Watch: Latest ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Commercial Shows Finalized Version of Data

Another day another Star Trek: Picard TV commercial, which CBS hasn’t posted officially, but fans have recorded it and shared online.

Video

Screenshots

Data’s CGI refined

Data has been significantly improved since the early trailers. He now looks much more like he did in Nemesis.

SDCC trailer Data

TV promo Data

Data in Star Trek Nemesis

More trailer moments

In the dream sequence seen in previous trailers, Picard approaches Data

We can see now that Data paints a picture of Dahj

A Borg drone is worked on

An ominous shot of a dead Borg drone

Riker looks concerned

Someone plays with a Romulan toy similar to a Rubik’s Cube.

Elnor (Evan Evagora) wields a sword

Picard blasts away with looks to be a Romulan disruptor


Star Trek: Picard will premiere on January 23, 2020. It will be available on CBS All Access in the USA. CTV Sci-Fi Channel (formerly called Space) and CraveTV in Canada, and on Amazon Prime Video for the rest of the world on January 24. Episodes will be released weekly.

Keep up with all the Star Trek: Picard news at TrekMovie.

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Bravo!! I cant wait!

Very, VERY nice. Much improved.

I don’t see a difference save for the grading. To be honest, how DATA looks in as a hologram or dream is not going to factor into how enjoyable this show may or may not be. But I guess how some might have a fit over it.

Agreed! I’ve enjoyed countless hours of Star Trek with much dumber looking makeup than 70-year-old Data and it’s never bothered me before.

im fine with either but there’s a definitive difference… before he was smoothed over but the new look is a real match for nemesis and gives more depth and realness to his face… i can enjoy rubber suits and don’t think everyone needs to be so anal about how perfect everything looks… but when people work on these shows stuff you might find insignificant like this or even a prop on the table or a picture in the background… someone has spent weeks or moths perfecting as part of their craft or job… so i say good job. i love the commitment. my friends works on trek years ago (i was lucky too as well for a bit) and i remember with nemesis the director Stuart baird was being so specific about the models of the enterprise in picards ready room that a friend worked on. in the end you can barely see them but he worked his ass off. kind of funny.

That is not unusual. Quite often a lot of effort goes into making things look as great as possible. Even for things that will not even be in focus in the shot. And the people doing the work know this and they do it anyway. It’s great. That said, I would rather the look a little clunkier if we could somehow guaretee a great story with deep characters. Yes, I know, it’s not a trade that can be made. But I do not really see the point in complaining about how Data looks in a trailer. That is pretty minuscule in my book compared to the bigger picture we fans are not privy too yet.

PS… I still don’t see much difference at all save for what I already mentioned.

thankfully you dont need a trade off as the writers obviously love trek and have put together such a great show in discovery… and picard i expect no less… can’t wait. though it’s killing me we have to wait so long for season 3. and the trek shorts are pretty great too. looking forward to the animated show.

We have a disagreement. Discovery looks slick but it lacks great writing and interesting characters. Again, I would make that trade for Discovery in an instant. What you said is strong evidence that saying you love the source material doesn’t mean you are capable of writing compelling content for it. Case in point, I love the source material. But if I came up with a story arc for Discovery it certainly wouldn’t be worse than what the “professionals” did. There is a small chance it might even be better!

Discovery is the best Trek I have ever seen. I can’t say that about TNG or VOY

Then you’re not watching it for the same reasons as the intended viewership.

All we can hope for is that the show will improve like all the other shows eventually did. I know you didn’t like season 2 very much but I at least thought it was an improvement over season 1 which is easily one of the worst first seasons of Star Trek for me and that’s obviously saying a lot.

And why I’m very excited about season 3, they can really start completely over now and give it whatever story they want while learning from the mistakes of the first two seasons. It doesn’t mean they will of course but now they have no excuses of being so shackled canon and can erase a lot of the stuff Fuller came up with (but still stuck with most of the characters). DIS still has a long way to go for me, but I feel it has the potential to be a great Trek show like the others in time.

I’ve always agreed that season 2 was an improvement. But it was still bad. It basically went from a steaming pile that stank up the entire house to a steaming pile that only stank up a few rooms. Although a lot of that improvement came along with the addition of Capt. Pike. Something I did not expect. In fact, I fully expected that to fail, too. Very happy to be wrong on that one.

Sadly they are stuck with the existing characters. But I have have massive trepidation about this 3rd season. They really are still tied to canon. Going forward in time doesn’t free them from it. It merely gives them distance from it. And I while particulars have not been made available I think I already know what the story line will be. Which is unfortunate because I really would like to be surprised with something different.

What I mean is they are not tied to canon like they are in a prequel. They can really tell ANY story they want now. You certainly couldn’t do a fall of the Federation story line pre-TOS. There were also so many species they COULDN’T bring in like the Borg, Romulans, Cardassians, etc without straining credibility. Now they can bring in whoever they want.

I know some people want to pretend prequels don’t hinder stories that much and Star Trek can make an excuse for anything if they are creative enough but I imagine for writers who just want a wide canvas it must be frustrating for them; especially when Star Trek is already steeped in so much canon.

That is the irony, even when the TNG era shows were happening, they still felt stuck in some ways because there were so many things in canon that made it hard to tell whatever stories you wanted and exactly why they threw Voyager on the other side of the galaxy and gave DS9 a wormhole because they knew TNG had cornered the market in terms of the alpha quadrant stories. So not a complete surprise they put DIS in another era given how shackled they must have felt putting it so close to TOS. Yes it should’ve been that way on day one but it is what it is.

And I understand not everyone has confidence the show will improve. Honestly after the first season I was pretty skeptical I was ever going to like the show but season 2 showed me they at least can acknowledge the mistakes and tried desperately to turn it around. Season 3 clearly even more so. Every show has changed course at some point but DIS is the first to basically change it’s entire setting and premise. So I think next season will be DIS first real test because while it no longer is tied to TOS canon (which is a GREAT thing IMO) it also means it won’t be able to rely on those characters either like Sarek, Pike and Spock. It’s going to be completely on its own now and with only original characters.

As much as I really did love seeing those characters (and will probably see again on other shows), I want this show to be its own thing like the other shows got to be. So it will be sink or swim time for the show next season but if the story and new setting is good on its own people will get invested without those characters like all the past Star Trek shows.

