Star Trek: Picard's Gates McFadden Had One Concern About Beverly Crusher's Story

"Star Trek: Picard" swung for the fences with its third season by bringing back the original crew from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," including Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Worf (Michael Dorn), and even Data (Brent Spiner). It was a play on nostalgia that at the very least gave a lot of "Next Generation" fans the opportunity to give their favorite characters a proper goodbye, as opposed to whatever that was in "Star Trek: Nemesis." Before they signed on, however, the stars probably had plenty of reservations about resurrecting these roles after so many years. Some, like Frakes, have been active in the contemporary "Star Trek" canon, directing episodes of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" and "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," but others had to decide whether they really wanted to step back into their Starfleet uniforms. 

When it came to McFadden, there was really just one major concern with her character's return, and it had to do with her relationship with Jean-Luc himself (Patrick Stewart). In a recent interview with Variety, the actor explained her worries about coming back as the good doctor, and just how she was able to get past her concerns and dive back into the deep end with Picard and the rest of the crew. 

In the Variety interview, Gates McFadden explained that showrunner Terry Matalas and executive producer Akiva Goldsman told her about Crusher and Picard's son, Jack, in their very first meeting, and she was immediately concerned about whether or not Crusher would actually have kept Jack a secret from Picard for decades:

"They told me the storyline. And I said, 'Hey, terrific story, but my concern is that she's not seen as "that b**** didn't tell him she was pregnant with his child! How could she do something like that?"' She's basically a very ethical humanist. She really cares about doing the right thing. That was my concern. I was coming from "TNG" where I felt the female point of view was only done through different women characters who would come on board, not Troi or Crusher." 

It's understandable that McFadden would be hesitant to put Beverly in that kind of position, because, as she points out, there were a lot of scenes in "The Next Generation" that featured Troi and Crusher in skimpy or skin-tight outfits, talking about boys like a pair of besotted teens. She wanted to be certain that there were canonically sound reasons for Crusher to have not told Picard about his son and that her character's reputation wouldn't be ruined on account of their need for a plot device. Thankfully, there was a "Next Generation" episode that gave Crusher plenty of reason to not reveal her secret son. 

In the season 7 "Next Generation" episode, "Attached," Picard and Crusher are captured and held in a prison cell together and have special devices implanted in their necks that force them to reveal their deepest truths. The two had a tumultuous romantic relationship up until that point that never really seemed to go anywhere, and after the events of "Attached," they never did. She knew that he didn't want a family and she did, and Picard's lifestyle just wouldn't ever work with kids anyway. But life doesn't always go as planned, and McFadden acknowledged that some viewers might not sympathize with Crusher's reasoning:

"There're some people who will never forgive her for not telling him. But one of the problems that me, Gates, finds in the world today is that we spend so much time not forgiving, instead of going, maybe I should let go of some of the anger and resentment and open up to the positive. Hey, Picard's resolved his issues with his parents, and now he has a child. And that child is actually pretty frickin' great. My children — I don't know what it says about Crusher's personality — they all have a bit of a lip. You know, Wesley did, and I think Jack Crusher has some of that too. That's pretty funny to me."

Is sass an inheritable trait? If so, it's clearly a Crusher gene and it's a powerful one. It's a good thing that McFadden appreciated the full-circle nature of Picard's arc and found her footing with Crusher's rationale for not telling Picard and protecting Jack — she was pure joy to watch this season and she had such a good time that she's willing to come back for another potential spin-off series. Just as long as there's no weird ghost sex, okay?