project khan star trek picard

How Star Trek: Picard’s ‘Project Khan’ File Can Fix Its Biggest History Problem

The 'Project Khan' file seen in the season 2 finale of Picard could be the first step to fixing Star Trek's biggest history problem.

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the season 2 finale of Star Trek: Picard, now streaming on Paramount+.

In Star Trek: Picard fans were introduced to yet another Dr. Soong who happens to look just like Data (or, more accurately, Brent Spiner the actor who played him). In the last scene we see of this character in the past, he’s holding a file called “Project Khan” dated 1996. While it might seem like a quick reference to Star Trek’s most infamous villain, it may actually be the first step to fixing the franchise’s biggest history problem.

The original series’ USS Enterprise encountered the Botany Bay spaceship adrift in the void in the 1967 episode “Space Seed.” There they met Khan Noonien Singh, played by Ricardo Montalban. In the briefing Spock gives to the crew, it’s revealed that from the years of 1992 to 1996, this genetically engineered superhuman—and a group of others just like him—took over the entire Eastern hemisphere and fought a bloody war that killed millions. After the war, he and the other augments were sent into space in suspended animation.

RELATED: Star Trek: Picard Complicates Earth's History with Vulcans

At the time when this was written, 1996 was three decades away. During the second wave of Star Trek storytelling, Khan’s reign came and went in the real world’s history. Yet, despite numerous Trek characters traveling back to our present since, the Eugenics Wars—which lead directly to World War III—have never been retconned. They still happened from 1992 through 1996 as far as the in-universe canon is confirmed. However, the Project Khan file Dr. Soong is looking at in the Picard finale is the first reference to the date specified in the original series since.

The next hard date we get comes from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , episode “Past Tense.” Some characters are sent back to Earth in 2024, which is the same year Picard travels to. It’s just two years before the start of World War III. In Star Trek: First Contact , after an encounter with the Borg, the Enterprise travels back in time to the day before humans made first contact with the Vulcans. That date is April 4, 2063, which is “about 10 years” after the end of the third world war. So, that means the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s, allegedly the precursor to nearly 30-year World War III was separated from it by another 30 years.

When the original series prequel Star Trek: Enterprise aired, they did a few episodes about Khan’s fellows, now dubbed “augments.” This storyline was meant to address the inconsistency of how Klingons looked in the original series versus how they came to look (with advanced makeup effects). While it illuminated a lot about their creation and their connection to the sinister Soong family, it did not go into the war or the timeframe of when everything went down.

RELATED: Star Trek: Picard Reveals the History Between Q and Guinan

As is typical with these big “Star” franchises, in between installments they turn to their expanded universe to address these problems. Author Greg Cox wrote a trilogy of novels to help “fix” the Khan story, including how Khan knew Chekov in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan , since Walter Koening hadn’t been cast when “Space Seed” aired. In these books, Cox takes a unique approach to the Eugenics Wars. While this book is not canon, it is a blueprint for how future Star Trek tales could make it so.

In the Khan book trilogy, rather than lead their conquered territories openly, Khan and the other augments stick to the shadows. Through puppet governments, lies, and fake disasters to cover up the body counts, the Eugenics Wars were waged in secret. Now, the easier thing to do would be to retcon the dates of the war itself. Yet, with the file folder in Star Trek: Picard it seems that something happened in 1996 with Khan, and Dr. Soong was involved. This may be the first step of Star Trek finally addressing the glaring disparity between their fictional history and our real-world one.

In Strange New Worlds while talking to an alien race about how their divisions could destroy them, Captain Pike shows “historical footage” of the January 6, 2020, riot in the US Capitol as part of a presentation on how World War III almost destroyed humanity. The 1990s may have been problematic for the “troubled history of the future” 1960s Star Trek envisioned, but the 2020s seem to be meshing with their pessimistic vision too well for comfort.

RELATED: Star Trek: Picard Gives the Borg the Ultimate Sleeper Agent

Series creator Gene Roddenberry and his fellow Trek storytellers are not fools. They knew that getting into the “history of the future” in the show was a tricky proposition. Thus, since the beginning, various Trek characters noted that the historical records of the mid-20th through mid-21st century are spotty and full of inaccuracies. This detail alone means they could merely hand-wave away any such inconsistency. Yet, putting 1996 on the Project Khan file means that franchise producers Akiva Goldsman and Alex Kurtzman are possibly going to address this in a future series, whether it’s Picard season 3 or some other show.

Even so, it’s unclear what Project Khan would be. After seeing the events of Picard season 2, Dr. Soong was likely heavily involved in eugenics projects of the past. So, the file could be details about how he helped created Khan and the other augments. Yet, since the file was dated 1996, it might deal with the creation of the Botany Bay and the hibernation technology. Soong used it to keep his creations alive rather than have them executed for their crimes.

Ultimately, the Project Khan file might just have been an Easter Egg thrown into the Picard season 2 finale by the writers because they’re massive Star Trek fans. Yet, if it does signal a future show or streaming service exclusive movie focused on Khan, the biggest Star Trek history question could finally be answered.

Look for more clues to what Project Khan is in Star Trek: Picard, all seasons currently streaming on Paramount+.

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Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Tries To Let Go Of The Past In “Farewell”

| May 5, 2022 | By: Anthony Pascale 258 comments so far

Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 10 – Debuted Thursday, May 5, 2022 Written by: Christopher Monfette & Akiva Goldsman Directed by Michael Weaver

A fast-paced but disjointed season finale rushes to wrap things up.

WARNING: Spoilers below!

“Peoples lives aren’t yours to decide.”

With Queen Riddler’s last message about “two Renées” spooking Tallinn, the team plans out how to keep the Europa Mission countdown going. Seven, Rios, and Raffi are on Soong duty, with The Watcher headed to the launch complex. Jean-Luc invites himself along to stop the Supervisor from doing anything heroic like sacrificing herself, but Tallinn sets him straight with “my fate is not yours to decide.” Tallinn reminds him he isn’t responsible for every death, including his mom’s—so she’s tired of all those flashbacks too. As for Soong, he shows up at the launch, leaving Seven and the gang in his supervillain lair to dispatch his evil backup plan drones with relative ease.

Tallinn breaks protocol to speak directly to Renée to try to enlist her trust, explaining how she has been her sort of guardian angel. Soong swoops in to help Renée when she flees the “crazy woman,” and his hand of comfort is revealed to deliver a fatal poison as he smugly declares, “Looks like you are about to create the future after all.” What a d—k. The dying astronaut stumbles around the inexplicably empty launch complex until she finds Picard and collapses, watching the Europa mission launch, with the other Renée on board. The dying one is Tallinn in disguise, but you knew that. The Watcher is happy to have had a moment with her beloved Renée, and as she dies she tells Jean-Luc to absolve himself of guilt. She really should be charging him for these little therapy sessions.

“That path leads to everything..”

With Renée Picard safely on her destined journey to Europa, Adam Soong watches his hopes of a Confederation future full of his statues fade away. He also notices all of his digital files are fading away: Kore has been busy, now remotely erasing his legacy on behalf of all her dead sisters. But as Brent Spiner’s latest Soong fades away, he has one last surprise, pulling out an old document about “Project Khan.” So that happened.

After hacking her dad/creator, Kore doesn’t have long to wait to figure out what to do next, getting a cryptic message about “Watch and Observe.” Kore meets the mysterious sender, revealing the former Wesley Crusher, now Time Lord Traveler . Turns out the Travelers are the people behind the Watcher/Supervisors, and it is their job to “protect everything,” so no pressure. And with Tallinn gone, there’s an opening. Wil Wheaton gives his recruitment speech and the pair beams off into the sunset. So that happened too.

“It’s time for me to go.”

Back at the chateau, the team regroups, preparing to spend their lives in the 21 st century, and Raffi has decided their hard work fixed the timeline, so it was all worth it. The next step is to figure out what to do for the rest of their lives. Seven has found some peace and is “better than okay” with being re-Borged, and she shuts a rambling Raffi up with a big kiss to show just how chill she is. Rios too seems cool with the situation as Teresa and son are a ready-made family to keep him busy. As for Jean-Luc, the Tallinn sessions seem to have sunk in as he puts that fateful key right back where he did/will find it, accepting it leads to mom’s death. “Bravo.” Wait, that voice sounds familiar. It’s Q, sitting solemnly in the atrium, judging Picard’s season-long trial, assessing that the admiral successfully accepted his fate and forgave himself.

Looking like he is no longer carrying a burden, Picard still has questions, most importantly why did Q bother? Turns out the god-being is getting maudlin as he approaches his lonely twilight and doesn’t want the same fate for his favorite mortal. All the time travel, mayhem, death, and destruction… it was all so Jean-Luc could free himself for some lovin’. And with the game over, it’s time for parting gifts in the form trips home for everyone. Rios passes, but you knew that was coming. With “farewell mon capitan” and hugs all around–even for Q–it’s just a snap to the future.

“Better to look forward.”

And we’re back! Stargazer. Queen… Mom. But Picard stops the auto-destruct countdown to hear out the Borg. The Queen’s choice of Picard’s childhood calming song was the clue, removing her plot device mask revealing it was Agnes all along. But you knew that too. Borgati means no harm, she just needs Starfleet’s ships to stop a space thing from wiping out the quadrant. You could have just asked nicely, Agnes. Anyway, the admiral puts Seven in charge and the former Borg hands command to the Queen to do her harmonizing shield grid thing and prevent the bad thing we just learned about ten seconds ago. It works, of course, because Jurati is that new kind of nice Borg and she even volunteers to join the Federation and act as the “guardian at the gates” to keep an eye on the transwarp conduit—the big space thing just opened up.

After all that, everyone needs a drink at 10 Forward and Whoopi Guinan is happy to oblige. Of course, she knew all this would happen back in episode one but had to keep quiet, knowing they “would circle around eventually.” She fills Jean-Luc in on how life went for Rios, Teresa, Ricardo, and Renée in the 21st century, who saved lives and even the whole planet with those alien microbes brought back from Europa. Oh, and Elnor is there too; he’s Q’s bonus resurrection prize since Rios stayed behind. Jean-Luc buys his “family” one last round before heading home to face Laris, who is packed and ready to head off on adventures of her own. She can see he is a new man… a new man asking a woman for a second chance—and not even her Tal Shiar training prepared her to resist those eyes. Fade up to space and that’s a wrap on season two, folks.

Was it worth it?

There was a lot going on in this season finale. It tried to do too many things at once, with mixed results on the various plot and character arcs being tied up. Better than some of the more meandering mid-season episodes, there were a few moments of delight with some of the character beats, but ultimately “Farewell” was weighed down by uneven pacing, lapses in logic, and clumsy fan service.

As usual, the actors’ performances were the highlight, especially star Patrick Stewart, who continues to be able to convey beyond what is on the page. John de Lancie, in what is likely his Star Trek farewell, was captivating as the dying Q. The pair had fantastic chemistry, even if this sudden turn to Q and Picard as family feels more like the actors and less their characters. Orla Brady is also to be commended for her double duty, especially the emotional weight she brought to Tallinn’s final scenes. Together, all of these scenes did a good job bringing closure to Picard’s arc, but how this lesson in letting in acceptance was connected to the time travel story was convoluted, and already handled better (and certainly faster) in TNG’s “Tapestry.” Yes Jean-Luc also had some regrets over not having a family, but this journey into the darkness of his childhood still feels unnecessary.

Perhaps if these scenes had been given more time and explanation, they could have held together; instead, the episode was serving so many purposes it couldn’t give each story the time required, which is ironic after wasting so much time in so many previous episodes. With the big TNG reunion coming in season three, “Farewell” is doing double duty as a season finale for some characters and (likely) a series finale for others. For example, to give Isa Briones a nice goodbye, they brought in a big TNG cameo to send her off in style. While it was nice to see Wil Wheaton in Star Trek, the character didn’t feel like either Wesley Crusher or a cool Time Lord Traveler, but more like Wheaton playing himself. And Rios staying behind for love and apparently ignoring the duty to his ship (it’s easy to forget, but he is the captain of the Stargazer) serves the changes in the cast more than honoring the character.

So with all these threads to tie up, the main story of getting Renée to her destined space flight seems like an afterthought with Brent Spiner reduced to a one-dimensional bad guy. This, along with the future space-based action, was just all too quick and predictable.

As for how this finale tied up the season’s time travel, it is almost impossible to decipher. After some meticulous crafting early in the season, the temporal mechanics just fell apart. It’s not even worth trying to figure out as it seems there was little interest to even bother to explain, leaving viewers who care about such things with frustrating questions.

The thing that will likely cause the most debate is the nature of Queen Agnes herself and what she was up to for the last 400 years. Some may come away thinking that she was (and therefore has been) the Borg Queen, which would change everything. More likely she is intended to be a Borg Queen, with her own little quiet (and totally unnoticed) collective, only to return at this exact moment when she needed some help. But without any actual explaining, answers to these profound questions are left to headcanon, post-finale interviews, and Twitter posts from the creatives.

All this doesn’t mean the Picard season finale didn’t indulge in elements of canon, but this was mostly via fan service from randomly introducing a new Khan Noonien Singh origin to dubiously connecting the lore of the Travelers of TNG to the Supervisors of TOS’ “Assignment: Earth.”

Final thoughts

With all its faults, “Farewell” was still a better season finale than season one’s “‘Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2.” And overall, season two is still an improvement. This finale had some memorable beats like Picard and Q’s farewell, Seven and Raffi finally kissing, and Jurati revealing her whole new thing. Captain Seven was awesome, and it was nice to see Whoopi Goldberg and Wil Wheaton back too. But otherwise, the finale was a bit of a jumble without a unifying theme, which also possibly describes the latter half of the season. After starting with such promise, season two ends with frustration. There simply wasn’t story enough to fill in ten episodes and when it mattered, things got rushed at the end. Binge-watching the season should mitigate some of the issues, but not all of them.

The good news is that season three looks to be a whole new thing, under the management of one showrunner (Terry Matalas), who has a singular vision to give Jean-Luc Picard a proper send-off, with all his Next Generation friends along for the ride.

Random bits

• This is the third Picard writing credit for Christopher Monfette, who joined in season two as a supervising producer.
• This is the sixth Picard writing credit for executive producer and co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman, who also directed and wrote the teleplay for the series premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , which debuts the same day.
• The two-episode block (209 and 210) were the first Star Trek credits for director Michael Weaver, who has worked as a television director regularly for the last decade after transitioning from over ten years as a cinematographer.
• Picard inserting himself into Tallinn’s transporter was reminiscent of Dr. Gillian Taylor doing the same with James T. Kirk in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. 
• Renée was still reading The Pallid Son , the Dixon Hill novel she was enjoying in her first appearance in episode four.
• How did Soong get back from France so soon without a transporter? Or did he invent one of those too?
• Renée’s flight suit has a patch for “Earthshine Aerospace,” presumably the maker of the Shango X-1 ship .
• “Project Khan” was dated June 7, 1996. That is the same year TOS established the Eugenics Wars came to an end and Khan Noonien Singh was sent into exile; however, Picard and Strange New Worlds are establishing the Eugenics Wars actually took place after 2024.
• Q’s alone, so where are his Q wife and Q son ?
• The address Wesley gave Kore was 460 Lowry Avenue, which is not a real address in Los Angeles.
• The map around the “galactic event” included Gideon, Vega , Maxia , Inferna Prime , Fellebia , Pyrithia , 61 Cygni , Altair , Arcturus , Benzar , Teneebia , Draylax , Babel , Alpha Centauri , Sol , Veda , Yadalla , Starbase 1 , and Wolf 359 . Three of those systems (Maxia, Sol, and Wolf 359) were home to major battles in Picard’s history.
• The galactic event could be seen simultaneously in multiple systems, from light-years away, apparently defying the laws of physics.

More to come

Every Friday, the TrekMovie.com All Access Star Trek Podcast  covers the latest news in the Star Trek Universe and discusses the latest episode. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify ,  Pocket Casts ,  Stitcher and is part of the TrekMovie Podcast Network.

New episodes of  Star  Trek: Picard  premiere on Thursdays on  Paramount+  in the U.S. and on Fridays where Paramount+ is available around the world. In Canada, it airs on  CTV Sci-Fi Channel on streams on Crave on Thursdays. Picard  is also available Fridays on Amazon Prime Video around the world.

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This must’ve been hands down the dumbest episode if Star Trek ever created. It’s very hard to put into words how stupid almost every Moment of this episode was. And my expectations were already pretty low after the rest of the season.

There’s plenty of things in here, that would have made for an interesting season, hat they been explored. But essentially setting up The Undiscovered Country 2 with the TNG Crew for the TOS Crew and the Borg for the Klingons really wasn’t one of them …

“ the dumbest episode if Star Trek ever created ”

There are many that are far dumber.

This lands in the top 5. This season was a mess,

You’d think so. But I’ve rewatched Thresold many times. Or some of the not so great Ferengi episodes of DS9. But I’m never ever ever touching this one again.

It has been fortold the Ferengi episodes must never be mentioned again…but this was up there…

I really don’t think you and I (and the reviewer) watched the same episode. This was a glorious hour of television and it was emotionally affecting. I’m aware that the group think on here has decided that all modern live action Trek is trash- and it breaks my heart. Nobody seems willing to give it a chance.

I’ve watched two seasons of it. How’s that not giving it a chance? Especially since I knew that all this was going nowhere after the fourth or fifth episode.

I’ve written plenty ob long posts under some of the other episodes. I simply don’t feel like going through this one too, just to show that it makes absolutely no sense.

The only scene with some emotional impact ist the one between Picard and Q. But story wise it comes out of nowhere and actually works better without the context. It’s a scene that could never work with different actors because it solely banks on nostalgia with no actual plot to back it up. And what makes this really frustrating is, that this concept could have worked great as a story.

Apart from that what is there? Nothing really happens in the episode.

Totally agree with you M1701. But I’ll leave it at that as I just don’t feel like arguing with people who keep trashing this season and just don’t get it – and probably never will

Oh, I get it. It’s not like it’s some highly intelligent or complex writing of display here. It’s just bad. And don’t gaslight other people by saying, their opinions aren’t valid, because, they’re “not getting it”. that’s a terrible habit.

You really need to defend that position vbeyond the childish, don’t worry, they don’t understand.

There’s nothing to get.

No one is saying you can’t enjoy the thing. But “glorious hour of television??” That’s… It looks pretty, ok?. It has Patrick Stewart. It has John DeLancie. But good storytelling and internal logic count for something. There was slightly more of that here than in season 1, especially early on, but this show spent that capital quickly and – very much like Discovery – replaced it with unearned emotional beats and frenetic action. Empty TV calories, really.

That’s not group-think. That’s what happened. And I watched every frame of it, trying not to care because…Picard. That almost carried the day for me.

And modern, live-action Trek looks like it may have hit on something with SNW. Here’s hoping Goldsman and Kurtzman mostly stay out of the writers’ pitch sessions. Also, Lower Decks is great, so y’know…

Who is this for? Children or people who grew up with TNG? People who have no critical ability that they have to be spoon-fed the plot development in the previous episode so they don’t get surprised and have to run to their safe room? Wheaton appears as fan service? What happened in this episode that you weren’t told was going to happen in the previous three episodes?

Seriously, what was the reason the Borg appeared in the first episode? such a cataclysmic universal problem that is resolved in the last 3 minutes or an excuser to take you to the next scene? What exactly was Q trying to do? I still don’t know. How did Picard do anything to influence the outcome? Why was Q hellbent on impeding Rene from travelling into space and what did Picard do to stop it when he said that he didn’t want them to travel in the past? A chat in a hall for 2 minutes in ep 5?

Because this show is written in a committee there are some scenes that work well but the overall arc, so the showruners’ fault, makes no sense. Each scene is only there to give you the information you need to get to the next. It is the same problem with Discovery.

Picard has been an enormous disappointment. It has destroyed the afterimage we had of this captain, now burdened with problems a man of his age couldn’t care less about; love, unresolved trauma, friendship…these are problems for lieutenant Picard, not Admira Picard, retired.

And don’t get me started on how women have been portrayed in the show.

It is fortunate we have SNW for the future.

The big galactic event explosion of energy was why the Borg appeared, I guess, so they could use Starfleet to amplify their shields. This otherwise would have wiped out half the sector, or something like that?

But shields can stop it.

Riiiiiiiiiight.

The characters have no depth and Picard is just…………there? (Picard was never meant to be “average”, which is what the show wants him to be) The plot holes are so enormous and childish that I question if the writer’s room is run by teenagers. The only good episode of the whole series was season 2, episode 1.

I didn’t think it was the dumbest but yes pretty stupid overall. So much of it just made no sense. I can’t believe how hopelessly bad this season was. I don’t think I felt any season of Star Trek being so ridiculously awful. I’ve given Discovery grief in pretty much every season but NOTHING in those seasons comes close to how badly this show has been and I’m including the crying Kelpian kid who destroyed warp travel throughout the galaxy for over a century.

I just can’t believe with so much fanfare and hype this show brought that this was the end result? I know we still have one more season but these two seasons was some of the worse writing ever made in Star Trek and sadly why Picard is STILL my worst Star Trek show.

If you think this was bad you should try being a Doctor Who fan…

Being a Doctor Who fan, Star Trek fan and Star Wars fan has been pretty trying the last few years.

I made my peace that DW went out with a bang with Steven Moffat and Peter Capaldi, but it was disheartening to see the new era bland out so spectacularly. Glimmers of hope with the combo of RTD and Gatwa.

I found things in the first two seasons of Discovery to enjoy but kept being reminded this wasn’t really my show. Picard also turned into a depressing mess of a TNG coda. I appreciate the animated efforts but can’t hang my hat on them. SNW hooked me again but I’ve learned to be very wary.

And then of course Star Wars would be a total lost cause after Rise of Skywalker if it weren’t for Mando.

Time to grow up. There was lots of trash in TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, some in ENT, Filmation one is hard to watch, Discovery very uneven and whiny. Picard mostly a nostalgia trip.SNW retreaded old story but actually did work out for me. Theres so much, that doesnt make sense, like overusing the Borg (in ENT made sense as followup to FC), overusing the Q (sisko box match, Q family in VOY), making it all allegories for humanity, which in the end it just is. Vger,? a child! sure spock, very misguided destroying child, with lots of victims. Anybody remeber the warp 5 speed limit? or the seeding humanoids in TNG? Q now dying? come on. At least Ds9 could sort of convey the idea of beings that do not even understand our concept of time. Now the Q are just dying? doesnt fit the concept. Time to realize Star Trek is not real, never will be. Nor should it be. Its Entertainment. It can inspire, might do some good, but in the end its just water under the bridge. So this season, lots of wasted opportunities, many mistakes. I dont personally agree with the writers execution and guess that the tng writers room was a bit more militant, constrained with their use of the source material. Was i entertained? somehow, somewhat on an emotional level. Will i continue to watch? probably, why not, if there is time, but as a grown man (also trained physicist) Star Trek is not what i as a child thought it was. Its just TV, not mediocre Procedurals, but just TV, Fiction. So get rid of any expectations, avoid any disappointment. I actually can stomach rewatching ENT, that was well executed, but space nazis? And the notion of a temporal cold war, bad concept, not as badly executed, but sometimes worse. remeber archers return in S2E1 and he was splicing copper for daniels for some time tech stuff? sure thing. remeber what phlox said about watching TV.

That’s fine but Picard season 2 was still the worst season by light years for me. Just an awful season. I’m still disappointed beyond belief.

Your sad boomer is showing. You may want to tone it down a little.

Language unbecoming of a Trekkie.

A wonderful season finale.

If “sad boomer” is how 20 yr olds say, “People who understand how stories work and expect the same of the highly paid writers on TV shows,” then sure.

For what its worth, this was the most special episode of Star Trek for me in many years.

I love the juxtaposition between the first two comments here. For me, it was… fine. I enjoyed the season more than most have, but this finale felt like it suffered the same fate as the last season. For a story that has been stretched out (which I didn’t mind) it all rushed to a harried conclusion a bit too quickly.

