It has been a long, pandemic-fueled wait, but the second season of Star Trek: Picard is almost here, and we now have an official trailer. In addition to seeing Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) encounter his mischievous former frenemy, Q (John de Lancie), fans’ hearts will warm to see the retired Starfleet captain reunite with Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), the El-Aurian bar hostess from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
As I wrote in my review last year, the series is set 20 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. The first season opened with Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) having retired to the family vineyard. His bucolic existence was interrupted by the arrival of a mysterious woman named Dahj (Isa Briones) who pleaded for his help. Alas, Picard failed to save her. She was killed in front of him by Romulan assassins belonging to a radical sect known as the Zhat Vash, who is dedicated to eradicating all artificial life forms. Picard discovered that Dahj was actually a synthetic—technically Data’s “daughter”—and she had a twin sister, Soji, who was also in danger.
Resolved to save Soji, Picard asked Starfleet for a ship, but he had been gone a long time, and his entreaties were rebuffed. Never one to admit defeat, Picard amassed his own scrappy crew over the next few episodes for his unauthorized rescue mission. The crew included Cristobal Rios (Santiago Cabrera), a skilled thief and pilot of the ship La Sirena; Raffi (Michelle Hurd), a former Starfleet intelligence officer and recovering addict; Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill); and a Romulan refugee, Elnor (Evan Evagora).
Some details about the second season have been trickling out over the last year. We know, for instance, that even though Picard’s consciousness is now in a synthetic body, the show will still explore themes of dealing with the last stage of one’s life, the nature of connectedness—hence the return of Q and Guinan—and Picard’s struggle with his own personal history, which will include time traveling to the past. Per the official synopsis:
Picard takes the legendary Jean-Luc Picard and his crew on a bold and exciting new journey: into the past. Picard must enlist friends both old and new to confront the perils of 21st century Earth in a desperate race against time to save the galaxy’s future—and face the ultimate trial from one of his greatest foes.
Patrick Stewart personally invited Whoopi Goldberg to reprise her role as Guinan in S2 during an appearance to promote S1 on The View in January 2020. Paramount dropped an initial S2 teaser in April last year, on First Contact Day, that strongly hinted that fan favorite Q—an extra-dimensional being with power over time, space, the laws of physics, and reality itself—would return and that the second season would play with time. A one-minute teaser dropped last July, giving us our first look at Q.
That teaser also showed us that time has been broken in S2, with many significant changes. We saw Elnor and Raffi fleeing for their lives, Soji dressed all in white, Rios in a snazzy new Federation uniform with new insignia, and Agnes Jurati in civilian garb. Also, Seven of Nine awoke in an unfamiliar apartment, and when she looked in the mirror, her Borg implant was gone.
The full trailer has some of that same footage, and more. It opens with Picard ruminating on the moments that still haunt him, “moments upon which history turns.” Then, he wakes up in a different timeline, with Q welcoming Picard to the “road not taken.” The Federation doesn’t seem quite so noble as the version we’ve known in the past, and what is that mysterious blue substance in a vial that Q gives to Altan Inigo Soong (Brent Spiner)?
The Borg Queen (Annie Wersching) is also back and might be to blame for some time shenanigans that transport Picard and his crew back to 2024. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fans will understand the significance of that year, detailed in the two-part episode “Past Tense.” It’s the year of the Bell Riots, a protest and crackdown that proved so violent that America embarked on a course of social and political reform that ultimately led to the formation of the Federation. So messing with that point in the timeline could have some serious repercussions.
Desperate for someone who can help him understand what is going on with the divergence in time, Picard walks into a bar that just happens to be run by Guinan—perhaps a bit less posh than Ten Forward, but still plenty cozy. “I’m gonna need some tea. Earl Grey. Piping hot,” Guinan says, wearing a truly spectacular red hat. She warmly embraces her old friend, assuring him, “I believe you have one final frontier yet to come.”
The second season of Star Trek: Picard premiers on Paramount+ on March 3, 2022. A third season filmed concurrently, so we’ll be getting even more adventures from the crew of La Sirena.
Listing image by YouTube/Paramount+
https://arstechnica.com/?p=1827532