Star Trek Picard Series Will Premiere Next Year

Earlier today at UBS’ annual Global Media and Communications Conference, CBS’s new Chief Creative Officer David Nivens spoke about the state of CBS’s various businesses, including All Access and its upcoming Star Trek projects.

Confident in All Access – Trek a cornerstone of the service

Stating that programming on the platform will be “much more robust” in 2019, Nevins spoke specifically about Trek, saying that Discovery‘s upcoming second season is “in a great place” and that there is a great deal of anticipation for Patrick Stewart’s still untitled upcoming Picard series.

Picard by end of 2019

There has been little information about the series since New York Comic Con, when Alex Kurtzman mentioned that writing had begun and production would commence in April 2019. Today, Nevins indicated that we won’t have to wait too long for the return of Jean-Luc Picard:

“There is huge anticipation for Picard [the new show]. That will [premiere] at the end of the year [2019].”

More Short Treks too

At NYCC, executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin implied that Short Treks may be an ongoing series of mini-episodes to help tide fans over between the full seasons of Trek, which take a long time to deliver.

Nevins today confirmed that, yes, there will be more Short Treks coming, saying: “…we’re doing these Star Trek short films in between” when he discussed the time period between Discovery season two and the Picard series.

 


The third Short Treks installment, “The Brightest Star,” will be premiering this Thursday.

Stay up to date on all the Picard show news here at TrekMovie.com.

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With so many rich characters introduced throughout the TNG era, focusing solely on Picard seems like a missed opportunity. It also seems a bit odd that Patrick Stewart, as an executive producer, didn’t pull anyone into the writer’s room or production team with a link to the TNG era. As for the cast, well, that remains to be seen.

Honestly I would be completely shocked if we didn’t see a few of 24th century characters popping up throughout the first season. And if not the first to establish Picard and the new characters, certainly by the second.

Look at the people in charge of Star Trek now. These guys are all about nostalgia and throwing in known characters if next season of DIS is anything to go on. I have said this before but just like them filling DIS up with many TOS characters they can reasonably add, I don’t see any difference with this show either. It will happen on some level.

As for the production team, well they did actually have someone on DIS who worked on all the 24th century shows, Joe Menosky. Unfortunately he jumped ship to the Orville but I imagine if he stayed he definitely would’ve been involved. And a lot of those guys are busy on their own projects. Boy what would I give to see Ron Moore or Ira Steven Behr on this show though!

And, if they don’t run the concept into the ground, they could have a nearly unlimited collection of single season solo-character shows over the next couple decades. Geordi, Worf, Jadzia, Sisko, Tuvok, Quark, etc.

I would watch all of those lol!

is the jadzia show the long anticipated star trek zombie show?

Q looks old. Riker looks old. The android Data looks old. (Picard always looked old) There’s no way to drag that 30 years into the future and it feel the same. It’s in the past. Get over it.

We don’t have to recreate the past. TWOK Kirk certainly wasn’t the youthful Kirk of TOS. You can have older actors do the same characters. The fact that the original actors are still alive and available is a blessing, and I’m sure the show will feature them at one point or another. It’d be a huge missed opportunity if they didn’t.

Agreed. It’s not just Picard I’m curious about. We followed these characters over 7 seasons and four feature films so just Picard falls a bit short for me.

If they truly wanted something new, Patrick Stewart wouldn’t be there in the first place. They could’ve just went the way of the Kelvin movies and just had a new and younger actor play Picard and making it about his time manning the Stargazer or something.

The fact they got the original actor is about nostalgia but going into the future at the same time, hence an older Picard. The hope is they can still do something original and interesting with the character. With the group in charge now, that’s 50/50 at best but I really mostly care that its good first and foremost.

About the problem of characters looks old i think it has to be solved in a creative way. Q could tell Picard he appears with an aged look to conform to him. As for Data, it would be enough to pour his program into a Dr. Soong clone to remove it from the inefficient B-4 positronic brain. In this way it would close its evolution in a similar way to good old R. Daneel Olivaw.

A brand new character… R. Data Soong!

Just get other actors, like Nimoy/Spock and Quinto/Spock. The new Kelvin-verse Bones is awesome, as are Kirk, Spock, Scotty and Uhura.

but 30 years in the future these characters also look older…
how is that a problem?

I admit I don’t really understand the argument either. Q and Data, yes, thats different. Everyone else will simply be older as they SHOULD be. If that was a problem, no one would be asking a near 80 year old actor to lead the show in the first place. Its clears fans don’t care about their ages.

And my guess is most of the new characters will be in their 20-40s anyway.

It won’t be the same. That’s the point. I’m betting it’s about life after being on a starship. That’s something that’s never really been done on Star Trek before. Whatever it is, it’s something that intrigued a world-renowned actor enough to sign on.

I would be really disappointed, if we don’t see Q. He is my favorite TNG character. Q can look whatever way he likes. If they don’t want to get John de Lancie again, they can cast another male or female actor of whatever ethnicity for the role.

Funny… I would be really disappointed if we DID see Q. He seems to be a little polarizing. You either like him or not. Not much in between there.

No, if Q, then get John de Lancie (and make it so!), don’t recast that role, ever! Same goes for the main TNG cast.

I always appreciate your enthusiasm for all things Star Trek. A true fan.

Thanks! :)

And same to you!

Apart from characters who are important to Picard’s life, like Q and Guinan, I think they should wait until season 2 to bring back any other characters.

I disagree. I think they are missing a huge opportunity if they do not bring in Worf as either the Klingon Ambassador to the Federation, the Federation ambassador to Kronos, or the Klingon Chancellor. Or have Hertzler/Martok continue as Chancellor and have Worf be his Vice. Having that offers huge opportunities to speak to our current politics, globalism, and nationalism. Since it would be ridiculous to think Picard is tending grapes or on a ship, it seems that he will have some political storyline either at Starfleet or the UFP. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is President Picard.

If you want to speak about current politics I don’t think Picard would be a good stand in for Trump.

no but against trump

If they do that I would HOPE they would present a balanced take on such things. Where either way is not the obvious better route. That would be a very Trek type of situation. Of course, looking at who is in charge I have strong doubts that is what we will get…

Yeah, but Trump doesn’t exactly embody Federation ideals, so it could be a good story for the future of the future.

Then it becomes like President Jack Ryan.

God no… Please no Q or Guinan. PLEASE! I’d rather see Wesley than those two.

And while we are at it… No Troi either.

If you did a snapshot of the life of a former military commander, would you also see the officers they served with just showing up? Realistically, it’s not really the way life happens. I get wanting to see these characters but don’t sacrifice a good story just so you can say hey fans look we included other TNG crew! If it’s deliberately in the late stages of his life, all bets are off on how it’ll play out.

Yeah I’m not convinced this is going to be a good series focusing on just the one character.

I’ll take more Short Treks. They’re not enough to get me to subscribe during off months, but I’ll take them.

CBS, I’ll let you in on a little secret: if you want my ongoing membership dollars for a shockingly low investment, the answer is Deep Space Nine in HD.