But the story itself I had no problem with. Just the way it was executed. I still enjoyed it, but it had some problems. Overall, a better season than the first, and i’m curious how a third season with the TNG cast, and Matalas as sole showrunner, will go. (Matalas says he had less involvement in the second half)

Now I know how Beavis and Butthead felt when they watched those dumb videos. One of the stupidest hours of television I’ve ever endured. Khan Project. Give me a break.

I mean.. that seemed like a reference to his grandson Arik. Not a big deal.

Exactly my thought.

I mean, it’s really no different than Arik’s final line in The Augments about cybernetics. “Might take a few generations…”

Now, you can not like it, that’s fine, but you can’t say it’s not exactly the kind of thing Trek has been doing for decades. I just took it as a nod to Arik, and his own final scene. I mean, really, that’s NOT my problem with this episode!

Specifically referencing “Khan” was what made my eyes roll. It seemed so absurd for Soong to name the whole project after him when he was just one of many augments who ended up fighting among themselves. The reference was just another example of the out of control fan service on this show.

Originally I thought it was 25 years too late but then I think it was setting up more the augment stuff that culminated in the 3 part Enterprise story with Spiner as another Soong later on.

“Originally I thought it was 25 years too late…”

That’s the whole point. I understand the “Project Khan” file as a way to finally remove the Eugenic Wars from the 90s, moving them into Mid 21st century… Now that his shield project won’t give him fame and glory, he moves on to creating Khan… FOR THE FIRST TIME! This project is not named after the historic Khan from the 90s, it is about creating the historic Khan in Adam’s future…

Agreed. I think it would’ve been better to just name it Augmentation project or something, but these writers have to hit you over the bluntly with everything these days. And they just love KHAAAAAAAANNNN!

But yes it was actually a nice tie in to Arik Soong. I didn’t think about that until much later.

Let it say, “Human Genome Augmentation Project” or “Project: Augment.”

Almost anything is acceptable over that title so on-the-nose it’s a punch in the face.

If you’re condemning an entire episode, season, or series over the title of a book being “Project Khan” rather than “Project Augment,” may I suggest you’re straddling Kirk’s safe combination territory: nitpicking in the extreme.

Plenty of viewers wouldn’t have gotten “Project Augment” but would recognize “Project Khan.” And Khan was the leader of the augments.

Since when was Khan “Leader of the Augments?” Is this in the ENT arc and I forgot, or what?

And, that one of the thousaand paper cut issues with this episode and this series as a whole. The Travellers, this species that doesn’t find humans remotely interesting until the 24th century, have ACTUALLY been SOOOOOOO interested in humans that they have plucked humans from the past and have trained them for generations to do the supervisor thing?

That doesn’t make a lick of sense. and “But Traveller and multi-dimensional time-y-whime-y” doesn’t cut it.

How about TPTB make up a different race? Or maybe use an existing race in lore where such a thing might make sense? “The Preservers,” maybe? From what little we know about them, multi-generational world defenders seems like their sweet, delicious, strawberry jam.

TPTB think they’re creating this grand tapestry by linking these elements of lore that people know with no thought as to whether or not it makes any sense.

And Renee Picard wouldn’t have to worry about going up in space because anyone with that level of crippling self-doubt would have washed out overnight.

When you figure out why the pre-launch quarantine party had 100x the security of the ACTUAL launch, please share.

Soong seems to have no reaction at all to seeing the woman he just murdered on her ship?

I could go on, but, “1000 cuts of stupid” is enough.

This show started spectacularly, then spent the next months meandering about, before hurrying up to tie everything off in the last episode and a half.

If Khan was as significant of a person as he claimed to be and history noted in TOS, why would someone interested in genetics not name their project after him since Khan was supposed to be in power around the 90s, it makes sense.

“It seemed so absurd for Soong to name the whole project after him…”

What? He didn’t name the project after Khan, this project is supposed to CREATE Khan in the first place! The Eugenic Wars did NOT happen in the 90s but will happen in Mid 21st century! That’s the whole point of that reveal…

Think how often we get historical events wrong or mix them up. From the perspective of people over 200 years later, especially in the aftermath of WWIII, it’s not impossible they got their dates wrong. Or maybe when Khan was in power he backdated his regime to make it seem like he’d been around longer.

Spock simply mixed up the “birth” / creation of Khan with his actual rule. The file said FUNDED in June 1996… So if there is no growth acceleration in place, he’d be in his early 30s now… SNW has established the Eugenic Wars in Mid 21nd century… So it all adds up…

It also explains why all the Soong’s look alike. They’re artificial. He had no Soong sons.

“ I mean.. that seemed like a reference to his grandson Arik. Not a big deal.”

How could it be a reference to his grandson Arik, who likely doesn’t exist yet? It’s not my intent to be a “grammar Nazi,” but is it possible you meant an allusion rather than a reference?

This episode wasn’t perfect but it was far and away not the worst episode of trek ever.

When did this website suddenly become a haven for angry, overly dramatic, acid lipped hysterics?

People are more motivated by dislike than like to participate in outward reaction, which in and of itself says some interesting things about humanity. I loved the episode, as well as the season in general.

Because Trek fans want (demand) things be a certain way, that usually pertains to them and them alone. And any variation be damned, because “that’s not muh Trek”. Star Wars suffers from a far worse syndrome, and Trek is quickly catching up. Its ok to not like something, but to completely shut out the possibility of seeing it in a different perspective and act like your opinion is absolute fact and speaks for the entire fanbase is ludicrous.

Maybe there are people out there capable of not being spoon fed glossy looking yet shallow senseless tripe, and knowing the difference betwixt good writing and poor writing. Heaven forbid anybody should be allowed not to notice faults and to mention them on a discussion forum. IDIC…. IDK…….. You’ll notice virtually everyone was unanimous in their praise for the first couple episodes, and – so far – Strange New Worlds. Kind of busts apart the whole tired “haters” comments doesn’t it… Your opinion is not fact either. Extend those disatisfied with this franchise product the same curtesy you are gifted to mention enjoying it.

It’s so like a Trekkie to come up a quip like that. hahaha

“When did this website suddenly become a haven for angry, overly dramatic, acid lipped hysterics?”

I want to say around the time Star Trek Into Darkness premiered? But it was probably even when ST09 came out, but not as many as then. ;)

But I can’t think of a time Star Trek fans weren’t angry about something on this site lol.

Thanks for the review, Anthony. The episode sounds just atrocious, and I’m wondering if I’m even going to bother with it. I didn’t watch last week’s either, and don’t feel like I missed out on anything. I’m trying to remember a time when I’ve just blown off the last two episodes of a season of any show I’ve ever watched, and can’t. Wow…just wow. What a tumble from the first two episodes, which were very strong.

Why does Khan need to be mentioned/involved in these shows all the time? The character died in 1982, ffs. What’s the matter with these writers?? Discouraging.

I was just happy, they didn’s show a CGI-Ricardo Montalban :-D

As a fan of the new shows, I thought this was bad.

But the augments related to Khan appeared in Enterprise, when Soong tried to revive them. After this didn’t work, he came with the idea of Data. Here he comes with the idea of Khan. Maybe this is related to SNW?!?

Khan didn’t need to be mentioned at all and sadly they found a way to shoehorn him in once again. But it’s the same brain trust that now has one of his descendants working on the Enterprise so yeah.

I do NOT understand their obsession with this character?? When the classic spin-off shows were on, Khan’s name was referenced about 3 times that I can remember between TNG, DS9,VOY and ENT. Three times out of 500+ episodes. And two of those times because the stories dealt with Augments obviously. But Khan was treated as this mystical figure at this point. It’s something everyone knows is iconic but you don’t really ever go there again. He was part of TOS and just leave it there.

Now, he’s a thing again. After the disaster known as STID, you would think they would just leave it alone again and treat him as a mystical figure like past Star Trek but we’re still talking about in the most eye rolling ways possible. I wish they can just move on but SNW has now made that clear it’s not happening.

And you made the right call not to watch this season. It was just so bad. I am speechless to how awful this season truly was. I can’t put into words just how bad I thought the whole affair was. And now that it’s over, I regret even watching it. The only times I felt that was probably watching Nemesis and stuff like Code of Honor or Threshold. But NONE of that was an entire season of worthless bad plotting and story developments either. These writers should be ashamed of themselves for how careless this season was made.

“I do NOT understand their obsession with this character??”

I do. He’s supposed to be Star Trek’s Joker, THE number-one villain and should reappear time and again in any possible way ;)

But the whole point of this file was to official remove the Eugenics Wars from the 90s and move them to Adam’s future and that’s what I’m VERY happy about.

Dude he only appeared twice, the second time 15 years later and was killed off in 1982 lol. How is that being the Joker?

He was not some reoccurring villain. Gul Dulat is a better example if you want to go there.

Not being the Joker, SUPPOSED to be the Joker. I want them to turn Khan into a / THE recurring villain… I want them to introduce dozens of clones if they have to. :-)

If you want him as a recurring character, you would have to reboot the entire show because in canon his story has been told. They irony is that’s what they wanted to do with him in STID (and why they just didn’t kill him off like they did Nero and Krall) but we saw how well that went over with the fanbase. People hated both this version of Khan and questioned why did they even need to bring him back.

Khan died in 1982. If you need a ‘Joker’ villain in Star Trek (and they really really don’t IMO) just create a new character then. And someone whose entire presence won’t break canon while doing it.

Why does Khan need to be mentioned/involved in these shows all the time

I agree Khan has been overused, but in fairness, if you’re going to blame anyone here, it should be Enterprise, which established a connection between the Soong family and Khan. (Or for that matter, blame TNG itself for the similarity between “Noonian Singh” and “Noonien Soong.”)

Now, I do question why they had to bring back yet another Soong descendant at all this season; that’s a very fair criticism. It seems to me they felt they *had* to give Spiner a role; just why, God knows. It just made everything far too confusing.

Nonetheless, this fault does not make the episode or season “atrocious”; seriously, they’re been reams of far, far worse Trek scripts. This wasn’t the best Trek season finale, but it wrapped things up decently.

Seems like there were a lot changes in editing. The scene with Rios, Seven and Raffi seemed like it has a lot of dialogue replaced in using ADR. Other scenes had bits of this too.

In one of the trailers, there was an additional gala shot with Rios and Picard covering their eyes while not-Laris held up her transporter thing. What happened to that shot?

I really hope the Rios/Soong ending isn’t supposed to be a set up for a Khan spin off. Rios was only interesting on his ship with his holograms. They stripped that away, paired him with a woman who only seems to like him for his tech, and wrote a terrible death already, removing all suspense. He was the one new character that people seemed to universally like and they completely ruined him. Plus Spiner doesn’t need his own show.

That Khan reference was obviously an easter egg related to Soong in ENT. After his project “reviving augments” aka “Khan” failed, he came up with the idea of Data. Here he comes up with Khan after his previous project failed. This closes the circle.

I noticed that too. The editing / ADR really seemed “off” in a few places.

Now I understand why they debuted SNW on the same day, this was astonishingly bad, even worse than I could imagine. I’m honestly crushed. I mean there is SO much garbage in this finale that it’s not even worth talking about, it’s all completely contrived nonsense. I just sat slack jawed at the end and quickly rushed to SNW to rescue the day. I mean they even threw in yet another Galaxy threatening anomaly with a sky beam to complete the insult. I will say that John DeLancie did a tremendous amount of heavy lifting at the end in a fairly poignant moment that was largely ruined by the absurdity around it. Tragically this season was just as bad as the first, possibly even worse.

I feel completely crushed too. I knew it was going to be bad but I didn’t expect it to be this terrible. It’s honestly killed all interest in new Trek for me.

This season did a tremendous amount of damage for me, which followed a weak season of Discovery. It’s just too much disappointment that it’s burning me out on anymore, especially following the incredible start for Picard S2. Fortunately SNW is bringing some hope back.

I didn’t like SNW much either so I’m not going to be watching it.

I am not sure what you expect, but I think SNW is about as good as it is going to get Trekwise.

If you are looking to Orville, check out the news that the actors and crew have been released from their contracts.

The start wasn’t “incredible”. Perceptible viewers saw right away that this season would degenerated into something weak, and rightly recognized the flaws in those early episodes. It was just a handful of gimmicks which conned people into thinking those early episodes were good (the shock of the Borg appearing, the dystopian future etc).

The Q and Picard Scenes kinda worked, if you watch them out of context with the season. It really makes you wonder, why they didn’t just make the season about that.

DeLancie’s delivery was, as always, impeccable and his scenes were the only redeeming parts of this episode for me.

That said, take away all the fan service and ancillary stuff that never amounted to anything and his whole plan here was basically a retread of Tapestry which covered a lot of the same ground in less than an hour.

That was my fear heading into the season as well. We didn’t need another Tapestry. Fortunately it didn’t really become that.

Yeah but Tapestry was actually good. I love Q but he was wasted in this season on so many levels. And now that we know his ‘reason’ for being part of the story I’m still having a hard time figuring out why he did a lot of the things he did like pretend to be Renee Picard’s doctor. What was even the point of that??? Like so much of this season, very little of it made sense.

Don’t get me wrong… Tapestry is the one Q episode that was actually GOOD. Which is why I didn’t see any point in rehashing it.

I think most were hoping if not the same but at least something as good on that level and we didn’t get even close with this turkey.

“ And now that we know [Q’s] ‘reason’ for being part of the story I’m still having a hard time figuring out why he did a lot of the things he did like pretend to be Renee Picard’s doctor. What was even the point of that?”

Good question, but first I still want to know WTF the point was of turning Picard into an android/robot/golem or whatever in the last episode of season 1. They didn’t even acknowledge it in season 2 except for one remark by Jurati when she told Picard, “You’re looking positively positronic.” And the follow-up question is: How could Picard bleed after he got hit by a car if he’s an android/robot/golem?

To be fair the event they dealt with at the end was mainly just an excuse to get the Borg to show up and send Picard off on his journey and really wasn’t all that important. Picard’s journey was the important part here.

So you are making it worse. Why the initial episode? Why have the borg queen in the show? Why travel to the past…?

The initial episode had Borg/Jururti ask for Picard. The Borg queen was Jurruti after the merge. The merge happened in the past where Q sent them. I hate that I am defending this but here we are.

You say that there was a lot of garbage but you are not specific. I agree with you but please explain your view.

I felt it was a reasonably entertaining hour of TV that I enjoyed watching but I still think both Q and Wesley’s stories would have been best left where they were at the end of TNG. Good though that Wil Wheaton got that recognition of being included – I think he is better at other things than acting though so I’m kind of glad they aren’t using him too much.

In particular I thought making the Q-Picard entwinement so personal was a letdown after the ‘trial of humanity’ arc.

But I can just have the stories end where I want them in my head so it’s all good.

Next time on Time Loop Trek : The Technobabble Generation……. the Borg have sought perfection for centuries, assimilating whole races in the process. Only one Federation has stood up against them thus far that they have decided to monitor it and farm it for technology. The collective unimind has always needed organic to add innovations in their quest for improvement.. until now! They capture Locutus and they won’t need organics ever again! But does that mean they will dominate or terminate all organic life in the galaxy? Regardless.. they must be stopped at all costs in their hunt.. But….

But uh… they have a Queen now because what’s a collective without a queen (?!?)… oh yeah, and she had some kind of psychiatry session with Locutus so now she’s cool and wants peace! She is so tired of being discriminated against just for killing millions, forcing billions into perpetual slavery. And she has found her soulmate in Locutus, who feels so bad for destroying 50 starships at Wolf 359, the guy ditched his friends to devote his life to pushing more AI.

It’s like Putin invading the Ukraine, all Biden needs to do is talk past victimhood and then they should be friends! It just wouldn’t be TNG without that horrid nonsensical political analogy.

Thank goodness for that reset button where Q can just jump in an save everyone because why not, ex deus machina is always a great way to end your story where it really didn’t even matter what your characters did because the day is saved! And Riker! And 100 CGI starships in the background (they need them for the warp core breach after 10 seconds of combat)! Maybe Worf will play a Merry Knight in the holodeck! Woohoo!

It’s special peaceful lullaby-time on Time Loop Trek : The Technobabble Generation!

So to start it was a fine season finale it didn’t go they way i was hoping though.

So the mission to save Renee Picard again begins i knew the look that Picard gave Talinn meant that she would have to sacrifice herself to make sure 1 Renee lives and 1 dies thing happens.

I liked the scene between Picard and Talinn she is right she doesn’t need saving it’s her life to do with and Picard shouldn’t interfere.

Soong is so like a bad James Bond villian. Him wanting to send drones to stop the Europa mission is right out of a James Bond film lol.

Loved the scenes between Renee and Talinn and that she finally got to ‘meet’ Renee and tell her she has been protecting her nearly her whole life and It was sad to see her die.

Good to see Kore and her destroying her fathers work was good to see he deserved losing everything after all he tried to do.

But that the heck was that file titled Project Khan? S3 story hint perhaps?

Wesley crusher is here! Not surprised to be honest with the Picard S2 soundtrack one of the tracks was called The Travelers which kinda hinted at that.

So the travelers are the bosses of Talinn and Gary 7 ok interesting and he is recruiting Kore too.

Love the scene with Raffi and 7 hope we get a wedding for them at some point.

Q is back and the whole thing for about Picard forgiving himself for what happened to his mother? You would think Q would find an easier way to teach Picard this lesson but then again that is not Q’s style is it.

Q is dying alone? What happened to his ‘wife’ and his son? The scene between him and Picard was sweet.

Rios is staying in the past? So no Stargazer show with him then but maybe a Stargazer show with 7 has captain and hopefully her wife Raffi as her first officer.

The hug between Picard and Q was so sweet i started crying when it happened.

Finally back in 2401 hope we never see 2024 for a long time. The mask retracting and reveling Jurati was a bit corny too be honest and the CGI could do with some more work.

So the Jurati Borg came to save the galaxy from destruction? Ok that was really out of the blue.

So Picard gave 7 a field commission good about time she got what she was owed.

Loved the shield bubble shot and Elnor is alive great i was afraid they wouldn’t bring him back.

Guinan is back great and she remembers meeting Picard in 2024? and nice to see Rios had a happy life though i found the idea of the Ricardo saving the oceans with the alien organism that Renee brought back a bit corny but interesting to hear nonetheless.

So is that the story for S3? A galactic threat is coming? We know they stop it because of Discovery now being in the 32nd century.

It’s nice to see Laris again and i hope this means her and Picard get together.

“ Soong is so like a bad James Bond villian. Him wanting to send drones to stop the Europa mission is right out of a James Bond film lol.”

Soong was really a dick to that nice lady who was showing him around the space center, but I guess that was just an act to separate himself from her so he could set his evil plans into motion.

Did 2401 Guinan remember meeting Picard in 2024? I didn’t see (or hear) anything to suggest she did.

Remember in “Tomorrow Is Yesterday” when Spock convinced Kirk that they had to return Captain Christopher to Earth because he had knowledge about the future and anybody else who found out what he knows could “manipulate stocks, [something else], and even nations”? Doesn’t that apply to Rios too?

It might have been cool if the Renée Picard character had been Captain Christopher’s son. And then Jean-Luc’s ancestor could have just walked away.

I don’t think NASA launches space rockets in southern California. Does it? Maybe the Europa Mission was a Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk thing and not NASA.

Yes, she said something like, “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you.”

Thank you, Thorny.

Surely then if the timeline returned to normal then Guinan STILL first met Picard in the 19th century.

Looks like the timeline is not rescued after all…..

Picard & Laris is the wedding I want to see although I dont object to a Seven & Raffi one the main couple for me should be Picard & Laris.

I just loved the scene of Picard and Q saying goodbye. I got all teary-eyed.

Same. That scene by far outdid what I’d imagined in my head prior to it. I loved this episode so much.

That was so disappointing. Good thing I saw SNW· after and not before, at least I got to have a bit of fun in the Star trek universe and not end with such a low. Within the first 5 minutes, I was already screaming at the TV. After that, I just gave up and held on to my faith in the ST Universe rather than appreciate what was happening.

I think they had enough material for 2 episodes, and if they had eliminated most of the chaff in the rest of the season, that might have worked. It was almost as if they had realised when they got to the last 10 minutes of the season….We’ll have to do something with the Borg thing from episode 1….? Nah, we’lll resolve it in the lat minute. Done.

The best thing about this episode was Wheaton’s scene. I love that it overwrote IDW’s Star Trek Year 5 which inexplicably made Gary Seven and the Supervisors evil.

TRUE THIS. Greatly enjoyed the closure of Wesley’s journey, this answered a lot of questions about his fate. And it was great to see WW back in Trek again. Hoping he will show up on Lower Decks! 👍

I enjoyed the finale. In fact, I enjoyed the entire season. I am sorry that I appear to be in the minority.

I’m with you, Gary 8.5.

Thank you, cast & crew of Picard Season II!

The finale suffered from having to do too much in one episode. The pacing of the entire second season was absolutely terrible. “ Farewell ” is very much like The Rise of Skywalker in that it had to fix the mess that was the installment(s) and did the best it could, being generally enjoyable but overall very rushed and disjointed.

[previous installments]

I actually thought this episode DID make them sound evil. For one thing, Wesley Crusher sounded like a (bad) car salesman who couldn’t stop smiling, and he said something about them basically controlling time to ensure they get the outcome they want. Supervisors, we’ve had it wrong this WHOLE TIME, they’re SuperVILLAINS! There was just some dust on the nameplate, like with V’GER. :D

Here we are, the finale to S2 of Picard. Like this season, this episode was both beautiful, poignant, and frustrating at the same time. I really do think at its core this season has an absolutely incredible story, but it’s always been just out of focus and distorted or disjointed. While I loved last episode as a glimpse of this show’s potential, the finale exemplified the struggles of this show. Let’s look at what happened in this episode: Agnes had said one Renee must live, and another must die. Tallinn and Picard race to the launch facility to save Renee and the Europa Mission, while the rest of the crew stays behind to stop Soong. Picard tries to stop Tallinn from sacrificing herself, but she reminds him that it’s not his life to save, that he cannot be responsible for every life. Tallinn gets a chance to talk to Renee, and disguises herself as her so that Soong ends up killing her, not Renee. I must admit that by this point I’ve grown tired of Soong as a villain. By this episode he’s a boring, over the top caricature of a Bond villain, and I just didn’t much care. Tallinn dies, just after telling Picard he needs to absolve himself. While Soong is off trying to create his evil future, Kore is living free, and takes her vengeance on him by deleting all of Soong’s research. In what I thought was a bit of an abrupt and odd choice, Wesley Crusher appears out of nowhere to recruit her. To be perfectly honest, this just did not work for me. I assume this is setup for S3, but it took me out of this story. After saving Renee and the Europa Mission, our focus returns to our crew. Seven and Raffi are finally back together, as both characters reach their own peace. Seven, after the events of last episode, is finally at peace with her Borg past, and is ready to embrace it. I’m excited to see where she goes next. Meanwhile, Raffi is finally in a place to focus on taking care of herself and her issues. Next comes (sadly) the inevitable: Rios chooses to stay in the past with Teresa. While I understand the reasons, I was disappointed because Rios was easily the best of the new characters in Picard, and I had hoped he’d get his own show on the Stargazer. Now we reach the core of this season, Picard and Q. There’s a very poignant moment when Picard puts the skeleton key in the place he found it as a boy, signaling his acceptance, at long last, of his past and coming to peace with what happened to his mother. He then sees Q, who reveals what this trial was about. As Q says, “even gods have favorites”, and he didn’t want to die without giving Picard one final lesson and gift. Picard has learned how to finally absolve himself of guilt and come to peace with his trauma. Finally, Picard is free to look forward. I want to commend Stewart’s acting here, as he really sells Picard becoming a new man, freed of the shackles of the past. Q returns our crew (minus Rios), back to the 25th century, and Picard changes course. Canceling the self-destruct, he takes a leap of faith and trusts the Agnes!Borg. Turns out the Borg (or really, Agnes’ splinter Collective), need Starfleet’s help in shielding the galaxy from a major astrophysical phenomena. After linking all the ships’ shields together and saving the sector, a giant new transwarp corridor forms, created by something unknown (hello S3!). The Agnes Collective asks provisional membership in the Federation so they can act as “guardians of the gate”, keeping the galaxy safe from whatever might come out of the wormhole. At last, we end up in Guinan’s bar, where she fills Picard in on what happened to Rios, Teresa, and Ricardo. Finally, Picard works up the courage to talk to Laris. As I said earlier, this season has a really beautiful message and what could have been a really great story. The issue, although less severe, is the same that has plagued Discovery: serializing a single story over 10+ episodes is just beyond the capability of these writers. This would have worked much better as a five or six (max) episode season, with tighter writing and a willingness to cull extraneous plot lines. The season also felt very disjointed and jumbled. I understand that a lot of folks are annoyed that this season was spent mostly on 2024 Earth and not in space, and I get that. But I disagree. Time travel has always been a core part of the franchise, and I thought this was not the problem. However, one thing I really liked about …  Read more »

Upon further reflection, I’m changing my ratings.

