star trek picard episode (season 3 episode 3)

'Star Trek: Picard' season 3 episode 3 heats things up between Jean-Luc and Riker

The legendary Picard arrogance lives on in the 3rd installment entitled "Seventeen Seconds."

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Star Trek: Picard" Season 3, episode 3

Has "Picard" set itself a high standard it can't maintain? Following last week's surprisingly high-quality installment, we now have a cautiously optimistic view for this third and final season … but, we've been hurt before. That said, this incarnation of "Nu-Trek" is borrowing more than little bit from the very best that the " Star Trek " universe has to offer, namely "The Wrath of Khan," which is a welcome change from lifting off of other intellectual property, like " Discovery " has done in the past. And when you think about how much in-universe history there is in "Trek," you have to wonder why there would ever be a need to look elsewhere.

This week's installment is entitled "Seventeen Seconds" and successfully establishes the meaning and importance of that particularly specific amount of time and circles back to it just as successfully to create a nice bookended feel to this episode. Although quite why Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) didn't do a site-to-site transport between the bridge and the infirmary rather than mucking about in a turbolift for an eternity isn't adequately explained. Lest we forget, in the 32nd century at least, transporters have replaced stairs ... and while we're not quite at that stage just yet, site-to-site transport is a very real thing in the 25th century.

And that's what happens when you start going so far into the future that the capability of technology creates story writing minefields that cannot be avoided once established. You know, like the fact that Jean-Luc Picard is now an android ... which interestingly enough actually gets referenced this week. And then just as quickly brushed back under the carpet from whence it came, probably never to be mentioned ever again.

Related: 'Star Trek: Picard' episode 2 is unexpectedly excellent

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That minor plot pickle aside, the writing is once again of a high quality this week, hopefully marking a breakthrough in terms of how Paramount, Kurtzman et al produce "Star Trek" going forward. And while some of the dialogue is fantastic, "I am Worf, son of Mogh, House of Martok, son of Sergey, House of Rozhenko, Bane to the Duras family, slayer of Gowron ... I have made some chamomile tea, do you take sugar?" it walks a very fine line between just enough and too much.

The reintroduction of Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) is also nicely handled and mercifully we're not given a "Happy Days"-style, live-in-front-of-a-studio-audience scene that has been known to happen from time to time. Plus we're given some additional backstory to Troi and Riker's son, Thad. If you recall in the episode " Nepenthe " (S01, E07) Troi speaks of her son, Thad, and how he was born and raised on starships and thus he felt like he had no homeworld of his own, but when he became sick, Troi and Riker came to Nepenthe and it became his homeworld.

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According to Troi, Thad had "mendaxic neurosclerosis," (MN) a very rare silicon-based virus and in theory, completely curable (you just have to culture the infected cells in an active positronic matrix), but by the time Thad came down with MN, there were no active positronic matrices and no one was allowed to develop new ones, because of the synth ban. This was of course a small part of the synthetic storyline from the first season, but in this episode the focus is somewhere completely different. Thankfully.

So far, the story hasn't really gone anywhere particularly new or exciting and everything up until now seems to be serving the Son of Picard plot. Hopefully Vadic (Amanda Plummer) will turn out to be more than just a deus ex machina . It is fun, though, to see the end result of 65 years of unresolved sexual tension between Jean-Luc (Patrick Stewart) and Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), but is it enough to carry the next seven episodes?

Picard's hubris could also get very tired very quickly and while he shuffles off the bridge of the Titan like a teenager who's just been scalded, you have to wonder why Riker listened to him in the first place. Social media has been quick to point out that Captain Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick) was in fact 100 percent correct in his reluctance to bow to the whims of an eccentric old admiral and Riker fails in that respect. Though it could be suggested that his sense of loyalty to his old friend took precedence, but that's not the job of a starship captain and not a responsibility he would easily forget.

Other Trek references are also nicely placed, including Worf listening to the opera "Les Troyens" by Hector Berlioz, which of course is a nod to the movie "First Contact" — but again, runs the fine line between just enough and too much. All that excessive fan service does is show a lack of imagination. This week also sees a massive throwback to "Deep Space Nine" and the Dominian War, which might turn out to be interesting. Or it might not.

This exchange between Jean-Luc and Beverly has been a long time in coming, but was it rushed?

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A lot unfolds this week and the episode is well paced, though perhaps not quite as effective as last week's installment. That said, this is among the best Nu-Trek that we've seen so far, but Frakes still has a tendency to over do it on the humor, clichés or theatrical set pieces and one suspects that he still had to dial it back a bit. The dialogue is good and the principle story writing is still far superior than anything we've seen so far in "Discovery."

"Star Trek: Picard" and every episode of every "Star Trek" show currently streams exclusively on Paramount Plus in the US. Internationally, the shows are available on Paramount Plus in Australia, Latin America, the UK and South Korea, as well as on Pluto TV in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland on the Pluto TV Sci-Fi channel.

They also stream exclusively on Paramount Plus in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In Canada, they air on Bell Media's CTV Sci-Fi Channel and stream on Crave.

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Star Trek: Picard – Season 3, Episode 3

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Star Trek: Picard

Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Patrick Stewart, Jeri Ryan, Michelle Hurd, Todd Stashwick, and Ed Speleers in Star Trek: Picard (2020)

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.

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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.
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‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 3, Episode 4 Recap: A Sinking Ship

In this week’s “Picard,” the crew of the Titan is powerless in more ways than one.

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By Sopan Deb

Season 3, Episode 4: ‘No Win Scenario’

All the world’s a stage, and all the cadets are merely players.

Jean-Luc Picard, on some level, has been playing a part. That much is clear in this week’s “Picard.” When he sits down with his haddock and regales the eager cadets with stories of his biggest professional successes, he is putting up a front. The purposeful blocking makes this clear: The lunch table is the stage. The cadets are the audience. And in a brilliant bit of acting by Patrick Stewart, you can see that he’s hamming it up for the cadets. Underneath it, there’s a loneliness.

It’s an interesting window into Jean-Luc: He likes the attention, but especially because he doesn’t get it from other places. It’s not ego. It’s insecurity.

In that same bit of theatrics, Jean-Luc blithely discusses high jinks he got into with Jack Crusher’s namesake and smiles as he describes himself as being “a little bit reckless” in those days.

So later in the episode, when the cadets part to reveal a younger Jack at the bar asking Jean-Luc about a life outside of Starfleet and “a real family,” it’s a visual “Let’s cut through the garbage” moment. Jean-Luc’s answer: “Young man, Starfleet has been the only family I have ever needed,” followed by applause from Starfleet cadets. But that’s not as revealing as the visual: They are applauding him, but Jean-Luc is eating alone.

One can understand why Jack didn’t feel the need to have Jean-Luc be a part of his life. Jack is established to be a teenager when he shows up to this bar. He learns that Picard never cared about having a family and views the death of the man Jack is named after as an amusing story to be used to charm cadets. It surely rings hollow to Jack on the holodeck in the present day story line when Jean-Luc remarks to Jack, “I think we all need connection, don’t we?”

In some ways, Jean-Luc and Jack are very alike: They are both putting up a front about not needing other people and mostly focusing on work; Jean-Luc on his career in Starfleet and Jack on his medical supply runs.

Meanwhile, Riker and the rest of the crew’s situation on the Titan is quite bleak. The ship is sinking in a gravity well and losing power rapidly. The officers on the bridge inform Riker that the situation is nearly hopeless. So hopeless that Riker tells Jean-Luc to get his affairs in order and that everyone is essentially about to die. Jonathan Frakes puts in a wonderful performance describing the death of Riker and Troi’s son, and how it created a gulf between grieving parents — one who thrives on sensing emotion, and the other trying his hardest to be numb to the pain.

“This is the end, my friend,” Riker tells Picard. “And if I were you, I’d take the next few hours to get to know your son.”

