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Star Trek: Picard

Star Trek: Picard is an upcoming American web television series created for CBS All Access by executive producer Alex Kurtzman. It will be the eighth series in the Star Trek franchise and centers on the character Jean-Luc Picard. Set at the end of the 24th century, twenty years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), the storyline is affected by the destruction of Romulus referenced in the film Star Trek (2009), as well as the death of Data from the aforementioned Nemesis.

Patrick Stewart executive produces the series and stars as Picard, reprising his role from Star Trek: The Next Generation as well as other Star Trek media. Santiago Cabrera, Michelle Hurd, Evan Evagora, Alison Pill, Harry Treadaway, and Isa Briones also star. Several actors from previous Star Trek series will also reprise their roles, including Brent Spiner, Jeri Ryan, Marina Sirtis, and Jonathan Frakes.^[1] The series was first rumored in June 2018 when Kurtzman began his expansion, and was officially announced that August after months of negotiations with Stewart, who had previously said he would not return to the franchise after Nemesis. Filming began in California in April 2019, with the series' official title announced a month later.

Star Trek: Picard is expected to premiere in early 2020, and its first season will consist of ten episodes.

Premise

The series is set 20 years after Jean-Luc Picard's last appearance in Star Trek: Nemesis (2002),^[2][3] and finds him deeply affected by the destruction of Romulus as depicted in the film Star Trek (2009).^[4]

Cast and characters

Main cast

• Patrick StewartasJean-Luc Picard:
  Retired admiral^[5] and former captain of the USS Enterprise-D and USS Enterprise-E. Stewart returns to the role after last portraying the character in the 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis. He felt that at that time his role in the franchise "had run its natural course", but in the years since he was humbled by stories of the impact the character had on the lives of fans and so was now happy "to research and experience what comforting and reforming light he might shine on these often very dark times".^[6]
• Santiago Cabrera as Cristobal "Chris" Rios^[7][8]:
  The pilot of Picard's ship and a skilled thief.
• Michelle Hurd as Raffi Musiker^[7][8]:
  A former intelligence officer struggling with substance abuse.
• Evan Evagora as Elnor^[9][8]
• Alison Pill as Dr. Agnes Jurati^[10][8]
• Harry Treadaway as Narek^[10][8]
• Isa Briones as Dahj^[10][8]

Recurring and returning cast

• Brent SpinerasData^[11][8]
• Jeri RyanasSeven of Nine^[8]
• Jonathan Del ArcoasHugh^[8]
• Jonathan FrakesasWilliam Riker^[8]
• Marina SirtisasDeanna Troi^[8]

Episodes

Hanelle Culpepper directed the first block of the season, comprising the first two episodes,^[14] and Jonathan Frakes is directing the second block, episodes three and four.^[3]

Production

Development

In June 2018, after becoming sole showrunner of the series Star Trek: Discovery, Alex Kurtzman signed a five-year overall deal with CBS Television Studios to expand the Star Trek franchise beyond Discovery to several new series, miniseries, and animated series.^[15] One of these new series was believed to star Patrick Stewart, reprising his role of Jean-Luc Picard from the series Star Trek: The Next Generation.^[16][17] Kurtzman and Akiva Goldsman (who worked on the first season of Discovery) were attached to the project.^[17]

When CBS first approached him about making more Star Trek series, Kurtzman believed Picard was the greatest Star Trek captain and included a series featuring the character on his wish list. Kurtzman and Goldsman first contacted Stewart in late 2017 despite his previous statements that he was done with the franchise. The pair and Discovery writer Kirsten Beyer met with the actor,^[4] who took the meeting with the intention of turning the project down but was intrigued enough by their discussion to ask them for a three-page document outlining their ideas.^[4][18] At that time, Goldsman invited novelist Michael Chabon, a friend, to work on the project as well and the four ultimately produced a 34-page document that they sent to Stewart. He organised another meeting with them in March 2018, where he expressed his approval of their pitch. While deciding whether to join the project, Stewart asked Kurtzman that the series be "so different" from previous Star Trek stories, "both what people remember but also not what they're expecting at all, otherwise why do it?"^[4] He was also concerned that the series would be "jokey", but received assurances from the project's creative team that it would not be.^[18]

