Like many of Titan Books’ in-depth publications from the past few years, Star Trek: Picard – The Art and Making of the Series is another comprehensive reference book detailing the production journey of Star Trek from page to screen — this time tackling arguably the most popular character in Star Trek history as Jean-Luc Picard made his triumphant return to “television.”
The book is 208 pages of fine details, casting a net far and wide to encapsulate both the narrative forces behind Star Trek: Picard’s production, as well as the creative and artistic work that went into creating Trek’s first foray into the 25th century.
The book is written by Joe Fordham (who also penned Star Trek: First Contact – The Making of the Classic Film), and the author does an expert job of getting his arms around a vast production, with shifting showrunners, tones and themes from one season to the next. He treats each season with the focus it deserves, delving into the much-maligned second season with the same veracity as he tackles the ballyhooed third season.
Of course, it all begins with Season 1 — and more precisely, Patrick Stewart’s 2018 Las Vegas convention appearance announcing the series, a culmination of Alex Kurtzman’s various attempts to pitch Stewart on returning to the role of Jean-Luc Picard. Those pitches began first as a Short Trek tentatively titled “Mysterious Entaglements,” in which Picard would have crossed paths with Nichelle Nichol’s Nyota Uhura, and morphed into different directions from there… including one where Picard was part of an acting troupe in the far reaches of space.
From there, the Season 1 retrospective covers 66 pages and 16 unique chapters, ranging from the expected (an up-close and personal look at Chateau Picard) to the completely unexpected (six full pages on the art design of Coppelius, the planet featured prominently in the “Et in Arcardia Ego” two-parter). The section on Coppelius showcases, among other things, imagery of the incredible make-up design of a synth stabbed through the eye with a metal stylus, as well as the original concept art by Neville Page for the memorable space orchids from that finale.
Elsewhere, Dahj and Soji (Isa Briones), Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill), Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd), Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), and Cristobal Rios (Santiago Cabrera) all get their own standalone sections detailing their characters. The Seven of Nine section features some excellent background on the Fenris Rangers from Season 1 showrunner Michael Chabon, who is featured prominently with his notes and ideas throughout. From the Fenris Rangers to Vashti to the XBs, these tidbits from Chabon might actually be the highlight of the book.
Heading into Season 2, the author uses 58 pages to detail one of the most unique productions in Star Trek history: an incredibly contained, 10-part time travel story very much focused on uncovering Picard’s unexplored past.
Featuring another 16 unique chapters, the highlight in this section are six eye-popping pages on the USS Stargazer, where new production designer Dave Blass discusses the ship’s design and importance to the series.
The fashion of Season 2 also gets its due in this part of the book with highlights on the amazing costumes from the alternate “Confederation” timeline and its Eradication Day ceremony, along with as four pages on the NASA gala (with Jurati’s outstanding red dress as the star). According to costume designer Christine Clark, the dress included eight layers in the skirt, including one foiled pattern taken from the Borg Queen to help subtly emphasize their connection.
Of course, the book saves the best for that last — dedicating 72 total pages and 15 chapters to the series’ popular third season, which served as amazing closure for the cast and characters of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
A massive amount of behind-the-scenes Picard Season 3 imagery and stories have been shared across social media over the last year, but with this publication there is finally a packaged narrative — of everything from the Titan-A to the Ferengi Sneed, and, of course, the birth of Enterprise-D.
The coverage here is extremely wide in scope, but also feels like it gets into the weeds in a number of unique areas. Perhaps the best example of this is the six-page section on “The Nebula Battle” from the first half of the season, where we get some great details on the nebula’s visual effects from associate visual effects supervisor Brian Totsky, and unique looks at the design process for Neville Page’s “space babies” from “No Win Scenario.”
If there is anything that maybe got short shrift in this composition, it’s the lack of detail on the tricky storyboarding and visual effects utilized with the portal weapon used in the epic “Seventeen Seconds” showdown between the Titan and the Shrike. The weapon is referenced via a single storyboard in the attack on a Starfleet Recruitment Center on M’Talas Prime, but no other detail is included.
There is also no standalone section on the Daystrom Station detailing all the fun Easter eggs included in that narrative, but there are two brief pages on the facility highlighted in the chapter on “The Dominion Plot.”
Of course, with so much to cover across 30 episodes of the series, the amount of information included in this reference book is staggering — with thousands of photos and sketches highlighting how so much of the show came to life.
In the end, Star Trek: Picard – The Art and Making of the Series is another winner from Titan Books in their ever-growing collection of Star Trek reference books — and here’s hoping there’s still much more to come from this publisher.
Star Trek: Picard – The Art and Making of the Series is in stores this week.