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Picard season 3: Release date, teaser trailers, cast and everything we know so far

The latest Picard season 3 teaser trailer previews the whole gang getting back together

The “Next Generation” crew is back. A new Star Trek: Picard season 3 teaser that just dropped for Star Trek Day (months after the first teaser and poster were revealed at the San-Diego Comic-Con) remind us how many of the returning crew members from Star Trek: The Next Generation are returning.

Cast members Patrick Stewart and Gates McFadden came together on stage to promote the third and final season of Picard that is set to premiere on Paramount Plus very soon. So soon, in fact, that we have all the details on how to watch Picard season 3 online .

Alex Kurtzman, the series’ Executive Producer, said Picard will have to set off to find and reunite his old crew who are spread out across the galaxy in this season. Without revealing much about the main villain in the third installment, he said, “I won’t say much except to say that she’s amazing.”

Here’s everything we know about Picard season 3 so far.

 Picard season 3 release date confirmed 

Star Trek: Picard season 3 will premiere on Paramount Plus on February 16, 2023, as revealed in the below video.

Picard season 3 teaser trailers and posters

The latest Picard season 3 teaser trailer shows Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) sending out a beacon for help from Jean-Luc Picard. Soon, old allies alll come to Picard's help, including Riker himself.  And they all get aboard the Titan, for the final adventure of this series. It even looks like Picard is ready to not be the one who says "engage."

Paramount Plus showcased many of their Star Trek series including the upcoming Star Trek: Picard season 3 at the San Diego Comic-con. They released a trailer and posters of the final season which gives Trekkies a glimpse of what to expect and highlights some quotes from the crew. You can watch the teaser below.

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The teaser features the remaining cast of Picard, alongside Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Some of the TNG characters who have not yet appeared on Picard include Geordi, Worf and Dr. Crusher. The teaser gives us some details on them — like Geordi, who appears to be in an admiral’s Starfleet uniform, while Worf looks like he’s wearing the captain’s rank insignia. Dr. Crusher is out of uniform though.

 Picard season 3 cast news 

The trailer and posters give us a glimpse of the cast and characters that will return to Picard in the final season. This includes the titular Patrick Stewart (Jean Luc Picard), LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi), and Jonathan Frakes (William Riker). 

They are also joined by fellow Picard co-stars including Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) and Michelle Hurd (Raffi Musiker). This is the first time all of the central TNG characters would have performed together since the 2002 feature film “Star Trek: Nemesis.”

Brent Spiner — who appeared consistently through Picard season 2 and played the android Data on The Next Generation and plays Data’s human brother Alan Inigo Soong on Picard — will also be seen in season 3. 

Picard season 3: Everything else we know

Season 3 of Picard will probably feature a villain that takes inspiration from the "mind games between Kirk and Khan" in Wrath of Khan. This final season will also possibly deal with Picard facing trauma he underwent as a child — that he's been trying to run away from his entire life.

Season 2 finale of Picard also featured Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) who surprisingly entered mid episode to get Kore (Isa Briones) to join the Travelers. But so far by the looks of it, Briones is not in season 3, so it's unclear if the series will follow-up on this plot line.

At the Comic-con Patrick Stewart also teased that he will indeed set foot on the Enterprise-D at least once in Season 3. 

You can also read our guide to Star Trek: Picard's Next Generation characters for handy character bios for Picard.

Sanjana loves all things tech. From the latest phones, to quirky gadgets and the best deals, she's in sync with it all. Based in Atlanta, she is the news editor at Tom's Guide. Previously, she produced India's top technology show for NDTV and has been a tech news reporter on TV. Outside work, you can find her on a tennis court or sipping her favorite latte in instagrammable coffee shops in the city. Her work has appeared on NDTV Gadgets 360 and CNBC.

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Published Jan 9, 2023

What We Learned at the Star Trek: Picard Season 3 TCA Panel

The third and final season returns on February 16!

StarTrek.com

The highly anticipated return of Star Trek: Picard is a little over a month away.

Ahead of its upcoming release, the Star Trek: Picard cast and creatives joined today’s Television Critics Association (TCA) winter press tour. The Star Trek: Picard panel at Paramount+’s TCA presentation featured stars Patrick Stewart , Gates McFadden , Michael Dorn , Jeri Ryan , and Michelle Hurd , along with showrunner and executive producer Terry Matalas and executive producer Alex Kurtzman .

Here are five things we learned during today’s presentation!

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Teaser Art

Kicking off the presentation, Matalas revealed special teaser art for the season, below!

The Season’s North Star

Addressing the room of journalists, Matalas shared what the guiding principle was for this third season, and why it was a good opportunity to incorporate key characters from the Star Trek: The Next Generation era.

After Star Trek Nemesis , the creative team felt there was an opportunity to tell one more final story involving Jean-Luc Picard and The Next Generation crew, giving them a proper send-off. “We were faced with a really unique opportunity to do one last story telling a Picard story, a very personal story,” stated Matalas. “How better to end that journey than to look back at the beginning and bring his friends and family from Star Trek: The Next Generation .”

“In the case of this season, it’s a really exciting time in the Star Trek universe for long-term fans of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager — so many storylines that were set up that we’re thrilled to explore here,” added Matalas.

