Exclusive: Star Trek Executive Producers Reveal Picard Series Production Details

Following the NYCC Star Trek: Discovery panel TrekMovie had a chance to speak to most of the panelists during a series of roundtable interviews. We will be posting videos of these interviews in the upcoming week, but wanted to share some news about the Picard series now.

The ongoing adventures of Jean-Luc Picard

In August at the Star Trek Las Vegas convention executive producer Alex Kurtzman surprised the world by bringing out Sir Patrick Stewart to announce he was returning to his Star Trek: The Next Generation role of Jean-Luc Picard for a new Star Trek series on CBS All Access. At the time it was made clear that most details were still being determined and it wasn’t confirmed what kind of form the show would take. The speculation in the trades, and our own, expected the Picard show to be a limited series.

Speaking to TrekMovie at New York Comic Con on Saturday, executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin confirmed that actually, the plan is for new Picard show to be an ongoing Star Trek series. Heather Kadin specifically confirmed they are planning for the Picard series to run multiple seasons.

Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin at New York Comic Con, October 6, 2018

Planning out the Picard series and more Trek

During the Discovery panel itself, Kurtzman spoke very briefly about the Picard series, saying the writers’ room is up and running, and noting “we are four weeks in.” Speaking to TrekMovie following the panel Kadin and Kurtzman confirmed that production on the Picard show is expected to begin in April 2019. They were not able to provide any estimates on when the show would be released, but if the Picard show follows the same pattern as Discovery, it could debut in early 2020.

The producers did talk about how they hoped to roll out the various shows in the planned expansion of the Star Trek television universe. When asked about CBS Studios David Stapf’s comments from August saying there “should be a Star Trek something on all the time on All Access,” Kadin confirmed with TrekMovie that the plan is to not have Star Trek shows overlap. She also noted they plan to have breaks between the various Trek shows, to build up fan anticipation.

Patrick Stewart and the Picard show writers room in September (Photo: Twitter/Patrick Stewart)

Picard show stands alone

Kurtzman also talked about how the Picard will relate to Discovery. Responding to a fan question during the Q&A portion of the panel the executive producer said that Jean-Luc Picard “will not mesh into this season [of Discovery], that will be its own thing.”

No other details on the Picard show were revealed during the panel or at our roundtable discussion. However, at the panel Kurtzman did tease the crowd regarding the Picard show saying “Who wants to know who the bad guys are?” only to then say “no” he wasn’t going to give out that kind of info.

Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: Nemesis

More from NYCC

There is more to come from our coverage of New York Comic Con. In case you missed it, check out the Star Trek: Discovery season two trailer and season two images released at NYCC.  Coming up, we will also have a full report from the Discovery panel, analysis of the season two trailer, interviews and more. So stay tuned.


Keep up with all the news on the Picard show and other upcoming Star Trek TV shows here at TrekMovie.com.

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Big news! It’s great that they are planning multiple seasons. I can’t wait! I hope that by confirming it stands separate from Discovery that this means it will follow visual continuity from previous TNG era series and movies – updated of course for modern effects and visual capabilities. I’ve come around to accepting why they needed to update the visuals for Discovery given the baseline for that era having been from the 1960s. But that isn’t a problem for the TNG era. I think it still stands up pretty good!

The big difference between a show set 20 years post TNG and a show set pre-TOS is that you CAN update things visually because one would expect things post TNG and very much post TOS to look updated, not just updated for update sake.

Agreed. My point was that if they show the Enterprise-E, for example, it is the same ship we know from the movies. Unlike the original Enterprise as seen in Discovery.

@Captain Danno — I wouldn’t get my hopes up. The Enterprise-E is probably destroyed and replaced by the F by this time. Different art directors, different look. None of it’s going to look the same, including the Klingons. Even though it has nothing to do with DISC, doesn’t mean it won’t exist in the same visual universe as the rest of the shows in simultaneous production.

I hope the design is more like the Enterprise refit, streamlined and graceful looking. I don’t care for the design they used in star trek online for the F.

Why would the E be destroyed already? It isn’t exactly standard for Federation ships to be quickly destroyed. TOS Enterprise made it 40 years, no idea about the B but we can presume it lasted a while from its launch in 2293 to when the C was launched sometime before 2344, the C was obviously destroyed but no idea how long she was in service, and the D just got hosed for movie purposes after a mere 7 years despite being designed to last like a hundred. So I wouldn’t *assume* the Ent-E has been destroyed so quickly. I would assume, however, that the aesthetics will be updated. The LCARS sensibilities of the TNG era seem pretty quaint by modern design standards.

“The big difference between a show set 20 years post TNG and a show set pre-TOS is that you CAN update things visually because one would expect things post TNG and very much post TOS to look updated, not just updated for update sake.”

Exactly and why so many fans want the franchise to go forward again. We’re seeing how awkward it is trying to place DIS in the same period of TOS and the results have been VERY mixed at best.

