“It Was Heartbreaking”: Michelle Hurd Breaks Down Losing Star Trek: Picard Actors Between Seasons 2 & 3
Michelle Hurd breaks down the differences in filming Star Trek: Picard’s three seasons, and how “heartbreaking” it was to lose actors Isa Briones, Allison Pill, Santiago Cabrera, and Evan Evagora after season 2. Hurd played the troubled but resilient Commander Raffi Musiker, who is the only original Star Trek: Picard character to appear in all three seasons. Of course, Star Trek: Picard season 3 reunited the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation to critical and audience acclaim.
Appearing on The D-Con Chamber podcast, Michelle Hurd explained what it was like on set for the actors filming Star Trek: Picard’s three seasons, and that it was “awful” seeing most of the original Picard actors exit before season 3. However, Hurd also talks about how much fun working with the icons from Star Trek: The Next Generation was in Star Trek: Picard season 3. Read Michelle’s quote and watch The D-Con Chamber video below, with Star Trek: Picard talk starting around the 59 minute mark:
It was crazy. We did season 1, and then it was the pandemic. And then, when we got back, we basically did second season and third season with just a week off in between. Really quite grueling.
It was a very interesting experience… Season one, I had my motley crew. I mean, it was my first time to be part of Star Trek, and that was my family. Having Isa [Briones], Santiago Cabrera is one of the most amazing, brilliant actors. Allison Pill, Isa Briones, Evan Evagora… And I loved being on that with Isa and Evan as their first TV series [as] regulars. To see them blossom. There’s a very sacred place in my heart for my first season motley crew.
Then we get to second season, and sort of about the last month or so, we’re just kind of sensing things are changing. You know actors don’t get any information. We know nothing… And we just started to sense or hear through the grapevine that there might not be everybody coming back… It started getting kind of sad and emotional on our set. And then when we started finding out who was staying and who was going, it was really… It’s awful. It was awful…
Selfishly, I had been called into a meeting with Terry Matalas, who I adore. The O.G Trekkie. And he said he’d like to pitch the third season of Raffi to me, which I was very happy about. And the first thing he said was, ‘I kind of want to explore Raffi as the spy that she is. Because that’s what she is, she’s a spy, that’s what her job was for the Federation. But he said, ‘I want to amp it up. Sort of like Raffi as Jason Bourne.’ I’m like, ‘I’m in!’
Going into third season was… I mean, to have all those iconic actors on set… There would be moments when I would finish shooting whatever scene I was doing, and I’d run over to the next soundstage ‘cause I knew that everybody was on the set. You walk in and there’s LeVar [Burton], and Marina [Sirtis], and Gates [McFadden], and Jonathan [Frakes], and Patrick [Stewart], and Michael [Dorn], and Brent [Spiner]… Everybody right there. And they’re playing like teenagers. They’re almost like children, they’re like herding cattle, they just want to play as much as they possibly can.
But it was challenging because of that information about the actors that were not going to continue, so the second season… It was an emotional season. We started off fine, but it was really heartbreaking.
Why Star Trek: Picard’s 3 Seasons Were So Different
Star Trek: Picard’s 3 seasons are very different, reflecting the changes behind the scenes for each season. Star Trek: Picard season 1 had novelist Michael Chabon as showrunner, and it operated under Patrick Stewart’s edict that Star Trek: Picard would be nothing like Star Trek: The Next Generation. Star Trek: Picard season 2 had Avika Goldsman and Terry Matalas as co-showrunners, and had a wildly different tone involving time travel to 2024. As showrunner for Star Trek: Picard season 3, Matalas achieved the greatest success, telling an epic story that gave closure to Star Trek: The Next Generation’s icons and set the stage for more stories about the next, next generation.
It’s looking doubtful that Star Trek: Picard’s proposed continuation, Star Trek: Legacy, will happen any time soon.
Michelle Hurd would love to return as Commander Raffi Musiker, but it’s looking doubtful that Star Trek: Picard’s proposed continuation, Star Trek: Legacy, will happen any time soon. Paramount+ passed on a new Picard spinoff series, and Terry Matalas getting new gigs at Marvel Studios and 20th century films means Star Trek: Legacy wouldn’t have its mastermind showrunner if it did get greenlit. However, there are always possibilities in Star Trek, and fans and the Star Trek: Picard actors who didn’t return for season 3 would still likely love to reprise their roles in a future Star Trek project.
