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LeVar and Mica Burton on Playing Father and Daughter in STAR TREK: PICARD

With Star Trek: Picard season three’s sixth episode, we saw the long-awaited return of LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge. These days, Geordi is actually Commodore La Forge, and runs the Starfleet Museum. But he didn’t arrive alone. He was joined by his real-life daughter Mica Burton, who played Geordi’s daughter, and fellow Starfleet officer, Alandra La Forge. We got the chance to chat with the two Burtons, who told us about what it was like playing on-screen parent and child in the 25th century.

Nerdist: Playing father and daughter on-screen has to be very cool for you both. How did you both react when the Picard producers approached you about the idea for this season? Or was this something that you two pitched to them?

LeVar Burton: Yeah, this was all ( Picard showrunner) Terry Matalas’ fault. When I first started talking to Terry about coming back and playing Geordi again, I shared with him what I felt was important to me. He said, “Well, what do you want to see happen?” And I said, “The only thing that I feel like I need to have happen, Terry, is that we rehabilitate Geordi’s canon, where his relationships with women are concerned.”

I know, I know, that in “All Good Things” [ The Next Generation series finale], we find out that Geordi was married to Leah Brahms , the woman that was stalked in the episode, “Booby Trap.” And that they had two daughters, Sidney and Alandra. I didn’t buy that. Just never bought the idea that the engineer was discomforted by the presence of women. It’s an old, tired trope. So, that was really, really important to me, and Terry took it from there and he made this happen. He created these two daughters for Geordi, and the suggestion was made, “Well, let’s have Mica audition,” and here we are.

Now, you’ve just talked about Geordi and his relationship with women. And we’ve heard “mom” La Forge mentioned in episode six. Are we ever going to find out just who Mrs. La Forge actually is in this timeline?

Mica Burton: It’s Beyoncé. We talked about this on Twitter. Terry Matalas confirmed it. Our mother is Beyoncé Knowles, and she lasted until the 25th century.

Well, of course she did .

Mica: And it was a beautiful wedding. She sang herself at her own wedding. This is Star Trek canon.

LeVar: You know, I have heard that Rihanna is a big Star Trek fan …. and I’m just going to put it out there that maybe Geordi married Rihanna.

Mica: Look, Bad Girl Ri, if you are my mother, please step forward.

Even though Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut ) has an icy relationship with her dad on Picard , it seems Alandra and Sidney have more of an understanding. Mica, did you ever talk to Ashlei about your two characters’ relationship off-screen? What it was like for both of them to grow up as daughters of a legend?

Mica: It’s funny, we actually didn’t. We had this conversation afterward about it. But our sisterly bond forged … “La Forged”.

LeVar: Ba-duh-bum.

Mica: Ba-duh-bum. Day one that I came to set. She is just so warm and lovely, and we bonded like that, and we became actual sisters. So, I think that a little bit of our personal relationship informed this lovely sisterly bond on the show. But we discussed it afterward that even though Sidney and her father have not had the best relationship, that wouldn’t have gotten in the way of the sisters. The sisters love each other. The sisters understand each other through and through. They don’t need a guy around. They don’t need a dad around.

Sidney name-drops her famous dad a lot in the first five episodes. Do you think that Alandra does the same thing when she meets people? Or is that purely a Sidney thing?

Mica: I think it’s hilariously a Sidney thing. It’s one of those “trying not to be like her dad”, but she still wants you to know that’s her dad. Maybe it’s like it almost hovers around Alandra, because she works with him. I don’t think there is anybody in the Starfleet Museum that doesn’t know that she’s Geordi’s kid. So, I think it maybe almost haunts her a little bit.

In this episode, Commodore La Forge and Jean-Luc have a really emotional exchange about fatherhood and other things, and how it has changed Geordi, and made him more cautious. What was it like playing such an intimate scene with Patrick Stewart again after 20 years?

LeVar: Just delicious. Delicious. He’s obviously one of the best actors of this generation, and I’ve known that for a long, long time. And anytime you get an opportunity to do a two-hander with Patrick, it’s a good day.

So, we talked about “All Good Things,” and how some of those things (from the future timeline seen in that episode) came true for Geordi, like having two daughters. But in that episode, he was also a published author. So I’m wondering, does Commodore La Forge write novels on the side?

LeVar : He does. He does.

Mica, I know you’re big in the gaming world. This is a huge thing for you. How would you feel if Alandra La Forge made the jump into a Star Trek game of some kind?

Mica : I genuinely cannot eloquently explain the joy that would bring me to see something come that full circle. Even to know that somebody might cosplay Alandra, as someone who was a cosplayer coming up in her career. When I saw people cosplaying my D&D character from Critical Role , Reani—I still sob every time I see it. So, to think that somebody might cosplay live-action me … to think that they’d have a video game with me, tears. Just drowning. I’m going to start a flood.

On TNG , Geordi was very deferential to Captain Picard. You would’ve never heard him call him “Jean-Luc”, but he does here. Did you fill in the blanks of Jean-Luc and Geordi’s relationship in the missing two decades?

LeVar: Well, there weren’t any conversations. But you take your clues from the text, and the way it was written, it was clear that where Geordi had been, and what he had been doing, and the life that he had been living had changed him significantly. And adventuring around the universe was no longer a priority for him. He became a family man, and he needed and wanted stability. So, we find him in a real stable situation, and that all gets threatened when Picard comes calling, and rightly so.

I think it was the right note to play. Gene Roddenberry was clear that he didn’t want any conflict among the bridge crew. His opinion was that we would’ve evolved beyond that. I’m not so sure, and in terms of storytelling, conflict is essential for a good story. So, having those handcuffs taken off of all of us, I think that has made for much better storytelling.

It feels like a lot of this season is setting up a “next Next Generation ,” and I don’t know if that’s really going to happen. We know Terry Matalas wants to do a Star Trek: Legacy series. So Mica, is that something that you would be interested in being a part of?

Mica: I would literally not want anything more in this world, other than unicorns to be real. But right under unicorns being real, it would be to be a crew member regularly on a Star Trek series. I am so thankful for this opportunity, and I get it. I get the love of the Star Trek family. I’ve always been a part of it, like my dad said tangentially, just growing up with everybody. But leaving that cast and that crew on the last day, I got to know all the camera operators, and everybody on set, and it broke my heart. I loved being a part of that, and I see why I grew up with the family that I did, which was Patrick, Gates, Michael, and Brent. Because, my God, there’s no family like a Star Trek family.

Star Trek: Picard season three drops new episodes every Thursday on Paramount+.

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Published Apr 3, 2023

WARP FIVE: LeVar and Mica Burton on Making Star Trek: Picard A Family Affair On- and Off-Screen

The Titan finds themselves calling upon the father-daughter duo!

SPOILER WARNING: Discussion for Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 6 "The Bounty" to follow!

Getty Images / StarTrek.com

Welcome to Warp Five, StarTrek.com's five question post-mortem with your favorite featured talent from the latest Star Trek episodes.

Star Trek legend LeVar Burton last appeared on-screen as Geordi La Forge over 20 years ago in Star Trek Nemesis . However, La Forge has never strayed too far from Jean-Luc Picard’s mind. In the first season of Star Trek: Picard , when it was suggested that the retired admiral call upon his friends from his time on the Enterprise -D, such as William Riker, Worf, and Geordi La Forge, Picard dismisses the idea stating, “They would do it in a heartbeat, and that’s precisely why I cannot ask them. They would put themselves at risk out of loyalty to me, and I do not want to go through that again.”

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However, as seen in the events of the third season of Star Trek: Picard , the crew aboard the U.S.S. Titan -A, which includes La Forge’s daughter Ensign Sidney, have uncovered a Changeling conspiracy that has infiltrated the highest levels of Starfleet. In “ The Bounty ,” Picard must turn to the only soul in the galaxy who can help in their time of most desperate need — his old friend, Geordi La Forge.

StarTrek.com had the opportunity to speak with both LeVar Burton and his real-life daughter Mica Burton , who plays his other daughter Ensign Alandra La Forge , about bringing the father-daughter dynamic to Star Trek: Picard !

On the Long-Awaited Return of Geordi La Forge

Star Trek fans have long clamored for LeVar Burton to reprise his fan-favorite role that of one of Starfleet’s top engineers. The former chief engineer of the Enterprise -D, and then later Enterprise -E, now holds the rank of Commodore and oversees the preservation and restoration of historic starships at the Fleet Museum.

Speaking on his return, LeVar calls the entire experience “stone-cold gas.” “I loved every moment of it,” explains Levar. “You got to understand, we never thought this would happen, a reunion. We believed that that ship had sailed on completing the circle, closing the circle for the Next Gen crew. This came as a huge surprise, and the fact that [showrunner] Terry Matalas has not just the skill as a writer, but his deep love of The Next Generation really has made this whole journey something truly special.”

And how easy or difficult was it to get back into the groove of the role of Geordi? It simply just clicked for LeVar, who notes, “I put on the spacesuit, and I put in the contact lenses, and I’m there.”

On The Next Generation and the Next Next Generation

During our chat, Mica Burton takes a second to rib her father, laughing while calling out, “You keep calling it a ‘spacesuit,’” to which LeVar retorts, “We all call them [that]. They’re our spacesuits. We call our costumes our ‘spacesuits’ because we wear them while we work in space.”

Mica adds, “That’s so interesting. Ashlei [Sharpe Chestnut] and I call them ‘jumpsuits.’” Responding very much like a father, LeVar exclaims, “Well, there you go.”

As Mica puts it, “Well, one sounds more fun than the other.”

On Officially Welcoming Mica Burton into the Star Trek Family

Mica Burton is no stranger to Star Trek , hosting the official 2021 Star Trek Day event. However, she now has her pips as Ensign Alandra La Forge, and is following in her father’s footsteps, literally and figuratively.

On the whole experience, Mica comments, “It's so mind-blowing that I'm even sitting here having this conversation with you, and that I got to join my family on-screen and knowing growing up that these are some of the most phenomenal actors of my generation that I'll watch on-screen.”

