Cool Stuff: Star Trek: The Picard Legacy Collection Is The Ultimate Next Generation Box Set
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The character of Captin Jean-Luc Picard, as played by Patrick Stewart, appeared in 176 episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the pilot episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," and four "Star Trek" feature films. His voice was heard briefly in an episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise," and a picture of him turned up on "Short Treks." After several decades, the character and the actor returned for 30 episodes of "Star Trek: Picard." He is handily one of the most prolific characters from throughout the franchise, and it's easy to see why. Picard is a role model par excellence. He is controlled, stern, serious, and open-minded. He is an experienced diplomat and capable of making solid command decisions in a split second. Picard is essentially the college professor you long to impress and live in constant fear of disappointing. He read very old books, drank tea, and had class.
Picard, however, wasn't entirely without levity or warmth. He fostered several mature romances during his tenure on "Star Trek," and he would spend his free time on the Enterprise's holodeck recreating 1940s-style murder mysteries dressed as his favorite detective Dixon Hill. As a young man, a feisty, hot-headed Picard was stabbed through the heart during a bar brawl. For the bulk of his screentime, Picard had an artificial heart. That is until the first season of "Picard" when his consciousness was shunted into an android body.
For those who want to run a near-full marathon of every Picard appearance, one should have their eye on "The Picard Legacy Collection," a 54-disc Blu-ray box set that contains every episode of "Next Generation," all four NextGen movies, and every episode of "Picard."
The box set was announced back during the summer for a release in October, but it has been delayed slightly for a release on November 7, 2023. Once you see what's included in the box set, you'll agree that it'll be worth the wait.
What's in the box?
"The Picard Legacy Collection," naturally, comes in a really cool box, and contains more than just 54 Blu-rays. One will also get four magnetic communicator badges from throughout Picard's appearances. One can magnetically wear the oval badge from "Next Generation," the rectangular badge from the movies, the oversized badge from the dark parallel universe seen in the second season of "Picard," the Starfleet standard issue badge from the third season of "Picard," and an admiral's badge, also from season three. The box also contains a box of specialized playing cards as seen in "Picard" season three, and an updated version of Chip Carter's 2020 book "The Wisdom of Picard" will also be included. Oh yes, and it will also have four coasters bearing the logo of Château Picard, the good captain's winery. Sadly, the box contains no wine.
The box also boasts 35 hours of bonus features, although most of those appear to have been ported over from previous home video releases of the various Picard-related "Star Trek" shows and movies. In the world of streaming, however, such bonus features have become invaluable and rare, so one might consider watching all 35 hours of them in order to gain additional insights.
What's not in the box
Of course, because "Star Trek" is so unbelievably vast as a media franchise, "The Picard Legacy Collection" will leave out a few bibs and bobs. This is understandable, as a completely holistic, all-picard box set would be unwieldy.
The box set, for instance, will not contain "Emissary," the pilot episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," in which Picard made a cameo, nor will it contain his cameos in "Enterprise" or "Short Treks." It will also not contain William Shatner's 2011 documentary "The Captains" in which Stwart — along with Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, Scott Bakula, and Chris Pine — is interviewed at length about his role. It won't have any of the Picard-centric "Star Trek" novels either, like David A. Goodman's 2018 book "The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard." Apart from the comm badges, there are also no toys, ornaments, mugs, or other tchotchkes from the show. I regret to report that there will be no bars of Jean-Luc Picard's Make It Soap.
But the box set is as complete as one might find. Because "Picard" has come to an end, there will also be no more episodes to add in the future, so this may tentatively be considered definitve in perpetuity.
The box set will retail for $229.99 (US), and can be pre-ordered through various online stores.