At the 2018 Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas, Sir Patrick Stewart took the stage to announce that he was returning as the estimable Jean-Luc Picard in a new Star Trek series. His announcement was accompanied by this tweet:
I may or may not have become a little teary-eyed at this news, and particularly Stewart’s desire to “research and experience what comforting and reforming light [Picard] might shine on these often very dark times.”
I’ve been watching The Next Generation with my kids lately, and while certain aspects of it haven’t aged very well, the series’ idealism, utopianism, and hope — as simplistic and naïve as they sometimes got — has been very refreshing.
Indeed, in this day and age where everything, even Star Trek itself, seems to feel it necessary to be gritty and grimdark, and what’s more, we see human ugliness, stupidity, and ignorance parade through the headlines, we could all use a bit of idealism.
The new Star Trek series is still in the early planning stages so details are scarce. But it’ll air on CBS All Access alongside Star Trek: Discovery, it’ll be set 20 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis, and while it focuses on “the next chapter in Picard’s life,” he may no longer be a starship captain.