Star Trek: The Next Generation Reboot With Patrick Stewart Reportedly in Development
Rumors of the Picard-centric reboot come amid Alex Kurtzman extending his CBS contract for a planned expansion of the Star Trek TV universe.
According to a THR article, there are unconfirmed rumors that CBS TV Studios is developing a Star Trek reboot starring Patrick Stewart in which he would reprise his The Next Generation role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. According to THR's sources, Alex Kurtzman and Akiva Goldsman are attached to the potential reboot. Not only is this an unconfirmed project, but THR's sources also say that the deal is far from complete and might not happen. Still, this would be huge news for Star Trek fandom—however you might feel about a Picard-centric reboot.
The rumors of the Picard reboot come amidst Kurtzman renewing his overall deal with CBS Television Studios, extending his contract by five years. This will keep him in partnership with the studio through 2023, for a reported $5 million per year.
Kurtzman was recently made sole showrunner of Star Trek: Discovery following the dismissal of previous co-showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen Berg who left amidst reports of bullying behavior in the writers room. Goldsman, who served as an executive producer on Season 1 of Discovery, also left the show, reportedly due to a clash with the writing staff in terms of management style and personality, so it's interesting that he is still attached to the potential Picard-centric reboot.
In addition to his work on Star Trek: Discovery, Kurtzman's extended deal with CBS Television Studios will include an expansion of the Star Trek franchise on the small screen, including the development of new series, miniseries, and other content, including animation.
While this generally seems like good news for the Star Trek universe, it may also be disappointing, depending on what kind of Star Trek fan you are. While the move represents a reinvestment in the Star Trek TV universe, Kurtzman is not known for critical success. Previously, he has co-written the scripts for Transformers, Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. More recently, he directed and co-wrote The Mummy. Not exactly the kind of nuanced science fiction writing Star Trek has, at its best, historically represented.
More news on the expanded Star Trek TV universe as we hear it. [Reply]
Originally Posted by keg in kc:
Good news/bad news with the finale, I'd say.
The bad news is that the first half was pretty meh. But the way they set the commercials, it looked like the second half could be something big. And it was.
I won't give any spoilers away, but it was both very predictable and very well done.
Expect some dust in your eyes for the last 15 minutes.
It was okay. I mean, we already know there's going to be a second season, and you can't have a second season of Picard without Picard, so there's no way Picard can die.
Some thoughts. I guess I'll spoiler them for now.
Spoiler!
1. Way to rip off Avengers with the alien worm things and the portal. A little originality, guys?
2. Riker should have been on the current version of the Enterprise. That would have been really cool and a nice shout out to the TNG finale. Oh well. And nice job letting the Tal Shiar bitch who infiltrated the highest levels of Star Fleet and was responsible for tens of thousands of Federation deaths off with a warning and her fleet intact. Great work, Will. :-)
3. What the fuck happened to the male Romulan baddie? Unless I missed something, the last time we see him is when he's physically pinned down by the androids, and then nothing for the rest of the episode. Did he just wander off and go pout somewhere?
4. I wonder if the female Romulan baddie is actually dead. Never heard a thud or anything. Probably had some Batman-like grappling line and latched onto something before she hit bottom.
5. Lame at the beginning, promising in the middle, meh at the end. But assuming we survive another year, I'll probably watch season 2.
I will say the ending was better than I was expecting.
Spoiler!
But the way the story was built, wouldn't it have made more sense for Picard to sacrifice himself for Data to come back (recast, new body)? Narrative symmetry and all that. They could rename the ship USS Picard so the title makes sense.
To be clear that wouldn't be my preference for the show going forward, it just seems like that would be a more sensible ending for the story they told. My preference is that the new writers give us something better next year with Picard, who is my favorite TNG character.
Also they need to get over this idea that the space battles need to be 10,000 ship clusterfucks. They did the same thing in Discovery. It should have been two or three Romulan ships vs Riker on the Enterprise-E. Not a new Enterprise. It, like every other ship on the show, would just look like a half-ass ripoff of the Enterprise-E anyway.
They've got to find someone besides John Eaves to design these ships, by the way. I'm sick of all the harsh angles and contrasting patterns. Go back to some of the subtlety of the refit/A and D designs.
And were Seven and Rafi holding hands at the end? Like, what? I'm actually fine with Seven being a lesbian, but there was no setup for that relationship at all.
I think my biggest issue (aside from the plot/character issues that plagued the whole season...) was the entire federation fleet made up of only one model of starship.
Which I'm guessing was a post-production necessity and not what was originally planned. Although Frakes did have a line about it.
Seven and Rafi was out of nowhere, but Rafi sucked as a character the whole season, so I just let that one go. I wasn't a big fan of half the crew coupling off, in a general sense, though.
I do like, however, the way the ending sets the second season up to be a more Trek traditional ensemble show. Picard has a crew, and they have dark uniforms that shadow the original TNG design.
was handled well enough to overshadow that. The hook ups were corny and, I feel, unnecessary ways to add dramatic interpersonal plotlines for next season. The major spaceship confrontation was unrealistic but I enjoyed that line by
Spoiler!
