Redoing Star Trek Picard

[McAvoy]

The more and more I think about it, I am starting to dislike Picard over Discovery. See, my main problem is the same as the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy. As in each season seems so disconnected to the other. With TNG episodic format we didnt really have that problem outside some arcs like Worf.

So how would you do the Picard three season show?

Rules: You cannot completely rewrite the show. You have to use what we have seen but fix it in your own way. So the basics is this: Mars Burning happens, Romulus is destroyed. The Soong type of androids doing it happens. You have to involve the Borg. You have to involve Q. You have to use time travel in some form for season 2 but it doesn't have to be going back to 'our' time if you don't want to. Evil Federation is optional. Borg Queen in any form is optional.

Also you can include cameos if you want from other shows not in the show.

Picard's illness and golem body optional. You do Data is up to you too.

Debating about the Founders from Season 3. I will let you decide on that. Also I will let you decide to include the whole or part of the TNG crew.

Just keep the basic premise as much as possible.

[Nobody700]

Okay here's five changes

1. The Romulans destroyed the Mars ship yards... but no one knows why, especially the Romulans most of all! Later, years after, Picard finds out from a Soong android that was built that no one knew existed that the Romulans who did so are from the future, of one where Romulus joined the Federation and through a time crystal, found their ancestors would have ruled a broken Romulus so instead they doomed their peoples chances to be saved. Thus, Picard must stop these time traveler Romulans from interfering even more in history.
2. Q wants Picard's help in a debate between two races that are, while not Q, are close. They threaten the Galaxy with their debate and so, Picard must solve the debate or war will begin. The thing is... the debate is Prime Directive. Should they interfere or not, and Picard, after interfering with the Romulans... wonders if the PD itself works, and thus, is Picard figuring out for himself if the PD for the Federation can even work.
3. The Borg from the far past time travel to the present, thanks to the same crystals used by the Romulans, to stop the destruction of their people thanks to Janeway, queen of genocide. Picard though, time travels back... and finds he can kill the Borg at their infancy, and once again, goes with the morality of doing that, or if he should stick to his values. Said Soong androids aid him in the debate.
4. Picard wakes up one day in an evil Federation, and Q tells Picard that he put him there cause this is an alt universe where they had actually captured Q's son, and he wants Picard to find out how the HELL they did so, and free his son. Why doesn't Q? Because, as Q tells Picard... he's in a bad mood, and if he has to solve the problem, he'll do so by turning everyone into flowers, and keep them that way. So, save his son, Oh general field marshall god emperor of the Federation, oh, and make sure they don't wipe out more races. Bye!
5. Lastly, Picard... is now dying, and he finally finds out who has been orchestrating the Soongs, the time travel, and even Q himself. Lore, who thanks to Data's destruction, was reactivated by a beacon and so, built the Soong androids to stow chaos across time and space so that he could finally find the machines that ascended, and bring them to the regular realm and wipe out all organic life, cause he's a dick. The only one who can stop him... is Data, seconds before his destruction, so Picard reunites the gang to stop a mad Lore from wiping out all life because Lore finds living life a threat to his immortal existence.

[McAvoy]

