If it was up to Star Trek: Picard season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas, the finale would have included even more Star Trek cameos.
Star Trek: Picard season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas would have loved to have more Star Trek cameos in Picard season 3, including characters from Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation were the main focus of much of Picard season 3, but they weren’t the only characters who returned. Voyager’s Captain Tuvok (Tim Russ) made a surprise appearance in Picard season 3, as did Commander Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes), Admiral Elizabeth Shelby (Elizabeth Dennehy), and the omnipotent Q (John de Lancie) from TNG.
As reported by TrekMovie, Terry Matalas sat down for a Zoom chat with the Master Replicas Collectors Club, where he discussed his original plans for even more Star Trek legacy characters to cameo in Star Trek: Picard’s season 3 finale. Read Matalas’s quote below:
Harry Kim appeared as the Captain of the Voyager-B in the first draft of Frontier Day. But Prodigy was telling a lot of Voyager stories, and we didn’t know if Harry was going to appear, and we didn’t want to step on their toes. But yeah, for me, I would have had as many as we could get. I would have made that Star Trek Avengers: Endgame. I would have made Frontier Day with many ships… I would have Kira [Nerys from DS9] there, even if all you get is a bridge shot. But all of that is very expensive. We were already way too ambitious.
Would Star Trek Avengers Endgame Have Worked As Picard Season 3’s Finale?
How many cameos is too many cameos?
While an Avengers: Endgame-styleStar Trek: Picard finale might have felt overstuffed, it would have been fun to see more returning Star Trek legacy characters. If Terry Matalas had the budget for it, he could have done a longer finale, or even a two-part finale, that included an extended sequence at the Frontier Day celebration. This would have allowed for brief cameos from any number of Star Trek characters, as they brought their ships to the celebration. It would have been amazing to check in on more characters, but the Borg takeover at Frontier Day would have caused complications.
Star Trek: Picard season 3 already had a lot going on, and too many additional cameos might have taken away from the main story.
If Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) had been there as Captain of the USS Voyager-B or Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) had been there with the USS Defiant, their young crew members would also have been assimilated. It was bad enough that Admiral Shelby was killed by her assimilated crew members, but to bring back Harry or Kira and have them die like that would have been cruel. At the same time, if numerous legacy characters were brought back, and they all survived, that would have strained credulity. Plus, Picard season 3 already had a lot going on, and too many additional cameos might have taken away from the main story. In the end, Star Trek: Picard season 3 was still a nostalgic tour-de-force that celebrated Star Trek’s past while looking forward to its bright future.