Episode: 4/10 Season: 5/10

Episodes 2.1, 2.2, 2.6, and 2.9 were really enjoyable and added a lot. There should have been two more episodes, for a total of 6, not 6 more for 10 total. Once again, I firmly believe there’s a really great story in this season, but the writers just couldn’t pull it into focus. Instead, we’re left with four great episodes, the bones of a great story, but six episodes of wasted potential. This season was still miles better than season 1, and I do think this season added a lot to Picard. But still a bit of a jumbled mess that wasted potential.

I feel like an idiot for defending this season in the past. This was just such a mess and really brought down an already middling season. Some great performances from DeLancie but nothing really gelled. Wesley suddenly appearing in a scene that just came out of nowhere? Soong suddenly appearing in LA? What was the point of Soong in this season anyway? What was the point of his daughter and her figuring out she was an experiment? So Wesley could come and take her away…WHAT??

So alll this was so that Picard could forgive himself and have a relationship? I’m fine with that plot point ,but I’m not fine with it being the entire season. Q being Renee’s psychiatrist, texting Renee in the past, manipulating Soong and his daughter..that was the only way Picard could forgive himself? Just a mess. And then a galaxy wide event anomaly suddenly appearing with 10 minutes left to go…ummm OK. Guess the writers needed to quickly come up with an idea for why the borg needed help and that was the best they could do. This is easily the worst season of the modern era. I feel bad for everyone involved in this – especially getting overshadowed by SNW – but it was bad. Turned into a top 4 Trek show after season 1 to my least favorite Trek show.

I feel like this is the worst season of television I’ve watched in decades. I’ve lost all interest in Season 3.

Decent ep. Way too much to wrap up in one episode, as you mentioned, and they should have started it much sooner.

I enjoyed this episode more than the others of the season but there is one thing I can’t get my head around. Why do some of the actors here insist on playing themselves and not the characters? Will Wheaton, Whoopi Goldberg, Patrick Stewart and at the end even John De Lancie seemed to be playing themselves more than the characters. Is this like a recent phenomenon in acting? I mean in season one I thought Stewart was more in character as Picard but this season I couldn’t really see it.

I’m going to get flak for this but I don’t think Stewart’s acting was that great. He was ok for most of it playing himself but there was one reaction shot (I think because of something Q said) that stuck out as his acting seemed comical, in a bad way. He wasn’t Picard at all.

No, you shouldn’t get flack for this. Stewart’s acting has been awful for a while now. He lost every bit of charisma and gravitas he had a decade ago. Not a rip. It happens to us all.

Agreed with ML, no shame in telling it like it is. Stewart hasn’t acted like Picard throughout the entire run of the show, imo.

TNG’s Picard was very distanced and self-controlled and did not indulge in his emotionality. But that was just a shell, an armour… He started to see the “real” Picard in the movies and this development has gone further in old age. I truly believe that THIS is the real Picard, the TNG Picard was just an avatar he chose to appear ingenious and flawless to his crew. That’s why he didn’t want this shell to be challenged by the presence of children and Lwaxana’s mind probing He hid his true self under there and now he’s free… .

Sir Patrick said, before the Picard series started shooting, that JLP would not be the same man.

Have you considered that this is one of the main reasons why he has not been like the Jean-Luc of old and Patrick Stewart has done this on purpose?

It definitely happened to Shatner. And Marina Sirtis has been doing it for years (arguably, with the exception of her Troi last season).

On this show, I partially blame the writing and directing — but yeah, they all just seemed like they were playing themselves.

I always wonder if, for some of these actors, years of adoration at conventions take their toll on actual acting.

I took some flack here for worrying about Stewart having too much input into the character before the Season One premiere (it wasn’t just because if him giving Picard a Pit Bull because Stewart has one, although that worried me — Shatner got a Great Dane in Generations because Shatner had one).

I thought Shatner was a Doberman person.

Well, should have expected this from the makers of Batman and Robin and Transformers. Nu-Trek has never been written by competent writers, and never managed a great season, or a single great episode. But even by those horrendous standards, this episode and season were quite poor.

I thought Akiva did a great job on the SNW premiere!

I haven’t seen SNW yet but maybe Akiva Goldsman is better at self-contained episodes then writing serialized television or feature films. Some of the unevenness of the back of Season 2 seems attributable to him.

I cannot stand Nu-Trek. Discovery is the WORST. Picard a bit better. The writing is really terrible with it being basically a string of plot-holes. Season one was horrible and made little sense. Also they are called “Androids” not “Synths”, trying to sound cool and edgy… now that the word “android” is so well known and established in 202x. But overall… I didn’t hate this episode. It was pretty okay. The fan service made it acceptable to me. Which is probably why I can live with Lower Decks… as ridiculous as it is at times. The story still made no sense. If the bullet holes of the changed past is what Picard remembers his family fixed up in the 21st century when they came back to the Chateau, it means that it has always been that way. Because the “Borg” caused these holes. If that WERE true, however, the argument that Guinan didn’t remember meeting Picard in 18xx because this is a changed timeline, contradicts this. Yes, Guinan makes a remark to the fact that she couldn’t tell him. But that was about 24th/25th century Guinan… not about her 21st century version who didn’t hide that she knew him, but genuinely didn’t.

Discovery is the WORST. Picard a bit better…..They are called “Androids” not “Synths”…

…thereby living up to the worst stereotypes of Star Trek fans as immature or unhinged weirdoes. (This example is topped only by the poster who once got his undies in a bundle over the fact that “EVERYONE knows it’s called DSN, not DS9”).

What about the deep space network? https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html

Also they are called “Androids” not “Synths”

I thought androids were robotic/mechanical beings like Data, while the Synths seem to be artificial biological constructs.

With the exception of the premiere episode to season 2, it was a VERY disappointing season 2. I’ve lost all faith in Picard. But, I am looking forward to Strange New Worlds.

Cut scene from Star Trek First Contact–

Elderly vagrant near Cochrane’s landing site: Picard! It’s me, Cristobal Rios! Take me home to the future with you, I can’t take it any more! I’ve been regretting staying here for 40 years, Teresa and her son were not who I thought they were! And World War 3 was too much! Take me home!

Picard: Get away from me you crazy lunatic!

Ducane, who is now old enough to look like Agent Welles inexplicably appears “Come along Captain Braxton, don’t bother Picard like you did Janeway. We got a spot for you on Tantalus IV” “But my name is Rios!” “Sure, Braxton, that’s what they all say!” “Help me Picard…” he trails off as he disappears in a 29th century time transporter.

I enjoyed the finale a lot more than I was expecting to. Fewer characters exiting than anticipated, and Queen Agnes is available for post-S3 stories. Picard and Q’s farewell was, of course, the highlight, and Rios’ ridiculous jettisoning the low point. Thought the Talinn/ Laris plotlines fizzled out, but Brady did her best with the performance. Doesn’t redeem the spongy parts of the season, imo, but left me feeling better about S3 and I had fun with it overall.

Bravo to the cast and crew for conning Paramount out of all that money. And as hilarious as it will be to see the cast reunited in season three, they’re going to have a really tough time coming up with a funnier finale than the Care Bear Stare.

What money? Existing Season 1 sets for the La Sirena and Picard’s chateau. Standard contemporary LA sets that would be at home in any police procedural, and some cheap dark “underground corridor” sets. They paid Sir Patrick a bundle, but otherwise this must be the cheapest Star Trek production since TOS.

The above the line people got paid their rates to put on a cheap show. Akiva Goldsman wasn’t working for scale.

Focusing on what worked for me, I was truly touched by the final moments between Picard and Q. Also great work all session long from the cast. They made the most of what they were presented with. I did find everything that happened in the 25th century far more compelling than what happened the 21st and was happier once we got back there and into space. And hey look Elnor is back! Hello again Whoopi! I’m here for a Captain 7 (it has a nice ring to it), some people called it but I sure didn’t see it coming. And if she gets her own 25th century show, this whole session truly had purpose for me. This session was more hopeful, optimistic and lighter than the first. However, this session at the minimum should have been released all at once and should have been 8 episodes long and not ten.

“ randomly introducing a new Khan Noonien Singh origin ”

The Soongs have been tied to Khan’s origin since Star Trek: Enterprise, so this was neither random nor new.

I thought the connection was already hinted in TNG by naming Data’s creator Soong which sounds similar to Noonien Singh. I don’t think this was casual.

That looked like a pretty old file to me too, so it didn’t feel like it was implying he was about to create Khan, but that Khan and the original Augments were the original inspiration behind Soong’s work in genetics.

In the end I feel like the writers always knew exactly where they were going and I appreciate what they did. It was….weird, but wonderful. It was not without its faults and I’m looking forward to binging the season (the way I feel it was meant to be watched) in order to pass judgement on the full story. I feel that it holds a strong place in the canon of the Star Trek universe and that a lot of hearts will soften toward it over the years.

I am forced to admit that in spite of all the flaws the story had this was easily overall the best live action season of Trek Secret Hideout has made. It was merely mediocre but that is quite the accomplishment from this bunch.

I liked that Q finally owned up to his fondness of Picard verbally. We all knew it. Was nice to hear it.

Nice link of Wesley and the Travelers to the Gary 7 people. Generally they have failed when doing things like that but in this case, it seemed to work.

But… I still think explanations of Q not being able to do things while still being able to do others was needed. If it’s an energy thing then why would some things work and others not? It doesn’t make sense.

Sadly every plot point was telegraphed from miles away. There were zero surprises. And the things they chose to explain were the obvious things, not the murky things that needed explaining. Like how come everyone was still firing at the Borg when Picard came back? With new Borg everything involving them ought to have been different. No Locutus. No 7 of 9 Borg. Everything should change!

Wasn’t happy about Rios staying behind. Would have loved to see a Rios on the LaSerena show. And of course they had to make significant contributions to society. Would have loved if something like, the kid was hit by a bus on his way to a liquor store to drown his sorrows over his divorce or something…. But enough with the literal Earth shattering discoveries and deeds.

And how is Laris still in the future? Didn’t she die in 2024? She never time traveled. She wasn’t special. What’s the deal there?

Anyway… They made a decent effort. They missed more often than they hit but it was a better effort than any other live action show up to this point. I still like Prodigy better. But I’m hoping this is a decent sign.

I didn’t buy that for a moment. I like Wil Wheaton well enough, but he wasn’t acting much here. I half-expected him to tell Kore, “come on, let me introduce you to my friend Sheldon.”

To be fair in TNG apart from Stewart none of them were very good actors. I admit it was odd that Kore be selected for this and the scene wasn’t written very well at all. But I did like the connection they made. Unlike most things Secret Hideout tries to do with classic Trek stuff this time it made some kind of sense.

I guess I liked it OK, but honestly, Q is a dick.

Yeah, it’s hard to recover the series at the end, and there are some things I like about this episode, and some I don’t. Still.. it’s not that good. Rather than rehash a bunch of stuff many here have already covered, I’ll just talk about one thing. I kind of liked having Wesley Crusher tie in with the travelers tying in with the watchers / supervisors. If I were to go back and watch those episodes, maybe I’d change my mind, but just as something to tie in to, I like the idea, and by keeping it a short scene was appropriate.

Aaaaaand… They missed the landing. Again.

It would have been a miracle if they hadn’t. So much time wasted in Episodes 3-8, the finale was doomed to being mediocre at best.

When it comes to modern screenplays, I’m truly baffled at the lack of logical progression, focus, and coherence. Meandering plots, lackadaisical characterization, and shoehorned fan service that demands some sort of explanation, but little, if any, attempts are made to do so. I’ll give it a chance when I binge it but I’ll keep my expectations low.

But like, I am just glad its over. I am not wondering what is coming next, because we know its Season 3: The Reunion. Could they have used episodes in the center to expand out the last episode and have it make sense, have better pacing and be less frustrating for the viewer, and hopefully more satisfying – totally. But at least its over. The ten weeks of being frustrated every Thursday morning as the ending credits pop at the end of each episode is done. The irritation as I got into my Thursday morning meetings after being so severely disappointed/annoyed is over. The wait to see if something satisfying was going to be coming next week is over. It is done and at least I got that cover of California Dreaming out of it.

Wow, that makes me sound like I don’t love Star Trek and I sooooo do. Sigh.

So I’m lost… what does the Europa mission go on to discover that makes humanity’s future positive?

A microbe that helped fix climate change. Without that microbe earth turns to Soong for help which somehow leads to the confederation.

And why in the world they didn’t build this when they must have known this from the first episode?

What if Picard had tried to solve one of those problems but couldn’t, even with 24th century tech… and got “lost” from his mission not knowing the answer was there all the time?

Or something? Why is this a footnote?!

Which makes no logical sense but… Whatever.

So in thinking about the episode and the season a bit more I think I was a bit harsh in my initial reaction.

I’ll now talk about the things I liked and how they turned into things I didn’t. Basically I thought the story ideas were good, but the execution didn’t always work.

I think the overall story was good. I loved learning about Picard’s past and seeing that there was trauma there and how that impacted him being able to form relationships. The idea worked. It worked for me in 2.1, 2.9, and 2.10. I’ll give it a rewatch eventually, but the look inside his mind in 2.7 still doesn’t work for me. It also felt like this plot point was artificially padded (like in 2.7) when the other episodes would have covered it fine.

Q wanting to help Picard worked for me, but again the execution of the story and involving Soong and Soong’s daughter, and him being Rene’s psychiatrist, and Picard needing to meet the watcher was all sort of hit and miss, mostly miss for me. A lot of it felt like they were trying to add mystery and pad out the season. Again, I liked the idea and the scenes between Picard and Q were very strong, I just don’t like how we got there or that it took so long to get there.

Agnes and the Borg Queen – solid and strong throughout. I even liked the singing scene. Pill was outstanding this season.

Rios staying – a weak point for me. It was ok, but I felt like it needed more development beyond he met an attractive woman he had 2 or 3 interactions with and then 2 days later decides to stay in the past. Their relationship should have been better developed and we should have gotten more of a sense that he was unhappy on the Stargazer instead of “this place has cigars and good food”

Seven/Raffi – I feel like they didn’t really have a lot to do. I liked the relationship angle and they got a few good scenes but not much.

Quadrant anomaly at the end – felt rushed and tacked on. I didn’t like it.

Wesley cameo – I didn’t really like this either. Why did he choose Kore to go with him? Just felt like they needed to wrap up her story and had Wesley come take her away. Felt very out of place.

I think the season would have been stronger with half of it being in the past and half of it being in the future maybe dealing with the anomaly and borg stuff I don’t know. Maybe more info on the new Borg and what it means to have them join the federation. More on what the anomaly is. More info on the Q continuum and what is going on there. Maybe Picard could have faced his past earlier in the season and we could have seen him and Laris actually develop their relationship. I feel like at least the last 2-3 episodes could have taken place back in the future – just eliminate the pointless Soong stuff completely…that really dragged things down even more. They could have even had Soji help with negotiations with the Borg since she had been on her Synth welcoming tour and had been working with Agnes who was now the Borg Queen.

Such a shame it didn’t work for me, because like I said I liked the main ideas and themes of the season. And it’s still my least favorite season of all the new shows (including animated).

Have seen some positive reaction on social media, so I’m happy that others enjoyed it.

Somewhere in the middle of this episode I decided this must be a comedy, because I sure was laughing at the Khan reference and TV pitchman Wil Wheaton showing up and schmoozing like he wanted her to join some new age California space cult. Oh, and Queen Jurati looking like a Power Rangers character, that was fun.

It was all a mess but I was entertained.

Extremely on board with this being Akiva Goldsman’s The Producers

Ha! So is ‘Springtime for Khan’ their next project?

Will the dancing Khans please wait in the wings? We’re only auditioning singing Khans today

Ha! Good one!

This finale, like this season was such a mess that I’m shocked that I liked any of it at after how brutally bad last episode was. It was such a low point for me, I didn’t even care about the finale itself anymore. But I will go as far to say it didn’t completely suck. Sadly that’s about as high praise I can give it lol.

First the good:

Have to admit, seeing Wesley was such a big surprise and highlight. I kept saying I just wanted ONE TNG cameo in the finale. And knowing the TNG cast would be back I suspected we would get one but it never occurred to me it would be Wesley! So that was a GREAT moment! Man I smiled so wide. Now I want a Traveler’s show lol. Also nice twist that the Travelers control people like Gary Seven.

Did we just witness the birth of a Captain Seven??? If so I’m ALL in! And is she now the new Captain of the Stargazer? I guess promotion works in the Prime Universe like the Kelvin universe does now? Yeah I don’t know but now fans are screaming for a Stargazer Captain Seven show, so that all really matters end of the day.

Q and Picard final moment was nice. It did feel a bit like Picard and Data’s moment in the last season finale. It was nice to know Q admitted what we all knew for years that he cared about Picard and had an impact on his life. It was nice how they framed it, but so much of it felt messy. So this was all about Picard getting past his guilt over his mother and yet nothing Q did in this season had NOTHING to do with that. It was all about him manipulating the space mission, but whatever at this point. It was a nice scene so I’ll leave it there.

Now time for the bad….everything else!

As I said, the episode was OK, but so much of it kind of felt like nonsense; but welcome to this season ;). So really, the galaxy was saved because Taillin did a switcheroo with Renee Picard? That’s it?? That’s all it took lol. And what I don’t understand is since she obviously knew Soong was going to kill her, why was she not prepared? I guess Soong must have created transporter technology too because the guy went from being in the middle of the French country side to L.A. in what, 1-2 hours? And the whole subplot with Kore just felt so tacked on. She was there to erase his files? Not actually reveal to the world what he was doing? The guy literally got away with murder. It’s crazy how his character got no consequences to anything he did. But whatever.

Agnes being the new Borg Queen. Yeah that was obvious after last week. But how did the new Borg manage to go a new direction but apparently doesn’t change one iota of history in 400 years?? Can’t wait to hear how this wasn’t totally ridiculous. And then the sudden crazy anomaly popped up at the end. What the hell was that about???? Maybe it will tie into next season? It just felt so tacked on like they needed for some big moment in the finale.

And then they brought Elnor back to life….convenient. And Rios sticking behind for a girl he’s known less than a week but love can do that I guess.I was disappointed by that but it looks like this cast really had nothing to do so probably a good idea. Oh and Soj—ah who cares!?

Overall, this was a REALLY disappointing season in so many ways. It was sloppy, tedious as hell and just plain awful in so many places. It’s really mind boggling to me how bad this was! It was slightly better than last season since it didn’t leave a boatload of questions but only slightly. I’m kind of glad next season will be it. Hopefully the TNG cast will make it interesting a proper send off but I will be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. It’s sad I’m HAPPY for a season to be over lol. Farewell indeed!

You think this was bad? How do you feel about T’Pring on SNW? They totally just rewrote her and Vulcan. Now Vulcan’s got criminals.

For a society that was known for having scholars and scientists and being above baser thoughts, Vulcan is starting to look more and more like Romulus all the time in modern Star Trek. If Vulcan has a criminal element to it, then what was even the point of sending the Romulans away in the first place? Oh, and don’t get me going about Sam Kirk being on the Enterprise? He’s supposed to be on Deneva!

Continuity is being rewritten right before our eyes. Don’t they think that if Captain Kirk’s brother served with Captain Pike that Kirk would’ve mentioned it in either The Menagerie or Operation: Annihilate ? These writers are really pushing the boundaries now, man!! Also, I agree with you, Tiger2, about Picard feeling bland this year.

I thought it was just me but some of those episodes were so slow, it made it hard to get through them. I loved the finale, though! I wrote a review and left my reasons why there so I won’t rehash them. But seeing Wesley again and Q’s goodbye were two highlights for me.

Soong looking at Khan’s file and setting up Arik’s story, I also thought that was a nice callback to Enterprise right there. I think Khan’s gonna show up on Strange New Worlds. They just keep rewriting everything so why not have him show up earlier than expected? I thought that the minute they unveiled the fact that there’s a descendant of Khan’s onboard the Enterprise.

I told you Alex Kurtzman is enamored with Khan. That’s why there’s Khan Easter eggs all over these new Star Trek shows. And it won’t end until he finally brings in his version of Khan in this timeline and he can call him Khan now too. I told you SNW was gonna be crazy and it’s just beginning.

Live long and prosper, Tiger2 🖖.

LOL I did think about you when they showed the Spock and T’Pring scene. I thought ‘Man, Johnathan is probably doing everything he can from not breaking his TV right now!” I’m actually surprised people aren’t as upset about it. Yeah some, but most seem to be over looking it. And I think others are just telling themselves it didn’t really violate canon. And of course others just don’t care.

I don’t know if you read my review on that episode but I did really like it, but yeah it does have a lot of canon issues. And there will be more obviously. And I don’t think they will bring Khan on this show, but when it comes to this brain trust, you literally can’t trust anything lol. I’m going to stay positive about it for now because I do think the good is outweighing the bad at the moment. Nothing really bothered me but definitely room for improvement. Right now, I’m not overthinking anything.

As for Picard, I can’t help BUT to overthink everything, mostly how bad it was lol. Yes the finale wasn’t that bad as I said, but expectations has been soooo low at this point, anything short of turning Q into an Android to save his life, it couldn’t be that much worse. I didn’t think about it at the time, but yeah I’m cool with this Soong and basically alluding to Arik Soong building on his work with Augments. But the character was SO ridiculous and over the top Spiner was basicaly keeping with Shatner over who can chew up the scenery more.

I wanted to like this season sooo much more. I just can’t figure out how it got this bad? But I’m glad you liked the finale more. I’m just happy the whole thing is over.

I did read your review for SNW, Tiger2. I liked what you said. You’re right, though, SNW is not gonna be for everybody because of how closely they’re tweaking the canon. I left a very glowing review for Strange New Worlds because I really liked it despite the canon tweaking.

I’ve watched it 3 times and every time I just enjoy it more. The Spock and T’Pring thing I’m coming to terms with. No, I won’t be breaking the TV over it 😉😄 that’s for sure. I liked T’Pring a lot.

The actress, Gia Sandhu, is just as beautiful as Arlene Martel was as T’Pring so I actually wound up enjoying seeing T’Pring return. The writers were even able to capture T’Pring’s inflections, the way T’Pring spoke in Amok Time, just right. So I really enjoyed seeing her. They showed in the trailer for what’s coming up this season on SNW that it looks as though we’re gonna be going back to Vulcan and revisiting T’Pring and Pon Farr and Koon-ut-kal-if-fee so ask me then, Tiger2, about how I feel about T’Pring being in this show to see if my answer has changed and if my attitude is back to being ticked off 🙂😄about it.

I agree about the Picard show. The season was bad, except for the finale. And what makes it even worse is the Picard show isn’t episodic television, it’s serialized. So you have to watch the whole season to get the whole story.

I don’t know what the deal with Brent Spiner was. I thought, with him playing a villain again, that he would be portraying him more like Lore. Man, was I ever wrong! When Picard first started, I was really hoping that Lore would return somehow on this show.

Now, I don’t want Lore to return at all. Leave Lore in the past, man, where we could still remember the good times we had enjoying that character wreak havoc on Captain Picard and crew. I’m beginning to feel like the Crystalline Entity should show up and just start taking people out, start first with Brent Spiner’s Soong character, any Soong character he plays anymore 😄🤣. That would be way more action packed then anything we got this season on Picard.

I don’t want to hear the Crystalline Entity is dead neither, Tiger2, because Lower Decks has got a Salt Vampire on it and she’s been dead for 150+ years! So the Crystalline Entity could be alive in this whacked out timeline 😄! And as for Rios being left in the past? I don’t know what Kurtzman and company have done to the DTI but that department had better be closed with all the anomalies and aberrations going on and they’re not even bothering to correct them.

