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- What Star Trek: Legacy Offers
- Star Trek: Legacy is in High Demand
- Strike While the Iron is Hot
Star Trek: Picard gave fans a look at Jean Luc Picard’s (Patrick Stewart) life after he left Starfleet. It also expanded on the Star Trek universe by showing different adventures that were possible outside Starfleet. The biggest thing it did, however, was bring back veteran cast members from The Next Generation and Voyager, igniting interest in a possible spin-off series that showrunner Terry Matalas dubbed Star Trek: Legacy. The potential series would focus on the new Starfleet Captain Seven of Nine commanding the USS Enterprise-G as it explores strange new worlds, seeks out new life and civilizations, and boldly goes where no one has gone before.
Bringing the cast of The Next Generation back together in Picard sparked more interest in a spin-off than the Enterprise appearing in Discovery’s first season finale. It’s the most talked about project despite Section 31 and Starfleet Academy receiving a thumbs up from the powers that be. That leads fans to wonder if there will ever be a Star Trek: Legacy.
What Star Trek: Legacy Offers
The current run of Star Trek shows has given fans a glimpse at the far future, thanks to Discovery taking place in the 32nd century. Strange New Worlds, on the other hand, gives fans a look at the time period ten years before Captain Kirk sat on the bridge of the USS Enterprise. What has sorely been missing from the gamut of Star Trek material has been anything in the franchise’s present time period. Picard was the only live-action series that gave fans a look at what the galaxy was like in Star Trek’s present.
The USS Enterprise hasn’t been the flagship starship of Starfleet since the Next Generation film Star Trek: Nemesis. If Star Trek: Legacy receives a green light, it will follow Captain Annika Hansen/Seven of Nine as she leads the crew of the newly rechristened NCC-1701-G. As she does, she’ll have Commander Raffi Musiker as her First Officer and Admiral Jean Luc Picard’s son, Ensign Jack Crusher, as the ship’s counselor. Deep Space Nine might have opened the doors for more serialized Star Trek stories like Discovery and Picard, but Strange New Worlds has brought the franchise back to form with one-off episodes filling a season. Now, fans want to see the next Next Generation in the same manner.
Star Trek: Legacy could tie up some loose ends left by Picard, such as the Jurati Borg and the trans-warp conduit they committed to overseeing at the end of the second season. With a former Borg drone as the new Enterprise’s captain, it could lead to some fascinating stories. Picard season three ended with an after-credits scene revealing the return of John de Lancie as the omnipotent being Q. This opens the door for more Q shenanigans, and with a Picard being present on the starship, Q would likely test him often.
Star Trek: Legacy is in High Demand
Season three of Picard solidified the demand for Legacy from fans all across the world. An outpouring of support for the sequel series flooded social media with a hashtag and a petition. Then there’s the “Letters 4 Legacy” grassroots campaign, where fans write letters directly to the producers at the studio, pushing for them to green-light Legacy without delay. Such a campaign isn’t the first in Star Trek’s history. When the original series was in danger of getting the axe after its second season, fans wrote letters to NBC to change their mind, and it worked.
Star Trek: Legacy isn’t only for fans of The Next Generation either. Characters from Deep Space Nine and Voyager have a chance to appear in the potential series. Picard brought in Voyager alum Tim Russ as the Vulcan Tuvok, but it could also serve as a vehicle to bring back Quark or Jake Sisko from Deep Space Nine. There’s no shortage of possibilities for a series like Legacy. Jonathan Frakes already has his ideas for Riker’s return, according to an interview with Star Trek Magazine (via TrekMovie):
Riker would be a captain and have his ship, or he would be promoted to admiral and be a liaison. It would be great for me if the show carries on and I’m like Charlie from ‘Charlie’s Angels.’ They’d have to come to my office one day a week for a meeting with Riker. That’d be perfect. Then I could direct a bunch of the episodes and be around the show.
Strike While the Iron is Hot
There is a bit of an urgency for Star Trek: Legacy to happen sooner rather than later if the show hopes to bring back characters from Star Trek’s past. Patrick Stewart, while more capable than the majority of 83-year-olds out there, won’t be able to do as much as he accomplished in Picard if Legacy takes too long to get off the ground. Fans would love to see him do more than appear as a cameo. The primary cast, from Jeri Ryan to Ed Speelers, are successful actors with constant gigs lining up for them. If Legacy doesn’t receive the go-ahead, scheduling conflicts could persist and prevent it from ever making it to the small screen.
The powers that be are heavily focused on projects like Section 31 and Starfleet Academy. These are promising, but they could lose fan interest if they take too long to green-light Legacy. While there’s no shortage of Star Trek projects, the actors and fans are interested in it now. Waiting too long could prove catastrophic for the show’s success. With the SAG-Aftra strike over, there’s no time like the present.
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