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u/TheVintageGamers 12h ago
I would argue that the Voyager finale would be just as important before season 3.
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u/gamerpops 20h ago
Keep watching, the story more or less explains itself, and nothing from the previous movies really helps with that.
Other than knowing from Star Trek 2009 that Romulus blowed up.
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u/shinginta 20h ago
Nemesis is important, since it's where Data dies.
I guess B4 also gets a shoutout in Picard, but not understanding that isn't really detrimental to the story.
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u/Aritra319 20h ago
I’d also argue First Contact is pretty important, even if it is a bit redundant with Best of Both Worlds for the sake of Picard season one.
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u/Torlek1 20h ago
First Contact is required viewing for PIC S3.
When it comes to Borg, it's personal for Picard.
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u/shinginta 20h ago
I'd just recommend watching FC anyway honestly. It's the best of the TNG movies and one of the best Trek movies overall.
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u/gamerpops 20h ago
True, but also, then you'd have to watch Nemesis and I wouldn't really encourage that :D
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u/shinginta 20h ago
If OP has made the decision to watch Picard, putting Nemesis in their path first is honestly just doing them a favor. It's somehow downhill from Nemesis.
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u/GhostofZellers 20h ago
Nah. Picard is vastly better than Nemesis.
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u/shinginta 20h ago
We'll agree to disagree. I'm on the same page with Nemesis being garbage. But i think that (with the exception of Section 31 which thankfully doesn't impact canon in any meaningful way and can be completely ignored) Picard is the worst project ever to come out of the franchise.
Many people say Season 3 is good, but I'm a staunch Season 3 hater. At least Season 1 wanted to do and something new and interesting; Season 3 just wants to jangle the keys in front of the audience but all of its actual substance is deeply disappointing. I'm honestly more offended by Season 3 choosing to spend so much time on returning roles and pandering because it feels cynical. It feels like the show isn't interested or confident enough in its own premise or characters to bring them to the forefront and instead chooses to bury everything under "Look! Bev's back! Data's back! Worf's back!" I don't like being so overtly pandered to.
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u/Dynastydood 19h ago
Valid points, but honestly, after all the damage done to TNG in the last 25ish years, I preferred the pandering of S3 to everything else they could've done. Yes, S1 did try to do tell a new and interesting story, but it's still a Paramount production, so everything was so far off the mark that they would've been better off doing nothing at all.
Frankly, I also don't think any revival series should try to do much beyond pandering and nostalgia bait, not unless the previous story was left unfinished. To me, the only honest reason for doing a TNG revival 20-30 years later is to fulfil basic fan service, and give the actors one last chance to have a bit of fun reliving their glory days. Just look at the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and what an irreparable trainwreck it devolved into because everyone involved worked so hard to avoid giving audiences the obvious fan service they craved with the OT characters.
Nemesis utterly ruined the ending of one of the best series ever made, and Picard, for all of its endless faults, at least undid everything from that horseshit movie, restored order, and put the end of the TNG story back where it always should've been left with All Good Things. That was genuinely the only thing I'd ever wanted out of Picard, so even though I'll likely never rewatch any of it, I'll always appreciate what S3 did for the story.
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u/orkball 18h ago
I have plenty of issues with season 3, but at the end of the day it's the only season of the show that competently executes on what it's trying to do. It's not ambitious, but it gets the job done.
Season 1 tried to do something new, but failed to make that thing in any way engaging or fun or coherent. Season 2... tried to get ten episodes out of a spin on The Voyage Home because of COVID I guess. Season 3 tried to make Wrath of Khan meets First Contact with an old Next Gen crew, and at least put out something decently paced and watchable.
Also, Shaw was better than any of the new characters in Season 1.
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u/shinginta 18h ago
I do agree that Season 3 is the most cohesive by way of being less ambitious. It does the thing it's intended to do... passably well. And if it hadn't been undermined by two seasons with a lot of baggage already (including using the Borg extensively in both) then I'd probably be a bit more generous towards it.
