"Star Trek Picard Is Not a Sequel to The Next Generation Says Producer"

[Divinity Davey]

Why should Trek be labeled any differently from "All in the Family" and its cohorts ...
Maude
Good Times
The Jeffersons
Archie Bunker's Place
Checking In
& Gloria.

All considered 'Spin-offs'.

 

[Christopher]

If you like, but why categorize at all ?

Exactly. Labels don't make things what they are. They're just crude approximations and oversimplifications of things that have their own individual identities.

If anything, by the strictest definition, the only Trek series that's an actual spin-off is DS9. A spin-off in its purest sense is something that takes existing characters or story elements from one series and makes them the central focus of a separate, concurrent series, as DS9 did with TNG's Bajor-Cardassia story threads and with the characters of the O'Briens and later Worf (and Ro Laren if things had gone as originally planned). I suppose Voyager was technically a spin-off too, since it was built around the Maquis threads that were set up in TNG and DS9, although that's more of a backdoor-pilot situation like "Assignment: Earth," with the new series conceived independently and then seeded into the existing series. That sort of thing does generally get counted as a spin-off, though I think that's kind of a cheat.

But that's the problem with labels. Like I said, they're just gross generalizations that are too simplistic to account for the nuances of specific individual things. So it's totally backward to see them as the ultimate goal in defining what something is. They're by far the crudest, least useful level of definition, something you need to look far beyond before you can truly understand a given entity.

 

[King Bob!]

Just hay created by the production staff for no particular reason.

 

[JesterFace]

If Picard series is not a sequel, let's call it "the next chapter".

 

[Christopher]

If Picard series is not a sequel, let's call it "the next chapter".

But that just makes it sound like a continuation of TNG, even more so than "sequel" does. The whole point is that that isn't what the show is. It's the first chapter of a new story about Jean-Luc Picard.

 

[JesterFace]

It's the first chapter of a new story about Jean-Luc Picard.

Why don't we agree that if the show is good, people can call it a sequel, next chapter, "Jean-Luc's adventures", "Picard Strikes Back" or what they want.

 

[Commander Richard]

Star Trek: The Next Chapter

A nice ring to it.

 

[Tuskin38]

It is the sequel of "The Next Generation", as the main character still Picard. It will be different if Jeanluc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is only a bridge for a new, another Picard to replace him as the main character.

What are you trying to say?

 

[Noname On A Naughty List]

Man, we can find ANYTHING to bitch about, can't we?

You must be new to Star Trek fandom...

 

[Lynx]

I have great expectations for this series.

But I'm also scared that people in charge will mess up the characters and the scenario from TNG.

Due to the fact how producers have managed to mess up both Star Trek and Star Wars in the incredible boring,doom-and-gloom 2010's with all that dreadful entertainment in that decade, I'm terribly scared that "Picard" will turn out to be the funeral for Star Trek and for everything which was so great in the 80's and 90's in Star Trek.

But I hope that this will be the turning point for Star Trek which has been on a downward spiral since the start of "Enterprise".

 

[Danja]

Man, we can find ANYTHING to bitch about, can't we?

This is the Internet. That's what we do!

(That and debate who's going to play Nightwing ... and fight over the widths of the armrests on the Enterprise-E. )

 

[Christmas Canon Spock]

But that's the problem with labels. Like I said, they're just gross generalizations that are too simplistic to account for the nuances of specific individual things. So it's totally backward to see them as the ultimate goal in defining what something is. They're by far the crudest, least useful level of definition, something you need to look far beyond before you can truly understand a given entity.

And people wonder why I'm anti-label. This is why.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

I'm anti-label. This is why.

Isn't that a label?

 

[Danja]

I'm anti-label. This is why.

Isn't that a label?

Quiet, you!

 

[WarpFactorZ]

I have great expectations for this series.

Me too!

But I'm also scared that people in charge will mess up the characters and the scenario from TNG.

The people in charge are Patrick Stewart, and people who grew up watching Star Trek and TNG. I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[mdtauk]

I suspect we will get the Movie era Picard more so than the TV series character.

More Action, loves driving fast cars, less awkward crew interactions with a need to be reminded the crew are humans by Troi.

 

[Danja]

If I've any real thoughts re Picard, it's that they've left it waaaay too long to go back to this character.

I suspect we will get the Movie era Picard more so than the TV series character.

More Action, loves driving fast cars, less awkward crew interactions with a need to be reminded the crew are humans by Troi.

I have a feeling the "kids" (Read: Seven, Hugh, and the Sirena crew) are going to be doing most of the heavy lifting action-wise.

Picard might give a speech -- and that's about it.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Labels have their place.

 

[King Bob!]

The people in charge are Patrick Stewart, and people who grew up watching Star Trek and TNG. I wouldn't worry too much.

That makes me worry more than if it were brand new folks involved. Just because one is an actor or a fan, doesn't mean they know anything about telling a good story.

*cough*Insurrection*cough*
*cough*Nemesis*cough*

The trailers give me hope, but the show could easily go off the rails. Chabon himself doesn't have a deep TV resume.

I suspect we will get the Movie era Picard more so than the TV series character.

Man's eighty years old, I think other folks will be doing the action now.

 

[Alan Roi]

I'm terribly scared that "Picard" will turn out to be the funeral for Star Trek and for everything which was so great in the 80's and 90's in Star Trek.
.

Nostalgia is a terrible thing. It makes one think everything was better in the 'good old days', when Trek was hobbled by daytime soap level acting, clunky scripts, cheap effects, insulting characterizations, dull direction, constant preaching to the audience and whole stories that revolved around debates on questionable morality around boardroom tables etc.

 

[King Bob!]

Nostalgia is a terrible thing. It makes one think everything was better in the 'good old days', when Trek was hobbled by daytime soap level acting, clunky scripts, cheap effects, insulting characterizations, dull direction, constant preaching to the audience and whole stories that revolved around debates on questionable morality around boardroom tables etc.

How did you end up a fan of the franchise? It all pretty much plays the same.

 

[Danja]

Nostalgia is a terrible thing. It makes one think everything was better in the 'good old days', when Trek was hobbled by daytime soap level acting, clunky scripts, cheap effects, insulting characterizations, dull direction, constant preaching to the audience and whole stories that revolved around debates on questionable morality around boardroom tables etc.

Or soldiers who weren't permitted to kill (or even stun, for that matter, in the interest of being "family-friendly").