Star Trek Producer Reveals Admiral Picard’s Quarantine Log

The world is self-quarantining amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Some are turning to their favorite television shows for comfort. The first season of Star Trek: Picard wrapped in April. The series brings back Patrick Stewart as Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Jean-Luc Picard. The series will return for another season on CBS All Access. Stewart, who is also an executive producer on the show, says he’s not interested in addressing the pandemic in any of the show’s new episodes. Series co-creator Akiva Goldsman has offered a hint at what such an episode might be like. Vulture asked Goldman and other television writers to imagine what a quarantine episode of one of their shows might be like. Goldsman answered with Picard’s quarantine admiral’s log. Here it is:

“Admiral’s Log. The quarantine stretches on. Essential systems continue to fail. And though many of us are used to long periods of isolation, the prohibition on physical contact, not to mention our inability to leave the ship, is beginning to wear on even the most seasoned members of the crew. Remote communication flourishes — still I am reminded there is no substitute for a direct gaze or the reassurance of a friendly touch. I am emboldened by the crew’s resilience. Despite the hardship, they continue to work their stations; productivity and routine can be an excellent balm on fear. And fear they do, how could they otherwise? The threat we face is real with no immediate end in sight. But that does not make it endless. On the contrary, this period of darkness will end, as surely as it began. Fear will fade to memory. We will survive, stronger, perhaps more aware of the profound connections we have always shared. And a time will come when we once again right this ship and sail forward together into the future, that bright unknown.”

In discussing the pandemic, Stewart expressed his reservations about working it into a Star Trek: Picard storyline. “I would not encourage that,” he said. “This is a disturbing and frightening and sad time for many thousands of people and I would feel uncomfortable if we were to make this a theme of the second season of Star Trek. It is too sensitive, too upsetting, too frightening, I think than some of the other issues that we have dealt with, which are much more of a political nature.”

The full first season of Star Trek: Picard is now streaming on CBS All Access. Its second season is on the way.