I would put Frakes’s work in this episode among the best of any he has done as Riker, including the movies and “Next Generation.”

But when Jean-Luc takes his son to the holodeck for some father-son bonding, it’s an extraordinarily distracting plot point. One of the first scenes of the show features officers talking about the hopelessness of the situation because the power is draining from essential systems. Yet, Jean-Luc and Jack go to a perfectly functioning holodeck to have a drink? Jean-Luc waves this away by saying the holodeck relies “on a small, independent power cell for this very reason so that in times of distress it can be a kind of sanctuary.”

In other words: plot armor. No one thought to tap into the holodeck for extra power when they are so desperate?

(The Picards can handle their whisky. In the “Next Generation” episode “Relics,” Picard throws back a glass of whisky with Scotty as if it is absolutely nothing .)

As Jean-Luc and Jack bond, they are interrupted by several crew members who arrive to commiserate. Uh, hey Titan crew? Your ship is falling. Maybe the bridge crew could use a hand with repairs? Or you know, anything? Why are you in a bar?

This goes double for Shaw. Seven recruits him to help find the changeling, which is, on its face, a great idea. But why is Shaw in his quarters rather than on the bridge of the ship he is supposed to be commanding ? If he’s well enough to perform a complex maneuver to save the ship, why isn’t he well enough to, you know, be captain?

And that’s before does he go to the holodeck himself to hang out! In the previous three episodes, Shaw has been painted as putting the concerns of his crew above all. So the notion that as the ship is rapidly losing power, he would just go chill at the bar to yell at Jean-Luc while his bridge crew and Riker try to figure out a way out feels ridiculous.

But let’s leave that aside — because I don’t want my head to explode — and examine the big reveal here: the reason for Shaw’s antipathy toward Jean-Luc and Riker. Shaw angrily (and unprofessionally) yells to the whole bar that he was at Wolf 359, and saw many of his fellow crew members die as a result of Locutus, a.k.a. Captain Picard. (Benjamin Sisko was angry at Picard for similar reasons in the pilot of “Deep Space Nine.” ) Jean-Luc is accustomed to adoring crowds in bars. He’s not used to being confronted about all the deaths that he — or a version of himself — caused.

Todd Stashwick does a nice job conveying Shaw’s righteous anger at Jean-Luc, but it is a bit odd that he selected Seven to be his first officer. Unless she was thrust upon him, he chose a former Borg to be his most trusted commander. (Then again, people are complicated. Maybe he wanted to see past that, and that’s why he insists she go by Annika.)

Odds and Ends

A cadet asks Jean-Luc about an encounter with the Hirogen. The Hirogen were a predatory species that Voyager encountered in the Delta Quadrant, and I am certainly curious how Jean-Luc’s Enterprise would have encountered them.

Riker offers to keep Seven in an “unofficial capacity” to root out the changeling, rather than reinstating her command. You can see how much more comfortable Seven is with an off the books arrangement rather than playing by the rules.

Jack mentions offhand to Jean-Luc in the holodeck that he’s been to M’Talas Four, a “vile place.” Raffi has been doing intelligence work at M’Talas Prime this season, and one wonders if these two things are connected. (I’m not entirely clear what M’Talas Four is.)

I am also wondering if Vadic’s boss — obscured by, uh, changeling goo — is someone we will find familiar in the future. It demands that Vadic go on a suicide mission, while also making clear the Shrike does not matter in the grand plan.

Beverly’s solution of moving “with the wave,” and seeing the old “Next Generation” pals work together to get out of the sticky situation had the feel of the old show. Beverly had the best line: “Look where we are. Here, all of us in this moment. So let’s do what we spent our entire lives learning to be great at.”

Does anyone want to command the Titan? Shaw hands it off needlessly to Riker for no discernible reason in a previous episode. In this one, Riker hands it to Jean-Luc for no reason.

An earlier version of this article described in error a scene in “Star Trek: Picard.” Jean-Luc Picard did not discuss the accident that killed Jack Crusher Sr. while speaking with cadets. He talked about a different incident.

How we handle corrections

Sopan Deb is a basketball writer and a contributor to the Culture section. Before joining The Times, he covered Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign for CBS News. More about Sopan Deb

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Star Trek: Picard Series-Finale Recap: Captain’s Log, Final Entry

Star trek: picard.

Star Trek: Picard began as a series partly dedicated to giving Jean-Luc Picard, the aged but unbowed former captain of the Enterprise , a late-in-life shot at returning to the stars and partly as a torch-passing exercise that surrounded Picard with new characters (a kind of next generation, you could say). Across three seasons, that mission didn’t so much drift as grow in scale. This third and final season has extended the autumnal adventures to almost all of the original cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation (while keeping Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd around from the preceding Picard seasons) and making the torch-passing theme even more explicit by bringing in Picard’s previously unknown son, Jack Crusher, and a pair of Geordi LaForge daughters to boot.

That’s a lot to ask of any series, much less one that has to give the beloved TNG characters the proper send-off (maybe?) they were denied by the less-than-beloved Star Trek: Nemesis. And, by and large, the season has shouldered that burden well. The TNG characters have all had their moments in the spotlight as the show reassembled the team, Ryan’s Seven of Nine and Hurd’s Raffi have had plenty to do (as did Todd Stashwick’s Captain Shaw, RIP), and Jack has proven to be a charismatic addition when he could have felt like an interloper shoehorned in to bring down the cast’s median age.

But does this final episode stick the landing? Pretty much, yeah. “The Last Generation” both brings the season-long story — which began as a confrontation with the Dominion before that dread foe essentially handed over villain duties to the Borg — to an exciting conclusion and gives the original cast a nostalgic valedictory moment while also leaving the door open for future adventures.

As it opens, however, any possibility of a happy ending seems unlikely. Federation President Chekov (not that one but his son) issues a dire warning that the Federation’s younger generation has been assimilated, and there’s little to be done about it, but in the words of his father, “There are always possibilities.” Picard and the crew are not an easily dissuaded bunch, and recognizing, as Data puts it, they “are the cavalry,” they come up with a plan.

Sure, it’s a desperate plan, but a plan nonetheless: Head to Jupiter, board the Borg vessel, and shut down the beacon that allows the Borg to do what they do. (And hopefully rescue Jack in the process.) For Picard, it’s personal. The Borg have his son (whom he’s come to like quite a bit despite a messy start), and he’s been plagued by their threat for over 35 years. For everyone else, it’s, well, also pretty personal. If this is truly a last stand, it’s a last stand against an enemy with whom they have a long, nasty history. The newly emotional Data sums it up as they approach: “I hate them.”

No one knows that better than Seven, of course, who leads a party to reclaim the Titan. She and Raffi will play a crucial role in the confrontation that follows, but it’s the newly reunited TNG crew that drives the action. And, in classic Trek faction, that means breaking into smaller groups. Picard, Will, and Worf head into the cube. (“And I will make it a threesome,” Worf says, by way of announcing his intentions.) Their farewell is one of the episode’s first heart-tugging moments. Could this be the last time these characters see each other? The look on Deanna’s face as Will walks away says it all.

On the cube, they find a lot of rotting Borg drones but little action. Then it’s time to split up after another wrenching farewell scene in which Picard can’t bring himself to tell Will how much he means to him. “You know that I know. Always,” Will says, letting him off the hook while making the scene that much more intense, with Worf’s own final words about Klingon’s not knowing the words “defeat” and “farewell” providing poignant punctuation.

When Picard reaches Jack, it’s worse than he feared. His son appears fully Borgified and the Borg Queen (voiced by Alice Krige and looking more like a nightmarish H.R. Giger creation than ever) looms over him. She’s mostly interested in mocking “Locutus,” calling his arrival a homecoming. The Borg Queen also announces that assimilation is old news. The new Borg goal is evolution. And it looks like that plan is working out for them. Thanks, unwittingly, to Jack, Starfleet is now filled with unwitting hybrids walking around with Borg DNA just waiting to be told what to do.

