The Latest On "Picard"
The new CBS All Access show starring featuring Sir Patrick Stewart reprising his famous role as Jean Luc Picard was announced last August. The details have been pretty scarce, but here's what we know so far.... including the new show's official name.
The first bit of information we now know is that Stewart was done with Picard after "Nemesis":
“It was a difficult decision, because I loved being Picard and working on that series for seven years – it was a great experience with a wonderful cast and production team. I mean, there have been so many proposals. “We’d like to have you in uniform [for some] comedy shows,” and I’ve always said “Nope, nope, no, I’m done.” Stewart recently said in an interview with Yahoo Entertainment.
He then added:
"I agreed to a meeting with the people who were going to produce this new version of ‘Star Trek’ only because I wanted to seriously, respectfully, explain to them why I was turning the project down. But in that first meeting, which only lasted an hour and a half or so, I heard just enough to realize this was something very unusual, and I was intrigued."
I said, “Will you ask [the writers] to put something on paper, as these different story ideas were coming up, so I could really have time to look about and study what they wanted to do — will they did and I think I got 16 pages.
To say I was hooked [right away] wouldn’t be quite true, but I was extremely interested, but I still wanted to know more. What I was afraid of, is that in some way, this is going to be jokey. And I don’t want to do that. I respect the work on ‘Next Generation,’ and also it changed my life in every way.
And I said, “You know what? I think I’m up for this.” But I asked a lot of questions, and they answers were all very satisfying. I was struck by how clever these people were that I was talking to, who can tell a narrative very well, and seem to be tuned into what an actor might need to hear.
So I signed on. I’ve been in the writers room for a total of three weeks over the last couple of months, the work that’s being done is extraordinary — basically, I just sit and listen. These clever guys, ideas going backwards and forwards… and what we have coming up is exciting.
It’s exciting for me because it excites me as an actor. Oh the story, is great… but it references the present day, at times, and that’s all I can say. I’m not saying we’re in the present day, we’re not, but the world we find Jean-Luc Picard in is not quite the world that we left him in.”
Everything is still speculation,but we know that the new series will be 20 years after the events in "Nemesis". Which places the show about the time that Romulus was destroyed as shown in the 2009 film "Star Trek". Picard and Spock had a intimate bond through Picard mind-melding with Spock's father Sarek before his death & later Spock. He also helped Spock organize the mission to save Romulus..Because the mission failed and Spock was lost,that must of been a big blow to Picard. It will be interesting to see where Picard is emotionally with that big of a loss on his shoulders.
In an interview with the Hollywood reported Alex Kurtzman said " Picard’s life was radically altered by the dissolution of the Romulan Empire".The explosion of the Hobus star — which created a supernova that destroyed the Romulan homeworld (and sent Spock back in time to the Kelvin universe) in the 2009 Star Trek film — sets the stage for where we’ll find our captain when the Picard series debuts this fall." This opens up a bunch of possible story-lines that could be explored in the new show.
Other questions that we've been wondering about and may now have some answers for is will the show be serialized or have an ongoing story arc and will the show be a limited run or ongoing?? Mr. Stewart made the comment that the series will be like a 10 hour movie while producers Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin told TrekMovie that the show is being planned as an ongoing series with hopes for multiple seasons. In the recent interview with Yahoo, Stewart did add some clarity to all of this, saying simply "We're hoping for more than one season." He went as far as to say that they are "set up" for three seasons.
Another thing to possibly be excited about is the tentative Paramount and Viacom merger. It's not a done deal yet,but if the merger does happen, that will open up all of the TV shows and movies as a nearly endless well of ideas for possible stories to tell.
I've heard from a few sources that Patrick Stewart is so excited about the show and the future of Star Trek that he's practically bursting to tell everyone more details,but he simply can't right now. In his words... "And what we have coming up is exciting. It’s exciting for me because it excites me as an actor. Oh, the story is great. And – I should be so careful what I say or they’ll skin me alive if I say the wrong things. But it has – it references the present day at times, and that’s all I can say, really."
I think that catches everything up to this point. There will be more info soon I'm sure,so I'll update you guys as soon as I hear anything new!!