Star Trek Picard‘s finale had a major cameo, and it sounds like filming it was an extremely stressful experience. With Star Trek Picard season 3 episode 10 now come and gone, the Star Trek series has officially come to an end.
Looking back on the season as a whole, one of the most successful achievements in the series was how it was able to integrate cameos and special guest appearances from Star Trek‘s history. Ro Laren, Tuvok, Admiral Shelby, the Borg Queen, and Anton Chekov (the son of Pavel Chekov) each made an appearance, connecting Star Trek Picard to earlier points across the vast Star Trek timeline.
However, the most surprising cameo in Star Trek Picard season 3 was undoubtedly Q. Q’s return truly came out of nowhere, and given that he died no one was expecting the famous Star Trek character and galactic trickster to return. But, return he did as Jack Crusher settled into his new position on the Enterprise-G. It turns out that the scene between the two of them came with huge pressure.
Speaking with Screen Rant, Star Trek Picard season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas reflected on the sequence.
“We only had 20 minutes to shoot the scene [with Jack and Q]. So we literally got [John de Lancie] in, got him in that amazing outfit, [and he] came in. I mean, he’s phenomenal on his worst day. And we just banged it out. And so, I still get chills. I love that scene so much. It’s one of my favourite scenes in the finale.”
Matalas continued, explaining more about the behind the scenes stress of the scene, “We literally shot it during the same scene in which Picard tells Jack he’s a Borg [in episode 9]. It was early, we wrapped Patrick, and we quickly changed the lighting scheme, so it’s warm. That’s why it’s still kind of foggy. And we went, ‘Go go go!’ because we had no time.”
The scene is admittedly very short, but fans would never have been able to guess that it was shot in a mere 20 minutes. You can check out our guide to the Star Trek Legacy release date and more to see what the scene was setting up, and learn about the Star Trek Section 31 release date too.
Before all that, the Star Trek Strange New Worlds season 2 release date is coming soon and you can learn the five changes we think it needs to make to stay great.