But despite the odds stacked against them, our heroes prevail via a series of pretty good fight scenes that mix aerial combat, a hand-to-hand battle with Borg drones, some fancy flying from Data, and a battle for Jack’s soul. The latter involves Picard plugging himself into the Borg network and selling Jack on the pleasures of life outside the Borg cube, despite the possibility of loneliness and fear. Picard’s pitch includes freely expressing his emotions (never an easy thing for the captain), including his feelings for his son. “You are the part of me that I never knew was missing,” he says. Later, they hug. (This episode just does not let up on big emotional moments. Will’s farewell to Deanna, if anything, hits even harder: “I’ll be waiting. Me and our boy.”)

Star Trek is a franchise dedicated to following intriguing science fiction concepts wherever they lead, but it’s also one in which occasionally love saves the day, and the Borg Queen’s dying shout of “No!!!” shortly before her cube explodes signals that this is one of those Star Trek installments. (Even Seven’s in a hugging mood when the Borg control lifts from the Titan crew.) It’s a happy ending for all, and the tableau of everyone posing on the Enterprise bridge (an image that includes Will and Deanna embracing and Worf asleep) could be a fitting end to the series.

But there’s more to be done. That includes giving the TNG crew some more time together and setting up future adventures. Will’s log reveals that Beverly has developed a method to eliminate Borg DNA and scan for Dominion holdouts. Tuvok, the real Tuvok, is still alive, it’s revealed. Seven learns that Captain Shaw actually liked and respected her, even recommending she be promoted to the rank of captain. Data is still sorting through his new emotions with a lot of help from Deanna, who’s a little distracted planning a vacation during the latest of their marathon sessions. But, essentially, all is well.

One year later, the long good-bye continues as Will, Picard, and Geordi put the Enterprise D to bed. A bit later, Picard and Beverly escort their son to his first Starfleet assignment aboard … the Enterprise ? Rechristened in honor of Starfleet’s fabled flagship, the Enterprise is now under Seven’s command, with Raffi and Jack by her side. That looks like a setup for a whole new series featuring this crew. (I would watch.)

We’re not done: Over drinks and a stirring recitation of one of Brutus’s speeches in Julius Caesar from Picard (“There is a tide in the affairs of men”), the TNG crew spends the evening in each other’s company, reflecting on their time together before, in a nod to “All Good Things …,” the original TNG finale, a game of poker breaks out with Picard enthusiastically participating. It’s an indulgent moment that calls on decades of accumulated affection for these characters, and boy does it work. It feels like a fitting farewell, albeit one that suggests all good things, or at least all good shows, don’t always come to an end. They just kind of lay around waiting for someone to pick them up again.

Captain’s Log

• Hello! No, I am not your regular Picard recapper (though I did cover the first season). I’m just filling in for the excellent Swapna Krishna, who was unexpectedly unable to cover this episode.

• This episode pretty clearly sets up a Seven/Raffi/Jack–focused series and that’s a pretty exciting prospect. Ryan is, of course, already a Trek legend and her reprise of Seven has broadened the character and confirmed she has a range we never saw on Voyager . Hurd was always a Picard highlight and Ed Speleers has fit right in when Jack could easily have been the series’ Poochie.

• If there is a series, please, please find room for the “Ma’am, I’m just a cook!” guy. He’s great.

• Over the end credits, there’s one last surprise: Q is back and ready to put Jack to the test. Nothing really ends or dies with this franchise, does it? (Okay, except for Ro Laren, Capt. Shaw, etc., etc.) After a first season partly dedicated to putting Data down, he’s back and the Data who wanted to die got hand-waved away. Now Q’s mortality, a big part of the second season, is out the window. It’s inconsistent, but is any going to complain, particularly after a season this strong?

• That said, the sudden transition to a mostly different supporting cast hasn’t been without some awkwardness. Whither Laris?

• Is this the last time we’ll see the TNG characters all in one place together again? Another reunion seems unlikely, but then this reunion seemed pretty unlikely. If it is the end, it’s a warm, affectionate send-off. If not, let’s hope the next reunion strikes as deft a balance between nostalgia and adventure.

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How ‘star trek picard’ showrunner terry matalas captured the series finale’s most important scenes.

The writer-director talks the high stakes of the finale, the emotions that flowed on set, and his dreams of continuing the story with a new series.

By Phil Pirrello

Phil Pirrello

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[This story contains spoilers for Picard season three’s final episode.]

Star Trek Picard ’s third season finale takes the Next Generation crew back to where it all began — though showrunner Terry Matalas was too busy capturing its key scenes to take in the wonder of being on the bridge of the Enterprise-D nearly 30 years after TNG went off the air.

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‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 3 Episode 2 Recap: Who’s Your Daddy?

Jean-Luc Picard makes a shocking discovery.

If the premiere of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 left you with any questions about who Jack Crusher ( Ed Speleers ) is to Jean-Luc Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) you’ll be pleased to know that Episode 2 doesn’t beat around the bush. With the upbeat tune of Baby’s “Starchild” blaring in the background, the episode opens on a flashback to two weeks ago when Jack got into a spot of trouble for violating an airspace quarantine zone. The rock n’ roll of it all very quickly, and brilliantly, showcases the contrast between Jack and Picard, who is very much a character constructed to the tune of classical music.

The flashback also provides a little much-needed exposition and reveals a few key elements about Jack’s personality and what he and his mother ( Gates McFadden ) have been doing since Beverly’s last appearance in Star Trek: Nemesis . When the Fenris Rangers board their ship, Jack explains that they’re trying to deliver medical supplies to a planet that is suffering from a deadly fever—one that he hints may be part of an engineered pandemic that warlords are using to clear out refugees. The Rangers are skeptical and force him to show them the cargo aboard the vessel, which is largely medical supplies. Even the Romulan ale they have stowed away is used for medicinal purposes. But they also have weapons aboard the ship, which Jack explains they use for bartering, and those weapons also work on bribing the Rangers to let them help the refugees on the surface. Unfortunately, what Jack doesn’t realize is that the Rangers are on a reconnaissance mission of their own, and the flashback ends with them reporting back to a mysterious someone that they have found Jack.

This is exactly how they wound up in the situation that they’re in, in the present, at least in part. Jack explains to Picard and Riker ( Jonathan Frakes ) that he and his mother have been hunted for weeks by different groups of entirely unconnected people—including the Rangers and Romulans, and pretty much everyone in between. This is why Beverly told Picard to “trust no one,” because even Starfleet seemed to be after their pound of flesh. Jack is eager to get off the ship and get his mother to safety since the Med Pod she’s inside is running low on power. While Picard is still trying to wrap his head around the idea of Beverly having a son, Riker is quick to point out that there’s something “familiar” about Jack.

RELATED: 'Star Trek: Picard' Season 3 Proves Seven of Nine Doesn't Belong in Starfleet

Aboard the U.S.S. Titan , Seven ( Jeri Ryan ) and Captain Shaw ( Todd Stashwick ) butt heads about whether they should offer assistance to Picard and Riker. Even after another vessel appears and blows up the shuttle that Picard and Riker stole, Shaw digs in his heels and makes it clear that he isn’t interested in sacrificing his crew for a couple of “relics.” Seven attempts to convince Shaw to offer them aid, considering the enemy ship is targeting an unarmed vessel, but all Shaw cares about is the fact that Seven helped Picard. Realizing that she isn’t going to get through to Shaw, Seven tries one last time to appeal to whatever honor code he might live by, by pointing out that he can either be a hero and rescue them or become the man who let two legends die. It’s a risky move, considering Shaw is completely disenchanted by the myth and legend angle.

