Jean-Luc Picard is coming back to television.

August 4, 2018 2:40 PM

Announced today at the Star Trek Las Vegas convention, Patrick Stewart will reprise his role as Jean-Luc Picard in a new CBS All Access series.

(I was in the room when Alex Kurtzman was on stage to reveal the next Star Trek series, then brought out Patrick Stewart (best moment: a fan yelled “HOLY SHIT!” when he walked out) who confirmed what was rumored by saying “Jean-Luc Picard is back.” The room erupted and Stewart cried.)

posted by Automocar (161 comments total)

WHAT

WHAT IS THIS

I CANT

WHARGH
posted by Foci for Analysis at 2:44 PM on August 4, 2018 [12 favorites]

THIS IS THE VIDEO FROM THE CON
posted by Foci for Analysis at 2:46 PM on August 4, 2018 [9 favorites]

I tried making this FPP but I I was too verklempt. Captain Picard to the Bridge! Oh my gooooood!!!
posted by Elly Vortex at 2:48 PM on August 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

MAKE IT SO, MOTHERFUCKERS
posted by entropicamericana at 2:51 PM on August 4, 2018 [33 favorites]

I feel I'm ready to return to him for the same reason — to research and experience what comforting and reforming light he might shine on these often very dark times.

So the Trumpsters get Q and we get Jean-Luc Picard? I'm good with that.
posted by PlusDistance at 2:52 PM on August 4, 2018 [29 favorites]

instead is being described as an exploration of the next chapter of Picard's life

Scene: Starfleet Retired Admiral's home, omicron 37289379

A frail Picard, is seen seated, shot from the chest up, bent over slightly.
He is mumbling to himself in stentorian tone

"Captain's Log. No captain's log for 7 days. "

picards agitation and volume increase

"Number one? No! No number two!
The laxatives are most insufficient in this institution!"

--

etc.
posted by lalochezia at 2:53 PM on August 4, 2018 [8 favorites]

Harumpf. I hope this is good but I'd much rather see time and effort devoted to new things. I'm about as excited for this as I am to see, oh, a Star Wars movie about a young Han Solo.
posted by Nelson at 2:59 PM on August 4, 2018 [8 favorites]

There are few people I would prefer to see on TV during this terrible era than calm, companionate, diplomatic Jean-Luc Picard.

This news is like getting a big warm hug when you didn't realize how cold you were.
posted by meese at 3:03 PM on August 4, 2018 [58 favorites]

Does this mean that Quentin Tarantino is directing the pilot movie?
posted by Ignorantsavage at 3:06 PM on August 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

I have a hunch that Worf will be joining him. Michael Dorn has been trying to get a Worf spin-off for years. Brent Spiner too please!
posted by Brocktoon at 3:12 PM on August 4, 2018 [9 favorites]

Please please please be Picard and Worf solving crimes on some backwater planet
posted by lefty lucky cat at 3:15 PM on August 4, 2018 [43 favorites]

I hope they don’t blow this. In thinking of all the different permutations of the show structure, I think the most obvious ones are also the most horrible: 1) he’s still in command of the Enterprise, or 2) he’s an admiral behind a desk, and the actual going off and doing stuff parts are handled by captains with all of the charisma of sofa chairs.

I’m honestly hoping he isn’t in Starfleet at all, but instead hopping around the galaxy pursuing archeology or maybe as an itinerant playwright building theaters in backwoods planets.
posted by Room 101 at 3:18 PM on August 4, 2018 [22 favorites]

Room 101, Stewart strongly hinted that Picard wouldn’t be in Starfleet anymore.
posted by Automocar at 3:20 PM on August 4, 2018 [6 favorites]

So THAT is how CBS is going to be distracting from the misbehavior of Les Moonves.
(TRYING to disengage my auto-cynicism-drive, but it won't budge)
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:21 PM on August 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

The new series ... is being described as an exploration of the next chapter of Picard's life.

Show ideas:

Captain Picard has retired to a Space Cabin on the moon. He spends his time writing (and occasionally solving) moon mysteries.

Captain Picard has moved in with his psychiatrist son in Seattle. He spends all his time in a comfy old recliner. "I'm retiring to the bridge!" is his catchphrase when he goes to sit down. He has a Jack Russell terrier and a second, lesser, fussbudget son named Nigel. They discuss philosophy.

Captain Picard has retired and spends his time volunteering with a community theater group. In every episode they must stage a new Shakespeare play. At first things go smoothly, but then it all falls apart. At the last minute, Picard inspires the troupe and the play is a rousing success. There is a theater critic for their local newspaper who is difficult to please but somehow they earn rave reviews. When they run out of original Shakespeare plays, a haunted replicator serves up "lost Shakespeare scripts."

Captain Picard has retired and spends his days training docents at the local museum. The name of the show is Docent Force. They all have red blazers with the Starfleet emblem. Brent Spiner guests as Data in one episode. Spiner has aged, so they explain Data's new appearance by having him say, "I had an aging module installed. Also, I had a module installed that allows me to speak using contractions! I can't say can't! I'm sorry, that second use of the word 'can't' was supposed to be the word 'can' followed by the word 'not,' but I literally am unable to say those two words in sequence without using a contraction. I apologize; the module is still a little buggy." Picard and Data discuss philosophy.

Captain Picard runs for elected office. He becomes the mayor of Carmel, California. When despondent, he talks to a picture of former Carmel mayor Clint Eastwood. By the end of the first season, the picture starts talking back to him. "Klingons are punks. Do you feel lucky? Gran Torino. Empty chair." Season two is about his garden, which accidentally grows space plants that make him hallucinate.

Holodeck Adventures with Captain Picard, a show about a show-within-a-show. Captain Picard leaves Starfleet to produce a sitcom where every episode is about getting stuck in a holodeck in a different historical period. He wears glasses.

Captain Picard is enjoying his retirement in a space RV. He visits different national parks. In the Yosemite episode, he accidentally travels back in time to Star Trek V and watches Captain Kirk free solo El Capitan. "The captain on The Captain," he muses. Then, realizing that he, Captain Picard, is commenting on Captain Kirk on El Capitan, he says (more softly), "The captain on the captain on The Captain." It is the first time he ever laughs. There is a new national park just for whales with in-depth educational signs explaining everything from Star Trek IV. To save money, there is a bottle episode where he "gets a flat" (future slang for running out of dilithium crystals) outside of Sparks, Nevada. A wise old drifter tells him, "Reno is so close to hell, you scan see Sparks." They discuss philosophy.

