Meet The Men Behind ‘Star Trek Picard:’ Akiva Goldsman And Terry Matalas

The first episode of season two of Star Trek: Picard has dropped, but if you haven’t seen it and want to avoid any spoilers, it’s best you stop here and come back after you watch the show.

For those who want to know how this science fiction series boldly got going, then you want to hear from the two men sharing the helm: Akiva Goldsman and Terry Matalas, the co-executive producers and co-showrunners who also share writing credit for the first episode, cheekily titled Star Gazer. Goldsman spoke to reporters last month at a virtual junket to promote the show.

The Paramount+ streaming series, which premiered Thursday, picks up about a year and a half after the events of season one. Jean-Luc Picard (played by Sir Patrick Stewart), the legendary captain of the Starship Enterprise-D, is back with Starfleet and serving as an admiral when he isn’t tending to his vineyard in France. And those who missed season one may be surprised to learn that in the finale, Picard died and his consciousness is now inhabiting an artificial life form called a “gollum.” No, really.

So what happens in season two? With just the most minimal of spoilers, here goes: This week’s episode begins with a terrific action sequence that features Picard reuniting with Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), the ex-Borg who is now a freedom fighter, and with Rios (Santiago Cabrera) and Raffi (Michelle Hurd), both of whom are now back in Starfleet. Elnor (Evan Evagora) is also back as the first Romulan cadet at Starfleet Academy. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) is on a diplomatic mission with Soji (Isa Briones) until she’s recalled to Rios’s new ship, the U.S.S. Stargazer, the successor to a starship commanded long ago by Picard, and not seen since Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Then the Borg show up, and things go Boom. Then, the mysterious, mischievous malcontent Q (John de Lancie) appears, and things are, let’s say, discombobulated.

Oh, and let’s not forget that before all that, Picard visits Guinan, (Whoopi Goldberg) in her 24th century Los Angeles bar.

And all that is just in the first episode. Goldsman promises Goldberg will be back for more.

“We’re not going to just see her once,” said Goldsman in our recent Zoom conversation. “And for me, that’s where I was starstruck. You know, I am old enough to remember her stand-up on PBS, which was when she was just beginning. And you know, she’s Whoopi Goldberg. I mean, I lose words.”

Fortunately, Goldsman found words when asked how this season is decidedly different from season one.

“The themes will emerge, obviously, but this one is much more rock and roll,” he said. “We wanted the first season to be about resurrection, and that’s a more meditative tone. And then season two is about redemption and looking inward and looking backward. And that’s a journey.”

And love is part of that journey, too, Goldsman told a reporter from ScreenRant.

“We looked at Picard’s life and said, ‘There seems to be an interesting absence of durable romantic connections.’ What’s that about? Where does that come from? ‘Ha ha!’ we said. ‘Let’s figure it out.’”

Will Star Trek: Picard follow in Star Trek: Discovery’s warp trail with characters who identify as LGBTQ? Already we’ve seen Seven and Raffi have become involved in some kind of same-sex relationship.

“So, very specifically, we have a lesbian couple who are going through the same shit all couples go through,” Goldsman told me. “I think that is fun for us and fun for them. I think the show that moves more towards a more progressive or the most progressive view right now is probably [Star Trek] Discovery, where, you know, I think it has taken up as part of its identity, a specific inclusion of [the LGBTQ] community. I think that Picard and [the next new series, Star Trek] Strange New Worlds are just a little bit more, ‘everybody in the boat.’ It’s a little bit more, like, ‘the inclusive future,’ so you never know what you’re getting here, there, everywhere when it comes to gender or race—and by race, I being human or not human. So that’s that’s what I think.”

Actor John de Lancie told The Hollywood Reporter he needed Matalas to answer one question before he’d agree to return as Q, the superbeing who has plagued Picard since the very first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987.

“I said, ‘I just have a preliminary question: You’re not putting me in tights again, are you?’” de Lancie told THR’s Ryan Parker. “And Terry goes, ‘Oh, no, no, no.’ I said, ‘OK. We can proceed.’”

From what has been revealed so far in episode one, Star Trek: Picard will follow in the best tradition of the franchise by mixing a morality message with its mission to the stars.

“Star Trek has always been foot forward, you know, in terms of values,” said Goldsman. “It’s not a value-neutral show. We never have been, I think, in any iteration. It’s always been an aspirational and inclusive future. That’s part of what makes Star Trek Star Trek, is that we’re opening our arms around anyone or anything that we perceive as different and learning that there are bridges and commonalities among all thinking, living, breathing beings. Love and connection and intimacy is possible and necessary, and boy, does the world need to hear that these days.”

What happens in season three, which was shot back to back with season two? Another reporter on the junket posed that very question to Sir Patrick Stewart. Check out what Matalas revealed in a tweet:

To watch my interviews with the cast and Goldsman in full, watch the YouTube video below:

The second season of Star Trek: Picard is streaming now on Paramount+ in the U.S. Viewers overseas can find this and other series on Amazon Prime. Here are links to my other interviews from the Star Trek: Picard junket: