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‘Picard’ Season 2 Makes a Highly Logical Return to Its Star Trek Roots

By Alan Sepinwall

Alan Sepinwall

“Time offers many opportunities,” Jean-Luc Picard intones in the season premiere of Star Trek: Picard , “but it rarely offers second chances.”

This new season presents something of a second chance for both Jean-Luc and the Paramount+ show that bears his name. The first season started off with the exciting notion of Sir Patrick Stewart revisiting his most famous role, and the conceit of an elderly Picard staring down his own mortality gave the great actor more to play than he often got back on Star Trek: The Next Generation . But Picard quickly found itself stuck in a convoluted season-long plot involving a race of sentient machines, the Romulans, the Borg, the consciousness of Picard’s late friend Data, and too many other things to follow. It had its moments , but ultimately became the latest streaming series to treat its entire first season as a long pilot episode for the show it really wanted to be(*).

(*) Or it was an excuse to rectify a couple of pre-existing stories by giving Data a more dignified death than he received in Star Trek: Nemesis , and by putting Picard into an artificial body as a workaround for the degenerative neurological disorder introduced in flash-forwards from the TNG series finale.

It’s been disappointing to see modern Trek lean so hard into serialization, when the heart of almost every previous Trek series was in the stand-alone adventures that distinguished one episode from the next. There would be ongoing threads like Data’s quest to be human, or rising political tensions on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . Not all of these visits to meet new life and new civilizations were good — in fact, the majority of them from the first two seasons of Next Generation were quite dire — but the earlier shows always had the ability to do something new and potentially better the next time out. When Star Trek: Discovery committed its whole first season to a misconceived re-examination of the Klingons, though, there was no getting away from it. It’s not that Trek can’t be serialized, but it’s not the franchise’s natural state of being, and shifts have to be handled more delicately than these recent shows have. ( DS9 concluded its run with a lengthy galactic-war story, but it had carefully built up to that over the previous six years, rather than attempting to start out in a serial box.)

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It seems as if the current keepers of the franchise know they messed up on this front. The animated Star Trek: Lower Decks almost exclusively tells standalone stories (and has gotten much better after some bumpy early installments ), and the producers of Discovery spin-off Star Trek: Strange New Worlds recently said that they will be “returning to episodic values.”

As for Picard , the new season has not wholly returned to episodic values, but it’s closer. Season One ended with Picard and his new friends — rogue starship captain Cristóbal Rios (Santiago Cabrera), Picard’s former protégé Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd), cybernetics expert Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill), android Sohji (Isa Briones), Romulan warrior Elnor (Evan Evagora), and former Borg drone Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan, reprising her role from Star Trek: Voyager ) — teaming up to go boldly off in search of adventure together. We return to find out this is not exactly what happened(*): Picard has retired back to his vineyard, while his would-be new crew have scattered to different points around Federation territory.

(*) Technically, we return with an in medias res flash-forward to a catastrophic event 48 hours after the episode’s story truly begins. Even by the overused standards of this device, this feels particularly unnecessary. Trekkies love Jean-Luc Picard. They can certainly enjoy just watching Stewart emote for a few minutes until the plot kicks in. 

These early scenes are used to set up a flirtatious relationship between Picard and his Romulan employee, Laris (Orla Brady, who made more of an impression in a few brief appearances last season than several of the cast regulars did), and to examine exactly how and why Jean-Luc got from the French countryside to the captain’s chair of the Federation flagship. This is surprisingly untilled soil for the franchise. We saw the vineyard a few times on TNG , and knew that Jean-Luc had a difficult relationship with his older brother, but that was largely it in terms of backstory. He had defining characteristics — a thirst for knowledge and a powerful idealistic streak, to name just two — but he was never on an emotional journey in the way that Data, or Worf, or even Will Riker were on TNG (*). The Picard creative team have some room to maneuver and explore more of what makes their hero tick. There remains the possibility that the more we learn about Picard, the less interesting he becomes, but for now you can see Stewart engaging strongly with this material.

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(*) This then created a problem when the plot of Star Trek: Generations was meant to give Picard his heart’s desire in perpetuity: There was clearly nothing he wanted other than to keep doing the job he was so obviously good at. So somehow his fake Happily Ever After involved spending a perpetual Christmas with his extended family. (Though James T. Kirk’s fantasy in the same movie was even more out-of-character, and mainly an excuse for William Shatner to ride a horse onscreen.)  

