picard post s3 – Trekking with Dennis

What If…? Star Trek Edition!

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for the following Star Trek productions: The Original Series, The Motion Picture, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery, Picard, and the video game Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown.

Let’s celebrate Star Trek’s 60th anniversary year with another of my Marvel-inspired “What If…” articles! This is something I’ve done a couple of times before here on the website, and I’ll briefly go over the format if you’re unfamiliar with it. I thought this could be a fun and interesting way to continue our 60th anniversary celebrations, anyway.

In 2021, Disney and Marvel premiered a series called What If…? on Disney+. The concept was, in brief, to show alternate histories of the Marvel universe; different characters or altered decisions leading to, in some cases, radically different or unexpected outcomes. I didn’t watch the show (because I’m not really into Marvel or superheroes that much), but I really liked the concept behind the series, and I wanted to apply it to the Star Trek franchise, too.

Promo graphic for Season 3 of Marvel's "What If." — This idea is based on the Marvel TV series *What If…?*

My first take on this idea – which you can find by clicking or tapping here – saw me consider what might’ve happened if: Captain Picard died after the events of The Best of Both Worlds, Spock was never resurrected on the Genesis Planet in The Search for Spock, Voyager decided to head for the Gamma Quadrant terminus of the Bajoran Wormhole, the USS Discovery never went to the future, and Captain Sisko wasn’t the Prophets’ Emissary. I had fun delving into all of those ideas and laying out my “alternate histories of the future!”

Last year, in my second piece – which you can find by clicking or tapping here – I talked about what could’ve happened if: Captain Picard and Q never met, Section 31 was responsible for creating the Borg, the USS Voyager was destroyed over Ocampa and the survivors were picked up by Chakotay’s Maquis raider, the Romulans eventually figured out the deception from In The Pale Moonlight, and Captain Kirk survived the events of Generations. Again, all of those were a ton of fun to consider.

Be sure to check out those earlier pieces if you enjoy this format. And feel free to use the same concept in your own writing or on social media, too!

Scan/photo of hand-drawn concept art of the USS Enterprise (or the Enterprise filming model) from Star Trek: TOS. — Concept art of the USS Enterprise filming model.

So today, I’m back for a third crack at this idea. I’ve chosen five storylines from across the Star Trek franchise, and I’m going to answer the question “what if things were different?”

My usual caveat applies: all of this is *subjective, not objective*, so if you hate all of my ideas and mini-stories, that’s okay! There’s plenty of room in the Trekkie community for differences of opinion and disagreements without getting into an argument. None of this is even *remotely* canon, anyway, nor will it ever be – so if you really do hate my ideas, you can take solace there, I hope!

With all of that out of the way, let’s get started!

What If… #1:
What if… the USS Voyager returned home after the events of Caretaker?

Screenshot from the Across the Unknown demo showing Janeway and Earth. — Could Captain Janeway bring the crew home seven years ahead of schedule?

Shout out to the upcoming video game Across The Unknown, where you can actually pull this off if you want!

In this scenario, we’re starting with Voyager’s premiere: Caretaker. But we’re going to do things a little differently! As happened in an alternate timeline glimpsed in the episode Non Sequitur, Tom Paris got arrested by Odo on DS9, and never even set foot aboard Voyager. In our take on the story, we’re going to say that Captain Janeway approached Commander Sisko for advice, as she was still in need of a guide to the Badlands. Sisko would “loan” two of his officers to assist her on the mission – people who are familiar with the Badlands, both scientifically and geographically: Jadzia Dax and Michael Eddington.

Both officers would be present on the bridge during the search for Chakotay’s ship, and both would survive the displacement wave that dragged Voyager to the Delta Quadrant. After encountering the Kazon, Ocampa, and the Caretaker, Voyager’s captain and senior staff would be faced with the same dilemma as in the prime timeline: use the Array to return home, or destroy it to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Kazon.

Screenshot from Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown showing Voyager, Kazon ships, and the Array. — Voyager and three Kazon vessels at the Caretaker’s Array.

There are two factors at play, I think. Firstly, Eddington’s true loyalties lie not with Starfleet, but with the Maquis. I think he’d be desperate to get back to DS9 so that he could continue to work undercover, building up to his big defection in For The Cause. Eddington would be one of the most significant voices arguing for a return home. Dax, too, would be keen to get back, but her centuries of experience and scientific background would come into play here. Dax might be able to find a way to set Voyager’s tricobalt devices to detonate on a timer, allowing the Array to be sabotaged, and then used to return home. Or, by having someone with a keen scientific mind access the Array, other options for using its technology could have presented themselves.

In any case, we’re going to say that a way is found for Voyager to use the Array to return home. Eddington would do just enough to ensure that the Val Jean (Chakotay’s ship) makes it back just before Voyager, allowing them to escape Federation custody while keeping his cover intact. Then, Voyager would end up back in the Alpha Quadrant, just outside of the Badlands. Waiting for them would be Sisko and the USS Defiant, just beginning a search-and-rescue when Voyager failed to report back.

Edited still frame from two Star Trek episodes, depicting the USS Defiant as seen on the USS Voyager's viewscreen. — How it might’ve looked if Voyager had returned home almost immediately.

The real consequences of this would be felt later, though. Chakotay, B’Elanna, Eddington, and others would be killed at the beginning of the Dominion War, when the Dominion-backed Cardassians (perhaps aided by Seska as an embedded spy) wiped out the Maquis. In the Delta Quadrant, the Ocampa would still be confronted with the reality of life without their Caretaker, and would eventually have to find a way to leave their underground city.

But there are more serious repercussions. At time of writing, it seems as if Janeway is directly responsible for the destruction of the Borg Queen and at least a significant portion of the Borg Collective (as seen in Picard Season 3). If she doesn’t undertake that seven-year journey, never meets Seven of Nine, and never travels back in time to plant a pathogen directly into the Borg Queen… the Borg will be in a massively strengthened position by the early 25th Century. The Collective may not need to employ rogue changelings to infiltrate Starfleet – they might just choose to launch a full-scale invasion. And without crucial information on the Borg that was collected by Voyager, Seven of Nine, the Hansen family, and more… Starfleet would be significantly more vulnerable.

What If… #2:
What if… the Talosians joined the Federation?

Still frame from Star Trek's original pilot (The Cage) showing four Talosians. — A group of Talosians.

We’re going all the way back to the beginning with this one – appropriate, in this milestone anniversary year. In short, it’s never sat quite right with me that Starfleet and the Federation would view the Talosians so negatively – and as such a dangerous threat – after just one interaction. Lest we forget, Captain Pike’s mission to Talos IV ended without any loss of life, and arguably with the beginnings of an understanding or even dialogue between the Talosians and humankind. Pike and the crew came to understand the Talosians’ situation, and for their part, the Talosians were able to acknowledge that humans (and Vulcans) were not suitable captives.

So in this alternate timeline, we’re going to say that Captain Pike returns to Starfleet HQ with a different mission report. Instead of recommending that Talos IV be quarrantined and declared to be off-limits, he instead advocates for sending aid to the Talosians to help rebuild or maintain their technology and rehabilitate the devastated surface of their world. The Talosians would be taken aback by this generosity, and would vow never to use their impressive telepathic powers to trick the Federation.

Still frame from Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 showing a trio of Talosians. — The Talosians as they appeared in *Discovery’*s second season.

Over time, the Talosian population would begin to grow, and Talosians would occasionally venture off-world, mingling with other citizens of the galaxy. The Talosians and Betazoids would form a particularly strong bond, as two races that both prefer telepathic communication. This would, in turn, set the stage for Talos IV joining the Federation as a full member world, coming under the protection of Starfleet and deepening their ties.

Though their numbers would be small at first, by the early 24th Century, Talosian officers would occasionally be seen in Starfleet – though the Federation would make them take oaths not to use their powers for deception (similar to the oaths that Deltan officers had to take, as seen in The Motion Picture). Talosians would be present for many of the major events of the late 23rd and 24th Centuries: the Federation’s alliance with the Klingons, the Romulan Empire’s isolation, the rising Borg threat, and the Dominion War.

Screenshot from Star Trek Online showing a Jem'Hadar ship and DS9. — A Jem’Hadar warship near DS9.
*Image: Star Trek Online Wiki*

It’s the latter event that I want to focus on now. After the Dominion War breaks out, the Talosian government, working in conjunction with Section 31, would hatch a plan to deceive the Dominion and the Cardassians on an unimaginable scale. Working as a group, the Talosians would use their mental powers to trick the Dominion alliance into believing they were on the offensive, about to retake Deep Space Nine and Bajor – all the while, a combined Federation and Klingon fleet would be launching an assault right into the heart of Cardassian territory.

The Dominion War could be ended in a matter of days, thanks to tapping into the Talosians’ impressive powers, and the Dominion would be forced to the negotiating table having been deceived into believing they were winning. But while the war was being settled and a peace treaty signed, something else would happen: the Battle of Sector 001, where a lone Talosian officer would be serving aboard a starship. This would be the Borg’s first encounter with a Talosian, and their assimilation might just have given the Borg a terrifying new upgrade…

What If… #3
What if… Bruce Maddox successfully convinced Starfleet to let him disassemble Data?

Still frame from Star Trek: The Next Generation (The Measure of a Man) showing Dr Maddox. — Dr Bruce Maddox.

In The Next Generation Season 2 episode The Measure of a Man, we’re introduced to Dr Bruce Maddox: the Federation’s top cybernetic scientist. Dr Maddox would request that Data be turned over to him in order to be disassembled, planning to use the knowledge he’d gain to create legions of synths. In the prime timeline, Starfleet would deny this request, allowing Data to explore his sentience and his life in his own way. But in our alternate timeline? Starfleet instead rules that Data, as an artificial being, is not a “person,” and therefore cannot refuse Dr Maddox’s request.

This is such an interesting debate, because right now, out here in the real world, artificial intelligence – or some form of it, in any case – is a big deal. And despite what I’ve argued in the past about the limitations of today’s large language models, I admit to feeling uncomfortable about the idea of a potentially sentient A.I. being forced to do things it may not want to do. This will have to be the subject of an entire essay one day, but it’s so interesting to me how, some thirty-five years on from The Measure of a Man, the issues it raised are incredibly relevant!

Still frame from Star Trek: The Next Generation (The Measure of a Man) showing Riker holding Data's arm at the trial. — Data and Riker at the hearing.

But that’s enough about that for now. There would be *many* consequences as a result of Starfleet’s decision. In the immediate term, I think Captain Picard would resign his commission. It would be a desperate, last-ditch effort to convince the higher-ups at Starfleet to change their minds, but it would ultimately fail. This would lead to Riker getting temporary command of the Enterprise-D, before command would ultimately pass to a more senior officer – someone like Captain Edward Jellico.

But more serious consequences lay in store. In the prime timeline, Dr Maddox was able to use B-4 – an earlier and less complex Soong-type android – to construct a large number of pretty basic synths. But with Data fully disassembled, Maddox’s work would progress a lot further a lot faster, and synthetics not quite at Data’s level, but not too far behind, would begin to be rolled out across Starfleet. This would draw the attention of the Zhat Vash – an underground Romulan faction dedicated to preventing synthetic life from ever coming to exist.

Still frame from Star Trek: Picard (Maps and Legends) showing a group of synths. — Synths as seen in *Star Trek: Picard*.

The timing of this couldn’t be worse for Starfleet. After the Battle of Wolf 359, Starfleet was at a particularly low ebb. Senior admirals encouraged Dr Maddox to work faster, hoping to use his new synths in the rebuilding process, and poured a lot of resources into his synth programme. At the same time, Ambassador Spock travelled to Romulus in the hopes of promoting reunification. Without Picard and Data to stop the Romulans, and with the Zhat Vash aggressively pressuring the Romulan leadership to engage the Federation, the Romulan attack on Vulcan would prove successful – and it would be the first strike in a new Federation-Romulan conflict.

With Commodore Oh acting as an embedded spy, feeding information back to the Romulan Empire, they’d quickly gain the upper hand in this new war. The war would go poorly for the Federation, even if Oh was eventually captured, and with Starfleet still underpowered after the defeat at Wolf 359, it would be impossible for the Federation to defend all of its territory. The only outcome short of total conquest would be accepting a very difficult peace treaty, which would certainly include a clause prohibiting any and all research into synthetic life.

What If… #4:
What if… the Borg attack on Earth in the 22nd Century had been much more serious?