And we know they’re not correcting them because Discovery wouldn’t still be in the 32nd century if the DTI were around and they definitely would not let Rios stay in the past. He has too much future knowledge to be able to stay in the past. It’s crazy!! I think all this time travel craziness is worse than Picard getting an android/golem body because then it messes with the original timeline and then stuff winds up getting changed, like all of a sudden Sam Kirk just shows up on the Enterprise. Sam Kirk, a man who was never in Starfleet to begin with but he’s in Starfleet now.

All this canon tweaking I guarantee you is from the time travel stuff and the more time travel stuff they do, the more Kurtzman and crew feel that they have a free ticket to keep canon tweaking. As for my prediction that Khan will show up, I’d say bank on it. He’ll show up one of three ways. The first one, of course, is Captain Pike discovers the Botany Bay earlier than anticipated.

The second way is a time travel episode involving La’an and she and an away party go back to the past and we see a Khan at the height of his power during the Eugenics Wars. And the third way for Khan to show up is to have La’an looking at a holographic image of him making a speech from the Eugenics Wars. I’m telling you, Tiger2, mark my words, they would not have a direct descendant of Khan’s on the Enterprise if they didn’t have plans for him to show up eventually. We’ll have to wait and see, right?

Live long and prosper, Tiger2 🖖

It sounds like you really enjoyed SNW at least, even with the canon issues. I’ve only seen it twice so far but I agree, I like the T’Pring actress as well and she is obviously going to be a recurring character so I’m curious to see how they will handle it all. Of course being a prequel, we already know their fate but it would be interesting to see Spock in a real relationship which we never seen before. So now that they decided to go this route, they might as well just go a full blast with it and have them together.

As for Picard, yeah, I’ve kind of given up on it in the way I’ve given up on Discovery. I still plan to watch both obviously, I’m just resign to the fact I’m not going to ever love these shows like I do the others, at least anytime soon. Picard is ending next season and it could be great obviously. But it’s not going to make up for the two worst seasons of Star Trek ever made on screen. I do hope it goes out with a bang at least. We’ll see.

As for Khan, I really hope you’re wrong lol. But yeah knowing these people, they are all about fan service. I love fan service too because I’m a fan but only if it’s done right of course. BUT I actually like your idea of using La’an to go back in time and meet Khan that way. Now THAT would be fun and we can see Khan in his prime and back on Earth. So if they did something like that, I would be all for it personally.

I actually always had a crazy story idea when Enterprise was still on and that Archer, T’Pol and Trip would actually travel back in time to the Eugenics wars BUT the twist is they wouldn’t be themselves, but inhabit someone else’s consciousness during that time. And Archer would somehow take the consciousness of his great grandfather who we know fought in the Eugenics War and he can understand more about his roots and how his ancestor lived in that time. Yes, it would basically be a nod to Quantum Leap and why the story would probably have no hope of getting made lol. It would be a two part episode and in one point in the story they would come across Khan in it! This is the kind of stuff I think would’ve been great if a season 5 happened. Just a fanboy idea, but you can dream. ;)

So I’m not against never seeing Khan again, but you should find more creative ways to do it other then seeing his life on Ceti Alpha Five or just entirely breaking canon to do it.

Annnnway, glad you enjoy both episodes!

Yes, your idea for the Enterprise Khan story sounds good 👍, Tiger2. But it’s not only Quantum Leap that it pays homage to but Deep Space Nine as well, right, because isn’t that what happened with Captain Sisko, Jadzia Dax, and Dr.Bashir when they traveled back in time to 2026 and Captain Sisko pretended to be Gabriel Bell? There just wasn’t any Khan in that story because he was long gone. Past Tense, it was called.

That was a great 2 part episode of DS9! I would’ve loved to have seen Captain Archer and crew travel back to Khan’s era, that would’ve been fun. They should’ve done that instead of the World War 2 one that they did because we’ve seen Captain Kirk dealing with fascism and Nazis and we saw Voyager’s crew on the holodeck battling against Nazis and the Hirogen. So they didn’t need to do a WW2 Enterprise episode in my eyes.

They could’ve sent Archer and crew back to the Eugenics Wars where they could’ve found out that Khan had a helping hand from Vosk in securing his rise to power and Silik was helping out Khan’s brother, Joachin, I think it was. And Joachin and Khan start warring against each other because they’ve got outside help from these aliens. Then Archer and his crew could’ve teamed up with Mestral, the Vulcan from Carbon Creek. He could’ve told them that he became a Supervisor for this alien race who doesn’t want to see Earth’s destiny altered by outside alien influences.

They could’ve even had Terri Garr make an appearance as an older Roberta Lincoln of course. She could’ve been walking down the street in NYC and Archer, Mestral, and T’Pol go running by her, shooting phasers at Khan’s men and they could’ve had her say something like ” This feels awfully familiar to me”😄? I think something like your idea would’ve worked better for Storm Front then what we got. One of the focuses of the Temporal Cold War should’ve definitely have been the Eugenics Wars, without a doubt.

Why it wasn’t, I don’t know. Thank you for saying you liked my idea for La’an. It’s easy to be creative with Star Trek because of how much I love it. I’m always mulling stuff around in my head.

Sometimes stuff just hits me right off the rip, like Khan popping up on SNW. It may not be this season of course but eventually the subject of Khan will come up. They want to do a Dr.Bashir type of story with La’an. She doesn’t tell anyone that she’s genetically enhanced until eventually someone discovers it.

The person who discovers her secret will probably be Spock or Captain Pike. But she’s lying to Pike already about knowing Una so I don’t think it will be Pike. If Spock were to discover it, then that would give the two outsiders something to bond over, right? One more thing about Khan, Tiger2.

I really don’t want to see his life on Ceti Alpha V play out in a series or a mini-series. I think it wouldn’t be good. I read the book To Reign In Hell: The Exile Of Khan Noonian Singh by Greg Cox and I didn’t like it. I got like 40 pages into it and didn’t even finish it.

There’s a comic book miniseries too called Khan – Ruling In Hell that came out in 2010. So, personally, I think there’s more than enough info out there about Khan’s time on Ceti Alpha V. I’m not a fan of Discovery either, Tiger2. I just support it for the same reason you do.

As for Picard season 3, it’s the same writers writing the show because Sir Patrick said that he was in the writers room everyday arguing with them about how Picard, the show, should end. So it’s the same writers. It’s not like Terry Matalas is writing it or anything. I think he’s (Terry Matalas) swinging for the fences with this next season of Picard because he really wants to do a DS9 revival.

He’s said he’s a huge fan of DS9 and that a lot of DS9 elements and some characters will be showing up in season 3 of Picard. Maybe Captain Sisko might finally return? I mean nobody had any idea that Wesley was gonna be in the season 2 finale so they have gotten better at keeping surprise appearances a secret. It’s always a possibility.

Keep hope for Captain Sisko’s return alive 🙂. Live long and prosper, Tiger2 🖖

Haha Tiger2, I felt the same way about last week’s show… it didnt suck. This episode I actually liked! Completely agree on the goods you mentioned including Wesley!

As for the bad, the one additional thing i didnt like was the whole drone scenario.

I too was wondering if the TNG cast was going to show up, but it was Q who ended up sending the team back to the future including Elnor. I guess we’ll have to wait for S3 to see the rest of the TNG team.

Ulimately, IMHO S2 started well and ended pretty good. Too bad the middle 6 episodes were so terrible.

Man I completely forgot about the silly drone scene! My GOD, HOW DID THIS SHOW TURN SO BAD????????

I don’t get it man, this season had SO much promise and it just dropped off to a ridiculous level. I said this before, this wasn’t just bad Star Trek, it was just bad TV all around. I can’t figure out how PROFESSIONAL writers could think this was something redeemable. So many bad decisions and sloppy sloppy writing. I can’t remember which episode it was, but ti was either episode 7 or 8 that was SO bad, I was depressed that week. I have never gotten depressed watching a TV show before. Yes, upset, frustrated and all of that but I was SAD man. Not like they killed a character I liked sad. It’s more like they killed a piece of me by watching this crap sad. That’s when I knew I had to stop watching so much TV lol.

Obviously I’m OK now but I just can’t figure out WHY this season went so badly? Most people seem to be in the same boat. And it really makes you appreciate the classic shows so much more. Yes they all had bad episodes and seasons but NOT like this. And they had to make 25 episodes a year with less money and yet every season you can find great solid episodes in all of them and its 25 episodes every year. Picard had just 10 episodes and it was off for two years! That was because of the pandemic but they had so much time to work on those ten episodes and this is what we got????? It felt so amateurish.

I want to have hope in season 3 but right now,I just can’t muster any motivation for it. Maybe I’ll feel differently in a few months and if SNW, LDS and PRO have good seasons this year.

Man I ranted so much I actually forgot about the point I wanted to make when you mentioned the drones!

This is just another RIDICULOUS example of how shoddy this writing is because how do you send drones to attack because A. they CAN be tracked and traced and B. they can just be shot down. I know it’s Star Trek and you have to assume everything is super advanced, but its still suppose to just be 2024. Unless these things have stealth mode (and they clearly didn’t) then they would’ve been found on radar in such a high security area. He had a better chance strapping himself to a bomb instead of thinking these drones would get within ten miles in the real world.

And then I still can’t figure out his second plan of poisoning Renee when this guy was in a high security area as if there wouldn’t be cameras and security guards everywhere. And even if he got the chance to be completely alone with her (which he got…sigh), did he really think he can poison her and they wouldn’t figure out who she was with five minutes later when he was the guy demanding to meet her???? This guy is a disgraced scientist already, how do you have so much access when your name is in the paper calling you Dr. Evil basically? Killing Renee wasn’t going to just solve everything, he then had to make his whacky experiments the lay of the land. But how do you do that when you are accused of murder?? How was he going to escape? The guy should’ve been arrested when he tried to hit her with his car 5 episodes ago. Of course no one reports it and not a single camera caught it in a, once again, restricted high security area.

Dude, this season was just so D-U-M-B!!!! Again, we probably can come up 50 items that just made no logical sense at all because they cut so many corners to a ridiculous level. I’ll say it again, I never thought Star Trek could be this bad, ever!

Man  I ranted so much I actually forgot about the point I wanted to make when you mentioned the drones!

This is just another RIDICULOUS example of how shoddy this writing is because how do you send drones to attack because A. they CAN be tracked and traced and B. they can just be shot down. I know it’s Star Trek and you have to assume everything is super advanced, but its still suppose to just be 2024. Unless these things have stealth mode (and they clearly didn’t) then they would’ve been found on radar in such a high security area. He had a better chance strapping himself to a bomb instead of thinking these drones would get within ten miles in the real world.

And then I still can’t figure out his second plan of poisoning Renee when this guy was in a high security area as if there wouldn’t be cameras and security guards everywhere. And even if he got the chance to be completely alone with her (which he got…sigh), did he really think he can poison her and they wouldn’t figure out who she was with five minutes later when he was the guy demanding to meet her???? This guy is a disgraced scientist already, how do you have so much access when your name is in the paper calling you Dr. Evil basically? Killing Renee wasn’t going to just solve everything, he then had to make his whacky experiments the lay of the land. But how do you do that when you are accused of murder?? How was he going to escape? The guy should’ve been arrested when he tried to hit her with his car 5 episodes ago. Of course no one reports it and not a single camera caught it in a, once again, restricted high security area.

Dude, this season was just so D-U-M-B!!!! Again, we probably can come up 50 items that just made no logical sense at all because they cut so many corners to a ridiculous level. I’ll say it again, I never thought Star Trek could be this bad, ever!

The whole episode was bad (great moments from John DeLancie excepted), but can we take a moment to discuss how lousy Wil Wheaton’s performance was? I dearly hope he has just delivered his final Trek scene, because if the third season — or, fates forfend, an entire series — is made that features him then I may sink into some kind of literal despair. He’s so terrible in this scene (which is ludicrous enough to make some fanfic look good) that I am a bit awestruck by its having been included in the episode.

I loved seeing Wesley again but yes the scene was shot like he was handed the script five minutes before they shot it. But I have to say he came off better than he does as the jolly super fan host of the Ready Room every week.

I still would like to see him next season but yeah it would have to be MUCH better than what we got here.

I was initially excited to see him, too. I always liked Wesley on TNG. I just don’t think Wheaton can do anything as an actor other than smile awkwardly and seem as if he’s shown up someplace he knows he isn’t actually welcome. Which is a harsh thing to say, but still.

It wasn’t good and it wasn’t one of Isa’s best performances on the show either. It felt like Wil just came from the Ready Room set and was putting on the same kind of performance as he does there.

I agree, it did seem like Wil Wheaton in the scene rather than Wesley Crusher. And I couldn’t watch more than about an episode and a half of the Ready Room thanks to the awkward energy he puts off, so it was … unwelcome here.

His delivery made me wince. He literally looked and sounded like he just stepped off the set of the Ready Room and was interviewing one of the guests.

It felt as if the writers had no idea what to do with Kore and came up with a last minute solution to throw one more piece of fan service as a way to tie up a loose end.

It does seem like they did it so they now can have two different reasons to tell Isa Briones, “No, no, we’ll absolutely get you back on one of the shows. Soon! We’ll do that, uh, soon, yeah, you bet.”

I’m sorry.. but this just didn’t land for me.

Were there a few nice moments? Yes. Still though.

Am I writing this just to complain? Well.. not exactly. Honestly, my hope is that the writing team looks through these occasionally, in which case I would say: Slow down. Take a breath. You’re doing some good things, but I get the impression of trying to fit the whole idea board in. Also.. not everything needs to be connected. Don’t be afraid to tell the story you want to tell without shoehorning in a reference, or using a Soong. We’re approaching ‘Vader built C-3PO’ territory here

Honestly, I wish the writers would listen to Q in that it doesn’t always have to be the fate of the whole galaxy. Except, at the end, it IS the fate of the whole galaxy due to a previously unknown Diabolus ex Machina.

There’s a lot of things that are just a matter of taste/perspective, but my major issues would be:

1. Renee Picard, a trained astronaut already suffering from anxiety and depression takes the word of a woman who – from her perspective – just confessed to stalking her for decades and assaulted one of her crew.

2. Rios has elected to stay in a past where he has no ID, etc, was wrongfully detained and nearly deported and observed corrupt and brutal treatment (but oh boy, cigars!). Not to mention the global war and mid-grade nuclear firestorm coming.

3. I think we’ve hit the time-travel and Khan buttons more than enough times. Honestly also the Soong button. (How did his carbon copy descendants replicate Kore? Say huh!?). Although – I didn’t take that as a new Khan origin, I took it as he had access to the research on Khan. For what it’s worth.

4. Even if he funded the whole project, Soong was just discredited very publicly like a week before. He’s not gonna be THAT welcome. Though he apparently has access to the fastest jet in the world.

5. Honestly I never felt much tension during the season as with the existence of Disco.. we KNOW they succeed. And with the teaser for S3, we KNOW Picard comes out of it perfectly fine and ready for another adventure.

Now that said – Wes showing up was a little weird and felt a bit forced but a nice touch, and full credit to Wil Wheaton for keeping it under his hat. That could NOT have been easy.

Trash. Just a mess. Great cast and convoluted, absurd, and nonsensical story. Just the worst season of Trek ever produced.

I think I’d say the first season was even worse, but otherwise, I totally agree.

I feel as though they were both dreadful seasons of television, easily some of the worst produced this century, but are bad in completely different ways. At least to me. Season one was a cynical, violent, stupid mess, and this was a cheaply produced while loving its own farts stupid mess. And this finale was a comedy. Goldsman daring audiences to quit Star Trek, knowing they won’t.

Yeah can’t disagree with much of that at all. I only put this season slightly ahead of last season because it at least they answered all the questions. Just very badly and nonsensical but everything was answered.

Umm… I still have a bunch of questions left over. Quite a bit was left unanswered.

As I said in my review some of the stuff they answered still didn’t make a lot of sense and confused on. So they ‘answered’ stuff, but not very well either. I just didn’t have to wonder about things like what happened to Narek or when and how did Seven and Raffi decide to be a couple and so on. But both seasons: hideously bad!

Even if we are in the prime timeline, this could have been changed various times. This 1996 is supposed to be the past of the TOS era when they meet Khan. However, we saw Kirk and Spock interfering with the past mildly in 1968 and 1987 which won’t have such a change. But we saw a changed 1996 in VOY Future’s end. What if Chronoworx prevented the eugenic wars accidentally and postponed them? Is the alternate 1996 still part of the prime timeline?

One of the writer’s from Prodigy just stated on twitter that the Picard finale ties directly into the events of his show.

Fans are speculating that the anomaly is related to the Diviner and Janeway’s search for Chakotay. Given all the time travel being talked about for Prodigy, who knows how it will wind up. That COULD be why they split up the first season, and put Picard in between, if they are that connected.

Wow that could interesting! Something good could come out of this season and a much better show could carry this story line in some way.

Regarding Khan and the Eugenics War(s) …

Let’s not forget that it’s called “Wars,” plural. Perhaps there was a Eugenics War in the ’90s (in which Khan was involved) and Soong, being who he is, has that leftover data and begins his work anew in the 2020s. So, as we saw in SNW, there can be a second Eugenics War (thus “Wars”) which eventually just becomes WWIII anyway.

If any season of Star Trek demanded a super cut that turns it into a movie… its probably this season?

Funny, most people seem to hate Picard S1. I only watched it a few weeks ago. I loved everything about it. The characters, the score, the effects, the callbacks to the past… Now people seem to hate S2 almost as much… I’m wondering if I should watch it anyway or follow the hoards of whining trekkies and skip it altogether…

I’m thinking it will be better appreciated now that it can be binged in short order.

I liked season 1 a lot. Season 2 is much more problematic (though I still liked it). I can’t for the life of me understand why the internet hivemind has decided that season 1 was terrible.

Can we just… pretend this season didn’t happen. Let’s just start fresh in season 3. If we think about it nothing would be affected by it. Season 2 just took place in a pocket universe. Then as a collector I can justify not buying the 2nd season when it comes out on Blu ray.

Ok another thought – why is there a recording in the Confederation future of Soong saying “A Safe Galaxy is a Human Galaxy.” This makes no sense with what the rest of the episodes presented. So without the launch an elderly discredited Soong helps solve climate change. How does that turn into him saying at some point in his remaining years “A Safe Galaxy is a Human Galaxy” and creating the confederation?

Presumably they just invented that audio and put it on the lips of their already famous savior of the 21st century. (Yes, I’m just making something up here.)

The whole season could have been a decent, but still sort of dumb, two-parter.

Also, Spiner was lovely as Data in TNG – but he’s overacted in nearly everything else I’ve seen him in (including the TNG movies)

Totally agree.

I’ve been indifferent this entire season, so my expectations for the finale was at an all time low. I was pleasantly surprised to find the episode pretty decent.

I guess I’m one of those fans who enjoys Star Trek even if it is generally perceived of as “bad” Star Trek. But I also liked both seasons of Picard considerably better than any season of Discovery. From my perspective the general plot of this season was great. It just seemed to fail in execution. There were too many pacing issues, glaring plot holes and irrational decisions made. This made me think about the rampant labor shortages affecting my industry as well as most others. In this era of “peak television” I wonder if the sub-par writing execution is due to a shortage of talent? Is Star Trek having a hard time attracting top notch writers? And I feel bad saying that. I know they are working hard and I certainly couldn’t do what they do, so I hate being critical. At the end of the day I still like what is being produced and am so glad to have Star Trek on television again. But I wonder if there is just too much great television being produced and maybe Star Trek needs to figure out how to attract better talent within this competitive environment?

Good point. The fact that Paramount insists on dishing out so much concurrent Star Trek content with 5 shows (so far) can only further dilute the talent.

Unfortunately, it’s less interesting than you think. There’s not a talent shortage, there’s a job shortage. Producers have megadeals and shows have shorter orders more than ever before, so, you’ve got megaproducers working on multiple shows bringing the same team from show to show, with every show getting varying degrees of the megaproducers’ attention, depending on how important the project is to them. For instance, there’s no way Goldsman was 100% focused on Picard when he was also working on launching SNW.

And then when you get into a situation where you have to fight to keep down costs (because it shoots in LA and has a lot of VFX and staggering insurance premiums to cover Patrick Stewart it is a very expensive show, even after the state tax credits), the 20+ producers who get a cut of every episode’s budget means you have to basically hire inexperienced staff writers (who won’t make much more than the Guild minimum) to help you get through your season. Add to that, running a TV show is not like producing a movie, and telling a serialized story is a lot more difficult than screenwriters want to admit, so trying to break a single 10-hour story when you don’t have the experience to do so can catch up with you. That’s why episodes 3-8 just felt like vamping. They knew the main story they wanted to tell — how to set it up, how to end it — but they didn’t know how to or want to take the time to build in more setups that have payoffs beyond just what the plot is.

In the case of SNW, Henry Alonso Myers and Akela Cooper are pretty damned good TV writers. And Terry Matalas is a steady hand who is supposed to be the captain of season three and left work on season two to prep it. I think the 2021-2022 is the first period of time during the streaming era of Trek that there has been any sort of management stability in the writing rooms. I expect these shows to get a little bit better over the next couple of years, though keeping in mind that each Star Trek show is essentially serving three masters: Paramount+, Secret Hideout, and the showrunner. That’s a tough situation for any IP to be in, but maybe this group has figured out a working formula. The buzz for SNW has been far more positive than the other shows after their launches.

Every Theory About What's Going On With Jack Crusher In Star Trek: Picard Season 3

This post contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Picard" season 3 episode 8.

Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers) is straight-up not having a good time. The long-lost son of Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) has gone full post-Upside-Down Will Byers in the latest episodes of "Star Trek: Picard." He's haunted by visions of branch-like tendrils and a red door, plagued by nightmares, and in possession of some strange energy that turns his eyes red. He also seems to be developing superpowers; Jack took down a whole crew worth of Changelings as if on autopilot, and he can talk to Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) with his mind.

With Deanna (Marina Sirtis) finally on the case, it looks like we'll find out about Jack's mysterious past next week, and if "Star Trek: Picard" keeps up the trend its established in its first two seasons, a major Trek-verse reveal is sure to follow by the finale. At the end of episode eight, Deanna proclaims: "there's a darkness with that boy." She clarifies that he's not to blame, saying that the voice is "not in him but around him, passing through him, and a voice inside him, ancient and weak, but a voice that isn't his own." Then she sits with Jack in hopes of figuring out once and for all what's behind the red door.

Theories about Jack's true nature abound among "Star Trek" fans, ranging from the likely to the outlandish. While we'll have to wait at least a week to get to the bottom of Jack's backstory once and for all, that just gives us even more time to parse through every possible option. Here's every theory we can think of about what the heck is up with Jack Crusher.

Jack has Borg genetic material

Back in 2366, Picard was forcibly assimilated into the Borg Collective, the powerful, dangerous cyborg hive mind that is constantly in world domination mode. There, Picard's body was taken over and renamed Locutus, and while he has long-since shed his Borg status, the Starfleet officer has been haunted by his experiences with the Borg ever since. While the Borg got a positive PR makeover at the end of last season after Alison Pill's Jurati took over as Borg Queen, season 2 co-showrunner Terry Matalas has since confirmed on Twitter at the time that hers was an alternate timeline offshoot , meaning the real Borg is still a real threat.

One of the most popular and evidence-backed theories about Jack Crusher is that Picard's biological material was altered by his Borg experience, leading to his conceiving a baby with latent Borg-like abilities. We've seen before that Borg are capable of assimilation on a microscopic level via nanoprobes, and it's possible that a bit of Borg remained in Picard even after he left the collective behind.

This would explain a lot of things about Jack, including his ability to have a hive mind-like experience with Sidney, his ability to take over a crew member's motor functions, and Vadic's (Amanda Plummer) comment in response: "Look at you, finally living up to all your potential." There's also the quickly-glossed-over fact that Data (Brent Spiner) tells the crew that Altan Soong (also Spiner) found an "anomalous form" in Picard's body that makes his initial Irumodic Syndrome diagnosis questionable. Could the form be residual Borg material?

