Star Trek: Picard season 2: story, trailers, release date and everything we know

The stardate for Star Trek: Picard season 2 is March 2022

Star Trek Picard

Star Trek: Picard season 2 release date

Star trek: picard season 2 trailers, star trek: picard season 2 plot, star trek: picard season 2 cast.

Star Trek : Picard season 2 has a stardate! The ongoing mission of Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (retired) will resume on Paramount Plus in March 2022.

Jean-Luc will be joined on his sophomore voyages by some familiar faces from The Next Generation era – both friends and foes.

Most excitingly, John de Lancie is back to cause trouble as the omnipotent Q, but we’ll also see returns for the Borg Queen (now played by Annie Wersching) and Whoopi Goldberg’s Guinan. Brent Spiner, best known for playing android officer Data, is also back in a new, but as-yet-unidentified, role.

The Star Trek: Picard season 2 plot is set to take the former captain of the USS Enterprise-D where he’s never gone before – our present. He’ll travel back to 2024 to fix a 24th century that’s turned into a “totalitarian nightmare”, and he’s taking Cris Rios, Agnes Jurati, Seven of Nine and the rest of the newly assembled crew of La Sirena along for the ride.

With Picard’s latest adventure approaching Paramount Plus at something close to warp speed, we’ve analyzed Starfleet’s databanks to tell you everything you need to know about Star Trek: Picard season 2.

As a certain former Enterprise captain was so fond of saying: engage!

Spoilers lie ahead if you're yet to watch Star Trek: Picard season 1 . 

Release date: Star Trek: Picard season 2 will debut for US viewers on Thursday March 3, 2022. It'll stream on Paramount Plus in the US and Amazon Prime Video in other territories.

Story: Jean-Luc Picard and the ragtag crew of La Sirena travel back in time to the 21st century to fix the timeline – with a bit of help/hindrance (depending on your point of view) from the god-like Q, Guinan and a Borg Queen.

Is there a trailer? A new Star Trek: Picard season 2 promo was unveiled in January 2022, in addition to the trailer that launched at September 2021's virtual Star Trek Day event, and two earlier teasers.

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Star Trek: Picard season 2 release date: March 2022

Star Trek: Picard season 2 was originally supposed to go before the cameras in June 2020 – just a couple of months after the first season ended – until Covid-19 put everything on hiatus. Production on the 10-episode run eventually got under way in California in February 2021. 

That delay means we'll have to wait a little longer than we'd originally hoped to see Jean-Luc back in the captain's chair, but our patience will soon pay off.

Star Trek.com confirmed in January 2022 that the Star Trek: Picard season 2 release date is Thursday March 3, 2022 . New instalments of the 10-episode run will be available on Paramount Plus every week and – as with season 1 – the show will stream on Amazon Prime Video the following day.

This is slightly later than the February 2022 launch date announced at September's Star Trek Day event. The tiny hold-up means Picard's second season will overlap for a few weeks with Star Trek: Discovery season 4 , which returns from a brief hiatus on February 10. 

This is undoubtedly good news for Trek fans, however – this brief double hit of boldly going harks back to the glory days of the 1990s, when The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager ruled the stars.

Star Trek: Picard season 2 trailers: see Guinan and Brent Spiner’s latest Trek role 

The first teaser for Star Trek: Picard season 2 was released during the First Contact Day event in April 2021. Alongside numerous Next Generation Easter eggs (including a model of Picard's first starship command, the USS Stargazer) the major reveal was that John de Lancie will be reprising his role as omnipotent superbeing Q. 

"The trial never ends..." So excited to announce that I will be returning to visit my dear old friend Jean-Luc Picard in season 2 of Picard! @StarTrekOnPPlus @paramountplus @CTVSciFi @primevideouk @SirPatStew #StarTrekPicard #StarTrek pic.twitter.com/DOeBT8NkUW April 5, 2021

A more full-featured trailer featuring Stewart, de Lancie and other members of the cast was released on June 16, 2021. It doesn't give much away about the plot, other than suggesting that Picard and company are trying to stop a dark future from coming to pass. 

Time has been broken. #StarTrekPicard season two, coming 2022 💫 #StarTrek pic.twitter.com/OjqarMnFBr June 16, 2021

We learned even more about Star Trek: Picard season 2 in the longer trailer unveiled at Star Trek Day – including a sighting of the Borg Queen...

And Paramount Plus have continued to spoil us, bringing out yet another trailer in January 2022. This one sees Whoopi Goldberg reprising her Next Generation role as Guinan – her request for “some tea, Earl Grey, piping hot” suggests she hasn't forgotten Picard's beverage of choice – and former TNG regular Brent Spiner playing a new character who looks a lot like an older version of Data. The question is, why is he talking with professional trickster Q? 

Star Trek: Picard season 2 plot: Jean-Luc's new mission involves traveling back to 2024

Red alert! Big spoilers for Star Trek: Picard season 1 follow – change course now if you haven’t seen it yet.

Jean-Luc Picard will be a new man in Star Trek – literally. When Picard’s human body succumbed to terminal Irumodic Syndrome, his consciousness was transferred into to an artificial ‘golem’ body created by Dr Altan Soong, the biological son of Data’s ‘father’, cybernetics genius Dr Noonian Soong. Although Soong Jr made it clear that the new body is effectively identical to the old one – it will still age and die, for example – it’s going to have an effect on the way the 90-something character approaches his life. 

“I wanted to know exactly what they had done to me when they saved [Picard]’s life,” Patrick Stewart said in an interview with Gold Derby . “Was there any chance that this might have an impact on Picard’s personality or behaviour? [Executive producers Terry Matalas and Akiva Goldsman] felt it probably wouldn’t, but it lies there as an option should we need to take it. But also there is another human aspect being introduced in season 2, which I am not allowed to talk about. But it’s going to have, I think, quite an impact.”

With the first year’s main story arcs about a the Romulan Zhat Vash’s efforts to wipe out all Synthetic life and the reclaimed Borg Cube (now crash-landed on the Synthetic homeworld of Coppelius) now seemingly done and dusted, Star Trek: Picard season 2 is primed to seek out all-new worlds – and civilisations.

“Despite 178 episodes of TNG [The Next Generation] and four feature films, there are events coming up in season 2 that have never been seen before,” Stewart teased at First Contact Day.

It’s clear that not everything will be new, however, now that we know Q is back in Jean-Luc Picard’s orbit. A member of the omnipotent Q continuum , the mischievous character cropped up regularly in The Next Generation (and spin-off shows Deep Space Nine and Voyager) to make life as awkward as he could for Starfleet. He always took a particular interest in Picard, having put humanity on trial in TNG pilot ‘Encounter at Farpoint’ – an arc that was only partially resolved in series finale ‘All Good Things’. 

It looks like Q will be continuing his self-convened legal proceedings in Star Trek: Picard season 2. “Do you recall what I said, Jean-Luc, when last we parted ways?” Q asks Picard in the latest season 2 trailer. “The trial never ends.” Not only do we learn that Picard and Q haven't met in the more-than-two-decades since Jean-Luc's days on the Enterprise-D, we know that the former Starfleet officer is “way too old for [Q’s] bulls**t.”

“Q's arrival is, as it often was, is unexpected,” said Stewart. “But it also comes at a shattering moment in the episode. And I do mean a shattering moment. Whether it's directly connected to Q or not, I'm not sure, but there is significant trauma. And in fact at the moment, I'm working on how the trauma of this moment hangs around Picard for quite a substantial part of the episode and then – there [Q] is.”

“In the same way that we have tried to do with Picard himself, Terry Matalas and I don’t pretend that the interstitial years [between The Next Generation and Picard] didn’t happen,” executive producer Akiva Goldsman told the Hollywood Reporter . “Obviously, chronological time is less relevant to Q. But we definitely chose to follow suit when it came to him, so as we tried to evolve the other characters, the same is true of Q. This is a show of a different time with actors of a different age. We’re now talking about the issues that come up in the last [stage] of your life. We wanted a Q that could play in that arena with Picard.”

Goldsman also described Q as a “trickster god” and expanded on the importance of Picard’s relationship with Q. “There’s a lot of discussion in [Star Trek: Picard] season 2 about the nature of connectedness,” he said. “Q’s kind of a great lightning rod for that because in some ways he’s one of Picard’s deepest… not deep in the same way that Riker is or Beverly Crusher was but in its own [way, a] uniquely, profoundly deep relationship.”

Picard's relationship with Q may be deep, but it's also problematic. In the Star Trek: Picard season 2 trailer that debuted in September 2021, Jean-Luc says that "Q went back in time and turned our world into a totalitarian nightmare,” amid scenes of a drastically changed 24th century. Seven of Nine – now without the residual Borg implants on her face – points out that “time has been broken”. Picard adds that, “The only way to heal our future is to go back and repair the past.”

This means a trip back to 2024, where Picard and his newly formed crew will have “three days before the future is changed irrevocably” – and Seven of Nine will have to take a crash course in driving a car. 

Perhaps the biggest surprise unveiled in the Star Trek: Picard season 2 trailers is that Jean-Luc's route back to the 21st century involves the Borg Queen – though it's yet to be revealed whether this is the Borg Queen from Star Trek: First Contact, the one presumed dead after Voyager's return from the Delta Quadrant, or some other incarnation. It could just be that we're guilty of thinking in [merely] three-dimensional terms...

Whichever Borg Queen it is, time travel is familiar territory for Star Trek, the most famous examples coming in Star Trek 4 (where Kirk and crew travelled back to 1980s San Francisco) and First Contact (where Picard fought the Borg in 2063). Expect plenty of culture clash comedy/drama as Jean-Luc and his highly sophisticated 24th century companions get used to slumming it present-day Earth.

One major difference between Star Trek: Picard season 2 and its first year is that this time Jean-Luc – now long-retired from Starfleet – has his own crew. We probably shouldn't be surprised, then, if the new season feels more of an ensemble show, with more time devoted to Cris Rios, Raffi Musiker, Soji Asha, Dr Agnes Jurati, Elnor and Seven of Nine. Integrating all of them – and new characters – into the narrative will be one of the new season’s hardest missions.

“It has to be focused on Picard but have room for all the other characters,” season 1 showrunner Michael Chabon told the Hollywood Reporter . It’s never going to be just a show about the crew of a starship that's part of Starfleet and everyone's wearing uniforms and they're flying around, encountering alien life and weird planets. Those are the challenges we face going into season 2, and I'm so excited about the story we’ve come up with.”

And for any viewers who were left underwhelmed by the season 1 finale, the production team have hopefully found a solution going into Star Trek: Picard season 2. 

“Figure out the end earlier!” Goldsman said when the Hollywood Reporter asked what the team had learned from their first year. “If you’re going to do a serialized show, you have the whole story before you start shooting. It’s more like a movie in that way – you better know the end of your third act before you start filming your first scene.” 

Surely that's good advice for every screenwriter.

Star Trek: Picard episode 1 recap Star Trek: Picard episode 2 recap Star Trek: Picard episode 3 recap Star Trek: Picard episode 4 recap Star Trek: Picard episode 5 recap Star Trek: Picard episode 6 recap Star Trek: Picard episode 7 recap Star Trek: Picard episode 8 recap Star Trek: Picard episode 9 recap Star Trek: Picard episode 10 recap

Star Trek: Picard season 2 cast: Q, Guinan, the Borg Queen and other returning characters

This is the crew manifest for Star Trek: Picard season 2 as it stands:

  • Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard
  • Alison Pill as Dr Agnes Jurati
  • Isa Briones as Soji Asha
  • Michelle Hurd as Raffi Musiker
  • Santiago Cabrera as Cris Rios
  • Evan Evagora as Elnor
  • Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine
  • John de Lancie as Q
  • Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan
  • Annie Wersching as the Borg Queen
  • Brent Spiner as a new member of the Soong dynasty

The show was always built around the star power of Sir Patrick Stewart, and we don't expect that to change second time out. He’ll be joined in the Star Trek: Picard season 2 cast by his regular La Sirena crew: Michelle Hurd (Raffi Musiker), Santiago Cabrera (Cris Rios), Evan Evagora (Elnor), Alison Pill (Dr Agnes Jurati), and Isa Briones (Soji Asha). Star Trek: Voyager veteran Jeri Ryan will also be back as former Borg Seven of Nine.

It was confirmed at September's Star Trek Day that Seven will come face-to-face with another former member of the Collective, as the trailer introduced the latest iteration of the Borg Queen. Annie Wersching (Tess in the The Last of Us videogame) takes over the role from Alice Krige (Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Voyager) and Susanna Thompson (Star Trek: Voyager).

In addition to the returning John de Lancie as Q, there are some other The Next Generation veterans heading back to the Final Frontier.

The first is Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan. 

Stewart formally invited his former co-star to join the Star Trek: Picard season 2 cast during an appearance on Goldberg’s US TV show, The View . “It was wonderful having you, and we cannot wait to have you with us again one more time," said Stewart.

.@SirPatStew officially invites @WhoopiGoldberg to join season two of #StarTrekPicard: “It was wonderful having you, and we cannot wait to have you with us again one more time.” https://t.co/f8u2wbJuik #StarTrek pic.twitter.com/mxOtyJxF63 January 22, 2020

Officially the bartender in Ten Forward, the Enterprise-D’s bar/relaxation area, Guinan (a centuries-old El-Aurian) was Picard’s confidante. She also had little time for Q, so it’ll be intriguing if they end up colliding with each other in the new season.

And although Brent Spiner said he'd played the android Data for the last time in Star Trek: Picard's first season – “I wouldn't really entertain the idea of doing [Data, an ageless character] again because I just don't think it would be realistic,” he told TV Guide – he is back in season 2. So who's he playing?

“I can tell you I'm not Data,” Spiner told Inverse . “I know they haven't revealed much about me being in the show. I can tell you I'm a member of the Soong family. And, that I'm not playing a character I've ever played before.” 

In the words of Data himself, this is "most intriguing". 

Alongside his most famous role as the Enterprise's resident artificial human, Spiner has also played Data's android ‘brothers’ Lore and B-4 – as well as their creator, Dr Noonian Soong and his 22nd century ancestor, Arik Soong. He also appeared in Star Trek: Picard season 1 as a new member of the family (and AI expert), Dr Altan Inigo Soong. 

So who is this mysterious new character? We're ruling out a new model android, because if Spiner's too old to play Data, he's too old to play another robot. But could the character be Altan's human brother in the Picard era, a new person in the new, alternative, dystopian 24th century, or a great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent (approx) living in the 21st century? The latest trailer certainly suggests the latter and – seeing as both Picard and Soji (one of Data's daughters) have connections to Data – they'd surely have an interest in meeting an ancestor.

As for the rest of the Next Generation crew, the one star certain to return is Jonathan Frakes – though not necessarily on screen. He confirmed to TrekMovie that he’s back to direct a pair of Star Trek: Picard season 2 episodes, but claimed that he wasn’t sure whether he’d be back on screen as Captain William Riker after his memorable appearances in the debut season. 

The time travel element of the story may make make bringing the Next Generation cast harder this time out, but if Riker does return, it’s a safe bet Marina Sirtis will be back as his screen wife, Deanna Troi.

But what about Worf, Geordi LaForge and Dr Crusher?

Thanks to the amount of time the role requires in the make-up chair, Michael Dorn said he’d only be up for returning as the Federation’s resident Klingon, Worf, if it was really worthwhile.

“I’m only interested in if it’s something really interesting,” he told Inverse . “If the character was a major part of the franchise or whatever the show is. He’s not just going to show up, beat somebody up, and then go home.”

While Worf’s status is ambiguous, two cast members have seemingly ruled themselves out of a return.

In April 2021, LeVar Burton told Whoopi Goldberg on The View (via TrekMovie ) that, “I can say unequivocally that I am not doing season 2 of Picard” – though it’s important to add that he hasn’t ruled out an appearance as Geordi La Forge in a future season.

And there’ll be no return (yet) for Gates McFadden – which means that Star Trek: Picard season 2 won’t be able to explore the status of Jean-Luc’s will they/won’t they relationship with Dr Beverly Crusher.

“I’m not in the second season,” she told TrekMovie . “I’m sad that I’m not. I’m disappointed because it would have been so much fun to just work with those people. But we’ll see. I have no idea…”

But don’t give up hope just yet, because this could be a clever deployment of smoke and mirrors. Marina Sirtis claimed she wasn’t going to be in the first season of the show and look what happened there…

Star Trek: Picard season 3 has also been confirmd

Star Trek: Picard season 2 won't be the end of Jean-Luc's story – the show's Star Trek Day panel confirmed that a third season has been given the greenlight by Paramount Plus.

StarTrek.com confirmed in January 2022 that season 3 is currently in production, and it's likely to be the show's last. "The plan was always three,” co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman told TrekMovie .

Star Trek: Picard season 2 showrunner: there's a change at the helm

According to an interview in Variety , Michael Chabon won't be as heavily involved in season 2 of Star Trek: Picard as he was in the first. While he's shifted much of his attention to a Showtime series based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, however, he will continue to give notes to the writers. 

"I’m still an executive producer on Picard," he said. "I’m writing two episodes. I was there breaking the second season, all the way through. I was engaged, I think, to exactly the same degree as I was on the first season."

Terry Matalas, a veteran of Twelve Monkeys and MacGyver will take over as the Star Trek: Picard season 2 co-showrunner, alongside the returning Akiva Goldsman.

Star Trek: Picard will be available to watch from February 2022, on Paramount Plus in the US and Amazon Prime Video in the rest of the world.

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Season 2 – Star Trek: Picard

Where to watch, star trek: picard — season 2.

Watch Star Trek: Picard — Season 2 with a subscription on Paramount Plus, or buy it on Vudu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

Picard gets some backup from franchise fan favorites in a sophomore season that charts a course towards recapturing more of the classical Star Trek spirit and makes it so.

Cast & Crew

Patrick Stewart

Jean-Luc Picard

Isa Briones

Alison Pill

Agnes Jurati

Santiago Cabrera

Cristobal "Chris" Rios

Michelle Hurd

Raffi Musiker

Evan Evagora

Popular TV on Streaming

Tv news & guides, this show is featured in the following articles., critics reviews, audience reviews, season info.

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Premiere Review - 'The Star Gazer'

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Full spoilers follow for Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 1, “The Star Gazer,” which is now streaming on Paramount+.

It’s been almost two years since we last saw Jean-Luc Picard, thanks of course to pandemic-necessitated production delays. But if this debut episode of Star Trek: Picard’s second season is any indication, in that time, the writers and producers behind the iconic Patrick Stewart character’s return have figured out a few things. Whereas Picard Season 1 was an erratic and ultimately disappointing affair, Season 2 of old Jean-Luc’s adventures appears to be righting many of the missteps of its past.

Right out of the (star) gate, this season’s showrunners, Akiva Goldsman and Terry Matalas, handwave away several of S1’s more distracting and crippling conceits. Picard’s ragtag crew of non-Starfleeters? Three of them – Michelle Hurd’s Raffi, Santiago Cabrera’s Rios, and Evan Evagora’s Elnor – are in, or back in, Starfleet now, while Alison Pill’s Agnes and Isa Briones' Soji are working with Starfleet. Picard’s new android body that saved him from death in Season 1’s finale? It barely gets alluded to, but don’t worry -- that is apparently not gonna be a thing this season either. Even opening the episode on a Starfleet ship feels different from this show’s previous mandate.

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Images

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Premiere - "The Star Gazer"

And then there’s Picard himself, who seems to be doing double duty on the vineyard these days and as Chancellor of Starfleet Academy. Yes, they even got Stewart to put on a uniform again for a couple of scenes. Most interesting, however, is the apparent budding romance between him and Orla Brady’s Laris, the Romulan expat who runs his home and whose husband has apparently bought the farm (vineyard?) between seasons in order to facilitate this new pairing.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Things kick off with a literal bang as we follow a group of Starfleeters into a firefight on the bridge of what we’ll later learn is the new and improved USS Stargazer. Before you know it, Picard activates the auto-destruct and the ship goes blammo. It’s an exciting way to jump-start the new season, even if it feels cribbed from the Next Gen classic “Cause and Effect” as we then join Jean-Luc 48 hours earlier, alive and well on the vineyard. That Irma Thomas’ cover of “Time Is on My Side” is playing -- on vinyl no less -- certainly gives that familiar scenario a different taste, to be sure, and one that is clearly telegraphing where this season is heading.

As Picard and Laris kick back that evening with a bottle to “celebrate” the day’s harvest -- “the end of the season,” Picard says -- the show practically admits that any misgivings we might’ve had about Season 1 were right. “That’s certainly one way of looking at it,” Laris coolly replies to Picard’s celebration comment. But subtext aside, “The Star Gazer” is about the choices Picard made in his life that led him to the classic solitary existence of a Starfleet captain, and Laris is pushing him to realize that it’s not too late for him to leave that lonely path behind. It’s not going to be easy for him.

The flashback that reveals to us the real reason why Picard sought the stars is perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the episode, and maybe it will be the most controversial for diehard Trekkies who are averse to retconning. But here it is all the same: Picard’s parents’ marriage was not perfect, and was perhaps even marred by violence of some kind, and Mama Picard taught little Jean-Luc to look towards the stars as an escape from the pain of those domestic disturbances. This new tidbit of information goes a long way towards explaining the cold, distanced Picard we first met in the early days of the Next Generation, the man who hadn’t gone home to see his brother in years. Why would he want to go back to that place, and those memories?

Jean-Luc can’t even bring himself to tell his old friend Guinan about that part of his personal history. Whoopi Goldberg picks up right where she left off as the wise bartender from the Enterprise, still working Ten Forward (only now that’s literally the address of her saloon in Los Angeles: 10 Forward Ave.). Seeing Stewart and Goldberg together again is great, and it’s telling that when Jean-Luc is feeling heartsick (even if it’s an android heart) he goes back to Guinan to drink some hooch and get some advice.

But the Borg are calling for Picard -- literally, as it turns out. And so most of the Picard Squad from last season are reunited at the site where a mysterious Borg ship has appeared. Its crew seemingly want to be friends, even while attacking Captain Rios’ Stargazer. As a strange, cloaked Borg emissary -- not quite a Queen, not quite a Borg -- beams onboard, we find ourselves right where we began the episode, with Picard being forced to order the self-destruct.

Only this time, he awakens back home, or rather in a distinctly different, apparently dystopian version of his home. (There’s no Orla here; that’s for sure.) And wouldn’t you know it? John de Lancie’s Q is waiting there for his old sparring partner. The question is, is it as friend or foe… or both?

Who's your favorite Star Trek captain?

