The Next Generation's Lost Years Revealed | Star Trek Picard Season 3

Опубликовано 15 февраля 2023, 14:40

With Star Trek: Picard coming to an end with Season 3, the franchise that Gene Roddenberry built is facing an amazing opportunity, and one that seemed practically impossible just a few years ago. Now that the show is fully embracing the title character’s past by bringing back the beloved crew from The Next Generation -- and indeed, doing so in the era of Peak TV that allows writers and actors to dig in on their characters like never before -- the likes of not just Jean-Luc Picard, but William Riker, Beverly Crusher, Deanna Troi, Worf, Geordi La Forge, and maybe even Data (!?) may finally get the deep focus, not to mention the send-off, that they have long deserved.

Will Season 3 pull it off? Could Picard Season 3 turn out to be the ultimate Next Generation story? That remains to be seen, but let’s take a look at where we last saw the crew of the Enterprise-D -- and E! -- and how it could inform where the characters might go next.

Let’s start with the man himself, the chair-straddling, head-aimed-at-knocking-down-the-wall-as-he-walks Captain William Riker, a.k.a. director of the best Next Generation movie, Jonathan Frakes. Riker actually showed up pretty recently, alongside his wife, Marina Sirtis’ Deanna Troi, in the Season 1 episode of Picard, “Nepenthe,” as well as that season’s finale. In fact, “Nepenthe” was probably the best episode of Picard to date, which certainly bodes well for Season 3 where Riker, Deanna, and almost everyone else is supposed to come back too.

Frakes is perhaps the Star Trek vet who has been most involved with the franchise since his show ended, having directed the movies First Contact and Insurrection as well as over two dozen episodes to date, including for Discovery and Picard. (He’s also directing Episodes 3 and 4 of Picard Season 3.) In addition to Next Gen, he’s appeared in: Deep Space Nine, as Riker’s transporter clone Thomas Riker, obviously; Voyager, where Q transported him tens of thousands of light years across space in order to make a cameo; Enterprise, where he and Deanna showed up for that series’ most unfortunate final episode; and, more recently, the animated Lower Decks, where Riker is captain of the USS Titan (and Deanna is the ship’s counselor).

But that's just the start! Watch our full video for how the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation could be facing the greatest final frontier yet...

#IGN #StarTrek #Picard