On incorporating elements of legacy Star Trek and the new stories of the past few years, Alex Kurtzman explained, “The essential nature of what Star Trek is…about Roddenberry’s vision of optimism. It doesn’t mean you can’t go into dark places; it just means that optimism is the core tenet of Star Trek .”

“Besides the optimism, especially in Season 3, but throughout all of Star Trek , is the collaboration — that people can disagree with what to do, but somehow or other, they collaborated,” added Gates McFadden.

The Impact of Time

Speaking on his return to the titular character after all this time, Patrick Stewart shared a previous anecdote with Alex Kurtzman, “What excited me about starting work on Picard was that I had lived nearly 35 years since I first put on the captain's uniform. And there is no doubt that, in that time, the world has changed. I have changed too!”

"I wanted the series to show the impact of those years that had passed and how much one might change,” continued Stewart. “How much our mindset and whether fears become greater or less. Right now, with the condition of the world, my fears are high and full of anxiety. And so I wanted that to be incorporated."

Echoing Stewart, Michelle Hurd expressed, “The whole thought and concept of Star Trek was to hold up a mirror to society.”

The Thrill of the Action

For Gates McFadden, she couldn’t be more thrilled with Dr. Crusher’s role in this third season. “I love kicking ass, first of all,” McFadden quipped. “I always wanted to do more action.”

Lavishing praise on the writers for allowing more physicality, McFadden revealed she had a blast on the action sequences, which highlighting her background as a choreographer, “There’s a much bigger range of Crusher in this season.”

The Evolution of Worf

Following the teaser trailer reveal at last year’s NYCC , fans immediately latched onto a more mature Worf.

Elaborating on where Worf fits in Star Trek: Picard , Michael Dorn explained, “Worf has always been on a journey. He’s always been looking and searching, through TNG and DS9, for who he is. And that’s one thing I wanted to impart to [the creative team].”

On Worf’s arc on Picard , Dorn added, “There’s things that Worf hasn’t done, but you have to take a risk.”

Teaser Trailer | Star Trek: Picard - Season 3

Star Trek: Picard features Sir Patrick Stewart reprising his iconic role as Jean-Luc Picard, which he played for seven seasons on Star Trek: The Next Generation , and follows this iconic character into the next chapter of his life. LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, Jeri Ryan, and Michelle Hurd star alongside Stewart in the third and final season of the hit original series.

The final voyage begins on February 16! Seasons 1 and 2 of Star Trek: Picard are available to watch now.

Get updates by email.

Stay tuned to StarTrek.com for more details! And be sure to follow @StarTrek on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .

Christine Dinh (she/her) is the managing editor for StarTrek.com. She’s traded the Multiverse for helming this Federation Starship.

In addition to streaming on Paramount+ , Star Trek: Picard also streams on Prime Video outside of the U.S. and Canada, and in Canada can be seen on Bell Media's CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave. Star Trek: Picard is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

How Picard Season 3 Finally Broke a Classic Star Trek “Mandate”

The New Next Generation is here.

It’s hard to believe, but 30 years ago, as The Next Generation began its seventh and final season, there were still vocal Trekkie haters who claimed the show wasn’t really Star Trek. How times change. What was once the “new” Star Trek — a 1987 sequel to a 1960s sci-fi series — is now retro.

In 2023, Picard Season 3 is the second coming of The Next Generation. But, according to the people who made it, this season isn’t just about looking back. The callbacks may be tied to the ‘90s, but for showrunner Terry Matalas, his cast, and crew, this season is all about pushing the franchise into a brave new style of Star Trek storytelling.

Launched in 2020 , Star Trek: Picard sought to tell ruminative down-to-Earth stories about the struggles and further adventures of a much older version of Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). Often called the Star Trek version of Logan , the tone of Picard has always been more earnest and darker than in The Next Generation. Despite its merits — including nuanced writing from Pulitzer-Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon — aspects of Season 1 rubbed fans the wrong way. And while most hardcore fans loved the new Stargazer in Season 2, there’s debate on whether or not that season stuck the landing.

But now, it seems with Picard , the third time’s the charm. The advance buzz for Season 3 is overwhelmingly positive, with all critics noting there’s a pretty big tonal shift here. But how did it happen?

A new Picard story

Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, and Jeri Ryan in 'Picard' Season 3.

“This season came to me very fast,” showrunner Terry Matalas tells Inverse . “I knew what all the big moves are and I had to sell it to Patrick [Stewart], to Secret Hideout, and to Paramount+ very quickly.” Matalas joined the Picard creative team after Season 1, and the tonal and aesthetic differences with Season 3 are all the result of his vision. Before joining Picard , and before helming the SyFy reboot of 12 Monkeys , Matalas was a production assistant on Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise . His nerd street cred is clear.

Although series star Patrick Stewart had initially been resistant to bringing back too many TNG characters just for the sake of it, Matalas won him over with the overall pitch for the season. Johnathan Frakes, who returns as Riker, and directs two episodes this season, was there when Matalas outlined his vision to Captain Picard himself.

“Before we started, Terry had lunch with me and Patrick [Stewart], and was very upfront about what he wanted to do,” Frakes says. “He asked if Patrick was cool with it, and Patrick was all in.”