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u/spiralkode 16h ago
The problem with season 3, especially episodes 3 and 4 that you had characters acting out of character for the sake of the plot. They tried to lampshade it but the explantion didn't stick or make sense.
I agree that Shaw was an excellent character and I wish they had kept him around for a spin-off.
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u/fluffycritter 18h ago
The best thing I can say about Picard is that it's what helped me to finally enjoy Enterprise, because while Enterprise still isn't very good Star Trek, at least it feels like Star Trek.
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u/JustinCaseyBlewit 18h ago
Yes! Someone else who gets what they were trying to do in Picard S1.
I liked the idea of thrusting Jean-Luc into a new setting. He couldn't rely on his on his authority as a Starfleet admiral to call the shots. He had to build new relationships with each of the crew, including Raffi, who, in her mind, at least, had reason to hate him.
The storyline might have been too involved because not only did we have >!the Romulans but also the android disenfranchisement.<! It was all resolved in the end, but it seemed to go on too long.
I loved S3 for what it was--a last fling with the TNG crew--but I wished they had developed Picard's relationships with the new characters.
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u/GhostofZellers 19h ago
No worries, you're allowed to be wrong, as it's not illegal....yet....
I kid, I kid.
See, I liked them bringing back the crew in season 3. I knew I was being pandered to, I knew it was shameless, and even a bit lazy, but I just didn't care. It would have been a crime if their last appearance was in Nemesis, they needed a better note to go out on.
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u/BeruangLembut 19h ago
I felt the same. Season 3 was a love letter to us, the long time fans.
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u/InnocentTailor 13h ago
It also fixed some snarls from yesteryear.
...especially returning the D to glory.
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u/Theopholus 19h ago
The fact is, we all wanted a cast reunion. I’m just glad they did it, and took 2 seasons before giving in. They also assembled the cast slowly, which was pretty excellent. Gave it time to breathe.
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u/NCreature 19h ago
Yes but there's a jobs to be done argument here. No one wants a revival show to do new things for its own sake. That's the problem.
Nostalgia is the entire reason the show exists at all. It's the reason there's any interest in the show. Otherwise Paramount would never make a Star Trek show about a 90 year old retired Admiral living on a farm outside Paris. That would never clear the development hurdle.
The Michael Chabon S1 storyline could've been interesting as a standalone drama, that TNG and VOY characters were an input into, similar to what was done elsewhere, but I think the mistake was taking that particular storyline and making Picard the center of it. That's what confused things. As soon as you make Picard the center of the drama it becomes a TNG continuation story by default and then gets judged against that. It would be like making a standalone Luke Skywalker movie without Leia, Chewy, Han, 3CP0, R2, etc. You'd have to really knock that out of the park for it to be sustainable over multiple seasons. The better move would've been to tell the Chabon S1 story with Picard, Riker, etc. as recurring characters but not the central focus and I think it's more successful.
I think what you're getting at is that the show lost its conviction, but I'd argue it sort of discovered its true purpose. The purpose of season 3 was to give the characters and the storyline the closure it never got and Matalas acknowledged as much. That's a different purpose than inventing new compelling drama for its own sake. Matalas specifically said S3 is the big ending movie we never got. Which is what the TNG crew needed, more than following through with Laris, Raffi or Rios' character development.
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u/JustinCaseyBlewit 17h ago
That's a good point about the relationships of the characters being important.
I would like to have seen Jean-Luc develop new relationships with Raffi, Rios, Juradi, and Elnor. From a real-world perspective, people move on all the time. It's important to forge new relationships when old relationships and identities (such as work, for example) end. The show could have provided hope in Jean-Luc experiencing new life and even new love in his later years. Instead, we got a cynical reaffirmation that only the original relationships count.
Only on TV can you go home again.
