Star Trek: Picard’s third and final season is shaping up to be a fitting, nostalgic farewell to its titular hero so far — but is the journey of boldly going ever over when there are both the vast reaches of the final frontier and the capitalist mechanism of the mega-franchise to consider? Not really, but hey, at least it might get us some more Star Trek.
A recent build up of interest in a new Trek series set in Picard’s early 25th century time period — initially dubbed by fans as Star Trek: Titan, as a chance to see Todd Stashwick’s Captain Shaw return to the helm of his ship from Picard and go on new adventures — has bubbled over this week as showrunners and cast alike have taken to social media and interviews to rally around the idea. Except now it has a bit of a re-brand, thanks to Picard showrunner Terry Matalas: Star Trek: Legacy.
In case you’re wondering, #StarTrekLegacy is what I’d call a spin-off show from #StarTrekPicard. A 25th Century show that explores the Last Generation and the Next… https://t.co/mwuniLmThk
— Terry Matalas (@TerryMatalas) March 22, 2023
The idea, instantly seized upon by actors from the show as well, already seems pretty fleshed out in all their minds — a new Trek show in the vein of Strange New Worlds, focusing on the Titan’s crew, including Shaw, Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), Sidney and Alandra La Forge (Ashleigh Sharpe Chesnutt and Mica Burton, respectively), and Jack Crusher (Ed Speelers), as they carry on the work of their parents and colleagues in exploring the galaxy. Hell, even Jonathan Frakes wants in, telling Emmy Magazine he’d even want Riker and Troi’s daughter Kestra on board. “I could be like Charlie in Charlie’s Angels, the admiral they check in with,” Frakes suggested.
With both LeVar and Mica Burton running the press circuit this week to promote their debut appearances on Picard in episode six of the season, they too have weighed in positively on the idea of Legacy as a new show. On an appearance alongside fellow Picard guest star Whoopi Goldberg for The View, Burton threw his support behind the idea:
Today on #TheView @levarburton and @MicaBurton talked about the #StarTrekLegacy spinoff idea for #StarTrekPicard. LeVar says it “makes a whole lot of sense” … watch it >>> pic.twitter.com/iU5jAjUu03
— TrekMovie.com (@TrekMovie) March 23, 2023
With petitions shared on social media supporting a spinoff by Burton himself and Jeri Ryan, even as Matalas has stressed that no work is actively being done on a continuation of Picard, it seems a good chunk of people are trying to will it into existence. It wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened in Trek’s contemporary revival, either — after all, we got Strange New Worlds in the first place off the back of fan and critical approval of Anson Mount and Ethan Peck’s appearances in Discovery as Captain Pike and a younger Spock.
But things are different now for Trek than when Strange New Worlds was revealed. Just as the franchise has rapidly expanded in the last six years, it’s about to contract a bit: in a month, Picard will be over, and early next year Discovery, the series that started this new era off, will conclude with a fifth and final season. As streaming services tighten their belts and begin to wind down their approach of blanketing audiences with as much content as possible, the days of Paramount’s plans for “All Star Trek, all the time” might no longer be so desirable. And that’s before we get into the projects that we do know are on the backburner outside of the continuation of shows like Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, and Prodigy, like a planned Starfleet Academy series, and the long-in-limbo Michelle Yeoh project based around Section 31.
Even with the surprisingly intense demand for Star Trek: Legacy from the fandom and creative team alike, it’d be just as surprising for Paramount to immediately greenlight the project before Picard season three is done airing. If anything happens, it’s not going to be for a while — but it’s not hard to see that there’s an audience there, if Paramount wants it.