Conflict on the Bridge

LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: Picard Season 3

In Picard Season 3, the stakes are bigger, and the tone is closer to classic Star Trek feature films. “We wanted this season to be something monumental for this crew,” Matalas reveals. “It had to feel big, the same way The Undiscovered Country was for the original crew. The stakes have to be high because this is the last go at it.”

By now, most fans know that all seven cast members from The Next Generation are reunited in this season, along with a few secret surprises from the ‘90s Trek yet to be revealed. But, for the returning cast, there was a big difference between Picard Season 3, and the heyday of The Next Generation . In the ‘90s, the crew of the Enterprise didn’t argue with each other. In Picard Season 3, conflict is everywhere.

“In the original Next Gen the mandate was no conflict among the main bridge crew,” LeVar Burton says. “And that was tricky and unnatural. So, this was delicious to play, it was great fun.”

Because the show is still called Picard , you can easily guess which character Geordi La Forge (Burton) finds himself in conflict with. But he’s not the only one. Jean-Luc’s reunion with Beverly Crusher is also brimming with down-to-Earth conflict. For McFadden, the material in this season was bigger than anything she was ever able to do on TNG .

Gates McFadden as Beverly Crusher in Picard Season 3.

“I wish we'd had more scenes like this earlier on,” she says. “It was fantastic because Patrick and I are both theatre actors. So, it’s wonderful to just have a scene where you can really go for it.”

Stewart agrees with McFadden and notes that part of why he even agreed to do Picard at all, was because of the tonal difference of the series. “Some experiences that these characters have had, some are good. Some are not so good,” Stewart reveals reflectively. “And that had a strong effect on me and made it possible for me to sometimes sink a bit low in mood and temperament. I think it’s closer to real life.”

A new Star Trek ship, a new crew

While the final season of Picard creates an exciting story that allows The Next Generation cast to shine in bold new ways, it’s not only about the old gang. Raffi (Michelle Hurd) and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) — who appeared in the two previous seasons of Picard — return here. And through these characters, the future of Star Trek beyond this moment might be glimpsed. Seven, of course, originated on Star Trek: Voyager , but her arc in Picard has turned her into a much more well-rounded character. And this time out, she’s finally in Starfleet, the first officer on the USS Titan , and constantly sparring with Captain Liam Shaw, played by Todd Stashwick, probably famous to sci-fi fans for his role in the TV version of 12 Monkeys.

Todd Stashwick as Captain Liam Shaw.

In the first episode, fans will notice that Shaw and Seven don’t get along. Like, at all . But Stashwick says this isn’t a mistake. It’s by design. “When choosing a first officer, you don't want someone who agrees with you,” he explains. “You want to have a dissenting opinion. You want to have someone who is the things you aren't.”

The Titan bridge is rounded out by several newcomers, too, perhaps most notably, Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut as Sidney La Forge, one of the daughters of Geordi La Forge, who is the helmsman of the new USS Titan . Chestnut tells Inverse she decided to create a consistent way to control the Titan , by repeating certain patterns with her hands. “There’s a method to my madness if you look closely at my hands!” she says with a laugh. Sidney’s journey is also bigger than it might seem. But, detailing too much about her character, or, for that matter, Ed Speleers' new role, might be a spoiler. For now, let’s just say, there are plenty of new Starfleet heroes in Picard Season 3.

The future of 25th-Century Star Trek

(Picard) Patrick Stewart, Seven (Jeri Ryan), and Riker (Jonathan Frakes) on the bridge of the USS Titan in the debut episode Picard Season 3, “The Next Generation.”

Whether or not Star Trek: Picard Season 3 leads to a new season of a different Star Trek series remains to be seen. For now, this is the ending of this series and the ending of the story of The Next Generation crew. And the feeling will remind fans of the 1987-2005 era of Star Trek. But, Picard Season 3 is also a contemporary television show, and that means massive twists are coming, and the drama won’t unfold in the style of ‘90s Trek.

“I’m really interested in telling human stories,” Matalas says. “In terms of television, one influence on me is very much Ron Moore’s Battlestar. I like those situations where everybody's right and everybody's wrong. It’s really great dramatic territory.” Matalas explains his views on how to write effective twists and mystery boxes slightly differently than other showrunners in the business: “There is a practice in some writers' rooms that, if the audience can guess what you're doing, don't do it. And I don't subscribe to that. You have to accept the fact that the audience may guess what's going on, but they have to like it, too.”

Matalas is quick to point out he didn’t write the season by himself. He reteamed with two of his 12 Monkeys collaborators, Sean Terretta and Chris Monfette, and sings the praises of the other Picard writers, Cindy Appel, Jane Maggs, and Matt Okumura. “I had a tremendously brilliant writing staff. They worked really hard under difficult time constraints and a lot of pressure. And they shined through it all.”

Will team Matalas continue to tell stories set in the 25th Century era of Star Trek? The showrunner reveals that when one fan told him that this felt like the “beginning of the Terry Matalas era of Star Trek,” at first, he “winced.” At first.

“But, then, after I thought about it, I understood what they meant,” he says. “There is a different kind of tone here that blends a lot of different kinds of storytelling. I just hope people respond to it.”

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 debuts on Paramount+ on February 16, 2023. It will consist of 10 episodes.

