Will the Picard show address the 800 lb gorilla that is data's death?

do you think we will learn if b4 eventually became data, or do you think they will not mention it, or perhaps if they do they will wait as long as possible to establish this new show with its new cast?

 

while i love data, i would prefer that he died (in every meaning of the word) destroying the simitar.

 

I prefer they not mention it. Actually, I prefer that they ignore the TNG Movies altogether, but they won't do that. So the next best thing to do is to just not mention it. Picard can refer to Data as someone he once knew, someone who once served under him when he was a Captain.

As far as what they will do, I'm sure it'll come up at some point. But Brent Spiner was worried about still playing Data even back in 2002, never mind 2019. So we'll only hear about what's going on with him, not see him. Unless they do a CGI Recreation of Data with Brent Spiner only providing the voice.

 

According to a leaked series bible, Picard will spend the cold open of every episode mourning Data, throwing down shots to him, and generally acting inconsolable.

 

I know one thing: Brent Spiner will not be playing Data or B4, unless they come up with some fanwank answer as to why he now looks like an old man.

 

On other hand, digital de-aging is getting better and better. Look at the way they de-aged Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer in the ANT-MAN movies. Granted, the Picard show probably has a smaller SFX budget than a Marvel movie, but if the tech gets faster and cheaper . ...

 

You can use stuff like makeup and wigs to make someone appear younger.

 

Data will just be the voice of Picard's ship computer.

 

I don't see them doing that if Data was a regular character. But we'll see.

Yeah, because that always worked so well when they did the reverse. Star Trek old man/woman makeup always looked so cheesy and fake, I can't see the reverse being any better.

 

Yeah, it would likely be a combination of de-aging and a body double/CGI head a la Tarkin. I think it would work fine for Data. He's supposed to look uncanny and not quite alive, so Data would be a perfect application of the technology.

 

Seems a bit on the heavy side. I would think Data was made of futuristic, light weight material.

 

Yes, because then we can have incredibly funny moments back about Data's buoyancy.

 

Haven't watched it yet, but I wondered why they didn't just recast Tarkin?

 

They essentially did, they just gave Guy Henry a CGI mask to look more like Peter Cushing. It's supposed to blend seemlessly into the original Star Wars, so I guess just recasting wouldn't have worked.

 

I am really surprised they didn't ask Wayne Pygram, who played Tarkin in Revenge of the Sith, to reprise the role.

 

While my first instinct is to let him remain dead, I did love the Waypoint comic where LaForge is captain of a future Enterprise which is crewed by endless holographic duplicates of his best friend Data, after his mind was downloaded from B4 into the Enterprise computer.

While Brent Spiner can't look like Data again without expensive CG, he can live on as the ship's computer voice, occasionally appearing as a blurry hologram or on a screen.

 

Probably because it looked absolutely terrible.

 

One thing I wonder is if "The Picard Show" is going to be allowed (CBS Television licensing wise) to use any of the TNG characters, other than Picard himself?

Not the actors, but have the characters appear?