Paramount+ Star Trek: Picard Season Two (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

On the whole, it was a rather grandiose thing Q did just to get Picard to re-evaluate his feelings about his mother. He put everyone through such pain and sent them to the past.

That is sort of Q in a nutshell - doing a rather grandiose thing to make a point

What was so moving for me was how that spoke to both Q’s situation and Picard’s. Q, realizing he’s about to die and with limited energy remaining, decides to spend his last bit of time with Picard, and ultimately is doing everything he did as a gift. Q forced Picard to confront his past, which allowed Picard to see his father and his mother’s death through adult eyes, and with that perspective, finally understand on a deep inner level that what happened wasn’t his fault.

It’s one of Q’s kindest gestures, realizing that he’s going to die alone and using the time he has left to try to ensure the one mortal he actually cares about doesn’t meet the same end. But also still a very Q gesture, in that he gets to die on his own terms.

And there was something very touching with Picard embracing him at the end, giving Q the one thing that Q never imagined possible - not dying alone (in a spiritual sense).

A lot of the themes in this season played very well for me because they’re all places I live, so to speak. I thought it was a beautiful journey. DeLancie did some of his very best work here.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

FWIW, Isa Briones also says she is not returning for season 3. That means, Cabrera, Evagora, Pill and Briones won’t be back. That makes only Michelle Hurd the “new” cast member for the third season.

UPDATED: More ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Cast Members Confirm They Are Not Coming Back For Season 3

There is also an update from one of season two's big cameos.

trekmovie.com

This one feels more jarring than Allison Pill, to be honest.

In the first season, Briones was the closest thing to a co-lead alongside Patrick Stewart. Her role was significantly reduced for this second season, which makes sense since the plot no longer revolved around her character.

But while Kore's story was wrapped up in Season 2, Soja's story was pretty much left hanging after a brief appearance in the season premiere.

Well, this is called wiping the slate clean for next year. I'm glad Jeri and Michelle are coming back, though. I don't understand how Pill isn't going to come back based on where Season 2 ended, but...eh.

It seems pretty clear that the Jurati Queen and her more altruistic collective will be posted at the mouth of the transwarp tunnel for the foreseeable, so I don't know how much more storytelling that left for this series.

That being said, she's still alive at the end of season two and has four hundred additional years of life experience behind her, in addition to the experiences of the countless beings that agreed to join her collective. So the character is ripe to be revisited in future stories.

Personally, the show I want the most is a TOS/TNG/Voyager style show centered around a new ship and an all new crew in the early 25th century.

‘I was genuinely surprised by the appearance of

Spoiler

"I was once Wesley Crusher"

as a Supervisor. That was a nice way to wrap up thst story thread.

I don't think he was a Supervisor. Tallinn was a Supervisor, as was Gary Seven. The person in question was a Traveler, a Supervisor's Supervisor.

And it seemed that the genetically perfected Kore was being given the same offer that the person in question was once given by another Traveler.

That is sort of Q in a nutshell - doing a rather grandiose thing to make a point

What was so moving for me was how that spoke to both Q’s situation and Picard’s. Q, realizing he’s about to die and with limited energy remaining, decides to spend his last bit of time with Picard, and ultimately is doing everything he did as a gift. Q forced Picard to confront his past, which allowed Picard to see his father and his mother’s death through adult eyes, and with that perspective, finally understand on a deep inner level that what happened wasn’t his fault.

It’s one of Q’s kindest gestures, realizing that he’s going to die alone and using the time he has left to try to ensure the one mortal he actually cares about doesn’t meet the same end. But also still a very Q gesture, in that he gets to die on his own terms.

And there was something very touching with Picard embracing him at the end, giving Q the one thing that Q never imagined possible - not dying alone (in a spiritual sense).

A lot of the themes in this season played very well for me because they’re all places I live, so to speak. I thought it was a beautiful journey. DeLancie did some of his very best work here.

I agree with everything you wrote.

