Terry Matalas Has An Update On Star Trek: Legacy – And It's Not What Fans Were Hoping For
The third season of "Star Trek: Picard," overseen by showrunner Terry Matalas, ended with an intriguing new setup. After the season's story had concluded, the action fast-forwarded one year to when Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers) had become a provisionary ensign in Starfleet. Jack, with his father (Patrick Stewart) and mother (Gates McFadden), took a good long gander at his new assignment, the Titan-A, newly rechristened the Enterprise-G. This new ship was to be captained by Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), formerly the first officer on board the Titan-A, and the vessel was poised to go on its first deep-space mission with its new name.
Also on board were Raffi (Michelle Hurd), Seven's ex-girlfriend and also her first officer, as well as former Titan crewmembers Lieutenant Matthew Arliss Mura (Joseph Lee), Ensign Kova Rin Esmar (Jin Maley), and presumably Dr. Ohk (Tiffany Shepis). In a post-credits stinger after the final "Picard" episode, the trickster god Q (John de Lancie) appeared to Jack to tell him that a grad mission lies ahead. This was a callback to the first episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation."
Terry Matalas was clearly setting up a new series with all these characters. He wanted to launch a "Star Trek" show set on board the Enterprise-G, and he already had arranged all the appropriate players and even presented the outline of a premise. He wanted to call his new show "Star Trek: Legacy."
The unmade show made many headlines since Matalas expressed interest last year. Trekkies were intrigued and fan art immediately began appearing. Many assumed that Paramount would instantly and naturally greenlight "Legacy."
Sadly, in a recent interview with TrekMovie, Matalas said that there has been no movement on "Legacy." His desired spinoff, he revealed, may likely be dead in the water.
Legacy no more
When asked point blank if Paramount had shown any interest, or if there has been any progress on "Star Trek: Legacy," Matalas was blunt, saying:
"There's not. They have 'Star Trek' that they are making and they only have so much money and streaming space. There's currently not, but we're looking forward to whatever the 'Star Trek' universe brings ... and never say never."
That is a diplomatic way of expressing pessimism. One should recall that, back in 2017, Paramount+ was putting all its eggs into one "Star Trek"-shaped basket. There was a moment when six "Star Trek" shows were running simultaneously ("Discovery," "Short Treks," "Picard," "Prodigy," "Lower Decks," "Strange New Worlds"). After the Streaming Wars proved to be unprofitable, Paramount+ began paring down their Trek offerings. "Discovery," "Picard," and "Prodigy" are all over or ending soon. "Short Treks" seems to have stopped after a few animated shorts last year. Additionally, a planned "Section 31" series was shortened into a single TV movie. The future, Paramount seemed to be saying, will have fewer Treks and not more.
Paramount announced they'd be making "Starfleet Academy," which is a clear indicator of where their priorities lie. They will continue making "Strange New Worlds" and "Lower Decks" (aka the good ones) for as long as they can and then will settle down to focus on one or two Trek shows.
In such an environment, there doesn't seem to be a place for "Star Trek: Legacy." Matalas may have been clever about his backdoor pilot, but Paramount didn't take the bait.
Matalas continued to discuss the current state of Trek, and how fond he was of the "Legacy" setting and premise despite everything.
Anything is possible
Given the news about "Section 31," Anthony Pascale, the TrekMovie interviewer, asked if Matalas would be okay with adapting "Star Trek: Legacy" into a two-hour TV movie instead of a series. Again, Matalas was diplomatic, saying:
"Look, anything is possible. We certainly wouldn't be 'Oh no, we aren't going to do a movie.' For me, I would just need this crew, I would need this cast, and as long as that was a possibility, we would figure something out, yeah. A series is obviously ideal because there are so many stories to tell. And the 25th century in general in 'Star Trek' is such a rich thing."
The third season of "Star Trek: Picard" took place anywhere from 2404 to 2410. It is an era that hadn't been looked at in "Star Trek" yet, and Matalas was seemingly eager to update Trek's history and technology to match the inexorable march of time. His comment about "so many stories to tell" indicates — perhaps in a roundabout fashion — that "Legacy" would follow the "Strange New Worlds" structure of episodic television, rather than stick to the season-long story arcs that "Picard" adhered to.
There was something a little frustrating about Matalas' handling of the third season of "Picard." At the beginning of the season, there were several scenes and lines of dialogue about how Picard didn't want a legacy and how the older generation was done making history. No one liked the Enterprise-D. "No one likes the fat ones," someone says of the ship. It seemed that Matalas was making a show that refreshingly and excitingly rejected legacy in favor of new adventures.
But then the Enterprise-D was resurrected for a dull-witted action climax. It was a bit of a let-down.
How much legacy would have been in 'Legacy?'
Matalas was asked about that point as well, however. If his intended series was to be called "Star Trek: Legacy," how much of the series would be devoted to legacy? Recall that most of the recent Trek shows have banked very heavily on legacy and nostalgia, bringing back old characters and scenarios after decades, just to milk whatever fan goodwill they could out of them. "Strange New Worlds" features mostly familiar faces (Kirk, Spock, and Uhura are regulars on the show), and "Lower Decks" is lousy with references to '90s Trek shows. "Prodigy" saw the return of Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), and, well, "Picard" is called "Picard."
Would "Legacy" merely lean into cameos and returning characters, happy to rest on the franchise's laurels? Matalas, despite being fond of the "Legacy" title, says no. He's not above including the progeny of legacy characters or inviting known figures back into the fold (I failed to mention above that Geordi La Forge's two daughters would likely be a part of the series), but — quite mercifully — nostalgia wasn't Matalas' mission statement. He said:
"Not necessarily, no. I call it 'Legacy' mostly because it was in the 25th century. Like the idea of people from 'Deep Space Nine' coming in, and Raffi and Worf, and Raffi and Worf's son Alexander. I could sit and ... let's get a dry-erase board and break it right now. There are just so many stories from that era."
And that's where it stands. It seems that "Star Trek: Legacy" is still just a pipe dream, and there have been no indicators that Paramount even has the slightest interest in making it. Trekkies will have to content themselves with what is currently available.