Jack is related to Project Khan

There's also the possibility that Jack's origin could herald back to another great "Star Trek" character; Khan. While Khan Noonien-Singh has been dead for a long time when "Star Trek: Picard" picks up, the villain's name appeared on a paper file that Soong appeared interested in during the show's season 2 finale. It was labeled "Project Kahn," and we haven't heard anything about it since. Is it possible that Soong or someone who worked under him purposely created a genetically modified human with special abilities?

While season 3 hasn't mentioned Khan at all, "Star Trek: Picard" co-creator Alex Kurtzman did compare this season's villain to Khan at Comic Con last year. While he appears to have been referencing the mind games unfolding between Vadic and Picard, it's possible the reference was more literal than Kurtzman was willing to let on. If Jack did have these shadowy origins, it would make sense for him to lead a planet-hopping life, for Vadic to have a vested interest in finding him, and for him to end up with a unique, still-mysterious medical diagnosis like Irumodic Syndrome.

In this theory, as with several others, the red door in Jack's head is simply a mental block keeping his repressed memories in check. This type of mental visualization is commonly used in regression therapy and other methods used to dive deep into past traumas.

Jack is a Changeling (in either sense of the word)

With all the talk of Changelings this season, it would be weird to not explore the possibility that they may have something to do with Jack Crusher. After all, they went to great lengths to hunt the man down, and Vadic said she wants to bring Jack to "where he most belongs." If he somehow has Changeling-related genetic material, that would be in the Great Link, the place where all Changelings live in their liquid form.

If Jack were somehow part-Changeling, his ability to control others' bodies would make sense, as would the voices that seem to urge him to come to them. In this case, the red door that haunts his subconscious mind could be the entryway to the Great Link, a place that some part of him knows he needs to return to even as he remains in human form. This isn't the tidiest theory (how would Jack have become part-Changeling in the first place?) and it's also not the most interesting, but it's nonetheless a slight possibility.

Pretty much every theory on this list could also be supplemented by the idea that Jack is the traditional type of Changeling — a baby who was swapped at birth for an imposter. If the real Jack Crusher was switched out for a genetically modified baby (whether he's part-Changling or part something else entirely), it would make sense that the people who put him there long ago would come looking for him years later.

Jack is the key to Picard's future evolution

It would also make sense for "Star Trek: Picard" to bow out with something huge, giving the beloved captain a send-off that rocks the world of "Star Trek" forever. So why not ascension? Often portrayed as a sort of evolutionary leveling-up into pure energy, ascension is a beautiful transformation that also looks like a death of sorts. It's appeared a few times throughout "Star Trek," though it's sometimes called transcendence, too.

In one of many Reddit posts in which fans have theorized about Jack's true nature, user Lokan posited that Picard might be experiencing Irumodic Syndrome because his synthetic body is unable to ascend. If any main character in "Star Trek" history seems wise enough to unlock the secrets to the next step of evolution, it might be Picard.

As another Reddit user points out , Q ( John de Lancie ) may have hinted at some grand purpose for Picard in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" series finale, when he told Picard that his future entails "charting the unknowable possibilities of existence." Could Picard be on track to join the Q continuum? And while Picard 2.0 might not be able to evolve, perhaps Jack can — or his genetics can help his father figure out what's stopping the process.

Does this explain Jack's powers? Not in the slightest. Is it still a cool idea that gets to the heart of the compassion, curiosity, and limitless horizons that "Star Trek" is often all about? Definitely!

Jack is a human with a powerful genetic mutation

There's also a decent chance that Jack is actually fully human, but simply possesses a unique mutation that the Changelings have deemed important. We haven't heard about examples of Irumodic Syndrome outside of the Picard family, so there's a chance the disorder could actually be something genetic and unique that allows Jack to experience the world on a higher level than those around him. When Picard and Beverly point out Vadic's "advanced physiology," she shoots back, "What about your son? Do you know all about his physiology?"

Picard's own working theory around the time of Vadic's death was that the Changelings had a plan for him and Jack that involved his body (as in, the stolen one) and Jack's blood. This combination would be used to do something dastardly and potentially world-changing on Frontier Day. Is it possible that Picard has recessive traits that appeared in Jack, allowing him to either save or destroy humanity depending on who unlocks them first? It's a huge guess, but the fallout of another attack on Frontier Day could also be huge.

Jack is being controlled by the Pah-Wraiths

One of the most fun answers to Jack's mysterious visions would be one that doubles as a deep-cut reference to a totally different "Star Trek" show, and one that "Star Trek: Picard" has been paying homage to all season: "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." In that series, a rather metaphysical presence called the Pah-Wraiths often took to possessing people, giving them dark visions and dreams not unlike the ones Jack has been experiencing all season.

The Pah-Wraiths first appeared in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" as a sinister offshoot of the Bajoran Prophets. Those mystical beings live outside of time and have the god-like ability to see the future. Their enemies, the Pah-Wraiths, have similar powers but seem to have become corrupted along the way.

The only problem with the potential inclusion of the Pah-Wraiths in "Star Trek: Picard" is that the show hasn't dropped hints about them at all, unless Commander Ro Laren's Bajoran earring — in which she hid a chip including secret research on the Changelings — counts. Eight episodes into the season, a Pah-Wraith appearance in a show that's never acknowledged their existence might feel a bit like a deus ex machina.

Jack is related to Species 8472

Physical mimickry has been a hot topic in "Star Trek: Picard" this year thanks to the Changelings, so it only makes sense that other species capable of impersonating their enemies have come up frequently in chatter around the show. Since the season's mysteries began to unfold, several Reddit users have name-dropped Species 8472, a powerful, Borg-killing alien race that appeared in "Star Trek: Voyager." Though members of Species 8472 look a lot more like a classic sci-fi movie alien than a humanoid being, they're also capable of communicating telepathically and disguising themselves as other life forms through advanced technologies.

The going theory among fans doesn't seem to be that Jack is actually part of Species 8472, but that he's perhaps been modified or infected by the ruthless and highly evolved species as a pawn in some larger conflict. This would align with Deanna's assertion that there's darkness "with" him but "not in him." However, this theory doesn't seem likely for the same reason that the Pah-Wraith theory seems doomed to fail; "Star Trek: Picard" hasn't re-introduced us to Species 8472, and it would be weird to drop them in at the last minute.

Jack is the Dawn Summers of it all

This whole season of "Star Trek: Picard" has hinged on our instant acceptance of Jack Crusher as Picard's long-lost son, but his appearance felt sudden. In fact, it was so sudden that it got me wondering: what if the series is taking a page not out of the "Star Trek" rulebook, but the "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" one?

In the fifth season of "Buffy," our hero suddenly gained a little sister, Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg), whose inexplicable appearance remained unexplained for several episodes. While most "Trek" fans agree that it's likely that Jack's physiology was altered at some point, the common consensus seems to be that it was when he was a baby or before his birth. But what if Jack still is technically a baby? Is it possible that he blipped into existence a few years before we met him, just long enough ago to earn his reputation as a Federation criminal?

I'll be honest; there's really very little to support this theory besides my own distrust of main characters who appear way late in the game claiming to have a long history. If Jack were created as a teen or young adult, be it by a mad scientist or enemy of Picard, he and Beverly's actions would only make sense if they were lying or had their memories wiped (the latter of which might explain Beverly's voice in Jack's dreams ).

Still, with so much timeline fiddling in the show's second season, not to mention both the vision whispers and Vadic referencing Jack's return to a place he's seemingly meant to be, it's possible Picard's offspring could have an inorganic origin story that doesn't line up with what we've heard so far. 

It's probably the Borg thing, though.

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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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The 'Star Trek: Picard' Season 2 finale will leave you feeling somewhat shortchanged

It's mostly exactly what was expected, but there was one twist that no one saw coming

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Star Trek: Picard" season 2, episode 10

Here we are then. After nine weeks, this particular journey is at an end and the second season of " Star Trek: Picard " draws to a close. We spoke last week of how it had been confirmed that the third and final season of "Star Trek: Picard" on Paramount Plus was not a continuation of the events unfolding before us now and consequently that left quite a lot to be wrapped up.

Sadly, most of the story threads concluded in a manner that was exactly what we were expecting, with one small surprise however, that we can guarantee no one saw coming. All things considered though, it's still so much better than the first season finale. You can check out our Star Trek streaming guide to catch up on "Star Trek: Picard" for the finale and be ready for season three. Now, on to the episode.

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Following the somewhat lengthy recap that covers the events of the whole of the season, we're right back where we left off last week, with our peppy band of timeline polluters at Château Picard pondering their next move after Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill), who is now more or less fully integrated with the Borg Queen, stole La Sirena and took off, leaving everyone else stranded in La Barre, eastern France, in 2024. But not for long. 

After a super-speedy conference, they beam back to Tallinn's (Orla Brady) apartment, grab some gear and she and Jean-Luc (Patrick Stewart) then beam to the launch site of the Europa mission to prevent the presumed attack on astronaut Renée Picard (Penelope Mitchell). 

This sets up one of the plot threads that we fully anticipate to be tied up, that of the relationship between Jean-Luc and Tallinn-lookalike Laris (also Orla Brady). Since the two are identical in both appearance and attitude, Jean-Luc can resolve his issues with former and transfer his feelings over to the latter with relative ease, which he does. ✓

Meanwhile, the rest of the gang, Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), Raffi (Michelle Hurd) and Cristóbal Rios (Santiago Cabrera) are able to track Jurati's movements from before she stole La Sirena and they beam to Dr. Adam Soong's ( Brent Spiner ) home, expecting to find him there, except he's at the Europa launch site. Uh oh. Instead however, they find his "plan B" for preventing the launch, which is basically a drone attack. And thus begins one of the weakest story elements in this season finale. It also conveniently provides a ticking clock for the Renée Picard sub-plot.

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That's handled by Tallinn and she enters the astronaut building in a stolen uniform and is forced to confront Renée directly. It also fulfills the cryptic prophecy that the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching) foretold when she said, "There must be two Renées." And in all fairness, it's not handled too badly. Soong is at the site and getting into a tantrum about not being allowed into the complex despite being a very generous donor to ... the mission? Exactly what, or who, Soong has been making generous donations to, is glossed over. Nevertheless, he's eventually able to catch up with Renée and poisons her by way of a rather nice, peel-away skin graft-of-sorts from his hand that contains a powerful neurotoxin, which he was able to transmit when he shook her hand.

Related:  'Picard' Season 3 cast announcement includes many familiar names

Except of course it isn't Renée, it's Tallinn, who has expanded the operational area of her ear-camouflaging, holographic cloaking device to now encompass her whole face ... and thus she's able to deceive Soong. Oh, yeah, and the drones have been destroyed, so you know, phew .

The pacing is good throughout and the dialogue is actually very good, in particular between Renée and Tallinn, then between Jean-Luc and the dying Romulan. So far however, there have been no real surprises. The mission launches and, to all intents and purposes, is a success and the authoritarian future has been prevented. As a final gesture of general loathing, all of Soong's work is deleted by Kore (Isa Briones) who hacks in remotely. Watching the launch on television and seething with anger, he gulps down a whiskey and reaches into a drawer, pulling out a file labeled "Project Khan" and dated 1996.

This is of course a direct reference to Khan Noonien Singh, played magnificently by Ricardo Montalbán, first in "The Original Series" episode "Space Seed" (S01, E24) and then again in " Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan " — arguably the greatest movie ever made. (The less said about "Star Trek Into Darkness" the better.) Khan was genetically engineered "augment" and former ruler of more than one-quarter of Earth, from Asia to the Middle East.

In " Star Trek " history however, the augment tyrants began warring among themselves in the mid-1990s. Other nations joined in, to force them from power, in a series of struggles that became known as the Eugenics Wars. Much of this story was exceptionally well told in the vastly underrated "Enterprise" Season 4 three-part augments story arc. 

Eventually, most of these "super humans" were defeated and their territory recaptured, but approximately 90 were never accounted for. Turns out they escaped and stole a DY-100-class interplanetary sleeper ship that Khan named the SS Botany Bay. Set on a course outbound from the solar system , but with no destination in mind, Khan and his people remained in suspended animation until they were discovered in deep space by Captain Kirk some 270 years later.

And it becomes clear that this is less of a throwback to "Enterprise" and more of a set up for " Strange New Worlds ," since it's been decided that one of the USS Enterprise bridge crewmembers is Khan's daughter, La'an Noonien-Singh, played by Christina Chong. Quite how this will be incorporated into the fabric of space and time remains to be seen. Or perhaps it won't be.

Then comes the biggest twist, by far. Kore has been sitting in a library while she hacks in and mercilessly deletes all of her father's work. Having completed her task and exacted her revenge, she collects her stuff, packs it into her bag and casually makes her way outside into the late afternoon sunshine where she's greeted by ... of all peopl ... Wesley Crusher.

And why not. It's great to see Wil Wheaton capitalizing on some Paramount-paid "TNG" nostalgia, why should all everyone else have all the cash fun?

So, here's what we know. In "The Next Generation" episode "Where No One Has Gone Before" (S01, E06) experimental engine modifications throw the Enterprise to the edge of the known universe. A mysterious alien, known as the Traveler from another plane of existence, is making his way through our galaxy, peacefully observing all lifeforms. By disguising himself as a human, he is able to get passage on different starships and in this instance, onboard the USS Enterprise. During this escapade, the Traveler and Wesley become good friends.

Seven years later, cadet Crusher resigns from Starfleet Academy after the Traveler — this time posing as a villager on Dorvan V — accompanies him through a vision of his deceased father who tells him that his destiny lies somewhere other than with Starfleet and that he should not follow in his footsteps in "The Next Generation" episode "Journey's End" (S07, E02). (By the way, here's our take on the best Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes ever.)

The Traveler promises to mentor Wesley as he begins his journey to another plane of existence. That said, Wesley attends the marriage of William Riker and Deanna Troi in "Star Trek: Nemesis" in a lieutenant junior grade dress uniform in 2379, suggesting that he had in fact become a Starfleet officer at some point. Regardless of how "Star Trek" canon chooses to interpret all of this, Wesley approaches Kore and explains how he can guide her. Turns out, the Travelers are the ones behind the Supervisors. "My colleagues and I, we dispatch those we call supervisors to help ensure the proper flow of time," says Wes. 

"Two paths are before you. The first one leads to a perfectly normal life. The second ... that path leads to everything else. And it offers a chance to give your life purpose and meaning," he continues and it works because without any real hesitation, she joins him. And we won't see Isa Briones in Season 3 because she posted on Instagram that her involvement with "Picard" at least, was at an end.

 Back at Château Picard, Seven and Raffi finally get their act together, share their feelings for each other and kiss, so we can check that box now too. ✓ But then we get to the very best part of this episode, the final exchange between Q (John de Lancie) and Jean-Luc. It's beautifully written, nicely explains the events of the last 10 episodes without spoonfuls of exposition and the performances, from de Lancie in particular, are outstanding.

As we eventually discover — and we'll come to shortly — the Borg were facing an extinction level event and so called for Jean-Luc. But, as we saw in the very first episode of this second season " The Star Gazer ," Jean-Luc tried to activate the self destruct on the USS Stargazer, but the Borg Queen was already Agnes Jurati — because of time loops and stuff like that. Behind the scenes, Q does his Thanos thing and all key member of the cast are unwittingly transported to an alt-history timeline. This is crucial so they can pick up the actual Borg Queen who a) helps La Sirena Six navigate back to 2024 but also b) has to be present so Jurati can merge with her and fulfill that pesky time loop.

The importance placed on the Europa mission is, in essence, to prevent Dr. Soong from offering his solution to the world's problems and thus creating the authoritarian state. We learn later that "they found a way to heal the ocean and clean the sky using an alien organism that Renée discovered during the Europa Mission." What a very handy organism indeed.

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A second chance at all of this was Q's parting gift to Jean-Luc before he died. So it's not quite like Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes "Tapestry" (S06, E15) or "All Good Things" (S07, E25 & 26) in that they were more like glimpses of alternative outcomes. This is a full on chance to change the future, by not destroying the USS Stargazer, saving the galaxy one more time and even establishing a line of communication to the Borg — in fact, changing the Borg forever. Perhaps this was all meant to happen and Q ensures it does. Perhaps he should've worked in cooperation with the Travelers.

The important thing is that this effectively delivered in the best way possible. Q doesn't explain his roadmap — although it's arguable if he'd done that, then he and Jean-Luc wouldn't have had to exchange blows in the vineyard. But we're given enough for both of us — the viewers and Jean-Luc to work out for ourselves. It's even been speculated on social media that perhaps this All New & Improved Borg could be the ones who find and repair V'ger.

Nerd Note: According to Memory Alpha , La Sirena (a Kaplan F17 Speed Freighter) was "slower, but more maneuverable, than a 23rd century Romulan Bird-of-Prey." We saw in "Star Trek IV" The Voyage Home" the captured Bird of Prey, referred to as HMS Bounty reach warp 9.3 before beginning to shake apart. So, would Queen Agnes have reached the Borg in the Delta Quadrant in under 377 years? Taking USS Voyager's projected journey time back to the Alpha Quadrant of 23 years, give or take (at warp 9.975) then yes. The events of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" take place in 2270, so that leaves, very roughly, 246 years for Voyager 6 to fall into a black hole and "emerge on the far side of the galaxy" and into the "machine planet's gravitational field." So, yeah…it's entirely plausible.

Still at Château Picard, Rios declares he's staying ✓ and Q says his final farewell, which is all rather emotional, and as we've mentioned, is in considerable contrast to how he was behaving at the beginning of the season. Then we're whisked away back to the bridge of the USS Stargazer just moments before the self destruct completed its countdown. Jean-Luc cancels the order and Queen Agnes reveals herself.

Only now do we discover what this was all about. Apparently, it's a "galactic event" presumably like a gamma ray burst, or possibly a supernova. These things happen, we fully understand that. Or at least gamma ray bursts and supernovas happen, the jury's still out on triquantum waves. And it would be OK, even a novelty, if this hadn't been an integral part of the last two seasons of "Star Trek: Discovery." But here's the thing, Aaron J. Waltke, Executive Producer on "Star Trek" Prodigy" tweeted after the finale had aired, "Boy oh boy, there are things I wish I could show you about the upcoming seasons of #StarTrekProdigy today, of all days."

And in fact, Seven says, "I believe we have just witnessed the creation of a transwarp conduit, but unlike any I've ever seen before." 

"But…created by who?" Asks a puzzled Jean-Luc. "Even with our collective knowledge, that answer remains elusive," Queen Agnes responds, with little sign of any emotion. "But you know more…" Jean-Luc insists. "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. We request provisional membership in the Federation so that we may remain here, a guardian at the gates," Queen Agnes replies, this time perhaps showing the smallest of signs of the former doctor's personality.

Nerd Note: Jean-Luc can't hear the Borg anymore (as he used to be able to following his assimilation) after getting his new synthetic body replacement at the end of last season, so instead he relies on Seven when he needs to.

Put all that together and what we have is an inadequate, unsatisfying ending to "Picard" Season 2, but one that now deliberately links to events in the animated "Star Trek" spin-off show that's aimed primarily at children; perfect if you watch "Prodigy," less so if you don't.

Once this is all solved, the Borg harmonize the fleet's shields with their own and massive spike in neutrino emissions focused on the center of the quadrant have been diverted, it's basically a matter of closure. Queen Agnes, who seems to have taken some fashion advice from David Warner's character in "Time Bandits," goes back to the Borg fleet and the impressive gathering of Federation starships, complete with Elnor, makes it's way back to Sector 001.

We learn from Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) that Teresa eventually died of old age and Rios slightly younger, in a Moroccan bar fight, over medical supplies. Thus the single best new character given to us from this spin-off show will no longer appear in any more. And the very last, very predictable event is that Jean-Luc tells Laris how he really feels about her. ✓

All in all, it's a very mixed bag. Still, it's better than the first season and perhaps this will fare better upon a more condensed rewatch. Without any doubt, Q's dialogue and performance was the highlight, even if it was in stark contrast to his earlier behavior. Plus questions remain unanswered, as they tend to do when you muck about with the timeline. What happened to former FBI Agent Wells (Jay Karnes) for instance? Was he eradicated when Q did his Thanos thing?

Rating: A very generous 6/10

The entire second season of "Star Trek: Picard" is now available to watch on Paramount Plus as is the first episode of "Strange New Worlds." Season 4 of "Star Trek: Discovery" is also available to watch now on Paramount Plus in the US and CTV Sci-Fi or Crave TV in Canada. Countries outside of North America can watch on the Pluto TV Sci-Fi channel.

Paramount has confirmed that its streaming platform will launch in the UK and Ireland on June 22, available both as a standalone service and as part of the Sky Cinema subscription for the UK cable provider.

Follow Scott Snowden on Twitter . Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook . 

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When Scott's application to the NASA astronaut training program was turned down, he was naturally upset...as any 6-year-old boy would be. He chose instead to write as much as he possibly could about science, technology and space exploration. He graduated from The University of Coventry and received his training on Fleet Street in London. He still hopes to be the first journalist in space.

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Star Trek: Picard Finale Recap: One Giant Leap for Mankind (Grade It!)

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Jean-Luc and the Star Trek: Picard crew are racing to save the future of humanity — but it might require some personal sacrifice.

As Thursday’s Season 2 finale opens, Jean-Luc and Tallinn are puzzling over Agnes/the Borg Queen’s declaration that there must be two Renées: one who lives, and one who dies. While Seven, Raffi and Rios try to stop Soong, Tallinn transports to the site of Renée’s launch — and Jean-Luc goes with her. He sees a look in her eye, and he can tell she’s planning to sacrifice her own life to save Renée’s. But she pushes him away: “I don’t need saving. I never have.” Inside Soong’s lab, Seven, Raffi and Rios just find a recording of Soong’s voice — he’s actually at the launch site, too — along with a squad of robotic drones poised to take Renée’s rocket out of the sky.

Tallinn dons a flight suit and sneaks in with the other astronauts, cornering Renée and telling her she’s in danger… and that she’s been watching her for her entire life. Raffi manages to hack into Soong’s drones, and Rios flies them into each other, destroying them and neutralizing that threat. But Soong gets to Renée at the launch site and touches her skin with a fatal neurotoxin, bringing her to her knees. Jean-Luc cradles her in his arms as the rocket launches, but the dying Renée reveals she was wearing a hologram disguise. It’s actually Tallinn! She encourages Jean-Luc to forgive himself for his mother’s death before succumbing to the neurotoxin.

It starts to dawn on Rios, Seven and Raffi that they’re stuck in this timeline now, but Rios seems happy with Teresa and her son. (Plus, Seven plants a kiss on Raffi!) But as Jean-Luc walks through his chateau and places that old key behind a brick so his future self can find it, he’s greeted by a beaming Q. The trickster god thinks now that Jean-Luc has accepted his fate and forgiven himself, maybe he can find love. Q is “moving on,” aka dying, and he doesn’t want Jean-Luc to end up along: “Even gods have favorites, Jean-Luc. And you’ve always been one of mine.” He has one final surprise: He can send them back home to the future —although he can’t resurrect Elnor, like Raffi wants. Rios decides to stay behind with Teresa in the past, though, and he exchanges warm hugs with the crew as Q says a final goodbye to Jean-Luc: “Farewell, mon capitaine.”

They end up back on the Stargazer bridge as they were in the premiere, under fire from the Borg Queen. Jean-Luc cancels the auto-destruct and tells his crew to cease fire, directly addressing the Borg Queen. She takes off her mask — and yep, it’s Jurati. She explains that a nearby space anomaly is about to release enough energy to wipe out the whole sector, and she took control of the ships to harmonize their shields to counter the blast. Jean-Luc puts Seven in charge, and she orders the fleet to allow the Borg to control their ships. The shields are harmonized, forming a protective force field — and hey, Elnor is on the Excelsior ! (Rios staying behind opened up a spot for him after all.) The anomaly fires off a massive blast of energy, but the force field absorbs it, and it ends with no harm done. Agnes the Borg Queen requests membership in the Federation to watch over it, though. This is an episode of unlikely alliances, isn’t it?