One thing that bothers me is they are going to have to create a “history” that the other Trek shows may be destined to fall into. Sure, 900 years is a very long time and it may not play out that way but it will always be in the back of my head. Although for now my head canon on that will be this is merely a “possible” future and is in no way written in stone. Right now Discovery reminds me of Seaquest. Where after two seasons they moved the show forward in time to shake things up as it wasn’t performing very well. The time setting shift did not work. And other underperforming shows have done shakeups of other kinds as well. I cannot think of one instance where such moves have saved the shows. Discovery’s circumstances may make it more immune to such things but I just don’t see the time shifting move to really be a positive one. I feel like their damage has been done. With other Trek offerings coming down the pipe my position on this show has changed. While I was hoping they would get their act together and come up with some good stories now my position is I really don’t care if they right their ship or not. If they do, great. Another good Trek show. If they don’t, so what? There are other Trek shows coming that will hopefully fare better.

Funny that’s how I felt about Discovery as well once we learned the Picard show was coming. I was going to give it a chance no matter what but if the show didn’t really get me on board then I wouldn’t have cared if the show got cancelled as long as we got other and better shows. Obviously it doesn’t mean the Picard show WOULD be better but at least we had other options like in the Berman era. If you didn’t like Voyager but you liked DS9 you could avoid one for the other and vice versa. We get that option again. If you hate all of them though, well… And personally I’m more invested in the 24th century era.

And I don’t disagree just putting the show so far in the future will make it a better show, but yes it will be a more INTERESTING show for me at least for so many reasons. If I’m being completely honest I just never cared about the Klingon war in season 1 because we already knew the outcome (and why I usually hate prequels), it was just a question of how they would get there (and the answer was badly lol). And that was the entire build up in first season. But I just wasn’t invested in it at all. The show could’ve made me if it was done better but it wasn’t (but of course for others they did truly liked the arc and good for them). But why I liked the MU arc more because I didn’t know where any of that was going. Honestly if we didn’t get those MU episodes I probably would’ve hated the entire season. Now I’m just mostly apathetic to it.

I WAS very invested in season 2 however because it wasn’t just another war and we had no idea what the mystery was or how it was going to fold. That was classic Star Trek, coming up with a crazy sci fi anomaly and watch them resolve it, but in this case for an entire season and not just one episode. And we still have no idea what season 3 is actually about. I don’t think it’s just about putting the Federation back together but finding out why it fell apart in the first place so I’m intrigued about it all frankly. But yes it’s still Discovery, they can really screw it up lol. But if they do something truly amazing with it then going into the future will have been worth it and I’m way more excited about the possibilities now than I was in season one and two frankly.

As I’ve said, I’m not as averse to prequels as you are. I actually thought Enterprise was a good idea. I liked the idea of a pre-Federation show. It wasn’t done as good as I would have liked but I still think the concept was a valid one and was worth exploring. If I had my choice, the time I would set a show in would be post TUC. We still have no idea what went down in that window and it seems sufficiently large enough that there shouldn’t be much contradiction with TNG.

I never cared about the Klingon War, either. To me, it was a tired idea. Season 1 was not all that hot but what kept me coming back for more was that Lorca guy. He was fascinating. But unlike you, the trip to the MU completely killed the show for me. It literally ruined EVERYTHING. Including the best part of the show… Lorca. I was never hugely interested in the MU to begin with but that Lorca reveal was just the most insane and idiotic thing I have ever seen in Trek. And I’ve seen Wesley Crusher solve everything, characters de-volve into lizards and Whales literally save the Earth from malevolent aliens.

I’d wager real money season 3 is about the Federation in tatters and Burnham shows up and reminds everyone about how great those ideals were and everyone should embrace them again. And most will. I so want to be wrong but that is what it seems to be pointing towards. In fact, I’d love it if it has nothing to do with the Federation being in tatters. That the A story will be something completely different.

“I’d wager real money season 3 is about the Federation in tatters and Burnham shows up and reminds everyone about how great those ideals were and everyone should embrace them again. And most will.”

ML31, that’s one possible outcome — or maybe even presented as “one possible future”, as you said. I’m thinking that the collapsed Federation may be presented as something that motivates Section 31 to take the darker, ruthless stance we’re familiar with from DS9. Giorgiou will have literally seen the future, and the state of the Federation at that point is very bad indeed; so after she returns to the 23rd century, Section 31 adopts an explicitly “ends justify the means” attitude in the interests of protecting the Federation and preventing that catastrophic future outcome. Maybe Giorgiou also brings back some futuristic tech which gives Section 31 a further advantage.

Burnham will remain behind to rebuild the Federation in that “possible future”, or she dies in tragic circumstances in the interests of the greater good. Maybe she sacrifices her life during the effort to send Giorgiou back to the past and change the future. Something like that.

Just guessing here, of course, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the writers have this kind of story in mind.

The only issue I take with what you said is that Georgeau has no stake in the situation at all. What does she care if the Federation falls? She’s an evil tyrant who really should be motivated only by returning to the universe she belongs in. Or barring that she would be motivated in becoming absolute dictator of what remains of the Federation. Seems to me she would prefer to be in that future. It would be easier for her to take control if she felt she had no choice but to remain in the wrong universe.

I actually like your ideas Jai but I agree with ML31 on this one about Georgiou. I mean why would Space Hitler care if the Federation falls or not since her entire being is against what the Federation even stands for? In fact that’s part of the problem of putting her in Section 31. I understand why they did it because its a little bad and morally grey but it’s obviously not anti-Federation either. Say everything you want about Section 31 we have not gotten a story line of them trying to take over Starfleet and institute their own values, they really do crazy things to keep the Federation humming along as it always has. But then we have to believe that Georgiou cares about the greater good stuff too and I don’t think she would care at all.

But yes maybe that’s where season 3 is headed and we see Georgiou start to change and really care about this stuff but in season 2 she just seems to be along for the ride. It wasn’t out of some sense of duty or attachment to the Federation or Starfleet. Again, why SO MANY people are not really into the idea of her leading a Section 31 show. but we’ll see where they take her.

And I don’t see Burnham dying anytime soon, certainly not next season. If they kill her off it would be in the last episode of the show but Trek doesn’t really kill off their leads. They only did it once with Prime Kirk and that was well after they knew TOS was done.