“I'm a fan of Patrick Stewart, and I've known him since I was born,” continues Mica, “So to be able to act across from him, to share lines with him, to know that we've worked on a project together, I can't put that into words, let alone know that I was there with my dad, my actual real-life dad. He drove me to work every day, even when my call time was way earlier before his. He drove me to work just so we could bond. I feel like that's stories that you can't write. I'm very aware of how lucky of a human being I am.”

Looking at his daughter, LeVar beams, “I can hardly describe it, truly extraordinary experience as a father and as a professional actor. For me, seeing the entire crew respond to Mica as a professional and to see her interacting with the cast and having them see her as an equal, it’s pretty cool.”

On the La Forge Family Affair

Commodore La Forge sees both of his daughters, Sidney and Alandra, follow in his footsteps and join Starfleet.

However, his eldest Sidney deviates, wanting to become a pilot, and finds herself aboard the U.S.S. Titan-A , while the youngest Alandra works alongside Geordi at the Fleet Museum.

Speaking on working with Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut, LeVar exclaims, “We love Ashlei,” with Mica echoing the sentiment, “We love Ashlei!”

“Honestly, my favorite part about doing Picard press is talking about how much I love Ashlei, and how I have absolutely found a sister in that girl,” expands Mica, “She came over to our house for Thanksgiving while we were filming Picard , and we had her as a part of the Burton Family Thanksgiving, and it felt like she's always been there. We still to this day text and go out for drinks. She's a part of my heart and soul. I'm so happy that she is my sister.”

On working alongside her father, Mica details, “There is a scene that I can't give any context to because it's a huge spoiler. But I will say that because my dad is actually my father, I had to take a break from set because I got so emotional because he was doing such a good job evoking emotion, and I think that it really played well on camera, but it was because I was like ‘Ah, that's my dad. I can't turn that off. That is my father.’”

LeVar further elaborates, “And for me, as an actor, there was a moment in that scene that Mica is talking about where Geordi turns and looks at Alandra, and that is the inspiration for where he takes the conversation.”

“Oh god, don’t tell me that,” exclaims Mica, “Now, I’m even more emotional,” to which LeVar notes, “So definitely we used it to our benefit.”

On Their Favorite Special Moments

In “The Bounty,” Geordi and Alandra find themselves on the Titan , where LeVar recalls a moment while filming that scene. “I haven’t talked to him about it, him being Terry Matalas, but I imagine that scene that I play with Todd [Stashwick] on the bridge of the Titan when his character, a former engineer, meets Geordi La Forge for the first time. In my own life, I have that moment at least once a day. It’s the Donald Glover moment from Community , and it was pretty meta playing that scene with Todd because it felt like it was taken right out of the book of my life."

As for Mica, she reflects, “Oddly enough, I think my favorite moment on-set was wrap. There were so many great speeches and so many people I admire giving me, Ashlei, and the crew of the Titan those props of being the new young generation of Star Trek actors. It was so emotional to be seen. That was the moment hilariously at the very end, it clicked that these legends see us as…,” with LeVar finishing her sentence, “…the next generation.”

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Christine Dinh (she/her) is the managing editor for StarTrek.com. She’s traded the Multiverse for helming this Federation Starship.

In addition to streaming on Paramount+ , Star Trek: Picard also streams on Prime Video outside of the U.S. and Canada, and in Canada can be seen on Bell Media's CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave. Star Trek: Picard is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

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March 23, 2023

LeVar Burton On Sharing The Screen With Daughter Mica in ‘Picard’

LeVar Burton experienced a touching moment while filming Star Trek: Picard  season 3 when his daughter Mica Burton was cast to play his child onscreen.

The father-daughter duo was grateful to share the screen together for the first time on the Paramount+ series for the episode titled “The Bounty,” Entertainment Tonight   reporte d. LeVar reprised his role as Next Generation character Geordi La Forge. Mica portrayed one of Geordi’s two daughters, Ensign Alandra La Forge.

After being asked to return for Picard , LeVar, 66, didn’t go into filming intending to secure a role for his daughter.

“Never would I have ever thought of going to them and saying, ‘Hey, what about my kids being in Star Trek?'” he admitted.

“And I would’ve said no,” Mica added.

However, the Reading Rainbow star spoke with showrunner Terry Matalas about making his character a “family man.”

“I never liked that Geordi, as the chief engineer, as the nerd, was discomforted by the presence of women. That pissed me off. I thought it was really lazy on the writers’ part,” LeVar Burton said.

“And even in [the Next Generation series finale] “All Good Things,” when it’s revealed that Geordi is married and has two children…the idea that he was married to Dr. Leah Brahms, the woman that he stalked in the episode, “Booby Trap,” creating a holo deck of her, was really creepy to me.

“And so I really wanted to rehabilitate that part of Geordi’s canon and Terry came through, above and beyond,” he continued. “I mean, I never would’ve dreamt this scenario up and I’m so grateful that he did.”

For Mica, it was an honor for the rising actress to share the screen with her dad, who has been a fixture on television for nearly 50 years.

“It’s interesting because every time I’m asked, “What was it like?” the first thing I can say is, professional,” she shared.

“I went to an acting conservatory and he’s been doing this his entire life, almost since he was 19, so he’s one of the most consummate professionals that I know. And I think that that’s what came first and foremost.”

Fans can get into Star Trek: Picard Thursdays on Paramount+.

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Star Trek: Picard’s LeVar Burton Proudly Shares His Daughter’s Season 3 Role

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Star Trek franchise star LeVar Burton celebrates his daughter, Mica Burton, landing a role in the third season of Picard on Paramount+.

Burton shared his excitement on Twitter with a screenshot of both himself and his daughter on-screen during an episode of Picard . "This is my kid," he wrote. "We’re working together for the first time in our careers. I could not possibly be more proud!" Mica Burton will star in the science fiction drama series as Alandra La Forge, the daughter of LeVar's Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge. Mica's previous roles include the 2015 sci-fi film, Lazer Team , and the TV miniseries, The Eleven Little Roosters .

RELATED: How Picard Season 3 Morphed Into a Star Trek: The Next Generation Reunion

Burton has portrayed Geordi La Forge, a Starfleet officer/engineer who served during the 24th century, in the Star Trek franchise for decades. He first appeared as the character in all seven seasons of The Next Generation from 1987 to 1994. He also reprised the role in four franchise films, including Generations (1994), First Contact (1996), Insurrection (1998) and Nemesis (2002). Burton's character is blind, requiring him to use technological devices to see, including a trademark visor he sported during The Next Generation and Generations .

Burton enters the final frontier once again as Geordi in Picard alongside Sir Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. The series is set in 2399, chronicling the captain's struggle to cope with both the death of Data and the destruction of Romulus. After long retiring from Starfleet, Captain Picard returns to action after a visit from one of Data's daughters, leading him to fight for her and other synthetic beings. The cast includes John de Lancie as long-time adversary Q, as well as Alison Pill, Isa Briones, Michelle Hurd, Brett Spiner, Gates McFadden , Jonathan Frakes and the late Annie Wersching who died of cancer on Jan. 29.

RELATED: Star Trek: Picard's Final Season May Harm - or Kill - TNG Characters

Picard Will End with Season 3

Season 3 of Picard will be the Paramount+ show's final season, though Stewart hinted at the possibility of a Season 4 provided the quality of the show can be preserved. A newly-released full-length trailer hailed the third season as Picard's final voyage and showed his reunion with Geordi and the rest of the crew.

Burton's role in Picard Season 3 comes as he's set to release a new podcast on SiriusXM in spring 2023, Sound Detectives , which sees the Reading Rainbow icon return to children's entertainment. The Grammy, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning actor's credits also include Ali , Captain Planet and the Planeteers , Family Guy and Community .

Picard Season 3 premieres on Paramount+ on Feb. 16.

Source: Twitter

• Star Trek: Picard (2020)

'Star Trek: Picard' Season 3: LeVar Burton and Mica Burton on the La Forge Family Dynamic

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The third and final season of Star Trek: Picard is shaping up to be one of the best seasons of Star Trek —ever—and a large part of that is due to the care that has gone into crafting a long-overdue Star Trek: The Next Generation reunion. The first handful of episodes reunited Jean-Luc Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) with William Riker ( Jonathan Frakes ), as they set off across the galaxy on a mission to rescue Dr. Beverly Crusher ( Gates McFadden ) and her son Jack Crusher ( Ed Speleers ), who she had hid from Picard for twenty years.

With the Changeling threat looming over all of them , Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Titan find themselves at the Fleet Museum in Episode 6, where Geordi La Forge ( LeVar Burton ) and his daughter Alandra La Forge ( Mica Burton ) are pulled into the slowly unraveling mystery, reuniting them with old friends and La Forge's other daughter Sidney La Forge ( Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut ). At New York Comic Con last year, in addition to revealing The Next Generation cast that would be returning for Star Trek: Picard Season 3, it was revealed that LeVar Burton's real-life daughter Mica Burton , would be officially joining the Star Trek family as La Forge's daughter Alandra.

Ahead of the Episode 6 premiere , Collider had the opportunity to sit down and speak with LeVar and Mica Burton about working together on the third season of Star Trek: Picard , in addition to discussing how this Geordi La Forge compares to the anti-time future Geordi La Forge in The Next Generation finale, what it was like for Mica to work with her on-screen sister Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut, where she thinks Alandra would fit into a potential spin-off, and what they can tease about the rest of the season, including an Easter egg that fans should keep an eye out for.

COLLIDER: So in the Star Trek: The Next Generation finale, Geordi has kids in the anti-time future, which happened to also be named Alandra and Sidney. How would you compare that version of Geordi with this version?

LEVAR BURTON: In this version, we are certain that the mother of Geordi's children is not Dr. Leah Brahms.

Okay, interesting. Is that something that we might learn, or is there somebody that you have in mind in your head when you're playing the role?

MICA BURTON: Beyoncé. I've made it canon that our mother is Beyoncé. Terry Matalas has confirmed it on Twitter.

Oh, well, there you go. Mica, one of the highlights of the Star Trek panel at New York Comic-Con last year was the announcement that you would be joining your dad in the series. It was so great, I was with my mom, and I was right behind you in the theater, and it was just the coolest thing. But I'm really curious to know what the process was like for you joining the show.

