Star Trek: Picard director Hanelle Culpepper on Borg cube reveal: “I went nuts when I read it in the script”

The Borg cube reclamation project in Star Trek: Picard

Before it aired, Star Trek: Picard revealed a lot of surprises. Brent Spiner would be back. Jeri Ryan would return. Jonathan Frakes! Marina Sirtis! Of course, it was hard to keep those surprises, though Hanelle Culpepper did have one surprise for viewers: the Borg cube. 

Spoilers, by the way. Sorry.

The entertainment site Gold Derby interviewed Culpepper, who holds the distinction of being the first female director to launch a Star Trek series. And she got to end the beginning in a big way. A lot of the series takes place on and around a Borg cube reclamation project. “I am a ‘Next Generation’ fan,” Culpepper told Gold Derby, “and when [the pilot episode] ended with that reveal of the Borg cube … I just knew the audience was going to go nuts when they saw that because I went nuts when I read it in the script.”

“The fangirl in me just got super excited reading that script,” said Culpepper, “and I was really inspired by how I wanted to shoot the show.”

While the spectacle of the Borg cube was exciting, ships and stunts weren’t her focus. Helming Picard’s first three episodes, Culpepper said: “My model with it was to blend the epic with the intimate, so to always bring you really cool, epic, cinematic shots, but to always remember that the character is the most important thing with this series.”

If you haven’t seen it for yourself, Star Trek: Picard is still available to watch as part of an extended free trial of CBS All Access. And you can catch Culpepper’s two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery as well. What? You’ve got someplace to be?