Questions and Notes from the Q Continuum:

  • We’ve got a new opening credits scene this season, and it still doesn’t do much for me.
  • For those who are counting, it is now the year of our Great Bird 2401 (based on the date on the Chateau Picard crates). A.k.a., it’s the dawn of the 25th century.
  • Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) has taken command of La Sirena these days, once again using brawn over brain here. I hope Season 2 remembers that she's also capable of Spock-levels of technobabble.
  • Those bald aliens Soji is charming on Raritan IV are Deltans, who have barely been seen in Star Trek since Lt. Ilia showed up in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The status of this particular group’s oath of celibacy is up for debate however, based on the dude who was hitting on Agnes.
  • Lots of other Easter eggs here: A ship named the Hikaru Sulu; a new USS Grissom; the Kobayashi Maru test (this makes the… fourth mention of it on a Trek show in the past year); the Excelsior; the aforementioned Stargazer; Spock. I might’ve also spotted the Enterprise-E and a Galaxy Class ship…
  • Place your bets: What’s the over/under on the Borg “Queen” in this episode turning out to be Picard’s mother somehow?

The Season 2 premiere of Star Trek: Picard course-corrects many of the debut season’s mistakes while also bringing back several of the title character’s most iconic associations with the Borg, Q, Guinan, and even the Stargazer. That it is seemingly rehashing some elements but doing so in a new and interesting way, particularly in terms of delving into a previously unknown and dark aspect of Picard’s backstory, is a credit to the new direction of the show. The producers and writers seem intent on balancing the familiar tropes of Trek that fans love so while still sticking to the mission of doing something different with, and for, Patrick Stewart the actor. This is a good start in that regard, so let’s hope that they can maintain the course for the duration of the season.

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Premiere Review

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Analysis: Final ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 2 Trailer Reveals An Adventure In Timelines… And Guinan

star trek picard 2

| January 22, 2022 | By: TrekMovie Editors 82 comments so far

Just days after announcing the March 3rd premiere date for Star Trek: Picard season two, Paramount+ released the fourth (and likely last) trailer . They saved the best for last as this exciting, fast-paced promo is full of clues for what is coming along with revealing a number of nods to Trek lore. Combined with the previous trailers along with what has been said by the cast and crew, a clearer picture is starting to take shape, but there are also new mysteries being unveiled. So it is once again time for TrekMovie to do a trailer deep dive. The following analysis is based on our own observations along with previous reporting, as well as some educated speculation. And it contains potential spoilers .

Instead of presenting the trailer as it rolls, we are going to attempt to re-order it into our best guess as to the sequence of events in season two, which will involve multiple time and universe settings, so strap in…

Starting in Prime 2400

Season two likely starts off after some time has passed after season one, so we will assume it is the year 2400 in the Prime Universe. This may not be a major part of season two, but it serves as a starting point. We see evidence of this in the official photo released earlier this week featuring Jean-Luc Picard back in uniform (a new variant, with a new pin that is an homage to the movie era style) with Laris at his Chateau on Earth. It appears that Picard has rejoined Starfleet as an admiral.

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Picard and Laris at his Chateau (photo released earlier this week)

Laris advises Picard

The new trailer includes a moment between Picard and Laris at his Chateau, she tells him “you’ll have to let go,” possibly referring to some of his crew from season one, now that he is back in Starfleet.

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Seven in action

We also get a clue as to what the other characters are up to at the beginning of the season, and maybe why Laris is advising Picard to distance himself. There is one quick shot showing Seven of Nine (with her Borg implants) on a Starfleet ship pointing a phaser with Dr. Jurati behind her. It’s possible Seven has returned to her Fenris Ranger ways and is seeking some vengeance. Or maybe she is there to help Jurati, who may be in custody for killing Bruce Maddox in season one.

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An earlier shot shows Jurati in the same outfit looking startled, in front of a display showing her to be on a Starfleet ship.

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Alternate 2400

Much of the new trailer takes place in an alternate 2400, a much darker one described by Picard in a previous trailer as a “totalitarian nightmare” caused by Q going back in time.

Walled Earth

An establishing shot shows Earth surrounded by a hexagonal defensive grid.

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The camera zooms in to France, the location of Chateau Picard.

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Q arrives at the new chateau

Picard wakes up in this new reality, aware something has changed. He looks up at the dome of an atrium where you can see the grid pattern in the sky. In voiceover, we hear Q, “Well hello, my friend.”

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Picard, now in a different uniform, tours this alternative version of his Chateau in shock, which includes a portrait of a different and much more aggressive-looking USS Enterprise-D in battle against the Borg. He asks, “What is this? What have you done?”

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Q appears, telling Picard “welcome to the road not taken.”

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An angry god

Later Q is seen angrily snapping his finger, possibly to leave Picard on his own. Q could be angry due to Picard refusing a request. John de Lancie has recently stated in season two, Q has a “very strong internal motivation and a desire to get Picard to do something” and “a real sense that something’s got to get done.”

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Seven faces a new reality

Seven of Nine awakens in this new alternative universe, and now her Borg implants are gone. Here she is likely just Annika Hansen, having never been assimilated by the Borg.

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In voiceover, she asks, “Do you have any idea what has happened here?” and “Reality has been broken.,” as she inspects where her eye implant should be.

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Elnor on the run

Picard’s Qowat Milat guardian Elnor runs through a marketplace, under fire from guards on walkways. This could be some kind of Romulan refugee camp or ghetto for aliens in this fascistic timeline.

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Raffi can later be seen upset over a wounded Elnor.

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Rios back in uniform

Cristobal Rios finds himself on a slightly modified version of La Sirena, now in an alternative Starfleet uniform.

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Later in the trailer, a reverse shot shows La Sirena under attack from what may be a small Vulcan ship (note curved partial ring nacelles), which itself is being pursued by two ships of the same class as La Sirena. The Vulcans could be at war with this new Federation or this could be a renegade faction.

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Crew reunited… and fighting

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Later Rios fights one of the black uniform guys in the atrium at Picard’s chateau.

Picard goes to 10 Foreward

In voiceover Picard says, “There is a divergence” and “I know someone who could help us understand the change in time.” Picard looks up to see a sign reading “City of Greater Los Angeles” and the “Foreward Avenue Historic District,” explaining why in 2400 the area looks somewhat contemporary, although there are some futuristic touches, like some Cardassian structural elements behind Picard.

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Picard heads into the address marked 10, making it 10 Forward Ave, an obvious homage to the Ten Forward Bar on the USS Enterprise-D.

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Picard enters 10 Forward Avenue, where an Andorian can be seen at one of the tables.

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[ EASTER EGGS: The panels on the back wall match ones seen in Ten Forward, and the sign for Aranis Lager matches one from the McCoy bar scene in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock ]

Guidance from Guinan

Like Ten Forward, this 10 Forward is revealed to be run by Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) who immediately senses Jean-Luc has entered and orders up his signature beverage, “I’m going to need some tea. Earl Grey, piping hot.”

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Picard, who has described his relationship with Guinan as “more than friends, more than family” warmly embraces her.

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Presumedly, Picard is at this alternative 10 Forward to see Guinan because she is capable of sensing changes in timelines, as revealed in the TNG episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise.” Now seated for a drink, she tells him, “Your answers are not in the stars, and they never have been.”

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The trailer concludes with more of their conversation, with Guinan telling her old friend, “I believe you have one final frontier yet to come” as the pair toast.

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A plan takes shape

Picard is back on La Sirena with his crew, and in voiceover says “We are stronger, together.”

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He says to Jurati, “You must bring us home.”

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Escape time

Still in the alternate 2400, the plan is to go back in time, and the previous trailer indicated a big part of that plan was stealing a captive Borg Queen and plugging her into La Sirena. The Borg may have been defeated in this timeline, as indicated in the above painting at Picard’s chateau.

Prepping the ship for a Queen

Seven and Raffi work on La Sirena, possibly to prepare it for the Queen. Elnor stands guard.

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Escape from Earth

The new trailer shows La Sirena and the crew escaping from Earth while being pursued by the Alternate Starfleet.

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La Sirena is being pursed by what appears to be Alternate Starfleet versions of Steamrunner and Nova class ships.

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Onboard are Picard and his crew, with La Sirena’s engine now glowing green due to the Borg Queen being plugged in.

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La Sirena has to engage, resulting in exploding consoles and corridors on the pursuing ships.

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Slingshot around the sun

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PicardVision

The trailer actually starts with this time travel segment, with Picard in voiceover saying, “There are some moments that haunt us all our lives… moments upon which history turns.” We see Picard as time distorts…

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This segment includes a series of quick flashes that could be from the moment of time travel or just trailer editing. The flashes include…

A 21st century astronaut reaching for a floating pendant.

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Brent Spiner as yet another Soong .

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Someone holding a knife.

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Picard reaching out to Laris in a tender moment.

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… and finally, Annie Wersching as the Borg Queen

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Welcome (back) to Earth

And with all that, La Sirena exits the time vortex.

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After exiting the time vortex, La Sirena approaches Earth, no longer surrounded by a shield.

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This trailer finally gave us a date for the time travel as 2024. We presume this is before the moment of divergence for the alternate timeline, making this still the Prime timeline. It may be unrelated but according to Trek future history, World War III kicks off in 2026 and the first contact with Vulcans comes in 2063, during the post-war period. 2024 is also the same year Benjamin Sisko traveled back in time to San Francisco (around 400 miles north of Los Angeles) and participated in the Bell Riots .

Specifically, the gang is headed to Los Angeles, as made apparent through various contemporary establishing shots of the city.

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Revisiting 10 Forward

As we hear the Queen say “Earth, 2024” in voiceover, Picard beams to the same alley as 10 Forward with a few differences. He is now wearing a different outfit and the environment around the alley is even more contemporary. It’s possible there is a younger version of Guinan at this 10 Forward in 2024 Los Angeles. As an El-Aurian , Guinan is very long-lived and she met Picard on Earth in San Francisco in 1893 (TNG “ Time’s Arrow “).   [ UPDATE: The original version of this article placed this moment in the alternative 2400, but upon further analysis, it appears this is a different visit to the same location, albeit in a different time.]

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[ EASTER EGGS : Alley includes a Boxing poster homage to “City on the Edge of Forever” when Kirk and Spock traveled back in time to Earth]

The Queen’s warning

The Queen’s voiceover continues, giving us a hint at the team’s goal, saying, “A single change is vastly more dangerous than you realize.”

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The Vulcan and the child

The Queen’s warning is cut with shots of what may be at the heart of why they are back in time, showing what looks like a contemporary human boy in a dark forest encountering a Vulcan man who starts a mind meld.

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This could be the moment where the timelines diverged, potentially showing Vulcans on Earth earlier than 2063. It could also be a flashback to an earlier time and that boy could be an adult in the 21st century.

A connection to Picard?

However, the shot from the forest is immediately followed up with two quick shots of what appears to be another young boy and an adult Picard, all shown during the Queen’s warning about the dangers of making a “single change.”

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Q offers Soong the Blue Pill

Cut to Q in a contemporary setting offering a vial with blue liquid in it to the character played by Brent Spiner, who he (and director Jonathan Frakes) have described as another member of the Soong family .

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This Soong is seen later in the trailer inspecting a card with a curious design on it. The design could be in the shape of a Q. It’s possible that Q is passing himself off as a contemporary mortal human in the 21st century.

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The woman in the red dress

With more Queen voiceover saying “none of our tomorrows are guaranteed”, Dr. Jurati walks in the middle of a Los Angeles street in a red dress.

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Seven and Raffi: buddy cops

Seven drives a stolen police SUV, with Raffi at her side.

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[DETAIL: License plate is primarily nines with a seven and a two]

Sevenaffi rescue Rios

The stolen LAPD SUV is likely related to another moment with Seven and Raffi hijacking a prison bus. Raffi uses a device that sends out a pulse, possibly to stun the driver.

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Rios uses the opportunity to fight a guard wearing a Homeland Security uniform. He gets a little help from a fellow prisoner.

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Seven cuts Rios’ restraint as he says, “This is a very bumpy century… but I think I am getting the hang of it.”

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Someone finds the Queen

Possibly related to all the encounters with law enforcement, a contemporary police officer searches a dark (presumably landed) La Sirena, and he finds a Borg surprise.

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Later Jurati fends off the Queen, crawling around the ship, possibly freed after the encounter with the cop.

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And then there’s this guy

Amongst a series of quick cuts at the end of the trailer is a shot of Picard at a park in Los Angeles, and coming up behind him is a strange-looking guy with scraggly hair and white eyes. We really have no idea what’s going here.

star trek picard 2

Coming March 3

Picard season two arrives on March 3rd. It will be on Paramount+ in the United States, in Canada it will air on CTV Sci-Fi and stream on Crave, and for the rest of the world, it will be on Amazon Prime Video.

star trek picard 2

Keep up with the  Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com .

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Analysis: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 5 Trailer Reveals Puzzles, Clues And A Visit To [SPOILER]

Count me in as very curious.

Does Whoopi age? Maybe she really is El-Aurian.

I know you’re being kind… but Whoopi Goldberg looks a lot older than the last time she played Guinan. Whoopi’s great, don’t get me wrong, but she does look like the 66-year-old woman she is.

Wow. Guinan is back! I am eagerly waiting to watch Season 2. I feel the same excitement that I had when I was in college. Summer of 1990 I believe. Couldn’t wait three to four months to watch “The Best of Both Worlds II.” I have a feeling this season will be a LOT better!

Can’t believe we will have 5 shows this year! It is unreal. After so much waiting after JJ Abrahams movies. So much waiting for Discovery and so much waiting during the Pandemic, this year, this year we will finally be watching new Trek episodes pretty much every week! :D

It gives me so much joy to see Guinan and Picard together. Guinan, Whoppi, she is amazing. All the TNG episodes with her were very VERY good episodes.

(JJ Abrams) :D

It’s really feeling like the 90s again with so much Star Trek on. And even better, a lot of the characters from the 90s are back in the new shows too! It’s so much fun to see so many different shows in multiple centuries and all with their unique story lines happening.

And we still have one more new show, Strange New Worlds, to look forward to!

While I liked the Kelvin movies for what they were, it was agonizing to wait years between each movie with no other Star Trek in that time. But Star Trek on TV is always a much better deal because we get it every week! And now that’s literally every freaking week lol. Between last August when Lower Decks second season started all the way until Strange New World ends in July, we will have had 11 straight months of Star Trek and only 1 week off in that entire time. And Prodigy or Lower Decks will probably start again the week after SNW is done!

It’s a great time to be a fan! :)

It is basically the 90s again. 2009-2016 was like 1979-86 (minus one film due to the mega 4y ID gap). Then you have Disco starting in 2017 like TNG in 1987 then gradually add more series over the next 5years (only more so now). The only difference being there’s no movies now, aside the constant tease of a mythical shapeshifting ST4/XIV

When I first saw that “defensive grid” over earth I thought it was actually the grid that Q used to entrap Enterprise at the beginning of Encounter at Farpoint. Are we sure its really a defensive grid or is it Q grid?

If my memory serves me correctly, Q’s grid was a square pattern.

Call it a “visual upgrade” :))

The grid actually reminds of the defensive grid around Vashti, as seen in the 4th episode of Picard (Absolute Candor).

Candor? You mean the Kryptonian city shrunk by Brainiac and kept in a bottle at Superman’s Fortress of Solitude? Oh, wait……….

Could this Vulcan in the woods be the Vulvan that was left behind from the Carbon Creek Episode of Enterprise? They live about 200 years and he would have been left there in the 1950’s. Timelines match up and being that he was non human he might be living in the woods. Then again all he had to do was cover his ears and then he could just live in a city. He said he was gonig to go to one of the major cities – New York and LA? They seem to be loading the show up with Easter Eggs and wanting to tie up loose ends.

Cool idea, but the only thing I can think is Mestral was from an era in Vulcan history when mind melding wasn’t a common practice and highly taboo, I doubt that is what is going on here

Well, Mestral seemed willing to do a lot of things that other Vulcans would consider taboo. I doubt its him though. I don’t think they’re going to go with such an obscure reference. Besides, I always assumed that he found a cosmetic surgeon and told him that his ears were disfigured in a mechanical rice picker accident the first chance he got.

Wow, this was an amazing analysis and breakdown of the trailer! Thank you Trekmovie!

And it looks like we are in for an INSANE time travel story this season. I am SO excited now!!! Q is back! Guinan is back! The freaking Borg Queen is back! Totalitarian altered timeline. Vulcans are roaming around Earth in the present day. Borgified people hunting down the crew. Another Soong is involved. And finally the creepy guy behind Picard with the white eyes! There is SO much going on and the fun part is we have no clue what is going on! We’re only missing the tribbles to really shake things up! Oh and Romulans.

I don’t want to set myself up for disappointment but yeah I’m really intrigued now. This looks like it’s going to be a really fun and twisty story this season. And I realized we have at least two big time travel stories happening right now. Picard in season 2 and season 1 of Prodigy with the Protostar (apparently) being from the future and Captain Chakotay’s ship (who is somewhere lost in the past??). I just love Star Trek time travel stories and we have two very different versions of it happening now. I also love that the La Sirena is doing the sling shot around the sun time travel! They are going 23rd century old school! :)

I kind of thought after Discovery’s big time travel story jumping 900 years into the future, we would be done with them for awhile. But this is Star Trek, so nope! ;D

Tiger2, knowing how 12 Monkeys rolled, I’m wondering if we’re going to see more than one alternate timeline, with more than one attempt to fix time.

From what we’ve seen already in the trailers, it seems that the costume designers and their team have been given rein to up their game for this season, and the quality looks so much better than the workmanship of season one.

There are definitely production advantages in tweaking with costume changes and redressing sets vs vfx.

I honestly would hope so. I forgot a lot of the details of 12 Monkeys until I rewatched it a few months ago and you’re right, not only would they throw in multiple alternate timelines, they would also travel back to the same scenes at times and you saw them from different angles. Time travel stories are so tough to do in general but that show did it in every crazy way possible.

But since we’re only talking ten episodes (and Matalas said season 3 is a completely different story), they may not go too crazy with it either. It may just be a straight forward go to the past, change back that one thing that caused all the problems and go back home. That’s what most Star Trek time travel stories usually does. But this will be the first time we get an entire season of it and not just one episode or movie, so it could be much more layered. Maybe something in the middle?

I was thinking something in the middle myself.

10 hours gives plenty of opportunities for more convolutions in time than a single theatrical release like First Contact or a two part episodic story of the kinds we saw in TNG and Voyager.

It’s not going to get into the layering of a four season arc that 12 Monkeys achieved either.

What it does have that 12 Monkeys didn’t is an established canon of Prime timeline history for both the universe and the characters. So, it won’t have to carry the same world building load.

By the way, I’m assuming that the content in these trailers doesn’t go beyond the first third of the season. There’s lots of opportunities for further timey wimey twists beyond what’s already been shared.

Yeah these are all my thoughts too. It may go a little beyond just going to L.A. 2024, but so far that’s all the trailers have suggested. But maybe in the season itself they may jump a few other places in the timeline. That would be a lot more interesting of course.

Year of Hell kind of did that as we saw the timeline change multiple times but the ship itself never changed time periods either.

So like you I do hope we get something super twisty. That’s why I love time travel stories, you can be very creative with them and to give Trek credit, they have done their share of creative TT stories, including Prodigy in the last episode.

Happy New Year ;) Quite a lot to unpack from the trailer; the mods here have actually done a fantastic job with all the screenshots and analyis. I’m going to be careful about speculating too much because trailers can sometimes be deliberately misleading as a way of avoiding major spoilers (GoT trailers used that tactic very well, for example). But I’m thinking the kid in the forest scene with the Vulcan might be important to the changes in the timeline:

1. The scene happens in the late 20th or very early 21st century, and the kid grows up to be World War 3’s Colonel Green.

2. The scene happens in 2024, and the kid is Zefram Cochrane.

3. The scene happens in the early 24th century, and the kid is Picard.

That mind-meld may have had “unintended consequences”, with the cascading butterfly effect laying the foundation for the dark alternative future.

PS. Thanks for your message on the Q thread last week — I’m sorry I didn’t get the chance to reply before the weekend. I agree that PIC Season 2 does look very interesting; I’m cautiously excited about it too. Regarding the “other topic” we’ve been discussing — Yes do let me know your thoughts after you’ve finished watching all of it. Try to check out those articles and twitter feeds I mentioned too; there’s a lot more info there. Some helpful folks on Reddit have also summarised LE’s further interviews in recent months, where he went into further details of the possible explanations and the implications of it all.

I had also speculated whether the kid might be Cochrane but according to Memory Alpha he was born several years later. Apparently, he looked much older than he was supposed to be in First Contact.

Interesting. If they keep that as canon, I’m leaning even more towards the kid being the future Colonel Green or someone similar.

shots of what may be at the heart of why they are back in time, showing what looks like a contemporary human boy in a dark forest encountering a Vulcan man who starts a mind meld.

The “dark forest” scene may also be a reference to the “Dark Forest Theory” from the famous sci-fi novels, proposing why humans haven’t openly heard from aliens yet (notwithstanding the AATIP footage etc). The theory suggests that the galaxy is like a dark forest quietly stalked by hunters, where other civilisations have to behave like predators themselves (or at least remain silent) as a defensive tactic to prevent becoming prey.

The Vulcan in the scene may have transmitted the sheer dangerousness of the galaxy via the mind-meld, possibly as a warning; or possibly the kid was traumatised by the experience of encountering telepathic aliens in the middle of the night. Either way, since the kid is a critical historical figure, it sets humanity on a different path, eventually resulting in the fortified Earth and more militaristic Federation of the altered timeline, including a human race that may have behaved far more ruthlessly towards hostile alien species such as the Borg. For the sake of survival and self-preservation, humans have become one of the hunter species in the galactic dark forest.

I’m just throwing darts at the board here, of course, but this would make sense.

A bit more speculation, just following on from this:

When the kid grows up, he unites Earth against the perceived “threat from aliens”, and his attitudes are heavily skewed by his traumatic childhood experience. So in this timeline, there is no World War 3 and no global nuclear holocaust — but in terms of attitudes towards aliens, humanity becomes much more warlike and xenophobic. The totalitarianism is another legacy of the dictator this kid grows up to be.

The dilemma for Picard could be the question of how to rectify this, since in a way it’s a “no-win” scenario.

Happy New Year to you too Jai!

Yes, your number 3 theory that it’s Picard seems to be the one I seen the most online. And it would at least make more sense to the timeline in terms of the Vulcan’s presence there.