On Crusher’s ship, it quickly becomes apparent that their enemy isn’t interested in Beverly Crusher—they’re after her son. Picard thwarts their attempt to transport Jack off the ship by swiftly installing transport inhibitors, however, this doesn’t keep their mysterious enemies from boarding the vessel or capturing them in a tractor beam. One way or another, they’re bound and determined to capture Jack alive. After weeks of being tracked down and hunted across the galaxy, the ship isn’t just low on power, it’s low on everything. Their repulser capabilities are entirely shot and any chance they have of fighting their way out of their clutches is gone.

Luckily for them, Seven’s final plea to Shaw apparently worked. At the eleventh hour, the Titan shows up to disrupt the tractor beam and buy Picard and Riker enough time to evacuate the vessel. Shaw begrudgingly rescues the four life signs they discover aboard the ship all the while making a snide comment about how the Titan has become “basically a hotel now.”

Once they are all safely aboard the Titan , Shaw decides he doesn’t want to just leave—he wants to engage and find out who they’re dealing with. Vadic ( Amanda Plummer ) hails the Titan and reveals they’re bounty hunters who are after Jack, who has a sizable bounty on his head for breaking a myriad of different laws across the galaxy. As expected, Shaw points out that Starfleet doesn’t negotiate with bounty hunters, but Vadic is quick to remind him that they’re outside of Federation space, so their rules don’t apply. She drops her shields, giving the crew enough time to scan her ship—which reveals that they are absolutely loaded with weapons, leaving the Titan largely outnumbered and outgunned. In a show of power, Vadic gives Shaw one hour to turn Jack over and uses their tractor beam to literally slingshot Crusher’s ship at the Titan . Which isn’t a move that’s ever been seen before by anyone among the crew.

Picard and Jack have a quick heart-to-heart about needing to know everything that he knows about Vadic and the predicament they find themselves in, but Jack claims he knows nothing. Before they can get much further with their conversation, Shaw decides to throw Jack in the brig after discovering that Vadic’s claims about him being a conman are actually true. But Shaw isn’t done laying down the law just yet, in addition to taking Jack into custody, he also relieves Seven of her duties for insubordination—which felt like a long time coming after last week’s episode. Riker, who has a vested interest in the wellbeing of the Titan ’s crew, is quick to criticize Shaw for giving into the demands of bounty hunters and points out that Jack deserves a fair trial, not an execution by bounty hunters. Shaw isn’t willing to budge, however.

While Picard is reluctant to believe that Jack Crusher might be his son, especially with the new information about him being a conman with a dozen different aliases, Riker is completely convinced that he’s Picard’s kid. Even though they’re trying to sow seeds of doubt, everything about Jack feels like the perfect combination of Beverly Crusher and Jean-Luc Picard, right down to the British accent and the devil-may-care attitude.

Jack’s attempt to look cool and collected about his situation is betrayed by his trembling hands when Picard makes his way down to the brig to get more information out of him. Before Picard can probe him for information about their unfortunate situation, Jack’s first line of questioning is about his mother’s condition—which completely blows a hole in Shaw’s later assumption that he is just a conman who hitched his wagon to an unconscious lady. Picard questions him about all of his charges, which are legit, though Jack prefers to call himself a “freedom fighter” and a thief who provides medical aid, in addition to being someone who happens to be a bit of a scourge to fathers of daughters around the galaxy.

Jack reveals that everything he learned about rendering medical aid around the galaxy, he learned from his mother, including everything that earned him a rap sheet. Picard doesn’t buy it, because the Beverly Crusher he once knew would never be getting into trouble. Jack is quick to point out that Picard and Beverly haven’t seen each other in over twenty years, so how could Picard even begin to know who Beverly is now ? This forces Picard to finally ask the million-dollar question. Who is Jack Crusher’s father? It’s an emotionally charged question that reveals exactly how Picard feels about the potential answer. Even though Jack’s answer isn’t straightforward, because he never had a father who was in the picture, Picard knows the answer—and so does the audience.

Rather than deal with the fallout of this halfway revelation, Jack offers to turn himself over to Vadic, if it means his mother will be safe. With less than eighteen minutes left to decide Jack’s fate, Picard leaves him in the brig to mull over their options. But Jack has already made his mind up. In a very swashbuckler move, he convinces the officer that is guarding the brig to reveal the voltage of the force field keeping him inside his cell, which allows him to essentially hot-wire his way out of the brig. Armed with a blaster and the tenacity he inherited from both of his parents, Jack makes his way to the transporter bay to turn himself over to Vadic, since it’s clear they aren’t going to stop hunting him until he’s caught.

Fueled by Shaw’s belief that Jack was lying about Beverly being his mother, Riker headed to the sick bay to wake Beverly up, and they return to the bridge at the absolute perfect moment. Right as Shaw is ordering his officers to allow Jack to transport himself off the Titan , Beverly arrives on the bridge to confirm Picard’s theories about Jack. It’s a beautiful moment and completely silent moment, save for the soul-stirring orchestration playing beneath it. Patrick Stewart and Gates McFadden deliver a myriad of emotions—regret, shame, pain, heartbreak—simply through their expressions. As the moment passes, Picard gives the order to disregard Shaw’s orders, barring Jack from turning himself over to Vadic. Shaw questions him about who the boy is and, without missing a beat, Picard answers: “He’s my son.”

While all of this family drama is playing out aboard the U.S.S. Titan , Raffi ( Michelle Hurd ) is aboard La Sirena dealing with the guilt she feels about not stopping the terrorist attack. Her mysterious handler informs her that Starfleet is terminating the investigation because they believe that a Romulan by the name of Lurak T’Luco was behind the attack. Raffi refuses to believe that someone who is far from being a most wanted criminal could be behind it—especially after what she witnessed. After she learns that T’Luco likely retrieved the weapon from a Ferengi named Sneed, she decides she’s going to continue her investigation, much to the chagrin of her handler. This is also where the episode’s title is borrowed from, as her handler orders her to “Disengage,” but we all know that Raffi will not let this one go.

Raffi’s investigation takes her to another hotbed of criminal activity, and someone from her past. Back in Season 1, Picard revealed that Raffi had been previously married to a man by the name of Jae, who she had a son with named Gabe. While there have only been brief mentions of them in the series and its ancillary material, Raffi is estranged from both Jae and Gabe, as well as Gabe’s young daughter—who Raffi was looking at pictures of in the premiere of Season 3. In “Disengage” she goes to Jae in hopes of using him and his bar as a lead to finding Sneed, though Jae thinks Raffi is meeting with him to help mend the broken relationship between her and their son. Once Jae realizes what Raffi is up to, he delivers a cruel ultimatum. He can either help her reconnect with Gabe or he can help her find Sneed. He won’t do both. Of course, driven by duty, Raffi chooses her mission, which is probably why her relationship with Gabe fell apart in the first place.

Near the end of the episode, Raffi does track down Sneed, and she attempts to get information out of him about where he got the deadly weapon and who his supplier is. She pretends to be T’Luco’s handler, who is enraged that he’s being pinned for the attack, but that bluff quickly goes awry when Sneed reveals that he killed and beheaded T’Luco. Sneed accuses Raffi of being part of the super-secret Section 31 organization and forces her to take a hallucinogenic drug called Splinter to prove she isn’t working for Starfleet. Things go sideways fast as the drug takes its effect on her, but luckily her handler shows up to save the day. Star Trek: Picard doesn’t waste any time with revealing that Raffi’s handler is none other than Worf ( Michael Dorn ), who is just as magnificent as he was in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine .

The stakes were already high, but Episode 2 of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 ups the ante by confirming, without a shadow of a doubt, that Jack Crusher is Beverly Crusher and Jean-Luc Picard’s son. With so much of the first two seasons focused on Picard’s past, the exploration of the tangible legacy he will eventually leave behind—the one that is more than just legend and acclaim—is a story that has not yet been explored for Picard. Now we just have to wait and see how Picard reacts to learning that he has had a son out there among the stars for all of these years, and how that will parallel Riker’s own exploration of grief after losing his own son, which was set up in the premiere.

