Star Trek: Picard Trailer Reveals Picard Didn’t Follow Kirk’s Advice

This week, CBS revealed the first trailer for Star Trek: Picard, the new series bringing Patrick Stewart back as Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation. After The Next Generation ended, Stewart and the rest of the show’s cast starred in four Star Trek films. Star Trek Generations was the first. The film saw Picard teaming up with Capt. James T. Kirk (William Shatner) in a story designed to be a kind of passing of the film franchise’s torch between the Star Trek: The Original Series cast and The Next Generation‘s stars. Kirk died helping Picard complete their mission, but not before giving Picard some advice.

After asking Picard if he planned to retire, Kirk offered the following wisdom: “Let me tell you something. Don’t. Don’t let them promote you. Don’t let them transfer you, don’t let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you’re there, you can make a difference.”

Kirk spoke from experience. When the Star Trek films first brought The Original Series crew back, Kirk had been promoted to Admiral. It was clear early on that he missed being on the bridge of the Enterprise and much of his arc throughout the film series involved his eventual return to the captain’s chair.

The Star Trek: Picard trailer reveals that Picard did not take his advice. The unidentified character delivering the voiceover in the trailer refers to Picard as “Admiral,” suggesting Picard did allow himself to be promoted. The trailer also reveals that Picard “commanded the greatest rescue armada in history” before choosing to leave Starfleet. Could his decision to leave Starfleet have been the result — directly or indirectly — of his leaving the bridge of the Enterprise? Fans will have to wait until the series debuts to find out.

In February, ComicBook.com spoke to Shatner about whether he’d be interested in returning as Kirk for a new series like Star Trek: Picard if writers could come up with a way to resurrect the character. “That word, ‘resurrect.’ That’s a key word,” Shatner said. “Resurrect. You’d have to resurrect me, Shatner, in order to do the daily [laughes] I don’t what Patrick is doing doing that. Doing a series is debilitating for a young guy, for a 25-year-old, which I was doing when I was 25 years old. It’s a physical wrecker, it’s a mental wrecker, and it’s a homewrecker ’cause you’re working 14, 18 hours a day. And in the last series I did, Boston Legal, I had, in rush hour, a two-hour commute. So add that.

“So no, I would not be interested in doing a series, per se, but I will be on the air in something this year in something I can’t tell you about right now, but you’ll hear about it soon, and maybe on two and maybe even three shows that’ll be on for 10, 12, 14 episodes.”

What do you think of Picard failing to follow Kirk’s advice? Let us know in the comments. Star Trek: Picard debuts on CBS All Access in late 2019.