daystrom station star trek

Picard Season 3's Daystrom Station Is Like Star Trek's Version Of The Raiders Of The Lost Ark Warehouse

This post contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Picard" season 3, episode 6.

As it crosses into the back half of its third and final season, "Star Trek: Picard" finally brings back Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton). It's good to see him again: let's acknowledge that. Episode 6, "The Bounty," also hints at the end that season 3 might finally give Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) something more to do than yelp about how her son "just vomited all over engineering" (as she did during her brief episode 3 appearance, while video-chatting in flashback with William Riker, played by Jonathan Frakes). Back then, all we had to worry about in "Picard" was one shaky subplot with Worf (Michael Dorn) and Raffi (Michelle Hurd).

In episode 6, the subplot merges with the main plot. Dorn acquits himself admirably, but he continues to be saddled with dialogue like, "Breakups on my homeworld seldom end without bloodshed," as Worf and Raffi beam aboard the USS Titan and take us on a subsequent trip to Daystrom Station for an Easter egg hunt, or something very much like it.

Speaking of sons and regurgitation, in the same way that Picard's boy, Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers), is "plagued with an overclogged brain," episode 6 is clogged with callbacks and references to earlier "Trek," like Jack's gentle reminder that Jean-Luc (Patrick Stewart) now has a synthetic body after his fake-out death in season 1 (which season 3 has mostly ignored in favor of a soft reboot with more legacy characters). The eggs are scattered all over the place in episode 6, and this won't be a simple laundry list. What it will be is an interrogation of "Picard" as the unlikely, space-faring hellspawn of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and its final warehouse scene.

The warehouse of old ideas

"Raiders of the Lost Ark," also produced by Paramount, famously ends with the Ark of the Covenant — the gold relic that holds the original Ten Commandments, inscribed by the finger of God himself — being wheeled into a warehouse full of crates, all of which are labeled "Top Secret Army Intel." The camera pulls back to reveal how this religious artifact is just one of many military prizes, as the warehouse stretches back endlessly. The implication is that army intelligence is sitting on a massive trove of X-Files.

It's worth noting: the crates are also marked "Do Not Open," and they would perhaps be better left that way, though "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" would head back to the same warehouse again some 27 years later for its opening set piece. Only 21 years have elapsed since "Star Trek: Nemesis," the last movie with the cast of "The Next Generation," but "Picard" season 3 made it clear from the get-go that it aims to be nothing less than "the best Next Generation movie we never got," as our review calls it.

In place of Indy's warehouse, episode 6 holds its Easter egg hunt in two separate locations. One is the "fleet museum," where Georgi La Forge presides over the "final resting place" of "every legendary starship," including the Defiant from "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and the cloaking Klingon Bird of Prey from "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home." However, it's Daystrom Station that most neatly aligns with "Raiders of the Lost Ark," since it holds all sorts of "experimental weapons" and "alien contraband" from Starfleet intelligence. That includes the life-giving Genesis Device from "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," a watershed sequel that "Picard" has been channeling for weeks now.

'Wonderful dumb fun'

"The Wrath of Khan" hit theaters in 1982, the year after "Raiders of the Lost Ark." For anyone who was bored by "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (which is to say, not watching it correctly ), "Khan" provided an antidote, with what film critic Pauline Kael called "wonderful dumb fun." That can be a two-edged sword when the fun part tips over too far into dumb, as the 2013 "Wrath of Khan" remix "Star Trek Into Darkness" did at times. That movie was co-written by "Picard" co-creator Alex Kurtzman, the current shepherd of "Star Trek" as we know it on Paramount+.

In many ways, "Picard" season 3 feels like the third generation, twice removed, of "Wrath of Khan," meaning it's a more direct descendant of "Star Trek Into Darkness." Elsewhere, the season has drawn from the gnarly "Next Generation" episode "Conspiracy," which contains a face-melting scene right out of "Raiders of the Lost Ark." However, as episode 6 continues window-shopping for Easter eggs in Daystrom Station, the next stop is the body of the original Enterprise captain, James T. Kirk. We don't actually see the face of the character originated by /Film contributor William Shatner  — just his name and X-ray — though it would be funny if they did stick him in there and have him pop his eyes open through the window real quick as Raffi passes by.

Next, Worf peeps an "attack Tribble," which takes us back to the classic episode, "The Trouble with Tribbles," from "Star Trek: The Original Series." From there, we move on to the biggest, most sentient egg of all: a gun-toting Professor Moriarty (Daniel Davis). We'll have more to say about him in a minute, but let's take a step back here and look at the bigger picture of what this episode is doing.

Trek has overtly homaged Raiders before

"Picard" season 3 isn't the first time "Star Trek" has echoed "Raiders of the Lost Ark." In a 2013 Fast Company article ("How to Write and Produce a Summer Blockbuster"), Alex Kurtzman acknowledged that the opening sequence" in "Star Trek Into Darkness" "is an homage to 'Raiders.'" Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) absconds with a precious temple artifact on the planet Nibiru, leading an alien tribe to chase him and Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban) through a red jungle. It's as if we're right back in Peru with Indiana Jones, dodging arrows (just as "Star Trek Into Darkness" would have to run for cover from fan criticism, being voted the worst "Trek" movie ).

This is indicative of a larger issue with "Picard" season 3: namely, that it still shows "Trek" in blockbuster mode. It's the kind of thing where you could almost rewrite Picard's "Next Generation" mission statement like this:

Paramount+: the final frontier. These are the expletives of the new "Star Trek" dialogue. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new writing. To seek out new lighting, or lack thereof. To boldly go where J.J. Abrams has gone before.

With all the main cast members of "The Next Generation" returning this season, "Picard" is also now part of a newer breed of blockbuster, the legacy sequel, which is great until it's not. Since legacy sequels are often penned by screenwriters who grew up with the original movies, they can sometimes feel like fan fiction. In "Picard" season 3, that entails dialogue like:

Beverly Crusher: Will, did you just throw an asteroid?

Riker: You're g**damn right I did.

And two minutes later:

Beverly Crusher (gazing in wonder at space jellyfish): To seek out new life...

Riker: I think we should boldly get the hell out of here.

Raiders of the lost adolescence

The dialogue above speaks for itself. You can feel the heavy writing hand in moments like that, leading the viewer along, constantly winking, waxing nostalgic, and reassuring them "Trek" is hip to the new space lingo, if not entirely cerebral anymore. It's an instinct that belongs, not so much in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," as in its bastard blockbuster children, all the tentpoles living in the vast warehouse Steven Spielberg and George Lucas built. They're the kind of movies and shows that keep going back and raiding the warehouse — and with it, your lost adolescence — for Easter eggs and recyclable plots. Usually, they're driven by marketing impulses, as opposed to flying on impulse, like a true starship.

So, about Moriarty. In its New York Comic Con trailer , "Picard" season 3 marketed his return from the annals of the "Next Generation" holodeck. It turns out he's the "astonishingly lethal A.I." security system guarding the vault aboard Daystrom. Worf first warns everyone about it/him during the heist-movie scene where they're all gathered around the table, going over their plan for breaking into the station (rather like a group of writers breaking the story for a TV episode).

"This is not the same self-aware Moriarty we encountered on the Enterprise," Riker observes in the middle of a shoot-out with the "19th-century holo-villain." Moriarty calls him and Worf "pathetic old warriors," one of many instances where "Picard" season 3 uses its own words against itself. Whistling "Pop Goes the Weasel" makes Moriarty evaporate, and that's that. His return, which has been teased for months, winds up feeling like a cheat, just a glorified cameo. After his non-disclosure agreement lifted, Daniel Davis confirmed (via TrekMovie.com ) that he only did a single day of shooting for this one "Picard" episode.

Loose lips sink starships

In "The Bounty," the dialogue in the heist-planning scene, which includes Riker saying things like, "Excellent use of the word 'burgle,'" is just a chain of exposition that hops from one character to another. They complete each other's sentences in such a way that it becomes obvious we're listening to a thinly plotted info dump, broken up across multiple mouthpieces.

One thing you can say about Indiana Jones is that he knows how to keep his professional life separate from his personal life. Just look at the way his professor-self dresses, versus the way his adventurer-self dresses.

In "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the Enterprise-D was as formal as any space office. True, while Jean-Luc Picard is bald, he and the other officers would sometimes let their hair down and play poker. Something you wouldn't often hear them doing, though, is using language that might be deemed "not suitable for work." This is one area where "Picard" could stand to remember what happened when Indiana Jones got a little too loose-lipped around his father at a motorcycle crossing.

Dr. McCoy is well-known for grumbling, "Dammit, Jim," and in the youthful 2009 "Star Trek" reboot , Chris Pine famously called "bulls***" on the sight of an older Spock (which is still a perfectly delivered one-liner). There is a precedent, then, for some occasional NFSW language in "Star Trek," similar to "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and its one "Holy s***" (spoken at the sight of an uninvited Nazi submarine). But if you missed "Star Trek: Discovery" and its whole exploration of the f-bomb frontier , it might be similarly unbelievable to hear "Trek" toss around words like "dips***," or hear Picard do what he does best and engage — in use of the f-word? — in the holodeck bar this season.

Pop goes the legacy sequel

Later in the episode, after he's whistled away Moriarty to the tune of "Pop Goes the Weasel," Riker gets captured, interrogated, and tortured. Defiant, he then gets in on the cussing action, too, asking one of his captors, "How much of that goo s*** did they pour into you?" He sounds less like himself here and more like Captain Shaw (Todd Stashwick), who treated us to some equally gooey dialogue earlier this season, calling Changelings "goo people" and "clay-dough" (and their residue, "resi-goo.")

It's funny wordplay, but this sort of glib phraseology also serves as a dim reminder of "Star Trek Into Darkness," giving the beleaguered viewer a whiff of that movie's less-than-artful "super blood" line, whereby McCoy was able to simplify Kirk's magical resurrection and wave off any misgivings about it with a quip. "Picard" also magically resurrected its title character in its season 1 finale, and his human remains come back into play at the end of season 3, episode 6. The level of writing on this show is such that it wouldn't be surprising if they had two characters say in dialogue:

"Wait, how did they bring Jean-Luc back to life?" 

"You know, that f***ing super blood."

"Star Trek" once flirted with Quentin Tarantino , who's nothing if not a pastiche artist, but at what point did it become the type of science fiction where we're no longer to able to relay the dialogue in polite company without asterisks? (Our content management system literally won't allow me to type it without asterisks.) Shaw, the captain we love to hate , has a good line in episode 4 where he confesses, "At some point, a**hole became a substitute for charm." However, the cussing there comes right after an emotionally charged moment where it feels earned.

The Hollow-deck

The moment in question for Shaw follows a compelling confrontation where we realize that the reason he's been such a jerk to Picard and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) is that he had a traumatic encounter with the Borg under Locutus, which left him prejudiced. That kind of callback, rooted in good character drama, is aces. Yet this same Shaw turns blushing fanboy when he meets Geordi La Forge, and too much of "Picard" falls back on another, emptier kind of callback. As long as we're in the Tarantino room, you might describe it as one that appeals to the heart of every Trekkie with the lowest common denominator of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" finger-pointing .

Jack Crusher does physically finger-point at the fleet museum as he identifies starships like "Kirk's Enterprise," with its "perfectly clean, retro lines." Alas, Seven has to educate him about the history of her own starship Voyager. "We all long for connection," Jack muses to her, and at this point, we can't be sure he's not talking about intertextual "Trek" connections.

Both inside and outside Daystrom Station, this whole episode of "Picard" is dealing from the bottom of the deck: not the beloved "Lower Decks," mind you, but rather, something more like the Hollow-deck, a simulation of what "Star Trek" was once upon a time when it actually meant something. As Riker goes to meet Data/Lore/B-4 (Brent Spiner), "Picard" even throws in old archive footage from when the younger Riker met Data in the holodeck in "Encounter at Farpoint," the series premiere of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." It's a play right from the legacy-sequel handbook. Speaking for the viewer, Raffi says, "I thought Data died. Twice!" Ah, but this is comic book "Star Trek," where no one ever really stays dead.

