More behind-the-scenes details from the third season of Star Trek: Picard have been released, including a couple of videos offering a closer look at the bridge of the USS Enterprise-D, recreated for the final episodes. We also have some Borg concept art.
TNG cast returns home
Earlier this week, Paramount+ released a featurette about restoring the bridge with commentary from the Picard crew and the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast. It includes a time-lapse video of the bridge being built at Santa Clarita Studios.
VR Tour with Okuda and Wheaton
Paramount+ just released a new extended version of the Enterprise-D bridge tour with designer Mike Okuda and TNG star Wil Wheaton. The new 40-minute video is presented in 180-degree VR, allowing you to look around as the pair gets into all the bridge details.
Enterprise-D on Google Maps
You can also take your own tour of the bridge. Santa Clarita Studios has made the bridge set available via Google Maps.
Rebuilding the Borg
The Enterprise-D wasn’t the only big return for the final episodes of Picard; the Borg played a big part of the wrap-up,and this week designer Doug Drexler shared some of his concept work for the Borg cube found at Jupiter.
Creature designer Neville Page has shared a couple of photo galleries on Instagram showing his concepts and sculpts for the Borg Queen.
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Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
Anyone got a UK link
“Video unavailable
This video is not available”
Is it GeoLocked or did they really take it down?
I assume geolock which is kind of dumb for behind the scenes stuff.
That Borg Queen is so H.R. Giger. Creepy!
Yeah the close ups are haunting.
People joked the Borg Queen in FC might look like Angelika Huston from CAPTAIN EO, and now decades later, she is getting alot closer to that look.
LOL I automatically thought about Captain EO when we saw the Borg Queen in the final episode as well Kmart.
I’m not crying. It’s just allergies.
It seriously looks like the Borg queen has a mechanical pe-nis?
I love watching the video of Okuda and Wheaton on the bridge sharing so many cool memories and insights, most I didn’t know. Seeing that bridge again brings so many emotions. It was an awesome season and the best Trek since the VOY/DS9 days. 🖖
It was a great video. Back in the day, I had been on the D sets… but never the bridge. Seeing Wil “come home” was super emotional. So much love for him. And Okuda? An interstellar treasure.
Wow I envy you so much. Watching Wheaton geek out being back on that bridge must’ve been so surreal for him.
I just love how accurate everything is to the original. That’s the difference with the original Enterprise and SNW. It will probably never be like TOS again, at least on TV. That probably ended after Enterprise with In the Mirror Darkly.
That TNG bridge was horrible, all those wasted wall space with hard drive lights. They’ve got to have carpet on fire in Lower Decks, would be sooo funny.
Was so glad the Borg were allowed to be scary again. The Borg having used Picard, retoothed them if only for a couple episodes.
Wonder what the Borg would have evolved into with robo-Picard tech where AI=life, something not even V’ger could achieve. The cubes alive, living robots that can breath in space, etc. Would the Borg have left humanity alone with no need to assimilate or decided to wipe out all the unnecessary lifeforms?
Well, the idea was that in the 79 years between TOS and TNG, the systems would be so advanced you wouldn’t need so many people to operate things, and was so configurable that in theory you could fly the Enterprise from a PADD while walking down a hallway.
I think from a design perspective, the one thing I would change is the tonal mismatch between the cool grey used around the turbolifts and science stations, and that buttery beige-yellow used everywhere else.
It probably was colored that way due to the limitations of the NTSC palette and read differently when transferred from Panavision 35mm to videotape, and to avoid blue screen spillover, but today we could make them all one unified colour.
Regarding them being “hard drive lights,” it’s notable that the concept that there is a large computer node on the bridge was retrofitted into the 2009 Star Trek bridge set (the trapezoidal computer rack behind the captain’s chair), and versions of that were also placed into the Discovery / SNW bridges.
Also, more detail and personnel on those sides might have just made shooting / production more complicated, as you’re constantly flying out sections of set to bring cameras in for different angles, lights etc – so there’s likely a practical reason for that, too.
I get the idea was that space travel would be so routine and all the aliens would want to be superior visionary humans that you could throw kids on board and waste whole walls with hard drive lights, not need the commander to instantly access info and more crew… but outside the Borg using a Picard to first destroy the fleet, then Mars, than assimilate the fleet what a Snoozefest.
