Star Trek: Picard wants another Voyager alumni to show up

Star Trek: Picard almost brought in another Voyager alumni.

Star Trek: Picard saw the return of several actors and characters to their roles in Star Trek. There was obviously Patric Stewart returning as Jean-Luc Picard, as well as Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis as William Riker and Deanna Troi. Brent Spiner also returned to Star Trek as well as Data and Altan Inigo Soong, the so of Data’s creator Noonian Soong. Each of these actors made sense to return as they were all alumni of The Next Generation series. Yet, one Voyager alumni, Jeri Ryan, returned to play Seven of Nine as well, despite the character having no ties to The Next Generation.

Another Voyager alumni were also considered for a role in season two of Picard. This one was the helmsmen of the Voyager, Tom Paris, played by Robert Duncan McNeill. Apparently the show-runner for season two, Terry Matalas was interested in bringing McNeill and his character of Tom Paris back to Star trek for season two, telling Trek.FM;

"I did talk to Terry Matalas about Picard Season Two. He and I have had a few conversations recently and reconnected, which has been great. Terry had talked about bringing me over there as a director or as an actor, bringing Tom Paris, but it’s really been about schedule."

Robert Duncan McNeill just finished Turner and Hooch for Disney+

Robert Duncan McNeill has been very busy with Turner and Hooch, serving as both the executive producer for the Disney+ remake of the film with the same name, as well as directing two episodes. With the series just now premiering, it seemed like that project specifically ate up a lot of his free time.

McNeill is also the executive producer for the hit SyFy show, Resident Alien. So while McNeill hasn’t acted since the 2012 series finale of Chuck, he has been quite involved with creating great entertainment.

it would’ve been great to see McNeill return to the character he brought to life, as Paris is one of the more popular characters in all of Star Trek: Voyager’s history, and even if it was just a minor cameo, it would’ve been nice to see him back with Star Trek, the series that gave him his big break.