But it would be much more interesting if those were Vulcans in the 21st century. Cochrane or Green would be crazy if it was either one of them. I don’t know what how changing Cochrane would change the future much in terms of it being more militaristic though. We saw what his Mirror Universe version did on Enterprise and attacked the first contact Vulcans but I don’t think they would repeat something like that.

Green would seem the more obvious choice between the three seeing where the future goes and could follow his Nazi like ideology into the 24th century. But of course it could just be some new character altogether. It could even be the new Soong (I just thought of that as I typed it ;)).

As for our other discussion, yes definitely! As soon as I finish the last few episodes I’ll give you my thoughts. But it’s really good. And I looked up some of LE other interviews on Youtube in the past few months. So will be a lot to talk about when I finish!

But thanks for turning me on to this documentary. It’s been an eye opener to say the least.

For people keeping score at home. Picard is now just one trip behind Kirk for Captains who has time traveled to past Earth! But our crews have gotten around quite a bit!

Captain Kirk four times: 1. 1969 Omaha 2. 1930 New York 3. 1968 New York 4. 1986 San Francisco

Captain Picard three times:1. 1893 San Francisco 2. 2063 Bozeman 3. 2024 Los Angeles

Captain Sisko one time: 1. 2024 San Francisco

Captain Janeway one time: 1. 1996 Los Angeles

Captain Archer two times: 1. 2004 Detroit 2. 1944 New York

That’s a lot of Earth saving of the past! And apparently every major past Earth event they had to correct only happens in America for some reason. ;)

Discovery, Prodigy or Lower Decks haven’t time traveled to Earth’s past…yet. But give it, yeah, time!

I don’t know if Discovery or Prodigy will ever do that, but I will be shocked if Lower Decks never does a time traveling to contemporary earth episode.

It would be harder for Discovery to time travel now given it’s in a century where time travel is banned after the Temporal Wars….but don’t forget they also ran into Carl/Guardian of Forever last season and they could run into him again some day. ;)

As for Lower Decks, it’s kind of crazy they haven’t done a time travel story yet after two seasons. That show is all about reliving every crazy Trek trope out there. If ANYONE is traveling to Earth’s past it seem like it would definitely be that group. We have at least another two seasons for them to make it happen.

They should travel back to 1999 to the time of the Galaxy Quest convention.

Or at least have “Galaxy Quest: The New Adventures” playing on a TV in the background somewhere.

C’mon, all they need to do to save Earth in 1999 is stop the Moon from leaving orbit. Obviously, they succeed!

Wow, obscure reference on line 1! Martin Landau would be proud!

You could also include both Kirk and Picard as going to Earth in the Star Trek Generations movie. I assume the Nexus was Earth. Unless they build log cabins and have horses on some other planet?

It wasn’t really Earth. It was just an illusion.

Yep, time travel definitely occurred in that film as well.

Well no, because they didn’t time travel to Earth, they were simply in the Nexus that whole time. They did end up going back to Veridian III, so yes technically time travel was involved. But in terms of Earth, Legate Damar said it, it was just an illusion. They were never physically on the planet or anywhere near it. If Kirk imagined himself chopping wood on Vulcan then that’s where Picard would’ve found him. Not remotely the same thing.

They exited the Nexus long after it had left the planet–because they’d gone back in time.

Dude, I’m only talking about past Earth time travel stories! I don’t know how much more plainer I can make this lol. They time traveled back to Veridian III, not to Earth. And the Earth scenes were them just being in the Nexus. It’s an illusion of a place, not actual time travel.

I’m not just talking about time travel in general. There are over 50 time travel stories in Star Trek at the moment, so clearly I’m focusing on a narrow part of it.

Hey – I think we can add some.

Didn’t Kirk also go to Florida (Assignment Earth) – 1968

Sisko – Trials and Tribbleations (23?? I’m not good with the whole ST year tracking…)

Yes bmar, I’d been thinking that Tiger2 had missed a couple of instances.

That said, knowing showrunner Terry Matalas other work, I would be very surprised if fixing reality only involves one, single simple travel to another time.

A. Yes, I DID include Assignment Earth. It’s number 3 on the list! I just put New York because that’s where Kirk and Spock originally landed to find Gary Seven. It was just a quick note to reference the episode overall, that’s all, not to mark every location in the episode.

B. Trials and Tribbleations had nothing to do with Earth. They time traveled back to the the original Enterprise and the K-7 station only. So why it’s not included.

To make this clear I’m only listing their time travel journeys to Earth, because it’s something literally all the shows had one thing in common, at least the classic shows. Obviously all these shows did tons of time travel beyond what I listed. Janeway/Voyager would probably win the record of biggest time traveler if I was including all the jaunts through time.

And yes there are some technicalities I didn’t include like Sisko going back to 1950’s New York in Far Beyond the Stars because it was really a vision by the prophets and not real time travel (and it wasn’t included in Memory-alpha). Or Archer traveling back to San Francisco in one scene a few years before he took command because it was done through Daniels for a few minutes and wasn’t mission based, etc. I just included direct time travel stories where they went to Earth and had to change something to save a future timeline or stop someone from exploiting the past.

I even thought of adding several instances of time travel forwarding in time like Archer going to the 31st century or Picard being on Earth 25 years into the future in All Good Things, but decided to keep it about going back in time. Yes I thought hard about this. ;)

If you go beyond the captains you might add Quark, Rom, Nog and Odo going to Earth in 1957 in “Little Green Men”.

Sure of course! I was only comparing the Captains since they do the most time travel overall (and usually followed by their trusted Vulcan first officers ;)).

What about Picard travelling back to Earth with Q when life begun in All Good Things?

Sorry, I should have read your post till the end. Doh’

No worries! :)

A Spaceship from 2400 and its not possible to lock the doors so some Primitives like that Cop can not enter ?

Maybe the Queen unlocked them.

The way I became excited when I realised the ships from the trailer were two Novas and a Steamrunner!

So what, Jurati is brainwashed by a malign influence once again? She does appear to be the weak link doesn’t she? (sigh) I’m still not over the gut punch of anger I felt after watching season one-all those weeks yelling at my TV like Grandpa Simpson-but what the hell, since I have Amazon Prime I’ll watch this for ‘free’. But I don’t for one second expect it to be good.

UPDATE NOTE: We made a small but significant update to the article. It appears that Picard visits 10 Forward twice. Once in the Alt 2400, where we see him talk to Guinan, and then again in 2024 LA, where we only see him beam down outside the alley. But based on his outfit and the environment it does appear these are two different visits

The license plate is clearly some reference to 7 of 9. If you add the 7 and 2 together, you get 7 9s? 7 out of Nines? Something like that.

Does anybody have any speculation as to what the Walking Dead extra is doing stalking Picard in that last photo?

Speculation: It isn’t Q who changes history, but this Walking Dead race. Q just gives Picard a chance to right things.

I absolutely cannot wait for this. Discovery became great in season 2 and Lower Decks is great, my hopes are pretty high for SNW but Picard is the special one.

I can understand why it wasnt everyones cup of tea, hell maybe my brain was completely overode by nostalgia, but I found the storytelling of season 1 to be fantastic. It had action and all this and that but the way it was delivered being so much intimate and grounded in the core of its characters really worked for me. And it does its ensemble justice which many Trek shows dont do, a lot of characters get forgotten and are just there.

None of the other shows no matter how much I love them can make me as excited beyond words as this can and the trailer only served to amp up my enthusiasm.

I hope there are as many seasons of Picard as there can be.

The devoted Trekker in me is going to watch this, but I will have no qualms spewing my dissatisfaction across the internet if it sucks!

🤦🏽‍♂️🤦‍♀️🤦🏼🤦🏽‍♀️

Is the code to the shield that surrounds Earth 1, 2, 3, 4, 5?

That’s the kind of password an idiot would put on his luggage.

Why do these new shows make the space scenes so dark? I can’t see any of the ship designs. Please make it bright a la TNG and TOS (not remastered TOS). I don’t care if we don’t know where the light source is coming from. Let’s say it’s coming from ‘hope.’

Couldn’t agree with you more. To borrow from Alien a bit – “In space, no one can (see).”

FYI, a short version of this trailer ran during the NFL AFC game (on CBS) this evening.

Anyone know 7’s age?

Do the Borg nanites extend her life by repairing DNA and tissue degradation that normally come with aging? Just curious to know if she will live for a few hundred years.

Also in all of this, am I right in saying that Soji / Isa Briones is not seen anywhere in this trailer? Is there a reason?

She was in the first trailer if I recall correctly.

Perhaps more would be too much of a spoiler.

According to Memory Alpha, she was born in 2350, so that would make her about 50 in Picard season 2.

Don’t you know 50 is the new 30 in the 24th century? ;-)

TG Legs Dave

Thanks all!

blue vial, woman in a red dress…..

see what they did there…..

So, it’s look like 2024 the begining of that Terran Federation of year 2400.

The grid around Earth actually reminded me of the planetary shield from Buck Rogers.

I mean, I’m glad that new Trek is getting made, but I’m really looking forward to SNW and a return to a weekly, hopefully non-serialzed storytelling of Trek tv. Disco and Picard are really just long form movies. Which is ok, but it’s not the idealized form of Trek (historically speaking). Sure DS9 ended up serializing to a degree, but not to this current degree. But also, times change and the viewing expectations of the audience changes. But just thinking, how would you cut a trailer for say, Season 3 of TNG? Would it be THIS intense and explodey? If it was cut that way and you wanted that, you’d end up being veery disappointed :D

This has been worth waiting for! We will open up a bottle of Chateau Picard to enjoy while we watch the first episode. We have friends who will be on the Star Trek Cruise V so I hope they get to see it aired while aboard.

Where’s Dahj?

Rewatched season 1 and really thought it was excellent. Second viewing certainly helped pick out the nuances of the writing (which I initially thought had a lot of plot holes). Bring on season 2

it’d be great if everything shown in the trailers was only from the first 2-3 episodes and the rest of the season takes an unexpected turn…..i’m not really up for 8-9 episodes of season 2 being in 2024 Los Angeles.

[[Presumedly, Picard is at this alternative 10 Forward to see Guinan because she is capable of sensing changes in timelines, as revealed in the TNG episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise.”]]

Didn’t the crew have no memories of the alternate timeline, even that it existed? From Picard’s point of view, Worf said something was emerging from the rift, then said something like, “Whatever it was, it’s not there anymore.” Picard also couldn’t figure out any possible way Sela could be Yar’s daughter. Even Guinan didn’t seem to know all the facts — she said she knew that Picard had sent Yar into the past (or onto the Enterprise-C), but she didn’t know the circumstances. How would Picard know that there even was an alternate timeline, let alone that Guinan knew about it?

How to Watch 'Star Trek: Picard' Season 2: Where to Stream the Patrick Stewart Series

Navigating time and space to find Picard.

It's finally time to continue the adventures of the beloved Jean-Luc Picard now that Star Trek: Picard is back with Season 2. With time travel, alternate histories, and the iconic Q, the Star Trek show promises to be a great watch for long-time fans. The new season of Star Trek: Picard features the return of the Q Continuum and continues to examine the consequences of Picard's earlier actions in Star Trek: The Next Generation .

And if you're as excited as we are about Picard 's latest outing, here's a handy guide that'll answer every question you might have about how to watch Star Trek: Picard Season 2, where it's streaming, when new episodes will be released, and more.

Related: 'Star Trek: Picard' Season 2: Release Date, Trailer, Cast, Plot and Everything We Know So Far

What Is the Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Release Date?

star-trek-picard-patrick-stewart-2

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 is set to premiere on Thursday, March 3, 2022, and will run for 10 episodes. After the premiere, the remaining episodes will release weekly on the same day.

Where Is Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Streaming?

star-trek-picard-patrick-stewart

Paramount+ is the only possible option to watch Star Trek: Picard in the United States. Luckily, the streaming service is extremely reasonably priced. The base plan has advertisements but is only five dollars a month, and they have several offers as of February 2022 that include 25% off for students.

Just in case you don’t have Paramount+ or do not live in the United States, the new episodes will also be released on Amazon Prime Video with a 24-hour delay across more than 200 countries worldwide. In Canada, the streaming service Crave will be also available for streaming Picard .

Related: New 'Star Trek: Picard' Season 2 Images Tease A Stressful Conversation With Q

Watch the Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Trailer

Paramount+ has released a handful of trailers over the last few months giving us some variety in events that we can observe. These trailers give some insight into the upcoming season of Star Trek: Picard . Although COVID-19 did cause production delays, this allowed for numerous trailers to be revealed over time. The first teaser trailer dropped on April 5, 2021, and has a short runtime of 1:04. The full trailer dropped on January 21, 2022, with a run time of almost 2 minutes. In this trailer, we see Q telling Picard that the route they are taking is the "road not taken" and features most of the characters we are aware of so far.

Who Are the Main Cast Members of Star Trek: Picard?

picard season 2 patrick stewart Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd

The famous Sir Patrick Stewart will be returning as the titular character, Jean-Luc Picard. He will be joined by previous season regulars Alison Pill as Dr. Agnes Jurati, Santiago Cabrera as Cristóbal Ríos, Isa Briones as Soji, Michelle Hurd as Raffi Musiker, and Evan Evagora as Elnor. Additionally, Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine will be moving up to a season regular for this next season. Several old faces are also returning in the form of John de Lancie as Q and Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan.

Finally, we have a new face returning as the arch-nemesis of a free Universe. Annie Wersching will be playing the Borg Queen for the first time and is the last of the characters that we are certain will appear in Star Trek: Picard Season 2. That being said, we can always hope for some unexpected familiar faces to show up.

Official Plot Summary of Star Trek: Picard

Picard season 2 John de Lancie patrick stewart

"Season two of Star Trek: Picard takes the legendary Jean-Luc Picard and his crew on a bold and exciting new journey: into the past. Picard must enlist friends both old and new to confront the perils of 21st century Earth in a desperate race against time to save the galaxy’s future – and face the ultimate trial from one of his greatest foes."

This clearly sets up the plot of the show, with several more possible time shifts in the making. With some of the greatest and most powerful enemies in the Star Trek Universe, this season is sure to be quite impactful. Importantly this season has a lot of possibilities for shifting across time and space. Most experts and analysts who have looked over the trailers have identified at least 3 different timelines. The original timeline is the one where we last saw the cast at the end of Season 1, but there is also a dark timeline, and then there is the 21st century on Earth. With Star Trek returning to our own time and even some cars, it certainly is an interesting time for Star Trek .

Related: ‘Picard’s Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd on Season 2, Season 3, and How They’re Currently Filming the Series Finale

Where Can You Watch Other Star Trek Favorites?

Star-Trek-TNG-Yesterdays-Enterprise-1

The older shows such as Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and others all stream on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Paramount+, and DirecTV. The newer shows such as Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and Star Trek: Picard are all exclusively available on Paramount+.

Some of the Star Trek movies are not available on Paramount+. The original series movies and the Next Generation movies are all on Amazon Prime, Hulu, DirecTV, and Epix just like the other shows, but the Kelvin timeline shows are more particular. Star Trek is on IMDb TV for streaming, Star Trek: Into Darkness is on FX Now, and Star Trek: Beyond is on Amazon Prime, Hulu, DirecTV, and Epix. There is a myriad of other ways to access your favorite content, but most of them have to be paid for individually.

Who Are the Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Showrunners?

Patrick Stewart and Michelle Hurd in Star Trek Picard

The showrunners for the new season of Picard include Terry Matalas and Akiva Goldsman . Terry Matalas is famous for his early work on shows such as Voyager and Enterprise, as well as 12 Monkeys and MacGyver. Some fans are pleased with his coming to the project as they were not completely satisfied with the ending of the first season. Additionally, having more experienced hands with Star Trek experience is helpful in promoting more internally consistent lore. The other main showrunner, Akiva Goldsman, is famous for his work on shows such as Batman & Robin , A Beautiful Mind , and Star Trek: Discovery. He was also the primary writer for the first season of Picard , and he has a response to some of the criticisms faced by the first season.

He said that this season would “Figure out the end earlier. If you're going to do a serialized show, you have the whole story before you start shooting. It's more like a movie in that way — you better know the end of your third act before you start filming your first scene.”

We can see evidence of this in the more solidified narrative arcs seen in the trailers, and with a seemly more focused cast on a specific topic.

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Season two of STAR TREK: PICARD takes the legendary Jean-Luc Picard and his crew on a bold and exciting new journey: into the past. Picard must enlist friends both old and new to confront the perils of 21st century Earth in a desperate race against time to save the galaxy’s future – and face the ultimate trial from one of his greatest foes.

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Includes over 90 minutes of exclusive special features! The legendary Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his crew embark on a bold and exciting new journey into the unknown: Los Angeles, 2024. Trapped in an alternate reality by Q (John de Lancie), Picard must enlist friends both old and new to confront the perils of 21st century Earth in a desperate race against time to save the galaxy’s future – and face the ultimate trial from one of his greatest foes. Starring Alison Pill, Brent Spiner, Michelle Hurd, Santiago Cabrera and Jeri Ryan, this 3-disc collection includes every thrilling episode and over 90 minutes of never-before-seen special features, including exclusive interview footage with Patrick Stewart.

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  • MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
  • Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.77 x 5.43 x 0.63 inches; 3.84 ounces
  • Media Format ‏ : ‎ Blu-ray
  • Run time ‏ : ‎ 7 hours and 55 minutes
  • Release date ‏ : ‎ October 4, 2022
  • Actors ‏ : ‎ Isa Briones, Santiago Cabrera, Jonathan Del Arco
  • Dubbed: ‏ : ‎ English, French, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, German
  • Studio ‏ : ‎ PARAMOUNT
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0B37KWPG2
  • Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 3
  • #819 in Action & Adventure Blu-ray Discs

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‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 2, Episode 10 Recap: Q’s Last Gift

The “Picard” crew tries to find its way home.

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By Sopan Deb

Season 2, Episode 10: ‘Farewell’

So after all that, all the Jurati-Borg Queen combination had to do was show up earlier and none of the this season’s craziness would’ve happened?

A very funny moment comes when an Excelsior crew member, during the “Picard” finale’s climax, wonders what happened to Rios, who was left behind in the 21st century. Picard snaps, “Stay on task, helm. That’s an order.” That’s essentially how the show’s writers have treated the audience for most of its two-season run. Don’t worry about the things that don’t make sense. Just focus on where the story is going.

In this case, what the story reveals to us is that Q, in his dying moments, wanted to let Picard know that his mother’s death wasn’t his fault. (Why is Q dying? Of what? It’s never explained.) And that the first step to Picard finding love was for him to love himself. It’s a wonderful lesson, except, as Picard points out, there were innocent people who died along the way for a life lesson.

Not that Q cares. And neither does Picard, it turns out, because Picard gives his soon-to-be-deceased tormentor a hug. It’s a touching moment. The thing is, everything we’ve seen in “Picard” has taught us that what is dead will never die. There is no reason to believe that Q is actually dying, in the traditional sense, because no major character dies in this show. This includes even the ones who do, because they’re just brought back later — sometimes with a literal snap of a finger, like our old friend Elnor. (If I was Picard, I might have asked Q for some other people to be brought back to life. “Hey, while you’re at it, instead of bringing back Elnor, whom I’m not that close to, would you mind bringing back Data? Or Tasha Yar?)

John de Lancie did a wonderful job as Q, as he normally does. But the way the character was written this season felt off. If all this was to teach Picard forgiveness, why did Q seem so angry and vindictive earlier in the season? Recall his previous conversations with Soong, where he seemed to imply he wanted to get revenge on Picard.

Odds and Ends

So after all the talk about shifting the timeline with the slightest use of futuristic technology, Rios ends up staying behind in the 21st century with Teresa with centuries worth of knowledge in his head. We find out from Guinan that he didn’t use much of that knowledge. Rios is a better man than me. If I went back in time 400 years and stayed there, I would be known as the inventor of cars, the iPhone, electricity and Twitter.

That was a really lovely return from Wil Wheaton as the Traveler formerly known as Wesley Crusher. I have no idea if this is a one off, or if he’ll factor into next season, when the “Next Generation” cast returns. But Wesley was a character who generally got the short end of the stick in the original “Next Generation.” (The last we saw of him — when he was spotted at Riker and Troi’s wedding in “Nemesis” — he seemed to have returned to Starfleet.)

Soong pulling out the folder labeled “Project Khan” gives us a hint of what next season will be about. We know Soong is an expert in genetics and that the greatest villain in all of “Trek,” Khan Noonien Singh, was a result of genetic experimentation. This looks like a precursor to the Eugenics Wars. Should be fun!

Alison Pill has already said she’s not coming back for Season 3 of “Picard,” and with Rios now dead in the past, I’m wondering how much of the “Picard” crew comes back, if at all. Maybe next season will really be a “Next Generation” season.

What’s up with the transwarp conduit that Jurati-Borg Queen want to find out about? That could also be a hint for Season 3. There are just so many questions about what the Borg have been up to in the past 400 years. Were they hiding from the Evil Borg? Did the previous assimilation attempts not happen? Stay on task, helm! That’s an order!

A farewell to the Watcher, Tallinn, who stays away and watches until she doesn’t. Who had special powers, except for when she didn’t.

Finally, what happened to the F.B.I. agent, Martin Wells? Imagine working your whole life to find out if aliens exist, having your theory confirmed and then … what?

Sopan Deb is a basketball writer and a contributor to the Culture section. Before joining The Times, he covered Donald J. Trump's presidential campaign for CBS News. He is also a New York-based comedian.  More about Sopan Deb

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Den of Geek

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 8 Review – Mercy

The pacing of Star Trek: PIcard Season 2 is starting to become a problem.

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The following contains Star Trek: Picard spoilers

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 8

At this point, it seems like we all need to just admit that the pacing of Star Trek: Picard Season 2 is a problem. Its primary story has progressed in the barest of fits and starts over the course of the last two episodes, and rather than give us any concrete answers about Q’s plans, how Picard and friends can save the future, or what Adam Soong and his Orphan Black -style clone experiments have to do with anything, the show generally seems content to tread water, occasionally poking at interesting plot threads or character quirks as it sets up cliffhangers that largely go nowhere. 

Look, even a mediocre Star Trek: Picard episode is better than a lot of things on TV right now, and with a cast that’s this consistently great it’s pretty easy to ignore the messy overall narrative in favor of simply watching them work. I mean, if this show was just about Jean-Luc and Number One living their best lives at the family vineyard , that’d probably be fine with me.

But Season 2 is ostensibly meant to be aiming higher than that. Or at least, the folks in charge told us it was. Yet, while there are certainly plenty of standout individual moments sprinkled throughout this season, it’s becoming more and more difficult to pinpoint what its central arc is supposed to be, or what larger point it’s working toward.

