Michael Chabon, Patrick Stewart Look Captivated in New Star Trek Photo

It's unclear exactly what's so important in this photo, newly posted by Patrick Stewart. "The journey has begun," Stewart has captioned the photo, in which he's surrounded by the creative team for the Picard series. Not much is known, although it is set further in the future than Star Trek has depicted before, two decades after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis , the aftermath of the Dominion War in Deep Space Nine and the return of the lost Voyager to the Alpha Quadrant. The new Picard series will write a new future for Star Trek . So, what are they looking at?

Here's the photo:

Assembled is the creative team for the new Picard series, and many are also involved with Star Trek: Discovery. Kirsten Beyer is the Star Trek novelist and Discovery staff writer; the Picard series is described as her "brain child." Michael Chabon is a Pulitzer, Hugo and Nebula-award winning author (he also wrote John Carter). Akiva Goldsman is executive producer of most things in this world, including Stephen King projects like The Dark Tower and Doctor Sleep, DC's Titans and Star Trek: Discovery . Diandra Pendleton-Thompson is a veteran writers assistant, on Stranger Things Season 3 and now on projects with Goldsman (according to her alumni magazine, she's also written a pilot "about supernatural mafias in 1970s Las Vegas"). James Duff created The Closer and joined the Star Trek: Discovery team after the exit of former showrunners Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts. As for "yours truly," you know who that is.

All together, this creative team suggests the best way to understand the upcoming Picard series is via Star Trek: Discovery. That would mean an action-adventure focus, with a simultaneous fidelity to Star Trek continuity and a desire to stretch it. And while it's possible Picard has moved into a radically different field, many have speculated archaeology or an ambassadorship, it's hard to imagine the show abandoning Starfleet. The most straightforward plot—Picard is some sort of admiral or Starfleet Academy commander who finds himself on one last adventure captaining a starship—probably shouldn't be ruled out.

When looking at the future of Star Trek, such a team is unlikely to ignore the most recent known past, particularly the Dominion War and the ever-looming presence of the Borg Collective (the destruction of Romulus that caused the parallel timeline seen in the 2009 Star Trek movie might also prove important). In fact, thanks to Chabon, we know the disposition of the various galactic factions has been a point of discussion, with Beyer drawing a map on the writers room whiteboard:

But that still doesn't answer: what is everyone looking at? A new ship? The Borg's expanding borders? A breakdown of the series arc? A picture of Data hugging a horta?

What we know about Picard's very own series doesn't tell us much. According to Trek Movie, one of the few things we can deduce is that, so far, the new series is not a Star Trek: The Next Generation reunion, with Michael Dorne, Gates McFadden and Marina Sirtis (Worf, Dr. Crusher, Deanna Troi) confirming at Rose City Comic Con they are not involved with new show. All we know is that a journey has begun.