The sheer whore that Stewart has become. That man is an existential crisis for me. I simply have no hope for humanity when someone as venerable as Picard can turn bad.
Why? Stewart's pomposity has long been known in the business. The whole point of the charicatures in "Extras" is its supposed to be a tongue in cheek pop at how these people really are/rumoured to be. Stewart has long been considered a bit high off his own farts. He quietly
hated the role of Picard which is why they mooted killing him off in the Season 2/Season 3 attempted transition to Riker taking over the big chair (A possibly missed opportunity considering Frakes' own well known love for the series). Everyone says
now they never seriously considered it but, you know they did. You don't cast a high cheekbone blonde for Riker to half flirt with without serious consideration to a battlefield promotion.
We all know what Picard
should have been, a man in his twilight years perhaps imparting wisdom and spending time with his old friends who themselves have gone onto better and greater things. Perhaps
that should have been the crisis inside Picard, that he feels adrift and lost now he is retired, the harvest of the new vintage doesn't bring him the joy it did every year, and he yearns a little for the stars once more.
We could've had nice banquet and party scenes in which a more recovered and developed Data has been able to randomise grey hairs and joke with a serving admiral about his dedication to the part of being human by putting additional padding on his mid section "To better simulate middle aged spread" much to the small crowd's amusement. Heck, perhaps The Doctor could be part of the crowd, remaking how as fellow life forms it's fascinating seeing the differences and troubles the two of them have had.
Vice-Chancellor Worf could have visited the Picard estate and his parents in Minsk in an episode unsure how to proceed with the news Chancellor Martok intends to retire and name him the successor. (Throw in some assassins for a bit of action). Also would've been a nice backdoor pilot for the Worf Show Micheal Dorn's been trying to get greenlit for 20 years.
Picard goes on holiday to Riker and Troy's cabin as we saw in the Picard show we did get and has a nice time with them.
There's shit that could've been done which could've been a character study. Hell, throw Q in and make Picard face some of the hard choices he made way back in the past and Post-Enterprise as an Admiral, real and horrific choices where he failed to keep his absolute principles as often happens with Starfleet Admirals who sometimes see
too big a picture. Same whole thing, perhaps him pithily commenting how he was "late" to come back and then transform revealing the trial never ends.
But, we got what we got instead. Another boring action schlock with an elderly man who looks like he just wants a nice steak and glass of red and not this bullshit.