• Science Fiction

PIC Season 3

• View history

Season 3 title card

Teaser art for Season 3

This page contains information specifically pertaining to the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard . In North America, season 3 episodes premiered weekly on Thursdays, starting 16 February 2023 , on Paramount+ (USA and Latin America) and on CraveTV (Canada), with the rest of the world following suit through Prime Video with a one-day delay.

In the UK, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, season 3 episodes were also released on newly-launched Paramount+ foreign subsidiaries the day after their US premieres by the mother streaming service , alongside the Prime Video streamings, with all three seasons of Picard slated to be added to Paramount+ in South Korea later in 2023. [1] [2]

• 3.1.1 Special guest star(s)
• 4 Background information
• 7 External links

Episodes [ ]

Summary [ ], credits [ ], starring [ ], special guest star(s) [ ], background information [ ].

Season 3 teaser art 2

• On 21 October 2020 , Production Weekly included a third season in its listing of upcoming productions, although no official announcement has been made. [3] [4] It was officially confirmed on 8 September 2021 during the Star Trek Day 2021 celebration.
• Season 3 was filmed back-to-back with season 2 in order to control costs and accommodate production schedules, [5] and principal photography, aka production, began at the start of September 2021, immediately after production on the second season had wrapped on 29 August. [6]
• On 3 January 2022 , production on this season was temporarily halted due to a COVID-19 outbreak on set. [7] [8] Production resumed four days later on 7 January 2022 . [9]
• On 8 March 2022 , production on this season had finished shooting. [10] It was also confirmed that this season will be the final one. [11]
• On "First Contact Day", 5 April 2022 , it was revealed that the original cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation – LeVar Burton , Michael Dorn , Jonathan Frakes , Gates McFadden , Marina Sirtis , and Brent Spiner – had joined the cast for the third season, as a means of finally giving their characters "a proper send-off". [12]
• On 2 May 2022 , Alison Pill confirmed that she would not be returning for Season 3. [13]
• On 5 May 2022 , Evan Evagora and Santiago Cabrera confirmed that they would not be returning for Season 3. [14]
• On 6 May 2022 , Isa Briones confirmed that she would not be returning for Season 3. [15]
• The third season being made available on Paramount+ foreign subsidiaries concurrently with Prime Video, making it no longer the exclusive series streamer outside the Americas, might, in the context of the increasingly vicious streaming wars , be construed as a harbinger that the series will be pulled from Prime Video the moment the season release schedule is completed. [16]

Reception [ ]

See also [ ].

• PIC Season 3 performers
• PIC directors
• PIC writers
• PIC Season 3 Blu-ray
• PIC Season 3 DVD

External links [ ]

• Star Trek: Picard season 3 at Wikipedia
• Star Trek: Picard season 3 at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Star Trek: Picard season 3  at Ex Astris Scientia
• 2 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

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• User reviews

Star Trek: Picard

Follow-up series to Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) that centers on Jean-Luc Picard in the next chapter of his life. Follow-up series to Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) that centers on Jean-Luc Picard in the next chapter of his life. Follow-up series to Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) that centers on Jean-Luc Picard in the next chapter of his life.

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• Patrick Stewart
• Michelle Hurd
• 2.8K User reviews
• 78 Critic reviews
• 14 wins & 54 nominations total

Episodes 30

• Jean-Luc Picard

• Raffi Musiker

• Seven of Nine

• Dr. Agnes Jurati

• Cristóbal Rios …

• Adam Soong …

• La Sirena Computer

• Jack Crusher

• Doctor Beverly Crusher

• Captain Liam Shaw

• Ensign Sidney La Forge

• Ensign Esmar

• Titan Computer …
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• Trivia The Chateau Picard vineyard first appeared in Family (1990) . It was run by Jean-Luc Picard's brother Robert and his wife Marie, and their son René. Jean-Luc would learn in Star Trek: Generations (1994) that Robert and René had both burned to death in a fire, leaving Jean-Luc as the last in the Picard line.
• Goofs Commodore Oh often wears sunglasses. Star Trek lore establishes that Vulcans have an inner eyelid to protect against harsh sunlight on their desert planet. Oh's shades are a fashion statement, not a protective measure.
• The first season features a Borg cube and the planet Romulus.
• The second season features a Borg ship, a wormhole and hourglass, and the Borg Queen's silhouette.
• The third season does not have an opening titles sequence.
• Connections Featured in Half in the Bag: Comic Con 2019, The Picard Trailer, Streaming Services, and Midsommar (2019)

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• January 23, 2020 (United States)
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• Runtime 46 minutes
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How to watch 'Star Trek: Picard': Stream the critically acclaimed sci-fi show's final season

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• "Star Trek: Picard" is back for its third and final season.
• The show stars Patrick Stewart as the iconic "Star Trek" character Jean-Luc Picard.
• You can watch new episodes of "Picard" exclusively on Paramount Plus ($5/month).

Trekkies rejoice, "Star Trek: Picard" is back for one final season. New episodes are streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus every Thursday through April 20.

The series stars Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard. Stewart previously played the character on seven seasons of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and in four theatrical Star Trek films. "Picard" picks up around 20 years after the events of Stewart's final film in the franchise, "Star Trek: Nemesis," and finds the character coming out of retirement after a mysterious woman seeks his help.

