Hearing The Plan For Picard Season 3 Brought Star Trek's LeVar Burton To Tears

As has been well advertised, the latest season of "Star Trek: Picard" will feature a reunion of the central cast of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," their first in 21 years. This is something of a banner moment for Trekkies, and not just for nostalgic reasons. In the 1994 "NextGen" series finale, called "All Good Things...," a time travel fluke allowed viewers to see what the characters might be up to in another 30 years. In that episode, Picard (Patrick Stewart) had retired to his vineyard, Data (Brent Spiner) had become a professor with emotions, Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) had become a starship captain after divorcing Picard, Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) had become a retired military man, Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) had died (sad face), Worf (Michael Dorn) had become an ambassador, and Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) had become a novelist with three children. His visor had also been replaced by eyeball-looking implants. 

The events of "All Good Things...," of course, were only one of many possible futures and were never intended to be a definite predictor of Trek's future timeline. As time has passed, however, and as the actors aged into their roles, some of these predictions are seemingly coming true. 

Details of Geordi's future life, for example, seem to have been set in stone. In "All Good Things...," he was married to the starship designer Dr. Leah Brahms, and the couple had three children named Bret, Alandra, and Sidney. These details have remained for La Forge in "Star Trek: Picard." Indeed, Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) will turn up at the helm of the USS Titan-A. 

"Picard" showrunner Terry Matalas, in a recent conversation with Entertainment Weekly, revealed that Burton approved of these details, as well as of some new, notable ideas for the character. 

In the timeline of "Picard" — the "official" timeline — Geordi La Forge serves as the curator of a starship museum, working closely with his daughter Alandra. His relationship with Sidney, though, isn't too rosy, and the two have to force a heart-to-heart conversation partway through the season. 

When pitching his ideas to his potential actors, Terry Matalas was careful to get each of their individual approval before going ahead with a final draft. After all, he feels that the actors "know their characters better than I do." But that he "was fortunate that, creatively, we were very aligned." Matalas, naturally intimidated in talking to the cast of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" sharply recalls his call with Burton especially, as his ideas — he modestly admitted — deeply moved the actor. He said: 

"I remember vividly the Zoom conversation I had with LeVar Burton, where I took him through the 10-episode arc I had envisioned for him [...] I pitched to him this big moment at the end of the season, and by the time I was done, there were tears in his eyes. It dawned on me that I just made Geordi La Forge cry with this story. And then I started to cry." 

The end of La Forge's arc remains to be seen, but if Burton had that reaction, it seems that everything will work for the best. Not incidentally, to add to the show's dramatic punch, Alandra La Forge will be played by Mica Burton, LeVar's real-life daughter. Not only had Geordi La Forge grown into his future, but so too, it seems, has the actor playing him. 

There's beauty to that.