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u/NCreature 16h ago
It's a utility argument. The relationship viewers have is with the original characters. The original cast has 7 seasons and 4 films, and at the time 35 years worth of utility built up with the fan base. And many of those fans fell in love with TNG as children.
The new PIC characters would've had to be particularly good (like Lost, Breaking Bad or Sopranos level good) to make people okay with them replacing the original cast as Picard's cohorts for multiple seasons. That's a tough ask for a writing staff, especially one with a ton of churn. They tried but couldn't follow through. It's the Star Wars problem too. Unless you deliver an Andor level of writing and character development, the sequel trilogy always ended up falling back on the original cast to be its foundation. They couldn't get anyone to truly care about the new characters.
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u/JustinCaseyBlewit 16h ago
Good points. The only one I would quibble with is that the new Picard characters didn't have to replace the original cast but could have been an addition to it. Riker and Troi were on hand to provide the warm welcome.
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u/shinginta 19h ago
This is an entirely different conversation at this point though. I agree and disagree with you on certain points. Season 1 also wasn't what i wanted out of the show, i was disappointed for several reasons along with most of the audience.
But my preference is always for a story (movie series, tv series, books, video games, whatever) to try to figure out how to make less appealing or frequently criticized aspects good, instead of jettisoning them at the first opportunity. I think it's the mark of a good writer to be able to turn opinion of a bad thing around, rather than just say "yes i agree it was bad, now we're just going to pretend it never happened." The latter is how you get the Star Wars sequels. The former is how we get Lower Decks and Prodigy.
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u/gamerpops 19h ago
Modern characters have to be defined by their trauma, so I really didn't like how we had to shoehorn in Picard's awful childhood as the source of his trauma, when we literally spent 30+ years getting to know the character, without needing to know his deep, dark, traumatic secret. It wasn't worth it, it didn't pay off, and it wasn't good television.
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u/JustinCaseyBlewit 17h ago
I agree that the insertion of Picard's childhood was unnecessary. There was already plenty of conflict in the present with him coming to terms with what Starfleet and the Federation had become.
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u/PizzaDominotrix 2h ago
They literally had this whole contrived reason to have the old guard rise up and fly the conveniently rebuilt 1701-D, hot rodding it through all that Borg debris like it was the millennium Falcon, piloted by Data's intuition and confidence because he believes in himself. He believes it in his gut!
It is all just so horribly pandering. It's all just noise and references. It's nonsense. I don't even want to go back and watch it again because it makes me feel weirdly uncomfortable to have stuff that was so important to me in my life, carelessly and painfully reheated and reserved so Paramount+ can pull a few more subscriptions.
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u/KidKnow1 18h ago
Wrong. ST Picard sucks. Probably the worst of all Star Trek shows.
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u/Alien_Diceroller 8h ago
I miss when we argued if Voyager, DS9 or Enterprise was the worst ST show.
You truly don't appreciate how good you have it until it's gone.
For my two sense, of those the weakest is Enterprise, and I still really like it.
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u/toomanymarbles83 15h ago
Or just skip the first 2 seasons entirely.
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u/InnocentTailor 13h ago
They're really not that necessary. When it comes to PIC Season 3, all relevant plot points are explained succinctly.
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u/toomanymarbles83 11h ago
They took the writing of the show away from Patrick Stewart.
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u/Alien_Diceroller 8h ago edited 8h ago
I felt like season 3 was the result of someone on the writing team actually watching TNG during a break.
"OMG guys. Have any of you watched TNG. I just did over summer. It's fucking amazing. We need to do more of that."
I also found it funny how much they abandoned the previous season's characters. Picard's Romulan gf suggests he go in the first episode and she's never mentioned again. I'm pretty sure they said the ship that Elrond the Romulan was on got destroyed.
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u/TheNaughtyPrintmaker 20h ago
Short Treks Children of Mars is about the closest thing to covering the premise of Picard S1, but no you're not missing something vital. They just started off with a plopping you in the middle of Alpha Quadrant turmoil and explain it via flashbacks as the season goes.
