Season Two of Star Trek: Picard, while not quite hitting the level of perfection that the initial season reached, is still a worthwhile emotional journey into the heart of Jean-Luc Picard.
The Production: 4/5
The second season of Star Trek: Picard is a very different ride than that of the first season, but no less worthwhile. Whereas the first season, under the supervision of showrunner and novelist Michael Chabon, was more literary than a typical television season (and certainly more so than any previous Trek iteration), season two under the guidance of new showrunner Terry Matalas ups the action while still retaining a soulful approach to the portrayal of the characters. While nothing in the second season outright contradicts where the first season left off, it was not necessarily the follow-up that some fans expected, creating a clash of expectations that left some viewers feeling let down.
I was not one of those viewers.
This time around, as the season begins, Picard has resumed his duties as a Starfleet Admiral, balancing a position at the Academy with harvest season at Chateau Picard. In the time between seasons, Picard’s Romulan housekeeper Laris (a superb Orla Brady) has been widowed and developed feelings for Picard, who seems interested but uncertain as to how to reciprocate. A drink shared with old friend Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg, a welcome sight) presents Picard with a challenge to explore rather than avoid his feelings. But an emergency situation in deep space requires Picard’s immediate intervention, where he is reunited with most of his motley crew from the previous season – including Rios (Santiago Cabrera), Raffi (Michelle Hurd), Seven (Jeri Ryan), Elnor (Evan Evagora) and Jurati (Alison Pill, stealing the show in the best way possible). An invasion by the presumed-extinct Borg leaves Picard with little choice but to order a self-destruct to prevent the fleet from falling into their hands, but at the moment of the explosion, Picard finds himself waking up in a very unfamiliar version of his home. There he is greeted by an older and more agitated Q (John de Lancie, as good as ever) taunting him with a viciousness not normally present in their exchanges.
And that’s just the first episode!
Assessing his new surroundings, Picard surmises that Q has somehow changed the flow of history, requiring Picard to team up with a distressed Borg Queen (Annie Wersching, working wonders under a heap of prosthetics) to time travel back to Los Angeles of 2024 to set things right. Along the way, he’ll encounter a disillusioned younger version of Guinan (Ito Aghayere, a wonder), as well as a geneticist and his daughter (Brent Spiner and Isa Briones, carrying on the fun tradition of the android actors playing Soong antecedents). On a more personal level, following Picard’s difficulty opening up to Laris, he’ll face long suppressed memories of his troubled mother and domineering father, which may hold the key to whatever lesson Q is trying to impart.
Whereas the first season kept the emotional throughline on the same level as the plotting, season two diverges from this approach at times, throwing in more twists and turns than its predecessor, which sometimes but not always align with Picard’s inner struggles. While there’s nothing objectively wrong with this approach, it does result in a season which at times is tonally very different from the earlier one. While the plot elements do cover a lot of familiar Trek ground (we’ve seen alternate universes and time travel before, and the season doesn’t shy away from acknowledging this truth), there is an emotional honesty to the approach that is wholly consistent with the first season. The most satisfying moments in the season come not from seeing how Picard and his crew approach their dilemmas, but rather, how they face their own demons and seek to transcend them. There are moments of brutal honesty and frank examinations of the effects of mental illness and trauma over generations that are as compelling and rewarding as anything Trek has ever done. While the specific plot machinations might fade from memory, the emotional ground traveled does not.
There are moments in the season’s story arc that don’t add up to as much as one might hope. There is a subplot midway through the season involving a guest appearance by Jay Karnes which seems (given the time-travel storyline) to be a callback to a notable Voyager episode, that turns out to be a red herring. Karnes is playing a new character here, but the resolution of that particular plot point is touching enough to make one forgive the show for (unintentionally?) teasing a connection that’s not actually present. While I am always delighted to see Brent Spiner appear in any capacity within the Star Trek universe, those who find the Soong family to be an acquired taste may tire of his role sooner than they are meant to. I did come away on this rewatch feeling that while there were ten episodes’ worth of character development, that perhaps there were only eight episodes’ worth of plot. Consolidating episodes five and six, as well as episodes nine and ten, into two rather than four segments might have strengthened the entirety of the season. But on the other hand, spending a little bit of extra time with Jean-Luc Picard is never a bad thing in my book.
