Check Out 12 ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 3 Character Images; Showrunner Talks Crusher/Picard Relationship

We are just a week away from the February 16 debut of the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard on Paramount+. The publicity for the show is ramping up with the release of new character images along with some more hints from showrunner Terry Matalas.

Picard season 3 characters

Paramount just released a dozen new character images. This includes the trio of Star Trek: Picard cast members returning for season 3: Sir Patrick Stewart, Michelle Hurd, and Jeri Ryan.

Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: James Dimmock/Paramount+. © 2022 CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: James Dimmock/Paramount+. © 2022 CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Michelle Hurd as Raffi Musiker of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: James Dimmock/Paramount+. © 2022 CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The next six images cover our returning champions. The big news for season 3 is the introduction of Sir Patrick’s Star Trek: The Next Generation co-stars into Star Trek: Picard: Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Micheal Dorn, Marina Sirtis, LeVar Burton, and Brent Spiner. Each will be appearing in a number of episodes, with Jonathan Frakes showing up in all 10.

Jonathan Frakes as William Riker of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: James Dimmock/Paramount+. © 2022 CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: James Dimmock/Paramount+. © 2022 CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Michael Dorn as Worf of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: James Dimmock/Paramount+. © 2022 CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: James Dimmock/Paramount+. © 2022 CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: James Dimmock/Paramount+. © 2022 CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Brent Spiner of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: James Dimmock/Paramount+. © 2022 CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The final 3 new images cover the new Picard characters. Season three introduces Amanda Plummer playing the main villain Vadic, Todd Stashwick as Captain Shaw of the USS Titan, and Ed Speleers, a mysterious character that works with Dr. Crusher.

Amanda Plummer as Vadic of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: James Dimmock/Paramount+. © 2022 CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Todd Stashwick as Captain Liam Shaw of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: James Dimmock/Paramount+. © 2022 CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Ed Speleers of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: James Dimmock/Paramount+. © 2022 CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Terry talks Picard/Crusher and Vadic’s motivation

There is also a new feature with the images at EW including a few more bits from executive producer and showrunner Terry Matalas. One intriguing tidbit regards how the new season picks up on the TNG-era relationship between Jean-Luc Picard and Beverly Crusher. From EW:

Watching Star Trek with his dad every Sunday from the living room couch, Matalas felt like Captain Picard and his chief medical officer on the Enterprise were among the “will they, won’t they” greats of television. “It feels like, ‘Why didn’t they for decades?'” he asks himself. “It felt like it should have gone there in a feature film. Now that you’re here at the end, wouldn’t it be great to see, ‘Oh, they went there alright.'”

One of the big mysteries about the season is what exactly is driving Vadic. Matalas offered a little insight into Plummer’s character (and family history):

“She’s a bit more theatrical by intention,” Matalas says. “She’s a bit more like her father, Christopher Plummer, in Star Trek VI and that was by design.” Plummer’s Oscar-winning dad played General Chang in The Undiscovered Country. “We wanted someone who would chew the scenery a bit more, someone who was fun to watch,” Matalas continues. “Having said that, when you get to know her story, you will find sympathy. Vadic has her reasons for all of this, I say cryptically. When you do [find out], it will make a lot of sense.”

Star Trek Red Carpet Premiere and early TrekMovie review

Tonight Paramount+ is holding a red carpet premiere for season 3 at the famed Chinese Theater in Hollywood. TrekMovie will be there on the red carpet talking to cast and producers so look for some updates from @trekmovie on Twitter this evening, and much more from those red carpet interviews in the coming days.

In addition, TrekMovie will be posting an early spoiler-free review based on the first six episodes which have been released to the media. To make this review even more exciting we have brought in writer/producer, author, showrunner, and certified “Trekspert” Mark A. Altman to offer his unique perspective. That early spoiler-free review will be published Friday, February 10 at 12:00 AM (or midnight Thursday, Pacific Time).