To a being like Q, even the most epic of galaxy-spanning conflicts seem provincial and minute. On the other hand, to a being like Q, friendship and personal connection are extraordinary things indeed.

And Q's actions this season were true acts of friendship, purely out of a selfless desire to help someone he cared about without any expectation of reciprocation or reward.

And understanding that, Picard -- now more emotionally available as a result of his journey this season -- is able to give Q something that he wouldn't have expected. And out of his own free will, not because he fears the consequences of angering a god like so many of their interactions in the past.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

This one feels more jarring than Allison Pill, to be honest.

In the first season, Briones was the closest thing to a co-lead alongside Patrick Stewart. Her role was significantly reduced for this second season, which makes sense since the plot no longer revolved around her character.

But while Kore's story was wrapped up in Season 2, Soja's story was pretty much left hanging after a brief appearance in the season premiere.

I’m surprised that I’m as okay with it as I am, but I feel okay about it. She had a really special role to play in that first season, and her appearance this year was great because it carries along that tradition where Spiner had played all the make Soongs - so why not have Data’s female offspring play any female Soongs? It might be too inside baseball there but I dug it. But in a way, for me it sort of honors the character’s journey by having her time on the show end. All of the cast members exiting seem to be going at the right time; it doesn’t feel clumsy like other departures in other shows that were based on contractual or personal issues and the writers got stuck handling a departure they didn’t want. I think sometimes having the same cast members continue to appear after their primary story wraps up can make the universe seem too small.

On a maybe not unrelated note, the show has done a great job with its legacy characters and really giving them moments of real weight - Riker and Troi in season one being the obvious example, but also Data and Seven and Hugh and Q. If everyone from TNG is coming back in some capacity for the final go around, perhaps having fewer new returning characters means that there’s now space for each of those legacy characters to get that kind of part to play. Five years ago most of these guys were pretty adamant that they were done with this, so I gotta believe if they’re coming back that they’re really good parts.

And Q's actions this season were true acts of friendship, purely out of a selfless desire to help someone he cared about without any expectation of reciprocation or reward.

And understanding that, Picard -- now more emotionally available as a result of his journey this season -- is able to give Q something that he wouldn't have expected. And out of his own free will, not because he fears the consequences of angering a god like so many of their interactions in the past.

One of the things that makes this show so special for me is how it incorporates the passage of time and the way its characters have changed part of its DNA. It’s informed by everything that’s come before but it’s a different time and they’re different and we’re different and that’s reflected at the core of the material. If they could somehow find an unseen TNG episode from 1994, it wouldn’t mean to me now what it would have meant in 1994 - I’m not that exact same person anymore, and there has to be some part of my TNG enjoyment today that is built on a comfortable feeling and familiarity that dates back to then. But these new Picard episodes and collective stories all mean as much to me now as TNG meant to me then. It makes being on a journey with these characters that much more meaningful to have the new stories all feeling so relevant to where my life is now.

I thought this particular journey was done in 2002 so to be here again is something I never thought I’d see happen and I still can’t quite believe it’s happening.

Personally, the show I want the most is a TOS/TNG/Voyager style show centered around a new ship and an all new crew in the early 25th century.

I’d love to see that too. I think Strange New Worlds will tick a lot of those boxes but it doesn’t give us “present day” Trek and though its characters are fantastic, they’re not new.

I’m hoping that the ending of Picard will present a space for that kind of a show to exist, the way Discovery Season 2 showed there was a place for Pike’s Enterprise.

 

[TJPC]

One of the things, other than this, that has felt weird about all of the current Trek shows is that they also follow the traditional "act" structure, with mini-climaxes and a fade to black where you'd expect a commerical break. It's been my suspicion that CBS/Paramount has deliberately done this (and the traditional episode length) because they're structuring these shows to be easily adaptable to some sort of linear syndication. Possibly on the Paramount cable network? Does that have commercials? I can't recall having watched anything on that network.