The show is called Picard & Picard. Captain Picard hosts his own podcast about leadership. But one day, a transporter accident produces a second Picard with whom he must learn to get along. Every episode uses cool split-screen shots. In each episode, he must demonstrate leadership and teamwork and emotional skills (the hardest) to solve a problem with his duplicate self. Then he uses that story as inspiration for his podcast. As a promotional tie-in, the show's podcast ("from the future") is available on iTunes.
posted by compartment at 3:23 PM on August 4, 2018 [92 favorites]

Picard's on tour, playing the Ressikan flute; shenanigans regularly ensue. (This "out on the road" contrivance allows for guest stars galore.)
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:30 PM on August 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

my entire household is screaming
posted by sciatrix at 3:31 PM on August 4, 2018 [12 favorites]

for how many decades now has Stewart looked exactly the same age?
posted by thelonius at 3:32 PM on August 4, 2018 [18 favorites]

Dammit, I'm gonna have to subscribe now. They know how to reel us in!

Still, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 3:32 PM on August 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

THIS IS THE VIDEO FROM THE CON

Is there a second half??? We don't get him announcing the show is back!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:33 PM on August 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

they explain Data's new appearance by having him say, "I had an aging module installed.

Data already has an aging protocol. They established that in the episode where his Robo-Mom comes to visit.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 3:35 PM on August 4, 2018

automocar: Room 101, Stewart strongly hinted that Picard wouldn’t be in Starfleet anymore.

Thanks to a clerical error in the pension office, Picard winds up transferred into the Maquis.
posted by dr_dank at 3:40 PM on August 4, 2018 [10 favorites]

i hope the plot is that starfleet has been overtaken by militarists and picard retires in protest and becomes a freelance diplomat going around the galaxy trying to resolve disputes. considering how pretty much all the shit that happened after the end of TNG (i.e. endless wars in both ds9 and voyager) might have messed up the federation, this would seem plausible to me.
posted by wibari at 3:42 PM on August 4, 2018 [14 favorites]

Is there a second half??? We don't get him announcing the show is back!

Here is a longer video; it seems to have teh announcement
posted by thelonius at 3:45 PM on August 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

I certainly hope it involves playing an RPG!
posted by rikschell at 3:49 PM on August 4, 2018

I’m hoping this means that Larp Trek is also revived.
posted by adamrice at 3:49 PM on August 4, 2018 [9 favorites]

My first reaction to this was "man, he's too old to be on the bridge of a starship joining the Away Team, he's gonna be flying a desk if he's still in Starfleet"

Then I was like, wait, that's kind of awesome. Rear Admiral Picard, hanging out in the actual Federation instead of bouncing around the edges. We get an excuse to delve into what a post-scarcity society that mostly doesn't have money any more (except when it does, but supposedly mostly it doesn't) looks like. We get to watch him deal with Space Politics. It could be, like, The West Wing in space.

That sounds pretty goddamn awesome. But they'll probably just find a new excuse for him to be on a spaceship again.
posted by egypturnash at 3:49 PM on August 4, 2018 [18 favorites]

The Collective's Next Top Locutus. It's a reality show-within-a-show. Picard, Troi, and Seven of Nine are the judges. Seven of Nine is the obnoxious Simon Cowell one.
posted by PlusDistance at 3:52 PM on August 4, 2018 [13 favorites]

Star Trek: Kattan, chronicling the life experience of Jean Luc Picard as he lived the life of Kamin, a member of a long dead race.
posted by nathan_teske at 3:52 PM on August 4, 2018 [7 favorites]

Data already has an aging protocol. They established that in the episode where his Robo-Mom comes to visit.

For real or are you messing with me
posted by compartment at 3:53 PM on August 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

So I would have to pay yet another subscription fee to watch a show about post-scarcity adventuring.
posted by srboisvert at 3:54 PM on August 4, 2018 [6 favorites]

Picard is gravely debilitated by his advanced Irumodic Syndrome, being kept in a secret location by Data... who is also malfunctioning due to unforeseen failures in his positronic matrix. They stumble upon a young female android whose design is based on Data, but who was created by the Dominion as a combat unit. Together, the three must reach safety in... um... space Canada.

It's a limited run series, obviously.
posted by Laura Palmer's Cold Dead Kiss at 3:57 PM on August 4, 2018 [13 favorites]

Picard and Worf are running a retirement home for old Starfleet staff, Data is the "nurse", and
the episodes are the tales told by the inmates.
posted by Burn_IT at 4:03 PM on August 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

Picard is a Federation Ambassador who, in the two part season finale, must negotiate a peace with the Borg. Seven-of-Nine will function as his special advisor. It will guest star Scott Bakula who needs Picard's help because the Borg Treaty is really just a move in the Temporal Cold War. Jonathan Frakes will direct, and cameo as the Chef. The next season opener will resolve that as part of Picard's Irumadic Syndrome he is hallucinating during the negotiations. With hints that he has secretly married Vash at some point in the past. Due to the dangers of a mentally unstable Picard Section 31 places him a protected colony for high value retirees who could bring down the Federation without meaning too. The overseer of the Colony is portrayed by Ian McKellan. Eventually we get a series of Trek based psychedelia that ends with a version of, 'Dem Bones,' and Picard flys off in the Runabout Lotus, ser. no. KAR120C.
posted by Ignorantsavage at 4:08 PM on August 4, 2018 [10 favorites]

I didn't read the extended description.

I didn't click the link.

I didn't read the comments.

I am just here to say:

SQUEEEEEEEEyesssss !!!
yay
posted by missmobtown at 4:10 PM on August 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

for how many decades now has Stewart looked exactly the same age?

Since Dune (1984).

In Excalibur (1981) he has a beard and looks slightly younger.
posted by Artw at 4:20 PM on August 4, 2018 [34 favorites]

Data already has an aging protocol. They established that in the episode where his Robo-Mom comes to visit.

For real or are you messing with me

Totes Magotes for reals.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:23 PM on August 4, 2018 [5 favorites]

for how many decades now has Stewart looked exactly the same age?

Since Dune (1984).

