[Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers for the series finale of Star Trek: Picard]The final episode ofStar Trek: Picardis here at long last, and it delivered a satisfying conclusion to an action-packed last season. Along with an epicfinal showdown with the Borg for Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart)and the crew of the Enterprise-D, “The Last Generation” saw Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) take command of the USS Titan after seizing it back from the young assimilated crew. Seven took the con afterCaptain Shaw (Todd Stashwick) diedgetting our heroes off the ship in the penultimate episode, and she handled the crisis with all of the power and grace that we’ve always known she was capable of.
After the Enterprise crew defeat the Borg, Seven is all set to turn in her resignation from Starfleet, knowing that she practically threw the rulebook out an airlock in the previous days and weeks leading up to this final battle. However, in a touching moment with the realTuvok (Tim Russ), Seven learns that Starfleet is far from finished with her. Her old friend reveals a holo-recording of her officer review from her former captain prior to the events of the series. In it,Shaw acknowledges all of the ways in which she is so very unlike him, and though he often clashed with her while they served together, he ultimately commended her skills as a leader, recommending that she be promoted to captain up on their return.
Collider’s ownMaggie Lovittrecently sat down withStar Trek: PicardSeason 3 showrunnerTerry Matalasto discuss the series finale, including this momentous promotion for Seven, and what went into creating this emotional scene. Matalas told Lovitt that this scene is one of the few that “chokes [him] up,” saying he loves Tuvok’s “resignation denied” moment. He continued on saying: “I also like that what it says about Shaw is, even with his aggressions that he had towards her, he always knew how amazing she was.”
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Seven of Nine’s Bright Future as the Captain of the Enterprise
Though Seven and Shaw never saw eye to eye while he was alive, and it often appeared thathe hardly even respected her as a person, this final moment immortalizes his belief in her. Matalas explained:
“Well, first of all, he handpicked his first officer and was intending to give her this incredible promotion to captain even before this whole adventure. And I think that that helped solidify, in her mind, her place here, in ways. For as much as she disrespected Shaw, she respected Shaw as what he was as a captain, strategically, and for his crew, not necessarily for how he treated her. He is a complicated man. It was something that we always knew we wanted to do, and Todd [Stashwick’s] performance is so, so wonderful, and her reaction is so genuine and perfect in that moment.”
Matalas also notesthe incredible musical scorefor this moment. Crafted byStephen BartonandFrederik Wiedmann, the composition calls upon both the past and the future to bring a swell of emotion to the audience. The showrunner told Collider, “One of the other things that I quite like about it is, Stephen Barton does this thing where he takes the Titan theme and the Voyager theme and plays them both on top of each other, and it works. It’s almost like the two themes were written to complement each other, it’s incredible. So listen for that.”
All 10 episodes ofStar Trek: PicardSeason 3 are now available on Paramount+. Don’t miss Lovitt’s full conversation with Matalas when it goes live, and in the meantime, you can watchour previous chat with Ryan and Stashwickdown below.
