Terry Matalas explains why the original cast of Star Trek: Picard was cut from the show in the third season. Picard, along with Star Trek: Discovery, was one of the first Star Trek series to launch on Paramount+ and featured Patrick Stewart’s return as Jean-Luc Picard, commander of the USS Enterprise. Michael Chabon was the showrunner of Season 1, with Akiva Goldsman and Terry Matalas sharing showrunner duties on Season 2, and Matalas given the reins for Season 3. Many fans count Picard Season 3 as their favorite since it brought back many of Stewart’s co-stars from Star Trek: The Next Generation, but that means much of the cast from Picard‘s first two seasons were left out.
Katee Sackhoff spoke to Terry Matalas for her podcast, The Sackhoff Show, and asked Matalas how he got involved with Star Trek: Picard. Matalas got the Picard gig thanks to his work adapting 12 Monkeys into a TV show. After Michael Chabon had to step away from Picard, Akiva Goldsman brought him on as co-showrunner of Season 2 and the sole showrunner of Season 3. Matalas’ first priority was bringing back the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but first, he had to convince Patrick Stewart.
“It was tough because there was a whole cast in Season 1 and 2 that were wonderful, but there wasn’t the budget to carry them all,” Matalas said. “So there were sacrifices. It was terrible. It was a terrible place to be in.”
He continued, “I sat down with Patrick [Stewart] and I brought him one or two bottles of wine, and I gave a long talk. And he had already started to come around. Jonathan [Frakes] and Marina [Sirtis] showed up in Season 1, so he was in such a great mood. And we brought back Whoopi Goldberg and John de Lancie. He said, ‘One by one, I’d like to have them all eventually.’ And I was like, ‘What if that was the season?’ I told him the story I came up with, and I said, ‘What if the last character that we’ll introduce is your old ship? We’ll bring it in this way, through a museum. So that when you do actually have that reunion, it’s the reunion where you started.’ Because the Enterprise is as much of a legacy character as anybody else.
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“By the time it was done, we were a bottle and a half down, and he said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it. Let’s do it.’ I’ll never forget, I raced out of his house like I had stolen a bag of money and I said, ‘Yes, we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it!’”
In other Star Trek news, Jeri Ryan recently petitioned for Star Trek: Legacy to become a thing. The Seven of Nine actor wrapped up her run on Star Trek: Voyager when the series ended in 2001, and then found herself brought aboard the spinoff, Star Trek: Picard, when it debuted on Paramount+. Once it was time for Picard to end, Seven found herself promoted to Captain of the USS Enterprise-G. That story was set up to continue in another spinoff, titled Star Trek: Legacy, but so far that hasn’t happened.
Screen Rant spoke to Jeri Ryan about the third season of Leverage: Redemption, where she was asked if she had any updates on Star Trek: Legacy. While Ryan didn’t have any news to share, she did offer fans some hope after she reminded them that she never thought she’d return as Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Picard, and that ended up happening anyway.
“You know what, one thing that this entire Star Trek experience has taught me is never say never,” Ryan said. “Because I was sure that I had said goodbye to this character and walked away from this franchise many years ago, and I never, ever, ever in a million years expected that I would be back playing her on Picard. So, who knows? Never say never.”
What are your thoughts on the final season of Star Trek: Picard? Let us know in the comments below!
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