Still frame from Star Trek: Enterprise (Regeneration) showing the assimilated shuttle bearing down on the NX-01. — The Borg attacking the NX-01 Enterprise.

Regeneration, from Season 2 of Enterprise, is a fun episode in isolation… but I don’t really like what it does for the timeline of humanity’s conflict with the Borg. Setting that aside, though, let’s think about what might’ve happened if the Borg had managed to do a lot more damage to Earth in the 22nd Century. I’m not going to argue that this handful of defrosted drones would’ve been able to fully assimilate Earth in this era; I think, somehow, Starfleet and humanity would have prevailed. But in our alternate timeline, things are much more serious and the damage much more extensive.

Instead of merely assimiliating a single shuttle, the reactivated Borg drones would take over an entire starship: Enterprise. They’d assimilate practically the entire crew, kitting out the ship with upgraded weapons, and then they’d bring the fight back to Earth, in line with their original mission. It would take everything Starfleet had – and the sacrifice of many human and Vulcan lives – but the attack would eventually be stopped, with the remaining Borg being captured and studied.

Still frame from Star Trek: The Next Generation (Q Who) showing a Borg drone attacking the Enterprise-D. — A Borg drone.

After causing devastation to parts of Earth unseen in more than a century, the United Earth government would re-think its planned mission of space exploration. Enterprise, humanity’s first long-range exploration vessel, has been lost, and the NX-02 would be repurposed as a purely defensive ship instead. The alliance with the Vulcans would weaken as humanity became a much more insular and isolationist power, scarred by the Borg attack and frightened of venturing too far into a galaxy that clearly poses a lot of dangers.

The Borg remnants would be extensively studied, in the hopes of discovering ways to counteract their technology, and some of these discoveries would lead to powerful Earth- and space-based weapons for humanity centuries ahead of schedule. The Xindi attack a year or so later would be *easily* defeated with Borg-powered weapons salvaged from the wreck of Enterprise.

Still frame from Star Trek: Enterprise (Regeneration) showing scientists and a Borg arm. — Humanity would study the Borg and their tech.

But in the longer term, this isolationist stance would mean that the galaxy looks *very* different. Without humanity to mediate, the Vulcans and Andorians would wage a devastating war. Without Starfleet exploring and pushing the boundaries, there’d be no conflict between humanity and the Romulans. But most significantly… there’d never be a United Federation of Planets. Earth would maintain limited interstellar trade, including with the Denobulans and Vulcans, but fear-induced isolationism would become baked into the United Earth government at every level, with all talk of alliances or further missions of exploration being shut down.

By the time we reach the more familiar 23rd and 24th Centuries, the snowball has been rolling for a long time, and changes become unpredictable. But I’m going to posit that some of the Alpha and Beta Quadrant’s more aggressive powers – the Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians – are all in much stronger positions without the Federation as a counterbalance. New alliances may emerge, such as the Mirror Universe’s Klingon-Cardassian alliance, or some powers may fully conquer others. The Romulans, for instance, may succeed at conquering Vulcan after the Andorian war left the Vulcans in a weakened state, or maybe the Klingons will launch an all-out war against their Cardassian rivals. And all the while, a strange, overlooked, isolationist Earth will be ready to shoot first and ask questions later whenever an uninvited guest arrives in the Sol system.

What If… #5:
What if… the Federation and the Ferengi went to war?

Still frame from Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1 showing three Ferengi. — Three Ferengi from *The Next Generation*.

Chances are you already know this if you’re a Trekkie, but the Ferengi were originally supposed to be a major antagonist when The Next Generation was in early production. Gene Roddenberry intended for the Ferengi to take over the role vacated by the Klingons, now that Worf was going to be a permanent fixture on the bridge of the Enterprise-D. However… it didn’t pan out that way, mostly because of the way the Ferengi were presented in their first couple of appearances, and the way audiences responded to that.

In this case, though, we’re going to say that the Ferengi and the Federation didn’t just get off on the wrong foot… they continued down a path that would quickly lead to war. Ferengi DaiMons, eager for plunder, began raiding Federation convoys, stealing everything they could get their hands on, and even holding Starfleet officers and crew for ransom. Starfleet responded by taking an aggressive stance towards the Ferengi, sending armed escorts with trading and supply vessels, and gearing up for a confrontation.

Behind-the-scenes photo from the Star Trek TNG S3 episode Menage a Troi showing Gene Roddenberry and actor Peter Slutsker (in Ferengi makeup). — Gene Roddenberry originally intended for the Ferengi to become a major villainous faction.

This version of the Ferengi – perhaps led by a more aggressive ruler than Grand Nagus Zek – would be less conciliatory, and would instead see war and piracy as opportunities for profit. Around the time of The Next Generation’s second season – which takes place in approximately 2365 – this would spill over into all-out war. The Ferengi DaiMons – most of whom had been acting autonomously up to this point – would be corralled by their Nagus into a proper fighting force, and their powerful D’Kora-class ships (the Ferengi Marauders) were more or less evenly-matched with Starfleet’s Galaxy-class vessels. The war would drag on.

I doubt this war would become existential for either the Ferengi or for the Federation, but it would be the most significant conflict either power had been involved in for decades, at the very least. The distraction would pause Starfleet’s mission of exploration, with more vessels being refitted and sent to the front lines, meaning that dozens of first contacts (and other missions) would come years later – or else would be missed entirely. And all the while, the Borg are on the prowl, scooping up outlying Federation and Romulan colonies. Blame for that might even initially fall on the Ferengi.

Promo screenshot for Star Trek Online showing a D'Kora Class ship. — A D’Kora-class ship.

A peace treaty would eventually be signed, with the Ferengi and Federation agreeing to respect a shared border, and a prohibition would be placed on piracy – though renegade Ferengi DaiMons would continually flout this. But the war would sap Starfleet’s resources, leading to a monumental decision: the Federation would decline the Bajorans’ request to take over Terok Nor after the Cardassian withdrawal. Deep Space Nine would never be established, and the Bajoran wormhole would go undiscovered for decades.

This would completely change the course of the latter 24th Century: there’d be no Dominion War, no Cardassian alliance with the Dominion, no changeling infiltrations, and no Emissary of the Prophets. The Bajoran provisional government would struggle to remain in control of its system, and the Federation would commit to providing only limited aid to the Bajorans, earning their resentment. The eventual discovery of the Bajoran wormhole in the early 25th Century would lead to plenty of interest, including from the Ferengi – who can pay handsomely for access to the Gamma Quadrant. The Bajorans, still wary of the Federation after their very lukewarm response decades earlier, would deny Starfleet access to the wormhole, preventing the Federation from exploring the Gamma Quadrant. Bajor wouldn’t be on a path to joining the Federation, and first contact with the Dominion might be made by the Bajorans… or even the Ferengi.

So that’s it!

Promo image for Star Trek TNG: A Final Unity showing a warbird. — A modified Romulan warbird.

We’ve considered five possible “what if” scenarios from the Star Trek franchise.

I hope this has been a bit of fun. I love writing, and I love Star Trek, so writing about Star Trek is a great way for me to spend a bit more time in this wonderful galaxy. I tried to get creative, picking on a few different storylines and ideas from across the franchise, and extrapolating what might plausibly be able to happen if things turned out differently. I hope that the sequences of events made sense, and that I arrived at conclusions that you feel are at least *possible* based on the changes I proposed!

In any case, this was just for fun, and an excuse to talk about Star Trek as the franchise’s milestone 60th anniversary year rolls along. I have a few ideas for later in the year, as we get closer to the anniversary date itself, so I hope you’ll stick around and join me for some of those. And in a few weeks’ time, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the franchise’s latest outing: Starfleet Academy. Click or tap here to check out my review of the two-part premiere, if you missed it.

Until then… be sure to check back for more discussion of the Star Trek franchise. Live Long and Propser, friends!

All shows and films discussed above can be streamed on Paramount+ or purchased on DVD and/or Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise (including all properties discussed above) is the copyright of Skydance/Paramount. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Star Trek: Picard’s Abandoned and Unfinished Storylines

Sun 13.07.25Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Picard Seasons 1, 2, and 3 – including the endings of key storylines and the final scenes and sequences of the series. Spoilers are also present for the following Star Trek productions: The Next Generation and Voyager.

Although the series only ran to a total of thirty episodes, it’s going to take a long time to properly deconstruct and assess Star Trek: Picard. It’s now been a couple of years since the series finale aired, and although there have been pitches for both a successor show and a potential movie, it seems at this stage that neither of those are moving ahead. It’ll take a while to fully dissect Picard and the show’s place in the Star Trek franchise – and I originally planned to write this piece shortly after the show’s finale – but what we’re going to do today is take a tentative step in that direction.

I’ve put together a list of the significant storylines that Picard either abandoned outright or left unfinished, and I thought it could be interesting to take a look at them. Each of the show’s three seasons was a relatively self-contained story, but as we know, serialised storytelling like this has its drawbacks. Seasons 1 and 2 in particular both ran out of road and failed to wrap up key storylines and character arcs by the time the credits rolled. Subsequent seasons also failed to pick up the baton and do anything with these incomplete narratives – something that feels particularly odd when considering that Seasons 2 and 3 went into production back-to-back.

Sir Patrick Stewart taking a break during production on *Picard’*s first season.

There are a surprising number of abandoned and unfinished storylines to look at, and there’s almost certainly more to say about most of them than can fit on a list like this – so stay tuned in the future for longer looks at some of these subjects!

My usual caveats apply: everything we’re going to discuss today is entirely subjective! If you didn’t care for a particular story and see no need for it to be continued, that’s okay. Likewise, if you feel that the writers and producers did a great job with these stories, that’s okay too. There’s room for differences of opinion within the Star Trek fan community! I’m not even necessarily saying that the decision to abandon some of these storylines was the worst possible thing that could’ve happened; there are characters that weren’t popular and stories that were less interesting than others, and there are defences, justifications, or at least excuses we can make in some cases for why a storyline wasn’t continued.

Harry Treadaway, Isa Briones, Evan Evagora, Alison Pill, Michelle Hurd, and Santiago Cabrera during production on *Picard* Season 1.

But there are also stories that I would’ve very much liked to see concluded – one way or another! Some of these could have been wrapped up by way of a line or two of dialogue, and the abandonment of certain characters and narrative threads feels inexcusably poor – especially from a flagship, high-budget television series.

There were clearly problems and issues behind-the-scenes on Star Trek: Picard… but that’s something we’ll have to discuss in more detail on another occasion.

Let’s jump into the list – which is in no particular order!

Abandoned Storyline #1:
What happened to the surviving ex-Borg?

Toward the end of Season 1, the Zhat Vash triggered a failsafe aboard the Artifact that killed hundreds or perhaps even thousands of ex-Borg by blowing them out into space. But as we saw in Et in Arcadia Ego, not all of the ex-Borg were killed. Some survived the journey to Coppelius and the rough landing as the Artifact was dragged to the planet’s surface… but they were dumped from the story shortly thereafter.

Part of Seven’s arc in Season 1 appeared to be setting her up to take on some kind of leadership role with the ex-Borg, possibly working alongside Elnor, who had pledged his sword to their hopeless cause. After the untimely death of Hugh, the remaining ex-Borg were without leadership – and perhaps more importantly, without anyone to advocate on their behalf.

One of the Ex-Borg survivors on Coppelius.

I think it stands to reason that the Federation would have taken in the XBs as a matter of principle – but as we learned from Seven of Nine in Season 2, life wasn’t always fair to former members of the Collective. The ex-Borg aboard the Artifact seemed to be especially vulnerable, with some having only just been reawakened after years in stasis. Many may not know where they are – and some appeared to be from races not native to the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. There would be a lot of work to do to care for the ex-Borg and help them get settled in the Federation.

This was a storyline that Season 2 could have picked up, especially with a focus on Seven’s relationship with the Borg and with the introduction of a new Borg faction. Even a line or two of dialogue confirming that the Artifact and ex-Borg were under Starfleet’s care would have been something! This was a pretty significant storyline that ran throughout the entire season, and it feels incomplete at best.

Abandoned Storyline #2:
Why bother resurrecting Elnor?

Early in Season 2, killing off Elnor felt like a bold move. It wouldn’t have been my first choice, as there was a ton of potential in Elnor not only as a young character who could potentially have carried the Star Trek franchise forward, but as the first Romulan to serve in Starfleet. But when that decision had been taken, as the season wore on it appeared to be working. Despite all of the flaws and issues with Season 2, one of the storylines that was working well was Raffi’s. She had to come to terms with the death of someone she viewed as a surrogate son, and we saw her go through different stages of grief. It was harrowing, riveting, and exceptionally well-performed by Michelle Hurd.

