What will new Picard show be about?

Ok so I’ve heard/read some ideas on this - Picard will be an ambassador, Picard will be commandant of starfleet academy, Picard will be an admiral.

In an ideal world, what would we like the Picard show to be about?

For me, I’d love something like the following:

Picard is retired. He never was promoted to admiral as he never wanted to be anything other than a starship captain. So not long after the death of Data (4-5 years maybe) Picard retires and takes up archaeology or vineyarding or some such. He’s not on active duty any more but it’s still appropriate to call him “Captain Picard”.

Then the Borg reappear, or the space jellyfish from “farpoint” or some other thing from TNG that Picard is uniquely qualified to deal with - on a starship but in an advisory capacity.

Picard wants none of it. He’s done with starfleet. He’s lost too many friends to the service and he’s happy in his retirement (well, he’s feigning happiness at least).

Starfleet invokes the little known seldom used “reserve activation clause” to force the issue and Picard reluctantly returns to deal with whatever this latest problem is.

Some of this show could be set at starfleet command, or at various starbases with Picard being the central character. Or we could also see him dealing with being on a starship but not being its captain - a bit like Kirk at the start of Generations.

In short, Picard would still be the legend we know him to be, he would still be perfectly capable and competent to command again - but he wouldn’t want to. We could see Picard wrestle with his instinct to be the captain versus his desire not to make it so.

So long as the overarching story is engaging enough I think that would be a compelling show. What does everyone else think? Answers on a postcard.

 

I really don't feel like this show is going to involve Picard being back in the center seat, in any capacity.

 

This video has some interesting theories on the matter:

 

Not a big fan of that video.

Like Spock having a previously unmentioned sibling is new (Star Trek V)?

Or Klingons inexplicably changing their look is new (TNG had no explanation for years).

Or future science based in real science (spore drive) is not believable but time travel totally is.

Vulcan astral projection stuff: OK, that was legit new. But hardly the first plot centric Vulcan ability (mind melds, Katra's, etc).

Like Star Wars: Last Jedi (and Force Awakens & Rogue Obe) I think a portion of the dislike stems from the gender/racial issues with the leads & supporting characters, but that cannot be voiced, so a furor over sonething else is put forward.

Now, are there legit criticisms in both cases? Yes. Many legit issues. Is ALL criticism racially/gender based? Of course not. But you are a fool if you don't think some of it is coming from a bad place.

 

This is the one I see being likely. I think it was somewhere on this forum I said it - Sir Stewart is up there in years, and I suspect he's gotten an arrangement where he won't be on screen all that much. So I can see him being the Academy head honcho, and his scenes will be kind of like Professor X - deliver exposition, explain the mission, give orders to the troops, then sit back as the young action stars go out to deal with whatever it is. He'll be onscreen maybe a quarter of the time, tops, probably less.

I could see that.

A variant I had in mind is similar - Picard was retired from Starfleet and devoted himself to archeology. So he spent a long time away from people, digging around on planets all alone. We often saw planets in TOS which were habitable but utterly empty apart from science teams, sometimes only one two people. Like that.

Then he finds something, something old and very powerful. He doesn't want to let knowledge of it get out or let anybody get their hands on it, but everyone wants it. Maybe he goes on the run with whatever it is (if it's portable). That would pit him against everyone - Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, even Starfleet - not that Starfleet are the bad guys as such, but that his interests are opposed to theirs. You could do interesting stuff with that.

 

When did Picard become a bitter asshole? I'm seriously asking. In First Contact he was pissed to an insane level that we never saw on the show. It's pretty much why I can't stand the movie after rewatching the show.

 

What does it matter if it's new? It's a bad idea. It was a bad idea in Star Trek V, but at least they had Sybok as a black sheep who lived separately from the family. Burnham is supposed to be living in the same house as Spock, which makes a ridiculous idea even more ridiculous.

And again - yeah, they changed it. And fans argued about it for years. This is not a good thing. And to do it once is bad enough. To compound the issue by doing it again, to the same species, just makes it all the more ridiculous.

Did they complain about how "believable" it was? I only saw them talking about the controversy generated when it emerged that they may have plagiarised the whole thing.

It's a question of scale. Vulcans as touch telepaths makes a kind of sense. You have nerve endings in your skin, so there is a logic to the idea that touching somebody could let you link your nervous system to theirs. And then given that, there is sense to the idea that you could transfer a consciousness through that link. To them jump tot he idea that you can make virtual reality phone calls across thousands of light years is just dumb. You might as well argue that because I can call across the room to you, it's reasonable to expect that I could shout messages to you across an ocean.

I think you're right that a portion of the dislike stems from gender/race issues, but I think that portion is really, really small. I've watched literally dozens of videos talking about the new Star Wars movies, and the criticisms really are there to be made.

I just don't buy that there's this great well of hate for women and minorities in sci fi fandom. If there were, why doesn't it apply to Ellen Ripley, Sarah Connor (either iteration), etc? Nobody complained that Ripley was the one taking down the Alien Queen - because Ripley was an awesome character who earned her victory. Rey and Burnham don't.

 

The great thing about a streaming platform is that the new show could be about an hour... or half of that. All Access is all about freedom in a way the franchise hasn't seen yet. It makes me feel... young.

 

I think he'll get there, but the show will tease the audience as much as possible first.

 

One amusing suggestion I've seen on social media: Picard hosts a TNG themed clip show.

INT. READY ROOM

Picard is sitting in his office chair reading a PADD and drinking a cup of Earl Grey. He reacts as the camera approaches.

