Star Trek: Picard

nivek

As Above So Below
‘Star Trek: Picard’: Patrick Stewart on Why He Returned to the Final Frontier
By Daniel Holloway

Next to an armchair in Patrick Stewart’s living room in Brooklyn sits a small table, and on it a black three-ring binder. The 79-year-old actor leans in and clasps his hands when recounting his upbringing in the North of England. He stands and paces when a subject such as Brexit or Donald Trump aggravates him. All the while, he touches the binder over and over again — tapping it, thumbing through it, waving it around.

Inside is the script for Stewart’s one-man stage adaptation of “A Christmas Carol,” which he began performing three decades ago, around the same time he originated the role of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” It’s early December, and next week Stewart, for the first time in 16 years, will once again perform “A Christmas Carol” — in which he portrays more than 30 characters. The run: just two nights at a 99-seat theater on 54th Street.


“This is just stupid, doing something like this,” Stewart says, sitting forward in a midcentury lounge chair, holding the binder up in one hand as if it were Exhibit A. “It’s so insane. I could have found other things to do that were not so enormous as this. But I chose it. Sixteen years have passed, and the world is a different place from when I last did it. F—, it’s different.”


It sure is. And Stewart believes that makes the piece more timely than ever. He characterizes “A Christmas Carol” as a “profoundly angry attack” on a society that treats marginalized people as subhuman. “Forget about Tiny Tim and all that stuff,” he says. “It’s a political document.”

So it’s no surprise that, after a long absence, Stewart has revisited the story at the end of the second decade of this thus-far miserable millennium. His motivations — to challenge himself, to speak to injustice, to give himself the sense of calm in anxious times that acting has provided since he was a grammar-school boy in England — are the same ones that prompted him to return to the role that made him one of the most beloved actors alive: Picard.

On Jan. 23, CBS All Access will debut “Star Trek: Picard,” a series in which Stewart reprises the thoughtful, cultured, bald starship captain he played for seven seasons on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and in a string of four feature films that ended in 2002. The new show is different from its predecessor in nearly every respect — texture, tone, format, production value, even the likelihood of characters dropping an f-bomb. That’s all by design. Stewart’s design.

“He is uninterested in repeating himself,” says Alex Kurtzman, the show’s creator and executive producer, and the mastermind behind CBS’ effort to not just revive “Star Trek” but also transform it into a vast narrative universe in the Marvel mold. “Everything he does is filled with innate integrity. He fights for the things he believes in. And he’s very willing to collaborate once you’re on the same wavelength.”

Lo-fi and a little quaint by today’s standards, “The Next Generation” was the most successful of any “Star Trek” television series. (The original, starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, was poorly rated and canceled by NBC after three seasons.) The show raked in Emmy nominations, minted money for Paramount Television and grew a massive following attracted to the unlikely figure of Stewart’s Picard — a Frenchman (with a posh English accent) who sips tea, reads the classics and prizes duty and honor and friendship. “The Next Generation” presented a humanist future in which issues like poverty, race and class have long been sorted out, and conflicts are more often resolved through negotiation and problem-solving than at the point of a phaser pistol.

Stewart had no desire to go there again.

“I think what we’re trying to say is important,” he says. “The world of ‘Next Generation’ doesn’t exist anymore. It’s different. Nothing is really safe. Nothing is really secure.”

(more on the link, its a long write up and has a video)

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pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
TOS was a mirror of current events and concerns and served to reassure fans that a better future was on the menu. Or at least that we wouldn't all vanish in a thermonuclear haze. Same general idea for TNG, even getting cozy with the Klingons.

Not sure I need a darker and grittier Star Trek, although DS9 actually did turn out to be my favorite of the spin offs.
 

Shadowprophet

Truthiness


Short in-depth look, It seems seven of nine has beef with Picard In the series, I know it's not much, But It's more than we knew before.​
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Does anyone know what time on Thursday the show will become available?

CBS is releasing a new episode of Star Trek: Picard every Thursday starting on Jan. 23rd at 12:01 am on their All Access programming...
The series premieres on Thursday, Jan. 23 at 12:01 AM PT, exclusively in the U.S. on CBS All Access, with new episodes releasing every Thursday.

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nivek

As Above So Below
I watched the first episode earlier this afternoon but I didn't have my attention on it fully since I was doing some chores around the house...It was a really slow start I was a little bored during some scenes, but I need to rewatch it to give a fair opinion...

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nivek

As Above So Below
Has anyone else watched the first episode?...I rewatched it again last night and I thought it was really great, it seems my first watch I missed all the good parts when I was doing chores lol...It starts out a tad slow which is to be expected but things ramp up quickly, and the ending!...What they show happening at the end of the episode with the Romulans blew me away!...Also after the episode they show scenes of what's to come in the next few episodes and that preview was outstanding...