TrekMovie will be posting our regular recap/reviews on a weekly basis, starting with the first episode on Thursday, February 17. And each week our All Access Star Trek podcast will discuss the latest episode, starting on Friday, February 18. Our Shuttle Pod podcast will also discuss the upcoming season.

Picard season 3 poster

The third and final season of Picard premieres on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023, exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., and Latin America, and on February 17 Paramount+ in Europe and elsewhere, with new episodes of the 10-episode-long season available to stream weekly. It will also debut on Friday, Feb. 17 internationally on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories. In Canada, it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave.


Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.

98 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Why is Spinet wearing a Starfleet logo and his character not mentioned? Steelers doesn’t have a character name listed either. Curious.

*Speelers

And Spiner.

Dammit.

Everybody seem already to know that he play Lore. But well, perhaps they want it to keep secret at the Last Minute. But is it the same Lore that Data needed to shut down?

Unless I missed something, I don’t think B-4 was scrapped.

We saw him in S1, he’s dismantled and in a storage drawer on earth

Maybe B-4 was remantled?

There wouldn’t have been a point IIRC in S1 Jurati stated that the transfer from Data from B-4 never worked and B-4 remained a failed unit. But who knows, maybe this is B-4 with a transfer from Lore who was possibly dismantled after Descent?

I am starting to think that Geordi just reactivated B4 and used some of Lore’s architecture to make sure B4 became Data (since he helped Data transfer his programming over to B4 in Nemesis) and then whoopsie daisy Lore hijacks Data-4’s brain. Why does B4 look that way? Blade Runner, baby. Soong designed B4 to age.

It would be a bit of an awkward pivot given the way they ended season 1, but maybe it is Data in a new human-like body similar to Picard’s and the Lore thing is some kind of misdirection (even with Burton’s line in the trailer). I don’t think it’s that but I wouldn’t 100% rule it out.

No, i think that Picard repected Data’s last Wish and “terminated” him and not plan to bring him back. Do not forget Data means a lot to Picard and the Crew. I bet nobody would there want to revive Data from scratch

What i am more curious about these Faces here, is Lore. Is Lore the “good guy or Bad guy”? Is he like Wreck it Ralph, just playing the Bad Guy but are not an Bad Guy? :) Did Picard somehow gave Lore a piece of Data’s Soul to him?

Well, this is the Joker they still have in the Fog here for me

Also, how many Freedom let Captain Liam Shaw to Seven on the Bridge? I am also curious about their chemistry. Is he cautions or dive in full trust of Seven’s capabilities? I know i do not expect some Burnham and Saru moment. But well, i am curious

Just spitballing..we saw Lore smirking with a ODN connection plugged into his head/neck, so I’m guessing some of Data’s memories and personality gets uploaded and he becomes a hybrid of the two..thus a ..”new old character” or “old new character”..however it was put.

Lore is now starring with Worf as a redemptive former bad guy in IDW’s Star Trek: Defiant. So I have a feeling he’s one of the good guys now.

It’s weird though because that comic contradicts the Picard comic that says Worf became Captain of the Enterprise E after Picard was promoted, which IMO assumes he was his first officer at the time. Out of the 2, if they even picked one, I would expect the tie in Picard comic to be canon.

The comics, even recent tie-ins, have much less of an audience than the books.

The Relaunch novel verse had Worf returning to Starfleet as Picard’s First Officer, and eventually replacing him as Captain. This has firmly put the idea in fans’ minds.

More, Dorn has wanted a Captain Worf series. I don’t think that Matalas would have convinced Dorn to get back into the prosthetic makeup without giving his character that captaincy, if only retrospectively.

According to sources I’ve read, there are three villains in this season: Vadic, Lore, and Moriarty. Of the three I’m intrigued by them in this order. Moriarty, how does he play into this? Did he escape from the holo universe? Lore, how did he get resurrected? Then Vadic, I hope her motivation is good enough because vengeance themes don’t do it for me anymore.

