Star Trek: Picard's Dog Means Much More Than You Might Expect

While the CBS All Access series Star Trek: Picard hasn't aired yet, it's already gotten the green light for a second season. But before the series airs, the show's star Patrick Stewart explains just where Jean-Luc Picard's dog, which we've seen in one of the promotional posters for the series, comes from.

At the TCA winter press tour, Picard had a presentation where Stewart was in attendance discussion the upcoming All Access series, including how this dog was incorporated into the series. "Like so many things on this show, it has a great deal to do with me," Patrick jokingly explained. "The dog was my idea."

"Picard's life has changed. He's troubled, disturbed, lonely, and with feelings of a strange, unnatural guilt. To just see him with a dog seemed to me to write a lot of things that didn't have to be said. Because the presence of the dog alone shows he is looking for some form of comfort, which he can't find anywhere else."

The upcoming series, which takes place years after the events of The Next Generation, follows the titular character who has settled into a much calmer life, on Earth. A placard at New York Comic-Con, designed to share information about the series, read:"Since resigning from Starfleet, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard has lived a somewhat reclusive life on his family estate in La Barre, France. All of that changes when he receives an unexpected visitor and is once more drawn back to the galactic stage."

The new Star Trek series will feature many familiar faces from Star Trek: TNG, including Brent Spiner as Data, Jonathan Frakes as Riker, and Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi, plus Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Voyager. For more, check out the latest trailer and GameSpot's guide to everything we know so far about Star Trek: Picard.

Star Trek: Picard debuts on CBS All Access on January 23.

Disclosure: CBS All Access is owned by ViacomCBS, GameSpot's parent company.