STAR TREK: PICARD

SEASON THREE OF STA R TREK: PICARD MAY JUST DO THE IMPOSSIBLE AND SILENCE KEYBOARD WARRIORS GLOBALLY. YES, IT’S REALLY THAT GOOD

WORDS: DARREN SCOTT

HIS IS IT, TREKKERS. THIS IS THE Big One. Twenty years since we last saw the Next Generation cast together in Star Trek: Nemesis, the original crew are back for one final hurrah. But is it final and will you be saying hurrah? The answers, in turn, are “hopefully not” and “most definitely yes.”

This is Star Trek on a scale that you’ve never seen before – to a point where showrunner and writer Terry Matalas has previously stated that perhaps he would’ve actually called it Star Trek: Legacy rather than Picard. That particular legacy spans not only The Next Generation and Voyager, but also Deep Space Nine, such is the scope of what Matalas and his team bring to screens globally in February.

Long before spin-off series Picard was even announced, the creative discussion was always that it would not be a continuation or direct sequel to The Next Generation. So when the returning cast were announced in April 2022, it’s fair to say people were a little bit excited. However, Matalas soon shuts down the idea that Picard was always heading towards a reunion of the Enterprise-E crew in its third and final season.

“No, it wasn’t,” he reveals. “There wasn’t really a plan. When I came aboard on season two, Alex [Kurtzman] and Akiva [Goldsman, executive producers], were always thinking about each one of these seasons being a different story.

“So while we were working on season two, we weren’t thinking ahead, aside from maybe some starship sets, to season three. So about halfway through shooting season two, when it was time for me to split off and do season three, the question became, ‘What is it exactly we’re doing for the last hurrah?’

“I had certainly always wanted to do one final Star Trek: The Next Generation adventure, but wasn’t certain that Patrick would be up for it. So I sat down with Patrick at his dining room table and took him through what I thought was the final story of Picard, and some arcs that I felt needed to be paid off for his character and some relationships and some storylines and, after a bottle of wine, we were off to the races.”

Those hoping for an elaborate explanation of what might have been in store if Sir Patrick had other ideas, we’re sorry to disappoint.

BACKGROUND: GETTY

“There wasn’t a plan B. So I have no idea,” Matalas laughs. “It was this, this was always what I wanted to do. So my only option was to passionately convince all parties involved. And it wasn’t that hard. Certainly, Alex and Akiva were on board, and Patrick was quickly on board, but then we had to go to the studio, the network. It’s a different financial commitment to bring everybody back too, so we had to figure all that out as well. But there wasn’t a plan B. This was it.”

Does this mean that Matalas has great persuasive skills, or was it a particularly good bottle of wine?

“I think it was that everyone felt we had earned it,” he reasons. “When they had set out to make the first season of the show, I wasn’t there, but the mission statement was that it wasn’t going to be a Next Gen story. So we kind of had to build up to it. Certainly, when I came on in season two, I tried to push for as much of that as I could with Q and Guinan and things like that. It was a different kind of show. So season three, you can feel the difference for sure in the kind of story it is, versus seasons one and two.”

This is the understatement of the year, and it’s only January. A word you now often hear thrown around about television shows is “cinematic”. Star Trek: Picard season three truly earns the right to be called cinematic. It’s fair to assume that Matalas has made things much, much bigger.

“It’s very fair,” he laughs. “It is gigantic. I still cannot believe we got away with it.”