The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 10, "The Last Generation," now streaming on Paramount+.
The series finale of Star Trek: Picard is unquestionably the swan song for the cast of The Next Generation. However, the entire third season of the show has been about the legacy of Star Trek. Particularly the legacy left behind by its most important characters, from Jean-Luc Picard to The Original Series' Pavel Chekov.
Moments after James T. Kirk blew up the USS Enterprise, Dr. Leonard McCoy told him what the job description of a Star Trek captain is: "Turn death into a fighting chance to live." However, the Picard series finale saw its titular captain doing just the opposite. He had a chance to live and instead accepted death if it meant not leaving his son. Meanwhile the rest of Jean-Luc Picard's Starfleet children worked furiously to save them. They faced an impossible situation and with a mixture of smarts and tenacity, saved the galaxy -- again. And Picard saved the franchise or, at least, the TNG era of storytelling. With its connections to Voyager and Deep Space Nine, Picard told a story about the legacy of three foundational series. Through Jack Crusher-Picard, Sidney La Forge and Alandra La Forge, there is a clear path forward for a new Star Trek series to boldly go.
Picard Season 3 Honored All the Star Trek That Came Before It
It was no surprise that Picard was full of references to The Next Generation. However, from the show's inception, it was a stealth sequel to all the Rick Berman-era series. Characters from Star Trek: Voyager like Hugh and Seven of Nine appeared because of their ties to the Borg. The Changeling villains of Season 3 were a massive connection to Deep Space Nine. However, Picard didn't just throw these characters and references at the audience for fun. They had narrative meaning and create a throughline from this series all the way back to the days of Kirk, Spock and President Anton Chekov's ancestor Pavel.
While the most important Starfleet captain, Kathryn Janeway, didn't make an appearance, two of her crew did. It turned out the Changelings did not kill Tuvok, as he and his friend Seven of Nine had a proper reunion. The scene was about giving Seven of Nine the captaincy she deserved. However, she and Tuvok were directly responsible for the state of the Borg in the Picard finale. When the Queen told Picard the Borg were "left poisoned at the edge of space," it was the Voyager crew who did that. Similarly, Seven's "I am not asking you to give your lives for nothing" speech cemented her place as captain, but also sounded an awful lot like something Janeway would say.
As Jack told his father, names can be important. And from the USS Pulaski to the USS Hikaru Sulu, the names of characters "forgotten" still ring out in Starfleet. Some Easter eggs in Picard's "The Bounty" were just for fun, like Kirk's remains or the "attack Tribbles." But the callbacks to Data's story and the moment Seven of Nine saw the USS Voyager again were important narrative moments, too. Seven was reminded of what she was chasing in Starfleet by seeing her old home. Moriarty and the crow weren't just clues that Data was in the vault, but also details that referenced the leaps he made in his quest to become more human.
The Star Trek Legacy Should Continue After the Picard Series Finale
Picard showrunner Terry Matalas has an idea for a spinoff series called Star Trek: Legacy. It's not in development, just a "pie-in-the-sky wish" on his part. The Picard series finale gave fans a good idea of what that show might look like. Sidney, Jack and the rest of the young bridge crew this season would continue to serve on the newly christened USS Enterprise-G. They are the "next generation" of The Next Generation, and that's what legacy is. How these kids, and their senior officers, face the challenges of the cosmos will be a reflection of the greats who came before them.
For all the closure TNG characters and stories got in Picard, there are still many dangling threads. Deep Space Nine is the series most in need of a follow-up. Last viewers saw of Benjamin Sisko, he was off to do some mission for the Bajoran prophets. The Cardassians and the Dominion have some story left to tell. Other lines like the Temporal Cold War from Enterprise remain open questions that Star Trek: Legacy could answer. It could even finally give Voyager fans the moment they've been waiting for: an on-screen reunion between Seven of Nine and now-Admiral Janeway.
Raffi and Seven of Nine in charge of the Enterprise-G is also a great legacy moment. They are two of the most unlikely Starfleet heroes, as Raffi points out. Raffi was a spy, but also an addict and a problem officer. Seven of Nine was Borg and after leaving her preferred collective, the crew of Voyager, she had a difficult time finding her place. But it was always in the captain's chair of a starship. Whether their adventures take place in a spinoff series, novels, comics or just fan fiction, the legacy of Star Trek: Picard will be that it kept the franchise alive for another generation.
The complete series of Star Trek: Picard is streaming on Paramount+.