This is why Strange New Worlds is more exciting with the frontier, you want more SpaceX/Yellowstone and less TNG/Orville.
The hard drive lights are also why the Kelvin-verse take on the TOS set sucks. You look at Kirk and it’s him, lots of white and a door. Compare that to TWOK with consoles and some midshipmen monitoring them. TWOK wins.
Having consoles and personnel from a production standpoint is visually stunning and catches the eye (which is why the TOS set is better remembered) in addition to being more functional (the TOS set was actually studied as an command centre by Rand, etc).
The main computer core is 5 decks high and sits a few decks below the bridge. Behind those bridge panels are manual access to key systems automated by the computer.
In a commercial airliner they used to have a 3rd pilot as a flight engineer who sat behind the pilots and monitored all the aircraft’s key systems with access to breakers and manual resets, all the avionics kit is below the pilots in a 2nd deck and the size of a server room. Modern aircraft are now more automated, so the flight engineer isn’t needed anymore, but the pilots still have access to those breakers and resets if they need to on a panel above their head and behind their seats, as well as readouts from avionics.
So, back to the Enterprise D, those side panels were basically replacing what used to surround the bridge in TOS with lots of control stations for people to sit at, with the D now being so advanced that it doesn’t need any of those additional crew on the bridge anymore, but if they need to access any key systems they’re just a panel removal away.
Another reason I and so many others love the Enterprise D so much. Such an amazing ship! So happy Matalas brought it back. 👍
Data accessed them in Generations
https://youtu.be/6A9IZHWz45Q?t=121
BTW, the petition for the Legacy show is now over 45,000! 😁👍
It will probably get over 50,000. Trekkies really want it, more than SNW!
GIVE US THE LEGACY SHOW KURTZMAN!!!!!
Oops I wasn’t responding to you. I wrote this in the wrong place.
Doesn’t matter
Actually we agree because I’m pretty sure we’re already getting a show. 😎
But I don’t want to wait 3 years before it shows up although probably no choice now.
Time is a good thing.
Gives the executives at Paramount to look hard at the metrics to see what elements hit and missed.
I wouldn’t take what Matalas proposed in the finale as a take it or leave it model. There were significant adjustments to SNW along the way to green light.
As long as Seven is Captain I’m cool with anything!
The 45,000 number is extremely disappointing. TOS had a million people who hand wrote and mailed freaking letters.
45,000 people hitting a couple clicks for an online petition is kind of a pathetic thing to be crowing about.
Whoopdie freaking doo! LOL
We get it bro you don’t want the show.
And there isn’t 45000 signatures anywhere begging to keep Discovery around another season. It’s so easy to just click right..and yet. 😁
Its not just pathetic, its sad.
Oh wait my mistake!
Someone DID make a petition to keep Discovery on for one more season. Since TOS got a million letters to continue as you say, well let’s see how many big Discovery fans out there are begging for another season. Maybe it’s up to half that? As you pointed out, hitting a couple of clicks should be easy to grab fans, especially with the big fan base you keep telling everyone Discovery has.
https://www.change.org/p/renew-star-trek-discovery-for-a-final-sixth-season?source_location=topic_page
Wait, you mean after 2 whole month, it has gotten up to 3,298 signatures??? Whaaaat??? I’m actually impressed, I had no idea there were still that many Discovery fans around. 😂😂😂
Maybe in another month they csn get that number up to another 100 signatures.Season 6 here we come! !
If you want to act like a baby then expect to be treated like one.
BTW, the Legacy petition just crossed over into 46,000 thousand a day later. 😎
I like PIC S3 as it exposes Picard as compromised, not even Crusher trusted him, while replacing their ugly starships with neo Connie’s. We finally might get a TOS movie era TV show.
I’m a little sad Rikers legacy got washed away, that did not have to happen but whatever.
Just give us an updated TOS movie era bridge, if I watched to watch a meeting with someone sitting in front of a conference room or door I’d just goto work.
I’m more into 24th/25th century story based movies personally but I’ll watch whatever they make.
I loved seeing the Enterprise D back! 😃
“You must learn to govern your passions; they will be your undoing.”
🤣
Uh huh.