Far easier said than done. It cost CBS millions to do TNG. DS9 (and VOY) will cost even more thanks to the increasing use of CGI.
If you haven’t read this interview, I highly recommend that you do, it even answers the “why won’t CBS All Access spend the money” question.
http://www.treknews.net/2017/02/02/why-ds9-voyager-not-on-blu-ray-hd/

“Far easier said than done.”

And yet they casually spend multiples as much money on new content that has to be created and produced end-to-end.

Re-mastering DS9 in HD would certainly be more difficult and expensive than sitting in a recliner and drinking a Bud Light, but than creating a brand new Trek show? Not on your life.

lol, did you even read the article? It’s not just about the upfront cost, it’s also about whether CBS feels that investment is even worth it. The current media climate is very focused on new original content, so to CBS they don’t feel it is worth it for the lesser known Trek shows. The reality is TOS and TNG are known world wide and to casual and hardcore fans alike, the rest are not. It sucks but that’s the current position they have.

Also you’re just wrong about it being “easy”… you realize they have to do the entire post-production process all over again?

They need to spend a lot of time (which is money) sending people to unarchive all the 35mm film, and then catalog it and get all the canisters in sequence for an episode, then scan the film, then put it into a modern video editing suite and re-edit it following the notes of the original editors. Then color correct all the footage, again based on the original notes from the DPs and editors. That’s just the beginning. Anything needing VFX work needs to be redone. That’s no small amount of stuff: any time someone fires a phaser that was done on early computers in post, most inserts of people on viewscreens need to be composited, a lot of the close up/interactive computer display graphics were not done live on stage and need to be re-created and then composited back in. And we haven’t even gotten to any space shots yet. Which again need all their elements found and recomposited. Anything done in CGI needs to be recreated. It requires a ton of man hours.

@Matt Wright

I agree Matt with everything you’ve mentioned in the above post. But I should add that (thanks to dollars pumped in exclusively by fans) the most complex and elaborate sequence in all of DS9 has already been remastered and displayed in all its glory on the DS9 Doc. I won’t spoil what it is since the Doc hasn’t been released yet, but I’m sure you know about it even if you haven’t seen the doc. I never expected them to remaster THAT entire sequence simply because of the near insurmountable technical difficulties involved in such a process as you’ve mentioned above as well as in the countless other articles out there on “why DS9 will never/can be remastered”. But Ira and all of the crew involved with the Doc did in fact achieve the “impossible”, from a technical standpoint at least.

I had always dreamed of how that sequence would look in HD, but at the “world premiere” of the Doc (DST edition), reality proved that my dreams did not set a high enough bar for DS9 in HD – It was stupendous and unbelievable how great the show looked. Seeing that footage (in addition to other HD scenes) proved to me what an absolute folly it was for CBS to spend all that money and time to restore TNG to HD. Despite the enormous toil of the remastering crew and their brilliant efforts, TNG as a show just didn’t have enough visual fidelity going for it for the HD format to take advantage of – at least in the view of the fans who already owned the DVD and then later on streaming services. Sure, we got see how many pores are on Sir Patrick’s face thanks to HD, but ultimately TNGs “popularity” wasn’t enough for casual or hardcore fans to pull out their wallets for it.

Due to even more recent contributions by fans there will be additional scenes and sequences remastered for the Bluray not seen on the actual Doc, so at least we have that to look forward to…..and to treasure.

Ohhh you tease :) Can’t wait to get my backer copy of the documentary!

“It’s not just about the upfront cost, it’s also about whether CBS feels that investment is even worth it.”

And that’s why I’m posting about it- to cast my vote that it’s what I want. And I vote with my dollars.

“Also you’re just wrong about it being “easy”… you realize they have to do the entire post-production process all over again?”

I didn’t say it would be “easy”; I said it would be much, much easier than creating entirely new content, which they are merrily doing, left and right. Compared to what they’re presently doing, it’s quick, easy and inexpensive.

They’re creating new shows which they hope will have at least the potential to become mainstream. DS9 and the other Berman Trek spinoffs each had their one chance to attract a mainstream audience and none of them did.

I would vote for it too, but the number of fans actually willing to vote with their dollars will most likely never be enough.

I’ve also thought before that they could at least upscale the FX shots from SD (how bad could it look, REALLY?) and then just remaster and re-composite the live action elements. It wouldn’t look like TNG, but it would be “good enough” for the lesser-known Berman Trek shows. However the interview linked above has finally convinced me even that just doesn’t seem financially practical.

I’ve also thought before that they could at least upscale the FX shots from SD (how bad could it look, REALLY?) and then just remaster and re-composite the live action elements

I get the want to find a sort of half-way compromise, but really it’s not that clean and easy.

The issue is that a ton of things outside of the space shots have VFX in them. There are a lot of things that we might consider part of the live action shots that really aren’t. Every single time someone fires a phaser, every single time Odo morphs, etc, needs recreating. Or, they’d have to drop to SD for a few seconds every time a phaser beam came out of a phaser, or Odo morphed, or a display graphic was really a CG insert, or…

So really if they’re going to get into remastering any of it, they need to just go all in, or its just doesn’t seem worth doing at all.

I shouldn’t have said “just” remaster and re-composite the live-action elements. I typed that with full appreciation of how many layers would still need to be unarchived or built from scratch in order to make even that happen, and agree at that point one might as well just redo everything. And I also agree that would most likely just never happen. TNG’s remaster was the very brief window of opportunity for consumers to demonstrate a necessary demand for such a project.

Gotcha. And yes the time has long passed. Whispers from people in the know say that in 2013 (when the TNG-R remastering work was coming to an end) there was quite the intense debate at CBS about whether to keep the remastering team together and keep going with the next series. Obviously we know how that debate turned out :-(

The time to even consider remastering DS9 or VOY was when the TNG/CBS Digital team was still together and the Blu-Rays were still coming out. But too many of the fans essentially said, “Ohhhhhh, that’s okayyyyyy, it’s kind of expensiiiiive, I’ll just wait for it to streeeeeam…” and that was pretty much that. With even CBS’ most popular ST show.

You could argue that production costs will eventually drop, or that the next Trek series COULD secure a big enough audience for All Access to justify the cost, but it’s hard to imagine it being worth CBS’ while to remaster any Berman Trek show that isn’t TNG when their TNG remaster already didn’t break even.

I think it will be way easier/cheaper to wait for AI to catch up and allow for re-rendering of the original material in HD/4K, with missing details automagically added. We have seen in still images already that this is possible and rapidly advancing. To say it with Bladerunner, let’s enhance!

THAT sounds like science fiction if I ever heard it. Maybe in a decade?

Probably a decade or a bit more before you can do it at home if you want. But your Blu-ray player, your 1080p, and your 4k TVs already apply enhancement during upscale.

Not sure how much AI for that is really needed. If you get the CGI models built of the ships, then it should be relatively simple for an application to analyze ship placement, determine which ships are involved and then start re compositing the scenes in 4k or 8k CGI.

I’d like to see someone redo the effects from TOS-HD. By the end of Continues, those rendering looked much better than the TOS HD, and some of the other fan stuff on youtube shows we have come a long way since those remastered episodes came out.

