star trek picard q finale

Yep, The Picard Finale Has A Credits Scene, And We Need To Talk About It

This post contains  spoilers for the series finale of "Star Trek: Picard."

The third season of "Star Trek: Picard" was long ago declared to be its last . Lead actor Patrick Stewart is hanging up his communicator and the cast of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" will finally split up for good. The final season of "Picard" largely served as their encore, a late-in-life reunion that allowed the character to have a few conversations — and to be in utter peril — one last time. It seems the Next Generation is no longer their generation. 

Indeed, "Picard" ends with a Next Generation of its own. Flashing forward to a year after the season's climactic Borg battle, a new crew has been assembled. Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharp Chestnut), the daughter of Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), is already sitting at the helm of the U.S.S. Titan-A. Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers), the son of Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden), has passed through Starfleet (in only one year!) and will sit as the special counselor to the captain of the Titan. The captain, incidentally, is Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and her first officer will be Raffi (Michelle Hurd), her one-time girlfriend. This is "Star Trek: The Next, Next Generation."

Also, to assure that legacy is on everyone's mind, the U.S.S. Titan is, at the last minute, rechristened the U.S.S. Enterprise-G (it seems that the Enterprise-F was wiped out quickly). Jack will begin his career on the namesake ship of his father's two most famous commands. 

With the circumstances so arranged, naturally, the showrunners decided to fold in one last notable guest star to link everything back to NextGen. In a mid-credits scene, the presumed-dead trickster god Q ( John de Lancie ), alive again, appears to Jack.

The trial never ended

Q died during the finale of the second season of "Star Trek: Picard." So how can he be back to wreak inconvenience on Jack Crusher? Seeing as he is an omnipotent being that lives beyond the normal laws of time and space, there's no reason why he couldn't have lived another several billion years, only to return to the time when Jean-Luc Picard was alive to bid him farewell. He explains to Jack that humans think in linear terms and that his death was not to be taken as permanent. 

Jack tells Q that he knows all about his appearances to Jean-Luc, and how Q infamously put humanity on trial for their aggression and brutality. Q first appeared in the "Next Generation" pilot episode "Encounter at Farpoint" (September 28, 1987) dressed as a post-apocalyptic judge in control of his own kangaroo court. In the show's final episode, "All Good Things..." (May 23, 1994), Q declared that the trial never ended and that Picard, through his own witlessness, will accidentally destroy humanity. It wasn't until Picard could understand the real existence of paradoxes that humanity began to show a glimmer of promise. Q withdrew, having proven his point.

Q would return a few times on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and "Star Trek: Voyager," and would close out his story in "Picard," hugging Jean-Luc in a bizarrely sentimental farewell. It seemed that his infinite lifecycle came to an end.

But, as audiences now see, the trial seemingly continues in perpetuity. Q says to Jack that his own trial is just starting. Picard's progeny now bears the responsibility of proving humanity's worthiness to continue existing. 

What does it mean?

Audiences have long been trained to accept mid-credits teasers as previews for an upcoming film or TV series; we have the Marvel Cinematic Universe to thank for that. As such, the appearance of Q might serve as a miniature pilot for another new "Star Trek" TV series. Showrunner Terry Matalas has even said that he would love to make a series called "Star Trek: Legacy," which would presumably be about life on the Enterprise-G with a young ensign Crusher and Captain Seven seeking out new life and new civilizations. 

With a new Enterprise, a new crew, and a godlike antagonist, it seems that we're exactly back to where we were in 1987 with the launch of "Next Generation." Only this time, a whole season of television presaged it, establishing characters and scenarios the way a pilot episode might. The groundwork has been laid. It seems all Matalas needs is a green light. 

As for reusing the "Next Generation" premise of a Picard standing in as humanity's avatar while Q puts our species on trial, I have no problem. Repeating an idea may be cheap from a writerly perspective, but it makes logical sense given Q's nature. He is pretty much immortal, we see, and experiences time on a vast scale. When one can live billions of years, a millennium is but a drop in the bucket. Q knew Picard for, what, five decades? That's not even the single beat of a bumblebee's wing to Q. It makes sense that the trial of humanity would continue into the next generation, or even into multiple generations beyond. Q is the Picard family Devil now. 

Whether or not audiences see it happening, we can rest assured that Q will make Picards miserable for thousands of years to come. 

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Star Trek: Picard finale post-credits scene explained: Showrunner confirms big things to come

Showrunner Terry Matalas says Ed Speleers is gonna be a busy man after Picard.

Warning: Spoilers from Star Trek: Picard 's series finale are discussed in this article.

There might be another Star Trek series coming our way — or at the very least, another home for Ed Speleers ' Jack Crusher.

The series finale of Star Trek: Picard , which dropped on Paramount+ Thursday, came with a post-credits scene that teases big things ahead for the character. Showrunner Terry Matalas confirms in an interview with EW, "Jack's got a lot to do, let me tell you."

He wouldn't tell us exactly what, of course, but the producer — who has guided the Patrick Stewart -led spin-off to break into the Nielsen Top 10 ratings for the first time with season 3 — confirms his story isn't over.

After Jean-Luc Picard (Stewart) and Beverly Crusher ( Gates McFadden ) save their son from the Borg Queen with help from their longtime comrades, the finale episode jumps forward a year to see where these characters ended up. Among the reveals is the U.S.S. Titan, which has been rechristened as the Enterprise-G in recognition of Picard and his crew's efforts.

Seven of Nine ( Jeri Ryan ) has been promoted to captain, with Raffi (Michelle Hurd) as her No. 1. A few members of the Titan join them, including Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut). Jack is now Ensign Jack Crusher, as he was placed on an accelerated track by Starfleet.

The post-credits scene cuts to Jack in his quarters on the Enterprise-G. He settles into his room when Q (John de Lancie) makes a surprise appearance.

"Young mortal, you have much ahead of you," he tells Jack.

"You told my father that humanity's trial was over," the young Crusher replies.

"It is... for him," he clarifies. "But I'm here today because of you. You see, yours, Jack, has just begun."

Matalas had the idea for this moment deep into season 2 when he was mapping out the trajectory of season 3. "Once I had the genesis of this idea and I knew it would be about Picard's son, I had envisioned a post-credit sequence in which you passed the torch to [him]."

He points to "Encounter at Farpoint," the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1. "The first major interaction is Q and Picard," he says. "Where better to end than at the beginning?"

A Star Trek: Legacy series has been rumored for some time, with a few of the Picard actors teasing how season 3 leaves the door open to continue that story with the next generation of characters. Alex Kurtzman , who's been shepherding the new golden age of Trek, had even teased during San Diego Comic-Con last year that fans should expect more shows with female leads. So, perhaps, we're getting a Seven of Nine series for Ryan, with Jack as part of her crew.

The only new Trek titles that have been formally announced so far are Star Trek: Starfleet Academy , which Matalas says is part of a different timeline than Picard ; and Star Trek: Section 31 , the event movie starring Michelle Yeoh as Emperor Philippa Georgiou from Star Trek: Discovery .

Matalas won't disclose what the plans are for Speleers as Jack moving forward, only that he knows what they are. "Oh yes. I do [know]," he says. "Oh yes."

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Related content:

• Michelle Yeoh's Star Trek: Discovery spin-off is now a Section 31 movie event
• Star Trek: Starfleet Academy series will beam up a new generation of cadets
• Star Trek: Picard 's latest Next Generation cameo was all about 'doing a paranoia thriller'

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‘Star Trek: Picard’ Showrunner on Possible Spinoff, How [SPOILER] Returned for the Finale and Getting That Final Shot

By Adam B. Vary

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SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot developments in “The Last Generation,” the series finale of “ Star Trek: Picard ,” currently streaming on Paramount+.

The last time the cast of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” cast performed together on screen — in 2002’s “Star Trek: Nemesis” — it ended with a sour one-two punch: the sudden death of Data (Brent Spiner) and the financial failure of the film, which caused Paramount to stop making movies with the cast. Effectively, after a brilliantly successful seven-season run on TV, “The Next Generation” had been canceled from movie theaters.

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In doing so, Matalas sought to rectify some of the perceived sins of the “TNG” movies: He resurrected Data and endowed him with a consciousness that allowed the android to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming fully human. And he brought back the Enterprise-D, the starship that had been destroyed in the climax of the first “TNG” film, 1994’s “Star Trek: Generations.” 

“In the most fanboy sense, I wanted to place the action figure set neatly and safely back on the shelf,” Matalas says. “If it’s the last we see of them, we see them in a wonderful grand moment together around the poker table. Not mourning the loss of Data. The Enterprise-D not crashed, but in a museum. Knowing that there is a bright future for ‘Star Trek’ and for their families. For me, that felt important as a fan, to feel like that’s where we left ‘The Next Generation.’”

If that wasn’t enough, in the aftermath of the battle with the Borg, the U.S.S. Titan is rechristened the U.S.S. Enterprise-G, and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) — the “Star Trek: Voyager” character who has been on “Picard” from Season 1 — is promoted to be its captain. Jack, a new member of Starfleet, is stationed on the ship, along with Geordi’s daughter Sidney (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut). Even Q (John de Lancie) — the omnipotent being who has been a “Trek” mainstay since the “Next Generation” series premiere “Encounter at Farpoint” — shows up in a post-credits sequence in which he tells Jack that his trials “have just begun.”

That certainly seems like the set up for a “Picard” spinoff series, but in his interview with Variety , Matalas says that wasn’t quite his intention. He also shares the scenes he wanted to shoot for the finale but couldn’t, and his unconventional approach to filming that poker scene.

How much of the finale did you have in your head when you were building out the season?

A very surprising amount, actually. I knew that the initial pitch to Patrick, that he would have to assimilate himself again, to face the big trauma of his life, to save his son. I knew that they would be in the Enterprise-D for the last two hours, reunited. I knew Seven of Nine would become captain of the Enterprise. That was a delightful thing to say to Jeri, who was my old friend from way back. I was like, “By the end the season, you’ll be captain of the Enterprise.” She was like, “Excuse me, what?! ” So there was quite a bit. Some of the how and why was why you need the brilliance of a talented writing room team to help you get there and figure that all out.

There was a moment in the finale where it seemed like Riker and Worf and Picard or some combination might actually die. Was that really on the table?

No, but I really wanted you to think that it might be for the drama. I don’t have it in me to kill my childhood heroes like that. I think some creators probably would. It felt like those characters would certainly feel like this is probably our last run. So I really wanted the surprise ending to be a happy ending.

Were there any other alternative endings that you considered?

There were things that we just simply didn’t have the time and money to shoot. In the very first iterations of script, we had discovered that Ro Laren had in fact survived, and had been beamed off of her shuttle and was still being used by the Changelings for information. It was already too ambitious of a schedule, so we weren’t able to be able to pull that off. We had a scene with [the Data-based android from Season 1] Soji and Data that we were also not able to shoot. We have wanted some more “Voyager” folks to come be part of Seven of Nine’s promotion to captain. It comes down to how many pennies you have left in the piggy bank after building a Borg cube and an Enterprise.

We had discussed it. We did toy with a different name, that it might be the Picard. But ultimately, it didn’t feel as genuine and as right for the legacy of “Star Trek” and Seven of Nine as the Enterprise. And certainly when you see the Titan with that name on its hull, you’re just like, yeah, it deserves that name. It just looks so right.

Did you always know you were bringing back Q after he supposedly died in Season 2 of “Picard”?

Yes. All the way from Season 2. John’s a dear friend of mine. On his last day [on Season 2], I said, “Look, I want to bring you back literally in the post-credit sequence for this final season. I will have no time and I will have no money, but I guarantee it will be one of the coolest Q scenes and it will be touching back to ‘Encounter at Farpoint.’” And he was like, “I’m in.” 