Your use of the “cool shades emoji” because a Legacy petition got more signatures than a Discovery petition is deeply embarrassing for you.
Your use of the “cool shades emoji” because a Legacy petition got more signatures than a Discovery petition is deeply embarrassing for you.
100% agree. That’s why I choose to respond minimally given the dude was already making himself looking so silly with his middle school-level BS…lol
Naw that guy was trying to throw shade at me and per usual try to down play the stuff he doesn’t like like a bitter teenager. He’s one of these sad trolls who wants to insult people when he disagree with them. Nobody was talking to him.
So I just gave him a taste of his own medicine. But we agree, comparing any show to Discovery’s’popularity’ is a joke since Discovery is already a complete joke. That’s the point. 😅
If 45000 signatures is ‘disappointing’ then what is 3300 signatures then? Just total disinterest and apathy because nobody cares.
BTW, the petition has gotten another 2 votes in the last day, so hey maybe it will reach 4000 votes before the show goes off the air next year. 😆
Do you even hear yourself? Sheesh. Talk about a bitter teenager lol
Lol, agreed. It’s middle school all over again with that dude.
I been dealing with this guy for years. Blocked him on another site. And then he made multiple sock puppets just to keep trying to insult, harras and stalked me for another year on top of that. I blocked all those too. It was so bad I had to go to the administrator to put an end to it which thankfully they did. And I wasn’t the only one who blocked him either. Multiple people did.
I come here and discover he’s here under yet another handle and tell him to leave me alone when I figured out it was the guy but can’t block him. We agreed to just ignore each other but he still insults me and responds to me and even pretends like he didn’t know it was me lol. Other people have called him out here for being a bully and a troll. Another poster who had the same problems with him has said he was even banned here before. And btw I’m not the only one here who has asked to ignore then either.
So I hear myself loud and clear. 🙄
The guy is toxic and I don’t want to talk to him. But he’s much better here unlike the other site. He seems to have issues to put it lightly. And I don’t want to fight, just leave me alone. That’s it. Not here to keep fighting like teenager s, it’s literally why I blocked him in the first place. Just want to talk Star Trek with fellow Trekkies, most I do love talking too.
Ok I said enough. Time to get back on topic. Take it easy. 🖖
Hey, instead of whining about your past grievances with me, why don’t you just tell the guy, “hey man you’re right, I was being really immature about discovery”?
You can hide behind your past grievances with me all you want, but that doesn’t make your usual immature BS on DSC any more acceptable. Ralph was correct to call you out on it, and you know he’s right on this.
Not reading, nor responding.
Pefect! Lesson learned.
OK, this was hilarious lol. Well played. ;)
But I will be a little fair about Discovery’s tiny petition signatures and say that it may not show the whole picture because on that site you can make multiple petitions for the same show and that maybe there are not only more of them dividing up the people who signs it but there could be one with even a higher number of signatures. No, there is probably not one with 45,000 signatures lol, but maybe more than 3,000? Or that could just be the only one. IDK, just throwing it out there.
But it does suggest no one is really begging for another season of that show no matter how much you liked it. It probably should’ve ended in fourth season IMO with all the divisiveness over it and worn out its welcome by now.
And I think the Legacy show is going to easily hit 50,000 soon. That will be 20,000 signatures higher than pushing for SNW. It’s very very obvious the Legacy show is the no-brainer on where to go next or at the very least the next show after the Academy show launches.
Oh no believe me I’m well aware of that!
I checked to see if there were others and there was only one more made on that day and only had 250 signatures! 🤣🤣🤣
So this is it. If a show gaining 50,000 signatures is disappointing than the Discovery petition is a total failure and proves most fans don’t care about this show anymore and just waiting for it to end.
It definitely should’ve ended after season 4 because probably harely anyone is watching it now. And I’m going to keep saying what I want as often as I want. One guy got banned for trying to tell people what to say here. That other toxic weirdo will never get it Mind their own business or leave if they don’t like it. No one here cares. 😉
LOL, I gave it shot. People can’t say I don’t try to always be fair. ;)
And not surprising, as said, I think DIS time was already coming to an end regardless. MAYBE if the viewership was stronger, it could’ve one more final season but it’s probably just way too costly and not pulling in the views like it used to.