Okay here's five changes

1. The Romulans destroyed the Mars ship yards... but no one knows why, especially the Romulans most of all! Later, years after, Picard finds out from a Soong android that was built that no one knew existed that the Romulans who did so are from the future, of one where Romulus joined the Federation and through a time crystal, found their ancestors would have ruled a broken Romulus so instead they doomed their peoples chances to be saved. Thus, Picard must stop these time traveler Romulans from interfering even more in history.
2. Q wants Picard's help in a debate between two races that are, while not Q, are close. They threaten the Galaxy with their debate and so, Picard must solve the debate or war will begin. The thing is... the debate is Prime Directive. Should they interfere or not, and Picard, after interfering with the Romulans... wonders if the PD itself works, and thus, is Picard figuring out for himself if the PD for the Federation can even work.
3. The Borg from the far past time travel to the present, thanks to the same crystals used by the Romulans, to stop the destruction of their people thanks to Janeway, queen of genocide. Picard though, time travels back... and finds he can kill the Borg at their infancy, and once again, goes with the morality of doing that, or if he should stick to his values. Said Soong androids aid him in the debate.
4. Picard wakes up one day in an evil Federation, and Q tells Picard that he put him there cause this is an alt universe where they had actually captured Q's son, and he wants Picard to find out how the HELL they did so, and free his son. Why doesn't Q? Because, as Q tells Picard... he's in a bad mood, and if he has to solve the problem, he'll do so by turning everyone into flowers, and keep them that way. So, save his son, Oh general field marshall god emperor of the Federation, oh, and make sure they don't wipe out more races. Bye!
5. Lastly, Picard... is now dying, and he finally finds out who has been orchestrating the Soongs, the time travel, and even Q himself. Lore, who thanks to Data's destruction, was reactivated by a beacon and so, built the Soong androids to stow chaos across time and space so that he could finally find the machines that ascended, and bring them to the regular realm and wipe out all organic life, cause he's a dick. The only one who can stop him... is Data, seconds before his destruction, so Picard reunites the gang to stop a mad Lore from wiping out all life because Lore finds living life a threat to his immortal existence.

Trying to piece this together. How would you make this into three seasons?

[Nobody700]

Arcs, part 1 and 2 are same season, 3 and 4 are season 2, and the final is season 3

[Winter]

Cut out seasons 1 and 2, have season three be the only season and retitle Star Trek: The Last Generation while marketing it as the true finale of TNG after the movies left the series on such a low note. I'm in the miniorty on actually liking the concepts of the first two seasons of Picard but even I think they were poorly handled and one of the bigger problems is the new crew has little to no chemistry.

Season 3, while not perfect, is a nice simple story that gives the TNG crew one last great ride together and a fun, if silly, finale. I honestly think the in the years to come Picard S3 will be the only season of Picard really watched by fans and casual viewers.

[Nealithi]

Rules: You cannot completely rewrite the show. You have to use what we have seen but fix it in your own way. So the basics is this: Mars Burning happens, Romulus is destroyed. The Soong type of androids doing it happens. You have to involve the Borg. You have to involve Q. You have to use time travel in some form for season 2 but it doesn't have to be going back to 'our' time if you don't want to. Evil Federation is optional. Borg Queen in any form is optional.

Also you can include cameos if you want from other shows not in the show.

Picard's illness and golem body optional. You do Data is up to you too.

Debating about the Founders from Season 3. I will let you decide on that. Also I will let you decide to include the whole or part of the TNG crew.

Just keep the basic premise as much as possible.

'Soong' androids destroyed Mars and the recovery fleet was called back from relief duty to stop them before they could get to Earth and other colonies. No means of reconciliation or peace was found. People of the Federation are now terrified of AI. Picard approached by a woman that fled the Daystrom Institute. Signs indicate admiralty in Starfleet may be involved. So he uses friends in low places to go unnoticed as he investigates.
Picard finds that researchers rushed the development of the androids to prevent them being called a race of sentients. Using a central controller to keep them from being individuals. The controller was adapted borg technology the developers claimed was solved science. Starfleet has been fanning the flames in popular opinion against the Romulans as a cover for the loss of control and subsequent destruction of Mars.

The borg program means there are still hidden enclaves of borg androids out there. And they build a new sphere to go back in time to ensure the rescue fleet does not return in time to stop the assimilation of Earth. Picard's meddling alters the coordinates, sending them back to before the eugenics war. Stopping the androids here works. But how to get home. Picard spots a familiar face, then two. One of the genetic scientists playing chess with, Q. Confronting Q, Picard finds out that after the Q civil war. Q is almost powerless now. He spent almost all of his power coming here. His retirement among his favorite species. He cannot send Picard home, but he does know a way.
Earth was visited many times in the past by aliens. Q points Picard to Romulan infiltrators. Using their ship he manages to slingshot back to his own time.