Check out the trailer for 'Picard' season 3

In the third season, Picard reunites with many of his former crewmates from "The Next Generation," including characters played by Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, and Michael Dorn.

"Picard" also stars Santiago Cabrera, Isa Briones, Alison Pill, and Harry Treadaway. A few familiar faces from other "Star Trek" shows also make appearances, including Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine.

How to watch 'Star Trek: Picard' season 3

You can watch "Star Trek: Picard" season 3 exclusively on Paramount Plus . The season debuted on February 16 and new episodes premiere every Thursday through April 2o. 

If you'd like to catch up on past episodes, you can stream the show's first two seasons on Paramount Plus right now. In addition, seasons one and two are also available to buy digitally from retailers like Vudu and Amazon .

Paramount Plus costs $5 a month with ads, or $10 a month without ads. The ad-free plan also includes livestreaming access to you local CBS station. The Paramount Plus app is available on smart TVs, mobile devices, and streaming players from every major brand. You can also stream the service through a web browser. 

Can you stream 'Picard' for free?

You can watch "Star Trek: Picard" for free if you sign up for a trial to Paramount Plus. The service offers a one-week free trial for new members. After your trial period, your plan will renew for the regular monthly price unless you cancel.

To watch the entire final season of "Picard" for free, you should wait to claim your trial until after the series debuts on April 20. 

How many episodes are in 'Picard' season 3?

The third and final season of "Picard" includes 10 episodes. The first episode premiered on February 16, and new episodes will be added to Paramount Plus every Thursday through April 20.

Will 'Picard' have a season 4?

"Star Trek: Picard" will conclude with its current third season. That said, there is potential for spinoff series with some of the show's cast members. 

Is 'Picard' worth watching?

"Star Trek: Picard" holds a "91% Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on all three seasons. Early reviews for the third season have been particularly postive, as the final season currently holds a " 100% Fresh " rating based on 21 reviews.

Fans of previous "Star Trek" series should not hesitate to check out "Picard." 

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‘star trek: picard’ showrunner says goal was to make “best ‘next gen’ movie we never got to see”.

Terry Matalas dives deep into the season three premiere and reveals the emotional conversations he had with the cast of the '90s show to sign them up for one final voyage.

By Phil Pirrello

Phil Pirrello

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Thanks to the third season of Star Trek: Picard , good things continue to happen in threes for the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew.

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The former co-creator of SYFY’s 12 Monkeys and his team reached back into what Piller did with Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D, while also deepening the characters and their relationships in ways that fans have never seen before. And, in the process, pulled off one of the biggest creative turnarounds in recent TV history. 

The first two seasons of the popular series — which centers on Sir Patrick Stewart’s now-retired iconic sci-fi hero, Jean-Luc Picard — proved to be a mixed and somewhat underwhelming affair for Trekkers. Picard didn’t so much “boldly go where no one has gone before” as he played space pirate-ish and spent a lot of time terrestrial-bound. Matalas, a lifelong Star Trek fan and former Star Trek: Voyager PA, was driven to make the third and what’s billed as the final season of Star Trek: Picard feel like one worthy of the title.

“It was important to me to give these characters and the fans an adventure that felt not only like Star Trek , but also like the best Next Gen movie we never got to see. That they deserved to have,” Matalas tells The Hollywood Reporter in an interview prior to the Feb. 16 season three premiere, “The Next Generation.” 

Matalas and his collaborators looked at the best of the Berman era of TNG , as well as that of the Star Trek feature films starring The Original Series crew, to give Picard’s final mission its biggest stakes yet.

And it always started with Dr. Crusher. 

“I always had this idea to meet her in a way that felt totally unexpected,” Matalas explains. “You’d see [Beverly] sort of waking up, popping into frame, but not being in a traditional Starfleet uniform,” Matalas explains. “She would be on a kind of older, rundown ship — having to grab a phaser rifle and defend her property.”

It was also important to Matalas to show that she’s still a doctor, albeit more of a “Doctors Without Borders”-type. She’s out there on the edge of the Final Frontier, without Starfleet’s protection, determined to help those struggling to help themselves as her oath to “do no harm” is sorely tested. Also tested was Matalas’ budgetary limits when it came to bringing Crusher’s opening phaser rifle battle to life. Much like his counterparts on TNG , he and his VFX crew were very mindful of how much each weapons blast costs to render on screen.

What Matalas also counted on was having to meet with each of the main TNG cast members and pitch his take to give their characters what their final big-screen voyage, 2002’s disappointing Star Trek: Nemesis , could not: A compelling, character-driven sendoff. 

“Beverly was the least explored character in all of the feature films, especially in Nemesis ,” Matalas says. “And certainly [the writers and I] knew what the big overarching story was going to be this season, and it begins with her. So she would be the very first person you see this season.”

But the first person Matalas spoke to was the show’s lead actor. 

“I had to sit down with Patrick, at his dining room table, and take him through the story I had in my head for the season. And I was lucky that he was one hundred percent onboard,” says the showrunner. “And then, one by one, I met with everyone else and, once again, I was lucky enough to have them onboard to help shape this story together.” 

The most emotional story conference occurred between Matalas and LeVar Burton, who plays the once-blind, former chief engineer Geordi LaForge.

