Patrick Stewart discusses an alternate ending planned for Star Trek: Picard, which he now believes would have been a mistake.
Patrick Stewart reveals that Star Trek: Picard season 3 originally had a different ending, which he now believes would have been a mistake. Written and directed by Terry Matalas, Star Trek: Picard season 3’s ending, which was also the series finale, gave Star Trek: The Next Generation an emotional and uplifting conclusion that also set up the ‘next next generation’ in a possible spinoff, Star Trek: Legacy.
Variety interviewed Patrick Stewart about the end of Star Trek: Picard, who discussed a different idea on the table that could have ended Jean-Luc Picard’s story with a “huge question mark.” However, having seen the final episode of Picard, Stewart realizes the alternate ending would have been “a mistake.” Read his quote below:
We’d had one idea for ending “Picard,” which I think now would have been a mistake. But it would have ended the show with a huge question mark. I liked that in terms of how it could have sent our viewers minds racing and questioning and puzzling about what was this question mark exactly and what did it mean? We didn’t do it.
When pressed to elaborate, Stewart replied:
I can’t talk about it. I said I wouldn’t talk about it, because it was a complicated situation. I went with what the producers wanted. I was not comfortable with it, but watching the final episode the other night, I realized that what they had persuaded me we should do was absolutely the best thing that could have happened.
Star Trek: Picard Gave TNG A Happy Ending
It seems like all parties are sworn to secrecy about what Star Trek: Picard’s alternate ending would have been, but the series was ultimately right to close out the TNG story with a high-spirited poker game that echoes the conclusion of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s series finale, “All Good Things…” Picard’s poker game celebrated the camaraderie of Picard and his crew as well as the genuine 37-year friendship between Patrick Stewart and his cast mates. Picard’s ending also created the potential for TNG’s cast to make future appearances in Star Trek: Legacy, and Stewart told Variety he would be ‘happy” to “occasionally crop up to offer a little bit of comedy.”
Interestingly, Stewart also said the possibility of killing off Jean-Luc Picard again, which happened briefly in Star Trek: Picard season 1’s finale, was there, “but not for long.” Stewart added:
The mere fact that his name was the title of the series, we had to stay with it. But yeah, it was touch and go at times, wasn’t it? (Laughs) No, they would have had to work a lot harder to kill me off before the end of the show. I would have come back and haunted them all if that would’ve happened.
In Star Trek, there are always possibilities but audiences and Patrick Stewart are in agreement that Star Trek: Picard’s uplifting and resonant ending was the right move. It was a fond and fitting farewell to TNG with the door left open for more in Star Trek: Legacy.