Same writers' room as season 2

As much as the final season of "Picard" might try to differentiate itself from the much-derided first two seasons — setting itself apart as a "Next Generation" thing — it's still born of the same writers' room, led by Terry Matalas (now sole showrunner after serving as co-showrunner with Akiva Goldsman in season 2). Patrick Stewart revealed in a 2022 interview with The Hollywood Reporter  that the pandemic forced the production team to shoot "both seasons two and three back-to-back," wrapping the second season at 7 p.m. and then immediately beginning work on the third season at 7 a.m. the following day. It's not like they had a long break in-between to internalize the creative failures of season 2 and learn the right lessons from them.

Season 3 could still redeem itself, but right now, when the sugar rush of the reunion wears off outside Daystrom Station, it leaves a questionable aftertaste, one that smacks of empty calories. That's the same effect derivative blockbusters like "Star Trek Into Darkness" have.

When you've been trained to swallow pabulum long enough, it can be hard to tell what's really good on TV or in the movies anymore. As Geordi La Forge greets Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) on Paramount+ this week, he says he "debated the virtues of a curt professional handshake or an uncomfortable but long overdue hug." The hug that "Picard" season 3 provides surely is uncomfortable at times, and maybe it wouldn't hurt "Star Trek" and its characters to show a bit more professionalism again.

The franchise needn't be puritanical, but hearing Jack Crusher talk about getting laid does set off  Salt-n-Pepa bells. Suddenly, "Trek" has become less stuffy, with the streaming frontier allowing it to abandon the buttoned-up formalism or classicism of itself on network TV.

'You built amazing things. I just wanted to fly them'

In "Picard" season 3, episode 6, Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) tells Geordi, "I grew up listening to your adventures, all the times you and Picard stood up for what was right." Geordi insists that it was a different time, and Sidney, speaking in stilted dialogue without contractions, exclaims, "No! It is you and I that are different."

"You built amazing things," she confesses. "I just wanted to fly them."

Again, we hear the "Picard" season 3 writers own themselves in dialogue. They just want to fly the amazing things "Star Trek: The Next Generation" built. An even deeper self-own comes when they cut back to Riker, Raffi, and Worf on Daystrom Station.

Riker: "So Starfleet installed an insane A.I. to defend its deepest secret?"

Raffi: "They used him because he's a one-of-a-kind work of art, certainly more brilliant than anything else they can come up with."

"Star Trek: The Next Generation" was a one-of-a-kind work art. As "Picard" continues flying into darkness, countervailing Gene Roddenberry's utopian ideals, it's just using that series the way "The Offer" (also available to stream on Paramount+) and its many Easter eggs used "The Godfather."  That movie was about capitalism , the real not-so-creative force behind the current glut of legacy sequels. Sure, it brings a tear to the eye when we see fan-favorite characters reunited, but there also comes a point when you need more of that and less explaining of things in dialogue in the most asinine way.

While "Star Trek Beyond" may have gone Mutt Williams and incorporated a motorcycle, this franchise is not Indiana Jones. At the end of the day, the deepest secret Daystrom Station may hold is that "Picard" and its warehouse of references are bereft of originality.

'Star Trek: Picard' Goes Behind the Scenes of Daystrom Station in New Featurette

Explore the inner workings of Starfleet's Area 51.

[EDITORS NOTE: This article contains spoilers for Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Episode 6.] Star Trek: Picard Season 3 has been delivering knock-out episodes for the past six weeks, featuring an epic reunion of the Next Generation cast and a deep dive into of some of Star Trek's less explored territory. This week the show's two major storylines finally collided as Raffi ( Michelle Hurd ) and Worf's ( Michael Dorn ) secret Section 31-style mission lead them to team up with Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) on the Titan. With the crew on the run from both Starfleet and Vadic, the episode sees Picard take the Titan to the Fleet Museum to seek safe haven with Geordi ( LeVar Burton ), while Raffi, Worf, and Riker ( Jonathan Frakes ) head to Daystrom Station and find more than they bargained for in an old friend.

A new featurette goes behind the scenes of Daystrom Station, affectionately dubbed "Starfleet's Area 51," with the cast and creatives behind the series. Season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas explains that when choosing which items we would see kept in this secret vault, he and the team tried to carefully toe the line of fan service and what would actually be in such a secret Starfleet facility. While Raffi, Worf, and Riker's target turns out to be none other than Data ( Brent Spiner ) himself, we see plenty of other Easter eggs before our heroes find what they're looking for including attack tribbles, the Genesis II device, and the body of James T. Kirk.

Daystrom Station also allowed Picard to bring back several Data-specific Easter eggs with Daniel Davis ' hologram villain Moriarty now playing the security system, and a callback to the pilot episode of TNG with Riker knowing the exact tune to whistle back for his old friend. While Data is technically dead, Matalas knew they didn't want to have a TNG reunion without Spiner , so together they crafted a way to bring back all of the characters Spiner brought to life over the course of TNG . Matalas told Collider:

"What if it was Jekyll and Hyde? What if both Lore and Data [were] in there with all these other things? Wouldn't that give Brent Spiner something really interesting to play? And couldn't that promise a really interesting final Data/Lore story? I took that to Brent thinking he was going to reject the whole thing, and he was like, "Oh, that's actually really cool." Brent was unbelievably collaborative with it, and Brent had ideas that only elevated it in ways I couldn't have imagined. In fact, some of the best moments of this story were Brent's idea."

RELATED: 'Star Trek: Picard' Season 3 Showrunner Explains How They Brought Back Brent Spiner for the 'TNG' Reunion

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Episode 6 Finally Delivers the Full Next Generation Cast

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 promised a full TNG reunion back when it was announced and finally the full ensemble cast has been revealed with the return of Data and Geordi, as well as the reveal that Vadic and the changelings have captured Deanna Troi ( Marina Sirtis ) as well as Riker . While we haven't seen the whole cast together we're certainly headed there in the next few episodes, with Worf promising Picard that he would bring Riker home.

New episodes of Star Trek: Picard arrive on Paramount+ every Thursday, and you can watch the featurette on Daystrom Station down below. If you're looking for more behind-the-scenes details on the latest episode of Star Trek: Picard , check out Maggie Lovitt 's full conversation with Matalas on everything that went into this epic reunion.

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Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Episode 5 Easter Eggs Explained

A big guest star shakes things up on Star Trek: Picard, but there are even deeper cuts you may have missed.

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This Star Trek: Picard article contains spoilers.

Star Trek: Picard season 3 is now halfway through its daring new story. And like previous installments, “Imposters” does not shy away from the preexisting Star Trek universe. Connections to existing canon run very deep in an hour that not only brings back a surprise The Next Generation alum but also deepens lore from Deep Space Nine .

From a very familiar face from the past to some classic sound effects and more, “Imposters” keeps the easter eggs coming at warp speed. Here are the best callbacks and deep cuts we found in the episode:

Classic “Bridge Sounds”

The episode begins with what sounds like the 1960s classic Enterprise bridge beeps and boops. One might think this is out of place for the 25th century starships of Picard , but showrunner Terry Matalas has clarified that the Starfleet of this era is in a retro period when it comes to design. At the start of season 3, Matalas told Variety that the design of the Titan and other ships this season is intentionally a call back to the look and feel of the late 23rd-century starships from the era of the classic films: “I couldn’t help but notice how many cars have gone retro these days,” Matalas said. “And I remember, as I was driving around, I thought, ‘What if Starfleet did that?’”

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So, this callback isn’t a mistake! These sound effects were brought back by Starfleet in 2402. Also, for those who had the cassette tape version of the Star Trek Generations soundtrack, you will recall that the sound effect-only track features the bridge sounds for the Enterprise-B , which also had this retro feeling! (Spotify has retained these tracks, too!)

RCS, ICS, ODN

Sidney La Forge lists off some starship functions out loud. RCS stands for “reaction control system” and ODN stands for “optical data network.” As of this writing, we can’t figure out what “ISC” stands for. Maybe “internal sensor control?”

Acting Captain’s Log 

While Picard ended last week’s episode with an “Admiral’s log,” this week begins with an “Acting Captain’s Log,” which is the first time a voiceover log from Riker has opened any Star Trek episode since The Next Generation . Riker mentions that the ship has “limped to the edge of the Alpha Quadrant,” which should remind us that the Ryton System was not in Federation space.

Dominion War and Blood Tests 

Seven talks about procedures that have been in place since the Dominion War to sniff out shapeshifters. This references Deep Space Nine , but the blood tests that become central to the narrative specifically reference the DS9 episodes “Homefront” and “Paradise Lost.” Though, Odo suggested the Federation use blood screenings in the episode “The Adversary.” Of note, blood screenings have rarely worked in Trek canon, which makes it all the more interesting that Crusher discovers in this episode that Changelings can now evade the blood tests.

Worf’s Knife and Music

When Worf and Raffi spar on La Sirena , we hear the Jerry Goldsmith “Klingon Theme” prominently. Later, when Worf and Raffi are arguing, Worf busts out his d’k tahg, a classic Klingon knife which we first saw in The Search For Spock .    

Daystrom Station Is Guarded by a Sophisticated AI System 

We’re told that this mysterious offsite “Daystrom station” is protected by an AI system. Later in the episode, Vulcan crime lord Krinn says the flaws in this system are “most illogical.”

The Daystrom Institute has played a big role in Picard since season 1, and the name Daystrom goes all the way back to the Original Series episode “The Ultimate Computer.” In Discovery season 2, a huge plot point was also about a sophisticated AI that ran amok. But the “illogical” flaws in this AI system could be a clue to an entirely different kind of story later in the season…

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Space Criminals Galore

The intelligence read-out that Worf looks over to figure out who is behind these local crime developments, lists several deep-cut Star Trek criminals, including:

• Larell of Renhia: This is a DS9 criminal. She appeared only in the episode “Who Mourns for Morn?”
• Sneed of Ferenginar: We saw him earlier this season in Picard . Worf killed him in episode 2.
• T’Luco of Romulus: This guy died offscreen in Picard season 3, episode 2.
• Morn of Luria: The most regular customer of Quark’s bar in Deep Space Nine .
• Brunt of Ferenginar: A shady Ferengi operative from DS9 , played by Jeffrey Combs.
• Thadiun Okona of Omega: the titular “Outrageous Okona” from the TNG episode. Played by Billy Campbell, he also just appeared in Prodigy .

Mobile Emitter

When Worf and Raffi confront Krinn, Raffi uses a mobile emitter to create a hologram of herself. The mobile emitter tech originates from Star Trek: Voyager , specifically the episode “Future’s End Part II.”

USS Intrepid 

Other than a digital retcon in the remastered version of the TOS episode “Court Martial,” we’ve rarely seen a Starfleet ship called USS Intrepid on screen, even though ships with this name are mentioned a lot. According to Picard production designer Dave Blass, this new Intrepid is a Duderstadt Class starship.

Shaw’s List of Hilarious TNG Antics

As Shaw, Riker, and Picard ride a turbo-lift to meet security guards from the Intrepid , Shaw jokes about all the times both Jean-Luc and Will did questionable things back in the day. This includes:

• “That time someone hot-dropped the saucer section of the Enterprise-D on a planet.” ( Star Trek: Generations )
• “That time someone threw the prime directive out the window so they could snog a villager on Baku.” ( Star Trek: Insurrection )
• “The time you boys nearly wiped out all of humanity by creating a time paradox in the Devron system.” (The TNG series finale, “All Good Things…”)

Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes): Her Background, Bajoran Earring, and the Maquis 

Michelle Forbes returns as Ro Laren for the first time in any Star Trek since the TNG episode “Preemptive Strike.” In that episode, Ro defected to the Maquis, a group of freedom fighters who opposed the Federation’s decision to hand over certain planets to the Cardassians. This episode is heavily referenced here, right down to Jean-Luc noting that Ro “pulled a phaser” on Riker the last time he saw her. 

Ro first appeared in the TNG episode “Ensign Ro,” and like Keiko, Guinan, and Miles O’Brien, became a recurring semi-regular on TNG , starting with season 5. Picard and Riker initially opposed her wearing her Bajorian earring, but at the end of “Ensign Ro,” Picard allowed it. 

Krinn (Kirk Acevedo)

The Vulcan gangster, Krinn, is played by Kirk Acevedo, who previously starred in the Syfy version of 12 Monkeys as Ramse. He joins fellow 12 Monkeys alums in Picard season 3, including Todd Stashwick (Shaw) , Aaron Stanford (Sneed) , and showrunner Terry Matalas.

