Star Trek: Picard Filmed The Seven Of Nine Captain Catchphrase Fans Didn't See
The final scenes of "Star Trek: Picard" saw Captain Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) commanding the newly christened Enterprise-G (previously the Titan-A), taking her ship out on a brand new exploratory mission, exhilaratingly adding to the "Star Trek" legacy. Her first officer was her ex-girlfriend Commander Musiker (Michelle Hurd), and the ship is being piloted by Ensign La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) Geordi's daughter. Notably, Jean-Luc Picard's son Jack (Ed Speleers) sat at the captain's left hand serving as her special council.
Just before leaping to warp, the crew turns to their captain in expectation, wondering how she's going to give the order to activate the engines. Picard previously said "Engage" on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," as well as "Make it so." Other captains have adopted other dramatic phrases such as "Let's punch it" (Pike in the 2009 "Star Trek" film) or "I would like the ship to go. Now." (Spock on "Strange New Worlds"). What was Captain Seven's "catchphrase" going to be?
As a fun tease, Seven took in a breath to give the order, and then the showrunners cut away before audiences could hear her answer. It seems we'll never know what her version of "engage" will be.
It turns out, however, that Seven did have a catchphrase. In a recent interview with ComicBook.com, "Picard" showrunner Terry Matalas revealed that they shot an unused scene wherein other characters gave a reaction to her saying "her line," but that the scene was edited out at the last minute. What was the phrase? Matalas was frustratingly coy.
Disappointment
"Picard" contains a fun post-credits tease involving Jack and Q (John De Lancie), the trickster god who once gave Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) such trouble. The scene wasn't just a wink for fans, but was fully intended to tease out a (still not-in-production) spinoff series that Matalas would like to call "Star Trek: Legacy." That was ultimately the final scene in the series, but, it seems, Matalas has orchestrated one more. He described it thus:
"We had a few options, and we actually shot a post-post-credit to them reacting disappointed to it, and she's like, 'This is a work in progress.' But it's better left as a mystery that we hope to see it one day. Yeah. We'll see. It was pretty great though."
A wise cut, one might say. Leaving "Star Trek: Picard" on a shot of disappointed ensigns may not be the epic send-out the series might need.
Yes, it seems that the tease of not hearing Captain Seven's "Engage" was an act of deliberate withholding. Matalas was clearly hoping that frustrated fans, wanting to hear the catchphrase, would write letters to Paramount, imploring that "Star Trek: Legacy" be given the green light, and that Seven be allowed to say "Let's kick this pig," or whatever it might be. That Matalas claims he knows what the phrase is, well, that only sweetens the pot. Hey, Trekkies, keep writing letters.
Now for the fun speculation: Captain Seven of Nine learned her command skills mostly from Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) on "Star Trek: Voyager," so one might assume she would imitate her. Janeway merely said "Engage," however, and Seven would need something more in her own personal character. Given that she is a former Borg, might I suggest "Comply"?