Keeping Your Scale Focused · 2:03am May 9th, 2023
I figure enough time has passed that I can be a little less leery of posting spoilers for Star Trek Picard Season 3. I won't go *too* in depth (and will spoiler tag a few things), but I do want to talk about the work that the writer/director Terry Malalas did with Episode 10 (the last) in particular.
After building toward the reveal for the first eight episodes, Episode 9 gives the big shock that, surprise, it's been the Borg the whole time. I know some people were disappointed in that choice, but really, this is a reunion/sendoff for the cast of The Next Generation. If you had to pick one defining villain set for them, it's these guys.
Stuff happens, and Episode 9, which was a rather short 47 minutes, ends on a serious cliffhanger, the stakes set high, and leaving many of us going "There's no way they can end this properly with one episode left, they needed to do this plot in Episode 8 to then do the big finale across 9 and 10."
Even after it was announced that the last episode would be a full 60 minutes, it still didn't feel possible.
But they did it. And not only did they do it in a satisfying manner, they had ten minutes to spare for an epilogue/clean up! (and a lovely mid credit scene)
More importantly, they did it without leaving viewers feeling shortchanged, nor did they roll-back on the stakes. It was still epic, it still mattered...but the story knew how to focus. The excesses were cut back, and the writer asked "What are the most important things I need to show?".
To put it another way, imagine if the opening shot in a scene was a massive battle between hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and then the second shot was focusing on just two characters engaged in expert combat. Each has their purpose. The first sets the tone, maybe even shows what the stakes are, while the second humanizes it after a fashion, gives it meaning, especially when they're characters the reader cares about.
Now, television writing is different from simple writing. For one, if I want to write a great epic battle scene, I can! In television, the first response to doing such a thing will usually be "We don't have the budget for that, scale back."
(as Malalas (who was also the showrunner for Season 3) says, he was told that a lot)
We don't have that exact limitation, but we should still take a step back at times and ask if we're conveying exactly what we need to, and if we're doing it in a way that will touch the reader. Episode 10 could have shown more epic space combat, but it didn't, instead replacing it with good character moments and chances for all the cast to shine, even if briefly. The fight against the Big Bad Leader could have involved combat, but it didn't, instead using a heart-touching moment between two characters (more than one reviewer has admitted to tearing up at that scene, and I'll confess to that too) to be the solution needed.
We still knew what was going on in the battle outside, but, especially in comparison to the finales of Season 1 and 2, it was a side note, with only the barest minimum attention paid it. And for Star Trek, that's a good thing. Star Trek is a character driven franchise, and especially The Next Generation.
But so is Pony, which means that we need to keep that in mind too.
Maybe this is just a rambling blog post to say that if you like old Trek at all, and haven't liked the newer series, give Picard S3 a chance. And if you've been ambivalent or even liked newer Trek, still watch it. 
But it's also an appreciation for the relative masterclass in writing that we see in that finale, of someone knowing that well-honed focus will always trump simple spectacle. And that, I feel, is the thing most worthy of praise.
Given what little of Picard S1 I saw, I'll... take this under advisement. Honestly, Lower Decks felt more Trekky to me (and I say that as praise for the latter.) Still some very helpful writing advice. Thank you for that.
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They definitely didn’t endear themselves to fans with S1 or S2, so I can get the hesitation. Heck, I didn’t even watch S3 until Episode 9 dropped and some friends I trust were practically screaming about it (so I had to binge the season to catch Episode 10 once it dropped to best avoid spoilers).
The first episode is a bit slow, and I can’t claim every moment is perfect - there’s still hints of Kurtzman - but it’s clearly written by someone who cares about the characters, and I think that shows with everyone turning up to give their A-game. Not that Frakes giving a great performance is a surprise.
To an extent? This is the TNG cast’s Undiscovered Country moment, the big send off they never got after Nemesis.
Picard Season Three was actually Star Trek, once they finally figured out that Kurtzman was cancer to the show, and got someone in there that was focused on you know, entertaining the audience, rather than beating the audience over the head with political messages.