“I had this vision of seeing Geordi as a family man. It’s a story that will pay off for him towards the end of the season that I thought was emotional and satisfying,” says Maltas. “And when I got to explaining that part to him, tears were running down his face. And, seeing that, triggered me to do the same exact thing.” 

Burton has spoken about his hurt that Geordi did not have a real love interest in TNG , making this development all the more meaningful for him.

The emotional real estate devoted to everyone from Picard to LaForge gives each member of the cast more dramatic scenes to play than they had during all seven seasons of TNG and the four movies combined. That meant that the creatives and the actors had to be in lockstep with developing the season’s storyline.

“It was important to me that the entire cast feel comfortable and onboard with where their characters were. And where they were taking them,” Matalas says. “I didn’t want any of them doing anything they did not want to do, or did not feel would be right to do, for their character. They’ve been living with their characters for over 35 years, they know their characters better than I ever will. And it was an incredibly satisfying, collaborative experience.”

“I think it was the first thing I said when I sat down to write it was: I cannot wait to take the ship out of Spacedock,” Matalas recalls, mindful of the fact that the TNG crew never had such a moment on the big screen. “I wanted to do it with that sense of wonder [from the original movies], that sense of nautical tradition. Of going out into the Final Frontier on a starship.”

To do so, composer Stephen Barton ( 12 Monkeys ) helped reprise classic Trek melodies from Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner and blend them into his new score. Also key to pulling the sequence off was locking down the design of the new-but-familiar spacedock, which first made its appearance on screen in 1984’s Search for Spock .

“Those poor visual effects artists,” Matalas says with a laugh. “They went through many, many revisions because – it’s not an ILM model. It’s digital. And some considerable time has passed, so Spacedock can’t just look like it used to. But you want to see it in a new way as well, to use it in this 25th Century-set story and honor what came before, so it requires a lot of back and forth but, wow, they did an amazing job.” 

“It was really hard,” Matalas recalls. “Poor Dave Blass must have submitted no less than 600 Shrike designs. I think of Kirk’s Enterprise facing off against the Bird-of-Prey and that those two are perfect rival starships. And so I wanted something that felt kind of equal in size, but was something kind of scary and also something you kind of want on your shelf. Something you wanted to pick up and fly around, and it was important that the ship would have a signature sound that you could make when you picked it up [to play with], the things I would do when I was kid. We just wanted to make the ship feel iconic, have a distinguished design and presence.  We finally got it to that place with this one.”

New episodes of Star Trek: Picard stream Thursdays on Paramount+.

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By Alan Sepinwall

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Early in the new season of Star Trek: Picard , our eponymous hero (played, as always, by Patrick Stewart ) and his companion Laris (Orla Brady) are supervising the donation of many of his career mementos to various Starfleet and Federation museums. Jean-Luc fears being an old relic who just waxes on about the good old days, but she assures him that he doesn’t have to spend so much time talking about the present. “The past matters, and that’s okay,” she insists. “A point comes in a man’s life when he looks to his past to define himself.”

So for the show’s third and final season, the Picard creative team has largely abandoned all pretense of trying to boldly go where Jean-Luc has never gone before. Will and Deanna are back, and so is virtually all of the Star Trek : The Next Generation ensemble at one point or another, including former ship’s doctor — and Picard’s old flame — Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), noble Klingon warrior Worf (Michael Dorn), and level-headed engineer Geordi La Forge ( LeVar Burton ). The season even finds a way to get Brent Spiner back, even though — as Jean-Luc points out in one episode — we’ve already seen Data die twice. (Once in Star Trek: Nemesis , once at the end of Picard Season One.)

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Now, much of the new season is pretty shameless pandering. It’s not just that the old gang is back, but that these episodes quote liberally from famous compositions from past Star Trek films, as well as certain story beats. There are several episodes, for instance, where Picard, Riker, and Seven are on a starship being chased through a nebula by a relentless foe, one of several ideas borrowed from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . There are Easter eggs galore, Worf inevitably references the notion of it being a good day to die, other old faces and ships appear, and on and on. At one point, Jean-Luc simply begins recapping the plot of a famous Next Generation episode (“Darmok,” the one where he met an alien race who communicates entirely in metaphors) for a group of eager Starfleet cadets. Large swaths of the season can feel like fan service in search of a story to justify it all.

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Star Trek’s Michael Dorn Wanted Worf To Kill A Popular Deep Space Nine Character In Picard Season 3, And I’m Glad This Didn’t Happen

• Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later. More content below

Although Star Trek: Picard Season 3 reunited most of the Star Trek: The Next Generation starring actors for the first time since 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis , they didn’t all show up at once. In the case of Michael Dorn’s Worf , his first scene in the episode “Disengage” saw him rescuing Michelle Hurd’s Raffi Musiker from the crime lord Sneed, and he beheaded the Ferengi on his way out. But if Dorn had his way, he would have killed a different Ferengi instead: Quark, one of the other major characters from S tar Trek: Deep Space Nine , and I’m glad this didn’t happen.

