Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Picard Seasons 1-3.
It’s been a while since we talked about much Star Trek news here on the website. I explained back in the autumn that I’ve been feeling burned out on the franchise – to such an extent that I haven’t even finished Strange New Worlds Season 2, nor even started Lower Decks Season 4. There are a variety of reasons why, and I won’t go over the whole thing again. You can click or tap here to read my thoughts on franchise fatigue and burnout if you’re interested!
Suffice to say that Picard’s third season was the last full Star Trek project that I watched, and while it undoubtedly had some highlights and some very strong emotional storytelling, it was far from a perfect production. Although the story of Picard’s third season came to an explosive end, an epilogue seemed to hint at there being more to come for Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D. I was cognizant of the very deliberate way in which the final scenes of The Last Generation (the Season 3 finale) replicated almost shot-for-shot the ending of All Good Things, the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1994. But here’s the thing about that: at the time All Good Things was filmed, Star Trek: Generations was already underway. Production on the film would begin almost immediately after The Next Generation ended… so doesn’t that feel like someone was dropping a hint? Or perhaps making a pitch?
Sir Patrick Stewart, who has played the role of Captain Picard since 1987, recently teased that a script for a film featuring the iconic character is in the works. In an interview with Josh Horowitz on YouTube (which I’ve linked to at the bottom of this article and encourage you to watch for yourself) Stewart said that he hoped to receive the script within days.
Although this is far from an official announcement, I wanted to consider what a new Picard film could look like… and whether it’s a good idea!
The first thing to say is actually something I talked about a lot during all three seasons of Picard. I first came to Star Trek in the early 1990s by way of The Next Generation. Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D were my “first contact” with the franchise, and that series is what made me a Star Trek fan. So I will always have a strong bond with the show and an emotional attachment to Picard, Riker, Dr Crusher, and the rest of the crew.
I think it’s important to state that up-front because there’s no way I can be unbiased about this. More Next Generation is always going to be something I’m interested in, and another adventure with Captain Picard will never fail to be appealing. As I said more than once when Picard was on the air: this project almost feels like it’s being tailor-made for me!
But I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t have concerns. Across its three seasons, Picard told a muddled, often contradictory story that rarely reached the heights I was hoping for. It was a different kind of show from The Next Generation – which is fine, in theory – but I didn’t always feel that the series even knew what type of story it wanted to tell, let alone executed it well. There are orphaned storylines that went nowhere before being dumped, main characters who just disappeared, and more. It was far from the perfect series.
Season 1 came to a disappointing end, with the series literally running out of time. Season 2 is basically unwatchable for me in its entirety due to how poor its mental health story was, and because of how long it spent aimlessly wandering in a modern-day setting. Season 3 was an improvement in some ways, but its central villain was stupidly wasted and its final act rug-pull brought back the most boring and predictable of factions.
So the overall quality of Picard, and the way in which the character was handled in the series as a whole, has to be a concern for any future project. It may be better to say that, despite some issues, Picard managed to pull out a decent enough ending to its third and final season and kind of… leave it. Don’t risk undoing that ending for the sake of another tacked-on project.
I could quite happily say that Picard’s story is complete, and after the launch of the Enterprise-G he either returned to Starfleet Academy or went into a well-earned retirement, living out the rest of his life with one of his wives at his Château in France. Although there was a tease at the very end of The Last Generation, that scene focused more on Jack Crusher, and seemed to represent a handing of the baton from one generation of characters – and one crew of the Enterprise – to another.
And that’s another really great point. Ever since the 1980s, Star Trek has boldly struck out in new and different directions. New characters have been introduced with new starships and settings to explore, and the idea of returning to classic characters in such depth is a fairly new idea. While nostalgia can be a great selling-point, I don’t believe that Star Trek should rely on it to such an extent. There’s a case to be made for the next Star Trek film or series stepping away from legacy characters, at least partially, to focus on telling new stories and expanding the franchise.
If Star Trek had kept telling stories with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy for close to forty years… would that have made it better? Look at the problems facing Star Wars, a franchise that has failed to break away from its original stories and characters. That’s come to feel like an almost fatal flaw in the Star Wars franchise as it doubles down on prequels, mid-quels, and spin-offs from spin-offs. There’s a real danger that too many Star Trek projects focusing on the same handful of characters could stagnate the franchise and leave it with nowhere to go narratively.
One of the things I was most excited to see, going all the way back to the announcement of Star Trek: Picard, was how the franchise could potentially pass the torch to new characters. Unfortunately several of the new characters created for the show were dropped or written out, but Season 3 ended with at least one – Jack Crusher – still in play and still potentially able to accomplish that goal. And with a fan-led campaign to make Star Trek: Legacy happen as a sequel to Picard, there’s still a glimmer of hope, perhaps, that it could happen.
Where would a Picard movie fit in with Legacy? If it came down to a straight-up choice between one or the other, which would fans prefer? And which would be better for the franchise overall? I feel that Legacy, as envisioned by the fan campaign at least, has the upper hand here.