Jean-Luc shares a drink with Guinan, who points out she has a photo of Rios and Teresa up in her bar. They formed a medical charity together, and her son grew up to use alien technology to clean up the planet’s ecosystem. Rios eventually died in a Moroccan bar fight, she reports: “His last breath was into a cigar.” Jean-Luc and the crew toast “to family, because that’s what we are, after all.” But he has some unfinished business: He heads back to his chateau, where he finds Laris. She restored his greenhouse, but he doesn’t want to look back. “Better to look forward,” he says as he asks her for a second chance — and the two hold hands.

Alright, Trekkies: Give the Picard finale a grade in our poll, and then beam down to the comments to share your thoughts.

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Well, that was a surprise. Wesley Crusher making an appearance.

Hi Steven.. not really a surprise.. he did go with the Traveler to learn at the end of Next Generations.. since he was interviewing actors especially Patrick Stewart in an ET kind of way.. I figured they’d plug him in there somewhere.. I just hope they show us at least one episode of Kore NEXT YEAR in season 3.. so frustrating

It was solid…I will always love Patrick Stewart in this role and he made this finale work…I hated the project khan reference, stop always going back to khan star trek… I was shocked by Wesley Crusher though it was a little too much fan service, and who knows where that’s leading. how do they ever explain Rios disapearance to starfleet, Picard just Yada Yadaed it. I must say, I new Rios was staying as soon as I saw his protrayor show up on the premier of the flight attendant lol, I saw that and said well I guess thats a wrap for rios…I’m glad they thinned out the herd for all the returning tng characters next season.

Project Kahn was, I’m sure, a reference to Adam Soong’s descendant Arik, who on Star Trek: Enterprise would create genetic augments like Kahn. Bit of foreshadowing…

So very pleased to see Wesley although would have enjoyed more interaction with Wesley and Picard. Really enjoyed this!

I really enjoyed the season finale! The conclusion wrapped things up nicely, even though we lost Agnes and Rios . Overall, I was completely satisfied with season.

A key point was missed: Seven was given a FIELD PROMOTION by Admiral Picard. That’s a huge deal in my book (and rightly deserved). While I thought the first part of the season was bad, they made up for it in the last 2 episodes. The finale may be the only one I watch multiple times.

No, she was given a field commission which is temporary. “A field commission (or brevet) refers to either a Starfleet commissioned officer holding a higher rank temporarily, or, in some cases, personnel from outside Starfleet temporarily being granted a Starfleet rank for the purposes of completing a specific mission.”

WOW. I bet that was a shocker to people that Wesley made an appearance. I love it though. I know his character was very divisive with fans but I enjoyed his time on TNG. I thought it was interesting why he wasn’t announced as a returning character for season 3 but now I know why.

When I was younger, I really hated Wes. But once they had him quit Starfleet and go do his thing, I really came to like his story arc. And Wil Wheaton seems like a cool guy in real life, so I have come to appreciate Wesley.

This show is garbage… i laughed so hard at the Khan file… the timeline is completely ruined but yes lets act like all is well. Season 1 is better compared to this. Q just wanted a hug??? Crusher protects timeline but ignores all that happened.

How is the timeline ruined? Rios was always supposed to stay in the past. The rest returned after fixing the mess Q and Borg Queen Annie caused with Renee the Europa flight. This all led to Picard accepting his future and planting the skeleton key for himself to find.

Q showed a very human side of himself to Picard right at the end of his lifespan. It wasn’t just about Q feeling lonely at the end, he wanted to connect with others, Picard, in his own way. Bringing Elnor back showed his compassionate side.

Have to agree! And they totally wasted the potential in the characters of Elnor and especially Rios. Gave them nothing of any import to do the whole season and then killed off Rios at the end. Why even bother introducing them in S1? The storyline was a mess, and worse, boring – like, how are we supposed to believe Picard was so affected by his mother’s death and his role it in? There was no significant evidence of that in TNG. And to base the whole season on him ‘learning to love’? Ack. I saw a review that suggested the real story of import was Agnes’, and I think I agree.

Of all the major characters in TNG Wesley was the only one who was written off never to be seen or heard from again. He just went off with a traveler and never mentioned again.

It was nice to give him a conclusion or ending arc. And an ending for Rios.

and again people wondered why he wasn’t in the season 3 cast announcment and now we know why

We can still use his hologram/AI. He can still show up from time to time.

He won’t be credited as hologram if the show uses CGI.

Nobody is discussing this, but Allison Pill was FIRED from Star Trek: Picard before the season 2 finale. Take a close look at Agnes/Borg Queen in those scenes about the Stargazer. Her face was motion-captured and CGIed over the physical performer’s face. The slightly out-of-focus blurring around her head was a dead give-away. I wonder why the producers fired her. Probably she asked for more money.

No, she wasn’t fired. Her character arc ended, just as Rios’s did, which is why neither Allison Pill nor Santiago Cabrera will appear in the final season. Hell, it’s probably the only way they can *afford* season 3!

That’s silly.. she was there for the finale.. she had to do the voice and she did the performance.. they made use of cgi cause she was not human anymore

None of that is true. She was in the season finale. She simply will not be part of season 3. No controversy. It’s storyline dictated.

A worthy ending to an interesting, if offbeat season. Not easy to do as there are many examples of failures.

An often uneven season, but I don’t regret spending time with it. Now, what do we have to do to get a Seven and Raffi in the Fenris Rangers spinoff?!?

As much as I liked it, I think seeing Tallinn with RED bloodshot eyes had me blinking. Because Romulans have green blood.

Good call; it didn’t even occur to me at the time.

It was a Soong neurotoxin.. it’s possible he created one that couldn’t be fought off or is Tallin half human.. since the toxin was created for a human..

I despised season 1. Two was good but was both rushed and many parts didn’t make any sense. Rios dying at an old age in bar fight with a cigar as his last breath was ridiculous.

I never liked Spiner other than Data. His douchebag behaviour on social media has a striking resemblance to that of Shatner. I doubt he put much effort in playing an arsehole. It’s natural for him. The fact Soong will be responsible for Khan and others was actually a good twist. But surely the world would have shut him down given what he did to sabotage the Euro mission.

Q suddenly has his powers back? How did he know Picard was going to succeed in [the current] timeline?

The onscreen romance and kiss between seven and Rafi just didn’t make much sense. Neither did using Borg tech to keep her alive, at least not in the same locations as before.

Using alien technology to clean up the ocean? How do you explain that without altering the future.

And poor Whoopie Goldberg. She sounded so out of breath. She’s obese and that’s not good. It was difficult to hear and watch her speak.

But anyway, there’s reasons for all, but the reasons aren’t good. It’s just bad writing.

Next season we know Picard will die. What a waste of that new body of his.

I’m sorry but I was frustrated with Season 2, having to wait every week for an episode.. I’m 70 I binge watch my shows.. I rely 2024 could have been done in half the time, move on to something else.. I know this was a Love/hate relationship with the show.. and we havevtovwait for season three next year?? It’s only April.. I probably won’t watch it..

Well, if you didn’t want to watch it weekly, you could have just waited 6 weeks and watched it all at once. We don’t ALL need to be on your viewing schedule, do we? . Personally, I kind of like having the intervening week to think about an episode and chat with others (though more so for rich shows like Better Call Saul than more popcorny fare like Star Trek).

I just finished watching Voyager and TNG and this is not that. It feels like it is trying so so hard. I was glad to see the “real” Guinan at the end. That young one was very miscast. Also I loved the guest spot by Wesley.

I had mixed feelings. On one hand, it’s a solid cast, and Patrick Stewart shows his characteristic generosity towards his fellow actors. (I wonder if it was his idea for Picard to delegate during the crisis at the end; it’s refreshingly un-Star Trek.) It was particularly good to see Orla Brady and Annie Wersching. John de Lancie was excellent, as were Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd, and Sunny Ozell musical number was a treat. . On the other hand, the last episode was just not very well written. You just sat there and watched the writers contrive ways to pull the expected triggers. It was largely rote: characters thanking each other in a smarmy way for teaching them things, which came off as self-congratulatory on the part of the writers, and characters’ natures reduced to That Traumatic Incident in their past. It ain’t that simple. . And logic seemed to have gone out the window. For example, when Picard et al. get back to the present, they’re still in the ship where Picard had activated a self-destruct. He decides to cancel it on the assumption that Agnes as the new Borg Queen will be on the side of the angels. Okay, fine, but if the Borg are in fact benevolent in this changed timeline, why is Star Fleet lined up against them, and why did Picard order the self-destruct? Turning it the other way around, why did the Borg Queen of the original timeline ask for Picard by name? Unlike Agnes, she had no reason to. . And why does Guinan need to explain to Picard that Renee somewhat improbably found the solution to climate change while in space? Picard would have known that, since that’s what happened in the timeline he came from, and blocking her from doing this was what changed things. (I wish that she hadn’t said that “His last breath was into a cigar,” which, just like a bad song, is the kind of thing that sticks in your mind when you don’t want it to.) . And … Well, enough of that. Nice ending, with Picard showing the gentle tact that seems so natural to Patrick Stewart.

I like Picard and Laris together. I hope they live happily ever after by the series finale next season. While I used to want Picard and Beverly together, he has more chemistry with Laris. Aside from those two being together, the only things that I liked about this series so far has been the brief cameos by the original TNG cast. Unfortunately, this show seems to want to kill them all off.

I thoroughly enjoyed the finale and the season. I believe I liked Season 1 better because I really dislike time travel and parallel worlds, but this being Star Trek, it’s come to be expected. I give it a solid A. So glad that Elnor made it, after all. Watching Star Trek Picard has been much like seeing an old best friend after 20 years and picking up right where you left off. Also – huzzah for Q and Wesley Crusher!

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Farewell (episode)

• View history
• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3.1 Production
• 3.3 Reception
• 3.4 Cast and characters
• 3.5 Continuity
• 4.1 Starring
• 4.2 Special guest star
• 4.3 Guest starring
• 4.4 Co-starring
• 4.5 Uncredited co-stars
• 4.6 Stand-ins
• 4.7.1 Spacecraft references
• 4.7.2 Star Map references
• 4.8 External links

Summary [ ]

With the new Borg Queen on her way to the Delta Quadrant , Picard recalls to Tallinn and Rios the stories he'd heard of how the château had been "shot up" when the family reoccupied it in the 21st century ; the bullet holes in the wall from the battle of the previous evening were from that battle. Rios asks if that means they're on the path to the right future, but Picard is not certain. Rios still thinks on the prophecy Jurati gave before leaving, about how there had to be two Renées , one who lived and one who died. Rios wonders how such a thing was possible. Picard looks up at Tallinn, who appears troubled at the idea, and says they will speak on it later. Just then, Seven and Musiker return, and Tallinn asks if they were all set as she pulls out her servo .

Transporting back to her apartment , Tallinn opens a safe and pulls out a device she says will work similar to tricorders , handing it to Musiker and another servo to Rios. Seven asks her to check on Soong 's GPS; Musiker sees that his entire fleet of vehicles is still parked at his house. Rios knows that was where the Jurati-Queen hacked into the CSS La Sirena 's transporters , which meant Soong had considerable remote capabilities at his disposal. While they investigated Soong's house, Tallinn would go to the Europa Mission launch; the astronauts' quarantine would end on launch day, and she would transport to the launch site to pass security and the bioscanners in the front lobby. When Picard asks what she plans to do, she says only that she is going to watch out for Renée, as that was what she does. Seven wishes her luck, and Tallinn does likewise. As Tallinn prepares to transport with her servo, however, Picard grabs her by the wrist and is taken with her, leaving the others wondering what he was doing.

Act One [ ]

As the communications herald the launch of the mission, the scene moves from the orbit of Jupiter and the destination moon, Europa , back to Earth , to the launch site in Southern California . Tallinn and Picard appear outside the base, with Tallinn asking what he was doing there. Picard bluntly says he knows what she is trying to do, and tries to convince her that she does not have to sacrifice her life for Renée's. Tallinn asks if Jurati would have any reason to lie, and Picard thinks she would have thousands, as she was now part Borg . But Tallinn thinks she was more Jurati at the end, with a view of all possible futures. Picard makes it clear that he does not believe in prophecy, and even if he did, there were many ways to interpret what Jurati said, and tells her he will not let her sacrifice herself just because she interpreted it a certain way. Tallinn bluntly tells him that that he did not get to decide her fate just because he was afraid she would die. She understands why he would feel that way, but reminds him that other people's lives were not up to him, and their deaths were not his fault – not Tallinn's, if it came to that, and not his mother 's. They couldn't control who they would lose, or spare themselves the pain. But other people's choices were their own, and this was the one Tallinn had made. " I don't need saving, " she tells him. " I never have. "

Meanwhile, at his house, Soong is instructing the computer controlling the automated drones to target the reaction control thrusters of the Shango X-1 shuttle, while Rios, Seven, and Musiker transport in. But as they cautiously enter his lab, they find the computer is merely playing a recording of his voice giving the instructions. Seven calls Picard, reporting that Soong was not there. Picard looks down and sees why: the doctor is at the launch site. Musiker rages at the "entire bullshit scenario" meant to draw them away from Soong, but Rios is more worried about the drones. Musiker detects four heat signatures nearby, and opens a wall to reveal the hidden drones. Rios suspects that this was Soong's backup plan, and Seven agrees: if he can't stop Renée from boarding the rocket, he would use the drones to destroy the rocket itself. The drones will launch in less than four minutes; Musiker sees the system is encrypted, and that she could stop it if she still had access to La Sirena . With the ship gone, however, she can't stop the launch. Musiker realizes Soong knew they would find the drones, and finds they were rigged with explosives. Trying to tamper with them would set them off, killing the crew on the spot. Rios asks if that was it, but Musiker is determined it's not, and asks for whatever small tools, such as pliers or scissors , that they can find. If she can't disable them, she would take manual control.

Tallinn watches as the astronauts make their way to the launch pad, and looks worried that she does not see Renée. She changes into a flight suit and follows them. Meanwhile, Lee , part of the Europa Mission's board of directors, is taking Soong around the facility, and the doctor asks to meet the astronauts, claiming that he wants to shake hands with "the men and women who are about to create the future." When Lee mentions the strict quarantine protocols, Soong asks if his donations to the mission didn't earn him "five minutes of facetime"; his guide relents, telling him they were about to suit up. Tallinn uses her security card to enter Renée's changing room, and finds her there alone. Renée remarks on how the mission was happening, and she was actually ready for it. She turns and finds Tallinn there, who she does not recognize, asking about Maya Orlando , the person on her suit-up crew. Tallinn tries to hedge, saying Maya wasn't feeling well, but Renée knows she was not on any of the suit-up crews, as she knew them all… and was also wearing Maya's uniform.

Lee expresses excitement at the mission, never thinking it would actually happen. Soong considers that attitude "terrible". Lee tries to clarify that she never thought it would be real, but Soong finds that "disrespectful", thinking he would leave her right there; after a second or two, he decides to do so.

Renée again asks to know who Tallinn is, thinking she has seen her somewhere before. Tallinn recalls that as a child, Renée had put a small spaceship toy into her mother's casket, and her dream of being an astronaut was motivated by the idea that if she flew out far enough, she would find her mother in the stars. Tallinn admits she had tried to hide herself from Renée, but there were times she couldn't. She picks up a small pendant of a sailboat and hands it to Renée, having given it to her after her real sailboat had capsized off Martha's Vineyard when she was ten years old. Tallinn had also been at the pre-launch gala a couple of nights earlier , and maybe "a dozen other glimpses" as well. Part of her, however, wanted Renée to see her, to know she was there. Renée had always thought she'd had a "guardian angel", and she had at least had a kind of guardian: Tallinn.

" Don't worry. Won't last long. This neurotoxin… is fast and fatal. Looks like you're about to create the future after all. "

As Picard watches Soong heading for the astronaut quarters, Tallinn tells Renée that all she wants is for her to board the ship, and asks Renée to trust her. Soong enters the hallway outside her changing room just as Renée emerges in a panic. She appears glad to see Soong approaching, talking about a "crazy woman" who claims to be a "guardian from space". Soong assures her it was alright, and has her accompany him to find help. Heading down the stairs, Soong calls security to go to the suit-up room upstairs, just as Renée begins to stagger in pain. Soong smugly pulls a thin layer of skin dosed with a neurotoxin from his hand, assuring her that it was fast… and fatal.

At the same time, back at Soong's house, the crew continues to try and bypass Soong's systems. Just then, the drones begin to launch in staggered intervals; Soong had programmed them that way to ensure at least one got off the ground. Musiker continues to work feverishly to gain manual control, and finally succeeds with one of them; Rios has full control over the drone, and Seven tells him to shoot the others down. Rios struggles with the controls as the drones fly across the Hollywood Hills , but ultimately Rios succeeds by crashing his drone into the other three, destroying them all.

Picard looks up to see Renée stagger out, calling him by name. As she collapses, Picard asks if there was some medical technology to save her, but she says it was too late. "Renée" is actually Tallinn, revealed a moment later as her masking technology fades away. She tells him she needs to see the launch. Hearing the rumbling of the engines, Picard tells her, as his mother had told him long ago, to "look up". Tallinn does, seeing the rocket launch, and is greatly relieved to see it. Tallinn admits she understands Picard better now, remarking on how his guilt had saved planets, countless lives for the one he couldn't save. She admits she finally revealed herself to Renée and told her the truth, and hopes that Renée will remember her, and know she had been worth all the effort. She tells Picard he had helped her do that, and tells him to absolve himself, or the only life unsaved would be his own. " Her eyes, they were so beautiful, " Tallinn says as she dies, content that her job was done: Renée was fulfilling the destiny she had worked for so long to protect.

Act Two [ ]

Soong watches Renée interviewed live on television, his plans in ruins

Inside his ransacked lab, a drink in his hand, Soong watches the news on television as Renée reports they were away at last. " On the wings of those who came before us, " she says, holding the sailboat pendant Tallinn had given her. " Europa, here we come. " Realizing that his future was not to be, Soong hurls his drink out of his hand, which smashes into the nearby cabinet. Suddenly, he hears something from his computer. To his horrified rage, he sees that all of his computer files are rapidly being deleted. It is Kore , using the Aspectus headset from a public library . Soong asks what she had done. " Made a new future, " she replies. " For us both. This is for my sisters. " The computer then reports a one-hundred percent file deletion; Soong's entire computer system had been purged. Soong is now left with nothing – until a thought occurs to him and he opens up a drawer in his desk, pulling out a confidential funding report from Soong Dynamics , dated June 7, 1996 : Project Khan .

Meanwhile, Kore is alerted by a message on her laptop. " Curious what's next? Watch and observe, " it tells her, before giving her an address: 460 Lowry Avenue in Los Angeles . Kore arrives at the address, a public park of sorts, and hears footsteps behind her. Thinking it was Q , she begins to tell him off about his "games", but it proves to be a much younger-looking man, who assures her they were very different, before greeting her by name. When she asks who he is, he says it was a "very long and very complicated story". Kore tells him she has nothing pressing, and so he begins by saying he had once been known as Wesley Crusher , but was now a Traveler of all of space and time. Kore thinks it to be a joke, but Wesley replies that the last time he told a joke, he inadvertently changed a century's worth of history, so tries not to be misunderstood. He goes on to say that he and his kind dispatched supervisors to watch over the "grand tapestry" of history, which was always a thread's pull away from total annihilation: a star can be born, but a ship lost, one species thriving while a civilization collapses. He admits that the tricky part was ultimately knowing when to step in. He tells Kore she has two paths before her: One would lead to a perfectly normal life, while the other would be to "everything else", but he could not guarantee her safety. He is recruiting her to become a Traveler, just as he had been . Kore replies that she had never been safe in her life, and so chooses to go with Wesley, who welcomes her as a Traveler. They both disappear in a transporter beam.

Act Three [ ]

Seven and Raffi share a kiss

Back at Château Picard, Ricardo "flies" his rocket through the house, while Rios collects all of the future equipment they had brought with them to ensure no "butterflies" would change their future. He, Seven, and Musiker realize there would probably be no returning to their future, and so they would have to live in the 21st century now. Seven wonders what they would do, and how money would work. Rios suggests going to Los Angeles, which Musiker jokingly calls "presumptuous"; Rios figures maybe he should ask first. Just then, Ricardo walks in to show Rios some "rocks" he and his mother Teresa found outside – corks from wine bottles. Seven remarks she has never seen Rios look so happy. Musiker asks if Seven was okay with the idea of staying in the 21st century, and Seven thinks she might be "better than okay". Musiker wonders, if Seven was done running from her Borg past, whether she could focus on herself for a change, while not wanting Seven to feel like she has to spend every waking moment with her. Seven cuts her off mid-sentence with a kiss ; when Musiker asks what that meant, Seven laughingly tells her to "let it breathe". Looking around, Musiker then wonders where "JL" slipped off to.

Picard, holding the skeleton key he had recovered from the night before, walks up to the door to what would be his mother's room, pulls the loose brick from the wall, places the key in the hollow and covers it up again. " Bravo, " he hears Q's voice say. " Destiny. Left for the little boy you will be in the future to find. " Picard walks into the solarium to find Q sitting alone across from another chair, his head bowed. Q knows Picard had considered destroying the key, and asks that if the younger Picard had not found it, would he still have grown up with his mother? Would the shame have instantly lifted? But Picard had not destroyed the key, and had chosen to accept his fate, accepting who he was, and chosen who he was – a sort of absolution. And because he had, Q thinks that perhaps he might be considered worthy enough for someone else to choose, and perhaps might even choose to be loved. He reminds Picard that he'd told him it had been about forgiveness: his own. Picard asks him why, "the eternal question" as Q puts it, before he admonishes Picard to "know thyself". Picard despairs at all the loss, all the death, including Elnor and Tallinn's. Q points out that Tallinn would always die in every timeline, but this was the only timeline she got to meet Renée. Picard again asks why, and Q tells him to finish the sentence. Picard does so, asking that for over thirty years since their first meeting , why had Q been so focused on Picard? Q admits that he was "moving on", essentially dying… and he was dying alone. He does not want such a fate for Picard. He remarks on how Humans fixate on their griefs, on moments of the past long gone, like butterflies with their wings pinned. He knows Picard still considers himself as the boy who turned a skeleton key and broke the universe, and his own heart. " No more, " Q says, saying Picard was now unshackled from his past; as Q leaves, he leaves Picard free. Picard asks why it all mattered, wondering if he would be required for some important event in the future. Q chides him for thinking everything had to have import on the universe as a whole, believing that one life should be enough, before answering Picard's question of why it mattered: That it mattered, Picard mattered, to Q himself. " Even gods have favorites, Jean-Luc, " he says, " and you've always been one of mine. " Q then says that time was almost up, but he had one last surprise in store.

As Picard walks into the living room, Seven looks up and asks what was wrong. Picard replies that nothing was wrong, indeed quite the opposite. Leading them outside the château, they find Q there. Musiker is particularly unhappy to see him, but Seven tells her to try not killing him until he reveals what he wants. Q dramatically says he was time for his "final act". Musiker's first question is about Elnor; Q feigns ignorance, and when accused of killing Elnor, points out that it had been the alternate Seven's " idiot husband " who had done that. Musiker grabs Q by the throat, and he admits in his weakened state she could very well kill him; sending them all home most certainly would. He then asks if everyone was ready to return. To the surprise of the others, Rios elects to stay behind. Picard protests, warning about the change in the timeline this will cause, but Rios believes he never truly fit in, having spent a lot of his time on a cargo ship with five holographic versions of himself. He had never had a family in any real way until he met Picard and the others, but going to the past with them, he had now found a home of sorts with Teresa and Ricardo. Picard understands, and tells Rios to "make a good future". Rios wonders if it was always supposed to be this way, and that time was a funny thing; Q agrees with that latter assessment, much to his own surprise. Musiker sadly hugs her old friend one last time, and warns Teresa about how he was a "handful". " Piece of cake, " Teresa replies. Picard approaches Q, who considers it "most unexpected", thinking perhaps there would be some surplus energy left to him afterward, enough for "a surprise, a gift". He bids Picard farewell, as it was time for him to go. " But not alone, " Picard replies; " isn't that the point of all this? " Picard embraces his old adversary, who is moved by the gesture. " See you out there, " Q says, as he snaps his fingers.