Now that there’s a “time suit” there’s the hopium that it will be used to undo Discovery cart blanche, but of course that’s not what they will do, in the same way that Q won’t show up to undo it either. I’ve lost all hope of Discovery undoing the damage it’s caused, and I gave up watching it on that basis. I entirely reject it and everything else that comes out of CBS under it’s failed cash grab. They have completely and utterly failed, there is no way that that can be denied by anyone other than a few, hard core, select Discovery fans who quite frankly speak for no one but themselves. There’s no point trying to convince the vast majority of the fanbase of it’s virtues. A dead duck in a pearl necklace is still a dead duck.

I see more definition in the face, less puffy bee-sting looking. An improvement, I think.

It’s radically different lol. How one of the most loved characters in ‘Trek looks is important to everyone else though.

OK. So “everyone else” is getting bogged down in something so trivial as how the de-aging process works. When that character likely doesn’t show up too much or contribute to the story beyond perhaps providing motivation.

And no, changing the grading of an image is not a “radical” change. Sorry.

Did they fix the bad wig?

Was it ever a good wig? lol

Data never had a good doo….

I’m sure it will be fine.

My biggest worry is the lack of Starfleet ships. The hero ship looks ugly and uninspiring… even uglier than the Discovery somehow!

However, we have Picard, Data, Riker, Troi and Seven.

I’m behind you on this – I’d like just one glimpse of an impressive-looking Starfleet ship in this era, please. Overall though, please just give us a good, tight cohesive story.

It would be nice to catch a glimpse of the USS Titan. It appears that Riker is retired despite being no older than Nemesis Picard. Picard spent decades as Captain, then at least some time as Admiral. I am curious to know why Riker would have retired seemingly soon after receiving his commission as Captain.

I too would like to see the Titan, and if rumors be true, the Verity. As far as why Riker has retired, I would say he has found what he was searching for, a family. (He probably did not even realize that was what he was looking for.) Picard is still searching. Maybe, from what we have seen so far, he might get that as well.

My favorite part so far is “Stop yelling!”

Did you mean the Aventine c d, rather than the Verity? (That is, did your autocorrect overcorrect?)

I’d love to see the experimental slipstream Aventine with Captain Ezri Dax. It’s a gorgeous concept ship in whether in the books, Online or Eaglemoss. Not to mention Day is a fascinating character for a captain.

Right c d, I’d forgotten the reference to an Odessey-class like vessel for Picard’s last command.

I’ve pre-ordered the omnibus, but don’t have Countdown yet.

The Odessey-type ships look more appealing than some of the new ships we’ve seen on-screen, but I’m still partial to the Vesta-class slipstream ships. The Aventine model is gorgeous, and it would be fantastic to see design go in that direction.

See the Eagles model at:

Part of me is thinking there is at least one other notable guest star from spin off Trek who will appear in Picard. I cannot imagine they played their entire hand of guests in the trailers…

Me either ML31! I think they will surprise us with another guest star. And there is at least some actual evidence of that as we know Micheal Dorn was on the set of the show. It doesn’t mean Worf will show up but it’s certainly possible now since we do know the actor was there at least.

There is that. Personally I’d like to see someone from DS9 as I have a soft spot in my heart for that cast. But it would make more sense if it were another TNG cast member or someone 7 knows from Voyager.

Oh yeah definitely. I have no issues seeing anyone frankly lol, but yes I hope DS9 cast members show up too. It may not happen this season but my guess is it will eventually. If we got no other appearances outside of Seven/Data/Riker etc that’s more than OK too but like you I suspect we will get more.

In fact I just remembered Denise Crosby said she was contacted by the show too and was in talks in appearing. If true, its probably to play Sela again which would make sense being a heavy Romulan story. It sounded like she was talking more about season 2 but who knows? Even she could show up by the end of first season.

I really hope we don’t get Sela again. I never cared for that story line beyond the one episode. It just felt like appeasing Crosby because she felt maybe she shouldn’t have asked to leave the show and this was a convoluted way to get her back. But I digress…

I really like Sela so wouldn’t mind seeing her again but she’s not on my must have list either. But as I said I’m pretty happy with whoever they get, but I’m not choosey. ;)

Ok I can probably do without Neelix lol.

Unless they come up with a way for Neelix to find his way over from the Delta Quadrant you are probably in luck!

It would be good to write into Riker’s back story that he spent a few years as captain of the Enterprise after Picard left. It would make sense that they would appoint the captain of another vessel to the flagship after all.

I love that we’re getting a more recent civilian look at Star Trek.

You do realize this isn’t a show about ships…. It’s about people.

Respectfully, imho, in some of the best Trek incarnations in history, the ship has arguably been as essential, and beloved, a member of the crew as any person.

True, but they’ve made a lot of noise about this being a different type of show, so that may mean it not being ship (or station) focused at all. The lack of iconic hero ships may be a creative choice. I am all for trying something different along those lines.

Yes, I tend to buy into that. Especially on shows that last many years. When the Enterprise bit the dust in SFS I was as crushed as I was at Spock’s death in WoK. Another member of the family was lost.

Now, of course, we’ve seen the hero ship blasted to pieces so many times it’s not really a shock anymore.

Its what you grow up with and love. Me being a TNG fan the Enterprise D destruction was quite a sad moment even though it was also weirdly exhilarating moment to watch lol. Enterprise E is a cool looking ship though. Picard has all the fanciest and state of the art ships it seems. Hopefully we see the Enterprise F at some point and it actually manages to be just as imaginative and impressive as the D and E were.

Personally I hope we don’t see any Enterprise in Picard at all. But I’m sure the producers won’t be able to resist temptation. I’ve never been a fan of the silly letters after the name. It’s yet another idiotic thing that TVH did that seems to have held on.

And I guess it could be based on what you grew up with. But while I grew up with the TOS Enterprise my favorite Enterprise was the TMP refit. Those alterations were gorgeous. They took the amazingly unique look of TOS Enterprise and made it even better. Sorry to say that the TNG version was the absolute worst by far. I was actually thrilled when that one bit the dust.

I care more about the people. The ship is just a plot device.

Many do not understand this concept. It was Kirk, Spock, McCoy, AND the USS Enterprise. Who among us doesn’t want to see the NCC-1701-F?