A Picard movie would surely be the end of the line for the character. I mean, it would have to be… right? And it could be a successful project both critically and commercially, bringing in either cash at the box office or new subscribers to Paramount+. But it would also be an ending, not so much a launchpad for new stories – which is what I’d argue Star Trek needs right now. Picard set the stage for more Star Trek in the early 25th Century, and if handled well, I really do feel that there’s the potential for the franchise to take advantage of that. It hasn’t happened yet, though… and the window of opportunity may be closing.
As a concept, TV movies and one-off stories are a great idea for Star Trek. If this new script couldn’t sustain a ten-episode season of TV, making a one-off film is a great idea. In fact, it’s something that the Star Trek franchise should try to do more of in future. Section 31 doesn’t need to be the only one! As I said when I made the case for more of the Short Treks mini-episodes, there are dozens of ideas for individual characters and story threads that couldn’t be a full film, series, or even episode that can work in that format. I don’t think anyone would really be opposed to that idea – and it extends to TV movies and films, too.
But any time we have that particular conversation, we pretty quickly run into the elephant in the room: Paramount Global’s finances! The corporation isn’t in a good position, and Star Trek’s future budgets are very much in question. We’ve already seen Discovery cancelled and Prodigy sold to Netflix, and there’s been little by way of news about Starfleet Academy since it was announced almost a year ago. Paramount doesn’t have the money to throw at every project that gets pitched, so it comes down to a question of priorities. If any Star Trek projects will get the go-ahead in future, which ones should be at the top of that list? Is a Picard movie even in the top ten?
It wasn’t clear to me from Sir Patrick Stewart’s interview how far along this project might be – nor who was responsible for it. It could be an official project with Paramount’s backing that’s about to enter pre-production… or it could be something a lot more speculative. There’s no guarantee that it would get made even if it were something paid for by Paramount, as we saw in 2022 with the whole “Kelvin sequel” debacle. So maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves by thinking too long and hard about a project that may never get out of the starting gate!
Although this isn’t always a comfortable topic, there are also legitimate concerns/questions over Sir Patrick Stewart’s age and thus his ability to take on a challenging new script. One of the weaknesses of Picard, particularly in its second and third seasons, was that its narrative was not well-suited to an older person. Stories threw the character into situations like discovering he had a son, and some of the storylines would’ve been a better fit for a forty-year-old… not someone who’s past eighty.
One of the disappointing things for me about Picard was the wasted potential to tell a story that was well-suited to an older person. Instead of Picard discovering that he had a son and trying to relate to someone who was (allegedly) in his early twenties, a story could’ve been told that was better-suited to an older character in his twilight years. Would a new Picard film go down that road? If so, maybe it would be worth seeing. But if it’s another script that tries to make the character out to be younger than he clearly is… there’ll be that disconnect once again.
If decisions about Star Trek’s future were in my hands, here’s what I’d say. I would absolutely consider any script that featured Captain Picard – or anyone else from The Next Generation. There’s definitely scope to do more with those characters somehow. But at the same time, I’d be careful to balance a one-off project like this with Star Trek’s future prospects. And if it came down to the wire, with tight budgets only allowing for one or two to go ahead… I’m not convinced at this stage that a Picard movie is the one I’d choose to give the green light to. That’s not a definite “no,” because a strong script could absolutely win me over. But it’s not a firm “yes,” either.
I daresay that the details of this script will be kept under wraps for a while. If it doesn’t proceed, we may never know what it could’ve entailed and how good or bad it might’ve been! But if we get any more news – or an official announcement – I’ll be sure to take another look.
So I hope this has been interesting… and not a horribly incoherent ramble!
I was surprised to hear Sir Patrick Stewart talking so openly about a potential new Star Trek project – not least because Picard Season 3 had been billed as the character’s swansong. Despite its issues, I generally feel that the conclusion of Picard’s final season left the characters in a better place than Nemesis had done in 2002, and in a way I’m content to leave them there, enjoying a break after their last adventure.
But a part of me will always want to see more Captain Picard – and with this script potentially offering the last chance for the character to come back, maybe I’d feel a sense of regret if it didn’t go ahead. If we’d never come to know about it and it didn’t happen, well… no harm done, right? But knowing it’s out there and being worked on in some capacity, and that Sir Patrick Stewart himself seems to be on board with it at least in theory… I can’t lie: a big part of me would love to see it come to fruition.
You can find Sir Patrick Stewart’s interview with Josh Horowitz, in which he discusses a potential Picard movie, on YouTube. Click or tap here to watch the video. The relevant section begins around the 33-minute mark.
Star Trek: Picard Seasons 1-3 are available to stream now on Paramount+. The Star Trek franchise, including Picard and all other properties discussed above, is the copyright of Paramount Global. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.
Trekking with Dennis 