Trivia / Star Trek: Picard S3E10 "The Last Generation"

• Awesome, Dear Boy: According to Terry Matalas, Q's return in The Stinger had been planned during Season 2. Matalas had admitted to John de Lancie that there would likely be no time or money to shoot it. However, after pitching the idea for Q "passing the torch" to Picard's son and creating a bookend to the TNG Pilot, de Lancie instantly signed on.
• Creator Backlash: Due to the decision to have Alice Krige dub over the Queen (rather than force the 68 year old actress to undergo the heavy prosthetic makeup), Patrick Stewart understandably was disappointed he didn't get the chance to physically act opposite his old First Contact co-star again.
• In Memoriam: Walter Koenig's character "Anton Chekov" is a clear tribute to Anton Yelchin, who played the Kelvin timeline Pavel Chekov.
• The Original Darrin: Alice Krige returned as the voice of the Queen, who was physically played by Jane Edwina Seymour due to the Queen suffering Body Horror after the events of Star Trek: Voyager's "Endgame".
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Terry Matalas has stated that while the final season has been influenced by Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the series finale wouldn't be copying the TOS Cast's signature sign-off, because Avengers: Endgame got there first.
  Matalas: [Marvel producer] Kevin Feige is one of the biggest Star Trek fans out there and he did it brilliantly in Avengers: Endgame and I felt like I can't do it... But I think we do something quite nice, I will say. I think you will feel good.
• Reality Subtext:
  • Picard, Riker, and Geordi's last scene aboard the Enterprise-D and reflecting on how the ship changed all their lives and wondering how their lives might be different if they hadn't taken that posting. It's really not hard to also see this as Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes and LeVar Burton wondering what their careers and lives would've been like if they hadn't auditioned for TNG and become part of the franchise.
    • Similarly, Riker saying he misses the old Starfleet Computer voice is also very much Frakes acknowledging the loss and absence of Majel Barrett since her death in late 2008.
    • Additional subtext comes into play when you remember that she also played his mother-in-law, Lwaxana Troi.
  • Team Picard's final poker game after hours at Ten Forward. It's really not hard to see this as just as much about the characters as it is Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Marina Sirtis, and Gates McFadden all hanging out and enjoying each other's company.
• Throw It In!: The entire final Poker Game. According to Terry Matalas, this was done partly as a means of differentiating it from the iconic "All Good Things..." ending.
  Matalas: I wanted the audience to feel like they were really with this cast, to have a little wish fulfillment. So I actually ran the camera for 45 minutes and let them just play. Let them be themselves. I really wanted the audience to be immersed in what it’s like to hang out with Patrick, Jonathan, Marina, Gates, LeVar, Michael, Brent. So all those smiles and all those jokes are real. And so we hang on it much longer than you normally would, so that the smiles and the jokes are genuine. They were all playing a form of poker as best as they could, you know, because they like to monkey around.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The Season 3 soundtrack details were released a month prior to the series finale's premiere. The track listings reveal details about the finale (let alone then-preceding and unreleased episodes). Downplayed in that without any context (the listings, for example, make no references to the Borg), fans knew they were being spoiled, but not how.
• Voice-Only Cameo: Walter Koenig gives a speech as President Anton Chekov, son of Pavel Chekov.
• What Could Have Been:
  • There was originally going to be a scene that revealed Ro Laren had survived her apparent death earlier in the season but there was not enough time and/or money left to film it. These same logistical problems scuttled similar plans to have Isa Briones return, wherein Soji Asha would finally get to meet her now-resurrected "Father".
  • Terry Matalas has mentioned he also intended to include Janeway in the series and even had her in his initial draft for this episode, though this was apparently prevented by Executive Meddling.