Setting Specifics for Picard Season 3
With the season two finale of Star Trek: Picard having aired a couple of weeks ago, it’s almost time to turn the page to the third and final season of the show. What’s known so far is that it will feature cast members from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The returning actors will include Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, and LeVar Burton. They will star alongside Sir Patrick Stewart, his Picard co-stars Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd, and Q actor John De Lancie.
Starship-Based Adventure
A press release issued on 5th April said Season 3 will be a “starship-bound adventure.” Recently, Picard Executive Producer Terry Matalas has revealed some clues about what this might entail.
Over the weekend following the release of the Season 2 Picard finale, Matalas posted on Twitter a short video in which he half-jokingly asks a group of visitors to the set not to sit in the command chairs unless their name is “Terry” or “Doug” (the latter referencing Doug Aarniokoski). Matalas has also, since September, shared numerous photos of an unknown Starfleet vessel, which will be a setting in the third season. We saw the USS Stargazer in the second-season premiere and finale, which led some fans to suspect the Stargazer will appear again.
However, Matalas was quick to respond to a fan’s question about the video, clarifying that the ship in it is not the Stargazer. Redresses of standing sets to represent various Federation ships is nothing new in Star Trek, dating as far back as The Original Series. Matalas also gave a hint of when Season 3 will be set – a little over a year will have passed since the end of Season 2.
Matalas has also clarified that the Prime Timeline version of La Sirena – which was under the command of Seven of Nine and the Fenris Rangers in the Season 2 premiere – still exists. It is unclear if it will appear in Season 3 or not.
We do know that the blaster beam, an unusual musical instrument which gave V’Ger scenes in Star Trek: The Motion Picture their distinctive sound, will be returning for the third season of Picard. So, is this an indication that V’Ger itself will be returning? This is indeed a possibility, but the blaster beam has been used in many other contexts and productions too, so maybe not.
Season 3 “Not a Walk Down Memory Lane,” Says Patrick Stewart
Sir Patrick Stewart had at first been skeptical about his TNG castmates returning, as he told Variety. “It would seem to me that it would be paying too much attention to the fan appreciations of what Next Generation had meant to them,” he explained. “I know how intense the social reconnections can be. But when we talked about it, when I talk to Akiva [Goldsman] about it and my fellow producers and the other writers, I could see that it could be done without rewinding the clock. There was no reason for us to walk down memory lane in every scene. Not at all. And the brilliant thing the writers did in Season 3 is that they engaged the cast of Next Generation. But that’s as much as I’m allowed to say.”
Stewart was also very cryptic about how often we’ll get to see his TNG co-stars during Season 3, which wrapped production in March. Concerning the regularity of their involvement, he stated, “That is a question I can’t answer… But every single one of my leading colleagues from Next Generation will be in Season 3 at different times.”
One cast member from TNG, Gates McFadden, revealed that she is in at least six episodes. This will mark at least seven appearances of the character in modern Trek – six (at least) in Picard and one animated appearance, in the Star Trek: Prodigy episode “Kobayashi”.
Although Brent Spiner will be returning for Season 3 too, it’s unclear what role he’ll be playing. When a fan asked Matalas about this, he replied that Spiner will be portraying someone other than Altan Inigo Soong or Lore – whom the fan had suggested as possibilities.
A Picard Season 3 teaser trailer released on 5 April revealed Picard writing a note to someone, though it was unclear who it was addressed to. Speculation was abound aplenty as to the recipient, until Terry Matalas revealed – on 15 May, via Twitter – that the recipient of the note was Geordi La Forge.
A fan asked Matalas if the Season 3 villain was someone we knew already or someone brand new. Matalas responded by saying it will be a brand new character, but played by someone “you’ve seen a million times before.” He also clarified it’s someone he’s “always wanted to work with.”
Seasons 1 and 2 of Star Trek: Picard are now streaming. Season 3 does not have a release date, but it is expected sometime in 2023.
Wes Huntington has been a Star Trek fan since he was born, thanks to his parents (both of whom are still very much alive and are big Trek fans themselves). He lives in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area, with his wife and cat. He is also a co-host of the Twin Cities Trekkies podcast, which launched in February 2021 and talks about all things Star Trek. You can find Twin Cities Trekkies via Facebook, Instagram, or anchor.fm/twincitiestrekkies.