With Star Trek: Picard season two now over and with the main cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation coming in for the third and final season (which has already been shot), the series is saying goodbye to some of its original cast. Michelle Hurd (Raffi) and Jeri Ryan (Seven) are confirmed to be returning, but Alison Pill (Jurati) has confirmed she will not be back, and now more actors are giving their goodbyes.
UPDATE: Isa Briones says goodbye
Isa Briones has played a number of roles over two seasons of Star Trek: Picard. Her season two character Kore was recruited to become a Supervisor (by Traveler Wesley Crusher, played by Wil Wheaton) and her character of Soji presumably is still around in the 25th century, as she didn’t join the crew for their time travel adventure.
Isa Briones as Kore
On Friday Briones posted some behind-the-scenes photos of her time on the series. Her message talked about her time on the series and how she was “thankful for every part of this experience.” She ended with “Farewell Soji, this orchid is for you.”
View this post on Instagram
Evan Evagora says goodbye
Evan Evagora has been a series regular for both seasons of Star Trek: Picard, playing the Romulan Elnor. The second season saw the Qowat Milat warrior transition to be a Starfleet Academy cadet assigned to the USS Excelsior. Even though he was killed off early in the season, he continued to come back for a number of episodes through flashbacks, visions, as a hologram and eventually a resurrection in the season finale.
Jeri Ryan as Seven, Michelle Hurd as Raffi and Evan Evagora in season two finale
In a post on Instagram Evagora shared some behind-the-scenes shots from season two and revealed “I won’t be back for the third season of Picard, so to quote a mediocre band “thanks for the memories” y’all know the rest! LLAP”
View this post on Instagram
Cabrera says it’s been a hell of a ride
With Hurd and Ryan confirmed to be rejoining star Sir Patrick Stewart in season three, the only remaining series regular is Santiago Cabrera (Cristobal Rios). For the season two finale Rios was left behind in the 21st century with Teresa and Ricardo. Guinan detailed his life story, including a death in a Moroccan bar fight. So it seems fairly certain he will not be back, especially as he was shooting the latest season of The Flight Attendant while Picard season three was in production.
Santiago Cabrera as Rios with Patrick Stewart in season two finale
Cabrera too posted on Instagram on Thursday. He didn’t come out and say he wasn’t returning but did say “It’s a been a hell of a ride.” He also added (in Spanish): “Last chapter of Picard appears today. I hope you enjoy it.”
View this post on Instagram
Wheaton not part of season 3
Wheaton’s surprise return as a Traveler for the season three finale certainly opens up a lot of possibilities. However, in a lengthy blog post on his site, Wheaton again confirmed he will not be joining his TNG co-stars in the third season of Picard:
Wesley and Kore may blink out of existence and never come back on camera again. Or they might go literally anywhere through all of space and time, from Strange New Worlds to Discovery to Lower Decks (but not to season three of Picard. Sorry, nerds.). I honestly don’t know what comes next for them in canon, but I’d be lying if I said I haven’t spent some time thinking about it.
I may get to tell more of Wesley’s story at some point – his journey over the last 25 or so years is something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about – as a writer or as an actor. Maybe both. But even if that never happens, if I never get to be Wesley Crusher on camera again, I will have the privilege of hosting The Ready Room, where I get to be a Starfleet veteran, a member of the exclusive “Legacy Star Trek” club, and an unashamed superfan who gets to take other nerds into the Room Where It Happens. I get to celebrate everything we all love about Star Trek in all its incarnations, for my job.
Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher with Isa Briones as Kore in the season two finale
Brady exits early in season 3?
It is also a good bet that recurring guest star Orla Brady doesn’t play a major role in season three, even though season two ended with her Laris finally coming together with Jean-Luc Picard. Last September a few days into production on season three (which started the day after season two wrapped), Brady posted on Twitter about having wrapped her work on season two, adding “it is time to take off my beloved pointy ears.”
I have wrapped on #StarTrekPicard season 2 and it is time to take off my beloved pointy ears alas. Not sure I like my own ears anymore… #StarTrek @StarTrek #Laris #cheekyfeckers pic.twitter.com/DJjI43ExdF
— Orla Brady (@orla_brady) September 12, 2021
There is no word yet on when the third season of Star Trek: Picard will debut.
Find more stories on the Star Trek Universe.
That’s a cool shot of Laris with the sun behind her and her hair up.
So it’s starting to look like season three is the TNG cast plus Raffi and Seven. Maybe Soji? OK, I guess.
Did you read the article? Isa Briones will *not* be back.
Isa Briones also leaving is mentioned as an update so it may not have been there when VZX commented.
That’s a terrible shot of “Laris”. First, there is the Flare (technically a known fault with lenses). Even worse it cuts across her eye. Then there’s possible posterization up in the left hand corner of the image of her. Next, the whole picture is blurry. In the upper right hand corner we have a green alien entering the picture, yes I know it’s a leaf. Point is that the object is a distraction. Finally there is her hair. I think the curls and waves in her hair could be better matched to her ears if there wasn’t so much stray hair at the outside edges. Just Sayin. Good actress though.
All of those things you mentioned are what make it a cool shot to people who don’t care about all of those things you mentioned. And those people easily make up well over 99% of all humans alive and 100% of the not alive ones.
Super pretentious. Save that for the Star Wars threads, bruv.
It’s an Instagram selfie, bro.
Nice sexist critique, tho (“finally there is her hair…”)
Just sayin’
Oh my. Pro(ha ha) photographers trash a photo from a fan who obviously liked this Star Trek character. To the fan….I got it. To the haters….u didn’t.
Nothing personally against Wil Wheaton but please, noooooooo more Wesley Crusher.
Agreed. He was a decent child actor but as an adult he is dreadful. Stick to hosting the Ready Room, mate.
Yeah it’s so weird how his acting quality decreased with age. But I think that comes from just not acting as much, without the practice he lost his skill set. He’s just Wil Wheaton, whom I really like. But he can’t act well anymore as another person. It’s a shame, since his Gordy La chance and Wesley Crusher were both good performances.
Even there… he just comes off as utterly phony.
Oh I don’t think so. He’s just a fan. I think he’s very genuine in his pleasure at being there.
His reactions and enthusiasm are completely fake and overacted. Can’t say that I blame him.
