Star Trek: Picard

I rather enjoyed "Picard", though it was rather variable in pacing and quality (and I felt the finale was a bit of a let down - probably caused by them unexpectedly getting a second season). However, more than anything I felt that "Picard" was a massive gift to gamers running campaigns in the "Star Trek" universe. There are several reasons for this:

• Previously, "Star Trek" has been all about large ships with crews numbering in the hundreds. This is fine, but the approach in "Picard" with a much smaller crew (and, crucially, a ship that requires only a very small crew) is much more fitting for RPG model of a small party.
  
• "Picard" also showed us a much more fractured universe than the typical "Star Trek" utopia. To an extent I find that a little unfortunate, as I think there is a place for that sort of ultra-optimistic science fiction. (And I don't agree that it is somehow 'dated'. Grimdark is not the same as mature.) However, it does benefit gaming, where there is suddenly a lot of scope for assembling a rag-tag band of misfits from around the quadrant and sticking their noses into all sorts of dark corners.
  
• The end of the monolithic Romulan Empire and the decline of the Federation (coupled with, one presumes, a somewhat resurgent Klingon Empire, whatever threats are lurking in the Gamma Quadrant now that the Dominion have been neutralised, and the lingering threat of the Borg remnant) makes for some very interesting places to go and things to do.
  
• Perhaps more than anything, "Picard" showed us a seedy underbelly of the galaxy, what with those Fenris Rangers flying around, all manner of criminal enterprises and bounty hunters wandering around, and so forth. Again, that's all good stuff from an RPG point of view.
  
• Of course, if the PCs aren't part of the Federation (or aren't officially part of the Federation), that means they aren't bound by the Prime Directive, and Federation ethics more generally. That gives scope for a lot more roguish behaviour than is perhaps obvious in the regular campaign model.
  
• Simply by presenting the galaxy at the end of the 24th century, that being right at the end of the timeline as fleshed out by ST:TNG, DS9, Voyager, and the movies, they've provided a very clean starting point for gaming - you're not about to but into existing lore, and you've got a reasonably detailed setting to work with. (Previously the end point was Voyager, which was set largely in the Delta Quadrant and so well out of the way; and Nemesis, which was not hugely detailed.)

For what it's worth, if I were to run a "Star Trek" campaign just now, my inclination is still to go for that "Enterprise-B" campaign I've discussed before. I'm a sucker for the classics. But I do think that "Picard" has done GMs eyeing up Trek for RPG use a world of good.