We only had 20 minutes to shoot that scene. Right after we shot the scene in which Picard tells Jack that he’s Borg, we ushered John in in that awesome new costume and we just banged out real quick.

You’ve mentioned on social media that you’d like to continue this story with a “Star Trek: Legacy” spinoff. Have you heard from Paramount or Alex Kurtzman about the possibility of doing that?

Alex and I talk all the time. If it’s something that’s going to be done, we want to make sure we don’t rush into it. We want to make sure we do it right. That’s where we’re at with it, I say coyly. At the moment, there’s nothing developed on it. But we talk all the time.

Part of why I’m asking is that I’ve rarely seen a finale set up a spinoff series more completely than you do with this one, with the scenes on the Enterprise-G. Am I right in thinking you wanted that to seed a future show?

Well, not specifically seeding for a spinoff, as lovely as that is to think about. I definitely wanted the feeling that it could go on, that it was a passing of the torch of the last generation to the next. That I really wanted. I think that’s the spirit of “Star Trek,” that they’re going to continue exploring strange new worlds. That’s a feeling of hope. So you want to get just a little taste of what that might be — for it to be a satisfying ending, it needed to be a satisfying beginning. Having said that, of course, I want to see Jack and Seven and Sidney and Raffi and everybody go on forever. But yeah, that was the creative impulse behind it.

Do you know what’s next for you?

I do not. Do you? 

I saw your tweet that you would love to work on the “Galaxy Quest” spinoff TV show .

Oh my god, “Galaxy Quest” is like my most favorite thing ever. I just literally was showing it to my kid the other day. It remains one of the most perfect movies of all time. And I just lived it! I actually just lived it in every way. So yeah, I said put me in coach. I know what that is.

Yes. To make this a little different than “All Good Things,” I wanted the audience to feel like they were really with this cast, to have a little wish fulfillment. So I actually ran the camera for 45 minutes and let them just play. Let them be themselves. I really wanted the audience to be immersed in what it’s like to hang out with Patrick, Jonathan, Marina, Gates, LeVar, Michael, Brent. So all those smiles and all those jokes are real. And so we hang on it much longer than you normally would, so that the smiles and the jokes are genuine. They were all playing a form of poker as best as they could, you know, because they like to monkey around. Maybe when the Blu-ray comes out, we’ll have a longer chunk of it so you could see more.

Do you remember who won the game?

They played so many rounds. But I think they always made sure Patrick won.

I’m laughing because I asked Patrick that question , and he said, “I think I won.”

Yeah, I think they rigged it a little bit so he would win.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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Published May 2, 2023

WARP FIVE: Ed Speleers Reflects on Q, the Borg, Family, and More

The Star Trek: Picard actor walks us through all the big beats from the final season!

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains story details and plot points for the finale of Star Trek: Picard "The Last Generation."

Getty Images / StarTrek.com - Rob DeHart

Welcome to Warp Five, StarTrek.com's five question post-mortem with your favorite featured talent from the latest Star Trek episodes.

With the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard all out for the world to enjoy, all the mysteries of who, and what, is Jack Crusher has been laid bare. The course of his life changed dramatically once he boarded the U.S.S. Titan ; and as Captain Liam Shaw noted, “It’s been a weird week.”

StarTrek.com had the opportunity for a long discussion touching upon all the big beats of the season with actor Ed Speleers about Jack Crusher’s journey throughout the season, from developing new abilities, keeping his father at arm's length, being Borg, but as Geordi La Forge put it, "that is not all he is," meeting Q, and much more!

On Picard’s Betrayal and Jack’s Brokenness

StarTrek.com

At the start of the season, Jean-Luc Picard learns of his adult son with Beverly Crusher . The retired admiral struggled with the truth that Beverly kept this from him, and that Jack Crusher wants absolutely nothing to do with him. However, it’s more complicated than that.

We see in a flashback that Jack did seek him out, witnessing his interactions with a group of young Starfleet cadets. After regaling them with stories about his best friend at the Academy, Jack Crusher’s namesake , and adventures with his crew, Picard reveals that he never sought out a life outside, stating, “Starfleet has been the only family I ever needed,” rejecting and wounding his son far deeper than he ever realized.

“Right at the base of all of this is it’s coming from a place of miscommunication,” reflects Speleers. “If you look at it from Picard’s point of view, he doesn’t know what he’s saying at that point. That’s an accidental slip of the tongue. He’s trying to inspire these young Starfleet cadets. However, Jack has taken it on himself to try and track down his old man and maybe it’s an olive branch. There’s obviously curiosity, how could you not? Your dad’s the most famous person in the world. It’s huge and he wants to know him. And it’s completely gut-wrenching. That’s why it’s important that he’s got this thick-skin and he’s got this aggressiveness towards Picard because he’s hurt.”

Probing deeper, Speleers says, “The anger, the frustration, and the flippant nature of his, it’s all masks for something else that’s deep-rooted. That’s what I love about the story — it’s this longing for connecting, which is seen through his dad, his old man, which is incredibly emotional. I was so drawn to it because it’s something that, whatever your relationship with your parents, we all have that relationship with a parent in some way. Even if it’s a bad relationship, there is something so universal. As a dad myself, as a son, I wanted to explore it. It was tough at times to try and comprehend because that’s really driving him, in some space. He doesn’t want to admit it to himself [how much that moment hurt him]. What happened in that scene is awful, and now, it’s a catalyst for how Jack lives his life.”

On Jack’s Guilt, Need for Connections, and Evolution as Borg

Throughout the season, Jack Crusher has maintained the air that he’s a rogue explorer traversing the galaxy, keeping everyone at a distance. However, we come to learn that he’s deeply lonely, pushing everyone away as he tries to come to grips with the complicated feelings within him. Despite what he says, one can spot his sincerity and earnestness in connecting with Captain William Riker, Commander Seven, Ensign Sidney La Forge, and even his father, Jean-Luc Picard.

Like Sidney La Forge’s connection with Seven , Jack ends up sharing screen-time with the ex-Borg on a number of instances, from hiding him from the Intrepid ’s officers, sharing their love of the starships housed at the Fleet Museum, and taking on Vadic on the Bridge of the Titan . It’s no wonder why Seven would value his presence as special counselor.

Speleers sees both Jack and Seven as “kindred spirits,” believing, “There’s a recognition of being an outsider and living on the edge and then trying to find their way into confirming with society, in this case Starfleet. They understand one another; there’s a rogue streak to them. I love that scene when they’re looking at the starships. It’s a love sort of, quite a tender moment, but it’s full of humor and it’s in the middle of everything’s that going on in Jack’s head at the point where he’s in complete shambles. To have this moment of levity with Seven, it just inflates it. It comes down to the wonderful writing. You look at the team of writers they had on board, and they nail it in terms of moments of levity, then driving back into humor, then driving back into serious tension.”

Offering more insight to the internal conflict Jack feels, Speleers explains, “There’s something that he feels is deeply wrong with him. It’s something that has been running along in him all his life, and he hasn’t been able to put his finger on it.”

“Once we are aware that it’s to do with the Borg, it’s the worst news possible,” he elaborates. “Before we get ready for that moment, it’s trying to understand what in his world would make him feel this broken. He feels like there’s an illness; something’s not right about him and he can’t work out if it’s mental or physical. He’s had these voices, these visions. He’s always felt like he got these strange abilities that creep him out, put him on edge. They completely mess with his mind, and anyone who’s hearing voices in their head, it’s a dangerous place to be.”

Every time he puts others in the line of fire, whether it’s family man Will Riker or the crew of the Titan , Jack wants to rush headfirst to fix it despite the protests of his parents. He doesn’t want to put others out for him, nor does he want to owe anyone anything, adding, “It’s such a high stakes moment, and it’s a lot for this guy to process. Even if there’s no one to help him, he still wants to tackle it. And if it means that’s the end of him, then he’ll take that because he believes that’s the best thing for everybody else. It must be gut-wrenching for him, knowing that he’s had to live with this all his life and never felt like he belonged. This ties into it; it’s two-fold, between the deep-rooted longing for connection with his dad, but also he’s longing to understand what this thing is within him and how that connects him to the world.”

As such, it makes sense he couldn’t resist the lure of the Borg Queen and why he ultimately gave up fighting. “It drives the loneliness, that idea of being assimilated,” Speleers remarks. “You have something so tragically wrong with you that you cannot let anybody in. You cannot because you don’t know how you are going to respond. You don’t know if you are really dangerous to other people. It ramps up so quickly because everything is just becoming overbearing for him.”

It's here where Jack is very much like the man his father is, a man who didn’t have the connection he longed for at home and went out and found what he was looking for in Starfleet. Once aboard the Borg Cube, with the rest of losing his son imminent, Jean-Luc realizes losing Jack would be as universe-shattering as losing the entire galaxy to the Borg, possibly more so. It was his own guilt and embarrassment of inadequacies and time as Locutus that clouded him for seeing his son for who he was. When he accepts this, and how Jack’s presence has forever changed him, and acting now as a father as opposed to a Starfleet officer, they were both able to relinquish the Queen’s control over them and mend the void they’ve both felt deep down.

On Speleers’ Immersion in the Star Trek Universe

As Jack Crusher’s story unfolded throughout the season, his resistance to what was happening internally within was weakening, magnifying the brokenness he deeply felt.

With the stress of being hunted by the Changelings , his idiosyncrasies began manifesting outwardly. What he first thought were side effects of inheriting his father’s Irumodic Syndrome, the truth was much worse. From Jean-Luc’s time assimilated as Locutus, the Borg found a way to change his biology, rewriting his genetic code, which he passed on to Jack. Where the rogue adventurer first experienced eerie visions and was able to hear the internal thoughts of others, he was soon able to converse with them telepathically, as seen in “ The Dominion ,” when Vadic and her soldiers boarded and took control of the Titan . It didn’t stop there as he was able to see what was happening to Starfleet officers biologically when they stood on the transporter pads, almost disassociate while brawling, and even control the movements of others in a puppet-like fashion.

Speleers couldn’t get enough of all the stunts, exclaiming, “It’s as cool as it gets,” before noting, “That’s the first time my son and my daughter looked at me like I’m really somebody cool.”

“Those [action sequences] are some of the best to do,” he describes. “This is the whole thing where I was given the keys to the castle. If I wasn’t doing the big dramatic scenes with Patrick Stewart as my dad, the next day I’m fighting people, shooting them with phasers, doing cool stunts. Also not just doing that on an amazing sit, but to have it shot so brilliantly. You’re having an out-of-body experience; the whole thing was so surreal.”

Phasers on Stunt: Inside Star Trek: Picard Season 3's Action

Speleers lavishes tons of praise on stunt coordinator Guy Fernandez and fight coordinator Matt Mullins, both of whom he spent hours getting on brilliantly with, stating, “They were both just great humans who took the time to make those things look as cool as possible. It’s just great fun, and I want to go back and do it now!”

As for the narrative surrounding these new abilities, Speleers delights in it, “From a storytelling and an attitude point of view, it was great. It was like being given these superpowers, and I’ve never been in a position as an actor to have that sort of thing going on. It was a next-level experience. It was like I opened a big toy chest.” Speleers still found a way to ground what Jack was enduring, “There are all these big great ideas where you’re getting to control and mind-meld, but still, running right through the middle of that is great narrative and great understanding of why this character is going through that the ramifications of that. It’s not as simple as being, ‘Well, he’s got all these great powers and things he can do.’ There’s a reason why and we need to tackle it because it’s not necessarily a good thing. That’s great storytelling in itself.”

Speleers’ Jack Crusher transformation would be complete without an epic set piece and a costume to match.