Krinn sports green-blood-stained scar and an IDIC medallion. The IDIC was first introduced in the TOS episode “Is There, in Truth, No Beauty?” But this is the first time we’ve seen a mobster wear one.

“You Do Remember Guinan, Don’t You?”

When Jean-Luc pulls a phaser on Ro, he references the idea that Guinan would stash phasers behind the bar. This references the TNG episode “Night Terrors,” in which Guinan busted out a huge phaser rifle from behind the bar in Ten Forward on the Enterprise-D . Jean-Luc asking Ro if she remembers Guinan is partially because he thinks she’s a shapeshifter, but also because Ro had a friendship with Guinan that began in “Ensign Ro” and continued in episodes like “Rascals,” when they were both turned into children by a transporter accident.

Admiral Janeway

Picard wants Ro to take her findings to Admiral Janeway. This, of course, references Kathryn Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager , and more recently, Prodigy . Janeway was as an admiral as of 2379 during the events of Nemesis , and now seems to be a very high-ranking official within Starfleet. What her exact position is in 2402 remains unclear.

Kahless Technique 

Worf references the Klingon messiah Kahless when he talks about a technique he used to fake death. Kahless was first mentioned in the TOS episode “The Savage Curtain,” but appeared more prominently as a clone in the TNG episode “Rightful Heir.” 

Ro Laren’s Death

The biggest shock of this episode is the death of Ro Laren. Ironically or not, Ro dies trying to save Starfleet, an organization that sent her to prison twice . Ro also dies in a shuttlecraft, and in her last appearance in TNG , she and Riker were in a shuttle together before she left Starfleet. Ro’s death is the first time a major TNG character has been killed off on screen since Data in Nemesis . But unlike Data, it seems very unlikely that Ro will come back from the dead. This sacrifice is real, and grounded, and will likely go down as one of the most talked-about deaths in all of Trek history.

Ryan Britt is a longtime contributor to Den of Geek! He is also the author of three non-fiction books: the Star Trek pop history book PHASERS…

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Published Dec 19, 2023

The Villainy of Vadic

The Shrike captain's mark may very well be felt on the final frontier for many more years to come!

StarTrek.com

The Federation took my family!

Vadic, "Dominion"

For more than a half century, Star Trek has introduced a plethora of iconic villains. From the cunning Khan Noonien Singh to the nihilistic Gabriel Lorca , these fiendish foes have left a lasting mark on the franchise by daring to stand directly in the path of Starfleet’s continuous quest to seek out new life and new civilizations. Ever ready to draw a line in the sand, many have even gone so far as to choose death itself in an effort to expose the deepest, darkest secrets of the Federation.

One such villain to bestow such an impact was Vadic . Magnificently portrayed by Amanda Plummer for the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard , this Changeling captain of the Shrike emerged from the shadows and quickly established herself as one of the strongest miscreants to ever terrorize the final frontier. More than some one-dimensional threat of the week, she is a complex and tortured soul of near Shakespearean proportions. And, while it can be argued that she was not the deadliest threat to ever materialize in the galaxy, there is no doubt she was one of the most dangerous.

Let us now delve into five key aspects that aid in supporting this character’s villainous excellence...

Firstly, Vadic possesses a compelling backstory that aids in adding some much needed depth and dimension to her character. The traumatic experiences she was forced to undergo while serving as science experiment of sorts aboard Daystrom Station, which included having to watch as her loved ones were poked and prodded all in the name of peace, is something that would go on to really resonate with viewers upon its shocking revelation. Driven by a seething hatred that served as her driving force throughout the season, this tragic history allows her to rise above the episodic feel of most sci-fi foes and gives the character a catalyst for her villainous actions against our heroes.

Think of it. Vadic was captured, imprisoned and experimented on by an organization that many held as the greater good in the galaxy. They had hurt her and her loved ones, treating sentient life as little more than a child’s plaything. No wonder she was so determined to get even with them by any means necessary! This allows the motivations behind her vengeful nature, capped off by freely choosing to wear the face of her tormentor, to come across as both believable and relatable to those watching. After all, whom among us, if put in such a situation, can say we would not act the same way?

"Dominion"

Secondly, Amanda Plummer’s exceptional acting skills breath life into Vadic. Following flawlessly in the footsteps of father and fellow Star Trek baddie Christopher Plummer, the actresses’ ability to convey the character’s many complex emotions, ranging from deep-seated anger to moments of vulnerability and icy calm, adds a wonderful layer of authenticity to Vadic’s portrayal on-screen — while also allowing her to fully command even the smallest scene requiring her presence.

This nuanced performance further allows viewers to really empathize with this ne'er-do-well, even as she looked to execute a plan to bring the Federation to its knees while carrying the psychological scars brought about by her time in captivity at Daystrom Station. Yes, she was bad. However, perhaps it wasn’t completely all her fault. Whatever the case may be, there is little doubt that Amanda Plummer did a fantastic job of embodying the frightened and vengeful persona of this character and made her come alive in a way that many of us may not have been expecting!

"Surrender"

Next, Vadic’s level of intelligence and cunning make her a truly formidable adversary. Throughout the season, she is constantly able to outwit and outmaneuver her opponents — including the resourceful Jean-Luc Picard and a crew of Starfleet’s finest made up of such stalwarts as William Riker and Liam Shaw .

Additionally, her commitment to playing the long game is particularly frightening and shows the lengths to which she and her Changeling brothers and sisters are willing to go in an effort to get even with their captors. Honestly, if you thought Changelings were a vengeful bunch before, you ain’t seen nothing yet! Furthermore, Vadic’s time on Daystrom Station helped her to hone her survival instincts and cunning, thus affording her the ability to navigate complex situations and devise intricate schemes that constantly allowed her to stay one step ahead of her prey on multiple occasions.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of Vadic’s villainy is that it actually dares to challenge the moral compass of the Star Trek universe. With over five decades worth of stories to tell, this franchise has introduced us to some of the most heroic men and women to grace the face of popular culture. However, it has also looked to lift the curtain on more than a few within the ranks of the Federation who may not be particularly clean. Think characters like Mark Jameson, Erik Pressman, and William Ross.

Vadic’s actions throughout the final season of Star Trek: Picard shed additional light on the shadowier side of Starfleet, forcing both characters and viewers alike to sit up and question the values of the Federation and the lengths at which some in the organization are willing to go in order to protect their interests. This moral ambiguity further adds depth to the series. At the same time, Vadic’s own experiences of torture and mistreatment at the hands of the men and women aboard Daystrom Station end up shaping her worldview and motivations, thus transforming her into a multi-dimensional character whom we can’t help but sympathies with on occasion given her horrific experience.

Lastly, Vadic’s impact on the overall story arc of Star Trek: Picard is a significant one. While I will admit that the overall payoff wasn’t exactly what I was expecting by the time the end credits rolled on the final episode, the character’s actions throughout and the consequences thereof do succeed in driving the plot forward at an appropriate pace.

Furthermore, her time as a prisoner on Daystrom Station serves as a critical aspect of Vadic’s development as it highlights the depths of her suffering and the trauma that fuels her vendetta against those within Starfleet that she sees as responsible.

What can I say? I love a good Star Trek villain and Vadic has quickly become one of my favorites. The range of her emotions, her drive, and determination to get even with those who hurt her — it all just comes together so seamlessly and results in one of the most interesting, believable baddies to go up against the heroes of Starfleet. I also really appreciate how her backstory looks to prove that the Federation isn’t wholly good, while also admitting that Vadic isn’t perhaps wholly bad. It is entirely possible that, had things gone differently, she could very well have found herself marching down the same path as Odo and serving as an ally to the organization. That said, I can’t help but wonder if a character like Vadic should in fact be classified as a villain, or more a villain by circumstance. Yes, like most of her people, she was angered about the outcome of the Dominion War. However, had she experienced the kinder side of the Federation, the one responsible for birthing heroes like James Kirk, Benjamin Sisko, and Kathryn Janeway, I must admit I feel Vadic could very well have ended up contributing to the greater good as so many had before her.

Ah well, I digress. Bottom line, I feel that Vadic has forever solidified herself as one of the best villains of the Star Trek franchise. Her compelling and emotional backstory, coupled with the expert acting of Amanda Plummer, intelligence, moral complexity, and the haunting memory of her torturous experience on Daystrom Station all contribute to her status as a memorable and formidable adversary. One whose mark may very well be felt on the final frontier for many more years to come! Yes, Vadic’s presence in the series not only enriches the ever-expanding lore of the Star Trek universe, but leaves an indelible mark on its legacy that will never be wiped away.

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John DeQuadros (he/him) is a professional toy photographer and freelance writer based out of Ontario, Canada. In addition to StarTrek.com, he contributes to a range of pop culture outlets including Toy Tales Canada, 8-Bit Pickle, Kaiju Ramen, Retro Format & Toy Collectr Magazine. Find John across numerous social media platforms at @RipRocketPix.

In addition to streaming on Paramount+ , Star Trek: Picard also streams on Prime Video outside of the U.S. and Canada, and in Canada can be seen on Bell Media's CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave. Star Trek: Picard is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

Richard Daystrom

• View history

A storied career [ ]

In 2243 , at the age of twenty-four, Daystrom became known as a " boy wonder " after he made the duotronic breakthrough, which won him the Nobel and Zee-Magnees Prizes . However, he felt under-appreciated by his peers and successors , and resented them for developing improvements based on his work, while he was, in essence, left behind.

In response, he devoted his full vigor to the development of the multitronic computer system to create a successful artificial intelligence . This culminated in the M-5 , a computer system sophisticated enough to smoothly control a starship by itself, possibly precluding the need for organic crews .

Breakdown [ ]

In 2268 , he came aboard the USS Enterprise to perform a field test of the M-5. During the test run, the M-5 started displaying erratic and violent behavior. This included seizing control of nonessential systems, attacking a freighter , the Woden , without provocation, reacting to war games problems with other starships with full strength attacks, jeopardizing 1,600 lives, and resisting efforts to be disconnected.

It was revealed that Daystrom's programming of the system incorporated his own personality engrams as a model for the computer's personality, which included his psychological status. Unfortunately, Daystrom was mentally unstable and had a nervous breakdown aboard the Enterprise that required him to be subdued, while the M-5 was convinced that the deaths it caused required it to commit suicide . After the incident, Dr. Daystrom was committed to a mental rehabilitation facility in 2268. ( TOS : " The Ultimate Computer ")

Image of Daystrom in Enterprise -D computer

Daystrom's fallacy did not appear to have much impact on the esteem granted to him and his work. The Daystrom Institute , one of the most prominent Federation research centers, was named after him, as was the Daystrom Award . ( TNG : " The Measure Of A Man ", " Eye of the Beholder ")

A biography of Daystrom was present in the USS Enterprise -D 's library computer , as was a photo of him. They were visible when Data was assimilating Dixon Hill novels in 2364 . ( TNG : " The Big Goodbye ")

See also [ ]

• Daystrom Conference Room

Appendices [ ]

Background information [ ].

Richard Daystrom was played by William Marshall . He filmed his scenes between Thursday 7 December 1967 and Monday 11 December 1967, and on Wednesday 13 December 1967 and Thursday 14 December 1967 on Desilu Stage 9 .

In the first draft script for The Ultimate Computer , he was called John Daystrom.

In an early draft of TNG : " Booby Trap ", the character which became Leah Brahms was instead to have the surname "Daystrom", and she was to be Dr. Daystrom's great-great-granddaughter. The TNG casting department didn't realize this would call for a black actress to play the role until after Susan Gibney had been cast for the part. Although the character was thereafter renamed (at the suggestion of Script Coordinator Eric A. Stillwell ), the Daystrom link was retained by referring to her as having graduated from the Daystrom Institute. ( Star Trek Encyclopedia ; [1] )

Apocrypha [ ]

Richard Daystrom appears in the novel The Rift by Peter David , as one of several Federation scientists who accompany Kirk on an embassy to a reclusive and advanced race, the Caligar. Daystrom confides that, although many consider his intellect to be undiminished, his confidence has deserted him, making him incapable of any new ideas. In an epilogue to the novel, however, Daystrom combines observations of the Caligar's technology with his previously discarded M-5 research, to produce the forerunner of the 24th century holodeck .