MICA: Well, it wasn't something that I think my dad and I ever thought was going to happen, seeing as I really love to make my name outside of his, and also, I was never a fan of Star Trek … I was a Star Wars kid. But, when Terry wrote this new story for Geordi, and it involved daughters, and it coincided with a time in my career that I felt I had established myself in my own right, and now would be a really fun time to work with my dad, the opportunity presented itself to audition. And audition I did.

Excellent. I worked on a superhero movie with my mom, and it was like the coolest experience to share together. What was this like for both of you to work together in Star Trek ?

LEVAR: On many levels, it was next level. Because not ever having expected this, this soon in her career, this comes as a great surprise, as well as a great gift. And she's been a part of the Star Trek family behind the scenes, off-camera for the whole of her life. She was actually born just a couple of weeks after we finished Star Trek Generations .

Actually, no. In fact, no. She was supposed to have been born a couple of weeks after we finished Generations , but she came a little early. I finished Generations , was going to go on a personal retreat up to the mountains, and the night before I left for retreat, she came.

MICA: I am so sorry I ruined your trip.

LEVAR: So I say that to say, what a thrill it was for me to work with her, but also to see her work with the rest of the cast that have been members of her family since she got here.

MICA: Yeah, I don't think I remember a time in my life without Uncle Michael, Uncle Patrick, Aunt Marina, Aunt Gates, et cetera, et cetera. They've always been there. So it was such a phenomenal experience. And, being as we are all also professional actors, it was incredibly business and professional when the cameras were rolling, but to be able to sit off-set with people that you've known for almost three decades, I'll never have an opportunity like this again. This is a very once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

LEVAR: But also, to see how all of these other professionals, both in front of and behind the camera, regarded Mica as another professional in the mix. That makes both her mother and me very proud.

It's very exciting. Mica, for you in Episode 6, we see that Alandra is a little bit more like her dad than Sidney is, but what would you say is Alandra's guiding light for how she navigates her career and her life?

MICA: I think it really is, it is her father. A mannerism I picked up from my dad on set that he didn't notice until he saw the first picture of us in uniform together, is that I hold my hands exactly how he holds his hands in front of him and behind him. And I think that that is kind of who Alandra is. She so much looks up to her father that she so much wants to be like him, but also envies Sidney for having the courage to be somewhat different. But I think that both sisters have their own little mini versions of Geordi in themselves.

I love that. LeVar, going back to you. I know all of you that have been in The Next Generation , you have a little bit of ownership in terms of your characters and the things you've talked about them over the years in that interim time. But for you, how much do you have mapped out for what's been going on in his life over these last 20 years, or so?

LEVAR: None, except to say he got married and had kids, and it wasn't with Leah Brahms.

Something I really love about Picard is how they've brought back The Next Generation characters and shown that they haven't stayed stagnant from the last time we saw them. They've evolved, for better and for worse, and it makes for really compelling television. Can you talk about playing Geordi as someone who seems a little bit more by-the-books than he was maybe the last time we saw him?

LEVAR: I guess in terms of filling in the blanks, there is more than what I just said because obviously there's been a lot of professional development that has happened in the intervening years. Geordi is an admiral, and is in charge of one of the most precious assets–

MICA: Commodore.

LEVAR: Commodore. Well, that's a Rear Admiral. Commodore is a Rear Admiral.

MICA: I'm sorry I don't know the naval terms! Commodore La Forge, not Admiral La Forge.

LEVAR: You're right, you're right. You're absolutely right. Geordi is a commodore .

MICA: Thank you.

LEVAR: And he's in charge of the Starfleet Museum, which is one of the most precious resources that the Federation owns. Yeah, and he is a parent, and Picard is gallivanting around the galaxy with my kid, Sidney. And Geordi feels a certain way about Picard putting her in danger. So yeah, Geordi is a little bit more by the book. Geordi isn't all lovey-dovey. When we first encounter him in Episode 6, he has a few things he needs to get off his chest.

Just a few. Mica, now that we've seen this glimpse of the next generation of The Next Generation with Sidney and Alandra, and Jack, I feel like the audience is not going to want to let go of these characters. If there is any hope of a potential spinoff—I know Terry and so forth on Twitter have been really hoping for something like that, and I know fans are as well—how do you think Alandra would fit into something like that?

MICA: I mean, Alandra is an engineer. She knows exactly her position, she knows that position well. She'll fit in on any Starship, and also she needs to keep an eye on her sister. Older sisters aren't always right. Older sisters don't always know what they're doing. You need the younger sister's intuition to kind of be there and keep her out of trouble. So I think that any sister dynamic is always fun to watch happen, any sibling dynamic. So two siblings on a Starship, that's never happened before. We need to see that. We need to see how that would go down. I would love to continue this role, and I know that Ashlei Sharpe, who plays Sidney, she has become my sister in real life. Ed and I have also become great friends. All three of us are pals. We would love to continue being the next Next Generation together.

I love that. What has it been like for you getting to explore this sister dynamic with Ashlei?

MICA: So fun. [It’s] just me in my household, I'm the only burden, so I've never had a sibling, I've never had a sister. So, to come in and feel like I have a sister every day on set– I mean, Ashlei and I would text each other every day. We still do. We hang out all the time. She came to Thanksgiving at our house during Picard filming because she didn't have enough time over break to go home. So we were like, "Obviously, you're part of our family." And she really is.

I mean, she was there every step of the way while I was meeting my now-boyfriend, giving me advice, helping me craft texts, and they finally got to meet at the Picard premiere and it was almost like they already knew each other. It was great. I really do feel like—I know it's such a cliche that my onscreen sister is like my sister, but I would fight a million people for Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut, over and over again.

Well, that's how you know she's a real sister now because she's been helping you craft those texts.

MICA: I know! I was like, we've already done girl-talk, sleepover time, and she's helped me nail down my boyfriend. I genuinely don't know if I would've been as smooth in my texts without Ashlei's help.

I love that so much. LeVar, for you, something I've really been impressed with this season of Picard is the amount of Easter eggs and hidden nuggets that can be found, that are built into this set. Were there any that you saw that really caught your attention or something that was like, this is how they know Geordi?

LEVAR: Absolutely. Can I talk about them? I don't think... Can I?

MICA: There's not a lot we can talk about.

LEVAR: I'll say yes, there are, and I can say this: watch very closely at the phone call that Geordi has with Picard. When my character enters the adventure, pay close attention to the environment that Geordi is in.

Okay, that's a good tease. This is a question for both of you, it's a little bit fun. I really love that scene in Episode 6 where Jack and Seven are looking at all of the ships that are at the Fleet Museum. If you could abscond with one of the iconic Star Trek ships, which one would you choose?

MICA: Honestly, and maybe this is because I'm biased, it would be the Titan [which] is, technically, now iconic. It would be the Titan , and no offense, it's because so many of the older ships are carpeted, and I really don't vibe with that. I feel like that's a hazard waiting to happen. I don't want to have to bring a carpet cleaner to space, so I'm going to go with the Titan . No offense to your Enterprise .

LEVAR: That's incredible. I love that, but you know, nobody wears heels on the Enterprise .

MICA: And maybe that was another problem, heels slap. I'm just saying.

Oh, I love that so much.

MICA: What about you? What ship would you take?

LEVAR: Oh, I think it would be one of the Next Gen ships, maybe the one that we didn't crash.

MICA: You crashed all the ships. That’s one thing about Star Trek , as well, is that every crew just decimates these ships. I feel like they don't just grow on trees.

LEVAR: It's a good action sequence.

MICA: Well, man, you know what? I hope one day I get to crash my own ship.

LEVAR: Well, I hope you do too. I hope you get that opportunity.

Put that on the wishlist for the next Next Generation series.

LEVAR: Your sister is already known as Crash La Forge.

MICA: I want to be Crash 2: Electric Boogaloo. That's what I want my nickname to be.

Oh, gosh. For my last question, Mica, what was maybe the most pinch-yourself, you-can't-believe-this-is-happening moment for you with this journey? Was it the sets? Was it getting into a uniform? What was the experience that you're like, "I can't believe this is happening right now"?

MICA: Gosh, honestly, I can't spoil it, but there's this moment where a good majority of all of us are together at once. And I think looking around the room... Oh my gosh, I'm getting choked up. It was almost like a death, a life flashing before your eyes, but I looked around at all of my family who have been there, and I saw Brent and me when I was a kid, and he was doing magic tricks to entertain me at–

LEVAR: Easter brunch.

MICA: [At] Easter brunch. And I saw Patrick calling me, it was the middle of the night in London, but it was the night before my theater school audition, and he called me to encourage me. I saw my parents make fun of me all the time, me flirting with Michael Dorn when I was a baby because I had a crush on him. And I just looked around the room, and I was like, "I can't believe I'm here." And it was just magical. Genuinely. I think that was the moment.

The first six episodes of the third and final Picard are streaming now on Paramount+.

• Star Trek: Picard (2020)

LeVar Burton's ‘awesome’ return to Star Trek is a family affair

Levar burton on reading, politics, and star trek.

Actor and advocate LeVar Burton joined Good Day New York on Thursday, along with filmmaker Jenny MacKenzie. The two discussed a new documentary about literacy, but also took a moment to talk about the return of Geordi La Forge.

NEW YORK - LeVar Burton is back as Geordi La Forge in the third and final season of ‘Star Trek: Picard.’ It’s been a while since we saw the Enterprise’s former chief engineer in a Starfleet uniform, but Burton is excited to return to the role.

"It was awesome," he said Thursday.

The actor, TV host, and reading enthusiast was on Good Day New York to promote ‘The Right to Read,’ a documentary he produced along with filmmaker Jenny MacKenzie.

"I know fully well I am the man that I am due to the literary influences that have been a part of my life, for the whole of my life," he explained. "Literacy, I see it as a civil right, and this documentary that Jenny has made really does frame childhood literacy through that lens."

Burton has spent decades advocating for literacy, going back to his days as host of the kids show ‘Reading Rainbow.’ But he’s also known globally for his Star Trek role, and he said it was "just the best time imaginable" getting the ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ crew back together for what many believe is a final send-off.