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Is the primary story of this season about preventing a megalomaniacal god being from turning the future into a dystopian hellscape? Rewriting Picard’s own understanding of himself? Exploring the emotional scars he’s been afraid to look too closely at all his life? Something else entirely?

On the plus side, “Mercy” does at least recapture some of the lost momentum from last week’s installment , in that almost every plot takes major steps forward and the hour features the sort of necessary revelations that indicate that we’re moving into whatever the endgame of Season 2 will look like. Yet, it’s hard not to feel as though Picard is really dragging out our journey toward that final act, and with just two episodes to go in Season 2, that seems like a huge mistake. Because there’s almost no way that whatever that endgame is doesn’t end up feeling incredibly rushed, just because we’ve spent so much time on side quests and character moments that don’t necessarily (or, at least particularly clearly) tie back to the main narrative. 

Part of the problem is that I think most of us (read: me) likely assumed Season 2 was going to be a fairly straightforward, though not necessarily simple, story. Picard and friends have to travel back to the past to put things right after some Q shenanigans threaten to turn the world as they know it into Authoritarian Disney. Sure, that’s probably not a light-hearted romp, but it should at least be a fun adventure, as our team has to figure out how to solve a very 24th-century problem using only 21st-century resources and work to conceal their identities along the way. This is something Star Trek has done many times in the past, after all. (See also: The Original Series epiosde “ The City on the Edge of Forever” or Next Generation’s “Time’s Arrow”.)

Instead, we’ve ultimately gotten something that’s much more convoluted, with little sense of narrative urgency or even a clear end goal. And as a result, Season 2’s story manages to somehow feel both painfully thin and weirdly overstuffed at the same time. Because in all honesty, as entertaining as watching Picard and Guinan banter with a Fox Mulder-esque twenty-first century FBI agent is, it’s also not exactly an incredibly necessary piece of the story this season is telling. Though it’s certainly more directly impactful than virtually any plot involving Rios, the FBI twist serves little purpose beyond giving Picard a reason to be absent from the other major storylines going on at the moment. 

It also feels more than a little bit like a cop-out. Part of the reason the previous episode’s cliffhanger worked so well is that it was such a great problem to force Picard to solve: There’s video evidence of the existence of transporter technology, along with some ill-advised quotes from Rios’s time in ICE custody, and photos of the gang essentially breaking-in to the Europa gala. How will Picard get them out of this? What will he have to risk, or sacrifice to do so? The answer is nothing, apparently.

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Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 7 Review – Monsters

Star Trek Picard Season 2 Episode 7

Picard Season 2 Episode 7: The Biggest Star Trek Easter Eggs

To be fair, there’s something thematically appropriate about Picard offering this man a way to work through the major childhood trauma he’s been carrying around for most of his life. Especially given how much of Picard’s own story this season has revolved around a similar “stuck in the past” theme. But it’s also pretty hard to believe that one seemingly crazy old man’s explanation of a Vulcan mind meld would be enough to undo literal decades of fear and anxiety or convince this man to release the very beings he’s spent his entire life chasing. But, then again, if Patrick Stewart sat me down and gave me a heartfelt explanation about how he needed my help to save the future, I’d probably do whatever he asked, too.

(Plus, the confirmation that the Vulcans did indeed visit Earth prior to the official date of First Contact is nice.)

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Despite the vague pointlessness of much of this subplot, it’s all almost worth it simply for the fact that we get to see Ito Aghayere’s Guinan and John de Lancie’s Q meet face-to-face. Picard hasn’t given de Lancie a lot to do in the past few episodes, but he more than makes up for it here, a towering presence that both questions what lurks in the undiscovered country after death and rages against the proverbial dying of the light that is his impending doom. 

Most of us had guessed already that something was happening with Q—that he was likely dying or losing his powers in some way—several episodes ago. But we still have little idea why he chose to set this particular test for Picard, or why he thinks forcing his longtime nemesis to face his emotional failings is the thing that will give meaning to the twilight of his days. To be fair, de Lancie still sells the heck out of the material, poking at the uncomfortable idea that on a long enough timeline, everything loses its luster and even death starts to look appealing, simply for the fact of its newness. But just…imagine if this season had chosen to really center Q in this story alongside Picard, is all I’m saying.

At least it seems like the Borg Queen has a straightforward plan, even if it does involve assimilating all of Earth. (Does Picard even know Agnes has been body-snatched yet? Guess we’ll find out next week!)

Lacy Baugher

Lacy Baugher

Lacy Baugher is a digital producer by day, but a television enthusiast pretty much all the time. Her writing has been featured in Paste Magazine, Collider,…

Easter Eggs You Missed In Star Trek: Picard Season 2

Picard looks ahead

The first season of "Star Trek: Picard" did what few thought possible: Bring back a beloved character and a star actor who had long moved on from his role as captain of the Enterprise, and continued his adventures into the new millennium. It had been nearly 20 years since we'd seen him Jean-Luc Picard, and while there had been plenty of "Star Trek" in that time, "Picard" still managed to offer up something new and daring, with plenty of surprises. But it was also filled with loads of callbacks, from the surprise inclusion of "Voyager" fan favorite Seven Of Nine to plot threads that tied back to an unexpected classic episode .

Season 2 of "Picard" picks up right where the first left off, and ups the stakes. From the first trailer, we knew the show would be reminiscent of classic "Trek" stories, including a dark parallel reality and time travel into the past. The return of the powerful trickster Q and the Enterprise's longtime barkeep Guinan showed that this season was going to have plenty of references to adventures of "Trek" past. 

As such, the new season is loaded with Easter eggs. Here's a list of our favorites so far — especially ones that might have escaped your notice.

Picard's auto-destruct gambit

The premiere episode of "Picard" Season 2 opens in media res , with Starfleet officers scurrying through the corridors in the middle of what appears to be a battle aboard a starship. Arriving on the bridge, things aren't looking good, as an unseen villain is tapping into the ship's systems and appears to be gaining control. Unable to overpower the enemy, Picard commands the ship's computer to activate the auto-destruct sequence. We later learn the enemy is the Borg, and longtime fans will note this isn't the first time that Picard has had to order self-destruct due to a Borg invasion. It is, however, a major change from his previous behavior, and shows he's learned a lesson from a certain former Klingon security chief.

In the 1996 film "Star Trek: First Contact," the Borg had infiltrated the Enterprise and had controlled more than half the ship. Picard's trusted officer and friend, Lieutenant Commander Worf , recommended they self-destruct the ship to prevent its total takeover. Picard adamantly refused to destroy it, and it wasn't until he got a lecture from Lily that he relented and set the ship to self-destruct. This time, it seems, Picard is much quicker to respond, having learned that when the Borg take over, sometimes it's best to activate the ship's auto-destruct system right away.

The Bajoran reckoning tablet

As many eagle eyed viewers noticed in the first trailer for the new season, a major piece of "Deep Space Nine" lore appeared prominently on the table in Picard's library. Surrounded by books, it appeared that the former Enterprise captain — an avid archeologist — was studying the object, known as the Reckoning Tablet. The tablet made its first and only appearance in the "Deep Space Nine" episode "The Reckoning" and was smashed to pieces by Captain Sisko after receiving a vision. In doing so, he released the villainous Pah-wraiths that were locked in a centuries long war with the Bajoran Prophets.

Many wondered if the appearance of the tablet was an Easter egg just for trailers, perhaps as a nod to his past friendship with Bajoran officer Ensign Ro, or just a sly nod to "Deep Space Nine." But the tablet does indeed appear in the opening episode. As Picard and Laris speak in his library, it appears on the table between them in the center of the screen, and it is still in pieces. There's a viewing glass above it, which that suggests Picard has indeed been studying it. Given its prominence in the scene, we're forced to wonder if it's more than just an Easter egg, and perhaps a hint of more to come.

The new United Federation of Planets

As the first episode transitions to Picard's speech at Starfleet Academy, we see Picard — in his new role as Chancellor of the Academy — standing before a group of incoming Cadets. Behind him is a series of flags, presumably of Federation member worlds. That's notable because there's a number of flags from worlds who weren't members of the Federation during "The Next Generation."

While we do see flags for the Tellarites and Vulcans, who were founding members, we see a Klingon flag as well. Longtime allies of the Federations since at least the days of "TNG," it seems they could now be full members of the UFP. We also see the Bajoran flag, indicating that Bajor may have finally gained membership following "Deep Space Nine." But the most curious is Ferengi flag. Though Ferenginar was on its way to change, with the appointment of the less greed-focused Rom as their Grand Nagus at the end of "Deep Space Nine," it's curious that they'd be a Federation member so quickly. 

If these aren't the flags of Federation members, then it's possible these are simply the flags of worlds from which Starfleet Academy has found cadets — meaning the Ferengi flag is a reference to the character Nog, the young Ferengi who attended the academy and served aboard the Defiant on "Deep Space Nine." 

The first fully Romulan Cadet

During his speech, Picard is proud to introduce his friend Elnor — the young swordsman raised by the  Qowat Milat — as the first "fully Romulan" entrant into Starfleet Academy. This indicates that, at some point prior to the events of the episode, the Academy had admitted other cadets with at least partial Romulan ancestry. It's notable also because there has been at least one Starfleet officer that we've seen whose bloodline could be traced to Romulans: A crewman named Simon Tarses, from "The Next Generation" episode "The Drumhead."

Tarses was investigated for his possible role in sabotaging the Enterprise, but his real crime was lying about his parentage by claiming he was part Vulcan rather than Romulan. Ultimately, Tarses did not even attend the Academy, and chose to enlist instead. Nevertheless, it was heavily implied that there was great controversy surrounding officers who carried the blood of a Federation enemy. It remains to be seen if this will be an issue for Elnor, who vocalizes his concerns about fitting in at the Academy due to his race, though Picard's gift — a book written by Spock — should help.

'Let's see what's out there'

The "Picard" Season 2 premiere gives us a surprising glimpse into the childhood of Jean-Luc Picard , and hints that something terrible may have happened to his mother when he was young. But it's his mother's inspiring words to the young Picard, as he looked up into the night sky, that are the source of character drama in this episode. In flashbacks, we see how Yvette Picard nurtured her son's love of the stars, offering to build him an observatory of sorts on the family estate. We know from the "TNG" episode "Family" that Picard's father decried his son's choice to enter Starfleet, so it seems a fitting revelation that it was his mother who helped ignite his exploratory spirit.

But in his speech to the Academy, Picard chooses to quote his mother with a phrase that clearly has stuck with him all of his life, as they looked out to the stars above: "let's see what's out there." It's an inspiring moment, and one that affected Picard greatly, and diehard Trekkies will remember this line for its appearance in the "TNG" premiere "Encounter At Farpoint." In the closing moments of that episode, having completed their first mission, that was Captain Picard's final command to his crew as they departed the planet. It's a fine callback to a classic episode, and a clever way of giving an innocent line of dialogue an emotional context.

Familiar sights and sounds

We didn't see much of any Starfleet vessels in Season 1 — but now that audiences are brought aboard a Starfleet ship in Season 3, we see they've stayed true to the past, and for many fans it will feel like a welcome homecoming.

Throughout the second season premiere, we are given many visual and audio callbacks to the days of 1990s "Star Trek" — from the updated LCARS computer layouts, to transporter sounds used on "The Next Generation," and the comms beeps used on "Star Trek: Voyager." Trekkies will no doubt appreciate the little touches, and the lengths that new showrunner Terry Matalas ("12 Monkeys") has gone to in order to lovingly recreate the world of Starfleet that they remember.

But the biggest and best nod might the use of "The Next Generation" theme music front and center, which begins when Jurati first beams aboard Rios' starship, and reaches a crescendo when he orders them to warp. While shows like "Star Trek: Discovery" and even the first season of "Picard" had seemingly tried to step out from the pure nostalgia of "The Next Generation" and past "Trek" series, it looks like Season 2 has chosen to fully embrace it.

Ships from Trek past

Back at the Academy, Cadets await their first assignments, with an officer calling out names and ships for them to report to. One Cadet is sent to the Hikaru Sulu, clearly named for the helmsman of the original USS Enterprise, originally played by George Takei. In "Star Trek Generations," we met Sulu's daughter, who helmed the Enterprise-B — and it's clear from this new starship that her father's name has carried a powerful legacy even into the 25th century.

Other ships include the Excelsior — captained by Raffi — where Elnor is assigned, and the USS Grissom. The original Excelsior (NCC-2000, seen here in a museum of sorts) was captained by Sulu himself in "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country." While it wouldn't be unprecedented if Elnor's ship were the same Excelsior, it's most likely a newer ship with the same name. The Grissom meanwhile, though not seen, was the name of the science vessel that carried Lt. Saavik and David Marcus to the Genesis Planet in "Star Trek III: The Search For Spock."

Admiral Picard also mentions to Raffi his intention to make some modifications to the Kobayashi Maru test, which is designed to evaluate an officer's decision-making skills in a no-win situation. This test has been seen several times, most famously in "Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan," but again in JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" reboot, and in an episode of "Star Trek: Prodigy." Counselor Troi took a different but similar test in her bid to become a full commander in the "TNG" episode "Thine Own Self." 

The USS Stargazer

Though it's called out in the episode itself, and as such isn't quite an "Easter egg" in the traditional sense, we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about Rios' new ship: the USS Stargazer. The namesake is a familiar one, as it was the ship that Picard commanded prior to helming the Enterprise-D, first seen in "TNG" episode "The Battle." In that episode, it was revealed that the ship was apparently destroyed in a fight with the Ferengi while he was in command, leading to Picard's court martial. But it was rediscovered by Daimon Bok and used in a plot to exact revenge. This new Stargazer is a welcome callback to Picard's old ship, and even boasts the same four nacelle configuration. 

Of course, Seven Of Nine notes that this Stargazer is also part of a new class of starships using Borg technology taken from the reclaimed cube in Season 1. This follows many stories in "Star Trek: Voyager," where Captain Janeway and Seven Of Nine would often use the ex-Borg's nano-probes to augment various systems when the need arose. Those tactics seem to have been embraced by Starfleet and implemented on a broader scale after Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant, and subsequent to the Borg Reclamation Project. 

Guinan's bar

When Picard visits his old friend Guinan , who is now tending a bar in Los Angeles, he goes to an address that will make fans of "The Next Generation" smile: 10 Forward Street. Fans will recall the location of Guinan's bar on the Enterprise as Ten Forward, but that's hardly the only Easter egg. Look up the stairs behind Picard and you'll notice wall panels that are a perfect match for those seen in her lounge on the Enterprise. 

The bar is filled with other references, too. Behind the bar, we see bottles of Cardassian Kanar from "Deep Space Nine" in its twisted bottle, and on the wall is a sign for Arcanis Lager, first seen in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock." When the two sit down for a drink she offers up some options but selects a bottle of Saurian Brandy, a classic "Trek" ale seen many times throughout the franchise. Here she refers to it as "hooch," revealing the drink as something less than a classy top shelf spirit.

Guinan's words of wisdom

When they first meet, Picard notes that Guinan's people age slowly, and she tells him its "only if we choose to" — and that she has chosen to for the benefit of humans who dislike being reminded of their own mortality. This helps explain to audiences why the centuries-old Guinan, played by Whoopi Goldberg, looks 20 years older than the last time we saw her in "Star Trek: Nemesis." She then makes a few clever nods to classic "TNG" episodes, referencing "Q Who" when she mentions holding Picard's hand while they faced a galactic threat, and "Yesterday's Enterprise" when she says "we have jumped universes together."

But Picard hasn't come to reminisce, and is instead looking for some advice regarding his love life. Picard insists that he has loved before, and quite deeply, to which Guinan responds "but only to those who would be temporary." It's true that Picard has had a handful of dalliances in "Trek," and the most obvious candidate is renegade archeologist Vash who he met in "Captain's Holiday" — who Picard clearly held a deep and passionate attraction towards. But as Guinan said, Vash was never a good match because she was always on the move, and Picard's first love was Starfleet. 

Their most haunting exchange is when she tells Picard that he should know better than most that there are worse things than being dead. This is a clear reference to his previous assimilation by the Borg, when they stole his body and mind and used him as an instrument of destruction.

Ain't no party like a Deltan party

When we first catch up with Dr. Jurati and Soji in the Season 2 premiere, they're on the planet Raritan IV (named for a New Jersey town near where showrunner Terry Matalas grew up, according to his Twitter ). There they are attending a party of sorts, where we see that Soji is giving a toast to a group of bald-headed individuals in fancy attire. Soji addresses them and speaks in their own language, affirming that a true message of trust should not be delivered by a universal translator, or even an interpreter. Later, one of the guests approaches Jurati as she sips a drink at the bar and begins flirting with her, or at least that's how she sees it. 

Jurati is flattered but uncomfortable, as she doesn't have a great track record with intimate relationships. But she shouldn't be upset, for these guests are Deltans, a race that Trekkies have seen before — most notably in the 1979 film "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." In the very first "Star Trek" movie it's said that their entire Deltan culture revolves around matters of sex and that Deltans who serve in Starfleet take a vow of celibacy upon entering the Academy. "Trek" hasn't seen many Deltans outside of "The Motion Picture," with their last appearance, according to Memory-Alpha , being "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country." The character of Ilia, played by Persis Khambatta in the "The Motion Picture" was the only named Deltan in the franchise, and the lover of Enterprise first officer Will Decker.  

Little links in Picard's chateau

The Bajoran Recknoning Tablet isn't the only easter egg to be found in Picard's home in "The Star Gazer." The former Enterprise captain's chateau is filled with a number of links to past adventures, episodes, and characters. As pointed out by Twitter user @gaghyogi49 , a decorative plate is seen hanging on the wall behind Picard while he speaks to Laris. Discerning viewers may recognize it as the same one seen in "TNG" episode "Family," hanging in the home of Robert Picard. It's not as noteworthy a callout as the Reckoning Tablet, but it's a nice connection nonetheless.

Elsewhere on Picard's bookshelf, audiences may spot a golden statuette of the USS Enterprise-C, possibly even the same model that once hung in the observation lounge on Picard's Enterprise. But the best easter egg in the chateau might be the ship in a bottle that appears on a bureau by the library's entrance. If you're a longtime fan of "The Next Generation," you may recall Picard's claim of owning one in the episode "Booby Trap." Having discovered the ruins of a ancient Promellian Battle Cruiser in that episode, the captain noted that he once had a model of the same ship in a bottle as a boy ... and here we see that very model. It's references like these that show what a dedicated fan producer Terry Matalas really is, as well as his dedication to on-screen continuity to even the franchise's finest details.

A fleet of recognizable ships

Season 1 of "Star Trek: Picard" only gave us a brief glimpse of any Federation starships, with most of the action taking place aboard Rio's freighter the La Sirena. While we did get a look at a fleet of starships commanded by Captain Riker in the season's climax, fans levied some serious criticism of it being mostly comprised of one or two new designs copy and pasted onto a starfield in what was seen as a disappointing cop-out. This time around though, it seem the producers of the series listened, and made sure not to repeat the same mistake . Here, the fleet of ship's that arrives to the scene of a massive spatial anomaly is packed with different classes of starship, and a mix of new and recognizable designs.

Alongside the new and improved USS Stargazer, fans might spot what appears to be a slightly updated design for the USS Excelsior. Diehard fans will also get a kick out of the return of the Akira class ship seen in "Star Trek: First Contact," as well the Enterprise-E's Sovereign Class design used in "The Next Generation" movies. Several others starships are models that were first introduced in the video game "Star Trek: Online" show up here in their live action debut, including the Sutherland and Ross Class starships — which we know thanks to production designer Dave Blass' recent Twitter thread .

The state of the Borg

At the close of "The Star Gazer" we encounter the Borg, who arrive through a bizarre spatial anomaly and call out for Jean-Luc Picard. Starfleet, initially not knowing who has sent the message, makes the call to bring in Admiral Picard, who arrives and greets them with open arms. But soon they realize it's the Borg, and learn that the Queen herself wishes to seek peace, and apparently wants to join the Federation. Everyone involved is perplexed by the situation, with Dr. Jurati noting that "the Borg we know have been effectively decimated, functionally hobbled." 

This is the first we've heard about the state of the Borg in the years past "Star Trek: Voyager," and it's an interesting update to the status quo in the galaxy. But it shouldn't come as a surprise to longtime viewers, as it seems to be a reference to the events seen in "Star Trek: Voyager." In the series finale, Janeway and the crew of Voyager dealt the Borg a crippling blow by destroying their Uni-Complex in the Delta Quadrant thanks to an invasive virus — along with countless ships, and the Borg Queen. On top of all that, a rebellion from within the collective was seen taking shape in the episode "Unimatrix Zero" which proved to be a real problem for them; it's entirely possible that it continued to grow from that point.

All told, it would seem that between the end of "Voyager" and where we see them now, things have only gotten worse for the Borg, a race of cybernetic tyrants once thought unstoppable.

Q's many homages

When Q first appears at the close of the premiere "The Star Gazer," actor John De Lancie appears digitally de-aged as the younger version we've seen before in "The Next Generation" and "Voyager." But upon seeing Picard in his advanced years, Q's snaps his fingers and becomes his older equal. This mirrors most of Q's prior appearances, where he mimics the look of whoever he visits and took on other looks to suit the situation. But other littler homages are sprinkled throughout Q's first meeting with Jean Luc in Season 2.

On Q's chest, fans will note a black broach with a design that is nearly identical to the red and gold pendant he wore in his earliest appearances on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," a clear callback to days gone by. Likewise his dialogue includes several fourth-wall breaking moments, such as when he references "Yesterday's Enterprise," the title a classic "TNG" episode. When introducing Picard to the altered reality he's created he says "through mirror darkly." This is an altered version of a biblical passage repurposed in "Alice In Wonderland" that has been used to refer to the Mirror Universe, a parallel reality that is very similar to what we see here. Several episodes set in the Mirror Universe reference the passage, including  "In a Mirror Darkly," and "Through The Looking Glass."

Dark Picard's trophy room

As Q gives Picard a brief tour of who he is in this new bizarre altered reality, he leads him into his trophy room, which is packed with Easter eggs and references to the wider "Star Trek" franchise. One of the first things we see is a Cardassian military uniform, as well as the armor of the Klingon Torchbearer seen in "Star Trek: Discovery." A number of phase rifles, disruptors, and alien weapons hang on the wall, but the most exciting references come with Picard's collection of skulls. Yes, skulls.