But with this show, you have none of those obstacles, you can do whatever the hell you want because it’s a natural progression, especially decades later. And as I (and others) have pointed this out before, the FACT is DIS would EASILY fit in a post-Nemesis timeline. Other than updating the freaking phasers that show has no issues fitting in the year 2399 and everyone knows it. I can’t think of one thing on that ship that would feel ‘outdated’ if they placed it another 100 years in the future.

But now with this show they can literally do what they did with DIS and make the tech updated as possible, bridges the size of a department store and completely change the uniforms and everyone will just shrug instead of moaning about it with DIS. Hell have TWO spore drives on the new show if you want, why not? ;D

You can bet that not “everyone will just shrug instead of moaning”. You already have people claiming that TNG doesn’t need updating. So yeah, there will be moaning no matter what they do.

Well that’s true. There will ALWAYS be someone to complain lol. But I do think faaaaar less than DIS though. And the thing is we saw TNG get more updated between the show and the films. We saw them get new uniforms, a more advanced ship, etc and that was less than a decade inbetween. The D and the E looks absolutely nothing alike. No one complained the E should’ve been just a replica of the D because most understand change is part of it and many people like me considered the D their favorite ship at the time.

So in 20 years it just makes sense to see things change. But yes there will still be some people fighting it I agree, but their argument won’t nearly be as strong.

There will still be the exact same whiners no matter what.

We agree there lol!

Well seeing how Picard is set 20 years after Nemesis it makes since that the visuals and tech would be further along than what was done 20 years ago.

Agreed. Love as good LCARS

The separate from Discovery comment was in response to a confused fan who asked how Picard was going to be integrated into Discovery season 2. She clearly had a misunderstanding that Picard went to the Discovery set to film for this season.

I think there was some misunderstanding, yes, but I also think it would’ve been possible for the writers to insert some hint as to the Picard series in Disco season 2, a thread that maybe gets picked up in the far future series

I wonder if they pull out the Borg for the first season of the Picard show? They are his greatest nemesis, pun not intended. Also i think there would be a lot of hype surrounding news like that.

It seemed like Kurtzman was teasing that.

We did see the Borg referenced in Chabon’s sketch so it’s very possible. But we also saw the Cardassians and the Dominion too so those could happen. I know the Dominion is really a DS9 enemy at this point but Star Trek is one universe so nothing stops this show from fighting them. I would LOVE if we got the Borg again but I’m not convinced yet.

That said if you want butts in the seat yeah you bring in the Borg and we know people on DIS has actually talked about wanting to redo them so yes I can imagine how much the temptation is to redo them. I STILL wouldn’t be shocked if they ended up on DIS at some point in an episode or two.

I think realistically the enemy can really only be 1 of 4 options: the Borg, the Romulans, the Cardassians, or something altogether new. The Dominion seem unlikely, though I can easily imagine them being part of the plot (or in the background somehow). Same goes with the Cardassians I suppose; I can’t imagine them being in a situation to be a threat again after the war. Plus general audiences aren’t very familiar with them.

From a storytelling standpoint, the only options that really make sense are the Romulans for obvious reasons, or a new enemy. Though from a cynical capitalist standpoint, my money would be on the Borg just because of how well-known they are.

I feel like you’d really need a heck of a writer and a brave producer to do anything worthwhile with the Borg at this point, though. Like, what, are you going to do another invasion or battle story? That well has been TAPPED. Not to say there isn’t something cool you could still do with them (a diplomacy story could be very interesting), but it would take some serious creativity and a little bit of courage from a production standpoint to sell it.

I don’t think it will be the Dominion either, but anything is possible. The Borg showed up on Enterprise. But I imagine this show will take place in a post-Dominion war setting where that group is still licking their wounds.

I could also see the Romulans as being the main villains too. I really hope they tell us sooner or later if the Romulus explosion will stay canon. But with Kurtzman on board I don’t see how it won’t.

As far as the Borg, yeah they just have to be creative with them. It doesn’t have to be an invasion story and a lot of Borg episodes weren’t! In fact on TNG the only Borg invasion story was BOBW. The only other direct invasion story lines was First Contact of course. On Voyager it was mostly just about evading the Borg and in Scorpion they worked together to defeat Species 8472.

So they can do other things with them and have! But I won’t lie I would be all for another invasion story lol.

Here’s my pitch: a massive amount of Borg, having been dealt a devastating blow from the events of Voyager (or some other off-camera event), show up right on the Federation’s doorstep as refugees asking for aid. This could set off all kinds of political, ethical, and social issues in the Alpha Quadrant, especially if they’re not exactly the “fully liberated” type of Borg we’ve seen in the Unimatrix or Descent episodes.

You could tell allegorical stories about current refugee issues plus use it as a jumping off point for plot intrigue (like “V” or “Earth Final Conflict” in reverse). Plus you get a deeper look at the Borg through a lens we haven’t seen before.

Chabon and Kurtzman, if you like this pitch you can talk to me about adding me to the staff by replying to this message, haha.

See look at that, you came up with a great idea on your own lol! I would love to see that type of story done. And yes there is precedence for it as we have seen Borg separated on their own from the collective. In fact I just rewatched Unity last week, the first Voyager Borg episode where the previous Borg made their own colony after separating. I really liked that episode. It’s pretty underrated IMO.

