Throughout seven seasons, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) chose to boldly go where no one had gone before in “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” The series always thrived when it examined its characters and their dreams, and that character study became a condition for “Star Trek: Picard” co-creator Alex Kurtzman. Speaking about the follow-up series, which shows us what the titular character’s life looks like 14 years after his retirement from Starfleet, Kurtzman told the Los Angeles Times: “The mandate was to make it a more psychological show, a character study about this man in his emeritus years. There are so few shows that allow a significantly older protagonist to be the driver.”

What’s interesting is that Stewart also had some strict conditions if he was going to reprise his famous role in a new series, something he had no intention of doing when he was first approached about it. The first condition was that it would not function as a “Star Trek: The Next Generation” reunion show. “This was not at all a mark of disrespect for my beloved fellow actors,” he wrote in his autobiography “Making It So” (via Time). “Rather, I simply felt it was essential to place Picard in entirely new settings with entirely new characters.” The other conditions were that the series would run for no more than three seasons and that his character would be retired — he was adamant that Picard should shed his colorful Starfleet uniform.

Of course, bit by bit, “Star Trek: Picard” did give fans the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” reunion they wanted. However, it was done in a way that made sense for the show and also stayed true to Patrick Stewart’s initial wishes. The actor lifted the lid on the conversations that took place behind the scenes in his autobiography, revealing that the network wanted to do a full reunion during Season 3. “Now I was less resistant,” Stewart wrote. “As an executive producer, I had a say in how we might go about achieving such a reunion.”

Stewart made it clear that he was only on board with the idea as long as they didn’t “bring them all back at once” and the former cast members were introduced in a in “trickle,” which is how it ultimately happened. The actor explained his reasoning for this: “It was essential to me that each ‘TNG’ character came into the picture because he or she had a specific contribution to make and it wasn’t just sentimental window dressing. If Jean-Luc had changed so much over the years, so, too, surely, had the other members of the Enterprise crew.”

The end result was a season that blew both fans and critics away. “Star Trek: Picard” Season 3 has a near-perfect Certified Fresh rating of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the audience score is also impressive at 88%. The third season delivered the right mixture of character-driven storytelling and stuff for long-time fans (there are a bunch of Easter eggs in “Star Trek: Picard” Season 3). In the end, everyone won — Kurtzman got his wish, Stewart made the show he wanted to make, and the fans got one of the best “Star Trek” installments in years.