Wil was an awesome child actor and it’s pretty hard to top that character
He never wanted to be an actor!!! He was forced by his parents.
https://movieweb.com/wil-wheaton-acting-experiences-triggering/
Yeah, I’m okay with Traveler Wesley Crusher showing up, but that was TV host Wil Wheaton in that episode. He’s rusty.
Very rusty.
I thought that too. He wasn’t playing Wesley, he was playing Wil. Wesley just didn’t speak like that and beam so much. But Whoopi was pretty much the same, she felt less like Guinan and more like Whoopi.
True that!
Just a thought…do you sound exactly the same as you did when you were 20? (if that was decades ago) I’m in my 60s, and there similarities that I have to when I was 20, but many more differences and layers of experience in the way I carry myself now than then. Patrick Stewart does not sound the same as he did when he was in his 50s. Can we not say there is a change to everyone from 30 years?
Pfffft. He was the best thing about the episode.
High praise indeed.
I see what you did there.
I don’t disagree at all, but I will never understand coming out and complaining about a character when your gripe is the actor’s ability. Better or worse, no matter how you feel about him as an actor, he’s a human being. I don’t see any good that can come from even politely saying “he’s not a good actor, please don’t come back.”
Everyone responding to this comment is being terribly insulting to a man who’s very possibly reading these comments.
Always easier for the crtizizer to judge but never walked in the man’s shoes.Therefore really saying zip.
I’ve always been a fan. And I’m okay with him coming back again as Wesley after this, but he was rusty in Picard, as was Whoopi. Hey, after so long, that’s understandable.
But given the rushed nature of the writing, they very well could’ve dropped this on him at the last minute. The scene felt that way to me.
Rushed? Yeah Wil was overacting a bit. Whoopi did Guinan fairly well. Two down and one to go. Not a bad journey so far
Yeah I’m always very conscious that an actor/writer/whoever might be reading comments. One should make a point while being kind and respectful. One thing I will say, Wil has aged extremely well; it’s been nearly 3 decades since TNG ended and he still looks incredibly youthful.
I disagree. I love the Wesley character and I hope there is a new series with him as a traveler.
Crusher should have a dark side. Say, being a hoarder? Chronic nose picker? Imperfect.
Why bring him back in the last episode? Raffi might have had motivation to become a better person if he had stayed dead.
No offense to the actor (who did a fine job), but Elnor feels like he was a waste of screen time. He was a bodyguard and naive kid in season 2 and then a dead body in season 2. He had a somewhat interesting backstory that was never expanded on, nor was his connection to Picard.
It looks like the Laris/Tallin thing is never going to explained and the potential romance will just disappear because Beverly is coming back.
Season 3 is a reboot of TNG and everything else is going out the airlock. The original Picard characters had a lot of potential at the end of season 1 and it’s so frustrating to see them completely squandered and then abandoned.
I think all these cast departures are really, really unfortunate. Patrick Stewart was absolutely right that PICARD should not have been season 8 of TNG. They spent so much time putting together a wonderful supporting cast in season one, only to squander almost all of it. Where TNG characters appeared, it was organic and fit into the story (and I fully support having more appear in that way).
Conversely, shoehorning Brent Spiner into season two was ridiculous and diminishes his excellent swan song in season one.
I blame Michael Chabon’s departure for this mess.
Completely agree. It shouldn’t be TNG season 8. Adding in some TNG characters that we haven’t seen already would have been nice but we don’t need the whole crew. They had 7 seasons and 4 movies. Enough already.
It’s also frustrating that the character they have chosen to keep, Raffi, is easily the worst Picard character by far. She was sweet, talented and had a lot of potential is season 1 but became unbearable in season 2. I suspect she is being kept on to pair with Seven, though they seem to shy away from showing them as a couple for more than 1 scene per season (which I suspect is to allow the series to be cut when shown in homophobic countries).
Brent Spiner and Isa Briones should not have returned in season 2 as their plots were done. No doubt Spiner will have more screen time than necessary in season 3, though I won’t be watching.
I wish they could find someone competent and trust them take control so we have a show that isn’t a mishmash.
I don’t really disagree with anything you said, but I do think that was the problem of the show from the beginning and that the characters didn’t really come together organically and the writers had trouble trying to find a reason why they should stay together.
In Star Trek, you usually throw everyone on a starship (or a space station that one time) and you’re set. But in Picard, the entire problem was the character was already retired. He wasn’t doing anymore adventures. Then they found a way to give him one but stuck him with random strangers, majority who had no real ties to the actual story they were telling minus Soji really. Once that was done, what exactly do you do to keep them together? I found the idea of them just flying around the galaxy in Rios ship pretty ridiculous, so I was curious on what they would do in second season.
And then we got it, their answer was to make them part of Starfleet again, which was a good idea but still felt pretty forced. And then of course they came up with a story that they didn’t even need most of the characters in. They couldn’t even figure out a way to make Elnor or Soji vital enough to bring them. And then the characters they DID bring had almost nothing to do other than running around looking for people basically. It’s pretty funny, but they spent 6 episodes tracking down Guinan, Taillin, Renee Picard, Rios, Soong and Jurati/Borg Queen. The season would’ve been 4-5 episodes tops if they didn’t spend all their time just chasing or hunting down people every episode.
So they cut their losses and just decided to make it about the TNG cast again, which makes more sense in so many ways. But I do wonder if they kept the show going past season 3 what would they had done long term? Maybe they would’ve did what most fans wanted and just put them on the Stargazer. That can still happen (sans Rios), but it looks like if we do get a spin off show, it will probably be more TNG focused and less Picard focused now.
Rios had his ship and was friends with Raffi and he was dating Juratti. Raffi was dating Seven. Elnor was friends with Picard. The only real issue therefore was having Picard on the ship. However, that could have been solved by creating a reason for Picard to need a ship, same as season 1. I don’t think it would have been that difficult to think of a reason for them to end up together again.
I don’t think putting them all in Starfleet was supposed to be a reason for them being brought together. Rios was given the Stargazer to set it up being given to Seven (presumably she will still have it in season 3). Raffi needed to be in Starfleet to join her. I think Elnor was put in Starfleet just to give him something to do.
Season 2 was just a throwaway season setting up season 3.
Yeah but that’s still not a strong enough reason to have people just hanging out on a cargo ship together. And you’re right, they could’ve found another story for Picard to need the ship but it would really feel forced that all these people happen to be on the same adventure every time. Yes, Rios would obviously have to be there and you can keep Elnor to be his body guard again but it’s not really easy to make them all fit organically unless the story revolved around one of the characters specifically.