In Excalibur (1981) he has a beard and looks slightly younger.

And then there's I, Claudius...
posted by mephron at 4:30 PM on August 4, 2018 [7 favorites]

I love TNG. I love Stewart.

But, if you're creating new shows as a TV producer and the best idea you can come up with is, "let's remake the thing I liked as a teenager," you should quit your job and let someone with new ideas have it instead. We've got 170 hours of TNG. It's great. We can watch it over and over again. We don't actually need more of it. The world is far bigger. Even the made-up world of the Trek universe.

I must admit, I was entirely wrong about Discovery, despite all the press. It was mostly great. So, I could well be wrong again. I hope so, though I'd bet against it.
posted by eotvos at 4:36 PM on August 4, 2018 [5 favorites]

All that I know most surely about morality and obligations I owe to Jean Luc Picard.
posted by Damienmce at 4:37 PM on August 4, 2018 [11 favorites]

Patrick Stewart in 1917.

I contend that his Roman era hair must be a wig.
posted by Artw at 4:40 PM on August 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

6 More seasons of Voyager and all of Enterprise to go but at least the task is finite.
posted by Artw at 4:42 PM on August 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

No, it's okay. We can revisit old places and old friends, knowing even so that we can never go home again. Stewart knows it, and undoubtedly has vetted it thoroughly. He doesn't need the money or the fame. And he has decades of our faith in him to live up to. If we can trust him, and I believe we can, then the premise is solid and will take the character forward in a way that is smart, sensible, and sensitive.
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:43 PM on August 4, 2018 [21 favorites]

Picard is the new host of Jeopardy.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:44 PM on August 4, 2018 [12 favorites]

Stewart knows it, and undoubtedly has vetted it thoroughly. He doesn't need the money or the fame. And he has decades of our faith in him to live up to...

And then his clothes fall off.
posted by Artw at 4:44 PM on August 4, 2018 [42 favorites]

Take my damn money CBS, and for the love of all I hold dear don't suck.

We need this and we need it to be amazing.
posted by Space Kitty at 4:54 PM on August 4, 2018 [4 favorites]

But, if you're creating new shows as a TV producer and the best idea you can come up with is, "let's remake the thing I liked as a teenager," you should quit your job and let someone with new ideas have it instead. We've got 170 hours of TNG. It's great. We can watch it over and over again. We don't actually need more of it.

There's a big difference between "bringing back Jean-Luc Picard" and "bringing back TNG". To quote the man himself, from the announcement video linked upthread:

"He may not, and I stress may not, be a captain anymore. He may not be the Jean-Luc that you recognize and know so well. It may be a very different individual, someone who has been changed by his experiences. ... It will be, I guarantee it, something very, very different."
posted by teraflop at 4:54 PM on August 4, 2018 [9 favorites]

5 seasons of flute playing.
posted by Artw at 4:57 PM on August 4, 2018 [19 favorites]

In this week's episode of Star Trek: The Jean-Luc Picard Chronicles, Jean-Luc ties up vines in the Picard family vineyards. Join us again next week when Jean-Luc visits Professor Data at Oxford.
posted by Rob Rockets at 4:57 PM on August 4, 2018 [14 favorites]

I hope Picard is living his dream of making erotic cakes.
posted by maxsparber at 5:13 PM on August 4, 2018 [21 favorites]

Tea cakes. Earl Grey. Hot, hot, hot!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:20 PM on August 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

It's just going to be his day-to-day pastoral life in The Inner Light but expanded to aggressively minute detail.
posted by Navelgazer at 5:22 PM on August 4, 2018 [7 favorites]

Each week Picard meets some new imbecile doing or saying something idiotic, causing Picard to bury his face in his palm over and over and over. 26 episodes.
posted by briank at 5:23 PM on August 4, 2018 [13 favorites]

*crosses fingers* Gates McFadden Gates McFadden Gates McFadden
posted by Bacon Bit at 5:30 PM on August 4, 2018 [25 favorites]

If this muthafuka is farming grapes and solving mysteries then I don't even know what I'll do.
posted by RolandOfEld at 5:32 PM on August 4, 2018 [21 favorites]

Picard is the new host of Jeopardy.

What are four lights?
posted by traveler_ at 5:34 PM on August 4, 2018 [24 favorites]

We can revisit old places and old friends, knowing even so that we can never go home again.

Agreed.

Also I hope this means he does a guest spot in the MMO.
posted by mordax at 6:03 PM on August 4, 2018

I have never been happier!
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 6:03 PM on August 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

I will never subscribe to CBS All Access. Never. A new Star Trek actually set in the future of the timeline? Yes, this hurts me. I don't care. I will never do it. This I vow before the old gods and the new.
posted by Justinian at 6:06 PM on August 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

My housemate announced this to me when we were out getting coffee with "HOLY SHIT, WHAT FUCKING TIME LINE ARE WE IN AGAIN!?" and of course I said "Well, the weird bad one, duh." and then he told me and I said "HOLY SHIT WHAT" and with us living where we do other nerds around us heard and said "HOLY SHIT WHAT" as well and so that was a thing.
posted by loquacious at 6:11 PM on August 4, 2018 [7 favorites]

Why am I crying? Its a tv show. I don't understand my own feelings right now.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 6:12 PM on August 4, 2018 [5 favorites]

Have y'all seen LOGAN? Like that, but with Star Trek.
posted by Justinian at 6:13 PM on August 4, 2018 [9 favorites]

Few things. For one, going by the YouTube clips Patrick Stewart can work a crowd. Would not have suspected that skill of him, nuh-uh. Not for one second.

Seeing Future Post-Starfleet(?) JLP is proper tantalising. The lack of scripts mention makes it sound like they're still in late-negotiations, with PS's position being "You give me some acting to do and I'll bloody act it off the screen!". Count me cool with that.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 6:25 PM on August 4, 2018 [4 favorites]

Also, anecdotally I've met IRL and seen online plenty of people who consider TNG-onwards to be Star Trek proper and everything prior best not mentioned. In some ways, giving Jean Luc Picard a decent final run-out (let's be honest he's gonna gloriously kark it at the end) is a re-evaluation of the formerly logical assumption that Kirk/Spock/McCoy and OST/reboot films are the heart of extant Trek fandom. TNG stuff is way older than OST was relative to that relaunch.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 6:33 PM on August 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

tl;dr - JEAN DIES AT THE END
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 6:34 PM on August 4, 2018 [4 favorites]

Fifth thought: CBS All Access profits will go towards paying off the many lawsuits Les Moonves brings in.

