Star Trek: Picardmay have officially come to an end, but fans are still not ready to say goodbye. Over the course of Season 3, many fans both new and old fell in love with both legacy characters and the"next generation" ofThe Next Generation. And with that beautifully open-ended finale, fans, cast, and creatives alike are calling for Paramount+ to greenlightaStar Trek: Legacyspin-off series. Recently,Trekboss andPicardexecutive producerAlex KurtzmantoldFox LAthat they’ve “heard fans loud and clear,” teasing that “anything is possible” and “there’s obviously more story to tell.” While Kurtzman’s comments definitely seem like things are moving in the right direction for aLegacyseries to be added to the excitingplethora ofStar Trekcontent on the horizon, nothing has been made official yet.
Here at Collider, we’ve spoken to several cast members who are all for the idea of aLegacyseries with Season 3 showrunnerTerryMatalasat the helm.Gates McFadden, who plays Beverly Crusher, called the idea “fantastic,“saying she’d love to see more adventures with her “space son.“Ed Speleers' Jack Crusher was introduced early in Season 3 as the secret love child between Beverly and Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and fans swiftly fell in love with the roguish young hero.Speleers also told Colliderthat he’d love to play Jack for the next fifteen years.PicardstarsLeVarandMica Burtonalso spoke about wanting to continuewith the “next generation of The Next Generation.” While we certainly hope all the buzz aroundStar Trek: Legacylocks it in as a sure thing for Paramount+ between now and Star Trek Day (September 8), let’s take a look at why this series would make such a good addition to theStar Trekfranchise.
RELATED:‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 3 Finale Review: One of the Most Satisfying Series Endings Ever
The Captain of the Enterprise Is a Queer Woman With an Iconic Legacy
In theStar Trek: Picardseries finale, Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) joins the long line of incredible characters who’ve taken up the mantle ofCaptain of the Enterprise. And she breaks new ground in becoming so, through Seven wouldn’t be the first woman to command the Enterprise, she would be the first to do so in her own series, as well as the first openly queer character to command the most esteemed ship in Starfleet. Having joined the series as an ex-Borg inStar Trek: VoyagerSeason 4, Seven of Nine has had a long and difficult journey in finding herself and where she belongs. Both the character and Ryan have more than paid their dues inStar Trek, it’s time that we got to see her lead her own series — and Seven deserves to get to “write the opening line of [her] legacy.”
Without even counting Seven in the captain’s chair, the bridge of the Enterprise-G is already one of the most diverse bridge crews inStar Trekhistory. First Officer Raffi Mussiker (MichelleHurd) is also queer and Lt. Kova Rin Esmar is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, as doesJin Maley, the actor who plays the brilliant Communications Officer. The crew also features three Black women in Raffi, Helmsman Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) and Engineer Alandra La Forge (Burton), and both Esmar and Tactical Officer Matthew Arliss Mura (Joseph Lee) are played by Asian actors, though they’re Hailiian and Bajoran in the series.
Star Trekis known for pushing the boundaries of representation, but it hasn’t always been as successful in doing so as fans would like it to be. So to see so many people represented, on the bridge of the enterprise no less, is a pretty big deal. While all the currently airingStar Trekshows feature more queer characters and more people of color than ever before, it’s key that we keep striving for the franchise to create a space where everyone can see themselves among the stars.
In 2017,Discoverykicked off a bright new age ofStar Trekand opened doors for so many with the first queer relationship between two main characters, the first Black woman in the captain’s chair, and the first trans character. With that life-changing seriescoming to an end next year, it would be inspiring to seeLegacystep in to keep makingStar Treka more progressive, forward-thinking franchise alongsideStrange New Worlds,LowerDecks,Prodigy, and the recently announcedStarfleet Academy. It would also be a great opportunity to add more minorities to the writers' room for the spin-off series to make sure these characters are more than impressive statistics.
Jack Crusher’s Trial Is Just Beginning
While Season 3 gave us a lot to love with returning characters like Seven and Raffi, as well as the nostalgic reunion of the Next Generation crew, the series also introduced a whole new generation of characters for us to fall for. Along with Geordi’s incredibly talented daughters, we also got to know Jack Crusher — a roguish Robin Hood-type character with a heart of gold and a penchant for walking headfirst into danger. The son of Starfleet legends, Admirals Picard and Crusher, Jack has a lot to live up to.
The finale episode ofPicardcloses out with an end credits scenethat sees Jack unpacking his things in his quarters on the newly-minted Enterprise-G when he’s visited by a mysterious and familiar being: Q (John de Lancie). In the scene, Q tells Jack that while humanity’s trial may be over for his father, it’s just beginning for him. Q appeared in the first and last episodes ofThe Next Generation, and periodically throughout the series, to teach Picard and his crew a valuable lesson in more or less the most chaotic way possible. This end credits moment queues up endless possibilities for all the adventures that Jack and the crew of the Enterprise could get into in the future.