Picard finds himself back aboard the USS Stargazer 's bridge in 2401 , with the Borg Queen taking control of the ship, ten seconds from the auto-destruct sequence activating, and " Non, je ne regrette rien " playing. Picard orders the sequence canceled, and the crew to stand down. Knowing what he does about the Queen, Picard tells the crew to let her proceed, and mentions he had once told a friend about what the song had meant to him. While he did not have time to teach them the words, he believes that the Queen has had four hundred years to consider them. " Haven't you, Doctor? " he says. The Queen disengages her tentacles from the consoles, and retracts the mask over her face – the face of Agnes Jurati.

Act Four [ ]

Picard is glad to see a familiar face, and that she understands what he had told her about the song , how it had calmed him as a boy. The Jurati-Queen replies that she hoped it would calm him now. He now sees why she sent the signal, one she knew he would understand, and asks if it was still Jurati in there. She replies that she is, at least in part, but if they did not act, many would die, in this here and now. Picard asks about the threat she warned about, and why she has taken control of the fleet. At the helm, Ensign Kemi reports a massive spike in neutrino emissions focused on the center of the quadrant. Not hearing a response, she turns to find that Captain Rios is not there, and asks where he is. Picard orders her to remain on task, and bring the reading on screen. It appears to be a fissure of some sort; Seven consults the sensors, but is not clear what it is. What is clear is that if its triquantum waves keep increasing, it would devastate most of the sector, if not the entire quadrant. The Jurati-Queen has calculated that the only way to protect the quadrant was to harmonize the fleet's shields with her ship's, which was why she had begun taking over the vessel. Picard now realizes this is why he had been summoned: she needed someone with authority that she could trust, and who could trust her as well. " We needed a friend, " she confirms. Meanwhile, Starfleet Command is trying to ascertain Stargazer 's status, warning that they would consider the ship compromised if they did not answer soon. Seven turns to Commander Moshe and tells him to advise Starfleet they were in active negotiations. As Seven knew more about the Borg than anyone, even him, Picard uses his authority to give her a field commission of captain and command of the Stargazer . As she takes the captain's chair , Seven instructs Lieutenant Sing at communications to hail the fleet and tell them that Picard has authorized giving the Queen control, and orders the crews not to resist. " Agnes, be brilliant, " she says. " Always, " the Jurati-Queen replies.

The fleet is put into grid formation, the Borg ship in the center, as the Jurati-Queen begins harmonizing the fleet's shields. However, the USS Excelsior 's shield emitters are off, and Musiker instructs them to recalibrate. Elnor responds, surprised to see Musiker, and remarking the last thing he remembered was being on La Sirena . Musiker, relieved to see him alive, tells him to make the adjustments. As Elnor gets to work, Musiker realizes that Q had brought Elnor back, and Picard recalls he had called it "a surprise, a gift". Kemi warns that the object was about to go up, and Picard orders them to brace for impact. A burst of energy crashes into the shield, but after a long and tense moment, the shield holds. Picard commends the Jurati-Queen for saving billions of lives. " That was the idea… mister, " she replies. Looking as the anomaly changes from fiery to a more blue color, Musiker wonders what it was; Seven thinks they had just witnessed the creation of a transwarp conduit , but not a kind she was familiar with. The Jurati-Queen explains that even with the knowledge of the Borg Collective , she did not know who created it, but believes it to be part of a greater puzzle, connecting to some kind of threat. She asks for provisional membership in the Federation to watch over the conduit, "a guardian at the gates".

The Stargazer returns to Earth, and the crew takes advantage of the hospitality at 10 Forward Avenue . Guinan apologizes for not being able to tell Picard sooner about what had gone on, but knew that if she guided him right and set him straight, he would circle around eventually. She also thanks him for setting her straight first back in 2024. She notes that he had always been more clever than observant, gesturing to a picture nearby on the wall that she had needlessly worried about Picard potentially noticing when he gifted her the wine… a picture of Rios with Teresa. They had begun a medical movement together, the Mariposas – Spanish for "butterflies" – and he had led them through hard times, while she helped whoever needed help, whenever they might have needed it. Ricardo grew up to lead a team of scientists that used the alien organism his 'auntie' Renée discovered during the Europa Mission to reverse the deterioration of Earth's environment. They would all visit her bar whenever they were in Los Angeles, and remarks on how Teresa could drink Rios under the table. Picard, curious, asks how their lives had ended. Teresa had lived to extended old age, but Rios had been killed late in life in a bar fight in Morocco over medical supplies, his last breath appropriately into a cigar ; he had died as he had lived. Picard takes a pair of drinks from the bar and hands one to Elnor, raising a toast . " To family, then, " he says, " because that's what we are, after all. " With that toast, Picard tells them, there was somewhere it was time he got to. Guinan looks at him knowingly as he leaves.

Returning to his home, Picard finds bags packed in the hallway, before seeing Laris standing alone in the solarium. She had had the windows restored before she left, to give him something to look back to. Picard admits he had had enough of looking back, and decided to look forward from now on instead. He asks her where she was going, and she answers that she intended to find adventures of her own. Taking her hands, Picard – thinking on the lessons he had learned while in the past – says that while time could not give second chances, perhaps people could. Laris looks relieved at this, as they stand hand-in-hand and begin to talk. The view pans away outside the house, and looks up to the stars.

Memorable quotes [ ]

" And you are…? " " That's a very long and very complicated story. " " Honestly, I've got nothing pressing. " " OK. A long time ago, I was known as Wesley Crusher. But now, I am a traveler of all of space and time. "

" Well, hello. Nice to see you all. " " Q. Motherf– " " Try not to kill him until we find out what he wants. "

" I never fit, you know? Nothing stuck. I mean, I was living alone on a cargo ship with five holographic versions of myself. Not very encouraging. But then, I met you. I never had a family in any real way. You changed all that. All of you did. This is where I belong. Jean-Luc… I'm home. " " Make a good future. "

" Farewell, mon capitaine . It's time for me to go. " " But not alone. Isn't that the point of all this? " " See you out there. "

" I once told a dear friend what that song meant to me. Now, while I don't have time to teach you the words, I believe that she has had 400 years to consider them. Haven't you, Doctor? It's good to see you, Agnes. "

" Hail the fleet. The admiral has authorized full control by the Borg Queen. Tell them do not resist. Agnes, be brilliant. " " Always. Initiating grid formation. "

"Excelsior , your shield harmonics need to be recalibrated. Do you copy? " " We copy. Realigning now and… Raffi? " " Elnor? " " The last thing I remember I was on La Sirena . "

" Q. Goddamned Q. " " What did he call it? A surprise, a gift. "

" You just saved billions of lives. " " That was the idea, mister. "

" I'm sorry I couldn't tell you sooner. I just knew that if I guided you right, set you straight, you'd circle around eventually. And I also want to thank you for setting me straight first."

" I thought maybe a little looking back might do you some good. " " I think I've had just about enough of that. Better to look forward. "

Background information [ ]

Production [ ].

• 2 May 2022 : Title publicly revealed on StarTrek.com . [1]
• During filming for this episode and " Hide and Seek ", Patrick Stewart's throat was frequently irritated whenever smoke was used on set. He later explained: "Now, if you watched episodes nine and 10, you will hear that my voice sounds different. Whenever smoke is used onstage, I have to make a protest because — I know it’s not poisonous, it’s not going to harm — it gets onto the vocal cords. I particularly suffer badly from this. And it made me a little hoarse. So, at first, we were going to rerecord a lot of what I said, but I urged [executive producer] Akiva [Goldsman] and my fellow producers not to do that because the weakness in my voice was reflecting the weakness in the character." [2]
• The score of this episode cites the theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture as well as the main theme from Star Trek: First Contact .

Reception [ ]

• After viewing the premiere of the episode, Patrick Stewart praised the job done by his fellow actors: "I watched the episode for the first time this morning, and I was so deeply moved by those scenes with John de Lancie and the content of those scenes because he was making himself, as a character, vulnerable. John can bring complexity to the simplest line. I mean that as a compliment. I’m envious. His whole attitude and the things he was saying and his gentleness and sensitivity, it choked me up. And then when we came to the moment when [Borg Queen] Alison Pill took off her mask. We had this curious angle shot, rather low into her face, looking up into her eyes. I’m afraid I began to weep, it was so touching. Because, of course, it meant that I was saying goodbye to John and to Alison, who are both wonderful actors." [2 ]

Cast and characters [ ]

• Wil Wheaton reprises his role as Wesley Crusher . Wesley last appeared in a short cameo in Star Trek Nemesis and was last featured in TNG : " Journey's End ". However, Wheaton had remained involved with the Star Trek franchise, most notably as a host of The Ready Room .
• This episode marks the death of Q , portrayed by John de Lancie , as well as the death of Tallinn , portrayed by Orla Brady .
• In addition, the deaths of Cristóbal Rios and Teresa Ramirez are also mentioned, after they lived their remaining life together in the 21st century .
• Whoopi Goldberg appears again as Guinan , having last portrayed the role in the season premiere " The Star Gazer ". In the intervening episodes, a younger Guinan was portrayed by Ito Aghayere .

Continuity [ ]

• This episode establishes that the time travel experienced by Picard and his crew during the course of this season were always part of the history of the prime timeline, thus creating another significant temporal loop involving Earth's history. Several similar loops have been previously caused by other Starfleet crews and even under Picard's own command. ( DS9 : " Past Tense, Part II ", VOY : " Future's End ", Star Trek: First Contact ) Picard comes to this realization as he remembers that his ancestors had encountered the damage caused by the firefight against the Borg (" Hide and Seek ") when they moved back to Château Picard during the 21st century. In addition, Guinan also states that she had always remembered her 2024 encounter with Picard but decided not to reveal it prematurely.
• Rios collects several items left behind by him and his colleagues during their stay in 2024, including his combadge and a broken phaser. He collects these "butterflies", so that they don't pollute the timeline as advised by Jurati at the beginning of their time travel experience (" Assimilation "). However, ultimately Rios decides to stay behind in the past, likely impacting events of the 21st century himself, and formed Mariposas , an afilitate of UFP in 25th century.
• Wesley Crusher is still a Traveler , following the events of TNG : " Journey's End ". When he last briefly appeared in Star Trek Nemesis , Wesley was seen wearing a Starfleet uniform at the wedding of Deanna Troi and William T. Riker . A deleted scene from the film stated that he had ultimately returned and joined Starfleet , but whether this remains true is not addressed in his appearance in this episode.
• The Travelers are considered guardians of the timeline and revealed to be the beings who dispatch supervisors such as Gary Seven and Tallinn . Wesley recruits Kore Soong as a supervisor, and together they embark to an unknown destination.
• Crusher compares the timeline to an exquisite tapestry, always in danger of being unfurled by tugging at loose threads. Jean-Luc Picard previously used a similar analogy to describe his own life. ( TNG : " Tapestry ")
• The file Adam Soong looks at in his final scene is labelled "Project Khan" and dated January 2, 1992 to June 7, 1996 . Khan Noonien Singh left Earth in 1996 at the end of the Eugenics Wars . ( TOS : " Space Seed "; Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ) Soong's descendant, Arik Soong , would become involved with Augments descended from the project that created Khan during his career. ( ENT : " Borderland ", " Cold Station 12 ", " The Augments ")
• The death of Q is reminiscent of the suicide of Quinn , especially in regard to Q's acceptance that he is about to make an entirely new experience, something that has become very rare in the Q Continuum . ( VOY : " Death Wish ") The circumstances of Q's impending death are not further addressed in this episode, neither is the notion that he has to die alone. The latter raises questions about Q's final relationship with other members of the Continuum, most notably his son . ( VOY : " Q2 ")
• Seven of Nine receives a field commission into Starfleet at the rank of captain by Admiral Picard, taking command of the USS Stargazer . In the previous episode, Raffaela Musiker had mentioned that Seven would make a great captain, while Seven revealed that she gave up trying to join Starfleet after they were initially hesitant to trust her. (" Hide and Seek ") Seven had already become captain of the La Sirena , after Cristóbal Rios had rejoined Starfleet. (" The Star Gazer ")
• As a final parting gift by Q, Elnor is resurrected and returns to the USS Excelsior alongside the other returning members of Picard's crew. Elnor originally died at the beginning of the season. (" Watcher ")
• The Borg Queen seen in "The Star Gazer" is revealed to be Agnes Jurati . She used the audible song " Non, je ne regrette rien " specifically to draw the attention of Jean-Luc Picard and to make him realize that she posed no threat. The two had discussed the song and its meaning for Picard while stranded in the year 2024 (" Watcher "). Originally, Jurati's tactic failed, resulting in the destruction of the Stargazer , but in this episode Picard realizes the situation and aborts the self-destruct sequence.

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard
• Alison Pill as Agnes Jurati
• Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine
• Michelle Hurd as Raffaela Musiker
• Evan Evagora as Elnor
• Orla Brady as Laris / Tallinn
• Isa Briones as Kore Soong
• Santiago Cabrera as Cristóbal Rios
• Brent Spiner as Adam Soong

Special guest star [ ]

• Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan
• John de Lancie as Q

Guest starring [ ]

• Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher
• Penelope Mitchell as Renée Picard / Tallinn
• Sol Rodriguez as Teresa Ramirez

Co-starring [ ]

• Steve Gutierrez as Ricardo
• Ren Hanami as Director Lee
• Richard Jin as Moshe
• Geri-Nikole Love as Urtern
• Adele Pomerenke as Kemi
• Anushka Rani as Sing

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• J. Beck as Lee Dashel
• Alyma Dorsey as Stargazer security officer
• Quinn Early as Stargazer bridge officer
• Brian Jansa as Vulcan Stargazer security officer
• G. Martinez as River Campos
• Bryan McCoy as Stargazer security officer
• M. Nordike as Reese Fisher
• Taylor Piña as Stargazer bridge officer
• Claudine Quadrat as Amanda Manes
• W. Quezada as Alex Davis
• Dylan Von Halle as Young Picard
• Madeline Wise as Yvette Picard
• Unknown actress as Maya Orlando (ID photo)

Stand-ins [ ]

• Margot Muraszkiewicz as stand-in for Jeri Ryan
• Thadeus Welch as stand-in for Patrick Stewart

References [ ]

1996 ; 2006 ; 21st century ; absolve ; admiral ; analog ; alien organism ; Annika's husband ; astronaut ; attitude ; auntie ; auto-destruct sequence ; backup plan ; bar fight ; bio-scanner ; booth ; Borg ; bullet hole ; bullshit ; butterfly ; CA ; CAPCOM ; capsize ; cargo ship ; casket ; Château Picard ; cigar ; colleague ; comm badge ; Confederation magistrate ; doctor ; drone ( Soong's drone ); dynamic pressure ; Earthshine Aerospace ; El-Aurian ; emergency holographic program ; energy ; Europa ; Europa Mission ; eyes ; face time ; fatal ; Federation ; field commission ; figurine ; Fleet Command ; Ford Bronco ; French language ; funding report ; funeral ; galactic event ; " Godspeed "; GPS ; guardian angel ; guilt ; handshake ; hardwire ; heat signature ; helm ; hydraulic instrument power ; " JL "; joke ; June ; launch pad ; Los Angeles (aka LA ); Lowry Avenue ; Martha's Vineyard ; manual control ; Mariposas ; med tech ; medical supplies ; mission specialist ; money ; Moroccan ; neurotoxin ; neutrino ; " Non, je ne regrette rien "; non-essential personnel ; ocean ; orbital eccentricity ; parlance ; Picard family ; " piece of cake "; Piaf, Edith ; pliers ; Project Khan ; prophecy ; provisional membership ; puzzle ; Q ; quarantine ; quarantine protocol ; RCS thruster ; recruitment speech ; Renée's mother ; Romulan ; sailboat ; scissors ; senior flight director ; shield emitter ; skeleton key ; sky ; space ; spoiler ; suit-up crew ; supervisor ; T-minus ; targeting system ; telemetry ; thermosphere ; thread ; time ; timeline ; transwarp conduit ; Travelers, The ; tricorder ; triquantum wave ; VIP ; uplink ;

Spacecraft references [ ]

Akira , USS ; Akira -class ; Almagest , USS ; Archer , USS ; Arsinoe , USS ; Christopher , USS ; Clark , USS ; Enkidu , USS ; Eureka , USS ; Europa , USS ; Excelsior , USS ; Excelsior II -class ; Firesword , USS ; Gagarin -class ; Gagarin , USS ; Gilgamesh , USS ; Helios , USS ; Hrothgar , USS ; Hutchinson , USS ; Huygens , USS ; Ibn al-Haytham , USS ; Inquiry -class ; Kaplan F17 Speed Freighter ; La Sirena , SS ; La Sirena , CSS ; Luna , USS ; Luna -class ; Magellan , USS ; Nathan Hale , USS ; Oberon , USS ; Okuda , USS ; Pachacuti , USS ; Rabin , USS ; Radiant -class ; Reliant -class ; Reliant (NCC-90200), USS ; Ross , USS ; Ross -class ; Rustazh , USS ; Sagan -class ; Shackleton , USS ; Shango ; Singularity ; Sovereign -class ; Stargazer (NCC-82893), USS ; Sutherland -class ; Sutherland , USS ; Thunderchild , USS ; Tiro , USS ; USS Titan ; Uhura , USS ; Valkyrie , USS ; Vanguard , USS ; Venture , USS ; Yi Sun-Sin , USS ; Zheng He , USS

Star Map references [ ]

61 Cygni ; Alpha Centauri ; Altair ; Arcturus ; Babel ; Benzar ; Calder ; Cor Caroli ; Draylax ; Fellebia ; Gideon system ; Inferna Prime ; Kaferia ; Kaleb ; Maxia ; Memory Alpha ; Proxima ; Pyrithia ; Sigma Draconis ; Sol ; Starbase 1 ; Starbase 39-Sierra ; Tau Ceti ; Tellar ; Teneebia ; Veda ; Vega ; Wolf 359 ; Yadalla

External links [ ]

• " Farewell " at the Internet Movie Database
• " Discovering Farewell and Strange New Worlds " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• 1 Abdullah bin al-Hussein

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 - Everything You Need To Know

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The second season of "Star Trek: Picard" gave fans some much-needed closure by wrapping up a number of longstanding storylines. For example, viewers found out why Seven of Nine never joined Starfleet following the events of "Star Trek: Voyager." Elsewhere, we learned more information about Picard's mother's death and said farewell to several characters. It was an emotional experience at times, and Season 3 will no doubt tug at the heartstrings as well.

That said, the finale of "Picard" Season 2 also left many questions unanswered, such as the nature of Project Khan and whether or not Picard will find love and live happily ever after. The third chapter of the series — which will also be its last — will hopefully shed some light on these matters. On that note, we can also shed quite a bit of light on who's joining the cast for Season 3, who's working behind the scenes, and what storylines might play out in the final few episodes. Here's everything we know so far about the third season of "Picard."

When will Picard Season 3 be released?

"Picard" Season 2 premiered in March 2022 and concluded its run in May of that year. But fear not, Trekkers. We don't have to wait very long to see what happens next for ol' Jean-Luc. The third and final season of "Picard" will hit Paramount+ on February 16, 2023, where it will run for 10 episodes, with each one airing on a Thursday. (If you happen to live in the U.K., you can check out "Picard" Season 3 on Amazon Prime Video.)

What is the plot of Picard Season 3?

After receiving a distress call from Beverly Crusher, asking for help, Jean-Luc Picard springs into action. Of course, if he's going to help his old flame, he'll need to get his "Next Generation" crew together, such as William T. Riker, Deanna Troi, Geordi La Forge, and a now pacifist Worf. Along with Commander Seven of Nine and Raffi Musiker, Picard sets out on a new adventure, but he quickly realizes he's up against a deadly foe — the revenge-obsessed Vadic, who's dedicated herself to bringing down the Federation and killing Jean-Luc.

This season will pick up in the 25th century, a couple of years after we last saw Picard in Season 2 (via Den of Geek ). As for Beverly Crusher, she's no longer with Starfleet . Instead, she's working for a medical humanitarian group when she's forced to call Picard for help. Needless to say, this is going to stir up plenty of emotions as the two haven't seen each other in about 20 years. Picard himself will be in an interesting place, with showrunner Terry Matalas telling the "All Access 'Star Trek' podcast that he's "older and wiser and sort of in the latter years of his life. Looking back and trying to understand how to look forward and look for those things that are legacy, that are family, and the most important aspects of your life that aren't related to your job, essentially."

Of course, it won't all be emotional reminiscing. Picard's on a mission after all, and we'll get to see a lot of fun chemistry between Picard and Riker, with Matalas saying, "The season kicks off with Picard and Riker in a big way, in a kind of Butch and Sundance way. And that was something I felt was missing [in the first two seasons of 'Picard']." We also know that elements of "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager" will factor into the series, such as the events surrounding the Dominion War (via TrekMovie.com ).

Perhaps most importantly, "Picard" will see a passing of the torch, with the old generation of "Trek" heroes stepping back and the next generation of heroes stepping up. Of course, that doesn't mean it's the last of Picard and company. As Matalas explained to TrekMovie.com , "By the end of this ... you're going to say, 'Gosh, I really want to watch this legacy character.' I like an ending that promises more. ... It definitely could be a passing of the torch for more."

Who is starring in Picard Season 3?

When it comes to the cast, "Picard" is full of our "Next Generation" favorites. Patrick Stewart will be returning as the titular hero, and he'll be accompanied by Jonathan Frakes as William Riker and Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi. However, they won't be the only "TNG" actors showing up for the final season of "Picard." Michael Dorn will be reprising his role as Worf, LeVar Burton will be playing Geordi LaForge, and Gates McFadden is coming back to the "Star Trek" franchise as Beverly Crusher.

On top of all that, Brent Spiner is also returning to the fold, only this time, he won't be playing a good guy. Instead of portraying the late, great Data, Spiner will be playing his evil twin, Lore. Daniel Davis will also be coming back as Professor James Moriarty, the hologram created by Geordi that gained sentience and became a big problem for the Enterprise crew. Jeri Ryan is also back as Seven of Nine, and Michelle Hurd will be reprising her part as Raffi Musiker. And making this whole thing a family affair, LeVar Burton's daughter, Mica Burton, will be playing Geordi's daughter, with Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut playing another one of Geordi's kids. Plus, newcomers Ed Speelers and Todd Staswhick are joining the series.

As for Season 3's new big bad, Amanda Plummer will be playing the part of Vadic, the vengeful captain of the Shrike. Plummer is perhaps most famous for her role as the pistol-toting Honey Bunny in "Pulp Fiction," and she's also appeared in projects like "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," "Hannibal," and "Ratched." Speaking at SDCC 2022, show co-creator Alex Kurtzman explained that Vadic's character will be drawing from one of "Trek's" most notable villains . "One of the things we love most about 'Wrath of Khan,'" he said, "is the mind games between Kirk and Khan and the one-upmanship. And that has been, I think a real North Star for us this season in the villain that we created."

As far as additional guest stars, Season 3 features quite a few notable faces, including — spoilers to follow – Walter Koenig, John de Lancie, Tim Russ, and Alice Krige.

Who is the showrunner of Picard Season 3?

"Picard" has seen showrunners come and go over the course of its three seasons. Season 1 was helmed by show co-creator Michael Chabon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who wrote "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" and who's worked on projects like "Spider-Man 2" and Netflix's "Unbelievable." However, Chabon stepped down  after Season 1, with show co-creator Akiva Goldsman and Terry Matalas stepping in to fill the void. After Season 2 wrapped up, the showrunning job fell squarely on Matalas' shoulders, with the solo "Picard" showrunner boldly leading the series towards its grand conclusion.

As you might expect, Matalas has quite a bit of "Star Trek" experience. In addition to his work on "Picard," he also served as a production assistant on "Star Trek: Voyager" and "Enterprise," and he also received two "story by" credits on the latter show. He also has showrunning experience outside the "Trek" universe, as he oversaw SyFy's "12 Monkeys." Speaking to Den of Geek , actor Gates McFadden had nothing but good things to say about Matalas, explaining, "He grew up watching ['TNG'], and he had a certain kind of respect for the characters who weren't captains. He really listened to all of our ideas, and we absolutely felt encouraged to talk about everything." Jonathan Frakes concurred, describing the showrunner as "a wonderful writer."