Sixth thought: The drawing power of any new Star Trek series is well above Star Trek reruns, and dwarfs anything else CBS puts out there. Might as well call it Star Trek: All Access.

Seventh thought: Archaeology is one of his side interests. Or was on the side when he was an active captain in Starfleet. Now?

Eighth thought: CBS knows how to target an audience and print money.
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:36 PM on August 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

Do you think we'll get a good explanation in the new series as to why a proud Frenchman spoke with a clear English accent, drank Earl Grey tea, idolized Nelson, and saw himself in the role of Shakespeare's Henry V in the play depicting one of France's most ignominious defeats?

(I LOVE Stewart and ST but this has always made me unreasonably angry)
posted by Justinian at 6:39 PM on August 4, 2018 [5 favorites]

First of all... awesome (if it happens). Second it better be a Jean Luc show where he is doing one of 2 things: A) a swashbuckling space archaeologist or B) a show about him taking over the family vineyard with Data and/or Q.
posted by Ashwagandha at 6:41 PM on August 4, 2018 [4 favorites]

It's "Captains in Shuttlecrafts Getting Raktajinos," with your host, Jean Luc Picard.
posted by jabah at 6:51 PM on August 4, 2018 [20 favorites]

Has no one mentioned that Michael Chabon is one of the executive producers for this new series?
posted by thecjm at 6:51 PM on August 4, 2018 [8 favorites]

This could be fun. Since it'll be set after Nemesis, I'd dearly love to see them incorporate some of what STO has done with that universe. It's been a while since I played but I don't think they've ever spent time in the game on that particular 20 year post-Nemesis stretch, and it'd be neat to see them deal with the fallout of Romulus' destruction.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 6:54 PM on August 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

In an unusual twist, the upcoming Patrick Stewart-led Star Trek series is accidentally merged with a proposed Facts of Life reboot, and Picard finds himself running a 24th century boarding school with Gandalf.
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:57 PM on August 4, 2018 [4 favorites]

YOU GUYS but what about Wil Wheaton?
posted by LMGM at 7:03 PM on August 4, 2018 [4 favorites]

I hope Picard is living his dream of making erotic cakes.

What, with mint frosting?
posted by Juffo-Wup at 7:10 PM on August 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

Let Wil rest, he's got anxiety
posted by Mizu at 7:11 PM on August 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

And he was terrible
posted by thelonius at 7:18 PM on August 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

Nah, that's his mate the nerd show host.
posted by Artw at 7:20 PM on August 4, 2018

And he was terrible

No, Usenet was terrible, in places. Wesley Crusher, even in his "chosen one" role is far less annoying and a plot-breaker than most of the random Starfleet high muckety-mucks, portrayed by an "Oh, it's That Guy!" character actor/actress introduced simply to cramp Piccard's style.

Wil, the man behind the Wesley, is full bore awesome, and his vids where he learns how to play a new game with celebrities and table-top game design experts is always worth a watch. I learned how to play Munchkin from Steve Jackson and Wil and a panapoly of famous television and film stars who were clearly not looking out for their brand, but wanted to beat Steve and Wil at the game.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:28 PM on August 4, 2018 [11 favorites]

Chabon Chabon Chabon Chabon Chabon WRITING JEAN-LUC PICARD Chabon Chabon Chabon Chabon Chabon
posted by tzikeh at 7:29 PM on August 4, 2018 [4 favorites]

Oh man. Does this mean they'll get his best bud Ian McKellen to guest star? I think I'd swoon.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 7:29 PM on August 4, 2018 [6 favorites]

And yeah they fuckin' BETTER have B. Crusher there THAT ALL GOOD THINGS TIMELINE WAS JUST ONE OF INFINITE POSSIBILITIES DO IT YOU COWARDS
posted by tzikeh at 7:30 PM on August 4, 2018 [5 favorites]

Ian McKellen as Q's dad, also named Q
posted by Mizu at 7:30 PM on August 4, 2018 [35 favorites]

Ian McKellen as Q's dad, also named Q

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY
posted by tzikeh at 7:32 PM on August 4, 2018 [20 favorites]

I feel like here's where I should mention the time a million years ago when I went to a Daily Show taping and Jon Stewart was taping two of that week's interviews in a row for scheduling reasons. I was sitting at the far left side of the audience which turned out to be the golden ticket seat where one is sitting next to and eye-level with the guest as they are waiting to come on.

The first guest was Patrick Stewart, who didn't have to wait there long. Not having seen TNG at that point, I knew him primarily as Professor X, but I was still happy to exchange silent nods and smiles with him as he stood literally a damn foot away from me. He was as calm, cool and professional as you'd expect and we exchanged no words.

The second guest, who was standing next to me through all of Sir Patrick's interview, was one Mr. Johnny Rotten. He was not calm, and not professional, and if he was at all "cool" it was probably from being, you know, Johnny Rotten. He spent about ten minutes desperately trying to get me to explain what the show was and if it was for real and generally just asking me to talk him through a crazy panic spiral.

That one was a more interesting interaction.
posted by Navelgazer at 7:34 PM on August 4, 2018 [16 favorites]

Oh man. Does this mean they'll get his best bud Ian McKellen to guest star?

"My Commander sent for Decius..."
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:35 PM on August 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

The second guest, who was standing next to me through all of Sir Patrick's interview, was one Mr. Johnny Rotten.

Well, I'll just be over here fan-scripting a TNG and Young Ones mashup. Let's start with The One Where Worf Learns What Moshing And Malt Liquor Is.
posted by loquacious at 7:49 PM on August 4, 2018 [7 favorites]

I might look at the teevee for the first time in 20 years if this comes to pass.

Engage.