This all looks cool and I can’t wait to see it. I just hope three things:

1) Raffi is in it minimally since she’s not an interesting character despite the producers’ efforts to act like she is, especially compared to everyone else in this season who is far more interesting.

2) There’s more to the villain than a revenge plot, which has become a huge joke of a cliche for Star Trek.

3) The as-yet-unannounced legacy characters are Pulaksi, Ro and the O’Briens.

About

1)
Perhaps if they bond Raffi and Seven toghter fate, then they could support each other. But that is of course the Writer Rooms decision

3)
i trow in the name of Sisko. because we have Worf and if we get O’Brien then Sisko should be not far away of their DS9 time together

Well, i can dream right?

re: 3> Speelers as Pulaski-Picard. NOW that would be interesting!

Disagree that Raffi is uninteresting. They just haven’t written her the best. Too much clingy needy person.

Terry has said Vladic is way more complex than just revenge. That you’ll understand her POV.

According to people who already seen it, they say this is basically a very different Raffi and she’s a much better character this season who has a real reason to be there other than working on her relationship issues with Seven. We’ll see but like many I really can’t stand the character and it was crazy to me out of all the new characters she was the one they bought back.

She also has a very big role, so any hopes any anti-Picard fans have of her being ditched… can be ditched.

As long as she’s just a better character, I’m good with it.

If there are going to be any significant tensions between Picard and his old crew this season perhaps its Raffi that comes to his defense?

Sure possible, but it does sound like she is doing her own thing for a lot of the season, but just based on the vague discussions around her.

Terry Matalas said on Twitter that Dr. Pulaski was not in this season. Nor is Admiral Janeway, for that matter. I am very much hoping O’Brien and Ro make appearances.

He also IIRC said Yar and Sela were not but Denise Crosby hinted she was so hmmmm….

I’d of thought ro was killed fighting the dominion,like the other maquis as mentiond on voyager

That’s exactly what I assumed. Ditto with Tom Riker in prison. Why would the Dominion keep him around once they were full on at war with Starfleet?

1) I like Raffi from Season 1, but I don’t think Season 2 did her any real justice in terms of character development. I didn’t pick up on any real romantic chemistry between Raffi and Seven. If Elnor had been around for the whole season, I think a more realistic plot for Raffi would have been that maternal bond she had clearly developed for him, working through her pain of her actual son not being in her life.

2) Agree on the revenge plot. We keep hearing there is more to it, so fingers crossed what they came up with actually works.

3) I don’t hold out hopes for Pulaski being one of the legacy appearances. Diana Muldaur is 84, and with the exception of one noted upcoming release, IMDB doesn’t have any acting appearances for her since 1993. I recall the interview she filmed for the S2 TNG Blu Ray in 2012; she was candid about not really enjoying her time on TNG. I would love to see Michelle Forbes return as Ro Laren, but I’m guessing the other legacies are DS9 and VOY legacies. It has been stated Colm Meaney did not participate, but we’ve seen that misdirection before. Miles O’Brien is a direct link not only to TNG but also DS9, so if he is there he could be tied to both Geordi and Worf.

Terry Matalas said on his breakdown analysis of the trailer last week that “We definitely reinvent Raffi quite a bit this season“.

And thank God for that.

Also hope the O’Brien’s make an appearance, or at least one of the kids.

Remember Matalas said that Spiner is playing a “new old character,” whatever that means.

Just a wild theory here, but I wonder if he means they could somehow positronically combine Lore, Data and B4 into a new person. Maybe finally a whole person, with a balance of good and bad and everything in between.

That’s what I’m thinking.

Yeah that would be very interesting.

B-4

It means that Matalas and the studio didn’t have the guts to tell Spinner, “dude, you character died, and we’ve done our best to create two different roles for you the past two seasons, but we need to move on now as the fans aren’t really going to buy another force-fit for you again this season”

Are those captain pips on Worf? Hope so.

