Posted in: Paramount+, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: Ed Speleers, Gates McFadden, Jonathan Frakes, paramount, patrick stewart, Star Trek Picard, Terry Matalas

Star Trek: Picard Showrunner On S03E04 Family Drama & Ship Tension

Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas breaks down the dynamic regarding Jean-Luc's relationship with his son Jack and best friend Riker.

Published Fri, 10 Mar 2023 21:11:12 -0600

by Tom Chang

Comments

The latest episode of Star Trek: Picard in "No Win Scenario" closed another chapter of the series' third and final season, but we're still not at the halfway point as there is plenty of mystery to go around. To help clarify and put in context some of those mysteries revealed with the episode is executive producer and showrunner Terry Matalas, who spoke with Collider about, among other things, Jean-Luc's relationship with his son Jack (Ed Speleers) and his former first officer & provisional captain of the U.S.S. Titan-A William Riker (Jonathan Frakes). The following contains spoilers so consider this your warning.

Star Trek: Picard: Jean-Luc's Family Drama with the Crushers and Will Riker

Early in the episode, we get a flashback to five years ago when Jean-Luc is trying to enjoy his meal when a group of cadets seeks sage advice from the legendary admiral, which he gladly obliges. As he shares stories of his many adventures, we come to discover Jack is at the same bar asking his father a pointed question about duty versus family at Starfleet. Jean-Luc responds that Starfleet is the only family he needs, which when the present-day version realized why he wasn't made aware of his son's status. Upon the initial reveal of Jack from Beverly (Gates McFadden), Jean-Luc blew up in front of her for depriving him of that knowledge after all these years before she explained why.

"Well, it's just good drama," Matalas explains. "It started with the question of, 'What's the last unexplored relationship in Picard's life?' And it felt like it was a son, and the best way to explore that would be with a son who's fully formed, who's grown up, and there's no good drama if the son is, 'I love you, you love me.' It's a boring scene, but a son that he doesn't understand and a son that doesn't understand him, that's good drama. So, you have to find the least contrived way to make that work, and that's tough, and fair fan criticism to say that it is slightly contrived because it is."

Matalas further breaks down how the dynamic works for the three actors. "However, if the scene works and the emotional satisfaction of watching it all works, then it's worth it, and we think it is here, these performances with Ed and Patrick in the bar were worth it all for us, and with Gates, to be able to get these performances and to have them really sink their teeth into things they've never really done before. And I think by the end of this episode, you feel like you're with Beverly Crusher and Picard again in ways that you felt like they were with Next Gen. We haven't scarred anybody in any way, so that's how you have to approach it."

On another front, you have the drama building from Picard and Riker. After Riker takes over provisionally as the captain of the Titan from Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick), he takes on his shared responsibility of prioritizing the safety of his crew over anything else in lieu of taking any risks that his former U.S.S. Enterprise-D captain was trying to get him to do. After reluctantly enacting Jean-Luc's plan to hit back at the Shrike, it backfires, and the ship sinks further into the nebula before Riker kicks Picard out of his bridge. Near the start of the episode, Will visits Jean-Luc to encourage him to connect with his son to gather up any final affairs to their grim situation.

"Well, it's really fun, and you get to do it with Patrick and Frakes, Jonathan's directing it, so you get in a room with these two, and it's a joyous experience to rehearse with it," Matalas aid. "And as the author of these scenes, in particular in Episode 4 with Sean Tretta, who I'm a longtime collaborator with, it's really interesting, as well. Sean does not come from a Star Trek: The Next Generation background at all, but he's a terrific writer of human beings. So Sean will push for real difficult human drama, and I will push for Riker and Picard so that it doesn't fall too far away from who they are, and what I think you get is a nice balance of, yes, here are the two men you met in 1987, now almost 35 years later, under tremendous pressures and changes in their lives, but are essentially the same men going through a tremendously difficult thing. But by the end of this episode, I think you feel like those are those men, that they sound like those men. I think one of the criticisms of earlier Picard is it doesn't quite sound like him, doesn't quite sound like that, and I understand that and I feel that. I think that's the tricky part of writing any legacy character, whether that's here in Star Trek or Star Wars, is writing any one of these characters decades later, 'cause they need to change, but still finding their voice years later and honoring that is tricky business."

For more, including Frakes' directing, the Changelings, Jaws, Jean-Luc's F-bomb, and more, you can check out the interview here. Star Trek: Picard streams Thursdays on Paramount+.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!