Star Trek: Picard Ditched Most Of Its Cast, Here’s Why
Star Trek: Picard discarded most of its original cast to make room for the returning TNG cast.
When the news broke that the third season of Star Trek: Picard would be giving Star Trek: The Next Generation its proper due and bringing back a slew of original cast members, saying that fans were excited would be an understatement. But, with the arrival of those familiar faces, a handful of Jean-Luc Picard’s friends from his solo series would need to walk the plank – so to speak. Season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas recently explained to Digital Spy that while it would’ve been great to have all the cast members on board the Titan, they would need a bigger boat – er – ship and a lot more time to have made that happen.
In his interview, Matalas explained that the personality shrinkage on Star Trek: Picard was simply “about real estate,” adding that he didn’t want to crowd the characters and not give each ample time to shine. He went on to say that the cast and crew behind the show’s third season had “a very specific story” to tell and that to give it its proper due, they needed more “room to do it.”
While the first two seasons of the Paramount+ show told a new story about the retired captain journeying through space with a fresh crew, Matalas said they needed to “reinvent the show” for its big finale, ditching some of its main cast members to create the space for Picard’s old comrades.
To be fair, the team behind Star Trek: Picard gave audiences closure to what the cut characters were now up to, with Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) becoming a Borg Queen, Cristobal Rios (Santiago Cabrera) firmly keeping his feet planted in the 21st century, and Elnor (Evan Evagora) making history as the first Romulan to join Starfleet.
While they had a major task in wrapping up all of Isa Briones’ characters, the writers did exactly that by making Sojia Asha an ambassador for synths and turning Kore Soong into a Traveler. And, because all of these characters are still alive, the possibility that we’ll meet them in some fashion down the road or through a new series is definitely in the cards.
As for Star Trek: Picard, its third season is allegedly its final season, although many (including Matalas and others at the top) are hoping that its viewership ratings will bring it back for at least one more adventure. The idea behind Picard’s reunion with his Next Generation co-workers was to give the storyline a glossier finish than what it received during its seven-season run on television and follow-up films. It also certainly didn’t hurt its viewership following the first episode’s premiere.
An immediate success, Star Trek: Picard blasted off and found itself landing a 100 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes with fans celebrating a reunion decades in the making. Hopping on board with Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) to boldly go where no man has gone before and returning to their posts are William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), Worf (Micahel Dorn), Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), and a version of the late Lieutenant Commander Data’s twin android brother, Lore (Brent Spiner). You can get caught up on Season 3’s premiere episode now on Paramount+.