After feeling abandoned and alienated again following Deanna Troi’s Betazoid mind probe and Jean-Luc defaulting to Starfleet protocol, Jack leaves the Titan in search for answers from the voice haunting him in his head. For the final two episodes of the season, Jack finds himself on the Borg Cube, and not just any ordinary cube, it’s a vessel stitched together by multiple cubes with the Queen feeding on the last generation of her kind, clinging on to the last threads of survival. Speleers finds the set piece “jaw-dropping,” comparing it to something straight out of the first Alien film.

“It was just so expansive,” comments Speleers on the prestige television of it all. “I walked around with my kids and my girlfriend, and we were allowed to get a quick sneaky look around when no one was there. The details are so well thought out. It was almost like being in a theme park; it blew my mind to be honest. Against, it was one of those pinch yourself moments of being, ‘Oh I’m really on a proper film set now.’ But that’s the thing, we’re doing all this for television. Everything, every step of the way, felt so much bigger and grander.”

Once he relinquishes control to the Borg Queen, Jack is assimilated as Võx, the voice of the Collective itself. Speleers has nothing but praise for costume designer Michael Crow and his department when talking about his “heavy, but detailed” Võx Borg costume. “Michael Crow is, A, the calmest man in the world and, B, is such an exceptional talent. His team is incredible, and Deborah Ambrosino, who made the costume. She’s done a lot of Marvel suits, and I think they wanted a Marvel quality to this Võx suit. It was heavy, but it also wasn’t. I felt like I could move in it. I felt pretty cool, to be honest. It felt like the Terminator or something. It really lent to the character well, and that’s the meat of it. That is also why I love Michael Crow and his team so much. Everything they made me costume-wise really was in keeping with who the character is and allowed me to move and feel that in a way just added to the process.”

On Joining Starfleet

In “ The Last Generation ,” similar to parents dropping off their kids on the first day of school, we catch up with Admirals Jean-Luc Picard and Beverly Crusher and their son arriving at the young Crusher’s first posting within Starfleet as he nervously paces behind them on the shuttle. We learn that he was on an accelerated track, which Jack partially credits to nepotism. Jean-Luc softly reassures him that this was all his doing and how proud he is of him.

Believing his son’s first posting is the U.S.S. Titan -A, both Beverly and Jack surprise Jean-Luc that the starship had been rechristened in honor of him and his crew, with its new designation as the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-G. Aboard the Enterprise -G, Ensign Jack Crusher joins Captain Seven and First Officer Raffi at the ship’s command, serving as special counselor to the captain. Raffi aptly remarks, “Still can’t believe Starfleet saw fit to give a thief, a pirate, and a spy their own ship,” with Jack calling them a “buncha ne’er-do-wells and rule-breakers.”

Commenting on this next chapter for Jack, Speleers praises, “It’s a poignant moment for Jack. It’s that full circle [moment] and why I suppose Terry [Matalas] is right about this being an origin story for Jack because we see him actually embracing what could be his future.”

“He’s nervous about it,” he continues. “He’s still got bridges to build, and you’re not going to be going from being an outsider to part of the gang straight away. It takes time so he’s apprehensive. But filming all of that, it was such a wonderful way to round it all off. Getting to go straight into the ship and be with Raffi and Seven, having that rapport and patter in that closing scene, straight away there you see a connection between these rogues.”

On Star Trek ’s Post Credit Scene

Star Trek rarely offers up a post credit scene, but this year, fans were treated to two. There was one following the third season finale of Star Trek: Lower Decks , and now another at the conclusion of the Star Trek: Picard series.

While unpacking his belongings and settling into his quarters, aboard his new home on the Enterprise -G, Jack suddenly hears the voice of an unfamiliar guest, “Well, look at you, a chip off the old block.” Turning around, the new ensign comes face-to-face with his father’s long-time frenemy, who first chides him for thinking of time so linearly, brushing off his second season’s demise. Q then informs him that while Jean-Luc Picard and humanity’s trials were over, “I’m here today because of you. You see, yours, Jack, has just begun…”

With “The Last Generation” serving as the finale for Picard , as well as the epic conclusion for the Star Trek: The Next Generation saga, it’s fitting that the finale scene harkens back to the very first episode of the latter series, “ Encounter at Farpoint ,” where the crew of the Enterprise -D first met the complicated being known as Q.

The post-credit scene came together quickly, filming during the series’ penultimate episode “ Võx ,” as the episode’s director and writer Terry Matalas, shared with a group of journalists during a roundtable interview, “We only had 20 minutes to shoot the scene. We literally got [John de Lancie] in, got him in that amazing outfit…. He’s phenomenal on his worst day, and we just banged it out. And so, I still get chills. I love that scene so much. It’s one of my favorite scenes in the finale.”

Speleers experienced excitement and trepidation sharing the scene with John de Lancie, who reprises the role of Q, sharing, “He’s royalty in Star Trek canon. He is absolute royalty and a very lovely, astute man. Obviously, we just had that one scene; it was a great scene to be had because he’s quite catlike in a scene. I don’t know if that’s him as a character or that’s him as him.”

“He kind of put me on edge when I was doing the scenes with him,” Speleers reveals, “because we’d be talking very nicely about family, and everything would be cool and it’d be like we felt like a connection. Then, suddenly, he’d just turn it on its head and just poke, which I love. I love it when an actor wants to go for it, and he’s the same.”

Referring to the quick production time and brief interaction between the characters, Speleers adds, “It seems very important, but we didn’t have much within it. It’s only three, four lines each, something like that, but we both pushed each other to try and do it as many different ways as possible. That’s great when you got an actor that you get the chance to do that. Just keeps it fresh and it also keeps you on your toes.”

Want to know more about Ed Speleers and his character Jack Crusher? Don't miss his first interview at the start of the season , the Picard-La Forge "LaCrush" budding romance , and Speleers' Star Trek University crash course .

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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.

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‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 2, Episode 10 Recap: Q’s Last Gift

The “Picard” crew tries to find its way home.

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By Sopan Deb

Season 2, Episode 10: ‘Farewell’

So after all that, all the Jurati-Borg Queen combination had to do was show up earlier and none of the this season’s craziness would’ve happened?

A very funny moment comes when an Excelsior crew member, during the “Picard” finale’s climax, wonders what happened to Rios, who was left behind in the 21st century. Picard snaps, “Stay on task, helm. That’s an order.” That’s essentially how the show’s writers have treated the audience for most of its two-season run. Don’t worry about the things that don’t make sense. Just focus on where the story is going.

In this case, what the story reveals to us is that Q, in his dying moments, wanted to let Picard know that his mother’s death wasn’t his fault. (Why is Q dying? Of what? It’s never explained.) And that the first step to Picard finding love was for him to love himself. It’s a wonderful lesson, except, as Picard points out, there were innocent people who died along the way for a life lesson.

Not that Q cares. And neither does Picard, it turns out, because Picard gives his soon-to-be-deceased tormentor a hug. It’s a touching moment. The thing is, everything we’ve seen in “Picard” has taught us that what is dead will never die. There is no reason to believe that Q is actually dying, in the traditional sense, because no major character dies in this show. This includes even the ones who do, because they’re just brought back later — sometimes with a literal snap of a finger, like our old friend Elnor. (If I was Picard, I might have asked Q for some other people to be brought back to life. “Hey, while you’re at it, instead of bringing back Elnor, whom I’m not that close to, would you mind bringing back Data? Or Tasha Yar?)

John de Lancie did a wonderful job as Q, as he normally does. But the way the character was written this season felt off. If all this was to teach Picard forgiveness, why did Q seem so angry and vindictive earlier in the season? Recall his previous conversations with Soong, where he seemed to imply he wanted to get revenge on Picard.

Odds and Ends

So after all the talk about shifting the timeline with the slightest use of futuristic technology, Rios ends up staying behind in the 21st century with Teresa with centuries worth of knowledge in his head. We find out from Guinan that he didn’t use much of that knowledge. Rios is a better man than me. If I went back in time 400 years and stayed there, I would be known as the inventor of cars, the iPhone, electricity and Twitter.

That was a really lovely return from Wil Wheaton as the Traveler formerly known as Wesley Crusher. I have no idea if this is a one off, or if he’ll factor into next season, when the “Next Generation” cast returns. But Wesley was a character who generally got the short end of the stick in the original “Next Generation.” (The last we saw of him — when he was spotted at Riker and Troi’s wedding in “Nemesis” — he seemed to have returned to Starfleet.)

Soong pulling out the folder labeled “Project Khan” gives us a hint of what next season will be about. We know Soong is an expert in genetics and that the greatest villain in all of “Trek,” Khan Noonien Singh, was a result of genetic experimentation. This looks like a precursor to the Eugenics Wars. Should be fun!

Alison Pill has already said she’s not coming back for Season 3 of “Picard,” and with Rios now dead in the past, I’m wondering how much of the “Picard” crew comes back, if at all. Maybe next season will really be a “Next Generation” season.

What’s up with the transwarp conduit that Jurati-Borg Queen want to find out about? That could also be a hint for Season 3. There are just so many questions about what the Borg have been up to in the past 400 years. Were they hiding from the Evil Borg? Did the previous assimilation attempts not happen? Stay on task, helm! That’s an order!

A farewell to the Watcher, Tallinn, who stays away and watches until she doesn’t. Who had special powers, except for when she didn’t.

Finally, what happened to the F.B.I. agent, Martin Wells? Imagine working your whole life to find out if aliens exist, having your theory confirmed and then … what?

Sopan Deb is a basketball writer and a contributor to the Culture section. Before joining The Times, he covered Donald J. Trump's presidential campaign for CBS News. He is also a New York-based comedian.  More about Sopan Deb

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Star Trek: Picard Finale Post-Credits Scene Explained

Contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Picard," Season 3, Episode 10, "The Last Generation" 

Now that "Star Trek: Picard" is over, the series has bid farewell to 36 years of Patrick Stewart as the iconic Captain Jean-Luc Picard, while setting the stage for his legacy to continue through Jack Crusher. Played by a delightfully energetic Ed Speleers , Jack is the son Jean-Luc never knew he had, born of Picard's romantic involvement with Beverly Crusher  (Gates McFadden). Furthermore, he's revealed over the course of "Picard" Season 3 to be carrying the burden of some strange and dark abilities.

In a post-credits scene at the very end of the "Picard" finale, Jack is settling into his quarters aboard the USS Enterprise (formerly the USS Titan) when a visitor arrives. This turns out to be none other than the immortal, powerful trickster known as Q (John de Lancie). "Picard" fans will remember that Q was behind the events of Season 2, and was presumed dead after using the last of his powers to send Picard and his crew back to their own time. Here, he urges Jack not to think so linearly, telling the young ensign, "Young mortal, you have much ahead of you." Jack points out that Q promised Picard that humanity's trials were over, to which the demigod replies, "It is, for him. But I'm here today because of you. You see, yours, Jack, has just begun."

It seems clear that this post-credits scene is setting the stage for a TV show or movie focused on Jack, and who better to give him his first challenge than his father's old frenemy?

Q has big plans for Jack Crusher in the Picard post-credits scene

Ed Speleers has already hinted at a Jack Crusher spin-off, but this "Star Trek: Picard" post-credits scene appears to confirm that such a project is in the works. In an interview with Cinema Blend in February, Speleers revealed that he's spoken to showrunner Terry Matalas about Jack's future, saying, "He's got a lot of ideas about it. I'm not gonna lie because I'm proud of the fact that Terry and I discussed this almost every day for the last eighteen months, what could happen." The actor also noted, "There are definitely more stories to be told if we're given the opportunity to tell them. And I know that Terry has bucketloads of ideas."