His own time where the Soong collective is getting ready to assault Earth. He goes to the damaged Daystrom institute to find a way to end the threat. Trying to place Data's last engram into Lore. (I liked that mind battle) Picard sends out a call to anyone that knows him. Anyone that can help. His old crew comes directly to him. They take the one museum ship that can fly out of dock to confront the new borg vessel. It is a hopeless last stand. Till unknown ships begin arriving in Earth space. Mixed bag of Romulan vessels. From old warbirds to new. Haulers and tugs. The fledgling Romulan Republic remembers Picard and Spock. And will not let their friends fall alone. Then the house of Martok arrives. Then a Son'a vessel. Everyone that Picard has helped in his long career.

End the show with the people of the Federation seeing how compassion, honor, and unity really do make a difference.

[Durandal_1707]

Just stop killing off all the guest characters would be good enough for me. And probably drop the "golem" thing since they never really did anything with that. (Yes, there was that one plot point in Season 3, but they certainly could have come up with something else for that without really losing anything).

[CmdrKing]

Okay I'm not sure what can actually be done with Season 2 under these conditions, so I think I'll do the relatively easier season 1 and see if I can pull anything from that later.

The first half or so of Picard S1 is mostly fine as-is. Where it falls apart is the sheer scope of the problem and the crazy underlying conspiracies and revelations that are required to expand that scope so far so fast.

Change 1: Shrink the Zhat Vash

So our first move: the Zhat Vash is not an ancient secret society within the Romulan military-intelligence apparatus. They're a relatively new splinter faction formed shortly before the destruction of Romulus. Heck, let's make Trek a little more tied together, they were formed due to a time traveler from the Control Apocalypse timeline who landed in the wrong time period to avert it. The ones who found him were one of Spock's disciples, who perform an ill-advised mind meld and thus create the horror imagery that snaps their brains. This disciple, lacking the proper context for what they saw in the meld due to their lack of skill and the trauma involved, recruits others by sharing the imagery and they collectively become convinced that the only way Romulans can survive is if they isolate themselves from the Federation and their nascent Synth population, culminating in using them to sabotage the evacuation of Romulus.

Change 2: No more android cthluhu

Like why is this even here. And the answer is obvious, because the stakes HAVE to be apocalyptic in this, the streaming era. Don't be silly. But we're old school around here, so sensible stakes for a normal problem.

So, the Soong android colony exists, but rather than going full cultist, they've realized that it was the Romulans who fucked them up and got the entire Federation to turn against them, and rather than trying to find some way to create their own lasting society or work to push the Federation to stop being dicks, they've decided that they won't be safe until the aforementioned Romulans are out of the picture. Since they have no idea it was a clan of cultists and not, like, just the whole Romulan military, they've opted to go scorched earth and devise of series of tech tech computer things that basically break the underlying technology that Romulans use to run their society.

Aside from all the other benefits of just having a smaller scale, less stupid threat here, we can also use this as a means to refocus on Picard himself. He's here not because the Federation is in any immediate danger, but because he let the Romulans down and, even if he hadn't been roped in by Dahj, he'd have felt compelled to thwart this threat and deal with his lingering guilt over the whole failed evacuation.

Change 3: What the hell do the Borg have to do with anything

The whole concept of Ex-Borg being a visible population by this point in Federation history is fine, but why are they part of this story aside from "well any Picard story has to have a LITTLE Borg stuff"? Great question that Picard S1 as written has no good answer for aside from the Zhat Vash are racist against them. So we're gonna fix that!

But we're gonna keep it simple; they get dragged into all this not just because Zhat Vash are dicks (although sure, they are, why not, they're a weird trauma-cult convinced that any sort of non-biological life will kill them all) but because the synths need some Borg stuff in order to do their tech tech. Smart as they are, they can't ensure their virus-or-whatever hits ALL Romulan tech without something akin to the technology the Borg use to unite the collective, so why not just steal it?

This has a bonus.