They confirmed Worf is a Captain on Star Trek Day, but he doesn’t command a ship.

He was Captain of the Enterprise-E in the Picard novels so perhaps that is part of the backstory, but now he’s moved on.

It would be in line with his pacifism line in the 2nd trailer.

He is also Ambassador Worf

This is why you shouldn’t put a big door behind the Captain’s Chair or put your consoles way out in the background. None of these pictures can be in anyway as cool as Pike on the Big E with the cool graphics behind him and even after you’ve decolorized it for no reason (colors = excitement, visually attractive, etc.. bring them back).
Also talking function – really dumb having a big door there for security and real estate purposes. Also wasting valuable information space on blinking hard drives. Just ugh. Rand uses the TOS bridge as an example of a functional command centre. They probably use this bridge as an example of why not to put stairs and hard drives in unneeded locations while putting everything so far away no one can see anything when they aren’t having to yell at each other to communicate.

What are you on about? The door in those pics is literally bright red. More so than on the Ent-E …
The original bridge had big walls of blinkies on the left and right side of the viewscreen.

He’s been outraged by doors behind the big chair since Discovery premiered.

Yeah it’s a passion project of his.

It just looks horrid all these scenes with some person sitting in a chair with a door behind them. I mean do we want to watch a starship in action, or some guy sitting in a chair that might as well be in a care home? (Granted no care home would have unnecessary stairs for everyone to fall down)
Dare we compare that to TOS or the movies where you had consoles and activity. Or even the Excelsior with a big cool graphical display. Your penultimate shot is forward back to helm/navigation with the Captain in the middle… and then a door (!?!?!). How does that not upset any producers?!?
Compare that with the view of Pike and Number One in Strange New Worlds.
It bugs me as an engineer, it bugs me as a MBA with some marketing experience.. just what the heck. Add some color and some displays!

Holy cow Amanda looks so much like her father! I am so excited about Ed Speleers. I really hope he’s part of the new new generation. Such a great actor. FWIW he seems too old to be Picard’s sun unless Bev had him on that year off in season two.

Yikes, I hope Crusher didn’t have him in S2 of TNG. It was pretty clear later in the series she never knew how he felt about her.

Could Vadic be a survivor of the quickening? Those scars look similar..perhaps a lone survivor of a race doomed by the dominion war?

I never found the Crusher/Picard romance very interesting; I liked his chemistry with Laris the Romulan housekeeper more.

I’m still annoyed that Laris’ first husband was killed off between seasons. They had a great dynamic.

In terms of Beverly, I agree with Matalas that having the potential for that relationship baked into TNG from the outset, brought to the surface repeatedly, but never resolved, is one of the gaping unresolved character arcs of TNG.

I’m rather hoping Picard doesn’t have son who never knew him. I think it would be hard to justify either parent abandoning a child, whatever the circumstances.

Pulling back the curtain to reveal clearly what was the eventual history between the two of them is something that I do want from this season though.

Also hoping there’s not a kid in the picture, but the “they went there” seems to be hinting that way. Fingers crossed for misdirection.

Not only was it annoying they killed off Laris’ husband, but the entire purpose seem to put her and Picard together which they didn’t do until literally the last scene of the season and now completely dropped in season 3, so what was even the point???

Season 2 was just so ridiculously bad and an entire waste for characters like Laris.

Honestly it was a waste for all of them. I can’t think of a single character that was served by S2 and the greats like Q went out with a whimper.

Sadly agree and I did like Q in the season, but honestly what exactly would not happen if he wasn’t there??? Other than convincing Soong to kill Picard’s relative but then want Picard to save her in the end??? I still don’t even understand his bizarre motives with all of that.

Season 2 was just an almighty clusterfuck of a show!

Yes, please no long-lost child! We already had that with Kirk, and I didn’t like it THEN.