They can certainly do more with the Borg. Of course people want the battles and stuff, you can just mix it in.

I like the thinking behin the idea, but wouldn’t their lack of individuality prelude the refugee angle?

Plus, as a lawyer who deals with many immigration cases I am not sure I like the idea of depicting refugees as an homogenised hive mind unit.

Hmmm, yeah. I thought it would be interesting to open up an ethical and political can of worms if this mass of Borg have sworn off involuntary assimilation but wanted to retain their conventional hive mind. My thinking was they see themselves equivalent to a single individual asking for help to continue existing as they’re used to. (Of course, a quagmire is that the “individual” mind is made up of a bunch of former individuals who had been forced into the hive.)

Though I see what you’re saying with the implications of the refugee analogy. Recent Trek definitely needs to get a grip on some the mixed messages they’re inadvertently sending about cultures and issues lately.

“Like, what, are you going to do another invasion or battle story? ”

Canonize the DESTINY trilogy (although that requires Picard to still be captain of the Big-E).

Or how about no enemies and they try something different.

While the Borg have become the quintessential bad guys for spin off Trek, I think they have pretty much been done to death. I feel it is time to move on from the Borg.

I’d argue that Q was his greatest nemesis.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about Q. A new Q story could be very interesting.

It’s been too long since Star Trek heroes had a good old fashioned run in with a superbeing.

Q was never a villain.

He was an “antagonist.” Really though does Trek always need a villain?

No but what else can we expect from the limited minds at CBS abd Kurtzman ,

I would call Q more of a comic foil than a nemesis. Q seemed to like to play with humanity more than anything else.

I have no doubt this will be terrible too.

Bye!

You’ll say, as you watch every episode. Repeatedly.

Sign me the heck up

Wow even MORE amazing news!!!!!

So now we know the Picard show will just be a proper TV show and not just a one off miniseries. This is great news!

And I think this gets rid of some people’s fears that no other TNG cast will show up because no way are they going to make a five season show and we never see Riker or Geordi show up somewhere. I kind of thought if it really was just a mini-series then they could just make it solely about Picard and kind of pass the baton on to new characters. I had it in my head they may do what they did with Prime Spock in the 09 film and Picard would eventually phase out and the newer characters take over IF the show was successful enough and Stewart didn’t want to commit full time.

But now knowing this, I don’t just expect to see TNG characters but probably appearances by others from Voyager and DS9 as well now if Discovery is anything to go on who I suspect we will probably get Kirk and Garth on the third season of that show.

So this is all pretty exciting. Discovery will continue to be the show that fills in past 23rd century history while the Picard show will push the franchise forward into the 25th century! This kind of stuff is what excites me as a Trek fan! :)

There are 4….seasons….

I enjoy this comment immensely.

We need to have like buttons on these comments sections :)) Well played sir.

I’m sure the bad guys will be the Borg.

Why can’t we just have no “bad guys?”

Because of casual viewers

Classic Star Trek often had no bad guy as such. This is true. Oh for the purity of the enemy being an idea or a problem, like back then.

This was also my reaction. People today have forgotten how TOS had roots in stuff like “The Twilight Zone…”

No Bad Guys you want no Bad Guys? your Weird, Maybe Boring Trekkies like you want no Bad Guys and all talk and Cerebral Exploration but the rest of the world is Normal and we want Villains because the Villains are what viewers come to see, everyone who is Normal that is.

Hilarious you think there’s such a thing as ‘normal.’

Reading some of his posts has convinced me he would make a great Klingon warrior. ;)

I hope they don’t have the Discovery Klingons. That was a hideous and inexcusable (add unexplainable) change to make.

The Klingons have hair again in season 2 of Discovery and look very much like the TNG Klingons!

As Visitor said, the Klingons will have hair again and it’s a glorious day!!! :)

Do there have to be bad guys, so sick of this trope. It is all the trek films have been about for so long, revenge movies.

Bad guys don’t necessarily have to be on a quest for revenge, especially if it’s a whole group of people instead of just one bad guy (with minions following his orders). Revenge is just a very simple means to create “motivation”. It’s something everybody understands and, at least to some extent, can relate to. You even have a lot of movies where the hero is motivated by revenge. So basically, doing a revenge tale is a shortcut in storytelling. If not seeking revenge it’s more difficult to give your opponent a motivation for his actions that the audience will accept as reasonable.

You think they might mine the TNG episodes for some character or situation they could bring back, ala what they did in Wrath of Khan? Don’t think that concept is off the table…

I do not recall most of the TNG episodes. Can anyone think of any episodes they could essentially make a sequel from?

There loads of STNG episodes where sequels could be made.

Like which ones? Most TNG episodes were not memorable so I was only able to come up with one. Which are you thinking about?

Conspiracy for example where the parasite sent a message out but we never followed up on where or who they were sending the message to. We never found out what the motive for the aliens in Schisms were or what that probe was design to do.
The chase also potentially to have follow up storylines.

Conspiracy was the only one I could come up with. And seems to be the one with the most potential.

