Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Daystrom Station Video Goes Inside Starfleet's Area 51

The most recent episode of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 saw the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew traveling to Daystrom Station, an off-the-books site controlled by Section 31. There, they found a new version of Data housed alongside a host of other artifacts from Star Trek history. Paramount+ released a new video in which Star Trek: Picard Season 3's creative team and stars discuss what it was like creating and acting in Daystrom station. In the video, Star Trek: Picard Season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas reveals that they were inspired to create Starfleet's version of the real world's Area 51. 

"So, we had this idea, what would Area 51 be for Starfleet?" Matalas says in the video. "Section 31, if they're around, what are they up to? It felt like, sort of, the mirror way to honor the the Star Trek Universe, where you had on one side, the Fleet Museum was the more nostalgic, warmer, and here's like, kind of darker, but more interesting aspects of Star Trek."

Production design Dave Blass explains how they realized that idea. "We initially had started out with the idea that it would be these vaults and you'd look in the vault and there'd be this crazy thing. And we went back with Mike Okuda throughout all of Star Trek history, looking at all these different elements of things that we can build. 'Cause we're like, 'Oh, let's build that.' And we're like, 'Okay, now it's gonna cost us a billion dollars to build all these cool things that we've just come up with.'

"And then Todd Marks, our playback guy goes, 'Well, what if we do like a video? You know, you see the item, but it's a hologram kind of thing on the window, not the actual thing.' So, as you're walking by, you can kind of see, oh, that's this or that's that."

The Genesis Device in Star Trek: Picard Season 3

One of the pieces that the team did build is the Genesis Device, like the one introduced in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. "One of the things we talked about early on was what else would be there?" Matalas recalls "And we said, 'Well, how long would it take us to build a Genesis Device?' We built a Genesis Device! It was just cool to see."

Blass says, "One of our artists, Greg Aronowitz, built that out for us. And, and it was just like, you're sitting there and you're like, "That's so cool. I want that in my house. I don't know what I would do with it, but I just want it sitting in the corner."

Bringing Moriarty Back to Star Trek in Star Trek: Picard Season 3

Something else that the Daystrom Station episode of Star Trek: Picard does is follow through on one of the Star Trek: Picard Season 3 trailer's most exciting teases with the return of Daniel Davis as Moriarty. According to the video, that was delightful for everyone involved.

"The best thing about Daystrom was all of a sudden, you know, you're standing on set and there is Moriarty," Blass says. "He was such a great guy. And he was just so excited to be back doing Star Trek."

Data's Return and a Star Trek: The Next Generation Cast Reunion

To bring Brent Spiner back as Data, the production design team again went back into Star Trek history. "We went to the archive and we were able to get the Data head and body from Nemesis. And we were using that and created this new display for this new character that we were going to introduce."

The Daystrom Station sequence featured Spiner, Jonathan Frakes, and Michael Dorn. Hurd, who has been a part of the Star Trek: Picard cast since the start, was happy to be in their company.

"I'm spending my time during that shoot with Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorn, and Brent Spiner," Hurd says. "I wouldn't even have to have said a word and I would've been a happy, happy camper. And those guys, by the way, it's like hanging out with best buddies who are kids. They are so fun. They play constantly, kept me smiling and laughing. They're really just a lovely group of people who just share so much history and really love to enjoy themselves on stage. It was so fun. It was so fun."

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 debuts new episodes on Thursdays on Paramount+. All previous Star Trek: Picard seasons and all seven Star Trek: The Next Generation seasons are streaming now on Paramount+.