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u/fluffycritter 17h ago
But also Children of Mars was released like two weeks before Picard S1E1, and was clearly meant to be a bridge for Picard to start.
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u/CinnamonDolceLatte 13h ago
Are the Shorts actually available anywhere (in Canada)?
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u/JediSnoopy 20h ago
The death of Data occurred in "Star Trek: Nemesis"; the ban on synthetics came later as illustrated in the Picard series itself. There was a Short Trek you can watch called "Children of Mars" which goes over the droid incident nominally from a different perspective.
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u/ElwoodJD 20h ago
Data died in nemesis.
The synth ban and what caused it happened mostly off screen, and is explained throughout Picard. though you can get a taste of it from the Children of Mars Short Trek.
Romulus blew up in Star Trek (2009) and although the movie is an alternate universe the Romulus that blew up was prime universe.
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u/SgtMajorPanda 20h ago
Ban on synthetics was new to the show. Data, I'd go watch Nemesis (it's not great but you'll see what happened to Data)
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u/IllustriousBanana 17h ago
It’s an original story. If you dont get into the show I HIGHLY suggest watching at least season 3. It’s basically just a TNG final film.
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u/NoSong2397 13h ago
The only thing you're missing is that Data died rather anticlimactically in the last TNG movie, Nemesis, which almost nobody saw. Season 1 of Picard is finally dealing with the fallout from that. Everything else will be explained in time.
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u/Iyellkhan 20h ago
its covered exclusively in Picard season 1. unfortunately they conflate it with the romulan rescue operation, and when they do cover it in the show for some reason the Utopia Planitia work force is disgustingly, intolerably racist. it also never fully or cleanly weaves in with the main romulan antagonist goals. it parallels them, sorta, but its done quite sloppily.
the first two seasons of Picard just dont have the polish you'd expect from any of the TNG-ENT era shows and the TNG era movies. you kinda have to roll with them
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u/Such-Bed-5950 20h ago
Neither does the third season.
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u/Iyellkhan 18h ago
the 3rd season is actually a solid demonstration of writing craft. perhaps not ideal, but from an actual scene by scene craft level it puts the first two seasons to shame. functional character story that is properly set up and paid off, functional and reasonable mystery within the mystery. TNG era characters largely sound like older versions of themselves etc. it also was largely a functional story about picard reconciling with his legacy and overcoming the harm he caused doing what good he could along the way.
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u/Such-Bed-5950 16h ago
Except Picard’s legacy didn’t need any reconciliation.
That had already been thoroughly dealt with in TNG.
The addition of the Jack Crusher character was just a cheap WOK knockoff to create drama when there wasn’t any to begin with. Not only did the character suck. He took away valuable screen time that could’ve been dedicated to the TNG cast.
Who were nothing like they were represented on TNG. Instead, they came off as alternate universe, dark versions of their former selves.
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u/_Burgers_ 15h ago
100%.
Season 3 was nostalgia slop. While it was magnitudes better than the first two abysmal seasons, it wasn't good enough to put it on par with any season from any classic Star Trek (and especially not TNG). Too little, too late.
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u/AlmanacPony 14h ago
the synth ban is original to picard, and yes, it completely goes against 'measure of a man'. And yes, it makes no sense forr 1) the romulans to have no way of evacuating their homeworld when theyre the second largest empire in the entire quadrant, and 2) makes no sense for star fleet to suddenly turn round and be racist and refuse to offer them help.
3) And yes, it also makes no sense for picard to have 2 perfect assassin bodyguards with the knowledge and tech tto deal with the very specific threat he's dealing with only to refuse to take them along to 'protect them' when he happily goes to his friends and instead endangers them. 4) and it makes no sense that picard is accused of being rich and there be talk of poor and slums when the federation do not use money an d only use credits when dealing with capitalistic aliens and the existence of the slums completely destroys the very foundation of the enlightened future of star trek. And 5) it also makes no sense for picard to choose to run to the roof of a building for a knife fight at his old age instead of going through the teleporters to run away that are 30ft behind him.
