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

[Bryan^H]

The success of this show will be driven by people who enjoyed The Next Generation enough to subscribe to CBS AA. Those people want a straight up continuation of the character they followed for seven years on TV, not some alternate history nonsense. The powers that be need to get this message quickly.

I hope the series respects the fans enough to give us a worthy follow up to a fantastic character. I don't want a poorly written series with "dark" themes for the sake of being dark, and edgy. I don't want a series greenlit as a quick cash grab to lure more viewers to CBS AA.

 

[JQuintana]

I hope the series respects the fans enough to give us a worthy follow up to a fantastic character. I don't want a poorly written series with "dark" themes for the sake of being dark, and edgy. I don't want a series greenlit as a quick cash grab to lure more viewers to CBS AA.

I bet that is near top of their list of reasons to give this a shot.

I can't image there are many millennials or similar aged folks clambering to see another (or any) Star Trek. This is geared to the aging Trek crowd at this point and hopefully enough are willing to pay the crazy fee CBS wants to stream stuff.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I don't think Patrick Stewart would have signed on for just a cash grab. He has better things to do with his time, and whatever they're paying him, it can't possibly be the kind of money that it would take to get him to do something he wasn't interested in doing. I think it's particularly encouraging that Michael Chabon is one of the writers for the Picard show - he's a Pulitzer Prize winning author, and his Short Treks segment was pretty great.

 

[John*Wells]

I don't think Patrick Stewart would have signed on for just a cash grab. He has better things to do with his time, and whatever they're paying him, it can't possibly be the kind of money that it would take to get him to do something he wasn't interested in doing. I think it's particularly encouraging that Michael Chabon is one of the writers for the Picard show - he's a Pulitzer Prize winning author, and his Short Treks segment was pretty great.

I agree. Stewart is all business and no nonsense. I think he will have input into what goes on. I also think it’s too bad that Picard’s brother and nephew were killed in the TNG film series and won’t be part of this.

In the TNG Episode “Family” Picard meets his nephew Rene and is told by him that some day he will be a starship captain. It would have been cool if that had happened for Picard to see

 

[Tino]

If it has the great stories and production values of DSC, I’ll be very happy.

 

[Sam Favate]

I agree. Stewart is all business and no nonsense. I think he will have input into what goes on. I also think it’s too bad that Picard’s brother and nephew were killed in the TNG film series and won’t be part of this.

In the TNG Episode “Family” Picard meets his nephew Rene and is told by him that some day he will be a starship captain. It would have been cool if that had happened for Picard to see

I completely agree, but Stewart's story sensibilities haven't always been the greatest. It was he who suggested - and got - the infamous dune buggy scene in Star Trek Nemesis.

Killing off Picard's brother and nephew is one of the greatest mistakes ever made in the franchise. The writers of the first TNG film were a bit too trigger happy. I hate senseless deaths in dramatic fiction; it's easy drama and it's pointless.

 

[Bryan^H]

It doesn't really matter if the series doesn't do anything for me. I have been having a blast reading old TNG comics and I have a lot of Star Trek novels to catch up on.

Plus this is happening so a yearly subscription is what I'm going for
http://trekcore.com/blog/2019/01/idw-heads-back-to-classic-star-trek-with-year-five/

I'm still bummed out that I had to quit Discovery right when it was getting good.

 

[Josh Dial]

I hate senseless deaths in dramatic fiction; it's easy drama and it's pointless.

I'm with you. Deaths make sense in books/shows like A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones where brutality is commonplace and deaths are built into the fabric of the narrative. Even on shows like LOST the occasional death makes sense to reinforce the survival theme. However, many shows kills characters simply to create--as you wrote--easy drama.

At least with Picard's case the deaths of Robert and Rene did sort of feed into the greater theme of the movie: the role of death (predator vs companion) and legacy (family legacy, command legacy, franchise legacy--"generations" all). It's a shame it happened, though--the characters were pretty great despite their limited screen time.

 

[Tino]

I'm still bummed out that I had to quit Discovery right when it was getting good.

Sorry I must have missed it but why did you have to quit DSC?

 

[John*Wells]

I'm with you. Deaths make sense in books/shows like A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones where brutality is commonplace and deaths are built into the fabric of the narrative. Even on shows like LOST the occasional death makes sense to reinforce the survival theme. However, many shows kills characters simply to create--as you wrote--easy drama.

At least with Picard's case the deaths of Robert and Rene did sort of feed into the greater theme of the movie: the role of death (predator vs companion) and legacy (family legacy, command legacy, franchise legacy--"generations" all). It's a shame it happened, though--the characters were pretty great despite their limited screen time.

Same thing happened in TWOK too. They killed Scotty's Nephew Peter Preston ..although that one made slightly more sense given the plot of the film

 

[Sam Favate]

At least with Picard's case the deaths of Robert and Rene did sort of feed into the greater theme of the movie: the role of death (predator vs companion) and legacy (family legacy, command legacy, franchise legacy--"generations" all). It's a shame it happened, though--the characters were pretty great despite their limited screen time.