The Ship. These are sailors, voyagers, travelers. The Ship is always part of it, always part of them. Star Trek is about people, yes, but it is also about The Ship.

I don’t.

Would love to see a new Enterprise! I think most would obviously. I would be shocked if we didn’t get another one in SOME form on this show. That said if they don’t show it, we can’t be too surprised given its not about Starfleet directly so I would be fine if we don’t see one.

I don’t. The program is about Picard, not his mode of transport.

I don’t. I wish they would drop those silly final letters.

Yep!

You do realize for much of Trek’s existence, the SHIP has been treated as almost equal to any CHARACTER in the shows. It was a big f–ng deal when Kirk blew up the Enterprise in Star Trek 3, because it was the equivalent of “killing her”.

Then along comes the JJverse, where the ships gets blown to pieces in every single movie…

We’ve seen the Enterprise bite the dust in movies three times now. THREE! The first time, it was shocking. Like losing a family member. The 2nd time it was satisfying only because it was never endeared and quite frankly pretty darn ugly. It was also not surprising as it felt like they were going to do that. The third time, it was just tiresome. Had a been there done that feel to it. It was kind of ineffective. But it was a blow to Pine Kirk so there was that. But from an audience stand point, it was an overused plot device by that point.

In Trek, the ships (or station) have been as much a character as any of the main casts – just as space itself is a character in The Expanse. Smart writers and designers go with this.

yeah, that’s why it doesn’t say “These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise…” in the opening.

Oh wait, It Does

Picard is retired. Won’t bother me one bit to not see Starfleet at all.

we already have

Yep. Wearing a ‘visitor’ badge, if I recall the trailers correctly.

You’re expecting a nice looking Starfleet ship from Eaves? Good luck with that…

Lol – it’s Christmas… can you humour me into believing in miracles?!

I thought Eaves had designed the Akira class as well as the Sovereign class, but it turns out Alex Jaeger did.

Ergh… I’ll have to brace myself for some awful Discovery style ships. The USS Shran… yuck!

Eaves is a good example for a professional not really good at what he’s doing but being very good at “managing his superiors” so that whole generations of Trek head honchos depend on him if for nothing else than his unshakable dependability!

In short, he is the Anti-Ron Jones.

His designs are the equivalent of ‘sonic wallpaper’; they are serviceable but kinda blah. Although they are still better than the Enterprise on Star Trek: Discovery.

Oh yeah, I had forgotten he did do the Discovery Enterprise. To his credit, he did let everybody know about the 25% rule.
>;>}

LOL

This isn’t a Starfleet show. None of the main cast seem to be in Starfleet.

Everyone knows that the greatest ship in sci-fi is a Blue Box.

Yeah, I am not too fond of these new more “squared” ship designs they’ve got going for the post Discovery shows. What was so wrong with the circular, disc designs?

Ships should look functional not sexy and aerodynamic.

Even traveling in the ‘vacuum’ of space, you are going to run into a lot of gas and other particles, especially at high speeds. It makes sense for the ships to be something like aerodynamic.

Good point c d.

Otherwise, what’s the main deflector for?

Nice to retcon the concept but didn’t Jeffries say that his goal was so the design would be instantly recognizable? I’d say mission accomplished.

Oh, yeah, Starship Enterprise is iconic. As far as structural and flight dynamics go, it’s impossible.

The ship is designed for warp travel where the ship weighs nothing. The nacelles must be far enough apart for the warp field to encompass the ship, and they need a line of sight with each other.

At sublight speeds where the ship weighs something the impulse engines provide propulsion, so they have to be placed as close to the centre of mass as possible. The structural integrity fields are designed to hold the nacelles and the struts onto the hull, and the struts are re enforced structurally.

Imagine a model ship. If the struts were made of solid metal, and the ship made of cardboard, the struts would fly off the moment the ship moves. If the ship were made of metal and the struts of cardboard then the struts would still fly off when the ship moves.

All of the components are designed to work in tandem, so the ship can move in whatever direction it wants at sublight, and all of the warp components stay attached as the structural integrity field increases power to hold everything in place.

When a ship moves through a gas giant or atmosphere where there is drag on components, the ship has to adjust it’s SIF to resist the drag on the components.

If ship has no power and starts spinning out of control, it will disintegrate just as easily as the space station would if it started spinning. The same goes for atmospheric flight, the drag will strip it apart.

This is why the saucer section is a disk, so in the worst case if everyone needed to abandon the rest of the ship and there was no power, it can spin or fly through an atmosphere as much as it wants, there’s nothing attached that will fly off under inertia alone, and as long as it enters an atmosphere head on, then all of the drag is distributed around the whole disk of the saucer. All of the friction of the atmosphere hits the saucer rim and no where else.

The design of the Enterprise was, and still is genius. These pointy spinny Discovery ships are nothing but non functional window dressing.

and can’t they be both?

My biggest critique is that having the same ship designer do everything flies completely in the face of the strategy of having different series with different looks and tones.

I can’t think of anyone who is looking for Eaves-style ships as a benchmark of Trek visual continuity.

(…but I’m sure that there mus be some fans who would like it.)

This, very much this.

Data looks better, but the wig was the biggest offense…

I think the guy with the Rubik’s cube is Harry Treadaway’s Narek, as shown in the “In 3 Weeks” promo…

I’m getting excited, I love the mystery behind this show. Like others, I am a little disappointed by the lack of Starfleet ships in the previews so far (or appealing ship designs in general).

They need to get rid of Eaves and hire someone competent

Steve, for managers competence is defined as being reliable and delivering consistent results on time. Few of them actually have any understanding of artistic quality and aesthetics… and it shows.

No

In other words, Steve has no more idea what competence is than what social skills are.

I’m not sure why they’re not deep faking Data to de-age Brent Spiner.

Deep fakes look unnatural.

I wouldn’t call this look natural either.

I have seen some pretty decent deepfakes lately. I think it could work.
Or just go minimal like they appear to have done with Hugh. If Data does appear ‘live’ at some point, let him have run the aging protocol and have Brent Spiner in just yellow contacts, maybe color his hair, too, maybe not.

As far as I see they simply raised the contrast (watch out for the deepened dark rings under the eyes which actually make him look older) but did not change the shape of his face/cheeks. Also beyond me why they dont use some commodity face filter, it cant be the budget?

