Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Showrunner on Making Worf a Samurai and Giving TNG an Ending and New Beginning

Terry Matalas takes Star Trek: Picard's creative reigns as showrunner of its third and final season, premiering this Thursday on Paramount+. The series sees the entire Star Trek: The Next Generation cast returning for one last adventure, but it also carries over some characters and ideas from the show's first two seasons. Additionally, it introduces several new characters. That's a lot to juggle, so ComicBook.com asked Matalas how he landed on a theme to tie all of these elements and characters together. It turns out it was there from the beginning, and as one might expect, it's all about The Next Generation and the next generation.

"We knew right from the beginning it was going to be a story about the last generation passing the torch to the next, and that permeates the story in many different ways, emotionally," Matalas says. "There are some bombshell revelations for Picard, and it's a story about legacy. There's something really satisfying about bringing these characters back decades later to see how much they've changed, how much they've stayed the same, and to be able to tell one final Next Generation story that ties all of those arcs together, including some arcs that began 30 years ago. To tie them up by the end, it just felt like it could be not only a really satisfying conclusion but also a satisfying beginning to a whole other young crew, if you will."

One might think that, in trying to figure out what these returning characters have been up to over the past couple of decades, certain characters may prove more difficult than others. Jean-Luc Picard, William Riker, and Deanna Troi had been re-established in previous Picard seasons, but what about the rest of the old Enterprise crew? But Matalas says it all came together pretty organically by working together with the stars who have played these characters for so long.

"It really did come together all once," he says. "One of the great joys was being able to collaborate with these actors. We all had ideas as to where we would find these characters, but I didn't want to do anything that they wouldn't be comfortable with. They have been living with their own characters and going to conventions, talking about them for decades, so they had their own ideas too. So I sat down with each one of them individually and said, 'Here's where I think you are. What do you think?' And we were 100% creatively aligned, which is extraordinary because it could have gone 1,000 different ways."

Matalas continues, "I tell the story of when I told LeVar his whole arc when I got to him. Then, and I can't spoil it for you, but there's a key moment towards the end of the season, we were on a Zoom and I looked up and he was crying. And then I started to cry, and I'm like, as a fan, what is happening here? It's extraordinary. Everything from Worf, crafting Worf, [Michael Dorn]'s like, 'I do not see Worf as part of Federation anymore. I don't see him as part of the Klingon Empire.' And I said, 'I kind of see him as a samurai.' And he's like, 'I see him as a samurai too.' And I'm like, 'What if he has a sword on his back?' And he's like, 'That sounds cool.' I mean, that's just great. You get to geek out and create with your heroes, people I grew up watching. There's really nothing better than that."

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 is billed as the last ride for The Next Generation crew. And yet, some members of the cast have teased that they may be back for more. That sounds like it could be confusing for a writer trying to give these characters a satisfying sendoff. So is this the last chapter, or just the next chapter?

"I think when you watch it you will see that it is very much a satisfying conclusion to Star Trek: The Next Generation as you know it," Metals explains. "However, it's also a passing of the torch, and in that way, you can continue to see many of these legacy characters onward. And let me tell you, you're going to want to. They've never been better. I mean, when you watch it, you tell me, but I want to see so much more of not only these legacy characters but these new characters as well, and I have so much more to say about that that I don't want to spoil for any of you all, but it was an exciting opportunity to do both things. However, if they stopped right now and they never did, I think we have a very satisfying ending to that story."

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 premieres on Paramount+ on February 16th, with new episodes following weekly on Thursdays. The show's first two seasons are streaming now on Paramount+.