Patrick Stewart Didn't Like Picard's Ending Until He Saw It On TV

"Star Trek: Picard" is over and done with, and the cast of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" has had one final adventure together. Showrunner Terry Matalas even contrived a way to get Patrick Stewart, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner, Marina Sirtis, and Jonathan Frakes back on board the destroyed Enterprise-D. It seems that Geordi La Forge (Burton) had salvaged what he could from Veridian III, and had spent the last few decades rebuilding the Galaxy-class vessel in his spare time. The aging crew fell right back into place, operating their old ship with skill and alacrity. Personally, I hope I'm never asked to return to an old job decades later and be expected to remember anything, but the Enterprise crew are most assuredly smarter than me.

The series finale's climax — with the Enterprise staging a daring rescue inside a massive Borg ship — was plain and serviceable and merely wrapped up the story. It was the finale's epilogue where the series finally came together and emotions began to take root. Set in Guinan's bar, the "Next Generation" cast chatted and drank and were finally able to relax and be themselves outside of a crisis. The seven of them sat around a table and played poker, a parallel to the final scene of the final episode of "Next Generation." It was a chance for these characters to reconnect as friends.

Speaking in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Stewart revealed that he initially didn't like that ending. He didn't like the way it was filmed and he didn't like that it was the alternate version that the showrunners settled on after having already filmed something superior. The original ending was the one that Stewart preferred and he wasn't entirely sure the "poker game" epilogue would suffice.

It wasn't until Patrick Stewart saw the final scene edited together and placed in the context of the series at large that he understood. Not only did he understand, but Stewart became very emotional. His wife, it seems, got a lot of hugs. Decades after the fact, Stewart came to see his "Next Generation" co-stars as something like a family. He explained: 

"[The] use of the word family is in fact very accurate. That is what we became. If you add Whoopi Goldberg, who joined us in the second season, and John de Lancie, who came in as Q. We became so close, and that's grown over the years. Last night, I watched episode nine of season three, and this morning, I watched the final episode. There had been a little conflict about how it should end, and the script we held when we started shooting had an ending I was thrilled by — I thought it was absolutely perfect — I can't tell you what it was — and then when we were shooting, a problem occurred."

Sadly, Stewart was likely held to secrecy about the original ending, so he was not able to offer up any additional details about what happened or why he liked it so much. Nor does he mention what the shooting issue was, be it a technical problem or just a last-minute story change that came down from the producers. What Stewart did reveal is that it would have been a scene for just Picard and none of the other characters. Seeing as the show was called "Star Trek: Picard," perhaps isolating the character for one last moment would have been appropriate.

Patrick Stewart continued:

"It was the last day and, oh, it was getting so late and we had so much to do. And I said, 'We can pick that up anytime, it's only me involved.' We never did it. So the ending I loved was never filmed. Instead, it was one I wasn't happy about — until this morning. [...] The impact that the final episode had on me was unexpected and almost overwhelming. When it finally finished, I had to call out for my wife and go give her a hug because I felt so deeply connected with what I'd watched."

"Star Trek: The Next Generation," while often centering on Jean-Luc Picard, was always an ensemble show. It stories either focused on single members of the series' ensemble in turn, or they depicted an entire group working together to solve problems. It's likely that Stewart saw that in the final shots of him and his co-stars playing poker. The actor admitted that his initial objections were based on a sense of protection for his character and that his director, showrunner Terry Matalas, had the right idea. Stewart elaborated:

"The way the series ends is wonderful. And I so badly thought it was totally wrong when we shot it. But the director and producers, in particular Terry Matalas, who directed it, his instinct was absolutely right, and my instinct was only protective, whereas he was going deeper into what made me feel this morning the whole effect it had on my life and career, this show." 

The LA Times interviewer pointed out that the show had all the "Star Trek" requisites like Shakespeare and a poker game, to which Stewart rebutted that it had something far more vital: "It has feelings."

The "Next Generation" crew will not return.