Who is directing Picard Season 3?

When it comes to its impeccable cast, "Picard" Season 3 isn't playing around. The same can be said about the people sitting behind the camera, as the final season boasts an impressive line-up of talent. Speaking with the "All Access 'Star Trek'" podcast , showrunner Terry Matalas revealed who would be calling the shots on each episode, saying the season would start off with two episodes directed by Doug Aarniokoski, who's helmed previous episodes of "Picard," along with "Star Trek: Discovery," "Blue Bloods," "The Flash," and "Arrow."

The following two episodes will be directed by a "Star Trek" stalwart — the incomparable Jonathan Frakes, best known for playing Riker in "The Next Generation." Frakes has done a ton of directing work before, having worked on previous episodes of "Picard," "Discovery," "Voyager," "Deep Space Nine," and "TNG," to say nothing of the movies "Star Trek: First Contact" and "Star Trek: Insurrection." After Frakes, you can expect episodes by Dan Liu — who's worked on "For All Mankind," "The Walking Dead," and "Fear the Walking Dead" — and Deborah Kampmeir — who's directed episodes of "Picard," "Discovery," "The Gilded Age," and the controversial movie "Hounddog."

Eventually, the whole thing will be finished by showrunner Terry Matalas, who directs the final two episodes — or what he calls "the last two-hour movie."

Is there a trailer for Picard Season 3?

When a trailer starts with Jean-Luc Picard declaring, "We fight or we die," you know the stakes are high. After that dramatic opening, we're reintroduced to all our old "Star Trek" fans — Picard, Riker, and Seven of Nine, among others. It initially seems like our heroes are in for a peaceful jaunt across the stars, similar to the beginning of "Wrath of Khan." But it looks like there will be plenty of explosions, firefights, and crash-landings across "Picard" Season 3 now that the sinister Vadic is on the loose and looking to wreak some serious havoc. "This is the end, my friend," a grave Riker tells his bald-headed comrade. But while the trailer gives an air of finality, it's not one of hopelessness. We see our old heroes unite with young allies in a battle for the greater good, ending with Picard giving his trademark "engage." Yep, we're getting shivers.

What else do we know about the third season of Picard?

Even though most of the main cast of "The Next Generation" will be appearing for "Picard," Patrick Stewart wants you to know this is more than just some sort of reunion special. "It is not a reunion sequel," Stewart told Den of Geek , "and this is one thing that I wanted to make clear. I didn't want the show to be just sentimental. ... What the writers and producers have done with 'Picard' is to create this different individual living in a different world than the one that we had been so familiar with in 'The Next Generation.'"

However, that doesn't mean there won't be even more callbacks to "Next Generation." Talking with TrekCore , showrunner Terry Matalas said that fans should keep an eye out for a nod to Denise Crosby's Tasha Yar. "I will say ... there is a nod to Tasha Yar in the season. You will see Tasha." On the sadder side of things, fans shouldn't expect to see the Enterprise-E, the ship that appeared in "Star Trek First Contact," "Insurrection," and "Nemesis." However, we will see the first live-action appearance of the Enterprise-F (via Den of Geek ). Plus, Matalas has promised we'll see a Sovereign-class ship, telling TrekMovie, "We spend the most time on one ship this season that is not the Enterprise. That does not mean you won't get your Enterprise fixes that you're looking for."

The ship that we'll spend most of our time on is the U.S.S. Titan. On that note, fans have been wondering if Seven of Nine is the captain of the Titan. According to Matalas (via TrekMovie ), while Seven of Nine is indeed a commander aboard the Titan, she isn't the captain. When asked who will be captaining the ship, his response was, "To be announced."

Will this be the last season of Picard?

Sad news, "Picard" fans. The third season will be the show's last, but it will be going out with a "TNG"-tinged bang. As showrunner Terry Matalas said in April 2022 (via TheWrap ), "It's most fitting that the story Jean-Luc Picard ends honoring the beginning, with his dearest and most loyal friends from the U.S.S. Enterprise. It would be an understatement to say that giving these characters a proper send-off is an honor."

In May 2022, Patrick Stewart gave his stamp of approval to the show coming to an end, explaining to Entertainment Weekly , "My idea always was that three seasons were what we really needed to tell what was left of Jean-Luc Picard's life and what had become of him." However, a few months earlier, Stewart was painting a slightly different picture about the show's final episode. Speaking with Collider in March, Stewart said, "Followers of 'Picard' will find that we get to the very end of Season 3, and the resolution is unexpected and questionable. And I'm thrilled about that because it leaves a question mark hanging over [Picard's] head. ... I've had some fallings out with some of our people because they look on this as a closure that is coming, and I don't."

Jonathan Frakes said something similar in a Den of Geek profile , explaining, "As you'll see by the end of the season, it's ripe for a continuation of some version of what we've established in the show. Not more 'Picard,' but certainly 'Next Gen' is alive and well." So even though Season 3 of "Picard" will be the last one, perhaps Jean-Luc and friends will return in further adventures in different series down the line.

Where to watch the previous seasons of Picard

If you want to brush up on the previous seasons of "Picard" before the final season begins or if you're new to the series and want to know where to start, don't worry. We've got you covered. You can check out both Season 1 and Season 2 of "Picard" on Paramount+ . If you don't subscribe to that particular streaming service and feel like spending a few bucks, you can buy each season for $9.99 on Vudu , $12.99 on Amazon Video , or $16.99 on Google Play . You can also buy Season 1 on Apple iTunes for $12.99 and Season 2 for $24.99.

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Star Trek: Picard

Follow-up series to Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) that centers on Jean-Luc Picard in the next chapter of his life. Follow-up series to Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) that centers on Jean-Luc Picard in the next chapter of his life. Follow-up series to Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) that centers on Jean-Luc Picard in the next chapter of his life.

• Kirsten Beyer
• Michael Chabon
• Akiva Goldsman
• Patrick Stewart
• Michelle Hurd
• 2.8K User reviews
• 78 Critic reviews
• 14 wins & 54 nominations total

Episodes 30

• Jean-Luc Picard

• Raffi Musiker

• Seven of Nine

• Dr. Agnes Jurati

• Cristóbal Rios …

• Adam Soong …

• La Sirena Computer

• Jack Crusher

• Doctor Beverly Crusher

• Captain Liam Shaw

• Ensign Sidney La Forge

• Ensign Esmar

• Titan Computer …
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• Trivia The Chateau Picard vineyard first appeared in Family (1990) . It was run by Jean-Luc Picard's brother Robert and his wife Marie, and their son René. Jean-Luc would learn in Star Trek: Generations (1994) that Robert and René had both burned to death in a fire, leaving Jean-Luc as the last in the Picard line.
• Goofs Commodore Oh often wears sunglasses. Star Trek lore establishes that Vulcans have an inner eyelid to protect against harsh sunlight on their desert planet. Oh's shades are a fashion statement, not a protective measure.
• The first season features a Borg cube and the planet Romulus.
• The second season features a Borg ship, a wormhole and hourglass, and the Borg Queen's silhouette.
• The third season does not have an opening titles sequence.
• Connections Featured in Half in the Bag: Comic Con 2019, The Picard Trailer, Streaming Services, and Midsommar (2019)

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• January 23, 2020 (United States)
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• The Sunstone Villa and Vineyard, Santa Ynes, California, USA (Château Picard)
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• Runtime 46 minutes
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Den of Geek

Star Trek Just Inched Closer to Its Biggest Movie Mistake Yet

The new Star Trek movie has a release date, but an origin story completely misses the appeal of Trek films.

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As much as we love them, the Star Trek movies have their share of mistakes. God stealing a starship, John Harrison revealing himself as Khan, McCoy shaving off his beard in The Motion Picture . But it looks like the movie franchise is about to outdo them all.

Paramount has officially added the next Star Trek movie to its 2025 release schedule. According to TrekCore , the project currently called Untitled Star Trek Origin Story will begin production this year, with Seth Grahame-Smith writing and Toby Haynes directing. The film will take place decades before the 2009 Star Trek reboot from J.J. Abrams .

And it’s a terrible idea.

First of all, there’s the question of the timeline logistics of the film. Although one would assume that the film will occur in the Kelvin Timeline, the alternate universe in which Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness , and Star Trek Beyond take place, the Kelvin timeline branched from the Prime Timeline when the Romulan Nero went back in time and destroyed the USS Kelvin, killing George Kirk and setting James T. Kirk’s Enterprise adventures on an alternate course.

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Because Nero destroys the Kelvin on the day of Kirk’s birth, that means that there was no Kelvin timeline a few decades before most of the events of the 2009 movie. So what the heck is the origin story going to be about? Is it about the origin of the Federation? We already saw that on Enterprise , which takes place a century before The Original Series . Is it about the Enterprise before Kirk? We got that in the first two seasons of Discovery and in Strange New Worlds .

To be sure, these entries didn’t completely mine all the possible stories of the era, but that generation has received so much attention already. Between movies, TV shows, and all of the non-canon novels and comics, fans have seen plenty of looks at the early days of Starfleet, the Federation, and especially the USS Enterprise.

That’s even true of some of the best current Star Trek series. While Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks have a lot of fun putting new twists on familiar ideas, they offer little new to the larger tapestry of Star Trek stories. Contrast those in-jokes to learning about Janeway looking for her one-time Voyager shipmate Chakotay on Prodigy , or seeing a mature Seven of Nine take the Captain’s chair at the end of Picard . Look how much better Discovery became after launching into the undiscovered country of the 32nd century instead of filling gaps (or making new gaps) in the TOS era.

These constant returns to the past violate the basic premise of Star Trek . Sure, some of the best Trek entries involve trips to the past. But the core mission of the franchise is about moving forward, boldly going into a future we can only imagine in the present. Viewers don’t want to see a past that’s already been explored so thoroughly over the last few decades. We want to see how this universe has progressed, how the actions of Kirk, Picard, and the other Captains have affected the universe in ways good and bad.

In short, a Star Trek origin movie is wrong headed, mining nostalgia and references instead of seeking out new life and civilizations.

Joe George | @jageorgeii

Joe George’s writing has appeared at Slate, Polygon, Tor.com, and elsewhere!

Screen Rant

Star trek: picard season 2 ending explained (in detail).

Star Trek: Picard season 2 ended with an epic finale that bid poignant farewells to major characters and saw a hopeful new beginning for Jean-Luc.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard' s Season 2 Finale - "Farewell"

The season 2 finale of Star Trek: Picard   saw Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his motley crew set Star Trek's timeline back on the right path while simultaneously bidding farewell to a few major characters, including Q (John de Lancie). Picard 's season 2 ending also set up potential new threats for Star Trek: Picard season 3 that may be linked together.

In 2024 Los Angeles, Picard and his friends ensured that the Europa Mission piloted by Renée Picard (Penelope Mitchell) launched as history intended. Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd), and Cristobal Rios (Santiago Cabrera) stopped Dr. Adam Soong (Brent Spiner) from using his drones to shoot down Renée's spacecraft, the Shango, from Orbit. Meanwhile, Tallinn (Orla Brady) fulfilled the prophecy left behind by the hybrid of the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching) and Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) that there must be two Renées: one who lives and another who dies. Once the Europa Mission was saved, the final stage of Star Trek: Picard season 2's finale involved Q returning our heroes to 2401 and the Borg crisis introduced in Star Trek: Picard season 2's premiere, which saw an unprecedented new friendship formed between Starfleet and the Borg.

Related: Picard: Star Trek Finally Delivered On First Contact's Borg Tease

Star Trek: Picard season 2's finale was a satisfying ending with genuine, heart-tugging moments as the series and the Star Trek franchise concluded the stories of some of its main characters - as well as dropping a couple of big surprises. While the main storylines were resolved, Star Trek: Picard season 2's ending also created some big questions that will hopefully be answered in season 3, which is going to be the final season of Star Trek: Picard .

How Tallinn's Renee Sacrifice Helped Picard Fix Star Trek's Timeline

The Borg Queen's riddle -  "To succeed, there must be two  Renées: One who lives, another who dies"  - had an answer so obvious that Picard himself quickly solved it. Jean-Luc realized that Tallinn planned to sacrifice herself in Renée's place to fulfill the Borg Queen's prophecy. After Tallinn talked Jean-Luc out of stopping her, sure enough, the Romulan Supervisor used her face-swapping technology to impersonate Renée so that Adam Soong could poison and kill her. But for Tallinn, giving her life for Renée Picard was the fulfillment of her mission to protect Renée and ensure her all-important role in preserving Star Trek's timeline. Tallinn also finally got to speak to Renée after watching her from afar all her life so that the Romulan guardian angel got to express the love she felt for her Picard.

The Europa Mission's success meant that Renée does discover the mysterious microorganism that proves vital to the future. This directly assured that Star Trek's Prime timeline proceeded as it must and prevented the alternative track that led to the rise of the Confederation of Earth. Later in Star Trek: Picard season 2's finale, Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) tells Jean-Luc that the adult Ricardo Ramirez (Steve Guiterrez) uses the microorganism Renée brought back from Jupiter's moon, Io, to clean the oceans and environment. Tallinn sacrificing herself for Renée was the final part of the puzzle that restored Star Trek's timeline to its proper course. 

Picard Season 2 Is The End Of Q (But The Resurrection Of Elnor)

Star Trek: Picard season 2 was, ultimately, Q's final act, and the omnipotent being revealed to Picard that all of it was designed to help Jean-Luc move past his lifelong trauma of blaming himself for his mother, Yvette's (Madeline Wise), suicide when he was a young boy. Jean-Luc also hid the skeleton key back in the wall of Chateau Picard so that he can find it again centuries later. To Q's logic, changing the timeline to the Confederation was meant to show Jean-Luc the worst possible outcome of a Picard who chose not to feel love. While Picard and his friends were focused on changing the timeline back to its proper course, Q's real intent was always to provoke Jean-Luc to face the truth of his mother's suicide and forgive himself, at last. By giving Picard this absolution (although he certainly didn't make it easy for Jean-Luc), Q hoped that this act toward his favored human would give his own existence some meaning.

Related: Picard: Why Renée's Europa Mission Changes The Future

Q is dying (or "moving on" to a new plane of existence), and his final farewell to Jean-Luc was truly touching. Q confessed that Jean-Luc was always one of his favorites and the two adversaries parted with a hug as friends since Picard also knew that Q has been an important part of his life for over thirty years. Q apparently had enough power left to bring Picard, Seven, and Raffi back to the future and, with Rios choosing to remain in 2024, he also had sufficient energy for "a surprise, a gift" by resurrecting Elnor (Evan Evagora) in 2401. Elnor's sudden death early in Star Trek: Picard season 2 was a traumatic event for Raffi and Jean-Luc, the Romulan's parental figures. But Elnor is now back, alive and well, as a Starfleet Cadet with a, hopefully, bright future ahead of him. Meanwhile, Q's poignant parting with Picard indicates that this is John de Lancie's swansong as Q in Star Trek.

The Borg Finally Joined The Federation

The Borg Queen and Dr. Agnes Jurati becoming one and the same was one of Star Trek: Picard season 2's most shocking outcomes and, arguably, its best storyline. As many Trekkers guessed, Jurati was indeed the masked Borg Queen who attacked the USS Stargazer in Star Trek: Picard season 2's premiere. However, the Borg Queen's takeover of the Stargazer wasn't out of malice but in order to save the future. A galactic event that was going to wipe out entire planets is what brought Agnes, the new Borg Queen , to 2401 and she summoned Admiral Picard because she needed "a friend" who would believe her that she meant to save the galaxy. After Q time-traveled Picard back to his present-day, the Admiral realized what was really happening and prevented the Stargazer from self-destructing. True to her word, the Borg Queen joined forces with Starfleet to stop the galactic cataclysm.

Star Trek: Picard season 2 is the most sweeping revamp of the Borg since their creation in Star Trek: The Next Generation . Influenced by Agnes Jurati's compassion and humanity, the Borg Queen has been changed and joined Agnes in setting out to build a better Borg Collective. To continue their alliance, the Borg Queen requested her race receive provisional membership in the United Federation of Planets, and she chose to remain at the transwarp conduit created by the incursion as "the guardian at the gates." Essentially, the Borg have finally become allies of the Federation , eliminating one of the galaxy's greatest threats and explaining why the Borg no longer menace the Federation in Star Trek: Discovery 's 32nd century. However, the Borg Queen (or "Agnes Borgrati" as some Trekkers have dubbed her) also warned that she doesn't yet know who created the transwarp conduit or why, hinting at a threat still to come that may be the focal point of Star Trek: Picard season 3. Meanwhile, Alison Pill won't be in  Star Trek: Picard season 3 but Annie Wersching could continue as the Borg Queen regardless.

Seven Of Nine Joined Starfleet, At Last

With Captain Rios absent because he never returned from 2024, Admiral Picard gave Seven of Nine a "field commission" to command the Stargazer during the Borg Queen's crisis. This effectively means that Seven has joined Starfleet, a happy outcome and an optimistic new purpose for the reclaimed Borg. Earlier in Star Trek: Picard season 2, Seven , who was made human by Q changing the timeline, confessed to Raffi that she was enjoying people not fearing her because she was a Borg. Seven also told her significant other that when the USS Voyager returned to Earth, Seven was rejected from Starfleet because she was a Borg. Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) defended Seven and nearly quit Starfleet in protest but Seven opted to leave Earth and become a Fenris Ranger.

Related: Picard's Admiral Janeway Reveal Would've Changed Star Trek In 2 Ways

Seven's existence since she came to Earth aboard Voyager has been sad and lonely, but meeting Raffi and becoming part of Picard's makeshift motley crew has been the light at the end of the tunnel for her. Seven also realized she could be a leader since her evil alternate timeline counterpart, Annika Hansen, was President of the Confederation of Earth . Of course, the Borg Queen restored Seven back to being a Borg, and it's not clear yet what, exactly, Admiral Picard's field commission translates to for Seven of Nine. Ideally, Seven could replace Rios as Captain of the Stargazer, which would continue her habit of inheriting Cristobal's ships as she previously took over La Sirena when Rios returned to Starfleet. However, Seven and Raffi's love story seems solid and, at long last, Starfleet is part of Seven of Nine's future in Star Trek: Picard .

Rios Staying In 2024 Raises Big Timeline Questions

Cristobal Rios may have surprised Picard and his friends by choosing to stay in 2024 but Star Trek: Picard 's audience could plainly see this was the direction Rios was heading. It was obvious Chris had fallen in love with Dr. Teresa Ramirez (Sol Rodriguez) and Rio was shockingly nonchalant about violating the timeline to show Teresa and her son, Ricardo, that he was from the future. Rios' rationale that he "never really fit" in Starfleet made sense and tracks given his character's history, and Chris found a greater purpose and genuine happiness being part of Teresa and Ricardo's family. As Guinan told Picard in 2401, Rios and the Ramirez family founded a medical company called Mariposa, and Ricardo used Renée Picard's discovery to heal the environment and the oceans.

And yet, Rios' happy ending directly conflicts with Star Trek's canonical timeline. Just 2 years after Picard's visit to 2024, World War III begins and lasts for 30 years. As Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) showed the people of Kiley 279 in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ' series premiere, World War III 's nuclear conflagration leads to the deaths of 30% of Earth's population, every capital city destroyed, and a global catastrophe. This is something Picard and all of his friends knew yet no one raised World War III's inevitability to Rios when he opted to stay. Given the nightmare about to occur beginning in 2026, Rios' happy ending as described by Guinan conflicts with what's known about World War III. Further, it's hard to believe that Rios and his found family somehow protected the future timeline considering Chris' reckless actions throughout Star Trek: Picard season 2. Regardless, Rios remaining in 2024 seemingly marks Santiago Cabrera's exit from Star Trek: Picard since his character's story has come to an end.

Wesley Crusher's Cameo Ends His TNG Story And Starts Kore Soong's Destiny

The surprise appearance of Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) in Star Trek: Picard season 2's finale confirmed that Wesley is a Traveler, one of the cosmic beings that defy time and space in the Star Trek universe. Further, Wesley dropped another surprise that the Travelers recruit and oversee the Supervisors, like Tallinn, who are charged with protecting key figures in the timeline. This effectively retcons the Star Trek: The Original Series episode, "Assignment: Earth," and explains that the Travelers brought Gary Seven (Robert Lansing) to outer space and made the human into a Supervisor. Wesley also recruited Kore Soong (Isa Briones) into the Travelers, just as the Traveler recruited the young Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Related: Picard's Adam Soong Reveal Risks A Star Trek Story Problem

After discovering she was the only survivor among Adam Soong's genetically engineered 'daughters,' Kore wiped all of her father's files and research to ensure he can never repeat his experiments. Yet this left Kore without a future of her own, which Wesley understood when he came to Earth to make her a Traveler. Kore Soong now takes her place as a cosmic being but it's unclear whether she will return in Star Trek: Picard season 3. It's also not known whether Isa Briones' other character, Soji, will return. Soji was left behind with the Deltans on Raritan IV in Star Trek: Picard 's season 2 premiere and she wasn't part of Picard's crew celebration at 10 Forward in the finale. However, Wil Wheaton has indicated that he won't join his former TNG castmates in  Star Trek: Picard season 3 so it may be Kore who joins Picard's motley crew in Soji's place since she is now a Traveler and will have been one for 400 years by the time Picard season 3 happens.

Picard Gets A Happy Ending With Laris

At the end of Star Trek: Picard season 2, Jean-Luc gets his heartwarming happy ending with Laris (Orla Brady). The Romulan threatened to leave Chateau Picard for her own "adventures" when she saw Jean-Luc was unwilling to open his heart to her but Laris gladly gave Jean-Luc "a second chance" after he changed from his experiences in Star Trek: Picard season 2. Q forcing Jean-Luc to face his buried memories of his father Maurice (James Callis) and his mother's suicide finally freed Picard of the guilt he harbored his entire life. Jean-Luc essentially chose to close the most important part of himself as penance for his role in Yvette's death and, instead, Picard prioritized matters of galactic import as if repeatedly saving the universe would balance his lifelong pain and regret.

The question is: What happens next for Jean-Luc and Laris? Will they marry in Star Trek: Picard season 3? Or will they just be a couple for the remainder of Picard's life? Star Trek: Picard season 2 set out to address the biggest question about Jean-Luc: why he chose to remain alone and, as wildly convoluted as it was to get there, the question has been definitively answered. Whatever becomes the final test for Picard and his returning friends from Star Trek: The Next Generation in Star Trek: Picard season 3, Jean-Luc is poised to face it with his true love, Laris, by his side.

Does Adam Soong's Project Khan Set Up Star Trek: Picard Season 3?

Dr. Adam Soong was soundly defeated in Star Trek: Picard season 2 after he failed to stop the Europa Mission and Kore purged his lifetime of research into his genetically engineered daughters. Yet Soong had one last shocking trick up his sleeve: a secret file marked "Project Khan." What does this mean? Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán) fled Earth in 1996 and is floating through space aboard the S.S. Botany Bay in Adam's present-day of 2024. Khan's descendant, La'an Noonien Singh (Christina Chong), is part of the USS Enterprise's crew in the 23rd century of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , several years before Khan is revived by Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner).

But what is Adam Soong's Project Khan? One possibility is that it's the eugenics technology that gave birth to Khan Noonien Singh. Given Adam's age, he could very well have been one of the young scientists that created Khan, to begin with, since it's never been established if Khan was born or grown in a lab. Star Trek: Picard season 3 could, shockingly, delve into the origin of Khan. Further, Adam Soong, who feels he was robbed of his future, may intend to turn himself into a genetically-engineered 'superman.' Adam may well be the threat who created the transwarp conduit that the Borg Queen warned about. After all, Brent Spiner is listed among the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast returning for Star Trek: Picard season 3 but Spiner isn't playing Data, who is dead. Perhaps Adam Soong is returning as the main villain of Star Trek: Picard season 3, with Brent Spiner as the ultimate enemy taking on all of his old TNG castmates.

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Star Trek: Picard Season 2 is available to stream on Paramount+.  Star Trek: Picard Season 3 premieres in 2023 on Paramount+.