Pretty soon, though, Picard is face-to-face with both of his arch-nemeses: the Borg Queen (now played by Annie Wersching from 24 ) and his omnipotent tormenter, Q (John de Lancie, simultaneously amusing and threatening as ever). Without spoiling much (the season premiere is streaming now), the season’s arc brings in not only those two, but Whoopi Goldberg as Picard’s ageless old counselor Guinan. And the plot also leans into two familiar devices from Trek history: stories set in alternate timelines(*), and (as most famously used in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ) Starfleet officers traveling back in time and struggling to fit into a world like the one we recognize.

(*) Q goes meta with the line, “How ‘ Yesterday’s Enterprise’ of you,” alluding to one of the most beloved TNG episodes of them all.

So even though we appear to be in for another serialized arc, Season Two so far falls victim to 10-Hour Movie Syndrome far less than Season One did. Each of the three episodes provided for review has its own story and structure, and often its own guest stars. (Isa Briones’ musical-theater star father, Jon Jon Briones, has a memorable role in the second episode as a new colleague of Seven of Nine’s.) The third episode suggests our heroes may be stuck in a specific circumstance for a while, so it’s entirely possible that we will wind up back in narratively shapeless territory soon. But for now, at least, Picard seems to be doing its best to hearken back to the way its title character’s stories used to be told, while blending that with this more modern approach.

There are other promising improvements along the way. Sohji and Elnor, the two most earnest and kinda dull members of the ensemble, both get sidelined early on, leaving even more room for the characters who pop. The show leans more on its actors’ facility with comedy — Alison Pill in particular is a damned delight as a more confident and loose version of Agnes than the one from last season — without undercutting the dramatic stakes(*).

(*) If hearing Stewart say unexpected words and phrases is your particular comedy fetish, get ready to hear “L’chaim,” “hooch,” and “bullshit” escape his lips. (Though in general, the profanity doesn’t add nearly enough value to be worth it, especially since that’s really the show’s only tangibly “adult” difference from TNG .)

The Next Generation had to muddle through two mostly awful seasons before figuring itself out. Picard Season One was never as bad as any of that — and episodes like Picard’s reunion with Riker and Deanna Troi were wonderful — but nor did it hit the ground running. We’ll see if Season Two turns out any better, but by leaning on some of what Star Trek has always done well, it’s off to a more promising start.

New episodes of Star Trek: Picard stream weekly on Thursdays on Paramount+. I’ve seen the season’s first three episodes.

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Star Trek: Picard – Season 2, Episode 8

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Watch Star Trek: Picard — Season 2, Episode 8 with a subscription on Paramount+, or buy it on Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV.

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‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 2 Review: Finally, this Show Is What We Hoped It Would Be

Christian blauvelt.

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It almost seems like a rule, one as unshakeable as the Prime Directive: The first seasons of “Star Trek” shows have to be bad. And the first season of “Star Trek: Picard” was very bad indeed .

Some of its most egregious plot points are even ignored whole cloth in Season 2, which stands as an improvement in almost every conceivable way — the fact that Picard’s consciousness was transferred into a golem body, so as to save his life, at the end of that initial run is never once mentioned. With the precision of Chief O’Brien locking onto a particularly tricky transporter pattern, new showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Terry Matalas have isolated what worked about Season 1 and what didn’t.

Here’s the great news: the cast from Season 1 was terrific, even if underwritten in those episodes. Goldsman, Matalas, and the “Picard” writers room capture their personalities from the initial re-introductions in Season 2 and advance them significantly: Santiago Cabrera’s Rios is now back in Starfleet and the captain of the next version of Picard’s old ship, the USS Stargazer; Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine is now the captain of Rios’s previous ship; Michelle Hurd’s Raffi is back in uniform too, and her relationship with Seven is on pause due to the ex-Borg’s commitment issues; Alison Pill’s Dr. Jurati, cleared of murder, is able to flower into a lovable neurotic; and Evan Evagora’s Elnor has just enlisted in Starfleet Academy, the first Romulan ever to do so.

Each of these supporting characters pop: their personalities are extremely well defined, their goals potent and identifiable. You don’t miss the fact none of the rest of the “Next Generation” cast is anywhere in sight. (Well, with two exceptions.) “Picard” Season 2 is so character-driven it’s as if that show finally lived up to the desire of original showrunner Michael Chabon to deliver a prestige TV drama rather than a sci-fi show.