Change 4: What the fuck is up with Soji

So now that there's a real reason for the Borg to be in this story, we can dovetail that with Soji. The synth colony needed someone to lay the groundwork for their big tech heist, but being as they're a persecuted minority at the moment they needed someone who could 'pass'. Hence, they used that old Soong technique of extremely secret backdoor programming (as seen in Brothers) to send Soji to the cube and occasionally hijack her to get the information they need. Dahj, being twinned with her, senses this and seeks out Picard, but since it's not directly her being controlled she doesn't FULLY understand the goal and that lets us keep some of the more investigatory parts of the show unchanged.

So those are all the big backstory changes to simplify and add connections between the parts of this story. I will however also add one more change that I would steer towards with all this in place.

Change 5: The 'big' battle doesn't have to be nearly that big now

So the Zhat Vash being more of a cult than "inexplicably bigger than the fucking Tal Shiar", can still field some warships, they indoctrinated a few very powerful people, why not. They put the pieces together in similar fashion to how the existing show goes, discovering Soji's true identity and using her to track down the Synth colony, and go to obliterate them before they can finish their plan. Great plan. Picard, knowing he can't convince them not to push the shiny, candy-like "End Romulan Civilization" button if they're being actively shot it, puts out a signal and hopes for the best. But since this is a much smaller conflict playing on Picard's personal connections, instead of some inexplicable clone fleet it's just a few ships. I'd keep the Titan, why not, but let's have it joined by, I dunno, the Voyager A, Captain Harry Kim in command. I mean, you already have Seven here, why not toss a nod to her allies and connections too. We can even use this as the lead in to her properly joining Star Fleet in season 3, her old pal Harry finally moving up in the world reignites her buried desire to be part of something and have a more typical career again.

So yeah, I'm not sure how to get from here to season 2, but I think this would do a lot to refine Season 1 into a much smoother story with stakes that actually can be handled by the efforts of the title character.

[Madner Kami]

Cut out seasons 1 and 2, have season three be the only season and retitle Star Trek: The Last Generation while marketing it as the true finale of TNG after the movies left the series on such a low note. I'm in the miniorty on actually liking the concepts of the first two seasons of Picard but even I think they were poorly handled and one of the bigger problems is the new crew has little to no chemistry.

Season 3, while not perfect, is a nice simple story that gives the TNG crew one last great ride together and a fun, if silly, finale. I honestly think the in the years to come Picard S3 will be the only season of Picard really watched by fans and casual viewers.

Season 3 is actually the one I'd not even bother to rewrite, but drop entirely. Yes, it is the most fun to watch and the most "true" out of the seasons, but that right there is the issue I have with it. Why is it fun? Not because it's a good TNG-storyline (it really isn't), but it's a pure nostalgia theme-park-ride and as much as I like that and enjoy that for what it is, I utterly despise it for just that. It doesn't add anything, but breaks canon for the nostalgia and it's just a long string of memberberries. I would want it to add, not relive a past that never was in the first place.

[McAvoy]

So when I created this post I honestly had no idea of how to do it myself. Just everything in the those three seasons are so disconnected that it's very hard to create a coherent three season long mini series.

But so far what I got is:

We know that Lore was taken back to Starfleet and disassembled and studied. Let's say that Maddox struggling to create his own Soong type android decided to copy Lore's positronic pathways but deleted what he thought was Lore. So he thought.

It took time but he eventually came through and took over the Soong androids that devestated Mars. Starfleet as in the series does what they do in the the first season.

Maddox goes into hiding after discovering what happened. His shortcut cost Starfleet and the Federation so much. But his fellow researchers create the Android colony as in the series. Data's consciousness is not there though and neither will Picard take over the Golem.

The Golem made was stolen by Lore years ago but covered up. The Android colony didn't know it was Lore. Not sure how to tidy up that yet. But it was Lore after his attack on Mars that took the Female Changling and altered her as we see in Season 3.

In fact, Picard's health will play a part in the mini series. But I am not sure how.

Still trying to figure out how to Q in this. I do like the idea of bookending Picard's journey with Q.

Also trying to figure out how to get the Borg involved. Just not sure how to get the Queen there.

Kinda like the idea Seven and Crusher are doing the same thing but not realizing it. Starfleet becoming more isolationist meaning more infighting and pirates on the outskirts of the Federation.