Star Trek: Picard - Season One - CBS All Access - starring Patrick Stewart (1 Viewer)

[joshEH]

^ I was automatically assuming 8:30 PM EST too, but yeah -- nothing confirmed yet on any site that I could dig up right now. Even the official page (where you'd go to launch the show) apparently still just says, "Star Trek: Picard premieres January 23, only on CBS All Access."

 

[Nelson Au]

Josh, your question had me curious. I did get an email from CBS All Access today that had a clock counting down the time till the premiere. So doing the math, 2 days, 15 hours and 6 minutes as of this writing, that works out to 5:00pm California time, so your thinking 8:00pm east coast time makes sense. And I guess that’s the constant with CBS All Access for premiere times.

 

[David Weicker]

Josh, your question had me curious. I did get an email from CBS All Access today that had a clock counting down the time till the premiere. So doing the math, 2 days, 15 hours and 6 minutes as of this writing, that works out to 5:00pm California time, so your thinking 8:00pm east coast time makes sense. And I guess that’s the constant with CBS All Access for premiere times.

I received a similar email. But my clock is counting down to 2am CST on the 23rd, which would be Midnight PST

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

New Featurette ("A New Chapter Begins"):

 

[Nelson Au]

Must be a temporal anomaly caused by Q in your area David.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Rewatching Nemesis tonight and Star Trek ‘09 tomorrow for a refresher course on where we left the universe. Not that I don’t remember every second but I still enjoy both films.

 

[Philip Verdieck]

Rewatching Nemesis tonight and Star Trek ‘09 tomorrow for a refresher course on where we left the universe. Not that I don’t remember every second but I still enjoy both films.

Yeah, that is a great idea.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I still enjoy Nemesis. Could I pick it apart? Probably. Do I choose to? Nope.

It felt all the more poignant watching it this time knowing that there was more story to come. Especially with the sense that “Picard” honors the storytelling choices in Nemesis which gives them weight. Knowing that Data is most likely still dead, that really makes his sacrifice hit hard. Knowing that all of that sacrifice did lead to a fragile Romulan peace also adds weight to the ending of the film.

And then watching Star Trek ‘09 and basically seeing that the whole thing erupted from a 24th century shitshow - and that we’ll finally see the aftermath of that - is very exciting.

I’ve always loved Star Trek ‘09 but felt disappointed that they could make such a major change to the Prime universe without there being an avenue for us to see the fallout. I’m glad that day is finally here.

 

[Sam Favate]

On The View, Patrick Stewart formally invites Whoopi Goldberg to be in season 2 of Picard. Not a joke; he says he is speaking on behalf of the executive producers.

 

[Nelson Au]

That’s very nice to see Guinan is coming back. And Whoopi looked very touched by the offer. And it good to hear her mention Nichelle Nichols who she’s said had an influence on her growing up.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The suspense is killing me.

Anyone staying up to watch it tonight?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I’m very happy. I was incredibly moved by it.

It’s probably a valid simile to say that this feels like to TNG what the Twin Peaks revival was to the original. Anyone expecting more Rick Berman-esque 90s Trek will probably be disappointed. But if you’re open to something that honors TNG by taking its history seriously without being reverent to the trappings of its original production time period, there’s so much to love here.

It’s beautifully shot, and it unfolds at a more Malick-y pace than J.J.

Patrick Stewart is Picard here. Not Professor X, not the humorous Stewart of social media and self-spoofing, but Picard. He’s able to instantly convey that he’s still our guy but that so much has changed for him and around him.

Plotwise (and this is only the mildest of spoilers and if you’ve seen the trailers or read any articles about the show, you’ll already know this stuff), I like

Spoiler

That the new show honors the old by not discarding the world building that was done in the shows and movies. Starfleet seems darker but that’s not out of nowhere - Insurrection showed the Federation willing to go along with an unethical forced relocation/genocide scheme until the Enterprise discovered what was going on. DS9 showed both Section 31 and the Federation getting their hands dirty in a very ugly war. Nemesis showed Picard establishing a fragile truce with the Romulans, at the cost of the sacrifice of Data when Picard has already been prepared to die. Star Trek ‘09 erased that victory with the destruction of the Romulan homeworld. It makes those earlier works resonate more and honors them by not waving away the choices made then. (It does seem to wipe out the Countdown ‘09 comic to at least a certain extent but getting Patrick Stewart back for a new show trumps fidelity to an obscure 11 year old comic movie tie in prequel.) And I don’t think the show is being dark for the sake of being dark; I think it is starting in the dark so that it can show us how Picard finds the light.