Sure would be nice to have some details besides it’s going to be a regular series. But then that’s what they do. I too just hope they don’t use the disco Klingons either or take too much artistic license with the look and feel of the setting as with discovery.

I hope it’s just Patrick Stewart surrounded by hairless Discovery Klingons, speaking in Klingon all day on a dark soundstage set in the mirror universe with the spore drive as a major plot device.

And Section 31

Will the visual style be like an Abrams film? Like Discovery.

The Picard show is created by more or less the same creative team as Discovery. So I expect a cinematic language similar to Discovery, unless they get a director with a distinctly different style. If you expect a return to the visual style of TNG you are probably going to be disappointed (my guess). With visual style, I mean the way it’s shot, not set and prop design.

I actually hope it is shot like DIS. That’s one of the great things about that show, how cinematic and contemporary it feels. I really do love how it looks and feels.

So lens flares, dutch angles and puke cam aka shaky cam. I hope not. I hope it is more like an updated TNG in the widescreen format.

The “bad guys” are so obviously The Borg.

I’d be very excited about an updated design of the Borg. They could really push this much further now with CGI as bit now is.
Many fans say we don’t want Borg again, but it’s rubbish. The Borg haven’t featured in a new Star Trek production since 2003. They were overused at that point, but so many years have now passed since. The Borg that we saw in Voyager were basically the First Contact movie Borg (The suits were just reused over and over from that movie in 1996).
I’d be very interested in seeing a new take on the Borg in the New series, when ever they decide to bring in the Borg, which surely they will do at some point. Picard isn’t finished with those dare-devils!

People say over and over they are tired of the Borg and yet those are some of those are the highest rated shows. Netflix last year showed the top 10 rewatched Star Trek episodes and 8 of the 10 were Borg episodes. Fans truly love the Borg and want to see them again.

Yes you can certainly over do them like Voyager did, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do them at all anymore obviously. I’m still shocked no one for the Kelvin movies have considered doing a Borg movie with Kirk and the gang? They no longer have to worry about canon and imagine a Borg story made with those films budget? They need to GRAB people if they actually do another movie and the Borg will do that. I don’t think anyone is excited to see Kirk’s dad showing up again like they would an epic Borg film.

We’ve had the Borg in a movie. Once was enough.

And they do have to follow canon. The Q Who signal was supposedly attracted by the signal sent during Enterprise’s Regeneration episode, which means they’re still not meant to show up until the 24th Century even in Kelvin Trek.

But they can get around that really easily now. I’ve read more than enough fan speculation in other places on how the Borg could be attracted to the Alpha quadrant sooner. Just like the Kelvin destruction had an effect on that universe so did the destruction on Vulcan which led admiral Marcus to finding Khan and his group before Kirk would years later. The same idea could be done with the Borg and that its destruction forced people to go deeper into space attracting them.

And I’m sorry I would take a Borg story any day over bringing Kirk’s dad back. ALTHOUGH I even read a theory on how the Borg could be involved with that too.

There has not been a truly great Borg story since I, Borg. First Contact was about as far as you could push them before they became stale. Having them in a JJ Trek film would just reduce them even further to dumbed down one dimensional villains. I can’t think of anything worse.

And why is it every movie had to have recycled stuff? Romulans, Khan, evil captains. Now you want The Borg again. JJ Trek was supposed to be a blank slate. You’ve been pushing for forward moving 24th Century Trek for precisely this reason. So why make Trek “4” about about recycled villain?

I would be up for a new villain if they could make one exciting enough but oddly looking at the Star Trek movie’s track record on that, they all been from average to just plain bad. The most memorable one sadly is still Khan from TWOK.

I mean look at the last five movies, mostly new but still pretty bland to bad. Nero, Shinzon, Krall, Ru’afo (who I had to look up because I literally forgot his name lol). Not all bad, but NONE were all that great either. I will say STID had the potential for great villains. Admiral Marcus was good and having Section 31 there was interesting but he had so little screen time. Khan probably would be more popular if he wasn’t named Khan. ;)

And I just really love the Borg! I liked more of their stories than you do obviously. They drive interest like no other villains have. But sure if they can come up with something more interesting and deadly I would love to see that but no movie so far has IMO and probably why no film since First Contact has topped it for me either. FC is still my third favorite film in the franchise.

Looking back at the antagonists… The ones I found interesting are Shinzon (mirror Picard), Chang (more because of Plummuer’s charisma), and believe it or not, Sybok. It was a terrible movie but Sybok was still an interesting character. Borg work for what they were designed to do, but as villains go, they were pretty bland.

The ones I liked (outside of the original Khan and the Borg) was Chang, Nero and Admiral Marcus. But I would say Chang, the original Khan and the Borg Queen were the ones I truly loved. Most were OK but yes some truly bad ones too.

But I didn’t have a big issue with Sybok either. He’s in the OK department for me. I think the only thing that really soured people was making him Spock’s brother. I really think if he was just a radical Vulcan leading a separatist group Spock had encountered in the past and left it as that people would accept him a lot more today. Same idea if they just left Khan as John Harrison as a radical Section 31 agent in STID.

