Patrick Stewart Reveals His Alternate Ending For Star Trek: Picard
Patrick Stewart says he was originally uncomfortable with how Star Trek: Picard ends, but that he eventually came around.
According to Patrick Stewart, the Star Trek: Picard finale that streamed on Paramount+ last week almost had a much different ending. The Trek alum told Variety that there was another ending being discussed, but that he thinks the series ultimately went in the right direction. He didn’t give details about the alternate ending, but from what he says — and more importantly when he says it — it seems pretty likely it had something to do with his signature character and Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) rekindling their romance.
It seems that way because Patrick Stewart begins talking about the alternate Picard ending when he’s asked about something completely different. Variety asked the actor why the Picard/Crusher romance was never explored in the Trek films:
“It’s hard to know. I think they wanted to keep question marks always hovering around Jean-Luc. Is he going to fall in love? Is he going to meet someone who he wants to marry? Will he have children? What will happen to his career? We didn’t know.”
-Patrick Stewart
Then, unprompted, Patrick Stewart mentions the alternate Star Trek: Picard ending:
“We’d had one idea for ending Picard, which I think now would have been a mistake. But it would have ended the show with a huge question mark. I liked that in terms of how it could have sent our viewers’ minds racing and questioning and puzzling about what was this question mark exactly and what did it mean? We didn’t do it.”
-Patrick Stewart
When asked for more details about the alternate ending, Patrick Stewart says he “can’t talk about it” because it was a “complicated situation.” He also says that he initially was “not comfortable” with the ending that wound up streaming, but that he’s now convinced it was “absolutely the best thing that could have happened.
Since Patrick Stewart doesn’t reveal more, we can only speculate, but it’s difficult to ignore the fact that he makes the reveal about the alternate ending right after being asked about why a romance between Picard and Crusher never made it to the big screen. The most obvious assumption is that this alternate ending may have shown Picard and Crusher resuming their relationship, in spite of Picard being in a committed relationship with Laris (Orla Brady).
In fact, in my review of the Star Trek: Picard‘s Season 3 finale, I named the absence of Laris as one of the only things I disliked about “The Last Generation” both because Laris is a criminally under-utilized character and because it made it unclear whether or not Picard and Laris were still an item.
It’s also tempting to speculate, considering what Stewart says about fans “questioning and puzzling,” if instead a hint might be dropped about the absent Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton). Could it be that Jack Crusher (Ed Speleer) isn’t the only Crusher man with a mysterious parentage?
