Alex Kurtzman And Patrick Stewart Suggest ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Might Continue Beyond Season 3

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In addition to the new Star Trek: Picard season 3 poster released today at the TCA Winter event in Pasadena, California, Paramount+ brought executive producers and cast from the show to talk to the assembled press about the upcoming season, who hinted it might not be so final.

Door left open for more Picard after “final” season

The third season of Star Trek: Picard is being promoted as “the final season,” as it is on the brand-new poster released today. However, co-creator (and executive producer in charge of Star Trek for Paramount+) Alex Kurtzman hinted that the show could continue. Quoted by TVLine and other outlets attending the TCA event, Kurtzman told the assembled media:

When we started the series, Patrick [Stewart], and, we all, talked about really wanting it to just be three years, feeling like we could really tell a complete story with the season you’re now seeing as our endpoint. That being said, anything is possible. If a show blows the doors off the place, as we’re certainly hoping it will, and we’re very, very proud of Season 3, who knows?

Star Sir Patrick Stewart said “absolutely, yes” to the idea of continuing with the role, as long as the show can “maintain the work that we did on Seasons 1, 2 and 3.” He noted the third season kept the possibility open for more story:

… there is still enormous potential for narrative in what we’ve been doing, and there are doors left open, still. We didn’t close all of them.

Stewart previously discussed the possibility of continuing to play Jean-Luc Picard at New York Comic Con, even suggesting a return to TNG feature films. His Picard co-stars Michelle Hurd and Jeri Ryan as well as his TNG castmates Gates McFadden and Marina Sirtis have openly talked about reprising their roles after season 3. Jonathan Frakes has also brought up returning to the role of Riker: In a November interview with TrekMovie, the actor and director said season 3 “doesn’t feel so much as an ending as the possibility of moving forward. I think there’s a future.”

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But it’s still a “conclusion”

Showrunner Terry Matalas has been vocal about wanting to continue on after Picard with a spinoff series, which would be another way to tell new stories with these characters as well as with the new ones introduced in season 3. However, Matalas spoke again about how his vision for season 3 was about giving the TNG cast another chance to wrap things up (via Metacritic):

Jean-Luc Picard and Next Generation never got a final send-off. It felt like after Star Trek Nemesis there wanted to be one more final story. How better to end that journey than to look back at the beginning and to bring his friends and family from Star Trek: The Next Generation? So there’s a strong sense of conclusion to that storyline.

Sir Patrick Stewart has previously stated that season 3 should not be touted as a “reunion” because the TNG characters are a key part of the story. At the TCA event, Stewart talked about how he also feels the show remains topical (via AVClub):

What excited me about working on the show was, and it was Alex [Kurtzman] who said this, I had lived 35 years since I put on the captain’s uniform. There’s no doubt in that time, the world has changed. I have changed too. I wanted the series to show the impact of those years that have passed, how much one might change, and whether fears become greater or less. Right now, with the condition of the world, my fears are high. So I wanted that to be incorporated. Terry and [co-creator] Alex Kurtzman did it brilliantly.

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Crusher’s ass-kicking and Worf’s journey

There are more highlights from the TCA event on Monday. Gates McFadden talked about doing some action scenes as Dr. Crusher (via Syfy):

I love kicking ass, first of all. I always wanted to do more action.” She added that this Crusher feels more like the character as created by Gene Roddenberry. “There’s a much bigger range this season.

Michael Dorn talked about working with Terry Matalas and the writers to develop Worf’s story  (via Gamespot):

He’s always been looking and searching through The Next Generation, Deep Space [Nine], and the movies for who he is. And that’s the one thing I wanted to impart to [the writers and producers].

In the NYCC trailer, Worf can be seen saying he “prefers pacifism to combat.” At the TCA event, Matalas expanded on this (via Gamespot):

Well, I think it’s important that he’s not really a pacifist. He prefers pacifism, but he does have a giant anime-sized sword.

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The third and final season of Picard premieres on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023, exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., with new episodes of the 10-episode-long season available to stream weekly on Thursdays.

Picard streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S.A. It is distributed concurrently by Paramount Global Content Distribution on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories, and in Canada it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave.


Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.

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Wow, I have never been first to comment. My feeling? if the WRITING is great, if the STORY is interesting and pulls us in, let the adventures continue with these beloved characters. Keep going! But keep it fresh, no retreads, give us GREAT stories and we’ll keep watching. Would love to see them keep going and going AS LONG AS the story and writing is great. They deserve great writing and great stories and there are so many untold stories!

And where exactly are you taking that certainty, when Writing and Story were the worst parts of the previous seasons and nothing has really changed at least between Seasons 2 and 3?

The showrunner has changed and I’m assuming some of the writing staff. The music composer has changed. Cinematographer has changed from what I heard. I also understand some of the TNG era people from behind the scenes took part in Season 3…makeup and visual effects. Does that mean it will be a killer Season? Well, we don’t know but things have certainly changed.

“Assume” can make an “ass” out of “u” and “me”

Neither music nor cinematography nor makeup were not the issue with season 2.

Most people think TNG didn’t find its footing until S3.

So for Picard that would be about episode 50 – the beginning of season 6

It’s not just about episode count tho. It’s about learning the mistakes of previous seasons, letting time pass, and in the case of TNG, getting past a writer’s strike.

Well Picard S2 had to deal in a major way with COVID.

For me, with the exception of Discovery, every previous show has improved by season 3, so I’m crossing my fingers for Picard as well. Some I liked more before season 3 like several of the new shows now, but season 3 definitely seems to be a big turnaround for most shows, TNG being the best example bar none.

I’ve friends and acquaintances who have seen the eps of S3. They keep referring to it as TNG Season 8. They all have been VERY critical of PIC S1 and 2. So, I think Matalas will be similar (or better) to what Manny Coto did for ENT. So if my DSC PIC SNW hating friends all LOVE PIC S3? Something’s afoot. Now, I have no proof of this, but I think the writers have found an ORGANIC way to bring William Shatner back as Kirk. It’s been put out there that Geordi is at Veridian 3, trying to get the Enterprise D saucer section off the surface. If that Nexus ribbon is headed back that way, to Verdian 3? There may be a another copy of Kirk, left behind in the Nexus. Or, if that Nexus ribbon revives Kirk, as it crosses the planet, from his grave, we have Kirk back. I’m not ready to put my money on it but I’m looking for Shatner to come back.

My sister’s-roomate’s-uncle’s-best friend’s-massage therapist is friends with a producer, and passed along that this is not only the best Trek series season ever, V’Ger shows up in the finale, and a de-aged CGI Nimoy-Spock will also be in it!

I’m not saying dennys fan speculation is going to happen- but you know that test screenings are a thing. Execs read reactions – you can bet after the mess that season 2 was and how the internet reacted, they’ve been test screening the shit out of this.

Its not outside the realm of possibility that people have seen the first few eps already

Actually a few Star Trek YouTubers have seen the entire season months ago and have said it’s the best season of the show which isn’t hard since they hated the first two lol.

Doesn’t mean everyone will love it, but it’s encouraging, especially when it’s coming from people who has been highly critical of Picard and the new shows and films from the start.

“How the internet reacted” is not necessarily representative of how a larger population reacts — yes, even for science fiction.