Oh sure, upscaling and super resolution is already possible – I actually meant the next level, which is to add details to ships (so the Defiant won’t look like a “grey blob” as per the interview Matt linked above) and even people’s faces that is not in the source material based upon “guessing” using algorithms trained with millions of hours of television. Maybe even use remastered TNG to auto-remaster DS9? If you have seen some of the crazy stuff deep learning is capable of today already, you know it’s closer than we think!

TOS-R always looked like cheap CGI. It badly needs a redo, one that adheres more closely to the original VFX

Not really possible. Something like 4k would have to be the incentive for it, and I definitely can’t see them redoing TNG-R even for that. Which places TOS-R most likely out of the question too.

What they really should have done was include That Guy [googled — Daren Dochterman] on their team. But it sounded at the time like that just wasn’t possible. TOS-R was initially announced literally weeks before the first episode aired in syndication.

If you’re curious about all the trials and tribulations that went on with TOS-R’s production there’s a great podcast episode about TOS-R from Mission Log with one of the project’s main producers, Dave Rossi.
http://www.missionlogpodcast.com/the-one-with-dave-rossi/

I was heavily involved in our coverage here at TM when TOS-R first aired, and there’s still some new things I learned from the podcast.

1. The entire budget for TOS-R was measly (unlike the later TNG-R project) and came solely from the CBS TV Syndication division’s budget.
2. The budget was set for just for replacing the aging space shots. No more.
3. Rossi had Gary Hutzel’s team (fresh off of BSG and Caprica), which contained many Trek vets, lined up to do the work until a CBS exec intervened and wanted to make use of CBS Digital. He says this was actually a net good, because CBS-D went well above and beyond the mandate for them, including lots of new matte paintings, and little fixes/updates here and there, without extra charge.

That’s very interesting. I didn’t know any of that.

One thing that struck me about the podcast was that HD is barely mentioned at all, accept in passing when Toshiba and HD-DVD briefly enter the narrative to offer the CBS-D team more money. Perhaps HD was simply a no-brainer if you were remastering a show in 2009 from what happened to 35mm film (one would hope so!), but this is the first time I’ve heard it suggested that updating the visual effects for broadcasters was the primary motivating factor.

Daren Dochterman is also mentioned, but then he just disappears. Dave Rossi approached him… and then? Gary Hutzel’s team was dismissed because CBS wanted it done in house, but Daren was just one guy. It’s frustrating that he couldn’t work with the CBS-D team, as one assumes he would have jumped at the opportunity just to see it done right. He had tinkered with ‘The Doomsday Machine’ shortly before the remastered project was announced, and he tinkered with it again after CBS-D tackled that episode. Not to mention he was writing several of the Remastered episode reviews on this site, if I remember correctly. And he certainly had his share of technical opinions on how it should have been done.

I also didn’t know the original Enterprise 3D model came from a ST fan. I remember when the team talked about building a new model, it was suggested (I’m fairly positive?) that they would go back and redo the episodes they’d already completed. Nothing ever came of this, and I can only assume whoever said that would happen spoke out of turn in regards to what CBS was willing to commit to.

Rossi also gives seemingly conflicting accounts as to why they were on such a rushed scheduled (he wanted to discourage CBS-D from committing to the project; on the other hand the show had already been sold and scheduled for syndication). It is very frustrating that they couldn’t have had more time to do this.

I still can’t see CBS ever revisiting their work on it. If they ever did I would buy it again (providing my financial situating ever improved); I don’t know who else would. But I can’t see them wanting to with what they got. Not to mention hiring someone else to redo it would be essentially destroying all the work that was put into it.

(Also, does it bother anyone else that the overhauled version is referred to as ST Remastered? Technically the episodes themselves are what’s remastered, completely apart from whether new effects were added or whether you happen to be viewing them with the new effects.)

Re: terminology. The TOS episodes without new VFX would more accurately be called “restored”, they went through film scanning and restoration (ex. scratch removal and proper color grading), and then the restored versions with the new VFX should be called “remastered.”

On a related topic, if you haven’t read my 10th anniversary retrospective on TOS-R, I’d recommend checking it out. In the article are links to some of the older articles we wrote at the time TOS-R was airing that talks about a lot of the stuff we’ve touched on here in the comments.

https://trekmovie.com/2016/09/06/retrospective-the-original-series-remastered-project/

TOS-R was all about syndication, remember it was started in 2006 a few years before streaming even really started to gain momentum. Their goal was an upgrade for HD, to make it more appealing to sell into syndication. Which of course quickly become far less important than streaming, but the goal being HD is ultimately what mattered.

As you said, Daren Dochterman is one guy. They wouldn’t use just Daren, they would have hired him to lead the project in coordination with a VFX house. For example Daren helped lead the TMP Director’s Edition, he was a producer that worked with (the now defunct) Foundation Imaging. It may be Rossi intended Daren to work with Hutzel’s team or maybe another shop. I know that EdenFX (who had done the VFX for ENT) was asked to submit a sample and project bid, but their costs were too high.

I also didn’t know the original Enterprise 3D model came from a ST fan. I remember when the team talked about building a new model, it was suggested (I’m fairly positive?) that they would go back and redo the episodes they’d already completed.

They did but it was a wish list sort of thing, they made no promises. It’s a bummer, since the Enterprise in those first few episodes really stands out as quite poor.

I still can’t see CBS ever revisiting their work on it.

Me either, sadly.

If they ever did I would buy it again.

Ditto, I’d be open to buying TOS again if the new work was significantly better. Brand new 4k scans of the film, etc.

I know they tried — and the results were less than desirable — but if they could have somehow created 16:9 format Blu-rays, then the fans may have been more willing to triple-dip on the series. I know I waited until a series box set was available at reduced price before I purchased the Blus — and I’m both a Star Trek fan and a Blu-ray fan. One reason was that I had paid about $90/season for the initial DVDs — that’s around $650 — and now they were mostly sitting on the shelf collecting dust as it was more convenient to view the series on Netflix. So I needed some additional impetus to justify the expidenture to my wife; and all new 16:9 Widescreen transfers would be something that she could at least understand. (Everytime I would repurchase a movie on Blu-ray she would keep sayiing she couldn’t tell the difference.). We did purchase the stand-alone “Best of Both Worlds” release and the quality was undeniably head-and-shoulders better than the DVDs, so she sanctioned repurchasing the series once a reduced cost complete series box set was available. Anyway, It’s a shame that there wasn’t a way to coax 16:9 framing out of the original 35 mm prints as I would not have been able to wait on that!

I thought I read somewhere that the space shots in the TOS-R were indeed done in 16X9. Which made be long for mixing the ratios on the discs. Which never happened. Were those shots really done that way? And if they were, why were they not 16X9 on the BD set that came out?

I thought maybe they [EDIT: the TOS-Remastered episodes] were in other regions, at least in streaming if not on Blu-Ray. But it also meant that the live action shots were cropped vertically to match the special effects shots (which is no less of a sin than cropping a movie horizontally). And mixed aspect ratios is really NOT an option where keeping a consistent visual flow is concerned (modern movies that are partially shot in IMAX notwithstanding).

