With Picard wrapping up its debut season last week, Star Trek fans are feeling a bit bereft. So, a virtual reunion of the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation is just the thing we needed to perk ourselves up. Today (March 30th) is the birthday of Deann Troi star Marina Sirtis and to celebrate, she had a quarantine party with her old co-stars. The actress shared a screenshot of her laptop screen on social media, revealing an eight-way conversation with Starfleet’s finest.
As you can see below, from top left to bottom right, we have Sir Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), LeVar Burton (Geordi LaForge), Michael Dorn (Worf), Jonathan Frakes (William Riker), Will Wheaton (Wesley Crusher), Brent Spiner (Data), Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher) and Sirtis herself.
“I have the best friends in the world,” Sirtis wrote in her caption on Twitter. “Considering everything, this was the best birthday present. #TNGRules.”
Of these eight, half of them appeared in Picard season 1. Sirtis and on-screen husband Frakes returned for episode 7, “Nepethe,” which explored what’s happened to the couple since 2002’s Nemesis. Riker then returned to help Picard save the day in the finale. Spiner, meanwhile, appeared throughout the show, culminating in his dual role in the last two episodes as the virtual ghost of Data and Dr. Altan Inigo Soong, the son of the android’s creator. Wheaton, meanwhile, hosts aftershow The Ready Room, but has yet to appear in the series itself.
Burton has said he remains hopeful that all of the cast will eventually reprise their roles on the show, and he’s probably right. It wouldn’t have made sense to shove all the classic characters into one season when there are plans for it to run for three years. Similar to what the Star Wars sequel trilogy did, we’ll likely meet all of them again over time.
For now, though, this Star Trek: The Next Generation quarantine party is just what we needed. Happy birthday, Marina Sirtis!
