This review contains spoilers

Star Trek Picard season 2 marks the successful return of Jean-Luc Picard played by the legendary Sir Patrick Stewart. Now on Paramount Plus in the States and debuting today March 4th on Prime Video in the UK and internationally. In season one we saw a new side to the character after being absent on screen for over 20 plus years. It featured Picard now retired from Starfleet following the destruction of the planet Romulus and living on his family’s vineyard comfortably with his loving dog named Number 1 and his staff assistants. Picard is drawn into a new adventure and season two promises for more to come. Picard has a new crew, each a lost cause. They have a ship and a whole galaxy to explore the second season boldly goes where no man has gone before. 

Star Trek: Picard returns to our screens with an explosive episode titled “The Star Gazer” which debuts with familiar friends, old enemies, and the road not taken. 

Synopsis

Starfleet must once again call on legendary Jean-Luc Picard after members of his former crew – Cristóbal Rios, Seven of Nine, Raffi Musiker, and Dr Agnes Jurati – discover an anomaly in space that threatens the galaxy.

Review

The long-awaited return of the Star Trek spinoff series has officially landed and along for the ride are quite a few friends, both old and new. Some of those friends, in fact, go way back to the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. As Picard launches its sophomore voyage, the first episode slightly appears to be a reset of the series, considering the time jump, everything has evolved around them even the characters to some degree. There are ties and progressions to the first season but this season looks to have gone in an entirely new direction, and because I was lucky enough to have watched the first three episodes thanks to Prime Video UK, the new direction the show has taken is a very good one indeed. 

“The Star Gazer” was truly an excellent opener, offering us rich and rewarding character moments with an action-packed entrance as an intruder alert causes chaos on a Starfleet ship suffering an overloading amount of system failures. As a security team struggle to access the bridge we find a distressed Rios (Santiago Cabrera) now a captain, and Dr Jurati (Alison Pill) onboard the newly refurbished USS STARGAZER. The ship and crew encounter a rift in space and time that is sending out two signals, one a request to join the federation, and two a call for help which Jean-Luc Picard can only answer. 

Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) who also answers to this odd abnormal rift in space, now commands Rios’ ship the La Sirena. We find her fending off a gang of thieves who are looking to steal her medical supplies, luckily she gets a hand from Rios’ virtual assistant. All board the USS STARGAZER disaster strikes as an unidentifiable masked lady with robotic limbs starts taking over the ship and pauses to address Picard directly before he orders and initiates self-destruct. 

We then flashback to two days earlier where it’s a sunny day at Chateau Picard and the grapes are perfectly ripe for picking but in the future, they beam up straight from the vines. And as Picard contemplates over the change of seasons with Laris (Orla Brady), the two pour one out to toast successful growing and to their lost comrade Zhaban. She asks him why he’s chosen to be alone for all these years, and whilst she leans in for a kiss. Jean-Luc pulls himself away. As Laris wonders what from Picard’s past made him want to turn her down. 

“The Star Gazer” showed that it’s about the choices Picard made in his life that led him to become a Starfleet captain, and Laris, hopeful, pushes him to realise that it’s not too late for him. The flashbacks are done incredibly well as we learn the real reason why Picard sought the stars, it is also the most grounding and relatable subject in that Picard’s parents’ marriage was not perfect. His mother taught him to look towards the stars as a distraction from all the fighting. 

Picard is still mulling over Laris and the relationships he’s pushed back. All this over a bottle of Saurian Brandy, however, he reminisces with a very familiar listener. Picard keeps himself separated from those under his command, so that leaves very few people in his life with who he can be totally open. This marks the long-awaited return of Guinan, the former bartender and confidant to Picard, who he goes to for some much-needed advice on relationships. Whoopi Goldberg’s return to me felt like she is effectively driving the overall plot in season 2, she is able to call him out and pry’s some uncomfortable truths out of Picard. Her return for me was full of warmth and pure nostalgia and I do hope she’ll have a bigger purpose this season. 

Though Winemaking is Picard’s part-time occupation, he has now returned as an Admiral and heads up Starfleet Academy, where he gives his impactful speech, sharing his sentiment wisdom with the young cadets, he speaks of second chances and that “the true final frontier is time”. He also brings up his mother’s words to “look-up”. Raffi (Michelle Hurd) is there as a teacher and Elnor (Evan Evagora) as a cadet, the first Romulan one. Both are heading off on an assignment. seven is keeping her distance from a frustrated Raffi as, during the time jump, their relationship got complicated, crippled by their competing needs and commitments. Michelle Hurd and Jeri Ryan are bringing such common ground to their characters and are such strong-minded with how they’re able to truthfully react, and dive into a relationship. 

Now with Picard being reinstated and briefed on the strange request from the rift in space, Picard takes the first shuttle over to the USS STARGAZER and reunites with his crew. Onboard he is treated with the utmost respect whilst Seven feels an uncomfortable welcoming as this new reincarnation of a ship was apparently built using technology from the Borg cube in season one. In response to Picard’s hail, we see the space rift crackle as a gigantic triangular diamond-shaped ship appears which unfortunately is operated and occupied by Borgs who want to begin negotiations by transporting what we believe to be the Queen onto Stargazer’s bridge. All hell breaks loose as the masked emissary takes control and assimilates not just the USS STARGAZER but also the entire fleet. We then catch up to what we saw at the beginning of the episode where Picard orders a self-destruct before hearing the Queen telling him to “look up”. 

Despite the Stargazer exploding, Picard finds himself alone back at his Chateau. Dressed in an unfamiliar looking black uniform and the chateau itself has taken on a spartan/warrior appearance. Laris is nowhere to be seen and in her place is a synth named Harvey. He wonders aloud what’s happening, and this is where I kid you not, chills ran down my spine as a familiar voice replies “An excellent question, Jean-Luc”. Of course, it’s Q (John de Lancie), who politely snaps up to Picard’s age. Picard’s longtime foil is perfect for a season that is clearly about time, as the extra-dimensional fan-favourite being is back to mess with Picard. John de Lancie’s return is everything I hoped for.

He tells Picard that humanity’s trial still has not ended and the circumstances Picard has found himself in is truly the very end of the road not taken. 

Verdict

Star Trek: Picard season 2 marks the successful return of Jean-Luc Picard
in his most personal & intimate series to date. It’s a time-twisting, mind-
bending adventure that reflects on personal matters as characters are thrown into turmoil. What awaits them is a mischievous game, a trial that has begun, & a clock that is
ticking.

Episode one comes from writers Akiva Goldsman and Terry Matalas and director Doug Aarniokoski