I think anyone interested in Star Trek and  the future of the franchise  should give this a watch, although it doesn’t really make comfortable viewing. It explains some of the background of the problems  Trek faces. While  Patrick Stewart may be  returning to the role of Picard,   the video points out that the Picard we are set to get will be very different to the one we grew up with. The franchise has been split into many prime and secondary timelines, and it has lost the support of many fans because of it. As the video points out, these splits are because the franchise is being fought over by two separate studios, CBS and Paramount. Trek as a whole is thus in quite a mess, torn between different studios, timelines and styles. I had thought the different mise en scene of the new films  was an artistic choice, but it is, in fact, a  result of the franchise being fought over by two different studios: they had to look different for legal reasons. The same goes for Trek’s entire  timeline being rewritten. According to the video, Picard will be flung into this mess of competing narratives in order to bring fans back,  but having  watched it, I can’t help thinking that to use Picard in this way would just destroy a once great character. Trek has lost it’s way, and rather than see it dissolve into a  incoherent mess of competing timelines where the idea of  what is canonic becomes nonsensical, I’d rather let it fade into cultural history.