Picard in Discovery?

[caliginous]

Not sure if anyone has speculated on this yet. I've searched the forum and can't find it.

Given Picard is an Android and in theory, anyone from his era can now become an android, Picard could show up in Discovery and so could any other character alive at this time.

OK, it would be silly an unlikely to happen whilst the Picard show is on air.

But, I wonder if the ramifications of this technology will be dealt with on Disco? Was this process banned? Did they send the technology to the 42nd century so it couldn't be used by crazy AI's? How does a society function without death?

 

[fireproof78]

Picard's android body was set to still have an expiration date. He basically just got his full life, rather than being short changed by illness. So, no, I don't see him appearing on Discovery because of how his android body was built.

 

[Dukhat]

Spoiler

From what I understand, Picard isn’t in an ‘android’ body. He’s essentially a clone of his former body, only without the disease that was killing him. He will eventually die of natural causes or some other calamity.

 

[caliginous]

Picard's android body was set to still have an expiration date. He basically just got his full life, rather than being short changed by illness. So, no, I don't see him appearing on Discovery because of how his android body was built.

could always be hacked

 

[caliginous]

Spoiler

From what I understand, Picard isn’t in an ‘android’ body. He’s essentially a clone of his former body, only without the disease that was killing him. He will eventually die of natural causes or some other calamity.

Patrick Stewart refers to Picard's body as an artificial lifeform, I believe it's generally accepted this is an android, not a clone.

 

[Lord Garth]

It depends on what they reveal in Picard Season 2. If it turns out he's more of a clone than an android, then current consensus doesn't matter.

Either way, I don't see Picard surviving Picard. I just don't. New body or not. If we see Picard in Discovery, that limits the options of what they can do in Picard. It's also why I don't want to see the Borg in Discovery.

When I'm watching PIC, I don't want to feel like I'm watching a prequel to DSC.

 

[Dukhat]

I honestly just want to see the Enterprise-F at some point.

Patrick Stewart refers to Picard's body as an artificial lifeform, I believe it's generally accepted this is an android, not a clone.

Did you think the 12 models of Cylons in nuBSG were androids?

 

[fireproof78]

could always be hacked

It would depend on how it was designed. There have been several androids designed to emulate the life span of biological organisms so it may be more than just a setting or a program to disable.

Regardless, I see no reason that Picard would appear in Discovery.

 

[NCC-73515]

I honestly just want to see the Enterprise-F at some point.

You might regret that when it turns out to be similar to the non-canon F

Picard is a synth. The differences between these advanced synths and biological humans was never made clear, aside from some superpowers that some of them have. But Soji and Dahj were never identified as non-bio people before, so all medical scans apparently didn't see them as synths.

 

[Dukhat]

You might regret that when it turns out to be similar to the non-canon F

Yeah, I’m painfully aware of that.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Picard's android body was set to still have an expiration date. He basically just got his full life, rather than being short changed by illness. So, no, I don't see him appearing on Discovery because of how his android body was built.

They can always hack away and undo the artificial "Expiration Date".

=D

 

[FederationHistorian]

Picard is still mortal in is android body, and he has a normal human lifespan with it. So, he won’t be alive by the time the 32nd century rolls around. He will have expired like everyone else.

He would likely only appear as a hologram in DIS. Or through time traveling shenanigans.

 

[fireproof78]

They can always hack away and undo the artificial "Expiration Date".

=D

I find that hard to believe. Even if possible, highly improbable, and more importantly completely immaterial to the story.

Picard has no place in Discovery.

 

[ScottJ85]

Maybe some of the themes and concepts, given what Discovery was about last season, but not Picard himself.

I'd like to know more about the interdimensional robot apocalypse, though.

 

[Timo]

- Technically, Picard now lives in what they called a golem before the soul was installed. If a Soong bothers to come up with a new name for the technology, there's probably a distinction there somewhere, and a golem is not a synth. Unless "synth" is an umbrella term either replacing "android" or then encompassing that or being a subset of that.
- In today's terminology, both the golem and the observed synths are androids, that is, man-shaped creations.
- A degree of artificiality is involved in androidness, so Picard originally wasn't one. But his utterly identical clone, grown in a vat using one of the many established Trek techniques, might well qualify - Shinzon would be an android, say, due to the element of artificiality.
- Accidental immortality happens quite a lot in Trek, as do jumps across time, space and reality, so there are zero showstoppers for Picard appearing. Be it Jean-Luc or perhaps his ancestor from the 1700s or whatever.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[caliginous]

I guess what I'm most interested in is how the tech to move a consciousness into another body would impact society. 800 years on you would have thought it would have a big impact.

 

[Timo]

Soongs are infamous for never publishing, though. Possibly only a select few know?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[eschaton]

One of the issues that I had with Picard Season 1 is they went the NuBSG route of "robots, but completely and totally indistinguishable from humans down to the cellular level, but they're still robots because reasons." As if there's some essential/spiritual difference between a constructed biological body indistinguishable from a human and say a vat-grown clone (which exist in the Trek world - I believe DS9's second episode featured one). It doesn't say anything deep - it just plays to human psychological biases.

Regardless, from what I can tell there has been essentially no extrapolation of 24th century cybernetics (or holoprogramming) in Discovery. I believe this is mainly because the writers just aren't interested in telling those sort of stories. They basically want a world where tech is identical in terms of its implications to "normal Trek."

 

[Deks]

Picard is now a synth (a biological/organic based Android)... but programmed without usual enhancements of other organic Androids like Soji (so, no enhanced strength, agility, etc.) and a full human lifespan (but no immortality).

That said... its entirely possible these 'limitations' can be reprogrammed because all of the things we mentioned (enhanced memory, strength, agility, speed, immortality, etc.) are all 'standard features' of any organic android body (usually).

Sure, you can design an android body without those things, but the body that Picard got was designed by Soong so he could transfer his own consciousness to it and extend his own lifespan indefinitely - it stands to reason it would be made from the ground up with all enhancements of other androids.

So, when he decided to give that body to save Picard, they re-programmed it to be 'basic human' with an expected human lifespan (of that era) but without any illnesses.

I think that, should Picard change his mind (and lots of things can happen in just a few weeks or months... nevermind several years), he can probably reprogram his body himself to make him immortal and 'unlock' enhanced abilities that usually come with android bodies (or he can find someone to do it for him).

 

[Cyrus]

Picard has already been mentioned in Discovery. This will probably happen again as he was an important person in Federaton/Starfleet history, and we may see his images and holograms too. But I don't expect an actual Picard appearance.