The CBS-D team probably thought it was a good idea while creating the new TOS effects to keep their options open. But that doesn’t make butchering the cinematography to create a 16×9 series a good idea.

Re: TOS-R, yes space scenes and new matte paintings were done 16×9, but made for eventual cropping to 4×3. CBS made the final episodes either for 16:9 or 4:3, CBS never intended them to be mixed. As for the Blu-ray sets, CBS rightly saw the Blu-ray sets as for the archivists/collectors of the world, TOS is a 4:3 TV series, so that’s the proper presentation. Also don’t forget the Blu-ray has the original VFX available, which of course are 4:3.

The 16:9 version had cropped live action (a much bigger sin) as an experiment for a test market in Japan, but it’s not the proper version for people who collect things on disc.

That’s another interesting point I had not even considered. The option to view the original effects (which was indeed my deciding factor in skipping the Remastered DVDs of 2007 and waiting for the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD format war to resolve) would look truly awful in their reduced film resolution (on top of reduced video resolution) once cropped down to a 16×9.

I would not have expected the non-matte or non-space shots to be 16X9. Just keep them as 4X3 as intended. I think it just would have been nice to have the remastered mattes and space scenes in 16X9. Mixed in like some of the discs of movies that swap from 16X9 IMAX to 2.35:1. It’s not unprecedented.

That said, the 4X3 works just fine, too. I was just thinking that if they went through the trouble to make them 16X9 why not use them?

Seriously, I’d rather watch The Orville for free. December 30 on Fox.

Go for it! To each its own!

Not necessary to choose. Both can easily be done.

This!

Have at it! I’ll stick to Trek but I’m glad you have a series you like.

I do wonder if they’ve milked Netflix for all they are willing to spend or if a long exclusive window for rights to DS9 and Voyager HD internationally would cover enough of the cost of the endeavor. It certainly should be an All-Access exclusive if they are so concerned with driving traffic to themselves.

Discovery as an exclusive to All Access would mean a show available to just 2.5 million subscribers in the U.S. Without Netflix the show wouldn’t have an international presence.

The Tilly Short Trek was a bit meh, and a bit interesting. Seems weird she is running around the ship alone, and has this visitor with NOBODY else involved.
Calypso was MUCH better. I look forward to the Saru episode as it won’t be on some empty ship. And I am looking forward to the Mudd episodes.

I think there is an opportunity here. Spending 25 minutes for a series of various shows on various subjects is neat. Do a 1996 Khan episode, or multiple ones sprinkled over the next couple years.

because Calypso was based on a small portion of the Odyssey, i.e. a piece of good writing, adapted to trek by a good writer.
in my option Tilly’s episode was very much a typical Discovery writing room product => the opposite.

I’m trying not to get my hopes up until there is confirmation of availability of the Picard series outside of America. After Netflix declined to pick up Short Treks, we can’t take anything for granted. But I have to believe that something with this much anticipation will have to find a home. “Optimism,” as Phlox would say.

Netflix is putting more money into their own content and studios are slowly pulling their content off of Netflix and onto their own platforms so it could go either way.

I think there’s a good chance Netflix is just waiting for Short Treks to complete its run so they can post it all at once.

Kind of how some of us are with viewing Short Treks. I still have yet to see them. Enjoyed you guys’ two podcast discussions of them though.

I can’t see Netflix turning down Picard, it’s too big of a Trek show to ignore.

Discovery needs Netflix more than Netflix needs Discovery. Same for Picard. Netflix has more than enough original content to keep viewers satisfied.

“Netflix Original” may not necessarily mean what you think it does. Netflix co-produces or acquires a lot of its content that it then gets the rights to call a “Netflix Original.”

For example Netflix gets to call Discovery a “Netflix Original” outside of North America.

https://redef.com/original/how-the-paradox-of-the-phrase-original-series-explains-the-video-industry-netflix-misunderstandings-pt-4

Netflix has also said that the Trek back catalog gets a lot of views, so they understand how valuable the Trek brand is.

When content is popular they’ll pay. They just paid Warner a ridiculous amount of money to keep Friends on Netflix for an extra year.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/04/business/media/netflix-friends.html

You can’t compare it with Short Treks though. Rumor is CBS wanted a LOT of money from them for it and frankly Netflix isn’t desperate. That’s not going to exactly up their subscriptions over a few 15 minute films.

A Picard show is going to be a big deal. And even if Netflix turned it down SOMEONE will easily pick it up. It could even end up on a TV network somewhere. Nuts, I know. ;)

Tiger2, you spelled “stuff Midnight’s Edge made up” wrong…..

I never watch or even heard of that site until a month ago. It seems to have a very bad reputation though lol. I heard that on Reddit but yes it could’ve originally came from them, I don’t know. Either way Netflix turned them down for whatever reason. But I don’t think it would be the same issue with the Picard show.

We don’t know if Netflix turned them down. See my comment above.

That’s possible, but then why not just SAY that? “Yeah you will get Short Treks, we’ll just going to run them together at a later date.” Done, everyone is happy. What’s the point of NOT telling people this instead of upsetting them if this was the case?

If I was Netflix, I would wait and see how popular the short Treks prove to be before saying anything either way. So far, I don’t think the popularity level is high enough to justify a huge outlay of money.

It’s very hard to determine exactly how popular the short Treks are on CBSAA. Doubt they would share it with Netflix unless they were desperately trying to get Netflix to pony up money.

based on social media (very imperfect I know, but media companies DO track it to gauge interest) it’s essentially not registering at all with the greater public

OOOOOH YEEAAAAAH!!!

This is great news! I have said that it probably would air next year since they are starting in April but I was prepared for it to happen in 2020 sometime.

I truly think the number of subscription cancellations scared them when DIS ended. They are moving on the Picard show at a crazy rate. It’s going to start filming in just four months. And they announce more Short Treks too (but those are probably so cheap to do its a no-brainer) so the promise to try to have Trek all year looks like it will start next year.

I suspect DIS will go through April, there will be a few months break and they will do four new Short Trek episodes that will lead us into the Picard show. Exciting times! :)

I’m excited about more Short Treks. That’s where the real opportunity for original Star Trek stories reside since they can cover just about anything without having to be tied into a season long story arc.

I admit I did like the last two. I was skeptical on the first one but it was decent enough. Calypso was solid even if it vague. But yes it gives them the freedom to tell small introspective stories or tie in to bigger arcs. We can even have one tie into the new show next year before it airs!! So much potential!

There’s only opportunity if they take the concept and run with it. Right now they’re hamstrung by the meager budget and needing to set everything on Discovery, even if it’s hundreds of years in the future…still can’t tell if that’s a significant plot thread that will come into play or just left to dangle

Well, as they say, hindsight is 2020 (SCNR)!

Paramount could take a cue from these guys on getting a production up and running.

LOL I was just thinking about that. It’s been nearly FOUR months since we heard Pine and Hemsworth walked away and nothing since. How crazy is it that the Picard show could be actually running before another Kelvin movie even goes into production, IF it even goes to production that is?

