Terry Matalas Answers to the Big 3 Questions:

OK, some quick questions about some characters who were missing. Why didn’t Jean-Luc reconnect with Laris at the end of the season? Was that to leave the door open for him and Beverly?

Two things: The first answer is time and money. At that point, Orla Brady [who plays Laris] had returned to Ireland and was no longer stateside. So we couldn’t really wrap that up. It would have been amazing to see her again mid-season, to come in and help out. The second reason is I think none of us were really sure exactly where Jean-Luc would end up. I think that included Patrick. And the season wasn’t really about that. It wasn’t a particularly romantic season for any of the characters, whether that was for Jean-Luc and Beverly, or for Seven and Raffi, or for Jack and Sidney, or the Rikers. So we deliberately left it open for the audience to decide, and if we are coming back, we can dig into it.

What about Wesley Crusher? We know he’s zipping through the universe somewhere as a Traveler, and it seemed like Beverly already considered him a lost son.

We definitely would have loved nothing more for Wesley to return again. It’s one of those things where he has a lot of omniscient power that would have helped them if he turned up too early. So if he were to have turned up, we would have had him turn up very, very late. So a tricky character to drop in.

And what about Guinan? We kind of expected to see Whoopi Goldberg in the bar at the end there.

Again, I’d love nothing more than to have the time and money. Whoopi lives on the East Coast, and to get her to leave her amazing show The View to get out here in time to shoot is no easy feat.