That’s not what deep fakes are lol

I think TNG sucked but am looking forward to this show. Actually looks like the stagnation that was TNG Federation is the actual enemy (ironically with the Romulans and Borg as the ‘good guys’). Hopefully this opens the door for Discovery to bring back the TOS Federation with diversity, free markets, democracy, etc centuries later.

Good job all the fans and critics disagree with you.

Nice example of speaking in absolutes.

Hopefully the episodes for Picard are decent lengths and not short episodes like a lot of Star Wars: The Mandalorean episodes, for example, are.

Discovery episodes have often run fairly long. In Canada, where they are broadcast on premium cable with a few ads, Discovery occasionally runs into the next hour.

Picard has a different showrunner, but there’s no reason why Picard episodes would be pushed to be shorter. CBSAA and Kurtzman seem to open to longer episodes without an eye to selling for broadcast.

Don’t get me wrong, if the story/segment they want to tell just fits nicely at say, 33 minutes, then fair enough.
But equally it’s usually much better to stretch out the episodes closer to something like 50 minutes (instead of the old way of just trying to wrap everything up at superspeed in the last 10 minutes) which gives more time to develop the story, allow for more natural and meatier character development.

Most Mandalorian episodes ran the same length as your average broadcast episode (40+ minutes). Loved every minute of the show. Would I want longer episodes? HELL YEAH! But the time spent for each episode, was very light on “fluff”. Even if an episode was rather short compared to other episodes, it got right into the action and story, without too much BS around it.

Many of us who are Trek fans like the character moments and grounded stories Mike.

Please don’t compare that children’s franchise to ‘Trek

I’m honestly shocked to learn that Brent Spiner is 70 years old. I think they did an amazing job matching him to Nemesis, some big improvements since the original trailer. His face looks completely natural now.

They are all in their 60s and 70s. Just like Star Wars, there was an unnecessarily long period of time wasted while prequels were made, when they should been doing more with these fine people. Hopefully, they can give them the opportunity that the makers of Star Wars failed to give the original cast.

Excellent point, cd.

Not sure that’s a fair comparison to be honest. TNG (the tv series and movies) was on the air and being produced for 15 years, including the four films. They had more screen-time than any other incarnation on Star Trek to date, including the original series characters. Star Wars original trilogy was filmed over the course of 6 years. It was 31 years before they reprised their roles again, whereas the TNG actors (Piard, Riker, Troi, Data) reprise after a comparatively shorter 18 years. Also the TNG actors (most of them) were already a lot older the three Star Wars leads in the original trilogy. It already feels like a small miracle that we even will have this Picard series. I’d never have believed it would happen a few years ago, and I think others would agree with me on that.

Oh please, screw shoehorning Star Wars into every conversation.

Why’s Data yellow now?

Space jaundice.

Maybe Beverly can give him a hypospray???

…or at least a new paint job.

Cheap plastic turns yellow when exposed to UV.

Not an improvement! He now looks more human, like Spiner in NEM, but that should NOT be the goal. The early SDCC CGI version looked a lot like he should have looked from day one. He should not grow old like Spiner but remain the same. So no, sorry, no improvement I can approve :-)

Data has an Aging Program. DEAL WITH IT!

If this a Data from a “dream” or “flashback”, it could just as easily be that Jean-Luc remembers him as he looked back in Nemesis.

We should be able to suspend some disbelief with regards to the age of Data.
Brent Spiner like everyone else looked younger in S1 of TNG than in s7 of TNG for example; If you watch All Good Things.. S7 finale, Spiner in the old S1-2 uniform looks noticeably different to what he (and everyone else!) looked at that time, which is not to say more aged, but perhaps just more a bit more ‘fuller’. The spandex uniform is clearly very unforgiving, thank god they ditched it for the sake of the actors vanity and health lol.
It happens to all of us!

Wrong, his aim is to look human.. Humans age.

I know it’s not, but I had a terrible thought last night when someone pointed out a musician we were watching resembled David Duchovny. Let’s hope this isn’t like the X-Files episodes they ran a few years ago!

He looked a little puffy, but I actually kind of preferred the version from the first trailer. Also, the color grading was way better.

I never really cared for the way Data looked in the movies, where it was too obvious he was some guy with makeup all over his face. (I mean, that’s what he was in the series, too, but low-definition TV helped hide that back in the day.)

Definitely looks a lot better! Is it a perfect match, no, but at least it doesn’t dip into the uncanny valley like the original did

I was interested in seeing a direct side by side comparison of the looks… and then I decided to see if it was the color grade making it feel off… then I smoothed some of his skin and adjusted some of his cheek wrinkles/skin droop… not sure what I arrived at as far as what I’d prefer personally.

I think with a good color grade they could make a solid case for this matching the general Nemesis look… but the contact lenses aren’t a great match. As it is, I’m not a fan of the super yellow cast they have going… but in context that might make perfect sense.

Images left to right: “Newest” look at Data for Picard, my tweak of the previous image, and the still from Nemesis in this article. Original source for all images is the article above and my tweaks took about 10 minutes.

comment image

Well done. I like it.

Nice job. I like what you’ve done there!

It’s not just colour grading but the light from the specific scene. He’s outdoors in the one on the left and indoors on the right

Oh, I know context of the scene is important (though I don’t believe this is the outdoors scene since the collar of the uniform appears to be the FC style uniform rather than the TNG style seen in the wide shot of Data painting when Picard approaches him). That’s why I mentioned it in the text that the color needs to be taken in context.

But if you look at the SDCC trailer still, it skews closer to what I have done with the color grade which means the color grade has been altered to some purpose (in the SDCC teaser it looks less like it’s outside… or, at least, it hasn’t had the “this is outside in a desert/on a different planet so color cast the entire frame so the audience knows” applied to it yet).

Regarding the color grade I did, I guess I’m speaking more in terms of how Data actually physically appears and how closely matched it is to how he appeared in Nemesis (most recent reference for what Data looks like). I wasn’t clear on that point in my post- a lot of this was meant to see how close they have made Data now look to Data back when we last saw him (which seems to be the time period the flashback may take place in based on the FC style uniform collar).

Do NOT f CK this up ;)

I’m sure CBS has a F**k It Up department, just for this occasion. After all, who doesn’t wake up in the morning thinking ‘how can I F**k It Up’ today….

