How Star Trek: Picard Keeps Its Trek Continuity Together

“If somebody does a thing in their show, it’s canon,” Goldsman says. “We’re constantly, in a fun way, going, ‘oh, I guess that happens!’”

Thankfully though the shows aren’t bumping into each other as much since they all take place in different time periods. Discovery has jumped from the 23^rd century to the 32^n/a so it’s not bumping up against Strange New Worlds which is still set in the 23^rdgold picard in the 24th.

While picard is close in the timeline to the animated Lower Decks and Prodigy, Goldsman isn’t worried about that. He does tease however that later on in the second season of picard there will be a “very specific” tie-in to one of the other trekking shows on air.

If balancing the complicated and evolving trekking canon wasn’t enough, Goldsman and the rest of the picard staff have also been working on applying lessons they learned from season one to try and make season two stronger. Goldsman admits, with a smile, that this season, “we learned to have scripts earlier. We learned to try our best to work within the budget. We didn’t succeed.”

Still, the production and actors had more of a familiarity this season that Goldsman says helped to make the process a little bit more expeditious but, at the end of the day it’s still hard to produce a whole season where each episode is, “like a giant ass movie.”

One of the people helping that whole process along is Picard himself, Patrick Stewart, who serves as executive producer on the series. Goldsman says he and the producers first talk about themes with him and then pitch out their ideas for the story of the season. Stewart also gives notes on all the episodes but those tend to focus on the character of Picard.