Can they pull it off in time for Shatner to make a ridiculous cameo before he croaks?
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:51 PM on August 4, 2018 [4 favorites]

Everyone here is mentioning Data, but wasn't Brent Spiner sick to death of playing that role? (As opposed to Michael Dorn, who in my imagination keeps Trek uniforms in his closet for when his day job lets out.)
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 7:57 PM on August 4, 2018 [4 favorites]

PLEASE let this be a sign that we are lurching back onto the correct timeline
posted by Soliloquy at 8:14 PM on August 4, 2018 [14 favorites]

There are two STs I love: The first one (which I watched avidly from the beginning because I was a science fiction reader and it was Actual Science Fiction AND I was a Spock fan) and TNG. And I was a massive fan of Stewart. Later iterations were fine, but TNG was awesome. I will watch.
posted by Peach at 8:19 PM on August 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

Citizen Picard trying to get a shipment of wine through a sector in disarray, trying to stay out of it, duty was a long time ago. But when his hauler picks up a fragment of a distress signal from the Pastuer, Jean-Luc can't ignore it.

Ambassador Picard, wishing he could retire in an Alpha Quadrant buckling under the strain of the collapse of the Romulan empire. Not even warp drive can put a man everywhere at once, but Jean-Luc recalls a very interesting officer Admiral Janeway once mentioned to him. A sustained, self-aware hologram, who could be anywhere he was needed.

Doctor Picard, deciphering ancient alien zodiacs, poems and paintings to figure out which star chart will lead him to the planet where the artifact was buried. And when he and his students at last discover where they must dig, there's only one captain brave enough to get them there. A Klingon, Picard tells them, the most trustworthy man he has ever known but, he will not like them at first.
posted by EatTheWeek at 8:38 PM on August 4, 2018 [12 favorites]

Looks like CBS All Access figured out a way to get me to use it.
posted by filtergik at 9:02 PM on August 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm really happy to hear this, even if Kurtzman is attached. (People said Fringe was good, so maybe the guy has some talent of some sort, but after the one-two punch of the Transformers movies and that goddamned Abrams Trek reboot mess, Kurtzman is not exactly my favorite dude.) The TNG movies just kind of sputtered to a close, leaving some troubling loose ends (Was Data going to stay dead, or what?) so it'll be great to give that era of Trek a proper send-off.

On a deeply nerdy level I also love that this will show that the original Trek timeline didn't poof away to nothing after the reboot. In 90% of classic Trek going back to the past and changing stuff means that you will fuck up the future, so when Abrams and co. crapped all over the original timeline there was a part of me that was like, "But, that means they erased all of Trek so there's nothing left but Enterprise and this shit!" Of course Kurtzman might think it's super neato to do a story about Picard in the Abrams-verse, but I've got my fingers crossed Stewart and Chabon would talk him out of that. I think Trekkies want to catch up with our Picard now, not get to know some alt-Picard we never met before.

Everyone here is mentioning Data, but wasn't Brent Spiner sick to death of playing that role?

Spiner is still working but lately his resume mostly features guest-starring TV roles and cartoon voice gigs. He'd be a dope to pass up the chance to return to the role that made him a star. I'd be surprised if almost everybody didn't at least make a cameo, Wil Wheaton included. I think all of those actors would jump at the chance, and the fans would be thrilled to see them.

Looks like CBS All Access is finally gonna get my money.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 9:03 PM on August 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

Don't do it, UH! Be strong! CBS All Access must be destroyed so the market doesn't further fragment.

be destroyed.
posted by Justinian at 9:04 PM on August 4, 2018 [4 favorites]

For one, going by the YouTube clips Patrick Stewart can work a crowd. Would not have suspected that skill of him, nuh-uh. Not for one second.

This doesn’t look like sarcasm, but it’s written about one of the best, most acclaimed theatrical actors of our era, so I’m not sure. It’s akin to being surprised that Placido Domingo can sing.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 9:21 PM on August 4, 2018 [16 favorites]

Alex Kurtzman was on stage to reveal the next Star Trek series, then brought out Patrick Stewart

It's easy to get excited about the last name in that statement - - it's the first name that strikes fear in my heart.
posted by fairmettle at 9:22 PM on August 4, 2018

If there's anything that can guarantee the success of yet another Star Trek show, that thing is Patrick Monsterflippin' Stewart. It was his leadership and tone-setting abilities that carried the show through its uneven first season and its oft-awkward scripts.

On a more personal note, Jean-Luc Picard was the closest thing I had to a positive father figure has a young girl. It was he who made me believe that a strong man in a position of authority can also be good and kind, and value the other people in his life.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:31 PM on August 4, 2018 [25 favorites]

If he's not in Starfleet, he could be taking on a Sarak type role.

Also the Maquis were destroyed by the Dominion, but after the destruction of Cardassia they could stage a comeback, with maybe their former allies the Klingons now as enemies.
posted by Brocktoon at 9:51 PM on August 4, 2018

I hope this doesn't derail the story line the novelizations have taken since the end of TNG. The writers, such as David Mack, David R. George III, and Christopher L. Bennett, have done wonderful work with the characters and the ST universe.
posted by bryon at 10:06 PM on August 4, 2018

No, no, no, no, no, no, NO! NO, goddammit, NO!

You are all wrong. The correct answer is that the new show will be Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, except with Picard and a continuously-rotating cast from ST:TNG, scattered throughout the innumerable planets. Every episode a new location, a new counterpart, a new (and yet oddly irrelevant) threat, all the while talking talking talking talking.

"There must have been a moment, at the beginning, were we could have said -- no. But somehow we missed it."
posted by aramaic at 11:00 PM on August 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

I'm guessing the new series would riff quite a bit on All Good Things, since that kept jumping 25 years into their future and next year (gads!) will be 25 years since the finale aired. So maybe it begins where Picard has got space Alzheimer's and he's unhappily retired, but then something happens that drives him back into action.

I really hope they do bring back a bunch of the original TNG cast too, along with some old school Trek writers like Ronald Moore, Bryan Fuller, Ira Steven Behr, etc. It'd be really interesting to see what has and what hasn't come true from the finale. Is Troi dead? Is Worf a big-deal Klingon muckety-muck rocking the chunky grey highlights? Did Picard and Beverly get divorced, and now she's a medical ship captain with a none-too-convincing neck wattle? Data and Q could both show up looking older, even though they're supposed to be immortal, and it'd make perfect sense in Trek canon. Q could make himself look older to mock Picard's aging, while Data is supposed to have a program that makes him look older!

(OK, gotta get my expectations under control. This is Kurtzman's show, and we are living in the darkest timeline where everything hurts. Please, God, let there be no lens flares, QuintoSpock or Beastie Boys!)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 11:30 PM on August 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

But one day, a transporter accident produces a second Picard with whom he must learn to get along.