I mean season 2 already proves that point. What REASON did they give for these specific characters to end up in the past together? There was no reason other than they were the main characters on the show. I heard theories beforehand that Q could have specific reasons why these people were picked along with Picard and would be vital to changing the timeline back only to discover none of that came to pass. They were just randomly chosen to know the timeline had changed but never given a single reason why these characters and ONLY these characters had that specific knowledge when no one else did. Again, a very sloppy story line. Sigh
And then on top of that, they couldn’t even figure out what to do with two of them at all so killed off Elnor completely only to give the character a flashback scene and his weird hologram action scene. Soji was just ignored outright other than just being an exact image of a 400 year old clone for some reason.
And I don’t know how you can discount the fact they were all in Starfleet to give them a connection when the first episode literally created a strange anomaly in space that sent Starfleet to investigate it even if I still can’t figure out how it caused the alternate timeline they ended up in.
Man, this season was SO bad!
Interestingly when Elnor was first introduced, I thought that the character and his backstory had big potential to develop in interesting ways. You have a Romulan child who was groomed from a young age to basically be a killer. If they could only have had some standalone episodes (or maybe 2-3 episode arcs) that developed Elnors character, his backstory maybe even some flashbacks to his youth and development process, the character would have been so much more interesting. Instead what we got was basically a glorified bodyguard and a dead body.
Exactly, and how do you get a trained killer into Starfleet Academy? Makes no sense to me.
I think they just wanted him to be the first Romulan in Starfleet and didn’t really care how he got there as long as he did. I think having Picard as a kind of mentor or sponsor would have certainly helped. Like I said, there were more stories to be told there but because of the rush job of producers we never got to see any of it.
The teaser for Season 3 suggest one last space adventure, so presumably Laris stays behind at the Chateau. At best we’ll see her at the beginning and end of the season. But I would not be surprised if they just wave their hands on the whole Laris thing for Season 3 and either ignore it, or off-screen it. But I have to think we pickup Season 3 with Picard and Laris at the Chateau.
Considering we barely saw Isa this season, it’s very unlikely we’ll see her next. However, to involve Brent Spiner in season 3, it’s possible Soji will be involved because of Soong.
I’ll miss the cast of Picard S1-S2, but I’m ready for this show to just wrap it up. it’s been a tragic run and a misuse of so many great actors. I have faith Terry Matalas will pull this off however, the first half of Season 2 was great.
Agreed. I don’t even think Sir Patrick has been that well served, and this is his show. And the rest of the actors were just squandered. Ready to put this one to rest and try again with a Seven spinoff.
I wouldn’t necessarily say that Sir Patrick hasn’t been well served because he, essentially, helped create one of the major themes this year in that Picard had a dysfunctional childhood.
His dysfunctional childhood was fine. Making it a mystery and having an episode in his head were not. The season didn’t fail because of that one idea.
“Picard and Laris at the Chateau”
Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel
So the unseen relationship between Picard and Laris is going to be like hooking up at a funeral. For both of them!
I have a crush on Orla… count me as disappointed.
Orla was interviewed as part of this week’s behind the scenes stuff on the Ready Room (it’s around 7 minute mark if you’re interested) and yeah, it doesn’t sound like their relationship is really going to go far. And with Beverly coming back next season, I can’t imagine they are at least not going to address what happened between Crusher and Picard since Nemesis.
“I have a crush on Orla”
You’re not the only one, pal! She is gorgeous! The episode when she was at the cocktail party got my motor running. Best looking woman in the room. Set your phasers on stunning.
Can’t believe she is only four months younger than me. Guess it isn’t the years, it’s the mileage.
Orla makes 61 look REAL good!
I keep thinking she should play sister to Carrie-Anne Moss. Course I spent quite awhile wondering why Meg Foster and Kirstie Alley didn’t get cast that way, and I’ve never EVER understood why Robert Vaughan and Kyle MacLachlan weren’t ever cast as father and son.
I used to be a close match for Kyle (if you look at the cover of the MAKING OF DUNE book, where they have a flipped image of him on the front, it pretty much IS me from 1983), and with all that my mom used to say about Robert Vaughan being one of the only decent celebrities she encountered while on her brief career as a stewardess, it used to make me wonder sometimes about my parentage (my supposed dad, who I met and spent maybe three weeks with when I was in high school, looked more like Tommy Chong and was addicted to Muzak, the Velveeta of musical forms, so it follows that we had no basis for communication whatsoever.)
You have a screenplay in there. “Three Weeks With Dad.” :)
Tell me about it … before she died, my mom told my wife that my father was gay, despite three traditional (on paper) marriages.
He was a really good tennis player, but I couldn’t believe what he spent in order to have prescription goggles while snorkelling!
Rent a cabin. Bring a pad, pen and bottle of whisky.
That’s too bad. It would have been cool for Worf to meet an honor-obsessed Romulan.
Oh, I like that idea.
Yes – and it would be interesting for Picard to face Laris’ reality — as “not so magical.”
“That’s too bad. It would have been cool for Worf to meet an honor-obsessed Romulan.”
He did encounter some Romulans in “Nemesis” about whom he said they “fought with honor.”
This is all so weird. I don’t particularly like any of the new characters but pretty much get rid of them for the last season? 🤨
I would guess, that people who like this, actually liked this characters (and maybe even weren’t bit TNG fans to begin with). It’s like they’re trying to alienate as many people as possible.
In reality, this show probably should’ve just been a TNG revival from the start. That’s what most fans wanted (and my guess what CBS/Paramount wanted too). But Stewart didn’t want that or at least not at the beginning I guess.
Watching new Trek is like watching slow motion corrections. Ohhhh, maaaaaaaybe Discovery should have been set in the far future. Maaaaaaybe Picard should have been a TNG reunion all aloooooong. Wormholes, I tell ya.
Well at least they are learning. LOL
Spot on! Every new season so far is a major course ‘correction’ of some type. They want so hard to be all things to all people/fans. But the fact is you never can be! Stick to the appropriate ‘tone’ & audience/age group vibe per series, don’t try and force it be something its not. I honestly think they’re spreading themselves too thin creatively, with all these shows, particularly the quality of the writing. And it’s all over the place tonally. I hope with SNW onwards they actually stick to a TOS family-friendly show, and have that be its ‘thing’. With Discovery being the more ‘adult’ show with all the (weird) 21st century cussing & expressions if they think that makes it edgy, with the cartoon show for that niche area etc. Point being, let each show be its own thing, without all the course correcting between seasons. Let’s have some consistancy.
