Picard Season 2’s Time Travel Will Fix Season 1’s Biggest Mistakes
Star Trek: Picard season 1’s time travel could address and fix some of the mistakes in season 1. Patrick Stewart returns as Jean-Luc Picard but in season 2, Q (John de Lancie), one of Picard’s oldest adversaries, returns to instigate a new time travel adventure. This will involve not just the Starfleet legend but his new motley crew, including Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd), and Soji Asha (Isa Briones).
The two themes of Star Trek: Picard season 2’s time travel are “time is the true final frontier” and “the road not taken”, both of which indicate that the series will address the greatest regrets of Jean-Luc and his friends. This could also serve as Star Trek: Picard season 2’s meta-commentary on some of the missteps of season 1. While the first season of Star Trek: Picard was a success, showrunner Michael Chabon admitted that the ending wasn’t worked out until late, which made the season’s conclusion feel limp. Star Trek: Picard season 1’s backstory involving the supernova that destroyed the Romulan homeworld, an attack on Mars that led to a ban on androids by the United Federation of Planets, and a sect of Romulans plotting to stop an invasion of synthetics from beyond the galaxy was meticulously conceived yet the various pieces didn’t come together in a wholly satisfying way. However, by emphasizing Picard and his crew time traveling to fix their own mistakes, it also allows Star Trek: Picard to look at season 1’s stumbles and offer course corrections, even if they’re part of a timeline (or timelines) that aren’t meant to last. This isn’t to say that Star Trek: Picard season 2 will be all about fixing season 1.
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The second season will be a new story that will also reportedly involve the characters visiting Los Angeles in the 21st century. Yet it appears from Star Trek: Picard‘s trailer that Q is showing them alternate realities based on their past decisions and regrets, which then threatens Star Trek’s timeline going forward. Further, each character making a different critical decision would also have a backward ripple effect that would alter the history established by Star Trek: Picard season 1 as well. Inevitably, Trekkers can expect Jean-Luc and his team will set the timeline Q has tampered with back on its proper course, although they may be sorely tempted by the new realities they find themselves in, and repairing time may end up costing them dearly. Fascinatingly, it also seems like Picard and his friends will remember their “true” lives even after they’re deposited in their new alternate realities. But based on what fans glimpsed in Star Trek: Picard season 2’s trailer, the events of our heroes’ time travel will force them (and us) to look at some of the events of season 1 in a new way.
How Picard Back In Starfleet Changes Season 1
In Star Trek: Picard season 1, Jean-Luc’s biggest regret was quitting Starfleet in 2385 because the United Federation of Planets reneged on its pledge to help the Romulan people escape their sun going supernova. Picard is obviously back in Starfleet in season 2, but if he never quit, then it would drastically alter the next 14 years of events leading up to Star Trek: Picard season 1. Admiral Picard is clearly in a position of power within Starfleet and he would have made the Romulan rescue mission a success, which would fix his other great regret. Picard would probably have an even closer relationship with the Romulans and perhaps he would have taken Elnor (Evan Evagora) under his wing sooner. But it also explains why his Romulan helpers Laris (Orla Brady) and Zhaban (Jamie McShane) aren’t in Picard’s vineyard since the circumstances of how he met the two former Tal Shiar agents would have changed,
If Picard never left Starfleet, he may have even risen to the rank of Commander-in-Chief to oversee the entire fleet. And this would have meant that Raffi Musiker wouldn’t have been fired from Starfleet, which would likely mean she wouldn’t have resorted to substance abuse and become estranged from her family. It’s even possible that Admiral Picard and Lt. Commander Musiker could have rooted out Commodore Oh (Tamlyn Tomita), the Head of Starfleet Security, as a Romulan and leader of the Zhat Vash. If Picard is able to stop the Mars attack from happening, then synthetics would never have been banned, which would have improved the Daystrom Institute career of Dr. Agnes Jurati (Allison Pill) and it would also mean that Dr. Bruce Maddox (John Ales) could have built his race of synthetics on Earth, including Soji and Dahj, and the twin daughters of the late Commander Data (Brent Spiner) would be allowed to live freely.
