Terry Matalas had a plan for Jake Sisko to appear in Star Trek: Picard

Since the ending of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Jake Sisko has not returned to any Star Trek series.

When Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ended, we were fairly certain that Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton) was well on the path to becoming a journalist. Unfortunately, we’ve not been able to see any of his journey toward that career onscreen. Terry Matalas, the showrunner for season three of Star Trek: Picard, had an idea to make that happen.

Matalas, who appeared on Lofton’s podcast, The 7th Rule, [via Screenrant], said there was a lot of talk in the writers’ room about bringing Jake in. With the Changelings as one of the villains of the season, it would have made a lot of sense.

"“We had many Jake conversations in the season 3 writer’s room. And one of the ideas was… ‘Cause season 3’s a conspiracy, and people like Ro Laren and our heroes realizing that Changelings have infiltrated Starfleet… There’s a moment, actually, where Ro Laren says, “I even tried going to the press.” That was Jake Sisko.”"

Terry Matalas had a fairly solid plan for bringing back Jake Sisko, but money prevented it from happening.

Matalas’ idea was for there to be a journalist, whose specialty was Starfleet, who was starting to put things together. As he’s covering Frontier Day, he realizes weird stuff is going on, that things are being reported and then being dismissed. And that takes him down what Matalas calls the “rabbit hole.”

Though Picard didn’t have the budget to include Lofton’s return to the character, Matalas isn’t done with Jake Sisko as he ended up pitching his idea as a podcast, and he’s hopeful Sisko will be able to come back one day.

"“We’ll get another bite at the apple.”"

Having Jake Sisko back covering all things within Starfleet would be an excellent addition to any series. He was a smart kid, and some things, like the weird stuff that happens on a Star Trek series, just need someone with a nose for news. Hopefully, we’ll see Sisko back in live action and not just on a podcast. Though it would be great for him to reappear, we’d love to see it onscreen.