That Post-Credits Scene In Picard Season 3 Was Cooked Up During Season 2
This article contains spoilers for the latest episode of "Star Trek: Picard."
Last night, "Star Trek: Picard" wrapped up its 3-season run with its most widely-celebrated arc yet. (You can check out /Film's recap by Witney Seibold here.) Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes), and the rest of the Enterprise crew all faced their most formidable enemy, the Borg, and managed to defeat them once and for all. Cue the happy celebrations, the extended epilogue wrapping up the stories of our classic heroes while setting the stage for new adventures to come, and an emotional final scene that sent the original "The Next Generation" cast off into the sunset in as satisfying a way as anyone could've asked for.
All's well that ends well, right? Well, maybe not.
A large part of the season dealt with the presence of Picard and Beverly Crusher's (Gates McFadden) secret lovechild, Jack (Ed Speleers). Although the estranged father and son eventually bonded with one another throughout the course of the 10 episodes, the finale ended with both generations in very different places. Picard and his old crew retired to play another round of poker, an overt callback to the series finale of "The Next Generation" back in 1994. But for Jack, Captain Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), Raffi (Michelle Hurd), and the young crew of the U.S.S. Titan (which has now been rebranded as the Enterprise, cool enough), their voyages in outer space are only just beginning.
Wouldn't it be a shame if an interdimensional god interfered with everything again? Yes, the surprising post-credits scene in the "Picard" finale brought back John de Lancie's meddlesome Q, this time to ruin Jack's day. For those who may have been wondering how this came to be, showrunner Terry Matalas is now spilling the beans.
To be contin-Q-ed...
As much as season 3 of "Star Trek: Picard" has earned raves across the board, that hasn't always been the case for this spin-off/sequel series. Season 2 in particular ended up dividing fans, especially in the finale when the show gave longtime enemies Picard and Q a weepy goodbye ... complete with an actual, affectionate hug! While I guess I'm in the minority who thought that was a well-earned coda to their tumultuous relationship over the decades, those disgruntled fans apparently were not alone in wanting a sort of redo to Q's time in "Trek" lore.
Showrunner Terry Matalas recently held a roundtable interview that /Film's Vanessa Armstrong attended, where he divulged exactly how this Q-centric post-credits scene in "Picard" came about:
"It was an idea I had all the way back when we were shooting [Q's] last scene in season 2. I knew we were going to tell this story and I went up to John [de Lancie] and I was like, 'I've got this idea for a post credit scene where he's back.' And he was like, 'Yes.' And John and I are dear friends, so we continued to talk about it whenever we hang out. And he was like, 'I'll be back.'"
Revealing that they only had "20 minutes" to shoot what would become one of his "favorite" scenes in the finale, Matalas was clearly giddy about the prospects of retconning Q back into continuity. Whether this flies in the face of the season 2 finale or not, I think most Trekkies are simply happy to get more of de Lancie's phenomenal, scenery-chewing performance as Q in the future. When exactly will that be? Paramount hasn't announced a "Star Trek: Legacy" spin-off just yet, but hopefully, it's only a matter of time.