Star Trek: The Next Generation Cast Reunite For Quarantine Birthday Party

Sunday was Star Trek: The Next Generation star Marina Sirtis‘ birthday. Given that the country is on self-quarantine protocols due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she couldn’t go out and celebrate. Instead, the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast brought the party to her via video chat. Sirtis shared a photo of the group chat. She can be seen on the monitor with her former co-stars Patrick Stewart, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Wil Wheaton, Brent Spiner, and Gates McFadden. “I have the best friends in the world,” Sirtis tweeted with the photo. “Considering everything, this was the best birthday present. #TNGRules.”

Sirtis returned to her role as Deanna Troi from Star Trek: The Next Generation in an episode of Star Trek: Picard alongside Frakes as Will Riker. They had a mini-reunion with Picard lead Stewart plus Burton and Dorn behind-the-scenes of the episode, but Burton’s Geordi La Forge and Dorn’s Worf did not appear in the first season of the show. The series’ producers had already ruled out appearances by Geordi or Worf in a previous interview.

“We made a point not to bring back any legacy characters that didn’t organically tell this story,” executive producer Heather Kadin said. “Which is why, unfortunately, you don’t have Michael Dorn as Worf, and you don’t have [LeVar Burton as] Geordi. Otherwise, we keep joking it’d be The Next Next Generation.”

Michael Dorn has said it will take a significant role to get him to come back as the Klingon Starfleet officer. “I’m only interested in if it’s something really interesting; if the character was a major part of the franchise or whatever the show is,” Dorn has said previously. “He’s not just going to show up, beat somebody up, and then go home.”

Stewart, who is an executive producer on Picard, said that he was hesitant to bring any of his old co-stars back. In the end, he said, “I think we all realized that we were missing opportunities, particularly in the case of Commander Data, who, although you don’t see him very much, plays a role in the entire season. A very important one, too.”

And though Worf and Geordi won’t show up in the first season, the series is already renewed for its second season. “I hope we will meet all of the principal characters from Next Generation eventually,” Stewart says.

Star Trek: Picard closed out its first season on Thursday with the episode “Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2.” Work on the second season of the CBS All Access series has already begun.