New Details have appeared for the next and final season of Star Trek: Picard,
which hints at a continuation of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager?
What could this mean?
Let’s break down this new information and what we might expect from the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard!
The new information comes via Den of Geek, who sat down with Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden,
Sir Patrick Stewart and Showrunner Terry Matalas to talk about the upcoming third season.
This is the first part of the Season 3 run-up media we’re getting. I expect this over the next few months.
We’ll get more and more press articles coming out discussing the season.
If you want to keep up to date on all the latest Star Trek news, lore and more, then make sure to hit that subscribe button to never miss a video from the team here at Trek Central!
An approach to Season 3 of Picard was that it had to look and feel like part of the universe while still treading new grounds.
It seems like Season 2 was very much an interim season to get this set up,
with Season 3 being a continuation of the stories of the last 35 years of storytelling from TNG, to Deep Space Nine and Voyager from that era.
This could extend not only to the vibe of the show but also visually how it looks, with a little nod that we could see the return of the TNG font for each episode,
With Terry saying “I love the old Next Gen font.
I’ve missed titles on episodes and seeing them and going, ‘hmm, I wonder what that means…?’ And the music was extraordinarily important to me.”.
So we could see Titles for each episode, which is definitely something some fans have been clamouring for with the new trek for a while now.
And as mentioned, with the sound being important, Stephen Barton, the composer for Twelve Monkeys, Matalas’ previous show,
and the recent star wars game, Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order, is coming in to compose the music for season 3.
We have heard clips of this from Matalas’ Twitter feed, with the TNG theme all the way to the First Contact theme.
But the music does not stop there, with another composer joining for Season 3 when the score gets massive,
and that is Frederik Wiedmann
so it definitely seems we are going to get some epic scores in season 3.
A worry about Season 3 of Picard is that it was going to turn out to just be a Next Generation Show, a Season 8 of the series, one might say, and it seems like, in a way, this is accurate.
Terry Matalas says, “In my mind, I would’ve called it ‘Star Trek Legacy,’” regarding the third season, but it's in the Picard Series, so we have to stick with that name.
I guess we have to live with this, and it won’t get in the way of a good series. Hopefully, they can pull season 3 off.
But they got rid of a lot of potentials when this could have been its own show, throwing away a lot of original characters to get a final adventure with the TNG crew,
which will continue to make us think, what if.
So we get a return of Font, Music and tone to TNG, feeling like the story is just continuing a TNG Storyline, which might be good. We will have to wait and see.
But already, it feels epic!
As said at the beginning of this video, Picard Season 3 is also meant to be a continuation of The Next Generation and of Deep Space Nine and Voyager.
Whether this just means continuing some plot points from both shows or that some characters mention stuff that happened,
such as Worf being in the show, we might get some story about why he is more pacifist now, perhaps due to his time as Ambassador for the Klingons under Chancellor Martok.
Whether it is just honouring what came before or actually weaving those threads into a tapestry for season 3 will have to be seen, but getting more Deep Space Nine content is a must.
Den of Geek, who has seen an early episode of Star Trek: Picard Season 3, tease that huge events from Deep Space Nine play a bit part in the ploy of the show.
This could be anything from The Dominion War to Cardassia to even the Breem, for example.
With Star Trek: Prodigy being a sneaky Voyager Sequel and Picard having the return of The Next Generation Cast,
we need something in the universe to validate and confirm the impact not only Deep Space Nine had on us but on the continuity of Trek as a whole!
Terry Matalas said the following:
“I think it’s important to Deep Space Nine fans to feel seen, It’s a continuation of Voyager too, of course, with Seven of Nine in our show. If you’re going to be in this time period, there’s such a rich opportunity to honor what came before.”
First up, we get an exciting picture with this new article of Picard and Riker in the Observation Lounge of the USS Titan-A.
There are some interesting small details here which are pretty cool, and as can be expected when we have production designer Dave Blass
and all the talented set design people working behind the scenes to ensure all these small details.
In Season 2 of Picard, Picard became Chancellor of Starfleet Academy in 2401.
. It seems like the events of Season 2 did not change this, with Picard’s combadge being the chancellor combadge seen in Season 2, a delta flanked by Laurel leaves on a horizontal bar.
Obviously, he is still Jean-Luc Picard and an Admiral, so the Chancellor going off on a mission is acceptable instead of…
doing whatever chancellors do at Starfleet Academy? Change the Kobayashi Maru Test, maybe? Discuss over tea?
Riker is seen next to him in what looks to be a more casual uniform jacket, with the shoulder colouring still there.
Still, a zip going down the centre, with a normal 25th-century combadge and Captain Pips, so Captain Riker does return, probably in more active service than being simply on reserve.
We see some Gold ships behind our Duo, done by Bill Krause, who did the Stargazer models in Season 2.
