The Star Trek: The Next Generation era of films came to a rather ignominious end. The entire era of TNG movies feels mostly like wasted potential, with Star Trek: First Contact the high watermark of the effort. However, the newly revealed Star Trek: Picard Season 3 teaser looks like The Next Generation movie fans have waited for since credits rolled on "All Good Things, Part 2" in 1994.
Despite what Twitter might lead one to believe, it's pretty difficult to make a truly "bad" Star Trek movie. The "worst" of the TNG canon of films are all still pretty good "episodes" of the show that inspired the film. It does boggle the mind how Star Trek: Nemesis could cost $60 million, but the films were fine. The only one that truly felt like a big-screen break for the modern Enterprise crew was Star Trek: First Contact in 1996. Yet, even that blowout with the Borg never really felt as big as any of the Kelvin-timeline Star Trek films. Still, one could argue that this franchise works best in a serial format, but with Paramount+'s commitment to big, cinematic shows, Star Trek: Picard Season 3 is going to be bigger than any movie audiences could have gotten.
Paramount doesn't release official budget figures, but Star Trek: Picard Season 3 looks like money. The visual effects in the trailer are as good as any feature film's along with a fleet of ships and the return of Space Dock. The trailer reveals the USS Titan and doesn't even mention the Enterprise (which almost guarantees a last-act appearance in the season). Only a teaser was released, so the exact nature of the crisis Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) is tracking is still unknown. Every season of Picard has had massive stakes, but they feel bigger in this preview, if only because the gang is all there.
The first two seasons of Picard told deeply personal stories about Patrick Stewart's iconic now-Admiral. The first was about his loss of faith in Starfleet, and how he gets it back. The second was about the trauma of the past, both in human history and his own childhood. There is no reason to think that showrunner Terry Matalas will abandon the inner-life of everyone's favorite Earl Grey aficionado. Still, with the return of the rest of The Next Generation cast this is clearly going to be something bigger than what came before. Trek fans who wanted more TNG movies are about to get five movies' worth of story featuring these beloved characters.
Every studio wants their big movie franchise. Star Trek is a universe that's spun on for over half a century. While there are truly wonderful films in their history, this story always works best on television. There is more time for the cast to be around each other and really show that these shipmates are family. One last The Next Generation movie would be something, but there are more ways to screw it up than get it right. On Paramount+, Picard will have ten hours to tell a story that does justice to the central crisis, the character of Jean-Luc and the rest of these characters fans love so much. Just getting to see them all on-screen again is a treat in itself. Yet, there is reason to be hopeful, because Matalas knows how to stick the landing on a series finale.
The last adventure with Jean-Luc Picard and his friends is still some time away. Nonetheless, the brief glimpse Paramount showed of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 looks like the big The Next Generation movie fans have waited their whole lives for. No pressure.
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 is set to debut on Paramount+ in 2023.