At the last second, though, Elnor was resurrected by Q’s magical powers – massively and catastrophically undermining Raffi’s Season 2 arc, and rendering incredibly powerful sequences impotent and meaningless. As the curtain fell on Season 2 and we heard from actor Evan Evagora that he wouldn’t be returning for Season 3, this resurrection felt incredibly pointless. For the sake of one bad, overdone sight gag (in which Elnor’s disgust at a beverage made him the butt of a joke) an entire season’s worth of emotional storytelling had been undone.

Elnor was a wasted character in Picard. His role in Season 1 was minor, and he appeared to serve as comic relief half of the time. Aside from one spotlight episode, he seemed to be glossed over by the writers and ignored by other characters. The potential he could have had was already being squandered – so his death, while disappointing in more ways than one – at least achieved something insofar as it gave motivation to Raffi and allowed her Season 2 arc to unfold.

But Season 3 could’ve offered Elnor a potential reason to return from the grave. Most of the young characters, aside from Jack Crusher, were fairly bland and forgettable, so when they found themselves assimilated by the Borg toward the end of the season, some of the impact of that was lost. These were kids that we just didn’t know well enough to get truly invested in. But Elnor, after everything he’d been through, could have been different. If he’d been included in Season 3, perhaps replacing one of the La Forge sisters (of which there didn’t need to be two), then the whole Borg storyline could’ve been strengthened, the stakes raised, and a narrative reason found for Elnor’s unexpected resurrection.

As an addendum, it’s worth noting that the USS Excelsior, on which Elnor was serving at the end of Season 2, was destroyed in Season 3. So is he alive? Dead again? Who knows… and who cares? Clearly not the writers…

Abandoned Storyline #3:
Why did Q die? (And is he still dead?)

I have a longer theory post about this, which you can find by clicking or tapping here if you’re interested in some speculative ideas. What I didn’t say then, or at least not as strongly, is this: if you’re going to write a story that hinges on the imminent death of a character, with that character’s entire arc and motivation for their actions being derived from the knowledge of their impending death, then you really ought to explain why that character is dying! Especially, in this case, as we’re dealing with Q: a super-being who has always been presented as being functionally immortal.

But there was no explanation written for Q’s death. It’s possible that Q himself didn’t know, or that he was simply reaching the end of his natural life – a lifespan that may have been finite after all. We can read between the lines, perhaps, or use one of my theories as head-canon to explain that members of the Q Continuum aren’t entirely immortal after all.

Or we could have done that… if Q had stayed dead. In yet another profoundly odd and contradictory move for two seasons of television that were produced at the same time by the same showrunner and team, Q returned at the end of Season 3 in a post-credits scene. Forget the in-universe explanation. I know Q said that time isn’t linear for him, and if we assume that the Q seen at the end of Season 3 is younger than the Q at the end of Season 2 then it all works out in a mildly paradoxical way. Time travel is like that in fiction.

But from a production point of view… to hinge the entire plot of Season 2 on Q’s impending death, to make that the emotional core of what was an already incredibly weak and convoluted story, and then to undo that death a mere ten episodes later for the sake of a cameo so short it was barely even a clip? It’s mind-boggling how strange some of these narrative decisions are. Is Q dead? Is this the same Q? Why did Q die? Did he stay dead or was he revived? We don’t know – and even if Legacy had gone ahead, I doubt we’d have found out.

Abandoned Storyline #4:
Did the Coppelius synths have to relocate?

One of the most badly-rushed parts of the Season 1 finale concerned the Romulans’ decision to withdraw from Coppelius when confronted by a Starfleet armada. The culmination of the Zhat Vash plot involved the destruction of the Coppelius synths, and having found out where they were located, Commodore Oh broke cover and led a Romulan fleet to the Ghulion system. But she almost immediately stood down and withdrew her forces.

I was never convinced by this, and I think it’s something that needed a lot more screen time in order to be convincing. As a fanatical zealot, Oh simply didn’t seem like the kind of person who would be convinced to change her plan because of one speech and the presence of a new obstacle. Although she did withdraw, it wasn’t clear why. Had she abandoned her crusade after seeing Soji close the portal? Or was she planning to come back later and blow up Coppelius Station?

The Romulans could return and annihilate the synths before Starfleet had time to do anything about it.

The Zhat Vash, and indeed the Coppelius synths, disappeared from the story at this point. We don’t know what became of Oh, of the Romulan fleet, or the Zhat Vash. And we don’t know whether the Coppelius synths were safe now that the Romulans knew of their location. It seemed plausible to me to think that they might have to be relocated for their own safety – but this was never shown on screen.

At the beginning of Season 2, Soji said that she had been “travelling” since the end of the ban on synthetic life, meeting with representatives of other races. But that doesn’t mean that all of the synths were doing the same thing! Despite their importance to the story of Season 1, the synths were dropped without a conclusion to their story being written.

Abandoned Storyline #5:
How did Vadic and the Borg Queen come to work together?

I detest what Picard did with Vadic. It felt like such a thorough and underwhelming waste of a potentially interesting villain – all to bring back the Borg for the third season in a row. But setting that aside, while we learned that the Borg Queen and this splinter group of disaffected Founders were working together… we never learned how that came to happen. It might not be “essential” to the story in the same way as some of the other points on this list, but it would’ve been interesting.

“Just because” or “use your imagination” aren’t particularly good excuses, in my book, and I would’ve liked to see a flashback to the Borg Queen and Vadic meeting for the first time. Which of them devised this scheme? Did the Borg try to assimilate the changelings at first? How quickly did they come to realise they had a common enemy? And how did they even figure out Jack Crusher was Picard’s son, let alone that he could be used for the purpose of activating a “sleeper agent army” of Borg?

All of those points would’ve added interesting background to the story of Season 3, and while I understand that the writers wanted to keep some of the mysteries going so as not to blow the big reveal, once the Borg’s presence was known, a flashback could’ve filled in a lot of the blanks. I don’t think this would’ve needed to take up an entire episode, and it would’ve been enough to simply show their first contact and the beginnings of their planning.

I like that Picard Season 3 slowed down, in places, to give us moments with the returning characters – but the trade-off for that is that some big narrative beats were left unexplained. Given that Vadic’s performance was over-the-top and could feel quite one-dimensional, seeing her devising this scheme and working with the Borg Queen – even just for a handful of flashback scenes – could’ve improved how I feel about her as a character.

Abandoned Storyline #6:
Where’s Narek?

This truly fits the definition of “abandoned.” After the plot to stop Sutra and Soji from contacting the “super-synths” in the Season 1 finale, Narek was captured by the Coppelius synths. We last saw him lying on the ground, being apprehended. Narek then promptly disappeared from the story and the series… never being so much as mentioned again.

Narek’s disappearance is one consequence of Picard’s first season being so poorly-structured. The story simply ran out of time, leaving the final episode with way too much to cram in and nowhere near enough time to pay off everything that had been established. Narek simply ended up as one of several elements on the chopping block – but as a major character, someone whose story we’d been following for the preceding nine episodes, I kind of think we’re owed a conclusion. Apparently a scene involving Narek being taken into custody was scripted, but I don’t think it was even filmed given the narrative constraints placed upon the finale.

Season 2 could’ve provided this. All it would’ve taken was a single line of dialogue in the premiere: Dr Jurati could say something to Soji along the lines of “how do you feel now that Narek’s been sentenced? I heard he won’t be getting out for years, and the Federation has refused all requests to return him to Romulan space.” It’s as simple as that, and the mystery would’ve been solved. Given how slowly Season 2 plodded along, and how uninteresting most of it was… we could’ve even gotten an entire “Narek on trial” episode right at the beginning!

We simply don’t know what happened to him, though. And while Federation custody is plausible, it’s not impossible that the synths kept him in custody, executed him, turned him over to the ex-Borg, or even that he managed to beam up to one of the Romulan vessels and escape. For a main character to just be dumped in this way… it’s pretty pathetic for a big-budget series supposedly being made by professionals. And even when we take into account that most of the rest of the Season 1 cast were dropped after Season 2, Narek’s disappearance still feels the most egregious.

Abandoned Storyline #7:
What happened to Dr Jurtati’s new Borg faction?

When Starfleet came under attack by the Borg-Changelings, you know who could’ve been a metric fuckton of help? A literal Borg Queen. But even if Dr Jurati and her “Friendship is Magic” Collective were too busy taking care of the mysterious anomaly from the end of Season 2 (more on that in a moment), it would still have been nice to know that. As it is, she and her cuddlier, friendlier Borg Collective seem to have just… fucked off.

The Jurati-Borg represent something new for Star Trek: a different kind of Borg Collective, not based on violent and forced assimilation, but building some kind of community. Or… at least, I think that’s what they represent. Despite a painfully constipated buildup, we didn’t actually get much of a payoff to Jurati and the Borg Queen merging. As a result, this faction feels less like a proper, fully fleshed-out Borg splinter group and more like a hollow plot device: something with which to bookend the story.

If Legacy had managed to get off the ground, I’d have desperately wanted to see the Jurati-Borg back for at least an episode or two. I think she could’ve been a particularly interesting foil for Seven of Nine; a Borg Queen, but a different kind of Queen, sharing some of the traits Seven would remember while being a fundamentally different kind of person.

This also ties in with the abandoned “mysterious anomaly.” After showing up to both kick off the plot of Season 2 and then reveal they were actually there to save the day in the season finale… we just never learned more about this faction or the anomaly. For a franchise all about exploring the unknown… I just think that’s pretty poor. And yes, Dr Jurati wasn’t the main focus of Picard, but she’s still a main character, and she spent close to 400 years off on her own, setting up a different kind of Borg Collective. Learning at least a little about that would have been interesting, and a nice way to conclude her story.

Abandoned Storyline #8:
Who was responsible for the transwarp anomaly?

Bookending Season 2’s story was the mysterious anomaly. It threatened to unleash a huge amount of energy, devastating an entire sector of space and potentially destroying an entire fleet of ships… but we have no idea who caused it, what their aim may have been, or if it was simply a weird naturally-occurring phenomenon.

The Jurati-Borg certainly believed that this transwarp anomaly was a threat, and we can infer that it may have been an exceptionally powerful weapon. There are a few factions within Star Trek that could, in theory, be capable of that kind of attack. I think we can rule out the original Borg Collective for two reasons. Firstly, according to Season 3 of Picard, the Borg are in disarray and on the verge of collapse. And secondly, if it were a Borg attack, you’d think a centuries-old Borg Queen, with knowledge of the Collective and its technologies, would have recognised that.

To me, it feels profoundly odd that Seasons 2 and 3 went into production back-to-back, with mostly the same team at the helm, but this storyline didn’t carry over. It could’ve been set up, without much additional effort, as a prelude to Vadic’s scheme in Season 3; perhaps the transwarp anomaly was supposed to be a distraction, or perhaps it was her first attempt to attack the Federation, before realising she could ally with the Borg. It wouldn’t have taken a lot of effort to write the anomaly into the plot of Season 3.

In practically no other Star Trek story is a plot point like this left unresolved. If there’s an enemy, our heroes stop them. If there’s a mystery, we get answers. If a space phenomenon shows up, we get an explanation – even if it’s pure technobabble. The mysterious anomaly being abandoned like this is not only totally unprecedented… but it’s also incredibly unsatisfying. Everything Picard and the others went through built up to this moment… and we don’t know who’s responsible.

Abandoned Storyline #9:
So… who’s Picard married to these days?

The entire plot of Season 2, according to Q, was that Picard had unresolved trauma from childhood that was keeping him isolated and preventing him from falling in love. Setting aside Picard’s romantic entanglements in The Next Generation, we’ll accept this explanation for now. By the end of Season 2, Picard returned to his vineyard where Laris was waiting for him. And he seemed finally ready to take the next step into a final frontier of his own.

Laris appeared very briefly at the beginning of Season 3, but promptly disappeared after Picard set out to find his ex… Dr Crusher. After that, we learned that Picard and Crusher had conceived a son some years earlier, and Laris was never mentioned again. After the Borg-Changeling scheme was defeated, Picard reunited with Dr Crusher to escort their son to his first Starfleet assignment. So… where’s Laris?

…or did he get back together with Dr Crusher?