The first two episodes of the final season of Star Trek: Picard are streaming now on Paramount+.

Star Trek’s Michael Dorn Wanted Worf To Kill A Popular Deep Space Nine Character In Picard Season 3, And I’m Glad This Didn’t Happen

I'm breathing a sigh of relief.

Michael Dorn as Worf in Star Trek: Picard Season 3 promo picture

Although Star Trek: Picard Season 3 reunited most of the Star Trek: The Next Generation starring actors for the first time since 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis , they didn’t all show up at once. In the case of Michael Dorn’s Worf , his first scene in the episode “Disengage” saw him rescuing Michelle Hurd’s Raffi Musiker from the crime lord Sneed, and he beheaded the Ferengi on his way out. But if Dorn had his way, he would have killed a different Ferengi instead: Quark, one of the other major characters from S tar Trek: Deep Space Nine , and I’m glad this didn’t happen.

Armin Shimerman, who played Quark for the entirety of Deep Space Nine ’s seven-season run, shared this tidbit of information while appearing on TrekMovie ’s All Access Star Trek podcast. Dorn came aboard Deep Space Nine at the beginning of Season 4 following The Next Generation’s conclusion, so he and Shimerman spent a lot of time together in the mid-late ‘90s, but decades later, the latter wasn’t particularly enthused about the former wanting to slice Quark’s head off. As he recalled:

Dorn called me up and said, ‘I’m doing an episode of Picard where I kill off a Ferengi. Wouldn’t it be great if it were you?’ I said, ‘Michael no, it would not be great.’ I told him just to forget about that idea altogether.

Jonathan Frakes , who was also a guest on this episode, speculated that Michael Dorn didn’t know Worf would be cutting Sneed’s head off, but Armin Shimerman told the William Riker actor and longtime Star Trek director that, at the very least, Dorn was aware Worf was going to kill a Ferengi. In the end though, it was Sneed who met this fate, with the character being played Aaron Stanford, who previously worked with showrunner Terry Matalas on the 12 Monkeys TV show.

Jeri Ryan in Star Trek: Picard on Paramount+

Star Trek: Picard's Showrunner Reveals The True Purpose Of The Show's Ending, And It Actually Makes Me Optimistic About A Follow-Up

Star Trek: Picard Wrapped Up The Story For Patrick Stewart’s Character, But Now He May Be Getting A New Movie, And I Have Mixed Feelings

I am so relieved this Quark idea for Star Trek: Picard never came to fruition. Worf killing off a Ferengi criminal lord mere minutes after we meet this character is one thing, but for him to behead a character that not only is beloved by many Star Trek fans, but whom Worf had known for many years is another. Granted, as Dr. Julian Bashir once said, Quark was definitely not Worf’s “favorite person,” and he tried to steer clear of the bar owner whenever possible. But not only do I not believe that Quark would ever become a crime lord on Sneed’s level, I also don’t buy that Worf would have just killed his former… associate without blinking an eye.

If the day comes that Armin Shimerman reprises Quark in live-action, the character needs to be treated with the proper respect and not just be killed off for shock value. Star Trek: Lower Decks had the right idea, as Shimerman voiced Quark for a meaningful role in the Season 3 episode “Hear All, Trust Nothing.” The fan-proposed Star Trek: Legacy would be the best place for that to happen, though there’s still no word if that project stands a chance of becoming one of the upcoming Star Trek TV shows .

Picard , Deep Space Nine and all the other Star Trek shows (except for Prodigy , which is now at Netflix ) can be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription . Discovery is currently in the midst of its final season, and Lower Decks ’ final season will follow sometime afterwards on the 2024 TV schedule .

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Stuck in a Loop: The Best of Star Trek's Time-Jumping Episodes

From The Next Generation to Discovery, going around and around is sometimes very revealing.

Stylized graphic illustration of an arrow with Deltas on both ends swirling around several clocks

StarTrek.com

In the Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 episode, " Face the Strange ," Captain Burnham and Commander Rayner find themselves both stuck in a loop, but also, jumping all around the timeline of the titular starship. From the point before the U.S.S. Discovery was launched, to pivotal moments in Season 4, Season 3, Season 2 and even very early in Season 1, Rayner notes at one point that, "We’ve gone back in time to when you went forward to the future. That’s a little confusing."

Throughout all of Star Trek 's history, time travel has been just as propulsive to the narratives as space travel. But, within the various time travel stories of Trek , there is a special kind of time-skipping episode — the time loop story. Discovery has recently shaken-up this formula with "Face the Strange," but many elements of this episode pay homage to a proud Star Trek tradition. Here’s the history of the best time loop, and time-jumping episodes across the entire Final Frontier.

" Cause and Effect ," Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 5, Episode 18)

"Cause and Effect"

Perhaps one of the greatest science fiction episodes of all time, The Next Generation set the gold-standard for how to do time loop episodes.

When the Enterprise collides with another starship in the first scene, this episode poses one question right off the bat: What happens after you blow up the ship — and everyone on it — before the credits roll? The answer is mostly connected to whether or not we can even remember when we're stuck in a loop. Without actually spoiling this classic episode, let's just say thank the stars for Dr. Crusher and Data.

The brilliance of "Cause and Effect" cannot be overstated, but the 21st Century legacy of this episode is utterly appropriate. When Geordi reveals how the time loop works, Riker says, "You mean we could have come into this room, sat at this table and had this conversation a dozen times already?" This scene has become a popular meme format across various social media platforms, satirizing the time loop of some aspects of the internet experience.

" Parallels ," Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 7, Episode 11)

"Parallels"

Arguably, when Worf starts slipping between realities in "Parallels," the story is more focused on other dimensions, rather than a true time loop. But, each time he pops into a new reality, Worf does tend to reply to his own personal log, which is what began the episode.

Obviously, in each new timeline, Worf's personal log is different, and because he checks it so often in the episode, this gives "Parallels" the feeling of a time loop story, even though Worf is technically moving both forward in time, and also, side-to-side.

On top of all of this, "Parallels" feels time-loopy because so many ideas and plot points from previous seasons of The Next Generation are revisited here. From references to " The Best of Both Worlds ," to the return of Wesley Crusher, "Parallels" brings all the good things of TNG back around again for another look, from a different point of view.

" All Good Things... ," Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 7, Episode 25)

"All Good Things..."

Speaking of the best of The Next Generation , the immortal series finale is, from a certain point of view, one big time loop. As Jean-Luc Picard shifts between past, present, and future, the biggest mystery of "All Good Things…" is what caused the anomaly in the Devron system? Eventually, we learn that the ending and the beginning of this story are inextricably connected, a paradox that creates a kind of loop that must be broken.

Twenty-nine years later, in the Star Trek: Picard episode, " Imposters ," Captain Liam Shaw references this moment, and notes that Picard and Riker have a "real chicken and egg thing going on." It doesn’t get any more time-loopy than that!

" Visionary ," Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 3, Episode 17)

"Visionary"

When O'Brien starts seeing another version of himself appearing randomly throughout the station, Dr. Bashir briefly floats the idea that he's just having really boring hallucinations. But, as the episode goes on, it becomes clear that O'Brien is actually seeing brief moments in the future, and then, catching up to those moments in the present.

"Visionary" messes with what we expect from a time loop episode, because in all instances of future occurrences, there are literally two O'Briens present, and, when the past O'Brien catches up to the future moment, the duplication effect happens again, creating a kind of visual loop for the audience. The funny thing is, in several instances, the future doesn't play out exactly the way past O'Brien saw the first time, making this one of the wobblier time loops in all of Star Trek .

