Star Trek: The Next Generation. The intrepid crew of the Enterprise-D is set to reunite in Picard's final season, in the first time the cast has been together onscreen since 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis, the final TNG feature film. After the show's first two seasons told fairly personal stories about Picard in his old age, season 3 looks to be returning to large scale space opera, as iral Picard and Captain Riker look to respond to a mysterious distress call from Dr. Beverly Crusher.
Star Trek: The Next Generation was the great leap forward for the franchise. Audiences were initially hesitant to embrace a Star Trek show that didn't feature James Kirk, Spock, and Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy. That all eventually changed, as TNG would go on to be a bigger commercial and critical success than Star Trek: The Original Series. TNG was a true ensemble, establishing an episodic character of the week format that defined the franchise until Star Trek: Discovery in 2017 - though Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is currently enjoying great success with the TNG formula. TNG showed the way forward for Star Trek, and it can do it again.
Why The Entire TNG Crew Should Survive Picard Season 3
Star Trek: Picard season 3 is almost certainly Patrick Stewart's final ride in the captain's chair. The final story for such a significant character in pop culture lends itself to an epic scope, and one of the most common ways to ramp up modern genre storytelling is by killing off characters. That would be a mistake here. While Patrick Stewart may be bowing out, multiple other TNG cast have expressed interest in carrying on post-Picard season 3.
There have only been two casualties among the main TNG cast since it debuted - Lieutenant Tasha Yar in the season 1 episode "Skin Of Evil," and Lieutenant Commander Data in Star Trek: Nemesis. Yar's untimely demise haunted the entire seven-year run of TNG, and Data's sacrifice in Nemesis would go on to define the first season of Picard. TNG always took death more seriously than TOS, eschewing the "red shirt" trope for more introspection and empathy. Having a significant chunk of the cast meet their end in Picard season 3 would not only be shocking, it would be tonally inconsistent with what came before.
TNG's Legacy Is Important To The Future Of Star Trek
The current crop of Star Trek shows has begun heavily borrowing from Star Trek: The Next Generation both tonally and structurally, and the franchise is all the better for it. Strange New Worlds may be a Star Trek: TOS prequel, but its formula for success clearly has its roots in TNG, favoring character-focused, episodic stories about exceptional people. Star Trek: Lower Decks is in many ways an irreverent love letter to The Next Generation. Even Discovery, which began about as far away from TNG tonally as Star Trek can conceivably get, ultimately began to embrace some of TNG's virtues in season 4.
Beyond just the format and storytelling philosophy, the characters of TNG themselves can play an important role going forward. Even if it's only a cameo, it would be more impactful for a Starfleet captain to receive their orders from Commodore Geordi La Forge than some anonymous iral. Characters like Will Riker and Worf could potentially have significant roles in whatever comes after Picard, as both Jonathan Frakes and Michael Dorn have expressed interest in continuing on. Star Trek: Picard season 3 may be the end of the line for the titular Starfleet icon, but the characters and ethos of Star Trek: The Next Generation can still show the way forward.