I don’t necessarily think that the end of Season 3 suggests that Picard and Crusher rekindled their relationship. But now that Picard knows about Jack, he’s clearly planning to take more of an active role in his son’s life, meaning he and Dr Crusher will remain on speaking terms. Is Laris okay with that? Does Picard having a son change things for her? Could Picard be the one feeling conflicted, torn between two women, two families, and two potential lives? We didn’t get any exploration of what Picard’s past and Jack’s arrival in his life could mean for his new relationship – and again, to reemphasise a point from earlier, Seasons 2 and 3 were in production at the same time. The writers knew, when giving Picard and Laris their “happy ending” in Season 2, that his past relationship with Dr Crusher was about to be thrust into the spotlight.

There are multiple ways to interpret what we know. One is that, after the events of Season 3, Picard resumed his married life with Laris, even if things may have gotten a tad awkward. But the other is that Picard and Dr Crusher got back together, explaining why they were both with Jack when he arrived aboard the Enterprise.

Abandoned Storyline #10:
Who were the “alliance of synthetic life,” and what were their goals?

The faction I nicknamed the “Mass Effect Reapers,” for their similarities to that video game antagonist, disappeared after Season 1 and weren’t mentioned again. But because of the aforementioned time crunch as Season 1 wrapped up, we really never learned much about them, who they were, what their objectives might’ve been… or what the consequences would’ve been if they’d shown up.

If Season 1 had been structured differently, an alternative ending could’ve shown the “super-synths” actually making it through the portal over Coppelius – and being confronted by the Federation and Romulans. It would’ve surely fallen to Picard, with his diplomatic talents, to defuse the situation, and we could’ve spent an episode or two with this faction, learning a little about where they came from, why they wanted to save their fellow synthetic life-forms, and perhaps if they’re connected to someone like the Borg.

This was as much as we saw of the “super-synths.”

There are two competing theories, as I see it, for what these guys might’ve wanted. The first is that their offer to the synths – as depicted in their beacon on Aia – was genuine, and they truly wanted to help all artificial life-forms survive what they viewed as an inevitable attack by organics. The second, much more sinsiter explanation, is that the beacon was a trap. When a civilisation has advanced sufficiently to develop synths, those synths would trigger the beacon – allowing the “alliance of synthetic life” to show up, kill everyone, and harvest their resources.

Option B would be more interesting, in theory! But it would’ve also dominated at least one season’s worth of storylines, and given the way Season 1 landed for a lot of folks… I think it’s probably okay that we moved on from the super-synths. But it would still be interesting to learn more about them. As it is, they feel pretty one-dimensional; a powerful enemy with no face, no clear goals, and not even a proper name.

So that’s it.

The rebuilt Enterprise-D bridge under construction ahead of Season 3.

We’ve talked about ten of Picard’s abandoned and unfinished storylines.

With the show over, and Legacy not being greenlit anytime soon, I suspect these narrative threads will be forever orphaned! They’re far from the only storylines in Star Trek to never get a proper resolution; the parasite-aliens from Conspiracy spring to mind, but I’m sure you can think of others. With Starfleet Academy soon to hit our screens, bringing Star Trek back to Discovery’s far future… maybe there’s an outside chance some of these events will be referenced – but I wouldn’t bet on it.

We’ll talk about this in more detail on another occasion, but two years on from Picard’s finale and I think my opinion of the show has worsened. There are some genuinely good episodes in the mix, some creative storytelling, and some wonderful moments of characterisation. But there’s a growing feeling that the show as a whole was a bit of a missed opportunity; that Star Trek’s return to one of its most popular characters and its most successful era should have done more to re-establish the franchise and set the stage for more. Legacy’s failure to get off the ground is, in a way, an indictment of the fact that Picard didn’t live up to Paramount’s expectations – and we have some questionable storytelling decisions to thank for that, in my view.

It speaks to Paramount’s lack of care and unprofessionalism that a big-budget flagship series left so many characters and half-finished storylines behind. After running to a scant thirty episodes across three seasons, there really shouldn’t be this much abandoned content to talk about. One day, I’d love to get a Chaos on the Bridge-style documentary about what happened behind-the-scenes, because I bet there’s a lot we don’t know.

Although Picard has finished its run, there are still going to be things to say about the show from time to time! I’d love to do a longer retrospective piece about the series one day, because while I followed along and wrote reviews of all thirty episodes, I haven’t really been able to sit back and assess the series as a whole. With the benefit of hindsight – and with Picard potentially being the only 25th Century series we’re ever gonna see – I think there’s more to say that I may not have considered during the show’s original run.

So I hope you’ll stay tuned. There will be more Picard content to come in the months and years ahead.

Star Trek: Picard Seasons 1-3 are available to stream now on Paramount+ in the United States and other countries and territories where the service is available. 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.

Stories To Tell Before It’s All Over…

Wed 25.06.25Dennis

A Star Trek: The Animated Series-themed spoiler warning graphic.

Spoiler Warning: Beware of spoilers for the following Star Trek productions: Deep Space Nine Season 6, Enterprise Season 3, Discovery Seasons 1-5, Picard Seasons 1-3, Prodigy Season 1, Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-2, and Starfleet Academy.

Eight years ago, Star Trek returned to its small-screen home after over a decade in the wilderness. However, in 2025, thanks to a corporate merger, an under-performing, loss-making streaming platform, and some laughably idiotic decision-making by morons in suits, it feels like Star Trek might, once again, be coming to the end of the road. The cancellations of all but one series, failures to get a new feature film off the ground, and Paramount+ continuing to flail around in a competitive market all indicate to me that Paramount and Skydance are at the very least considering bringing production to a halt.

There will be time in the months and years ahead to talk about who’s to blame and what precisely went wrong. But that isn’t the purpose of today’s article. Instead, I want to take a look ahead. Beginning with the assumption that Skydance/Paramount aren’t interested in producing more Star Trek after the second half of the 2020s, what stories should the franchise’s writers and producers aim to tell over the next three or four years? Is there room to resolve dangling story threads, throw in a bit of fan service, and perhaps revisit characters and factions we haven’t seen in a while? Or… should Star Trek’s corporate overlords roll the dice again and chase trends in the hope of bringing in new viewers?

A room with a table and chairs and a banner on the wall that reads "Star Trek: Boldly Going in 2017." — An early tease of Star Trek’s small-screen return.
*Photo Credit: TrekCore*

2016 doesn’t feel like a particularly long time ago. But it’s been nine years since we got those early teases of what would go on to be Star Trek: Discovery, and since then, production has ramped up only to tail off again far more quickly than I’d expected. To go from the excitement of Star Trek’s return to the very real prospect of its total cancellation in the span of less than a decade is making my head spin! But realistically, after the cancellation of most of the main shows and with the corporate merger seeming to have put a stop to any new announcements… that’s where we’re at. If Star Trek isn’t bringing in viewers and helping Paramount+ on its long road to profitability… what did we expect? Corporations aren’t going to piss away money forever on something that isn’t making a profit… even if the reason why Star Trek, in its current incarnation, has struggled is, I would very strongly argue, entirely the fault of executive fuckwits making appalling decisions!

The cancellation announcement of Strange New Worlds kind of embodies that for me. Season 3 is literally days away, the cast and crew are about to start making the rounds on the interview circuit, hype for the new season is beginning to build… and that’s the moment that Paramount’s executives decide to announce that the show’s cancellation. This coming just a couple of years after they had to rapidly un-announce a new Star Trek film when it emerged that none of the cast had actually signed onto the project. After the merger is complete and these morons are all laid off… I hope not one of them ever works in the entertainment industry again.

But as I said, that’s not what we’re here to talk about on this occasion!

Former Paramount CEO Bob Bakish in an official portrait. — Former Paramount CEO Bob Bakish.

I’ve been thinking a lot about some of the Star Trek stories that I’d most like to see. If Star Trek does get fully cancelled later in the decade, and remains off the air for a good number of years as happened in the ’70s and the 2000s/2010s… this could be it for me. This could be the last new Star Trek I’m gonna see. Because of my health, sticking it out to the 2040s or beyond for a possible, hypothetical revival seems… well, it seems unlikely, to be blunt about it! So the next few years could bring me the final batch of Star Trek stories that I’m going to be able to watch. It’s with that mindset that I approach this piece.

So let’s clear a few things up before we go any further. These story ideas are pure fantasy, meaning I have no “insider information,” I’m not claiming any of them will actually be made, and it’s very likely that nothing we’re about to discuss will ever actually be seen on screen! This is a wishlist from a Trekkie, and should be taken in that spirit. Secondly, all of this is the wholly subjective take of just one person. If you hate all of my story concepts, or if I don’t mention a favourite of yours… that’s okay. There should be enough room in the Star Trek fan community for different ideas and the kind of polite discussion that doesn’t descend into argument and toxicity.

With all of that out of the way, let’s take a look at some of my story ideas.

Story #1:
Bring back the Xindi.

Still frame from Star Trek: Enterprise Season 3 showing the Xindi. — Xindi in *Enterprise*.

The Xindi have technically appeared in Discovery – albeit in a non-speaking, background role. And Xindi-Reptillians were also seen in a slightly bigger capacity in Prodigy’s first season. But we haven’t gotten a proper Xindi story since Enterprise – not one that examines the Federation’s relationship to the faction, at any rate. I’d love to see the Xindi revisited in a big way, catching up with them after the events of Enterprise and perhaps finding out a little more about what became of them after the disappearance of the Sphere-Builders.

Starfleet Academy could, for instance, introduce a Xindi cadet – perhaps one of the first Xindi to be a Starfleet officer in some time. Or Captain Pike could be sent on a diplomatic mission to the Xindi homeworld barely a century after the attempted attack on Earth. Either of these shows could incorporate a Xindi storyline, and it would be a lot of fun to either lay the groundwork for a future Federation-Xindi alliance or see what became of that in the far future.

Still frame from Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1 showing two Xindi characters. — Two Xindi from *Prodigy’*s first season.

A story set in the far future could also reference the Sphere Builders and perhaps expand upon something Discovery never really explained: the ban on time travel. It always struck me as an impossible thing to enforce, especially given the shattered state of the Federation, but perhaps a Xindi character in Starfleet Academy could lecture the cadets on the dangers of trying to interfere with the past.

If Pike and the Enterprise visit the Delphic Expanse, we could get a story about the Xindi’s first attempt to reconcile with Earth. They might’ve retreated back to their homeworld after their defeat, and this could be the first time they’ve reached out to the Federation in decades. There could even be a resurrection of the plot to attack Earth, perhaps some disaffected Xindi faction feels that it’s the only way to restore their world to greatness. If so, Captain Pike could have to follow in Archer’s footsteps and stop them!

Story #2:
A sequel to In The Pale Moonlight.

Still frame from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 6 showing Garak and Sisko. — Garak and Sisko.

Have you ever wondered what might’ve happened if the Romulans ever figured out what Garak and Sisko did during the Dominion War? I have! And it’s one of my all-time favourite fantasy storylines. I don’t think this would even need to include Sisko or Garak necessarily – though I’d love to bring back both Avery Brooks and Andrew Robinson to reprise their roles. But a story set sometime after the Dominion War could revisit this absolute cracker of an episode and address some of the lingering questions that it posed.

Though this could be another far future story, I guess, where I think it would work best would be in the Picard era. Perhaps the Romulans discover, in some of the documents and data that they saved from the supernova, the fake recording that Sisko and Garak created and revisit it, finally realising that it was fake. That could have massive implications for Romulan-Federation relations… or maybe the new Romulan government, relying on the Federation for aid and supplies after the cataclysm, would choose to cover it up. If Legacy had gotten off the ground, this would absolutely be a story I’d have wanted to see in that show.

Still frame from Star Trek: Picard Season 3 showing Seven of Nine. — This could’ve been a great episode of *Star Trek: Legacy*…

I can picture it already: Starfleet contacts the Enterprise, ordering Seven, Raffi, Jack, and the rest of the crew to parley with the Romulans. Seven’s Romulan connections from Picard Season 1 could come into play here, justifying Starfleet tapping the Enterprise for the mission. Upon arriving at the new Romulan homeworld, several angry Romulans – leaders of the Senate and Tal Shiar, perhaps – confront her over the deception. Seven and the crew genuinely have no idea what’s going on; Sisko and Garak told no one. In desperation, Seven contacts DS9, potentially being received by a familiar face.

At this point, the story could go in lots of different directions – all with plenty of those shades of grey which made In The Pale Moonlight so compelling. There could be genuinely uncomfortable real-world parallels – the lies told in order to start wars, threats of aid being withheld from desperate survivors of the supernova, and good people forced into impossible situations by the actions of others a generation ago.

