Prior to Season 3 of “Star Trek: Picard,” very little was known about what happened to Dr. Beverly Crusher after she left the U.S.S. Enterprise.
While previous seasons of “Picard” provided updates on Data, Will Riker and Deanna Troi, it had been over 20+ years since anyone — characters or viewers alike — had seen Crusher.
The third season of “Picard” filled in that two-decade gap: Beverly had a son, Jack Crusher. She chose not to tell his father, Jean-Luc Picard, out of fear Picard’s enemies would come after him. Eventually, they did, and Beverly was mortally injured, not before disintegrating a few aliens with a phaser rifle and sending out a distress call in the season opener.
She would be rescued by her former captain/lover, but in the series finale, the tables turned. With both Jack and Jean-Luc trapped aboard the Borg cube, along with Riker and Worf, Beverly takes control of the tactical station.
Warning: This post contains spoilers from the series finale of “Star Trek: Picard” titled “The Last Generation.” Proceed with caution.
Because the Enterprise weapon systems aren’t fully operational, Beverly must manually fire upon the cube. She does, unleashing a torrent of perfectly targeted phaser blasts and photon torpedos in one of the most spectacular battle sequences in “Trek” history.
Her deadly accuracy wins silent admiration from crewmates Geordi LaForge, Data and Deanna Troi.
“A lot’s happened in the last 20 years,” Beverly responds cooly after they all turn and look at her.
TheWrap caught up with Gates McFadden at the “Picard” finale on Wednesday to discuss Beverly’s Borg-blasting scene in the finale.
“You know, it was really great,” McFadden responded when asked about Beverly going into mama bear mode. “I think that [showrunner] Terry [Matalas] really saw a much more three-dimensional Beverly Crusher, which is why I wanted to sign on and do it. I feel he honored all of our characters so beautifully.”
“It was tremendous: tremendous opportunity, tremendous joy, I really had a blast,” she added.
Brent Spiner’s Data also has his own action moment in the finale.
Realizing the beacon they need to destroy is in the heart of the cube, Data offers to pilot the Enterprise through the cube interior and blow it up from the inside, Luke Skywalker-style.
“Data, it’s impossible,” LeVar Burton’s La Forge laments.
“I’ve got this, Geordi,” Data replies, and proceeds to fly the Enterprise through the cube like a mouse working its way through a maze.
With the ship zigging and zagging its way to the cube’s center, the actors had to coordinate leaning in the same direction — stunt work they had to do back in their “Next Generation” days.
“That was, you know, a piece of cake,” Spiner said. “We knew it in our bodies. We’ve done it so many times. And it was really just another day at the office as far as I was concerned.”
One thing he did have to practice was swinging out the console to take his seat at the Enterprise helm.
“I had to practice it a couple of times, because it had only been, you know, 25 years or so since I’d done it. But the people who created that set did such a great job, and that it was thrilling,” he admitted.
“But the most poignant moment was walking onto the bridge, all of us together, and it looked exactly the same.”
All episodes of “Star Trek: Picard” are now streaming on Paramount+.