I’m a little shocked that we haven’t heard anything more on Star Trek 4. Frankly, my interest is pretty much gone at this point. I could not care less. Paramount movie studio doesn’t value the Star Trek property the same way CBS All Access does.

I am too. Six months ago I was completely confident another one was being made with all the stuff in the news with a new director, screenplay finished, etc. But it looks like if it is the Pine/Hemsworth thing not being resolved then clearly Paramount is just not that motivated to make this film. I refuse to believe a few million dollars is that big of a deal (and money they were already promised if the reports are true) if they had real faith in the movie. Clearly they don’t and that’s the REAL issue IMO.

And although I personally would like to see one more, I think there is a fear most fans have just moved on after Beyond did so poorly. Kind of funny, in 2009 it was the Kelvin films everyone thought would be the future of Trek and stuff like TNG was now dead and buried forever after Nemesis. And look where we are now. ;D

Your interest and everyone else’s lol there is literally no point in making another Kelvin movie, we will soon have Trek in abundance again and there’s no guarantee the fan base will even show up for another KT movie. Let’s face it: they weren’t great. They were fun and nothing more. And Beyond ended on a pretty final note — why not keep it a trilogy and leave it alone? Paramount knows they won’t make any money off it so I don’t see why they’d continue.

I agree on how Beyond ended – it was a more satisfactory ending than Nemesis was. I disagree that there wasn’t greatness in there. ST09 is a pretty good movie, and I would rate Beyond as one easily in the top 6. (With TMP, TWOK, TVH, TUC, and STFC). I would probably put it at #5, with TUC as #6. I wasn’t thrilled myself with the bit on Kirk needing to meet George. I think that Beyond is where he finally resolved his feelings on his dad. I was interested in seeing what SJ Clarkson would bring as a female director, and I do like Pine, Quinto, and especially Urban.

Paramount has been forced into a situation where they now need to spend upwards of $140 million in production costs for Trek films and the international audience they thought they built up after the first two Abrams films turned out to be less reliable than they need it to be. It was a good short term gamble but it’s also their own fault for giving Abrams everything he asked for only to see him take what he learned and earned and gradually use it more and more to help Disney.

They simply don’t have enough fat to live off of in order to fund a steady stream of Star Trek movies. I think they value the IP greatly, but it’s tied to Abrams and he’s surely leaving, Viacom doesn’t have the deepest pockets, the franchise remains stuck in the middle of the Viacom/CBS divorce, and Star Trek films still don’t provide a huge profit margin or merchandising gravy. I think it frustrates them and they have only so much control over it.

Everyone seems to not take light of the fact that Star Wars movies are now being made. Star Trek 2009 and 2013 were made before Disney bought it. Everything changed then. Audiences have Star Wars now and Star Trek has always been a smaller motion picture compared with that juggernaut. Add on the fact that the JJ movies were actually emulating Star Wars in terms of the action and spectacle and this made them redundant in the face of new Star Wars. Paramount need to take Star Trek in a new direction and maybe they don’t know how, yet.

I don’t think thats really the issue though. Yes the Kelvin movies may feel more like SW than the others but they are still very different universes. I don’t think Beyond bombed because of The Force Awakens, I just think the story itself wasn’t interesting to a lot of people. In fact one of the criticisms of Beyond is that it felt too much like a TOS episode. It was made more for Star Trek fans in mind, especially those who complained about STID, but it scared away casual fans in the process.

I just think they have the problem of finding a formula that can attract casual fans as well as hardcore ones. The Kelvin films probably did do that the best vs the TOS and TNG films but its still not enough of them, at least for what they cost.

Frankly I don’t know what the answer is. If they scrapped these films and came up with something new they will still probably have the same issue. Probably why it was smart just to make smaller films like TOS and TNG in the first place but that was a different time. Today studios only think about big tentpoles and franchises so I don’t know what they can or will do if these films are done now.

The BR productions were serviceable entries, to some extent or another, the problem was that Paramount was suffering from tentpole envy. They wanted a 200MM Trek movie to have a billion (or two) in box office revenue world wide, and that just wasn’t going to happen. It was a completely unrealistic expectation. Stumbling on the timing of the sequels and creative direction didn’t help.

I’m not. An awful lot of the chatter about the pending Trek 14 production was basically rumor and innuendo, with secondary players like these fan sites speculating on details that fit the rumored 2019 start of production. Pine and Quinto never, ever, commented on production commitments, and the only thing Paramount said that could be taken to the bank was that they had writers hashing out scripts. It was always these fan sites that were busy filling in the details with no basis in fact.

Paramount will make another Trek movie in the future, but as of today, we are no closer to it then we were when the studio execs were talking about a sequel when Beyond hit the big screen.

If they’re going to keep doing these Short Trek it would be nice if they could utilize characters from across the TNG and Enterprise universe. Personally, I would love to see where Data 2.0 ended up after Nemesis. Or Seven of Nine post return to Earth.

It might be a good segue way into the Picard series. Wet our appetite!

That would be incredible but you know there’s no budget for that sorta thing. Short Treks so far has been bottle episodes on the standing Disco sets. Anything beyond that will be too ambitious for a 15 minute episode stopgap series.

Sure the first two were, but the third one clearly isn’t a bottle show based on the trailer. And the fourth one probably won’t be set on the Discovery either since it involves Mudd and the Orions.

I bet they will go in a dark and gritty direction with this series, too. Picard will be a tired, angry, unhappy, frustrated, world-weary guy at the start of the series. Not this overall happy and satisfied with his life man we know from TNG. The season arc might be how he learns to enjoy life again and being optimistic.

Oh yeah, “dark and gritty”, the promising recipe for “modern TV” since DS9 season 4 in the mid 1990s! You’d think that almost a quarter century later people would have had enough of this tired trope?

Most of us are too busy struggling through living that trope to bitch about the TV versions of same. And why should they anyway, since social realism is a more dramatically effective grounds for entertainment than A-TEAM style fun&games?

Social realism is entertaining? Especially for those living dark and gritty? What happened to good old escapism and dreaming of Utopia? You don’t get from here to there by dreaming of hell in space!

I agree with this. I mean I knew the A-team was cheesy and stupid, but it entertained me. There is a place in Trek for social messages and entertainment at the same time. One should not be dependent on the other. And perhaps this is a trend that only I have noticed but ever since “dark and gritty” took over the entertainment world, the world we have been living in has been much more dark and grittier as well and people became less respectful of others.

I think the crux of this feeling is the overall sense that we are being kept in the dark and lied to. People don’t want lies, they want the truth from their entertainment.

It’s not a sentiment I share, but with people thinking the Earth is flat because of supposed, “corporate and government lies,” it’s the best explanation I have.

You can still have all that escapism and utopia and such. But people will still make mistakes. (although that is a flaw no one in TNG ever had) Society can be made better, but life will never be perfect. That was a mistake TNG made and why I think it was not as good as the other spin offs.

Doesn’t have to be hell in space to inspire, but having some tangential relationship to existence builds the dramatic connection instead of impeding it. Once you have replicator/magicbox tech, where you can essentially get something for nothing, that puts things very far afield from us in terms of need, and drama is about need as much as it is about conflict.