Nero? That surprises me a little. To me he was just another “revenge” bad guy. Khan was like that too but WOK worked not because of him but because of everything else. The Borg Queen did change things a bit, but in the end it still felt like fighting a bee hive. The queen was just being instinctual more than anything.

I did not like making Sybok Spock’s brother either. But it didn’t bother me a lot that he was. But you are right, I think it would have been a little better had Spock considered Sybok’s revolutionary ideas as a youth. In fact, it would seem logical that a human-vulcan hybrid would be more susceptible to falling in with him. Give him that emotional connection that he once respected Sybok as much as he currently respected Kirk. And also it would have been better (but not much) had Harrison just be one of the Augments and not Khan himself.

I didn’t say Nero was my favorite, I just didn’t mind him. He was fun to watch. His ‘Hi Christopher’ moment still makes me laugh every time I hear it. But yes I do wish they tried to develop him a bit more and not just rely on the ‘destroy the Federation’ trope. Especially after we got it from Shizon in Nemesis.

And the reason why Khan was so great is that he got great development in Space Seed already and of course Montalban played him to perfection. But in reality he had very little development in TWOK itself. But we also understood his pain being stranded on that planet so long which made him go crazy. Ironically enough the same issue Krall had but didn’t come off as nearly interesting because so much of his back story just didn’t make a lot of sense.

The Borg Queen was just played amazingly by Alice Krige. I know the character was ‘controversial’ by some fans but I loved her including all her later appearances on Voyager. I liked that they kept her a mystery.

“would just reduce them even further to dumbed down one dimensional villains. I can’t think of anything worse. ”

So you are saying it would just turn the Borg into Lorca.

Why not follow up on that abandoned “Conspiracy” story line? Don’t crucify me for that. I know there are reasons it wasn’t followed up. But it was left wide open…

” yet those are some of those are the highest rated shows. Netflix last year showed the top 10 rewatched Star Trek episodes and 8 of the 10 were Borg episodes.”

That doesn’t mean people want more Borg. It means that the Borg episodes were popular enough to be rewatchable. I re-watch Wrath of Khan often. Doesn’t mean I want to see new Khan episodes in any Trek show.

If they are to return I want no Queen and no easy villain. I want them to be a mysterious major threat again.

Part of the problem I had with The Borg is they became too easy to beat. In Q Who and Best of Both Worlds, their threat is such that even one cube is terrifying. They were relentless and unstoppable. But with more and more appearances they became easier to beat and by the time Voyager rolled around it became absurd, with the Voyager crew seemingly able to survive encounters with huge fleets of cubes.

“The “bad guys” are so obviously The Borg.”

I humbly submit the “Conspiracy” aliens, who sent a homing beacon to Earth…which might just get answered 30 years or so later.

I humbly submit you’ve been playing too much Star Trek Online!

Never looked at Star Trek Online, actually; I know nothing about it beyond its existence (and barely that). I assume the Conspiracy aliens are part of the game?

Yes and everything in that game is link to the Iconians. It kinda got boring.

@Temarc — or how about the Iconians? They keep talking about that for season two of DISC, but I’d suggest it’d be better here. What if the Iconians managed to open a portal to another galaxy or dimension, and have just returned?

Hey! I just mentioned that earlier as I’ve been perusing this thread!

The reason I agree with this is because I believe as long as Picard lives, he will never get past his connection to the Borg and having become Locutus. I think those events will haunt him for the rest of his life. I fully expect the Borg to show up again as their appearance will always serve to torment him.

Yes indeed. That’s the thinking behind my prediction. And old Picard compromised and haunted by nightmares of The Borg.

Yeah… I guess…. But it just has a ‘been there done that’ kind of feel to it. And it sorta seems like he got past a lot of it when Lilly made him aware of his Ahab complex. In my opinion, if they go Borg they are phoning it in. Not trying all that hard for the new show.

A Picard limited series, sure, but the adventures of Ambassador Picard or Picard the archaeologist over several seasons? I dunno. I for one will miss seeing the rest of TNG cast. It will feel like something is missing.

Well, it being a regular series I think improves the chances of appearances from the rest of TNG cast and even people from other TNG era shows so this is a good thing.

As I said in my OP knowing its a full on show I’m more than sure a lot of the TNG cast will show up. I mean they are throwing in Captain Pike in 13 freaking episodes, I really refuse to believe Worf, Crusher or Riker won’t show up at all. That would be insane.

Riker is almost a given considering that Frakes is playing a really active role behind the scenes on Discovery, and historically he’s been in favour with the ‘bosses’ of Star Trek since he began his Star Trek career. He’s got to direct and act on every Star Trek series to date I believe.

They should hire him to direct the pilot.

Hell yeah.

Make it so Number 1…….
But seriously yes, I’ll be very disappointed if they don’t hire Frakes to direct the pilot.
Unless Sir Patrick is wanting to direct it himself.

Definitely agree about Frakes. My guess is they are talking about it all the time since the show has been officially announced. And Frakes said he would happily only act in Star Trek until he died lol. He clearly loves the role and that playing Riker has always been his dream job. We all know he will be directing the show too. That’s a no-brainer at this point.