If there is a long-lost child, I don’t think it would be a Picard/Crusher love child. But yeah, I hope that online speculation about a Picard child turns out to be wrong. I mean, I could see why they might go there. Jean-Luc is the last Picard, and even though he now has a golem body we know he’s not immortal and he will eventually die. Fingers crossed this does not play out.

I’m glad they are bringing back the Crusher/Picard relationship, seemed quite shades of grey (Picard’s best friends wife, etc) that made the crew seem more human. Having it where there is some reason they lost touch and then reconnect, makes me want to watch.
Also Crusher on the frontier as a Doctor, awesome. Always thought that would make a good scifi show – a Doctor on the frontier.

Well, on the Enterprise D she was from time to time acting command Officer while all others where away. I still remember the episode where she used the “Do not touch the Sun Corona without an proper Shield!” Episode. Well, he best buddy was the Ships Computer. But still impressive

Hopefully they don’t find a way to force Crusher and Picard together romantically at the end of the series. I’ve always enjoyed their chemistry, and even though they did eventually “go there” it clearly didn’t last since they haven’t seen one another for about twenty years. Reunite them as friends, yes, and maybe we can get some flashback scenes between them, but I think it would cheapen their journeys to have them end up together.

Picard and Laris have great chemistry. I enjoyed Tallinn in S2, but we did not get enough Laris.

Spiner looks like he smelt a fart in every single picture.

it’s the cabbage diet they all went on to get in shape for the roles!

Frakes looks great. You’d never guess by looking at him he is 70. He could pass for 50.

He really does. You can tell he probably get into shape for this role.

Not quite. Maybe he looks like what 50 looked like 30 years ago. He very much looks how a 70 year old typically looks in 2023.

Thinking the same AlphaPredator, other than to say as an actor he’s been polished up for the screen.

Oh btw you got the dates mixed up in this paragraph

> TrekMovie will be posting our regular recap/reviews on a weekly basis, starting with the first episode on Thursday, February 17. And each week our All Access Star Trek podcast will discuss the latest episode, starting on Friday, February 18. Our Shuttle Pod podcast will also discuss the upcoming season.

The 18th is a Saturday.

I want Geordi’s jacket so bad…

seconded

still perplexed by the pleather unis. Why is the Federation regressing into Mad Max territory? No lights and all leather.
Captain Liam seems like a ‘whoops…maybe we shouldn’t have left that other captain in the 21st century in season 2. Need a character exactly like him.” – it’s Locarno/Paris again…

I feel season 2 was supposed to be the Borg out to get Picard for his tech and that they chickened out and all those plots fell apart. Rios seemed to be a good character that lost out in the rapid course change.

I think it’s inspired by the jacket Picard sometimes wore in TNG.

I. CAN’T. WAIT!

are you Bill Shatner? ;-)

I have to admit, it’s so great to see all these guys back and actually standing on a starship with a uniform on.

And we decided to go to check out the premiere! We only live like 20 minutes away from Hollywood and going to go check it out after work. It’s exciting and hopefully we can see some of them. Haven’t done one of these since 2009 in Sydney for the first Kelvin movie premiere. Time really flies!

I take it you mean that you’ll lineup on the street to see the arrivals?

Will be looking forward to your report.

Just to let you know, we DID go after all! :)

Unfortunately wasn’t as big of an affair as we thought. For one thing, the entire interview line was blocked from view, so you could only see them arriving but that was basically it. And we didn’t see that many but did catch Johnathan Frakes, Will Wheaton, Micheal Dorn and Patrick Stewart arriving along with Rod Roddenberry. But it was basically a few minutes and they were gone. And we stood there for 90 minutes. I think we saw Michelle Hurd but wasn’t sure if it was her or not. My girlfriend really really wanted to see Jeri Ryan the most (or Kate Mulgrew lol) and disappointed on both counts.