If there’s one word that I would choose to sum up the journey of season two, it would be “healing.” Some of the mental health issues that run through the Picard family bloodline are also present in my own, making this one of the most relatable journeys a Trek show has ever taken me on. It was a bold move to let us see these familiar characters struggle with their imperfections, and one that makes the characters all the more accessible. Patrick Stewart has never been better as Picard than he is here, inviting us to participate on his road to finding inner peace. Similarly, John de Lancie brings a vulnerability to his role of Q that is both wholly earned and incredibly satisfying. The most insidious thing about mental illness is the way it convinces you that a single moment in time is all moments in time; that what you are feeling in your worst moment is how you will always feel, and that you deserve to feel that and only that. The character of Picard has been a part of my life since I was about the age that we see young Jean-Luc at during this season’s flashbacks. I cannot overstate the power of seeing Picard not only face those demons himself, but also in seeing how he gently and lovingly extends love and acceptance to those around him who have been touched by similar afflictions. I wish, as a child, someone would have spoken to me the way Picard speaks here, offering that kind of comfort. Now, many years later, seeing the adult Picard absolve himself for situations and choices which were completely outside of his control as a child has given me the same grace to begin doing that for myself. It is my genuine wish that others in need of similar comfort can come away as touched as I did. At the end of the day, isn’t that what we want from our art, for it to show us how to better understand and accept ourselves, to make us feel less alone in the world? It is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in Star Trek, and emblematic of why this vision of the future has sustained itself – and those who follow it – for more than half a century.
Healing, indeed. I cannot wait to see how this show proceeds from here in its upcoming final season.
Video: 4.5/5
3D Rating: NA
Star Trek: Picard – Season Two is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.40:1. The versions of the episodes seen on these discs are wholly consistent with the look and feel of the HD stream offered to Paramount+ subscribers earlier this year. Compared to the original stream, the disc versions offer greater bandwidth per episode, and seem to breathe a little bit better. There are subtle improvements in fine detail and overall compression, but nothing earth-shatteringly different. I am lucky to have high quality streaming capabilities, but those with less-than-stellar streaming experiences will almost certainly see an even greater improvement. (One downside to the high quality presentation: in one key scene in the season finale, it’s very apparent that Orla Brady’s pointed ears were added in as a less-than-stellar CGI element rather than makeup, but this is clearly a shortcoming of the production itself and not the disc.) If Picard doesn’t offer quite the visual splendor of Discovery or Strange New Worlds, it still has a convincing aesthetic of its own.
I am also pleased to note that the disc retains all of the burnt-in translation subtitles used throughout the season in their original font and placement, rather than redoing them as generic player-generated subtitles (as the disc releases for the first two seasons of Discovery did) – it would seem as though Paramount and CBS have heard the complaints about those earlier releases and made a change for the better going forward.
Audio: 5/5
Similar to the video presentation, the 5.1 English language surround track appears to be the same mix as heard in the original streaming presentation. Presented via the lossless DTS-HD MA codec, the track appears to have a little more life here, with Jeff Russo’s musical score benefiting most from the improved fidelity. Dialogue is generally confined to the center channel, and is always clear and intelligible, with most of the soundstage being oriented towards the front speakers. Music and effects do make use of the surround channels at appropriate moments.
Special Features: 4/5
The special features are spread out among the set’s three discs. Deleted scenes can be found within the selection page for each individual episode (and are available for episodes 3, 5, 7 and 10), while the featurettes are listed under the special features tab on discs one and three. With over 90 minutes worth of behind-the-scenes footage, significantly expanding upon the brief packages shown on the Paramount+ service, there is a surprisingly in-depth amount of material to be found here.
