The Sky's No Longer the Limit

Destiny? Nope. It’s Star Trek: Picard and well, that’s not a shock is it?

I am dead excited for the premiere later this year and the announcement of the series name was something of a gimme. It HAD to be Picard; there was no other sensible option given the core material for the who. However - do we have a colon in there? Is it just Star Trek Picard? Will we shorten it to PIC? Difficult questions we will need immediate answers to - nay sirs we demand this information forthwith!

Anyway...also released was a short clip of the show with a still from that making its way online and showing Sir Patrick Stewart on set reprising his iconic role. It does seem that the uniform in the bottom right IS a Starfleet uniform as has been seen in a few leaked set photos. 

Plus it was included with an ensign talking to Picard as part of a very brief scene used as within the All Access promotion trailer. These new uniforms appear to have reverted to the coloured shoulders but with a much higher collar and the loss of the purple/grey undershirt we saw in Deep Space Nine and Voyager. Spot also the placement of the rank pin and the "dip V" in the middle which follows the cut of the collar. Does it look a bit fan flick and cheap?

More on that in a sec but first - CBS has now launched the Global Franchise Group which will encompass every aspect of Star Trek as the show enters what could be its third and most prosperous age.

With Discovery now free from the ‘constraints’ of canon for its third season (reckon Calypso is worth a few dozen rewatches...), we also have Picard , Michelle Yeoh prepped for Section 31 AND two animated series rocking CBS All Access and Nickelodeon you’d think that there’s a lot on the proverbial plate. Personally I'm happy that CBS have stepped firmly away from the much rumour-milled Worf and Sulu series. Phew.

The franchise group is focusing not only on the one active and three ‘in development’ TV shows but also novels, side projects, experiential events, upgrading StarTrek.com and apparently more games - which for me is great since I’ve become horrendously addicted to Online in the last month. 

Due to be headed up by Veronica Heart the franchise group brings all the elements of Star Trek under one umbrella and I have to ask the question as to whether this is an early indication that CBS may well get their hands on the elusive, Paramount owned movie rights. What a commitment to the brand!

It would make sense for this to happen since Alec Kurtzman will continue to lead the televisual arm of the franchise and was involved with the JJ Abrams reboot in 2009. CBS is very cleverly positioning itself as THE singular home of Star Trek and with the waning interest in Star Trek 4 could this be the time to take it back and allow Quentin Tarantino to dabble in the Star Trek sandbox for the big screen?

It also goes to show that all the stories, the rumours and the utter bullshit are precisely the latter; rubbish. There is a strong belief and commitment to the brand especially with the resounding success of Discovery’s second season in particular. There are now as many televisual projects in the works as were produced from 1966 to 2004 with more probably on the way. Could this be a turning point for the franchise or are we already reaching super burnout levels just two years into its rejuvenation? Variety will be the key and taking Picard away from a starship may well be the biggest gamble in franchise history - can a show survive where Starfleet will not be the central organisation and what restraints will this remove. How will this affect Jean-Luc's choices?

Due out at the end of 2019, Picard (working title Royal Flush) has confirmed its cast (which I’m struggling to get excited about with the exception of Patrick Stewart himself) and now in an announcement from its star we know it will be showing on Amazon Prime around the world.

In the US and Canada the new series will be shown on CBS All Access yet the choice to go with Amazon Prime does seem a little odd. Ok, I subscribe to Netflix and have to declare that this did irk me that I’ll need to add another TV package to the monthly outgoings but the whole of the televised Star Trek back catalogue is on Netflix; every episode.

Which can only suggest that either Netflix can’t afford to spend for another Star Trek show or that Amazon Prime outbid them and ultimately offered the better package. Will we want to be paying for even more channels just to see our favourite show? Will we seek out other avenues to do it whether legal or illegal?

So Star Trek stands at another point of the unknown - a brave unknown future for Discovery, a 20 year leap unknown for a former Enterprise captain and the monetary unknown of a franchise group which might, for the first time ever, align every possible strand of Star Trek and properly universe build across time and space.

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Predicting 2019

Once more we’ve completed a spin around the Sun and welcome in 2019. But what will this year hols in store for Star Trek?  Here's our top ones to watch

1. Discovery

The item at the top pf any Star Trek list has to be the continuing success of the latest series. Frankly, screw the doubters because its back for a second series and treading into the territory of recognisable characters with Pike, Number One and Spock all showing up this year. The premiere for season two is but 15 days away so how can this show be failing especially as there are at least two shows in the pipeline that will launch in the next 18 months. I'm predicting a renewal for the show for season three with a 2020 launch date probably announced at the midpoint in the 15 episode run but I also think that we won't be getting any more Short Treks past the four we have received this time around. Nice placeholder and I hope they use the material contained therein within the show itself.