I actually like all those course corrections a lot. It shows they are listinening to the fans. Of course you cannot please everybody at the same time but you can try to figure out what the majority wants. And I think they are paying close attention to that and that’s a good thing. The TV-MA experiment of early DSC and PIC didn’t work. The NuKlingons didn’t work. So they chnaged all of that. If they decided to return to an episodic structure in the wake of SNW, extending that formula to future DSC seasons, I’d be more than happy to welcome yet another course correction…
Trouble is listening to the fans (and we’re often so polarised) constantly means constant course corrections and changes or going in circles. To the extent there risks being no true identity for each show. SNW seems to have come out the gate fully formed – they knew exactly what they wanted this time – and I hope they stick with that format & not try to suddenly ‘course correct’ with that show. I still think the biggest problem is the writers. It’s the foundation of any show. No amount of great directing, casting, spfx, scoring etc. can undo bad or haphazard or non-sensical writing. Picard and Disco have unfortunately been crowning examples of this, to date.
I think part of the problem, and this has been outlined by others in other threads already, is that by the time they’ve taken feedback into account and made changes, another whole season is already gone. This isn’t like TOS where the mail let everybody know Spock is it and they started writing for him directly, and SNW is going to be two seasons in before they can incorporate any feedback about fan faves. I keep thinking that if they had a really striking cameo or guest star who was a surprise hit with viewers, like Andy Robinson as Garak was, they wouldn’t be able to mine that till season 3 at earliest.
So in addition to my issues with the writing and all the creative choices being made about TREK by TPTB, I’d say even their workflow is undermining / sabotaging the process by a certain measure. Now if you’re Nicholas Meyer in your prime and you’re saying publicly that your job is not to give fans what they think they want, but make them want what you’re choosing to give them (paraphrase), this wouldn’t be a problem. But I don’t think any of these people could even thread a belt onto Meyer’s pants during his (admittedly brief) prime.
I sometimes wish there had been an internet in 1981, because I made a point of reading his novel CONFESSIONS OF A HOMING PIGEON when I heard he was doing TWOK (having not read THE 7% SOLUTION — in fact, I’ve never read any of his other fiction, just his very fun THE LOVE STORY STORY on the making of that film) and it was like an electric shock to read something that felt so right and touched on many themes that enchanted me. I’d have probably been on boards like this saying, ‘don’t sweat this one, the movie is going to have cahones, even if it doesn’t get every little thing right.’
And ultimately that was pretty much my take on the film — which really builds on the ‘dealing with death’ aspect in the last part of HOMING PIGEON — though it took me a second viewing to fully appreciate it, because I was watching the first time through the filter of my huge disappointment with TMP (so much so that I misheard Kirk’s “I wouldn’t have presumed to debate you” as “I wouldn’t have presumed after V’ger” for over a decade until I turned on the subtitles once for the widescreen laserdisc.
I wonder what the 2nd/3rd season course-correction for Strange New Worlds will be…
Just seen on instagram that it looks like Isa Briones is not returning as Soji https://www.instagram.com/p/CdObv15ppHZ/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
LOL, so basically they got rid of the entire cast minus Seven and Raffi. Soji was literally just in one scene in season 2 for five minutes so even less surprised. I feel bad for the actors though.
Yeah I feel for the cast too. Soji, Rios and Elnor were characters full of potential and the writers let them and the audience down with some really bad scripts.
Let’s hope S3 is worthy of the TNG cast returning!
Yeah it really is too bad. Same time, the show only had one more season so it wasn’t going to be anything long term regardless. But yeah it is a bit sad instead of getting a real conclusion to their characters they are just getting unceremoniously dumped. I knew Soji was in trouble because no one ever said her name again once they went into the past. I had expected to at least see her turn up in 10 Forward in the finale like the rest and she wasn’t even there for that either.
I thought maybe Elnor might be back since they went out of their way to undo his death in the finale. But know this, why bother now? I guess they just wanted to give him an ‘happy ending’.
I think Terry Matalas really just didn’t care that much about season 2 seeing where this all went. It seems like it’s season 3 where his focus became and can make it a big TNG story. So I hope it’s good. It really needs to be after the first two lackluster seasons.
This show is such a mess. They clearly didn’t even know what to do with half the cast in season 2, so this is not a surprise at all. And they probably want to make way for the TNG cast. For most fans, that’s who they really want to see anyway and the producers clearly knows it.
And I have said this in the past, the way they set up the first season of the show, it was a bit hard to believe Picard would suddenly just have adventures with these random people and it was probably too difficult trying to keep coming up with ways on how they would be together after the first season. I thought they came up with a good idea though in the second season when they just threw most of them in Starfleet lol. That was really the only way you can get them to at least feel they were all connected and push the stories that way. But oh well.
I really only cared personally that Rios and Seven was coming back. Well at least Seven will be there!
On the plus side these characters escaped the lameness that was the late 24th century/early 25th and the Burn to come. Rios deserves better.
OK
I could see Rios popping up again in Project Khan…
I suspect by the end of the day we’ll have heard from everyone who won’t be back for season three.
Probably keep just 7 of 9. Give her a spinoff.
I think the only reason why Raffi is still there because they made her and Seven a couple and it would make people feel more slighted if they just broke them up after randomly throwing them together in the first place. And she was Picard’s first officer so there is real history with him too. Of course it was all off screen but it’s easier to keep that character around due to her close relationship with both Seven and Picard.
The TNG cast is also quite male-dominated so Raffi and Seven provide some balance.
Also true! But they could’ve chosen Soji and Jurati over them, but they know which character fans really want to see.
There’s no reason Wheaton feels the need to keep repeating he’s not in season 3… other than to hide the fact that he is. If all the cast of TNG is back, it would make no sense that he wouldn’t return too. And I wish he does.
If Laris leaves, I wonder if that sets up an ending where Picard and Crusher become a couple?
It’s a shame, I liked Laris and Elnor. But this is probably because because the TNG crew is coming back and so I’m fine with the exits. I respect what Terry Matalas is trying to do by giving the TNG crew a proper sendoff. I’m one of the people who don’t think that TNG should’ve ended with “All Good Things…”.