“How the internet reacted” is not necessarily representative of how a larger population reacts — yes, even for science fiction.

EXACTLY!

Well if ever you do decide to put your money on it, I hope you live in a warm climate. Living on the streets is not easy!

Lol, exactly

When has that happened so far in the series?

Looking forward to seeing S3. S1-2 were great and i hope S3 is equally as good. I do hope Picard continues on to more seasons.

Season 3 is the end of the series as that is how it was designed and all that sir Patrick agreed to do it for

The point of the article is saying its possible to do more seasons now since Stewart seems to be hinting he wants to do more. And let’s be honest, nothing stops them from doing more unless they just kill the character off in season 3. And this being Star Trek, that has never a major issue either lol.

Tell us you didn’t read the article without telling us you didn’t read the article. LOL (LLAP)

Got Reading Comprehension?

I imagine that a lot of this hedging is simply a diplomatic way of talking around the actuarial aspect of this — Patrick Stewart may be healthy and interested, but he is not young. I wonder if to some extent they’re looking at the calendar and weighing his energy levels, etc. when considering what Picard’s role would be. If he’s only up for part-time work, they could change the title and make Picard a recurring character while keeping the focus on the other continuing (and maybe a few newly re-introduced) legacy characters.

My guess is we will see a Seven Spin off announced soon, or some other 25th century show, and they may be looking into having Stewart continue in a greatly reduced capacity.

LOL I don’t think anyone is remotely surprised by this news. It’s been very very obvious they didn’t want to end the show but had no choice once Stewart said he was done (and it is a bit hard to continue a show named after the star who is leaving).

To me, I think the solution is to make two 25th century shows (yes I know it’s easy for a someone to say that whose just laying on their couch somewhere lol) but it seems like everyone (producers, actors and fans) want more post-Nemesis stories and you already have multiple ideas with Janeway/Seven/Worf/Riker/etc lead shows while also just presenting new characters who can start the next next generation.

In other words if Picard season 4 does happen, it will obviously continue on as TNG based show and then you can still do the spin off show but that would be with more original characters with maybe one major legacy character to anchor it from VOY/DS9/TNG etc. Picard will be the nostalgia TNG show and the spin off can be something akin to Prodigy or Lower Decks with mostly new characters with a few legacy characters added, even if just more recurring.

But I think in reality they don’t want Picard to end, especially now that the entire TNG cast is back and they can make a few more seasons with them if season 3 is a big hit. It’s going to be interesting where all this ends up but first and foremost, I hope they just made a great season for a change because if this one is ‘meh’ as the previous two then maybe fans won’t be begging for more as they seem to now.

EDIT: To clarify a bit, I’m not suggesting both shows have to run at the same time. I’m basically just saying IF they decide to keep Picard, then just keep that show going. And ONCE that’s over, then you can still do a spin off show as planned. So nothing really changes from the basic plan, Picard will just run a few seasons longer and eventually go to the spin off show after it.

Shame they wasted Data in S1 for no good reason.

Agreed, and why did they kill him off if Picard knew he was there again?

I honestly don’t think it mattered to be honest because Spiner doesn’t want to revive Data. I think they only got him to do it in Picard because he was only shown in a dream sequence. I think Spiner just doesn’t want an old Data, he’s always been adamant about that and why they killed the character off in the first place because he always said what made Data special was his Pinocchio like quality which I agree.

And I’ve said in the past it’s OK if some characters just remain dead lol. I don’t have an issue if we never see Data, Jadzia Dax or Prime Kirk again. It’s very very odd to say this, but it’s a little refreshing to see SOME finality of characters. Now if they brought them all back, sure I’ll watch lol. But I don’t have an issue with keeping some characters dead since that’s not the case with most of them. I do want to see Trip brought back though because I hated he was killed off at all but I’m OK if he’s never revived either. And, chances of that is obviously slim anyway.

If there is one character I don’t want to see come back its James T Kirk. I never liked his death (who does?) but so much time has passed and they will never do it in a movie which frankly Shatner deserves. And I don’t mean in Kelvin 4. Just leave it be. Like they should have done with Data. Honestly the only 2 characters to ever come back from the dead successfully are Spock obviously (again because in part it was done eight away and on an epic scale) and Tasha sort of via Sela.

Data was literally blown to bits in Nemesis. There was no good organic (no pun intended) way to bring him back. Including what they did in Season 1. I know they wanted Spiner back but Data was not the way to go.

Exactly outside of time travel or just inventing a new Data, which I actually thought that was going to be the big reveal in the finale.

A new Data that wasn’t flawed like Lore or B4 and did age like Julianna Tanor (for Spiner’s sake) would have been interesting. Decades later after so much of Jurati’s research she still could not pull off what a Soong could. Way better twist than what we got and if Spiner didn’t want to come back then leave him on the planet.

I don’t think they should have killed off Data but having done so I wish they’d just leave it alone, or else perhaps Isa Briones’ Soji could have taken his place without constantly dwelling on her father’s character.

But this going over it or trying to force Spiner in in other ways doesn’t really work for me at all.

My gut feeling is that Data’s story isn’t done yet.

Remember – A copy of Data is still in B4 ……………………. ;-)

i read that it was always a 3 season plan. Terry seems to want to do more since he just took over as showrunner for S3 and if its good I hope they let him. Maybe not a Picard show though.

Yes that was the plan all along, but as I ALWAYS post lol, Stewart was given an option to go 5 seasons if he wanted, but 3 seasons was agreed upon from the start. But wanting to do another season is not a shock because that was always an option. It’s clear they wanted more but of course they have to take into account they had a very aging star and he probably only agreed to do it with some kind of end date in mind.

And lets keep in mind there is a small chance he might be doing more MCU

I’m fine with the show continuing if season three ends up being good. I wouldn’t want more seasons like one and two.

My thoughts exactly.

Mine as well, despite my refusal to judge those who hate all the current Star Trek shows–including Picard–still an OK current Star Trek show for me–and my #1 Prodigy.

Hear, hear.

Season One had incredible potential, near-movie-level production values (apart from the terrible Data deaging) and some interesting ideas and world-building (showing tech and places we’d never seen before) — and then it just got sort of silly.

Season Two was absolutely abysmal, though – it was dumb Trek and dumb TV, period. It looked early-90s-direct-to-video cheap, had a nonsensical plot and completely wasted usually talented actors.

And Matalas was showrunner for S2, wasn’t he? – so I’m worried yet optimistic.

Matalas was showrunner for the first three, maybe four, episodes before he went off to plan Season 3.

He was a co-showrunner for 2 episodes with Akiva Goldsman in Season 2 and then he left to focus on being the sole showrunner for Season 3.

was it the first 2 cause those were the best ones of the season I thought and thats not sayin much lol

I never want to rewatch Season One, but I am in the minority of fans who really enjoyed Season Two.

Really? What did you enjoy about it?

I rewatched Season 1 before Season 2. It wasn’t dreadful, but it certainly wasn’t anywhere near the best Star Trek has offered. Season 2 started with so much promise and then just turned into a train wreck.

I definitely think The Star Gazer episode is some of the best Star Trek we gotten in decades. If season 3 is an entire season like that episode then we could have a huge winner.

