Star Trek’s Picard Series Will Be A Psychological Character Study

Patrick Stewart is making his long-awaited return to the Star Trek universe with the upcoming and still untitled Picard series. Though it’s currently in production, we don’t know a whole lot about the project, which will follow the life of former Starfleet Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the autumn of his life. At least now, though, we’ve got more of a flavor of the show, courtesy of some comments made by producer Alex Kurtzman.

Kurtzman, who overseas CBS’ ever-expanding Star Trek TV franchise, spoke to The Los Angeles Times about the Picard series, calling it more “psychological” than most Trek as well as being a “character study” of the fan favorite hero. Kurtzman also said that he believes the show is rare for focusing on a protagonist so advanced in his years.

“The mandate was to make it a more psychological show, a character study about this man in his emeritus years. There are so few shows that allow a significantly older protagonist to be the driver.”

In terms of when it’s set, the series will be the first piece of Trek to follow on from the opening of 2009’s Star Trek movie, which featured the destruction of Romulus – the event that caused the divergence of the timeline that led to the rebooted Kelvin universe. The show will follow the dissolution of the Romulan empire, which is said to have radically-altered Picard’s life.

And it won’t have altered it in a good way, either. Kurtzman suggested that Picard will be in a dark place in the series, with the show exploring how he reacts to the tough hand the universe has dealt him. At the same time, the EP hopes it’ll have that patented Roddenberry sense of optimism.

“What happens when circumstances have conspired to not give him the happiest of endings? Hopefully, it’s a reinforcement of [Star Trek creator Gene] Roddenberry’s vision of optimism. He’s going to have to go through deep valleys to get back to the light.”

Finally, Kurtzman promised that Picard’s show will be nothing like Star Trek: Discovery, with all the action swapped out for something slower and more thoughtful.

“It’ll be very different than Discovery. It’ll be slower, more meditative. It speaks to the rainbow of colors we’re playing within all these different shows.”

There’s currently no word on when Star Trek‘s Picard show will arrive on CBS All Access, but the expectation is early 2020. As always, stay tuned for more.