In Canada, and I suspect other countries, all these Star Trek shows are shown on a regular cable network (SciFi) with commercials, and then here they are streamed on “Crave”.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

If everyone from TNG is coming back in some capacity for the final go around, perhaps having fewer new returning characters means that there’s now space for each of those legacy characters to get that kind of part to play. Five years ago most of these guys were pretty adamant that they were done with this, so I gotta believe if they’re coming back that they’re really good parts.

It does seem pretty clear this point that Picard S3 is going to closer to a TNG S8, or -- more precisely -- the kind of serialized story that would have been told had TNG been made now instead of back then.

I’d love to see that too. I think Strange New Worlds will tick a lot of those boxes but it doesn’t give us “present day” Trek and though its characters are fantastic, they’re not new.

There are also limitations inherent in being such an immediate prequel. Most obviously, we know the fates of over half the main characters, since four of them are still serving aboard the Enterprise in the Kirk era. But less obviously, the discoveries that they make on this five-year mission can't really have any major consequences since they weren't referenced in any of the subsequent stories.

I’m hoping that the ending of Picard will present a space for that kind of a show to exist, the way Discovery Season 2 showed there was a place for Pike’s Enterprise.

One thing that both "Picard" and "Strange New Worlds" inject into the Paramount+ corner of Trek is the idea of finite series. "Discovery" will go until it runs out of steam creatively or in terms of eyeballs. But "Picard" is very specifically three seasons, and "Strange New Worlds" has a built in end date, when Kirk's command begins in 2265, roughly six years from the events of the pilot.

As series reach their natural endpoint, they create openings for new stories on new series.

 

[DaveF]

Like Season 1, I thought Season 2 was an uneven effort that ended with emotionally resonant fan service.

(As a rule, I prefer TV over movies. I like the modern long form to get into more details, more character, more consequences. But I think this whole season would have been better as a movie "short" focused on Picard and Q -- the finale coupled with extracts from the first two episodes and some connective tissue -- would have been a phenomenal bit of Star Trek.)

 

[joshEH]

New Picard comic-book series to be set between Season 2 and Season 3:

STAR TREK PICARD STARGAZER #1 CVR A HERNANDEZ (JUN221658)

Embark on a never-before-seen journey set between seasons two and three of the Paramount+ hit series Star Trek: Picard! When the U.S.S. Stargazer goes missing near a planet from his past, Admiral Jean Luc-Picard enlists Seven's help to unravel the mystery and save the Stargazer crew!

previewsworld.com

The alternate cover:

STAR TREK PICARD STARGAZER #1 CVR B LEVENS (JUN221659)

Embark on a never-before-seen journey set between seasons two and three of the Paramount+ hit series Star Trek: Picard! When the U.S.S. Stargazer goes missing near a planet from his past, Admiral Jean Luc-Picard enlists Seven's help to unravel the mystery and save the Stargazer crew!

previewsworld.com

 

[Richard Kaufman]

My first comment here. Season two much better than season one. But my god Michelle Hurd is an irritating actor, and her character is terribly written: always doing the worst possible thing at every possible moment. Disappointed to see she will be back for season three.

 

[Sam Favate]

Coming to blu-ray/blu-ray steelbook on Oct. 4.

STAR TREK: PICARD Beams Down on Blu-ray and DVD on October 4

STAR TREK: PICARD Season 2 beams down on Blu-ray, DVD, and in Steelbook packaging for collectors to bring home this October

blog.trekcore.com

 

[Josh Dial]

Interesting that Picard is getting a steelbook, but Lower Desk season 2 is not (despite season 1 having a steelbook release).

That's a nice looking steelbook either way. I'll be picking it up (even though I did not like season 2--I need to keep supporting physical media, and I'm a sucker for a good steelbook!).

 

[joshEH]

^ I’m just incredibly grateful that Paramount is continuing to support physical media-releases for its premium streaming content at all (unlike Disney), to say nothing of HD physical releases, in a day and age when DVD-only seems to be becoming increasingly the norm.