...played by the now forty-something and well-loved Tom Hardy, but with an inexplicable mask hiding the lower half of his face in most scenes
posted by mwhybark at 11:52 PM on August 4, 2018 [6 favorites]

I’ve seen, like, maybe three whole episodes of ST:TNG and I’m feeling totally verklempt by this news.
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:20 AM on August 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

I will never subscribe to CBS All Access. Never. A new Star Trek actually set in the future of the timeline? Yes, this hurts me. I don't care. I will never do it. This I vow before the old gods and the new.

I also will never subscribe to CBS All Access. Never ever. This won't hurt me because I'll just do like I did for Discovery -- get the first episode through less legitimate means and, when I liked it, just keep doing that while vowing to buy the season on bluray whenever it's released.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 12:24 AM on August 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

Captain Picard has moved in with his psychiatrist son in Seattle... There is a theater critic for their local newspaper who is difficult to please

So Joe Adcock?

but somehow they earn rave reviews.

Oh, so not Joe Adcock.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 1:34 AM on August 5, 2018

The correct answer is that the new show will be Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

The entire thing is Lieutenant Barclay's Three Musketeers holodeck world, which somehow turns out to be the real overarching universe.
posted by XMLicious at 3:42 AM on August 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

I hope, hope, hope he becomes some sort of professor at the academy and we finally get the academy drama with tons of guest stars as weird aliens.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 4:18 AM on August 5, 2018 [7 favorites]

Wil, the man behind the Wesley, is full bore awesome, and his vids where he learns how to play a new game with celebrities and table-top game design experts is always worth a watch.

Wil's initial reaction to the news was a Tweet consisting of nothing but "OMG" typed over and over until the character limit ran out.

....Sadly, he had to follow that up with a tweet telling people that "I know those of you who are quoting 'shut up, Wesley' at me think you're being funny, but it's not, so knock it off". Some people just suck.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:30 AM on August 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

It's going to be a playhouse at the end of the universe. Each week, a new troupe or two will come through. Each week, a play within a play, with each play written for the show by a good playwright, and all the actors in the show borrowed from the stage. Picard will run the place and do a bit of acting on the side, or he'll be in one of the troupes and go traveling the universe as an actor with no fixed address. At least, that's what I would like to see.
posted by pracowity at 4:58 AM on August 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

How about regular visitations (a la Scorpius/Harvey in Farscape) from Batai or Eline, The Borg, Sarek, and maybe Dathon (though I know he's more of a stretch); as he ages, the living memories of those beings that have been inside of him begin to assert themselves. They'd be amazing recurring additions to Picard The Roving Diplomat.
posted by qbject at 6:12 AM on August 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

I hope, hope, hope he becomes some sort of professor at the academy and we finally get the academy drama with tons of guest stars as weird aliens.


Picards's School for Gifted Cadets?
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 6:24 AM on August 5, 2018 [6 favorites]

It is a little bit funny.
posted by Artw at 6:25 AM on August 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

The whole series cold opens on an extreme closeup on Jean-Luc, nothing but his closed eyes filling the frame, as we slowly fade the soundtrack in from silence to the dim, growing sound of a flute melody. A very familiar one indeed, the TNG title fanfare but in a slow, haunting, beautiful treatment, as the camera pulls back by millimeters, revealing more of Picard's familiar but now much-aged face. We see hints of muscles working out of view, little tell-tale twitches and stretches in his face as his mouth is moving off-screen.

But as the flute gets louder, the timbre fades subtly from beautiful and haunting to halting, amateurish; there is a visible strain in his eyes, still closed now but in what looks like effort rather than meditative calm. The camera continues to draw back, and we see there is no flute in his mouth; the twitching muscles are a quiet muttering or sympathetic movement, as he follows along with the unseen flute player.

Finally, a capstone note in the melody, one that he and we know unmistakably, is not just clumsy but wrong, and his eyes snap open, and he, nearly shouting, says "stop!" in a voice trained decades in the manner of command. The flute stops instantly.

Now we cut to a medium shot, three quarters view of Picard sitting in the center-left of the frame in a chair, dressed casually, in what is clearly a comfortable terran home. On the right of the frame in extreme, out-of-focus foreground in a rear diagonal view, is what must be another person sitting in another chair facing him, holding a flute. Holding it very still in silence. Picard closes his eyes for a moment, takes a breath, opens them. He raises a hand to make a pacifying gesture, and repeats in softer tones: "stop".

We cut across to an opposite three-quarters shot, this time Picard a blurry foreground in the left of the frame as we see a young boy in a terrible sweater holding a flute half in his mouth, frozen in place.

Cut back to Picard. He smiles gently, apologetically. "That was...very good, but that last note, do you hear what happened there?"

Cut to the boy, finally removing the flute from his mouth to speak in halting, uncertain tones. "It was...I played the wrong note?"

Picard, nodding. "Yes. It was the wrong note. Your fingering was incorrect. You played Fa by accident, you see—" He holds up his own hands, as if playing an imagined flute, and moves his fingers through a series of positions. "Do, Re, Mi, Fa...you see?"

Cut back to the boy, closer shot, unfrozen, nodding with comprehension now.

Cut back to Picard again. Closer shot of him now, too, we can see every little mix of expression in his face: the firm lines etched by his years as an officer, but also the softening of age, the joy of music, a hint of something paternal, even a too-rare twinkle of the man managing to laugh a bit at himself. The roadmap of a long and complex life plays out in the curve of his mouth, the lively wrinkles at the corners of his eye.

He nods back to boy once more, less an acknowledgement now than a subtle pep talk. "You know what was wrong. You could feel it. And you know what's right, you can feel that too. Now, let's do it again, and do it correctly. When you get to the note, don't play Fa."

"Make it So."
posted by cortex at 9:04 AM on August 5, 2018 [46 favorites]

If we do get Worf, will it be familiar TNG Klingon Worf, or new weird Disco-Klingon Worf?
posted by tau_ceti at 9:04 AM on August 5, 2018

cortex you saul-goodmanning mofo!
posted by lalochezia at 9:15 AM on August 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

@georgetakei
My favorite Patrick Stewart story: We once ran into each other on the same flight. He's got quite the recognizable mug, so I went up to him, and I said, "Aren't you..." And he looked up at me with delight and said, "Well, aren't YOU!"
posted by Artw at 9:16 AM on August 5, 2018 [19 favorites]

I hope, hope, hope he becomes some sort of professor at the academy and we finally get the academy drama with tons of guest stars as weird aliens.

