‘Star Trek: Picard’ Star Gates McFadden on the ‘Visceral’ Experience of Seeing [SPOILER] Again and Dr. Crusher’s Controversial Decision

SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot developments in Season 3, Episode 9 of Star Trek: Picard, currently streaming on Paramount+.

Gates McFadden didnt know what to expect when she first got on a Zoom call with Star Trek: Picard executive producers Terry Matalas and Akiva Goldsman. A few years earlier, Patrick Stewart had taken the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn, Brent Spiner and McFadden to dinner to announce that he was going to star on the spinoff series without them. But for the shows third and final season, Matalas wanted to bring the full cast back together.

The TNG storyline ended, some feel prematurely, in 2002, after Star Trek: Nemesis bombed in theaters. But for McFadden, her run as Dr. Beverly Crusher had really concluded with the series finale of the show in 1994. In the movies, Crusherwho on the show had a longstanding, unrequited romantic entanglement with Stewarts Capt. Jean-Luc Picard had almost nothing to do.

So much of the history of the character you didnt even see it, McFadden says. Jean-Luc Picard could have this brand new love interest every time, and it was as if he and Crusher had nothing between them, or ever did. That was a huge part of the character that was just put away.

To McFaddens surprise and delight, Matalas pitched her what has turned out to be the most robust storyline her character has ever been given. At some point after the events of Nemesis, Crusher and Picard consummated their relationship in a liaison that resulted in a child. Rather than tell Picard, however, Crusher cut herself off from the rest of the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D and raised her son, named Jack Crusher (and played as an adult by You co-star Ed Speleers), alone.

The season begins with Crusher reaching out to Picard in desperation as she and Jack are relentlessly hunted by an unknown force. In the penultimate episode of the season, that force is revealed to be the Borg, who in collaboration with a rogue faction of shapeshifting Changelings have successfully infiltrated Starfleet at the highest levels. It turns out that when Picard was assimilated by the Borg during TNG, they modified his DNA, which Picard passed along to Jack. That modification, combined with some technological subterfuge that alters the DNA of anyone under 25 in Starfleet, allows the Borg to assimilate the entirety of Starfleet in one cataclysmic stroke.

If that wasnt enough, the episode ends with one final shocking twist: The TNG cast reuniting with the Enterprise-D, which Burtons Geordi LaForge has painstakingly reconstructed since it was destroyed in the events of 1994s Star Trek: Generations.

McFadden talked with Variety about what it was like to return to the old Enterprise-D and reunite on camera with all her old friends, as well as her own mixed feelings about Crushers controversial decision to keep Picard in the dark about his own son and the TNG episode that made her feel better about it.

Paramount+ How did you feel about Beverly Crushers presence in the TNG movies?

Well, its no surprise to hear that it was very disappointing. Its always tricky when youre the actor. You want your role to be as wonderful as possible. But youre also not stupid, and youre very happy that the franchise is doing well. First Contact was just an amazingly written film. My only sadness was that there had to be new female love interests. But then, thats Hollywood. So you just accept it and do the best you can do with what youre given. I mean, thats the job.

So when did you understand that not only would Crusher have that history with Picard on this season of the show, but it would be central to the story?

I think in the very first conversation I had with Terry and Akiva. They told me the storyline. And I said, Hey, terrific story, but my concern is that shes not seen as That bitch didnt tell him she was pregnant with his child! How could she do something like that?

Shes 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. I felt that we were lacking in terms of a very strong female presence. Our only scenes, usually we would be, you know, working out and talking about men somehow.

The famous scene of the two of them stretching in leotards.

I mean, it was quite crazy, right? I have enough sense of humor to go, okay, the stupidest scene. I get it. We go to conventions and people are dressed in cosplay with our outfits. Its funny, and I dont feel judged by the younger generations, in a way that I wish my generation had gotten it when it happened.

So how did you resolve your feelings about Crushers choice about Jack?

I think if we hadnt had the episode Attached, I would have had more of a problem. We had this episode where we were totally connected with each others deepest thoughts. I feel thats why they basically broke up, or it never really went anywhere. Because she didnt want this on-and-off relationship; she wanted a family. And he very clearly from the deepest instincts did not.

It was crucial for the story that he had a child. I believe it was Patrick who came up with the idea of [the mother] being Crusher. [Sighs] Therere 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, Picards resolved his issues with his parents, and now he has a child. And that child is actually pretty frickin great. My children I dont know what it says about Crushers personality they all have a bit of a lip. You know, Wesley did, and I think Jack Crusher has some of that too. Thats pretty funny to me.

On TNG, Crusher was often a character who was unafraid to go off alone on her own path if she felt it was the right thing to do, rules be damned. Her decision to cut off all her friends and not tell Picard about his son is the most extreme version of that, but I see how people had mixed reactions.

Its interesting because she didnt choose to have an abortion. She really wanted to be a mother. And if youve just been recently listening to Picards deepest thoughts no, I would never want a baby, absolutely no, no, no I think you have to base it on what she knew then. And I think she hopes that later the child would reunite with Picard, and its a shock when her son doesnt want to. And perhaps she had an instinct, when the child was crying all the time at night, that this child needed protection, and was perhaps a little different. Obviously, theres going to be people who disagree with [her decision]; I understand that. I just feel also people should then try to focus on maybe the good of why that happened.