It appears Jack's first challenge as the heir to Jean-Luc Picard's legacy will be facing off against the dastardly Q. This is a fitting rite of passage for Crusher since the inaugural episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" introduces Captain Picard to viewers by pitting him against Q in its "Encounter at Farpoint" storyline. Therein, Q acts as judge and jury for the human race, reminding Picard of humanity's crimes and history of violence. The final episode of "The Next Generation," titled "All Good Things," bookends the series with Q's involvement once again.

Will Jack face similar judgment, or will his trial by Q be of a different nature entirely? That's the mystery posed by the "Picard" finale's post-credits scene, and one to which fans likely won't have an answer until we see Jack again.

The Picard post-credits scene contradicts recent news about a Picard spin-off

Showrunner Terry Matalas first revealed that he has a concept for a "Star Trek: Picard" spinoff titled "Star Trek: Legacy" in a March 23, 2023 Tweet . However, he told Screen Rant a few weeks later — days prior to the "Picard" finale's premiere — that Paramount had yet to greenlight this project. Rather, he was merely sharing that he has ideas, should the company express interest.

Of course, the "Picard" finale's post-credits scene seems to contradict this claim. After all, would Paramount allow such a blatant cliffhanger without at least some sort of plan in place to pay it off?

Matalas, in fact, further contradicted this supposed lack of plans for "Star Trek: Legacy" in a brief Entertainment Weekly interview about how "Picard" ends. "Jack's got a lot to do, let me tell you," he told EW, reinforcing the idea floated in the "Picard" post-credits scene that Jack Crusher's conflict with Q will soon become the focus of a brand new "Star Trek" project. For now, fans will simply have to wait for more news about the continuation of Jack's story.

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Picard says goodbye with a mysterious hint at Star Trek’s future

The finale has one of Star Trek’s only credits scenes

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Never let it be said that Paramount Plus hasn’t brought the Star Trek franchise into the modern era of interconnected television: Star Trek even has credits scenes now.

And while the award for “first credits scene in Star Trek” would go to Star Trek: Lower Decks , with its season 3 finale, “The Stars at Night,” the award for “first Star Trek credits scene to point at a mysterious future installment of the franchise” can go to Star Trek: Picard and its finale.

[ Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for the final episode of Star Trek: Picard season 3, “The Last Generation.”]

The denouement of “The Last Generation” makes sure we know exactly where our faves old and new have wound up. While the Next Generation crew largely wound up with promotions, renewed relationships, or just a return to their peaceful lives, Picard built a new future for some of its younger old characters.

Former borg drone Seven of Nine was promoted to captain of the Titan, which was renamed Enterprise. Thanks to some calculated intelligence leaks, her girlfriend Raffi’s record was cleared, freeing her up to act as Seven’s first officer, and Jack Crusher — son of Jean-Luc Picard and Beverly Crusher , interstellar adventurer, recently freed from Borg control — was fast-tracked to the rank of Starfleet ensign to serve as captain’s counselor.

The credits scene takes us right back to Jack, in his quarters on the newly christened Enterprise, as he’s visited by none other than the cosmic being known as Q (John de Lancie). Q was thought to have died at the end of Picard season 2, but when Jack points that out, Q admonishes him for thinking so linearly. The long and the short of it is: Q is eternal, and he has something in mind for the progeny of his longtime fixation, Jean-Luc Picard.

Does this mean Star Trek: Legacy is real?

About a month ago, Picard showrunner Terry Matalas tweeted that “#StarTrekLegacy is what I’d call a spin-off show from #StarTrekPicard. A 25th Century show that explores the Last Generation and the Next.” Since then, he’s been either teasing an upcoming show or just having a hearty good time retweeting coverage of his tweet and clips of veteran Star Trek actors agreeing that a nostalgic spinoff for 1990s Trek fans sounds like a good idea .

So it’s not entirely clear whether “Star Trek Legacy” is a real show or what. But it’s hard to imagine what else Picard ’s final moments could possibly be pointing to. The next Star Trek show on the Paramount Plus lineup is the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , then the fourth season of the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks , and then the second season of all-ages cartoon Star Trek: Prodigy . None of those seem like a good fit for Picard ’s hints, being set in completely different eras or produced in a completely different medium.

Paramount has also confirmed at least two more future Star Trek projects, but they also don’t seem likely as answers either — Starfleet Academy will take place the better part of a millennium after Picard , while the recently announced Section 31 film starring Michelle Yeoh just simply doesn’t seem particularly relevant.

It’s possible that Paramount is sitting on a Star Trek: Legacy show about Jack Crusher, Seven of Nine, Raffi, and Sidney La Forge (the Titan/Enterprise’s helmswoman and daughter of Geordi La Forge) going on some epic Q-uest. But we won’t know until it’s actually announced — and so far, Paramount is keeping quiet.

Update: Speaking to Entertainment Weekly , Matalas said “Jack’s got a lot to do, let me tell you.” The showrunner confirmed that Paramount does have a plan for Jack Crusher’s character moving forward, but declined to elaborate or confirm the existence of another new Star Trek show.

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Star Trek: Picard Series-Finale Recap: Captain’s Log, Final Entry

Star trek: picard.

Star Trek: Picard  began as a series partly dedicated to giving Jean-Luc Picard, the aged but unbowed former captain of the  Enterprise , a late-in-life shot at returning to the stars and partly as a torch-passing exercise that surrounded Picard with new characters (a kind of next generation, you could say). Across three seasons, that mission didn’t so much drift as grow in scale. This third and final season has extended the autumnal adventures to almost all of the original cast of  Star Trek: The Next Generation  (while keeping Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd around from the preceding  Picard  seasons) and making the torch-passing theme even more explicit by bringing in Picard’s previously unknown son, Jack Crusher, and a pair of Geordi LaForge daughters to boot.

That’s a lot to ask of any series, much less one that has to give the beloved  TNG  characters the proper send-off (maybe?) they were denied by the less-than-beloved  Star Trek: Nemesis.  And, by and large, the season has shouldered that burden well. The  TNG  characters have all had their moments in the spotlight as the show reassembled the team, Ryan’s Seven of Nine and Hurd’s Raffi have had plenty to do (as did Todd Stashwick’s Captain Shaw, RIP), and Jack has proven to be a charismatic addition when he could have felt like an interloper shoehorned in to bring down the cast’s median age.

But does this final episode stick the landing? Pretty much, yeah. “The Last Generation” both brings the season-long story — which began as a confrontation with the Dominion before that dread foe essentially handed over villain duties to the Borg — to an exciting conclusion and gives the original cast a nostalgic valedictory moment while also leaving the door open for future adventures.

As it opens, however, any possibility of a happy ending seems unlikely. Federation President Chekov (not that one but his son) issues a dire warning that the Federation’s younger generation has been assimilated, and there’s little to be done about it, but in the words of his father, “There are always possibilities.” Picard and the crew are not an easily dissuaded bunch, and recognizing, as Data puts it, they “are the cavalry,” they come up with a plan.

Sure, it’s a desperate plan, but a plan nonetheless: Head to Jupiter, board the Borg vessel, and shut down the beacon that allows the Borg to do what they do. (And hopefully rescue Jack in the process.) For Picard, it’s personal. The Borg have his son (whom he’s come to like quite a bit despite a messy start), and he’s been plagued by their threat for over 35 years. For everyone else, it’s, well, also pretty personal. If this is truly a last stand, it’s a last stand against an enemy with whom they have a long, nasty history. The newly emotional Data sums it up as they approach: “I hate them.”

No one knows that better than Seven, of course, who leads a party to reclaim the  Titan.  She and Raffi will play a crucial role in the confrontation that follows, but it’s the newly reunited  TNG  crew that drives the action. And, in classic  Trek  faction, that means breaking into smaller groups. Picard, Will, and Worf head into the cube. (“And I will make it a threesome,” Worf says, by way of announcing his intentions.) Their farewell is one of the episode’s first heart-tugging moments. Could this be the last time these characters see each other? The look on Deanna’s face as Will walks away says it all.

On the cube, they find a lot of rotting Borg drones but little action. Then it’s time to split up after another wrenching farewell scene in which Picard can’t bring himself to tell Will how much he means to him. “You know that I know. Always,” Will says, letting him off the hook while making the scene that much more intense, with Worf’s own final words about Klingon’s not knowing the words “defeat” and “farewell” providing poignant punctuation.

When Picard reaches Jack, it’s worse than he feared. His son appears fully Borgified and the Borg Queen (voiced by Alice Krige and looking more like a nightmarish H.R. Giger creation than ever) looms over him. She’s mostly interested in mocking “Locutus,” calling his arrival a homecoming. The Borg Queen also announces that assimilation is old news. The new Borg goal is evolution. And it looks like that plan is working out for them. Thanks, unwittingly, to Jack, Starfleet is now filled with unwitting hybrids walking around with Borg DNA just waiting to be told what to do.

But despite the odds stacked against them, our heroes prevail via a series of pretty good fight scenes that mix aerial combat, a hand-to-hand battle with Borg drones, some fancy flying from Data, and a battle for Jack’s soul. The latter involves Picard plugging himself into the Borg network and selling Jack on the pleasures of life outside the Borg cube, despite the possibility of loneliness and fear. Picard’s pitch includes freely expressing his emotions (never an easy thing for the captain), including his feelings for his son. “You are the part of me that I never knew was missing,” he says. Later, they hug. (This episode just does not let up on big emotional moments. Will’s farewell to Deanna, if anything, hits even harder: “I’ll be waiting. Me and our boy.”)

Star Trek  is a franchise dedicated to following intriguing science fiction concepts wherever they lead, but it’s also one in which occasionally love saves the day, and the Borg Queen’s dying shout of “No!!!” shortly before her cube explodes signals that this is one of those  Star Trek  installments. (Even Seven’s in a hugging mood when the Borg control lifts from the  Titan  crew.) It’s a happy ending for all, and the tableau of everyone posing on the  Enterprise  bridge (an image that includes Will and Deanna embracing and Worf asleep) could be a fitting end to the series.

But there’s more to be done. That includes giving the  TNG  crew some more time together and setting up future adventures. Will’s log reveals that Beverly has developed a method to eliminate Borg DNA and scan for Dominion holdouts. Tuvok, the real Tuvok, is still alive, it’s revealed. Seven learns that Captain Shaw actually liked and respected her, even recommending she be promoted to the rank of captain. Data is still sorting through his new emotions with a lot of help from Deanna, who’s a little distracted planning a vacation during the latest of their marathon sessions. But, essentially, all is well.

One year later, the long good-bye continues as Will, Picard, and Geordi put the  Enterprise  D to bed. A bit later, Picard and Beverly escort their son to his first Starfleet assignment aboard … the  Enterprise ? Rechristened in honor of Starfleet’s fabled flagship, the  Enterprise  is now under Seven’s command, with Raffi and Jack by her side. That looks like a setup for a whole new series featuring this crew. (I would watch.)

We’re not done: Over drinks and a stirring recitation of one of Brutus’s speeches in  Julius Caesar  from Picard (“There is a tide in the affairs of men”), the  TNG  crew spends the evening in each other’s company, reflecting on their time together before, in a nod to “All Good Things …,” the original  TNG  finale, a game of poker breaks out with Picard enthusiastically participating. It’s an indulgent moment that calls on decades of accumulated affection for these characters, and boy does it work. It feels like a fitting farewell, albeit one that suggests all good things, or at least all good shows, don’t always come to an end. They just kind of lay around waiting for someone to pick them up again.

Captain’s Log

• Hello! No, I am not your regular  Picard  recapper (though I did cover the first season). I’m just filling in for the excellent Swapna Krishna, who was unexpectedly unable to cover this episode.

• This episode pretty clearly sets up a Seven/Raffi/Jack–focused series and that’s a pretty exciting prospect. Ryan is, of course, already a  Trek  legend and her reprise of Seven has broadened the character and confirmed she has a range we never saw on  Voyager . Hurd was always a  Picard  highlight and Ed Speleers has fit right in when Jack could easily have been the series’ Poochie.