" Relativity ," Star Trek: Voyager (Season 5, Episode 24)

"Relativity"

In a move very similar to Discovery 's "Face the Strange," this unforgettable episode of Voyager briefly takes us back to a point before the series even begins, showing us Janeway's first moments on Voyager before the ship left the Utopia Planitia Shipyards on Mars. (In "Face the Strange," Burnham and Rayner see Discovery in a drydock on Earth well before the events of Season 1.)

But, Voyager 's jaunt into its own prehistory is just the beginning of a very specific type of time jumping episode. Here, Seven of Nine isn't exactly repeating a loop, but, making several attempts at different times, to prevent a bomb from destroying Voyager . As Tuvok aptly puts it when encountering one version of Seven from the future, "Like many time paradoxes, it's improbable, but not necessarily illogical." Because this episode features multiple versions of Seven, and leaps to various eras of Voyager , it pairs very nicely with Burnham and Rayner's similar jumps in "Face the Strange." Especially the moment where Seven meets herself.

" Shattered ," Star Trek: Voyager (Season 7, Episode 11)

In Engineering, both Chakotay and Janeway with tactical supplies strapped to their bodies look into each other's faces as they shake hands in 'Shattered'

"Shattered"

Does Voyager have the best timey-wimey episodes in all of the Trek franchise? It's hard to say, but if there's another Trek episode that feels like an older sibling of Discovery 's "Face the Strange," it's almost certainly "Shattered," a fan-favorite episode from Voyager 's final season. Here, the captain and the first officer — Janeway and Chakotay — find themselves on a version of the ship that has been split into different time periods.

"Shattered" is one of Star Trek 's greatest retrospective episodes, touching on moments across all of Voyager 's story, and teaming past versions of characters with ones closer to the present. It's a touching story, and, structurally, it's wonderfully homaged in Discovery .

" Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad ," Star Trek: Discovery (Season 1, Episode 7)

Harry Mudd forces Paul Stamets and Michael Burnham down the Discovery hallway as he trails behind them holding them at phaser gunpoint in 'Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad'

"Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad"

One of Discovery 's stand-out moments from Season 1 fully set the stage for "Face the Strange" in Season 5. In "Magic to Make The Sanest Man Go Mad," Harry Mudd sets the ship on a true time loop, in which only Stamets can truly remember what is going on. Like in "Face the Strange," Stamets has a perception that exists outside of time, thanks to taking on the Tardigrade DNA in "Choose Your Pain."

This detail comes in handy in "Face the Strange," where Burnham and Stamets again have to re-team to get Discovery out of a time loop caused by nefarious enemies using time travel technology as a weapon. In Season 1, Burnham and Stamets barely knew each other, much like Burnham and Rayner's relationship in Season 5. But, if there's one thing a time loop or time-jumping episode can do, it’s make people who are just colleagues into best friends for life.

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Ryan Britt is the author of the nonfiction books Phasers on Stun! How the Making and Remaking of Star Trek Changed the World (2022), The Spice Must Flow: The Journey of Dune from Cult Novels to Visionary Sci-Fi Movies (2023), and the essay collection Luke Skywalker Can’t Read (2015). He is a longtime contributor to Star Trek.com and his writing regularly appears with Inverse, Den of Geek!, Esquire and elsewhere. He lives in Portland, Maine with his family.

Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1-4 are streaming exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., the UK, Canada, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia and Austria. Seasons 2 and 3 also are available on the Pluto TV “Star Trek” channel in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The series streams on Super Drama in Japan, TVNZ in New Zealand, and SkyShowtime in Spain, Portugal, Poland, The Nordics, The Netherlands, and Central and Eastern Europe and also airs on Cosmote TV in Greece. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

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Every Episode of Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Ranked

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 was a varied and emotionally heavy season, and here's how critics and fans ranked each episode in the time-travel saga.

This article contains a brief mention of suicide.

The return of Jean-Luc Picard to the Star Trek universe was always meant to be a three-season affair. The second season was filmed during the height of the pandemic, and went through many iterations under the direction of three executive producers. In more ways than one, it was a tonal shift from the seasons on either side of it. How critics and fans ranked every episode of Star Trek: Picard Season 2 shows how challenging and contentious the middle chapter of this saga was. The story explored time travel, introduced an alternate timeline, and was bookended by a massively important moment in Starfleet's present.

Picard Season 2 was an emotionally heavy season with a clear political point of view and a sense of fun that comes with setting sci-fi characters in the contemporaneous present. In both the special features of The Complete Star Trek: Picard home release and the making-of book Star Trek: Picard: The Art and Making of the Series , the challenges in making this season are laid bare. With Rotten Tomatoes representing the critics and IMDB's user ratings representing the audience, each episode of Star Trek: Picard Season 2 is ranked based on the story it told and the impact it had on both the characters and audience.

10 The Picard Season 2 Premiere Was Full of Promise

Star trek: picard season 2, episode 1 "the star gazer", star trek theory: picard retconned the divisive enterprise series finale.

Of all Star Trek: Picard 's ten sophomore episodes, "The Star Gazer" ranks the highest among its peers in Season 2 . It's a fantastic beginning to the story, which both ties up loose ends from Season 1 and sets the characters on a new adventure. Most importantly, however, it brings Starfleet back into the fold in a big way. Picard delivers a Starfleet Academy commencement address, and he is then summoned to the USS Stargazer to answer a plea for help.

The episode sends off Soji, an ambassador for her synthetic siblings on the galactic stage. Dr. Agnes Jurati is with her, but quickly beams aboard the Stargazer, commanded by (her ex) Captain Cristobal Rios. Raffi, Elnor and Laris return, the first two also in Starfleet and the latter still with Jean-Luc but yearning for something more. It ends with the return of Q who, at the last moment, whisks Picard away from certain death.

9 Picard Season 2 Almost Took Place in an Alternate Timeline

Star trek: picard season 2, episode 2, "penance".

The first two episodes of Star Trek: Picard Season 2 debuted the same day, so it makes sense they are ranked close together. The strange new world this episode introduces may be why some viewers became disillusioned with the rest of the season's 21st Century setting. Executive Producer Terry Matalas said on Inglorious Treksperts that this episode mostly came from the Season 1 showrunner Michael Chabon before he left to adapt one of his novels for Paramount.

The characters were meant to spend more time in this alternate timeline , which reveres Adam Soong, one of many Brent Spiner lookalikes related to the creation of Data. The Earth is ravaged by climate change and seems very similar to the xenophobic Mirror Universe. Picard, Raffi, Seven of Nine, Elnor, Jurati and Rios have to bust a Borg Queen out of prison so that they can time travel and fix the past. Still, it might have been fun to spend more time in this evil, alternate future.

8 Season 2 Teamed Picard Up With a Character Tying TOS to TNG

Star trek: picard season 2, episode 5, "fly me to the moon".

Actor Orla Brady played Laris, who is absent from the season save for the first and final episodes. However, she returned to the cast as Talinn, the Romulan successor to Gary Seven from The Original Series . The character known as a "Watcher" was introduced as a potential spinoff from Gene Roddenberry for NBC. While it didn't take off, it did create an interesting bit of Star Trek lore. While Gary Seven was a human with access to advanced alien technology, Talinn is a Romulan tasked with protecting the timeline on Earth.

Laris is primarily responsible for the safety of Renée Picard, ancestor of Jean-Luc and the woman who discovers "a sentient microbe" on Europa that helps fix climate change. It's also the episode where the other political storyline (Rios and the present-day "Butterflies" being persecuted by ICE for helping undocumented migrants) are broken out of custody in a fun action sequence. It's also the episode where Agnes is injected with Borg nanoprobes by the queen, setting up the next episode in the Star Trek: Picard Season 2 ranked list.

7 A Gala, a Sassy Borg Queen and a Musical Number Shook Up Picard Season 2

Star trek: picard season 2, episode 6, "two of one", 'keep being noisy': picard star provides star trek: legacy update.

