Star Trek: Picard showrunner Chabon: violence “belongs in any narrative about human beings”
Michael Chabon on Instagram, where he answered fan questions
Star Trek: Picard showrunner Michael Chabon is earning himself a bit of a reputation on Instagram...for answering fans’ questions! Earlier this month, Chabon posted a short video responding to some fans’ criticisms of the show, including, among other things, the level of swearing.
Yesterday, Chabon once again took to Instagram, and this time, responded to one commenter’s question about the depiction of violence in the new series. On Thursday of last week, Chabon posted a picture of Sir Patrick Stewart and Jeri Ryan, sharing a laugh on the set of Star Trek: Picard episode 5, “Stardust City Rag”. He captioned the image, “A moment of levity (probably Frakes-inspired) between takes at the Nightbox, in Stardust City, capital of the non-aligned Crypto-Libertarian Pseudorepublic of Freecloud. #stardustcityrag”
Some fans took the post as an opportunity to question Chabon on the level of violence in the episode. In what is now becoming familiar fashion, Chabon answered a number of comments thoughtfully. TrekMovie went through the comments and helped distil them. They quote Chabon, in responding to questions about the episode’s violent scenes: “I am not unambivalent about the violence, myself. The choice was not made lightly, though it was made collaboratively, and therefore with a good deal of conversation and debate among the creators.”
Chabon went on to explain that he believes there has always been violence in Star Trek, but sometimes it was merely implied due to the realities of production. And, he insisted, violence “belongs in any narrative about human beings, even human beings of the future. Violence, often, *is* the narrative.”
He summed up by relating his final decision back to the realities of production. “In the end,” he said, “I saw how little time and space we had to convey a sense of Seven’s history post-Voyager, and the things that drive and haunt her. I decided, with my partners, that intensity was warranted.”
Star Trek: Picard is now streaming on CBS All Access, and the sixth episode, “The Impossible Box” is out tomorrow.