But to show once again how fair I’m trying to be, I do imagine if Discovery was the only Star Trek show on air today, then yeah the response would probably be bigger for pushing for more seasons. But because there are so many other and yes better shows on, then it’s not going to bring the same urgency. And when TOS was leaving, THAT was it. There was nothing else. When that show was ending, that was considered the end of all of Star Trek. It’s not the same thing today, there are just more shows on and we know even if a specific show gets cancelled, it will eventually be replaced by something else. Even when Enterprise was cancelled, everyone assumed there would be another show, we just didn’t think it would be 12 years lol. But no one doubted another show wouldn’t come at SOME point.
Why I’m not concerned about getting a Legacy show. We all know we are going to get a 25th century show and it will have legacy characters of some kind on it. We just don’t know when and if Matalas himself will be running it, but I just don’t see how you avoid doing it if the plan is to make more future shows and that’s what most of your audience is begging for.
And dude just say what you want, how you want and how often you want here. As long as you are not attacking others over your opinion, then it’s COMPLETELY acceptable and don’t let anyone tell you differently. Again, it’s funny because these people seem to constantly miss the point here and that they are on a board where the guy who owns it doesn’t give a royal fuck what anyone says here. He has said multiple times here including very recently he believes in a hands off approach. So it’s hilarious after over 15 years in existence, some people still don’t seem to understand this concept?
So if HE doesn’t care, then yes say whatever you want. You’re not breaking any rules here. Others either have to accept that reality or just keep on scrolling. It’s their problem, not yours and definitely not mine.
And I had four people tried to tell me the same thing here in the past…and they all got banned lol. Yeah a few showed back up again, but whatever but they certainly never tried to correct me again lol. The point is it’s funny the people who try to tell others what to say are usually the people who can’t seem to discipline themselves and why I choose to ignore them. ;)
And you’re right, no one else cares because we’re just discussing escapist entertainment, not abortion, so carry on.
Well said! 👍
It’s just hilarious how a bunch of nobodies on a message board that maybe 30 people even bother to read thinks someone other than themselves care people are talking shit about a TV show. 😂
If this is keeping you up at night, follow Shatner’s advice and get a life. The average person on the street barely knows this show even exist. No one cares. Just keep scrolling if you can’t handle nerds making jokes about it. Such a bizarre thing to be triggered over and then act like I’m committing some kind of crime. Its just people giving their honest opinions about a TV show. Calm down. No one is even talking to you and TV shows don’t have feelings. And like he’s never talked crap about shows he hated. Ask him his thoughts on WandaVision. Hypocrite.
This was the same bizarre conversations I had with this weirdo at Trekcore and he lost there too because no one gave a shit over there either and he knew it lol. Luckily I don’t have to deal with him over there anymore.
I used to be on Trekcore too and yeah you’re right they didn’t care either, just as long as you kept things civil and didn’t attack others over their opinions. I said what I wanted, period.
And yes, I loved there was an ignore button, which ironically I never felt I needed to use.
These are the type of boards I like to be on. But I have never complained about anyone’s thoughts over a show or film regardless how negative it is because I just can’t begin to care.
Yeah it’s a great place to post especially these days and have great friends there, some who post here too as you probably know.
It just doesn’t post as many articles like this place does and why I been spending more time here lately; especially to discuss Lower Decks, Prodigy and Picard. I been loving so much Trek lately minus Discovery I just want to talk about it more. 😄
I remembered you saying your account got hacked into and why you left but you would be fun talk to there as well.
Yeah, to make clear I didn’t really stop typing on TC itself, but I stopped using Disqus which that site obviously uses once it was hacked. I was on a number of different boards using it at the time.
I’ll probably make another account someday, just no real urge. And I already waste enough of my life on the boards I’m on now lol.
And I will agree with you if Discovery was the only Star Trek show on the air and was getting prematurely cancelled like now then it would probably have more signatures…maybe 6,000?
Still pathetically low but nearly twice the amount, so party time. 🤣
Oops look at that. I made another silly immature joke about Discovery. Waiting for the FBI to break down my door in 3..2..
LOL!
Paramount stock tanked 25% today. That doesn’t bode well for any of the franchises, let alone the small movies
Star Trek is over /s
Actually it’s the opposite. What this means is that franchises that are foundational and especially grow the streaming side will be protected and grown.
