In celebration of “Captain Picard Day” on June 16, the Inglorious Treksperts podcast released an interview with Terry Matalas, the current showrunner for Star Trek: Picard whose illustrious career started in the Berman-era of Star Trek, and has continued through critically acclaimed shows like 12 Monkeys.
The interview with Mark A. Altman and Daren Dochterman was wide-ranging, covering the full extent of Terry’s career. But given Matalas is deep in post-production for Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard right now, the discussion trended in that direction — and Matalas had some very revealing comments to make about the upcoming third and final year of the show.
Most significantly, Matalas made his most extensive comments yet on the rumors of other legacy characters from the Star Trek universe who may appear in the final season, beyond the returning main cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation:
“There are some people from ‘Star Trek’ who come back in this season who aren’t the ‘Next Gen’ [primary] cast. I mean there’s one character who is in ‘Next Gen’ who I was like… I really want THIS character to come back.
And when they did [agree to return], that was weirdly more thrilling than everything else in totality.”
And when asked if Matalas had plans to stick around and produce any more content for the Star Trek universe — after Picard signs off for good — the showrunner offered this cryptic response:
“Uhh…. uhh…. [pause] …if this was a printed interview, you’d say, ‘The showrunner smiled devilishly.’
I think, to me, this is a period of time in the ‘Star Trek’ universe I’d love to spend more time in. There’s nothing less than 30 legacy characters across ‘Deep Space Nine,’ ‘Voyager’ and ‘Next Gen’ that you’d love to check in and see — you can’t get to them all in [‘Picard’] Season 3.
We don’t get to Miles O’Brien. I’d love to get to Miles O’Brien! There are people though — I could say one name to you right now that comes back, and [you’d be] like, ‘Oh my god, I want to know what happens!’
You’re going to find out. So I would love nothing more than to stay in the 2401 year to tell more ‘Star Trek’ stories in this universe… so that’s all I will say.”
But Matalas did acknowledge some hard choices had to made about inclusion of the original Star Trek: Picard cast in Season 3 as a result of the incoming legacy actors; Evan Evagora (Elnor), Isa Briones (Soji), Alison Pill (Jurati), and Santiago Cabera (Rios) all departed as series regulars after Season 2.
Said Matalas about the upcoming 10-episode run:
“We just don’t have infinite cash — or run time — to do justice to infinite characters.”
However, that does not mean that Picard’s last season won’t feature any new characters as the show heads towards its ultimate conclusion; the writer/producer shared how he sees the closing chapter of the show as the beginning of a new era for Trek storytelling.
“Season 3 is very much the passing of the torch from one generation to the next. I love the moment where old Bones is walking around the Enterprise with Data [in “Encounter at Farpoint”]. I love when Spock came on [in “Unification”] and had that arc with Picard.
The tapestry feels much richer when that happens. I think there are opportunities to tell the story of the next generation that crosses with the last.”
Speaking of the returning cast, Matalas spoke at length about his recruiting process that lead to the return of Patrick Stewart’s Next Gen co-stars, as Jonathan Frakes (Riker), Michael Dorn (Worf), Gates McFadden (Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Troi), LeVar Burton (La Forge) are set to join their former captain (and Brent Spiner, in an undisclosed role) for one final adventure.
“Say what you will about ‘Nemesis’ — good or bad — it didn’t feel like the end of those characters. They needed a send off and that was the core pitch to Patrick, and to all of them.
I called every one of them and talked about their characters, where you think their characters are, and I want to send you all off; I thought ‘Star Trek VI’ was a pretty great send off for the [Original Series] crew.”
He also shared some insight into those discussions with a few of the returning Trek stars:
“I wanted to make sure that [Gates McFadden] really had a very strong story. [Beverly Crusher is] a fascinating character who let her son go off into the universe who once had a romantic relationship with Captain Picard — and where [is that relationship] now?
LeVar [Burton] made me cry. There was a moment where I pitched what happened to Geordi, and he was so emotional that I got emotional… I was like, ‘Okay, this is one of those cool moments.’
Jonathan [Frakes] was [directing] on Season 2 with me, and I said ‘Hey, I have this idea. I want to tell you about Riker… and it’s a LOT of Riker.’ Frakes is fantastic in Season 3. We wrote to Jonathan [as an actor], so he has that sparkle in his eye throughout the whole thing.”
Matalas also promised that the final year of Picard would see the reappearance of the iconic, mushroom-shaped Spacedock orbital facility introduced in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and that the season’s music would have a highly cinematic quality — akin to Star Trek film scores of the likes of Jerry Goldsmith or James Horner.
Finally, the writer reflected on the entirety of Star Trek: Picard’s three-season run, now that every shot is filmed and things are headed towards the finish line:
“In a weird way, ‘Picard’ has become an anthology, in that Season 1 is very different from Season 2 — from Michael [Chabon’s] vision to Akiva [Goldsman’s] deep dive — to Season 3, [which] is different from those two.
All of them, though, [have] the focus of Picard, now dealing with some emotional aspect of his life that’s important.”
But just when will the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard make its way to viewers?
While there has been some speculation towards an early 2023 arrival from both fans and Star Trek cast alike, Matalas wouldn’t offer any answers: “That is above my pay grade,” he said, “I do not know.”
To listen to the entire hour-plus interview, head over to Inglorious Treksperts or play using the embedded controls above.
Star Trek: Picard is currently in post-production on its third and final season, which will eventually be available on Paramount+ the United States, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Outside of North America, the series is available on Amazon’s Prime Video service in most international locations.
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