The final scene of Picard gave a lot of people a lot of feels. There was almost no way for this not to happen, given the Next Generation reunion that was the series’ third season, but there was something just right about it, something that went beyond nostalgia; it had comfort and familiarity without being too sentimental. And everyone looked so happy.
This was not, however, the way Patrick Stewart wanted it to end. In an excerpt from his memoir, Making It So, Stewart details the way he saw the series ending—and how maybe there’s one more Picard story to tell. Just one, though.
Stewart writes:
“What I’d like to see at the end of the show,” I told them, “is a content Jean-Luc. I want to see Picard perfectly at ease with his situation. Not anxious, not in a frenzy, not depressed. And I think this means that there is a wife in the picture.”
In the scene the show’s writers dreamed up, it’s not clear who this wife is; she’s just an offscreen voice (to be played by Stewart’s real-life wife, Sunny Ozell) calling Jean-Luc to dinner.
Heeding his wife’s call, Jean-Luc turns around, says to his dog, “C’mon, boy,” and heads inside. Dusk fades to night, and Picard fades into history.
The scene was never filmed, partly due to scheduling complications, and partly because the studio found it “unnecessary,” a take with which Stewart does not agree. But he’s also not entirely sure he’s done playing Picard: “I am gently pushing Paramount to let us do one single Picard movie,” Stewart writes. “Not a Next Generation movie, as we have already done four of those. This would be an expansion and deepening of the universe as we’ve seen it in Star Trek: Picard.”
There is precedent for a spin-off movie from one of the recent Star Trek series; the Michelle Yeoh-starring Section 31, which was expected to be a series, is now a movie. Stewart may have something a bit more theatrical in mind, though.
It remains to be seen whether anything continues the stories told in Picard; there’s also a campaign for Paramount to create Star Trek: Legacy, and bring us the adventures of Captain Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), Raffi (Michelle Hurd), and Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers). But the keepers of the Star Trek universe have said nothing official—yet.
This post was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.
