In Picard’s third and final season, the 10 episodes feature just about every Star Trek character willing to participate in this grand farewell. Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) reappear, and so do virtually all of the Star Trek: The Next Generation ensemble at one point or another, including former Enterprise doctor — and Picard’s old flame — Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), Klingon warrior Worf (Michael Dorn), and the visored engineer Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton). Astonishingly Season Three even finds a way to get Brent Spiner back, even though — as Jean-Luc points out in one episode — we’ve already seen Data die twice: once in Star Trek: Nemesis, once at the end of Picard Season One.
Raffi (Michelle Hurd) returns, as does Jeri Ryan as Star Trek: Voyager Borg survivor Seven of Nine, but the rest of the Picard ensembles from Seasons One and Two are gone. Dr. Crusher is being hunted by parties unknown, for reasons unknown, and her desperate situation results in most of the Enterprise-D bridge crew teaming up to help her.
This is must-watch TV for Star Trek fans who will be sad when this series ends on April 20, 2023. Are you a Star Trek fan? GRADE: Incomplete (but trending towards a B+)
There’s a lot of love for this season on the internet (for what that’s worth) and I get the sentimental attraction but what I saw of the first two seasons was so jaw-droppingly ill-conceived that I’m hesitant about checking this out. From what I’ve read it already sounds drawn out and the show has unfortunately decided to go the mystery box route so I’ll hold off by now. I also keep reading how the show looks like an extended bottle episode as if they blew the budget getting the original cast back. Why they didn’t bring in some of the best writers from the original “Next Gen.”, many of whom are still working, and do stand alone episodes instead of serialization is beyond me but all of these Kurtzman shows seem hellbent on trying to fix what was never broken to begin with.
I’m glad you and many other people are enjoying this but I’m still gun-shy from the trainwreck that was “Star Trek: Nemesis” and that was 20 years ago. And can they turn up the damn lights?
Byron, the producers of PICARD are catering to the fan base. I agree with you that these reunion projects usually flop. But, there’s enough energy in this final season of PICARD to close the series out with a flourish.
I loved, ST, TNG and Voyager but decided to let a good thing rest. Plus I don’t subscribe to Paramount.
Patti, PICARD delves into nostalgia for TNG Big Time! Seven of Nine is my favorite STAR TREK character!
We saw the first two series of this on DVDs borrowed from the library. I lean more to Byron’s view. The first series in particular was pretty bad, though it improved towards the end. The second never rose above soso and Stewart seemed tired and in poor voice for much of it. Sadly, Annie Wersching (the memorable Renee in 24) died recently, though I doubt we would have seen her Borg Queen again. Jackie is still a big fan so I’m sure we will see this when it gets to DVD, but I’m glad they’re ending it. The most energy comes from Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine.
Jeff, I love Seven of Nine and I’ll watch anything with Jeri Ryan in it!