NYCC 2022: Lore And Moriarty Are Back In ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 3
by Tom Smithyman
Fan-favorite villains Lore and Moriarty will return as villains in the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard.
The cast and crew of the Paramount+ series revealed the big news during a special presentation at New York Comic Con, which featured the entire Star Trek: The Next Generation cast.
Professor James Moriarty, originally the nemesis of Sherlock Holmes, was created during a holodeck malfunction during Next Gen’s run. The original actor, Daniel Davis, is back to play the baddie.
“Moriarty being back again is both entertaining and threatening,” said Patrick Stewart, who plays the show’s namesake, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard.
Data’s brother Lore, played by Brent Spiner, also shows up to wreak havoc. Spiner though, was tight-lipped about the circumstance of Lore’s return.
“What else can I tell you?” Spiner asked. “Really nothing.”
“We signed so many NDAs [non-disclosure agreements], we feel like one of Trump’s mistresses,” quipped Marina Sirtis, who reprises her role as Deanna Troi.
Trek newcomer Amanda Plummer – daughter of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country’s Christopher Plummer – rounds out the evil-doers for the season as a new character called Vadic. She is billed as a sympathetic villain who has cause for seeking vengeance against Picard and the Federation.
With the Next Generation cast as a backdrop, executive producer Alex Kurtzman announced that the season would play out like the last movie for this cast. Presenting it as 10 one-hour segments vs. a two-hour movie means that each character gets to close out his or her arc in the right way.
Earlier in the panel, Trek fans were treated to a teaser trailer of Star Trek: Discovery upcoming fifth season. The team promised a mystery, an adventure, and a deeper exploration of the characters and what drives them.
Sonequa Martin-Green, who plays Captain Michael Burnham said the season pits duty versus relationships.
“Am I going to stand for what I stand for even if it’s going to cost me?” asked Martin-Green from the set of Discovery, where she is still shooting the new season. “Because that’s the cost of being a true hero.”
Similarly, some of the cast and crew of the animated Star Trek: Prodigy showcased a teaser for the second half of its initial season. It showed the Borg as well as Janeway coming into conflict with her hologram on the series ship, the USS Protostar.
Kate Mulgrew, who plays Admiral Kathryn Janeway, said the show targets kids, a demographic that the franchise has largely overlooked over the decades.
The creative team promised that viewers would also see Klingons, Romulans, and the return of The Next Generation’s Edward Jellico (Ronny Cox), now an admiral and Janeway’s boss.
When asked if fans will see a live-action return of Janeway, Hurtzman paused.
“We’re waiting,” Mulgrew said.
“Things have been talked about. That’s all I’m going to say,” Kurtzman said. “I think it would be an incredible thing to do.”
“But we’d like to bring her back while she’s still ambulatory,” Mulgrew joked.
