Select questions from Chabon's Q&A. There's actually around a hundred on his Instagram stories, if anyone interested. Lots of backstories is answered.
https://www.instagram.com/michael.chabon/
What became of Narek?
Yeah. Narek. We know, we know. A casualty of the editorial process, alas. The intention was for him to be taken into Federation custody.
What about the xBs?
We shot a scene intended to show Ramdha and other xBs beginning to form a kind of community with the Synths under the auspices of Soong. In the end we couldn't find a place for it that worked and we felt that losing it didn't hurt too much. Maybe we were wrong!
Which came first, the Admonition or the Sisters prophecy Narek spoke of?
The Admonition predates Romulan civilization by hundreds of centuries. If Romulans had not chanced upon it, their history would be very different. Their pre-existing mythology of Gamadan just gave them a framework for interpreting their experience of the Admonition.
Are they really sentient if Deanna can't sense them like she did Lore, Lala, and Data (when she felt)?
The emotion chip and the creation of Soong androids encountered by Troi represent an earlier approach to android emotional engineering. I think Troi or any Betazoid could be trained to read the emotions of the current generation. (OP: Also, recall that there are species that Betazoids can't read, including Ferengi.)
Will Jurati face legal punishment?
She will put herself in the hands of the law.
Will Soong build himself another Golem?
Probably
Are the Starfleet ships' designs influenced by Star Trek Online?
I don't know the answer to that.
What was the class of Riker's ship? And was that filmed in Toronto?
It's a Curiosity*-class ship* (OP:
I was right!)
And yes, shot in Toronto where Frakes was busy directing DISCO.
Was there ever discussion of having Q speak to Picard, a la Tapestry?
No, never.
Why was Data kept like that when he could've been put into a Golem?
If he could've been put in a golem, he would've been. Soong's golem was not operational and, as he says, he had abandoned work on it until the seeming imminence of his own death renewed his interest in it. What's more, that was a highly sophisticated reconstruction/simulation of Data's consciousness, as Data explains, and not a fully accurate, literal transcription thereof.
Why does Starfleet have so many of the same ship? Do they have any others?
It would be odd and unprecedented if they didn't!
Was the set of DSCs bridge used for Riker's ship?
There was far more cleverness, skill, and wizardry involved, both practical and digital, than your question implies. (OP: While the chair and bridge stations seen behind Riker are clearly from
Discovery, the over-the-shoulder shots facing the viewscreen show other stations and details.)
How was Narissa still on the cube? Didn't she warp out?
She beamed, not "warped," and "away," not "out."
Are the evolved AI beings the same who altered a probe in Discovery?
If so, it's news to me. (OP: In
Discovery, the probe was altered in the far future by sentient AI Control. In
Picard, the evolved synthetic life came from the distant past.)
Did Rios keep the deus ex tool?
It is an important point of honor for Rios that he return what was borrowed.
I wish more had been done for JL advocating for the xBs. Cut/seed for s2?
It would be a good thing, for them and for him.
What did they do with Picard's corpse?
I wondered the same thing!
Can we hope for the (Seven-Raffi) relationship to be explored in season 2?
I hope I don't get in trouble for saying, yes.
How much did you have TOS androids in mind?
Well, I remember Kirsten Beyer and me cracking each other up with discussions about the android duplicator in "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"
What was one concept from your original pitch to Patrick that you wish stayed in?
Picard as the road/stage manager of an itinerant interplanetary theater company, alone in an empty theater, acting out a scene from Krapp's Last Tape
just before the planet he was on got assimilated. Not sure I wish it were still there, but it's fun to think about.
Why didn't Oh kamikaze the synths?
I'd like to think she was listening to Picard and Soji, but maybe that's just because I believe in Star Trek. Perhaps she thought it would be more effective to live and fight another day.
How much time between Picard's resurrection and the final scene?
Long enough for loose ends to be tied up, the xBs seen to and their safety arranged, Seven and Raffi to hook up, Jurati to hire a lawyer ...
Would the advanced synths be concerned that the beacon stopped so abruptly?
Who even knows, after 200,000 years, if they're still "advanced." Maybe they've devolved.
Will S2 go deeper into the Romulan rescue?
In a way.
Section 31 ... how much do they know about the Zhat Vash and do they care?
Section 31 has always kinda seemed like they have their heads too far up their own asses, to me.
If you could bring two Deep Space Nine characters aboard La Sirena, which ones and why?
I'd love to check in on Garak and Bashir. They're always so much fun to hang out with.
In-universe explanation as to why Starfleet's armada looks the same?
They actually don't. Because they aren't. ... I am working to confirm, but I believe there are actually four distinct classes.
Was Oh indeed half-Vulcan, half-Romulan?
Yes. Her parent's were re-unificationists. Or so her Romulan mother wanted it to be believed.
