Star Trek: Picard: Patrick Stewart Reveals Plans for Scrapped Ending

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 brought the story of Jean-Luc Picard to a fitting close (if so desired), but series star Patrick Stewart is now revealing that it was not the ending he truly wanted! 

“‘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,” Stewart explains in his new memoir Making It So (via  TIME). “You see, the line between Jean-Luc and me has grown ever more blurred. If I have found true love, shouldn’t he?”

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Alternate Ending Explained

“The writers came up with a lovely scene,” Stewart continues in the book. “It is dusk at Jean-Luc’s vineyard. His back is to us as he takes in the view, his dog at his side. Then, off-screen, a woman’s loving voice is heard: ‘Jean-Luc? Supper’s ready!’ Is it Beverly Crusher’s voice? Laris’s? Someone we don’t know? It isn’t made clear.” He also reveals his real-life wife, Sunny Ozell, “was set to record the lines.” The concludes as, “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.”

This scene was, as Stewart describes, all set to be shot by the producers and creative team behind Star Trek: Picard Season 3 – only it never got done. As Stewart further reveals in his book, he was partially “to blame” for that: 

…This scene was never shot. And I am sort of to blame. Our final day of shooting season 3 was a bear, with a very long to-do list. About eight hours in, I realized we were in for a 14- or even 16-hour day. Brutal. And I was booked to fly to New York the first thing the following morning. So I made a suggestion to the production team. 

“Look,” I said, “the scene with the dog will take no time to shoot, but it will take hours to set up the lighting and the green screen and all that. We don’t have those hours. So let’s not shoot that scene today. I can come back at any time you like and take care of it. Just me and the dog.”

The production team was grateful and relieved. And I was assured that we would take care of the final scene upon my return from New York.

But I never got a call. When I made a few inquiries, I kept getting put off. Finally, someone told me, “The studio doesn’t want to do it. It’s too expensive and they think it’s unnecessary.” Unnecessary? I thought it was crucial to the completion of Picard’s arc. But so be it: the TV series ended with the toast, which is a warm, emotional send-off to my favorite Starfleet crew. Either way, you now know of my original intent.

It’s not hard to imagine why the producers of Star Trek: Picard pivoted away from that original ending idea: it brought too much finality to Picard’s story – as Patrick Stewart clearly indicates it would. (SPOILERS) The Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Finale ended with Stewart’s Picard and his former TNG castmates Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker), LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge) Brent Spiner (Data), Michael Dorn (Worf) Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi), and Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher) all getting new status quos within the Star Trek Universe – character arcs that could conceivably continue into a new series – or new series (plural).

In fact, Star Trek: Picard Season 3 sparked major fan hype for a Star Trek: Legacy series, that will follow the sons, daughters, and/or allies of TNG characters, who we met in Picard, as they set out on their own adventures. It was hoped that the elder TNG stars would appear in Legacy in sporadic cameos – including Patrick Stewart’s Picard. The ending of Season 3 we got (with the TNG crew having a toast over a game of poker) still leaves that door open.

Star Trek: Picard is streaming on Paramount+.