THIS IS IT, TREKKERS. THIS IS THE Big One. Twenty years since we last saw the Next Generation cast together in Star Trek: Nemesis, the original crew are back for one final hurrah. But is it final and will you be saying hurrah? The answers, in turn, are “hopefully not” and “most definitely yes.”
This is Star Trek on a scale that you’ve never seen before – to a point where showrunner and writer Terry Matalas has previously stated that perhaps he would’ve actually called it Star Trek: Legacy rather than Picard. That particular legacy spans not only The Next Generation and Voyager, but also Deep Space Nine, such is the scope of what Matalas and his team bring to screens globally in February.
Long before spin-off series Picard was even announced, the creative discussion was always that it would not be a continuation or direct sequel to The Next Generation. So when the returning cast were announced in April 2022, it’s fair to say people were a little bit excited. However, Matalas soon shuts down the idea that Picard was always heading towards a reunion of the Enterprise-E crew in its third and final season.
“No, it wasn’t,” he reveals. “There wasn’t really a plan. When I came aboard on season two, Alex [Kurtzman] and Akiva [Goldsman, executive producers], were always thinking about each one of these seasons being a different story.
“So while we were working on season two, we weren’t thinking ahead, aside from maybe some starship sets, to season three. So about halfway through shooting season two, when it was