PICARD
(smiles)
Ah, hello there.
(puts down PADD)
Do you know, I was just reading about fascinating biological diseases, and it got me thinking of one time we visited Ligon II, seeking a vaccine we couldn't find anywhere else...

He looks nostalgically into the middle distance as we fade to 'Code Of Honor'.

 

I hope you’re wrong about this as that would be a waste of Patrick Stewart on the show - but I can see them doing something like this as a springboard for another spinoff

I love this idea. I actually even like starfleet as the bad guys too - that was one of the few things I liked about Insurrection - and I didn’t hate INS. It was better than NEM (as a TNG outing I mean)

Presumably we’ll find out that something happened in the 20 years since nemesis.

But - regarding FC - the Borg unhinged Picard even on the show, just not to the same extent. He hates Hugh when they beam him up and he refuses to see him. He even yells at Guinan when she says to go talk to him. Later in “descent” Picard yells at Riker (“I don’t want excuses, number one, I want answers!”) because they’re dealing with the Borg again.

Now - that pales in comparison to his behaviour in FC. But - consider the fact that Picard never really had time to grieve for his dead brother and nephew in Generations. He was straight back to work thanks to Sauron (played by Malcom McDonald) and his rocket.

I don’t think it’s all that surprising that Picard didn’t deal with that loss emotionally - and it was the same brother who helped him get over the Borg emotionally in the show.

In FC the Borg are back but Picard’s brother is gone. No wonder he goes off the deep end.

I don’t think Picard is out of character at all in that film. The whole thing makes sense to me and always has. The show Picard shines through in the “Moby Dick” scene where he explains the story to lily. Also when he’s talking to Data about the queen being unique at the end.

It’s an evolution of the character. Picard can’t stay in a state of homeostasis - that’s what Blu-rays are for

 

My guess is that Picard will be old and retired after something vaguely described and bad happened in the recent 20 years (think: The X-Men all dying in Logan). We'll get flashbacks to a young Picard on the USS Stargazer, and they'll gradually unravel the mystery of what happened (something that's been going on his whole life but they never bothered to mention in his prior 176 episodes or 4 movies) before he solves it and dies at the end.

Or..

Maybe Earth wants to leave the Federation and it's Space Brexit.

Or perhaps his Irumodic Syndrome has kicked in and it'll be about him coming to terms with his mortality.

 

I'm hoping for Star Trek meets Game of Thrones as the Federation tries to deal with the continuing fall out from the destruction of Romulus by the Hobus Supernova in 2387, and the Romulan Star Empire's resulting swift collapse into feudalism and anarchy.

The surviving Romulan civilians of 2399 are a dispirited, displaced, resentful people with no world to call their own, existing in subsistence colonies scattered across the former Empire, while their formerly oppressed subject worlds have reclaimed their independence, and have taken to warring amongst themselves, leaving the Romulan people almost entirely dependent on humanitarian aid from the Federation (a former enemy they were taught since birth to think of as innately inferior) for their survival, while what remains of the military has gone rogue.

Throw Picard into that morass as the Federation's senior ambassador, dealing with storylines such as Romulan demagoguery, with various factions promising to 'Make the Empire Great Again!', minor wars between former Romulan subject worlds, and an increasingly hard-line approach from the Federation to Romulan refugees and 'terrorist' attacks perpetrated against Federation targets by their former military.

 

I had a dumb idea but i cant get it out of my head.
It would be cool if even just in a passing mention, an extremely elderly Tiberius James Akaar got a cameo.

 

And yet Spock was once able to sense the destruction of a Vulcan starship across the vastness of space, was able to sense the approach of V'Gr all the way from Vulcan, was once able to telepathically influence a guard through a solid wall . . ..

That's way beyond touch telepathy--and it's not like the previous shows and movies didn't make up new traits for Vulcans as the plot required. See Spock's hitherto-unmentioned inner eyelid in "Operation--Annihilate!" or the whole katra business, which was invented out of whole cloth in Star Trek III as a way to bring Spock back to life. This is just more of the same.

As for the Klingons' makeover back in 1979, you may be overestimating the degree to which this seriously bothered fans. Sure, we had fun making up ingenious "explanations" for the new look, but most of us understood that, honestly, it was just a matter of the movie having a bigger and better makeup budget. I don't recall anybody denouncing TMP just because the Klingons weren't wearing greasepaint and mustaches anymore. Nor do I remember anyone condemning TNG because, damnit, they were using those "fake" movie Klingons instead of the "real" ones.

It was no big deal, and certainly didn't hurt the franchise any.

 

Ooh yes please! I mean the stargazer will look nothing like the TMP bridge and have 12 nacelles but that’s fine I’d still like to see that captain Picard!

Spexit? Sprexit?

Lols I actually like this idea - I think it’s perhaps a bit uk centric to be social commentary in a Star Trek show, but some kind of dissolution of the federation would be extremely interesting.

Yes. This. This would be awesome. GoT has a lot of dialogue - something Patrick Stewart excels at!

Cool - also we could have an extremely elderly Michael Burnham as well!!! Maybe she could narrate the series? Hehe

 

That would be fun, but the problem with bringing in future versions of Burnham or Tilly or whomever is that locks their futures in stone. We know that Burnham becomes an admiral, etc. Given we're only one season into DISCO, it seems a bit early to establish the endpoint of the characters' arcs.

 

Unless they pull some weird universe timeline Kelvin prime mashup combination mumbo jumbo so that none of the events of any series ever matter

 

As long as the quality is high, I will be quite satisfied.

Star Trek: The Poop Emoji....that just wouldn't do.

 

I’d still watch it..