The premier episode of Star Trek: Picard brought a lot of surprises for fans of the Star Trek franchise. The series, available exclusively on CBS All Access, focuses on the former captain of the Enterprise-E in Star Trek: The Next Generation, now spending his days in seclusion on his family's estate in France, before being pulled back into a life he thought he'd left behind. The biggest shock is not so much that Picard ever resigned his admiralty, but the particulars surrounding it.

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The series posits that the United Federation of Planets, the altruistic organization behind the creation of Starfleet, may be a corrupt entity. It appears that when Romulan refugees needed the Federation's help it revoked it, causing Picard to lose all hope in what it stood for. Will the Federation's morally contemptible behavior make for more dramatic storytelling, or create more cynical viewers? Time will tell. Here are 5 reasons why the Federation's turn for the dark is great (& 5 why it's not).

WHY IT'S GREAT: IT'S UNEXPECTED

Star Trek Picard Daystrom Institute

When the United Federation of Planets -a governmental system that has in the Star Trek Universe always stood for peace, diplomacy, and justice- becomes a sinister and mercurial organization, it subverts viewer expectations in a way they aren't prepared for.

It challenges viewers' perceptions, as well as Picard's, who must stand up against an organization he once trusted and pledged his allegiance to. By making the "good guys" inevitably the "bad guys" early in the series, viewers can mentally brace themselves for other shocking twists.

WHY IT'S NOT: IT'S NOT GENE RODDENBERRY'S VISION

When Gene Roddenberry launched the Star Trek franchise in 1964 with Star Trek: The Original Serieshe had a very particular view of the future. The world of tomorrow had an Earth that had transcended war, famine, and disease, with humans that traveled the galaxy as part of a peaceful space force funded by the Federation called Starfleet.

Starfleet included humans of all races, who sometimes worked alongside aliens, to seek out new life and new civilizations in favor of common interests in research and deep space exploration. By making the Federation the enemy, it's a dark subversion of Roddenberry's vision, which every other Star Trek spin-off has upheld.

WHY IT'S GREAT: IT HIGHLIGHTS THE PERILS OF ISOLATIONISM

The Picard estate in Star Trek: Picard

When Picard is questioned about his decision to leave Starfleet and the responsibilities as an admiral behind him, he explains that it rested solely on the Federation's decision to become increasingly insular. The once laudable Starfleet prioritized the Federation above all other initiatives, turning its back on parts of the universe with citizens in need.

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After Romulus was destroyed in a supernova, Picard had helped lead the effort to relocate thousands of Romulan refugees. But the Federation didn't want to extend aid to its oldest enemy and closed itself off, forcing its best leaders like Picard to lose faith and renounce his rank.

WHY IT'S NOT: IT CHANGES THE TONE OF STAR TREK

Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: Picard

More than any other science-fiction franchise, Star Trek has always been about hope. That hopefulness manifested in the altruism of Starfleet crews and the diplomatic alien races they encountered, differentiated it from future (and even present) versions of the genre that favor gritty, pessimistic tones and anti-establishment tropes.

The purpose of the Federation helped generate that hope, and making it a shadowy force of deception and subterfuge may break the mold for Star Trek: Picard, but it also breaks the mold of Star Trek, turning it into a copy of any number of other science fiction series out there. It even threatens to break Picard, one of the most altruistic and hopeful characters in the genre.

WHY IT'S GREAT: IT PROVIDES DRAMATIC TENSION

Jean-Luc Picard says "engage" in Star Trek: Picard

Jean-Luc Picard knew from his earliest days as a boy that he wanted to join Starfleet. To see Starfleet and the Federation become suspicious, antagonistic, and stymied by bureaucracy provides great dramatic tension for his character. We feel his indignation just as assuredly as he does, and understand his internal conflict.

When Picard comes to realize that Starfleet and the Federation aren't as trustworthy as he thought, he is forced to take action. And not for himself (that isn't Picard's style), but for others, whose duress acts as a catalyst for his heroic inner self which has lain dormant behind cynicism.

WHY IT'S NOT: IT'S DEPRESSING

Starting the premiere episode of a show like Star Trek: Picard, named after the most stately Starfleet captain that ever served, with a dark turn for the Federation is bound to depress some viewers, especially if they expected to see Picard once again assume his role as the moral compass of the series.

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Like watching The Republic transform into the Evil Empire in Star Wars, this turn of events doesn't inspire any sort of positivity. Instead, it inspires dread, as viewers are painfully aware of just how widespread the repercussions will be for every character Picard comes in contact with.

WHY IT'S GREAT: IT'S AN EVOLUTION FROM NEXT GEN

Captain Picard raises a hand in the air from The Next Generation

As Sir Patrick Stewart has said, he hadn't revisited the character of Jean-Luc Picard because he never felt compelled by the story. Star Trek: The Next Generation had always been too convivial, too sterile, and too light-hearted to properly progress the way he felt it should.

Until show-runners for Star Trek: Picard presented him with a new evolution for the world of Next Gen, in which Picard became disillusioned with Starfleet and the Federation. In which the Utopian future of Star Trek couldn't remain that way forever, because too many good people had gotten their hands dirty doing bad things.

WHY IT'S NOT: IT CHANGES PICARD'S CHARACTER

Let it be known that Jean-Luc Picard was never one to sit idly by while empirical institutions resting on the laurels of a decadent past curtailed personal liberty and lampooned truth. He opposed Starfleet Command on many occasions when he felt necessary it because he believed in why the Federation founded it in the first place.

A corrupt Federation inevitably makes a corrupt Picard. And just as Star Wars fans felt maligned with the treatment of Luke Skywalker's character in the Disney sequel trilogy, a character as revered for his wholesome optimism as Picard is for his stewardship of justice, so too may Picard fans find flaws in the alteration of Picard's character into a cynical skeptic.

WHY IT'S GREAT: IT REFLECTS REAL-WORLD PROBLEMS

Watch Star Trek: Picard's First Episode Free Online for A Limited Time

Since the very first episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, the Star Trek franchise (like a lot of sci-fi) has reflected the times in which it's made. Every Star Trek series has tackled real-world problems in a subtle way, gently guiding viewers through moral dilemmas by dressing them up in Vulcan ears and Klingon forehead ridges.

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By making a trusted organization like the Federation evil, it demonstrates what happens in the real world today when supposedly good people part of good groups supposedly standing up for something sit idly by and don't extend their help.

WHY IT'S NOT: IT'S TOO TOPICAL

For some, the comparisons and correlations of the Federation and Starfleet to the political and civil unrest in the United States and the U.K. will feel too preachy. The topical nature of refugees, civil rights, and isolationism will feel overt and over-the-top.

Star Trek has always been to some extent political, but there may be times in the future episodes of Star Trek: Picard where the correlations get too heavy-handed. Some viewers will want pure escapism, not to be given a lecture on politics.

NEXT: Star Trek: Discovery - 5 Reasons Why It Needs To Crossover With Star Trek: Picard (& 5 Why It Shouldn't)