An entry about Richard Daystrom was included in Who's Who in Star Trek 1 from DC Comics , which cites his birthplace as Göteborg (also known as Gothenburg), Sweden and his education occurred in Stockholm where he became known as "The Boy Wonder" due to taking only six years to finish his primary and secondary levels of education.

FASA 's RPG sourcebook The Federation claims he was born in New Orleans and that he has a son named Richard Daystrom II.

In the Last Unicorn Games RPG Starfleet Academy , Daystrom wrote a text titled Principles of Robotics . By the late 24th century, it became required reading for cadets taking Starfleet Academy 's Introduction to Artificial Intelligence course.

According to the Ship Construction Manual , Daystrom's father was named Randall L. Daystrom.

External link [ ]

• Richard Daystrom at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• 1 Self-sealing stem bolt
• 3 Cleveland Booker

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Terry Matalas Explains The “Return” Of James T. Kirk On ‘Star Trek: Picard’

| April 1, 2023 | By: Anthony Pascale 217 comments so far

One of the items stored at Daystrom Station in the Star Trek: Picard episode “The Bounty” has fans buzzing and speculating. Now showrunner Terry Matalas explains why they included the body of James T. Kirk in the collection and what it could mean for the future.

Kirk’s body is ready for a “return”… but not on Picard

Last weekend, Terry Matalas beamed in remotely to a panel held at GalaxyCon hosted by the Inglorious Treksperts, which they released as their latest podcast episode . The discussion covered each of the individual films from the Star Trek franchise and when they were talking about Star Trek: Generations and the death of James T. Kirk, Matalas chimed in with how this inspired him to update Kirk’s story:

Look, it’s not how I would have sent Kirk off, clearly, because I just put his body in Daystrom.

After teaming up to help Jean-Luc Picard, James T. Kirk was killed by Soran in Generations . Kirk’s body was buried by Picard on Veridian III under a pile of rocks. That was the last known location of Kirk’s body—until “The Bounty.”

Picard at Kirk’s grave in Generations

Since seeing Kirk’s body in Daystrom Station, many fans thought it was foreshadowing his potential return later on in the season. When you look very closely at the display of Kirk’s body, there was a mention of something called “Project Phoenix,” which some interpreted as a clue. When pressed by Altman to explain why they added Kirk to the story, Matalas dashed any hopes of seeing Kirk on the show:

Look, Kirk is dead. We figured, “Is his body really just under a pile of rocks on that planet?” We’re not committed… we’re not saying he is resurrected.

Kirk’s body stored at Daystrom in “The Bounty”

Matalas did say he feels bringing Kirk’s body back to Daystrom could set up a story of Kirk’s return in a future Star Trek :

Is it a tip of the hat to The Return , which is a wonderful book I recommend to all of you? Maybe. We just leave it open that someday some brilliant writer could do something. That could be an animated thing. That could be anything. It’s just to keep, as my friend Spock is fond of saying, “There are always possibilities.” That was the idea behind that.

Matalas mentioned The Return , a 1996 Star Trek novel written by William Shatner with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. The story picks up after Generations when the Romulans and Borg retrieve Kirk’s body from Veridian III and resurrect him using Borg technology and the Guardian of Forever. They want to use Kirk as a weapon to take on Jean-Luc Picard, but Spock eventually breaks Kirk from his brainwashing and the character lives on and has a number of new adventures through a series of novels over the next decade, ending with 2006’s Captain’s Glory .

Cover for The Return

Shatner weighs in

All the buzz about the body showing up on Picard has caught the attention of the original Kirk himself. Today on Twitter, he posted about it, referencing “Project Phoenix” with the question “Where is Kirk?” He took how Kirk was buried under rocks on Veridian III only to be found behind a panel on Daystrom Station to create a Rock, Paper, Scissors joke, turning it into “Rock, Panel, Station.”

I guess we know where the disappearing @StarTrek Captain went! It's like the old game of Rock, Paper, Scissors but it's now Rock, Panel, Station! #ProjectPhoenix ?😳🤔 #WhereisKirk ? 🤷🏼😝👇🏻 I guess it's all an @AprilFools 😵‍💫 Have a wonderful weekend! pic.twitter.com/KMpN1nXRBz — William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) April 1, 2023

It looks like fans can stand down for now when it comes to expecting the return of James T. Kirk for this season of Picard . But Matalas and his team have set things up for a future Star Trek show or movie to find a way for Kirk’s return.

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Pretty weird choice. I don’t have any feelings about it per se, but it’s definitely weird.

I recall Matalas saying before the series debuted, that part of his impetus for the story was to “correct” the mistakes of the TNG movies. Many have long felt that Kirk’s death was a huge mistake, so this does fix that in multiple ways.

Personally, I’m so relieved to hear they’re not bringing him back in this season, and I hope nobody ever does. Well, not anytime soon, that is.

I remember something along those lines being said.

I’ve seen on Reddit a couple threads where people theorize Kirk will show up in the finale aboard the E-D.

Yes, but it seems here he is debunking that.

“We just leave it open that someday some brilliant writer could do something.”

Brilliant writer… Wouldn’t surprise me that he’s talking about himself here…

Very well could be, but I believe him when he says he dropped it in there for future use by anyone.

That would be so out of left field for him to just show up. If they do, why not put him back aboard the Enterprise-A? It is apparently sitting there in the museum.

But the issue is clear, why bring Kirk back at all? He isn’t relevant anymore. And in a real world issue, Shatner is in his 90’s. Even with age changing CGI he wouldn’t be the same dude. His voice sounds different and he has an incredibly different body type.

Nothing was fixed or corrected. He still died on Veridian III. Matalas just moved his body to a storage locker for the “oohs and aahs”. I’m not relieved.

Relax, pal. Kirk’s appearance in the S31 stations means he wasn’t buried, and there’s potential for him to return. That’s all. I don’t like it either, but I get what he’s trying to do.

…it’s not the ‘ohhs & aahs” – it’s as Matalas has previously stated that it’s for the same reason that the ‘Enterprise D’ Saucer Section was recovered from the surface of Veridian III – to avoid contamination of the planet. By extension, it is a requirement of the Prime Directive that the Federation and therefore Starfleet do nothing to interfere with the natural development of alien civilisations by protecting unprepared civilisations / planetary systems from the introduction of advanced technology, knowledge (such as strange dead human bodies!) and ultimately foreign alien values before they are ready. In other words ‘make a mess on another planet; you clean it up’!

Sure, but did we really need it? I’m with Trell in that it’s really an unnecessary bit. It was there to make people go ooh and ahh, not actually inform the story or move the plot.

“Ah yeah…’ Ooh ,  ah ,’  that’s how it always starts . But then later, there’s running and screaming.”

Excellent reasoning!

I agree I think this was just a big clue for die hard fans that if Kirk is off Veridian III, the Enterprise is as well. We know from deleted scenes and images that the saucer is at the fleet museum, but in reality they have never confirmed this on screen. I think this is proof it is in Docking Bay 12.

I think this was just a big clue that the Enterprise D is in the Docking Bay 12. Clearly they grabbed the saucer from Veridian III so they wouldn’t mess with the development of the inhabitants of Veridian IV. So you would also need to pick up the dead extra terrestrial buried on a hill under rocks.

Since Picard’s corpse is a plot device for the story, perhaps the call-out to Kirk’s corpse is an attempt to make the former’s “not so implausible”?

Regardless, I’m not a fan of either, mind you. I personally find it ghoulish and disrespectful.

Ghoulish activity is normal for Section 31, however. So, that makes it easier for me to understand.

Oh, I agree. It is definitely ghoulish.

I was more confused than charmed by the whole Daystrom Star Trek Experience (coming soon to Orlando). Like the name suggests, Daystrom was supposed to focus on AI, right? But now it’s also storage for dead heroes and tribble monsters. Okey-doke.

Might need a little more oversight there, especially with what happens to captured shapeshifters.

Daystrom, in past series, had additional research than just AI.

It seemed for a while that characters kept referencing the Daystrom Institute weekly.

I see. I mostly remember it being used in reference to AI and robotics. It was still odd to see it being used as, presumably, a sort of Section 31 black site. And populated by no one for some reason.

Anyway, as for Kirk, I don’t know, it doesn’t seem like something you casually drop in as a reference. That was too big a distraction for me. Ditto with Genesis; do the Changelings not know what that thing can do? Why not steal it?

What was even more irritating about that reveal was how they had Raffi look directly at the display of Kirk’s vault and not have her even make a curious expression about it. like “umm why is this here?”

He should have left it alone if he didn’t plan on using it in any way for the season.

New Jersey: Why is there a watermelon there?

Reno: I’ll tell you later.

Wow, had to read that twice to make sure I didn’t write that post!

I really wish I hadn’t read the tie-in novel before seeing BUCKAROO — the novel had a lot of depth and more humor and the film felt seriously truncated to me as a result. And I reread the book a couple years back before rewatching the movie, and had the exact same experience! No matter where you go … (tho for shapeshifters, it would be ‘no matter where you goo … ‘)

I was wondering who, if anyone, would pick up on it.

Matalas has explained that the NCC-1975 is there as a nod to the original design of the 1960’s Enterprise (Constitution Class) ship. First up; the original Enterprise was completely refitted to the version seen in ‘The Motion Picture’ which was later blown up – so it didn’t exist – thus couldn’t be put on display at the museum. Also, canonically, under Kurtzman era Trek that version of the Constitution Class Starship no longer exists due to the redesigned model in Strange New Worlds. Matalas & crew placed the ‘New Jersey’ in as a nod to the original design created by Roddenberry – without contradicting Kurtzman era canon. Nifty ehh?

Matalas has made clear that the section of Daystrom Station we are exposed to is the centrally located and completely isolated “Vault” – not populated by scientists or Starfleet personal – instead protected the AI system which is Data / Lore / Soong / Lal / B4. Matalas has also explained the rest of the massive station (with all the different lit up windows) are teaming with Federation and Starfleet personal – that is, it is an active research station. Agreed; he could have made it clearer in the episode.

Daystrom Station is not necessarily affiliated with the Daystrom Institute, of course.

For example, Carnegie Mellon University has nothing to do with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, other than a common benefactor back in the day.

Or the Institute might run the station, but as a separate division that is walled off from the academic institution, much as the way the University of California operated Los Alamos National Laboratory until 2006 (and resumed doing so as part of a joint venture in 2018).

Seems like this Daystrom station is Trek’s own version of Area 51. Yes, I do find it a bit odd, too. But overall the show is OK so I just chalk it up as cheap fan service they really didn’t need to do.

As references to dead characters go, I think Hugh’s body would’ve made more sense. He was a former drone, which would catch Daystrom’s interest, and he meant more to the TNG crew than Kirk. I mean Picard was the only one who worked with Kirk and he wasn’t on the station to see it.

Why just Hugh’s body? Thousands of ex-Borg drones were inside the captured / deactivated Borg Cube Ship and many were blown out into space from the Borg Cube. Hugh was one of thousands of available ex-Borgs. James T. Kirk’s body is significant AND there was only 1 Kirk!!!

There’s only one Hugh, too. Him finding his individuality was the entire point of the character.

And yes, Kirk is significant and that’s the problem. It’s such a huge revelation it distracts from the story.

Agreed: there was only one Hugh – however there were, according to Picard Season 1, thousands of similarly recovered, now individuals, x-Borgs … ALL now individuals & recovered from the Collective. Ergo, Hugh in the view of Starfleet & Federation is NOT unique. And ‘yes’ Hugh is important to us as an audience – pity Akiva Goldsman & Chabon didn’t consider that when he was killed off!

I think the first drone on record to break the Borg spell, so to speak, would be significant, and his brain might be worthy of study.

Agreed. Putting the image of Kirk’s innards there did prove to be too big a distraction.

The producers have confirmed Daystrom is Starfleet’s Area 51.

I also wonder why that’s a problem for some fans like ML. It’s a perfectly logical facility to exist in the Trek universe.

Everything is a problem for fans like ML.

I mean, that’s true. Biggest troll on this site.

Really? I never said it was a problem.

Hence, you are proved wrong.

Care to respond with more falsehoods?

Ah. Then there you go. I haven’t read anything like that so it would seem in this instance their intent clearly translated to screen.

