Early indications were the upcoming third season of “Star Trek: Picard” will be the swan song of the entire “Star Trek: The Next Generation” crew.
Then, more recently, there’s been hints that those involved, including Patrick Stewart along with other cast members and showrunner Terry Metalas, would be up for more should the new run be well-received.
Whilst the first two seasons of the series scored a mixed response, the new run is being seen as something of a reset and more akin to the classic ‘Next Generation’ series. Gone are most of the new faces, back are all the old ones, and Metalas takes over as full showrunner after splitting duties with Akiva Goldsman on the second.
During a recent interview with SFX Magazine (via GamesRadar), Metalas hints that even if they do another season, not all the crew will make it out safely from the final run:
“They certainly did have a great time and they certainly all would love to do this again. I think there are ways of seeing these characters again, in a kind of Next, Next Generation story.
Not all these characters – I’m not gonna say they all necessarily make it out safely of season three. But I will say that in science fiction, there are always ways of seeing people again. So of course, who wouldn’t want to do this forever?
I’m the first person to say these stories, in this time period, particularly this Picard timeline, in a post-Berman [producer Rick] universe, could continue. That’s certainly where I’m the most passionate at the moment… it will really be up to the fans to decide if they want to see more. Star Trek has always been up to the fans.”
One of the complaints of “Picard” so far has been its format – heavily serialised as opposed to TNG’s episodic nature. A return to episodic Trek with “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” was very well-received last year. Here, Matalas hints the new run aims to recapture the show’s spirit but indicates it’s still essentially a film turned TV series:
“It honours what came before, it honours the spirit of the characters, but also takes into account that it’s been over 20 years since we’d last seen many of them. Storytelling and serialised television has changed since then, so we do both.
If you’re looking to feel like these are the Next Gen characters that you grew up with, you will see them everywhere. If you’re looking for something a little new, well, you get to catch up with them in unexpected ways as well. But you will get those Next Gen feels back for sure. But it’s the next step in their journey. It feels like a feature film, a final feature film.”
Screeners of the first six episodes of the new season have been sent out to the press in the past 24 hours, according to Matalas, who has been retweeting the gushing early social media reaction so far.
The “Star Trek: Picard” third season is set for launch on Paramount+ in the U.S. and Amazon Prime internationally on February 16th.