.. the first run of CGI on spiner’s to make him look younger did seem to be a bit much. Ironically was the reason he wanted to write off data in nemesis.. he’s often said that data didn’t age yet he was.. lol

This is what i´ve been waiting since …Nemesis! enough prequels. Even “Enterprise” was a pointless chore.

Yep me to. Enterprise was by and large a waste of my time to watch, I had to force myself to keep watching till the end. Even the lauded 4th season was quite terrible to get through. Season 3 was hands down the worst thing I’ve seen done in Star trek.

” Season 3 was hands down the worst thing I’ve seen done in Star trek.”

Wow. That’s quite the statement. Especially considering how bad Discovery has been and how season 1 of TNG went. I realize Enterprise had it’s detractors but man… I thought the Xindi arc was the example Discovery ought to have followed with their season long arcs. But they didn’t. But then, Enterprise had better characters than Discovery has. And they had actual issues and moral complications and failings to deal with. I’ve seen none of that from anyone on Discovery. Even Burnham, whose history suggests she could be rife with character complications, had NONE of that. But hey, I guess this shows how different people are.

Discovery is Amazing

I agree, love ENT S3, probably more than I should…it’s very pulpy

Agreed, ML. If anything, DSC in all it’s failings, imo, has given me a greater appreciation for Enterprise.

I’d argue that had “Enterprise” been a true prequel it would have rocked. First spaceflights with unreliable ships, can’t call home to get Starfleet Command to tell you what to do, colonization of new solar systems, the search for dilithium crystals, nuclear weapons vs. phasers/photon torpedoes, machine guns vs. phasers on stun, no transporters for you to beam your way out of this situation, repairing Earth after WW3, no peace with the Klingons, humans having to earn friendships with Vulcans/Andorians, Romulan threat, etc. you would have had the best “Wagon Train to the Stars” Trek. Trying to TNG Enterprise ruined it quite frankly. Marvel’s Avengers I think had more TOS prequel than Enterprise which couldn’t last an hour without phasers and peace with the Klingons.

CMD,
You’ve got that show absolutely nailed with your analysis. I remember the couple pages of notes I came up with when ENT was announced, and ‘duct tape to the stars’ was kind of what I hoped would happen — and it was so removed from everything I’d hoped for, and remained so through the eps I brought myself to watch.

I have thought about this a lot – why ENT as is would never be written as it should. I would actually look to the novelization of TMP which is credited to Gene Roddenbery. This novel is something maybe 60s Roddenbery would have wrote but no WAY Gene Roddenbery of the 90s wrote (I seriously doubt he wrote it, I seriously doubt he read it!). In that novel there is a description of how “new humans” make lousy Starfleet officers because they can’t handle deep space missions. New humans hate conflict, can’t endure hardships, etc. Kirk’s success is even credited to him being an “old human”; like a farmboy. The novel basically argues that today’s humanity will succeed in space better than any homogeneous “new human”. TNG writers are in love with that concept of new human where diversity is homogeneous, everything is generic, no conflict, etc. They just can’t bring themselves back to TOS today’s humanity tomorrow. Part of that I think is Roddenbery himself. I think the former police officer / TV writer (he wrote the Omega Glory basically as a love letter to America succeeding in Space) had a pre-#metoo inner conflict that lead him to reject American society in favor of himself as a messiah type figure who in a socialist society will be above “petty” justice. I think that’s why in his later writing he actually hates TOS and tries to eliminate it (ironically it is the old humans who have faults.) Quite frankly all the new writers try to emulate that and it all ends up lame (poor Kahn!!!! He just wants to save his family!! Who needs dilithium – free energy for everyone!!). A saving grace for Picard, I think these writers can’t help but love stagnation and boring plots like generic perfect AI and the Borg as good guys (the ultimate collective) which ultimately should lead to the downfall of the TNG Federation by their own devices.

Wow, i missed that, but now i´m looking forward to read the adaptation of “The Motion Picture”. indeed, there´s a discrepancy between 60´s Gene and 90´s Gene. I´ll check that out

God, that would’ve been incredible, an actual gritty Trek that would’ve fit the trend of the 2000s. Through all this devastating conflict, humanity managed to pull itself up and rebuild from the wreckage, and space being that song in our hearts to inspire us to reach — that would’ve been a sick story. Maybe it can still be done on CBSAA

Ron Moore did this with BSG. This is what ENT could/should have been, even VOY years before, as the only UFP-ship in the delta quadrant, running out of supplies and nowhere a station to become repaired. Well, they did this with ENT season 3. Nevertheless I enjoyed both shows.

I actually agree they could’ve made Enterprise even grittier with the time period it was in and made it feel a lot more ‘out there’ than what we got but I didn’t have a huge problem with it. But I think if people really want a return to 60s TOS more ‘rugged’ version of the future I don’t think that will ever happen again. Look at both the Kelvin movies and Discovery. Neither of these have anywhere close to the feel of TOS either although both take place in this period. Everything is super advanced or sleek with an abundance of ships and resources. The Yorktown base makes it clear that the Federation is a very opulent and well connected society and neither Kelvin or Discovery feel any less advanced than the 24th century shows minus a holodeck basically (and DIS introduced an early form of one). They both have stuff like personal transporters that can get you across the galaxy and of course the spore drive.

And remember all the future shows (at least for now) will be made by the same people who came up with all of that basically. This is also why people who are begging for a Pike show may be very disappointed if they actually get it. If they just want a show starring Pike and Spock, that’s one thing. But if they think they are going to get a more isolated and bare bones type of show then they will probably hate it in the end. Again, Enterprise, the Kelvin movies and now Discovery all had the chance to show that version of Star Trek like TOS and none have come close IMO although Enterprise at least feels more primitive than the others. And the new regime even less so because they seem to want the really cool/shiny/sleek version of the future and probably why Discovery is now in the 32nd century.

You may be right. A Pike show may be a “be careful what you wish for” sort of thing. I can forgive the KU films for their look. It is essentially a reboot. But there really is no excuse for what Discovery did to the era given how they insisted they weren’t a reboot. For all its detractors, Enterprise did at least FEEL like it kinda sorta belonged in the era they put it in. There were a few things I think they could have done better. I feel like the early transporters ought to have had the pads in separate shielded rooms or something more than just an enclave off a hallway. Even the TMP transporter had a small shield for the operator. But it is what it is.

