Star Trek: Picard (season 3)

In February 2019, during development of the series Star Trek: Picard, star Patrick Stewart said "we are set up for possibly three years of this show".[6] Showrunner Michael Chabon and the writers were reported in January 2020 to have begun work on a second and third season, with Terry Matalas joining them to fill the void that would be created by Chabon's planned departure later that year. CBS officially announced the second season then, but did not confirm an informal third season green-light. The latter allowed the second and third seasons to be filmed back-to-back,[7] which helped save costs and simplify scheduling.[8] Stewart officially announced the season in September 2021,[8] shortly after filming had begun.[9] By February 2022, the producers had decided to end the series with the third season.[10] Matalas served as showrunner for the season.[4]

The second and third seasons tell separate stories, despite being developed together,[11] with Matalas saying the third season was "incredibly different" from the first two. He hoped that it would be an appropriate, satisfying conclusion for Picard's story,[12] explaining that executive producer Akiva Goldsman had "constructed a really fascinating and heartbreaking psychological exploration of Picard" for the season. He said it would be less intimate than the second season, with some "game-changing Star Trek Universe ideas", and added that some elements from Star Trek: The Original Series and the films starring the Original Series cast would be used in the season to "tie some Star Trek together".[13] These include references to the "more nautical, cat and mouse submarine-movie" ideas that were used for those early Star Trek films.[12] In April 2022, when it was revealed that other members of the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast would be starring with Stewart in the season, Matalas recalled watching that series as a child and said it was "most fitting that the story of Jean-Luc Picard ends honoring the beginning, with his dearest and most loyal friends from the USS Enterprise."[4]

Main cast members from Star Trek: The Next Generation return to star in the season, including LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, and Brent Spiner

While developing the series, the creative team discussed not bringing back any other characters from The Next Generation to allow Picard to stand alone and not become reliant on nostalgia. Part of this was to allow newcomers who had not seen the previous series to enjoy Picard. However, the writers wanted to be respectful to longtime fans of Star Trek and felt they were missing opportunities by not including certain characters, so they decided to add some returning guests who organically served the new story.[14] In January 2020, Stewart said it was his hope that all of the main cast of The Next Generation would appear on Picard before the end of the series.[15]

In April 2022, members of the Next Generation cast were confirmed to be starring in the third season with Stewart: LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge, Michael Dorn as Worf, Jonathan Frakes as William Riker, Gates McFadden as Beverly Crusher, Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi, and Brent Spiner.[4] Matalas stated that these would not be brief cameo appearances and would instead be a "proper send off to the [Next Generation] crew", describing the season as a "labor of love".[16] With the release of the second-season finale in May, series regulars Santiago Cabrera, Alison Pill, and Evan Evagora revealed that they did not return for the third season, but Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd said they would be back as Seven of Nine and Raffi Musiker, respectively.[5]

Matalas said each season of Picard would be differentiated visually, but he and production designer Dave Blass wanted the second and third seasons to return to the visual style of the Next Generation era.[12] With the announcement of the returning Next Generation cast members in April 2022, Blass announced that several crew members from Next Generation era Star Trek had also returned to work on the design team for Picard season three: computer graphics engineer Ben Betts, visual effects producer Dan Curry, set designer Daren Dochterman, concept designer and visual effects artist Doug Drexler, starship designer John Eaves, graphic designer Monica Fedrick, graphic designer Alan Kobayashi, production designer Geoffrey Mandel, video engineer Larry Markart, computer playback supervisor Todd A. Marks, production illustrator Jim Martin, art director Karl J. Martin, and graphic designer Michael Okuda who designed the LCARS computer system for The Next Generation.[17]

Executive producer Alex Kurtzman said Dorn's prosthetics for the Klingon character Worf would match his Next Generation appearance and not be changed to match the new Klingon designs from Star Trek: Discovery.[18]

Filming for the second season began on February 16, 2021,[19] with some third-season scenes being filmed at the same time.[20] Production was taking place in California where the series received tax incentives to continue filming there after the first season.[21] The second and third seasons had one of the largest television series crews at the time with more than 450 crewmembers.[22] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, strict guidelines were followed on set and cast and crew members were regularly tested.[20] Principal photography for the second season ended on September 2, with the production then segueing fully into filming the third.[9] Jonathan Frakes completed filming for his episodes by the end of December.[1] There was a break in filming for the Christmas holidays and production resumed on January 3, 2022, but more than 50 members of the production crew and main cast tested positive for COVID-19 on that day. Filming for the season was immediately shutdown,[22] but resumed on January 7.[23] Matalas was directing by February 28,[2][3] and filming for the series wrapped on March 8.[24]