What’s missing? Unlike the first season release, there is not a single commentary to be found here. Additionally, the features tend to focus on the physical production of the series as well as connections to earlier iterations of Trek. Unfortunately, almost no time at all is spent covering the directing of the season, a missed opportunity considering the involvement of familiar (and camera-friendly) directors like Jonathan Frakes and Lea Thompson. Similarly, there is almost no mention of the season’s writers, a disappointing omission; I, for one, would have enjoyed a discussion behind the choices made this time around.
But don’t let what’s not here take away from what is. This is an above-average set of special features for a TV-on-disc release in 2022.
Also worth noting and praising: every single bonus feature includes optional English SDH subtitles.
Disc one contains the following bonus features:
Deleted/Extended Scenes from Episode 2×03 “Assimilation” (02:41) – Three scene extensions which further character development for Raffi, Elnor, Teresa, and Seven; at least one of these moments, if not all, should probably have been kept in the episode.
The USS Stargazer (18:29) – This featurette explores the design of Rios’ new ship as seen in the season’s premiere episode. It includes candid excerpts from design conference calls held among the production staff via Zoom, a fascinating real-time look at how these things come together. These are rounded out by more traditional interviews explaining the evolution of familiar Trek ships and design elements, along with footage of the cast shooting on the set.
The Chateau (15:24) – A look into how the season two crew created Picard’s chateau, taking inspiration both from its appearance on The Next Generation as well as the previous season of this show. Whereas the first season of Picard shot at a location requiring hours of travel, for this season the decision was made to film mostly at the studio. Further set footage and interviews detail the genesis of the souvenirs and skulls found in Picard’s office.
Disc two contains the following bonus features:
Deleted Scenes from Episode 2×05 “Fly Me To The Moon” (03:18) – Three deleted scenes including a moment with Q and a waitress that would have added to the episode, and two short additions to the gala sequence that offer a little more detail of how Picard and company sneak in. Given that the episode these scenes were culled from was so short, their addition might have been worthwhile.
Deleted Scenes from Episode 2×07 “Monsters” (01:18) – Two brief trims are presented, which seem to have been cut to prolong certain revelations within the episode.
Disc three contains the following bonus features:
Deleted/Extended Scenes from Episode 2×10 “Farewell” (02:11) – One deleted scene which presents our heroes feeling more pessimistic in the first act than seen in the final cut, and one scene extension that foreshadows the obvious more obviously.
The Trial Is Over (12:04) – This featurette focuses on Q’s role, both in TNG and season 2 of Picard, with some nice new interviews featuring Stewart and de Lancie, with producers Alex Kurtzman and Akiva Goldsman filling in some background on the plotting. Footage from de Lancie’s last day on set for the season is genuinely moving.
Rebuilding The Borg Queen (11:11) – Actress Annie Wersching, designer Neville Page and makeup artist Vincent Van Dyke explore the latest iteration of the Borg Queen, explaining how they wanted to build on the work previously done without simply repeating it.
Picard Props (12:06) – Propmaster Jeffrey Lombardi gives an overview of his work on the season. While it was easy to spot what was made for the 25th century sequences, it turns out a lot more of the year 2024 elements had to be designed than one might expect
Picard Passages (24:59) – Patrick Stewart details his excitement for exploring Picard’s childhood, while the rest of the cast details the motivation behind their own characters’ roles in the season. The real life respect and joy the cast share in each other’s company is evident, and that translates well to their scenes together.
Gag Reel (03:55) – The best part of this gag reel is seeing how the cast enjoy each others’ company, with the camaraderie of Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd being the chief highlight, just as it was in the season proper. Look out also for one great Brent Spiner quip, and a heartfelt moment shared between Patrick Stewart and John de Lancie.
Overall: 4.5/5
While not as flawless as its prior season, the second go-around of Star Trek: Picard offers a genuinely moving emotional connection along with a plethora of fan favorite characters and callbacks. The disc release offers a fine technical presentation of the ten episode run, along with a solid ensemble of bonus features. This is an easy set to recommend, particularly to those who enjoyed these episodes during their initial run.
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