Then again, going by the counter-responses I got to this, maybe for you guys what Rick Berman said was right (never thought I’d write ‘Berman and ‘right’ in the same sentence), and there shouldn’t ever be a BLADE RUNNER series, because nobody in their right mind would want to watch that kind of depressing thing week-in and week-out (I’m paraphrasing, but when I first read that, I felt it showed his narrow vision in the clearest possible fashion.)

I’m not a betting man but I’d put a lot of money on that

So you think Stewart will play Scrooge again? I hope not.

I truly hope so. Picard in TNG was just a dull dull and dull character. He was too perfect. Give the man some personal challenges to deal with. Let him dwell on perhaps a mistake he made 10 years earlier. This new show absolutely needs to make Picard INTERESTING.

Yeah, but didn’t First Contact actually show that Picard was not perfect and that the Borg incident really messed him up. I think he did make mistakes from time to time and even in his TNG days. The Borg assimilation was a huge personal challenge for him.

And don’t forget Picard was created as a flawed character (A King David typ). Someone responsiblle for his best friend’s dead, who had a wife he was secretly in love with.

Odradek, That was an original intent that I did forget because it was pretty much abandoned rather quickly. In fact, the entire Picard-Crusher thing was something that was only hinted at a few times if I recall. I think they returned to it once in the final season to try and show it was no longer a thing. But I think the audience knew that years before already.

That’s what made Picard interesting in First Contact! He succumbed to a basic human frailty. It made him seem just a little more human and as a result, the audience can actually care about him. For the first time! Thank you for helping to make my point.

So when they say “end of 2019” what they mean is “sometime hopefully by 2020 maybe” -_- just like Discovery premiering in January 2017 and the sequel to Star Trek Beyond coming soon to theaters near you

Had CBS moved on the Picard series a little earlier the show could have gone into production in 2018 and premiered right after the Super Bowl on February 3, 2019 which would have ensured a massive audience. At the very least they should have a teaser trailer ready for the Super Bowl with Patrick Stewart.

I don’t think dropping a million bucks on a 30 second teaser is what CBS is trying to do

While I am skeptical as well, important to recall that the January 2017 date was announced before any work had been done. There wasn’t even a concept for the series, let alone a cast, writing team, or show runner.

In this case the concept was announced months ago, a writing team is in place, scripts are being written, it’s lead is already cast, and they have production timeline announced (and I assume it is in pre-production now). It may well get delayed, but I doubt it will be by as much as the 9 months that DSC was.

Yes, that’s the difference. They gave DIS a date before they knew what the show was or who would even run it. In this case that was all set before the show was announced. And they clearly waited to announce when they were even filming it until they had developed it enough.

Of course things can still go wrong and get delayed but its clear they are more prepared this time than they originally were with DIS launch. And it probably helps to have a show runner who doesn’t have multiple other shows being developed.

Title of new series “House of Picards”. With JLP as UFP president and his wife Beverly scheming to keep him in power.

Beverly scheming to keep him out of Riker’s Island, more likely.

Does end of 2019 for Picard means we are going to wait 1½ years (or more) from Disco’s S2 finale to see Disco’s S3???????????????

Is there any title for the Picard series yet?

I’m hoping for “STAR TREK: THE PICARD MANOEUVRE”. That title would create so many possible stories.

e.g. Picard travelling through time. Picard outwitting various adversaries. etc. etc. etc.

I would be down for a Trek series without Trek in the name. Dunno about Picard Maneuver though.

This Picard show might be enough for me to finally subscribe to CBSAA. They did it! They got me!

I am very excited for this Picard show mostly because it is finally the first non-prequel Star Trek since Nemesis in 2002. The last three versions of Star Trek were all prequels! (NX-01 Ent., Kelvin-verse, Disco). I just want Star Trek to go forward for once!

And Picard is awesome, so he definitely deserves his own show. I’m sure they will also end TNG on a better note than Nemesis.

As much as I’m excited by the Picard Show (and I am), I think it’s funny to see those who begged for “go forward not back!” are so excited by it. While time-wise it is indeed going forward, to me it feels like “one step forward, two steps back.”

The span of time is not the only means of “going forward.” It may not be a prequel, but it’s still centered on a character who debuted 30+ years ago, and one we haven’t seen in 16 years.

I’m not sure how this is very much different in principle than a prequel outside of the year it’s set, and if the year is all people wanted, well– that seems like a terribly misguided opinion to have. What I was REALLY looking forward to in a sequel was a new ship and a new crew.

Which is why I enjoy Discovery, time period be damned. Discovery feels a lot more fresh, new, and “moving forward” than the idea of a Picard Show does.

I get your point in that it is a re-use of an already established character. But I am excited about the story of the Federation and the other species. Also, unlike the use of Captain Pike, Number 1, and Spock in Disco, this use of Picard is without knowledge of his fate. I’d rather that than any prequel.

Exactly! I’m really looking forward to seeing Pike and Spock actually but we know their fates already. Granted, we don’t know anything about their life in this period, so its still very interesting but ultimately we know what will happen to the characters. Picard is an old character too but his future hasn’t been written yet, therefore they can do whatever they want. The universe can be shaped however they want it to as well.

Its also why we literally don’t know what this show will be about because it can be about anything. That’s why its exciting.

Yes, agreed. I wasn’t crazy about prequels in Trek prior to DSC, and nothing about DSC thus far has changed that.

Discovery has a new ship and new crew but it is set in a previous time. In that sense, it is not moving forward and they are somewhat handcuffed in what they can do because it really can’t change the TOS future. (Unless they opted for a reboot, which I would not have minded in the slightest)

I do, however, see your point in that the Picard show, while set further down the line and does allow writers more freedom, it is still a character who debuted over 30 years ago. So in that sense, it’s not really new or going forward.

For the record, while I may have preferences for a time frame I don’t care THAT much what era they put the show in so long as it fits the time they say it’s in and is able to fit into the universe it’s in. Oh, and I’d like to to be, you know, good.

I just dislike how literal people use the phrase “moving forward.” So what if it’s in a different year, and that restricts who is an enemy, and what races they can use? It’s absolutely meaningless. If anything, the earlier year opens up so many more storytelling devices and possibilities.

“Moving forward” to me, is more about storytelling, exploration of the human spirit, social issues, moral issues (for example i’d love to see an issue paralleling what is going on today, though I certainly think they were trying to do that with the Klingon storyline).

Now, we can argue whether DSC is doing is doing that, and doing it well (I know you and I disagree on that point)– but the idea that switching some numbers around in the year they take place changes that in any way, to me, is just silly.

People simply want to see the where the universe is after the Dominion war. So its not ‘meaningless’ if you simply want to see where things are from that POV just like Star Wars fans wanted to know how the universe was shaped after ROTJ because we literally know nothing about that era so its more fun. And going forward does open up more avenues. For example, if they presented the idea of the spore drive in a post Nemesis setting no one would be questioning why its there, if it fits in the era or not, how will they get rid of it etc because it wouldn’t be ‘breaking canon’. It would simply be canon.

