'Star Trek: Picard' drops some HUGE surprises at Comic-Con

Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard; Isa Briones as Dahj of the CBS All Access series "Star Trek: Picard." (Image credit: CBS)

Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard; Isa Briones as Dahj of the CBS All Access series "Star Trek: Picard." (Image credit: CBS)

Fresh from the San Diego Comic-Con, we've just gotten our first taste of what to expect from Star Trek: Picard , the latest in the Trek franchise that'll be exclusively on CBS All Access. The folks in attendance at Hall H got to watch the trailer — twice. We've get to see it here, now.

(If you're outside the U.S., you can watch the trailer here .)

So the basic gist, as we see it: Picard is old and in retirement, but something just isn't right. (If we had to guess, it's that the stars beckon, he doesn't really belong on Earth anymore, the ghost of Data haunts him, and his former crew members are still doing their thing while he's nearing the end.) Then a young girl finds her way to him, and he's got to protect her from something. What makes her so special?

Something, something BORG.

So it almost seems like a Trek-ified Firefly ? That's not the worst premise in the world we suppose.

The only bad news here? We'll have to wait until 2020 for the premiere.

And as expected, we got some seriously huge surprises at the SDCC panel. Jeri Ryan and Brent Spiner were in that trailer, and will reprise their roles in the series. The former was a favorite as Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Voyager , and the latter, of course, played Data, under Picard's command, in Star Trek: The Next Generation , and sacrificed himself in the Nemesis movie.

Also headed back to the serialized series — Jonathan Frakes (Picard's second-in-command in TNG ) and Marina Sirtis, who played ship's Counselor Troi in TNG .

See more

Sir Patrick Stewart took the stage in San Diego along with castmates Santiago Cabrera, Michelle Hurd, Isa Briones, Evan Evagora, Alison Pill and Harry Treadaway, and producer Michael Chabon, to talk about the upcoming series.

See more

Stewart talked about how he'd previously been approached to return to the Trek franchise several times earlier, but refused — until he learned what was planned for this new series.

"Patrick has been a collaborator with the writers from the beginning," showrunner Michael Chabon said .

Also at Comic-Con, we got our first look at the return of Star Trek: Short Treks . Six new shorts are coming back to CBS All Access this fall. They'll feature Ethan Peck (Spock) and Rebecca Romijn (Number One) from Star Trek: Discovery , along with Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike in three USS Enterprise-themed shorts.

Here's the full slate of titles for the shorts:

  • Ask Not
  • Q&A
  • The Trouble with Edward
  • The Girl Who Made The Stars
  • Ephaim and Dot
  • Children of Mars

We also got some news on the third season of Star Trek: Discovery , which has just begun principle filming.