by Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Although the first two seasons were very difficult, many Star Trek fans praise the third season Picard They also spent decades waiting for him. The season largely got rid of the show's new characters to focus on the returning heroes among them The next generationand we got constant fan service in the form of delightful and unexpected cameos (Shelby, Rue, Tuvok, oh my!) and some unexpected villains (the Changeling Founders). The mutants were just henchmen of the real Big Bad, which brings us to this season's missed opportunity: the final villains should have been off-world aliens. TNG “The Conspiracy” episode instead of The Tower.
Granted, I was one of the many fans hurt by the inevitable reveal that the Borg Queen was behind all the murder and mayhem that occurred in the season. The Borg loomed large in the first season of The Borg Picard They were the main antagonists of the second season while also making appearances miracle and Basement floors. These guys are basically Star Trek's biggest storytelling crutch when they need a nostalgic villain, and it was disappointing that even Picard's greatest season couldn't escape their influence. It turns out that resistance is futile when it comes to writers who resist the urge to do the same old thing instead of trying something new.
These villains should have been in Star Trek: Picard, Season 3
honestly, Alien Bugs from The next generation The “Conspiracy” episode would have made the final villains much better for Picard and the Enterprise crew to face during the final team-up. In case you need a refresher, here it is Aliens They were able to control the minds of almost anyone, and the only sign that someone was infected was a strange “nubin glitch” (as in The greatest generation Podcast might say) coming out of their necks.
Picard and Riker saved the day by killing the alien leader in the most explosive way possible, but this first season's episode ended with ominous speculation from Data that the leader had activated a homing beacon that would attract more of these nefarious creatures. Since then, fans have been waiting for these aliens to appear again Star Trek. They never did, perhaps because they were originally conceived as a way to introduce the Borg, but that connection was dropped by the time everyone's favorite cybernetic villains arrived in Season 2 of “Q Who?”
Why are conspiratorial aliens better than the Borg?
Aside from the fact that the Borg were played seriously, why do I think “conspiracy” aliens should have taken their place? For one thing, these mysterious aliens have their own ability to absorb Starfleet personnel. This means a lot of Picard The plot of Season 3 could remain the same, with the Founders' mysterious employers being just another leadership blunder instead of the Borg Queen.
For something else, PicardSeason 3 was pure fan service: the show addressed the romance between Picard and Dr. Crusher, answered burning questions about whether Ro was still in Starfleet, brought back the Founders as major players, and so on. Amidst all this delicious fan service, wouldn't it have been nice for the series to return to the alien “plot” and tie a nice bow on Star Trek's most famous joke? As for this fan, I would rather see that than watch the Borg Queen die again (but this time, it's for real, y'all!).
A better reason to reunite
Finally, the return of the “conspiracy” aliens would have provided a more logical reason for Picard and Riker to get the whole gang back together. As good as Picard's third season was, we still kind of have to accept that a group of elderly heroes are the only ones who can defeat Trek's most common threat in time for the early bird special. The return of aliens that only Picard's crew has ever defeated would have made their return more plausible, especially since the presence of insects heightened the risk that the friendly faces might not be what they seem.
Ultimately, this is just a minor complaint, of course. PicardSeason 3 was great overall, leaving fans clamoring for more Star Trek: Legacy Shows that this seems destined to never happen. However, its reliance on the Borg as the “big evil” revealed how out of ideas the book was. The “conspiracy” aliens would have been a perfect substitute, but considering that Paramount He killed our hopes for legacy He's currently working on a needless Trek prequel, and it looks like fans will have to wait a few more decades to see the return of the series' most terrifying aliens.
