Warning: There are spoilers ahead for the Star Trek: Picard Season 1 Finale!
Jean-Luc Picard is dead. But in Star Trek: Picard, and in Star Trek the franchise, death is rarely the end. In this case, the season finale of Picard, the title hero’s death gave Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner to deliver a proper farewell scene between Picard and Data. That was something missing from Data’s death in Star Trek: Nemesis. While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Michael Chabon and executive producer Akiva Goldsman explained that this was the moment the entire season was building towrds.
“[Picard’s] death, the moment where he says goodbye to Data, those are the moments where I sort of went ‘Oh, wow. If I step back, I’m feeling my own emotion just in time to not forget to say cut,'” said Goldsman.
“Akiva always talked about how the challenge in the making of it was to really understand the fact that Picard has died,” added Chabon. “When Picard asks, “am I dead?” And Data says ‘yes,’ that’s the truth. So, making sure to sell that was a really valuable insight that I got from Akiva, he sort of provided that note to me as I was writing. And so that really helped me.”
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However, Picard and Data’s reunion was short-lived. Picard’s mind was transferred to a new body, and Data also requested that his consciousness be deleted. Meaning this may be their last meeting. Goldman also noted that there was some digital trickery to erase the years from Spiner’s face in that scene.
“It was a full on play between the two of them,” noted Goldsman. “There are actually visual effects that are applied to make Brent appear to be the Data of TNG — or at least look his Nemesis age…Michael had been writing some version of this scene since the beginning of the season. And when we shot it, we really had to get it in a run. We kept playing out and doing multiple takes running the whole scene.”
Star Trek: Picard season 1 is currently streaming on CBS All Access.
What did you think about Picard and Data’s reunion? Let us know in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading: Star Trek: The Next Generation: Through The Mirror
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