This version of the Borg Queen was played by Annie Wersching , who passed away in January 2023 from cancer. Great throughout the series, this episode features the Borg Queen and Jurati sharing a mind. As the Borg Queen tries to take over her body (reliant on emotional responses for control), the two make a great inside woman as they help Team Picard sneak into a gala. Allison Pill also does a rendition of the great Pat Benatar song, "Shadows of the Night."

"Two of One" doesn't just refer to the Borg-ified Jurati, either. This episode features Jean-Luc have a touching heart-to-heart conversation with his ancestor Renée. They are also two of a kind. Picard also faces off with Adam Soong, though he runs the Admiral down with his car. Because of his synthetic body, Rios, Raffi and his friends take him to Dr. Teresa Ramirez, leader of the Butterflies and physician who doesn't ask a lot of questions.

6 Picard Season 2 Does 'Star Trek: The Voyage Home'

Star trek: picard season 2 episode 3, "assimilation".

The third episode of Picard Season 2 is ranked high because it continued the breakneck pace established by the first two episodes. Team Picard time travels to the past with the help of the Borg queen, presenting the third new locale for the series: the 21st Century . However, this is where the bulk of the season takes place, much like Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was mostly set in the then-contemporaneous present.

A lot happened in this episode. Seven of Nine and Raffi try to blend in to the 21st Century and scan for a person using technology too advanced for the time. Rios is meant to help, but he's injured and ends up in a clinic with Dr. Teresa Ramirez and her son Ricardo, who are eventually arrested by ICE. Agnes and Picard try to outwit the Borg Queen. However, the most important moment in the episode was the death of Elnor. Fatally wounded by Seven of Nine's alternate timeline husband, his death devastates Raffi.

5 Guinan Brought the Return of an Old Friend With a New Face

Star trek: picard season 2 episode 4, "watcher".

Whoopi Goldberg's affable bartender Guinan returned in the Picard Season 2 premiere , but the character returned in a big way played by Ito Aghayere. The first episode established that Guinan, an ageless El Aurian, can alter her appearance to older or younger as she sees fit. Picard has to convince her to help him save humanity, even though she doesn't think Earthlings are worth the effort.

This is the episode which focuses most heavily on the immigration story in Season 2, with Rios in ICE custody trying to explain why he has no identification. As Seven of Nine and Raffi try to find him, they discover how migrants can fall through the cracks of the system. This plays out while juxtaposed with Guinan's condemnation of humanity. However, Picard is able to make a plea based on what he knows of where humanity can go in the future, in a very Roddenberry-esque Star Trek moment.

4 Picard and Guinan Find Mercy and Vulcans from Agent Wells

Star trek: picard season 2 episode 8, "mercy", star trek's wil wheaton wants a crusher brothers spinoff series.

Introduced at the end of the previous episode, Jay Karnes makes his return to Star Trek . Having previously played a time agent in Star Trek: Voyager , in Picard Season 2, he plays FBI Agent Wells, who is a firm believer in alien activity and arrests both Guinan and Picard based on video footage he has of the latter transporting onto the street. He questions them both, threatening the mission and the timeline. It's revealed that he had a pre- First Contact Vulcan encounter as a child . He ultimately lets Picard and Guinan go, seemingly fired for bringing them in at all.

Meanwhile, the Borg Queen has control of Agnes, and Seven of Nine and Raffi have to try to find and capture her. They find her consuming metals from car batteries, which is toxic to Agnes, but is what the Borg Queen needs to assimilate more people. She doesn't kill Seven or Raffi, proving Agnes still has some measure of control. Borg Jurati then goes to Adam Soong, convincing him to help her steal La Sirena and strand Team Picard in the 21st Century.

3 Season 2 Brought Picard Face-to-Face With His Greatest Fear and Regret

Star trek: picard season 2 episode 7, "monsters".

This episode is ranked one of the lowest by Picard viewers, and it's understandable. Not a lot happens in the episode, despite the introduction of James Callis as a hallucination of a therapist and Picard's father . This episode dives deeply into the memories of guilt and the mystery of what happened to Jean-Luc's mother. It's emotionally heavy and does somewhat lag on the breathless urgency of trying to find Agnes and stop Adam Soong.

Still, this is an emotionally powerful episode that recontextualizes what viewers have been seeing about Picard's past. His father is revealed to not be the abusive villain fans thought. Picard's mother is not a victimized woman trying to be free, but rather someone suffering from mental illness or injury. It's a traumatic, frightening event and (with help of Watcher Talinn and some sci-fi telepathic technology), Picard works through it.

2 The New Borg Were the Best Thing Picard Season 2 Brought to Star Trek

Star trek: picard season 2 episode 10, "farewell".

While the finale of Picard Season 2, "Farewell" is mostly about denouement, outside of the last mission to ensure that Adam Soong doesn't kill Renée Picard. Talinn sacrifices herself. Rios decides to stay behind in the 21st Century. Wesley Crusher returns as a Watcher , and Q and Picard have a final heart-to-heart chat, just before he sends them all back to the proper future. He's even able to resurrect Elnor since he had a little power left over because Rios stayed behind.

The best part of the finale was the reveal that Agnes Jurati was the Borg Queen from the first episode of Picard Season 2. With the alternate timeline Borg Queen, she created a new kind of collective. People choose to join the Borg, and even retain some measure of individuality . These new Borg agree to stand guard against a rupture in spacetime through which an unknown threat has yet to emerge. They become provisional members of the Federation, continuing the Star Trek tradition of old enemies, eventually becoming allies.

1 Star Trek's Most Emotionally Heavy Episode Is About Picard's Guilt

Star trek: picard season 2 episode, "hide and seek".

The penultimate episode of Star Trek: Picard Season 2 is a massive episode, both for its action and its emotional weight. There is a big battle at Chateau Picard where the new Jurati Borg assimilate mercenaries hired by Adam Soong. They try to kill Picard and his friends, but Agnes eventually convinces the Queen to try a different way than she had in the past, since in every timeline assimilation and violence leads to the Borg's destruction.

Most importantly, this episode reveals how Picard's mother died and why Jean-Luc felt so much guilt for it. His father locked her in a room to stop her from hurting herself. Jean-Luc unlocked the door and went to lie with his mother and comfort her. After he fell asleep, she took her own life. As much as Picard Season 2 was about fixing the past, outsmarting the Borg and other Star Trek things, Picard's revelation was the true mission . He had to forgive himself by letting go of the guilt that kept him at arm's length from people and preparing him to be a father.

The complete Star Trek: Picard is available to own on Blu-ray, DVD, digital and streams on Paramount+ .

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Star Trek: Picard Season 2 pits the iconic Admiral against his greatest nemesis Q for a time-travel adventure that exposes Jean-Luc's deepest secret.

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New photos from Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 4 “Face the Strange”

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Strange New Worlds director Jordan Canning talks "Charades," the versatility of the series & fandom

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New photos + video preview from Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 6 “Whistlespeak”

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The Picard Legacy Collection, Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Complete Series box sets announced

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds arrives on Blu-ray, 4K UHD and DVD this December

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Preview: Star Trek: Discovery 505 “Mirrors”

The fifth episode of Star Trek: Discovery’s fifth and final season “Mirrors” premieres this Thursday, April 25 . The episode is written by Johanna Lee & Carlos Cisco and directed by Jen McGowan .

Today, we have a video preview, a clip, and a few new photos from the episode — featuring Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham, David Ajala as Book, Mary Wiseman as Tilly, Blu del Barrio as Adira, Anthony Rapp as Stamets, and Callum Keith Rennie as Rayner

You can check out the new photos below. Please be aware of some minor spoilers.