Almost everybody seems to have latched onto the statements that Picard is no longer a Starship Captain, that he’s changed since we last saw him and that this show will be different in tone and precluded the possibility that he will ultimately find himself in control of a Starship again. Picard would never have been more vital than when he was in command of a starship. One way or another, I’d be surprised if we don’t see circumstances put him in the captains chair of another USS Enterprise.

I think now that we know this will run like any TV show I too think it would be hard not to see Picard on a starship now.

When it was possible this may be a one season and done type of story it was easy to see Picard in a completely different life where ship based exploration is no longer the goal. But now that seems less feasible, especially since we also know a villain will also show up first season. It’s not going to be Picard in an office, he will probably end up commanding a star ship as you said even if he’s not the Captain. But as I pointed out before Kirk was no longer a Captain in the first four TOS films and yet they found a way to put him in the command chair every time.

And I just have a sneaking suspicion we will get a new Enterprise too. It’s just too hard to pass up to add every crazy advance whistle and bell they can and it has been nearly 30 years since the E. Looking at what they did with Discovery oh man I can only imagine what crazy tech they are cooking up this show!

Stewart did say that this show will be something very different to what we have seen before, which of course could many anything.

It’ll be interesting how the show is structured. Episodic story’s are no longer what t.v. shows do really. Picard will likely be in a TV show which is much more serialized and on going than in TNG ever was. Who will serve as villains? What Characters are we going to be following along with Picard?

Yeah I think it WILL be but I just don’t see anything else outside of a starship setting either. Let’s face it, Star Trek is very diverse in terms of how it can tell their stories but it comes down to being on a starship 95% of the time. DS9 has been the only show that has wavered from that setting so far and sadly has not been attempted again since. And even that show they ended up giving them a ship even if it wasn’t a starship.

But I’m ALL for any changes. I would have no problem if they went a different way and had him running Starfleet headquarters, an Ambassador or even in charge of a Federation colony. I would have no problems they did things like that. But I do have a feeling TPTB wants it to feel as TNG as possible. Doesn’t mean having all the old characters back on the ship or anything but I do think they believe the show will succeed more with Picard on the bridge of a ship but would love to be proven wrong.

“I do have a feeling TPTB wants it to feel as TNG as possible.”

Disagree. If this is what they wanted they’d just do a TNG miniseries.

I mean they want it to be on a Starship.

El Chup no offense but I have told you my feelings on this a dozen times now. YES I don’t think they want a TNG clone, ie, all the old characters back on one ship, I have said this over and over again.

HOWEVER I do think they want the spirit of TNG, just maybe with new characters on a new ship. That’s what I’m suggesting and said in that post. If a new Enterprise shows up then more likely this is where the show is headed. It doesn’t mean Picard will Captain of it but I suspect we are getting a starship based show with the name Enterprise on it heading into the 25th century.

As I said when I thought it was just a one and done mini-series, I did think they may go a more radical approach. But now that we know its going to go multiple seasons I feel it’s going to be another starship based show.

We’re both on the same page here, we want to see something completely new and different. But if I believed that’s what they wanted, I don’t think Picard or any known character would even be there in the first place.

Again love to be proven wrong but knowing this group doubtful. But we’ll see!

“El Chup no offense but I have told you my feelings on this a dozen times now.”

Yes, and you repost you thoughts on here constantly to people other than just me, so I am indulging you with conversation because I assumed that’s what you sought.

Like I say, if they were playing up the TNG angle it wouldn’t just be Picard. My prediction is that Picard is an anchor for the show as a way of getting a fresh 25th Century slate. A reason for people to watch. It’s not going to be similar to TNG at all and, with respect, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment if you think it is.

I could be wrong, but I reckon it’s a reasonable prediction.

Man these are the same people that has a Khan show on the drawing boards. They are also the same people who brought the original Enterprise back on DIS which many think could be a back door for a potential Pike show.

If Bryan Fuller was in charge, yeah I would agree with you, it probably be something radically different. I’m not setting myself for disappointment because I have said just in that previous post I WANT a different show where Picard is in a different setting. Completely open to that. I just don’t think anyone is thinking that differently.

Sure they can put it on another ship with a completely different crew, it can still feel like TNG. I mean wasn’t both Voyager and Enterprise accused of that?

For the record I’m open to ANYTHING they do. They put Picard back on the Enterprise E again as Captain, fine. If they made him a professor at Starfleet academy, not my first choice lol but I’ll take it happily! Because end of the day I’m more interested in seeing the franchise move ahead then back and if this opens the door to doing that I’m on board. Do whatever they want, just ahead, not back.

Professor Picard at Starfleet Academy on the new Starfleet Academy show. How about that? ;)

It is possible but I don’t think it will be the proposed Starfleet Academy show because totally different writers were attached to that, at least according to the original report, and none of them are working on this show.

But yeah who really knows?

I said that in jest, btw.

LOL gotcha!