Actor LeVar Burton and his daughter Mica Burton arrive for the Los Angeles premiere of the final season of "Star Trek: Picard" at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California, on February 9, 2023. (Photo by MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images)

The third season is streaming now on Paramount Plus, though so far, the only La Forge that fans have seen is Geordi’s daughter Sidney, played by Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut, who follows in her father’s footsteps at the helm of a starship. 

But Burton says it’s going to be even more of a family affair as the season progresses.

"My daughter Mica plays one of Geordi La Forge’s two daughters in ‘Star Trek: Picard,’" he continued. "It’s her debut and the first time she and I have been able to work together as father and daughter actors."

LINK: You can learn more about ‘The Right to Read’ at www.therighttoreadfilm.org  

'Star Trek: Picard' Sneak Peek: LeVar Burton Reunites With the 'Next Generation' Crew (Exclusive)

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It's a Next Generation  reunion! 

On the latest episode of Star Trek: Picard , titled "The Bounty," LeVar Burton reprises his role as Commodore Geordi La Forge as he's reunited with his fellow Next Generation  castmates. Burton's real-life daughter, Mica Burton , also makes her debut in the  Star Trek  universe as one of Geordi's two daughters, Ensign Alandra La Forge, in the hour. (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut plays Geordi's eldest daughter, Ensign Sidney La Forge, who mans the controls on the USS Titan.)

ET exclusively debuts a sneak peek from the episode, which opens with Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) and the skeleton crew of the USS Titan on the run, and desperately seeking any and all help as they seek to break into Starfleet’s top-secret facility to expose a plot that could destroy the Federation. Picard's only option for assistance in this high-stakes mission? Geordi, of course.

In the clip, Picard and the crew are hailed by Geordi but the initial reunion doesn't get off on a good start, much to Picard's dismay. 

"Listen to me very carefully, Jean-Luc," Geordi says once he appears on screen. "Power down all of your ship's non-essential systems immediately." The cold shoulder surprises Picard, who tells his old friend they're desperate for his "help."

Soon after, Geordi and his daughter, Alandra, beam aboard the ship. And it's as if no time has passed and the iciness thaws.

"I must admit, in a nanosecond my body de- and then reconstructed, I debated the virtues of a curt, professional handshake or an uncomfortably long, overdue hug," Geordi says, walking toward Beverly Crusher and his old colleagues.

"And which way will it go?" Picard asks with a hint of a smile.

Geordi's warm embrace with Crusher says it all.

Burton spoke to ET in September 2021 about welcoming Mica into the  Star Trek  family.

"I never saw this coming, right? Growing up, she had her fandoms and  Star Trek  wasn't among them. So I did not think this was ever gonna happen," Burton said at the time. "To have her be officially a part of this Universe, it's a proud dad moment. It genuinely is."

The actor also acknowledged that his  Next Generation  character is very much a part of his legacy. 

"I can't imagine playing another one. I mean Geordi is a part of me. There's no way around that," Burton explained. "I wouldn't want to [play another character], I love this guy. I love his energy, his attitude, his optimism. He's still fun to play after all these years. I'm going to stick to what I know. Stick with what works."

New episodes of  Star Trek: Picard  drop Thursdays on Paramount+.

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Star Trek: Picard's Jean-Luc Meets Geordi’s Daughter Sidney La Forge In Season 3 Clip, And The Actress Told Us About Her 'Fangirl' Moment

Check out this exclusive clip from the premiere.

Pretty soon, anyone with a Paramount+ subscription will have a chance to check out the long-awaited final season premiere of Star Trek: Picard . There are undoubtedly many fans excited to see the crew of The Next Generation back together and would love to see the premiere just one day sooner. Well, CinemaBlend can't do that, but we can preview a small clip in which Jean-Luc Picard meets helmsman Sidney La Forge for the first time on the USS Titan. 

As seen in the clip above, Sidney La Forge was thrilled to be meeting Admiral Picard in the flesh and less than thrilled that Riker knew about one of her more embarrassing stories from Starfleet. CinemaBlend learned from Sidney actress Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut ahead of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 that wasn't the first time she met Patrick Stewart , and she didn't have to act too hard to genuinely "fangirl" out for the Admiral on the bridge: 

Luckily I was able to meet them before we started shooting, so I kind of got my fangirl moments out. But definitely, what you see on screen is actually real. Ashlei, aside from Sidney, is fangirling for Patrick.

Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut was psyched to meet Patrick Stewart, and I don't blame her. Even three seasons in, I'm still in awe that Stewart returned to Star Trek to be a part of another series. I can't imagine being an actor actually getting to share screen time with him in a season that feels as big as Picard Season 3, and being immortalized as a part of that. 

As mentioned, Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut plays Sidney La Forge, one of two daughters of Geordi La Forge. While she's not actor LeVar Burton's real-life daughter like her co-star Mica Burton (playing Alandra La Forge), Chestnut certainly felt the weight of working on Star Trek: Picard Season 3 and spoke to CinemaBlend about what being a part of it all meant to her: 

Honestly, when everyone came back, it just was a moment. It’s history, you know? I just felt really grateful to be there in their presence, working alongside them. The fact they were my peers working in scenes, it was phenomenal.

It feels fated that Star Trek: Picard Season 3 will be the final adventure for the character. 

Phenomenal is one of many positive adjectives floating around the internet after a number of fans and media had a chance to screen the premiere of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 early. The batch of ten episodes may end up being the final adventure for the TNG cast, so there's a lot of pressure to close out the arc and give these characters a worthy ending. 

Here's hoping it succeeds and paves the way for new characters like Sidney La Forge to appear in other upcoming Star Trek shows ! There are still a few shows operating in this timeline after Picard ends, which means more opportunities for the "next, next generation" to start their own adventures. 

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 premieres on Paramount+ on Thursday, February 16th. Now is the perfect time to grab a subscription to the service to check out the latest season and revisit some of the best episodes of The Next Generation . 

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Mick Joest is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend with his hand in an eclectic mix of television goodness. Star Trek is his main jam, but he also regularly reports on happenings in the world of Star Trek, WWE, Doctor Who, 90 Day Fiancé, Quantum Leap, and Big Brother. He graduated from the University of Southern Indiana with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Radio and Television. He's great at hosting panels and appearing on podcasts if given the chance as well.

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LeVar Burton Makes ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Debut and Clarifies If Geordi Was Already a Father During ‘Nemesis’

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LeVar Burton never thought he’d play Geordi La Forge again.

He never even thought there’d be an onscreen “Next Generation” reunion after “Star Trek: Picard” was announced four and a half years ago. On that day, August 4, 2018, when Patrick Stewart took the stage at the Star Trek Las Vegas convention to say that the later life of his beloved captain would be explored in a follow-up series, Burton and Jonathan Frakes were excitingly peering out from backstage to support their friend as he had his moment. But Burton never expected to get in uniform as La Forge once more.

“In fact, quite the opposite,” Burton said in a new interview with IndieWire. “We were quite certain that we would not be a part of ‘Picard.’ This was Patrick’s opportunity to play the character, but to play stories that were in large measure unrelated to that part of his life in terms of how close we were on the Enterprise-D. So this came as a huge surprise, but mostly because we had all believed that that ship had sailed, that the opportunity to close the circle, if you will, had passed a long time ago.”

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It was about 10 years ago that Burton gave up hope of a proper “Next Gen” sendoff. Now, he and his fellow castmates, not seen all together onscreen since the 2002 film “Star Trek: Nemesis,” finally have one on “Picard.” And he’s made his return to Starfleet alongside his actual daughter, Mica Burton, who’s cultivated a following in the geek and gaming world herself as a host and professional cosplayer. Mica Burton plays Geordi’s daughter, Alandra, on the show alongside Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut as his other daughter, Sidney.

“The more I talk about it the more I realize just how much it means to me that my career has come to the point where I felt comfortable sharing space with my dad in a way that I didn’t feel like I would be looked at as the ‘nepo baby,’ when ‘Picard’ Season 3 came around,” Mica Burton said.

“I mean, what are the odds that these stars have aligned that way? Because my whole purpose in my career when I started out in the geek world was to not be LeVar Burton’s daughter. I wanted to be Mica Burton. Mica Burton the gamer, Mica Burton the cosplayer, Mica Burton the host. But now being able to feel comfortable having this acting role with him as I pursue my acting career to its fullest, it’s just so freaking cool. The universe really gave us a present. I’m a happy little nerd.”

The stars aligned also in having Terry Matalas as showrunner for Season 3, since he’s a self-described fan of the “Berman-verse”: the astonishing explosion of “Star Trek” from the late 1980s through 2005 overseen by producer Rick Berman once Gene Roddenberry handed him the keys to “The Next Generation.” Matalas and his writers’ room know their “Trek” lore so well that the very names of La Forge’s daughters, Alandra and Sidney, actually come from the alternate future presented in the “Next Gen” series finale “All Good Things…” in which he mentions being the father of daughters named… Alandra and Sidney.

“I will tell you that Mica gave me for Father’s Day a framed picture,” Burton said. “And there are two images, one of Geordi and one of Alandra, and it’s a beautiful thing.”

“It is my favorite part that we are both in Engineer Gold,” Mica added.

LeVar is quick to settle a question that fans have raised: Given the age of Geordi’s daughters, was the character a father by the time of “Nemesis” 20 years ago? Or even by the time of “First Contact” or “Insurrection”?

“No, I believe that this part of Geordi’s life came after ‘Nemesis’ and ‘Insurrection,'” Burton said. “That it was when Geordi made a decision to get out of the skies and teach that he settled down long enough to establish roots in a family situation, to get married and to have kids.”

Season 3 really has become a “Next Gen” reunion , but more than that: not about reliving the past, but about seeing where beloved characters are in the present after a long absence.

The Burtons make their debut in the sixth episode of the season, “The Bounty,” the title of which has a very unexpected inspiration from another part of “Trek” lore. Geordi is now Commodore La Forge, the officer in charge of the Fleet Museum — the old Spacedock turned “final resting place” for some of Starfleet’s most iconic starships — and he’s a teacher. He’s still an engineer at heart, though, and there’s a funny moment where Todd Stashwick’s Capt. Shaw, a former engineer himself, geeks out over meeting Geordi the way Donald Glover did on “Community” about meeting LeVar .

