Everything You Need to Watch Before Star Trek: Picard

One funny thing about Star Trek obsessives is that the rules of the fandom oblige them to understand and accept people who aren’t Star Trek obsessives. Infinite diversity in infinite combination is written into their bumpy-foreheaded, triple-stranded DNA. (Thanks a lot, Vulcans!) It’s also true, though, that on-ramping to Trek ain’t easy. With decades of content in the can, the makers of every new Star Trek show fret about appealing to newbies. With Star Trek: Picard premiering on January 23 on the streaming service CBS All Access, the problem is even more acute—lots of never-Trekkers love Patrick Stewart, revisiting here his role as Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the USS Enterprise in the Star Trek: The Next Generation years. Lots of people love the season-one showrunner Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay as well as a moving New Yorker article that closed the door forever on “tear-jerking essays about Star Trek and fathers and sons.” (Thanks a lot, Chabon.)

The trailers for Picard look good. Sci-fi TV has gotten better and better-looking since TNG ended in 1994. Stewart’s an ace. And nerds and the nerd-adjacent are going to be watercoolering about this thing. But judging by advance press, the show is gonna be allusive. So the question is, can a person who hasn’t engaged with Trek’s five decades of TV and movies still climb aboard? As someone who is the other kind of person—which is to say, a person who has watched all the Star Trek—I’m here to help. Yes. The answer is yes.

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