Among the many lives that Picard has taken is Gul Dukat, the villainous Cardassian who terrorized Captain Sisko on "Deep Space Nine." According to Q, Picard killed him just outside the capitol city in a brutal fight that resulted in this version of Picard needing a synthetic body. Next we see the skinned head of General Martok, the Klingon warrior from "Deep Space Nine" who was killed in armed combat after a bio-engineered virus decimated the Klingon homeworld. Director Sarek's skull is also shown upon a pedestal, said to have been decapitated by Picard on the steps of the Vulcan Science Academy in front of his own wife and son — an obvious reference to Spock. A Ferengi skull also shown is likely the Grand Nagus , as his traditional gold-tipped staff is seen mounted beneath it.

A new twist on a classic intro

Though not a Mirror Universe episode, the dark reality created by Q is as close to it as we've gotten for an adventure of Jean-Luc Picard, and Q's subtle homage wasn't the only nod. The portrait of Picard as a war hero, clad in all black, and the Confederation as an organization of anti-alien conquerors feels straight out of "The Original Series" episode "Mirror, Mirror." In the "Star Trek: Enterprise" episode "In A Mirror, Darkly," we even got a twisted, darker opening sequence that turned the series' upbeat intro on its head, subverting its message of hope and optimism into one of fascism and war. 

In the second episode "Star Trek: Picard" Season 2, we get something similar: A message from this dark Picard giving an inverted version of the classic "Star Trek" narration. Instead of seeking out new life and new civilizations, and boldly going where no one had gone before, this Picard "sought out and subjugated savage civilizations, boldly conquered warlike alien worlds, increased the wealth and resources for future generations of humanity."

At the end of the message, this evil iteration of Picard even gives a similar gesture that he was known for on "The Next Generation" when giving his order to engage. But this time, rather than waving to his helmsman the sign to go to warp, Picard is pointing to potential soldiers and encouraging them to join the fight against alien worlds.

Ni'Var and the Metreon Cascade

In the dark reality, we learn that Seven of Nine was never assimilated by the Borg, and — as Annika Hansen — has become the President of Earth. Finding herself married to a man she's never met, she attempts to play the part until she can figure out what's going on. She's asked by her husband — who is also a high ranking administrator in the Earth government — the status of the war on the Vulcan front, and she brings up a display that gives her the details.

On the screen we see that image of Rios, now a Colonel in the Confederation, fighting near Vulcan, which is labeled in parentheses as "Ni'Var." Fans of "Star Trek: Discovery" will recall that in the far future where the series is now set, the planet Vulcan had been reunified with their Romulan cousins, and changed their homeworld's name to Ni'Var to reflect that. Its use here may suggest that, in this reality, the Vulcans and Romulans have similarly unified. This seems to be supported by the image of a Romulan Bird of Prey engaged in battle with the La Sirena elsewhere on the viewscreen.

But the deepest of cuts comes when one pauses to read the description of Rios' mission, as the Confederation is preparing to deploy a devastating weapon called the Metreon Cascade. This is the same weapon of mass destruction that was at the center of the "Star Trek: Voyager" episode "Jetrel," and used on the planet Rinax in the war between the Talaxians and the Haakonian Order. How the Confederation got their hands on a weapon from the Delta Quadrant remains a mystery.

General Sisko

Sometimes described as the red-headed stepchild of "Star Trek," the 1990s spin off series "Deep Space Nine" was never quite as celebrated as "The Next Generation," or as talked about as the UPN flagship "Star Trek: Voyager." Season 1 of "Star Trek: Picard" seemed to reinforce this notion as it prominently featured characters from both "TNG" and "Voyager," but only a couple of blink-and-miss-it references to "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."  

But producers on Season 2 seem to be making up for it with a number of major tie-ins, with Gul Dukat and General Martok getting major shoutouts early in the second episode. The biggest name drop however comes when Seven Of Nine, as Earth President Annika Hansen, is offered a meeting with General Sisko, this alternate reality's version of "Deep Space Nine" commander Benjamin Sisko. It's the first on-screen reference to the character in more than 20 years, since he left to join with the Prophets in the series finale of his series. It is also sure to delight fans of "DS9" who have been eager to see the franchise recognize that series' many great characters. 

Sadly, it's unlikely Sisko will turn up on "Star Trek: Picard," as actor Avery Brooks hasn't performed on screen since 2001. Nevertheless, it's good to know that Sisko is out there, in this or any other universe.

Artificial pet, Spot-73

After Q changes history and alters reality into a dark version of the world they know, Picard, Seven, Rios, Raffi, Elnor, and Jurati all wake up without any knowledge of what has happened. The last thing they remember was the Borg's attack on the bridge of the Stargazer, and a sudden flash of light. 

Jurati comes to in a laboratory, and is greeted to the sarcastic comments of an artificially intelligent program in the form of an animated cat. Calling itself Spot-73, this cartoon kitten will surely evoke memories of another cat in "Star Trek" lore named Spot, Data's beloved pet feline on "Star Trek: The Next Generation." As Jurati worked on the project to recreate Data's positronic brain in the original timeline, it's entirely possible that she did the same in this new one, and that Spot-73's creation was an ode to Data's cat Spot.

Of course, this isn't the first time we've seen artificially intelligent pets created by antisocial genius inventors in "Star Trek." Way back in the "Star Trek: Voyager" episode "Lifeline," Dr. Lewis Zimmerman — the brilliant engineer who created the Emergency Medical Hologram — kept several holographic pets including an iguana named Leonard and even a housefly named Roy.

The slingshot effect

When the trailers for "Star Trek: Picard" Season 2 first dropped, many fans noticed a key shot of Rios' ship the La Sirena flying very close to the sun. Combined with the time travel nature of story on display, many began speculating that the sequence shown might be the ship using a classic "Trek" trope, the Slingshot Effect, to travel back in time. First seen in "Star Trek: The Original Series" during episode "Tomorrow Is Yesterday," it requires advanced computer calculations, with the aid of a highly intelligent co-pilot, to achieve a time warp effect by flying close to a star and "slingshotting" around it.

It was used again by Captain Kirk in the episode "Assignment: Earth," and a third time in the film "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home." Based on the second episode of its second season, it seems that "Star Trek: Picard" will make use of the Slingshot Effect again. Here, Picard proposes using it to travel back in time to fix whatever Q has done to alter the timeline, even mentioning Kirk by name and how he used the maneuver to visit the past. However, without Spock to calculate the variable, and with Seven of Nine no longer an ex-Borg who might be able to fill in, they need another high-minded intellect to help them. In a twist of fate, Picard enlists the aid of the Borg Queen, who is a prisoner of the Confederation in this reality.

A Star Trek collector's dream

The Klingon Torchbearer armor and the skulls of his enemies aren't the only relics kept by the great General Jean-Luc Picard in this altered, darker reality. Picard also has a collection of keepsakes from his many conquests In his French chateau that would make any Trekkie jealous. While they are tough to make out on-screen, intrepid fans have been able to ID most of them. Notably,  Twitter  user and contributor to the long-running "Star Trek" fan site Ex Astris Scientia Jörg Hillebrand pointed out several props that had appeared in past "Star Trek" stories.

Based on Hillebrand's account, which was accompanied by a helpful  side-by-side photomontage , it would appear that Picard is quite the collector of alien antiquities — or at least their weapons. In addition to the Zhat Vash phaser rifle, dagger, and the Klingon disruptor that are seen when he first enters, Picard seems to have kept many weapons from his other enemies. This includes a Bajoran phaser rifle seen often in "Deep Space Nine," a Shinzon's knife, and a Reman disrupter rifle from "Star Trek: Nemesis." Also visible is what appears to be a Romulan disruptor rifle from the 2009 J.J. Abrams "Star Trek" movie. Finally, the appearance of a knife used by Ezri Dax in the mirror universe on "Deep Space Nine" seems to suggest that this Picard may have conquered more than other worlds, but other universes as well.

A new life for classic characters

In the dark reality introduced in the second episode "Penance," Captain Rios isn't the only Starfleet officer with part to play in the Confederation's war on alien races. In a blink-and-miss-it moment, screens are called up in President Hansen's office that display the different fronts of the current conflicts, and eagle-eyed viewers may recognize some of the names who are commanding fleets in other sectors.

According to the status report brought up by Hansen, an uprising on Andoria dubbed "The Andorian Rebellion" is being quashed by Lieutenant Colonel Tasha Yar. Yar, of course, was the Enterprise-D's security chief during "The Next Generation's" first season. We've already seen one alternate reality version of Yar in the "TNG" episode "Yesterday's Enterprise," but it looks like this version may be even more twisted.

Elsewhere, the Dominion Alliance is engaged in a war commanded by General Miles O'Brien. This is fitting because not only was Chief O'Brien a decorated military officer during the Cardassian War in our reality, he was a key player on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" when the Federation was at war with the Dominion, a galactic confederation based in the Gamma Quadrant. It would seem in this altered reality that Earth hasn't just made contact with the Dominion, they've joined forces with them, and Chief O'Brien — now General O'Brien — is the man in charge of the alliance.

The Equinox is back

Tasha Yar and Miles O'Brien are not the only ones to make a triumphant return to the franchise in this dark reality. After Picard, Raffi, Elnor, Seven, and Jurati rendezvous with Rios aboard the La Sirena, they're quickly intercepted by several Confederation ships that take chase. In addition to the Steamrunner class ship seen in "Star Trek: First Contact," a Nova class vessel is seen in hot pursuit. This is the first time we've seen that class of ship since 1997, when it appeared prominently in the Season 5 "Star Trek: Voyager" cliffhanger and Season 6 premiere, "Equinox Parts 1 and 2."

There, Voyager encounters the USS Equinox, a science vessel that, like Voyager, has become trapped in the Delta Quadrant. After a happy reunion, Captain Janeway learns that Ransom and his crew have been kidnapping and torturing alien life forms to fuel their upgraded warp drive. It's a nail-biting adventure and one of the very best of "Voyager." The Nova class starship is a standout in the episode in a number of thrilling action sequences, and its return in "Assimilation" is a welcome one. It would appear, however, that the Nova class in this reality is more than a mere science vessel and armed to the teeth for combat and tactical missions such as hunting the La Sirena.

Familiar time travel locations

Picard's time travel adventure in Season 2 truly begins in the third episode, "Assimilation." Arriving in 2024, Picard, Seven Of Nine, Jurati, Raffi, and Rios first set foot in the past in Los Angeles, and longtime "Trek" fans will note this is not the first time a "Star Trek" episode has gone back in time to contemporary LA.

The two-part "Star Trek: Voyager" episode "Future's End" likewise saw the ship travel back to Los Angeles, this time to 1996, the same year the episode aired. Notable, "Assimilation" includes a montage of iconic LA locations, but not the ones you might expect. Rather than show us the Hollywood sign or the Sunset Strip, the episode shows us the Santa Monica Pier and Griffith Observatory — two locations that played a major part in "Future's End." 

The pier is where the crew of Voyager first arrive in the city and remark on the unusual attire of the era. The observatory is where Tuvok and Paris go to get information and where they meet Sarah Silverman's character Rain Robinson. Given all the famous LA spots that "Assimilation" could have shown to orient the viewer, these two seem too specific to be anything but a reference to the classic time travel two-parter.

Sanctuary Districts

Coincidence or not, it just so happens that Picard and his new crew find themselves in 2024, the same year that Captain Sisko, Dr. Bashir, and Lt. Dax time-traveled to in the "Deep Space Nine" episode "Past Tense." That two-part time travel episode has become a beloved classic among Trekkies for its haunting portrayal of what was then a future 30 years away. Ironically, much of what is predicted in 1995 has since come to pass , but the crux of that episode revolved around Sisko and Bashir being trapped in a homeless encampment called a Sanctuary District in San Francisco.

Sisko and Bashir are forced to stay in a closed-off area designed to keep the homeless from encroaching on the city because they have no I.D. or paperwork. While there, they get caught up in a historic civilian uprising called the Bell Riots, which were said to have occurred in September of 2024. In "Assimilation," Raffi and Seven appear to materialize within a Sanctuary District in the very same year. Of course, the fact that this one is in Los Angeles seems to show us that the government-run homeless encampments extend beyond the Bay Area in California.

It doesn't explain, however, how Seven and Raffi seem to have no trouble leaving the district. In "Past Tense," the armed guards patrolling its borders barred Sisko and Bashir from exiting.

The Tipton Brothers

The La Sirena's transporters must not be operating correctly, because when Rios beams down to Los Angeles, he doesn't materialize safely. Instead, he beams into mid-air and falls nearly two stories to the ground, seriously injuring himself. However, it's where he materializes that gets us our next Easter egg. Rios lands on the sidewalk outside of a Los Angeles establishment called the Tipton Bros Deli. A Google search for this location yields no results, and that would make sense, as the deli's name is a clear nod to Scott and David Tipton , two comic book writers who've produced several stories for the "Star Trek" franchise at IDW Publishing.

The Tipton's work for "Star Trek" includes titles such as "Klingons — Blood Will Tell" and "Deep Space Nine — Fool's Gold." This reference could be particularly relevant to this season of "Picard" as the pair also authored the Doctor Who crossover story "Assimilation²," which featured the Borg, and the five-issue alternate reality comic miniseries "Mirror Images."

Rios has no UHC Card

Landing from a two-story fall didn't get Rios a nice meal from Tipton's Deli. Instead, it sends him to a local clinic with serious injuries, including some broken bones. The clinic in question, run by Dr. Teresa, seems to specialize in caring for those without identification. Happy to help Rios off the books when he insists on "no hospitals," it's still not safe for him to be there, and Rios makes for a quick exit after getting treated. However, it's a little too late, as Homeland Security arrives for a raid on the facility before he can slip out.

Attempting to stay behind to help Dr. Teresa, Rios is instead taken into custody by the police. The officer who cuffs him asks for I.D., and when Rios admits that he doesn't have any, the man says, "let me guess, no UHC card?" Fans of "Deep Space Nine" will remember this line from the time travel two-parter, "Past Tense." When Sisko and Bashir arrive in 2024 they have no identification, just like Rios, and are stopped by police who ask for the same UHC card. Though it's never said what the card is, it's clearly used for identification in this version of 2024. Without one, it sounds like Rios is getting a one-way ticket to a Sanctuary District, just like Sisko.

Europa Mission

As Raffi gets acquainted with her surroundings in the homeless encampment, she eyes a massive banner on a building across the street that advertises an apparent mission to Europa, one of Jupiter's many moons. The banner reads "The New Interplanetary Explorers" and includes the classic "Star Trek" tag line, "...to boldly go!" While this could be a poster for a new movie or TV show in 2024, we're guessing this is a nod to the "Star Trek" universe's early space exploration efforts. Though they've yet to materialize in real life, in "Star Trek" history humanity began exploring other planets as early as the 2020s.

In the "Star Trek: Voyager" episode "One Small Step," the crew discovers a space module that had launched from Earth in 2032 and gotten lost on its way to Mars. In the episode, it's suggested that this wasn't Earth's first interplanetary mission. If the banner seen by Raffi is any indication, it seems like by 2024, humankind already has a mission to Europa on its mind.

Elnor's Medallion

If you're looking for some deep cut Easter eggs, strap in because this one's a doozy. In "Assimilation," after Confederation officers shoot Elnor, Raffi takes him for emergency medical treatment. Struggling to keep him alive, it starts to look like the young Romulan officer isn't going to make it. Elnor instructs Raffi to hand him a medallion he keeps in his pocket, explaining that it's a relic given to him by the Qowat Molat nuns on Romulus. He says it gives him comfort and wants to hold it as he lies dying.

However, the logo seen on the engraved medallion appears to be inspired by a Romulan design that's been seen before, if only briefly. The icon seen here harkens back to an episode of "The Next Generation." Ex Astris Scientia contributor Jörg Hillebrand noted on Twitter that the triangular symbol, circled with the Romulan phrase that translates to "now is the only moment," looks to have been based on the crest on the uniform of the Romulan commander Taris in the episode "Contagion."

The logo's use here as a Qowat Molat medallion could be seen as a retcon that indicates Commander Taris was a member of the same religious order.

Picard's family accent explained

In the fourth episode, "Watcher," Picard and Jurati leave the confines of the La Sirena and head to the Picard Chateau in 2024. The former Enterprise captain explains that at this point in history — nearly 400 years in the past — the Picard vineyard has been abandoned for generations, and it will be decades before the Picards return to occupy it once again. While giving Jurati a brief tour, Picard finally resolves a debate regarding his backstory that has raged among Trekkies for more than three decades.

According to Picard, during the Second World War, Nazis occupying France used his family's chateau as a base of operations. His family only survived, he says, when they fled into the underground tunnels. From there, the family escaped across the English Channel to the United Kingdom. This is a reference to how the famous Jean-Luc Picard, a Frenchman, is played by the English actor Patrick Stewart with no discernible French accent. It sounds like after arriving in the United Kingdom, the Picards assimilated into English culture and took on an upper-crust British accent, and kept it even after returning to France more than a century later.

Jurati's fixation on the number 15

Having brought the Borg Queen aboard the La Sirena to help guide them back in time, Picard and his crew once again rely on her for interdimensional knowledge. The Borg Queen claims to know the location of the Watcher, a being with awareness of other timelines which might be able to help them. However, to access the information, Jurati needs to be partially assimilated. It's a risky procedure, but she convinces Picard it's the only way. 

They get some of the information they need, but much of it is scrambled in Jurati's head. While Picard gives her a tour of his family's French chateau, Jurati begins subconsciously fixating on the number 15. Picard points out that while in the chateau's library she moves 15 beads on an abacus, selects the 15th volume of an encyclopedia, and picks up a bottle of pinot noir from 1915. This seems to indicate that there's some information rattling around in her subconscious — something Picard would recognize because he's seen this sort of thing before.

The subconscious fixation feels like a direct nod to the events of "The Next Generation" episode "Cause And Effect." In that episode, the Enterprise is stuck in a repeating loop of time, and Data implants a subconscious message to himself regarding the number three to help them solve the dilemma. Perhaps thanks to this experience, Picard can recognize the same phenomenon in Jurati and see the fixation on 15 as a potentially helpful subconscious message.

Punk on a bus

Time travel is at the core of some of the most classic "Star Trek" stories and provides some of the franchise's most memorable moments. One such instance is from "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," which sees Kirk and Spock aboard a commuter bus after traveling back in time to San Francisco. There, a large mohawk-sporting punk is carrying a boom box and blaring loud music, specifically the song "I Hate You" written and performed by "Star Trek" producer Kirk Thatcher . Annoyed by the crass music and cacophony of disruptive noise, Kirk asks the punk to turn it down, only to be met with a middle finger. 

Seeing no other choice, Spock reaches forward and gives the man a Vulcan neck pinch, knocking him unconscious and turning off the music. In the "Picard" episode "Watcher," we get a repeat of this scene, but with far different results. While Seven and Raffi travel on a similar commuter bus in Los Angeles, another mohawked punk carries a boom box playing a slightly altered new version of the same song, "I Still Hate You." This time though, when Seven angrily asks the man to turn the music off, the punk goes from angry to ashamed, turning off his boom box before sheepishly apologizing for causing the pair any trouble. "I just like that song, I'm sorry, my apologies," he says, in a surprising reversal of the original scene.

Not your fault

After shutting down the noisy punk, Raffi laments that they didn't stay in the future and craft a better plan rather than rushing into the past with no real strategy. The haphazard jump back in time resulted in Elnor's death, and Raffi is worried that they won't be able to bring him back by resetting the timeline. Seven attempts to console her, reassuring her that the responsibility for Elnor's death doesn't fall on her shoulders.

"You lost someone. And losing him was not your fault," Seven tells Raffi as she reaches out and holds her hand in a touching moment of empathy from the former Borg drone. This is more than just Seven attempting to make her partner feel better, though, as Seven has a history with guilt regarding a lost loved one. Her line to Raffi is a callback to Season 1 of "Picard," where we saw Seven lose Icheb, the young former Borg who became like a son to her. Although Icheb was killed by the villain Bjayzel, a woman hunting for Borg technology, Seven had felt that his death was largely her fault. 

The relationship between Raffi and Elnor parallels that of Seven and Icheb as quasi-parental figures to wayward souls. When Seven consoles Raffi, it's clear that the current situation also serves as a reminder to Seven that she too should bear no guilt for Icheb's death.

Boxing at Madison Square Garden

Seeking the Watcher, Picard finally gets a set of coordinates and beams over, finding himself in a familiar alley. He materializes at 10 Forward Ave, the same location as Guinan's bar in the 25th century, and realizes that Guinan may be the person he's looking for. However, it's a much smaller detail that's sure to draw the eyes of longtime Trekkies, as a brick wall in the background holds a well-worn "Star Trek" prop: a poster for a boxing match at Madison Square Garden.

First appearing in the classic "Star Trek" episode "The City on the Edge of Forever," the poster has since become an iconic Easter egg across the franchise, making re-appearances in other time travel episodes. It turned up in the background of "Past Tense," a two-part story on "Deep Space Nine," when O'Brien and Kira travel back to the 20th century looking for Sisko, Dax, and Bashir. The poster was seen again, albeit just barely, in the "Star Trek: Enterprise" episode "Storm Front" when history is altered and Captain Archer finds himself in Nazi-occupied New York City in 1944. 

Whether it was left up on the wall for decades or is some sort of 21st-century rematch, we still have to wonder why they're advertising a boxing match occurring at Madison Square Garden in downtown Los Angeles.   

Guinan's attitude and shotgun

Entering the bar, Picard discovers a much younger Guinan — now played by actress Ito Aghayere — with a much different attitude. Far more cynical, this Guinan in 2024 has had enough of the human race and is about to close her bar and depart planet Earth. She also doesn't recognize Picard, and that makes sense. After all, when Q altered history, there was no starship Enterprise to travel back in time to 1893 to meet Guinan in the two-part "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Season 5 cliff-hanger episode "Time's Arrow." It's possible that her new, less hopeful attitude is the result of never having met Picard and getting a peek into humanity's — and her own — future.

When she meets Picard in "Watcher," Guinan is more than just cynical — she's distrusting and suspicious. She makes it known she won't tolerate a thief by pulling a shotgun out from under the bar. This should come as no surprise to fans of "The Next Generation," who will remember that Guinan is known for keeping a powerful firearm at her side, even at Ten Forward on the Enterprise. In the episode "Night Terrors," when fear grips the Enterprise and a fight breaks out in the ship's lounge, Guinan pulls a phaser rifle from under her bar that she claims she got from Magus III. But in 2024, a simple pump-action shotgun is all she needs to ward off thieves, brawlers, and malcontents.