But the funniest moment was much later when it was about to start when I saw Cirroc Lofton pass me by who looked like he got out of an uber and dressed like all the rourists. The guy did not want to bother with the press stuff and just rolled up as himself ten minutes before show time lol. I yelled out ‘Jake’ (my mind blanked on his real name for a second there) and he gave a huge smile and a nod. That was the highlight. ;)

Thanks for sharing. Your girlfriend sounds like a good sport.

When I read you were going, I was recalling my younger years when I’d stand for hours for a brief glimpse of someone at some event.

(I even recall being brought halfway across town as a child to wait on a road see the Queen driving by in a limo on the way to a state dinner.)

My spouse never loved crowds so after a few big outdoor concert crushes early in our marriage where they were noticeably uncomfortable when the mob had to filter out to the exits in the dark at the end, we stopped doing that kind of thing.

Now with the impact of COVID, our teens never really got into the big crowd events. I had just taken one to their first COMICON in 2019. They just seemed to have missed the sense of adventure of going out in a big crowd to see something.

We wanted someone who would chew the scenery a bit more, someone who was fun to watch

These two things are not mutually exclusive. Still looking forward to this season a lot, but not that hammy character (at least not yet, waiting to be surprised!)

It’s time to start handicapping who dies. Don’t pick the bad guys, Trek always kills the villains. Always. Don’t pick Capt. Shaw, he’s got short timers stink all over him.
Geordi seems to be sporting some tude. I’m going out on a limb and saying he won’t make it.

What does that all mean when Matalas has already reminded us that death need not be a permanent condition in Star Trek?

Ah, but contract renewals are.
So, the post credits shot of episode ten is of an interior Borg cube, with the crew all assimilated. As the cube goes to warp, we’re left with the final image of the E-D, burning in space…..

Well, he wears an “Red Shirt”.. and alone this cliche is enough to fear this

All of the legacy cast looks so good but LeVar Burton looks amazing! What a Silver effing fox!!!

It is amazing how good all these guys still look! I guess they all stick to the Hollywood diet lol.

Can anyone here confirm that the title for episode one is “The Next Generation”?

Also, cool pictures! We’ve been fooled before! I’m still doing the trust fall. I’m an idiot! I don’t care!

Hee! Cute. :-)

Commodore Laforge looks great!

Vadic scares me. She looks deranged!

I’m starting to like the Titan-A.

This is going to be quite a ride.

OK, Amanda Plummer in this photo looks like she could be a sister or close relative of Picard…look at her face and expresssion….looks spookily like Picard.

The thought has cross my mind.

Misdirection with Speleers character about his being a genetic relation to Picard, meanwhile the relationship is with Plummer’s Vadic.

Misdirection with Speleers character about his being a genetic relation to Picard, meanwhile the relationship is with Plummer’s Vadic.

I think we could be right on this! Picard’s freaking sister or some other very close relation / perhaps through genetic manipulation involving Shinzon years back?

PS: “Sister! You have a twin sister. Commander Riker was wise to hide her from me” :-)

Did worf always have normal human ears? when he pulled his hair back in TNG and DS9 the hair line went all the way down to his mandibles, so I assumed they were smaller and under the hair.

I’ve done my best to stay away from spoilers, the final trailer, fan boards and the barrage of news stories and social media posts RE S3, but with just a week to go I have to admit… reistance is futile!

These promo photos look great and I did read the story earlier this week introducing the Titan bridge crew – a little trick they picked up from SNW promotions!

P+ seems to be going full force with promoting S3. From the AFC championship game commercial buy to tonight’s Chinese Theater red carpet premiere! Very envious of Tiger2, hope it’s a great night out in Hollywood!

Will miss the new character’s who had such great but sadly wasted potential like Soji, Elnor and Laris, but of course it is going to be great to see the TNG gang back together again.

One week and counting!

How many cows lost their lives to dress this crew

They used the hides of the cows that Pike BBQ’d in SNW.

so ed is rene that vadik took as a child and crusher found him