I think it was a weak ending. But I liked Nemesis and I thought that served a great purpose as a series finale because, not only did Picard have to come to terms with a dark reflection of himself who was just as a good a strategist as he was, there were endings and new beginnings and that’s how a Star Trek finale should be done. I loved “What You Leave Behind” ❤️, Deep Space Nine’s finale. And the reason why I loved it was because it wrapped up the Dominion War story, it showed you what the next chapter was going to be for the DS9 characters, and Captain Sisko had a showdown with Gul Dukat for the fate of the galaxy.
Now that was a series finale! Same thing with “Endgame” from Voyager. That was a great finale and it totally changed the future of the Borg Collective going forward. I just wish that they had had like a little welcome home party on there to show where the characters were going or what they were doing in their next chapter and then they could’ve ended the series with Chakotay as a newly promoted Captain taking command of Voyager and heading back out into space.
But, other than that, the Voyager finale was great. It will be nice to finally see what happened to the TNG crew post-Nemesis in canon, though Terry Matalas said that “they’re breaking canon” for season 3 so I wonder what that means. I was kinda hoping that Wesley might show up in the finale of Picard but, apparently, that’s definitely not happening. It would be cool to see him and Kore pop up in the 32nd century on Discovery.
That would be very cool to see! I loved seeing Wil Wheaton again. I thought he did a great job for the very small role that he had. I don’t know why people are saying on here that he came off as a “smarmy talk show host”.
So what, the dude has a talk show! I like it and I liked seeing him again in Star Trek. He deserved it for all of the attention that he brought to TNG back in the late-’80s and early-’90s. His character is what brought a lot of pre-teen/teen viewers into TNG and Star Trek back then, which that was an audience that Star Trek badly needed.
His performance didn’t have to be worthy of an Oscar. It’s Star Trek, man, not Downton Abbey! Also, the dude is neurodivergent. He struggles with mental illness every day of his life.
I struggle with it too because I have a terminal medical condition called Huntington’s Disease. You’d think that the people on here who call themselves Trekkies would be more understanding of Wil Wheaton’s struggles. People call themselves Trekkies on here and yet they verbally attack one of our own. If you’re gonna call yourself a Trekkie, then you should be practicing IDIC – period!
Gene Roddenberry would be appalled by these people online who call themselves Trekkies yet don’t act like one and just spew out non-stop hate. There’s a difference between having an opinion and just spewing hate and there’s a lot of hate being spewed on here. The people on here behave worse than children do and that’s a shame, man. The Trek community is supposed to be more united than this and more accepting.
If you don’t like something, that’s one thing, everyone’s entitled to and has a right to an opinion, but you don’t need to say things like “the dude was never a good actor anyways”, that’s just hate. It’s a shame, it really is. Live long and prosper, Trekmovie 🖖.
I’d never heard of being neurodivergent before (either that or I have totally forgotten about knowing about it!) I just spent a long while reading and rereading a ’21 signs you might be neurodivergent’ and … man, I’m ticking off nearly all of the boxes.
As for ALL GOOD THINGS not being a satisfactory TNG payoff … I thought it was great, but that was largely because I found Picard to be a very unsatisfying lead character in a largely mediocre series. The end of the series made it look like he, for the first time since Q WHO, was actually capable of growth, though that all got flushed with the features.
I definitely do my share of raging over deficiencies I perceive in TREK, especially on the writing/creative side, so I’ll try to keep in mind what you had to say about putting hate about individuals out there going forward (should probably just save that for real people who are responsible for real disasters, be it ignoring climate change for the sake of willfullness or profit, or deliberately screwing over the populace just because it is in their DNA to do so. I have no problem saying that there isn’t enough pain in their bodies to make up for the trouble they cause and continue to cause, and if that is hatred on my part, then I feel it is at least well-motivated, and utterly justified.)
Yes, I never heard of it myself until last year’s Star Trek Day celebration, the one they held on Paramount+. Levar Burton’s daughter used the term when she was talking about herself and Wil Wheaton. It’s just a new term for someone that struggles with mental illness, such as depression and anxiety. I would be neurodivergent if I didn’t have a medical condition (Huntington’s Disease.) that is responsible for my depression and anxiety. As for my response on “All Good Things…” , I was never a Captain Picard fan myself. I always felt that he was too “by the book” for me and that’s why I liked Riker better on there. Plus, I’m a Captain Kirk fan. He’s my favorite and Riker always reminded me of Captain Kirk until Gene Roddenberry passed and then they changed Riker in the 6th and 7th season of TNG. I mean you can see the change, first he was gung-ho to go on away missions and everything but by season 6, the first season after Gene passed, he was way more reserved. But, hey, January ’93 DS9 started so I lost Riker as a favorite and picked up Captain Sisko as my 2nd favorite Captain and character. I’ve gotten off track, haven’t I? Sorry 🙂. “All Good Things…” was great, for a lot of Trekkies, for a lot of reasons. Two of them are Q and time travel but maybe I just didn’t want to see the show end. I was only 14 when it ended but that could be another reason why I didn’t like it. I even had the comic book that came out for it at the time and I didn’t like that neither. Also, back when I was a teenager, I did not like Q. I thought he was on the show way too often and being as I was only 14, I felt that Q was way too powerful to be in TNG. I also thought he was arrogant and condescending. Now I love Q and I think he’s a fantastic foil for Picard but I’m 42 now, not 14. I’ve had a lot of time to read and learn about everything there is to know about Star Trek. Back then when I was 14, I didn’t understand everything like I do now about all the different god-like races. My mind has grown. I can watch “All Good Things…” now, and I have because I watch Star Trek everyday, and it’s a fine ending. I just think that there could’ve been more. The worst series finale, to me, in Star Trek is “Turnabout Intruder” and “All Good Things…” is a LOT better than that. I know that that wasn’t supposed to be the series finale for TOS but it was and it’s just horrible! As for saving your hate for people who don’t want to work on climate change and other stuff, I’m assuming you’re talking about the fat cats in Washington, that’s your decision to make. I’m not happy with what goes on there myself, especially right now with the Supreme Court, but that’s on you. My time is limited because of my medical condition so I don’t have time to hate. There’s too much to love in this world, so why hate? Also, I’m not saying that the new Star Trek is perfect because it’s not. I understand the writers are not the best and that’s because, I’ve mentioned this before on here, they’re not Sci-Fi writers like TOS had. The writers in the TNG-era were all adults, experienced adults with writing credits to their names, except for Braga and Moore. They were just starting but everybody else who wrote for Star Trek back then had cut their teeth on many different shows back in the day. These writers for Star Trek today, for some this is their very first writing gig and that’s why the writing is not too good sometimes. I don’t know what happened to all of the experienced writers in Hollywood, apparently they don’t want to write for Star Trek. So instead we get rookies or “Ensigns”, if you will🙂. But that’s my reason for why the writing is definitely not up to par. Plus, maybe Paramount wants to be stingy and hire inexperienced writers so that they can save some money somewhere? The special effects on these shows costs millions, man! It’s all up to you about your feelings, though. If you want to spend what little time you have on this world hating people or stuff you have no control over, that’s on you. Just remember one thing, though. One day you’re young and strong and playing around in your parents backyard and the next you’re old and grey and looking at twilight’s end and wondering why time has passed you… Read more »
This is a bummer and is basically a show reboot. The new cast was great – Santiago and Isa were great – I thought Isa did a really great job in Season 1. Unfortunately, I don’t think she was really used well in season 2 (and neither was Santiago really who also shined in season 1). Elnor had potential, but was wasted in both seasons. It makes sense why Pill isn’t returning, but she was also a great actress and will be missed.
