Brent Spiner Reveals The Future Of Star Trek And What’s In Store For The Next Gen Cast
Brent Spiner says there's no current plans for him to return to Star Trek, but that if the offer comes, his answer will be yes.
After two seasons that were more or less awful, the third season of Picard has proven to be a major hit with fans. Since we’ve known from the beginning that this third season will be the last, the success of season 3 now has many fans clamoring for a new series that continues the adventures of Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, and other legacy characters. But Brent Spiner bluntly told CinemaBlend that the idea of a new show is currently “not on the table” but that given the chance, “I’d love to hang out with this group of people forever.”
One of the reasons it’s worth asking Brent Spiner about the future of Star Trek is that showrunners kept finding clever ways to bring him back to the franchise even after his character Data died in 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis. This included having him play different members of Noonien Soong’s family (Soong was the creator of both Data and his evil counterpart Lore). We have seen Spiner play different Soongs in Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: Picard, the latter of which now has him playing an aged-up android with multiple personalities from different Soong creations.
In other words, Brent Spiner would likely be the first to know if there was going to be a spin-off series (one that perhaps focuses on Jonathan Frakes’ fan-favorite William Riker, or maybe even everyone’s favorite cranky new captain, Todd Stashwick’s Liam Shaw) set in the 25th century. The fact that the idea isn’t currently on the table is a bit disheartening, especially for fans upset that the recent announcement for a Starfleet Academy implied such a show would be set in the 32nd century.
Such a show will most likely continue some of the storylines of Star Trek: Discovery and prominently feature Sylvia Tilly (who notably left the ship to become an academy instructor), but part of what Picard’s success shows us is that fans want more adventures set in the “current” Trek timeline rather than the far future.
Of course, all of the fan love for the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard might be something of a double-edged sword for Paramount. Since launching Paramount+ (back when it was CBS All Access), the network has tried to create new Star Trek characters and shows that eventually become just as popular as what came before, with Star Trek: Discovery serving as the flagship show meant to bring in new fans while pleasing older ones.
But fans new and old seem to mostly want more of the familiar, including new shows with Brent Spiner and the TNG crew as well as more of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, a show which gives us more adventures of characters like Pike and Spock that were introduced back in The Original Series.
Right now, we share Brent Spiner’s sentiment in wanting the Star Trek adventures of our favorite characters to continue as long as they can. But it’s worth confronting the harsh truth that none of these actors are getting any younger and that the long-term health of the franchise depends on successfully introducing new characters and shows. If most of the new shows prove as divisive as Discovery, then Paramount may find out the hard way that they are in the midst of their own no-win scenario.