Ad revenue was down, and the legacy cable business is hurting, and there’s a once time major correction in merging Showtime into Paramount+.
The firm has to be all-in on continuing to build and hold the subscribers for Paramount+.
Star Trek’s greatest risk as a franchise is getting stuck in a niche, serving only it aging base rather than attracting and holding new subscribers who watch other Paramount+ offerings.
It’s the opposite. Now they need more programming.
Paramount stock has crashed because of the news yesterday that Yellowstone is ending. That’s all. It will recover.
People seemed really alarm how bad this is for Paramount and it’s at the bottom of the barrel compared to the other streaming services and none of them are doing amazing either. One report says it won’t make a profit until 2027, four more years. That’s why it’s combining with Showtime, its desperate. Real desperate.
And let’s be honest, most people here don’t care about Paramount+, just Star Trek. Maybe they should sell it to Netflix, Amazon or Apple because if Paramount+ flops, goodbye more Star Trek. 😢
If Paramount can’t get the scale it needs to turn a good profit while balancing out spending enough money to keep a steady number of subscribers, then it will either look to become more of an “arms dealer” a la Sony, and produce content for others to license and distribute, or they will sell all or parts of the company to someone who can afford them.
Becoming an arms dealer will hurt because of how much capital they sunk into P+ and how it will hasten the decline of their broadcast empire without being able to recapture some of that audience with streaming services. Selling all or part of the company would likely spell doom for a storied media giant and its iconic movie studio. Its agendas would be subsumed and changed to further empower an even bigger rival – less competition is never a good thing and the Disney-Fox merger is a cautionary tale.
Star Trek is too big to fail no matter what. IP of that scale will always be eyed greedily and exploited by whomever controls it. But I am rooting for Paramount despite their fair share of boneheaded decisions, and I hope they make it through this turmoil.
Yep agreed with all of this too. I really thought Paramount+ was settling in once they made the switch over from the horrible All Access service and begin not just a more robust library but was now growing it internationally. I knew it was still on the smaller side in terms of subs and the market share but was slowly becoming a net positive. I thought it was going to be profitable in the next year or maybe two at most, but that’s looking unlikely now.
I also agree it would be really bad for P+ to close up shop considering all the crazy money they thrown at it the last few years alone, but you can’t rule out either. I think it will stay but who knows?
As far as Star Trek, yeah it will live on no matter what, but doesn’t necessarily mean in a good way either. They could license it to other places or just have all the existing shows run out their seasons and moth ball it for a few years until they decide on the next step if they really want to keep it in house. But I don’t see this iteration running for a 18 year stretch like the Berman era because there are just so many unknown variables with the current format and audience churn and studio films seem to be DOA for probably a few more years. And maybe they are just doing too much too fast, which ironically what people was saying back then by the time Voyager showed up.
So we’ll see how things go. At the moment things will probably keep running for a few more years and I’m guessing everything that’s been announced so far will still happen. After that, who knows what will come next?
I’m definitely not counting Star Trek out but it could be homeless for awhile if Paramount+ ends up dying a quick death.
But I agree, someone will snatch it up and Paramount could potentially make more just collecting on the license fees and don’t put in any money to make the snows themselves. That’s what was so good in the old days, especially for franchises that were strong but not huge like in the way Star Wars or MCU is. Someone else used an IP if their library was lacking like Sony and Marvel or even Netflix and Marvel. It is becoming less of that now.
So maybe that will end up happening too. But I hope not. I actually like P+. Like Tiger2 said, All Access was a sad joke but P+ is actually a pretty solid site now and something people under 60 can enjoy.
But it’s probably not one most people feel necessary to keep around all year. Even I cancelled it this week after watching Picard season 3 again. I’ll sign up again when SNW arrives but it’s nothing I feel I need all year either.
Man it’s so great to see the E-D bridge getting so much attention and love again. It’s amazing after nearly 25 years, we’re now talking about it in the present tense again. Amazing! :)
And I’m more happy to here the bridge has been stored away. Yeah keep it for prosperity and who knows, maybe it will pop up again in canon someday.
It’s been a really fun few months of being a fan to see waaaay less infighting lol. You can tell people did generally love what they got.