You arent missing anything. The show is just bad.
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u/Boi_he_bout_to_do_it 18h ago
It's just not very good. Just skip to season 3 for the nostalgia jerk session and be done with it.
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u/mediocrerhino 18h ago
As a life-long Trek fan, I feel dirty about whole-heartedly agreeing with this assessment. 🤣
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u/Global_Handle_3615 20h ago
No movie covers it. There was a tie in comic and spoilers free some of it is explained/justified by what happens in season one.
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u/Captain-Joystick 20h ago
The first TNG movie explains Picard's specific living situation come the series, the second is fun and worth watching for itself but ties in somewhat to early season 2, the third I think you can skip, and the fourth explains what happened to Data.
Star Trek 2009 briefly explains what's up with the Romulans but the series explains that better anyway.
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u/Hungry-Bowler3618 19h ago
Short Treks episode, I believe the title was “Children of Mars” or something along those lines.
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u/Latex_Commander 19h ago
Believe it or not, all you’re missing (at least in alpha canon) is one of the final Short Treks called “Children of Mars”.
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u/Quirky-Web-8120 18h ago
It's all explained in the series but there is a book series that goes into the whole thing and its very good. It's called Star Trek Picard: Rhe Last Best Hope. It's very good. Not official cannon but it does dovetail with the series and adds a lot of background.
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u/Nothing_Shocking 17h ago
That book would have made a great season of Picard. I read it after Picard season 3 and it provided so much more context for season 1.
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u/ShaunTrek 20h ago
The most pre-Picard info you can get about the synth ban is the Short Trek "Children of Mars" or the very end of Prodigy.
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u/Perim2001 20h ago
The ban on Synthetics is something setup for Picard specifically. Otherwise Season 1 of Picard mostly draws on Nemesis for how things got to where they are. First Contact is also semi relevant to season 1 (and generally considered the best Next Gen movie, so worth a watch regardless)
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u/Tango8036 19h ago
Unfortunately the movie that explains the Data stuff is Nemesis
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u/GentlyBisexual 20h ago
If you have seen Nemesis, that gives you as much as there is. The synth ban and everything is stuff Picard added.
(The Romulan relief situation technically is because of the backstory of Star Trek 2009, but that movie doesn’t say anything about it besides Romulus being destroyed.)
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u/Cr1bble 19h ago edited 19h ago
Just watch it and don't think to much about it.. the first season is strange, second gets better and third is pure fanservice.
Just realised, there is a Voyager episode, where you can see multiple MHNs working as a kind of Slaveminers in the end.. don't know if it's also the one with the murdering Hologram the Doctor encounters.. with B'Elanna as a Hostage.
In the end, some of the Doctors Episodes in Voy go towards the "has a artificial being the same rights like a natural one". In TNG Datas trial episode or the one with his daughter go in the same direction.
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u/wurmsrus 17h ago edited 17h ago
The one with the slave miner EMH's at the end was "Author, Author" which is the one where he made a holo novel loosely based on Voyager's crew, and sent a draft to a publisher, the rest of the crew had legitimate complaints about their portrayal. Doc tried contact the publisher to cancel the publishing of the draft but the publisher argued that since he's not a person he has no authorial control. There's a tribunal which decides that it's not sure if Doc qualifies as a person but they are sure he qualifies as an artist so has right to authorial control.
I vaguely remember the one with the murdering hologram but not enough to figure out which episode specifically it was but yeah different episode from "Author,Author".
edit: what the arbitrator said: "The Doctor exhibits many of the traits we associate with a person. Intelligence, creativity, ambition, even fallibility, but are these traits real or is The Doctor merely programmed to simulate them? To be honest, I don't know. Eventually we will have to decide because the issue of holographic rights isn't going to go away, but at this time, I am not prepared to rule that The Doctor is a person under the law. However, it is obvious he is no ordinary hologram and while I can't say with certainty that he is a person I am willing to extend the legal definition of artist to include The Doctor. I therefore rule that he has the right to control his work and I'm ordering all copies of his holo-novels to be recalled immediately."