Picard's nephew embodied hope for the future in a show about hope for the future. To kill him off (as a child!) was a betrayal of the central theme of the franchise. And, really, they died in a fire? In the 24th century? Come on, even if Chateau Picard didn't have a 24th century sprinkler system, surely the Roombas of the future can shoot water or foam at a fire. I just don't buy it. (Yes, I know Picard's brother didn't like technology and didn't have a replicator. That doesn't mean he's stupid enough to keep safety equipment out of his house.)

Writing movies and TV shows, especially science fiction, is not like writing about real life. Killing off a child is effectively killing hope, and plunging your characters (if they're realistic) into a depression that will take years to work through. (Moore and Braga were pretty young when they wrote this, so I'll chalk it up to their naïveté. )

 

[Nelson Au]

I really didn’t like that they killed Picard’s brother and nephew. But I suppose it gave Picard his motivation in the film. I haven’t seen Generations in a very long time. But I remember he was crushed by the news. And I hated that Kirk was killed. Dumb move. All three deaths were dumb!

About the Picard series, my guess based on what I heard Stewart say, that we shouldn’t expect to see the same Picard we know so well, is that there’s a possibility it’s either an alternative universe; or a serious life change has occurred. For Stewart to agree to come back, perhaps an extreme different situation was needed to lure him back.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I’m guessing that he’s no longer captain of the Enterprise. I’m curious to see if he’s still serving in Starfleet in some capacity or if he’s retired at the start of this show.

 

[Josh Dial]

Picard's nephew embodied hope for the future in a show about hope for the future. To kill him off (as a child!) was a betrayal of the central theme of the franchise. And, really, they died in a fire? In the 24th century? Come on, even if Chateau Picard didn't have a 24th century sprinkler system, surely the Roombas of the future can shoot water or foam at a fire. I just don't buy it. (Yes, I know Picard's brother didn't like technology and didn't have a replicator. That doesn't mean he's stupid enough to keep safety equipment out of his house.)

Oh don't get me wrong: I totally agree with you. All I'm saying is at least they tried to make the deaths dovetail with the central theme of the movie. It's too bad they chose to do so in disregard to a central theme of the franchise. In some shows they literally just kill characters as though the writers thought, "hmmm, not sure how to make this character sad--let's kill someone they love!" I dislike that.

 

[joshEH]

I really didn’t like that they killed Picard’s brother and nephew. But I suppose it gave Picard his motivation in the film. I haven’t seen Generations in a very long time. But I remember he was crushed by the news. And I hated that Kirk was killed. Dumb move. All three deaths were dumb!

About the Picard series, my guess based on what I heard Stewart say, that we shouldn’t expect to see the same Picard we know so well, is that there’s a possibility it’s either an alternative universe; or a serious life change has occurred. For Stewart to agree to come back, perhaps an extreme different situation was needed to lure him back.

Here's where I make my usual argument that Kirk's death-scene was just right because it wasn't grandiose and melodramatic. Whatever Shatner's real-life proclivities, Kirk didn't care about any of that. He was just an officer doing his job, and all that mattered was protecting people.

And I still say the most Kirkian moment in the entire scene is the one that's easiest to overlook, because it's the sheer lack of drama that makes it work so well -- right after being barely saved from the teetering bridge that almost killed him moments before, he unhesitatingly steps right back into danger because he still has lives to save. He doesn't pause, doesn't wrestle with the decision, he just goes ahead and does what needs to be done, with no regard for his own safety.

And there are few things that could ever sum up James T. Kirk as well as that.

 

[Sean Bryan]

I wonder if Picard will be battling Irumodic Syndrome in this, or is he not old enough yet? How far into the future was the “future” time period in “All Good Things...”?

 

[John*Wells]

I’m guessing that he’s no longer captain of the Enterprise. I’m curious to see if he’s still serving in Starfleet in some capacity or if he’s retired at the start of this show.

I agree Perhaps a Federation Ambassador?

 

[joshEH]

I wonder if Picard will be battling Irumodic Syndrome in this, or is he not old enough yet? How far into the future was the “future” time period in “All Good Things...”?

The future-flashfowards in “All Good Things...” take place circa 2395, so it’s quite close to the timeframe of this new series (which opens in 2399). That said, if the producers don’t want to go down that same road again (Irumodic syndrome), a quick throwaway line of dialogue would solve that problem pretty handily (“Good thing I started taking that experimental preventative brain-medicine years ago after Q showed me the future!”).

 

[Nelson Au]

JoshEH, definitely, Kirk was being Kirk in Generations. I’m not disputing that. I just hated the idea he dies on screen.

 

[John*Wells]

I just read an article about the new Series which leads me to believe Picard will be of the Same Mindset Spock was in Unification.. The " Im not in Starfleet anymore and what I do is No concern of theirs" Narrative