I’ll 2nd that. There will be star ships in it. But I’m thinking it may not be actually set on board a star ship. At least, that is my hope. I truly want to see something different. But I’ll take same but good over different but bad.

Honestly I think it would be interesting to see Picard running a Federation colony and see life day to day on a planet for a change. That was the original idea for DS9 in fact. The show was suppose to be Starfleet officers in charge of a colony of refugees IIRC from a war that just ended. The idea was scrapped because of budget reasons and that they felt the story might feel too limited for fans. And they were probably right although it does sound like they kept the basic premise of it with Bajor, just moved the setting to the station.

But that would be something completely different and see Picard out of his comfort zone. I don’t see TPTB doing anything that radical but if it doesn’t happen with Picard it could still happen some day with the 20 Trek shows they are probably planning.

As long as it’s not the awful Enterprise F from STO.

I think you’re describing Kirk. I never got the sense that Picard is just about the captain’s chair.

Sir Patrick Stewart looks very good for his age, I hope he manages the energy required for multiple seasons of Trek. Looking forward to the show.

Me too, although the fact that they’re considering this series to be ongoing doesn’t necessarily mean that Stewart will remain involved as an actor. He may very well be this shows Sean Bean.

Well, for that they should have got Sean Bean himself. It’s a pity he still hasn’t joined any Trek projects. A rugged Captain or Admiral role practically writes itself.

Always good to see Sean Bean in anything so I concur. In the context of my previous comment perhaps I should clarify that I was conjecturally comparing the first season of the ‘Picard’ show with season one of Game of Thrones.

No way would they kill off Picard in one season.

Would love Sean Bean in Trek!

This may be described as the Picard series right now, but it seems that Picard is merely the focus of its first season, to kick off what is a new era in the Trek chronology, that being the 25th Century.

That’s what I was alluding to when I was referring to Stewart being this series Sean Bean. Perhaps I should have made it clear that I was referencing season one of Game of Thrones. When we all thought that this was going to be a limited series we allspeculated that Picard may actually die, maybe he still does…

Yes that is possible, Stewart may only be in it for one season and others carry it on without him. But I do think that’s not really the case because there woudn’t be so much emphasis around Stewart if he didn’t plan to be there a long time. But yes it can still happen, I agree.

For me, I LOVE Picard, but I’m just more interested in the franchise moving forward again. That’s what the franchise needs to do and I’m all for Picard showing up for a season or two and stepping aside for new characters. But going into the 25th century is just truly exciting for most fans and its a smart decision to have him be the character to do that.

But I don’t see them killing off the character though. Unless that’s what Stewart wants. My guess is if he really did leave they would still want to have that door open to make a guest appearance down in future seasons.

Or maybe it’ll be like they originally planned TNG to be, where Picard was the old, wise captain training the younger, next generation captain i.e. Riker to take command. Picard wasn’t supposed to stick around the entire time; Riker was poised to replace him. They never followed through with that, so maybe they’ll resurrect that idea for the new series.

Shatner was doing Boston Legal at the same age and earned two Emmy’s. I think Patrick Stewart will be fine.

and Stewart looks to be in much better shape than Shatner, even in his Boston Legal days.

oh boy, I am just uber excited for the return of one of my childhood heroes. the one, the only JEAN… LUC… PICARD… HELL YEAH!!! I can’t wait

I´d love a show where we DO NOT NEED bad guys…

I know what your thinking is, and I like it. But you need bad guys at least to some extent to be able to tell stories about overcoming conflict, prejudice and the like.

The “bad guy” could be the environment through or some other phenomenon.

Then it’s more of an antagonist. The three conflicts in story telling are man against beast, man against nature and man against himself.

We do Need Bad Guys that’s what Show are all about now, only weirdo’s don’t like Villains.

“She also noted they plan to have breaks between the various Trek shows, to build up fan anticipation.”

NO! That’s not what the fans want at all. Why do they keep making decisions like this that nobody wants?

That just means they won’t overlap shows. Like how AMC typically doesn’t have both Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead at the same time, and how Netflix staggers the release of their Marvel shows.

Well, Star Trek didn’t actually do too bad when TNG and DS9 and DS9 and Voyager were overlapping. I think this mostly depends on the people making the shows. If you have different people running the shows, then you shouldn’t have a problem even if they overlap. It only becomes franchise fatigue once the people who create the property burn out by overexerting themselves, as was the case with TNG era Star Trek shows.

You nailed it. It’s also not so much about anticipation as keeping people around all year.

Well, a steady stream of Star Wars isn’t working out so well for Disney, so there’s some logic to hitting pause every now and then….

“There should be a Star Trek something on at all times.” “There will still be gaps between the shows to stoke fan interest.” Okay so which is it??

I think the situation with Star Wars might have given the Trek producers a reason to be concerned. They probably don’t want to end up in the same situation.

It’s true, even I’m a bit overwhelmed by the possibilities for all the Trek content coming to us in the next five years

Next Time in “Earl Grey and Sympathy” :

That, sir, was brilliant.

Seriously brilliant, so much so that should be an episode title.

TNG-era Remembrances of Things Past. Or if Picard is remembering football or kidneystones, ‘Things Passed.’

