If there were an eight season of the highly acclaimed science fiction drama series Star Trek The Next Generation, what stories would there have been, what awaited the beloved characters, and where were the writers looking to boldly go with the unfolding space saga next?
Some tantalising clues are offered up in the season 3 Star Trek The Next Generation Blu-ray box set, where in the "Insider the writers' room" extra, where Seth MacFarlane asked some of the Trek writers just that.
"We started laying pipes for if there were a season eight. Picard's cloned son was back," said writer Naren Shankar.
"We had started talk about more stuff to do with Troi, with Gates [McFadden, dr Beverly Crusher]," said Naren Shankar.
"I miss the characters," said writer Ron Moore. "We can get together once in a while. You can see the actors every once in a while. I don't get to sit in a room anymore and talk about Picard. I don't get to sit and talk about Worf and his backstory."
"When you're spending that much time with those characters they really are like people. You have this very intimate relationship with them, and their loves, and their fears, and their history. And I miss that. I miss sitting there and talking about who's Picard? What's his dream? What's he afraid of? How does Troi see him?"
"You kind of put yourself on the bridge and your there with them. And I miss that."
"Part of what you get at the end with the series finale is the sense that the ship is still going," said Naren Shankar. "And that's a nice place to leave a show. And we were all very happy with that at the end."
"Everybody misses that show ..." said Seth MacFarlane, "... in a landscape dominated by Hunger Games dystopia."