I think this is their way of saying – without actually saying it – that a spin-off is in the works waiting to be green lit before they announce it. They could easily use many of these characters to spin off a new series with with characters.

I don’t think that’s a secret though. They’ve all said at this point a spin show was happening, we just don’t know the who, what and when yet. But Matalas said they designed the season to basically launch a spin off show within it and Levar Burton hinted it would be a Next next generation type of thing.

Unless season 3 just spectacularly crash and burn a spin off seems assured at this point UNLESS they do end up doing more Picard.

It should be a no-brainer that the spin-off is a 7 of 9 series. Other legacy characters can be in it, but she should be the lead.

Would absolutely love a Seven series, especially now that she is part of Starfleet. I’m open to pretty much anyone but yeah a Seven show seems to be an obvious top contender.

A Seven series might have been the target somewhere along the way.

We need to keep in mind that a La Sirena series was abandoned after season one, and that a TNG sequel is likely always what the money people would have put as the top priority.

I think we’ll get whatever seems most likely to draw a large swath of both classic Trek and new audiences based on ratings analyses of season three.

Paramount+ is the major streamer that is most successful in serving all ages and genders. It’s also got the highest proportion of its own content (other than Disney). So, despite the ‘menu of shows’ model for the franchise, and Picard season four or post-Picard TNG sequel will have to do its part to fill in the menu.

Parrot Analytics has noted that Discovery (and Picard to a lesser extent) have brought in a new and younger audience.

Prodigy turns out to be the ‘four corners’ show that brings back the franchise’s core audience while introducing kids and others new to the franchise.

I don’t thing that the post Picard show will be enough if it just satisfies the 90s TNG audience now in middle age. But if it can bring in the under 40s as well, that will get it greenlit.

Parrot Analytics has noted that Discovery (and Picard to a lesser extent) have brought in a new and younger audience.

Yeah, Discovery may not be all that popular among hardcore, older Trek fans, but man, it has really grown the franchise substantially among the younger and female demographics — and I’ve seen the demographic show up at recent conventions to see SMG. DSC’s a huge hit, and it’s spinoff, SNW is doing very well as well and has captured the public’s imagination in a big way that dwarfs all of the other new series’ — it’s going to be a mega hit over the next few years if they keep doing it correctly.

Well if they abandoned a La Sierna show, that’s music to my ears because i hate that ship SO much lol. I’m hoping in season 3 it will be destroyed for good.

And I don’t disagree with anything you said, of course a TNG show will always be more popular and why Picard just should’ve been a TNG revival show on day one if Stwart wasn’t so stubborn, but I don’t that’s all fans want either. And Kurtzman said they want different audiences and demographics. And Seven is immensely popular so I don’t think it’s out of the question. But to be honest, she doesn’t have to LEAD the show, people just want to keep seeing her like a lot of legacy characters. If she sticks around and just be part of whatever comes next, then that would be good too. But again if they only want TNG characters because they think it would drive more views, then Riker would be on Prodigy, not Janeway. Lower Decks would probably have a TNG character as part of the cast and so on.

I was just saying personally I would love a Seven show. But I would love a lot of things lol. I don’t want them to just make a ton of TNG spinoffs no more than I want a ton of TOS spinoffs. But obviously if we got a Worf or the Riker show, I would be into that. I’m easy. It’s just fun to see all these guys back and with so many legacy characters now, they have a range of options.

And I think the hardcore fans are just happy with more post-Nemesis shows than anything, regardless if legacy characters are part of the show or not or Lower Decks wouldn’t be so popular for fans. But yeah casual fans are probably drawn to shows where they know at least some of the characters and probably why 3 of the 5 shows have iconic characters leading those shows. ;)

OK I reread your post and it comes off slightly contradicting. On one hand you say Paramount thinks TNG based shows will drive viewers but your last line states they can’t just rely on those fans only and need to come up with new things.

Ironically that’s kind of my point lol. A potential Seven show would just do what Prodigy is doing now and have a legacy character from the start for old fans but it can have NEW characters to bring in new fans, in theory anyway. And then of course get those new fans to start watching the other shows in time. So again, you’re actually making my point for me, right?

For the record, I actually agree with your first point, they are going to just make whatever they think will draw in more viewers, period. Obviously new viewers is a priority too in the long term, but in all honesty I think ALL these shows it’s 90% old fans watching them and why these shows are getting renewed because it’s the old fans who are driving the overwhelming viewership and interest.

The irony is that’s why the TV side is so successful now and the movie side is currently dead because in the TV world, it’s really the hardcore and casual fans that can sustain them. New fans are not that important. Great to have, but they don’t keep the shows on the air because they are probably a tiny portion in viewership. MAYBE Prodigy is attracting more newer viewers but I even have my doubts about that show and that’s the show designed for new viewers (but I hope to be wrong).

In the movie world though, it’s the opposite, they can’t rely on old fans alone and really need new viewers to make those movies a success, certainly when you are spending an utterly insane $190 million on them lol. And why we have 5 shows on the air but can’t get one movie in a theater 5+ years later. ;)

I’m really saying that it’s worth looking at the data as a few of us do here.

Paramount is building a subscriber base. They know that the core Trek fans will watch almost anything, but they do need some anchor shows that might attract more subscribers. TNG isn’t just a pull for the core base.

In its day TNG was a mainstream cultural phenomenon in the United States, to the extent that there may be an untapped casual TNG audience that might be attracted to give the new show and the streamer a try.

But that wouldn’t be enough, the show would also need to have some legs to attract other P+ subscribers. Discovery and Picard has done this. What remains to be seen is whether Matalas can thread the needle to attract and retain both the new and the broad base older TNG viewers.

The subscriber stats for Paramount+ are really interesting. Take a look at Parrot Analytics twitter, they have put out some interesting charts there.

P+ is really the broad demo streamer both by gender and age…which is not where WB or Discovery or Peacock or Disney are.

Also the stats on how much of its content is made by Paramount or from its library is so different from others. They aren’t paying to licence content made by others.

It’s still small in market share and not keeping up as Disney has crowded in, but it’s also on a different business model it seems. So, the decision process for continuing to add new franchise shows won’t be the same either.

Dude, we’re 100% on the same page here. I’m not arguing with you, but dude, YOU’RE the one who suggested that the next show should be more TNG based, but now you just made an entire thread why the shows shouldn’t be so TNG focused, so I’m a little confused lol.

Read my OP here, I have said basically what you just wrote here. I’ll even quote some of it:

In other words if Picard season 4 does happen, it will obviously continue on as TNG based show and then you can still do the spin off show but that would be with more original characters with maybe one major legacy character to anchor it from VOY/DS9/TNG etc. Picard will be the nostalgia TNG show and the spin off can be something akin to Prodigy or Lower Decks with mostly new characters with a few legacy characters added, even if just more recurring.

I wrote that a day ago! It’s a few posts about this one. That’s what I was saying before we had this discussion, IF Picard continues (and we don’t know obviously) that will be the hard TNG show for obviously long time fans but the spin off SHOULDN’T just be more TNG either. I think that show can be something different to attract different audiences. But sure, I expect it will have a legacy character regardless to anchor it. It could be another TNG character. It could be someone from Voyager like Janeway or Seven as mentioned or even DS9 which also would be great.

