Perhaps unsurprisingly, this year’s Star Trek Day event brought with it a number of surprising reveals, ranging from premiere dates to casting announcements, and of course, trailers for several upcoming series. But in some respects, the biggest surprise of all was the one we all saw coming: a trailer for the second season of Star Trek: Picard.
Now, of course, the release of the trailer was not in and of itself surprising, especially coming as it did on the heels of all the other trailers released in the course of the evening. No, what was surprising was the content of the trailer and what it reveals about the series’ sophomore season. Indeed, while the first season was steeped in Romulan treachery and android intrigue, the second looks to be radically different.
We learned earlier this year that the new season would see Q return to bedevil Picard once again, and the trailer wastes no time in revealing exactly what his role will be. As part of his ongoing “trial of humanity,” he alters history so that the Federation is replaced with a “totalitarian nightmare” in what appears to be Star Trek‘s first season-spanning Q story. Naturally, the La Sirena crew seem largely unaffected and take it upon themselves to restore the timeline. To do this, they make their way to twenty-first century Earth where… well, you can see for yourself in the full trailer:
As much as the second season seems to be setting itself apart from the first, it’s also very clearly running with ideas that were established as far back as the series premiere. After all, if there’s one theme that the first season came back to time and again, it was that of the Federation having feet of clay (particularly in its responses to the Romulan supernova and the Synth attack on Mars). The fascist regime presented by Q naturally offers a worst-of-all-worlds counterpoint to even the flawed Federation of the prior season, and the season’s twenty-first century setting will provide a (potentially very topical) contrast to both possible futures.
There was more than just the trailer. The show’s Star Trek Day presentation also included a premiere window, confirming that the second season of Star Trek: Picard will debut in February 2022. But perhaps most exciting of all was the news that Picard has been renewed for a third season. Though there was no word on when that season might air, the show’s history suggests early 2023 as the earliest reasonable guess.
In any case, be sure to check back with Geek Anything for the latest on both upcoming seasons of Star Trek: Picard as it becomes available!