Piller writes how he wanted this ninth Star Trek movie to recapture the spirit of Next Generation, to show how the Enterprise crew as deep-down a family. And it is, I think, the first essential book about screenwriting in the new century, a snapshot of Hollywood at the dawn of the franchise era: A portrait of the artist amidst corporate necessity, narrative continuity, the perceived requirements of fandom, the hazy way that actors in iconic roles can know everything yet nothing about their own characters, the urge to change, the simultaneous urge to not change too much. The movie version of TNGīut Fade In is out there, if you’re looking for it. But Picard is still Picard, and many of the characters and plot points in the season so far (we've seen the first six episodes of a planned 10, though this piece will only refer to specific events from the season premiere and the trailers) are eerily reminiscent of the ones that made Nemesis so unsatisfying. The show's third and final season has been pitched as a true TNG reunion, and if nothing else, it's nice to see the clear affection these performers still have for one another. It's a show strictly for die-hard Trek completists, and it's easily the worst of the five Trek shows in active production as of this writing. The show's creative staff uses 'convoluted twists' as a stand-in for clear and interesting storytelling. The first two seasons made only intermittent use of any non-Picard characters, and the new characters were either annoying or bland or both.

Star Trek: Picard has been the TNG continuation you'd get if you wished for a TNG sequel on a monkey's paw. The cast and those characters, the thinking generally went, deserved better closure. But Nemesis is a flat action movie defined by thin characterization, a cheesy one-note villain, and distracting plot contrivances, and it did so poorly ($67 million on a $60 million budget, in a time before 'maybe it will make a lot of money in China' was a thing) that it foreclosed any possibility of another sequel. Over seven seasons, TNG became one of Trek's most nuanced and consistent entries (though still one that was capable of producing terrible, silly, and just plain weird episodes). Few involved in the making or watching of 2002's Star Trek Nemesis would say that it was a fantastic send-off for the beloved characters of The Next Generation.

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