And I think that’s going to be the case going forever with EVERY new show because I think they learned once you have a legacy character on it, even just one like Picard and Prodigy originally had, it just brings more interest and attention in general.

And I’m not doubting you about new fans watching Discovery and Picard. Discovery is entering its fifth season, I would hope so lol. All of that is a positive. I was only saying that these shows isn’t going to live or die by new fans because I highly highly doubt the majority that are watching them are new fans. For the record I don’t know ANYONE watching any of these shows and I mean all of them. And I live in L.A. I have friends who are Star Trek fans, but they don’t want to pay for it (at the time AA) or it’s more ‘Abrams’ stuff etc. Now, these people are older, MUCH older, I’ll put it that way.

But do you have any friends or relatives whose never watched Star Trek before watching any of them? If you do, I envy you lol. To me, Star Trek feels like it’s in its own bubble. Sure new people watch Star Trek for the first time every day, but I still don’t see any off it in the mainstream like all the Star Wars and Marvel shows. I know people who actually watch those. Even if they don’t watch all of them, they seen at least one of them. It’s a big reason I talk about Trek online because I literally wouldn’t have any one to talk about it in the real world lol. That wasn’t always the case obviously, certainly not in the Berman era when as you said it was just bigger. But it was also on TV for free too.

But I want to make this clear, I agree Trek needs new fans and I’m happy with anyone who watches ANY of it. If Discovery has brought in 100 million new fans, great! That’s all positive. It means some will alos gravitate to TOS, VOY, ENT, TNG, etc giving those shows new viewers too. And then we will get another spin off show in the 32nd century, etc. Every time people put down the Kelvin movies, I always said its great they exist because it opens the door for new fans to watch the classic shows. You don’t have to like EVERYTHING, but if it draws in others, then it’s worth being there IMO.

So I want as many new people to watch any show that pulls them in because it benefits Star Trek as an whole and will continue to give us new shows, new characters, new settings, etc. Ironically it’s one of the reasons why I wanted Discovery in the 32nd century because if enough people are watching it we will get MORE shows in that era. I think Discovery as a show still suck but I want more 32nd century spinoffs lol. Because it ISN’T TOS, TNG or VOY! It’s something new.

So allll postive! :)

Forgot to also mention, if Picard is puling in new viewers, again GREAT news because we’ll get more 25th century shows to build up on that audience just like we can get more 32nd century shows if Discovery is doing well. None of this is negative for me, especially since I want every to show to succeed obviously.

As I said in my other posts, MOST hardcore fans seem more interested in just having new 25th century shows with or without new characters. In all honesty it’s mostly casual fans that they are bringing in all the legacy characters to attract because as you also noted, we’re going to watch mostly anything regardless. But I do think most hardcore fans really want to keep going forward more than anything. Even people who are still not big on Discovery, they seem to like it being in a new century with all new characters. So again, we’re not disagreeing at all dude. If they give me a Seven or Riker show, I will take it. If they give me a new show with new characters I will still take it lol. As long as its GOOD!

Oh and I never had Twitter, so I’ll just take your word for it. I trust you! ;)

I meant to say most hardcore fans seem more interested in new 25th shows with or without OLD characters!

I’m willing to bet right now the next Trek movie in theaters will be a Prodigy movie. Something like Spiderman.

The funny thing is Prodigy is the only show they have openly said they want to make into a movie some day. I can see why since kids animated movies are huge and it won’t cost anywhere close to $150 million either lol.

So I think that’s at least on the table in the future if the show is a hit which I have no idea lol.

Yep it’s got all the ingredients. Built in beloved characters. Time travel. Aliens. Earth. Space. All the fun stuff for a kids movie that made things like Spiderman and Clones Wars work.

Why should it be her? I’d rather have a Riker show

I’m guessing because he just likes her as a character. It doesn’t take much more than that as you are obviously a big Riker fan

I’d rather see Riker and Troi and their daughter live happily ever after on Nespathine.

Now I’m wondering if their daughter will show up next season? I hope at least one episode. I really liked her.

Yeah she was really spunky and cool. But somehow I doubt she will. I doubt 25th century federation starships are as family friendly as the 1701-D was.

I saw he said they could do more but where did he say it was designed for more shows?

It’s in an interview he gave to Trekmovie a few months ago. It’s from their All Access podcast so I can’t copy any direct quotes. He actually did hint about it in another interview earlier but I can’t remember what interview it was and he really didn’t say much at the time. Just kind of affirmed it. If I remember where I read it, I’ll post that quote. But he did mention it here in a two part interview and said that a spin off idea is developed in the season.

Now I want to be clear, he’s not saying its a guarantee a show will happen or even if that idea will be the next show. He’s only saying they have set up probably a story line or most likely characters in season 3 who could possibly go on to a spin off if fans and (more importantly) Paramount wants it.

Mulgrew wants to come back, the TNG wants to do more. I assume Jeri Ryan wants to do more. I think you’re right. They’re still hammering out the details.

“Well, I think it’s important that he’s not really pacifist. He prefers pacifism, but he does have a giant anime-sized sword.”

I love this! For Worf, I will now commit to watch PIC-S3.

This statement from Terry Matalas puts me in the mind of Jules Winnfield (Sam L. Jackson) from Pulp Fiction. Jules gets emotionally lit, and is made to give this speech:
The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.

Worf now sounds like Star Trek’s Jules.

Worf now walks the path of the righteous man… beset on all sides by the tyranny of evil men as he seeks to shepherd the weak through the valley of darkness. But don’t mistake his laser-sharpened, recurved bat’leth which is perpetually strapped to his back for a Klingon rosary. Worf prefers peace. But cross him – and like Jules with a .45 – Worf will strike down upon thee with furious anger and lay his vengeance into your cerebellum. Giving you peace.

Star Trek preaches striving for peace, but also shows us there are dangerous people who cannot be reasoned with who you have to be prepared for. So there’s definitely room for that interpretation.

Kinda off topic but I’m starting to speculate the rumored Starfleet Academy series may actually be a young Picard series.

I sincerely hope not.

We need them to give us some new live action characters.

Yeah I agree, I don’t really need anymore prequels. For me SNW is great, but that’s all I really need for anymore direct prequels UNLESS they spin off a character from that show which I suspect they will if the shows are still going strong later on.

Exactly. But many fans say one thing one day on this and then say the opposite the next day. Like, hypothetically, a fan here might say in many posts over time that they want a Captain Janeway series, but then in many other posts over time they tell us they want new series. So in that hypothetical case, they can’t make up their minds and constantly contradict themselves without realizing it…thus no one would take such a blowhard seriously in my hypothetical example case here…lol

I’d hoped SNW would focus more on Pike and Number One – legacy characters that we saw very little of, introduced in The Cage but with so much range to explore.

Instead it’s doubling down on being a prequel for TOS.

I still love it for what it is, but regret the lost opportunity to really focus on Pike’s Enterprise.

Agreed, but not remotely shocked as I said before. I knew it was going to more of a TOS prequel show than a Pike show. Which is fine because obviously more people are interested in that.

I think this time around they wanted to be sure that *this* TOS show would be the true ensemble cast that the real TOS never was.

