‘Star Trek: Picard’: For Patrick Stewart, LeVar Burton and the old ‘Next Generation’ crew, together again means a chance to break new ground

For those of you fanboying and girling over the fact that the new season of “Star Trek: Picard” features most of the major characters from “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Todd Stashwick and Michelle Hurd can relate. And God bless Terry Matalas.”It’s not that the “Next Generation” cast hadn’t seen each other for 20 years. But “Picard” presented a chance to not just revisit characters they loved but to do so in newly satisfying ways. “I felt it with Kirk (in the original ‘Star Trek’), with Bill (Shatner) and with Jimmy Doohan and with DeForest Kelley, with Nichelle (Nichols). They were ‘Star Trek.’ And now, 35 years later, we’ve become those icons.