The quick peek at Captain Kirk wasn't a throwaway moment in season three of Picard

Captain James T. Kirk died an ignoble death in Star Trek: Generations, far from the heroic death an officer who'd saved the world so many times deserved. Supposedly, it was to pass the torch to the stars of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but that had already been done in the television series which ran for seven seasons. Nevertheless, William Shatner's Captain Kirk hasn't returned to our screens since Generations, although, the third season of Star Trek: Picard gave us a glimpse of what is supposedly Captain Kirk's corpse inside Section 31's Daystrom Station facility.

Recently, Shatner has indicated he isn't opposed to returning to the character via de-aging technology, which is something that fans would love to see. How it would actually happen remains to be seen, although Shatner did mention to Global News that the captain's brain is frozen so it wouldn't be too difficult.

"Let’s see if we can bring back a little bit of this, a little salt, a little pepper. Oh, look at that. Here comes Captain Kirk!"

- William Shatner

That's a bit simplistic, of course, but our site's Chad Porto wrote that [the statement] was clear that Shatner didn't like the "throwaway moment" in Picard. We don't really know that to be the case. Akiva Goldsman, in an interview with SFX Magazine [via Slashfilm], even seemed to indicate the moment had purpose.

"My friend Terry Matalas is not alone in feeling frustrated with Kirk's death in canon. It's why he put his body at Daystrom Station, right?"

- Akiva Goldsman

De-aging technology had already been used in Picard, and with the both Matalas and Goldsman dissatisfied with Kirk's death, it stands to reason if they had a way to retcon it, they would. Hence, the glimpse viewers got at the Daystrom Station, which, I believe indicates it's only a matter of time before we do see the original Captain James T. Kirk back on our screens.