Fans are still swooning over season three of Star Trek: Picard and for good reason. Not only did it feature the long-awaited reunion of the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), but it was bursting at the screen’s seams with Easter eggs and references to most of the previous incarnations of Star Trek TV shows and films. More importantly, instead of wallowing in Member Berries, the third season actually set up a potential spinoff—Star Trek: Legacy. *Warning for those who have not seen season three of Star Trek: Picard, there will be spoilers from here on out.

During the third season of Star Trek: Picard, we were introduced to Jack Crusher, who turned out to be the son of Jean-Luc Picard. In many ways he was a lot like his father but with a rakish bent as he seemed more comfortable acting independently and living a pirate-like lifestyle. Perhaps this is how Picard was like in his younger days. In some ways, Jack had more of the swashbuckling demeanor of James T. Kirk (more on him soon). Yet he had an intellectual and empathic side that echoed his father. In a sense he came off as an authentic child, who has elements of both his parents with unique personality traits gained from experiences the parents never had. Jack quickly became a fan favorite and has enough personality and development to return in future Star Trek spinoffs. This was very clear at the end of the final episode of Star Trek: Picard when he joined Starfleet and was posted on the Enterprise-G as special counselor to the captain.

The third season also introduced several other characters, some of which were bridge officers of the Titan-A (later rechristened the Enterprise-G). The one standout was Sidney La Forge, the Titan-A’s helm officer and daughter of Geordi La Forge. She soon formed a friendship with Jack with hints of something more to develop. It was fun seeing the two scions interacting with each other, which foretold great adventures to come if the powers that be at Paramount Pictures greenlight a Star Trek: Legacy. Obviously the two characters would be some of the central characters of this show.

Two other characters that could headline the show would be Captain Seven of Nine a.ka. Annika Hansen, and her first officer Rafaella “Raffi” Musiker.  Most fans know that Seven debuted on Star Trek: Voyager before becoming a regular on Star Trek: Picard. Raffi is the only remaining original character from Star Trek: Picard to remain a part of the show after the other original characters were written out after the second season of the show. Even though they are not the children of past Star Trek characters they in a sense would carry on the legacy of Star Trek: Picard. Perhaps other past Star Trek: Picard characters like Sohji Asha (Data’s daughter) could return and continue the theme of legacy.

Another character that could return is Captain Liam Shaw. Yes, he was killed off in the penultimate Star Trek: Picard episode “Vox”, but he quickly became a fan favorite. While he was very surly and dismissive towards our favorite TNG characters especially Picard and Will Riker, he was actually the voice of reason. He was more cautious when it came to his ship, the Titan-A, and the safety of his crew, which conflicted with the daring decisions made by Picard and Riker that threatened the Titan-A and crew. More often than not he was willing to call out Picard on his decisions and his arguments usually had merit. What made him more dimensional was the revelation that he was a survivor of the Battle of Wolf 359. He clearly was still suffering from that incident where the cybernetic race called the Borg decimated a Starfleet armada. This also explained his animosity towards Picard since Picard was assimilated by the Borg and helped them defeat Starfleet. In as sense this also explains his antagonistic relationship with Seven since she is a former Borg. Shaw was a great character and it was too bad he was killed off. However, Terry Matalas, the showrunner of the third season, has hinted that there is a way for Shaw to return in the Star Trek: Legacy show. Being that this is Star Trek, there are dozens of ways to do this: clones, time travel, cold storage, Seven’s Borg nanoprobes, even Q could easily bring Shaw back.

Speaking of Q, his appearance in the post-credits scene of the final episode of Star Trek: Picard was a terrific way to entice fans to see what happens next to Jack Crusher and the Enterprise-G. That is just one plot thread brought up in Star Trek: Picard that Star Trek: Legacy could explore. Another is to learn what is going on with the Changelings and the Dominion. Most of the third season dealt with rogue Changelings infiltrating Starfleet. Being that the TV show takes place in the 25^th century, it could also examine what is going on with the Klingons, the Cardassians and other races during this time period. There is an intense desire among fans to see Star Trek during this period and Star Trek: Legacy is a perfect vehicle to help them explore it.

Star Trek: Legacy could expand its theme of legacy by not just dwelling on the progeny of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) and Star Trek: Voyager, as well. Both shows took place in the same TNG time period and had characters and situations worth exploring. Aside from the Changelings, we could find out what is going on at Deep Space Nine and the Bajoran wormhole. What are the DS9 characters up to in the 25^th century? Did Jake Sisko become a noted author? Let’s see if Dax is still joined with Ezri or if there is a new version of Dax. Did Ben Sisko ever return to our corporeal plane? At the very least we could see his daughter, who should be fully grown at this time.

As for Star Trek: Voyager, we could see what happened to the Emergency Medical Hologram. It appears that these holographic programs are not in use by the 25^th century, perhaps they were banned. Let’s see more of this. We have seen Tuvok on Star Trek: Picard and already know that Janeway is an admiral and Chakotay is a starship captain (see Star Trek: Prodigy), but what about the rest of the crew? Did Harry Kim ever get promoted? Matalas has mentioned that there were plans to show Kim on Star Trek: Picard but the show’s limited budget prevented that. Star Trek: Legacy could finally show us that at last Kim became a captain along with his buddy, Tom Paris.

Then there is nagging potential plot of James T. Kirk somehow returning. In the sixth episode “The Bounty”, Riker and others infiltrate a top-secret Starfleet base that had the remains of the legendary starship captain. Terry Matalas has stated that this is something that could be picked up by other TV shows, films or media. Maybe Star Trek: Legacy could continue this plot and at last we could see Kirk return and be given a proper, heroic death that was denied to him in Star Trek Generations.

There are many intriguing possibilities with a potential Star Trek: Legacy. Unfortunately, there are no official plans to go forward with the show. Instead Paramount is focusing on a Starfleet Academy TV show that takes place in the 32^nd century and a TV film about Section 31. Frankly, neither option has excited most fans as Star Trek: Legacy has. Apparently, part of the problem is that Paramount is busy with four other Star Trek shows at this moment (the Academy show, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Prodigy and Star Trek: Lower Decks). Something has to give, perhaps they can just make the Academy show a limited series and see how it’s received before going further.  It is possible that with the intense demand from fans, Paramount will have to go forward with Star Trek: Legacy. But no matter what Paramount decides to do soon, we can be sure that we have not seen the last of the Enterprise-G and Star Trek: Legacy.

José Soto