Story #3:
A 60th Anniversary Special.

Promo image for Star Trek: Voyager showing Janeway and Tuvok with Rand and Sulu. — Janeway and Tuvok with Sulu and Rand from *Voyager’*s 30th anniversary episode, *Flashback*.

In 1996, two episodes were produced that really aimed to celebrate Star Trek’s thirtieth anniversary: Trials and Tribble-ations and Flashback. Both were, in my humble opinion, excellent – though fans have a clear preference for Trials and Tribble-ations! It’s been a frankly astonishing twenty-nine years since then… meaning Star Trek’s 60th is just around the corner.

A decade ago, Star Trek Beyond was the only production released during the 50th anniversary year, but Discovery was already filming. This time, I’d really love to see Paramount go all-out, using all of the resources at their disposal, to really celebrate all things Star Trek. Obviously this idea felt more likely before the recent cancellation announcements, and I would note that we’ve already had an excellent crossover between Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds that kind of occupies a similar space! But that wasn’t an anniversary special… so I think Star Trek and Paramount can do something, at least, to mark the occasion.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 showing Mariner, Boimler, and Pike in the crossover episode. — Star Trek has recently done an ambitious crossover episode.

There are two shows in production that could – somehow – cross over. The best idea I can come up with at this stage would be the Starfleet Academy cadets running a simulation of Kirk’s Enterprise… which I realise sounds a lot like the maligned These Are The Voyages, but I think that same concept could’ve worked if it had been handled better and wasn’t intended to serve as Enterprise’s finale! So let’s say that, under the direction of Tilly and Vance, the cadets are aboard Kirk’s Enterprise, using the sets built for Strange New Worlds. What next?

Well, Strange New Worlds already has Kirk, Spock, Uhura, and Scotty – so we could use those characters and revisit a classic episode from The Original Series! Perhaps something like The Doomsday Machine, with the cadets observing Kirk’s actions for their assignment. This could mutate into a “the holodeck done goofed” type of story, perhaps, with the cadets having to genuinely fight for their lives alongside Captain Kirk and Spock. It wouldn’t be a pure crossover in the sense that Pike and some of the other Strange New Worlds characters would be missing… but I think it could be a huge amount of fun.

Story #4:
Save Captain Lorca!

Promo still for Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 showing Captain Lorca with a phaser. — Captain Lorca.

This has been a theory/fantasy of mine going all the way back to the announcement of Section 31 in 2019! In short, the prime timeline version of Captain Gabriel Lorca, from Discovery’s first season, switched places with his Mirror Universe counterpart before the events of the show. Mirror Lorca is dead – but we never learned what became of our universe’s version of the character. Admiral Cornwell just assumed that he’s dead… but Lorca always struck me as a resilient, resourceful man. So maybe there’s a way that he managed to survive.

Section 31 obviously went on to be a completely different thing, but we still have a show set in the 23rd Century where this kind of rescue mission might be possible: Strange New Worlds! Captain Pike confirmed back in Discovery that he knows about the existence of the Mirror Universe, and while any crossover story would have to keep characters like Spock, Uhura, and Scotty out of it, I think it could be made to work. Furthermore, we could get a glimpse of Pike’s past; perhaps he served with Lorca before either of them assumed their commands, or maybe they became friends while working together as starship captains.

Captain Lorca is trapped in the Terran Empire.

In my fantasy version of the story, Admiral April would contact Captain Pike with a top-secret assignment. Starfleet has received a brief message from across the divide between universes, confirming that Captain Lorca is still alive. Based on what Starfleet learned from the USS Discovery’s time in the Mirror Universe, they’ve found a way to send a small ship through the looking-glass – and Pike, as one of the few officers aware of the Mirror Universe and because of his connection to Lorca, has been chosen to lead the mission. Pike would select Ortegas to be the shuttle’s pilot and another character – perhaps La’an for security or Pelia to keep the shuttle flying and maintain its systems – for a clandestine mission akin to the one Picard undertook in Chain of Command.

Once in the Mirror Universe, Pike and the others would have to trace the source of Lorca’s signal – it’s coming from a Terran Empire prison camp. They’d come up with a plan, break him out, engage in a shootout with a few Terrans, and possibly catch a glimpse of Mirror Spock before making it home safe and sound. I think this could be a really fun story – and a great way to bring Star Trek’s current crop of shows full-circle by returning to the events of Discovery’s first season.

Story #5:
Captain Pike vs. the Borg Collective!

Still frame from Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2 showing a Borg drone in main engineering. — The first Borg drone ever seen in Star Trek.

Okay, now we’re getting silly. But I still think that a Borg Strange New Worlds episode isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds! Let me explain why. Firstly, just like the Captain Lorca episode above, this one would have to take place in an alternate timeline. Somehow, someway, thanks to some technobabble interstellar phenomenon, the Enterprise is thrust into a parallel universe – one in which the Borg have come to dominate the entire galaxy. Pike and the crew would have to face off against a horde of cybernetic adversaries while struggling to make it home.

Characters like Spock and Una could suggest that this cybernetic race – the Borg – might not exist in the prime timeline, potentially explaining how Pike’s run-in with the Borg was never mentioned by anyone else! I think that clears up that particular issue much better than Enterprise did with its Borg episode! But I also like the idea of leaving just a little bit of ambiguity right at the end – perhaps Pike submits his report, and the camera hangs on Admiral April as he looks pensive and concerned.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 showing Captain Pike in his away team armour. — How would Pike handle the Borg threat?

After Picard arguably overdid it with the Borg, I can appreciate why bringing them back so soon might not be to everyone’s taste. And when there are so many factions and races from past iterations of Star Trek still waiting to be revisited, I can entertain the argument that doing another Borg story might not be the way to go. But when I think about the most iconic villains in Star Trek, the toughest enemies to beat, and the most frightening… the Borg are absolutely up there in all three categories, and I think they’d pose a massive challenge for Pike and the crew.

The most important thing for me is setting a story like this in an alternate universe, not the prime timeline. There’d be enough wiggle-room to have an encounter like this without treading on the toes of fantastic episodes like Q Who and The Best of Both Worlds that way.

Story #6:
Push the Burn into an alternate timeline.

Still frame from Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 showing the Burn destroying starships in a flashback. — The Burn.

As a parting gift to potential future Star Trek storytellers, I can’t think of anything this current crop of shows could do that would be better than pushing the Burn and the far-future setting into an alternate reality. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t want to see Discovery and Starfleet Academy decreed to be “non-canon,” and the far-future setting had some interesting ideas that led to some genuinely great episodes. But… as the ultimate destination for the entire Star Trek galaxy, the Burn and the post-apocalyptic hellscape it created are incredibly depressing. Not only that, they risk constraining future stories, making them feel meaningless or unimportant.

Any new Star Trek project set prior to the 32nd Century becomes, by default, a Discovery prequel. And when we know how awful Discovery’s far future was for pretty much everyone… that’s not great. It completely changes how we view stories like Picard’s third season; we knew, even subconsciously in the backs of our minds, that even if Picard managed to save the day and defeat the Borg, the Burn was still going to happen. No other Star Trek project has done more to restrict and reframe subsequent productions than Discovery’s third season.

Still frame from Star Trek: Picard Season 3 showing Spacedock under attack. — Any Star Trek episode or film set in the 23rd, 24th, or 25th Centuries becomes, by default, a prequel to *Discovery’*s far future… and the Burn.

And I think, all things considered, “post-apocalyptic Star Trek” didn’t work as intended – at least not in Discovery with the kinds of stories the production team wanted to tell. So let’s assume Starfleet Academy will get two seasons before a cancellation in 2027 or 2028. The absolute best thing that show could do in its final episode is find some way to push this version of the future into a pocket universe or alternate timeline. You’d have to come up with some kind of technobabble and a reason why; maybe the Burn will have knock-on effects that ultimately lead to some additional disaster, and the only way to prevent it will be to travel back in time and stop the Burn from ever happening. I don’t know. But there’s gotta be someone who could write a story like that!

What this story would have to do is thread the needle. Discovery and Starfleet Academy could continue to exist for folks who enjoyed them – and I certainly hope to be among the people who enjoy Starfleet Academy! But the main storyline of the Burn could push those shows into some kind of parallel universe – paving the way for Star Trek projects in the future to not have that massively depressing destination.

Story #7:
Star Trek: Legacy.

Still frame from Star Trek: Picard Season 3 showing the Enterprise-G. — The Enterprise-G.

This one isn’t a single “story” so much as an entire TV movie! In short, I’d love to see Terry Matalas’ Legacy pitch revisited, somehow. If we stick with our assumption that cancellation is coming, then it seems beyond unlikely that a brand-new big-budget series is going to get out of the starting gate. But maybe, just maybe, there’s room to turn Legacy into a Section 31-style TV movie. If it does well in that format, then who knows? Maybe Skydance/Paramount will want a continuation.

I really hope that the negative reception Section 31 received earlier in the year won’t dissuade Star Trek’s corporate overlords from revisiting the TV movie idea. There are so many stories that could work in that format – even if they couldn’t carry an entire series on their own. While I’d absolutely love to see Legacy in its originally-envisioned form as a full-blown series, a TV movie could be the next best thing… and a way to test the waters to see if the 25th Century could be Star Trek’s saviour.

Still frame from Star Trek: Picard Season 2 showing Seven and Raffi. — Seven and Raffi could return…

I’ve argued repeatedly that the Star Trek franchise can’t just coast on nostalgia and past successes, and needs to do more to bring new, younger fans on board. That’s something I hoped Section 31 could’ve done… but that doesn’t seem to have happened, unfortunately. A restructured Legacy, with just enough of a connection to Star Trek’s past without going overboard, could be the gateway into the franchise for new fans – connecting back to characters from The Next Generation era while setting the stage for new adventures in the 25th Century.

I’ll caveat all of this by saying that no one knows what was in the original Legacy pitch – it might’ve been absolute dog shite that we would’ve all despised! And there’s clearly a reason why Paramount didn’t go for it in 2022/23. But as with other missed opportunities in recent years – like Quentin Tarantino’s film idea – I can’t help but feel the decision not to move forward was the wrong one. Perhaps Legacy can still be revived, even if it has to be a one-off TV movie instead of a full series.

Story #8:
“Cardassia Prime.”

Still frame from Star Trek: The Original Series showing the USS Enterprise with the words "Cardassia Prime" in the style of an Original Series title card.

If you’re a regular reader, you might remember my fantasy “episode pitch” for Strange New Worlds from a few months back. I titled the story Cardassia Prime, and it would tell the story of first contact between the Federation and the Cardassians. But wait, there’s more! I’d also bring an elderly T’Pol into the story, serving as an ambassador and diplomat for the Federation in her later years.

The episode would start with Captain Pike receiving new orders – a Federation colony ship has been attacked by an unknown faction, and a special ambassador is coming aboard the Enterprise to help defuse the situation. The ambassador will be revealed as T’Pol – now well over a hundred years old, but still working for the Federation. I’d love to see some interaction between an elderly T’Pol and a younger Spock; perhaps she’d have some advice for him on working closely with humans and discovering personal connections with them that could foreshadow Spock’s deep bond with Kirk.

Still frame from Star Trek: Enterprise showing an elderly T'Pol. — This episode would feature an older T’Pol.

We’ll also discover that the aggressive, territorial power T’Pol has been sent to negotiate with is the nascent Cardassian Empire – and they’ve laid claim to a system that a Federation colony ship inadvertently ventured into. This kind of hostile first contact, with an emphasis on competing claims for star systems along a shared border, could set be the precursor to the Carsassian Border Wars of the 24th Century, foreshadowing events referenced in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. I like the idea of a non-violent resolution; Captain Pike shouldn’t have to fire his phaser even once, despite Cardassian intransigence!

We’ve never seen how first contact between Starfleet and the Cardassians went, and I just adore the idea of an episode bringing together elements from all three of Star Trek’s main eras: the 22nd Century, represented by T’Pol, the 23rd, obviously represented by Pike, Spock, and the Enterprise, and the 24th, represented by the Cardassians, who were first introduced in that era and who were a major antagonist. If you want a longer look at my “Cardassia Prime” story outline, you can find it by clicking or tapping here.

Story #9:
32nd Century Klingons.

Still frame from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock showing a Klingon Bird-of-Prey up close. — A Klingon Bird-of-Prey.

