STAR TREK: PICARD

AKIVA GOLDSMAN AND TERRY MATALAS, EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS AND CO-SHOWRUNNERS OF SEASON TWO OF STAR TREK: PICARD, TALK TIME TR AVEL AND WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS…

WORDS: DARREN SCOTT

WHEN SFX catches up with the cast and crew of Star Trek: Picard, production has resumed on the final two episodes of season three. Announced at 2021’s Star Trek Day, filming took place consecutively with season two.

Akiva Goldsman says there was always a plan for three seasons, but with “an opportunity for us to have spectacularly failed after one, and that would have been one and done.” As for more? “God knows what the future will bring.” But for the moment, Goldsman and fellow executive producer and co-showrunner Terry Matalas are still very much entrenched in the final throes of season three as season two finally beams down.

“My inner fanboy is kind of on fire with the stuff that I’ve been able to do,” Matalas grins. “There’s a lot of things that I can’t talk about yet that I’m just bursting at the seams to talk about. There’s been a lot of absolutely legendary moments that have happened in the last year with no press yet.

“There are starship designs and things for the next two seasons that I’m really excited about…” He references Star Trek design veterans Jon Eaves and Doug Drexler joining forces with production designer Dave Blass to “take another look at starship nacelles”. He smiles: “It’s exciting.”

As with so much of Star Trek, it comes from a place of love – and specifically that the showrunners are lifelong fans. “A lot of what we were doing was making the show that 12-year-old us would have been just delighted by. It was, in large part, a kind of dice roll that there were enough folks like us out there that would also like it,” Goldsman laughs when asked about the response to Picard’s first season.

“We didn’t know if it would land and if folks would enjoy it. If not… well, you know, we had given him a new body, thanks for playing.” On that note: with Jean-Luc Picard now reborn in a synthetic “golem” body, fans need not worry that it changes the character they know and love.

“No, it really doesn’t,” Goldsman says. “It really was about rebirth and renewal. It’s not about Super Picard, he has no powers, there’s no enhancement that comes with being a synthetic, it’s a virtually non-material event. Moving forward, it really was about closure, solving some ghosts of Next Gen past and starting fresh. So no ‘faster than a speeding bullet’ or super powers.”

FRIENDS REUNITED

Picardwill not be leaping over tall buildings.

ALL IMAGES © CBS/PARAMOUNT. STOCK IMAGERY COURTESY GETTY

Someone who does very much have powers, however, is the almost omnipotent super-being Q, once more played by John de Lancie and back to wreak havoc with the life of “Mon capitaine”. And he’s not the only returning character from The Next Generation lined up to cross Picard’s path. However, it’s never a “greatest hits” model when it comes to bringing characters back.

“In season one, we really didn’t plan on having Jonathan [Frakes, as Riker],” Goldsman reveals. “We were building a story. And then we have this moment where we needed a best friend, and that evolved into quite a beautiful moment where the story requires Jonathan to come back as an actor. He’s always with us as a director. So, season one: rebirth and renewal. Season two then became an exploration of the heart.

“When you’re telling stories of folks who are in the last chapter of their life, the storytelling is different than if you’re writing about folks in their 20s, 30s, 40s, which is what we all typically do. What was kind of wonderful is, what remains unexpressed at the end of a life? And how do you manage some connectedness to those issues without being glib?

“Because you’re not 20 and you’re having your character resolution in your arc, it’s not the origin of anything,” he continues. “So we looked into what remained outstanding for Jean-Luc Picard, because we’re historians… how could we not be when it comes to the character? We discovered that looking inward and looking backward became the direction we wanted to take.