Will definitely be picking that up. Hopefully we’ll be getting a release-date for Lower Decks season two on BD pretty soon, here (especially with season three about to drop).

 

[Sam Favate]

Will definitely be picking that up. Hopefully we’ll be getting a release-date for Lower Decks season two on BD pretty soon, here (especially with season three about to drop).

We have that! It’s July 12.

 

[Philip Verdieck]

That is sort of Q in a nutshell - doing a rather grandiose thing to make a point

What was so moving for me was how that spoke to both Q’s situation and Picard’s. Q, realizing he’s about to die and with limited energy remaining, decides to spend his last bit of time with Picard, and ultimately is doing everything he did as a gift. Q forced Picard to confront his past, which allowed Picard to see his father and his mother’s death through adult eyes, and with that perspective, finally understand on a deep inner level that what happened wasn’t his fault.

It’s one of Q’s kindest gestures, realizing that he’s going to die alone and using the time he has left to try to ensure the one mortal he actually cares about doesn’t meet the same end. But also still a very Q gesture, in that he gets to die on his own terms.

And there was something very touching with Picard embracing him at the end, giving Q the one thing that Q never imagined possible - not dying alone (in a spiritual sense).

A lot of the themes in this season played very well for me because they’re all places I live, so to speak. I thought it was a beautiful journey. DeLancie did some of his very best work here.

Agreed. A fantastic scene and a really good gotcha, given what it appeared Q's goals were in all the previous episodes.

I have rewatched the end of that episode at least 6 times.

 

[Philip Verdieck]

I’m surprised that I’m as okay with it as I am, but I feel okay about it. She had a really special role to play in that first season, and her appearance this year was great because it carries along that tradition where Spiner had played all the make Soongs - so why not have Data’s female offspring play any female Soongs? It might be too inside baseball there but I dug it. But in a way, for me it sort of honors the character’s journey by having her time on the show end. All of the cast members exiting seem to be going at the right time; it doesn’t feel clumsy like other departures in other shows that were based on contractual or personal issues and the writers got stuck handling a departure they didn’t want. I think sometimes having the same cast members continue to appear after their primary story wraps up can make the universe seem too small.

On a maybe not unrelated note, the show has done a great job with its legacy characters and really giving them moments of real weight - Riker and Troi in season one being the obvious example, but also Data and Seven and Hugh and Q. If everyone from TNG is coming back in some capacity for the final go around, perhaps having fewer new returning characters means that there’s now space for each of those legacy characters to get that kind of part to play. Five years ago most of these guys were pretty adamant that they were done with this, so I gotta believe if they’re coming back that they’re really good parts.

From what I have been reading recently, a lot of the the TNG cast thought their send off in Nemesis was garbage. I think that was from Sirtis.

So a few of them see Picard S3 as an opportunity.

I am fine with no more Allison Pill. Halfway through S2 I was thinking "OK, as a scriptwriter how can we have Allison Pill get fooled once again into to doing evil things against the interests of the crew?". I was figuring we would see that in S3, again, up until she became The Borg Queen.

 

[Sam Favate]

This is from Robert Meyer Burnett, one of the strongest critics of all the new Trek shows…



In other tweets, he swears he’s not joking.

 

[dana martin]

Well after season 2 , you know what, i am sad that they never went the distance to give us Q in one of the features . Thinking between First Contact and Insurrection would have been perfect.

 

[Sam Favate]

Teaser and character posters:

Watch: ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Teaser Reveals First Look At TNG Characters In Season 3

Fresh from the Star Trek Universe panel at San Diego Comic-Con.

trekmovie.com

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Goosebumps. Welcome home, everyone.

 

[Sam Favate]

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Did they change the uniforms yet again? It looks like leather in those shots.

Based on the pips, La Forge is a commodore, while Riker and Worf are captains. It's hard to say for sure but it looks like Seven is a Lt. JG. It doesn't look like any other characters are in uniform.