Ten Predictions for Picard Season 2
Multiple trailers have been released by Paramount to showcase the second season of Star Trek: Picard. They have hinted that it will be action-packed, and yet still showcase a personal journey for Picard and his crew, as well as portraying a visit to a totalitarian universe.
Naturally, the instinct is to forecast what might occur during the second season. It’s only fitting that I present my personal predictions for what will happen. Please note that these theories are not necessarily what will happen in the season, just what I think could happen.
1. A brutal empire
The trailers have made note of an altered timeline where the Federation has become ruthless, but how hostile it will be is questionable. It looks like the universe has elaborated on a line that Deep Space Nine‘s Lieutenant Commander Michael Eddington said about the Federation, in the episode “For the Cause” – “You know, in some ways you’re even worse than the Borg.”
None of the trailers have named the alternate Federation, but I predict it will be a version of the Terran Empire, named the “United Empire of Planets”. Based on the trailers, this United Empire of Planets probably has this universe’s Picard as the head of state and is apparently intolerant of aliens.
2. The Bell Riots
As mentioned in a recent trailer, the La Sirena crew will travel back in time to the year 2024. 2024 has been explored once before, in the extremely popular Deep Space Nine two-parter “Past Tense”. It is the year of the Bell Riots, a civil rights movement in San Francisco’s Sanctuary District A.
We don’t know exactly when in 2024 La Sirena‘s crew will be in. However, a mention of Benjamin Sisko and him impersonating Gabriel Bell to preserve the timeline would be nice.
3. An appearance of a USS Enterprise
This is something that was, in my opinion, very disappointing about how the first season of Picard ended – specifically when the Federation fleet appeared above Coppelius, ready to confront the Romulan forces. I think an appearance by the Enterprise-E should have occurred.
It would have been the first appearance of a Sovereign-class starship in a Star Trek television series. There was an unwritten mandate by former Star Trek producer Rick Berman that the ship was to appear only in the films and could be only referenced in the TV shows.
Would it be the Enterprise-E that appears in Picard? I hope so – that version of the Enterprise is my favorite!
4. The Borg featuring minimally
The role of the Borg could be more subdued compared to Season 1. The second season will feature the addition of the Borg Queen, to be played by Annie Wersching, though it’s unclear how the Borg will play a part in the overall season.
A short scene released on Star Trek Day as well as in another of the trailers showed what seemed to me like the slingshot effect, with the Borg Queen helping the crew travel back in time. Other than helping send La Sirena back and forth through time (with the help of the classic slingshot around a star), it is unclear what role the Borg will play.
5. More humor
Humor is a perfect opportunity to diffuse tension in a drama-heavy storyline. The second season of Picard looks like it will hold up its end of the bargain in the drama department.
The first season was overall serious, with little opportunity to diffuse tension with humor. There were hilarious moments, though.
I think seeing more humor in the second season – especially with the fish-out-of-water situation La Sirena‘s crew will encounter – will do the season good.
6. Romance between Raffi and Seven
The relationship between Raffi and Seven must be developed further and not discarded. We saw the inklings of this relationship develop in the final few moments of the Picard Season 1 finale.
It would be a shame if this relationship does not develop further. I’d love to see it blossom into a meaningful relationship full of love, romance and good nature.
7. Picard no longer an android
The arrival of Q in the new season begs the question: Will Picard be human again?
My answer? For Q to teach Picard a lesson in humanity (as he did in their past several encounters during The Next Generation), Picard should be human again by the end of the season.
8. Elnor: The First Fully Romulan Starfleet Officer
In the lead-up to Season 2, the aftershow series The Ready Room showed Elnor to be a cadet at Starfleet Academy. Although it’s unclear if this takes place in another reality from the Prime timeline and whether Elnor will remain in Starfleet, I think it will indeed be in the Prime timeline and that he will eventually graduate as a Starfleet officer. If so, he will join such legendary characters as Worf and Nog – individuals who overcame much adversity to become excellent Starfleet officers themselves.
Elnor will become the first full-blooded Romulan in Starfleet. In the first season, Commodore Oh and Lieutenant Rizzo infiltrated Starfleet as Tal Shiar spies. Both Oh and, in TNG: “The Drumhead”, Simon Tarses were established canonically as being partly Romulan Starfleet officers. Behind the scenes, there were ultimately abandoned plans to make Lieutenant Saavik and Commander T’Pol half-Romulan, in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and a fifth season of Star Trek: Enterprise respectively.
9. The USS Stargazer Will Still Be the Same Ship
The Stargazer will be a refit version of the Constellation-class ship seen in The Next Generation‘s first season episode “The Battle”. In that episode, we saw the Stargazer for the first time. The ship was the previous command of Jean-Luc Picard, prior to him captaining the Enterprise-D, and was abandoned at the climax of its battle with the Ferengi at the Battle of Maxia. In the thirty-five-plus years since the events of “The Battle”, Starfleet has cannibalized the ship and updated its technology to fit the aesthetics of the late 24th century more accurately.
10. Memory Overload
In one of the trailers, a sequence that appears to be a flashback shows a young boy opening a door. This will turn out to be one of several memories that Picard is experiencing due to the memory transfer that the android “golem” version of him underwent at the end of Season 1. In the Ready Room primer that aired along with that first season finale, Sir Patrick Stewart mentioned there will be memories that Picard can’t control. This condition will be the result of ninety-four years of memories having been simultaneously uploaded during the resurrection of Picard at the end of the Season 1 finale.
Conclusion
These are simply my predictions for the upcoming season of Picard. I do want to reiterate that this is merely my wish-list of predictions; it doesn’t reflect what really will occur in the upcoming season.
The second season of Star Trek: Picard is due to begin on March 3 in the United States and Canada, and on March 4 internationally.
Wes Huntington has been a Star Trek fan since he was born, thanks to his parents (both of whom are still very much alive and are big Trek fans themselves). He lives in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area, with his wife and cat. He is also a co-host of the Twin Cities Trekkies podcast, which launched in February 2021 and talks about all things Star Trek. You can find Twin Cities Trekkies via Facebook, Instagram, or anchor.fm/twincitiestrekkies.