• If there is a series, please, please find room for the “Ma’am, I’m just a cook!” guy. He’s great.

• Over the end credits, there’s one last surprise: Q is back and ready to put Jack to the test. Nothing really ends or dies with this franchise, does it? (Okay, except for Ro Laren, Capt. Shaw, etc., etc.) After a first season partly dedicated to putting Data down, he’s back and the Data who wanted to die got hand-waved away. Now Q’s mortality, a big part of the second season, is out the window. It’s inconsistent, but is any going to complain, particularly after a season this strong?

• That said, the sudden transition to a mostly different supporting cast hasn’t been without some awkwardness. Whither Laris?

• Is this the last time we’ll see the  TNG  characters all in one place together again? Another reunion seems unlikely, but then  this  reunion seemed pretty unlikely. If it is the end, it’s a warm, affectionate send-off. If not, let’s hope the next reunion strikes as deft a balance between nostalgia and adventure.

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Star Trek: Picard Series Finale Recap: The Next Generation Crew Gets a Fitting Send-Off… But What’s Next?

Dave nemetz, west coast bureau chief.

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Star Trek: Picard signed off after three seasons by giving Jean-Luc and his Next Generation pals the final mission they’ve always deserved… but maybe this story’s not over just yet.

While Seven and Raffi manage to retake the Titan by transporting the Borg-infected crew off the bridge and locking them in the transporter room, Jean-Luc prepares to beam down to the Borg cube to stop the transmitter and find Jack: “Let me bring him home,” he implores Beverly. Riker and Worf volunteer to go with him, and on the Borg cube, it’s oddly quiet and littered with a bunch of Borg corpses, which explains why they need the reinforcements. Jean-Luc sends Riker and Worf to locate the transmitter while he searches for his son, finding Jack wired into the cube and fully Borgified, spouting Borg-approved rhetoric. Jean-Luc says he’s here to bring Jack home, but the Borg Queen interrupts to say Jack is already home… and so is Jean-Luc: “At last, Locutus has returned.”

They send the transmitter coordinates to the Enterprise , and the ship would have to fly into the very center of the Borg cube to reach it, but Data is confident: “My gut tells me I can do this.” (Hey, Data has a gut now!) He pilots them right into the heart of the cube with breathtaking agility as the Borg-infected ships take out Earth’s defense system and start targeting the planet’s most populous cities for destruction. (Plus, the Titan is a sitting duck after the Borgified crew escape and knock out their cloaking device.) Data reaches the cube’s core and finds the transmitter, but to stop it, they’d have to destroy the cube… and everyone on it. A tearful Beverly nods her approval, and Geordi warns Riker and Worf that they’ll only have a minute or so to get off the cube after the Enterprise fires. Meanwhile, Jean-Luc realizes that the only way to reach Jack is to become a Borg himself.

The Borgified youth, including Geordi’s daughter Sidney, all come to their senses now that the Borg have been eliminated, and Jean-Luc proudly gives Jack a tour of the Enterprise bridge. Starfleet fixes all of its ships’ transporters to purge all Borg genetic code, thanks to Beverly’s efforts, and figures out a way to detect Changelings, too. Seven informs Tuvok that she intends to resign from Starfleet, but after seeing the glowing recommendation left for her by the late Shaw (aw!), he promotes her to captain instead. Worf helps Raffi reconnect with her son and granddaughter, and Data now has so many human emotions, he’s boring Troi to tears with them during their therapy sessions.

We flash-forward to a year later, as Jack nervously prepares for his first Starfleet posting. He’s been assigned to the Titan … which has been rechristened the Enterprise-G ! Seven is the captain, with Raffi as her first officer, Jack as “special counselor to the captain” and Sidney onboard as well. (“A bunch of ne’er-do-wells and rule-breakers, really,” Jack notes with a sly smile.) The Next Generation  gang gets drunk at a bar together, and Jean-Luc toasts with a quote from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar . (“We must take the current where it serves, or lose our ventures.”) They clink glasses, and then Jean-Luc pulls out cards for a game of poker! The old friends laugh as they play a few hands, with Jean-Luc taking home a big pot: “I’ve come to believe that the stars have always been in my favor.” And as the cards are dealt, the camera pulls overhead, just as it did in the Next Generation series finale.

Whoa… once you’re recovered from all of that, Trekkies, give the Picard series finale a grade in our poll and then beam down to the comments and tell us: Would you watch a Jack Crusher and Q series?

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Bring on #StarTrekLegacy.

I wasn’t entirely a fan of more Borg when we had Borg last season, even if a bit different, but overall it was a near perfect send off while also setting things up nicely for a spinoff that they hopefully confirm soon. The Anton Chekov name was a nice touch.

Very Satisfying! I enjoyed the series!

This was so exceptional! I want Star Trek: Legacy!!!!

Well done. All we needed was a Sisko appearances

Oh, that woulda been great.

Shaw! I want Shaw to somehow be alive. Q! Can’t you help???

Loved season 3 overall but a couple of things bugged me. 1) Laris should´ve had a closure scene in the finale. 2) Why did Vadic communicate with the Borg Queen in such a nasty way (cutting her hand)?

So apparently we will indeed have a Picard season 4 but focused on Jack with nice cameos from Patrick Stewart and friends. It would be nice if Jack gets to meet his brother Wesley.

The point about Laris is a good one. All it needed one was just one more midcredit scene of them reuniting maybe. But I think they probably wanted to leave open possible reconciliation between Beverly and Jean Luc? To be honest I was hoping for it until I realized Laris is still out there.

They’ve backtracked a bit on the final season though and said they could come back to Picard at a later date. It just is planned and meant to be. I just am glad we got to see enough of Seven of nine and was happy with where she ended her arc. I was a bit scared considering after she got left behind but I should’ve had faith. The show runner has always seemed to be a huge a fan of her and done right by her.

Terry Matalas is the best thing that could´ve happened to Trek Universe. Let him helm more and more projects.

At the very end, Jack had a wedding photo of Picard and Beverly on his nightstand. Apparently they completely forgot about poor Laris.

Was that a wedding photo? They were both very young in that picture; and in reality it looks like it might have been the actors at an Emmys ceremony. back in the day.

It was obviously a picture of Gates McFadden and Patrick Stewart from some event in the 90s.

Correction, that image is from 1988. No idea why that images makes people believe, they got married.

I don’t think it means we will see a season 4 of Picard. I think there is a chance it transitions into another Star Trek series (either Legacy , which it was confirmed it isn’t in devopment, but doesn’t mean it won’t or another series) especially how Q was at the end of it.

I loved this ending and this season so much. It was amazing to see the big “D” get to do all the things I wanted it to do during the series. It wasn’t “perfect” but it was perfect.

Very nice to have that tip of the hat to Anton Yelchin – he did make a fine Chekov on J.J. Abrams’ movies!

We need to know Seven’s command line. Very mean to tease us like that… she and the crew on the Enterprise G better return! Really enjoyed this season and most of the OG crew got better storylines than in 7 years of TNG – especially Troi and Crusher! But Patrick Stewart really is looking a bit old for this action!

Yeah, most of them look great but Sir Patrick is really showing his 80+ years, bless him. Lol. My wife thinks Q is hot, now.

Really loved this season. This season and Strange New Worlds has proven they can get New Trek right when they try hard enough. Walter Koenig playing the voice of “Anton” Chekov in honor of Anton Yelchin made me tear up a bit. A true class act there.

Agreed! Nice touch.

I absolutely loved. It really managed to make me feel similar to what I felt when I watched the original series finale of TNG. Very satisfying and thank god they didn’t kill anybody of. I didn’t know I needed the episodes to end with my favorite Star Trek crew once again seated at a round table, playing poker.

Thank you Terry Matalas and the whole cast and crew, what a wonderful gift. See you soon.

Wish we could’ve seen Wesley one last time.

Agree 100%. I find it hard to believe Wesley never met his brother and has not visited his mom is 20 years.

Or at least done a drive by & saw them, but not lets them see him.

Agreed. I was holding out hope for a Wil Wheaton cameo. TNG was always my favorite and Picard is my hands down my favorite captain. That last episode was near perfection. Great to see all those characters together for a final ride.

96.74% gave the finale and A (87.46%) or a B (9.28%). Verrrryyyy impressive, Terry Matolis.

What a great end ( well hopefully not) Thankfully they had the time to give it the ending it deserved. Having been a trek fan for over 50 years, TNG has always been my fav..Hats of to cast and crew. Now lets see the Enterprise G, Boldly return to our screens with captain 7 and her crew

It was great until the final scene. I thought he died. He rui Ed it for me.

What a massive improvement over the first two seasons. Amazing what comes of getting somebody in charge who actual respects what came before. (Retconning Q’s death was a perfect way to end things.)

Wow. That was so perfect. I knew the OGs would be playing poker at the end. Looking forward to the (hopefully inevitable) spin-off with Seven and the rest of the crew of the Enterprise G!

Surprised when they were in 10 Forward Guinan wasn’t tending bar instead of having a mention.

Finally Deanna had something to do besides sit next to the captain’s chair and offer advise. Didn’t know she could navigate a star ship.

Is Seven officially Captain Seven or they call her that out of respect to her service to Star Fleet?

Since this is on streaming and shouldn’t have a time limit per episode like the previous episodes with 45 minutes they could have added a few minutes to fill in the gaps in the plot like Laris missing at the end and use the time to make the last episode a 2 parter if the series ever goes on commercial TV.

Keep Q out of any future Trek shows!!! He’s the single most disgusting reason why I didn’t take to Next Gen. Until the Borgs came, anyway. This ressurecting the dead trick is also soooo old that it really deserves to be put to rest in the Trek universe. Permanently!

This season was so good I almost forgive Akiva Goldsman for ruining Batman. ALMOST.

And this episode should be made available to all showrunners – this is how you end a series.

One of the most recognizable and popular video games of all time is Tetris.

I felt so disappointed with S1, S2 was a little bit better, and S3 ruined my childhood and TNG series. The only good and the best thing about S3 was the return of Q. Did anyone really think he would “die”? lol

This was absolutely THE BEST season out of the 3 seasons of Picard! It is what it always should have been!! I loved this season! Wish they would do more. I totally agree with the commenter above saying Terry Matalas should helm more Star Trek projects. He absolutely hit it out of the ballpark with this! Oh and 1 more thing about Terry Matalas. I LOVED all the easter eggs from his TV Series 12 Monkeys! That was an absolutely amazing show also! You guys should definitely check it out!

1 thing I was really hoping for was the Kate Mulgrew would return as Admiral Kathryn Janeway. They kept name dropping her during the season and I was certain she would be in the finale. I guess they couldn’t work it out. It was Awesome to see Tuvok tho!! Hopefully they will do a spinoff of Voyager with Jeri Ryan, Kate Mulgrew, Tim Russ(Tuvok) and the rest.

A+++ to this entire season!!!

The return of Mulgrew as Admiral, this time; Ryan as Captain of the ex-Titan became Entreprise, Russ’s Tuvok as Janeway’s/Seven’s counselour would be great. But please, no more Chakotay or Harry Kim!

I was surprised by the snubb of the Doctor, though the whole 3 seasons. I mean, I’m pretty sure that Robert Picardo would have been happy to be called so what’s happened behind the scene? As for Mulgrew, it seems that she was stuck to Prodigy even if Picard and Prodigy are produced by Krutzman. But yes, I’d like seeing her return in a show.

I despise all the NuTrek for being mostly dumb(ed down) and hip. But Picard S3 was excellent. Yes, they overdid it with the nostalgia at times and yes, the finale did not quite live up to expecations (whatever does ?) but still. Even with its flaws, it was excellent !