Another issue fans have with Star Trek: Picard season 1 is how Jean-Luc died and was reborn in an android body. If the ending of season 1 didn’t happen, it’s possible Picard’s terminal Irumodic syndrome will eventually claim his life or a cure is found. Either way, there would be no android Picard. Meanwhile, if the synthetics ban never happened, it means that a cure could have been found for Captain Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) and Will Riker’s (Jonathan Frakes) son Thaddeus’s mendaxic neurosclerosis and he would still be alive.
Seven of Nine Is Totally Changed
In Star Trek: Picard season 2’s trailer, Seven of Nine awakens and discovers, to her shock, that she is no longer a Borg, which fixes her greatest regret. But if Annika Hansen was never assimilated by the Collective, it means history was altered decades before Star Trek: Picard season 1, and this includes changing Star Trek: Voyager‘s past since they obviously could never have reclaimed Seven as a Borg Drone in the Delta Quadrant. Considering how vital Seven was to Captain Janeway’s (Kate Mulgrew) crew, it’s even possible the USS Voyager either returned to Earth much later than 2378 or the starship never returned at all.
Seven is also wearing a wedding ring, which begs the question of who her spouse is. If Seven was never on Voyager then she never met Chakotay (Robert Beltran), who she was married to in the alternate future seen in Star Trek: Voyager‘s series finale. It’s possible that Seven is actually married to Raffi, who she could have met at some point in the past if they are both members of Starfleet, instead of aboard La Sirena in Star Trek: Picard season 1. Raffi and Seven began to get romantic at the end of last season and their love story is set to continue in season 2. However, if Seven (or Annika) is married to someone else, this would create a new roadblock since Seven and Raffi remember how things ought to be.
Dahj Could Live And Become More Important Than Soji
Soji Asha would be a huge beneficiary of Star Trek: Picard season 2 altering the past, since it could very well mean that her twin sister Dahj would still be alive and the tragedies Data’s daughter endured wouldn’t have happened. Dahj was murdered by the Zhat Vash in Star Trek: Picard season 1’s premiere, which launched Jean-Luc on his new mission. If Soji and Dahj were built and lived on Earth all along because the ban on synthetics didn’t happen, Dahj wouldn’t have been assassinated by the evil Romulans.
Meanwhile, Soji has two huge regrets: separating from her sister, who was killed, and getting romantically involved with Narek (Harry Treadaway), the Romulan spy who tortured and tried to murder her. The Borg Reclamation Project would still exist since it was unconnected to the supernova, and it’s possible Soji could have still transferred there to help reclaim the Borg Drones. But if synthetics aren’t being hunted by the Zhat Vash, it’s likely Soji wouldn’t have met and gotten involved with Narek. And if Dahj is alive, she may become the more important of the twins to Picard if Soji is at the Borg Cube. It’s even possible the glimpse of Soji in Star Trek: Picard season 2’s trailer is actually Dahj. It’s also possible that fortunes are reversed and Soji dies instead of Dahj if the twins aren’t meant to be together in tragic twist of cosmic fate.
Other Ways Picard Season 2 Time Travel Fixes Season 1 Problems
Dr. Agnes Jurati murdered Dr. Bruce Maddox because she was compelled by Commodore Oh in Star Trek: Picard season 1 so that would be the cyberneticist’s greatest regret that a new timeline would fix. It’s likely Agnes would be forced to answer for her crime in Star Trek: Picard season 2 before Q drops her into a new reality. Maddox was Agnes’ lover but if he’s still alive and they flourished together creating perfect, human-like androids at the Daystrom Institute in Japan, she also wouldn’t have met her current love interest, Cristobal Rios (Santiago Cabrera).
Meanwhile, Rios’ life fell apart when he quit Starfleet after he watched his Captain murder synthetics (identical to Soji and Dahj) who were ambassadors from the planet Coppelius. In Star Trek: Picard season 2’s trailer, Chris appears stunned to find himself on his starship, La Sirena, but wearing a Starfleet delta badge, which means he never left the service. What this means for Rios isn’t clear, but Picard assessed him as “Starfleet through and through” even though he claimed to have rejected everything about Starfleet to chart his course aboard his own ship. Jean-Luc will no doubt need Captain Rios and La Sirena once again in Star Trek: Picard season 2, and it remains to be seen what repercussions each character fixing the mistakes of season 1 will have when it comes to saving the timeline and Star Trek’s future.
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