After shooting forwards in time far beyond anything we’ve seen in Star Trek before, Discovery disappointed me by showing us remarkably little of the galaxy in this era. With storylines focused on the next “massive galactic threat” and Burnham’s soap opera-like personal relationships, the show just didn’t even try to give us a bigger picture look at some of the factions and races we remember. A few were glimpsed – literally, just glimpsed in the background with a single character, like a Ferengi or Lurian. But we’ve seen hide nor hair of the Klingons.

Of all the races in Star Trek, the Klingons are perhaps the most iconic and narratively important. So it feels odd to have spent three full seasons in Discovery’s far future without so much as glimpsing a single solitary Klingon! There are so many ways this could’ve gone, too – the Klingons could’ve become fully-fledged Federation members by this time, returned to isolationism, or even broken their alliance to become an enemy once again.

Still frame from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine showing two Klingon leaders on DS9's viewscreen. — Gowron and Martok in *Deep Space Nine*.

And then there’s the Burn. The Burn was, in a roundabout way, caused by a Federation citizen aboard a Federation ship… so what would the Klingons make of that revelation? How did the Burn even impact their empire – or whatever was left of it by the 32nd Century? Is there still an extant Klingon state at all, or did their empire fall apart centuries ago, with surviving Klingons existing as second-class citizens under the jurisdiction of the likes of the Breen or Emerald Chain?

I’d love to see Starfleet Academy begin the process of answering these questions! Even though, as stated above, I think pushing this vision of the far future into a separate timeline would be for the best, I’m still curious to catch up with the Klingons in this era, finding out what happened to them in the centuries after we last saw them.

Story #10:
Tie up Picard’s loose ends… or some of them, at least.

Still frame from Star Trek: Picard Season 1 showing Narek's final on-screen moment. — Hi, Narek…

Who are the “alliance of synthetic life,” and what were their goals? Who created the mysterious transwarp anomaly/weapon? Could those two stories, from Seasons 1 and 2 of Picard, be related somehow? I’d love to get some closure on these two apparently-massive storylines that Picard’s writing team dropped without bothering to explain!

This is another storyline that could’ve emerged in Star Trek: Legacy… but I think there’s at least the potential for Starfleet Academy to tie up these loose ends. Even if all we get is a short scene, a few lines of dialogue, and confirmation that the super-synths tried to attack the Federation before being defeated by a renegade Borg ally… that would be something. Maybe we could learn that Starfleet established relations with the “alliance of synthetic life” and they maintain an embassy. If the writers really wanted to lean into this idea, we could even connect it to a synthetic character like the Doctor – who we know is coming back in Starfleet Academy’s first season.

Still frame from Star Trek: Picard Season 2 showing the assembled fleet and the mysterious anomaly. — The mysterious anomaly from Season 2.

As I’ve said before, Picard was a jumbled, contradictory mess of a show – one that dumped characters and storylines with no explanation, overwrote significant story beats from one episode to the next, and while it managed to pull out a satisfactory ending to its third season… there was a lot left on the cutting-room floor as the credits rolled. Getting some kind of closure to some of these points – even centuries later in a completely different context – would be fantastic.

As Trekkies, we like the world of Star Trek to make sense. And when whole storylines which appear to involve impossibly-powerful enemies and adversaries just disappear without a trace… well, that isn’t very satisfying. Even if Starfleet Academy could find time to include a couple of throwaway lines of dialogue referencing and providing some kind of closure to the super-synths and the mysterious anomaly… I think that would do a lot to improve how I feel about those storylines.

So that’s it… for now.

Concept art of the USS Excalibur from Star Trek Online. — *Star Trek Online’*s USS Excalibur.

With Strange New Worlds not even halfway through its four-and-a-half season run, and Starfleet Academy having been announced but not so much as glimpsed yet… it feels strange to be thinking about Star Trek as a whole potentially being shut down in just a few years’ time. However, unless something massive changes – and quickly – that seems to be what we’re headed for. It’s a depressing thought, especially since cancellation in the late 2020s could very well mean that these upcoming episodes and stories will be the last brand-new Star Trek I’ll ever see. But what can you do, eh?

I hope this has been an interesting thought experiment, at least. There are some stories and episode ideas that I’d really love to see brought to the screen over the next few years, and if they’re to be among the last in this current incarnation of Star Trek… well, let’s just hope they’re good ones!

Thanks for tuning in, and as always… Live Long and Prosper!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1 are in production and will be broadcast on Paramount+ in the months ahead. Other Star Trek shows and films are already on the platform now, and may also be available on DVD and/or Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including all episodes, films, series, and 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.

Five Changes I’d Have Made To Star Trek: Picard

Tue 09.07.24Tue 09.07.24Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Picard Seasons 1-3.

It’s been more than a year since Star Trek: Picard finished its run, but the series has been on my mind again. With Paramount seemingly focused on more Star Trek prequels in the immediate term, and the Legacy spin-off idea dead and buried in its original form, Picard could be our only live-action look at the early 25th Century for a long time. That got me thinking about the show’s successes… but also a few places where I would have made changes if I’d been in charge!

See, Picard was far from the perfect production – at least in my subjective opinion. I’ve already drawn attention to several places where storylines and plot points seemed to overwrite one another – which is strange, particularly in a series that only ran to thirty episodes across three seasons. You can find that article by clicking or tapping here, by the way! But today I wanted to consider five changes I’d have made that I believe would’ve improved the series.

As always, a couple of important caveats! A couple of these points are contradictory, meaning one idea or the other might’ve worked in the series, but probably not both! That’s okay, and I’m happy to consider the merits of both as standalone ideas. I’m not trying to claim that Picard’s writers should have implemented all of these changes exactly as I’m proposing them! For a variety of reasons, both in-universe and on the production side of things, it may not have been possible to do some or all of these things even if the writers’ room had wanted to. So to re-emphasise that last point: I know that some or all of these ideas may not have been practical. This is all a moot point now anyway; the series is over. This list is a mix of fantasy and speculation from an old Trekkie – and nothing more!

I also want to say that, while I had some issues with the way Picard was written, by and large I’m a supporter of the series. In fact, I’d like to see more Star Trek set in the time period that Picard introduced us to – and one of the reasons why I think continuing to talk about the show is important is to make that point to Paramount. It also can’t hurt to point out some inconsistencies and other points that future writers and producers might be able to learn from! So that’s my mindset as I put together this list.

With all of that out of the way, let’s get started!

Change #1:
Replace Dr Benayoun with Dr Pulaski in Season 1.

Still frame from Star Trek: Picard Season 1 (2020) showing the character of Dr Benayoun. — Picard with Dr Benayoun in Season 1.

The second episode of Season 1 saw Picard consulting a doctor who was also an old friend as he prepared to return to space for the first time in several years. The character we ultimately got was someone brand-new: Dr Benayoun. In a way, this character could have been interesting if his role had been expanded upon; he served on the USS Stargazer with Picard, presumably prior to the events of The Next Generation, and I’m always going to be interested in storylines that expand upon the backstories of our favourite characters! But Dr Benayoun’s role was pretty small and he didn’t really give us any new information about Picard’s life prior to assuming command of the Enterprise-D, unfortunately.

If I had been writing this scene, I’d have moved heaven and earth to bring back Diana Muldaur as Dr Pulaski. At this point in the series, we’ve only seen Picard himself and a dream version of Data, so there’s absolutely a case to be made that bringing back a legacy character would have been perfect for this moment. There could have been a slightly extended conversation between the two, perhaps with Dr Pulaski commenting on how she saved Picard’s life when she performed surgery on him, or recounting another of their shared adventures in Season 2 of The Next Generation.

Still frame from Finding Hannah (2022/23) showing actress Diana Muldaur. — Diana Muldaur, who played Dr Pulaski in Season 2 of *The Next Generation*.

I said before Picard premiered that I didn’t want the series to try to be The Next Generation Season 8, but moments like this would have been perfect for small cameos from established characters. With Dr Crusher being held in reserve for a possible future role, Dr Pulaski would have been the perfect fit for this sequence. We could have learned a little about why she left the Enterprise-D, with that perhaps having been a sore spot in her relationship with Picard. Or we could’ve learned what she’s been up to in the intervening years – did she return to work at Starfleet Medical, perhaps, or take another assignment on a starship?

I’ve been a fan of Dr Pulaski for a long time, and I think this sequence could’ve been an opportunity to right a thirty-year wrong and give the character the closure and send-off she never got. Diana Muldaur has still been active as an actress in recent years – despite being well into her eighties at time of writing – appearing in the trailer for a film called Finding Hannah in 2022. Despite some negative feelings on both sides, it may have been possible to bring her back during production on Picard’s first season in 2018 and 2019. I think it could have added a fun extra dimension to the sequence in that second episode, especially for older Trekkies.

Change #2:
Leave Data dead after Season 1.

Still frame from Star Trek: Picard Season 1 (2020) showing the character of Data. — Data in the “digital afterlife.”

One of the few redeeming features of an otherwise disappointing finale to Season 1 was the storyline involving Data. Data had been killed years earlier during the events of Star Trek: Nemesis, but that film arguably didn’t take enough time to give the character the send-off he deserved. As I wrote when reviewing Picard’s first season, the scenes involving Picard laying Data to rest were beautiful, emotional, and just what the episode needed – and I could finally see why, eighteen years on from Data’s first death, they were necessary for the character.

Season 3, however, undid all of that. Not only did that decision detract from one of the only decent parts of the Season 1 finale, but it was actually a pretty convoluted plot point that was difficult to follow and relied on a lot of technobabble and “magic.” It never really found a narrative justification beyond showrunner Terry Matalas’ desire to reunite all of the main characters from The Next Generation – no matter the cost.

Still frame from Star Trek: Picard Season 3 (2023) showing the character of Data. — Data at his post in Season 3.

In Star Trek’s universe, Data was as dead as it was possible to be. His body had been destroyed years earlier, and Season 1 saw the final shutdown of the residual part of his mind that had been preserved – at Data’s own request. With both body and mind gone, there should have been absolutely no way back for Data. But thanks to the magical deus ex machina of a backup body and a backup mind… Data was resurrected in Season 3. That never sat right with me, but if there had been a significant narrative role for the character in those final episodes, perhaps I could’ve come to terms with it. There really wasn’t, though, and aside from one scene in which Data technobabbled his way to regaining control of the Titan, we didn’t really get a lot more from him for the rest of his time on screen.

I believe Data would have been better-served in Season 3 by being memorialised by his friends. Leaving alone the touching moments between he and Picard in what I termed the “digital afterlife” in Season 1 would have made those moments more powerful to revisit… instead of feeling like a storyline that’s been overwritten. Of all the dead characters in Star Trek, Data was the hardest to bring back because he’d “died” twice, both in body and soul. I don’t think the decision to resurrect him just a few episodes after that intensely emotional send-off was the right one, and I don’t think it was done for the right reasons, sadly.

Change #3:
Either leave Elnor dead or include him in Season 3.

Promo photo for Star Trek: Picard. — Elnor in a promo photo for Season 2.

This is a storyline that I’ve said several times that I genuinely do not understand. Let’s keep in mind that Seasons 2 and 3 went into production back-to-back, with the same creative team in control. Early in Season 2, Elnor was killed – and while I wasn’t thrilled with that at first, as the season unfolded, the way in which Raffi came to terms with his loss made it matter. In fact, I’d go so far as to call the Raffi-Elnor storyline in Season 2 one of the few high points of a season that had relatively few of those.

It was always going to feel strange, then, when Elnor was resurrected at the last second by Q. The fact that Elnor didn’t get much to do in the second half of the Season 2 finale hammered that feeling home; a sight gag showing Elnor disgusted by a beverage was basically his only moment of note after his return. Was it worth undoing that powerful story for an overdone bit of slapstick? He barely got any screen time nor even a proper reunion with Raffi. But nevertheless, as the credits rolled on Season 2 I thought Elnor’s return could find a narrative justification in Season 3.

Still frame from Star Trek: Picard Season 2 (2022) showing the character of Elnor. — Elnor at the end of Season 2.

Elnor, however, was totally absent from Season 3 and wasn’t even mentioned. If I was writing the season, I’d have dropped one of the La Forge sisters and included Elnor instead, having him aboard the Titan in a secondary role and ultimately becoming one of the young officers who gets assimilated. That moment could’ve actually felt stronger and more powerful with Elnor’s inclusion, as we’d be confronting a threat to a character we’d been with for three seasons instead of someone brand-new.