At the same time, how did it feel to have so much material to perform as Crusher?

It was the first time ever for me in Star Trek. It felt fabulous. It was terrific. I owe that all to Terry. It was wonderful acting again with Patrick. Weve always had a good chemistry on screen. I never dreamt it was ever going to happen, because I didnt assume I was going to go back to do a just a one off where Im, you know, opening a knitting shop or something. That I would not have been interested in.

What was it like the first day the core seven of you were all on set together?

It wasnt like I hadnt seen most of them. The only one I hadnt seen was Marina. The effect on fans in my mind is probably greater than it was for us. Were in a group text; were in each others lives. I mean, there was humor. We were sort of, Okay, were back at the Observation Lounge! How are they going to do these shots? Because in the TNG olden days, it would be a whole day in the observation lounge for everyones close-up. So it was done in a different way.

Paramount+ What else was different?

The cameras were so fantastic. The lenses were so much sharper. The sound was better. You really notice that its been quite a while, 20 years or so 35 years since we shot the first one. Because I couldnt make a sound like this. [Drops a pen.] Wed have to reshoot the whole scene before, or Id have to loop the whole scene. Now, you could make some noise. And I mean, technology has really been rockin it for cameras.

Whats your sharpest memory of being together on set with the cast?

I remember the day Michael Dorn came in and I was shooting that first scene on the Elios. And I was having so much fun because it was an action scene, which I love. I love anything with movement. And then Michael walks on. We had seen each other. We talk to each other all the time. But we both just hugged each other and were like, This is so cool! Thats the one I remember the most, because he was the first one I actually saw. And then there was this moment when Patrick, Jonathan and me were on the bridge of the Titan. And we were like wow, we are all in uniform and doing this. I mean Patrick had been doing this, but for Jonathan and me, it was special. It was really special. And then, of course, when everybody came on. I love these people. Theyre terrific actors. But people forget it was during COVID. So we always had our masks on, and because the sound was so good, we couldnt talk. We didnt have our own little trailers outside where we used to cause havoc. We were much more behaved.

LeVar Burton and Brent Spiner told me the same thing, that youre older and more mature now.

I think thats definitely true, but Im not sure that given the right circumstances, we wouldnt still be singing on a set or whatever. There was one moment where we went crazy with it. But poor Terry had a lot to shoot in a limited time, and I think we were all aware of that. So maybe narcissistically we were more well behaved because we wanted it to be good. We wanted the first one to be good. Thats silly to say. But we had much longer hours. So I think after youve shot for 14 hours, you start to get incredibly silly.

So when did you learn that the Enterprise-D was going to be resurrected?

I think pretty early on. That was amazing. It was a huge visceral difference. The Titan was an intimidating bridge. Even the Gates part of it that was like, Wow, if I were on this bridge, I wouldnt know how to work all those machines. Whereas on the Enterprise bridge, I was like, Oh, yeah, I can do it all. I know how to drive it.

It was interesting to see the difference in the lighting, for example. The original TNG bridge is like a living room. My little boy, he was learning how to walk on that bridge. He was going up and down and into the ready room and looking at the fish and the spaceship model. It really was this homey feeling. And it also seems really small compared to the technology and the size and the scope of the Titan.

How closely did they recreate the original TNG bridge?

[Whispers] Very. Very. Amazing. They had the same stuff, things that youd be reading that would be from the show. [TNG graphic designer] Michael Okuda helped them with all those little details. Hes such a genius. He and his wife Denise just figured all of those things out.

Did you see it for the first time the day you shot?

I had seen it before. I went over. I wanted to see it.

As youve said, the TNG cast has been close for a long time, but what was it like to be on that set together for the first time since 1994s Star Trek: Generations?

It just felt like home. You knew where to go, what to hold, where to run for this control and that control. I think its for the fans almost more exciting in a sense, because theyre seeing the whole. When I see it in the context of the episode, its powerful. When youre acting it in the space, I had seen it before. It was just like going to a museum and seeing it. It was just lovely. I think thats all I can say, you know. We had all the shots to fit in. But it wasnt like, you know, we all burst into tears. What Terry and the editors have done is pretty great. Its really dramatic and powerful.

Did you like where you were standing?

In the first series, I would sit down, either next to Rikers seat or on one of those two sides. But it was great fun to be up there in the Worf spot. Worf and I up there brought out my inner Klingon.

Terrys made no secret that he would love to continue this storyline on a new show that he wants to call Star Trek: Legacy. Would you want to continue playing Crusher?

If she was as three dimensional as she was really becoming in this one? Absolutely. And, as I said, I trust Terry. Ill play a Klingon for Terry. I mean, hes really a wonderful, wonderful producer and writer, storyteller. And I love good storytellers. I built a theater in L.A., and we did only new work. I think people who can tell a story, Ill be the first one to jump on board to help out. I hope it does. I think he would do a tremendous job. And I would love to be involved in some way.

This interview has been edited and condensed.