Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard will not be a captain in Starfleet in the new CBS All Access Star Trek Series.
All of this comes from fellow [easyazon_link identifier=”B01BP06ENA” locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]Star Trek: The Next Generation[/easyazon_link] alum, Jonathan Frakes, who played Starfleet Commander William T. Riker. He directed the most recent episode of Star Trek: Discovery while wrapping up he sat down with Deadline for an interview and spoke at length about the new show.
First up, will we see any surprise reunions with other crew members of the Enterprise D & E? Frakes admits that many are willing and even a bit excited, but he admitted that its unlikely:
“The feeling is [the Next Generation cast] would love to be part of it. But the feeling is also that it’s Patrick [Stewart]’s show. [Laughs.] Having said that, I can’t imagine a world where there’s no reference to what happened to the rest of the Next Generation cast.”
Right after that statement is when he drops a major bomb. Not only is Jean-Luc Picard not a captain but the series star, Patrick Stewart, is “thrilled” about making the new show:
“Patrick isn’t playing Capt. Jean-Luc Picard this time, he’s done with [that phase of his career in] Starfleet in this show. That’s about the only thing I do know about the show. Patrick and I had a steak dinner a couple of weeks ago and this man, who I’ve known for 31 years now, is so excited about this show he’s like a little kid. It’s fabulous! He’s thrilled and excited to be invited into the writer’s room and he’s a producer on the show and he’s part of the development of the story arc. It’s terrific. I mean he is a guy who is fully engaged.”
Much like his predecessor Captain James T. Kirk, the character of Captain Jean-Luc Picard resisted promotion to admiral to instead continue his much-beloved work as a Star Fleet Captian. Comicbook.Com reached out to CBS for comment and this is what they had to say: “The only thing we can confirm is the series will explore the next chapter of Picard’s life, which will be different, as Patrick teased in Vegas.”
That’s not a lot to go by, but it’s clear that we’re looking at the face of Jean-Luc Picard with years of service post Star Trek: Nemesis. Will we see a post-Dominion War Federation? And if so how recognizable will the Alpha and Beta Quadrants be to old fans?