But why did it ever have to be one or the other? “Game of Thrones” was a prestige TV drama that never shied away from its fantasy trappings. “Star Trek” is as sci-fi as it gets, and should never be anything less. Even in 1994, the Television Academy recognized that “The Next Generation” was also prestige TV by giving its final season a Best Drama nod. But the approach of “Picard” Season 1 seemed to be of metallic-hued miserabilism, a breathless flight away from anything resembling “Star Trek.”

That Season 2 maintains and deepens the characters of Season One but deploys them in a sprightly and intriguing story is a triumph. Picard didn’t even leave earth until the end of the third of eight episodes that time around. By the end of episode three in Season 2, he’s traveled around the galaxy, fought the Borg, found himself in an altered timeline, and traveled back in time. Having a serialized story but highly individualized episodes? That’s a formula “Picard” has cracked this time around.

Season 2 also feels like a more natural continuation of the Picard character himself, based on where we last saw him in 2002’s “Nemesis” and the previous “Next Generation” movies. In his time — this character is supposed to be in his mid-90s, as opposed to Patrick Stewart himself, who’s merely 81 — he’s one of the most revered individuals of the early 25th Century: an ex-Admiral the benevolent Federation reveres and new recruits to Starfleet aspire to be. But he’s never found true companionship, and he’s left to ponder whether his accolades and career achievements are enough to fill up his life. A halted move toward kissing his Romulan aide Laris (Orla Brady) gets to the problem he’s faced since the character first graced TV screens in 1987: Picard is the epitome of “seeking out new life forms and new civilizations,” but though discovery is his middle name, intimacy is forever out of his grasp.

Picard had brief, perfunctory romances while commanding the Enterprise on “Next Generation” and had an extremely promising relationship in “Star Trek: Insurrection” that was then promptly dropped for “Nemesis.” Maybe romance isn’t the answer — it certainly doesn’t have to be — but one gets the sense even his friendships are limited. If fans are disappointed that more of the “Next Generation” cast has not appeared on “Picard,” well, how close do you think the ex-captain really was to his crew? Certainly not enough to have them visit his chateau in France and share sun-kissed walks in his vineyard.

His relationships, his experiences… they’re wide and not deep. And though his actual motivations are still murky, it seems Picard’s old trickster nemesis Q (John de Lancie) shows up in part to show him that he’s spent a lot of time looking “out there” rather than inside. Choosing not to live by always prioritizing what he thinks he needs to do rather than what he wants to do. Maybe. That’s certainly what Guinan ( Whoopi Goldberg ), now running a bar called “10” in Los Angeles — a reference to the Enterprise lounge “10 Forward” — thinks about Picard herself.

Either way, Q transports Picard and his crewmates from Season 1 off the bridge of the new Stargazer at the moment they’re about to be destroyed in a self-destruct implosion before the Borg can assimilate them. And they find themselves in a strange alternate reality. Actually, it’s their own reality, but something key changed in the past to put them in a harrowing new 25th Century: the Federation is now the Confederation, a xenophobic regime that prioritized conquest over exploration and holds public executions of its enemies. Picard was the much glorified “general” of this Confederation, and he has the skulls of the enemies he executed as trophies, some of whom are names fans of “Deep Space Nine” will appreciate.

Picard and his crewmates have kept all their memories, however, so they know how deeply wrong the Confederation is. And that prompts them, with the help of the Borg Queen of all beings, to jump back through time to the year 2024 to find the point of divergence. What results is some of the best political commentary from “Star Trek” in this entire era of new “Trek” that launched with “Discovery” on CBS All Access in 2017. While being character driven. While being a fun and thrilling story on which to embark.

The thing about those bad first seasons of “Trek” shows? They’re always the precursor to a startling turnaround. Sometimes that uptick happens in Season 2, sometimes later. “Picard” has already made it so.

The first episode of “Star Trek: Picard” Season 2 is available now and new episodes are released each Thursday on Paramount+. 

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Star Trek: Picard Season 3's Ed Speleers, Michael Dorn, and Michelle Hurd Dig Into Episode 2's Major Reveals

Who is jack crusher how do worf and raffi know each other "disengage" addresses some burning questions from the show's season 3 premiere..