Riker about kicking treacherous Tal Shiar ass, and the presentation of the ships positions was very comic book splash page and done to fit on our small screens, and it is very much Star Trek to resolve a big confrontation like that without combat as much fun as a cool battle would have been to watch.
So, I'll tune in next season to give a try again. See what happens. [Reply]
It ended decently enough, I suppose. The first half of that episode was pretty awful, so I'm actually kind of thankful it ended up even as good as it did (Riker's appearance and the Data/Picard convo being the high points).
I think it would have made more sense to have Picard sacrifice himself for Data than the other way around after what happened in Nemesis, but the show is called Picard after all.
Also Lore as villain would have made more sense than evil Soji (what was the point of introducing her in the first place anyway? She did nothing in this episode and then we don't see what happens to her). Also, did they just forget to write an ending for the Romulan guy or just not care to show it?
I'm sure I'll watch S2. I hope they can do better.
And were Seven and Rafi holding hands at the end? Like, what? I'm actually fine with Seven being a lesbian, but there was no setup for that relationship at all.
That was out of nowhere, but they were hinting at Seven being a lesbian in her first episode this season. Strong overtones that the woman she killed was her lover. [Reply]
It ended decently enough, I suppose. The first half of that episode was pretty awful, so I'm actually kind of thankful it ended up even as good as it did (Riker's appearance and the Data/Picard convo being the high points).
I think it would have made more sense to have Picard sacrifice himself for Data than the other way around after what happened in Nemesis, but the show is called Picard after all.
Also Lore as villain would have made more sense than evil Soji (what was the point of introducing her in the first place anyway? She did nothing in this episode and then we don't see what happens to her). Also, did they just forget to write an ending for the Romulan guy or just not care to show it?
I'm sure I'll watch S2. I hope they can do better.
There are quite a few loose ends floating around. Like how everyone just kinda forgets that Scrunchyface Murdergirl killed her ex lover a while ago, and did it as someone who is pretty much a medical doctor that decided to murder a patient she had in her care even disregarding their relationship. But the cool space pilot guy with all the accents has the hots for her and she's just soooooadorkable so...yay? [Reply]
Another thing that just doesn't add up - Picard's ship had to use a Borg conduit to reach this hidden planet out in the far flung bumblefuck reaches of space, yet one retired officer is able to muster a fleet of hundreds of (identical) Star Fleet ships and get there a couple of days later? Why would the same admiral who basically told Picard to go fuck himself sign off on that? Wouldn't she have just told Riker to go fuck himself as well?
Remember how often the Enterprise was the only ship in quadrant available to respond to a threat or an emergency situation, even when they were near Earth?
I guess we shouldn't think too hard about this stuff. :-) [Reply]
Originally Posted by Frazod:
I guess we shouldn't think too hard about this stuff. :-)
I think that's true for most entertainment. Since I stopped reading reviews or watching easter egg videos or just generally trying to think too hard about anything in entertainment, I've found that I enjoy almost everything more. Although the stuff that's REALLY good still stands out from the noise (I just finished The Mandalorian for the third time...).
It also helps to completely not care about politics. I can enjoy right-leaning stuff. I can enjoy left-leaning stuff. Apathy is a great cure for being offended. Don't need to agree or disagree with the creators or the writers or the network or anybody; I can just watch for pure entertainment value. And if it somehow still hits a point that annoys me for whatever reason, well, I can just turn it off. [Reply]
Glad I waited to watch the last two together since it was a bit uneven with some weaker stuff mixed in with some noce high points that were mostly in the second part. [Reply]
Originally Posted by keg in kc:
Good news/bad news with the finale, I'd say.
The bad news is that the first half was pretty meh. But the way they set the commercials, it looked like the second half could be something big. And it was.
I won't give any spoilers away, but it was both very predictable and very well done.
Expect some dust in your eyes for the last 15 minutes.
This is fair. Overall I thought it the show was disappointing, disjointed, and featured a bunch of characters I never really got to know doing things that never made a lot of sense. It also suffered from that trend of introducing things, characters, and situations that go absolutely nowhere and never rise above plot devices with no payoff.
Last couple episodes fixed some of that but the show was really frustrating. I wanted so badly to like it. [Reply]
In a conversation i had a few days ago, my comment was that it's the most disappointing show in years. As I probably said earlier in the thread, it was 8 hours of poorly-written characters and a mostly nonsensical mess of a plot redeemed only by nostalgia hooks to 20 years ago and Patrick Stewart being Patrick Stewart. It has good moments but it's just not a good show.
I wasn't kidding earlier when I said I liked Discovery (and I mean the first season of Discovery) more, and I didn't even watch that show until I'd been set up to hate it by 3 years of people dogging it here. Which isn't to say it's great, either, but I think it was better than what we got from Picard.
The only thing I really liked about Picard was that they finally let some 'adult' language into the Trek universe. But, for me, nothing else that they did that wasn't some direct call-back to Next Generation worked at all.
Which is probably why we're seeing a shift in the showrunner and writer's room. [Reply]