Star Trek: Picard’s Prop Team Had to Hunt Down Data’s Original Parts

Star Trek: Picard was tasked with imagining the future of the Star Trek universe. The series takes place decades after Star Trek: Nemesis, which had up until now been the farthest future point in the Star Trek canon. That means Picard had to update the look of the Star Trek universe to imply the years that have passed by in the interim. Much of that design work fell to propmaster Jeff Lombardi and his crew. In a new video released by StarTrek.com, Lombardi discusses how the team went about reassembling the scattered pieces of Data. He also discusses how future visions in previous Star Trek shows inspired their new design for Starfleet’s insignia combadges.

Star Trek: The Next Generation star Jonathan Frakes directed two episodes of Picard‘s first season. He also directs for Star Trek: Discovery. Speaking to ComicBook.com Frakes compared his experiences on the two Star Trek streaming series.

“On the Picard show, it starts with Picard and it grows out from that,” Frakes explains. “There’s an intimacy to shooting Picard and a pace. The number of characters, he’s only got five people on his ship, and he’s got this little s***ty freighter that he’s driving around in. So again, its the difference in the scope and the tone. Both are wonderful and I think there’s room for both. I think there was an appetite for Picard because the hardcore Trekkers know Picard and it was leaked that Data would be on the show and then the wonderful addition of Jeri as Seven of Nine, and Jonathan Del Arco. Those, I think, inspired the fans to want to see Picard.

“When Discovery started, I think it was much like our show [Star Trek: The Next Generation], that the fans were skeptical. ‘Do we need another Star Trek? Who are these people?’ And eventually, and it didn’t take them as long to get ‘approval’ as it did us, primarily because of Sonequa’s appeal, but the story in that first season with Jason and then Anson in the second season, Doug Jones and the company is eccentric, as is the Picard company, but the Picard company is dense. It’s only five people.”

CBS All Access renewed Star Trek: Picard for a second season. It is in pre-production now. Post-production work is continuing on the third season of Star Trek: Discovery. Though delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the series is expected to return in 2020.