TAGGED AS: Paramount , Sci-Fi , science fiction , streaming , television , TV

(Photo by James Dimmock/Paramount+)

The second episode of Star Trek: Picard ’s third and final season dropped quite the bombshell for longtime fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation and its lead character, Jean-Luc Picard ( Patrick Stewart ). It at once honors something that could have occurred in the last 25 years since the TNG cast went their separate ways following the feature film Star Trek: Nemesis , but also is something fans may regard with disbelief; in fact, it’s enough of a surprising turn that we had to wait until episode 2 streamed to publish our chat with series newcomer Ed Speleers .

Spoiler alert: The following reveals details from Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 2, “Disengage.” Stop reading here if you haven’t watched the episode and wish to avoid spoilers.

The reveal that Picard has a child may be familiar to TNG fans from an episode of that series called “Bloodlines.” In that very late episode of Next Gen ’s final season, Picard learns from an old Ferengi adversary that he has a son, a petty criminal now marked for a final attempt at revenge. The whole thing turns out to be a ruse and the young man is not Jean-Luc’s child. In light of this not particularly well-regarded episode of TNG , it might be tempting to believe Speeler’s Jack Crusher is another ploy on the part of the still-mysterious enemy. But Dr. Beverly Crusher’s ( Gates McFadden ) look at Picard when she walks onto the Titan ’s bridge and Picard’s immediate and unequivocal declaration “He’s my son” should put all doubt aside.

In fact, when Rotten Tomatoes caught up with Speleers shortly before the season debuted, we took Picard’s paternity at face value while asking the actor about the Next Gen cast’s famous team spirit and what it means to join Star Trek .

(Photo by Trae Patton/Paramount+)

Erik Amaya for Rotten Tomatoes: Is the Picard accent somehow hereditary?

Ed Speleers: It’s interesting, isn’t it? Because he’s French, but he’s got a very strong British accent, which I’ve always found quite curious, and considering he’s played by a Yorkshireman, that baffles me even more because the accent’s very distinctly from the South. I don’t know. I mean, I think maybe there is a similar timbre in mine and Patrick’s voice potentially, but I don’t know if it’s completely hereditary, because he didn’t grow up with him. I feel that Jack heard many different sounds and was influenced by many different elements. And, also, something I think about accents is they change . They change with time, they change with circumstance. I feel, for me anyway, that depending on where you are, you adapt. I don’t think it’s necessarily any different here.

How do you think fans are going to react to Jack?

Speleers: I hope that there’s enough intrigue. I hope that people want to uncover what he’s all about and what is making him tick and why he’s even here, why he’s been presented to us. Whether they like him or not is a different thing, but I hope that they go on his journey and want to see it through.

Despite the roguishness and seeming self-centeredness, there are the shades of altruism with him that are interesting because of the contrast.

Speleers: Yeah, and that’s one of the great challenges and one of the great draw cards as well, I think: is to play someone who might be ruffling feathers and he might be a criminal. He’s naughty. He’s not above the line. But some of his criminality and some of his roguishness is grounded in something that is for the greater good and is actually fundamentally trying to make the galaxy a better place. He is driven by that notion of making the world a better place, the universe a better place. And if it means getting into trouble, he’ll take it.

What was it like observing the Next Gen cast? Is that sense of comradery as strong as it seems on the DVD special features and convention appearances?

Speleers: Yeah, it really is. It’s quite amazing to think that these people have known each other for 30-plus years, and the love that pulls out amongst them is quite a sight to behold. And that then completely trickles down into, dare I say, the younger generation, and I feel that we got on board with that. But they’re so effusive with one another and in turn for us that they made us scallywags very much part of the picture.

And as one of those scallywags, what does it feel like to become part of the Star Trek legacy? Conventions are open to you and there’s the possibility no matter what happens to Jack, that you’ll get a call and they’ll say, “Oh, hey, we’re doing this thing.” Is that daunting or exciting?

Speleers: Exciting. I mean, certainly the latter part of your question. I feel that conventions, of course, can be fantastic, but I feel from a creative standpoint, what really drives me is this idea that I could play this part again. That this is a role that I hold very close to myself, and that I loved stepping into his shoes every day. I was excited to commute out to Santa Clarita Studios. I loved every minute of it. So, if there’s more to come for him in some guise or fashion, I’m there.

And that fan interaction?

Speleers: I look forward to it because I love meeting people, but I feel that there is pressure there because the fans, they’re so passionate about this and they’ve been living with it for so long — much longer than I have — that the daunting thing is I don’t want to let them down. I want them to come on that journey with Jack, and I want to be able to [really enjoy it]. They are so full of zest and love for so many of these characters, and I’d love to be a part of that with them.