The reverence fans hold for LeVar is powerful, beyond that of usual celebrity: it’s a testament to the powerful effect of not just “Next Gen” but “Reading Rainbow” and “Roots” on viewers’ lives. That he’s revered as an educator and communicator, someone who people looked up to when they were growing up, as well as an actor. So he knew just how to react to Capt. Shaw’s unglued fanboy moment.

“In the acting profession we call it sense memory. And I was able to draw on my experiences as LeVar Burton while being LeVar Burton playing Geordi La Forge in that moment with Todd.”

Season 3 has been a dream come true for “Next Gen” fans , with many now hoping that their sendoff in “Picard” isn’t that final, final sendoff after all. But if it is, LeVar says it will be satisfying.

“We went into this thinking this is the chance to close the circle that we didn’t get decades ago, right? We didn’t know that our last film was going to be our last film. And so this is an unexpected gift. And yeah, I feel like I can absolutely walk away satisfied, really satisfied. I feel full.

“And the response to this season of ‘Picard’ has been clamorous in its affirmation that this is pretty special TV. They don’t want to let go of this new cast of the next generation of ‘The Next Generation.’ And so, one never knows, do one? I’m absolutely fine with this being the end.

“And if it isn’t, that’d be cool too.”

One can dream.

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Who Are The Two New Members Of The La Forge Family In Picard's Season 3 NYCC 2022 Teaser?

The final season of "Star Trek: Picard " on Paramount+ may end up being the final chapter for several of the most iconic characters from "Star Trek," but it also might be the jumping-off point for several new characters in the universe. The show has brought back many of the franchise's most popular characters, like the show's namesake, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), his former first in command, William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes), and the engineer with the cybernetic eyes, Geordi La Forge ( LeVar Burton ).

The Season 3 trailer for "Star Trek: Picard" dropped at the NYCC 2022, and with it we learned some very interesting new information about the show. The character of Geordi La Forge has always been close with Picard, dating back to his time with him on the Enterprise in "Star Trek: The Next Generation." So, it's quite an interesting turn of events in the trailer when Admiral Picard says, "La Forge, gun it," and it is a young woman who responds instead of Geordi.

Who is this new La Forge and what is her relation to one of the series' most famous characters?

Geordi La Forge's two daughters carry on the family legacy

There will be two new members of the La Forge family appearing in "Star Trek: Picard" Season 3 as the daughters of Geordi La Forge. In the trailer, Ensign Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) takes the command from Admiral Picard and prepares to carry out his order. Additionally, LeVar Burton's real-life daughter, Mica Burton, will be playing the role of Ensign Alandra La Forge, though she doesn't appear in the trailer. Both actors have not revealed the extent their characters will be featured in the final season of the series. 

The La Forge family has a history in Starfleet with both of Geordi's parents being revealed as Starfleet Officers in episodes of "The Next Generation."  The addition of Geordi's daughters to "Star Trek: Picard" is a nice touch that adds to the lore of the La Forge family in the "Star Trek" universe, and gives future showrunners the opportunity to include the family without having to have LeVar Burton reprise his role as Geordi La Forge yet again. But we will have to wait and see how much these new characters are utilized in the show.

The final season of "Star Trek: Picard" will debut on Paramount+ on February 16, 2023.

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LeVar Burton's 'Jeopardy!' Dream Not Coming True Led to 'Bliss' Working with His Daughter on 'Picard'

The iconic actor returns to the Star Trek universe on Picard, once again sans VISOR — alongside real-life (and onscreen) daughter Mica

Ryan Parker is the former Senior News Editor, Weekends for PEOPLE. He left PEOPLE in 2023.

LeVar Burton learned a profound lesson last year when he lost out on his dream of being named the new permanent host of Jeopardy!

Although he was eager to succeed the late, legendary Alex Trebek (fans of the frequent guest host expressed their support by submitting a petition containing hundreds of thousands of signatures), Burton, 66, remains philosophical about the missed opportunity.

"Your failures are more important than your successes because you learn more from them," he tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. "Everything happens for a reason, and it's all purposeful and perfect. So where's the perfection in 'I didn't get what I wanted'? I discovered that [it] wasn't supposed to be mine, but the process that I went through led me to exactly where I needed to be."

Initially, the show's executive producer Mike Richards was announced as the new host. Three weeks later, Richards resigned after sexist and other disparaging comments he made on a podcast several years ago surfaced, and history-making former contestant Ken Jennings and The Big Bang Theory actress Mayim Bialik replaced him as rotating permanent hosts.

Had Burton landed the demanding game-show gig, the actor realizes he might not be in the place of "absolute bliss" that he's in today: reprising one of his most beloved roles, Star Trek: The Next Generation's Geordi La Forge, for the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard on Paramount+.

A big part of the thrill of returning to the franchise for the first time since Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002 is the chance to work alongside his daughter Mica. The 28-year-old actress (her mom is Burton's wife of 30 years, Hollywood makeup artist Stephanie Cozart Burton) was cast to play one of Geordi's daughters.

Also, Picard reunites Burton with his Star Trek: The Next Generation castmates Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden and Marina Sirtis. More than friends, the original crew from the '80s and '90s sci-fi hit are like family — and that's not a platitude.

"Mica's grown up with them all," Burton says, pointing out that Spiner served as best man at his 1992 wedding, while Dorn, Frakes and Stewart were groomsmen. "We have spent so much of our lives with each other," he says.

Being back on-set, he adds, "was effortless — like the old days."

Before he launched into space onscreen, Burton became a star, figuratively speaking, with his Emmy-nominated performance as the young Kunta Kinte in the 1977 ABC miniseries Roots .

"The entire nation got an education," says the actor, who was cast when he was still in his teens in one of the first TV productions to depict the horrors of slavery. He helped to further educate the masses on the PBS children's program Reading Rainbow , which he hosted from 1983 to 2006.

Between Rainbow and Next Generation , on which he appeared from 1987 to 1994, he remained a household name and face, but his family was his priority.

"My wife, she taught me what love looks like, sounds like, tastes like, smells like," says the father of two. (He has a son, Eian, born in 1980 from a previous relationship.) "Then when Mica came, I was transitioning from making my living as an actor to making my living as a director. And in those early days, I was gone all the time."

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For Mica, working with her father and her "aunts and uncles" has been a "whirlwind," she says. "My agent told me that I was cast, and my dad didn't know, so I got to tell him."

On her first day, she recalls, "my dad drove me to work, and it was just my family on-set, my Star Trek family." But despite her joy over joining the series' sci-fi universe, Mica admits she wasn't always a Trekkie: "I didn't want to be 'LeVar Burton's daughter.' I wanted to be myself, my own person. And so I purposefully was anti- Star Trek for a long time."

Before Burton ever stepped onto the starship Enterprise, his talent and his mere presence on TV were game changers at a time when high-profile roles and opportunities for Black men were scarce. He's pleased with the progress the industry has made when it comes to diversity.

"We're in a different business now," says Burton, who, in addition to acting, has directed episodes of Star Trek , Charmed and JAG . "There are so many more people of color and women and other marginalized groups that are in front of [the camera] and behind the scenes. Are we finished? Not even close, but we have made significant strides, real strides."

The former Reading Rainbow host recently partnered with the educational games company Osmo to "do what I've always done — using the prevailing technology to give children a tool that will help them crack the code."

He's also an executive producer of the 2023 documentary The Right to Read , which, he explains, "frames early childhood literacy as a civil rights issue. That's what Reading Rainbow was all about: fostering a love of the written word. I'm focusing my attention now on giving kids the tools they need to learn how to read."

Between that bold mission and the one he's embarked on with his daughter and closest friends on Picard , Burton says life is just as it should be: "I'm ecstatic that things have worked out the way they have."

For more on LeVar Burton, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here .

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Interview: Jonathan Del Arco Talks “Borg Spin-Off” That Became ‘Star Trek: Picard’ And Hugh’s Surprise Death

| September 27, 2024 | By: Laurie Ulster 59 comments so far

Jonathan Del Arco, who played Hugh on  Star Trek: The Next Generation  and  Star Trek: Picard  and Fantome on  Voyager , chatted with us about the Trek the Vote show on October 2, a fundraiser for Vote Save America . In part 1 of our interview with Del Arco, we asked him what to expect at this “comedy show that blends politics, games, and a healthy scoop of hot nerdery.” Now read part 2, where we talked about how he found himself on Picard , the surprise news that his character was going to die, and more.

(This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)

You turned up on season 1 of Picard ; were you given any kind of backstory on what Hugh had been up to and how he got to where he was?

I sure wasn’t! [laughs] We were lucky enough to have rehearsal for the first episode, we had some time because they were building sets and they were running way behind, they were rewriting a bunch of scripts and we sat around talking, and they were like, “I don’t know.” So I did come up with a lot in my own head of what I thought, and we did have one person who was more knowledgeable on this, Kirsten Beyer, so I did talk to her. She was helpful and helped me kind of hash out what might have been in that middle ground, which was very helpful. But initially, no, I was trying to piece together exactly—they kept saying to me, he’s really broken, and I didn’t understand what that was. A very weird note to me. I didn’t understand what that meant. And then once I got into him and into the scenes, I completely comprehended what they meant by broken… I eventually got there, but I use all kinds of things to motivate my mental state on the ship and to try to find a thread. What I didn’t want to happen, because it’d been so many years and I was in so much makeup the first time, for the fans to not recognize Hugh, that there needed to be some thread of recognition of who that young person might have become.

So did you have any specifics that you came up with in terms of, like, what he’d been doing?

Yes, he dedicated his life to the betterment of the little collective that followed him as they broke off from The Collective, as it were, and became their leader and their guide. And then when this opportunity came up to work on the on The Artifact . He took it because he felt, were he not there it, the situation, would have been even worse for the xBs , even though he wasn’t capable of protecting them fully. He did what he could within that job to keep things from going completely off the rails, right? Which eventually they did.

