Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Is A Picard And Riker Buddy Show So Far, And We're Loving It

This post contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Picard" season 3, episode 1, "The Next Generation."

It remains to be seen how much of "Picard" season 3 will really feature certain beloved characters from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," but one character who's slated to appear in all 10 episodes is William T. Riker, played by Jonathan Frakes. In an interview with TrekMovie.com ahead of the premiere, Frakes said "Picard" showrunner Terry Matalas approached him about playing "a lot of Riker" this season, so much so that the actor was surprised by how truly "full Riker" he was expected to go.

Obviously, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is still the star of the show that bears his name, but the season 3 premiere puts Riker on almost equal footing, as Picard enlists his aid in a mission to coordinates outside Federation space, following a distress call from their old doctor and fellow Enterprise-D crew member, Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden). While Crusher gets benched after the opening scenes, leaving her offscreen presence to hang over the remainder of the episode, the premiere sets up Riker as an active presence all throughout. Since this season was written to feel like a feature film, anyway, it's as if we're watching a Picard and Riker buddy movie.

Frakes has done his fair share of "Star Trek" directing (helming numerous episodes of different shows and two movies, including "First Contact," one of the franchise's best), but while he may have been working more behind the camera than in front of it lately, he slides right back into the role of Riker and seems entirely at ease bouncing off Picard again. I love how Picard, the retired admiral, shows up to meet him at Guinan's bar in a flat cap like he's one of the Peaky Blinders or something.

At the bar, where Enterprise-D souvenirs remain unpopular, Riker, now a white-bearded captain — "the handsome elder statesmen of Starfleet" — is immediately confronted with a world that has passed him by. Even a casual viewer who's not an expert on obscure names like Rigel VI, Picard's backstory as the assimilated Borg leader Locutus, and all the other ins and outs of "Star Trek" lore can get a sense of their history, as they knock back drinks and Riker talks about "the good old days."

On the well-lit bridge of the Enterprise-D in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," Riker served as Picard's righthand man, but in "Picard," they now sit side-by-side, as peers, while their low-lit shuttle approaches the USS Titan. As they enact a ruse to commandeer Riker's old ship, it's as if they're two space cops, bending the rules in a system where no one can be trusted (per Crusher's warning) and other Starfleet officers might be dirty. The current insulting captain, Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick), almost comes off like the stock "disapproving police chief," since he ultimately holds the power aboard his own ship. He doesn't even wait for Picard and Riker to show up to dinner before he starts eating. Who does that?

Though it's happening in space, Picard and Riker's season 3 journey is likened to a road trip, and the premiere does a good job of showing their new, more casual rapport, with Riker's little digs at Picard's usual sour-faced demeanor helping to reset their dynamic as buddies rather than just a captain and his commander. Other "Next Generation" cast members may come and go from "Picard" season 3, but maybe there's a reason Picard still calls Riker his "Number One."

New episodes of "Star Trek: Picard" stream every Wednesday on Paramount+.