Patrick Stewart has been reflecting on the Star Trek Picard finale, and says that he wanted a very different ending, but thinks it would have been a mistake.
Patrick Stewart has been reflecting on the finale of Picard (which ended with season 3, episode 10) and on how his most famous character has evolved since best Star Trek series, The Next Generation. Specifically, Picard’s relationship with Dr Crusher (Gates McFadden) was left far more open-ended in TNG, but Picard provided much more of a definitive answer as to where those characters ended up.
Things were almost different, though, and Stewart explained to Variety that the Picard season 3 ending could have gone down a different route, which he now acknowledges would have been a mistake; “I think they wanted to keep question marks always hovering around Jean-Luc [in TNG]. Is he going to fall in love? Is he going to meet someone he wants to marry? Will he have children?”
“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 viewer’s minds racing and questioning and puzzling about what was this question mark exactly and what did it mean? We didn’t do it.”
Stewart continued, “I went with what the producers wanted. I was not comfortable with it, but watching the final episode the other night, I realised that what they had persuaded me we should do was absolutely the best thing that could have happened.”
However much the Star Trek: Picard finale may have wrapped things up, there’s always the possibility that Stewart will return to the character in the future, maybe in a spin-off surrounding the character of Jack Crusher.
Stewart said, “The circumstances, as it was with Picard, would be the important factor in all of that. But certainly, there is a wonderful future for Ed Speelers [who plays Picard’s son Jack] there, I’m sure of it. And if I can occasionally crop up to offer a little bit of comedy myself, then I shall be happy to do that.”
While we wait to find out if and when we’ll see Stewart’s Picard again, check out our guide to the Star Trek Legacy release date and take a look at our picks for the best Star Trek captains.
