The first episode of Star Trek: Picard is available to watch for free on YouTube. Uploaded to the official CBS All Access channel, it will give viewers a taste of the series before deciding if it’s worth the cost of a subscription.
Taking place 20 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis, the premiere finds Picard living in seclusion on his family vineyard with only his dog Number One and a Romulan housekeeping couple for company. It transpires that many years previously, an attack on a Martian shipyard by rogue synthetics resulted in the abandoning of planned aid in evacuating Romulus after its sun went supernova, causing Picard to give up his admiralty and resign from Starfleet in disgust for his perceived shirking of its responsibilities. Soon after, a mysterious young woman named Dahj appears, who was led to him by eldritch visions after she becomes hunted by assassins for initially unclear reasons, and Picard aids in investigating who’s targeting her and why.
If you do click the link below, I’d recommend skipping to 20 seconds in as the video begins with the frustrating new standard of a brief trailer, one shot of which rather short-sightedly comes from the episode’s climax and may allow you to infer a significant twist in its events.
CBS All Access first became popular from being the only place where viewers could legally watch Star Trek: Discovery, but had limited additional content to justify maintaining the monthly subscription once the season had concluded. Presumably, the plan is to showcase the quality of Star Trek: Picard, which is so far really good and everything Star Trek should be (pointedly glaring at you, J.J. Abrams), and hope that it will encourage more people to sign up, especially in light of the decidedly mixed reactions that Discovery has had from fans.