Following thePicardfinale,Matalas told Collider that Jack was like “James Bond in Starfleet,“going on to say he has “I have 1,001 ideas” for what to do with a Legacy series, “so hopefully, the television fates will allow it to happen.” Speleers is completely on board to join Matalas on that ride if Paramount+ gives them the green light. He told Collider, “I would love, genuinely from the bottom of my heart, I would love to keep playing Jack Crusher.”
Romance Opportunities Abound Aboard the Enterprise-G
Listen, I am a strong believer that all good stories are ultimately love stories, whether that love is platonic, familial, or romantic is up to the storyteller, but the heart of the best stories always comes back to love. In a strictly romantic sense,Star Trek: PicardSeason 3 has already laid the groundwork for some truly spectacular relationships for us to root for on the Enterprise-G. Despite being reportedly broken up for the sake of Starfleet regulations, fans are ready to see how Seven and Raffi’s relationship evolves in a spin-off series. The duo spentthe entirety of Season 2in a sort of will-they-won’t-they-have-they-already relationship that ended with the first kiss between two women who are both main characters inStar Trek. Though their relationship was largely missing from Season 3 as a result of a limited amount of time and an incredibly jam-packed story, the future potential for Seven and Raffi is extremely appealing.
The Captain/First Officer ship has been one of the most popular relationship dynamics since the inception of the franchise when fans essentially invented the concept of “shipping” — though the term wouldn’t exist untilThe X-Filescame along — in reading between the lines and finding romantic tension between Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy). There’s something genuinely irresistible about looking at the chain of command through a romantic lens andStar Trekfans have been doing so for decades, first with Kirk and Spock, and later withVoyager’sJaneway (Kate Mulgrew) and Chakotay (Robert Beltran), and evenStrange New Worlds' Pike (Anson Mount) and Una (Rebecca Romijn).
During aReddit AMA following the series finale, when a fan asked if it was possible for Seven and Raffi to be together, Matalas said “it never stopped Kirk and Spock.” He later went on to talk about the story potential in this relationship, despite supposed Starfleet regulations, saying “Will this ABSOLUTELY be a story you want to tell in the future? A story about a Captain who loves her First Officer and vice versa? Absolutely.” He followed up with a story concept that would see Captain Seven having to choose between Raffi and everyone else:
“Imagine a story in which Seven has to make a call that could cost Raffi her life on a planet below… but it’s a call that would save the lives of countless others. Does Seven make the call? Does she step down and go try to save Raffi and transfer command to Jack in the meantime? The whole episode becomes a countdown. I kinda want to write that one right now.”
Seven and Raffi aren’t the only duo we’d like to see get together on the Enterprise either.PicardSeason 3 introduced a pairingbetween two of theNext Gencrew’s kids in Jack Crusher and Sidney La Forge. In Episode 6, we got our first hint of flirtation between these two, and with Episode 7 it developed into something we definitely need to see more of. Much like one ofStar Trek’s most iconic power couples, Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Troi (Marina Sirtis), Jack was able to sense Sidney’s thoughts and communicate with her telepathically. While there was little time to explore this budding romance in Season 3, It’s got the potential to be the franchise’s next epic slow burn.Legacycould also deliver a whole new generation of DaForge shippers with Geordi’s other daughter Alandra and Data’s daughter Soji (Isa Briones), an android character introduced inPicardSeason 1. Though the characters haven’t met yet on screen, it would be a great opportunity to seeLegacybring back Soji and integrate her into the found family she was always destined to be a part of.
‘Star Trek: Legacy’ Could Be a Bridge Between the Past and the Future
One of the things that fans loved most about Season 3 ofStar Trek: Picardwas the return of theNext Generationcast for one last epic adventure together. With everyone having made it through the finale to continue “boldly going” for the rest of their lives,Star Trek: Legacycould easily bridge the past and the future by having any number of existingStar Trekcharacters pop up for an episode here and there. Season 3 already featured several unexpected cameo appearances withthe return of Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes),Tuvok (Tim Russ), and more. ALegacyseries could see any of theNext Gencrew stop by, with Frakes having already pitched Riker as theCharlie’s Angels-type character that the Enterprise crew can check in with. As Speleers told Collider, “I feel that there’s a whole plethora of stories to be told for Jack, which could incorporate still theNext Gencast.”
Bringing back legacy characters wouldn’t need to be limited toThe Next Generationeither. With Seven at long last a captain in Starfleet, it would be amazing to see her reunited with Janeway, the Captain she learned it all from, after all these years. Season 3 alsoheavily featured the Changelings, a species specific toDeep Space Nine, and fans have been eager to see someone from that series return to the franchise in live-action for quite some time.
While theStar Trekuniverse spans centuries, and the currently airing shows cover quite a lot of ground,Legacyfits into a unique space in the timeline. The new series would have boundless potential in a fairly unexplored future, with the exceptionally strong foundation of the shows from the 80s and 90s, as well as the possibility for crossovers withLower DecksandStar Trek: Prodigy.
While we wait to hear more onStar Trek: Legacy, you can watch Seasons 1-3 ofPicard, as well as the rest of theStar Trekcatalog, right now on Paramount+.