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY RIGHT NOW
posted by sciatrix at 9:24 AM on August 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

Wasn’t Star Trek (2009) the one where they finally got the Academy thing out of their system?
posted by Artw at 9:28 AM on August 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

I want one episode where Picard takes a grown-up Wesley Crusher in his arms, apologises for telling him to shut up all those years ago, and then strokes his hair while Crusher quietly weeps into his shoulder.

P.S. Wesley is now a hot bear
posted by LMGM at 9:28 AM on August 5, 2018 [12 favorites]

Jean Luc Picard hosts a game show that has real trek fans answer questions about historical science fiction. All cast and crew reprise roles to ask questions. Trek super fans spend a week learning behavioral patterns of their favorite space alien race and then must answer questions not necessarily correctly, but within the appropriate ccultural norms. Right answers are always preferred, but asking a Klingon to lose face and admit they were wrong in the form of a question should still be met with a bloody bat'leth...
posted by Nanukthedog at 9:36 AM on August 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

And if you are wondering how you get the dead ones to reprise... there are enough episodes with folks explaining customs, jargon, tech, etc that is cannon... think recycling.
posted by Nanukthedog at 9:39 AM on August 5, 2018

for how many decades now has Stewart looked exactly the same age?

If anything he looked older fifty years ago. Also this Shakespearean thing when he still had (some) hair.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:03 AM on August 5, 2018

My reaction.
posted by Pendragon at 10:35 AM on August 5, 2018

Given that ST:D is currently in the mirror universe, there could always be more astromycological links that leap them forward or JLP back to their time. He and Michael Burnham go on a search for the real Lorca and try to teach Philippa Georgiou to turn away from the dark side.
posted by arcticseal at 10:37 AM on August 5, 2018

I'd like to see Picard moving in interstitial spaces within and around the Federation. This could involve archeology and a Great Mystery, with intrigue. Picard knows many people and he can go places others can't. This is a retirement hobby of his that turns into something with very high stakes.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 10:40 AM on August 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

If we do get Worf, will it be familiar TNG Klingon Worf, or new weird Disco-Klingon Worf?


and if it is familiar TNG Klingon Worf, will it be Mary-Tyler-Moore-hair Worf or sensitive-ponytail-man-hair Worf?
posted by entropicamericana at 12:04 PM on August 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

and if it is familiar TNG Klingon Worf, will it be Mary-Tyler-Moore-hair Worf or sensitive-ponytail-man-hair Worf?

I would really hope for, and expect, elderly-Rob-Zombie-hair-from-"All Good Things" Worf.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 12:05 PM on August 5, 2018 [8 favorites]

Wil's initial reaction to the news was a Tweet consisting of nothing but "OMG" typed over and over until the character limit ran out.

I really, really, really, really, reeeeally hope that if there are TNG guest shots, Will gets to be one of them.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:49 PM on August 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

CBS All Access must be destroyed so the market doesn't further fragment.

You broke your little ships.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 1:33 PM on August 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

Given that ST:D is currently in the mirror universe

Wait, didn't they get back from the mirror universe ?
posted by Pendragon at 2:37 PM on August 5, 2018

Discovery Season 2 trailer

Back from the Mirror Universe with Captain Pike, Spock-based mystery, surprise Tig Notaro and odd music choice.
posted by Artw at 2:52 PM on August 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

He may not be the Jean-Luc that you recognize and know so well. It may be a very different individual, someone who has been changed by his experiences. ... It will be, I guarantee it, something very, very different."


Don't let it be grimdark don't let it be grimdark don't let it be grimdark

Give me Picard, who learned from "All Good Things" and is still happily married to Crusher, having avoided his disease, and the two of them live next door to Worf on the Klingon home world as ambassadors and there's just constant misunderstandings of the culture going on. Wesley (and everybody else) gets to visit perodically
posted by nubs at 4:37 PM on August 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

I would... I would, you know... I would watch an old Jean Luc and Beverly pottering around a small kitchen, serving smalls to various guests, from neighbourhood kids to the Federation President, chatting them up, maybe occasionally going to visit, with all the drama being supplied by little diplomatic misunderstandings like who's cat that really is, or which planet owes reparations to which, which just need either Bev or JL's special bit of kindly/clever thinking to solve.

I would watch that SO HARD.

Especially if there were recipes for what they eat, you know, cookies, or scones, or what delightful lightly alcoholic cocktail they're sipping is, in the credit roll.

I may be old but dammit I know what I want.
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:49 PM on August 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

It's going to be three and a half hours of Picard driving a dune buggy around.
posted by dng at 4:57 PM on August 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

Wait, what? Q might have something to do with inspiring the QAnon bullshit?
posted by porpoise at 5:57 PM on August 5, 2018

It's the holodeck spinoff we've all been waiting for: The Dixon Hill Mysteries
posted by atomo at 6:01 PM on August 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

Artw: "I contend that his Roman era hair must be a wig."

It was, yes. He was already mostly bald by 1976.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:12 PM on August 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

Don't let it be grimdark don't let it be grimdark don't let it be grimdark

When I read this my first thought was, "Oh, Jesus, please don't let them pull a Force Awakens on us where they devise the most absurdly grim possible fates for all the original characters, so everybody's dreams are shattered and they're all old, bitter and alone." But then I realized that All Good Things kinda did that already, although their fates weren't quite so awful and the whole point was that there was still time for them to avoid ending up like that. If the plan was to launch a whole new post-TNG Trek I could totally see them going all Abrams and just rounding up the TNG characters to show how wretched and useless they've become and then killing them off nobly one by one in order to make way for a cast of younger actors who look better on Burger King cups, but I suspect this will be more of a miniseries send-off deal for fans of the original show and the characters will be treated with some respect. Here's hoping, anyhow.

(J.J. Abrams can eat a phaser.)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 9:30 PM on August 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

ZeusHumms: "Seventh thought: Archaeology is one of his side interests. Or was on the side when he was an active captain in Starfleet. Now? "

He can cruise the galaxy trying to replace the Kurlan naiskos that got broken in Generations.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:44 PM on August 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

odd music choice.