Kind of disappointed that the cast I fell in love with in season 1 is pretty much all gone in favor of *another* TNG farewell.
I wish Chabon would have stayed. I wonder if season 3 will be written so that the first 2 seasons can be effectively ignored.
Exactly.
It’s too bad the writers let down some of the Picard cast by giving them some really bad material to work with. The S2 result was deemed by one mainstream network critic as “one of the most clumsily plotted and inelegantly written television seasons I have ever watched.” Personally, i found S2 started well and I enjoyed the last two episodes, but those 6 mid season episodes were really bad.
I know Picard was always going to be only 3 seasons long, so it’s not as if the departing cast were deprived of a long-term job. That said, it is not a stretch to think the TNG cast and a Berman-era showrunner was brought in to rescue the final season of the show because the writers were’t up to the task of creating a compelling, logical and well paced show that the fans could gravitate to.
I think they really tried to do the show on Patrick Stewart’s terms in first season. But when the fan response wasn’t what they hoped, they basically tried to give it a make over in season two like they did Discovery and just decided season 3 will be TNG season 8 once they really knew it would be its last.
And we knew more TNG characters were going to appear, that was never any doubt. But I think Nepenthe was what convinced them to go full on as well. That was by far the most popular episode out of the entire series and it was just Picard hanging out with Riker and Deanna for an episode. But look at the fanfare over it? It is a no-brainer to have them all back and in every episode.
Most likely, yes. And “Nepenthe” was wonderful — but it was wonderful because it *wasn’t* TNG season 8. It showed that the Troi-Rikers had moved on to new challenges in their lives.
Can’t disagree there. And that may still be the case next season. They may just find some reason where they all have to reconnect again due to the fate of the entire galaxy per usual. ;)
I must admit I’m not sure how I feel about this. Dismayed? Perplexed? Mildly offended? Annoyed? Relieved?
It feels very odd to toss aside the vast majority of the show’s characters two seasons in to make room for a TNG rehash…the very thing Sir Stewart said he didn’t want. It kind of reminds me of how the Enterprise cast was sidelined in their finale for Riker. It doesn’t feel particularly respectful.
At the same time, I don’t really feel like we’re missing much? We’ve had two seasons with these characters, and with the exception of Seven and Jurati, I don’t have any emotional attachment to them. Raffi was very interesting and layered in S1, but the S2 version of her felt crueler and more manipulative. Rios was amazing, but they made the decision to dump him in the 21st century. And the less said of Briones’ and Spiner’s characters this season, the better.
It’s just…most shows follow a coherent story development season to season, but it seems like each season of Picard stumbles into something completely unrelated, with no connecting thread, and clearly no planning. In that way it feels a lot like the new Star Wars trilogy. I should feel something about losing all these characters and actors, and I’m not. That disturbs me.
Good assessment General Shran.
And I share your feelings about this.
Season 2 was an absolute waste of hours. The entire story could have been told over just a few episodes. Best would have been to have had 3 or 4 mini-arcs, like Enterprise season 4. The story was unnecessarily and excruciatingly drawn out… A terrible waste of talent because of a bunch of terrible writers….
I definitely agree that this was a five hour story, not a ten hour one. I also fully agree that ENT S4 style mini-arcs are the sweet spot. Discovery and Picard have shown repeatedly that one season long story arc is just not working.
I like that SNW is episodic, but I frankly find that a bit limiting.
To give them credit, they have been listening to every fan complaint since the first season of Discovery. It’s also the reason we not only got SNW, but made it episodic as well.
So I hope they are still listening and that how they are doing DIS and PIC just isn’t working. They can still serialize them but as people have said, it would work better if they broke the stories down in smaller arcs like how brilliantly Enterprise did it. It’s also the reason the animated shows are more popular as well. No one seems to give LDS credit that it was basically the first episodic show in NuTrek and why that show is so much more fun to watch. And while Podigy is serialized, it basically tells episodic stories as well, the episodes are just a little more connected to the main story. But you’re not getting a season long story the way we are in PIC and DIS. The characters are off just doing their own thing.
It just proves, at least with this group, that episodic format works much better than serialized story telling does. The episodes that people seem to mostly like from DIS and PIC are the more standalone ones. That’s what made PIC harder to like this season because there really were none at all.
Compared to DIS, Prodigy is masterfully written.
I’d argue that Prodigy is the only Trek series that’s pulling off serialization well.
– It could be because the Hagemans have a unified vision that they champion,
– It could be because all the scripts have to be in the can before any work commences and there no tendency to leave conflicts to be resolved in post, or
– It could be something else.
Prodigy is the exception that proves that serialized Trek is possible and can be successful. Suggest Kurtzman and the execs at Paramount genuinely take a step back and figure out what are the preconditions for success that Prodigy has revealed.
It was a 2 hour story, not even 5. They didn’t do anything new above “Future’s end” and “First Contact”. Both were 2 hours each.