…as much as I love the Kirk character, I’m glad they’re not bringing him back on PIC. Admittedly, the Nerd in me would love it, but this should be about Picard and the TNG crew. Just that little scene in E6 was enough to give me chills, though. And it is nice to know he’s not still lying on that random planet under a pile of rocks. They brought him back home, and hopefully he had a proper grand state funeral, befitting his legendary status.

I remember The Return although I’ve never read it. But the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of a two hour Star Trek TV movie event with a role fit for a 90+ year old actor. Not an action adventure movie but a more thoughtfully paced drama about Kirk as a man out of time. Who is he without Spock and without Bones? What value does he have as a cold warrior during a time of extended peace with the Klingons. And give him a better death — alone.

Very nicely said. Done well, with the right writers, that could be a great story. Those themes are actually touched on a bit in The Return.

What you described would be wonderful.

I’d rather see it be used to bring Pine into the 25th century Prime Timeline. No Shatner please. Considering he’s publicly trashed current shows, they may not even be interested in working with him.

I agree — that ship has sailed, and I don’t want to see it

Well, I’ll counter with my own preference: no Pine, please. Aside from some welcome hints at growth in BEYOND, his Kirk is just awful.

Totally agree, best Kirk in Trek history.

“Hints” is underselling it a bit.

He was fantastic in all three films. Pine is a highlight of the reboot.

Pine is great as Kirk. Remember, he only can use with the writers him. In other words, please don’t shoot the messenger

I respectfully disagree. I’m a big fan of Pine’s Kirk. I thought he was just wonderful.

While that sounds like an amazing concept… I feel like the odds of it being well done (especially if Secret Hideout is involved at all) are fairly slim.

Yup, same concern here.

Yes, you didn’t feel the need to slip in a shot at Secret Hideout the way he does in almost every single post he makes. Sometimes I wonder if Kurtzman is his ex-husband or something.

I know we hardcore fans can get rather caustic in conversation as to what we think Trek should be. I take no pleasure in trashing the powers-that-be. I had no faith whatsoever in SH as DSC was evolving, but I really like PRO, SNW and PIC (s3). So I think Kurtzman & Co. are doing better.

Same. I feel Discovery and first two seasons of Picard is mostly trash but also love PIC S3, PRO, LDS and SNW. Proof we’re not all out to hate Kurtzman. Just his bad shows. 😉

I don’t think any Trek is trash, outside of maybe TNG Season 1. I haven’t liked Discovery, but I can acknowledge it’s good in ways beyond the things I like.

That’s cool. We can agree to disagree. I still think Discovery is mostly trash.

You see, but here’s the thing, he inherited discovery from Fuller, And for the first two seasons of Picard Patrick Stewart had a lot of power given his contract, and so we got these way too introspective shows focused on his character.

So the part of the franchise you don’t like are the parts that Kurtzman was least responsible for. And what you like a lot, we’ll that’s all Kurtzman at the helm.

Um we’re ignoring each other. Just a friendly reminder. But take it easy. 👍

My apologies – I was not paying attention.

And that’s fair. But I don’t see a lot of quality from SH. Star Trek Discovery was gawdawful. LDX has failed at everything it tries. Prodigy had a good start but has become more mediocre and SNW spits all over the universe they are supposed to be in. Only this S3 of Picard has been consistently above average. There has been so much swill produced by SH that one decent season just isn’t enough to make me think they have learned any lessons or turned any corners. But we are stuck with them at the moment so the best we can hope for as they move forward is that we get really lucky and they stumble into more decent storytelling at the level of at least S3 or Picard.

I guess I’m just not as cynical as you but I feel these days they are doing more right than wrong. Prodigy is currently my favorite out of the new shows and yes loving Picard S3 as well even with some flaws, so we seem to agree on that. But unlike you I think LDS and SNW are great shows as well. I completely accept why you don’t like them of course but they are really fun shows for me and also really captures the spirit of Star Trek.

And although I can completely understand why you don’t like LDS (and you were generally very excited about it at least), I still think you’re letting the canon issues with SNW influence you a bit too much. But it’s your right to feel that way. But here is a question, if they told you SNW existed in a different timeline or universe, would you like the show more?

If the answer is no, then fair enough.

You are correct that a major issue with SNW is the canon violations. And even though many feel this might be a small I find the use of the Gorn to be a MAJOR issue. On par with your issue with the Kelpian yell. Next is completely altering the Chapel character to the point where I just have to think this is a completely different character whose name happens to be Chapel. And #1 was amazingly underused and when they did do something with her I felt it completely undermined her. Making her a disguised alien was just plain dumb because it felt like they thought that there couldn’t possible be a woman who acts like #1 did. So they made her alien.

It might be easier to take if they said ALL of the SH stuff was their own SH universe apart from the prime. But even if that was the case I would still find SNW to be fairly mediocre. That might be a function of the short seasons. I feel like if there were more episodes that chances for more than one good one would improve. I’ve seen a couple more STC episodes and even though one wasn’t all that great I still feel that overall those shows are much better than anything SH has done. So it can be done and for a lot less money, too.

It’s certainly fair to be skeptical of a creative team that hasn’t produced work you like, but some fans just hate everything, trash everything, take personal pot shots literally every chance they get, and yet continue to keep watching, seemingly just so they can continue to be mad and express their grievances.

He just said he liked PRO, SNW and PIC season 3. So he’s not trashing everything. In fact he seems to be a fan of most of it.

Danpaine is one of the most respected members here and well liked. It’s not his fault some people don’t want to hear his opinion because they disagree with it…or even comprehend it.

…Thanks, Tiger. This thread became quite adversarial. Unnecessary, imo.

Unfortunately there are people here who are thin skinned and don’t want to hear opposing opinions of ANY kind. Unfortunately for them they don’t run this site. ;)

Keep speaking your man and speak it often. Most of us love hearing your views and those other people just have to suck it per usual. ;)

Agreed 100% about Discovery. Judging by the lack of people caring the show even got cancelled and it’s still the lowest rated Trek show, I don’t think many will argue with it. ;)

Lol, yeah that dude just keep repeating this over and over and over. I wish I was in a bar with him where I could playfully shake his shoulders and say, “dude we get it now OK, we heard you the first 270 times, move on” lol

That’s actually the issue in a pitch I made to TNG several months before JFK came out called JTK, in which we find that Kirk was fake-assassinated on the eve of the 24th century and actually put on ice as an emergency save-the-day-device for the Federation, which then did such a good job covering their tracks that soon nobody was around who remembered he was tucked away … till Data solved all the coverups and conspiracies and found him and thawed him. The second part of the story was Kirk on the -D, seriously not connecting with the time and place, and it needed more work than the first half, to say the least.

Biggest prob for me is that I was utterly intimidated putting words in Kirk’s mouth, something that was never an issue with the TNG folk. I could write Picard/Guinan exchanges that absolutely read like the actors were saying the words, but Kirk … that was tough, which is why I only did it as a premise/treatment, not a story outline or spec script. (plus I knew they were still not doing TOS regular characters at that point, so it would have been extremely unlikely, but it would have been a great tie-in with JFK.)

I thought Marshak and Culbreath did a great job of making Kirk sound like Shatner/Kirk in their PHOENIX novels and especially in THE PROMETHEUS DESIGN. (had to sneak PHOENIX into this thread somehow.)

I’d love to see a two hour episode or mini-series that gives Kirk a better send-off. I don’t need them to ‘fix’ every botched death from Star Trek history, but the original star of Star Trek deserved better. Plus, he’s freaking 92 and still acting!? And arguably more well-known than ever.

So semi-red herring, semi-future plot base.

I’m cool with it

I would love to see Shatner return to the role one last time as Nimoy got to for Spock in the 09 film. Shatner is iconic in the role.

It seems a rather pointless and overboard fan service in that episode if nothing was to become of it. I mean, Kirk’s body being in Daystrom was a rather big deal and to add the medical scanner sound along with “Project Phoenix” to the display was a very large distraction that didn’t need to be there.

I realize that for some fans, Kirk is no big deal now and probably shrugged about it as no more important than the other curiosities stored in Daystrom, but for me it was much more than that and I would have preferred not to have seen it at all honestly. This choice was no better than leaving him under a pile of rocks on Veridian III.

Just an unnecessary distraction.

I view it as the same as showing Spocks torpedo tube on Gensis at the end of TWOK…at that time it wasn’t known that there would be a ST3, it was just a “possibility”.

I guess the placement of such future possibilities are important.

But that was the last shot in the movie, not just a throwaway in mid-story. This is the equivalent of the throwaway in LAST CRUSADE about the ark of the covenant, not like the end of RAIDERS where you see the warehouse. So it feels more like a gag than a moment (and I assume that is intentional, because they could have emphasized it differently or even cut the reveal so it happened at some other time.

It probably wouldn’t have bothered me as much if say, 1) I had any real attachment to Kirk as a character and 2) if the rest of the episode and series hadn’t already been littered with similar teases and easter eggs.

I guess if Matalas claims Kirk’s body is there then I guess it should be accepted that it is. But on screen there is still nothing to suggest his body was actually there. We never saw a body. Only some computer image. So any writer can still canonically do whatever they want with the body.

They should bring Kirk back to life as a woman. That would be awesome.

And call her Janice Lester.

Don’t give them any ideas, with Hollywood being what it is, they would probably do it.

What’s wrong with having a female Kirk?

Nice try, but I’m not going anywhere near that one.

Pretty sure on-screen canon doesn’t work that way. But if you want to play some game where “oh, everything on the Daystrom station was fake!” and concoct some nonsense to invalidate it, sure, technically that can be done. But at that point you can just do gymnastics to recon everything, and nothing matters.

He just enjoys making up little fantasies in his head, that way when he’s wrong he can be mad about it.

How do you figure? I never suggested even remotely that “everything on Daystrom station was fake”. Let alone the autopsy scans of Kirk. In fact there is no reason to suspect that medical data is fake in any way. I only said there was no evidence his body was actually there. In fact watching the scene I never once concluded his body was actually there. Showing some skeletal scans is not the same thing at all. If they really wanted to suggest his body was there they should have gone through some sort of morgue-like room with obvious holding drawers labeled as James T. Kirk. Have other names there as well to sell the concept.

Your assumption was quite the leap of logic.

Equally, the “Kirk” being preserved there could be the android Kirk from “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”

That is true too.

I actually forgot what became of that android… Anything that might preclude it still existing over a century later?

Matalas is the same guy who gave is the 💩 that is Picard S1 & S2. Frankly, S3 would have been crap too without the TNG crew. Is anyone surprised he teases Kirk and then leaves everyone with blue balls?

Michael Chabon was showrunner for Season 1. Akiva Goldsman was co-show runner for Season 2 with Terry Matalas.

Terry Matalas then left production of Season 2 to focus on Season 3 and Akiva Goldsman continued finishing out Season 2

If you’re going to rant, at least be correct.

He had nothing to do with S1 and minimal involvement in S2. Relax.

I love folks who talk shit confidently and it’s absolutely wrong. You have a bright future as an AI chatbot.

They didn’t even hire Matalas until season 2. And with season 2, he had zip to do with developing the story, that was all Goldsman. He wrote the first two episodes and just help produce the other episodes until he left in episode 5 to prep for season 3.

As someone who enjoyed The Return , I appreciate Matalas’ comments on why we saw Kirk’s remains in Daystrom Station. When Generations ended, it felt somehow wrong to me to leave Kirk’s remains on Veridian III. Given how shady we know Section 31 can be, it seems obvious they would go recover the remains of Starfleet’s most iconic captain.

Agreed. I read The Return too, back when it came out. Though not a fan of Trek lit per se, it did provide a nice cap to Generations, though not canon. I like the fact they went and retrieved his body as well.

That’s the one where a DEFIANT-class ship decloaks inside the open space of a Romulan warbird, between the nacelles and behind the head, then it does a spin while firing. So totally cool, just like the ramming scene in FEDERATION. Those folks really knew how to deliver space battle scenes that were both credible and totally exciting.

I’ll admit to being embarrassed that I know this, but it wasn’t firing. It did the rotation because weapons were offline.

So does it just tear the ship apart from within from the movement? Geez, now I gotta go find a copy.

