Star Trek’s Picard Spinoff Reveals ‘Ten-Episode Movie’ Format

Rather than the episodic serials Star Trek's known for, this project is going for something more ambitious.

star trek the next generation patrick stewart jonathan frakes

In an interview with TrekMovie.com, Jonathan ‘Commander Riker’ Frakes revealed that the upcoming Jean-Luc Picard Star Trek spinoff will be like a “ten-episode movie”. Frakes, who will be directing the third and fourth episodes, describes the season as ten episodes in “five blocks”. suggesting the show will be a succession of two-part narratives, each of about two hours.

Given that the first two episodes of Discovery, the most recent entry in the franchise, were released simultaneously and formed a cohesive and essentially self-contained narrative, one could be forgiven for expecting something similar from this project – though Frakes has specifically denied this, and hinted towards a more gradual payoff.

Frakes went on to say “I think the fans are going to be thrilled and excited and surprised. I have had the privilege of reading the first couple of episodes and I have spent some time with Patrick who is so engaged.”

The project will obviously star Sir Patrick Stewart, who played Picard for seven glorious years in Star Trek: The Next Generation, alongside Santiago Cabrera (Heroes), Michelle Hurd (Daredevil), and Evan Evagora (the upcoming Fantasy Island). Despite still being in mid-production, Stewart has already suggested it may run for up to three seasons, stating that this project is his commitment for “possibly three years”.

Frakes’s presence in the director’s chair, of course, gives rise to the meta-textually perverse idea of Riker bossing around Picard – though to be fair, Frakes is almost as well known as a director as an actor, having directed episodes of every Star Trek franchise bar the original series (when he would have been 14) and Enterprise, as well as the film adaptations First Contact and Insurrection.

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