These are definitely interesting because the one on the far left looks damaged, with holograms filling in the destroyed section.
Bill Krause is a key designer behind season 3’s Neo Consitution-class starship, which is the USS Titan-A.
This is a cool little detail, and perhaps it shows how one of the previous titans was destroyed. It may be a little bit of bad luck to show that on the latest Titan, but it looks fantastic.
The ship in the middle looks from its saucer and two protrusions along its saucer section to be a Luna class, the previous USS Titan, which Riker himself commanded.
With showing a previous Titan before this one, and Riker’s Titan simply being the USS Titan, Riker must have done something legendary aboard the ship to warrant the next ship being a Titan-A.
But of course, he did; he is Riker.
That would mean the final ship behind Picard would be the current USS Titan, a Constitution-III Class starship, which is captained by an unknown Captain so far,
, but with Seven of Nine acting as its First Officer. We do know a little bit about this Titan’s Captain.
Todd Stashwick’ll play him, so I’m nicknaming him Captain Stashwick for the time being.
Check our the article on TrekCentral.net to learn all the details about the new Captain.
How we know this is the Observation Lounge of the USS Titan-A is that it's the same exact set as the USS Stargazer,
explained as the same bridge module on both ships, so we have seen this room before, with its entrance to the bridge on the left behind Riker, and the Replicator on the right besides Jean Luc.
Due to where our duo is looking and knowing what this room looks like,
they are either looking at someone around the table in this observation lounge or out the windows at the back, perhaps looking at something in space.
Now Riker has previously returned in Season 1 of Star Trek Picard, both on Nepenthe with his family in active reserve,
but then reinstated with the rank of Captain at the head of the Inquiry Fleet on the USS Zheng He
With Frakes directing episodes of Season 2 of Picard, the Showrunner Terry Matalas went up to Riker and asked, “Are you ready to play Riker?”
” Of course, Frakes would say yes. You can’t keep him away from Trek with him appearing as Riker in Live Action and Animated and directing entire episodes,
“But then, Terry said, ‘No, are you really, really ready to play Riker? Are you ready to bring Riker back?’”
So we definitely are going to get some good Riker content in Season 3 of the show.
We have heard in interviews and comments that this is some of the best Riker we have ever gotten, so we definitely will have to wait to see if this turns out to be true.
Let’s be honest. Riker had some great times in The Next Generation but didn’t get much to do in the movies in favour of Action Man Picard. He even shaved his beard off… I can't forget that.
So let's hope that Frakes will be able to bring something more to Riker and give us a performance which may be a good send-off for this character.
Not that he is going to die, though he can, just this may be one of the last performances we see from The Next Generation Crew.
That didn’t stop Riker from appearing in Star Trek Enterprise! But who knows, they could cameo if we get a 25th-century Starfleet show!
Jonathan Frakes has also teased Season 3 by saying there will be a conflict between the TNG characters on-screen.
Crediting Terry for stirring the pot between characters. Conflict is a necessity in drama, after all.
As we all know, we are getting mostly all of The Next Generation Cast and Characters back, and that, of course, includes Beverly Crusher,
who apparently will open the next season,
possibly with the mystery of her ship being boarded by an unknown force belonging to our villain of the season, Vadic.
Gates says, “I loved the very first scene. I mean, to me, that was so much fun to get to do that. To be active and fighting. I loved it!”.
So it looks like we will get some fight scenes between Crusher and her boarding enemies onboard the S.S. Eleos, an old TNG Era ship that is now a medical ship,
which presumably would end in Crusher being put in cryosleep as we see in the trailers.
I hope to see Crusher going ape on some poor aliens who boarded the wrong ship.
An aspect we have to see and will see in the show is the dynamic relationship between Picard and Crusher.
They somewhat had an interesting relationship across the shows and films. Still, with Picard Season 1 starting with a lonely Jean Luc, many fans were left wondering what happened,
so that will definitely be interesting to fill those gaps.
This may be the end of Picard with its final and Third season. However, there is still space for a 25th-century show to come about,
which we and many others have speculated with the amount of work that the production team have gone to flesh out the 25th century with its own style, yet still feeling like Star Trek.
It seems Terry Matalas would also like this, saying, “I would love nothing more, Please send your letters to Paramount+ and Secret Hideout.”
So if Picard Season 3 is something we enjoy, we definitely would like some more stories this time.
Even Frakes says there are opportunities for the story to continue, whether that be continuing on something from Picard or new stories waiting to be told in the 25th century of the Star Trek Universe.
Frakes and his TNG co-stars teased the crowds at the recent New York Comic Con about coming back for something else past Season 3 of Picard.
Ultimately, this all rests on how Picard Season 3 is received by Star Trek fans and the wider community.
As I always say on Trek Central, we’ll need to wait and see.
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For now, I’ve been Captan Jack, thanks for watching and we’ll see you next time! Live Long and prosper my friends!