It was exactly four weeks ago that CBS officially announced they were developing a new Star Trek series that will have Sir Patrick Stewart reprise his Star Trek: The Next Generation role of Jean-Luc Picard. Not a lot is known about the show, except that it will be set 20 years after Star Trek: Nemesis, which sets it just at the end of the 24th century.

At Star Trek Las Vegas, Stewart noted it was still early and there were still no scripts written for the show, at least as of four weeks ago. We do know that the show’s creative team includes Pulitzer-Prize winning author Michael Chabon as one of the executive producers. Chabon also wrote one of the upcoming Star Trek: Short Treks. A few weeks ago Chabon took to Instagram to share a photo of him on the bridge of the USS Discovery and to reveal a little bit about his Short Treks episode “Calypso.”

UPDATE: Chabon clarifies sketch

Some point after initially posting the sketch Chabon edited his Instagram post with context that the sketch is not a hint of what’s to come. It was a rough sketch of the state of the galaxy at the end of Star Trek: Voyager (which effectively also includes Nemesis). His added note says:

Note to deep exegetes and wild speculators: this map represents only (and very roughly!) the status quo at the close of Voyager, the latest-set, as you know, of all the pre-existing tv series, and was executed purely as a visual aid for the edification of Professor Beyer’s colleagues.

Chabon shares Beyer’s galactic sketch

Now Chabon has done it again, this time revealing a sketch from the writers’ room of what he describes as the “Untitled Picard Project.” While it isn’t a lot to go on, it does show that progress is being made and there is a writers’ room that includes Star Trek: Discovery writer Kirsten Beyer, who came up with the idea to do a Picard show.

In a post on Instagram, Chabon reveals a sketch of the Star Trek galaxy saying “Supreme Guardian of All #Trek Canon (and beloved colleague) #kirstenbeyer dropped some cosmographical science on the #untitledpicardproject writers’ room today. (Yes, I am having #somuchfun.)”

Setting the stage for Picard’s entrance

Star Trek fans should recognize that what Beyer drew out for Chabon is a sketch of the galaxy, as seen in Star Trek’s 24th century. The lines demark the four quadrants with A, B, G, and D indicating Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta. The major players in galactic politics are identified, notably the Dominion (in the Gamma Quadrant), the Borg (in Delta), the Cardasssians in the Alpha Quadrant, the Klingons in the Beta Quadrant and the Federation in both Alpha and Beta. There is also an area indicated in the Beta Quadrant with a strong line, which may indicate the Romulan Star Empire and neutral zone.

Even though the “cosmographical science” sketch is crude, key features of the galaxy are identified, including Earth, Vulcan, The Bajor wormhole that jumps to the Gamma Quadrant and the Borg transwarp network in the Delta Quadrant, with one node linked to Earth (as seen in the Star Trek: Voyager finale). You can see some of the same features in this official Star Trek galactic map.

Just be a map and let history make its own judgments

As our article noted earlier this week on questions we have about this Picard show, the question about state of the galaxy 20 years after Nemesis is an important one. Of course one shouldn’t read too much into this. As Chabon noted in a reply to a fan on Instagram, “Sometimes a map is only a map.” However, it does show that the team is thinking about the galactic setting for the show, and of course, any little morsel about the Picard show is always something for fans eager to find out more.

Keep up with all the news about upcoming Star Trek TV series at TrekMovie.com.