However… given Elnor’s absence from Season 3, I can’t help but feel that leaving him dead would have been the least-bad option. At least that way Raffi’s story of coming to terms with her grief would have meant something, and we could’ve talked about the bold decision to kill off a new, young character in a Star Trek series – something that the franchise isn’t really known for doing. While I absolutely feel that there could have been room for Elnor in Season 3, his death was such a big part of the story of Season 2 that I think undoing it would have probably been a mistake regardless.

Change #4:
Connect the anomaly in Season 2 to either Season 1’s “super-synths” or Season 3’s Borg incursion.

Still frame from Star Trek: Picard Season 2 (2022) showing the anomaly and the fleet. — The Borg-Federation fleet defends the Alpha Quadrant against the mysterious anomaly.

One thing that modern Star Trek has never managed to get quite right is serialisation. This will have to be the subject of a longer article one day, but for now suffice to say that Discovery, Picard, and to a lesser extent Strange New Worlds too all rely on season-long storylines that don’t carry over from one season to the next. There are reasons for this in Discovery’s case – the series flirted with cancellation more than once. But, as I understand it, Picard was planned from day one as a three-season show… so why were none of its storylines picked up in subsequent seasons?

There are two choices here, and they’re probably mutually-exclusive (without some major rewriting) so realistically we’d have to settle on one or the other! But I think the Season 2 anomaly is an interesting narrative idea that could have connected with either the super-synths from Season 1 or the Borg incursion in Season 3. Either of these powerful factions could have been responsible for the attempted attack on the Alpha Quadrant that Picard and co. prevented at the climax of Season 2 – and I think it would have been far better than just leaving this incredibly important event without a proper explanation.

Still frame from Star Trek: Picard Season 1 (2020) showing menancing mechanical tentacles. — The mechanical noodles of the Season 1 super-synths.

The mysterious anomaly bookended the story of Season 2, and connected to Picard, his friends, and the adventure they had in the intervening episodes. Unlike in many Star Trek stories, the anomaly was explicitly identified as an “attack,” meaning that there must be some faction or powerful force behind it. The Borg and the super-synths from Season 1 would fit the bill as being powerful enough to launch an attack of that magnitude.

Tying one of these factions into the anomaly story would have helped Picard feel a bit more cohesive. Given the abundance of overwritten plot points, dropped characters, and abrupt changes in direction across the series, having something to tie disparate story threads together would be a good thing. If I had to pick one, I’d say that the super-synths would be the ideal faction to include here, simply because we know relatively little about them, and a super-synth attack could set up a future Star Trek series or film. But given that the Borg would return in Season 3, dropping a hint or two that they could be responsible could have been a great cliffhanger to end on at the end of Season 2.

Change #5:
Have the Enterprise-A and Enterprise-D fighting alongside one another at the end of Season 3.

Still frame from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country showing the Enterprise-A. — The Enterprise-A’s final voyage.

Season 3 introduced us to the Fleet Museum, which is a really interesting idea that I enjoyed. It was also a Trekkie’s dream, as multiple vessels from past iterations of the franchise were present. Along with Geordi’s pride and joy – the restored Enterprise-D – was the Enterprise-A, Captain Kirk’s ship that we saw in The Final Frontier and The Undiscovered Country. How cool would it have been if, along with the Enterprise-D, Picard and co. found some friends or allies to crew the Enterprise-A and join them as they took the battle to the Borg?

I know that Picard’s third season was a “love letter” to The Next Generation, and I can absolutely understand not wanting to detract from seeing the Enterprise-D and her crew back in action. But as a Trekkie, one of the fantasies that I’ve always had has been to see different crews and different ships standing shoulder-to-shoulder – especially in a story like this one, where the battle lines have been drawn and the Federation seems to be on the cusp of defeat!

Still frame from Star Trek: Picard Season 3 (2023) showing the Enterprise-D in battle. — Wouldn’t it have been cool to have the Enterprise-A here for this moment?

Bringing the Enterprise-A along would fit narratively, too. Part of the story was about older people still having something to offer; stepping back into the fray to save their younger colleagues. The Enterprise-D and her crew were one way to embody that storyline, but including the Enterprise-A would have been in the same narrative ballpark. There could have even been some technobabble about how the Borg wouldn’t know what to do with a ship that old, making the Enterprise-A a useful addition to the battle. If this point in the story had been reached a little earlier – say with three episodes left instead of one-and-a-bit – I’d have absolutely found a way to include the Enterprise-A.

A digital model had already been created – albeit a static one for the Fleet Museum – but I’m sure with relatively little work it could have been transformed into a moving, flying model. And as for the bridge… I don’t think an entire set would need to be built. For brief scenes shown on the Enterprise-D’s viewscreen, perhaps a redress of the Strange New Worlds or Discovery sets would have sufficed. This would’ve also been a great way to include a character or two from The Next Generation era – perhaps someone like Ezri Dax or Captain Jellico – to take command. Seeing two Enterprises riding into battle side by side… I can’t think of anything more exciting in that kind of story.

What might have been, eh?

So that’s it!

Still frame from Star Trek: Picard Season 2 (2022) showing the main characters around the conference table. — Picard and his crew.

We’ve looked at five changes I’d have made to Star Trek: Picard.

I’m still holding out hope that a new series, film, or other project set in the Picard era will be announced, but with Paramount’s financial troubles and other Star Trek shows being cancelled… I’m not sure when or even if that’ll happen. If it does, though, I hope lessons can be learned from Picard, both in terms of narrative and on the production side of things. As good as the series could be when everything was working right, there are some definite low points that detract from its successes.

The points on this list are pure fantasy at this stage, of course! But as Picard was being broadcast, I couldn’t help but feel that a few tweaks or changes here and there might’ve improved things – so I’m glad to finally put metaphorical pen to paper and make a few of my suggestions. I hope these ideas have been interesting, at any rate – and not something to get too worked up or upset over! If you hate all of these ideas, you can take solace in the fact that none of them were or ever will be included in Star Trek: Picard!

I still have a few pieces about Picard in the pipeline, including a longer retrospective/post-mortem of the series as a whole. I don’t know when I’ll get around to writing all of those, but I hope you’ll stay tuned. It’s bound to happen eventually! Until next time… live long and prosper!

Star Trek: Picard is available to stream now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform is available. The series is also available to purchase on DVD/Blu-ray. 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.

Star Trek: A Picard Movie?

Sun 07.01.24Dennis

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?

Still frame from "All Good Things," the series finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation, showing the main characters playing poker. — The end of *All Good Things…*

Still frame from "The Last Generation," the series finale of Star Trek: Picard, showing the main characters playing poker. — …and an identical shot from the end of *The Last Generation*.

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!

Still frame of Sir Patrick Stewart on the podcast "Happy Sad Confused with Josh Horowitz." — Sir Patrick Stewart recently teased this idea on a podcast.

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!

Still frame of "Encounter at Farpoint" from Star Trek: TNG showing Worf and Picard on the bridge of the Enterprise. — *The Next Generation* was “my” Star Trek show!

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.

A still frame from Star Trek: Picard showing a crowd at a red carpet event. — *Star Trek: Picard* was a mixed bag with some serious narrative weaknesses.

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.

A still frame from "The Last Generation," the series finale of Star Trek: Picard, showing Jack Crusher wielding a phaser pistol. — You didn’t skip the credits… right?

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.

Promotional photo for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) featuring Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, and DeForest Kelley. — Would Star Trek be better today if it had spent decades with the same handful of original characters?

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.

Still frame from Star Trek: Picard showing the Enterprise-G orbiting a star. — The Enterprise-G.

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.

Title card for the Star Trek spin-off series "Short Treks." — I’m in favour of Star Trek doing more one-off stories, short stories, and TV movies.

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!

Promotional photo for Star Trek Into Darkness (2012) featuring the main cast. — A Kelvin timeline sequel has failed to enter full production multiple times in the last few years.

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.

Still frame from "Remembrance," the first episode of Star Trek: Picard, featuring Sir Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard. — Jean-Luc Picard.

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.

Behind-the-scenes photo from Star Trek: Picard Season 3 showing Sir Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, and others. — Sir Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes during the production of *Star Trek: Picard* Season 3.

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.

The weirdly contradictory nature of Star Trek: Picard

Thu 08.06.23Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for all three seasons of Star Trek: Picard – including the series finale and post-credits scene.

For a series that only ran to thirty episodes across three seasons, Star Trek: Picard spent a lot of time overwriting itself! Across all three seasons of the show there were these weirdly contradictory moments where new storylines would appear from nowhere, completely changing what came before. One or two of these instances might pass by relatively unnoticed, or could feel like little more than nitpicks. But for a relatively short series to have so many… it speaks to something bigger, I feel.

I hope in future we’ll get a Chaos on the Bridge-type of documentary or exploration of what went on behind-the-scenes on Star Trek: Picard, because to say that production was “difficult” feels like an understatement. There were clearly major problems on the production side of the series, and I don’t just mean its pandemic-enforced delays. The evidence for this is the contradictory nature of the series itself, and how at the very least there was clearly no overall plan for how the story should be structured. Consistency is an important element of any good story – and Picard absolutely fails on that measure.

Seasons 2-3 showrunner Terry Matalas with Sir Patrick Stewart and the rest of the cast of *The Next Generation*.

I have a longer piece in the pipeline about Picard’s abandoned and unfinished storylines, but today I thought it could be interesting to take a short look at ten storylines that ended up being overwritten by some pretty sloppy, messy writing that failed to build on the foundations that had been laid in earlier episodes and seasons.

As always, a few caveats. If you loved all of these stories and felt they were perfectly-executed, or if you hated the original setup and feel that it was right and fitting to overwrite or ignore it, that’s okay! We all have different opinions about what makes for a good Star Trek story, and I’m not trying to claim that I’m somehow objectively right and that’s the end of the affair. In several cases, I’d actually agree that the overwrite or retcon was better than what had been previously established. This is all just the opinion of one old Trekkie, and as I always say, there ought to be room in the Star Trek fan community for polite discussion and disagreement! Although I have my issues with Picard, particularly when it comes to the show’s second season, by and large I’m a fan not a hater.

So with all of that out of the way, let’s take a look at some of Picard’s weirdly contradictory storylines.

Contradictory story #1:
Seven of Nine is a captain! Oh wait, no she isn’t…

Seven in the captain’s chair at the end of Season 2.

At the end of Season 2, Seven of Nine was breveted into Starfleet by Picard as Captain of the Stargazer. This story point was already a bit… odd. Firstly, it raises the question of why, if offering a brevet position to someone outside of Starfleet is so simple, Admiral Janeway didn’t do that for Seven years ago. It also seemed unnecessary, as with Picard on the bridge, the Stargazer already had a senior officer present who could give orders.

But this already flimsy setup ended up being overwritten by the very next episode – when Seven was bumped down to the rank of commander and found herself serving as first officer of the Titan. There are a lot of contradictions in Picard, but this one feels even more peculiar because it’s something that literally changes from one episode to the next – episodes that, in spite of being one season apart, were produced and filmed at the same time.

Contradictory story #2:
Data’s dead. Deader than dead. Lol jk, he’s alive again!

One of the few redeeming features of the two-part Season 1 finale was the laying to rest of Data, and giving him the emotional send-off that Nemesis didn’t have time to do justice to. It went a long way to making up for other deficiencies in the rushed and muddled end to Season 1, and the sequences with Picard and Data in the “digital afterlife” were powerful and deeply emotional.

But despite Data being as dead as it’s possible to be in Star Trek, with both his physical body and the surviving part of his consciousness having been destroyed and shut down respectively, Season 3 resurrected Data. We’ll have to go into this storyline in more detail in the future, because there’s a lot more to say. But for me, Data’s resurrection never really found a narrative justification, and it felt like the showrunner and writers wanted desperately to reunite the cast of The Next Generation – at any cost.

Contradictory story #3:
Welcome aboard the Stargazer! Wait, I mean the Titan…

In Season 2, the ship that Picard and co. didn’t spend enough time aboard was the USS Stargazer. In Season 3, they jumped over to the Titan – even though the sets were all the same (with a few minor tweaks here and there). I don’t really understand why this happened. What was the point of setting Season 3 aboard a nominally different starship? The exact same setup could have brought Riker and Picard to the Stargazer as it did to the Titan.

If the two ships had significant aesthetic differences, maybe it would be okay. And compared with some of the other points on this list, I admit it’s relatively minor. But it still feels odd to introduce the new Stargazer, build CGI models for it, and only use it in one-and-a-bit episodes.

