Four months after Star Trek: Picard showrunner Michael Chabon let slip that filming had started on the upcoming series, this past week marked the end of active production on the first ten-episode season.
The news that filming wrapped on Picard Season 1 was shared by several members of the show’s cast and crew on social media, including Chabon himself this weekend, who included a selfie photo shot at the Trek-famous Vasquez Rocks in California — a location seen in July’s Picard trailer.
Returning Trek actor Jonathan Del Arco (Hugh) also shared his congratulations to the cast and crew, posting a photo from the first pre-production table read session where he learned that Brent Spiner (Data) would also be coming back for Star Trek: Picard.
Meanwhile, several members of the Picard production team, who work often unseen behind the camera, also shared images from the end of the filming year — including a look at some crew gifts received from the show’s higher-ups.
Camera operator Leonidas Jaramillo:
VFX supervisor Ante Dekovic (scroll through gallery):
Picard costume designer Christine Bieselin Clark:
Prosthetic makeup supervisor James MacKinnon:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B1z7hcYDtlb/
Lead VFX artist Charles Collyer also shared this tantalizing video of a behind-the-scenes photography session, where he’s shooting images of an off-screen figure for use in the show’s visual effects work:
We’re still more than four months away from when Star Trek: Picard will debut on CBS All Access, so as things proceed on the show’s visual effects work, musical scoring, and other post-production work needed to polish the program, it may still be a while until we see any new visual content from the show.
New York Comic Con is the next big pop culture event of the year, coming up in mid-October, and CBS has been there for the last two years to promote Discovery — so hopefully we’ll get our next big look at Star Trek: Picard Season 1 then.
Meanwhile, work on Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 continues up in Toronto, where the series is already through filming at least three of the season’s planned 13 episodes.
Director Jonathan Frakes just wrapped up his time on Episode 303, his fourth contribution to the series, and we learned this week that he’ll be back again later in 2019 to direct the eighth episode of the year — thanks to the Destination: Star Trek convention social media account:
We are very sorry to announce that Jonathan Frakes will not be able to join us at DST.
The good news is that he will be directing episode 8 of season 3 Discovery at the time, so we at least have that to look forward to!
Any photo shoots will be automatically refunded next week
— Destination StarTrek (@StarTrek_DST) August 30, 2019
While there’s still very little known about what kind of story content we’ll be seeing when Discovery returns next year — aside from the introduction of new cast member David Ajala as a resident of the far future — the cast and crew have been sharing some tiny peeks into the Discovery world on social media for the past few weeks.
Co-showrunner Michelle Paradise:
Every time I’m on set, I’m blown away (all over again) by the talent on this show. The passion and care with which our cast and crew approach their work is inspiring. Television takes a village – and we have a great one. #StarTrekDiscovery
— Michelle Paradise (@michelleparadis) August 31, 2019
Where space happens…. pic.twitter.com/5TStpX3eGJ
— Michelle Paradise (@michelleparadis) August 31, 2019
Where plomeek soup and varieties of synthehol happen… pic.twitter.com/n9vFHljCEX
— Michelle Paradise (@michelleparadis) August 31, 2019
Where science happens…. pic.twitter.com/1Gt9ca6CN7
— Michelle Paradise (@michelleparadis) August 31, 2019
Director Jonathan Frakes:
Thanks to the sublime talents @startrekcbs pic.twitter.com/jJ4KUjpbmw
— Jonathan Frakes (@jonathansfrakes) August 29, 2019
Writer Erika Lippoldt:
Spoilers from set: there are flies in the future. #StarTrekDiscovery #setlife pic.twitter.com/9EAxQpNd1y
— Erika Lippoldt (@gryphonmetal) August 16, 2019
Actor Wilson Cruz:
A man and his castle. 👨🏽⚕️🚀🛸🥰#StarTrekDiscovery#StarTrek#MedBay#Culber pic.twitter.com/juljo7Rxbl
— Wilson Cruz (@wcruz73) August 28, 2019
Actor Michelle Yeoh:
Yeoh, along with writers Erika Lippoldt and Bo Yeon Kim, celebrated Jonathan Frakes’ birthday in mid-August during production on Episode 303 (scroll through gallery below), where fellow Next Generation vet Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar) — who happened to be in Toronto for her role on the USA Network series Suits — also joined the party.
Star Trek: Discovery won’t be back until well into 2020 — after all of Picard Season 1 concludes — so it’s still likely to be a while until we have any more news on what to expect from Season 3… but of course, we’ll bring you all the latest news when it breaks!