One of the best, most rewarding things to ever happen to Star Trek is putting Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard into showrunner Terry Matalas’ hands.
 
There is life before and life after watching what the lifelong Star Trek fan and co-creator of the 12 Monkeys television series and his collaborators have done with the iconic heroes from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Here, these heroes reunite for what’s billed as one last voyage, and it’s simultaneously their most epic and intimate adventure yet.
 
By investing the entire ensemble with the kind of drama and big emotional stakes that are usually reserved for just the heads on a movie poster, Star Trek: Picard’s much-anticipated third season finally delivers on all the promise that the first two fell frustratingly short of — and by reaching back into the franchise’s past and mining the emotional depths of these characters in ways fans have never seen before, Matalas proves that the future of both this series and Trek at large would do well with more compelling and heartfelt trips like this to the Final Frontier.
 

The below contains minor spoilers for PICARD Season 3.

The first six episodes of this latest voyage have been screened for critics, kicking off with the appropriately-titled “The Next Generation,” which announces its 25th Century setting (in a nod to Nick Meyer’s Wrath of Khan) before dropping in on Dr. Beverly Crusher (a never-better Gates McFadden) as she struggles to defend her medical ship — and its mysterious human cargo — from masked intruders (as previewed in the Season 3 trailers).

After a fierce exchange of phaser rifle fire, Crusher scrambles to send a message to the only person that can help her, someone she hasn’t seen in over 20 years: Jean-Luc Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart). The retired Admiral and former Enterprise captain is unable to ignore the encoded call for help, and he must get the band back together and help their old friend. His first stop? Former first officer, Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes, in a career-best performance).

But this Riker is unlike the guy fans are used to seeing; he’s broken (not sprained) after the recent loss of his child — a story told in Season 1’s “Nepenthe” — that’s created a rift between him and his wife, Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis). With Will more than happy to put off his grieving a little longer, he helps Picard get a starship to search for Beverly — who is in a part of space that Starfleet isn’t exactly keen on boldly going to.

As seen in the Season 3 trailers, once aboard the refitted USS Titan-A, lots of sparks (and cutting banter) ensues when Picard meets Captain Shaw (Todd Stashwick), who subverts our expectations by showing that he has little patience and zero tolerance for the retiree’s unique (and exhausting) brand of heroics. With Shaw seemingly being more foe than ally, and with Shaw’s first officer — Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) — caught between her friend and her pain-in-the-ass commanding officer, Picard and Riker find themselves unaccustomedly on their back foot and desperately behind on their rescue plans.

“The Next Generation” should be regarded as a standardbearer when it comes to revisiting IP and making it more than just a nostalgic cash grab. Like Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country did for the Original Series crew, this episode drops the Next Gen-ers into a riveting mystery with a ticking clock, one that’s full of surprising character flourishes and a grounded exploration of the toll saving the galaxy takes.

Everyone involved seems to have mixed the best parts of the Rick Berman era of Trek with that of producer Harve Bennett’s run on the first five Trek feature films, to give Picard Season 3 the exact amount of whatever these characters need to complete their story.

Musical and visual callbacks to past Treks are subtle and earned, and should help get rid of the negative stigma associated with “fan service.” And the performances from the TNG regulars, especially McFadden and Frakes, are more nuanced and compelling than anything these actors have done across seven seasons and four movies. As for newcomer Ed Speleers, his movie-star charisma could power a starship. While his character’s appearance is brief in “Next Generation,” the episode does a brilliant job setting him up as a key piece of the high-stakes puzzle Picard must solve as his role in Season 3 grows as the episodes continue.

Early in the premiere episode, an introspective Picard states that he is a man who doesn’t need that which he already has: A legacy. If Star Trek: Picard Season 3 is indeed the last time we will see this sci-fi icon in action, it’s hard to imagine a more satisfying note for that legacy to end on.

Phil Pirrello is a writer whose work has appeared in The Hollywood Reporter, SyFy Wire, The A.V. Club, and more. He was also the moderator of December’s WGA West Star Trek writers reunion.

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 will debut February 16 on Paramount+ the United States, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. It will debut internally on Paramount+ on February 17 in the UK, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The series is also available on Amazon’s Prime Video service in most other international locations.