The Star Trek Picard season 3 finale was an explosive end to the latest Star Trek series, bringing a close to the story of the TNG cast of Star Trek characters while also establishing set-ups for a whole new era, and generation.
The series finale saw Jean-Luc Picard rescuing his son from the Borg Queen, as Starfleet was de-assimilated thanks to Seven of Nine and Raffi aboard the USS Titan. As it concluded, Seven of Nine was promoted to a Star Trek captain by Tuvok, while the Titan was re-named the Enterprise-G. Then, Q returned in the very final scene setting up a potential spin-off show, though a Star Trek Legacy release date still seems very far away.
However, that doesn’t mean that Star Trek Picard season 3 episode 10 was exactly as showrunner Terry Matalas had originally envisioned. In fact, speaking with Variety, the writer confirmed that several characters had to be cut out of the script due to logistical issues: namely, time and money.
“There were things that we just simply didn’t have the time and money to shoot. In the very first iterations of script, we had discovered that Ro Laren had in fact survived, and had been beamed off of her shuttle and was still being used by the Changelings for information. It was already too ambitious of a schedule, so we weren’t able to be able to pull that off.”
Matalas continued, confirming more details about the differences between the end result and what was intended in the original script. “We had a scene with [the Data-based android from Season 1] Soji and Data that we were also not able to shoot. We have wanted some more Voyager folks to come be part of Seven of Nine’s promotion to captain. It comes down to how many pennies you have left in the piggy bank after building a Borg cube and an Enterprise.”
Fans who were wanting Admiral Janeway to appear in Star Trek Picard have an answer for why that never materialised, then, and will also understand more about the reasons behind the decision to kill off the beloved Ro Laren. It’s a stark reminder that behind all the sci-fi fun, there are real-life logistical concerns for even the best TV series.
For more on Star Trek, check out our guide on the Star Trek Section 31 release date. Or, you can learn more about the impending Star Trek Strange New Worlds season 2 release date, as well as the changes we think it needs to make to stay great.