On August 4, 2018, Stewart made a surprise appearance at the annual Las Vegas Star Trek Convention to officially announce the series and confirm that he would star in it. Stewart was also set to executive produce the series alongside Kurtzman, Goldsman, Chabon, Discovery'sJames Duff, Heather Kadin of Kurtzman's production company Secret Hideout, and Rod Roddenberry (the son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry) and Trevor Roth of Roddenberry Entertainment. Beyer remained part of the creative team as well.^[6] The series was expected to premiere in 2019.^[19] Kadin revealed in October that the series was intended to be ongoing rather than a limited miniseries, and that its release would not overlap with Discovery or any other new Star Trek series. Kurtzman added that the Picard series would be "its own thing",^[20] later elaborating that where Discovery is "a bullet", the Picard series is "a very contemplative show" with its own "rhythm" and more of a "real-world" feeling.^[21] CBS CCO David Nevins confirmed in December 2018 that the series was intended to debut on CBS All Access at the end of 2019, after the full release of Discovery's second season and several Star Trek: Short Treks shorts.^[22]

Stewart revealed in January 2019 that the series would consist of 10 episodes, and reiterated that the intention was for it to continue for multiple seasons,^[18] adding a month later that "we are set up for possibly three years of this show".^[23] A production listing in March gave the series' title as Star Trek: Destiny, which CBS had trademarked in 2018.^[24] However, the official title was revealed as Star Trek: Picard at CBS's upfront presentation that May.^[25] At that time, Kurtzman revealed that the series does not have a traditional showrunner and instead was being "shepherded" by a larger creative team.^[26]

Writing

An initial series' writers room had begun work by the end of September 2018, and worked alongside Stewart for two weeks.^[19][27] The room soon expanded to include a full roster of writers for the series,^[27] and they had broken the stories for eight episodes by that December.^[21] The series is set 20 years after Stewart's last appearance as Picard in the film Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).^[3] Kurtzman revealed that the series would find the character "radically altered" by the destruction of Romulus several years after the events of Nemesis, as depicted in the film Star Trek (2009).^[4] Stewart said the series would tell a single serialized story, and despite taking place at a similar time to flashforwards in the Next Generation finale "All Good Things..." he would not be growing a beard for the series as he did for those scenes.^[18]

Kurtzman said the mandate for the series was to make it "a more psychological show, a character study about this man in his emeritus years", and noted that it was rare for a television series to star an older actor like Stewart. In the series, the character must find his way back to Roddenberry's original optimistic vision for the franchise, which Kurtzman hoped would reinforce that original vision while allowing the character to "go through deep valleys".^[26]

Casting

With the initial series announcement in August 2018 also came confirmation that Stewart would star in the series as Picard.^[6] At the start of March 2019, Santiago Cabrera and Michelle Hurd were both set to co-star in the series, with Cabrera being one of the most sought-after actor during the 2019 television pilot season and choosing this series over many other offers.^[7] Later in the month, newcomer Evan Evagora was cast as another series regular role.^[9] In April, Alison Pill, Harry Treadaway, and Isa Briones joined the cast.^[10]

Design

Acknowledging that the series would be set further in the future than any previous Star Trek film or series, Kurtzman explained that the production was aiming for a "grounded" approach rather than having things like "crazy floating skyscrapers and all the cliches of science fiction ... we've tried to avoid that, across the board, in the production design and the look of it and the feel of it. It's all about the personal details that you can connect to now, even though it takes place so far in the future."^[28]

Filming

Production began on April 22, 2019,^[29] at Santa Clarita Studios, California, under the working title Drawing Room.^[24] In December 2018, the series was granted $15.6 million dollars in tax credits by the California Film Commission for the production to take place in California rather than in Toronto, Ontario, where Discovery is filmed.^[30] The first two episodes are directed by Hanelle Culpepper, who previously directed for Discovery and is the first woman to direct the initial episode of a Star Trek series.^[12] These first two episodes make up the first "block" of filming for the series, with its 10 episodes split into five blocks total. Jonathan Frakes, who also previously directed for Discovery, directs the second block of episodes and stated his belief that this block system had more to do with amortization than any story-based reasons.^[3] Filming is expected to conclude on October 1, 2019.^[24]

Release

Star Trek: Picard is expected to premiere in early 2020 on CBS All Access in the United States,^[22] and run for 10 episodes.^[3] Like Discovery before it, each episode of the series will be broadcast in Canada by Bell Media on the same day as the All Access release, on the specialty channels Space (English) and Z (French) before streaming on Crave.^[31] Amazon Prime Video will stream the episodes within 24 hours of their U.S. release in over 200 other countries and territories around the world; this is different to Discovery, which is released internationally by Netflix.^[32] The deals with Amazon and Bell for the series were made by international distributor arm CBS Studios International.^[32][31]

References

External links

• Official website
• Star Trek: PicardatIMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• Star Trek: PicardatMemory Alpha