Ugh!

I really hope not. As much as I love SNW, lets let the prequel series stop with that.

Awesome!

I hope there are many more seasons…Let’s face it, to the vast majority of people Star Trek is TOS, TNG and their iconic characters…It’s a good thing if we can get more of the reason ST became a phenomenon rather than a water down spinoff/reboot. Give us the actors and characters that made ST great.

I see these sorts of comments everywhere. “We don’t want new characters, give us legacy characters only”. Trek really has stagnated.

narrator voice: “It hasn’t.”

Really? Picard ditching new characters and just giving us legacy characters back. Strange New Worlds being about legacy characters on a legacy ship. Lower Decks is literally only references to previous Trek. Prodigy bringing in legacy characters and apparently bringing in even more next season. If that isn’t franchise stagnation then I don’t know what is.

That’s true, you don’t.

I feel like I’m in the Monty Python argument sketch. (No I don’t)

lol — I won’t slap anyone with a fish, at least.

I just don’t really see any argument for the idea of the franchise overall being stagnant.

Discovery — mostly new characters, plus an entirely different approach to the tone and structure of a Trek series (for better or for worse)

Picard — ditto, at least for the first two seasons

Lower Decks — it’s rooted in nostalgia for the TNG era, sure, but it’s also a completely different style of series than any Trek before it. Plus, almost entirely new characters.

Prodigy — once again, an entirely different type of Trek series than any ever made before it. It uses a familiar character (Janeway) and familiar concepts, but as a means of making a show that’s a primer for kids on how to learn to love Star Trek.

Strange New Worlds — it’s set in a familiar era and has some pre-existing characters, yes, but it’s also seemingly determined to tinker with canon and to go to places where the shows have never gone before (pun not intended).

What in ANY of this is an example of stagnation?

There we go, actual discussion from you at last.

What’s the selling point of:
Picard season 3? The gang back together.
Lower Decks? Never-ending references to previous Trek.
Stranger New Worlds? Adventures on the original Enterprise.

The Prodigy showrunners just did an interview where they talked about there being a lot more legacy characters in season 2.

I give credit to Discovery for at least pushing the franchise forward, but it’s the only show to be doing that. The result of all of this is self-defeating, fans will clamour more and more for legacy characters to get their own show (comments like that are all over the comments section of this site), instead of appreciating when Trek does finally give us something new and fresh.

I want more new characters as well.

We don’t want new characters, give us legacy characters only”. Trek really has stagnated.

I fully agree. TNG showed us no legacy characters until season 3, with Sarek (setting aside McCoy’s passing-of-the-torch cameo in “Encounter at Farpoint”). Even then, Sarek was not a main character in TOS — he had, at the time, appeared in a single episode and two movies.

It was not until season 5 and 6 that we had legacy characters in TNG, with Spock and Scotty appearing. By then TNG had been firmly established as its own series. And even then, their TOS legacy characters’ appearances were artfully curated one-and-dones — Spock and Scotty didn’t show up every couple of episodes to save the day.

I shutter to think what TNG would have been like had the writers given us TOS hagiography at every step of the way.

You’re only talking ONE show though! And when the character pool was so much smaller because it was only TOS at the time. Add the fact TNG took place 100 years after TOS, then it made it harder to crossover more regularly. If TNG took place in the 23rd century it obviously would’ve been easier to add more characters.

But then looked what happened when DS9 and VOY showed up? The crossovers increased a lot and those shows had other characters showing up in their first seasons.

Here is an example of shows whose characters crossover into another show.

TNG (including films): TOS, DS9 and VOY
DS9: TOS, TNG and VOY
VOY: TOS, TNG and DS9

See a trend there?

VOY was on the other side of the galaxy and they STILL found ways to crossoer characters lol. DS9 is the show that holds the MOST crossovers to date, around 30 (when you include the TOS cast in Trials and Tribbulations (still counts)). ENT had the least but obviously due to its time period and it still got Riker and Troi to show up in the finale.

I will admit, A. None of the classic shows brought on old characters as part of the cast except DS9 with Worf and O’Brien. And B. the new shows have a higher degree of crossover appearances per character (like Pike being in every episode in Discovery season 2) but it’s not doing anything differently than the old shows. But there are now five shows and all of them existed in time periods of all the classic shows when you include the first two seasons of Discovery, so it’s going to happen just like the previous shows.

And yet they didn’t have REAL crossover episodes in all these shows of old Trek. There were references, guest appearances, revisited episodes/movies. But there was never an episode of one show which was picked up and continued in another show.

Well OK, if that’s your definition of a crossover then no one should be complaining about the new shows either since none of them has done that yet.

Maybe the LDS/SNW crossover will do something like that and we get a story that crossover into both shows, but it sounds like more of a one off so far like all the others.

This is like when Nimoy and everyone thought Star Trek would be done after Wrath of Khan but Meyer reinvigorated the franchise and now Terry has reinvigorated the franchise because as Gates McFadden and others have declared, you should know that you can TRUST TERRY. I haven’t seen Season 3 or even a complete episode of 12 Monkeys but I am still trusting Terry because I have something called faith of the heart.

Actors say a lot of things. I’ll wait to see what Matalas actually delivers.

He was exec producer and co-showrunner for Season Two (and the time travel and bringing back Q were reportedly his ideas) — so I hope this season looks better and is smarter/less silly.

Yeah. And I’m always a little wary of creatives that do deck clearing exercises to bring in their new characters. I’m willing to give it a chance, because S2 was reportedly dealing with a lot of issues outside of Matalas’ control, but I’ve got reservations.

The biggest reservation is that this “Vadic” character, however artfully portrayed by Amanda Plummer, appears to be yet another stock villain out for revenge on the Federation, a reprise of Shinzon and Nero and Adm. Marcus and Capt. Balthazar.

Could I be wrong? Sure. Trailers aren’t always accurate. ST:BEYOND wasn’t bad, despite its awful trailer. And even when it comes to monomaniacal villains, a lot depends on the execution.

After I saw how Matalas behaved on social media, I’m downright concerned about Season 3.

Ignore social media. Most people are jerks on “social media”. Not sure how we turned into a world that places so much emphasis on what Celebrity A said today on Twitter, but here we are.

“Trust is earned. Not given away.”

“I prefer pacifism to combat these days”

Fans have twisted this into meaning that Worf is a pacifist. He’s not. As can be seen in the trailer, he’s actively fighting Raffi in one scene, and carrying a giant Klingon sword on his back (not a Bat’leth).

Taken literally, it’s basically the ideals of Starfleet and the Federation: Solving problems in a non-violent, diplomatic way. The way you’d expect from someone who spent several years as an Ambassador perhaps…?

Yeah, it’s kind of ridiculous. You’re not carrying a sword on your back if you’re a true pacifist. I don’t consider myself a pacifist but I’m not carrying any swords everywhere I go either.

And that’s another good point, Starfleet considers itself a non-violent organization and yet every other week on any given show there is lots of gun fire or ship battles. In fact I’ll go as far to say you can’t really be in Starfleet if you are a pacifist because you always have to prepare to fight someone, unless you have assignments that’s far away from any conflict.

Feels a bit like muddled writing to me. Shocking I know.