Thats exactly why prequels have a more difficult time, everything has to constantly be determined if it fits or not. Majority of the complaints about DIS is just that (and the so-so story telling). To make this clear though if they had the DIS Klingons in the 25th century there would be no less moaning about it lol. I’m sure of that. But most things fans have other issues with like the level of technology, uniforms, etc people wouldn’t even blink if it was in a post Nemesis setting. So yes the year actually DOES matter when you are trying to change so much in an already set period as DIS did.

I do see your point and understand what you are saying regarding “moving forward”. And I agree I’d like to see moving forward in terms of what kind of stories they tell. It is possible to set the show in the TOS era and tell different stories in different situations. I would consider that “moving forward” in a sense. But I think you are wrong when you say that the earlier years open up more storytelling devices and possibilities. It actually restricts them. You are limited by what the events of a show that came before you set up. Sure, a clever writer can get around them. But I say it’s just harder. If they set up a show post Nemesis, the spore drive is not a big deal anymore. The audience will have no idea if it will ultimately work or not. Set it in the TOS time, and everyone knows it is doomed to failure. That is but one example. Character fates are also wide open. You don’t have to worry about showing a Romulan or other type restrictions.

People who tell themselves it opens up ‘more’ story telling are just kidding themselves. We have DIS as that very example of how hard it is because they can’t just do something without thinking of how it effects everything that came before it. They can’t just kill off Spock or have a new species come and take over the Federation if they decide on a whim. They have already said they would love to do the Borg but they know they can’t for obvious reasons. Prequels hold back tons of potential stories out there.

And here is an interview from Vince Gilligan who made Breaking Bad and now Better Call Saul. He makes it clear writing prequels DO limits you in a lot of ways. He was asked just how hard it is and the difference between creating stories for BCS and BB.

“That’s a great question. No, we definitely don’t write the story we want to tell and fix it later [laughs] we suffer the pain right at the get-go. It’s a great question and the best answer to it is we… – and you’re right, prequels are really damned hard to write. I thought they were going to be easy. I thought – Peter Gould and I – ah hell, it’s a prequel, we know where it’ll all winds up, this will be easy. There’s so much we don’t have to make up. And we were just deluding ourselves. Prequels are actually harder because the sky is not the limit. You can’t do anything and everything with the storytelling because there’s so much set in stone later and you have to reverse engineer and you have to steer the supertanker very carefully otherwise it goes smashing into the dock and messing everything up – I don’t know if that’s the right metaphor. But we, the answer to your question on how we navigate it is we’re tough on ourselves. Man, it’d fun as hell if Saul Goodman could hang out with Gus Fring – I’d love to see those two worlds collide. But I don’t know how the heck we could do it because it’s kinda written in stone that that never happens in Breaking Bad so we just have to – what’s the old Faulkner expression – we had to kill our darlings. If we had a moment, if we had a scene someone pitched in the writer’s room, “Hey wouldn’t it be great if Jimmy and Gus are hanging out.” – we can’t do that, try as we might, as much as we might want to do that, we have to be self-disciplined, that’s really what it comes down to a lot of the time – self-discipline. We have to discard any ideas like that because they just fit into the logic and the timeline of the story as we understand it from Breaking Bad.”

That really says it all right there. BCS is a good show but as he points out its not like BB where sky was the limit either.

“People who tell themselves it opens up ‘more’ story telling are just kidding themselves”

Strongly disagree. There are so many great storytelling possibilities that you couldn’t get in TNG+ because the tech is just too advanced or because all the enemies have been conquered (and that’s just two examples). Trek writers often have had trouble with stories even up to TNG/DS9/VOY because fans would just ask things like:

“wait, why not just warp over there? why not just transport him? why not put up some force fields?” So you’d always have “Radiogenic Particle Flux is interfering with transporters! Quantum dynamic biometric field is disrupting the warp engines! Main power is down! Helm is not responding!” all so they could build a little tension.

And that’s just your bog standard Trek! Now flash forward to Nemesis+ and you’ve got holographic doctors, time cops, borg nanoprobes, you name it. I’m not saying they can’t write good stories, but the lack of technology in an earlier era– the more “frontier” the landscape of the space geo politics, the more isolationist nature of the Federation– all create DIFFERENT opportunities not available post nemesis. So many great stories they could tell with the Romulans, Klingons as adversaries. Heck, DS9 and VOY had to explore OTHER QUADRANTS OF THE GALAXY just because there were no good enemies left!

I’m not saying one is better than the other or really offers “more” so to speak, but that there IS value in setting this as a prequel. Unlike say, Star Wars, where the politics and technology of the universe always seem to be the same, whether it was Episode I or Episode VII.

As for your Spock reference, that’s all true, but that’s only because they CHOSE to show Spock.

Considering it’s only being written now, and won’t start production until April, but they want to release in 2019, I wonder if this is a sign that the show will not be very VFX-heavy. More of a ship-based and location-shot show, with a handful of exterior establishing shots like TOS and TNG.

Short Treks are fine. But I’m not going to maintain my subscription for them. I haven’t yet. And I’m a huge Trek fan.

I am a big supporter of subscribing to watch the show, but I will not subscribe for short treks. I’ll wait until S2 premieres. Will be fun to have a few episodes to watch on Day 1, too.

I never cancelled AA so I been watching them of course but yes if I had already cancelled I doubt I would’ve resubscribed early just to watch them, especially when you can just wait until the season starts. There is nothing about them story wise that are important to the show as a whole that demands anyone to watch them, at least the first two. But its nice its something to look forward to I guess.

I’ll subscribe to CBSAA just long enough to binge everything, then cancel again. I already subscribe to five streaming services monthly, and four of them are more than worth it for the content you get (I may dump Showtime).

And why not a captain Worf serie? New ship, new crew but a known caracter. Dr Bashir as the doctor and Kim as,first officer. The rest new ones

Michael Dorn wanted to get this off the ground for many years now, I don’t think it’ll happen.

If a worf series is ever made I don’t want any other existing characters in his crew. Maybe one, someone like Martok, someone who was a trusted ally and close friend whose presence on his ship he would conceivably and believably request, and who’s portrayal would be interesting. I mean I love Bashir, but do we really need to see what he’s up to? Are audiences really craving to see an older version of Wet Blanket Kim?

Many critics of DSC love to rip apart the appearance of Pike, Spock, Mudd, Sarek, etc but then ask for a “Trek All Star” show and hope to see characters from every series pop up in Picard’s Show, even the less memorable ones.

Smdh…

I sorta think that a big miniseries concept that gets together as many people from the 3 future spinoffs as possible could work. (Could even include Enterprise if the story needed some sort of prologue some 200 years earlier.) It could not possibly be a series, however. Perhaps a 5 episode special or something. But, and here is the rub, it HAS to be a really good story and a really good excuse to involve everyone. Tough but doable. Although I think about 10 years ago would have been the better window to do such a thing. Seems we will just have to settle for fan fiction on that front.

