When the third season of Star Trek: Picard premiers it will see The Next Generation cast reunite one last time as three cast members talk about what fans can expect.

Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered in syndication in September of 1987 and would run for seven seasons ending in May of 1994. Paramount would then move the show to the big screen for four movies of their own the last one being Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002. Nemesis would end up failing at the box office and with critics and while it did give fans somewhat of a finally for the characters with the death of Data, Riker taking command of the Titan and Troi joining him it never really felt like a proper conclusion like Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country did for the original crew.

Jump twenty years later and the Next Generation crew will finally be getting to say a satisfying goodbye to their characters and fans, unfortunately not with another movie, but during season three of Star Trek: Picard that has already wrapped filming and is set to release on Paramount Plus some time in the spring of 2023.

It will certainly be exciting as a fan to watch Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden and Michael Dorn reuniting on screen together for the first time. They will all joining Patrick Stewart for Star Trek: Picard season 3 according to Marina Sirtis (who appeared in Picard Season One), who said they all felt “cherished on this project” and there not just doing cameos.

Brent Spiner (Data), while a guest at FedCon in Bonn, Germany in early June told guest in attendance that due to a NDA (non-disclosure agreement) he was not able to talk about what goes on in season three of Picard and even joked “could all end up in prison,” but did offer a small nugget of information.

Spiner has already appeared as Data and two new Soong characters during the first two seasons of Picard, but when asked, he wouldn’t say exactly what character he would be playing when season three of Picard debuts.

LeVar Burton has also offered up his thoughts with a few details of his own, including a spoiler regarding Geordi La Forge. Burton has been critical of the TNG writers in the past for how they handled Geordi’s love interests/relationships with women, calling Geordi’s awkwardness with females a “tired trope.” LeVar Burton’s very own real-life daughter got to join the actor on set as one of Geordi’s daughter. As exciting as that is for the character of Geordi LaForge, Burton is comfortable with the idea of saying goodbye to Geordi, but says if the chance were to come up again it would be hard to say no.

Paramount has not officially announced when season three of Star Trek: Picard will beam down to Paramount Plus.

Reggie’s Take:
While I am ecstatic that we will be getting to see the entire TNG cast return on screen for the first time since 2002 I can’t help but wonder what might happen at the conclusion of season three of Star Trek: Picard.

When they announced that Patrick Stewart would be returning as Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek: Picard, Stewart himself said that Picard would not be a TNG reunion show. Now after two seasons it seems that is exactly what the fans will be getting, a chance to see all there favorite TNG characters all together one last time.

Of course, the actors and Paramount are all being tight-lipped for obvious reasons and understandably so. Picard season three is serving two purposes, bring the series of Picard to a close and to give fans a proper goodbye to the entire cast of TNG and I have one thought in particularly as to what might bring a final conclusion to The Next Generation cast of characters assuming this will be the last time all these characters appear together on screen.

When they announced that original three actors from the original Star Wars trilogy would be returning for The Force Awakens, I wrote here on Reggie’s Take why I thought Harrison Ford would be returning and I was correct, the character of Han Solo died in that film. I know some might say that wasn’t hard to predict, but when you do it almost two years before the movie comes out, I say pretty dam good. Of course, I could have been just as wrong.

Terry Matalas, the showrunner for Star Trek: Picard has made it no secret of his love for The Next Generation, with his goal of making season three a “proper send-off” for the characters. While I have no inside information as to what they have instore for the audience I do have two thoughts on how they might end the series of Picard and the TNG crew.

My first thought would be, would they kill Picard, this time for real? I know he technically died in the final episode of season one and Brent Spiner’s, Soong character brought him back to life as a life like android, but would they do such to conclude the series? As much as it would pain me to see the character of Picard die it would bring a certain amount of closer to that group of characters.

As you read earlier, Brent Spiner won’t reveal who he will be playing in season three of Picard, but what would be the chances we see him one last time as the character of Data? the conclusion of season one of Picard says that won’t happen, but what about B4? Is there a possibility that Spiner’s character of Soong along with Geordi somehow get B4 functioning in a way very similar to Data, but without it being Data? If they were to do something of this nature it probably wouldn’t happen until the very last episode.

I put a bigger chance of Jean Luc Picard dying with a funeral scene at the end than I do of seeing Spiner back as B4. What ever happens I will be happy to watch and enjoy the ride of seeing the entire TNG crew together again. Can’t wait to be beamed aboard for the ride! What do you think will happen? Let me know.

Categories: Star Trek

Tags: Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Marina Sirtis, Movies, Paramount Plus, Patrick Stewart, Star Trek The Next Generation, Star Trek: Picard