Related: Star Trek: Picard : 7 Things To Know About the Final Season From the Cast and Showrunner

Bonus Intel: Michael Dorn and Michelle Hurd on Raffi and Worf’s Partnership

(Photo by Joe Pugliese/Paramount+)

Episode 2 also revealed the identity of Raffi’s ( Michelle Hurd ) Section 31 handler: Worf ( Michael Dorn ). Although it is still unclear what brought Worf back to Starfleet after becoming a Klingon ambassador at the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , the pairing of the two characters is one of those great Trek convergences — so much so, we’re wondering if they might have something to do with the Section 31 series, starring Michelle Yeoh, that’s been in development. The timelines don’t align, but both Star Trek: Discovery  and Picard re-established that hopping universes and time travel are a thing in this franchise, so we’ll see.

When we spoke to the actors, they offered a few thoughts on the unlikely, but now essential partnership.

When are we going to get a Star Trek: Major Case Squad with Raffi and Worf? Pairing the two of these characters is the show I didn’t know I needed, but now I desperately want.

Hurd: First of all, you just speaking it into existence, manifesting it, I love it. Put it out there as many times as you want … Oh, my goodness. All the stories we could do! Oh, gosh!

Dorn: Well, the thing of it is that you’re in space … so you can do anything you want to do. I hope that they see that. Maybe they do. You never know what’s in studios’ minds. It seems like it’s the right thing, [because Worf and Raffi] are the muscle on the show. They can run and jump and slice people up and their relationship is a real, “You didn’t do that.” “Yes, I did.” “Well, why don’t you —?” thing. We’re really at each other, but it’s almost like an older brother [dynamic].

Hurd: Right. It’s a real relationship. It’s not unicorns and white picket fences — stones are being thrown. I think that these two characters, these two people, really can have so much more to say and more to do and represent so much of our community and of the world.

Dorn: But they’re different than what we see with the Star Trek shows … These guys are down and dirty.

Hurd: We’re down and dirty, yeah. I like it.

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'Picard' Season 2 Was Originally "Too Star Trek" For Paramount+, Says EP

“There’s actually many, many different versions of Season 2. I think you can kind of feel when you watch."

The Big Picture

• Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard faced challenges due to filming during COVID and network feedback about the show being "too sci-fi," leading to significant rewrites.
• Season 2 of Picard originally included complex plots involving Romulans, time travel, Guinan's bar, and more.
• Fans are still hoping Terry Matalas will helm a Star Trek: Legacy spin-off series.

Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard is widely regarded as one of the best installments in the entire franchise. While the show's previous two seasons were praised for trying something new, they also have their drawbacks, holding 86% and 85% scores respectively on Rotten Tomatoes , compared to Season 3's 98% critic rating. During a Master Replicas Collectors Club Zoom chat (via TrekMovie ) Season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas was able to shed some light on why Season 2 — the most controversial of the three, with a 30% audience score on RT — in particular, fell short of what fans wanted from the series.

“There’s actually many, many different versions of Season 2," said Matalas. "I think you can kind of feel when you watch Season 2 that there’s a lot of different ideas here.” He's not wrong, Season 2 of Picard sent the titular former captain and the crew of La Sirena back to the 2020s, an idea Matalas suggested to save money following an expensive Season 1. Partially the machinations of Q ( John de Lancie ) and partly a Borg ploy to destroy Earth a la First Contact , Season 2 had a lot going on between plot lines dealing with the origin of augments, a new evolution of the Borg queen, the ethics of time travel and messing with your own history, and Jean Luc Picard's childhood trauma .

What Originally Happened in 'Star Trek: Picard' Season 2?

While Matalas didn't delve too deeply into which parts of Season 2 came after the rewrite he explained that they nearly had all of the episodes completed when Paramount gave them the feedback that it was "a bit too sci-fi." He said: “We wrote nine episodes at one point and the network was like, ‘No, we don’t really understand this, it’s a bit too sci-fi, it’s a bit too in- Star Trek .’ ” Some of the lost

Though Q and the time travel plot were part of Season 2 from "day one," there were other classic Star Trek plots that were nixed from the final product. Matalas said:

“There were Romulans—there was a whole thing. The idea was that Guinan’s bar was presented as a normal bar in Los Angeles, but if you knew the right thing to do, you could go into the back through the telephone phone booth and that was Rick’s Café, and it was a stopping point for all these different species that were actually there on Earth with a ‘Do not interfere’ thing happening. So you had a lot more Star Trek happening in the backdrop of it. Ultimately, the powers that be at that time were like, ‘This is too much.’ But there were some really good ideas there that were pretty cool.”

