They were? Seems awfully weird for the wardrobe department to spend time and money to design a one-off uniform that fits the actor exactly just to imply that it's a 'screwed up holo.'
As a huge fan of the characters and situations created for TNG during its first run, I'd love to see an earlier series. Stories like Picard's first meeting both Crushers would be very interesting, along with his initial (from a different perspective) dealings with Guinan. Pulaski's earlier years could be cool, along with maybe showing Noonien Soong in his 20s or thereabouts. The Crystalline Entity's attack on Omicron Theta could make for a very exciting episode, and lead to a new actor for Data. They could even mix in a few other events from related shows, like Tuvok teaching at the Academy (I don't remember exactly when). Having the Stargazer possibly encounter the rape gangs on Turkana IV, leading to the setup of a very young Tasha Yar. I mean, there's just so many places you could go with this kind of show.
It's actually quite unremarkable. Picard captained a podunk vessel for over two decades. During this time, his captaincy was so utterly bland that he was never recommended for promotion. I mean, it's not like he was Riker on the Enterprise. He wasn't leading first contact missions or negotiating peace with the Klingons. He was on the Stargazer (who?). Might as well be the Navelgazer. A worn-out left-over from the 23rd century. If he was offered the chance to jump ship or become an Admiral (even a Commodore, which I suppose is a Rear Admiral?), I suspect he'd jump at the chance. So, the real story isn't in Picard's adventures on the Stargazer. It's what he did in this mundane career that eventually made him the one and best choice to captain Starfleet's newest state-of-the-art flagship.
In the biography, Quinn stops him from getting command of the C because the D is already planned and he had Picard in mind for that one.
And yet, according to Geordi, Picard's adventures on the Stargazer were popular reading material when he was at the Academy. To say nothing of the fact that Picard's time on the Stargazer must have been noteworthy enough to make him the officer the Romulans chose to create a clone of.
Nice guy. "Hey, have I got a starship for you! Now, all you need to do is put your career on hold for, oh, 25 years. OK?" Picard waited for the Enterprise-D almost as long as King Charles III waited for the throne! So, Starfleet was sneaky and concealed their bestest captain ever on some crappy ship for 20+ years.... Or maybe the Romulans cloned him early on because they had information from the future that this lout on the banged-up Stargazer would eventually make something of himself. I'm as big a TNG fan as anyone, but sorry, I just find the whole Stargazer backstory to be laughably implausible, and moreover incompatible with the Enterprise-D-era's Picard's reputation. He's good enough for the fleet flagship, but not good enough to get a better ship in his previous command?
I guess we'll have to assume Picard did something super-awesome on a different ship after the Battle of Maxia and the 1701-D.
So, you think the Romulans had access to intelligence about the future and still managed to be taken by surprise over the destruction of their homeworld?
There's really no difference between making a series about young Picard on the Stargazer, or young Rachel Garrett on the Enterprise-C, or 7 of 9 on the Enterprise-G, or Captain ____ on the starship ______. Trek has gotten so formulaic that you could show an episode of ENT, an episode of VOY, an episode of DSC and an episode of SNW to a non-Trekkie, and they would be hard-pressed to tell what time period they were supposed to take place in. They would most likely say that DSC and SNW must take place after ENT and VOY because the production values are so much better.
A Rachel Garrett series would at least give us a chance to explore an established and important character that we know virtually nothing about. You could fill text books with what we already know about Picard and Seven of Nine.
Of course not. My suggestion was as serious as I feel the Stargazer backstory is. But I'm surprised no one tried to justify it that way. A better story should have been that Picard's adventures on the Stargazer made him legendary. He was promoted to Admiral after 10 years of command. Much later on, he was given the opportunity to command the Enterprise-D due to his subsequent reputation as a diplomat (matching the mission of the ship). Or alternatively, Picard took the Enterprise for himself -- maybe because he headed the Galaxy Class project from inception -- wanting to get back in the command seat to see what's out there... Memory Alpha says: Doesn't sound like something to give a highly respected officer. That's Lower Decks material.
Oh, I'm not arguing that. I'm just saying that the danger of getting too formulaic is very much there, and I would be hard-pressed to see a difference between a show about Garrett on the C and 7 of 9 on the G, if there wasn't some inherent difference in storytelling, production values, character development, etc. from present CBSTrek that would make me (or anyone else for that matter) be able to say, "Yep, this show believably takes place in the 2330's and I can totally buy that this is a younger version of a character I saw only one time (Pike, cough, cough), and they are doing justice to this character and the time period the show supposedly takes place in." I simply don't have high hopes this will happen, and that the characterization of Garrett wouldn't be much different than the characterization of 7 of 9.
My own personal hope, in the extremely small chance we get a Garrett series, is that we perhaps see the lead up to her getting command of the Enterprise. Honestly, if we did actually see the Enterprise-C, I don't think I'd want it to be till the end of the series, because you're right. It would run the risk of being just another series on just another Enterprise. Something we've seen before. What would that mean for the actual series? I don't know. I guess it depends on where the Section 31 film leaves her. They could almost make another attempt at doing something like Discovery and have the star of the series not be a Captain. Show the audience what she does in her career to eventually be given command of an Enterprise.
If there was no other ship between the Stargazer and the Enterprise, that would leave about a 9-10 year gap between the Battle of Maxia and Encounter at Farpoint. He could be off at Starfleet HQ for that time doing desk work. I checked out Memory Alpha, which says this: So, maybe he had an interim command. But this date overlaps the year it claims he took command of the Enterprise. Maybe this was just a special mission like those we've seen in Picard. The comic adaptation of the latter has him commanding the Verity, or something like that, but this isn't established in the show.