I'm not sure if E1 or E10 is the better place for this, so I just chose the finale. I had a chance to meet John de Lancie last night. It was a very small group event, I think about 25 people, and we spent about an hour and a half with John. He took questions, told stories about his work in and out of Star Trek. I have to say, John seems like an incredible guy, very down to earth--I haven't met a lot of celebrities but I would say this was the most enjoyable celebrity meet and greet experience I've ever had. If you ever have a chance to meet him or just see him speak, do it.
But that's not what I dove into a Picard thread to talk about. John was very complementary about everyone he's worked with, but you could read between the lines on some of his comments about how some people may have been more difficult than others. He started talking about Picard S2 by essentially saying "It's not my job to rewrite scenes--I need to bring flavor, not change the content...but..." and then talked about how he had to discuss a lot of his work in Picard with Akiva Goldsman. There were lines he had issues with, but it was more the flow. He said Akiva's goal was "keep the audience confused", and he spoke out about that. He said that if you just throw curve balls at this audience, without explaining why, you'd lose them.
He also shared that we should all look forward to season 3, because Terry Matalas is taking over as show running, and "Terry is actually a Star Trek fan, where the previous guy isn't." When someone asked John if he was showing up in Season 3, he changed the subject (but I don't actually expect him to; John just knows how to keep the audience engaged and taking the chance to imply he may show up is a great way to do that).
trekmovie.com
