Marc Bernardin Working On Star Trek: Picard

Star Trek: Picard Season Two has enlisted the aid of writer and podcaster Marc Bernardin. […]

March 14, 2020, 5:34pm

Star Trek: Picard Season Two has enlisted the aid of writer and podcaster Marc Bernardin. Bernardin, who may be best recognized as the co-host of Fatman Beyond with Kevin Smith, has joined the team behind Star Trek: Picard‘s upcoming second season as a supervising producer. Bernardin previously wrote for Syfy’s Alphas and currently writes for Hulu’s Castle Rock, USA Network’s Treadstone, and Amazon Prime’s Carnival Row. Early in his career, Bernardin worked as an intern on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. That origin story in the nameplate on his Star Trek: Picard office door, which has a photo of Avery Brooks as DS9’s Captain Benjamin Sisko. “The nameplate makes it real,” Bernardin shared on Instagram. He went into more depth about the new job with a separate post on Instagram:

“When I was in my junior year of college, a film professor pointed me to a screenwriting contest for undergrads and suggested that I enter. The lone requirement was, you had to write a spec episode of a currently airing TV show. At the time, I didn’t watch a ton of TV — I was a nerd and, back in the early 90s, there weren’t a lot of options. But there was one show I loved, and knew inside and out, so I wrote an episode of that one.

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“It was Star Trek: The Next Generation. And it was the very first time I wrote words that were coming out of existing characters’ mouths. The first thing that looked anything like a screenplay.

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The nameplate makes it real. #StarTrekPicard #SiskoFTW

A post shared by Marc Bernardin (@marcbernardin) on Mar 12, 2020 at 2:39pm PDT

“Because I loved that show, even its daffier episodes. And it had some daffy AF episodes. But I loved the Enterprise, I loved the aliens, I loved the characters, and I loved Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

“It’s a particular fantasy — one I would later revisit with Ben Sisko and William Adama — to want to be led by a competent person. (Also, a particularly relevant fantasy.) By someone who would endeavor to do the right thing. Who has flaws, but because of them can bring the best version of him or herself to bear. Who will go down with the ship — but not before fighting for it to the last.

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When I was in my junior year of college, a film professor pointed me to a screenwriting contest for undergrads and suggested that I enter. The lone requirement was, you had to write a spec episode of a currently airing TV show. At the time, I didn’t watch a ton of TV — I was a nerd and, back in the early 90s, there weren’t a lot of options. But there was one show I loved, and knew inside and out, so I wrote an episode of that one. It was Star Trek: The Next Generation. And it was the very first time I wrote words that were coming out of existing characters’ mouths. The first thing that looked anything like a screenplay. Because I loved that show, even its daffier episodes. And it had some daffy AF episodes. But I loved the Enterprise, I loved the aliens, I loved the characters, and I loved Captain Jean-Luc Picard. It’s a particular fantasy — one I would later revisit with Ben Sisko and William Adama — to want to be led by a competent person. (Also, a particularly relevant fantasy.) By someone who would endeavor to do the right thing. Who has flaws, but because of them can bring the best version of him or herself to bear. Who will go down with the ship — but not before fighting for it to the last. So I wrote a TNG episode and won the contest. (That’s a whole different story.) It took a long time for me to fulfill the promise of that very early career victory, but here we are. Today was my first day as a supervising producer on Star Trek: Picard. All good things come to those who wait.

A post shared by Marc Bernardin (@marcbernardin) on Mar 9, 2020 at 5:32pm PDT

“So I wrote a TNG episode and won the contest. (That’s a whole different story.) It took a long time for me to fulfill the promise of that very early career victory, but here we are.

“Today was my first day as a supervising producer on Star Trek: Picard. All good things come to those who wait.”

New episodes of Star Trek: Picard become available to stream Thursdays on CBS All Access.

Photo by Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images