There is a difference between being peaceful and being a pacifist.

A pacifist will not fight back.

I actually don’t like pacifists as they allow evil people to rise as they don’t resist. You need to fight against the forces of evil. They would love for all their opposition to be pacifists.

Or someone who has been promoted to captain of the Federation flagship maybe? ;)

Did they say anything about which Soongs or Data variants that Brent Spiner might be playing in future seasons? Seriously, I can’t get enough of every possible evil, crazy, and or senile Soong you can roll out. It literally never gets old, and it’s so dang creative!

I really liked Spiner as Data, but a Soong as a baddie of the season/week is just tiresome.

Even so, I find myself wanting to see how that Lore looking dude fits into the story. I am really hoping that it is Data in a golum body and he’s not bad, just one of our heros.

That might come up somewhen in the future in “fistful of fistful of Datas and Soong variants”. ;-)

Well, Paramount is promoting it as the “final season.”

I suppose they could spin it off into something with a slightly different name (Picard Plus!).

I’d love for Paramount to make a high-concept, big-budget movie with the TNG/DS9/Voyager characters. Or three of ’em, for that matter. If you did that right, they’d be huge hits, guaranteed. At least two of those shows are more popular now than they were when they went off the air.

I wouldn’t mind that at all Bryant but I would really prefer they do something completely new altogether with new characters and even setting. If Paramount manages to get it’s shit together before 2030 and make another movie, that would be my top preference over anything.

That said, your idea is probably what they would go for because everyone seems to think a movie can’t be successful without legacy characters involved. But ironically that’s probably why they have been DOA since 2016.

But a post-Nemesis movie with TNG era characters would definitely be exciting for fans and would energize interest in it in a big way, I definitely can’t deny that. There was a lot discussion and excitement about it on other boards when Stewart threw out the idea he wanted to do another TNG movie at New York comic con.

With the exception of FIRST CONTACT, none of the TNG movies hit the box office out of the park. I see no basis for saying a TNG/DS9/VOY movie would be “a huge hit, guaranteed.”

All of the Trek 2.0 era shows (setting aside ENT, to some degree, which I think of as Trek 2.5) were ensemble shows. That does not map well onto the big screen — there is just not enough time to give each character his or her due. Crusher all but disappeared in the TNG films, and Geordi and Troi weren’t a whole lot better. Everything had to focus on Picard and Data.

A huge mashup of Trek 2.0 shows would be even worse. You’re talking, what, 15 or so main crew members? None of them will shine. It would be the Picard and Sisko show — not that that would necessarily be terrible, since the two had some chemistry together in “Emissary. But “Emissary” was DS9’s pilot, shown many years ago, and who knows how it would work out today. And that still leaves the other crew members sidelined.

Star Trek’s home is on the small screen. Thanks to THE SOPRANOS and its many prodigy, not to mention home theaters, TV is no longer the poor stepchild of the movies, so there is no dishonor to Trek in arriving at that conclusion.

You’ll note that I specified it would be a hit if done right. And I stand by that.

Sorry, but “if done right” is a null statement because what does “right” even mean in that context?
High quality is not a guarantee for commercial success. In fact, many good movies have trouble attracting larger audiences, whereas it seems that many “dumb” franchise movies still bring in big numbers quite reliably (although also not guaranteed).
So “high-concept” and “big budget” is anything but guaranteed to be a big success.

You people are goddamn exhausting.

LOL! Welcome to Trek message boards! ;D

From the sounds of it, that’s exactly what this is, just spread across 10 eps on streaming.

And there we have it, everything they said they wouldn’t do they will do (bring back old crew, only 3 seasons)…can we always trust what they say? Not anymore, hence why trying to avoid the season 3 hype train.

Exception to Stewart, spiner and Burton, it makes the rest of the cast feel relevant again I suppose.

Let’s be honest, they only said those things because they were trying to appease Stewart. Now they either convinced him to get onboard or he just mellowed to these ideas more.

And as I point out many times (but constantly ignored) Akiva Goldsman confirmed Stewart had it in his contract that he can do two more optional seasons if he chose to (and assuming the ratings were good) so it was never JUST three seasons, but that’s what they originally agreed upon. It looks like that may now be changing too.

One way to read this is that, now that Stewart has finally been convinced to do the kind of TNG continuity show the money people at CBS, now Paramount, always wanted, the door may be opening for more seasons… should the audience reaction and streaming views hit certain thresholds.

Patrick’s ego contributed significantly to the incoherent messes of the first two seasons. There’s no doubt on that. We’ve been clearly told that Kurtzman’s writers made more than one attempt to convince him to reprise the character, and only a last (desperate) reworking by Chabon and a EP credit flattered him into agreeing.

The fact that Matalas was brought in as a replacement for Chabon (with Goldsman) for season two, but then released to focus entirely on season three early in production while Goldsman was championing the launch of SNW, says that Secret Hideout and CBS Studios were willing to sacrifice season two in order to seize the opportunity to get the show the streamer had always wanted for season three.

One last point that no one has mentioned, is that Paramount has clearly said that Picard is the last live action show they will produce in California. They obtained grants from the state to make it more affordable, but it’s still both higher cost and less government subsidized than producing in Toronto.

Given that at his age, Stewart has been pretty adamant about production being in his now home of LA, while Matalas has (12 Monkeys) and is (Witch Mountain for Disney) producing shows in Toronto, it’s possible that unless Picard is essential as an ongoing lead, the sequel will carry on without the lead under a new title.

I kind of doubt CBS/Paramount ever wanted to do a TNG continuity show given the dismal performance of Nemesis and Insurrection. I actually think they wanted the Picard-centric show (albeit with a couple former Trek actors supporting) based on the great response to the Logan movie and Stewart’s international popularity.

I certainly don’t want to get on Stewart’s case for wanting to do something more original and different, most fans didn’t seem to have an issue with it either, but again nostalgia works for a reason. And I think even Stewart recognized it too.

Having the entire cast back is always going to be more exciting for most people out there. And maybe if Picard was just a better show, then that would be slightly different. But end the day people wanted a TNG revival show. It’s has an immense draw and that’s what they are finally getting. It can obviously still suck but it probably should’ve the show since day one.

I never had an issue with wanting to try something different either. And it’s not necessarily the lack of nostalgia that killed it for me either. It’s just for me the stories didn’t land. In S1, the Data/ancients story line made no sense and in S2 the time travel storyline putting all of humanity on the line to fix Picard’s proverbial broken heart made even less sense.

Exactly! I didn’t have a single issue with what they tried to do with the show. I’m a fanboy obviously so I wanted to see TNG characters like everyone else, but if we never saw anyone else outside of just Picard and the show was actually, you know, good, would’ve been fine with it. And I also liked most of the new characters.

I’m not really optimistic regarding the “proper sendoff” this S3 claims to be. For me S1&2 were disappointing both in terms of story and character development. I hope this aging cast have not just sign for a last check, and that, at least for once, Kurtzman and co. have understood those characters.

Yea, the more I see and hear, the more I am concerned that this is going to flame and burn.

Better. Stay true to yourself (I mean keep your original name)!

