Star Trek: Picard executive producer Akiva Goldsman imagines a coronavirus episode

Star Trek: Picoronavirus?

Recently, Patrick Stewart was asked how he thought Jean-Luc Picard would have handled the coronavirus outbreak. Now, someone else is putting words in the mouth of the galaxy’s favorite British Frenchman. The entertainment site Vulture wondered how some of TV’s favorite characters would respond to the current pandemic. And so, they asked people who’ve written for them. Taking the part of Picard was Akiva Goldsman, writer and executive producer on Star Trek: Picard.

In the quarantine-specific “Admiral’s Log”, Picard contemplates the difficulty of long-term isolation, and the toll it takes on himself and his crew. There’s fear. “Essential systems continue to fail,” says the admiral. The crew wants to leave the ship, but they can’t. Instead, they work through the fear and they stay on the ship, secure in the belief that this will pass.

“The threat we face is real,” says the admiral:

“…with no immediate end in sight. But that does not make it endless. On the contrary, this period of darkness will end, as surely as it began. Fear will fade to memory. We will survive, stronger, perhaps more aware of the profound connections we have always shared. And a time will come when we once again right this ship and sail forward together into the future, that bright unknown.”

Level-headed and hopeful. One would expect no less of Jean-Luc Picard.

Of course, all characters are not the same. From 30 Rock’s Kenneth the Page to Lost’s Sawyer to Sesame Street’s Elmo - characters of all stripes have their say. Well, their writers do, anyway. Find out what your favorites would do and say online at Vulture.com.