Patrick Stewart’s new Star Trek series is due to go before the cameras in just a couple of months, but story details are still being kept tightly under wraps. At least now we know exactly where in the timeline it fits, though. And that’s because while speaking on The Graham Norton Show, the star spilled some fresh details about the revival, including exactly how long after The Next Generation Picard’s big return will take place.
“Exactly 19 years in the future, which was how time has passed since the last time I put on my spacesuit…for the television series.”
Ok, so let’s get specific. The Next Generation‘s finale, “All Good Things…,” wrapped up the show in the year 2370 – which means we can assume that the Picard series picks things up in 2389. That would indicate that it takes place a decade after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis, the 2002 movie in which Stewart faced his evil clone Shinzon (Tom Hardy). We should also note that 2387 is when a supernova destroyed Romulus, as established at the beginning of 2009’s Star Trek.
It’s this event that’s due to prove a key piece of backstory for the new show, too. We’ve previously been told that the destruction of Romulus led to the dissolution of the Romulan empire, which is said to have profoundly affected Picard’s life by the time we catch back up with him. As such, this new series will be the first installment of the franchise to explore the Prime universe after Spock and Nero travelled back and created the Kelvin timeline.
As Picard mentioned to Norton, he’s taking a hands-on role with his new Star Trek show, having spent three weeks with the writers room mapping out the story of the first season. And while he’s currently the only TNG star attached to the production, it’s entirely possible that more of the Enterprise-D crew could appear down the road. Fingers crossed, eh?