I’d figure the Ferengi would go dig him up to sell off his ‘hair’ and such, sort of like the way they were going to similar things to John Wayne in THE SHOOTIST.

To John Wayne: “Is that your real hair?” John Wayne: “It’s not mine, but it’s real.”

I never read the book. But I, too, felt it was amazingly wrong to leave Kirk’s body on that planet. Not just as it was not a good way to honor James T. Kirk but leaving an alien body on a planet right next to one with a developing population kinda feels like the wrong move.

I never for one instant thought that Starfleet would leave Kirk’s body behind on that planet. They would have scoured that star system for every trace of Federation presence.

Agreed. I’m pretty sure there are a dozen amendments under the Prime Directive about not contaminating planets with dead aliens and so on.

They wanted a moment for the movie but it would’ve made much more sense to do it on Earth.

Veridian III was uninhabited (at that time), but Data did note that the Veridian system contained another planet home to a pre-industrial (or was it pre-warp, one of the two?) society.

Maybe the next animated series can be about a crew who warps around cleaning up Starfleet’s Prime Directive messes lol?

But it’s still contaminating a foreign planet. I just can’t imagine it would be OK to just leave people and hardware anywhere they want.

But it seems like if anyone would abide by this it would be Picard, so maybe it is OK?

And that means they would likely eventually travel to their neighboring planet and perhaps find 200 year old alien remains.

So, no. Can’t imagine that being allowed.

I love it! Can’t wait to bring him back! It makes sense for the Section 31 Series!

Gotta get those legacy characters. Fans want nothing else.

Kirk is dead. Even if Starfleet retrieved the corpse after a few days from a shallow grave on a hot,.dry planet, it was definitely a closed casket funeral. Shatner is 92. If something were greenlit today, it would take a year, year and a half before principal photography began.

JL Picard is a stud. On a hot, dry planet, he dug a dead Kirk out from under the wreckage of a collapsed bridge. He drug the 250+ pound body to the top of that rock, then hauled hundreds of pounds of rocks up there to cover him up. Respect.

While I agree with you, I expect they could pull the Nexus out of their large box of lame plot devices and somehow resurrect him — they rejuvenate his Daystrom body and get sort of his katra from the Nexus.

But I don’t want to see 92 year old shatner in the role — unless they spend a ton of money to convincingly de-age him and make him look more fit like we would expect the elder Kirk character in Trek to be.

The reason Generations remains firmly in place at the bottom of my Trek movie list is the Nexus. Just an absolutely horrible plot device.

Maybe it’s me, but I’ve yet to see de-aging that doesn’t look off. They’d just be animating Shatner at that point. It just won’t work.

It’s not on my bottom of the list of Trek movies but your issue is a credible one. The mistake is giving the characters control of time like they did. So many many problems. For one thing, when fighting Soran when it looked like they could lose, just let the Nexus envelop them again and go back and try again. Or Picard could go back to the E and just grab Soran in 10-Forward. Or better yet, go back further and keep his brother’s family from burning to death. There were just so many many other ways to more effectively fix this. And he could just bring Kirk back with him. Alive. Or perhaps Kirk could just go back to his time. They needed to come up with reasons why this was a one shot, succeed or die, kind of situation.

It’s not just the characters – Data discovers what it is, quickly, and that it blows through the galaxy every forty years or so, apparently unguarded. The Nexus is a known entity, and not top secret. In essence, it turns Generations into a sci-fi version of Groundhog Day. At some point you’d think that the Federations Temporal Police Department would figure out that a lot of their temporal violations would go away if they’d just blow the g-d thing up. Or, maybe not….

There is that too. It would seem plausible this phenomena would be known about for at least 80 years if not longer. And just talking to the survivors would reveal what they think it is. But I suppose they just let it be because it didn’t present a danger and supposedly every attempt to enter if using a ship has failed.

You hit the nail on the head. That’s what so many people have asked Ron Moore about the Nexus. He admitted that it’s an immense plot hole.

Moore has owned up to a number of mistakes he made in Generations. Including the kitchen scene with Kirk & Picard.

But ultimately I think a lot of fans were expecting Kirk to be in a lot more of the picture. That they would meet up and have an adventure together. Irritating each other at first and learning they each had their own ways of getting things done that worked. Instead Kirk was merely bookended.

It was definitely not one of RDM’s better efforts…..

Ronald Moore admitted, if I recall correctly, that the Nexus is a plothole you could drive a semi through.

GEN is just a really really weak story. Both Moore and Brannon Braga admit that they blew it, and a good chunk of the blame involves Rick Berman’s plot requirements. This is all out there in interviews. Moore and Braga had terrible requirements and were pressed for time but wrote their script. Berman wanted Nimoy to direct and gave him the script. Nimoy said, rightly, again according to Moore, that the script wasn’t good at all. Berman said pre-production was already in place and the script couldn’t be changed, so Nimoy, who was angry that he wasn’t brought in earlier to work with the writers on a film that would’ve involved Kirk, Spock, and maybe McCoy and the rest of the crew, walked away from the film and we got GEN as it is.

It’s a dissapointing film. The chemistry between Picard and Kirk is just great and Stewart and Shatner apparently had a really great time together and the Ent-D’s passing and Data’s emotion chip silliness is fun, but the Nexus is just such an immense plot hole, the theme of time passing is overwrought and the death of Kirk was pretty weak and badly done, as both Moore and Braga have admitted. It’s just a dissapointment. There was so much potential for a great film for the first TNG film and, thanks to Berman and/or Paramount, they completely dropped the ball.

It was my understanding that Kelly was keen on doing it but was just too ill. I did hear that Nimoy was asked about directing but he passed for some of the reasons you mentioned. Also he didn’t wish to appear as Spock because he didn’t think Spock had enough to do.

I don’t know about Kelly. It may have been illness but he also said something to the effect that if Nimoy wasn’t going to be in GEN, then he didn’t feel like he should be in it either. In any case, Spock and Bones were supposed to be in the GEN in the beginning but Nimoy rightly didn’t like the part, saying it didn’t need Spock, so not only did Berman lose Nimoy as a director but he lost the inclusion of Spock in GEN. The whole thing was incredibly botched by Berman and he stills tries to spin it as a good movie in interviews after messed it up right from its inception.

Well, they have the genesis device. Here you go. Somehow recreate the regeneration effect like they did with Spock’s body on ST III. Kirk’s dead body is rejuvenated as a baby, then a child, and then they extract him from the newly formed planet as an adult, played by Paul Wesley.

Of course, the rejuvenated body has no memories. There is no “katra.”

Or, you pop back into the Nexus, and suggest to Kirk that he might want to stay off that bridge over there. Oh, and here are the winning numbers for the Federation Super Lotto. Pick up a ticket for me, too. :-)

LOL! Y’know, I never thought about that, the effort Picard obviously put into burying Kirk.

Good for him! Picard’s awesome!

I like what the dude has done with this season of Picard, but he’s getting way too cute with the fan service. This is like the huge weakness of lower decks where they try to force fit in all of these canon connections just to be cute, and in most cases they come across awkward and not holistic to the story.

On this one, I feel like Alec Kurtzman should have stepped in and just said no

My thought is he doesn’t know the franchise well enough to know.

This why you never allow fan boys to make trek shows.

I might normally agree, except that, on balance, Matalas’ season of Picard has proved wildly popular among diehard fans and the wider audience.

Could be a number of reasons for this. Perhaps Kurtzman thinks fan service works. And there is reason for him to think that. Perhaps he doesn’t have the control of the show to allow him to step in like that? Maybe he decided on a “hands off” policy with S3 of Picard? I’m sure there are more…

A nice nod to William Shatner’s book The Return, but if he were to be used in other series then Discovery is the best bet since its final season will be next year and in the 32nd Century.

Perhaps some solution like Prodigy or Lower Decks. Yes, Voice over Original Actor, but animated Avatar. If it’s CGI or Hand drawn that’s time will tell

Ship’s Computer Voice? It’s already done…. *whistles* HCS Voice Packs

Remember it is April 1st. It is STUPID April fools’ joke.

Obviously, you didn’t read the article.

It doesn’t state that the character will return; it just addresses the Easter egg from a week-and-a-half old episode, and… if anything, nullifies any further speculation.

Is Kirk being revived to be the Chancellor of Starfleet Academy in the 32nd century?

If anything, he could be revived and become a cadet.

For a YA show, what possible rationale is there to reanimate a thousand year old corpse to run Starfleet Academy? No. Not happening.

If they’re going to revive him, I honestly wouldn’t mind it being a 14 year old version of Kirk. At least it would be something new that we haven’t seen. Write some story like where he’s cloned by a villain for some nefarious purpose, and once foiled, leaves us with a young Kirk who now just wants to live his life.

Kirk will be a talking head in a jar

……for the win! Kirk Headroom.

I would love that.

Starfleet removed the corpse just like the removed the saucer section: to prevent future cultural contamination when the species the next planet over comes a-callin’ in their pre-warp space program.

That’s a good point. Though, the man deserves a big state funeral, not being kept in the freezerino.

Kirk was already declared dead 80 years before. No one would care.

Look, kiddo, take a mental note here and remember that this edgelord stuff you do here with people isn’t going to work on me. Just move along and bother someone else from now on, okay? Thanks.

Did I hurt your feelings?

Very much agreed.

Could be, perhaps some clean up to prevent that from happen. But this do not explain his place inside Daystrom or Section 31 “toys”

The E-D would be a helluva monolith for pre-warp folk to discover.

At which point Kirk would have been interred with honors either at the Academy or in the town of his birth, not tucked away in a storage locker somewhere. Starfleet would have salvaged whatever was left of the E-D that was functional, and recycled the rest. What we saw in E6 was just fan service run amuck. It’s already not holding up well when the showrunner is having to walk s**t back.

Great Easter egg, terrible idea for a story.

It’s not even a good easter egg. Is Dr. McCoy tucked away in another storage locker on Daystrom because the Yonadian’s cursed him with long life?

“ a 1996 Star Trek novel written by William Shatner with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens ”

Here, I’ll fix that for you…

“a 1996 Star Trek novel written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, with William Shatner’s name on the cover”

Look, we all know these celebrity books, even the autobiographies, are never written by them. Sometimes the name of the real author is on the cover, sometimes there’s a subtle, or not-so-subtle, thank you in the introduction or afterword, and sometimes it isn’t mentioned at all. And this is true of talk-show hosts, of politicians, you name it. At best they talk into a recorder for a while and the job of the author is to put that into written words. Sometimes they don’t even do that.

Who among the Trek cast actually wrote their own books? I think every TOS lead except for Kelley wrote at least one autobiography or memoir. Among them…Nimoy probably wrote his two memoirs, and Chekov his TMP book. Beyond that…not much. Maybe Grace Lee Whitney’s was her own work, but I see she had a co-author as well. And Shatner’s written almost a *dozen* memoirs. :-)

And that’s no knock on them.

Koenig even wrote an episode of TAS. “The Infinite Vulcan”.

I think that was part of making up to him that he wasn’t in the cast.

What other cast members wrote? Nimoy and Shatner are all I can think of.

Is this real news? It is April Fool’s Day…

Obviously, you didn’t read the article either.

Again: It doesn’t state that the character will return; it just addresses the Easter egg from a week-and-a-half old episode, and… if anything, nullifies any further speculation.

I saw it as Matalas debunking the speculation Kirk’s return in the finale. He’s been good at doing this sort of thing. Not to be a party-pooper, but because he rightly recognizes that when fans get whipped into a frenzy over a fan theory that he knows isn’t true, it only creates false expectations, and potentially, massive disappointment.

Remember when Marvel fans got all hyped up that Mephisto was going to appear in WandaVision, and they were convinced it was going to be Al Pacino? Or when they thought that Evan Peters’ appearance meant they’d introduce other Fox X-Men characters? Marvel should have come out immediately and dispelled those theories, because all it ended up doing was disappointing people, and there was a huge section of the fandom that wound up angry that their own little fantasies weren’t true.

Yeah, exactly!

Berman blocked The Return from being made back in the mid 1990s according to Shatner himself the Star Trek producer aka Berman did not want it to be made… Would have been an expensive project as Shatner + Nimoy + FX budget alone would have been $30-40M before they hired anyone else!!

