[Editor's Note: This article contains spoilers for the series finale of Star Trek: Picard]While we hate to see the game end, Star Trek: Picard has just delivered one of the most satisfying series endings ever. In an age of TV and movies where it's become all to common for shows and legacy franchises to lean into the gritty and grim reality of life, Picard leaves fans of the series with a profound sense of hope. All of our heroes make it to the end, with the promise of lifelong friendships and bright futures ahead. Collider's own Maggie Lovitt said best in her review of the series finale: "Franchises like Star Trek are precious and generational and when you’re bringing something so monumental to a close, you don’t want to leave your audience in tears of sorrow, you want to leave them with tears of joy." And that's exactly what Picard does.
The final scene of Star Trek: Picard finds the iconic crew of the Enterprise-D gathered to celebrate in 10 Forward, putting off ending their time together with one more drink, and one more toast. After Picard quotes a bespoke passage from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, he pulls out an ace of spades and the night dissolves into an endless game of poker—a classic tradition for the Next Generation crew. The camera moves around the table capturing laughs and little moments between each of them before moving up to mirror the final shot of TNG with a bird's eye view of the crew gathered around the table.
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas recently sat down with Lovitt to chat about "The Last Generation" and this closing moment. Matalas, who both wrote and directed this episode, revealed that he actually let the cameras roll on the cast playing poker for nearly an hour. He said:
"I wanted the audience to feel like they were really in that poker game, and really get a sense to feel like what it's like to hang out with this cast, to feel the genuine laughter of this friendship that they've had for decades. So I let the camera roll for 45 minutes, and that camera just moved around that table."
Filming an Extended Poker Game Was Always Part of the Picard Finale Plan
While the scene itself only lasts about five minutes, Matalas hinted that we might get to see a bit more of the footage from that day when Picard Season 3 gets its Blu-ray release. "I think we'll probably put a lot of it on the Blu-ray," he told Collider. Matalas knew how important it would be to capture the authentic joy of this moment so he built extended filming time for this scene into the schedule. He explained:
"So that's all real. Those laughs, those smiles, all those are just– they're genuine. None of that's acting, aside from the last line. That was always part of the plan, we built that into the schedule to be able to pull that off. So that's quite wonderful, but I knew I had to end with that shot. That was the right way to end with them."
Those instincts were spot on, as the final shot leaves the viewer with all the warm fuzzy feelings of love, hope, and found-family that The Next Generation has always represented. While we definitely want the adventures to continue with a potential Legacy spin-off, this finale delivers the perfect happily ever after.
All 10 episodes of Star Trek: Picard are now available to stream on Paramount+. Make sure you check out Lovitt's full interview with Matalas for all the juicy details behind the making of "The Last Generation." In the meantime, you can watch our interview with Patrick Stewart and Gates McFadden down below.