Jonathan Del Arco as Hugh in Star Trek: Picard.  Photo Cr: Trae Patton/CBS ©2019 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Was this a situation where they had written Hugh in and then called you, or was there someone on the production—I know you’d worked with [executive producer] James Duff, who was on the show at that point. Was that something he did? How did it all happen?

James was the showrunner on The Closer and Major Crimes and a very dear friend of mine and Jeri [Ryan]’s, and he had been hired to come very early on, one of the early executive producers and writers of a spin-off of Star Trek. We didn’t know what it was. There was no Picard yet. It was a spin-off of Star Trek. Alex Kurtzman, James Duff, and I believe maybe one other writer was involved at the time, and James really wanted it to be a Borg spin-off. That’s why he talked to Jeri and I, and really started talking to them about it being this Borg storyline. And somewhere within that he discussed it with us maybe a year before it even happened. And they didn’t have Patrick yet. So I think then they went and made the pitch to Patrick. But had Patrick not done it, some kind of show about the Borg would have happened. It would not have been Picard , it would have been a show about the Borg. And you can even tell how heavily Borg-influenced it was. So the Borg was really the the kernel, from what I understand of of the beginning of that idea. And once Patrick became involved, the pieces began to fall into place, and we were set up and given deals to come be a part of the show. What I was not told was that I was getting killed, because that was not James’s plan. And James left the show before they began filming. He had a creative differences and left, I think, weeks before I even began. I’d signed my contract, and the people that were left, I think, then made that decision without my being told or even knowing about it through gossip. I read it in a script. That was the first time I ever—

They didn’t tell you before they sent you the script?

That’s always fun for an actor.

It was not. [laughs]

Do you know why?

I have no idea what the creative reasoning for killing Hugh was. I was told they needed it to propel the story. And maybe they thought, that’s how they get Seven onto the cube. I just think they missed a lot of really great storytelling opportunities with Seven and Hugh… Had I stayed on the show, I wouldn’t have gotten to do these two movies that I did, one which premieres October 18 in theaters, The Grotto . I would have never gotten to do The Grotto , because I would have been filming Star Trek and so creatively, I don’t regret it. I don’t feel bad about it. The only thing I regret is I didn’t get to do stuff with a couple of people, Jeri Ryan and LeVar Burton. Those are the two people I wanted to really have an opportunity to connect with as characters. Creatively, those are the two relationships I really wish I’d gotten to do.

Given that season 3 of Picard was so Borg heavy, it seems like that would have been a great opportunity, especially because your original adventures were with that whole crew.

I mean, not having to have a scene with Geordi, or to even ask about Geordi was completely misinformed to me. I kept asking, “Shouldn’t I ask about Geordi?” Nope… But you know what? I’m fine with that, because I got to do these movies, and I’m excited that I did. People magazine just put the trailer out [for The Grotto ] today.

I just rewatched your first episode of Next Gen [“I, Borg”] and all over again, your performance blew me away. Did you have any thought back then that the episode and Hugh would have such an impact on viewers, not only to come back later in TNG, but decades later?

I think about it often. I wonder, what about the performance and the character hit people in such a primal way? And I think that character is a study in loneliness. And I just think that that’s something everyone can identify with at some point in their life, feeling alone. We come into the world alone, we leave the world alone. I think it’s a very scary thing for people, and it’s a very isolating thing for people to be disconnected from family and friends and being alone. There’s a ethos to that that I think really strikes at it. At the time when I played the role, I was going I was in grief, my partner had passed, so I was in a very particular space as a person that I think I put into the role that had a beautiful resonance to people. I think people just connected to that, to the truth of that person.

There was a vulnerability there.

Absolutely, yeah. So I think that that’s why. But it’s also a great character to come out of this sort of villainous—the idea that the villainous collective has this vulnerable, fragile creature amongst them.

You had a great scene with Whoopi… Do you remember anything about filming it? Had you worked with her before?

I had never worked with her. I was a fan, and I remembered her just being the loveliest person ever, and joyful and smiling—she was a fan of Star Trek. So she was really, really, really into it. I remember, because you film things in a certain order; when you’re a star, it’s called shooting you out, which is, let’s get all your stuff done so you could go home. I remember her insisting that they do all of MY stuff first, because I was in the uncomfortable costume. So then I could relax out of some of that makeup and do her stuff. I remember thinking that that was just amazing. And then she said, “Come back and say hi to me when you’re out of that makeup.” And so I did. I went back, and she goes, “Oh, you’re so cute!” So it was a really cute moment. She wanted to see what I looked like out of all my stuff. She was terrific.

And you also had great scenes with Patrick, with LeVar… there must have been something fun in that scene with Patrick in Picard , where you got to actually hug.

I will take full credit for the hug. It was not in the script. And I hear a lot of people talk about the hug being a moment for them, so that’s nice to hear… It was odd, the way it was written. We just had the conversation, there was no physical touching going on. And Patrick said, “I feel like we should at least shake hands or something.” And I said, “Would you mind if I hug you?” And he said, “No, let’s try it.” So we rehearsed it. And the director [Maja Vrvilo], she came up to us with tears in her eyes, and she goes, “Oh, we’re doing that. Everyone was crying, we’re definitely doing that.”

Picard and Hugh hug on Star Trek: Picard

Trek the Vote is happening on Oct. 2

Hosted by Trekkies Jon Lovett and Alice Wetterlund, guests so far include Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Wil Wheaton, Jeri Ryan, Rosalind Chao, Tawny Newsome, Eugene Cordero, Noël Wells, Mike McMahan, and of course, Del Arco himself. (Read part 1 of our interview for details about the event.)

Why is it so important to connect Trek to this? What’s the connective tissue?

The connective tissue to me, is, first of all, Trek is a family. Trek is an organized principle of fans that believe in certain principles—that are obvious, right? The Federation, the respect for humanity, not judging someone on what they look like or on what their physical capabilities are or aren’t, on their wealth…  There are many, many things that connect the vision of Star Trek to what is happening in in our politics right now, and the possibility of a future where we have different point of view of running the show. By that, I mean a woman in particular. It would be a very refreshing change to try to put that at the helm. Remember when Janeway became the first captain? It was a moment in Trekdom. I think this will be a moment in American history in the same way, and it’s very optimistic to me.

So there’s a lot of connective tissue with the future. For one, we believe in science. I dare say, you could definitely make an argument that the people running on the other side are not very big believers in science. I believe in healthcare, I believe in a person’s body autonomy… I dare say the other side doesn’t believe in body autonomy, because they have taken it away from women across the country. So we could go down the line of how it aligns. Sometimes I’m very surprised to talk to anyone that is a fan of Star Trek that doesn’t see the similarities between the kind of two ideologies of what America is… [And in terms of the event] What’s great about Star Trek is this sort of opportunity to have fun and also make a change.

Listen to full interview

The audio of the full interview with Jonathan Del Arco was released today on the All Access Star Trek podcast.

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After reading this, I really want to see the plan for James Duff’s PIC season 1. It sounds so much better than Chabon’s, if only because it didn’t kill off Hugh just to “propel the story.” The season 1 of Picard we got certainly felt like a chaotic rush job, and this interview only confirms it. I’m still not over how they decided to pair Seven and Rafi up for the stated reason that they looked cute together during photoshoots at San Diego Comic Con… for a show they were at least halfway through shooting!

Given Season 1’s rather robust character introduction to death pipeline, the story we got must have needed a LOT of propelling.

‘Robust introduction to the death pipeline’, LOL. What a wonderful way of putting it!

Right? I really like the idea of them together, but we didn’t seen the beginning of their relationship. We saw them suddenly decide to hold hands after meeting at the very end of the season. It’s clear the creators thought about it so much they were used to it and it felt real to them… but they forgot to involve US the audience in that process, which is the whole point. By season 2, the No Man’s Land audio drama did for me what PIC season 1 didn’t regarding them, so I’m on board now (should they choose to further explore it).

EDIT: Now that I think about it, though, this IS the season that gave us a scene where Jurati bones Rios in response to killing her partner under mind control, so it had already set a precedent of weird and inexplicable pairings.

His recollections of not having backstory thought about and not being told he was being killed off definitely jibe with what Jeri Ryan was saying about how they handled Seven at first. The character was unrecognizable on the page, and she said she had to go through some pretty elaborate mental hoops to come up with a justification for why the character’s voice was so drastically changed. She said Frakes and del Arco helped her enormously with that. They had to, the writers were probably putting out so many brush fires they couldn’t have helped solve this if they tried.

Loved his story about Whoopi. That was a very special shoot.

I think there was certainly some sort of clash in that first season and Chabon kind of seems to be in the middle of it. They had two distinct ideas with the Borg and Picards involved and wanted to have a connectedness with those ideas and they probably brought in Chabon to connect those and he wanted to have his own ideas involved with the show and couldn’t really get those two concepts together. It seems like a clash of egos and ideas of the different producers.

I distinctly remember while watching Picard Season 1 I thought, “oh my goodness. I know a lot more about this world and these characters than the writers do.” It was not a good feeling.

season 1 of picard was a missed opportunity. i feel like braga and moore could have made a better season long story arc. all the pieces were there, they just didn’t come together well. then season 2 happened and things got worse. but we will always have season 3 as one last hurrah for TNG and i feel content with TNG ending there (but i would love a STL series with the G, 7 and that new crew / cast)

Yes thank God for season three. It was nice to finally have some semblance of old Trek back and the characters were given proper roles again.

Season one had such great potential but ended up being a big failure. Not as bad as Discovery’s first season but close enough IMO..

And Hugh should have lived. Another big mistake. I was so excited for this show since I was so tired of going backwards and wax so excited to have some of the TNG characters back, but lots of problems there.

Nepenthe was definitely the standout that season along with the first few episodes. But it’s mostly a mess overall.

I think S1 of PIC would have flowed more smoothly if we had twelve episodes instead of ten. You have a three-part series premiere and basically a two-part season finale; so you’re left with only five episodes in the middle to flesh out the story and new characters.

I think you’re right. The season felt like hardly anything happened before it was over. It felt so rushed in the end and so much still left unresolved. We never heard about the XBs again.

