One of the biggest boons the new wave of Star Trek programming on Paramount+ has received is the return of Patrick Stewart to reprise his role as Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: Picard. The show reached its conclusion with its third season earlier this year under new showrunner Terry Matalas, receiving universal acclaim for paying off decades of storytelling threads and character arcs. Now, the final season has received a stellar physical home video release on Blu-ray and DVD, along with a limited edition steelbook and and the complete series collection on Blu-ray and DVD. Both sets look great on the shelf for any recent or longtime Star Trek fans.
The final season of Picard sees the title character and his former first officer, Will Riker, respond to a distress signal from their friend and the Enterprise's former chief medical officer, Beverly Crusher, without Starfleet's official support. As the two senior officers reunite with Crusher, they stumble into a series of surprising revelations about Picard's personal life while also facing the return of an old enemy who has completely caught Starfleet off-guard. In order to not only survive the ensuing chaos but save the United Federation, the trio will have to call in other familiar friends from their time together on the Enterprise to save the galaxy one last time.
The Blu-ray transfers of Picard continue the franchise's recent trend of crisply maintained visual and audio fidelity, with clean transfers in both the standalone season and full series' sets. Unfortunately, there are no announced plans to release the series in 4K UHD. Despite this, the Blu-ray transfer is solidly rendered, with everything from the darkened interiors to the big visual effects-heavy sequences holding up well for the home release. For the complete series collection, there are none of the discernible differences in video quality or audio mix that were present in the previous standalone releases for the first and second seasons.
The complete series collection on Blu-ray has over seven hours of special features covering each of the show's three seasons. The entire set consists of nine discs. Comparatively, the standalone Picard Season 3 Blu-ray release has over 2.5 hours of special features over three discs, with most of the same special features in the complete collection part of the standalone season release. These features include audio commentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, and gag reels. There's also a set of featurettes focusing on the "making-of" the end of Picard included with both home video releases.
The depth and breadth of these special features feel increasingly rare with home video releases for major television and projects these days. The complete series collection really delivers on all three seasons. Season 3, in particular, felt like a true labor of love from all parties involved. That distinction carries on to its home video release, with the product proving to be an incredibly solid package. Having said that, those who already own the first two seasons of Picard may be better off just purchasing the standalone season release than the complete series. There are not enough extra bells and whistles included in the latter to supersede the prior releases.
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 really is Star Trek at its finest. It's a fitting end to both Picard and the Star Trek: The Next Generation era that sets up interesting directions for the franchise's potential future. The home video features a solid transfer and plenty of special features that invite a full revisit of the series, especially its fan-favorite final season. For fans looking for the perfect companion piece to The Next Generation on their shelf, the wait is finally over.
Created by Akiva Goldsman, Michael Chabon, Kirsten Beyer and Alex Kurtzman, Star Trek: Picard is available to stream in its entirety on Paramount+. The Season 3 Blu-ray, DVD, and limited edition steelbooks are on sale now. The complete series collection is on sale now on Blu-ray and DVD.