You undersold the oddness.

But geewhiz, TV Trek always pulls me in, so that's somehow still a great trailer.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 10:15 PM on August 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

I love this thread so much, throw a tux on it and call the preacher. The only thing better than The New Adventures of Old Captain Picard is hearing you guys talk about it.

(Also, does this mean I finally have to watch "All Good Things?" I've never been able to bring myself to do it.)
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:17 PM on August 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

I may have had some wine at the Oklahoma! cast party.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:19 PM on August 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

I got a kick out of the "Picard in space-based remakes of old tv shows" trope, but CBS/Paramount does own the rights of half of the history of Television, including everything from Desilu, Aaron Spelling, Quinn Martin, Terrytoons, Goodson/Todman, Group W and Merv Griffin (so don't rule out Jean-Luc Jeopardy), and even some of the shows that were produced by ABC and NBC more than 3 decades ago. So we're still in danger of seeing Picard's Twilight Zone or Star Trek Search or just having him replace Roseanne. But then, Joy of Tech probably had the best gag in that theme.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:38 AM on August 6, 2018

Just this weekend I started binging ST:TNG because I have only ever skipped around and seen episodes here and there over the years. So I better hurry up! I also need to figure out what is essential after TNG so that I don't get left behind!
posted by alwayson_slightlyoff at 2:19 AM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

All bald Avery episodes of DS9 are essential.
posted by Artw at 5:52 AM on August 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

All I want is Picard being Indiana Jones in space. That's all I ever wanted.
posted by duffell at 6:36 AM on August 6, 2018 [8 favorites]

Archaeologists in Shuttlecraft Drinking Tea, Earl Grey, Hot.

Picard pilots a two-seater light spacecraft equipped with a LaForge Drive, an experimental new engine modeled after Borg transwarp technology that allows him to travel anywhere in the galaxy. Each episode is a self-contained adventure in space archaeology featuring a different guest star as Picard's copilot. Action and discovery scenes are interspersed with extended dialogue in the cockpit. Also, the fish tank from the Enterprise-D ready room has been installed in the ship.
posted by duffell at 6:42 AM on August 6, 2018 [8 favorites]

The Underpants Monster: "(Also, does this mean I finally have to watch "All Good Things?" I've never been able to bring myself to do it.)"

It's very good.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:37 AM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

No, let's take this even further, and expand on Stewart's sillier side, which was apparently mostly discovered on set of TNG because he was so very, very serious:

Picard retires from Starfleet to let his hair down and explore the decadent, libertine side of the post-scarcity Federation economy and hit the galactic EDM festival circuit, searching out strange new parties and unusual drugs, featuring a rotating cast of guest stars and old friends cruising the galaxy in a totally tricked out tour bus of a spacecraft and all kinds of strange, wacky shenanigans.

Picard is eventually called to the stage to DJ and... play flute! Picard has a total festival outfit meltdown and is a hot mess! Picard tries his hands at the Circus arts and aerial silks! Picard gets busted smuggling hyperacid into the Delta quadrant, and has to be liberated by Q! Picard meets and falls in love with a squamous green tripartate-gendered semi-humanoid and has a meaningful but passing fling! Picard has a breakthrough on molly on the dance floor and deals with and confronts his borg-related PTSD! Picard joins an anti-war protest and speaks eloquently about the power of peace, handing out flowers and hugs to armed Cardassians! Picard, tripping balls in the chill out tent, sipping tea and waxing poetic and thoughtful about the profound, stark beauty of the universe with close friends!
posted by loquacious at 12:34 PM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

loquacious, it all goes downhill in S5 when Picard shacks up with the female changeling. Seriously, what were the writers thinking?
posted by duffell at 1:04 PM on August 6, 2018

Picard retires from Starfleet to let his hair down

I see what you did there.
posted by Chrysostom at 2:00 PM on August 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

They can't let something great just be great. They always have to come back and try to revive it for a second round of money milking. No thank you, so hard, no thank you to this.
posted by GoblinHoney at 4:03 PM on August 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

I see what you did there.

How?
posted by loquacious at 4:16 PM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

...let his HAIR down?
posted by Chrysostom at 7:35 PM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

I see the confusion. That was his twin brother, Oscar.
posted by duffell at 9:13 PM on August 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

...let his HAIR down?

Still confused. You must have some really special eyes.

Am I being waaaay too dry again? Try the veal! Thanks for playing along, Chrysostom, I couldn't have done it without you!
posted by loquacious at 7:35 AM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

If the Picard series is a hit, can we also have Rikers in Space?
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:40 AM on August 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

Do you think we'll get a good explanation in the new series as to why a proud Frenchman spoke with a clear English accent, drank Earl Grey tea, idolized Nelson, and saw himself in the role of Shakespeare's Henry V in the play depicting one of France's most ignominious defeats?

Well surely that's because in the future the United Kingdom is part of the European Union. Oh wait...
posted by ambulocetus at 3:41 AM on August 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

Marina Sirtis's theory is that by the 24th century, England had invaded and conquered France via the Chunnel.

Explains how he could date a woman whose name is pronounced exactly like the French word for "cow" without even an eyeroll.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:31 AM on August 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

Do you think we'll get a good explanation in the new series as to why a proud Frenchman spoke with a clear English accent, drank Earl Grey tea, idolized Nelson, and saw himself in the role of Shakespeare's Henry V in the play depicting one of France's most ignominious defeats?

I know this is rhetorical, but I have a funny: Stewart has said he very briefly tried having a French accent just to test it out. I think they tried having him do the "Space....the final frontier" thing to see how it sounded. And ultimately they decided it sounded ridiculous that way.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:20 AM on August 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

why a proud Frenchman spoke with a clear English accent,

According to the episode Code of Honor, French had become obscure by the date of TNG, presumably due to WWIII, also known as the Eugenic War, which destroyed many of Earth's great cities. It led to something called the European Hegemony, which isn't described in any great detail, but, as San Francisco was rapidly turning into what would eventually be the head of the world government, I suppose English was the official language and accents became standardized.

You can sort of see his Frenchness as being like my Irish-Americaness. It's part cultural pride but also sort of role playing.
posted by maxsparber at 9:24 AM on August 9, 2018 [3 favorites]