Terry Matalas explains how Star Trek: Legacy would be different

Star Trek: Legacy could be a very different show than fans are used to.

Star Trek: Picard really was a big hit thanks to the nostalgia that showrunner Terry Matalas brought to the series. It was such a hit due to the nostalgia, that many fans want to see what Matalas can do with a more original IP, and Matalas in fact has an idea for such a thing.

Enter Star Trek: Legacy. Legacy is a spinoff idea that Matalas has developed and informally pitched, which would see a show around Jean-Luc Picard’s son, Jack Crusher, and his journey through Starfleet.

It would loosely revolve around Q, if the ending of Picard is any indication, and would feature other second-generation characters as well, mostly sons and daughters of the Next Generation crew. Yet, the show, if it were to ever be made, would end up being quite different than what people may expect.

Star Trek: Legacy could be a very different show

Speaking to ComicBook.com, Legacy’s would-be-show creator was asked how the series would present itself, a more traditional Star Trek along the lines of Strange New Worlds, or a 10-part mini-movie, like Picard’s third season. Matalas responded by saying;

"I think it could be a mix-and-match. Again, let me be clear: there’s nothing in development. It’s just an exciting pie-in-the-sky idea. But it would mix and match. But I would love to go back to the spirit of Star Trek: The Next Generation quite a bit. This last season of Picard is not Season 8 of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s more Star Trek 11. It’s a movie. The characters are much closer to their cinematic versions than they are Star Trek: The Next Generation versions of their characters. I would love to go back to the spirit of Star Trek: The Next Generation as much as you can, but we’d have to see if it would be possible. Who knows?"

Keeping Trek episodic is the way to go. It’s the best way to capture these characters in small, closed segments, where we can see how they react to certain situations, without the demand of them changing so much over the course of 50-100 episodes.

Not everyone changes that much over a short time frame and so forcing characters to do the same just isn’t the way to go. It may work for other science fiction, but Trek is a brand and has a certain expectations with it.

If Legacy does happen to be made, we’re hoping that they realize what works in Trek, and avoid trying to serialize the show.