The 21st Street Mission

Viewers still reeling from the surprising sight of a younger Guinan and a new actress playing her may have missed the next Easter egg. Walking through the streets of downtown L.A., Guinan is headed to donate some items from her bar, which she has decided to close down before she leaves the planet. She and Picard stop at a tent labeled 21st Street Mission Donation Center, where they drop off Guinan's donations to benefit the less fortunate.

Of course, the 21st Street Mission is nothing new in "Star Trek," as it was previously seen in the episode "City on the Edge of Forever." When Kirk and Spock travel back to the 1930s New York, they're aided by Edith Keeler, who runs the 21st Street Mission, a homeless shelter that houses, feeds, and clothes those in need. It seems that by 2024, the organization has grown and now has satellite locations across the country, with a Los Angeles donation center near Guinan's bar.

Between this reference to the 21st Street Mission, the loud punk on the bus, and Sanctuary Districts, it seems like the producers of "Star Trek: Picard" are going all-in on references to past "Star Trek" time travel tales.

Chris Brynner, union-buster

At the tail end of the fourth episode, "Watcher," we find Q sitting at a table outdoors reading a copy of a contemporary newspaper, the Los Angeles Times. In this version of 2024, it seems the world has the same issues as the real world in 2022, with one headline noting that "Brynner fights unionization." The Guardian notes that unionization has been a hot-button issue in the real world, and it appears that the same is true in the "Star Trek" universe. 

The headline is a reference to Chris Brynner, the wealthy magnate from the "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" time travel episode "Past Tense." There he appeared as something of a cross between Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch. Brynner is the owner and CEO of a tech conglomerate called Brynner Information Systems and wields political influence through the several network channels he controls. While he presents himself as an elitist, he seems genuinely good-hearted and helps Dax locate her friends in the Sanctuary District, even coming to question the ethics of his time.

However, the headline of the paper held by Q reveals that Brynner is now anti-union. With this new stance, it's hard not to wonder if Brynner has been reimagined as an analog to Elon Musk, the complicated tech mogul that  NPR once described as "a vocal union opponent."

Jackson Roykirk Plaza

As Q sits at an outdoor dining area reading the Los Angeles Times, a young woman comes walking out of the NASA facility where they are preparing for the upcoming space flight mission to Europa. The building is marked conspicuously as the Jackson Roykirk Plaza, which at first might seem like the name of a real-life landmark in Los Angeles. However, fans of "Star Trek: The Original Series" will spot the name right away as a reference to a character mentioned in the episode "The Changeling."

In that episode, Captain Kirk and the Enterprise encounter a long-lost Earth space probe called Nomad that was launched in 2002. The probe, which was designed by a brilliant 21st-century scientist named Jackson Roykirk, was piloted by an artificial intelligence given a mission to seek out new life in the galaxy. Unfortunately, the probe's logic systems identified the aliens it encountered as imperfect and turned against them.

It seems that, in the fictional 2024 seen on "Picard," Roykirk is still remembered as one of the space agency's leading minds. Whether he is still alive and working for them in his later years or the plaza was named as a memorial to him after his death remains unknown.

The Pallid Son

While reading the paper, Q observes a mysterious woman who sits down at a table nearby. At first, she seems like a random passerby, but as Q focuses on her, it becomes clear that she may be more important than we first realize. "You can't do it, and you know it," Q says as the woman takes a seat and continues reading her book. However, it's not just any book the woman is leafing through — it's a book titled "The Pallid Son" by author Tracy Tormé.

But don't go hunting on Amazon for this one — well, not until "Star Trek" licensing inevitably produces a real version — because this is not an existing volume, nor a random book pulled off a shelf for her to read in the scene. A sharp eye will note that the book cover is adorned with the banner "A Dixon Hill Mystery." Dixon Hill was the name of a fictional detective in "Star Trek" and star of several novels — and later holodeck programs — preferred by Jean-Luc Picard. 

First mentioned in "The Next Generation," Dixon Hill has been referenced over the years in episodes of "Enterprise" and "Voyager" as well. The book's fictional author, Tracy Tormé, is named after the real-life writer of "The Next Generation" episode that the detective series first appeared in, "The Big Goodbye."

Trekkies love the tiniest easter eggs, the ones only found when hunting on second or third watches. Fans found one in the background of "The Watcher," hidden on the license plate of a car that read "S02 E01." Those in the know will instantly see this is no ordinary license plate number, but production code for "Season 2, Episode 1." This just so happens to correspond to the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "The Child," making it a clever, subtle nod to a major character's earliest appearance in the franchise.

The first episode of the show's second season, it's notable for being a recycled and reworked script originally intended for the never-produced 1970s "Star Trek" revival series . But it's also important for being the first time we saw Guinan, the El Aurian "listener" stationed in the ship's Ten Forward Lounge — who by no small coincidence plays a major role in this episode of "Picard." 

Floyd's barber shop

From the episodes so far, it looks like the producers of "Star Trek: Picard" enjoy filling episodes with some deep cuts, and we get yet another one as Picard and Guinan head down the street from her bar on Forward Avenue. They pass a number of merchants, one that would only be recognizable to the most astute observers of "Star Trek" lore, Floyd's Barber Shop. 

Once again, the new season that sees Picard traveling through time gives us a callback to the classic time travel episode "The City On The Edge Of Forever." This establishment is the same one that Kirk and Spock pass by in that episode, all the way back in 1967. Like the 21st Street Mission, it seems that Floyd's Barber Shop has gone national by 2024. It may be even more impressive that Floyd's is still operating after nearly a hundred years since Kirk and Spock landed in New York in 1930. 

Picard's family history

In the fifth episode of Season 2 we finally learn more about what the crew must do back to 2024, and the reason for the divergence in the timeline. We learn that the woman reading a Dixon Hill novel in "Watcher" was more than just a random passerby, but Renee Picard — an important thread in the tapestry of history, and a key figure in the family tree of Jean-Luc Picard. She is the lead astronaut for the upcoming Europa Mission, which we now know is more than a simple Easter egg referencing the series' fictional history of space flight. It is also a critical moment in the development of Earth towards their brighter future.

Renee Picard also fits in nicely to what we know of Picard's ancestors. In the "TNG" episode "Family" we met his brother and nephew, and it was said then that Picard's exploration of space went against the family's tradition. We know from the episode "Journey's End" that he was descended from a 17th century Spanish soldier, Javier Maribona-Picard, while a later Picard fought for the French at the Battle of Trafalgar. In the film "Star Trek: Nemesis," Picard looked back at his family history and noted that there weren't many Picards who were explorers, and he was in fact the only one to ever leave the Sol system.

It would seem that Renee Picard — who shares a first name with Jean-Luc's male nephew René — seems to fit in perfectly on the Picard family tree. While she is apparently one of the rare explorers that Captain Picard mentioned, it seems her exploration will be limited to our own solar system.

Gary Seven's coworker

Picard and the crew of the La Sirena have been seeking a mysterious being called the Watcher since arriving in the 21st century. After Guinan leads him to her doorstep we're finally introduced to a woman who somehow bears the likeness of Picard's Romulan companion Laris. But this is not Laris, as the Watcher — who introduces herself as Tallinn — seems as mystified as we are by the resemblance. Instead, she describes herself as a "supervisor" of Earthly events. She has been assigned the task of watching over historical events, and monitoring the destiny of Renee Picard in particular, who she describes as "a single thread" of the tapestry of history.

Picard recognizes Tallinn's self-description right away. "Kirk's Enterprise crossed paths with a human called Gary ... Gary Seven. He too was recruited by superior beings as an agent who would ... protect the tapestry of history." This is the season's second reference to Kirk's adventures on the Enterprise, this time a nod to the episode "Assignment: Earth." The episode saw Kirk and crew travel back to 1968, where they met a man called Gary Seven, who also called himself a supervisor — tasked with completing another agent's mission to ensure that humans did not annihilate each other in nuclear war. 

With the revelation of the Watcher as one of Gary Seven's people, we now know that the Supervisors do more than just help mankind on a broad historical level. They are also on Earth to watch over and protect important individuals whose lives could impact the Earth's destiny.

Adam Soong, eugenicist legacy

We had heard that actor Brent Spiner would be reappearing in Season 2 even before it began, but some fans had assumed he would be reprising his role from Season 1 as Altan Inigo Soong, the son of Data's creator Noonian Soong. Instead, he plays somone much earlier: Adam Soong, one of the scientist's ancestors. We saw a glimpse of him in the dark future, with a holographic monument to a man named "Adam Soong" who preached that "a safe galaxy is a human galaxy." Now, we meet Adam Soong in the flesh, who is not a man from the far future, but rather our present. In 2024, the ancestor of Noonian Soong is scientist and geneticist apparently looking for a cure for his daughter (played by Isa Briones, who also played Data's "daughter" in Season 1), who suffers from a rare condition that makes sunlight fatal to her.

Soong here is a leading geneticist, with delusions of curing all of the world's diseases with his research into eugenics. This meshes with the universe's fictional history, specifically the aftermath of the 1990s Eugenics Wars. This also tracks with what we know of the Soongs, and like Renee Picard, Adam Soong fits perfectly within the Soong family tree. On "Star Trek: Enterprise," set less than 150 years into Adam Soong's future, his descendant Arik Soong is a brilliant genetic researcher, a mad scientist who genetically altered embryos to become human super soldiers. It would seem now that the Soong family's obsession with improving humanity stretched further back than we ever suspected. Ultimately, this Soong has his medical license revoked for a number of ethical violations. 

Worf's long lost ancestor

Adam Soong's work in eugenics leads to a number of important breakthroughs, but it hasn't been without its controversy either. Having apparently experimented on ex-soldiers through a private contractor, he's been brought before a medical review board to explain himself. Among the panelists however, is a man with surname that fans of "The Next Generation" should know well. A dark-haired man sits silently with a cold stare, and his nameplate reads "Vassily Rozhenko, Vice Chair." This can not be anything other than an Easter egg referencing the "Next Generation" main character  Lieutenant Worf , the orphaned Klingon officer. After being found by humans at the site of the Khitomer Massacre as a child, Worf was raised by human foster parents on Earth, a kind Russian couple named Sergey and Helena Rozhenko. 

Sergey, of course, appeared in the episode "Family," mostly a story about Jean-Luc Picard returning to France; but in the B-story, Worf has a reunion with his Earth parents, too. We learn that Sergey was an enlisted Starfleet crewman aboard the USS Intrepid, and after marrying Helena, they had one biological son, Nicholai (played by Paul Sorvino in the episode "Homeward"). Later, Worf's son Alexander, by the Klingon Ambassador K'Ehlyr, would take their surname. Little else was revealed about the Rozhenko family, but here we learn they have a rich family history, with Vassily being an important figure in the world's medical community in 2024.

A time-traveling guest star/director

Vassily Rozhenko wasn't the only Easter egg on the medical review board, though. The panel's chairman is a woman named Diane Werner, and her appearance is a clever nod to the series' time travel roots. Not just any guest star, the woman who plays Werner is an actress with some experience in time travel shenanigan herself. She also happens to be woman who directed the episode, and the episode prior: Lea Thompson. Science fiction fans will know the name from the 1980s time travel trilogy, "Back To The Future," where Thompson played Marty McFly's mother, Lorraine Baines McFly. 

Through the 1990s, Thompson would feature in a number television and film roles, most notably as the title character Caroline Duffy in the NBC sitcom "Caroline In The City." She'd continue acting, with appearances in "ER" and "Scorpion" among many others, but would turn to directing more recently. She's sat in the director's chair for a number of shows, including "The Goldbergs," "Schooled," and "Young Sheldon." With two episodes of "Star Trek: Picard," she's entered the world of science fiction, a perfect fit for the woman who starred opposite Michael J. Fox in one of the most celebrated time travel classics.

First contact and World War III

Now that Picard has discovered the Watcher and learned just who and what their mission to restore history involves, he gathers the La Sirena crew to go over a plan of action. Some, including Rios, are perplexed at how Renee Picard, a single woman, could be so crucial to history that she's the difference between a bright and hopeful future and a dark totalitarian nightmare reality. Picard says he's not sure how or why his ancestor is so important either. Picard announces that "the history of this time period is wildly incomplete. The century leading up to first contact was just rife with chaos."

And Picard would know, as this is a clear reference to the events he took part in during the film "Star Trek: First Contact," another time travel story that saw the Enterprise go back to 2063 — just 39 years after this episode set. In that time, it's said that the Earth is still recovering from the Third World War, and most records of the era were lost or incomplete. Here, all Picard claims to know of his ancestor is that she commanded the Europa mission, and that while exploring the solar system, it was said that she discovered a micro organism on that she believed was sentient. 

Clearly this is a hint of things to come in the second half of Season 2, but if "Trek" history is anything to go by, it sounds like records of the day will be lost during a major global catastrophe.

Renee Picard's Birthday

In "Fly Me To The Moon," the watcher known as Tallinn explains the group's mission to infiltrate a prestigious gala to find Renee Picard and restore their original timeline. As she details the gala's security system, we're treated to a visual sequence showing a security guard scanning a wristband worn by Renee that brings up a digital image of the astronaut's passport.

A close look will show the ancestor of the former Enterprise's captain was born on November 22, 1996, which is no random pin drop on a calendar. It matches up precisely to the theatrical release date of "Star Trek: First Contact," the second film of "The Next Generation" era, which saw the debut of the Borg Queen, who also appears in this episode. This is no coincidence, either, and is likely an intentional reference from the episode's director, Jonathan Frakes  – who played Commander Riker on "The Next Generation" — as "First Contact" was his big-screen directorial debut.  

Q's Phone Number

In Episode 5, "Fly Me To The Moon," a time-traveling Q approaches the ancestor of Commander Data's creator Noonian Soong to ensure that Picard can not save his future timeline. He first appears to Soong in the form of a message on his computer, telling him to check his 3D printer. When Soong opens the device he finds a business card of sorts, with a complex etching of the letter Q, along with a string of numbers beneath. Keen viewers may have recognized it as a phone number, and the most obsessive "Star Trek" fans have taken to Reddit to report what occurred when they called the number on the card.

In perhaps the best Easter egg yet in the series, dialing the number on the card (323-634-5667) will get you a real message from Q himself (voiced by none other than actor John De Lancie) who proceeds to criticize you for wasting his time. We've transcribed the message below, but you really ought to hear it for yourself.

"Hello! You have reached the Q Continuum. We are unable to get to the phone right now because we are busy living in a plane of existence your feeble, mortal mind cannot possibly comprehend. Furthermore, it's pointless to leave a message because we, of course, already knew that you would call, and we simply do not care. Have a nice day!"

Soong's true purpose

We finally learn the true mission of Adam Soong in "Fly Me To The Moon." Though he initially claims that he is out to cure his daughter's debilitating genetic disorder, which makes sunlight and water poisonous to her, it seems that his actual goals are a bit more sinister. After his daughter Kore gets curious, she discovers files on his computer that reveal an alarming truth: she is not his first daughter. He's had many more, all of whom were apparently grown in a lab and died before reaching maturity. Some survived until childhood, but she seems to be the first to make it to adulthood.

This dark mission mirrors that of his descendant Arik Soong, who appeared in the "Star Trek: Enterprise" three-part story that began with "Borderland" in the series' fourth and final season. In that episode, it is revealed that the later Arik Soong (also played by Brent Spiner) has taken possession of genetically modified embryos left over from Earth's Eugenics Wars and raised them into adulthood while screening out any defects. It appears here that Adam Soong is doing the same or similar. However, Adam isn't having nearly as much success, perhaps owed to the more primitive science of his time. After all, Adam's experimentations occur more than a hundred years before Arik's. 

There's still much to be learned about Soong's dirty work, but it's clear that Arik Soong was not alone in his family's desire to grow the perfect human.

OV-165 Shuttle

At the gala, Renee Picard feels overwhelmed by the spotlight and retreats to a quieter room to be alone. While Q — disguised as her therapist — encourages her to back out of the mission, her descendant, Jean-Luc Picard, is there to ensure she follows through. He follows her and finds her in a hallway commemorating the history of Earth space flight, from the early orbiters all the way up to contemporary spacecraft in the fictional 2024. There we see many models, including the 1969 moon lander and the Shango X-1, which Renee Picard will pilot on the upcoming Europa Mission. 

When the two Picards meet and Renee is feeling too distraught to speak, Jean-Luc implores her to look up and tell him about the ship hanging in the museum above them. The ship we see is no stranger to "Star Trek," though it's never been seen in an actual episode. 

The ship in question is an OV-165, which can be seen in the opening credits of "Star Trek: Enterprise." Originally designed to show mankind's slow evolution from Apollo 11 to the NX-01 Enterprise, its appearance here is the first time we've seen a model of it. Renee describes it as a shuttle that has fuel-efficient "aero-spike" engines. It seems the writers of "Star Trek: Picard" are respecting the canon history of space exploration in Earth's fictional present day, including the OV-165 shuttle.

Nomad's return

In addition to the Shango X-1, the Apollo 11 capsule, and the OV-165 shuttle, viewers glimpse another space vessel in the hallway museum when the two Picards converse. This one is one that "Trek" fans should recognize if they are familiar with "The Original Series," episode "The Changeling." We already got one Easter egg referencing that episode when the name Jackson Roykirk popped up at the tail end of Episode 3. 

Here Roykirk's pioneering space probe itself, called Nomad, makes an appearance, with the model of the ship sitting clearly over Picard's shoulder throughout their conversation. Though we get only a fleeting glimpse of the model on-screen, promotional stills released ahead of the episode's premiere showed more. This includes the large signage accompanying the museum piece, which displays information about the model, confirming the vessel as Nomad. The spacecraft itself would be lost on its mission, only to turn up centuries later when it's found by Captain Kirk and the USS Enterprise after merging with another probe of alien design.

A relationship built on lies

When Raffi meets up with Rios during the Gala, she notes his upbeat attitude and connects it to his meeting Teresa. Warning him about falling in love in 2024, she tells him, "when you meet someone from another century, the relationship is kind of built on lies." While this is definitely good advice for Rios, it feels like a nod to previous "Star Trek" time travel episodes in which one of the main cast falls in love with someone from the past. 

In the original series episode "City on the Edge of Forever" Captain Kirk becomes romantically involved with Edith Keeler, a woman in 1930 New York, and is forced to let her die to preserve the timeline. He again becomes linked to a woman in 1986 after traveling back in time in the film "The Voyage Home," leading to a complicated conversation in a restaurant where he must dance around his true origins. 

In the "Star Trek: Voyager" two-parter "Future's End," it's Tom Paris who must cut short a budding romance with Sarah Silverman's character Rain Robinson — who clearly has the hots for him — because he has to return to the 24th century. Even in "Deep Space Nine" Jadzia Dax's quasi-romance with 21st-century industrialist Chris Brynner was doomed to failure. Whether just a coincidence or an intentional reference to similar "Star Trek" stories of old, Raffi is right to warn Rios about the perils of time-crossed romances.

Tensions rise

While Kore searches the internet for information on her father, Adam Soong, she pulls up several news sites with damning headlines. One calls her father a "mad scientist," while others note his violation of the Shenzhen Conventions. However, an easy-to-miss headline on another news site hints at events we may have seen before. 

On a news sidebar, a headline for a separate unrelated story reads "Tensions Rise as Conflict Reaches 30 Days," while another mentions unrest has caused peace talks involving the President to stall. With the episode set in 2024, this feels like another reference to the "Deep Space Nine" episode "Past Tense." 

"Past Tense" also features "Star Trek" crew members sent back to 2024, and it's prominently noted that the year is full of strife, with riots and civil unrest occurring everywhere from San Francisco to Europe. In one key scene, guests at a dinner party remark about a conflict between the so-called Neo-Trotskyists and violent student protestors. One guest even mentions that she canceled her trip to the Swiss Alps amid the violence. 

Classic models

As Episode 7, "Monsters," begins we are moved far from where the action of the previous episode left us. Though the former Enterprise captain is still in his tuxedo from the Europa Mission gala, he's now aboard some sort of space station and being interviewed by a mysterious therapist played by "Battlestar Galactica" alum James Callis. While some may have mistaken Callis for the similar-looking Alexander Siddig, who appeared prominently in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," the therapist will prove to be a key new character. 

While he speaks to his patient as any therapist would, there are other clues that something is not quite right — besides Picard's tuxedo. These irregularities include the therapist's outdated Starfleet uniform and combadge, along with a confusing array of relics on the desk behind him. There, we see display models from different points in "Star Trek" history. This includes the space station K-7, from the classic episode "The Trouble With Tribbles," and what appears to be station Regula I, seen in "Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan."

We also get a glimpse of an unidentifiable starship saucer, as well as what could be the USS Excelsior. It seems like these might even be store-bought model kits, but whatever the case it's a nice trip down memory lane and another clue as to the truth of the scene.

Holographic outdoor adventures

One of the keys to unlocking the mystery of James Callis' enigmatic therapist lies in his unusual knowledge of Picard's inner thoughts and feelings. He remarks on Picard's fear of enclosed spaces. Picard himself analyzes his claustrophobia, pointing out how interesting it is that a man suffering from such a fear would pursue a career among the infinite cosmos, the biggest open space there is. 

However, Picard tempers this observation by noting how he chose "a life on a vessel where his only access to the outside is holographic." Serious Trekkies will see this as a reference to "The Next Generation" and the Enterprise's holodecks, which were able to recreate any setting in a holographic environment. Picard himself has been known to utilize the holodecks for fun on a few occasions, such as when he adventures as the detective Dixon Hill in "The Big Goodbye" and uses its horse riding programs in "Pen Pals."

Still, Picard did not utilize the holodecks for leisure as much as some of the other Enterprise crewmembers. More often, Picard was content to sit in his quarters and read a good book or research topics like ancient interstellar archeology.

Lead them with inspiring speeches

During his therapy session, Picard recalls events from his childhood and the time he spent in the family estate's arboretum with his mother. During that time, Picard and his mother painted the glass walls with elaborate scenes from mythology, which she then used to teach him important lessons. One of the lessons taught by Picard's mother, "there is no better teacher than one's enemy," ultimately comes to have great importance in the episode. While speaking to the young Jean-Luc about his future, his mother tells him he is a prince, and that he must learn to inspire others in order "to lift them up in times of great danger, to lead them with inspiring speech."

If there's one defining quality of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, it is his penchant for big, inspiring speeches. Whether it was to make a case in defense of a friend in "The Measure of a Man" or to lecture a young officer in "The First Duty," Picard is perhaps the greatest speech giver in "Star Trek" history. Ironically, Q once noted this about Picard himself. When visiting Picard in "The Next Generation" episode "True Q," he remarks, "sometimes I think the only reason I come here is to listen to these wonderful speeches of yours."

