Trekkers everywhere were overjoyed when Paramount+ officially announced that season three of Star Trek: PicardOpens in a new tab would essentially be a full-on Next Generation reunionOpens in a new tab. Not only are Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, and Brent Spiner coming back after season one, but finally joining up are LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, and Gates McFadden. That’s the entire main TNG crew, all together for what we hear Riker call a “road trip.” Looks like it’s going to be a family affair for the final season.
But just where are our favorite characters in the Star Trek: Picard timeframe? In the cases of Riker, Troi, and Data, we know. Riker and TroiOpens in a new tab married, and have a daughter. And DataOpens in a new tab is…well, he’s pretty dead. But there are avenues for Brent Spiner to return. We can find the biggest clues to where our favorite TNG heroes are decades later in the original show’s series finaleOpens in a new tab, “All Good Things.” We got a glimpse of a possible timeline 25 years later, and so far, some things came to pass, and others haven’t. But let’s look at what “All Good Things” predicted for the crew of the Enterprise-DOpens in a new tab 25 years on, and how it may dictate the crew’s present in Picard.
Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher
In the possible future we saw in “All Good Things,” Beverly CrusherOpens in a new tab isn’t just a doctor, she’s the Captain of her own starship. We see her in command of the U.S.S. PasteurOpens in a new tab, a Starfleet medical vessel. We learned at some point, she and Jean-Luc marry, and later divorce. Although they seemingly remained friendly. Although Star Trek: Picard never mentioned that Jean-Luc and Beverly were ever married, they also never confirmed the opposite either. We hope that at least, the “Captain Crusher” part of that potential future comes true.
LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge
The Enterprise’s former Chief EngineerOpens in a new tab apparently retired from Starfleet in the alt-future of “All Good Things.” He became a published author, and married his former crush, Dr. Leah BrahmsOpens in a new tab, and had three kids. Could we see the Picard timeline Geordi follow a similar path? We should add, that “All Good Things” was not the only potential future for Geordi LaForge we saw. In the Voyager episode “TimelessOpens in a new tab,” they jump forward some fifteen years in the future, and Geordi is Captain of the U.S.S. Challenger. Geordi certainly seems to have the most options in his potential futures.
Michael Dorn as Worf
When we last saw proud Klingon warrior WorfOpens in a new tab, he was on detached duty to the Enterprise in the film Nemesis. Although technically, he was still the Federation ambassador to the Klingon homeworldOpens in a new tab. In “All Good Things,” Worf is no longer in Starfleet, and represents his house as a Governor in the Klingon empire. His position isn’t prestigious, and he seems to hate his job. We kind of hope that’s not Worf’s fate in Picard. If he’s working as part of the Empire, we hope it’s in a respected position. And if he’s in Starfleet, let’s hope he has a command of his own. Maybe even the Enterprise-FOpens in a new tab? Now that would be cool.
Brent Spiner as ???
This one is harder. Because the end of season one of Picard shows Data is definitively dead and gone, with his last positronic engram dying out. And the Brent SpinerOpens in a new tab voice we heard in the teaser sounds more like yet another Soong, the human family that created Data in their image. He’s already played one of those in Picard. So we could see Spiner as Dr. Altan Inigo SoongOpens in a new tab again. But the “All Good Things” option, of Data teaching at Oxford University, seems off the table.
But, we present to you another option. What if Brent Spiner is B-4Opens in a new tab? That android was an early prototype of Data, which appeared in Star Trek: Nemesis. At the end of that film, Data sacrifices his life, but not before downloading his memories into B-4. So what happened to him? In Picard season one, Dr. Agnes JuratiOpens in a new tab reveals that they disassembled him, and that B-4 was “not much like Data at all,” and most of Data’s positronic network was lost after the transfer. But he’s not destroyed, and we bet someone could fix him. He’s still there in the drawer at the Daystrom InstituteOpens in a new tab, just waiting for someone to get him up and running again.
In the future of “All Good Things, we saw Captain Picard retired to his family vineyard, and also had a rare genetic condition. Both of these things came to pass. But other things did not. So the present time of Picard is an open book, but would not be shocked if some of our favorite character’s destinies aligned with that future. We’ll have to wait and see in 2023.