Even if that’s true, I don’t think Paramount would’ve approved it anyway. It sounds like they were ready to wash their hands of Shatner once Generations was made. And to be more frank, I think TFF put such a sour taste in everyone’s mouths, no one was going to give Shatner any creative clout with Star Trek after that; certainly not another movie.

It’s dated 1April….

And once again: Obviously, you didn’t read the article either.

No matter the date, the article doesn’t state that the character will return; it just addresses the Easter egg from a week-and-a-half old episode, and… if anything, it nullifies any further speculation.

Sheesh, you guys… 🙄

Gotta love Terry Matalas! Finally – some decent Star Trek (even if only Season 3 of an ending series; Picard) based on Roddenberry’s principle’s of human understanding, intelligence and wonder!! Sadly, now we face more drivel, pathetic drama, romantic trysts, rivalries and teen angst in Disco’s continuation of ‘Starfleet Academy” where good science-fiction goes to die! (I know this may trigger a couple of kids here who believe that Disco era Trek is the penultimate expression of Trek – which I have no doubt it actually is for them – just wish we lived in a Trek Universe that catered for both the puerile & the intelligent!)

Consider me triggered…

…to agree with you! 😉

Aww did somebody put too much salt in your soup? I can’t fathom why anyone is upset about “Academy.” It’s a show for teens.

Are you just mad because they also made something designed to appeal to a different group? Not everything has to be for you.

Not to get political here, but this is very much a right wing conservative mindset: when something caters to a minority group, for example, it’s inherently a bad idea, or even downright evil, because it’s for someone other than you, and that should not stand!

Relax. Let them make a show for teens, you’ll still get your old angry white man Trek on the Picard spin-off.

If there is any HOPE of doing some kind of resuscitation of Kirk, the body would have to have been recovered EXTREMELY quickly after the whole Veridian III fiasco. Otherwise, I’d have a very hard time buying it. I hope any future writer understands this.

Okay, let’s chalk this up as a half baked April Fool’s joke, and E6 going way too overboard on the fan service.

I used to think Kirk’s Return in the Return was ridiculous. Then i saw them kill off Picard and make him a robot. There is no holy writ on canon, these people do whatever they want.

Pine is the only one who could carry it but he’s younger than when Kirk died. The return was a great novel and I feel some part of that plot has something to do with this season 3.

Shouldn’t a regenerated Kirk be at peak age?

Exactly! Perfect for Paul Wesley!

I’d prefer Chris Pine to play Kirk Prime. I can’t believe i’m in agreement with Tarantino on that.

Bring Shatner back. I don’t care how old he is. They keep dragging Spiner back so why not ShatKirk.

Because Spiner is cool, humble, and fun to work with.

You have clearly not met Brent Spiner on an off day, lets just say he’s not very pleasant

Those are his off days. I’ve never seen anyone in the cast have anything bad to say about working with him. He doesn’t demand to be the center of attention, he doesn’t hog the spotlight in a show, and he doesn’t publicly trash the franchise.

He’s also a member of the TNG cast, so that’s why they brought him back. When they do a TOS reunion, maybe they’ll bring Shatner. Maybe. I’d be happy with an episode that’s just Takei and Koenig having tea together.

If they wanted a cool cameo to close out Picard, it’d be neat to see very elderly SF officers Sulu and Chekov.

So MAKE this TV movie.

Well if they are going to bring back Shatner’s Kirk they had better hurry up and come up with something. Shatner is 92 years old and although fantastic for his age he won’t be like that forever!

My thoughts exactly. Let’s hope it gets stuck in development for like…idk… four or five years.

I’m fortunate to have a friend who works on the production who confirmed a few days ago that it was just an Easter Egg (unless of course he was misdirecting me too, but I doubt it.). And of course, now that Malalas has confirmed the Easter Egg status that seems to be the case. But it’s more than an Easter Egg, of course, it’s a seed, waiting for some other production team to plant or not. I think it’s an interesting seed – and one that doesn’t need to go in the direction we all suppose, with Shatner coming back to play Kirk (as fun as that might be). This is Science Fiction. Which means that anything is possible. If the tech exists to bring back someone who has died – then who’s to say that the technology doesn’t exist to bring them back younger, rejuvenated, etc.? The nice thing about science fiction is that anything that makes a good story (and I’m not here to debate whether it would be a good story or not) is possible.

I agree. It’s definitely more than an Easter Egg. If Kirk’s body is there, with the name “Project Phoenix,” then that’s a seed for another story and, imo, it’s one that they should take advantage of in some way, especially since they’ve already recast Kirk for the second time with a new actor, Paul Wesley, in Strange New Worlds.

Definitely seems ripe to be picked up in the future. Perhaps one of those platforms Kurtzman was talking about. Either a character based mini series or movie. Just give Shatner a story credit even if is only loosely based on The Return and hopefully he would be happy to take a small role. Then explore some of the elements of Section 31 relating to Project Phoenix etc. Could even include Genesis 2. That one scene planted some seeds they could pursue if they choose.

And they’ve already got a perfect new actor to play the cloned Kirk, in Paul Wesley. Well-timed!

Not Wesley.

It’s not the looks. It’s the performance.

He lacks the charisma, intensity, energy that makes both Shatner and Pine seem to take up more space than reality.

I believe Ed Speleers could really deliver Kirk. Wesley just does not.

lol You’ve seen him in half an episode, kneejerker.

All I needed to see was the teaser on WNMHGB to know Shatner ‘had it.’ This guy doesn’t.

lol ok, bud. You do you. I for one am rational and open-minded and willing to give him a shot in the role.

I’ll give Wesley a shot too. It’s fair.

I only saw Wesley biefly on youtube from scenes from his appearance in that SNW episode. Based on that, I agree with you. Pine was just wonderful as Kirk. Wesley may look more like Shatner, but I thought his performance, again, from the very little I’ve seen, was pretty flat.

That said, I don’t think they’d get Pine to play Kirk in a series, especially with Wesley already cast and in SNW season 2. I hope he comes across better than the bit I saw.

Having read those above mentions series of books and Kirk & Picard together and so forth, They are well written and would make a nice series/movie. Coming from the generation that watched TOS in first run, I would love to see JTK come back. Its what I grew up with and hold dear to this day.

Maybe Jack will turn out to be a Reman/Kirk/Picard ala Shinzon combo clone implanted into Beverly (unseen on screen) sometime just after ST:Nemesis in some long game plan of revenge against the Federation by Romulans. Who knows? Maybe Romulan spies stole some Kirk DNA from Daystrom long ago to do it. Ha!

What a bunch of hogwash. If they wanted to bring back William Shatner they would’ve done it a long time ago. I think there’s some sort of vendetta against him. That man is the one and only Captain Kirk. Every other actor pales in comparison.

I hope they have rights to the Shat’s image and voice so they can cook him up in a computer like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in recent Star Wars iterations. Nimoy would be another one you’d hope they’d rights to. There’s a couple five-year missions (post-TMP, post-TFF) we never got to see. But I don’t see it recast.

There were any number of ways to bring him back, into his own time. Coming back into the future wouldn’t be the best for the character. A return years ago would have written itself — no way Spock would have accepted that demise. He would have chased that “nexus” “round perdition’s flame” or something like that.

I was hoping for Shatner. Whenever my hopes are seemingly dashed, I remember that they outright lied that Cumberbatch wasn’t Khan. (Although they fooled no one.)

I love the Abrams movie, but, yeah, that was a complete fail wrt Khan. He didn’t look Indian at all. Of course, if he did, it would have been even easier to guess that he was Khan.

Was hoping he was Gary Mitchell, but i knew he was Khan.

Understand why he did it, especially as someone who didn’t like Picard left him on some desolate planet, but I wish there was just a line saying Kirk was returned to Earth, given a state funeral where he was buried in his hometown of Iowa and left it at that.

Showing that Kirk’s remains were being stored in Daystrom Station for experimentation didn’t bother me as much as when they revealed it. Once they showed that easter egg, I spent the rest of the episode wondering why Kirk’s body was there.

It was like… “Oh Moriarty! But why is Kirk’s body there? Oh it’s Data in a synth body… But what is Project Phoenix and why do they have Kirk’s body? The changelings took Picard’s frozen corpse! But is Kirk alive? I thought I heard a medical scanner too.” The placement was such a distracting choice.

I don’t know how the season is ending, but I would have placed a big easter egg like that at the end of the last episode of the season like a Marvel style end credits scene. Maybe showing a couple of Section 31 agents taking inventory of the vault and end with the reveal of Kirk’s storage locker. I would have liked that better personally.

But yeah, I understand why he did it too.

I understand why he did it. What I don’t understand is why someone in editing didn’t realize that it was stupid, and cut it out.

“Is it a tip of the hat to  The Return , which is a wonderful book I recommend to all of you? Maybe. We just leave it open that someday some brilliant writer could do something. That could be an animated thing. That could be anything. It’s just to keep, as my friend Spock is fond of saying: “There are always possibilities.” That was the idea behind that.”

I can live with this. Like a lot of ST fans, including Generations writers Ronald Moore and Brannon Braga, Matsalas didn’t like Kirk’s end in the film either. Bringing back Kirk, probably played by a younger actor isn’t going to happen on Picard, nor should it. It’s obviously a big deal if it happens at all and it will take careful thought and a great idea for a story. If they don’t have that, which they didn’t have for Generations (Moore and Braga have admitted that), they shouldn’t do it.

They shouldn’t wait on this though. It would be great to get Shatner involved (possibly) and he is over 90. I’m sure he would do it, especially if it was a really good idea.

i would love an adult cartoon telling stories in time periods with character whose actors are too old to play them at the appropriate age….ie i’d love to see riker on the titan as a CGI animated show.

still holding out hope the face is shatner/kirk. but thinking its gul dukat

How can you be a Star Trek fan and not be a fan of Shatners Kirk? He is a golden character played by the best actor ever to appear on the show! There would be no Star Trek today without William Shatner.

The thought had occurred to me when I was watching The Bounty, was that the reason Kirk’s body was at Daystrom Station was because at one point scientists wanted to/were studying the effects of the Nexus on a human body for various reasons including suspension of aging.

“Kirk’s body was buried by Picard on Veridian III under a pile of rocks.”

I wasn’t really a TOS fan when I watched Generations, although I enjoyed the TOS films. When Kirk died I felt it was inevitable. As I have grown older and rewatch the shows and films, I agree it was not the correct choice to kill him in that fashion. However, Generations had so many third act problems I can’t really see any of it going well.

I do know that characters that are dead should stay dead, this isn’t a comic book franchise. Bringing Spock back in the manner they did was cool, and bringing Yar back the way they did was also really cool.

But when they killed Picard and downloaded him into the gollum, I thought it was a stretch, so bringing back an old, retired Captain thirty years after his death, and over a hundred years after his prime (remember he should have died in the beginning of the 24th Century not the end of it, thank you Nexus). It really makes no sense why they would resurrect him. It would be like resurrecting Dwight D Eisenhower.

First comment here. I thought season 1 of DSC was an abomination. S2 is the only one I rewatch, mostly because of Pike and his crew, but also because the second season show runners realized how absurd S1 was and tried to fix everything. Becoming a starship captain after committing mutiny–laughable.

I watch Lower Decks and sometimes laugh out loud by generally don’t enjoy it. I once told my spouse that the problem with the show would be revealed if a character like Boimler was ever done live action. All the yelling and screaming and running away would be absurd. Now, apparently, they are doing Boimler live on a SNW crossover. Wash my mouth out with soap.

Prodigy is a fun show for what it is. It has respect for the source material and timeline, something the original creators of DSC didn’t seem to care about.

Picard season one: loved it. Season 2: you could fly a starship through all the plotholes, but the end with Q and Picard was fab. It was just so painful and ridiculous getting there. Season three: excellent. Great writing and respect for timeline and source material.

Strange New Worlds: As good as it’s probably going to get in the Kurtzman era, which is very good. I kind of pretend all the Kurtzman stuff takes place in the Kelvin timeline, which obviously much of it couldn’t, but it’s the only way I can shut off my “WTF” switch and enjoy it. And I do enjoy SNW a lot.

Will wait and see on the Beverly Hills 90210 Starfleet Academy Show.

So the only things I rewatch from this entire mess are DSC S2, PIC S1 and S3, and SNW S1.