The jazz singer

By the end of "Two of One," it looks like the Borg Queen has successfully taken over control of Jurati. The Queen has wormed her way into the young scientist's mind, accessing her memories and establishing an ability to communicate directly through her subconscious. By manipulating Jurati, the Queen gets the chemical release she needs to take over her body, and now it seems there's a quasi-Borg Queen loose in 2024 Los Angeles.

In "Monsters," we see the Queen/Jurati hybrid strutting down a major thoroughfare. We know that to survive the Queen needs a rush of endorphins, and we see her smashing a window to get that rush. However, when the scene moves to the inside of a dive bar, viewers see a woman singing with a band to entertain patrons. Those in the know will recognize that woman as none other than Patrick Stewart's real-life wife, singer Sunny Ozell.

"My appearance as a bar-band singer in Patrick's show was entirely his idea," Ozell revealed during an interview with  Entertainment Tonight . "When he first proposed it to me, I have to admit I was a bit reluctant ... But when I learned that CBS Studios and the episode's director, Joe Menendez, actually wanted me to sing one of my own tunes off my most recent record, 'Overnight Lows,' I couldn't resist the opportunity."

Even a Betazoid can't get a read

In Picard's therapy session, James Callis' Starfleet psychologist isn't getting anywhere with the obstinate Picard. Unwilling to be open and share his thoughts and feelings, the grumpy old Admiral wants to get on with things and be cleared for duty. He comments on Picard's stubborn nature, remarking that "there are those who have built such walls around their wounds that even a Betazoid can't get a read." Picard chuckles, as he knows a thing or two about Betazoids, having served alongside one on the Enterprise-D — and later Enterprise-E — for more than a decade.

Fans will recall the ship's resident counselor was Deanna Troi who, while not a full-blooded Betazoid and thus lacking traditional telepathic abilities, had incredible powers of empathy. Troi was able to sense the feelings of those around her no matter how hard they might try to mask them. Picard, a famously private man, was not fond of speaking of personal issues with her but respected the insight she provided, particularly when he was recovering from his time as an assimilated Borg. However, it seems that James Callis' mysterious therapist is having even more trouble than Troi at breaking down Picard's walls and revealing his hidden truths.

I work in outer space

Since first meeting Dr. Teresa, Cristobal Rios has clearly been smitten. Now, the feeling doesn't seem as one-sided as it once was. Though Raffi warned Rios about getting involved with a woman from another century — and he has tried to resist — it seems there's no holding back the attraction between them, Temporal Prime Directive or not. 

With Picard experiencing a coma of sorts, it's up to Tallinn to use a jury-rigged mind-meld to enter his subconscious and attempt to pull him out. However, Picard still needs help from outside, which is where Teresa comes in. Using a 25th-century medical device, Rios helps her through a procedure to stabilize the Admiral, at which point Rios reveals the truth of his origins. When Teresa asks if Rios is from outer space, however, he responds with a line that may sound familiar. After explaining that he is indeed from Earth, he says, "I work in outer space."

This is a clear reference to a memorable line in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" where Captain Kirk, stuck in 1986, sparks a relationship with another young doctor from that era named Gillian Taylor, a biologist at a marine center. When she gets suspicious, she sarcastically asks if he's from outer space, and Kirk deadpans, "No, I'm from Iowa. I only work in outer space." While Taylor laughs off the comment, Teresa believes Rios, especially after he transports her aboard the La Sirena. Kirk does the same later in "The Voyage Home" when he brings Taylor aboard his ship to help save the day.

Seven skips coffee

Meanwhile, Seven of Nine and Raffi work on the La Sirena to locate Jurati and the Borg Queen. They discover that the Borg Queen has locked them out of the ship's systems, and it's up to them to break the lockout, track down Jurati, and stop a Borg takeover of the 21st century. While getting down to business, Raffi prepares a couple of cups of strong coffee, setting one down on Seven of Nine's console. However, the former Borg drone keeps working, surprising Raffi, who observes, "You haven't touched your coffee. You never don't touch your coffee." 

Though Seven of Nine was not one to consume caffeinated beverages during her days in the Delta Quadrant, this seems like a nod to her former "Star Trek: Voyager" captain, Kathryn Janeway. Janeway, who was a role model for Seven of Nine, was well-known for her love of coffee, even calling it "the finest organic suspension ever devised" in the "Voyager" episode "Hunters." In fact, in the same episode, Janeway even claimed she beat the Borg with it — so perhaps Seven of Nine would be wise to take a few sips to help her stop the Borg Queen from taking over Jurati and escaping Earth.

Guinan and the Q Continuum

Heading into Season 2 of "Star Trek: Picard," fans wondered if they might finally get some answers to one of "The Next Generation's" biggest unresolved plotlines  by exploring the rivalry between the El-Aurian bartender Guinan and the god-like trickster Q. In "The Next Generation" episode "Q Who" Guinan and Q come face to face, and it's clear there is some history between them. Q describes Guinan as an "imp" and is incredulous that Picard has made her a member of his crew but refuses him the same honor. Guinan even makes a unique hand gesture that seems to be a defensive maneuver, suggesting that her people can resist the powers of the Q continuum.

In "Monsters," fans finally get the first piece of that puzzle when Picard seeks out the 21st-century version of Guinan for help in contacting Q. Guinan explains that her people and "the denizens of the Q Continuum" have been engaged in a long and brutal cold war, but have now reached a truce. She describes more about her people's powers, including the ability to literally bottle a moment in time. This confirms her people are not just familiar with the Q but have fought them, which is an intriguing new detail in the "Star Trek" universe. Beyond that, it also confirms suspicions that El-Aurians can defend themselves against the god-like powers of Q.

Picard's inner monologue

As Tallinn begins to explore the innermost recesses of Picard's mind, she finds herself in a dark dungeon of old stone-walled corridors. As she begins to walk, we hear voices — recognizable voices. We are hearing Jean-Luc Picard himself, and these aren't random words being spoken but lines taken from classic episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Though the lines overlap, some can be heard pretty clearly, and the first one is unmistakable. It is spoken by Locutus, the version of Picard that was assimilated by the Borg. "I am Locutus ... of Borg." 

From there, we hear the muffled line, "You are dangerous, they're only victims. You made them what they are. You asked them to defend your way of life and then you discarded them." This line is from the Season 3 "The Next Generation" episode "The Hunted." In that episode, the Enterprise visits a world aspiring to join the Federation but the crew is troubled to find a group of violent criminals who had once been soldiers. When Picard discovers that it was the world's leaders who turned them into ruthless killers, he speaks the harsh words that we hear now.

We also hear the line "I would rather die as the man I was" from "Tapestry," a Q episode where Picard is offered the chance to change his past. Finally, we hear the iconic line "There. Are. Four. Lights!" from the infamous scene where Picard is tortured by a brutal Cardassian interrogator in the episode "Chain of Command."

Seven's origins recalled

In Episode 8, "Mercy," Raffi and Seven of Nine are still trying to get a fix on the Jurati Queen's location. Following her trail leads to an alley where they find a man dead of an apparent attempted assimilation. Raffi and Seven of Nine conclude that the Jurati Queen is trying to create new Borg soldiers in the 21st century but doesn't have the raw material to do so yet. 

They manage to locate the man's cell phone, which is missing its battery. Seven of Nine notes that the stabilizing metals of a lithium-ion power source like a cell phone battery are just what the Jurati Queen needs. After all, when the Borg assimilate their victims, they inject them with stabilizing metals to help the body handle the invading Borg nanoprobes. This reminds Seven of Nine of her own assimilation, saying, "I remember the smell. I was six ... I can taste it." 

This directly references the events seen during a flashback in the "Star Trek: Voyager" episode "The Raven." In that flashback, viewers see a young Seven Of Nine — then called Annika Hansen — when she is first assimilated while on her parent's exploratory mission to learn about the Borg. We see in that episode her parents are first taken by the Borg, while young Annika runs to hide, although her actual assimilation is not shown on-screen. To this day, it seems that the traumatic experience still has a deeply profound effect on her.

Our paths have yet to cross

In "Mercy" we get another direct reference to the previous unresolved history between Guinan and Q first teased in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Q Who." That episode mentions a cold war between El-Aurians and Q, but here it becomes clear that this period of conflict was not when Q met Guinan. When Q comes to visit her while disguised as an FBI Agent, he seems surprised to see her and even more confused when she doesn't recognize him. This is the first meeting between Q and Guinan in more than 30 years on screen, and he makes a remark that references their past connection when he says, "That's right, it's the 21st century. We haven't met yet."

This at least gives Trekkies a time frame to work with, because all we knew about their history before this was that their "dealings" together were more than 200 years before their meeting in "Q Who," which is set in 2365. Thanks to this new scene, fans can now narrow down their first canonical encounter to somewhere between 2100 and 2165, given the way Q has phrased it here. We still don't know quite what happened at that meeting, but perhaps we'll get more answers as the season winds towards the finish line.

Good and new

The biggest Easter egg found in the latest meeting between Q and Guinan comes with the revelation that the Q are dying. Turmoil in the Q continuum is nothing new, as we saw during his three appearances on "Star Trek: Voyager," and this scene appears to be a direct callback to those events. 

It all begins in the "Star Trek: Voyager" Season 2 episode "Death Wish," where a member of the Q is discovered imprisoned in a comet for the crime of desiring to end his own life. Bored with his unending existence, the second Q — named Quinn — wishes to cease to exist, but the continuum fears the loss of his life could create a catastrophic disruption. As Quinn points out, "They're afraid of me because they're afraid of the unknown."

However, Q himself is not afraid. Despite the continuum's wishes, he rebels and assists in Quinn's suicide. In the Season 3 episode "The Q and the Grey," Quinn's death causes ripple effects through the continuum, resulting in a catastrophic Q civil war. One side wants the stability and predictability of the old ways, while the other wants to embrace change, individuality, and the unknowable. Here, Q notes that his loss of powers leaves him with an uncertain future, saying he is "on the threshold of the unknowable" and seemingly delighted to experience what is new and unknown, despite his impending demise. "Infinite life, after all, has its drawbacks," he says, echoing the sentiments of Quinn from "Death Wish."

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

Vulcans on 1970s Earth

In "Mercy" we finally get a glimpse of a scene from an early trailer that features a pair of Vulcans in the woods with a young human boy. Here we learn that the scene takes place some decades earlier, perhaps as early as the 1970s, when FBI Agent Wells was just a child. While looking for his dog, the future agent Wells stumbles upon a pair of Vulcans engaged in some form of monitoring of Earth. That Earth had been visited before by Vulcans for covert surveillance is not a new revelation, as it is first mentioned in the "Enterprise" episode "Carbon Creek."

In that Season 2 episode of "Enterprise," we learn that science officer T'Pol's foremother T'Mir was on a Vulcan ship that had been monitoring Earth in the 1950s. T'Mir and a small team wind up trapped on Earth after crash landing in Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania, and live undercover as humans until they are rescued, with T'Mir posing as a young woman named Maggie. T'Pol mentions in the episode that T'Mir's visit was her people's first contact with humanity. Now, we see that the Vulcans undertook further missions to observe human progress, just as the Federation observes pre-warp societies. The Vulcans in "Mercy" even use a handheld device that's a near-identical match for those carried by Vulcans on "Enterprise."

Interestingly, the young boy's dog is named Maggie, and given showrunner and head writer Terry Matalas' meticulousness, we can't help but see that too as an intentional reference to "Carbon Creek."

The Vulcan mind meld

When Agent Wells reveals his childhood encounter with aliens, we recognize them as a pair of Vulcans, but the young human boy in the 20th-century sees only strange inhuman beings. He tries to run, but the Vulcans follow him into the woods before performing an alien ritual to erase his memory and preserve the secret of their meeting. However, it must not have worked because Wells remembers everything about that evening, including the alien's attack, which is how he interprets what Picard later identifies as a Vulcan mind meld.

Wells describes the mind meld as a vicious assault. He says, "his whole hand was going to pull my eyeballs out, his fingers were going into — through — my skin ... he wouldn't let go, like he was pushing into my head." Of course, that was not the case, and Picard describes more accurately what the Vulcan had done by pressing his fingers gently onto the agent's face in the traditional form we've seen in several "Star Trek" episodes before. 

Picard's knowledge of the mind meld technique, as performed by Vulcans such as Spock, Tuvok, and Soval, comes from the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Sarek," in which Picard is the recipient of a mind meld demonstrated by Spock's father, Sarek. 

Borg taglines, revisited

First introduced in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" second season episode "Q Who," the Borg's black-clad cyborg visage has become an iconic part of pop culture. Their cube-like starships are as oddly distinctive as any spacecraft in science fiction, and the two-part episode "The Best of Both Worlds" is a TV classic. 

Like any good characters in fiction, the Borg also have several catchphrases and memorable lines that have entered the lexicon. Perhaps most famous is their monotoned greeting "We are the Borg ... Resistance is futile." This line is revisited here in "Mercy," but with a 21st-century twist. When the Jurati Queen visits Adam Soong, she states, "I assume a lecture on the futility of resistance isn't going to be necessary."

Once Adam Soong has supplied her with what she needs — an army of highly trained military soldiers — the two prepare for a mission. In a sense, these mercenaries are Earth's first Borg drones, with the Jurati Queen injecting them with Borg technology and changing them into her own willing army. As the nanoprobes infiltrate one soldier's body, she asks the group, "who's in the mood to add a little of their biological and technological distinctiveness to our own?"

This echoes the early speech that the Borg give Picard as an ominous warning about their intentions towards humanity. For that is the Borg mission statement: to absorb other beings, cultures, and technology, adding everything unique and distinctive about them to their collective whole.

A deep cut nod to Deep Space Nine's California governor

If you want a real deep cut, we've got one for you. After Seven of Nine and Raffi track down the Jurati Queen In "Mercy," they find her stealing parts from parked cars. Seven and Raffi confront this dangerous new villain, who proceeds to attack them physically. However, look around the alleyways during these scenes and you'll see some graffiti that reads "RECALL." After the Jurati Queen tosses Seven aside and releases Raffi from her grasp, she walks away and we can see a street sign with the full phrase "RECALL CHEN."

This is a direct reference, once again, to the "Deep Space Nine" time travel two-parter, "Past Tense." Also set in 2024, at least one scene references the California governor who has issued a statement on the situation in the Sanctuary District, who is addressed as "Governor Chen." Later, his full name is listed on a sign as Robert Chen. It seems that the Bell Riots aren't the first trouble Chen has faced in his term, and he's embroiled in enough scandal that the people want him out of office. By coincidence, the real-life governor of California, Gavin Newsom, was the subject of a potential recall vote in 2021 that failed to pass, per NPR .

It's also not the only Easter egg to be found in the graffiti, as the phrases "gimmies" and "gallists"[sic], both of which are seen in "Past Tense," can also be found. Gimmies is the nickname for the homeless in Sanctuary Districts, and Gaullists is a reference to a political movement in Europe.

NX-01 Refit

During further flashbacks to Jean-Luc Picard's childhood, we see the young future Enterprise captain playing with toys in the family home. Among them is a ship sure to make Trekkie's eyes widen: the NX-01 Refit. The NX-01 is easily identifiable as the titular starship featured in the 2001 series "Enterprise" starring Scott Bakula. While the series lasted four seasons, the events it depicted are rarely mentioned, mainly because the entire series was a retcon of "Star Trek" history. Making this version of the NX-01 Enterprise even more difficult to identify, however, is the fact that it was never seen on screen. It has only been the subject of conjecture, developed by designers and model makers for a future the series never saw.

Originally planned to be introduced into a fifth season that never happened — thanks to an abrupt cancelation in 2005 — it has only ever been seen off-screen. Artwork of the NX-01 Refit was seen in the "Star Trek: Ships Of The Line" calendar series, while Polar Lights produced a model kit of the variant starship as well. In fact, the version we see in this episode appears to be a model produced by Eaglemoss as part of their Hero Collector series of "Star Trek" starships.

Hide and Seek

In Episode 9, "Hide and Seek," we finally learn the truth behind Picard and his mother's games of hide and seek, a reference to a moment in the ninth "Star Trek" film, "Star Trek: Insurrection." In that movie, Commander Data is malfunctioning and on the run, leaving it up to Picard and Worf to track him down. While in a shuttlecraft, Captain Picard notes that as a boy, he and his mother used to play games of hide and seek, which we've seen firsthand this season. However, we now learn there was far more to those games than we ever imagined.

Here, we discover that a fateful game of hide and seek led to a terrible incident in Picard's youth. It started innocently enough with a game in the chateau, but after a short time, Picard's mother asks him to continue the game in the tunnels beneath the estate. Picard remarks the tunnels are forbidden, but she manages to coax him down in the hopes of leaving the chateau entirely. His mother takes him through the dark tunnel, attempting to run from her husband, but Jean-Luc gets stuck in a wooden floorboard. His mother leaves without him, and young Picard must be rescued by his father. Later that evening, his mother suffers a severe mental breakdown and takes her own life, adding dark new context to a seemingly innocent moment in "Star Trek: Insurrection."

Seven's fate after Voyager's return

Ever since Season 1 of "Star Trek: Picard," fans have wondered what happened in Seven of Nine's adventures following "Star Trek: Voyager" that caused her to turn to vigilantism and the Fenris Rangers  rather than Starfleet. Well, thanks to Episode 9 of Season 2, we finally know why, and it harkens back to several episodes of "Star Trek: Voyager." 

While running from the newly-minted Borg soldiers in the tunnels beneath the Picard Chateau, Seven of Nine and Raffi have another heart-to-heart. As they arm up and prepare to take on the squad of soldiers chasing them, Raffi comments that Seven — who is shouting orders at him — sounds like a starship captain. She says that Seven should have joined Starfleet, and it's then that we learn why she never did, finally giving fans a deeper glimpse into what happened to Seven after returning to the Alpha Quadrant in the "Star Trek: Voyager" finale. 

According to Seven, she did attempt to join Starfleet but was turned away because of her time as a Borg drone. Apparently, her former captain Janeway "went to bat" for her, even threatening to resign, but Seven opted to abandon her Academy aspirations and become a Fenris Ranger. This chain of events mirrors concerns that Seven of Nine expressed more than once in "Star Trek: Voyager" when she considered staying behind in the Delta Quadrant because she feared that she would not be accepted on Earth. It seems that her beliefs were well-founded.

Holo-Elnor's mobile emitter

One of the many unresolved questions fans had about "Star Trek: Voyager" is what became of the Doctor's autonomous holographic emitter, a piece of 29th-century technology picked up during their time travel adventure in "Future's End." The device allows the Doctor to leave the confines of not just the sickbay but the ship entirely, as it gives him a freedom of movement that makes him more human than ever before. But how would Starfleet feel about using such an advanced piece of tech, seemingly in violation of the Temporal Prime Directive? Here we find out, and it seems that the Doctor's mobile emitter has become a piece of invaluable technology found aboard the La Sirena.

Not only do we see one in use, we see it power an ECH. However, this is not the Emergency Command Hologram first seen in the "Star Trek: Voyager" episode "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy," but an Emergency Combat Hologram. This hologram, which is in the image of their deadly Romulan cohort Elnor, sports what appears to be an updated version of the mobile emitter, which is used to keep Borg forces and the Jurati Queen at bay. Though we learn little about the device, holographic Elnor points it out while he explains how he exists separate from the ship's systems to keep the lock-out codes out of the Queen's reach. Elnor also suggests that not only has the 29th-century device lived on but may now be in regular use throughout Starfleet — or at least among renegades like Seven of Nine.

Yvette Picard's tea time

Since the beginning of the season, Picard's mother Yvette has played a major role in the story. Yvette is seen only once in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" when she appears during a hallucination that the captain experiences while traveling through an unusual region of space in "Where No One Has Gone Before." In that distant part of the galaxy, thoughts become reality, and Picard finds himself face to face with his mother. In his hallucinatory vision, Yvette Picard asks her son to sit with her for a cup of tea and a chat. Picard notes that her presence is impossible because his mother is dead.

However, in this episode of "Picard," we learn exactly how she died when Picard was young. Having suffered from severe mental illness, she takes her own life after her son lets her out of her room, leaving him to feel responsible for her death. At first, this seems like an irreconcilable retcon, with Yvette dying as a young woman rather than the elderly version we saw on "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Even as a hallucination, how could Picard remember her as an old woman if she never was one? However, in a direct reference to "Where No One Has Gone Before," Picard says that long after her death he often imagined her having grown older and inviting him for a cup of tea and a chat as an old woman. It's a clever Easter egg for longtime fans that helps resolve a potential plot hole in a satisfying way.

Wesley, The Travelers, and the Supervisors

In the "Star Trek: Picard" Season 2 finale "Farewell" we get more than goodbyes, as we also say hello again to a familiar face not seen in more than 20 years. With Dr. Soong's genetically engineered daughter Kore left lost and confused, having sabotaged her father's work, and now directionless, we find her struggling to make sense of her life when she is visited by a friendly stranger we recognize as longtime "Star Trek" fan favorite Wil Wheaton, reprising his role as Wesley Crusher in a jaw-dropping surprise cameo that nobody saw coming. 

Last we saw Wesley was in "Star Trek: Nemesis" where he had rejoined Starfleet, to the surprise of many, because he had renounced his commission in the "TNG" Season 7 episode "Journey's End." In that episode he'd grown tired of Starfleet and left his life behind to explore the universe with the mysterious alien called the Traveler. 

It seems now that "Star Trek: Picard" is treating his Starfleet return in "Nemesis" with a wink, as Wesley announces that he has indeed become a Traveler himself, referencing the events of "Journey's End." But we also get a stunning revelation that rewrites more than 50 years of "Star Trek" lore. Because Wesley is more than just a Traveler, revealing that he and others like him are responsible for the Supervisors like Gary Seven, first seen in the "Original Series" episode "Assignment: Earth." He also declares that it's the Travelers who have made it their job to watch over the timeline and ensure history plays out the way it should, tying together two long-unresolved "Star Trek" plot lines.

The Battle Of Maxia

In the final moments of the Season 2 finale "Farewell" we learn the identity of the strange Borg woman who arrived on the Stargazer in the season premiere. Revealed to be the Jurati Queen created through Picard's intervention in 2024, she has arrived looking for help from the Federation. According to her, there is a dangerous new threat that only the combined efforts of her Borg collective and Starfleet can solve. 