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Den of Geek

Star Trek: Picard – Finale Explained and Season 3 Teases

Executive Producer Akiva Goldsman breaks down the big reveals of the Star Trek: Picard season 2 finale and what they mean for the show’s final season.

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Warning: This artic​​le contains Star Trek: Picard season 2 finale spoilers. 

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 10

Star Trek: Picard season 2 started with small, intimate moments, and in the end that’s where it ended. Along the way though Picard and the rest of the gang (are they even technically a crew?) went to an alternate universe, time traveled, prevented history from being altered, and even gave us some perfect moments where Raffi and Seven lived up to the motto, “be gay, do crimes.”

The final episode answered most of our questions but it’s fair if some of the big twists and reveals left you a bit confused. We sat down with Picard executive producer (and co-writer of the season finale) Akiva Goldsman to clear up some of these points. He even gave us some little hints of how it all will tie together with the show’s third and final season.

Does Q Love Picard?

Picard and Q have shared a strange relationship since the beginning of Star Trek: The Next Generation . For all the grief Q’s given Jean-Luc through the years he’s also helped him learn more about himself, such as the classic episode “Tapestry” where he let Picard see where another path in life would have taken him. This season of Picard started with the two at each other’s throats but ended with something that felt strangely tender, as Q tells Picard that even god’s have their favorites, as he warmly holds Picard’s face. 

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So is Q… in love with Picard?

Goldsman agrees that the final scene the two shared was supposed to be tender.

“I think he always has [loved him].”

Many of the ideas for the season sprung out of, as Goldsman explained to us when the show premiered , Picard’s lack of long term relationships. The writers realized that Picard and Q, as antagonistic as they’d been, had shared a long term relationship.

“Why is Q constantly chasing after Picard?” Goldsman asked himself. “I think it is because in his own god-like way, Q loved him.”

That love manifested in sending Picard on this mission through time in order to give him the “wisdom of insight.” The experiences as a whole helped Picard learn to love again and open himself up to others. 

Is Q Really Dead?

Q confirms to Picard that he’s dying and his last act before that is to send Picard and the others back, along with reviving Elnor. Does this mean Q is gone for good? Goldsman believes that “for now, Q is gone.”

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Of course in a long running franchise like Star Trek , death, especially for a god being, isn’t always permanent. However for the purposes of Star Trek: Picard , it seems Q is finally gone.

Picard and His Mom

That “wisdom of insight” Q gave Jean-Luc centered on learning more about his father and particularly his mother. For years Picard blamed his father for her death but it was revealed that she had actually committed suicide. All of this left deep scars on Picard, ones the writers were eager to explore as they hadn’t been previously touched on in the franchise.

“Trauma’s always a nice source of storytelling,” Goldsman explains. “It’s a strange thing to say but when you’re dealing with a character who’s 100, you can’t be facing something that happened last Thursday. You need to really be looking into something that’s going to impacting a life lived for that long.”

The time travel element of the story also helped reflect how people can get, “stuck in places in our life. By solving that trauma, we solve the story then we move forward.”

Some hardcore fans were left scratching their heads at this new backstory for Jean-Luc, particularly because in the first season TNG episode “Where No One Has Gone Before” we were shown a vision of Picard’s mother who was noticeably older. In Picard season 2, his mother died at a much younger age.

Goldsman reveals that they had planned to reference this discrepancy, with Picard imagining his mother as we’d seen her in the vision but it was “scrapped.” Goldsman and the other writers reasoned that the vision Picard had in that first season TNG episode, “was a fantasy” of what Picard had wished his mother had been like. (Some fans may point out a photo of Picard’s mother that depicted her as older was in Picard’s family album in Star Trek: Generations but it is barely seen on screen if at all.)

The Return of Wesley Crusher

Like all Star Trek these days, Picard was filled to the brim with Easter eggs and references but one that took everyone off guard was a cameo by former Next Generation character Wesley Crusher. At the end of that series he went off with The Traveler to explore the universe and, barring a blink and you’ll miss it cameo in Star Trek: Nemesis , hasn’t been seen again.

Here he reappears to Kore Soong and offers her a chance to work with him. It seems in the years since we’ve seen Wesley he’s not just been traveling the galaxy but keeping an eye on the timeline as well. 

The return of Wesley was an element the producers of Picard had been discussing for a long time but it wasn’t easy. Goldsman previously explained to us that all the showrunners of the various Trek shows get together and lay out their plans and during some of these meetings Goldsman and the Picard team had to fight to use Wesley.

“Never ever have I seen shows be fighting over a character the way they were Wesley,” he says. “Getting Wesley was such a big deal because he’s for us really important.”

But would all this fighting over the character happen for just a cameo? Does this explain why actor Wil Wheaton was noticeably absent from the returning TNG cast members for Picard Season 3 ? Was it all to disguise this cameo and Wesley will have a bigger role to play next season? Goldsman wouldn’t say but we have a suspicion this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Wesley.

The Travelers and Gary Seven

This season of Picard hasn’t just mined the well of TNG’s history but all of Star Trek. An intriguing pull was the idea that time traveler/secret agent Gary Seven, a famous one-off TOS character who was set to star in his own spin-off, was part of a much larger group that we got to see more of in Picard . Wesley’s appearance and the recruiting of Kore into the same group Gary Seven was a part of seemed to indicate that the beings overseeing it are The Travelers.

Goldsman confirms that this was the intent and that it’s part of trying to line up some of the different time traveling groups over the franchise.

“There are so many folks out there who seem to be screwing around with the timeline. Let’s at least line them up. That’s our full on retcon.”

The Transwarp Conduit

The biggest dangling story thread of the season involves a newly opened Transwarp Conduit thanks to the Federation and the Borg teaming up. A Transwarp Conduit that’s so big it’s something even Seven has never seen before. Goldsman is very tight-lipped about what this will mean for the future but hints that, “maybe there’s some setup there” for the future. 

A giant transwarp conduit, the Borg joining the Federation, and Picard finding new love? Plus we’ve got the announced return of the TNG cast? Picard season 3 has a lot of ground to cover.

Shamus Kelley | @ShamusWrites

For more from Shamus including original TV scripts visit www.ShamusKelley.com. He’s been a TV writer since 2009 when he created and executive produced the 21 JSR…

‘Star Trek: Picard’ Series Finale Sets the Stage for a Big Spinoff

By Alan Sepinwall

Alan Sepinwall

This post contains spoilers for the Picard series finale, “The Last Generation.”

When this third and final season of Picard debuted earlier this year, I wrote that while on the one hand it was shameless fan service , on the other this was exactly what Star Trek fans wanted and needed after the show’s first two years were so disappointing. Simply bringing back the entire crew of The Next Generation — and giving most of them much better and richer material than what they got to play back in the Eighties and Nineties — felt like more than enough, even if the season’s conspiracy plot was largely gibberish.

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On the whole, though, this is exactly what most Trekkies would have wanted from this season, and from Picard as a whole: one last chance to see these characters at their best, and to let the actors dig deeper into roles that were often much thinner than they should have been in the Eighties and Nineties.

Some more thoughts on the finale, and the season:

• The season used the Changelings from Deep Space Nine as red herring villains, finally roping the Borg back in for the last couple of episodes. This was a mixed bag, not only because it conflicted with what had happened previously on this very show, but because it feels like it is somehow always going to be the Borg with Jean-Luc. The Changelings were at least surprising, and also a small way for this season to pay homage to the wildly underrated Deep Space Nine , when otherwise it was made up of pieces of TNG and Voyager . (Heck, there was even an original series cameo of sorts, as Walter Koenig provided the voice of Pavel Chekov’s son, Anton — not a nod to playwright Anton Chekhov, but to the late Anton Yelchin , who played Pavel in the Chris Pine films.) Réne Auberjonois (whose Odo was the cleanest connection to the Changelings) has passed away, and Avery Brooks’ Ben Sisko is trapped in the wormhole, but couldn’t Nana Visitor have stopped by? (Colm Meaney who, like Michael Dorn, appeared on both TNG and DS9 , but was much more integral to the latter?) Plus, the nature of the Borg takeover of Starfleet made everyone — particularly Borg expert Elizabeth Shelby from the classic “Best of Both Worlds” two-parter — look very, very stupid.
• The relentless nostalgia did go over the line a bit at the end of the season’s penultimate episode, when Geordi brought his friends onto a rebuilt version of their old ship. Exciting as it was to see them back on the familiar Enterprise-D bridge, it didn’t feel like a time for gawking while the Borg had taken complete control of Starfleet and were preparing to destroy Earth.
• Boy, were Stewart and Michelle Forbes great together in the episode where Jean-Luc’s rebellious Bajoran protege Ro Laren returned. Ro was one of the better TNG recurring characters, and was meant to be the female lead on Deep Space Nine , but Forbes wasn’t crazy about committing years of her life to Star Trek . But she was very invested in the character here, and her argument with Jean-Luc about their former relationship was among the more complex pieces of old business the season did.
• Finally, before we see the Enterprise-D crew play one last round of cards together, we get set-up for a potential spinoff, where Seven of Nine is the captain of the newly-rechristened Enterprise-G, Raffi is her first officer, Geordi’s daughter Sidney remains at the helm, and the multi-talented but reckless Jack is, for now, the ship’s counselor. And later, he’s visited by his father’s old nemesis Q. (Q died at the end of Season Two, but Matalas picked and chose which aspects of the first two seasons he wanted to use and which he wanted to ignore.) On the whole, this feels like a mixed bag. Jeri Ryan can certainly carry a new series as the lead, and Ed Speelers had his moments as Jack, but Raffi has been a dud for three seasons now. If we do get a Seven-centric show, though, the good news is that it would keep pushing the timeline forward, where the otherwise-excellent Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks take place in the franchise’s past. 

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'Star Trek: Picard' Season 2 Ending Explained: Look Up

It's a hopeful conclusion that sets up a potential reunion in the show's final season.

Star Trek: Picard 's Season 2 finale has dropped, signifying a close to another chapter of Jean Luc Picard's ( Sir Patrick Stewart ) journey. With so many threads left dangling, "Farewell" manages to give closure to not only the timeless story between Picard and Q ( John de Lancie ), but also the stories of Borg Queen Jurati ( Alison Pill ), Cristobal Rios ( Santiago Cabrera ), and Elnor ( Evan Evagora ), likely to make way for the return of The Next Generation reunion in Picard 's final season.

But how does Picard return to the nexus event of the season? And what was the point of all of this?

RELATED: ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 2 Finale Review: Even Gods Have Favorites

Those that Came Before Us

After Rios forces Soong ( Brent Spiner ) to flee and the new Borg Queen leaves to the Delta quadrant, the team is left with one task to hopefully get home -- make sure that Renee Picard ( Penelope Mitchell ) successfully leaves with the Europa Mission. The team splits up — Picard sneaks into Tallinn's ( Orla Brady ) beam into the mission's quarantine zone after realizing that The Borg Queen's message that there must be 2 Renees and 1 must die was meant for her. After Tallinn dismisses Picard's attempt to save (and control) her life, she is able to reach Renee before Soong, using Romulan holographic technology to disguise herself as Renee. This allows Renee to make it on the mission, but Soong gives the disguised Romulan a neurotoxin. She dies in Picard's arms but successfully saves Renee. Q later reveals that this is the one reality where she gets to meet the Picard and shares a moment with her before her death.

Meanwhile, Raffi ( Michelle Hurd ), Seven of Nine ( Jeri Ryan ), and Rios find at Soong's residence 4 jerry-rigged missiles — a backup plan in case he isn't able to kill Renee. Thankfully, they're able to use the missiles to destroy each other, foiling all of Soong's plans to kill the Picard, foiling any chance he has of being powerful, wealthy, and respected in Q's alternate timeline. Bummer.