Good interview. It is so sad they killed off Hugh. How does it propel the story? When Ro Laren dies in season 3, it directly affected not only the plot, but also the characters in a deep way. Her death meant something. When Hugh dies, it’s pointless. And yes, Hugh should have had a scene with Geordi.

When people ask me about the Picard series, I tell them to just skip the first two seasons.

Problem with S1 of PIC was that there were too many elements to make a cohesive season. They should have scaled it back a bit, because you could have has two seasons of PIC with the amount of material there were. Plus, I felt that the “edginess” that the producers were trying to go for was “forced”. Storytelling should always be an organic process, resulting in both a penultimate and conclusive episode.

I really disliked how the PIC showrunners made the BRP xB faction into another minority metaphor just to slaughter them all and not even resolve their story at the end. I recall Chabon being surprised that anyone cared when asked about it and it’s just…ffs, if we’re not supposed to care about the parts of the story specifically calculated to get an emotion reaction, why waste our time by putting it on screen? If Hugh’s death had, for example, been used as explicit character development for Elnor (who sorely needed it) that would have shown some thought was put into the whole thing, but nope. Complete waste of the character.

Well said, on all points!

And again, totally unnecessary to kill Hugh and Ro Laren.

And Bruce Maddox, Icheb, B4, Shelby. Probably several others I can’t recall because I’ve done my best to forget the nihilistic and terrible parts and remember the good things. All good things, hehe.

Even Picard!

Good point! I totally forgot about that.

Seasons 1 and 2 of Picard have literally no rewatch value for me. I’ll never see them again. And when I did see them ‘off’ Hugh for no good reason, I was heartily disappointed.

Per usual, totally agree with you. I was the biggest proponent for this show when it was announced. I didn’t object to a single idea or rumor about it. I was just so excited to get some of TNG cast back and to finally go forward again I didn’t even care what it was. I just trusted if Patrick Stewart agreed to come back then obviously it was going to be good and something very special.

Sadly couldn’t have been more wrong the first two seasons. Season 3 turned it around for me (but yes, I understand not for everyone though) but it was basically another show completely by then. Matalas obviously wanted a TNG reunion but he knew the show wasn’t really working and finally just gave what most fans wanted to see anyway. But if season one was just better received, my guess is they probably would’ve stuck to that direction of the show and brought in the TNG casts as part of that original direction instead of scrapping it completely and doing whatever he wanted.

I will never understand why didn’t they just make it a full on TNG show from the beginning? It sound like Stewart ego got in the way but fans wanted to see them all back.

I love Picard as a character but seeing him with new characters at this point of his life just felt strange. If he was on a starship at least that would’ve felt more realistic like Admiral Janeway in Prodigy.

Season 3 worked because he was with his family again and not with mostly random strangers. I never bought it even if I liked some of the characters.

I did understand Stewart’s thinking about it at the time. He didn’t want to be back on another Enterprise barking orders at Worf or Geordi when he had done that for 15 years and 20 years ago. I think in all reality he really did move on from Star Trek by then and it was going to have to be something major (besides money ;)) to get him back. He said in other interviews he was being pitched to return to the role on some level for years, as far back as 2012. So it sounds like SOMEONE wanted to try and bring TNG back for a long time; we just don’t know in what form (another show? TV movie?) but he turned them all down…until Kurtzman called him and came up with a radical departure.

And we got it for better or for worse.

And I did like the original Picard cast. And even now I felt bad most of them got the shaft in the third season. Hell most of them got the shaft in the second season lol. But I also agree it felt a bit forced. And I remember saying after season one ended how would they find a way to keep bringing them together? Because for Star Trek, it’s being in Starfleet or a part of it somehow that naturally creates that cohesion. And sure enough they basically put them all in Starfleet in season 2 lol.

If Stewart had said no to the idea of bringing back the TNG cast, they would’ve came up with something for season 3 but in all honesty they needed something to change the narrative or a reset after the first two seasons. Even if others liked them, they do have to admit most fans didn’t. And I think because the show had such a limited run, they had to go out with a bang to justify even having it because after season 2 I think most people just didn’t care anymore. I certainly didn’t. And that’s kind of sad seeing how much fanfare Stewart had returning. It would’ve royally sucked if the show had been considered a complete failure. Again, I know not everyone loves season 3 either but it did what many were hoping the first two seasons did and got fans excited about seeing these characters and era again. It’s a huge hit and the show went out with that bang. Maybe it went out a little too well because now people won’t stop talking about Legacy lol.

The bigger irony is Matalas had to talk Stewart into doing a TNG reunion season but now he keeps hinting he wants to do more with them, either more seasons or a movie. I guess the nostalgia of them all working together again had the same effect as old fans watching it.

I don’t know if we’ll ever see them together again, but it’s still Star Trek, so who knows?

Yes, per usual you laid out your thoughts well Tiger2! 🙂

And I understand Stewart wanted to do something different in the role but sorry how it was done was too lackluster for me. I liked most of the cast as well but it didn’t gel for me. They didn’t feel like a real team. First season was OK I guess because they gave them a reason to be there. But second season just felt like everything was done by convenience only. For starters. why were those people specifically sent to the past? Why did Q bring them specifically? We wouldn’t need to ask this if it was the other TNG characters because he knows all of them and their relationship to each other. But here it felt so random because it was.

And there is hardly any chemistry between them. Seven and Raffi relationship just felt forced. Elnor is a nice kid but I have no idea why he’s even there? What was his purpose? Jurati belonged in prison for killing her boyfriend and just felt ridiculous it was dropped so easily. Rios was great though and the only one I wish stayed longer besides Seven of course. There didn’t felt like any reason they were there together other than they are stars of the show. But they had little to no connection to each other. Not to mention the story was even worse that season one.

Now take season 3 and how those characters came together. Of course Picard and Riker were going to save Beverly and it went on from there. They were all given a reason to be there. And because they all deeply care about each other it wasn’t hard to figure out why they would join the mission. It was great to see them come together because they been coming together for over 30 years. That’s why I absolutely loved season 3.

And they certainly needed to swing direction after season 2. Picard overall is just a bad show. I still believe Discovery is easily worst but not by much. Season 3 fundamentally felt like a different show. It certainly wasn’t perfect either and still pales to some of the Golden age of 1966-2005. It would fall somewhere in the upper middle in terms of quality. For 700 episodes that is high IMO.

But for NuTrek, it might as well be considered a masterpiece haha.

I don/t know if you did this on purpose or not, but you left out Soji in season 2! But don’t feel bad, so did the show. ;)

As for Elnor, sadly I think that’s why they essentially just killed off his character in season 2 until the end. They would find ways to bring him back like that weird hologram scene and some flash back with Raffi, but basically sidelined. And having the Soji actress play a Soong clone in the past also was an odd choice. Again, just so strange. They couldn’t even find enough reason to use those characters fully in season 2; but you can say that for most of them. And what was the point of using the same actress who played Laris to also play a Traveler in the past?

The only thing I can think of is they were all contracted for the first two seasons and had to use them all in some way.

And I think maybe what would’ve been a better idea in the first two seasons if you didn’t want the complete TNG cast, but use one of those characters as another main character. Bring in Worf or Geordi and they are part of the mission too and that way you at least have one other long time character and someone Picard is really connected to and trusts. Raffi was basically suppose to be that character but she was still a stranger to the audience. And of course she could’ve still been there. I don’t think that addition would’ve made the seasons any better but it would’ve made sense for Picard to have one long time friend by his side.

I still say I’d be on board a Picard show where he stays on Earth and solves crimes from his chateau. Different is wonderful, but it’s always all about the writing.

Ha, ‘Inspector Picard’ sounds wonderful.

And I probably would’ve watched that with bells on lol

Oh and I’m still upset we didn’t get Janeway in season 3 even though they dropped her name a dozen times in it lol, but that’s life. Tuvok was a nice substitute as well! :)

Now that really bugged me. They teased and teased and teased Janeway throughout the entire season and she never showed up. I was waiting for the scene her and Seven reunited. It would’ve been such an emotional moment to see Janeway reaction to Seven becoming a Starfleet Captain. I knw she was proud to see Chakotay and Tuvok become Captains but Seven would’ve met so much to see how far she came.

Very disappointing but I hold out hope we will see our beautiful ladies together again! ❤️

Yep, fingers crossed!

I… like Season 2 in all its messy, incoherent glory. It’s an explosion of ideas that don’t really pay off in many ways but I am always entertained.

End of the day that’s all that matters. Someone got something out of a piece of entertainment then it did its job.

Agree with others here, Picard had lots of promise in the beginning in season one but it fell very short in the end. So much of that season just feels so confusing and anti-climatic. There are so many decisions they made that were questionable to say the least, one of the biggest was indeed killing off Hugh. A character we haven’t seen for three decades and the minute we get to see him back he’s gone just as fast. And I remember thinking that he was going to be around the rest of the series when I assumed that story line was going to continue in season two and we would see him eventually reunite with Geordi; which is what many people wanted to see. Not only did that not happen, they then threw out this idea he and Seven had became close friends but like so much of that season, we were never shown it, just told since they couldn’t be bothered to put them in a scene together before he was killed off. Season one ultimately felt like a huge misfire in the end. Not as bad as season two lol but for all the hype going in, it turned out deeply disappointing minus a few stand out episodes. A season I don’t know if I will ever watch again frankly.

But it is interesting that they were already coming up with a very different show before Stewart agreed to come back and with Hugh and Seven. I always assumed there was only the idea of a TNG inspired show and nothing beyond that. I think a Borg show would’ve been very interesting because I always want Star Trek to try and think outside the box a little. And not just always another show of Starfleet officers on a starship which ironically every show in NuTrek has ultimately become including Picard.

But it also proves that there are probably so many ideas they are pitching for these shows that we probably never even hear about.

Still bummed we never got a proper send off for Laris. Liked her. Sloppy writing, no shock there. In my head canon Picard went and met her at the bar she mentioned in the first episode of S3.

It’s absolutely crazy what they did with Laris as a character. I loved her too and was hoping to see more of her in season 3. But I remember a former poster here said she only worked one day in season 3 and that’s when I knew she was being discarded like the rest of them.

