Posted in: Star Trek, streaming, TV | Tagged: Dave Blass, paramount, Star Trek Picard

Star Trek: Picard Prod Designer Dave Blass on Approach to Final Season

Star Trek: Picard production designer Dave Blass on his approach to the third and final season, recreating the U.S.S. Enterprise-D & more.

Published Thu, 25 May 2023 00:38:10 -0500

by Tom Chang

Comments

There's nothing to debate about the enriched history of the science fiction institution known as Star Trek. In over 55 years of history, there have been 11 television series with one under development and 12 theatrical films. To say there's tons of information to mine resources from would be an understatement for Picard production designer Dave Blass in his approach to the third and final season that saw the reunion of most of the core cast of The Next Generation for one last adventure.

Star Trek: Picard Production Designer Dave Blass on the Final Season

"One of the directives that I told my staff … was that 'Star Trek' is not a fantasy show. It's not a sci-fi show. It's a historical drama that takes place in the future with 60 years of history," Blass told Gold Derby. "Do your research and then create the best design possible." One of the season's biggest defining stops was at the Fleet Museum on Altan Prime, where Commodore Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) acts as the curator for Starfleet, allowing franchise fans to travel down memory lane with their favorite ships from past series, which is poetic considering what Blass wanted to accomplish.

"It had to be a museum-quality replica that would stand up to the scrutiny, not only of the viewers but the cast members who had once sat on that set. So it had to be identical," says Blass about the challenge of recreating the famous bridge of the U.S.S Enterprise-D. "It was a little bit of archeology going through archives, finding people who had been on the set, who's got a photo, what was your memory?" We got the original Enterprise-D restoration by following the events of 1994's Generations, we learned that Geordi recovered the saucer section of the original ship from Veridian III since the battle nacelle section was lost following a warp core breach. He was able to rebuild it after salvaging parts from another vessel to rebuild it, which came quite in handy since it was the only Federation vessel not connected to their grid that was hacked by the Borg.

"Looking back on it, it was fun," Blass remembers, because they managed to create two distinct seasons of television in tandem. "As we're dealing with the basement of the Picard chateau and all that stuff, we're prepping, building the Titan sick bay. So it was all happening, all one on top of each other. So it was a juggling act, to be certain." Picard shot seasons two and three back-to-back, with Wil Wheaton making a cameo in the season two finale while the remaining cast, with Burton, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn, Brent Spiner, and Gates McFadden, were front and center in the final season to join star, Patrick Stewart.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!