Matalas and a group of writers began working on Season 3 before Season 2 was finalized, and while COVID complications and rewrites may have hindered the cohesion between the two, Season 3 brought the show to a profoundly satisfying conclusion. While nothing has been announced yet, fans are still hoping Matalas will return to the world of Star Trek with a Picard spin-off series following Seven of Nine ( Jeri Ryan ) and Jack Crusher ( Ed Speleers ).

While we wait for more Star Trek news, you can watch all three seasons of Picard on Paramount+ now. The franchise returns to the small screen with Star Trek: Discovery 's fifth and final season on April 4.

Star Trek: Picard

Follow-up series to Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) that centers on Jean-Luc Picard in the next chapter of his life.

Watch on Paramount+

Season 2 Star Trek: Picard scenes were written to clear up the confusion with Dr. Jurati and the Borg

S tar Trek: Picard season two confused some fans when Dr. Agnes Jurati united with the Borg Queen. Many were wondering if that meant the Borg had "gone good" and if they would now be an ally in the Federation's future. The confusion intensified when Picard's season three once again included the Borg, but they were still the enemy. So what had happened to Dr. Jurati and what was the point of her uniting with the Borg Queen if the Borg were still going to be against the Federation? As it turns out, according to executive producer, Terry Matalas [ via Trekmovie ], there were scenes written for season two that would have clarified things.

Matalas acknowledges that there was some misconception that the Borg had changed after the season two finale, and they would be good from that point forward. However, that would have negated Wolf 359 and would have also had a negative effect on Picard season three. So an explanation had been written where Dr. Jurati says she stayed out of history's way and that, basically, the Borg she was with was just a small collective and not the entirety of the Borg.

“Jurati’s Borg, there is a misconception that they are the Borg in general, that the Borg were good [after season 2], which would have undone Wolf 359, which would have undone Picard, and none of the future they came back to would have looked the same. I was off working on season 3 as those final [season 2] episodes were written. And so we were reading scenes that didn’t end up getting shot. There was a brief scene with Jurati in which she explained that she stayed out of history’s way and they were a small collective of Borg, but they’re not the Borg of tens of billions of drones or anything like that.”Terry Matalas

The Jurati Borg storyline was supposed to wrap in season two just like it did as it was never meant to be a continuing story. The writers did have more dialgoue incorporated into season three to offer an explanation as to the transwarp conduit at Jupiter that Jurati was guarding. It was simply meant to be a distraction so Picard's Borg Queen could fulfill her evil plan. According to Matalas, there was a "whole thing" about it.

“So while Jurati Borg was always going to be the payoff to [season 2], it was never really intended to be a longer-running thing. At the last minute, we added the thing where there was the hole that was going to open up and destroy—they added that to give a burst of action to the [season 2] finale, to give her a reason to do all of this. So that started to become retrofit into, “Hey could this be something for season 3?” But we were already way down the line on what we were doing with it. So you could say that she was guarding this thing. We did have a line on the Enterprise-D from Riker—when he talks about the Borg transwarp conduit at Jupiter and that the one that Jurati was guarding was a distraction, the Queen’s way of saying, “Go over here.”… We had a whole thing about it. But when we got to the cut, it was just like this big exposition dump that was like, nobody cares. His son is on board, Starfleet is assimilated. There’s this giant thing and now we are retrofitting and explaining the Jurati Borg.”Terry Matalas

There was so much going on in season three of Picard that adding additional information about Dr. Jurati's integration with one of the Borg Queens would have just been a minor payoff. Fans had already seen several Borg Queens, thanks to Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: First Contact so I think we all understood that Dr. Jurati's union with that particular queen on season two hadn't eliminated the threat of the Borg. It didn't take us long to realize that once we got into the final season of Picard.

This article was originally published on redshirtsalwaysdie.com as Season 2 Star Trek: Picard scenes were written to clear up the confusion with Dr. Jurati and the Borg .

Screen Rant

William shatner said new star trek would make roddenberry "turn in his grave" - what he meant.