The Romulans have a huge Borg cube and it appears they have been reactivating it...

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wwkirk

Divine
Has anyone else watched the first episode?...I rewatched it again last night and I thought it was really great, it seems my first watch I missed all the good parts when I was doing chores lol...It starts out a tad slow which is to be expected but things ramp up quickly, and the ending!...What they show happening at the end of the episode with the Romulans blew me away!...Also after the episode they show scenes of what's to come in the next few episodes and that preview was outstanding...

The Romulans have a huge Borg cube and it appears they have been reactivating it...

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Your review has encouraged me to watch it. I'll probably watch the first two episodes back to back tomorrow.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Your review has encouraged me to watch it. I'll probably watch the first two episodes back to back tomorrow.

I just got home from work a few minutes ago, after I eat something I am going to watch the second episode...

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The shadow

The shadow knows!
watched episode 1.awesome better than doctor who..
10/10
 

nivek

As Above So Below
To me episode two seemed more of a part two to episode one, an intro to the storyline of this first season...It was a good episode but was semi-uneventful, more so of filling in some details of what took place prior to the series starting and what is to come...

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nivek

As Above So Below
I'm very curious about the Romulan activity
on the Borg cube, what are their plans with it, what are they trying out achieve by reactivating parts of it...It appears some of the Borg drones who are severed from the collective are helping the Romulans...

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wwkirk

Divine
I've watched the first two episodes now. Pretty good. Lots of intrigue. And a brand new side of the Romulans.
I'm glad they don't seem to be overdoing it with TNG cast members. Most of them are getting up there in years, so it's time for the the young bloods to see action.

The only negative so far is how Star Fleet appears to be heavily infiltrated, and clueless about it, as well as about a whole lot of goings on!
 

nivek

As Above So Below
The only negative so far is how Star Fleet appears to be heavily infiltrated, and clueless about it, as well as about a whole lot of goings on!

This may have happened after the Dominion war, the Federation was pretty worn down by the time they won that war, it was very costly and with the Romulans as allies at the time as well...

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nivek

As Above So Below
I'm about to watch episode three, I just remembered it was out now lol...

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nivek

As Above So Below
I'm about to watch episode three, I just remembered it was out now lol...

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So it was another very slow paced episode, some good background information was provided but hardly anything worht mentioning in regards to action and adventure lol...

It seems it took the entire episode for Picard to get his ship and get on board, so much dialog, it seems the next episode is going to be action packed, I hope so...

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nivek

As Above So Below
Well, I have been enjoying this series thus far, the last episode, episode four, was very nice...Seven of Nine has made her introduction into the series and is with Picard now, that coming together was well written and action packed, this series is developing and becoming very entertaining...Looking forward to the next episode!...

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Well, I have been enjoying this series thus far, the last episode, episode four, was very nice...Seven of Nine has made her introduction into the series and is with Picard now, that coming together was well written and action packed, this series is developing and becoming very entertaining...Looking forward to the next episode!...

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Yeah I'm pleasantly surprised by the intrigue and the innovative, original storyline; it's already off to a good start and I can see so many interesting possibilities down the line.

I just wish that the fickle producers of mainstream media could've gotten this going about 20 years ago when Patrick Stewart was still in his prime and kicking ass - I love that guy and it tortures me to see that we lost 20 years of his best work because the major studios lacked the simple insight to recognize the timeless value of a great performer and a great character.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Yeah I'm pleasantly surprised by the intrigue and the innovative, original storyline; it's already off to a good start and I can see so many interesting possibilities down the line.

I just wish that the fickle producers of mainstream media could've gotten this going about 20 years ago when Patrick Stewart was still in his prime and kicking ass - I love that guy and it tortures me to see that we lost 20 years of his best work because the major studios lacked the simple insight to recognize the timeless value of a great performer and a great character.

Well said and I concur, I'd also like to add, these episodes are rewatchable as I have viewed each one at least twice...I still watch some Voyager and Deep Space 9 episodes on occasion too lol...

I think there is more to this Borg element than meets the eye, we know from Voyager the Borg were decimated and lost all cohesion as a collective thanks to the 'future' Captain Janeway, but this Picard series could have gone along very well without Borg involvement...So why the Borg?...Here's a speculation I had considered after watching the 4th episode of Picard a second time last night; what if the Borg aren't really part of the focus?...I wonder if we may see Species 8472 come into the picture because of the Romulan's actions of tampering with the Cube and harvesting its technology?...Bit of a reach maybe lol...

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