All that being said, things could be worse. A lot of people love DSC and LD, and I say good for them. There’s something for everybody. I just want a show respectful to the timeline and source material, with credible writing and characters. SNW is my favorite. LLAP.

29 Years Later, Star Trek Just Gave Captain Kirk's Death A Grisly Twist

The grave of James T. Kirk isn’t where you think it is.

Everyone knows that James T. Kirk was buried under a bunch of rocks on Veridian III in Star Trek Generations, but what Picard Season 3 presupposes is ... maybe he wasn’t. One of the most shocking Easter eggs in the Picard episode “The Bounty,” reveals that Starfleet probably has some future plans for the body of James T. Kirk, and that members of Section 31 are almost certainly grave robbers.

Spoilers ahead.

When Riker, Worf, and Raffi raid Daystrom Station to try and figure out what the Changelings stole from this super-secret facility, we get a lot of back-to-back Easter eggs, including a new version of the Genesis Device, a hungry “Attack Tribble,” and finally, the holographic version of Professor Moriarty. But the most surprising Easter egg of all here is the revelation that Section 31 has the remains of Captain James T. Kirk, locked away in a vault.

Worf, Riker, and Raffi on Daystrom Station

Although we see a screen that depicts Kirk’s skeleton, showrunner Terry Matalas has confirmed that this is more than just Kirk’s bones. “Kirk’s remains aren’t skeletal. Just his remains or … more,” Matalas tells Inverse .

Quick Star Trek history lesson from the 1994 movie Generations : Kirk gets zapped by the Nexus in 2293 on the Enterprise-B. Then after Picard finds him in the Nexus, Kirk emerges in 2371 and helps Picard beats-up Dr. Soren. Then Kirk gets killed when the walkway he’s on rolls over a cliff and crushes him. Picard is with him when he dies, and then buries Kirk under a bunch of rocks.

But now, it seems Section 31, the clandestine spy group within Starfleet, decided to dig up Kirk’s body and take it to their top-secret lab. But why? “The Bounty” reveals that Jean-Luc Picard’s human body (before he became a Synth in Season 1) was also stored at Daystrom Station, meaning Section 31 clearly has a thing for the organic remains of Enterprise captains.

While the theft of Picard’s body is poised to be a huge puzzle piece in the ongoing arc of Season 3, it seems unlikely that the Easter egg about Kirk’s body will be explored further. At least not right now. In canon, the hypothetical motivations Section 31 might have had for stealing Kirk’s remains are numerous.

Kirk and an android duplicate of Kirk in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”

Kirk was duplicated more than once in The Original Series , sent traveling through time a lot, and even was split into two distinct bodies in “The Enemy Within.” So, when you think about it, donating Kirk’s body to (mad) science makes a lot of sense. Even if Section 31 were up to no good, it still stands to reason they’d want to study the weirdness of Kirk, even a full century after he was engulfed by the Nexus, and three decades after Jean-Luc buried him.

Could a future Star Trek spinoff bring back a zombified Kirk into the 25th century? Will an evil clone of Kirk exist in some future Star Trek spinoff show, and if so, who will play him? Paul Wesley ? Chris Pine? A digitally de-aged William Shatner ?

Picard Season 3 likely won’t answer any of these questions, but as of now, in the 25th century “present day” of Star Trek canon, Kirk’s body is in a special lab, and it was certainly brought there for a reason.

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 streams on Paramount+.

This article was originally published on March 24, 2023

• Science Fiction

Picard Reveals Star Trek's Ultimate Doomsday Device

Daystrom Station hides all manner of rare and dangerous objects from the Star Trek universe. Picard's villains may have left the deadliest one behind.

The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 6, "The Bounty," now streaming on Paramount+.

The look at Daystrom Station in Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 6, "The Bounty" is akin to a trip through the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It contains the treasure trove of Section 31, Starfleet's black ops intelligence wing who have collected all manner of dangerous objects in their duties. The shapeshifting Changeling terrorists who serve as this season's villains target the collection for a few choice items, leading Riker, Worf and Raffi to explore the station in order to find out what they took. In the process, they come across a number of choice artifacts from Star Trek's past, buried in the franchise's version of Area 51.

The most prominent is also the biggest. As Riker makes his way through the station, he passes a containment locker containing the Genesis Device: the grand McGuffin from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan with a lot of unanswered questions surrounding it. It's the perfect way to give Star Trek fans an idea of just what kind of toys this particular vault holds.

RELATED: Star Trek: Picard's Final Season Connects to TNG's Very Beginning

The Genesis Device Is a Central Part of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

The Genesis Device appears during the events of Wrath of Khan as a force for both creation and destruction. Kirk's old flame Carol Marcus develops it along with their son David. Activating it on the surface of a dead planet would instantly create a breathable atmosphere and a thriving ecosystem, allowing all manner of resource problems to be solved. If deployed on an already populated planet, however, it would destroy all life in the creation of its "new matrix," turning the device into a potentially genocidal weapon.

Khan intends to use the device for destructive purposes when he steals it from the Marcuses, and eventually detonates it in a vain effort to destroy the Enterprise before it can outrun the blast. Mr. Spock even famously sacrifices himself to restore enough power for the Enterprise to escape. In the process, a nearby planetoid becomes filled with life, and the movie ends with Mr. Spock's coffin seen among the newly created trees: promising hope for his rebirth. The rub comes in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock . The effects of the Genesis Device allow for Spock's physical body to be reborn, but also cause the planet to pass through its entire evolution in a manner of days. Kirk beams off with Spock's body right before lava consumes the planet, leaving the entire experiment a ghastly failure.

RELATED: Picard's Villainous Vulcan Gives a New Twist on a Classic Fight

Section 31 Goes to Great Pains to Get a Genesis Device

The Wrath of Khan implies that there is only one copy of the Genesis Device, and that the Marcuses had just completed it when Khan snatched it away. Khan himself detonated the Genesis Device and destroyed the research station where it had been developed in the process. That raises the intriguing question of how Section 31 got their hands on one. The most likely answer is that either a back-up copy was made -- and subsequently appropriated -- or that enough of the Marcuses' research survived to duplicate the results.

Regardless of how the Genesis Device was reconstituted, it sends a remarkably dark message about Section 31. The destruction of the Genesis Planet in The Search for Spock effectively ended any hope of using the device for beneficial purposes. Yet they persisted in securing a functioning device regardless. It's an extremely sinister weapon to be left in the hands of ethically questionable intelligence divisions.

Indeed, the most troubling thing about it all is how the Changelings actively passed it over for other objects in the station. Considering the destructive potential of the Genesis Device, it would destroy the Changelings' Great Link in moments. This indicates that what they ultimately take must mean a great deal more to them. Judging by the other items in Daystrom Station, the implications for the rest of the season are terrifying.

New episodes of Star Trek: Picard stream every Thursday on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Every* Starbase Ranked Worst To Best

4. jupiter station.

Jupiter Station, as it appeared in the episode Life Line , was designed by Rick Sternbach. He based the design on a painting that he had done for Captain Picard's quarters on the Enterprise-D, incorporating several saucer sections stacked atop each other. He believed that these could have been repurposed from decommissioned ships.

Jupiter Station served as the base of operations for Dr. Lewis Zimmerman and it was from there that he designed the Emergency Medical Holoprogram. Thus, the station became the birthplace of the EMH. Though it would appear in this configuration only once in the franchise to date, its design served as an inspiration in Star Trek: Picard.

Daystrom Station, a black-ops site from which Section 31 operated in the 25th Century, was heavily based on Jupiter Station's design, though it also incorporated elements of the MIDAS Array, the Epsilon IX station, and several Y-Class cargo containers. 

There was at least one café aboard Jupiter Station, as the managership of which was offered to Leeta, who declined to remain on Deep Space Nine.

Writer. Reader. Host. I'm Seán, I live in Ireland and I'm the poster child for dangerous obsessions with Star Trek. Check me out on Twitter @seanferrick

Screen Rant

Star trek’s a.i. prison is the weird opposite of picard’s daystom station.

Jack Quaid's Boimler visits Star Trek's A.I. prison in Lower Decks season 4, and it could not be more different than Picard's Daystrom Station.

WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 4, episode 7, "A Few Badgeys More."

• Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 reveals a weirder, more positive alternative to Star Trek: Picard's Daystrom Station at the Daystrom Institute's Self-Aware Megalomaniacal Computer Storage facility.
• The Self-Aware Megalomaniacal Computer Storage facility offers rehabilitation to evil computers through talk therapy, gardening, and movie nights, contrasting with the heavily guarded and dangerous Daystrom Station in Star Trek: Picard season 3.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks inherits the trope of evil A.I. from the original series, but the redemptive arcs of the evil computers in "A Few Badgeys More" provide hope for the future of artificial intelligence.

Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 reveals more about the Daystrom Institute's Self-Aware Megalomanical Computer Storage facility, and it's a weirder, more positive alternative to Star Trek: Picard 's Daystrom Station. Lieutant JGs Bradward Boimler (Jack Quaid) and D'Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) travel to the facility to be reunited with two evil A.I.s from their past - AGIMUS (Jeffrey Combs) and Peanut Hamper (Kether Donohue). With Peanut Hamper up for parole and AGIMUS claiming to have information about the recent mystery attacks, Boimler suspects that the two rogue A.I's are scheming to escape from prison.

The Self-Aware Megalomaniacal Computer Storage facility is just one Federation institution designed for housing some of the worst things from the Star Trek universe. Star Trek: Picard 's Daystrom Station was a Federation black site that housed some of the darkest secrets of the Federation. Interestingly, Daystrom Station's secure A.I. was created using the essence of Star Trek: The Next Generation 's most notable self-aware megalomaniacal artificial intelligence - Lore (Brent Spiner). It's unclear if Lore ever spent time in Star Trek: Lower Decks ' Self-Aware Megalomaniacal Computer storage facility, but he may have had a genuinely positive psychological breakthrough if he had.

RELATED: Data’s Evil Relatives: Every Soong’s Biggest Crimes In Star Trek

Star Trek’s Daystrom Institute Is The Opposite Of Daystrom Station & It’s Weird

Daystrom Station and the Daystrom Institute could not be more different, but their differences make a lot of sense in the context of the wider Star Trek story. Doctor Richard Daystrom (William Marshall) almost brought Starfleet to its knees when his M-5 Computer went rogue. M-5 had been designed using Daystrom's own fragile brain patterns, and both computer and creator had a serious psychological breakdown. It therefore makes perfect sense for the Daystrom Institue in Star Trek: Lower Decks to offer rehabilitation via talk therapy, gardening, and regular movie nights to support these formerly evil computers transition into a more balanced way of thinking. Perhaps that's Richard Daystrom's true legacy.

This is in sharp contrast to Daystrom Station from Star Trek: Picard season 3, which was a heavily guarded, incredibly dangerous facility. Given that the majority of the items stored at the Starfleet black site were deadly weapons, like the Genesis Device or the Thalaron Generator, it makes more sense to keep these under lock and key. If anyone tried to break an evil computer out of the Daystrom Institute, they could expect the computer to turn on them in their quest to subjugate organic life. If someone broke into Daystrom Station, as Captain Vadic (Amanda Plummer) did, then the results would be far more catastrophic.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Inherited TOS’s Evil A.I. Trope

Evil computers have always been a big part of the Star Trek franchise , but it's a trope that was most common to Star Trek: The Original Series . As computers began to become more commonplace in the 1960s, it made sense for the TOS writers to grapple with those implications. Fast-forward to the 2020s and Star Trek: Lower Decks has inherited the evil A.I. trope. Artificial intelligence is a huge talking point right now, from the smart speakers in people's homes to the insidious use of A.I. in the entertainment industry. Once again, the idea of the evil computer in Star Trek is incredibly relevant to the times.

However, the arcs of Peanut Hamper, AGIMUS, and Badgey (Jack McBrayer) in "A Few Badgeys More" does give hope for the future. Each of Star Trek: Lower Decks ' evil computers get a redemptive arc in the episode, as Peanut Hamper reconnects with her father, AGIMUS learns the value of friendship, and Badgey ascends beyond his thirst for vengeance. If these three evil Star Trek computers can find redemption, then maybe real world artificial intelligence can be harnessed for a more positive purpose, too.

Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.