I'm watching Star Trek: Picard as it comes to air and have just seen a promo for it. The show is obviously presenting a story arc presumably spanning a whole season; judging by the pace of the two episodes aired so far, some of the action teased in the promo looks like it must be multiple episodes in. So it leads me to ask:
For an effects-heavy show like "Picard", how much time typically elapses between the point an episode is complete and ready to air and the time it actually goes to air? Was the full season already complete before the first episode aired, or are major portions of the season still in production (any step from post-production all the way back to script writing)?
How does current practice compare to past practice (both for sci-fi/effects shows generally, and Star Trek series in particular)? Anecdotes about Start Trek (original series) suggest that production schedules were very tight, perhaps also suggesting that episodes sometimes went to air relatively soon after they were complete. Is/was this true?
EDIT:
I forgot that Picard was produced for a streaming service (I'm watching on Canada's sci-fi cable channel). It does lead me to explore a slightly different tangent:
Do shows produced for streaming always drop full seasons at once? Is there any motive to drop them in smaller batches, or drip them out one episode per week as if broadcast?