When Discovery aired last year, I paired each episode with one from the original series. These pairings were chosen on about 50% whimsy and 50% based on sharing a similar theme to the new show’s latest episode. I plan on doing the same with “Picard”. However, since Discovery wasn’t directly connected to TOS in the way Picard is related to TNG, I could share my episode picks without risk of spoilers. Discovery also began streaming at a prime time hour making it easier to have a discussion knowing we were all aiming to view it at around the same time. With Picard going up at 3am eastern, we’re gonna end up tackling this at different times and I don’t want to ruin anything for anyone else. So while my chosen TNG episode probably wouldn’t be a spoiler or a minor one at that, I’m gonna tag them as such just to be safe.

Spoiler

This week’s choice seemed obvious: The Measure Of A Man. I’m watching the extended version from the Blu-ray. With Picard name dropping Bruce Maddox, what else was I to do? I don’t love this episode in the way others do but I recognize it’s significance and if it’s not my favorite hour of Trek, it’s an important one.

 

[Tino]

Hard to believe but I’m just now finishing season 2 of Discovery. I have two episodes left. Do I need to finish before watching Picard?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Hard to believe but I’m just now finishing season 2 of Discovery. I have two episodes left. Do I need to finish before watching Picard?

Nope. There’s about 100 years between them in the chronology so you’re good either way.

Just started watching Discovery with my wife tonight - she hasn’t seen it yet.

 

[joshEH]

^ Wait, this is already up and live??? How did I miss hearing this news? (Did CBS actually put it up at 12:01 AM for the very first time ever?)

Guess I know what I'm doing first thing when I get home this afternoon.

 

[Bryan^H]

The opening episode exceeded my expectations.
Extremely satisfying, and honestly the best thing I have watched on TV in many years.

I love the story.

 

[joshEH]

Plotwise (and this is only the mildest of spoilers and if you’ve seen the trailers or read any articles about the show, you’ll already know this stuff), I like

Spoiler

That the new show honors the old by not discarding the world building that was done in the shows and movies. Starfleet seems darker but that’s not out of nowhere - Insurrection showed the Federation willing to go along with an unethical forced relocation/genocide scheme until the Enterprise discovered what was going on. DS9 showed both Section 31 and the Federation getting their hands dirty in a very ugly war. Nemesis showed Picard establishing a fragile truce with the Romulans, at the cost of the sacrifice of Data when Picard has already been prepared to die. Star Trek ‘09 erased that victory with the destruction of the Romulan homeworld. It makes those earlier works resonate more and honors them by not waving away the choices made then. (It does seem to wipe out the Countdown ‘09 comic to at least a certain extent but getting Patrick Stewart back for a new show trumps fidelity to an obscure 11 year old comic movie tie in prequel.) And I don’t think the show is being dark for the sake of being dark; I think it is starting in the dark so that it can show us how Picard finds the light.

Yeah,

Spoiler: Star Trek: Picard

this new show mostly wiped out the 2009 Countdown comic series (which was co-written by Kurtzman/Orci as a tie-in to the first J.J. Abrams movie), but Mike Johnson, the other author of that series, is also the co-writer of the new Picard: Countdown series (alongside TV show creator Kirsten Beyer), and there are some "spiritual" carryovers between the two comics that can be seen when reading. Plus it appears that the 2009 Countdown series' version of Nero's involvement in the upcoming Romulan supernova is still mostly untouched, at least for the moment (the new comics purposely avoid Nero's storyline), which I found very interesting.

 

[Nelson Au]

Josh S, you saw the first episode already? I’m confused too, I thought it wasn’t live till later today.

I’m at work anyway, and was planning to be watching tonight assuming it went live this afternoon. Look forward to seeing it and discussing it.

edit, I was curious so I checked the CBS All Access app on my iPad I have with me at work and the first episode appears to be live already. I guess they jumped the gun maybe.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Josh S, you saw the first episode already? I’m confused too, I thought it wasn’t live till later today.

I’m at work anyway, and was planning to be watching tonight assuming it went live this afternoon. Look forward to seeing it and discussing it.

It went live at 12:01 AM PST (3 AM Eastern). Except in Canada, who have to wait for a broadcast tonight.

 

[Jason_V]

This means I'll be on a social media blackout to avoid spoilers for the day. Got a movie right after work and then gonna put Picard on. Lights out, dog cuddles and we're off and running.