Interview: Jonathan Del Arco Talks “Borg Spin-Off” That Became ‘Star Trek: Picard’ And Hugh’s Surprise Death
Del Arco also talks about filming with Whoopi Goldberg for TNG's "I, Borg."
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I'm starting to see a pattern in modern Trek here. We're used to seeing shows made by committee, but the rate that key creative people are being swapped out and their ideas corrupted as they're passed on is just disconcerting:
Alex Kurtzman, James Duff, and I believe maybe one other writer was involved at the time, and James really wanted it to be a Borg spin-off. […] But had Patrick not done it, some kind of show about the Borg would have happened. It would not have been Picard, it would have been a show about the Borg. […] And James left the show before they began filming. He had a creative differences and left, I think, weeks before I even began. I’d signed my contract, and the people that were left, I think, then made that decision [that Hugh was getting killed off] without my being told or even knowing about it through gossip.
Never mind that actors aren't told in advance what will happen to their characters, I get a feeling that writers make things up on the fly while actually shooting fairly serialised seasons. We see Bryan Fuller being removed from Disco while it's in preproduction, then Berg and Harberts being fired mid-season two.
As somebody who loved early Discovery and only hate watches the kitschy car crash of Strange new worlds, that sort of subtext gives me really bad vibes off the current Trek productions.
And who is left once the dust settles. Too often we see Akiva Goldsman getting pulled in to "save" shows and,for all his Academy Award winning "A beautiful mind" glory, he seems to mostly play fantasy football with Star Trek.
Goldsman's Star trek tributes were cutesy when he did them on Fringe, but now that he's a mover on the actual franchise, fucking up continuities of the TOS roster and every bit of canon about the Gorn? Not so much.
only hate watches the kitschy car crash of Strange new worlds,
You're about to cross some fuckin' lines...
Oh sorry, did I deviate from current groupthink? At least I didn't cross the line into posting blackface.
I'm pretty sure this is THE ONE blackface that is allowed. Or am I missing some joke in your comment?
Oh for pete's sake.
Here’s another take.
We know that everything was reshaped to flatter and entice Patrick Stewart to come back and play Picard.
He kept refusing and keep on insisting on Picard’s life should be a reflection of his own.
But the suits at ViacomCBS (and later Paramount) put priority on greenlighting anything they could get with Picard as a character.
So, whatever initial concepts with and without Picard were all sacrificed in the end in order to indulge Stewart enough to play the role.
Heh, I don't think I agree with either of these takes.
It seems to me like season 1 was very much Michael Chabon's vision - indeed, they've said in interviews that it didn't bear much resemblance to the original pitch that sold Stewart on the series.
I've always felt that Chabon had a lot of great ideas (and to be frank, I still think that first season is the best "Picard" season), but was perhaps too inexperienced to get those ideas implemented in a timely and affordable fashion.
Del Arco not being informed of Hugh's death is a bit of a non-issue, I think - the guy was a guest star, so it wouldn't be right to expect them to treat him like a principal cast member.
Picard season 1 would have made more sense if they’d killed off Picard at the end, and renamed Rios’ ship after Picard. I would’ve watched that show with that ship and that crew.