What about John de Lancie, is he back in season 3 ?
His story was contained to season 2.
Except Frakes let slip months ago that he shot a scene with De Lancie, Spiner, and himself…so where is it?
Probably something like a dream in s3.
Could it be that he meant he directed a scene with De Lancie and Spiner in it? Or did he actually say that he acted in a scene with them?
I found Captain Rios amazing, would have loved to see more of him. And I’d certainly miss Laris, if she doesn’t turn up again.
yes daniel. i said before in an earlier post. patrick stewart said they would not go back to TNG , thats why he had a new crew. why go to all that trouble setting up new characters and a new cast. i agree santiago cabrera is a brilliant actor and it would have been great to get a rios spinoff. it was said that it was santiagos choice to go. i dont know he certainly needs a part to show off his acting talents. i wont watch season three as he is the reason i watched it in the first place, my favourite captain was kirk obviously that was before rios. i have no issues with raffi and seven and the actressess that play them but i cannot understand why those characters have had all that attention. that scene when seven sat in the captains chair really upset me and now i do not even want to rewatch the finale. .
Whilst still not perfect – Season 2 was a huge improvement on Season 1. I think S3 will be really good.
The thing is. Before Picard S3 was even announced – I noticed that limited 10 episode series were currently the hot new trend and I thought it would be cool to reunite the TNG cast for a 10 episode TNG reunion show. It seemed like the most obvious thing to do. It might have been received better if it was a seperate one-off thing. Not Picard3. Not TNG S8 . Just Something else on the side. But It will be cool to see the whole cast one more time.
I don’t like TNG but if they want to redeem Picard S1/S2 you have to pretend it was all a setup for ultimate Borg return / ultimate Galactic War with ultimate discussion on what is life by having it where the real Borg return (the ones from BOTB) to collect Locutus who has AI = life tech. Robo Picard must address if he is really Picard and confront that the real Picard was compromised as the Borg were farming Locutus and the Federation the whole time. You then have it where the Borg come in and come in hard, the whole Federation at risk. Back to the days of Borg cubes cutting pieces of Andor unless the TNG crew can save the day. It would be all hands on deck to keep Picard from the Borg. I think you’d have to throw V’ger in there, robo-Picard must contact Decker or something.
You have better ideas than PIC writers/showrunnners. It maybe not saying much, but still… ;)
Considering how important Smahji should be, on paper, to Picard, jettisoning her seems to indicate what the creatives think about how season one turned out– a season which revolved around the galactic and personal importance of Smahji. I love that the events of galactic import in season two hinge on JLP accepting the sultry love of a very special Romulan, only for her to be chucked aside (presumably) for Bev Crusher. I know there are Bev fans but she is inarguably the most underdeveloped and flimsiest of the TNG cast. People throw Geordi in with Bev as most boring on TNG but I think that’s unfair; Geordi’s friendship with Data was an important feature of the show. In her limited screen time, Laris is already a more realized character than Bev. What are Bev’s character traits– she is a good doctor and a good mom and periodically has platonic scones with Jean-Luc? Ah well, I will wait patiently to see what transpires with the Matalas magic.
As for Rios, I actually think he’s one of the more successful original characters of Secret Hideout’s Star Track. But that’s more a function of the actor than the character. It’s clear they didn’t have many ideas for him beyond haunted Starfleeter with haunted past– someone to brood while Raffi guzzles liquor and Agnes vomits cake. I should rewatch that season sometime, what a hoot.
Always loved Beverly and Geordi. Never considered them boring but I understand if others do.
But I agree, it’s so odd to just throw Laris aside after setting up an entire new relationship with them in season 2 that was never there in season 1 since she was married and all. Maybe there will be more to it. And of course everyone seems to be assuming Picard and Beverly will have another chance at love but for all we know Beverly could show up next season married and with more kids or something. It may not go as some seem to be predicting it will.
And finally what is Smahji again? I looked it up and the only thing that came back as a reference on Google was your post lol.
I wonder if they try to fool us, but then again this “surprise” is bad promo.
I feel bad for these folks, I’m sure they thought they were going to get 3 seasons in. I enjoyed the second season mostly but I too feel some of the pains others have felt in watching this season BUT the actors were never the issue and I am sorry to see them go.
Was really hoping for a captain Rios Stargazer show too :-/
Gotta pay the returning TNG crew somehow. Money talks.
I wish Tony or Laurie, maybe after we see season 3, would ask if it was always planned as a TNG reunion? Sir Patrick Stewart always claimed it was not to be TNG. But now it is and they have ditched their cast… Which kind of sucks, I am glad we are keeping Rafi and 7, but I am going to miss Rios, Jurati, and Laris. Also, after two years of Picard becoming less the man and leader he was, in my opinion, I worry about the horrors they have planned for Worf, Geordi, Bev, Troi, and Riker. Oh, and I love Data and Brent Spiner, but I just can’t with him playing any Soong, just please. Not after this last season…
Sounds like they’re setting up PicCrusher.
It’s just so weird to assume that Crusher hasn’t moved on and is just waiting around and conveniently free to pick up the relationship with Picard 30 years later. I’d much rather see him ending up with Laris. Perhaps she is neither confirmed or denying her appearance in season 3 to keep us guessing. Will she end up with Picard or won’t she type of scenario.
I’m a huge, huge TNG fan and I always hoped for another feature film after nemesis. But my hope shrunk with every year going by after 2002. Now in fact 20!!! years later I will get not only one movie but indeed !!!! FIVE !!!! TNG movies (regarding 2 episodes together got about movie running length) since we’ve reached a point where series productions really reached the point of seeming like cinema quality films in picture and sound quality and vfx.
So one of my biggest dream will come true (if Data returns😉) So THANK YOU FOR THAT!!!!!!
I mean for most fans, this is a positive development for sure. I think most assumed they would just mix in the new Picard cast with the TNG characters. I just hope it’s good but based on the first two seasons of Picard, I’m just not overly confident we’re going to get something truly noteworthy both the TNG cast and its fans deserve. I really hope I’m wrong though.
I really liked the cast, even though PIC has been not fulfilling its potential. I am hoping that their characters will return someday, but I doubt that Paramount would want to do so without a “hook” (i.e. a connection with past iteration of STAR TREK). Oh, well. LLAP…
With Wesley they opened the door for him to show up in DSC, SNW, and any future Trek shows.