Armin Shimerman, who played Quark for the entirety of Deep Space Nine ’s seven-season run, shared this tidbit of information while appearing on TrekMovie ’s All Access Star Trek podcast. Dorn came aboard Deep Space Nine at the beginning of Season 4 following The Next Generation’s conclusion, so he and Shimerman spent a lot of time together in the mid-late ‘90s, but decades later, the latter wasn’t particularly enthused about the former wanting to slice Quark’s head off. As he recalled:

Dorn called me up and said, ‘I’m doing an episode of Picard where I kill off a Ferengi. Wouldn’t it be great if it were you?’ I said, ‘Michael no, it would not be great.’ I told him just to forget about that idea altogether.

Jonathan Frakes, who was also a guest on this episode, speculated that Michael Dorn didn’t know Worf would be cutting Sneed’s head off, but Armin Shimerman told the William Riker actor and longtime Star Trek director that, at the very least, Dorn was aware Worf was going to kill a Ferengi. In the end though, it was Sneed who met this fate, with the character being played Aaron Stanford, who previously worked with showrunner Terry Matalas on the 12 Monkeys TV show.

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I am so relieved this Quark idea for Star Trek: Picard never came to fruition. Worf killing off a Ferengi criminal lord mere minutes after we meet this character is one thing, but for him to behead a character that not only is beloved by many Star Trek fans, but whom Worf had known for many years is another. Granted, as Dr. Julian Bashir once said, Quark was definitely not Worf’s “favorite person,” and he tried to steer clear of the bar owner whenever possible. But not only do I not believe that Quark would ever become a crime lord on Sneed’s level, I also don’t buy that Worf would have just killed his former… associate without blinking an eye.

If the day comes that Armin Shimerman reprises Quark in live-action, the character needs to be treated with the proper respect and not just be killed off for shock value. Star Trek: Lower Decks had the right idea, as Shimerman voiced Quark for a meaningful role in the Season 3 episode “Hear All, Trust Nothing.” The fan-proposed Star Trek: Legacy would be the best place for that to happen, though there’s still no word if that project stands a chance of becoming one of the upcoming Star Trek TV shows .

Picard , Deep Space Nine and all the other Star Trek shows (except for Prodigy , which is now at Netflix ) can be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription . Discovery is currently in the midst of its final season, and Lower Decks ’ final season will follow sometime afterwards on the 2024 TV schedule .

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2-hour star trek is “on the table”, says jonathan frakes & what this means for picard’s legacy spinoff.

Star Trek: Section 31 will be the first Star Trek movie made for Paramount+, and Jonathan Frakes thinks it could usher in more streaming movies.

• Star Trek is considering a 2-hour movie format for future projects, potentially exploring canceled series like Star Trek: Legacy.
• Jonathan Frakes suggests positive energy around the Section 31 movie opens up possibilities for more 2-hour Star Trek projects.
• Fans hope for a Star Trek: Legacy spinoff, but a potential streaming movie may have limitations in fully exploring its potential.

Jonathan Frakes suggests that the 2-hour format for Star Trek on Paramount+ is now "on the table", but could this mean Star Trek: Picard ' s proposed spinoff, Star Trek: Legacy, might become a 2-hour streaming movie? Star Trek: Picard season 3 was a huge success both critically and with audiences for reuniting and wrapping up the stories of the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast while setting up an exciting future for the USS Enterprise-G led by Captain Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), However, despite passionate fan demand, there is no greenlight for Star Trek: Legacy from Paramount+.

Star Trek is in another transition period following its 2022 apex of five Star Trek shows streaming on Paramount+ . Star Trek: Picard ended with season 3 in 2023, and 2024 will mark the final seasons of Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Lower Decks. Star Trek: Prodigy moved to Netflix after a groundswell of fan support saved the beloved CGI animated series. The good news is Star Trek: Strange New Worlds received an early season 4 renewal, and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is scheduled to start filming in late 2024. In the midst of all of this is an X-factor: Star Trek: Section 31 , the first Star Trek movie made for streaming on Paramount+ that recently finished filming.

Every Upcoming Star Trek Movie & TV Show

Jonathan frakes says section 31 put 2-hour star trek on the table, there's a lot of positive buzz around star trek: section 31.

Jonathan Frakes appeared on TrekMovie 's All Access Star Trek podcast to promote Trek Against Pancreatic Cancer's fundraiser and walk at PanCAN PurpleStride on April 27th, along with Armin Shimerman, Kitty Swink, and Juan Carlos Coto. When talk turned to Star Trek: Lower Decks ending with season 5 and whether it could be revived the way Star Trek: Prodigy got a new lease on life on Netflix, Frakes suggested that the potential success of Star Trek: Section 31 could lead to more Star Trek projects with a 2-hour format. Read Frakes quote below:

I do know that there’s a lot of positive energy around the Michelle Yeoh Section 31 movie. So that 2-hour format is now on the table for Star Trek going forward.

Star Trek is no stranger to a 2-hour format after 13 theatrical Star Trek movies since 1979, and many 2-hour episodes of the various Star Trek series. Star Trek: Section 31 , which is headlined by Academy Award-winner Michelle Yeoh, already has talk of a sequel. Hopefully, Section 31 will be the first of a series of Star Trek movies or event mini-series made for streaming on Paramount+. Potentially, this means canceled Star Trek on Paramount+ series and characters can be explored further in 2-hour streaming movies, which can be relatively less expensive to produce than a full-blown 10-episode-per-season Star Trek series.

You can listen to and download the excellent episode of TrekMovie 's All Access Star Trek Podcast here .

