The season was produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Secret Hideout, Weed Road Pictures, Escapist Fare, and Roddenberry Entertainment, with Michael Chabon serving as showrunner.

Stewart announced the series in August 2018, after being convinced to return to the role by creators Akiva Goldsman, Chabon, Kirsten Beyer, and Alex Kurtzman.

A planetary defense system in the form of giant orchids drags the three ships to the planet's surface, and Picard requires medical attention following the crash.

[16][17] Stewart had previously said that he did not want to return to the franchise,[2] but was convinced to join the project after a pitch by Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, Michael Chabon, and Kirsten Beyer.

[38] Beyer, a long-time Star Trek writer and novelist, believed that the season's explanation for the Romulans' secrecy did not contradict the species' previous appearances in the franchise.

[39] Chabon wrote many pages of mythology about the Romulans as background for the season's story, including a history for the newly introduced Qowat Milat, a sect of warrior nuns.

[2] The rest of the cast was hired in March and April 2019:[3][8][7] Alison Pill as Agnes Jurati, Isa Briones as Dahj and Soji Asha, Evan Evagora as Elnor, Michelle Hurd as Raffi Musiker, Santiago Cabrera as Cristobal "Chris" Rios, and Harry Treadaway as Narek.

[6] In April 2019, several of Stewart's co-stars from The Next Generation, including Wil Wheaton, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, and Marina Sirtis, were asked whether they would reprise their roles for Picard.

Spiner was included after it became clear that Data would be important to Picard in the series, and Frakes and Sirtis were added halfway through the season when the writers came up with a story idea that required them.

[49] Also recurring throughout the season are Sumalee Montano as an artificial intelligence that Dahj and Soji believe is their mother;[10] Tamlyn Tomita as the half-Vulcan, half-Romulan Commodore Oh;[11] Rebecca Wisocky as Ramdha, a Romulan who was assimilated by the Borg;[13] and Peyton List as Narek's sister Narissa.

[12] List's performance was influenced by Narek and Narissa being originally written as both siblings and lovers, though the writers moved away from this,[43] and her role was expanded after she impressed during early table reads.

She acknowledged that he comes from a "lifetime of service and structure and order" and his clothes should reflect that, but she also wanted to depict him as a "very fit and active and viable older man" while showing the changes in his character since The Next Generation.

Clark chose to move away from Seven of Nine's "classic silver catsuit" costume from Star Trek: Voyager, deciding to reflect the character's physical strength rather than her sexuality while also acknowledging her Robin Hood-like role in Picard as a member of vigilante group the Fenris Rangers.

John Van Citters, the vice president of Star Trek brand management at CBS Studios, helped Lombardi find the owners of the original B-4 parts.

[36] At the start of the project, Page was most excited about getting to redesign the Borg, feeling that he had a clear vision for what the full head-to-toe character designs should be in a modern re-telling of that story.

[59] Cherniawsky stated that world building was difficult on a feature film let alone with a television schedule and budget, and the series' art department struggled to create unique new planet designs as they were required for Picard.

Culpepper's general style involved more handheld cameras but less movement than Discovery,[67] though she differentiated the scenes set in space from those on Earth by using more steady cam for the former to give it a "floaty" feeling.

For instance, the writers realized that without showing the synth attack on Mars earlier in the season, the audience would not understand the horror of the moment and would be biased against the Federation's decisions.

Goldsman explained that these two episodes are the most standalone of the season, which allowed for the writers to experiment more with tones, and this was done due to their focus on the hunt for Bruce Maddox which resembles a mission from a more serialized Star Trek series such as The Next Generation.

Another element changed for the episode was the villain Bjayzl, who was originally written to be a catlike Caitian (as previously seen in Star Trek: The Animated Series) who lives in an aviary and eats birds.

[44] Chabon saw the seventh episode as a pause or respite for the characters since all the seasons elements were well set by that point, and Picard had finally crossed paths with Soji.

[35] Filming this scene was the highlight of the season for Stewart, calling it an "intense experience" due to the seriousness of the subject and the fact that it was the last time Picard and Data would be together.

The collection also includes ten hours of previously released special features as well as an exclusive, original comic book titled Star Trek: Sky's The Limit from IDW Publishing.

[112] On January 30, the ViacomCBS free streaming service PlutoTV aired a 24-hour marathon of the series' first episode, followed by repeat viewings each night through February 5 as the lead-off title for a programming block.

[109] The first three episodes of the season were made available to stream for free on CBS.com, StarTrek.com, and PlutoTV for a week beginning June 17, 2020, as part of a CBS All Access event titled #StarTrekUnited.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Anchored by the incomparable Patrick Stewart, Picard departs from standard Starfleet protocol with a slower, serialized story, but like all great Star Trek it tackles timely themes with grace and makes for an exciting push further into the final frontier."

[130] Ben Travers at IndieWire gave a "B" grade to the first three episodes, praising Stewart but expressing concern at the series' reliance on nostalgia for previous Star Trek stories.

She acknowledged that this was one of several fan concerns with the season, which also included the series' darker tone and perceived similarities between its story and designs and those of the video game Mass Effect 2 (2010).

[134] Stephen Kelly for The Guardian criticized the series' dark tone, violence, and profanity, stating that optimism for the future was more important than Chabon and Kurtzman seemed to believe.

[135] In May 2020, Ruth Terry wrote an article for StarTrek.com with commentary by communications professor and author Dr. Thomas Parham III, in which they praised the season for acknowledging Picard's role as an ally to marginalized groups while forcing him to face his own privilege.