Star Trek: Picard Writer Michael Chabon Explains Why Captain Picard is the Hero We Need

My news feed yesterday was pretty much full of the Star Trek: Picard trailer. But yesterday afternoon a friend of mine forwarded me a story that had flown under my radar, but I thought you would probably want to hear about.

C|net.com published an interview yesterday with Star Trek: Picard writer Michael Chabon. Michael Chabon is a Pulitzer prize- and Hugo award-winning writer, and previously wrote the Star Trek Short Trek “Calypso”. C|net spoke to him specifically about writing for Star Trek: Picard.

C|net asked the following: “Do you feel there are certain values in Star Trek that we've forgotten in modern times, and that's why it's still relevant?”

Chabon answered, “I absolutely do. Now that I'm working on the show and now that I'm part of Star Trek, I feel like it's my responsibility to make sure that the current model is true to the ideals of the original show, the ideas of tolerance and egalitarianism. [...] To me, dystopia has lost its bite. A, we're living in it, and B, it's such a complete crushing series of cliches at this point. The tropes have all been worked and reworked so many times. [...] A positive vision of the future articulated through principles of tolerance and egalitarianism and optimism and the quest for scientific knowledge, to me that feels fresh nowadays.”

Chabon also thinks that Captain Picard is the hero we need right now. He said, “Picard is [...] an exemplar of everything that is best about Star Trek's vision for the future.... And he wasn't such a hound dog as Captain Kirk.”

Michael Chabon’s Star Trek Short Trek, “Calypso”, is available to stream on CBS All Access.