Last Monday, members of the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation appeared at a Picard screening and follow-up panel at the 92nd Street Y in New York. On hand were Sir Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, and Michael Dorn. Now the full video of the panel is available to watch online.
While the evening began with a celebration of Star Trek: Picard—and the crowd responded to the first episode with loud enthusiasm—the panel was more of a dive into the old days on TNG than a look ahead. The cast told fun stories, shared early memories, joked around a lot (where Patrick Stewart talked about how he liked the Ferengi, calling them “my guys”), and recreated some of their classic ship-shakes. For fans in the audience, it was a celebration.
Watch the panel
The panel was moderated by Josh Horowitz, who he posted the full video via his Happy Sad Confused podcast on YouTube.
Bonus video: Cast talks best and worst of TNG
IGN also gathered together LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, and Jonathan Frakes, along with Picard showrunner Terry Matalas for a conversation that focused mostly on their favorite (and least favorite) episodes of The Next Generation.
The third and final season of Picard premiered 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 also debuted 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.
FYI, you can listen to this hour-long interview in podcast form through Apple/Spotify/whatever, so you don’t have to sit in front of your phone/computer watching it!
I was at the 92NY. The venue was huge and packed. I was kind of impressed. Also, pleasantly surprised at the intense energy of the crowd during the actual screening. It was iconic to see the Titan on a big screen.
I was there too, I agree. The energy was fantastic during the screening… people were laughing, cheering, reacting, applauding, and truly along for the ride. It was a lot of fun.
I was also there! Nothing beats the enjoyment of watching Trek in a room full of Trekkies :) I’m part of a NYC Trek meetup group called the Away Team, if you want to join us anytime you can keep up to date here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nycawayteam
Same! Such great fun.
I have to comment on this Geordi vs women thing. I’m surprised M. Burton would feel put-off about this trope. Speaking about men in this context, there are some personalities that are more introverted and private or shy and who will feel less comfortable around people in general and perhaps women in particular. These personalities would naturally be drawn towards work fields that could require less interaction (like engineering maybe) and where they can be more in their own bubble. We all know people like that and let’s not kid ourselves that a lot of these people are Star Trek fans and would actually relate to Geordi. There’s nothing wrong with that. Barkley is another example (although a little more extreme). So let’s stop with this poor Geordi thing.
While I was really never a fan of how they wrote the character of Geordi in TNG (especially in Relics), I can certainly relate to being the kind of personality you’re describing above, especially during my school years (and without the engineering knowledge, sadly). And inherently, I’m still a bit of an introvert. As Spock would say, “I ‘reach’.”
I was going to post a whole big response to this but in short, I think it’s silly to object to Burton’s objection. He has valid points. You do too, but i’m with Levar, personally. It was super lame that they always had him striking out with women.
I don’t disagree. I’m not objecting to his objection, I feel that he’s not considering the other side of the coin, where a lot of people found inspiration in Geordi, like instead of feeling awkward and insecure about themselves they could see that this very successful man with many friends is actually just like them in a way. But yes, the writers probably overdid it and to this I agree.
That’s valid.. My issue with it is that it never amounted to anything. It was just that they made him a strikeout victim so to speak, and he never had an arc with it.
He almost did: there was that episode “Transfigurations” where the presence of John Doe helped him gain confidence, but then it was right back to the drawing board. Inexplicable how he got a date with Kristy that episode, and then a few episodes later she turned him down. Made no sense.
But if they’d shown him as awkward around women early in the show, as a character trait, they should have had him gain something by the end, with him dating and eventually forming a relationship with someone by the end. Either that, or accept that relationships aren’t for him and he can be without one.
Like Barclay: he goes from outcast and social misfit to a contributing, beloved member of the crew. He’s still shy, nervous, and awkward, but he has an arc. They just kept Geordi stagnant, and that was the problem for me.
Yes that date with Christy on the holodeck beach was cringeworthy for sure. And I have to say that Geordi doesn’t even seem like a guy who would be awkward around women, considering how sociable he is. So the principle of him being uncomfortable with women is fine, but the execution of it was terrible.
I know this wasn’t the intention back then, especially on TNG, but in the case of Geordi and particularly Reg Barclay, I just interpreted them as LGBT+ like myself. So for me the solution was just as simple and as obvious as just to stop trying to put them in relationships with women. Yes me interpreting them that way is 100% on myself but that trope is exhausting because just let them be gay, or bisexual as the case likely is with Geordi.
Absolutely. Let people be who they are. As a somewhat introverted person myself, especially in my younger years, I can’t count the times extroverted friends would try to make me do things I didn’t want to do and not understand that I wouldn’t find this or that fun. Leave me alone! Can’t these people understand that things some may find fun is like drinking acid for others? People need to understand that people are different at many levels.
Ok, that right there: let people be who they are. But they established Geordi as being unhappy with who he is. So he either has to fix that by finding love or by accepting who he is. Maybe he’s asexual, and realizes he was just trying to live up to society’s expectations, and later accepts that he doesn’t want love or a family.
That said, one of Burton’s objections was also one of bias. With a staff of all white writers, he always felt it insulting that all of the white men on the show had success with women. Even Data, twice (he has talked about this in interviews, and found his holodeck romance insulting). I don’t think it was conscious bias, but I can definitely see where he’s coming from.
I also think Burton may have — like Avery Brooks — wanted to push back against the stereotype of the absentee black father: I think he had dreams that late in the series Geordi could find love, a wife, and maybe by the movies be a loving father.
He’s happy now because he finally gets that opportunity.
tbh that’s where what I said can come in again. Yes, Geordi being asexual would have been good, I’m an asexual gay man, I’d absolutely take that. Defaulting him to being only romantically attracted to women might have been part of that issue.
Replying to myself because I can’t edit my replies right now.
I know it’s very likely too late to say Geordi is bisexual but for other characters that Trek used the “awkward around women” trope with, it may not be. It may not be too late to bring back someone like Barclay and give him a boyfriend. For me personally I would want to see his boyfriend be Harry Kim.
They’ve done it with Seven, which made perfect sense, establishing her as having a romantic relationship with Raffi, after a short-lived romance with Chakotay.
I would very much like them to bring Garak back and show him as married to a man, with an adopted set of kids, Cardassian children orphaned by the Dominion War. Everyone knows they tried to make him a gay character, but were stymied by producers and the studio.
Yes. You’ve also got cases like Malcolm Reed on ENT which was similar to Garak.
I’m not discounting Seven, like I’ve said on other articles, she’s important to the lesbians and bi women I know that are Trek fans. She’s definitely a step in the right direction, they need to take more of one than that and write her relationship better.
Considering what DSC has done for LGBTQ representation (and the fact that Stametz, Culber, Adira, and Grey are actually the best characters on the show by a country mile), i’m less eager for them to reintroduce legacy characters in that manner, though i’m not at all against it, obviously.
To be honest, I think it’s more important that Prodigy show an LGBTQ character. I could very much see Gwyn being bi (and before you accuse anyone of sexualizing children, it would obviously be in the form of a teenaged crush, just like Dal has on her).
What our culture needs is to introduce LGBTQ ideas to younger audiences to reinforce the normality of it at a young age. There would be less bigotry and intolerance if people grow up with diverse people around them, simply as a way of life.
Stamets, Adira and Grey are not even close to being the best characters on Discovery. Not by a long shot, and certainly not after season 4.