I’m not saying it couldn’t work. I’m not saying I wouldn’t enjoy it. But for all the flack DSC gets for including Sarek, Mudd, et al, I find it so odd that forgettable characters like Harry Kim are brought up as someone they’d like to see show up in a “Captain Worf” series– itself something that’s not really all that compelling.

Every time a classic character or concept pops up on DSC, it gets ripped to shreds for just rehashing old ground, but people still ask for “Captain Worf, co-starring Bashir and Kim”….

…mind boggling.

I don’t find that mind boggling. It sorta makes sense. You are talking about characters that have been dealt with decades ago. Many of whom have fates that are already known. While I personally have a greater interest in them, the newer characters, Bashir, Paris, Worf… All have futures that haven’t been written yet. So can understand why this attitude exists.

Why are you so obsessed with a characters fate? How often do we enjoy a story because we saw how they died or ended up at the end of their life?

This is nonsense. Worf, sure, he’s a genuinely great character that crossed over into the wider pop culture. But who the **** is dying to see stories about Kim or Paris or Bashir? You say “their futures haven’t been written yet.”

OH BUT THEY HAVE. They’re all dead. Just as Sarek died, Spock died (in a Kelvin film!), so are Worf, Paris, and Bashir. We just haven’t seen it. You know who’s story isn’t written? Spock’s during DSC’s era. Pike’s, Sarek’s, Kirk’s. Yet those are just cash-grab for nostalgia apparently, despite them being far more beloved than anyone on Voyager, for god’s sake).

WHY ARE FANS LIKE THIS SO OBSESSED WITH TIME AND DEATH. As Doctor Who said, we are all different people throughout our life. I don’t mind seeing who Spock was at this point, and I have no problem if people want to see other characters after we last saw them, but decrying one while lambasting the other IS mind boggling.

I think it comes more down to fans not wanting to see roles recast, and we still have these actors with us.

Because I would bet ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY if they announced a Captain Worf show set a year after DS9 ended, but starring Winston Duke as Worf, Naveen Andrews as Doctor Bashir, Joshua Jackson as Tom Paris, and Stephen Yeun as Harry Kim, Trek fans would riot.

If somehow Mark Lenard, Leonard Nimoy, and Jeff Hunter were showing up on DSC, everyone would have been elated. You can tell because fans are STILL asking for an elderly T’Pol to show up (which I have no interest in, other than a passing reference, mostly because Jolene Blalock was aaawful).

Why are you so obsessed with characters dying? I don’t see anyone wishing do see how anyone dies (who hasn’t already.) Everyone in the TNG era pretty much as a known past but no one knows what in in their future (beyond the obvious eventual death and taxes but that is not what it’s about) The point is, most of the characters hare been pretty well fleshed out. Even your much maligned Harry Kim. Do we need to see Kim or Paris in their Academy days? Not really. We see who they are and have learned enough of their backstories over 7 seasons that such info wouldn’t really add anything. This is true of pretty much everyone. Seeing how Spock acted pre TOS are ingredients that don’t really add anything to the recipe at this point. There are other TOS characters who haven’t been fleshed out. They would be the better choice here with the largest unpainted canvas to work with. But they aren’t Spock. Bringing in a 35 year old Scotty won’t raise enough eyebrows to get subscribers. Recasting doesn’t play into this at all. Sure, there are always some fringe yahoos who would cray if anyone besides John Calicos played Kor. But they are very small in numbers. Most understand the realities of the business.

Cool. Please don’t suck.

Yeah, thanks for the tip

Couldn’t have found a better picture for the article.

Make it so!

I am one of those that has a hard time thinking of Discovery as prime universe but since they insist that it is how this as an idea. Bring back Jason Isaacs and say that prime Lorca finds his way back to the prime universe through interphasic space but over 100 years in the future and meets Picard and they have an adventure together. It is true the Defiant ended up 100 years in the past but who says the time misplacement can’t run in the other direction? What do you all think, good idea, bad idea?

I am one of those who agree with you on the prime universe claim, but here we are. And anything which would bring Isaacs back would work for me.

I have a hard time buying Discovery in the prime universe as well. But while Issacs played the role just fine, I really don’t want to see prime Lorca at all. Ever. I can’t imagine his character would be interesting at all (given that we have already seen is opposite) and it would just be a reminder of what a turd that first season was. Best to forget it completely.

I’d rather see a mini series detailing Prime Lorca’s adventures in the MU. If he makes his way back, I don’t care what era he shows up in, but no reason for him to mix it up with Picard, that would seem kind of gimmicky.

How about he pops up aboard a ship in distress and in need of a captain…?

Happily, there is no “claim” of Discovery being Prime Timeline, it simply is Prime. Only the IP owners and nobody else get to decide that, and they have, any and all arguments are pissing in the wind.

I hope they really make this show shine. So hopeful. And the fact it’s not a prequel, sign me up.

I would prefer newer characters for this show, and leave exploring past characters on Short Treks. This is about Picard and not so much about the TNG cast. Then it just becomes TNG 2. This show is meant to be far apart from what TNG is.

(Although goddamn would I love to see The Sisko return for a monologue or two with picard! Shakespearegasm!)

I think if we see TNG characters it will be Beverly, and maybe one other (Geordi? Troi?). Others may be mentioned, but a parade of appearances I feel like are unlikely.

I mean really, outside of family, how often do the circle of colleagues and friends you keep remain constant over 30+ years? I want to see his new circle.

I think it likely his ‘new circle’ is going to be prominently featured, to capture the coveted 18-34 demographic and to give the show some legs. Like a lot here have pointed out, Stewart isn’t a young man. I’m sure a lot of it will have to do with him, especially at first, but not all. And to answer your other question, I have about a dozen friends I’ve kept in constant contact with for over 30 years. I know that’s not too common, though.

Here too. I have a handful of very close friends I have kept in contact with for decades. I’ve only actually worked with one of them. Work friends are far more more fleeting for some reason. It stands to reason Picard would keep in contact with his Bridge crew if he actually considered them friends or family. But it seems unlikely they would follow him around on his future endeavors. Therefore, it feels a certainty that every single TNG cast member will have an appearance as some point on this Picard show if it goes on long enough.

Contact is not what I’m referring to. People who you spend significant time with, in person, on a regular basis who are not blood related.

End of the day they are going to add whoever they think will get people to sign up for All Access. It’s the same reason we have Pike, Spock and Number One showing up next season. And unless the Picard show says someone is now dead or not I suspect they are open to anyone showing up, especially if they think seeing Riker or Worf are going to get more fans on board if AA is still not hitting its numbers.

The mess that is Discovery has tainted an enthusiasm I might have for future Trek TV projects. There is no consistent vision, there is no respect for what came before and it’s seeped in leftist ideology and agenda. With Millennials running the franchise I see no hope for improvement.

When has Trek ever not been steeped in leftist ideology?

You don’t understand but that’s okay.

Agreed, the writers are not competent or responsible enough to tell morality tales so the idea of a Picard series seems dodgy to me.

https://imgur.com/a/cfkJ3tW Custom made poster for Picard series. :D

I’m not sure how they can have enough time to do the series and have it ready for that date. A bit optimistic but I suppose they could pull it off.