Spoiler Warning: This article includes MAJOR spoilers for the series finale of Star Trek: Picard season 3. Make sure you’ve seen the season 3 finale of the show before reading any further.
As the curtains close on Star Trek: Picard, Terry Matalas has lifted the lid on the final season’s big reveals. In an exclusive interview with SFX Magazine, the showrunner explains that big Borg reveal, as well as why it was the right time to pass the Enterprise to a new leader.
The biggest rug-pull moment came in episode nine when it was revealed the Borg played with Captain Picard's DNA when he was assimilated as Locutus. Just how long has Matalas had this epic storyline in his head? "A while," he considers, "but I never thought anyone would ever let me write it. It was just always this idea percolating in the back of my head that if Picard ever had a kid, he would have passed on this Locutus gene. At best I thought it might be a comic book I could write someday."
The reveals didn't stop there either. In the season 3 finale, the crew of the USS Enterprise-D managed to defeat the Borg by rescuing Picard’s son Jack Crusher and destroying their Queen. The final moments of the episode then flash forward by one year as Jack becomes a Starfleet Ensign and the Enterprise-D falls under the command of Captain Seven of Nine.
Speaking about making this choice, Matalas tells SFX that it was something he’s been planning for a while. "From the beginning of the season, I said to them, 'How amazing would it be to end the series with Seven of Nine as the captain of the Enterprise and Raffi’s her First Officer, the new Number One,'" Matalas explains. "Obviously, that meant their relationship would have to be put on hold for Starfleet regulations, which would have upset some fans. But my god, what incredible queer visibility to have them be at the forefront of the most important starship in all of Star Trek legacy. So we all discussed that, and we knew that that would be our North Star."
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The showrunner adds that he was so happy to be able to pull it off with Jeri Ryan at the helm too. "For Jeri, specifically, to be able to tell that journey, to be able to get her in that chair... and by god, does she look like she belongs there," he explains. "She has the Kirk lean and the swagger. There is no one more suited to be in a captain’s chair than Jeri Ryan. And it absolutely demands its own show. I feel so good to be able to have made that happen. And it’s the right ship. She’s the right captain for the right ship. And the right ending. It’s the right torch to be passed to the right person, I feel."
However, despite feeling like a definitive ending to this story, the showrunner has plenty of ideas about how it could continue. Not only did he go into detail about his proposed idea for the spin-off series Star Trek Legacy (something that the end-credits scene seemingly nods to with Q’s return), but he also shared his hopes for some familiar faces coming back again.
"It does feel like the gang is out in the world again doing things, which is, I feel, how you want to leave them," he explains of the Next Generation cast’s future in Star Trek. "In my headcanon, you always like to feel like your heroes go on and continue. They all could be and would be part of Legacy if we could."
That's just a snippet of our interview, available in the latest issue of SFX Magazine, which features Star Trek: Picard on the cover and is available on newsstands now. For even more from SFX, sign up to the newsletter, sending all the latest exclusives straight to your inbox.