A Grand Tapestry

With Soong almost having lost everything, Kore ( Isa Briones ) decides to take the thing that he cares most about away — his research. She doesn't do this for herself, though — she does this for all the lives he created and lost due to his reckless experimentation. Little does she know that he has a physical folder remaining for a 'Khan Project.' Despite this, she still garners the attention of the Travelers, the group that both Tallinn and Wesley Crusher ( Wil Wheaton ) belong to. In an exciting and surprising cameo, The Being Formerly Known as Wesley Crusher greets Kore and gives her the pitch to become a supervisor, the same role Tallinn served for Renee Picard. Her life has never been safe, so she agrees.

Even Gods Have Favorites

After successfully completing their mission (or so they think), Picard and friends return to the Picard Château to lament over their success and what their future now holds. Picard decides to close the time loop and replace the key in the loose brick in the wall, leaving it for his young self to find in the future. This summons Q and the two have a final earnest heart-to-heart, more considerably down to earth than his usual theatrics.

Q reveals that the reason he put the events into place was for Picard to have an epiphany about his guilt over his mother's death. Since he is dying, Q feels the pain of doing so alone, yet still cares about Picard and doesn't want that for him as well. There's even an embrace, showing the true connection between these two characters garnered over 3 decades. Cue the tears. But despite Q's claims that there was no galactic size reason for this last game, only personal reasons, the trans-warp conduit waiting back for them in the future says otherwise.

After an emotional but incomprehensible hug and a chemistry-filled kiss between Raffi and Seven, Q uses the last of his remaining energy to end the trial and send Picard, Seven, and Raffi home and bring Elnor back to life. Rios decides to stay back in 2024, ultimately living his life out in the present-day timeline with Teresa ( Sol Rodriguez ) and her son. Guinan ( Whoopi Goldberg ) even confirms this at the end of the episode, confessing that she knew the whole time and hoped that all Picard needed was a push in the right direction.

Guardian at the Gates

After Picard and the crew return to the moment they left, Picard uses his new experiences to put together the Borg Queen's identity and stops the self-destruct sequence. Since Seven knows the most about the Borg, he gives her a field commission that she deserved after Voyager . The crowd goes wild!

Queen Jurati explains that they need to combine their fleet's shields with Starfleet's to protect the quadrant from the new mysterious conduit. Picard accepts and together they're able to save billions of lives in the galaxy. Even the Borg don't know who is behind the conduit with their 400-year jump start, but they are willing to monitor and study it as new provisional members of the Federation. With this new mysterious threat looming over The Next Generation reunion in Picard 's final season and potential upcoming seasons of Star Trek: Discovery , the finale ends with a hopeful, open-ended conclusion that sees Picard healed and perhaps ready to open his heart.

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Star Trek: Picard' s Finale Gives You Everything You Wanted, and That's No Longer a Problem

"the last generation" sends star trek: picard out with something it has craved since the very beginning: acceptance and understanding of itself..

A l ittle over three years ago, I said of Picard ’s first season finale that it gave its audience everything it wanted— and that that was a problem . Today, for its third and seemingly last season finale, I find myself wanting to tell you a similar thing. But I can’t, because while Picard ’s last goodbye does give you everything you wanted, I no longer think that it’s a detriment.

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The thing is, not a lot really happens in “The Last Generation.” A lot is happening—there’s spaceship dogfights, a threat against all of Earth, a ship turning into a base under siege as it gets in spaceship dogfights, Alice Krige’s Borg Queen borging it up, and the Enterprise -D defying all odds against its ginormous saucer structure to pull a Return of the Jedi Death Star II bombing run against a Borg Cube. All of these things are a lot , and they indeed are happening. But for all the spectacle and phaser-light shows that punctuate the vast majority of the episode, “The Last Generation” is at its heart a deceptively simple, earnest story. And that story is, to borrow the earlier Return of the Jedi parallel, kind of an inverse Star Wars riff wherein it is the father that must save the son, and reforge a familial link that has the power to face overwhelming odds.

What makes most of Picard ’s nostalgic overtures here work (a few are a bit groan-worthy, mostly in the sentimental epilogue that makes up the episode’s back third, which we’ll get to later) is that, beyond being in service of this simple core idea, at long last Picard itself is unabashed about the love it has for this world and these characters. For as surface level as a lot of this stuff is—it’s an hour-long action movie that has to do service to two separated groups of characters, and one of those groups is made up entirely of people who you might not ever see embody roles they have embodied for over three decades off and on again in such a manner—the show doesn’t question why this is happening. It knows why it’s happening. You want to see the Enterprise swirl through Borg fire, phasers flaring to match. You want to see Picard face the Borg Queen, who has haunted him for decades, and win . You want to see the TNG crew crack jokes with each other in the face of danger, because they’re comfortable with each other and love each other in such a way that even in the darkest of hours they shine brightly. You want big heroes giving big speeches and standing in front of a starship view screen, you want last-minute transporter beam-outs saving the day, and Picard finally, finally goes “oh go on, we want that too.”

There is no real convoluted reason for any of this, and although much of this last season has provided the set up for this hour of gleeful spectacle to happen, what happens here in the moment of “The Last Generation” is Picard letting itself go with the flow, and finally knowing what it really is all along: deeply, madly, fannishly in love with these characters. This might seem like a thing you could equally say in a derogatory fashion, and perhaps you could—especially as Picard has tried to do this before and it’s very much not worked, from season one routing all the interrogation of Starfleet and Picard himself in its final hour to season two , well... going off the deep end in a very different way. So why does “The Last Generation” succeed where they failed? Because there is no middle ground here, no time for half measures. You have Patrick Stewart and the main cast of The Next Generation together on screen for what could be the final time? You go for it . Hell, you throw in Federation President Anton Chekov, son of Pavel, played by Walter Koenig, just because you can!

And by keeping things as simple as it does—while the Titan faces off against both its assimilated youth and the corrupted fleet turning on Earth’s defenses, Picard has to infiltrate the Borg Cube and rescue a now fully assimilated Jack from the clutches of the Queen— Picard allows itself to marinate in its characters as much as it does the razzle-dazzle of phaser beams and explosions. It gives time to have Geordi, Beverly, Troi, Riker, Worf, and Data not just be heroes but be comfortable with each other, connected in the same ways Jack seeks to be and believes he could find in the rebirth of the Borg, but ultimately finds in his father earnestly reaching out to him, being willing to almost sacrifice himself up to the scars of his time as Locutus if it means connecting to his son. It’s those connections that save the day: Picard breaking through to Jack; Geordi and his friends putting their faith in Data to pilot the Enterprise through to the heart of the Borg ship to save Riker, Worf, Picard and Jack—and Deanna trusting her connection to Riker to guide the ship to them. The remaining crew of the Titan puts their faith in Seven to stand up to the assimilated Starfleet and buy the time needed to pull off the impossible.

Everything is wrapped up just as simply, and perhaps even a little too conveniently, but in a way it feels like Picard begrudgingly accepts this as well. Stopping the Borg Queen reviving the collective with her greatest enemy was never really the point, so it essentially being stopped by blowing up an off switch is fine. It’s the characters and their bonds that were the real heart of it, and “The Last Generation” celebrates that lovingly—and that’s even before its bittersweet epilogue. As the dust settles and we jump ahead a year (just as conveniently, so we can have Starfleet and Earth back to normal), everything is as it should be. Dr. Crusher, now Admiral Crusher, has stopped running from her friends, and now leads Starfleet’s medical wing. Her son, free of the Collective, has followed in his parents’ footsteps for real and joined Starfleet. Seven of Nine, in a wonderful scene for Voyager fans, finally re-unites in the same room with Tim Russ’ Tuvok and is officially instated as c aptain of the Ti -oh, sorry, the Enterprise -G (this, this is the groanworthy fanservice, I feel. The disrespect to the Enterprise -F!). And Jack and Raffi, the actual Next Generation, will be beside her.

And then there’s them. The crew. They’re going their separate ways—Riker and Troi retired and going on a much needed vacation, Worf has exited the shadows of i ntelligence work to instead lecture, Geordi is back at the Fleet museum, and Data, Beverly, and Picard have all seemingly decided to stick around with Starfleet in various capacities too. But for one last night, they gather a round after a night at Ten Forward for a game of poker. Heroes of times passed, friends of the here and now and of the future, as the triumphant blare of the Next Generation theme plays out legends. It’s a fitting end for these revered figures, suitably balancing that fine line between finality and potential openness. A post-credits scene has other plans to make things not so final with a tip-of-the-hat nod to the Legacy demands, as a surprisingly returned Q blips aboard the Enterprise -G to inform young Mr. Crusher that while his father’s trial is over, his is just beginning. B ut it doesn’t take away from the overall conclusion “The Last Generation” places over three and a half decades of history here—a fitting embrace of the past, that doesn’t forget the potential of the future.

It’s farewell from Star Trek: Picard . And at long last, it’s earned it.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel , Star Wars , and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who .

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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

I'm breathing a sigh of relief.

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.

Star Trek: Picard's Showrunner Reveals The True Purpose Of The Show's Ending, And It Actually Makes Me Optimistic About A Follow-Up

Star Trek: Picard Wrapped Up The Story For Patrick Stewart’s Character, But Now He May Be Getting A New Movie, And I Have Mixed Feelings

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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Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.

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Exploring a Unique Dynamic: Jennifer Hetrick’s Vash in a Potential Love Triangle with Q and Picard on Star Trek TNG

T here was an intriguing concept once floated around the offices of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” which involved a potential love triangle. The show’s producer, Michael Piller, reminisces about the rerun days when TV Guide, a primary source for television programming, regularly featured the show’s episodes in their Close-Ups highlight section. One episode that consistently caught the eye of TV Guide was “Qpid,” often flagged for rerun viewership.

“Every time it’s in TV Guide this episode gets a Close-Up. […] I’m not sure why. I just think we came up with the idea of a love triangle between Q, Picard, and Vash, and to bring her and Q together, which I thought was a great premise. But we couldn’t lick it. It came together in a meeting with Ira Behr, who had created Vash […]”

The concept for this love triangle was a brainteaser for the creators. Ira Stephen Behr, a producer and writer on TNG, was instrumental in developing this story. Though his contributions to TNG were significant, Behr left “Next Generation” after feeling constrained creatively. Despite this, he maintained a positive relationship with the franchise, later becoming the head showrunner for “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” where he continued his prolific contributions with 53 episode scripts.

While “Qpid” featured both Vash (played by Jennifer Hetrick) and Q, the love triangle did not fully manifest. As Piller recounts, it was Brannon Braga, a staff writer, who suggested the Sherwood Forest scenario that made it into the final script.

FAQ – Potential Love Triangle in Star Trek TNG

Which characters were supposed to be involved in the love triangle on star trek tng.

The intended love triangle was to involve Q, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and the character Vash, who was portrayed by actress Jennifer Hetrick.

Why didn’t the love triangle between Q, Picard, and Vash fully develop on the show?

According to Michael Piller, although they liked the idea of a love triangle, the creative team wasn’t able to “lick it,” meaning they couldn’t quite figure out how to make the concept work effectively within an episode.

Who came up with the concept for the Sherwood Forest scenario in the episode “Qpid”?

Staff writer Brannon Braga was the one who suggested the Robin Hood-themed Sherwood Forest angle for the episode “Qpid.”

Did Ira Behr continue to work on Star Trek after leaving the Next Generation?

Yes, Ira Behr transitioned to become the head showrunner of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” following his departure from “Next Generation.”

What was the TV Guide’s Close-Up section?