Contradictory story #4:
Q’s dying… oh wait, no he isn’t.

I know what you’re thinking: Q already explained his “return” by telling Jack Crusher not to think about time in a linear fashion. While that’s a perfectly rational in-universe explanation for Q’s return at the end of Season 3, it doesn’t get around the fact that Q, whose death was such a vital part of the entire plot of Season 2, is a profoundly odd choice of character to use for that one epilogue scene.

Picard’s writers pinned the convoluted and disappointing story of Season 2 on Q, and Q’s entire motivation was his imminent death. To undo that – even if there’s a technical explanation for it – only a few episodes later feels wrong. It undermines the already-weak story of Season 2 and makes me wonder what the point of it all was.

Contradictory story #5:
The Borg are back! The Borg are back! The Borg are back!

However you look at it, and whatever nitpicky excuses there may be about who are and aren’t the “real” Borg, there’s no getting away from the fact that across its three seasons, Picard re-introduced the Borg three times. All three of the stories rely, either in whole or in part, on the Borg, and while Picard himself has a connection with the Borg after the events of The Best of Both Worlds and First Contact… there’s a whole galaxy out there filled with alien races that the show’s writers and producers could have used.

While Season 3’s Dominion/changeling rug-pull is probably the worst example of this, it really speaks to a broader problem with the show’s production. Picard’s writers, especially in Season 3, were unwilling to abide by what the show had already set up. The Borg are great fun, don’t get me wrong, but by the time we got to yet another Borg story in Season 3, I was feeling burned out.

Contradictory story #6:
The mysterious anomaly has set up a fascinating story! Let’s never mention it again.

Led by the Borg, a Federation fleet stops the anomaly.

The story of Season 2 was bookended by a mysterious anomaly that the Jurati-led Borg faction believed could be an attack against the Alpha Quadrant. Once the anomaly had been stopped, the Jurati-Queen promised to take her Borg faction and stand watch over the anomaly as a “guardian at the gates.” Her Borg faction were even granted provisional membership in the Federation as they did so.

This story felt like it had huge potential. Who could have been powerful enough to create a weapon on that scale? How would Picard and his friends be able to defeat them? What would it be like to see a Federation-Borg alliance? But alas, this storyline was dumped, orphaned, and never mentioned again. Was no explanation ever written? Why end Season 2 on this cliffhanger if it was never going to be resolved?

Contradictory story #7:
Soji’s a massively important character… let’s dump her.

Soji played a huge role in Season 1, serving as both the reason for Picard’s mission and later as someone who needed to be talked down from making a mistake. We spent a lot of time with her in the show’s first season, watching as she was manipulated by Narek, as she learned the truth of her own origin and who her people were, and as she came to work with and respect Picard.

It was disappointing that Soji was essentially forgotten after the end of Season 1, with a barebones cameo appearance and nothing more. Isa Briones got to play a minor role in Season 2 as the daughter of antagonist Adam Soong, but this storyline was samey and boring. As a new, young character – and a synthetic life-form – Soji had huge potential. It’s such a shame that a role couldn’t be written for her after Season 1.

Contradictory story #8:
Picard has a new relationship with Laris! No wait, Laris has fucked off and now he has a kid with Dr Crusher.

Laris and Picard at the end of Season 2.

The entire story of Season 2 – its raison d’être, at least according to Q – was that Picard was alone, prevented by his childhood trauma from being able to find love. At the end of the season, after ten episodes of shenanigans in the 21st Century, Picard finally returned to his vineyard – and to Laris. The two seemed ready to embark upon a new relationship together.

But nope! Laris made a small cameo appearance at the beginning of Season 3, and was never mentioned again. Picard’s story in Season 3 focused on his past relationship with Dr Crusher, a relationship that led to him having a son he’d never met. The season’s epilogue even showed Picard and Dr Crusher jointly escorting their son to his first Starfleet assignment – with Laris nowhere to be found. As I said above: Season 2 was already a weak, flimsy story. Undermining its ending like this was a poor decision.

Contradictory story #9:
Elnor’s dead. Oh wait, he’s back! No… he’s gone again.

Although I wasn’t thrilled to see Elnor killed off in the first half of Season 2, as time went on, it seemed to be working. Raffi’s story of coming to terms with loss and grief was one of Season 2’s stronger elements, and while I would’ve still said I was disappointed in Elnor’s wasted potential, at least his loss had mattered. Until it was all undone with seconds to spare.

If Elnor had a major role to play in Season 3 – and there was absolutely space for him – then I could at least have understood this reversal. But after Elnor was resurrected, he got one very brief scene in which he looked confused on a viewscreen, and another in which his dislike of a beverage made him the butt of a joke. After that, Elnor disappeared from Picard never to be seen or mentioned again. What was the point? Why undo a powerful story for the sake of an overdone sight gag?

Contradictory story #10:
Riker and Troi are happy and settled on Nepenthe. Just kidding, they hate it there.

Picard approaches Riker’s outdoor kitchen.

Nepenthe might be my favourite episode of Season 1. It slowed things down, stepped away from some of the drama, and reintroduced us to Riker and Troi – now happily married and living peacefully outside of Starfleet. In spite of the loss of their son, Riker and Troi seemed settled on Nepenthe with their daughter in a home that was important to their son and their family. It was a surprise, to say the least, when Season 3 tried to undo all of that.

In the episode Surrender, Riker and Troi were reunited as captives aboard Vadic’s ship. And while imprisoned, they both spoke about how they hated the “creaky old cabin” that had been their home. The end of the season implied that one or both of them may be back in Starfleet, and all the emotional storytelling present in Nepenthe was taken away.

So that’s it!

Although there were some interesting stories – and some complete ones – overall, it’s not unfair to call Star Trek: Picard a contradictory series, one that either intentionally or unintentionally overwrote or ignored key characters and storylines. We’ll talk about some of these in more detail on another occasion, but for now I think we’ve covered the basics.

Picard was clearly a troubled production, one that jumped from one writing and production team to another, and that’s part of why the series as a whole feels so contradictory. I think I could overlook one or two of these things – and I might even support the decision to drop a character or change a storyline that wasn’t working or that failed to resonate with audiences. But for a series that ran to a mere thirty episodes across three seasons… we shouldn’t be able to pull out ten large contradictions like this.

Stay tuned, because I have a lot more to say about Picard even though the series has concluded! A longer retrospective is in the pipeline, and I’ll also be taking a look at abandoned and unfinished storylines, too.

Star Trek: Picard Seasons 1-3 are available to stream now on Paramount+ in the United States and other countries and territories where the service is available, and on Amazon Prime Video in the UK and around the world. 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.

C’mon Paramount, make Star Trek: Legacy!

Tue 02.05.23Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Picard Seasons 1-3. Spoilers are also present for the following Star Trek productions: Lower Decks, Discovery, Prodigy, and Starfleet Academy.

I’m adding my voice to the growing chorus asking Paramount to commission a brand-new Star Trek series!

It’s surprising to me that – not for the first time – this request appears to have caught Paramount off-guard. As happened with the “Captain Pike show” in the aftermath of Discovery’s second season, the corporation finds itself ill-prepared for the reaction from fans, and doesn’t appear to have made any moves to line up actors or a production team for the series tentatively titled Star Trek: Legacy.

Picard Season 3 was… well, a mixed bag, to be honest. But it ended in spectacular fashion, bringing the series to a close in style. The final episode also very clearly and deliberately set up a potential successor series; more than simply “leaving the door open,” The Last Generation went out of its way to actively set up at least one potential story that a new show could follow.

I hope you didn’t skip the post-credits scene…

Whether or not characters like Jack Crusher and Raffi Musiker return, though, in a broader sense I’m not ready to leave the early 25th Century behind. Even after three seasons, Picard has barely scratched the surface of this time period – and there’s so much potential here that abandoning it feels positively criminal! Although we have Lower Decks and Prodigy both in the late 24th Century, potentially able to pick up on storylines and characters from The Next Generation era, Picard’s finale marks the end of Star Trek’s live-action commitment to this time period.

As I’ve argued before, one of the mistakes that Paramount has made – in my subjective opinion, naturally – has been to underestimate fans’ love for The Next Generation and the other Star Trek shows of the 1990s. Sure, The Original Series got things started, but it was the ’80s and ’90s when the Star Trek franchise as a whole had its real heyday, and there are so many characters, factions, and incomplete storylines from this era that are crying out to be expanded upon.

*Legacy* could be set aboard the Enterprise-G.

Terry Matalas, who was the showrunner for Picard’s second and third seasons, has suggested that his Star Trek: Legacy concept would pick up right where The Last Generation ended, with Captain Seven, Raffi as her first officer, Jack Crusher, and some of the secondary characters that we were just starting to get to know aboard the newly rechristened Enterprise-G. If Paramount gets in quick, before the sets that had been built are mothballed and the actors have moved on, it could be relatively inexpensive to get production re-started.

I know, I know. There’s more to commissioning a brand-new series than just sets and actors, and there are 1,001 other things that will need to be organised. But that just means that time is of the essence, and that Paramount should seize the moment that has been presented right now. Fans are clamouring for Star Trek: Legacy with no less fervour than we were for Strange New Worlds back in 2019, and there’s a limited window of opportunity for the corporation to take advantage of that.

*Legacy* could take advantage of existing sets and other infrastructure.

It might even be worth reconsidering some of the productions that are currently lined up. If you asked 1,000 Star Trek fans whether they’d rather have Starfleet Academy as a Discovery spin-off or Legacy as a Picard spin-off… I bet you could predict which way that poll would go! As happened with Section 31 and Strange New Worlds… I fear that Paramount may have messed up its timing.

We’ve talked before about the Star Trek franchise becoming too busy and too complicated, and that there’s a need for Paramount to slim down and produce less content in the years ahead. Fewer shows that could potentially have at least slightly higher per-episode budgets instead of a glut of content would be my preference – and with the Picard time period being ripe for exploration, I’d absolutely urge Paramount to prioritise Star Trek: Legacy ahead of other projects… even those that may have already entered pre-production.

Picard, Lower Decks, and Prodigy have all demonstrated that actors from past iterations of Star Trek – both main cast members and guest stars – have been more than willing to reprise their roles, so there’s scope to bring on board a plethora of the 24th Century’s finest! Picard has told stories that expanded upon the lore and world of Star Trek in different ways, and there’s scope for Legacy to do something similar.

More significantly, perhaps, Legacy could ditch the fully-serialised approach that has been the hallmark of modern live-action Star Trek in favour of the model used by Strange New Worlds – a more episodic and varied style that is perfectly suited to the franchise. Although there’d have to be care taken to ensure two similar productions aren’t tripping over one another, my heart says that episodic Star Trek is where it’s at!

Whatever the plan may be for Legacy, though, it’s a pitch that Paramount ought to give serious consideration to. Picard’s third season was well-received, both by fans and a wider audience, so it feels like the perfect launchpad for a new Star Trek series set in this time period. There’s a lot more to explore in the 25th Century, picking up themes, factions, characters, and even storylines that Picard didn’t get a chance to look at across its three-season run.

At time of writing, there’s a fan petition on change.org that’s rapidly approaching the 50,000 signatures mark. It’s already surpassed a similar petition that ultimately led to Strange New Worlds – so there’s clearly an appetite for this series, and it’s something that Paramount really needs to take seriously.

I don’t usually lend my support to this kind of thing, but with Star Trek making announcements that seem to take the franchise to different time periods, alternate timelines, and thematic places, I wanted to do what I can in my small corner of the internet to signal my support for Star Trek: Legacy – or another, similar project set in the Picard era.

The history of Star Trek is quite literally built on the strength of the fan community and fan-led campaigns. The Original Series was greenlit for a third season thanks to an extensive letter-writing campaign, fan support for The Original Series in syndication led to The Animated Series and later The Motion Picture, and fan campaigns also supported The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise. As recently as 2021, a fan campaign led to Discovery’s fourth season being broadcast outside of the United States. So when Trekkies come together, we have the power to influence the people in charge – and that’s what I hope will be the outcome this time!

Star Trek: Legacy feels like a pitch with a ton of potential. Fans are waiting – and the moment to act is now! I sincerely hope that Paramount is listening, and that conversations are happening behind closed doors that will eventually lead to an announcement. Stay tuned, watch this space, and take whatever opportunities are presented to advocate on behalf of this project!

If you want to sign the fan petition on change.org, you can find it by clicking or tapping here. (Leads to another website)

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.