Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Showrunner Reveals Original Series Movies’ Influence

Star Trek: Picard‘s final season is nearing its premiere and the final trailer teased a much different atmosphere from the two seasons that preceded it. That may be down o the influence of the on the season. Following the final trailer’s release, Star Trek: Picard Season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas spoke to TrekMovie to break down some of the trailer’s biggest scenes. One he keyed in on was the use of a boatswain whistle, a familiar naval device. That moment is there to clue fans into how the new season depicts Starfleet, drawing inspiration from Nicholas Meyer’s work on the Star Trek: The Original Series movies.

“I very much prefer Starfleet to feel like the Navy. And certainly, The Original Series and a lot of what [Star Trek II and VI director] Nick Meyer did feels like that the most,” Matalas said. “And the trailer, as does the first episode, starts with an air of pomp and circumstance. So it’s just getting a feel of what I think Starfleet should feel like. It’s the military. It’s serious. There are protocols. And that sort of permeates throughout the season.”

As for whether that’s the actual same whistle from those Star Trek movies, probably not. “It felt like those whistles are usually traditional and are passed down from ship to ship to ship. So we thought that might be the case here. I suppose it could be the same one [from Star Trek VI] or just an older, hundreds-year-old model.”

When does Star Trek: Picard Season 3 premiere?

According to the official synopsis, “In the epic, thrilling conclusion of Star Trek: Picard, a desperate message from a long-lost friend draws Starfleet legend Admiral Jean-Luc Picard into the most daring mission of his life, forcing him to recruit allies spanning generations old and new. This final adventure sets him on a collision course with the legacy of his past and explosive, new revelations that will alter the fate of the Federation forever.”

Star Trek: Picard‘s first two seasons are currently streaming on Paramount+ in the U.S.  Star Trek: Picard streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. and is distributed concurrently by Paramount Global Content Distribution on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories. It airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada.