I doubt it. They're probably Romulans thankful for something he did, or they want his help on stopping the Romulans experimenting on the Borg.
Except that there are one and a half stations where TOS had only one. Because they made the ship bigger than it should be. There's no in-story reason why it needed to be bigger, but it is. Why then if not for contractual reasons? Having made it bigger they then had to make the bridge bigger, yet try and make it look quasi-similar. So they ended up with consoles that no one person could opperate alone, then having to shove an extra person in at each side station. It's awkward, but they kind of got away with it for the limited screen time it got
Fixed. My point is, since he's not on a Starfleet sanctioned mission, his crew has nothing to do with who is part of Starfleet and/or Federation.
Ah yes, the fabled "alternative licence" of which there is curiously no record or paper trail and which CBS, which outright owns the tv rights for all Star Trek shows for some bizzare reason is not only using but lying through their teeth about. It's funny that Paramount and CBS, two separate companies which own the rights for two different branches of a franchise use the exact same licence in their dealings with two separate production companies. Because that's how licensing and contracts work.
This just looks awesome. I love how they've kept it distinct from Discovery by trading Klingons, Section 31 and the Mirror Universe for Romulans and Borg. Some huge surprises with Seven of Nine and Hugh. Rumours of Spiner had been circulating, and I always thought it was almost inevitable Frakes would turn up in front of the camera too. Really looking forward to this.
I’m worried that Beverly, Geordi, and Worf won’t be appearing. You’d think if they were coming back too, it would’ve been announced with the rest.
Not necessarily. They do want some keep some surprises for the show. Plus it's still filming, so maybe just a few people know who is going to be in it.
Funny how many other current shows manage to look modern without being super choppy and almost incomprehensible at times. See BSG for another example of a modern sci-fi look done without this "style". There are plenty of shows currently airing I could have named also. The battle in the season finale of Discovery is a good example of this. It looks cool but all the details are lost beyond it's a battle with a lot of small ships. They spend millions of dollars on things you can barely even appreciate due to how they film. I guess you aren't meant to actually care about what you're watching. I'm just hoping Picard avoids the worst of Discovery's filming/directing style. Already subscribe to Hulu (way better selection of shows than Netflix) so it's a non-issue versus paying extra for this service a couple times a year just for Star Trek.
Interesting trailer. I'm honestly on the fence atm, and would need more context to make a better judgment. I agree that Data looks rather odd, and I kind of wish Seven had been given more to do in the trailer since her lines (to me at least) felt a bit out of character without having the full scene context to go with them. I'm keeping an open mind.