Yes, the irony of Enterprise for me is that it felt much more primitive ONCE you saw stuff like the Kelvin movies and now Discovery show up because at the very least there was a real intent to make it feel and look more inferior than the 23rd or 24th century. But yes it was still a very advanced looking show when compared to TOS. And I understand what others mean its not just the look they could’ve done more things to make it feel more primitive other than give it a warp 5 limit and no shielding but limit communication and less reliance on the transporter. Which again to their credit we did see them use the shuttle craft to go to planets or other ships quite a bit. Certainly more than the other shows, but they could’ve done more I guess.

But to me, at least Enterprise felt like it was in the 22nd century. NOTHING about Discovery or the Kelvin movies felt like they belonged in the TOS era. As you said though the Kelvin movies got a pass on that because it does take place in a different universe and it was one that was altered as well, so you can buy it (even if it still bothered people).

The issue with Discovery is that it looks more advanced than the TNG era but we are suppose to believe its the same TOS from the 60s show. AGAIN, we all get its a show made for today’s audience and not a 1966 audience so like Enterprise many things just had to look more updated. But the issue with Discovery is that it never felt like it wanted to be in that era outside of name only. They basically ignored all aesthetics and feel from TOS outside of making the phasers look similar or throwing in a few sound effects to throw fans a bone. But outside of those it could’ve been in any century and you would’ve never known. If they came out and said the show actually took place in a post 23rd century, nothing in the show would’ve contradicted that. Nothing. Outside of using a few buttons and dials Discovery itself in on par with all the ships we seen in the 24th century and why so many people had issues with it.

For the record I have never been bothered that it looks and feels more advanced. I WANT these shows to feel as advanced as possible. Star Trek is a science fiction show about a progressive future, its not BSG or the Expanse where it takes months/years just to get to another solar system. The point is Starfleet IS an advance organization and ironically probably very advanced in the TOS era WHEN you take account they were probably meant to be zipping around the ENTIRE galaxy at the time and not just one area of it that the later shows have emphasized. But TOS is pretty messy when trying to nail down stuff like that like how many ships there were really suppose to be, how fast is warp travel, etc. Its really all over the place lol.

But if you have ships that can get from one side of the galaxy to another then yeah these are powerful and advance ships. I have no issue with that and I NEVER saw TOS as a less advanced era frankly, just one with a more limited budget for a TV show. Today they can do literally anything so its a different time. But if you still want to put your show canon to that era of a 50 year TV show then you have to make it fit in some form.

” The point is Starfleet IS an advance organization and ironically probably very advanced in the TOS era WHEN you take account they were probably meant to be zipping around the ENTIRE galaxy at the time and not just one area of it that the later shows have emphasized.” No, TOS was supposed to take place in just one little area of the galaxy, not the ENTIRE galaxy. This was clear in TOS, and it’s made clear in the TNG writer’s bible.
“During the years of Captain Kirk’s Enterprise 4% of the galaxy had been charted–not explored…. By the time of our 24th century stories, only 19% of it has been charted.”

So, yes, the TOS Enterprise was only in one tiny part of the galaxy (except when aliens did weird things), because the galaxy is a phenomenally huge place and even Roddenberry understood that.

Fair enough PaulB but I’m only going off little bits of dialogue said on the show itself. In The Cage when Pike is talking to the Talosians he literally says he comes from the other end of the galaxy. And then in Where No Man Has Gone Before they were literally leaving the galaxy. Where were they going other than the next one I assume? But it didn’t exactly seem like a big deal to them.

But yes these were early days of the show so they probably retconned or just ignored all of that later in the show and by TNG time just streamlined the basic layout of the the galaxy and where exploration took place. Not a big deal my only point was these ships were probably supposed to zip around pretty fast at one time. And it was during the TOS era, people weren’t as sophisticated about space and distance like they are today. That or they didn’t think that hard about it when they were writing it since no one had Google. ;)

TOS had plenty of errors with distance and scale, but that’s not the same as saying they intended to be spanning the entire galaxy. “And then in Where No Man Has Gone Before they were literally leaving the galaxy. Where were they going other than the next one I assume? But it didn’t exactly seem like a big deal to them.” First, the idea was that they were exploring past the edge of the galaxy to see what’s there, not to go to the next galaxy. And it was clearly a big deal within the narrative as well as being a big deal as the first Kirk-TOS story. Also, other shows at the time such as Lost in Space regularly confused “solar system” for “galaxy” in dialogue. (still happens sometimes)

At the time, humans had only known that the universe was immense beyond just this galaxy for about 40 years (since 1925). Lots of confusion through the 60s about such things.

“Not a big deal my only point was these ships were probably supposed to zip around pretty fast at one time.”

The TOS warp speed scale is consistent with non-zipping around a small area. At the safe speed of warp 6, it would take around a week to reach Alpha Centauri. Just as TNG was clearly only a small part of the galaxy, TOS was always that way.

TOS was about one ship in a small fleet of ships charting a small part of the galaxy and exploring an even smaller part. TNG didn’t expand it that much–by intent, by what they showed, etc.

I just meant they had ships powerful enough to get them practically anywhere in the galaxy and wasn’t very hindered, that’s all. But as I said it was when the show was first starting and wasn’t really sure of everything. No biggie. I try not to overthink stuff like this, especially when the show didn’t start out with a lot of things in place like Trek today.

“I just meant they had ships powerful enough to get them practically anywhere in the galaxy…” But they didn’t. Warp 6 in TOS was 216 times the speed of light. That won’t get them “practically anywhere in the galaxy” unless you are talking about them spending lifetimes traveling. The TOS ships weren’t that powerful. Period.

“I try not to overthink stuff like this, especially when the show didn’t start out with a lot of things in place like Trek today.” Except that the things we’re discussing were in place at the start of TOS, in the writers’ bible they used to write the show. This isn’t guesswork, so there’s no overthinking involved. This stuff was established from the start. Also, The Making of Star Trek from 1967/68 explores some of these things, which were never up in the air the way you’re describing.