Official description:

Captain Burnham and Book journey into extradimensional space in search of the next clue to the location of the Progenitors’ power. Meanwhile, Rayner navigates his first mission in command of the U.S.S. Discovery , and Culber opens up to Tilly.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 castmembers include Sonequa Martin-Green (Captain Michael Burnham), Doug Jones (Saru), Anthony Rapp (Paul Stamets), Mary Wiseman (Sylvia Tilly), Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber), David Ajala (Cleveland “Book” Booker), Blu del Barrio (Adira) and Callum Keith Rennie (Rayner). Season five also features recurring guest stars Elias Toufexis (L’ak) and Eve Harlow (Moll).

Stay tuned to TrekNews.net for all the latest news on Star Trek: Discovery , Star Trek: Prodigy , Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , Star Trek: Picard , Star Trek: Lower Decks, and more.

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Prep Begins For ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 3 Finale; Cast And Directors Share BTS Images

| April 25, 2024 | By: Anthony Pascale 15 comments so far

Work on the third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds continues to move swiftly in Toronto and looks to be set to wrap up next month. We have some fun bits from the set shared by the cast and a couple of directors, as well as some details on the production.

2 more episodes to go

First up, a selfie from director Jordan Canning, who previously directed the season 2 episode “Charades.” The image posted earlier this week shows the director with Ethan Peck and Rebecca Romijn and has the message, “Always happy to be the redshirt between these two.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jordan Canning (@jjhcanning)

TrekMovie has confirmed that Canning directed episode 8, which has wrapped. Filming for episode 9 has already begun, with Andrew Coutts directing. This will be the directorial debut for Coutts, a co-producer and editor on the show. The 10th and final episode of the season will be directed by Maja Vrvilo, a Paramount+ Trek veteran who has directed episodes of Discovery , Picard , and Strange New Worlds . Earlier this week, she posted an image of her office door, indicated prep work for her episode had already begun.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Maja Vrvilo (@majavrvilo)

Anson has a challenge for cosplayers

There have also been a couple of fun recent social media updates from the cast. First up, Anson Mount posted on Twitter/X that season 3 will require cosplayers to bring their “A-game” as he shared some creative fan costumes.

I will say this about season 3 of #StarTrek #StrangeNewWorlds : Cos-players, you better be ready to bring your A-game. #Cosplay @StarTrek @StarTrekOnPPlus pic.twitter.com/mZ9gMmIhsL — Anson Mount 🖖 (@ansonmount) April 16, 2024

One new look for cosplayers to try is an armed Nurse Chapel, as seen in this short video from Jess Bush showing off her phaser holster.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jess Bush (@onejessa)

Finally, on the day of the big eclipse, some of the Strange New Worlds team took a moment to check it out. Bush shared an Instagram story with herself and co-star Melissa Navia rocking their eclipse glasses. (They had 90% totality in Toronto.)

Last week brought big news for Strange New Worlds: It’s been renewed for a fourth season. Paramount+ recently confirmed season 3 will debut in 2025.

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

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I LOVE holodeck dude in cosplay!

I’m curious how long their entire season shooting period actually is.

Usually 5 to 6 months. This one started just before Christmas.

I know I’ll end up watching it, but I’m just not excited for the next season. Season 2 was all over the place, in my opinion. For every episode like Those Old Scientists or Ad Astra Per Aspera, there was rubbish like The Broken Circle and Under the Cloak of War and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. I like the cast, but the quality isn’t there- and for all the talk of “big swings” and pushing the envelope- Season 2 was almost painfully generic.

Same here. I’ll be tuning in, but it’s not up there on my ‘must-see right away’ list. I feel like overall, the storytelling floundered during S2, legacy characters written badly, and a distinct corny popcorn feel to it. Both Spock and Pike were reduced to bumbling sidekicks. Hoping S3 has a bit more gravitas to it. Like you said, not the fault of the cast. All blame goes back to the writer’s room. I’m more than happy to consider this show as existing in its own separate timeline, as has been confirmed.

I still can’t get over how *boring* the finale was. It felt like it went on for hours and yet nothing actually happened besides a super-quick and appallingly shot fight in zero-g. Season Two really dropped the ball.

I agree. I don’t even remember what happened in the finale, except Pike at the end hesitating like a scared junior officer when the situation called for fast decisive action. As for the season in general, it feels empty, like nothing really happens in the episodes. I hate the way they turned Spock into a moron. There are better ways if the writers wanted to put some humor in… I’m sure the 12 year olds found it funny but adults are watching too…

They seem to be testing the water for the Academy show with teen romances also. Spock, Chapel / La’an, Kirk and Pike, Batel were all shallow romances and just really boring that took up way too much time in the season. They seriously need to get back to writing some good sci fi stories or this show will go down as one of the worse Star Trek series for me. It seems more of a comedy starship show than the Orville at times. And season 1 had so much promise as well.

The SNW writers room has a chalk board titled Gimmick Board only they misspelt it Big Swing Board. Hopefully they can’t destroy Spock’s character anymore as they have already scraped the bottom of the barrel with their writing of his character.

So relieved I’m not the only one who felt this way. I hear “game changer” and “big swing” and I think “great, they’re effing with my show again to bring in the non-Trek fans”!

Yes, to them “big swing” means having the characters do things completely out of character and turning Star Trek into a Broadway play. Sure the musical was original and unexpected, but really out of place, and I will never be able to get the K-Pop Klingons out of my head.

I didn’t mind the musical episode (probably because I love musicals!) but on the whole, the season felt soulless and devoid of anything interesting to say (outside of Ad Astra Per Aspera). It’s as though the entire season was written by committee and was deathly afraid of offending the fandom by doing anything even slightly controversial.

I’ve had this feeling since the first season. Anson Mount is a wonderful lead, but they’ve completed destroyed the character that we got to know in Season 2 of Discovery. And they need to do something with Spock besides him being a complete and utter pig to women.

I’m absolutely giddy for this next season. Season two was fantastic and I cannot wait for this next season.

I really wish studios would get it together. They used to be able to turn out twice the number of eps or sometimes more every year without year-long pauses between seasons.

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‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 3, Episode 3 Recap: Family Secrets
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Episode 3 Is A Showcase For The Talents Of
Jean-Luc assembles a crew in 'Star Trek: Picard' episode 3
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Watch Star Trek: Picard Season 3
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S3.E3 ∙ Seventeen Seconds. Thu, Mar 2, 2023. Picard grapples with a life-altering revelation as the crew of the Titan attempt to outmaneuver Vadic, while Raffi and Worf uncover a plot by a vengeful enemy. 8.5/10 (4.9K) Rate. Watch options. Top-rated.
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Stuck in a Loop: The Best of Star Trek's Time-Jumping Episodes

" Cause and Effect ," Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 5, Episode 18)

" Parallels ," Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 7, Episode 11)

" All Good Things... ," Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 7, Episode 25)

" Visionary ," Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 3, Episode 17)

" Relativity ," Star Trek: Voyager (Season 5, Episode 24)

" Shattered ," Star Trek: Voyager (Season 7, Episode 11)

" Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad ," Star Trek: Discovery (Season 1, Episode 7)

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Every Episode of Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Ranked

10 The Picard Season 2 Premiere Was Full of Promise

9 Picard Season 2 Almost Took Place in an Alternate Timeline

8 Season 2 Teamed Picard Up With a Character Tying TOS to TNG

7 A Gala, a Sassy Borg Queen and a Musical Number Shook Up Picard Season 2

6 Picard Season 2 Does 'Star Trek: The Voyage Home'

5 Guinan Brought the Return of an Old Friend With a New Face

4 Picard and Guinan Find Mercy and Vulcans from Agent Wells

3 Season 2 Brought Picard Face-to-Face With His Greatest Fear and Regret

2 The New Borg Were the Best Thing Picard Season 2 Brought to Star Trek

1 Star Trek's Most Emotionally Heavy Episode Is About Picard's Guilt

Star Trek: Picard

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