Star Trek: Picard bringing in the Next Generation cast for its final season is a great idea

Star Trek: Picard is bringing back the core cast of The Next Generation.

We’ve talked before about how releasing the trailer for the third season of Star Trek: Picard, while the second season was airing, was just not a good idea. That, however, does not mean we don’t like the idea behind the third season.

During the trailer we heard the voices of all the original stars of the franchise, well all minus Denise Crosby.  Everyone from Patrick Stewart to Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, and Brent Spiner were all heard during the trailer, indicating that they’ll all be back for the final season of the show.

This is wonderful news for fans of The Next Generation, as it gives them one final go-around with the crew of the USS Enterprise-D, and E.

That doesn’t mean everyone is coming back, Crosby doesn’t appear to be, nor is Wil Wheaton, another mainstay on the early seasons of the show.

Wil Wheaton expressed sadness about not being part of Star Trek: Picard

We already covered this yesterday, but let’s recap. Wheaton wrote on his blog that he was sad about not being invited to join Picard for the final season; where he would’ve reprised his Wesley Crusher character.

"I’ve also seen a LOT of people — like, way more than I ever would have imagined –expressing dismay that Wesley isn’t part of it.I share some of your sadness, for my own reasons, but I choose to focus instead on how special it’s going to be to see my family back together again, and how wonderful it’s going to be to talk with them about it in the Ready Room."

Wheaton is still involved in Trek, but now as the host of the Ready Room, a Facebook-exclusive Star Trek series that recaps all things Trek. It’s the Talking Dead for Trek fans.

Frankly, while Wheaton wrote an interesting scene where he returns, his absence won’t’ be missed by many. The character was never as well received as others and while he has his defenders, his role in the franchise evaporated in the 90s, and by the time the films came around, he was never again truly considered.

He had a cameo in Star Trek: Nemesis but that was it.

While he has his share of the Trek universe that is wholly his, he’s just not on the same level as others from the series, at least in the eyes of a lot of fans. It isn’t that he’s not beloved, but it’s that there’s only a finite amount of time to tell this story and you have to get in those that matter most for the narrative.

That has just never been Wesley Crusher.