William Shatner clarifies a statement he made in 2022 that Gene Roddenberry wouldn't approve of the current Star Trek on Paramount+ shows.

• William Shatner clarifies 2022 remark that modern Star Trek would make Gene Roddenberry "turn in his grave."
• Shatner's comment was specifically about intimacy among Starfleet characters in the current Star Trek series.
• Shatner highlights how Roddenberry's military background influences his views on relationships among Starfleet Officers.

William Shatner clarified a 2022 statement he made that the new Star Trek series on Paramount+ would make Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry "turn in his grave." Mr. Shatner said so at his San Diego Comic-Con “Shatner On Shatner” panel, and his quote made the rounds with fans taking sides for and against the modern Star Trek series. Shatner, who just turned 93, is celebrating his life and remarkable 70-year-career in entertainment with a new autobiographical documentary, William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill.

In an interview with CinemaBlend to promote You Can Call Me Bill, William Shatner was asked about his Gene Roddenberry Star Trek comment from 2022, which "ruffled some feathers" among Star Trek fans. Mr. Shatner zeroed in on what, specifically, he was referring to, which is how Roddenberry, a military man, would have felt about romantic relationships between Starfleet Officers that are featured in the current Star Trek on Paramount+ series . Read his quote below:

I wonder why some feathers would be ruffled by my saying the guy, the gentleman I knew, Eugene Roddenberry, was very strict about military protocol. So, having an intimate relationship with somebody you're working next to is verboten. You don't do that on the military thing. And they [modern Trek shows], you know, I don't know about the latest things, but the couple of things I've noted is that there are relationships, sexual relations, relationships going on between the people that would make Gene Roddenberry turn in his grave.

William Shatner Kirk’s Best Line In 7 Star Trek Movies

Personal relationships are common in new star trek series, there's plenty of romance in current star trek.

William Shatner admittedly doesn't watch Star Trek , but he's also not wrong when it comes to the amount of romance among crew mates in the current Star Trek series. Star Trek: Discovery features multiple love stories aboard the USS Discovery, starting with Captain Michael Burnham's (Sonequa Martin-Green) relationship with Cleveland Booker (David Ajala). Captain Saru (Doug Jones) also has a romance with Vulcan President T'Rina (Tara Rosling), and Discovery features Star Trek' s first loving marriage between a gay couple, Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz).

Gene Roddenberry famously disliked many aspects of Star Trek that became popular and enduring, including the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Meanwhile, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has plenty of love stories on the Starship Enterprise. Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) is in a relationship with Captain Marie Batel (Melanie Scrofano), and Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck) carried on a love affair with Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush). Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) is attracted to Lt. James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley), which is canonically years before Kirk becomes the Captain of the Enterprise played by William Shatner. Gene Roddenberry believed in a future utopia, but his vision strangely forced a lack of passion and interpersonal relationships among Starfleet Officers when he was in charge of Star Trek.

Source: CinemaBlend

Marvel star is sad Disney isn't making a season 2 of his MCU show, despite its great Rotten Tomatoes score

Anthony Mackie is disappointed The Falcon and the Winter Soldier didn't return for season 2

Marvel star Anthony Mackie has shared his disappointment that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier did not return for season 2. 

Mackie plays Sam Wilson in the MCU, and he became the new Captain America in the show's finale. Instead of his story being continued in a second season, though, he'll be starring in his own solo film next year – Captain America: Brave New World. 

"The Falcon and [the] Winter Soldier, I really enjoyed doing that show. I was actually excited to do a second season, just so me and Sebastian [Stan] can get paid to hang out," Mackie told Radio Times . "Because it's like me, him and Daniel Brühl. It's kind of like the perfect storm of happiness."

Mackie also revealed that Stan and Brühl wouldn't be reprising their roles for Captain America 4, meaning we won't be seeing Bucky Barnes or Helmut Zemo in the film. "When they decided to go back to the movies, it is what it is, but I don't have my friends anymore, so it kind of dampens it a little bit," Mackie said.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier scored an impressive 85% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes , so it is somewhat surprising that it won't be back for more. A second season hasn't officially been ruled out, but, judging by Mackie's comments, it does seem unlikely. 

Along with Mackie, Brave New World stars Harrison Ford, Liv Tyler, Tim Blake Nelson, Carl Lumbly, and Danny Ramirez. It will arrive in theaters on February 14, 2025. 

In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and TV shows to keep up to date on everything the MCU has in store. 

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I'm an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English. 

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