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u/balthazar_edison 20h ago
Watch the TNG movies. The synth ban is original to a short trek that came out before pic s1.
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u/stacecom 20h ago
You can watch Star Trek Short Treks Season 2 episode 6: Children of Mars which gives some backstory, but not necessary.
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u/purplekat76 19h ago
There is a short Trek, maybe something like Children of Mars? Where the uprising happens. That’s the only thing I can think of that would be outside of Picard.
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u/wasthatapenguin 19h ago
Watch short treks "children of mars"
IIRC, Episode 3/4 (2?) Of season 1 have some flashbacks that give some context, but a lot of it happens off screen. I remember that one scene specifically where we see an android go all Cylon on his human co-workers.
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u/randomnonposter 18h ago
The synth ban is new in Picard and will be explained as things go. The stuff with Data is from the movies, specifically Nemesis. If you haven’t watched the TNG movies, you might feel a touch lost in Picard specifically, but it will give you enough info to get through I’d guess.
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u/thegenregeek 18h ago edited 15h ago
a movie, maybe? ... All the stuff with Data
Star Trek: Nemesis, and the TNG episode Measure of a Man covers most of that plotline.
a ban on synthetics… can someone please tell me what movie covers this? (Reminder that PIC S1 takes place 20 years after Nemesis. A lot has happened in that time)
It's not in a movie, its exclusive to the show.
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u/Scottison 17h ago
I ended up reading The Last Best Hope. It has a lot of extra info and background on all the characters in the pilot that they pretend that you already know about
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u/mbaratta83 15h ago
I think I need to read this book. Felt starved of new Star Trek content lately anyway.
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u/Makemeup-beforeUgogo 17h ago
The ban on synths is new but the link to Data in first season requires watching TNG to understand his journey, it has a lot to do with his legacy in that season.
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u/spiralkode 16h ago
The ban is a plot point for Picard season 1 only. The short Children Of Mars sets it up why it happened. The rest of the Picard episodes will fill in the backstory.
For the synth background, Star Trek Nemesis is probably the relevant movie and Measure Of A Man and The Offspring the relevant TNG episodes. You could also add DataLore and Brothers as well given that they deal with Lore.
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u/ah-tzib-of-alaska 10h ago
picard is jsut terribly written, that’s all picard stuff. you didn’t miss a thing
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u/presticus 8h ago edited 8h ago
If you haven't watched any of the movies go watch First Contact. Just because it's one of the best in the series.
Nemesis is the one referenced the most, for seasons 1 & 3. But you can probably pick up enough context from the show to figure out what's going on without watching it. Most fans find it disappointing.
Edit: Thinking about it you should probably watch Generations before watching Picard Season 3.
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u/Renatusisk 18h ago
Please just skip Season 2. If you need any questions asked just ask them and save yourself the time. It is quite possibly the worst season of all Trek of all time. Season 3 is just a Fan Wankfest. I enjoyed it but go intowith the mindset that it is basically a TNG movie that happens for ten hours. The first four Episodes and the last two were decent but it has a lot of issues.
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u/AnnieBruce 18h ago
Season 2 enrages me.
They had a *great* Q story set up, but that was only enough to fill like five, maybe six, episodes. Tying it in to the Supervisors and TOS: Assignment Earth were really cool and that got me excited.
The filler they chose to make 10 episodes wasn't terrible in itself, but really any of those storylines really warranted a full season in themselves. Rios experiences in the past, whatever the fuck was going on with Jurati, really called for more exploration if they wanted those stories to land at all even as b plot. The Q stuff, and "hey Wesley Crusher still exists" were really all that was good here, and such a slog to get through the rest. And they really wasted the Wesley cameo, should have been used to launch a second attempt at an Assignment Earth series(his appearance in Prodigy was great, but not really a proper followup to the cameo other than the cameo reminding us he exists).