Yeah I switched devices and forgot to update. Thx

There’s that moment when you get older that you see a Worf Riker beard and it looks better than the OG Riker beard… in grey

“When we started the series, Patrick [Stewart], and, we all, talked about really wanting it to just be three years, feeling like we could really tell a complete story with the season you’re now seeing as our endpoint.”

Sure Alex. You planned all of this. This wasn’s just throwing stuff at a wall to see what sticks and finally going with nostalgia in a last ditch attempt to save at least some good will from the fanbase.

“Jean-Luc Picard and Next Generation never got a final send-off.”

They did. It was called “All Good Things…”

“I have changed too. I wanted the series to show the impact of those years that have passed, how much one might change, and whether fears become greater or less.”

So that’s why the plot of the first season was, that something happend 35 Years ago (with Datas death) that led to Picard not being able to move on aka CHANGE in 35 Years. And the Plot of the Second Season being that something happend in his childhood that never affected him until right this season where he got over it pretty quickly? Yeah thrilling character stuff right there …

TNG had a proper send off with All good Things sure. But then they continued with 4 movies and now Picard season 3. TOS ended with Undiscovered Country and minus a character or 3 they stuck to that landing (alt universe versions doesn’t count).

Very interesting that on the poster “LORE” is wearing a starfleet uniform 🤔😉 So maybe it’s not lore after all but DATA INDEED?!?? 👏🥳🎉 If Data will be back I’d LOVE LOVE LOVE to go beyond season 3 and continue as long as it goes 🙌🌞

They said that in season one that B4 was not advanced enough to take on the transfer that Data performed before he was destroyed.. Lore is advanced enough to take it and Starfleet has Lore laying around in storage somewhere.. I don’t think that Starfleet would allow one “life” to be traded for another but if it is done without Starfleets knowledge, I don’t know if they would de-activate him.

Noone talked about the possible interpretations of the poster …are they looking through a window, porthole, where? And looking in rather than out… Why is Picard and Worf especially out the image…

Just based on the number of posts for this story, obviously there is serious fan interest in this happening – of course under the caveat that Matalas is delivering something we can loosely describe as season eight of TNG.

I know I am in the minority who actually liked most of Picard S1 (with the exception of 2 or 3 truly horribly awful episodes), but I do agree with most – season 2 was almost a complete disaster!

That said, as most have already posted, if the third season is well received and Sir Patrick is willing – then why not continue the story of Picard, Riker, Troi and the rest of the gang?

I have only a couple issues with S1 but for the most part I really enjoyed it. I would love to see these characters continue in some way after the upcoming season. I commented earlier that it seems obvious they’ve got some type of post-PIC spinoff either in the works or in some initial planning stage. Perhaps this new captain of the Titan-A would be one of those characters that stick around.

Yeah, i really liked characters like Rios and Soji and the inept S2 writers room simply wasted them! It sounds like Matalas corrected the lame writing and story telling for S3.

Definitely agree DeanH! And you know how much I wanted to love the show and I did think season 1 had some solid moments, but unfortunately still failed for me by the end. We are completely in agreement with season 2 lol. You know how I feel about that season.

But having a TNG continuation show will obviously be a huge draw even for a lot of people who haven’t been in love with the show so far (that includes a lot people right here on these boards). If season 3 is everything a lot of people who watched it say it is and it’s actually good, then it would no-brainer to have more of it because that’s what probably most fans wanted on day one. So I’m totally open to it, but you know I’m open to pretty much anything as long as it’s good lol. But revisiting these characters again and more importantly the original actors are really exciting for fans.

They could perhaps do a straight to streaming movie if they actually want to do some more Picard after S3. It’s clearly being marketed as the ‘final season’ so I can’t see how what they say could mean they are going to do a S4, let alone a S5. Basically I’m reading this as either a movie of some sort based on PICARD (less likely), or this is hinting at future seasons of a spin off of PICARD (more likely) that will perhaps include Patrick Stewart in some capacity, and perhaps other TNG stars.

Even if S3 turns out to be pretty good, which it’s rumored I think to be, I wouldn’t be sure they could maintain that level of consistency again in future seasons of Picard. Many I think have commented that the Season 2 story they were telling could have worked a lot better if it was 2 hours and bit running time.

This is the kind of marketing that holds true until it doesn’t. Hollywood loves the “one last adventure” trope.

I wouldn’t have an issue with some of the characters continuing after season 3. But being real, Stewart is looking tired and older every season, so I hope they have a great send off from him and his role in any future season would be at the recurring cameo level.

“Star Trek The *New* Generation” on the Enterprise F in the new century(25th) . Patrick Stewart and some of the TNG alum starts with the show with allot of story still tied to them before eventually passing the torch completely. Modern orchestral rearrangement of the TNG theme to be used. My fanboy wild guess for a spinoff.

NEW Being the abbreviation as TNG already been used:)

At this point I would see a Janeway spinoff from Picard.

If they do continue into the 4th season, bring back the newer characters from the first two seasons.

Question about the ST Writer’s Room:

Does anyone know if a reason was ever given for the departure of Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt as writers/producers for DISCO in 2021?

I know that A.Harberts and G.Berg were fired from Disco for creating a toxic set for cast and crew. But Kim and Lippoldt just vanished.

Were they fired? Was there a reason?

I am just curious to know if anyone knows.

Thanks!

From what I can recall, they left Discovery in season 3 to develop the Section 31 show which Kurtzman confirmed somewhere back in 2019. But then that show got stalled obviously and they probably got stalled and they probably left because Netflix offered to develop their own show and where they are now IIRC.

Oops, that a got little messy in the end lol. To clarify, after the Section 31 show stalled and probably told it wasn’t happening, so left for Netflix who offered them a deal to do their own show.

Now this is 100% speculation, but my guess is they probably wanted to do their own show which the S31 show would’ve gave them that chance and probably didn’t want to just go back writing on Discovery again when they had the chance to do something they created and can lead. I think that’s the ultimate dream for any TV writer or producer, to have their own show. So they probably developed something new, shopped it around and Netflix picked it up.

But once I heard they left, that’s when I knew the writing was on the wall for Section 31 show although it doesn’t mean it can’t be revived again and they can come back and still make it, at least in theory. But it was obvious the original plan for the show was dead after that.

They are showrunners for the second season of Sweet Tooth.

There was only so long they could be expected to hold up their careers for a show that is still yet to be greenlit.

Any negatives weren’t with them, Tarnwood…. I’m surprised you have that impression because it’s a really inappropriate narrative in this case.

OK, looks like I got some of details wrong, so thanks for the correction. But yeah it’s still the same idea, they get to run their own show and not just write for one so can’t remotely blame them for leaving. But I never heard of that show until now lol. Maybe I’ll go search for it and check it out.

Thanks Tiger and TG. Can always count on you two to be on the case with some good intel.

But TG – no negative intent was meant. No character assault was intended. I’m just asking Qs because Ms. Kim and Ms. Lippoldt did near literally vanish from the Trek world.

That said… I woke up a 5 AM today (Jan 11) and read stuff on another site that posts Trek news 2-3 times a day.