2. Picard

Probably timed to coincide with the end of Discovery’s second season I believe that we will have the first teaser trailer for the new Picard series by mid-year. 2019 will most likely see further main castings for the show plus hints at what the future holds for the former Enterprise captain. Can we be more specific than this? Not at this time. What we do know is that Patrick Stewart was heavily involved with the initial talks about the direction of the series and how Jean-Luc would be treated within its framework which was part of the reason that he agreed to come back to the franchise after a 20 year gap.

3. Lower Decks

As with Picard's return we'll be getting more hints on what the future holds for this spin off from the franchise. I think this one might be set between the original six movies and The Next Generation since there's a good 70 year gap we've never explored. Big concerns are that this is going to be a humorous animated encounter like nothing we've seen before in the Star Trek universe. Truly the unknown - also well worth paying attention to the last of the Short Treks; The Escape Artist which was written by Mike McMahan and might give a hint at what this new show will be like tonally. Plus, any excuse for a Rick and Morty pic...

4. Novel Series Restart

Yay! So 2018 was a bit of a dud year for the Star Trek novel series but with a new deal completed we are going to be seeing a good flood of Star Trek book titles in the new year from all aspects of the franchise and that, it seems, includes the Kelvin timeline as well as the Discovery era. I'm predicting a return of the time travellers from Dayton Ward plus the continuation of the Deep Space Nine Gamma Quadrant saga which kicked off so well late in 2017. 

5. DST 2019

George Takei and Michelle Forbes are already confirmed for the 2019 event which nobody expected since it took two years for the event to return to the UK after the 50th anniversary. Last year's October-fest was a much more streamlined and organised celebration of Star Trek than before with much more for fans to get involved with across the weekend including tabletop and video gaming, talks, fantastic displays from Discovery and the first 50 years. The 2019 event has to equal this so I'd expect more props from the latest TV series as well as guests from the show (Anson Mount must be top of that list with Ethan Peck). Personally I'd love to hope Avery Brooks drops in but that's a long shot at best. What about an appearance from John de Launcie? Is a drop in from Patrick Stewart an option?

6. End of the Starships Collection?

Is it finally time for The Official Starships Collection to call it a day? I think this is the year it could come to a close with the Discovery collection striding on plus the Graphic Novel and Busts series also still in play. It's been going for a fair few years now and the majority of the craft from the show that anyone generally cares about have all but been announced. Recently it was confirmed that the Fesarius as well as Baran's Raider and the Scimitar would be included so I'd give this one a maximum of 12 months before it's closed up. Watch me be horrifically wrong on this one.

7. Confirmation of Star Trek 4

As in if it’s on or off. The lack of news on this makes me think that the Kelvin timeline may have drawn its last breath with the 2016 Beyond and, honestly, that's not a bad way to go out. The quality of the three films has been on the whole decent but another year without any progress on story at the least will kill it off and leave the way very open for the vaunted R|-rated Quentin Tarantino movie. Prediction for 2019 on this one is that we'll be in exactly the same position in a year's time. Neither of these projects will move forward and they'll be rotting in Development Hell for a little bit longer. Almost certain we'll have no action in regards to big screen Trekking this year.

8. 30 Years of The Final Frontier

 Who isn't going to want to celebrate this gem of an anniversary?! Yes, 2019 will mark 30 years since William Shatner asked God what he needed with a starship. A highly maligned Star Trek movie that's never mentioned anywhere else in any context ever and is almost considered the most un-canon item of canon just ahead of Threshold. I'd look forward to lots of reminiscing over filming of The Final Frontier, what went wrong, a ton of comparisons to Discovery and a few oddball rants about how this was the sign that the franchise was failing before the year is out.

9. 25 Years Since The Sky Was the Limit and It Was Fun 

...And on a more positive note, it's 25 years since The Next Generation drew to a close on TV before stepping in front of another set of cameras to take the voyages of the Enterprise-D to the big screen with Generations back in 1994. Definitely an opportunity for the cast to get back together and maybe a reason to get Malcolm McDowell along to Destination Star Trek along with Shatner and Stewart for a rather expensive but damn fine photo shoot?

Expect 2019 to revisit best episodes from the show's run as well as offer up potentials for what could have been the eighth season. Remember too that this will also mark 25 years since Shatner's last onscreen appearance as Captain James T Kirk.

10. Axanar Rolling On

It's off, it's on, it's off, it's... who knows. Even now we're two years down the line from THAT decision which changed the face of Star Trek fan films as we knew them, Axanar still exists and I think we'll be hearing more from this one in 2019. The plan, apparently, is to launch two 15 minute slices of the story rather than the epic independent movie we were initially promised. Maybe 2019 will see the first footage from Alec Peters other than the now infamous "Vulcan Scene" filmed oh-so long ago.Love it, loathe it, despise it more than anything ever, you still can't get away from it and this story will continue!

What do you predict to be the big Star Trek stories of 2019? Will we be wrong on any of these?

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