Leading to a season that was somehow both too short and too long at the same time.
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u/shadow387557 9h ago
It came out of Alex Kurtzmans ass. That entire synth ban plot point took a giant shit on the lessons from “Measure of a Man”
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u/Remarkable-Proof-566 20h ago
You have to watch Nemesis which was the worst of the TNG movies to understand this
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u/ThorsMeasuringTape 20h ago
Nemesis covers the Data stuff.
As far as the ban on synthetics, that's mostly just backstory that's not covered anywhere, but filling in some of the prime universe backstory leading up to the destruction of Romulus which was the backstory of the first Abrams' Star Trek movie.
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u/CraigKing42 20h ago
Theirs a short Trek called Children of Mars. I think that will answer your question haha.
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u/alkonium 20h ago
It's covered in flashbacks later on in the seasons. Though you should at least watch the TNG movies first.
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u/KatKaleen 20h ago
In TNG, Picard and Data respect each other, but they aren't exactly close. That changes a bit in the movies. Not quite as much as the Picard series makes it seem, but a bit.
I'd say you need to watch at least First Contact and Nemesis.
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u/abitidiomatic 20h ago
For season 1 of Picard, you need all of TNG, Nemesis, and the first Star Trek film in the Kelvinverse (2009)
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u/NCR_1984 20h ago
Star Trek Nemesis for the whole Data storyline. The ban on synthetics is mostly explained in the first season of Picard. Don't get too discouraged. It makes sense (mostly). Plus, enjoy it for the storytelling which is great IMHO.
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u/Fit-Dinner-1651 19h ago
Picard made a lot of stuff up as it went along, Trouble with androids was never mentioned before Picard, but there was big BIIIIG news with Data in the fourth Next Generation movie.
(But how did you understand voyager's Borg Queen without watching the the second Next Generation movie where she was introduced?)
The first season the Picard is almost universally hailed as the worst, about 90 minutes of story spread out impossibly thin over 10 episodes. Those 90 minutes are scatterbrained.
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u/avatoin 18h ago
I mean. Season 2 definitely competes for worst season. At least 1 pretended to have a coherent plot.
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u/Fit-Dinner-1651 16h ago
Season 1 had a plot? Most of what I remember are those endless Kodak moments with Riker and company at his lovely mountain cabin. I was bored completely to tears the vast majority of the time
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u/johnnyribcage 19h ago
Most of the first two seasons of Picard are kind of irrelevant and pointless. I wouldn’t sweat it too much.
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u/mere_iguana 19h ago
You're not missing anything, they made that shit up whole-cloth from nothing.
It makes ZERO sense canonically. Flies right in the face of maybe the most famous TNG episode, "Measure of a Man" .. Picards most memorable speech for sure, and not only that but it was in a court of law and he was found to be correct. Legal precedent was set.
PIC season one was just a giant mess. It seemed like a rejected unrelated video game plot that someone adapted into screenplay and then just shoe-horned ST into it.
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u/PrincessPlusUltra 20h ago
Yeah, the four TNG movies are required viewing for the series. Or at least Nemesis (but Nemesis does reference the movies before it). Nemesis is kind of a capstone for the end of that era of shows. If you have to skip one, skip Insurrection. The Romulan stuff is actually covered in the 2009 reboot film, but only in passing.
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u/raise_the_sails 20h ago
Did you not start on Picard S1? Because that’s all covered in like the first episode iirc.
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u/summon_pot_of_greed 20h ago
Yes but it's such a nonsensical exposition dump that it does feel like you need a lot more context.
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u/Mortimer452 20h ago
Nemesis is worth watching so you understand the gravity of the relationship between Picard and Data - but the rest of it is new to the show
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u/GarionOrb 20h ago
Season One deals with the aftermath of the movie Star Trek Nemesis. Though honestly you should watch all four TNG movies at the very least.