Will Picard’s Legacy Spinoff Become A Star Trek Streaming Movie?

Better a star trek: legacy movie than no spinoff at all.

Variety 's recent cover story about the future of the Star Trek franchise indicated that Star Trek: Legacy is being considered as a 2-hour streaming movie rather than a 10-episode series, and Jonathan Frakes agreed this was a possibility during TrekMovie 's All Access Star Trek podcast. Frakes confirmed that "of course" Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas has spoken with him about Star Trek: Legacy , although Jonathan doesn't think he would be asked to direct it if it happens. Frakes predicted Matalas would simply "hire himself," as Terry wrote and directed Star Trek: Picard season 3's acclaimed finale episodes "Vox" and "The Last Generation."

Jonathan Frakes would like to play Admiral Will Riker in Star Trek: Legacy and be the "Charlie" of Charlie's Angels who gives Captain Seven of Nine and the USS Enterprise-G their marching orders.

Fans hope Star Trek: Legacy will still happen, although a 2-hour movie instead of a multi-season TV series would be a disappointment for many . A Star Trek: Legacy s treaming movie would mean there wouldn't be time to fully explore the vast potential of 25th-century Star Trek . However, with multiple factors such as the possible sale of Paramount+ and the reduction of Star Trek content creating uncertainty towards the future, a Star Trek: Legacy streaming movie is better than Star Trek: Picard' s spinoff not happening at all,

Source: TrekMovie.com All Access Star Trek podcast

Star Trek TV shows and movies are streaming on Paramount+

Star Trek: Prodigy is streaming on Netflix.

The first 10 Star Trek movies are streaming on Max.

Star Trek: Section 31

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Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Character Death Meant For Beloved DS9 Actor

Posted: May 2, 2024 | Last updated: May 3, 2024

Perhaps the most surprising character in Star Trek: Picard was Michael Dorn’s Klingon Worf. In the third season, he was a constant source of Zen-like calm (very different from what we had seen before in The Next Generation), but we could tell he still knew how to kick butt from a shocking scene where he decapitated a conniving Ferengi. If Dorn had it his way, the actor playing that Ferengi would have been none other than Armin Shimerman, who made his Deep Space Nine bartender Quark the most famous Ferengi in all of Star Trek.

Sneed’s Death Could Have Went To Quark

As you may or may not remember, the Ferengi that Worf decapitates is a brutal crime lord named Sneed who helps arrange the catastrophic destruction of a Starfleet recruiting center. Familiar Picard character Raffi Musiker went under deep cover to try to get information from Sneed, but he saw through her ruse and tried to find out who she was working for. When that didn’t work, he tried to have her killed only to belatedly get his answer: she was working for Worf, who showed up to save her life by cutting the Ferengi’s head off.

Michael Dorn Wanted It To Be Armin Shimerman

Michael Dorn has always been heavily invested in his character’s stories, and he had a crazy idea for this episode. According to Quark actor Armin Shimerman, Dorn came up to him with all the bluntness of Worf and said “I’m doing an episode of Picard where I kill off a Ferengi…wouldn’t it be great if it were you?” Shimerman reacted with his own character’s typical bluntness, telling Dorn “No, it would not be great” and “to just forget about that idea, altogether.”

Obviously, Dorn did just that, and it wasn’t Armin Shimerman under that heavy Ferengi makeup. Instead, it was actor Aaron Stanford, and his performance seriously impressed the former Quark actor. Shimerman later said he was “in awe” over Stanford’s portrayal of Sneed, calling it “just outstanding.”

But He Didn’t Want To Kill Quark

At this point, it’s worth emphasizing that Michael Dorn didn’t want Worf to kill the beloved Quark character…instead, he just thought it would be a cool idea if Armin Shimerman played Sneed, an entirely different Ferengi. That’s important to note because some of the Star Trek shows since the end of Deep Space Nine have confirmed that Quark finally succeeded as a businessman.

Both Lower Decks and Picard verify that the Ferengi has created a successful chain of “Quark’s Bar” establishments throughout the galaxy, and it would have been a shame to kill the character at the height of the entrepreneurial success he always wanted.

Shimerman Recently Reprised His Role

Speaking of Lower Decks, it’s worth noting that Armin Shimerman reprised his Quark character for the episode “Hear All, Trust Nothing,” showing how the Ferengi continued his conniving adventures on Deep Space Nine long after we last saw him onscreen in “What You Leave Behind.”

Why would Shimerman come back for one Trek show and not the other? While he didn’t say it outright, it seems likely Shimerman was happy to lend his voice to the animated show but didn’t want to go through the process of putting on the extensive Ferengi makeup for the live-action show.

Leaving Shimerman Out Of Picard Was The Right Call

In retrospect, I’m happy that Sneed was played by someone else…Armin Shimerman is just too recognizable, and whenever I rewatch his Ferengi debut in The Next Generation episode “The Last Outpost,” all I can see is Quark. Simply hearing about his familiar Ferengi a couple of times in Picard was fine, but a direct cameo by Shimerman would have been overkill. If fans really want to see him in Ferengi makeup that bad, they always buy some more merchandise with his likeness on it.

It’s what Quark would want you to do. Heck, you don’t think the Great Material Continuum moves itself, do you? 

Source: TrekMovie

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