Excited about this!

“Discovery” defies Roddenberry’s utopian, conflict free interpretation of the future of humanity but I believe that’s a good thing since it’s hard to write characters without flaws and it can lead to Mary Sues like Wesley Crusher. What I’m most interested in is whether or not this Picard show chooses to stay “on track” with previous trek ideology or try something new like with Discovery’s many flawed characters.

They’ve been “defying” Roddenberry’s “vision” for quite some time. Drama is difficult without conflict, but conflict doesn’t mean characters aren’t striving toward an ideal.

Hopefully it’s ‘The Adventures of Captain Picard: The Search for Data’

Production details. It’s a Star Trek show. Starring Patrick Stewart. They are a month into the writing room. If successful, more then one season.

So, really, what this story grinds down to is they are working on it….

I think you dismiss too quickly the great job TrekMovie does getting information out of the producers when they don’t plan on telling anything. The info that they plan on start shooting next April is very interesting, and not just “they are working on it”. Same goes with the “ongoing series” bit. I, for one, am very grateful for the great job TrekMovie does…

What else would you expect??? Thanks to TM, now we at least know they will be starting early next year and they only been working a month so far. The next Trek movie has been in purgatory for about two years now and we are still waiting to hear if and when they will start.

And if they are planning on starting in April then that means we are going to get a LOT of news in a few months, especially casting. My guess is they are waiting for things to really size up before they let out what the details are, but that could be by this year.

I just hope they get on with it, he’s going to be 79 when it’s in production, 80 when it’s released. Three/Four season show takes him to the mid 80s….

I’m sure Sir Stewart loves your comment!* (Sarcasm*)

* Sir Patrick.

If it’s a knight you address title then first name or full name. If its nobility (Lord, Baron, Viscount) it’s title then surname. :) For instance Laurence Olivier would have been commonly address as Sir Laurence or Sir Laurence Olivier, but once ennobled would have been addressed as The Lord Olivier, Baron Olivier or simply Lord Olivier.

Yeah, us Brits are weird with out conventions, but I like it…

Ghod forbid someone eat the salad with the big fork at the Palace

On a related note, I’ve always thought Patrick Stewart and Timothy Dalton should play brothers. Trek seems to love heretofore unknown siblings…

Anyway…

There are a million ways this could go. Picard could die after a season. Or not. It could be an earth-bound Picard (unlikely… unless other characters do the Trek-ing). Almost certainly Picard has a personal obstacle. Maybe he has to bury Beverly?

Whatever happens, it’s exciting!

I’m more skeptical of hipster Spock.

I’ve been talking up Stewart/Dalton since before NEMESIS. Main dif between me and most folks is that I admire Dalton a LOT more than Stewart, who in the main for me is most effective in his pre-TNG years.

Dalton would be a nice add playing any character, as long as he isn’t buried under ten pounds of makeup….

Great actor. Loved him in Penny Dreadful.

No other details on the Picard show were revealed during the panel or at our roundtable discussion. However, at the panel Kurtzman did tease the crowd regarding the Picard show saying “Who wants to know who the bad guys are?” only to then say “no” he wasn’t going to give out that kind of info. I hope the Dominion and the Borg are the Villains in this Show, a Show is only as good as it’s Villains and the majority of people go to TV Series for the Villains because they are interesting, A Show is only as good as it’s Villains the Minority go to a series to watch peace and Love and that trekkie Trash

can’t we have some new villains at the very least something we have never seen before for, an one that isn’t bent on revenge and murdering everyone in their path.

I hope we get a title soon. 🖖🏽

No new news and no indication it’ll actually be anything than an old Picard sitting around a fireplace telling stories about his younger days to his grandchildren.

We now have a start date of the show. How is that not new news?

It will most certainly not be that.

Now that we know this could possibly start shooting in six months time (WOW) when do people think we will start getting casting news? When did we start getting news of the DIS casting? I can remember maybe 3-4 months before shooting? Or was it later than that?

But I think once DIS second season starts we are going to get tons of information on this show. I suspect we will get the basic premise around then too. I still can’t believe this is happening and a post-Nemesis show!!!!

Great time to be a Trek fan!

So they are basing the whole Picard show around a bad guy or guys, really guys and girls you got no better ideas than that, none at all, four of the last films and STD have all been base around bad guys, can’t we have something new and original, like Picard, now long since left starfleet going on a treasure hunt for example, let see the archeologist in him. Let see how the Federation and this world function when you aren’t a captain of one of the most powerful ships in the quadrant.

Please be The Borg!

Please, please, pretty please, don’t let it be the borg, cardassians, dominion, the changelings, romulans, Klingons, parasites, Breens, species 8472, Iconians or anything else we have seen before, let it be something new, and not bent on galactic domination or murder and revenge.

Having the Borg in the first season would be the easy way out

and a HUGE disappointment 😒 but perhaps 🤔 having Picard

actual be converted back to the Borg without being captured

might be the answer on a rouge ship deeply influenced by the

Philosophy that Captain Picard follows would me a new twist…