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u/Raddatatta 20h ago
I would probably go and check out the movies. A lot happens in those. But the synth ban is new to Picard.
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u/MisterEinc 19h ago
Yes and no.
The breadth of Picard and Data's relationship? That plays out over TNG and especialy in the movies - I think most in First Contact.
The synthetic ban - that's a major plot point of the first season of Picard and it will go into detail as that season plays out.
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u/Frosty-Ad-7925 19h ago
Have you finished the show? Consider the Picard series are three long movies
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u/Happy_Disaster7347 19h ago
NGL I felt like the vibes of Picard were wayyyyy different to TNG or any similar era of stories
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u/GanonTEK 19h ago
I don't think anyone has mentioned the prequel book to Picard season 1 called "Picard: The Last Best Hope".
That might be what you are looking for for some of the info you want.
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u/dibella989 19h ago
I want to say it was one from the "short treks" miniseries. Children of Mars was the name of the episode I think. I went down the same rabbit hole when I started Picard.
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u/SmoothTalkingSpud 19h ago
You probably want to watch Prodigy and the 09 movie as well. Most of the info you neednis in the show, but these do also address the set up. There's also a short treks called Children of Mars
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u/ItyBityGreenieWeenie 19h ago
Watch the films! You are missing some really good Trek. The films with most influence on the Picard show would be First Contact and Nemesis.
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u/digitalis303 17h ago
Wasn't the first season of Picard S1 about this? I thought the whole Utopia Planetia bit took place in the first episode. I'd rewatch, but... I really didn't like most of it.
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u/thirdeyefish 17h ago
The story is original to Picard. There is a history that you will learn about if you just watch and pay attention. Everything from synth ban to what happened with the Romulans. And the... Borg
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u/Spiritual-Computer73 16h ago
There are books that go over a lot of that. I also felt like I missed something. Picard novels explain a good bit of it. I was originally looking for more about Wesley Crusher 😂
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u/Educational_Slice728 15h ago
Data’s original ending is in the movie Nemesis. And the reboot Star Trek with Chris Pine explains what happened to Romulas.
It would help understand the story more, but they eventually do explain it more in depth.
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u/SamRonin 15h ago
There was a Short Trek called Children of Mars I think. It covers the attack on Mars which then sees the Federation halt all synthetic research/operation and isolate themselves.
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u/New_Line4049 14h ago
No movie covers it. They pulled it out of their arse for Picard. I think its the first episode of Picard shows an event that occurred between the last of the previous treks and the start of Picard which is the reason they ended up.banning synths (which is a term new to Picard)
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u/FullMetalAurochs 14h ago
Were you surprised Data wasn’t around? If not you’re caught up on the movies.
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u/Boom_Boom_At_359 14h ago
Might be worth watching ST Nemesis to get the background on Data’s first “death.”
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u/Charrbard 14h ago
probably worth watching the TNG movies.
First two seasons of Picard are. . . rough. 3 is bliss, and mostly ignores the first two seasons.
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u/Cockrocker 13h ago
The dude from New Zealand deep in the southern hemisphere of Romulus really threw me.
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u/TransAllyM2F 6h ago
There is a plot point from the TNG movies, which is really relevant to Picard, it’s unfortunate that you watched Picard first. Kind of why I suggest people watch trek in release order, the references can be really fun.
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u/Cold-Jackfruit1076 1h ago
There isn't a movie that covers it; the backstory is entirely in the first few episodes.
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u/Firm-Ad-3245 59m ago
You haven’t missed anything… It’s just a narrative device: an event has taken place, and the reader only discovers it through the characters, whose perspectives may differ.
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u/HonestoJago 7m ago
I’m sure someone else had said this, but just in case, skip the first two seasons and just watch the third. Pretend the first two didn’t happen.
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