TV Guide’s Close-Up section highlighted notable TV episodes for the week and often mentioned TNG reruns, specifically the episode “Qpid.”

The notion of featuring Jennifer Hetrick’s Vash within a complicated dynamic involving Q and Captain Picard is an intriguing one that never fully came to fruition on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” These behind-the-scenes insights into vast creativity and collaboration highlight the complexities involved in producing a beloved series like TNG. While some ideas may not reach the screens, their stories resonate with fans, keeping the Star Trek universe ever-expanding and fascinating. The episode “Qpid,” although lacking the envisioned love triangle, remains a testament to the collective imagination and storytelling prowess of the show’s writers and producers.

The post Exploring a Unique Dynamic: Jennifer Hetrick’s Vash in a Potential Love Triangle with Q and Picard on Star Trek TNG appeared first on Kevin Hearld .

Every Episode of Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Ranked

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 was a varied and emotionally heavy season, and here's how critics and fans ranked each episode in the time-travel saga.

This article contains a brief mention of suicide.

The return of Jean-Luc Picard to the Star Trek universe was always meant to be a three-season affair. The second season was filmed during the height of the pandemic, and went through many iterations under the direction of three executive producers. In more ways than one, it was a tonal shift from the seasons on either side of it. How critics and fans ranked every episode of Star Trek: Picard Season 2 shows how challenging and contentious the middle chapter of this saga was. The story explored time travel, introduced an alternate timeline, and was bookended by a massively important moment in Starfleet's present.

Picard Season 2 was an emotionally heavy season with a clear political point of view and a sense of fun that comes with setting sci-fi characters in the contemporaneous present. In both the special features of The Complete Star Trek: Picard home release and the making-of book Star Trek: Picard: The Art and Making of the Series , the challenges in making this season are laid bare. With Rotten Tomatoes representing the critics and IMDB's user ratings representing the audience, each episode of Star Trek: Picard Season 2 is ranked based on the story it told and the impact it had on both the characters and audience.

10 The Picard Season 2 Premiere Was Full of Promise

Star trek: picard season 2, episode 1 "the star gazer", star trek theory: picard retconned the divisive enterprise series finale.

Of all Star Trek: Picard 's ten sophomore episodes, "The Star Gazer" ranks the highest among its peers in Season 2 . It's a fantastic beginning to the story, which both ties up loose ends from Season 1 and sets the characters on a new adventure. Most importantly, however, it brings Starfleet back into the fold in a big way. Picard delivers a Starfleet Academy commencement address, and he is then summoned to the USS Stargazer to answer a plea for help.

The episode sends off Soji, an ambassador for her synthetic siblings on the galactic stage. Dr. Agnes Jurati is with her, but quickly beams aboard the Stargazer, commanded by (her ex) Captain Cristobal Rios. Raffi, Elnor and Laris return, the first two also in Starfleet and the latter still with Jean-Luc but yearning for something more. It ends with the return of Q who, at the last moment, whisks Picard away from certain death.

9 Picard Season 2 Almost Took Place in an Alternate Timeline

Star trek: picard season 2, episode 2, "penance".

The first two episodes of Star Trek: Picard Season 2 debuted the same day, so it makes sense they are ranked close together. The strange new world this episode introduces may be why some viewers became disillusioned with the rest of the season's 21st Century setting. Executive Producer Terry Matalas said on Inglorious Treksperts that this episode mostly came from the Season 1 showrunner Michael Chabon before he left to adapt one of his novels for Paramount.

The characters were meant to spend more time in this alternate timeline , which reveres Adam Soong, one of many Brent Spiner lookalikes related to the creation of Data. The Earth is ravaged by climate change and seems very similar to the xenophobic Mirror Universe. Picard, Raffi, Seven of Nine, Elnor, Jurati and Rios have to bust a Borg Queen out of prison so that they can time travel and fix the past. Still, it might have been fun to spend more time in this evil, alternate future.

8 Season 2 Teamed Picard Up With a Character Tying TOS to TNG

Star trek: picard season 2, episode 5, "fly me to the moon".

Actor Orla Brady played Laris, who is absent from the season save for the first and final episodes. However, she returned to the cast as Talinn, the Romulan successor to Gary Seven from The Original Series . The character known as a "Watcher" was introduced as a potential spinoff from Gene Roddenberry for NBC. While it didn't take off, it did create an interesting bit of Star Trek lore. While Gary Seven was a human with access to advanced alien technology, Talinn is a Romulan tasked with protecting the timeline on Earth.

Laris is primarily responsible for the safety of Renée Picard, ancestor of Jean-Luc and the woman who discovers "a sentient microbe" on Europa that helps fix climate change. It's also the episode where the other political storyline (Rios and the present-day "Butterflies" being persecuted by ICE for helping undocumented migrants) are broken out of custody in a fun action sequence. It's also the episode where Agnes is injected with Borg nanoprobes by the queen, setting up the next episode in the Star Trek: Picard Season 2 ranked list.

7 A Gala, a Sassy Borg Queen and a Musical Number Shook Up Picard Season 2

Star trek: picard season 2, episode 6, "two of one", 'keep being noisy': picard star provides star trek: legacy update.

This version of the Borg Queen was played by Annie Wersching , who passed away in January 2023 from cancer. Great throughout the series, this episode features the Borg Queen and Jurati sharing a mind. As the Borg Queen tries to take over her body (reliant on emotional responses for control), the two make a great inside woman as they help Team Picard sneak into a gala. Allison Pill also does a rendition of the great Pat Benatar song, "Shadows of the Night."

"Two of One" doesn't just refer to the Borg-ified Jurati, either. This episode features Jean-Luc have a touching heart-to-heart conversation with his ancestor Renée. They are also two of a kind. Picard also faces off with Adam Soong, though he runs the Admiral down with his car. Because of his synthetic body, Rios, Raffi and his friends take him to Dr. Teresa Ramirez, leader of the Butterflies and physician who doesn't ask a lot of questions.

6 Picard Season 2 Does 'Star Trek: The Voyage Home'

Star trek: picard season 2 episode 3, "assimilation".

The third episode of Picard Season 2 is ranked high because it continued the breakneck pace established by the first two episodes. Team Picard time travels to the past with the help of the Borg queen, presenting the third new locale for the series: the 21st Century . However, this is where the bulk of the season takes place, much like Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was mostly set in the then-contemporaneous present.

A lot happened in this episode. Seven of Nine and Raffi try to blend in to the 21st Century and scan for a person using technology too advanced for the time. Rios is meant to help, but he's injured and ends up in a clinic with Dr. Teresa Ramirez and her son Ricardo, who are eventually arrested by ICE. Agnes and Picard try to outwit the Borg Queen. However, the most important moment in the episode was the death of Elnor. Fatally wounded by Seven of Nine's alternate timeline husband, his death devastates Raffi.

5 Guinan Brought the Return of an Old Friend With a New Face

Star trek: picard season 2 episode 4, "watcher".

Whoopi Goldberg's affable bartender Guinan returned in the Picard Season 2 premiere , but the character returned in a big way played by Ito Aghayere. The first episode established that Guinan, an ageless El Aurian, can alter her appearance to older or younger as she sees fit. Picard has to convince her to help him save humanity, even though she doesn't think Earthlings are worth the effort.

This is the episode which focuses most heavily on the immigration story in Season 2, with Rios in ICE custody trying to explain why he has no identification. As Seven of Nine and Raffi try to find him, they discover how migrants can fall through the cracks of the system. This plays out while juxtaposed with Guinan's condemnation of humanity. However, Picard is able to make a plea based on what he knows of where humanity can go in the future, in a very Roddenberry-esque Star Trek moment.

4 Picard and Guinan Find Mercy and Vulcans from Agent Wells

Star trek: picard season 2 episode 8, "mercy", star trek's wil wheaton wants a crusher brothers spinoff series.

Introduced at the end of the previous episode, Jay Karnes makes his return to Star Trek . Having previously played a time agent in Star Trek: Voyager , in Picard Season 2, he plays FBI Agent Wells, who is a firm believer in alien activity and arrests both Guinan and Picard based on video footage he has of the latter transporting onto the street. He questions them both, threatening the mission and the timeline. It's revealed that he had a pre- First Contact Vulcan encounter as a child . He ultimately lets Picard and Guinan go, seemingly fired for bringing them in at all.

Meanwhile, the Borg Queen has control of Agnes, and Seven of Nine and Raffi have to try to find and capture her. They find her consuming metals from car batteries, which is toxic to Agnes, but is what the Borg Queen needs to assimilate more people. She doesn't kill Seven or Raffi, proving Agnes still has some measure of control. Borg Jurati then goes to Adam Soong, convincing him to help her steal La Sirena and strand Team Picard in the 21st Century.

3 Season 2 Brought Picard Face-to-Face With His Greatest Fear and Regret

Star trek: picard season 2 episode 7, "monsters".

This episode is ranked one of the lowest by Picard viewers, and it's understandable. Not a lot happens in the episode, despite the introduction of James Callis as a hallucination of a therapist and Picard's father . This episode dives deeply into the memories of guilt and the mystery of what happened to Jean-Luc's mother. It's emotionally heavy and does somewhat lag on the breathless urgency of trying to find Agnes and stop Adam Soong.

Still, this is an emotionally powerful episode that recontextualizes what viewers have been seeing about Picard's past. His father is revealed to not be the abusive villain fans thought. Picard's mother is not a victimized woman trying to be free, but rather someone suffering from mental illness or injury. It's a traumatic, frightening event and (with help of Watcher Talinn and some sci-fi telepathic technology), Picard works through it.

2 The New Borg Were the Best Thing Picard Season 2 Brought to Star Trek

Star trek: picard season 2 episode 10, "farewell".

While the finale of Picard Season 2, "Farewell" is mostly about denouement, outside of the last mission to ensure that Adam Soong doesn't kill Renée Picard. Talinn sacrifices herself. Rios decides to stay behind in the 21st Century. Wesley Crusher returns as a Watcher , and Q and Picard have a final heart-to-heart chat, just before he sends them all back to the proper future. He's even able to resurrect Elnor since he had a little power left over because Rios stayed behind.

The best part of the finale was the reveal that Agnes Jurati was the Borg Queen from the first episode of Picard Season 2. With the alternate timeline Borg Queen, she created a new kind of collective. People choose to join the Borg, and even retain some measure of individuality . These new Borg agree to stand guard against a rupture in spacetime through which an unknown threat has yet to emerge. They become provisional members of the Federation, continuing the Star Trek tradition of old enemies, eventually becoming allies.

1 Star Trek's Most Emotionally Heavy Episode Is About Picard's Guilt

Star trek: picard season 2 episode, "hide and seek".

The penultimate episode of Star Trek: Picard Season 2 is a massive episode, both for its action and its emotional weight. There is a big battle at Chateau Picard where the new Jurati Borg assimilate mercenaries hired by Adam Soong. They try to kill Picard and his friends, but Agnes eventually convinces the Queen to try a different way than she had in the past, since in every timeline assimilation and violence leads to the Borg's destruction.

Most importantly, this episode reveals how Picard's mother died and why Jean-Luc felt so much guilt for it. His father locked her in a room to stop her from hurting herself. Jean-Luc unlocked the door and went to lie with his mother and comfort her. After he fell asleep, she took her own life. As much as Picard Season 2 was about fixing the past, outsmarting the Borg and other Star Trek things, Picard's revelation was the true mission . He had to forgive himself by letting go of the guilt that kept him at arm's length from people and preparing him to be a father.

The complete Star Trek: Picard is available to own on Blu-ray, DVD, digital and streams on Paramount+ .

Star Trek: Picard

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 pits the iconic Admiral against his greatest nemesis Q for a time-travel adventure that exposes Jean-Luc's deepest secret.

Screen Rant

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