PaulB then clearly they changed things because I guess according to that same bible it was OK for Spock to smile, Starfleet was called Space Command and Kirk had a totally different middle name. I’m guessing some of that was in the bible at the beginning too, right? Its a TV show, none of this is real and yes its simply possible they changed things as they went which had to be true since there were actual contradictions and changes in the show itself (and has happened with all the shows and they all had writer guides too). And if it was in the bible from the very beginning then Pike shouldn’t have been coming from the other side of the galaxy and yet he DID come from the other side of the galaxy. So yeah.

I don’t know what you want me to say? I’m literally just going on what was said and done in the show itself. But no its not a big deal because later things became more streamlined. But then you still had things like The Final Frontier and the Enterprise going to the center of the galaxy when this was made clear years ago ships couldn’t travel that far that fast, so you got me lol.

But can we move on now?

Tiger2, you need to calm down, kid. You’ve been posting about things that have been explained, that were settled, and I pointed that out. No need to fly off the handle and rant at me about it. Sorry you lack basic knowledge of TOS and the Star Trek universe’s early years as a fictional franchise (not the history in the show), but there is no reason to get so angry and hostile in response.

Yes, I’m moving on, because you seem incapable of rational conversation for some reason. LL&P.

LOL, you are the one coming off offended. It’s bizarre. I simply quoted what is in the ACTUAL show lol. What do want me to say? Pike said he came from the other side of the galaxy. I know it’s a message board and we can split hairs all day long but I’m just going to go on the notion the guy meant it at the time. How else can you interpret that? And I never read the feakin writer’s bible. Maybe it’s on Memory Alpha somewhere but yes clearly things were changed, right? I literally pointed them out to you. Why are you so defensive over it? It’s just a TV show man, it’s not real life, stuff changes. And I never insulted you, I simply pointed out the show has contradicted itself as ALL the shows has at some point. How is this not a ‘rational’ conversation?

And I AGREED with you it was not a big deal and recognized even if they did have the ships more powerful in the beginning that probably was changed very early on since I can’t recall any dialogue beyond first season that suggested the ship traveled as far out as the pilots suggested. So I corrected myself based on what you said. That was me trying to be civil and compromise both views. You seem to think the show was perfect from day one and I have no idea how anyone could think that.

But you moved on, so no worries! Take it easy! :)

Actually I felt the PDs of Enterprise did a pretty good job balancing the era they were in with the advancements for a more modern TV audience. The sets did have a more submarine sort of feel. Things were cramped. They did leave echo buoys behind to help with communications. Uniforms looked like they could be precursors to the more colorful TOS ones. They didn’t have tractor beams yet and apparently food synthesizers weren’t in use yet. But in other ways it did look more advanced than the TOS show but I still thought it a good mix. And this was not comparing it to the KU or STD. This was comparing it only to TOS. From a design standpoint, Discovery severely dropped the ball on that front. Their aesthetics looked like they belonged either in the KU or 50 years after TNG. Certainly not in the prime universe in Pike’s day. Now this mistake could have been more forgivable had they put together a really good story with interesting characters in interesting situations. But they failed there too. So that failure only made the other production failures even bigger in my mind. BTW… Even if they managed to make good stories with good characters the weird far too advanced look of the show would have STILL been a bit of a pet peeve for me. Don’t get me wrong. I still would have liked the show. But that didn’t happen, sadly.

And yes, this is worth repeating… The show should have been set either 30 years post TUC or 30 years after Picard. Personally prequels don’t bother me. Especially if they are in blank eras that have yet to be explored. (Like the 70 years between TUC and TNG) They can be very well done. The fact that STD was set in the Pike era was a bit intriguing but the Burnham connection to Spock I felt was nothing but a safety net for the producers. The writers need to view a prequel as a challenge and be clever enough to find ways to create stories that fit with parameters of what they know is to come.

Its always interesting to me that the universal give away from CGI effects of real footage is it turns the colors warm

Season 2 better have Sisko.

As awesome as that would be I’d say our chances are very slim.

As with Patrick Stewart, the most essential issue is whether or not Avery Brooks would do it.

He’s made it clear that he portrayed Sisko for some crucial reasons, principally around representation.

Joining Picard’s series as a guest wouldn’t do much for that.

That said, if the creative team could come up with a good premise, who knows whether Brooks might see the merit. I’m not holding my breath though, Sisko seems to have been the most challenging character for the Relaunch novelists to provide meaningful stories for.

…or else, you’ll hold your breath until you turn blue?

…or I wait until Sisko gets his own spin off show.

Star Trek: The Sisko

No offense meant, but i don’t notice any major difference to Data

It’s a massive difference.

Thanks for sharing.

Blue Skies is a somewhat unexpected musical theme.

It is but since it’s also a call back to Nemesis to the song Data sings it in the movie so a really nice touch! :)

I don’t know if Picard is going to be a good show or not, but I’m loving all the little call backs to the shows and films we seen so far and that’s just from the trailers and supplementary material. It shows they really want to get this right at least and make fans fall in love with this era all over again.

It makes sense. We know that Data is coming back in some way, and the last hint that we got that Data still exists in some form was B4 singing Blue Skies.

I think Dahj is singing Blue Skies. I think this is another hint that she is the new Android(Data).

I hope you’re being sarcastic.

The “Picard” version looks many years older than the “Nemesis” version.

This is because the actor is many years older, of course.

For anyone who is interested Star Trek.com just put out a Picard watchlist of what episodes/films you should watch before the show starts:

https://www.startrek.com/news/your-ultimate-star-trek-picard-watch-guide

Most of them are obvious (I literally just rewatched Family and the Drumhead yesterday. Still amazing episodes. Rewatched BOBW the day before that.) but all the TNG films are also included minus Generations. Not surprised about FC and NEM obviously but am a little surprised INS is there but I’m personally skipping it. The 2009 film is also there for obvious reasons. Wasn’t planning on rewatching it for the show but might squeeze it in if I have time. And of course they also have a few Data and Seven episodes to focus on. The only one from Voyager/Seven is Raven. But covers a lot with Data/Seven/Borg/Romulans in general.

But good list and just a lot of great episodes in general. I’ve already seen about a third of them so still plenty to watch the next few weeks.

…thanks for that, Tiger. Dusted off my copy of “Countdown” for a re-read, too.

Ironically, I think we all want him to look like an aged Brent, not artificial smoothing.

You are wrong because I really don’t care if they age Data or not.