The current state of “Star Trek” has seen various TV series set all across the franchise’s vast timeline of events. This has allowed executive producer Alex Kurtzman and the various “Star Trek” showrunners to resurrect any number of legacy characters for inclusion, and most modern Trek shows have seen the return of at least one recognizable face. For example: “Star Trek: Discovery,” at the end of its first season, brought in the U.S.S. Enterprise immediately before Captain Kirk (William Shatner) took command. There are many, many other examples besides that.
The purpose of the third season of “Star Trek: Picard,” of course, was to gather the NextGen cast back together and plop them down on a nostalgia-ready starship bridge. With all the players finally together, it seems that their stories would now be permitted to continue, even beyond “Picard.” With Dr. Crusher now folded into the broader history of Trek (“Picard” is set in the early years of the 25th century), McFadden admits that she may finally have the leeway to explore her character in a far more satisfying way. When asked if she would return for future Trek projects, she said:
“If she was as three-dimensional as she was really becoming in this one? Absolutely. And, as I said, I trust Terry. I’ll play a Klingon for Terry. I mean, he’s really a wonderful, wonderful producer and writer, storyteller. And I love good storytellers. I built a theater in L.A., and we did only new work. I think people who can tell a story, I’ll be the first one to jump on board to help out. I hope it does. I think he would do a tremendous job. And I would love to be involved in some way.”