Over there years of watching all trek series beginning with TOS in 1966. Even reading some books (doesn’t matter to me if its canon of not, I like reading them) for series across the board. The one common theme in all is that nothing is as it seems. Sure people come and go, but do they ever really go away? Trek proves that no one ever goes out and stays out, although it may take years to come back. Making a comeback is part of Trek lore. To quote Spock: “There are always possibilities.”
So S3 is effectively a series reboot then. Instead of PIC S3, it’s TNG S8. Not that I’m complaining about another season of TNG, it’s just that I’d come to be interested in some of the new characters that are being unceremoniously ditched.
Dorn and Burton are coming back for S3. So I guess I have to watch it. S2 wasn’t good from my perspective.
This kinda confirms that season 3 is a reboot…AGAIN.
If you think about it the events of season one happened, and then all the story points that were set up for season two happened off screen. Raffi and Seven’s relationship and troubles, Raffi and Elnor’s bonding and guidance and the academy etc., Rios taking command of the Stargazer and him and Jurati’s distance, whatever Soji was up to, Laris’ husband dying and her becoming closer with Picard… all of this was explained as exposition in the first episode. So in essence season two was a reboot and nothing that happened in that season one had any actual meaning or consequence to the actual overall story of Picard. And so it seems it will be the same for season 3.
Just like Discovery. These shows are like watching a very slow reset button in action.
My God. The producers and writers, and there are SO MANY of them, absolutely do not know what they are doing. It is actually incredible to see it all unfolding in such a messy way.
Yes, and they totally dropped/ignored Picards life-changing (at least, one would have assumed!) body-switching experience! Talk about dropping the ball, and kicking it FAR away, on what could have been a perfect Trek story-line to run with! Would have made for some really interesting philosophical moments with Soji, about the nature of ‘being’ etc. I just can’t believe they dropped it and shoved it under the carpet! Makes J-L (I consider him a different character to Jean-Luc, even before the body switch) seem rather blase/ungrateful for being given his second chance at life, snatched back literally seconds before genuine death/release of the soul (if one believes in that). Instead it’s evidently an event shoved between seasons, and we instead get a story ‘arc’ of his Mother’s suicide and how this has affected him, and not allowed him to fall in love, and creates an alternate time stream and….. Ouch! My head hurts… what could have been. These writers play with their toys half-heartedly, then shove them under the sofa in exchange for new toys. ADHD script writing…
It is possible that the body switch was one of Michael Chabon’s ideas and that exploring its consequences was dropped when Chabon stepped away as showrunner.for season 2.
I think one problem with Picard could indeed be too many cooks without one unifying vision for the show. By all accounts, Michael Chabon and Akiva Goldsman had different visions for season 1, which seemed to introduce a lot of ideas but forgot about half of them by the end. Chabon left early during the development of season 2 (although he’s still listed as an executive producer on season 2). Terry Matalas was brought in to replace him. And I think it was reported at the time that they kind of threw out their initial ideas for season 2. Matalas probably contributed the time travel story idea to season 2 while Picard’s childhood trauma probably came either from Patrick Stewart and/or Goldsman. In my opinion, the two stories weren’t connected very well. It seems that any open plot points from season 1 just didn’t fit in there so they were dropped/resolved in the first episode.
It has been reported that Matalas is the single showrunner for season 3. Once again it seems like they aren’t carrying over any story points from the 2nd season, going even further this time and dropping most of the cast as well. Hopefully, having only one showrunner will at least lead to a more focused, unified season.
Yeah, that is SOOOO true!
Both Picard and Discovery have been rebooted in a way no other Star Trek show ever has and certainly not so early in their runs. In many ways, its a GOOD thing because they know something is not working and want to go a new direction. But same time it really looks and feels as scatterbrained on the outside as it probably is on the inside.
The irony is just like I thought they were setting up something different for Discovery long term in its second season which I honestly thought was going to spend the rest of its time getting closer to TOS motifs and stories; I thought season 2 of Picard was setting up a different show for its new characters once Picard left. But both season 3 of DIS and PIC isn’t anything CLOSE to what I imagine they would be lol.
And there are probably just a litany of things going on. Others said it, the biggest issue it’s just too many people running these shows and a lot of different ideas. And they do obviously listen to fan feedback. Even if people still don’t love Discovery, everything about it today feels like it’s a direct response from all the complaints fans had about it. Discovery season one versus Discovery season four are just radically different shows now. Season one was a gritty and dark show in the 23rd century and it revolved mostly around war and Klingons. Season four is a much more optimistic approach focusing on exploration and discovering new life in a profound way 900 years into the future. And we ironically haven’t seen a single Klingon in two seasons now which season one was obviously setting up as a long time foe for the show.
With Picard, they had an approach in season one and it was OK, but it clearly wasn’t that successful either. I think there was different views of where the show should go but also had to follow what Stewart wanted which was less emphasis on Starfleet and something with more social commentary. But I think like DIS in first season, everyone probably thought the show felt a little too distant from Star Trek and tried to make it up in season 2. And the characters were a little TOO dark and broken in season one.That’s the thing, I don’t think fans have a problem with seeing conflicted and disillusioned characters, even in Star Trek. But when EVERY character is like that, then it just feels overly depressing and melodramatic. Every character had a dark past in the first season, it was just too much.
So like Discovery they tried to lighten things up and gave all the characters a reboot with a new purpose. But I think TPTB finally won out and wanted to do a TNG revival and Stewart finally agreed. I think everyone was pushing for that since day one, certainly Paramount probably. Let’s just hope third time is the charm.
What I wouldn’t give to have Taylor Sheridan (1883 and Yellowstone) create and write a Star Trek show.
His world building, ability to create meaningful dialog and give everyone in the cast a back story, and make them flawed human beings. Nothing on TV? I watch 1883 (again) and marvel at how mind boggling it all was.
Finally! Star Trek: Strange New Worlds….the Star Trek series I’ve been waiting for since TOS!
I wish there was a time travel spinoff with Wesley, Soji, Raffi, Seven of Nine, Elnor, Jurati, and Rios.
I’d rather watch that than the what they have coming for season 3. What a waste of a good Rios! Most of the orginal Picard characters were just wasted and then dumped. I’m very disappointed. Not very interested in a TNG revival.
If Orla Brady is not in season 3 then im not watching. If I want to watch TNG I have movies and dvds for that.