First season she was in the first three episodes and then disappeared once Picard left. In season two, I was hoping she got a much bigger role. They threw them together in this shot gun relationship after killing off her husband and built an entire story line of them being together just to dismiss it completely in season three. And technically she was only in the first and last episode of season 2. Why not just have her be part of the main story line and develop their relationship more instead of bringing in Talinn?

And yeah why even bother to give that line in season 3 that they would meet at the bar if they were going to have Picard just brush her off completely? I don’t think he even mentioned her name again once she left lol. It’s just tells you just how disjointed the writing was. The character deserved so much better.

Also it’s interesting that he brought up people like James Duff and Kirsten Beyer. I remember when Duff was hired because they made an article about it here and I don’t think we heard anything else about him since, now I know why lol. But I completely forgot Beyer herself is still making these shows. She had such a big presence at the beginning of Discovery and then Picard. But lately I don’t remember hearing much about her so I went on her IMDB page and discovered she’s still a part of the franchise and completely forgot she wrote an episode of SNW last season; sadly my least favorite one, “Among the Lotus Eaters”. But still nice she’s active. Just funny how some people gets so much attention in the media and then just disappears. Apparently she was a producer on Picard for all three seasons but I don’t remember her name even mentioned in season two or three and especially when the final season basically turned into the Terry Matalas show.

And speaking of people disappearing, it’s still crazy to me how much fanfare Michael Chabon got when he joined the franchise and thought he was going to be around for quite a while. I have never heard of him until he joined Star Trek. I think his time on that show was super rocky considering how the season turned out and he left before the show before the season even aired. He was around when it was airing but disappeared completely after that and cut ties never to speak about Star Trek again. I think there is a huge rift we’re not hearing about for him to come and go so fast.

I think you are completely correct about Chabon. There seems to be some serious conflict that happened in the background as Chabon really doesn’t even want to talk about Trek at all anymore. And the sad part this is probably why we will never get another literary figure to write or produce for Trek ever again.

Even during season 1 it became clear from interviews by Chabon that the show we got was kind of a hodgepodge of ideas from different producers and that he wasn’t necessarily happen with all of them even though he was officially the showrunner. Based on Del Arco’s remarks here, it sounds like the Borg storyline came from James Duff. If I remember correctly, the strange Romulan love/spy triangle came from Akiva Goldsman. It is noteworthy that basically all open plot points from season 1 were dropped in season 2, and season 3 went on to actively undo stuff from season 1 (and season 2). So if he wasn’t happy with his time on season 1, and then basically everything he did got erased as soon as he left, I could understand that he may feel a bit bitter or sad and not want to talk about it anymore. Especially if he was a big fan and doing Trek was his life’s dream, this could have been be a very disappointing experience for him.

The Narek/Narissa thing was my least favourite part of S1, so it tracks Goldsman was responsible for it. The man is a disaster when it comes to Star Trek.

Oh the Romulan sibling incest thing was definitely Goldsman idea. He talked about it explicitly in one interview and said not only was it his idea, he wanted them to have a sexual relationship but was (not surprisingly) overruled. But he still had enough clout to imply there was at least something going on.

And I also think they greatly changed a lot of things because I remember originally at least the story in season one was suppose to carry on in the next season and probably through the entire show like the Dominion War on DS9. But that was obviously dropped. And like you said, it wasn’t just dropped, but they didn’t even reference any of the plot points from season one in season two outside of Picard being an android. Again, who knows, but if true, I can see how that would bother Chabon if he had fleshed out this bigger story and all of it was changed or side lined. I can see him not being happy about that obviously.

Either way, it’s very obvious that season had too many cooks or just constantly change things because it did feel really disjointed. It’s still crazy we spent 9 episodes on a Borg cube and that story line went nowhere in the end.

It’s strange for someone who said they not only loved Star Trek but said getting the job was a career high for him to basically just walk away and not look back. AFAIK, he was the one who decided to leave as well after just one season. I do remember something about his novel being adapted to a show and that was supposedly why he left. But that obviously never happened and he looks like he had no desire to return to Star Trek.

And I can imagine being your first time running a TV show and one with so much hype there must’ve been a lot of craziness behind the scenes. I think just like what happened with Bob Orci and the third Kelvin movie, we’ll probably never know the true reasons why he left.

but the season was easily the best picard season

If you’re talking about season one qe definitely disagree but happy you enjoyed it more than I did.

Chabon is a wonderful novelist and a big Star Trek fan. He’s written essays/short stories about Trek. Not in universe, of course. Knowing this I was really excited. I feel sorry for him. Probably had to sign an NDA

Picard was such a shitty, hapazard series. A complete mess from begining to to slightly better end. I glad it ended before it destroyed star Trek. Somany characters and plots deserved so much better writing and execution than they got.

It was never going to destroy Star Trek. Stop being dramatic.

‘fridging’ icheb was way worse.

As a motivation for a one-off episode that didn’t even shape the character in the rest of the series? Yeah, absolutely disgraceful.

Indeed. And needlessly grotesque.

That was a Frakes episode.

Interesting. I still have an overall positive opinion about Frakes as a director, just not for that episode.

Yeah, I was sitting in a hospital, eating lunch and waiting for my son to get out of surgery, when I saw that eyeball being pulled out. That, I did NOT need that day…

There was no point in it being so grisly. You can give Seven of Nine the same unoriginal arc and not have to show the gore and torture. Imagine being a kid watching Voyager and getting attached to Icheb, then finding out there’s a sequel show with Seven in it…

Oof, that’s rough. How’s your son doing?

There was no creative reasoning behind killing Hugh. You have to be a capable and creative writer and Chabon and Goldsman are neither of those things.

Unfortunately, he strikes to the heart of the matter- there was NO point in killing Hugh; it was needless and gratuitous. Getting Seven there could be so simple- she just stays with Picard and crew and stays with Elnor. Or the command functions ‘will only respond to a female drone’ because they’re keyed to the Queen.

That was the major problem with season 1 of Picard- Icheb, Hugh, Bruce Maddox… all the legacy character deaths were totally narratively unnecessary, and just there for cheap shock value. It really tainted what could have been a decent season, because it turned into this weird mix of nostalgic reunions and gratuitous slasher film.

Season 1 of Picard was all build-up and no pay off. Soji saves the day by literally waving her hands about. The writers admitted they had no idea how the story was going to end and they were making it up as they went along. It’s probably one of my least favourite seasons of Trek ever produced. Just awful.

Screen Rant

This star trek: the next generation crew member appeared in the pilot, then vanished.

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Every Q Star Trek Appearance Ranked Worst To Best

34 years later, star trek's most disappointing tng character exit still hurts, tng introduced picard's clone 12 years before star trek: nemesis.

This Star Trek: The Next Generation crew member appeared in the pilot episode before being promptly forgotten. While TNG's two-part premiere, "Encounter at Farpoint," established many aspects that continued throughout the series, some elements didn't quite stick. Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the crew of the USS Enterprise-D would go on to become as beloved as the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series, but it took time for the show to find itself. Lt. Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) would only stick around for the first season of TNG and Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) would leave the show and then return.

Star Trek: The Next Generation's core cast was more or less established from the beginning, but season 1 cycled through several Enterprise crew members who only made one or two appearances. For example, multiple chief engineers popped up throughout TNG season 1, before Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) earned the position at the start of season 2. In "Encounter at Farpoint," the USS Enterprise-D sets off on its official first mission, which is soon interrupted by John de Lancie's Q. A crew member named Lt. Torres, portrayed by Jimmy Ortega, played a role in this mission, but never appeared on TNG again.

Lt. Torres Acts As A Stand-In For Geordi During Star Trek: The Next Generation's Pilot

Torres mans the ops station when q first appears on the enterprise-d.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation 's series premiere , Lt. Torres serves on the USS Enterprise-D bridge as the flight control officer, replacing Geordi when he leaves the operations station. At the beginning of "Encounter at Farpoint," Torres sits at ops when Q first appears, announcing that "something strange" has appeared on the "detector circuits." Torres then brings the Enterprise to a full stop when a mysterious barrier appears in front of the ship. When Q appears on the bridge, Torres attempts to fire his phaser at him, unaware that it would be ineffective on the god-like being.

John de Lancie's god-like Q became one of Star Trek's most popular recurring characters, and here are all of his appearances ranked worst to best.

Q notices Torres approaching, even from behind, and orders him to stop. Q then freezes Torres, blasting him with frigid air and causing the lieutenant to fall to the floor encased in ice crystals. Torres is then rushed to sickbay, where he later makes a full recovery. Not only does Torres play a role in the introduction of one of Star Trek's best recurring characters , but he also receives a name in his first scene. This sets Torres up to be a significant character, but he is never seen or mentioned again after "Encounter at Farpoint."

Jimmy Ortega Has Appeared Elsewhere In The Star Trek Franchise Too

Ortega had uncredited roles in voyager & enterprise.

Jimmy Ortega's appearance as Torres in TNG's pilot remains his only credited Star Trek appearance, but he also played small roles in episodes of Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise . In Voyager season 7, episode 13, "Repentance," Ortega served as the stunt double for F.J. Rio, who portrayed a Benkaran prisoner named Joleg. Ortega also popped in in Enterprise season 3, episode 3, "Extinction" as a Decon Agent who tried to kill Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) , Ensign Hoshi Sato (Linda Park), and Sub-Commander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock). Ortega's Agent is killed by his fellow agents after his decon suit rips, infecting him with a deadly virus.

Jimmy Ortega's Lt. Torres helped make Q's Star Trek: The Next Generation entrance memorable.

Ortega is an actor and stuntman who has been involved in numerous popular television shows and films since he began performing in 1979. He has served as a stunt performer in films such as Predator 2, Tombstone, Ocean's Eleven, Spider-Man 2, and Terminator: Dark Fate . As an actor, he has appeared in episodes of Magnum P.I., Dragnet, Days of Our Lives, Arrested Development, and Walker . Ortega also appeared in the 2012 A-Team film, as well as 2022's Babylon . Jimmy Ortega's Lt. Torres helped make Q's Star Trek: The Next Generation entrance memorable, and it's a shame the character never appeared again.

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