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Picard season 3 seems to be taking a page from The Undiscovered Country and teeing up a similar event that could have a lasting impact on the future of the Star Trek universe. In an interview with SFX (via Trek Movie), Matalas actually namedropped The Undiscovered Country while teasing that this season “there is definitely a major event in the Star Trek universe” and that, like the events of Undiscovered Country, it “will feel like an event in Star Trek history.” This is presumably a reference to the destruction of Praxis and the peace treaty between the Federation and the Klingons, later known as the Khitomer Accords, which filled in some of the history that was missing between Kirk’s 23rd-century 5-year mission and the Federation’s enmity with the Klingons, and Worf’s serving on the bridge of the Enterprise in The Next Generation in the 24th century.
The Federation already signed a peace treaty with the Changelings and the Dominion in the Deep Space Nine finale, but the events of Picard season 3 could certainly alter diplomatic relations between the two galactic superpowers. However, Matalas might be referring to the overall themes and feel of the story rather than a more literal re-telling of the movie. The title “The Undiscovered Country,” for example, is a quotation from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In the film, the super-optimistic Klingon Chancellor Gorkon (the late David Warner), raising his glass of illegal booze, quotes it in a toast to “the future.” But Gorkon’s original Klingon version of Hamlet must say something different to the English version, because that’s not what Shakespeare meant in our Earth version of his play. In Hamlet, the “undiscovered country” is death – it is the place “from whose bourn no traveller returns.”
So, could the movie’s biggest influence on Picard season 3 be the impending death of a major Next Generation character? Matalas has hinted that one or more of our heroes might die this season, telling SFX that he can’t guarantee that they all make it out, though he does note that “in science fiction, there are always ways of seeing people again,” something he has already proved by bringing back Data for the second time on Picard. Although the show seems to be hinting at young Jack Crusher’s demise, it’s more likely that one of the old guard won’t make it, most likely Picard himself or Dr. Crusher.
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However, with The Undiscovered Country, not wishing to just repeat The Wrath of Khan, Meyer did not kill off any of the core characters. The movie was far more concerned with having the characters confront the future. Matalas told SFX, “This season is very much a passing of the torch to the next generation.” So, like The Undiscovered Country, we may see our heroes move into a new phase of their lives rather than leave this mortal plane all together. Picard can go back to his still-new romance with Laris, Riker and Troi can reconcile and raise their daughter, and Geordi and Worf are clearly still going strong in their careers (like Undiscovered Country’s Sulu).
If Beverly and Jack make it out in one piece, they could go back to helping those in need beyond the Federation’s borders, although it’s possible the franchise could have bigger plans for the son of Jean-Luc Picard. After all, Matalas has already said he’d love to continue the stories of the “Last Generation and the Next” in a spinoff show, and there’s no doubt Paramount would want Ed Speelers back for the tentatively titled “Star Trek: Legacy.”
In the final lines of The Undiscovered Country, Uhura asked Captain Kirk for a course heading and he told her, “Second star to the right, and straight on till morning.” Perhaps more than anything, that sign-off tells us all we really need to know about the ending of an era in Star Trek. Things change, people change, and characters move on, but Star Trek, as a franchise, remains forever young.