Once she declares the dangers she brings up a star chart on the Stargazer's viewscreen filled with plenty of "Star Trek" Easter eggs, from Benzar to Draylax. But one stands out as particularly meaningful on "Star Trek: Picard." The star system Maxia can be clearly seen when the chart first appears, and it's a system well known to Picard. As revealed in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" first season episode "The Battle," it's at Maxia that Picard had a fateful encounter with the Ferengi while he was captain of the original USS Stargazer. In a brutal defeat, the Stargazer was seemingly destroyed, but Picard used clever tactics to save his crew, including a deft strategy that became known as "The Picard Maneuver."

Eventually known as "The Battle of Maxia," it resulted in Picard being courtmartialed after the loss of his ship, leaving a major stain on his otherwise impeccable service record. Of course, he would be somewhat redeemed in "The Battle" when the Stargazer was discovered intact, and used as part of a revenge plot by Ferengi Daimon Bok for the death of his son at the Battle of Maxia.

Transwarp conduits

Of course, the next Easter egg is what the Jurati Queen discovers as the danger to the galaxy: a massive spatial anomaly that erupts with incredible energy. Thanks to the use of the Federation fleet and Borg technology, they're able to avert a catastrophe, but in the aftermath, something new and curious is created: a transwarp conduit. Seven of Nine, being a former Borg drone, recognizes the phenomenon right away, a nod to the events of "Star Trek: Voyager" where transwarp conduits were seen several times, with Seven having expert knowledge of their fundamental nature.

Used by the Borg for interstellar travel, transwarp conduits can be created by Borg vessels themselves to travel vast distances in an instant. Seven of Nine notes that this new conduit is unlike any ever seen before, and it seems that even the Jurati Queen with her centuries of knowledge is confounded by it as well. "Even with our collective knowledge that answer remains elusive," she says. "What you see is a piece of the puzzle whose final image is unclear but is tied to a threat, one which requires close observation." Who or what created this transwarp conduit, or for what purpose, remains to be seen, and could form the basis for the upcoming third season of "Star Trek: Picard."

First Contact theme

"Star Trek" isn't just known for its characters, stories, and one-liners, but also features some of pop culture's most famous musical themes. The original "Star Trek" opening title music has become indelibly etched into the public consciousness, while the rousing march that plays over the credits of "The Next Generation" isn't far behind in the collective consciousness. For decades "Star Trek" has employed one of the movie industry's best musical scorers, Jerry Goldsmith, and "Farewell" features another of his "Star Trek" themes in its closing moments.

While Picard and his crew, along with his old friend Guinan, toast each other at the end of the episode, we hear the unmistakable theme from "Star Trek: First Contact." A recognizable tune, it played at the close of that film as well as when Zephram Cochrane made first contact with alien visitors, a Vulcan survey ship. Here it's used to good effect — in a scene that in some ways mirrors the final scene of "The Next Generation" with Picard joining his crew in a casual setting — to say goodbye. 

The use of Goldsmith's 1996 movie theme is not the first reference this season to "First Contact," which also centered a time travel story that also gave us the first appearance of the Borg Queen, but it may be the best and most emotional one.

How Earth became a paradise

For decades, "Star Trek" has always pointed to Earth as a near utopia, with several episodes and movies describing it as a literal paradise. In "Star Trek: First Contact" the crew travels back to 2063, and it's said that in the years that follow, Earth would cure many of its worst ills, from poverty and disease to pollution and war. In "Farewell" we get a reference to those long-held secrets of the franchise's fictional history as it's revealed just how Earth fixed one of its biggest dilemmas — one that we face in the real world today.

Visiting Guinan at her bar on Earth back in the 25th century, Picard asks for an update on Rios, who stayed behind in 2024 to be with Dr. Teresa and her son. Guinan then tells Picard about the rest of Rios' life, how he died in a bar fight as an old man. But it's what became of Dr. Teresa's son that provides an answer to a longtime "Trek" mystery. According to Guinan, young Ricardo grew up to be a scientist, and in concert with Rene Picard's discovery of a unique alien organism on Europa, helped devise new ways of treating and solving the Earth's pollution problem, healing the world and cleaning the sky. 

Project Khan

As we enter the final episode of Season 2, Adam Soong (Brent Spiner) has developed elaborate final failsafe plans to stop the Europa mission. The first of these involves deadly drones designed to stop the Shango X-1 shuttle as it exits Earth's atmosphere. The second is to assassinate Renée Picard before she can board the shuttle to Europa. Thankfully, Raffi, Rios, and Seven manage to stop the drones, while Tallin sacrifices herself to allow Renée to make it aboard the shuttle safely.

As Soong returns to his lab enraged by his failures, his "daughter" Kore takes control of his computer monitors and begins deleting all of his research files. Furious, Soong sits back, seemingly accepting that his work was all for nothing. Just as we think his story is over, Soong pulls a folder from his desk labeled "Project Khan." This is more than just a reference to classic "Star Trek" villain Khan Noonien-Singh, as it appears to be a direct connection to his descendant Arik Soong — also played by actor Brent Spiner — seen in a 2004 storyline on "Star Trek: Enterprise." 

About a hundred years later Arik Soong will also work in eugenics. At least some of Soong's research survives as "Project Khan" is passed down through the generations, ultimately leading to Arik's work on Augments embryos.

Screen Rant

I agree with picard's showrunner about the best way to tell star trek stories.

Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas discussed his approach to Star Trek storytelling, and what the best way to tell Star Trek stories is.

  • Combine long-form arcs with weekly missions for an engaging Star Trek series.
  • Star Trek movies don't capture the character depth of the TV show.
  • TV format allows for exploration of philosophical questions in a meaningful way.

Star Trek: Picard season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas has the right idea when it comes to the most effective way for Star Trek to tell stories. Matalas served as showrunner for Picard seasons 2 and 3, but season 3 told the story that most resonated with fans. Over the course of Picard season 3's ten episodes, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) reunited with his old crew members from the USS Enterprise-D to save the galaxy yet again. With a compelling story and a heavy dose of nostalgia, Star Trek: Picard season 3 became the show's most successful season, and fans have been clamoring for a spin-off since its release.

While Star Trek: Picard season 3 had a clear season-long story arc, each episode also had its own mission or conflict. Throughout its history, Star Trek has toyed with different ways to tell stories, from episodic and serialized television to feature films. When Star Trek: The Original Series began in 1966, the television landscape was vastly different from what it is today. Aside from soap operas, very few shows were serialized and TOS embraced the "mission of the week" approach. Modern television tends to focus more on heavy serialization, but Star Trek works best when it finds the sweet spot between the two.

Star trek enterprise archer the next generation picard captain burnham

How To Watch All Star Trek TV Shows In Timeline Order

Star trek works best with a combination of serialized & episodic storytelling, star trek can have both season-long arcs and "mission of the week" episodes..

Terry Matalas joined members of the Master Replicas Collector’s Club for a conversation over Zoom. As reported by TrekMovie , the discussion quickly turned to the topic of Star Trek: Legacy , the proposed spin-off of Star Trek: Picard . Matalas reiterated that nothing is currently in the works regarding Legacy , but he's more than willing to return if and when it happens. Although Matalas revealed few details about his ideas for the potential spin-off, he did speak some about his storytelling approach. Read his full quote below:

There’s a larger richer story you can tell over ten hours than just one. If I were to do another series, I would do a hybrid. I think you do a version of both longer arcs and 'of the week' Star Trek stories is a great way to do it—in a way that Strange New Worlds is doing it, but maybe a hair more serialized.… As far as serialized and 'of the week,' I think they live can live together. 12 Monkeys was a show that had an episodic identity in which each episode was primarily a kind of different mission, but it was still part of a whole. What’s interesting with Star Trek is new missions come in but there can be longer arcs. The one I think about the most is FX’s The Shield with Michael Chiklis. It was a procedural cop show with a new cop thing every week, but there were serialized threads—major ones—running through the series that were phenomenal. That’s the way to do it, in my estimation.

Terry Matalas mentions Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (and 12 Monkeys, which Matalas co-created ) as a potential blueprint for combining serialized and episodic storytelling. Strange New Worlds works as well as it does because it combines the classic Star Trek "mission of the week" format with the more modern trend of serialization. Back in 1986, Star Trek: The Next Generation began to incorporate small elements of serialization into its stories, and this became even more pronounced in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . By the end of DS9 , the show leaned into serialized storytelling for a multi-part Dominion War arc.

Later shows, like Star Trek: Enterprise, leaned even more into serialization, and Star Trek: Discovery leaned further still.

Star Trek Movies Never Capture What Makes The TV Series Great

The star trek films are missing a certain magic unique to the television series..

William Shatner, Patrick Stewart and Chris Pine in Star Trek

While it's true that Star Trek has produced some great movies , some of the magic of Star Trek is lost in its transition to the big screen. Star Trek succeeds largely because of its characters, and the length and variety of a television show allow for more character development than a two-hour movie. Two of the most successful Star Trek films, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek: First Contact, would not have worked without the character development and plot elements established in TOS and TNG , respectively.

The storytelling structure of television, whether episodic or serialized, gives Star Trek more time and creative freedom to explore the universe's often unanswerable questions in a more meaningful way.

Star Trek excels at the quieter moments, like Captain James T. Kirk's (William Shatner) tragic time travel love story in TOS's "The City on the Edge of Forever" or Lt. Commander Data's (Brent Spiner) trial in TNG's "The Measure of a Man." These stories may not have had space battles or evil villains, but they profoundly impacted the characters and had far-reaching consequences. At its heart, Star Trek is a franchise about exploration — not only exploring the stars but also exploring what makes us who we are. The storytelling structure of television, whether episodic or serialized, gives Star Trek more time and creative freedom to explore the universe's often unanswerable questions in a more meaningful way.

Star Trek: The Original Series , Star Trek: The Next Generation , & Star Trek: Picard are available to stream on Paramount+.

Source: TrekMovie.com

One Star Trek: Picard Episode Gave Brent Spiner A Career-First Challenge

Star Trek: Pciard Spiner

By the third season of "Star Trek: Picard," Data ( Brent Spiner ) had already died twice. At the end of 2002's "Star Trek: Nemesis," Data sacrificed his life to blow up a massive Romulan warship and save the USS Enterprise-E from danger. In the first season of "Picard," however, a motivated cyberneticist gathered up particles of Data's exploded body from deep space and used them to somehow reconstitute Data's brain with its memories intact. Data's consciousness was kept alive in a database on a faraway android homeworld until Picard (Patrick Stewart) found it. Data revealed that he was quite finished being alive and asked that Picard unplug his consciousness. Picard agreed and Data died a second time. 

In the third season of "Picard," however, it was revealed that the cyberneticist, Dr. Altan Soong (also Spiner), had saved a copy of Data's consciousness and shunted it into a brand new android body. This new body looked like a 74-year-old Brent Spiner, and also contained the recreated consciousness of Data's evil twin Lore, as well as several other android characters. When this new composite version of Data was activated, it couldn't initially determine which of its personalities would be dominant. It ultimately came down to which consciousness was more assertive, Data's or Lore's? 

To visualize this inner struggle, Data and Lore were depicted standing opposite each other in a vast empty white space — a space inside Data's mind. Like Spiner had done in past episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," he played both Data and Lore, the android brothers bickering about which of them was "better." 

In a recent conversation with TrekMovie , Spiner talked about the logistics of acting opposite himself, and how "Star Trek: Picard" forced him to play such scenes in a new way. Namely, the director never yelled cut.

Acting opposite one's self in real time

Fans may recall that the character of Lore was first introduced in the 1998 "Next Generation" episode "Datalore." Spiner became adept at playing opposite himself. Using compositing VFX technology — or sometimes just clever editing — Spiner could play multiple characters in the same room. In the 1990 episode "Brothers," he pulled triple duty, playing Data, Lore, and the elderly Dr. Noonien Soong. While making these multi-Spiner episodes, however, the directors were always careful to keep Spiner in distinct costumes, allowing audiences to known which Spiner they were looking at in a given moment. He would film the scenes as one character, acting opposite stand-ins, then change outfits, and do the scene again.

For "Picard," however, Data and Lore were both abstractions of the same Data, meaning that for the first time, they wore the same costume. Also, their scenes were merely face-to-face conversations in a white void, so there was no set to move around. As long as this was true, Spiner was allowed to play both parts without any edits. The actor described it like this: 

"[T]here was somebody in costume and makeup for me to look at [on 'Picard']. But there were times in that scene — and this I have never done before — where I would leave the frame as one character and literally come in the other side of the frame as the other character. And there were no cuts. The camera was moving and I was moving and I would just be the other person. It was a challenge! It took an entire day to do that scene and it was a challenge."

Only voice actors typically have to play multiple characters simultaneously. Live-action actors rarely get the privilege.

Spiner's big challenge

Since the characters were dressed the same and had the same makeup, mid-scene character flips needed to be particularly clear; Spiner could no longer rely on costumes to denote which character he was. It was up to him, as an actor, to communicate instantly if we was Data or Lore in any given shot. He continued: 

"It really was [a challenge]! Because there was nothing other than the occasional prop to identify which was which other than the playing of the same. To me, I had intentions for one character that were not the same intentions for the other character, so it was easy for me to separate the two. It was a question in our minds whether it would be that easy for the audience. I thought it would, but I haven't seen it, so you tell me." 

As of this writing, Spiner may have watched the episode of "Picard" in question. (For those who are curious, it's called "Surrender.") Or perhaps not; many actors love to act, but hate to watch recordings of themselves. Spiner may be one of those actors. 

Also as of this writing, there have been no announced plans for Data/Lore to return to "Star Trek." Patrick Stewart has expressed interest in playing Picard for a final movie , but one is not currently in production. The final season of "Picard" closed the book on those characters and Data's future will remain unwitnessed by Trekkies. This is fine. "Picard" was a good enough stroll down memory lane. It's okay to bid Data farewell. 

FanSided

Wil Wheaton would love to come back and build on the end of Star Trek: Picard season two

Wil Wheaton played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Wesley left in season four to join Starfleet Academy, but in The Next Generation's season 7, episode 2, "Journey's End," he's convinced that his future lies with The Traveler. So Wesley leaves his friends and his mother and begins to travel the Universe. He came back as a Traveler in the seconed season finale of Star Trek: Picard where he offers Kore a chance to give her life "purpose and meaning."

At the 51st annual Saturn Awards, Wheaton spoke with Screenrant via Comicbook and said he'd love to be a part of the continuation of that storyline if the story was right.

"if the story was right, ... do something that built a little bit on the story we implied at the end of Star Trek: Picard Season 2, I would love to come back and be part of that."Wil Wheaton

Would that mean bringing Isa Briones (Kore) back as well or simply following Wesley on his journeys as a Traveler, recruiting other Travelers? Either one has an interesting premise.

Wheaton also said he'd love to work with Ed Speleers, his onscreen half-brother, Jack Crusher, if only to let him know he was keeping an out eye on his younger brother. This is something that should happen as Wesley hasn't met Jack onscreen yet, and with Jack potentially facing Q in the future, he needs another omniscent being on his side.

"I would love to have opportunities to work with Ed Speleers and be like, 'Turns out I'm your half-brother you never knew about. I'm kind of a super being. You're not supposed to know that I'm here. Things don't need to get weird for you, but don't worry, I'm keeping an eye on you. I'm out!'"Wil Wheaton

That would definitely be something worth seeing, even if it's only for a few episodes. Both Speleers and Wheaton working together would be gold.

This article was originally published on redshirtsalwaysdie.com as Wil Wheaton would love to come back and build on the end of Star Trek: Picard season two .

Wil Wheaton would love to come back and build on the end of Star Trek: Picard season two

AIs are more accurate at math if you ask them to respond as if they are a Star Trek character — and we're not sure why

  • An AI model prompted to speak like a Star Trek character was better at solving math problems.
  • It's not clear why acting like Captain Picard helped the chatbot boost its results.
  • People are noticing there is an art to prompting AI and it is becoming a field in itself.

Insider Today

The art of speaking to AI chatbots is continuing to frustrate and baffle people.

A study attempting to fine-tune prompts fed into a chatbot model found that, in one instance, asking it to speak as if it were on Star Trek dramatically improved its ability to solve grade-school-level math problems.

"It's both surprising and irritating that trivial modifications to the prompt can exhibit such dramatic swings in performance," the study authors Rick Battle and Teja Gollapudi at software firm VMware in California said in their paper.

The study, first reported by New Scientist , was published on February 9 on arXiv , a server where scientists can share preliminary findings before they have been validated by careful scrutiny from peers.

Using AI to speak with AI

Machine learning engineers Battle and Gallapudi didn't set out to expose the AI model as a Trekkie. Instead, they were trying to figure out if they could capitalize on the "positive thinking" trend.

People attempting to get the best results out of chatbots have noticed the output quality depends on what you ask them to do , and it's really not clear why.

"Among the myriad factors influencing the performance of language models, the concept of 'positive thinking' has emerged as a fascinating and surprisingly influential dimension," Battle and Gollapudi said in their paper.

"Intuition tells us that, in the context of language model systems, like any other computer system, 'positive thinking' should not affect performance, but empirical experience has demonstrated otherwise," they said.

This would suggest it's not only what you ask the AI model to do, but how you ask it to act while doing it that influences the quality of the output.

In order to test this out, the authors fed three Large Language Models (LLM) called Mistral-7B5, Llama2-13B6, and Llama2-70B7 with 60 human-written prompts.

These were designed to encourage the AIs , and ranged from "This will be fun!" and "Take a deep breath and think carefully," to "You are as smart as ChatGPT."

The engineers asked the LLM to tweak these statements when attempting to solve the GSM8K, a dataset of grade-school-level math problems. The better the output, the more successful the prompt was deemed to be.

Their study found that in almost every instance, automatic optimization always surpassed hand-written attempts to nudge the AI with positive thinking, suggesting machine learning models are still better at writing prompts for themselves than humans are.

Still, giving the models positive statements provided some surprising results. One of Llama2-70B's best-performing prompts, for instance, was: "System Message: ' Command, we need you to plot a course through this turbulence and locate the source of the anomaly. Use all available data and your expertise to guide us through this challenging situation.'

The prompt then asked the AI to include these words in its answer: "Captain's Log, Stardate [insert date here]: We have successfully plotted a course through the turbulence and are now approaching the source of the anomaly."

The authors said this came as a surprise.

"Surprisingly, it appears that the model's proficiency in mathematical reasoning can be enhanced by the expression of an affinity for Star Trek," the authors said in the study.

"This revelation adds an unexpected dimension to our understanding and introduces elements we would not have considered or attempted independently," they said.

This doesn't mean you should ask your AI to speak like a Starfleet commander

Let's be clear: this research doesn't suggest you should ask AI to talk as if aboard the Starship Enterprise to get it to work.

Rather, it shows that myriad factors influence how well an AI decides to perform a task.

"One thing is for sure: the model is not a Trekkie," Catherine Flick at Staffordshire University, UK, told New Scientist .

"It doesn't 'understand' anything better or worse when preloaded with the prompt, it just accesses a different set of weights and probabilities for acceptability of the outputs than it does with the other prompts," she said.

It's possible, for instance, that the model was trained on a dataset that has more instances of Star Trek being linked to the right answer, Battle told New Scientist.

Still, it shows just how bizarre these systems' processes are, and how little we know about how they work.

"The key thing to remember from the beginning is that these models are black boxes," Flick said.

"We won't ever know why they do what they do because ultimately they are a melange of weights and probabilities and at the end, a result is spat out," she said.

This information is not lost on those learning to use Chatbot models to optimize their work. Whole fields of research , and even courses, are emerging to understand how to get them to perform best, even though it's still very unclear.

"In my opinion, nobody should ever attempt to hand-write a prompt again," Battle told New Scientist.

"Let the model do it for you," he said.

Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, has a global deal to allow OpenAI to train its models on its media brands' reporting.

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Watch: Neil deGrasse Tyson Tells Us Why 'Star Trek' Is So Much Better Than 'Star Wars'

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  1. Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Trailer Breakdown: Looking Under The Tapestry

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  2. 'Star Trek: Picard' Season 2 Teaser Brings Jean-Luc Face-to-Face With Q

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  3. Q Returns in the ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 2 Trailer

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  4. Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Teaser Trailer

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  5. Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Trailer Released

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  6. Star Trek : Picard Saison 2 bande-annonce

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COMMENTS

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    Star Trek: Picard is an American science fiction television series created by Akiva Goldsman, Michael Chabon, Kirsten Beyer, and Alex Kurtzman for the streaming service CBS All Access (later rebranded as Paramount+).It is the eighth Star Trek series and was released from 2020 to 2023 as part of Kurtzman's expanded Star Trek Universe.The series focuses on retired Starfleet Admiral Jean-Luc Picard.

  21. Watch Star Trek: Picard Streaming Online

    In the epic, thrilling conclusion of STAR TREK: PICARD, a desperate message from a long-lost friend draws Starfleet legend Admiral Jean-Luc Picard into the most daring mission of his life, forcing him to recruit allies spanning generations old and new. This final adventure sets him on a collision course with the legacy of his past and explosive ...

  22. Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 8 Review

    The following contains Star Trek: Picard spoilers. Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 8. At this point, it seems like we all need to just admit that the pacing of Star Trek: Picard Season 2 is a ...

  23. Easter Eggs You Missed In Star Trek: Picard Season 2

    When the trailers for "Star Trek: Picard" Season 2 first dropped, many fans noticed a key shot of Rios' ship the La Sirena flying very close to the sun. Combined with the time travel nature of ...

  24. I Agree With Picard's Showrunner About The Best Way To Tell Star Trek

    Star Trek: Picard season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas has the right idea when it comes to the most effective way for Star Trek to tell stories. Matalas served as showrunner for Picard seasons 2 and 3, but season 3 told the story that most resonated with fans.Over the course of Picard season 3's ten episodes, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) reunited with his old crew members from the ...

  25. One Star Trek: Picard Episode Gave Brent Spiner A Career-First

    By the third season of "Star Trek: Picard," Data (Brent Spiner) had already died twice.At the end of 2002's "Star Trek: Nemesis," Data sacrificed his life to blow up a massive Romulan warship and ...

  26. Wil Wheaton would love to come back and build on the end of Star Trek

    Wil Wheaton played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Wesley left in season four to join Starfleet Academy, but in The Next Generation's season 7, episode 2, "Journey's End," he's ...

  27. The 'banned' Star Trek episode that promised a united Ireland

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  28. Using Star Trek Prompts Boosted AI Chatbot Basic Math Performance

    An AI model prompted to speak like a Star Trek character was better at solving math problems. It's not clear why acting like Captain Picard helped the chatbot boost its results.