Irony of ironies: a writer named Lucy Jolliff wrote an article titled: “Michelle Yeoh’s Section 31 Star Trek Spinoff Series Is Still in Development”

In that article, Jolliff quotes a number of P+ / CBS folks:
-Chief programming officer of Paramount Streaming Tanya Giles: there are “conversations” happening about the show. “It’s still in development.”
-According to CBS All Access executive Julie McNamara… “Some of these [series] can be considered as replacements as opposed to additions,” she said, suggesting that the Section 31 show would follow Discovery, rather than air alongside it.
-This was confirmed by Trek producer Kurtzman, who shared in 2021 that the series would likely have to wait until one of Paramount+’s then-five Star Trek shows came to an end. 

Jolliff implied in the article that, like S31 is on hold until a current show ends, Kim and Lippoldt are on hold with S31 until a current Trek show ends. I may have read that into what was written.

OK – I find it very questionable and suspect that there is going to be a Trek show that ends soon. I don’t think DISCO will end unless its viewership really is tanking. DISCO’s future Star Fleet, future Federation, and many characters within DISCO are too appealing to not continue. Alex would want to continue those future stories with Saru / The President Rillak / ADM Vance / the NiVar / New-Fed / the folks beyond that boundary / etc… maybe as something like Star Trek: Frontiers. In which case, there would never be room for S31 to start because nothing would “end”.

Don’t want to get into issues of whether someone likes the S31 concept or not. That does not concern me. I am just speaking of the logistics of getting it on air.

And I am speaking of a bigger issue with the S31 stuff. Michelle Yeoh is the biggest Asian female star on the planet. She is in high demand for a good reason. Yet she keeps saying she wants to do more Trek and S31. She has been promised S31 by Alex and has been waiting for years now.

Michelle can now get into any franchise she wants to be in. But the one she wants to be in will not let her show air.

It is not a good look for Alex / P+ / Trek.

It’s almost like Harry Kim begging for a promotion and not getting one – ever.

But, Patrick Stewart can get a bad show done. SNW can go from non-existent to Season 2 in a heartbeat. New animated shows can be added. But Michelle’s show takes years.

Honestly, all that is needed is for a GREAT set of writers to have 30-60 days on S31 to get the story done, and Michelle’s show could be ready for production. Put the Prodigy writers on it and get this thing going.

It’s embarrassing that Michelle is still waiting for this. It’s embarrassing that Alex and P+ get away with treating the biggest Asian star on the planet this way.

I’m done.

Alex Kurtzman said a writer’s room was already set up for the show at the time and mentioned multiple times the show was going to start filming after Discovery’s third season.

Once they green lit SNW, all of that was dropped or never talked about again. It’s not rocket science why the show didn’t happen and the show runners left to do another show after they were already writing scripts for S31.

So what may happen is that the Picard show wraps up but this Terryverse continues in some form and Stewart can appear in limited chunks if he wants so he doesn’t get too worn down. (That is assuming there isn’t a big surprise of Picard dying by, say, falling into a ravine and a bridge landing on top of him.) Sometimes you will read a commenter saying “there must be a Seven & Raffi show” but the media companies are doing belt-tightening now with streaming and must prioritize judiciously, so greenlighting a show centered on Starfleet’s most erratic neurotic having emotional meltdowns probably won’t make the cut. Thus there will be some tough decisions as to how exactly Star Trek: Terry will continue. But if the Terryverse is as impressive as I am expecting, it seems the Terryverse must continue somehow.

Yes, because reproducing the 30 year working formula, well, works. Instead of the garbage from Season 1 and 2.

As much as I found the first two seasons incoherent and disappointing, I wouldn’t use derogatory language.

I also have to acknowledge that Paramount+ won’t stay in business if it targets only the subset of over 40s core fans who want their Star Trek exclusively in the format and style of the classic series. That’s what Paramount has Pluto running old shows for.

I had been open to a Picard-focused series that wasn’t a TNG continuation, but this show tried to be so many different, trendy cool and shiny things every season that it failed to keep my attention and lost the rest of our household by the second season.

That said, I can recognize that it’s got its own new audience and like Discovery has been attracting new viewers to both the franchise and Paramount+. It may not have got the total viewership the streamer needs for a show that’s made expensively in Hollywood instead of Toronto, but it was doing something based on various ratings companies numbers and based on the number of new people showing up on other social media saying that Picard drew them into the franchise.

I’m not going to let my own preferences or that of my family blind me to actual facts on viewership.

“I also have to acknowledge that Paramount+ won’t stay in business if it targets only the subset of over 40s core fans who want their Star Trek exclusively in the format and style of the classic series. That’s what Paramount has Pluto running old shows for.”

I don’t know if I really buy this though. To me, it looks like that’s EXACTLY what they are doing. Look at SNW? Why do people think it’s gotten the response it’s getting? Because it’s basically today’s 2020s version of TOS/TNG right? It’s episodic and light adventure of the week stories again. I mean it’s basically copying a lot of the same tropes we fans been getting for decades already and fans are loving it lol.

I just watched a video on Youtube from The Popcast. I don’t know if you know that site, but it’s a Star Trek YouTube channel and they saw Picard season 3 already and are raving about it. They say it’s great because it’s basically Berman Star Trek again. It is basically is TNG season 8. These guys are fawning over what Terry Matalas did and they hated the first two seasons..They basically said Paramount listened to the complaints of the first season and made a very different show. But if it’s doing as well as you say it was, why would they change it so dramatically and appeal to those older fans? My guess is because whatever ‘new’ fans they have, it’s still a much smaller viewership overall.

We agree 99% of the time, but I don’t think you can put ALL your stock into these data sites because if it’s telling you that DIS and PIC are doing so hot…wouldn’t we just have more DIS and PIC? SNW would’ve followed what that show did more. LDS and PRO are completely night and day from those shows as well. The irony is that the new shows has been going away from what those did. We’re not getting edgier super serialized melodramatic shows like DIS and PIC started as, we’re basically more versions of 90s Star Trek, ie, more comfort food Star Trek.

SNW episodes can easily be adapted to a TOS, TNG. VOY or ENT episode with no issues. I can’t say the same about DIS and PIC because those are very different shows in both format, style and tone. SNW fits like a glove to those shows. That’s why it’s so popular, they are appealing to older fans who wanted Star Trek like the old days. The only other current sci fi show I can think of that is episodic right now is ironically Lower Decks and The Orville. Kind of says it all.

To me, if DIS was as popular you are claiming than SNW would probably follow the format and style of that show more and it’s really not at all. Now maybe SNW is actually getting less views than PIC and DIS, but I just can’t see how. The momentum seems to be on that show side, at least online.

I don’t think it’s that black or white eitherway, but based on all the outpouring shows like LDS, SNW and PRO, it seems like they are going that direction for a reason.

Just came with another example: the Section 31 show. Again, I’m not trying to harp on this but I think we can agree that show was probably suppose to be a darker and edgier show similar what early Discovery was, since they had a genocidal dictator from the MU as its lead, so I’m guessing yeah lol.

And looked what happened? That show basically got replaced for the space-dad Pike show who spends every episode baking for his crew and throwing out one liners on the bridge. SNW can’t get any less edgy if it tried outside the Gorn stories. And old fans are eating it up because it’s more apple pie Star Trek that they remembered. S31 seemed like a show where someone would poison the pie lol.

EDIT: I just saw the headlines they are still developing the show. Perfect timing! ;D