Picard Season 3 Set Rejuvenated Patrick Stewart

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Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner and LeVar Burton reminisce about how happy an exhausted Patrick Stewart was to reunite with his Star Trek: The Next Generation cast in Star Trek: Picard season 3. Under showrunner Terry Matalas, the entire cast of TNG returned to save the galaxy one more time aboard the USS Enterprise-D.

The final integral character of Star Trek: Picard season 3’s Star Trek: The Next Generation reunion was the USS Enterprise-D itself. Art director Liz Kloczkowski, Dave Blass, and their production design team painstakingly recreated the iconic bridge of the beloved Galaxy Class starship just as it appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

LeVar Burton was the first guest on Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes’ Dropping Names… And Other Things podcast, and the Star Trek: The Next Generation legends recalled how they felt when they stepped aboard Star Trek: Picard season 3’s USS Enterprise-D set for the first time.

Burton, Frakes, and Spiner then reminisced about the “impact” the USS Enterprise-D set and being with his old Star Trek: The Next Generation castmates had on Patrick Stewart, who was “exhausted” during the filming of Star Trek: Picard season 3. Read their quotes and watch the clip of Dropping Names… below:

LeVar Burton: One of the things I loved about working on that set was the impact that set and us being together on that set had on Patrick. Because he had been working, and this was the second series he’d done in a row of this show. He was exhausted.

Jonathan Frakes: Yes, he was.

LeVar Burton: There was no two buts about it. He was dead dog tired.

Jonathan Frakes: He was glad to have us with him.

LeVar: He was glad to have us with him… I saw him rejuvenate.

Jonathan Frakes: And he went back into his [Captain’s] chair.

Brent Spiner: Well, nothing was different about the way we all behaved with each other.

Jonathan Frakes: And nothing was different about the set. I mean, the color of the carpet, and the chair, and the angle of the ramp up to [Michael] Dorn’s space. I mean, everything about it.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Star Trek: Picard season 3 was filmed back-to-back with Star Trek: Picard season 2, with only a short break in between the two productions. Under co-showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Terry Matalas, Picard season 2 began filming in February 2021, and the series wrapped production in March 2022, with Matalas leading the production as Picard season 3’s showrunner and mastermind.

Patrick Stewart worked for nearly an entire year filming all 20 episodes of Star Trek: Picard seasons 2 and 3, and the then-81-year-old was understandably exhausted. However, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, and LeVar Burton joining Picard season 3 was a shot in the arm for Sir Patrick and for the series.

Stewart famously resisted the idea of “rehashing” Star Trek: The Next Generation when he signed on for Star Trek: Picard. Sir Patrick wanted to portray Jean-Luc Picard at a different stage of his life, and surrounded by new characters. However, Stewart relented and later admitted he was wrong after enjoying himself acting alongside his TNG buddies in Star Trek: Picard season 3.

Star Trek: Picard season 3 was the most acclaimed season of Patrick Stewart’s series among critics and fans, and the Terry Matalas-led season was arguably the high-water mark of Star Trek‘s streaming era on Paramount+. While the hoped-for Star Trek: Legacy continuation may not happen, it was pure joy to see Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s icons recapture their magic one more time.