Posted in: Paramount+, Star Trek, streaming, TV | Tagged: Matt Okumura, paramount, Star Trek Picard, Stephanie Czajkowski, T'Veen, Terry Matalas

Star Trek: Picard: Matalas, Czajkowski & Okumura Talk T'Veen's Legacy

Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas, writer Matt Okumura and star Stephanie Czajkowski on T'Veen's legacy, on-set memories & more.

Stephanie Czajkowski emerged as one of the biggest, most recognizable faces in the past few years, landing several high-profile roles on TV in the HBO Max series Doom Patrol, Peacock's MacGruber, ABC's The Rookie, NBC's Young Rock, and most recently, a recurring role in the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Picard as T'Veen, the Vulcan/Deltan science officer onboard the U.S.S. Titan-A. While Vulcans are common in Star Trek lore, Deltans aren't, as the only other instances are in 1979's The Motion Picture and season two of Picard. They're referenced in The Next Generation and Enterprise. Czajkowski, writer Matt Okumura, and showrunner Terry Matalas spoke to Dawn Ennis about T'Veen's origins and how she fits among the Titan crew. The following contains spoilers for the episode "Surrender."

Star Trek: Picard: Getting to Know Stephanie Czajkowski & T'Veen

In the recent Star Trek: Picard episode, Vadic (Amanda Plummer) and her Changelings hijack the Titan and take the bulk of its remaining skeleton crew hostage. To entice Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers) to turn himself in, she threatens to execute a member of the crew periodically until he agrees. As she teases her target, she teases and threatens Ensign Esmar (Jin Maley) and Lt. Mura (Joseph Lee), asking them probing questions about their family and loved ones before shockingly vaporizing the stoic T'Veen.

Matalas recalled when he knew when Czajkowski nailed the part. "Stephanie nailed this role right from her first taped audition," he said. "It was always her. She was our Vulcan science officer. She had this incredible look, and we worked together to craft a backstory for T'Veen. It was Steph who came up with the Deltan blood angle, which I loved. As the episodes came in and the cuts came together, she just popped. We knew she was going to be a fan favorite. So, when we got to the big moment in the writers' room in episode 8, where we knew Vadic was going to off one of our own, we started a debate. Originally, Vadic killed an ND [non-descript] crewman we had never really spent any time with. Your standard Red Shirt."

The showrunner set up the villain's fall. "But at the end of the episode, Vadic was going to be sucked out into space. And at that moment, we really wanted the audience to cheer. The way you cheer when Joffrey Lannister finally gets his. Unfortunately, that typically means your villain has to hurt the audience in a way that's meaningful," Matalas explained. "So, we said, 'Well, we are at the end. We only have two episodes left. T'Veen had a good run. And her twin sister can come to join us for a spin-off should we ever be that lucky. But it would feel pretty terrible to lose T'Veen.' So we made the terrible choice. And Steph was such a pro about it. We told her right away, and she got it. And we're amazing friends to this day, texting all the time. She's the best. I love the impact she's had on the Trek audience so far and hope we have another chance to see her in a series again!"

"Oh man, yeah, that one HURT," Okumura added. "At first, when we realized someone needed to go in order for Vadic to have teeth, and then it was even worse when we saw how damn good Stephanie was all season. Terry loved her — and the whole bridge crew, in fact. That was so important to him — to have representation, which meant the world to me. I hope we get to do a spin-off someday so Terry can bring her back as a new character!" When it came to Czajkowski's background on Star Trek, "I thought that one of the big things again for me, because my father, I have this connection to Star Trek through my parents, in this very strange way," she said. "Like my dad loving it, and my dad is very, very kind of, he was very Klingon. He loved the Klingons, but he was very angry and didn't know how to express it. And then, my mother was very spiritual. And so, there was something for me in playing a Vulcan, who we again gave a little bit of Deltan, which I appreciate, of being on this starship. Granted, not in primary position for narrative, but being part of this, I don't want to say, almost legacy, of family in all these different ways."

Despite a fresh slate in the final season of Picard, Czajkowski felt welcome in the Star Trek family. "The thing that's super special to me about the way that Terry Matalas set up this season, and the way that we specifically as bridge crew members were invited to be part of the narrative, but also in a larger scale, in a way that the way that Terry put us out in the universe, even though he didn't have to, made us, even more, a part of that family," she said. "And it's just like that expression, 'There are no small parts, only small actors.' Like, I feel full… Sometimes I might say to myself, 'Steph, you don't even say that much,' but I'll be like, 'You got to do it!' I so promote this show because I feel like, and I call it 'my show,' you know, even though I'm not Ashley or I'm not LeVar, but because I'm part of it.

The actress dives further into the season three cast. "And you know, that kind of connection, the fact that you know, we're looking at different generations," Czajkowski said. "We're also seeing as you start to see, Jack, as you start to see, Sidney, we're also seeing Trek; we're seeing this universe through different and younger eyes. You know, it means the world to me that Jin, who is nonbinary in life, also is specifically nonbinary in this show. It's, I think, in the way that Roddenberry envisioned because we're not like, 'Oh, by the way,' like having to point it out. We're not pointing it out. It just is." For more, including Czajkowski's life as a cancer survivor, LGBTQ, and reproductive rights, Patrick Stewart, bonding with Matalas, and more, you can check out the rest of the interview here. You can check out the video. Star Trek: Picard streams Thursdays on Paramount+.

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