Spoilers Star Trek Picard Season 2 Hopes and Predictions

Sounds great to me AND could provide a bit of the greater picture, e.g.: What she was led to believe of the Federation vs what they found when they came back after a big war.

Btw., does anyone remember what her channel was called?

 

Not the details, no.

And yes, there's clunky exposition, and then there's good, casual, elegant exposition.

 

But, what about my 6 hour documentary all about As You Knows?

 

Federation = Starfleet = People who tried throwing her out an airlock

Pair it with Zack Snyder's 3-hour Justice League and call it the Marathon Film Festival!

 

I think its less abut the war and more about connections to Picard; the Dominion were only mentioned in passing during INS and don’t seem to hold any significance to Picard. And the Breen were only mentioned in passing during TNG. However, Cardassia would hold significance to Picard for a few reasons:

- The Federation-Cardassian border wars that happens in the background of the first few seasons of TNG, when we as viewers are supposed to believe that the TNG era is a utopia. The border wars also occur during Picard time on the Stargazer.

- Picard tortured in “Chain of Command” by Gul Madred and almost broke, as he admitted to Riker. Unlike the Borg, there is no known lingering trauma associated with this event for Picard, even though it would make sense if there was.

- Ro Laren defecting to the Maquis to fight the Cardassians, who was never actually confirmed dead when the Maquis were wiped out. Which opens the door to Picard and Ro meeting for the first time in many years. Ro’s Maquis ties also gives a reason for Seven of Nine to be involved, since she served alongside Federation and Maquis on Voyager. And it would be interesting to see if there is overlap with Seven’s disillusionment with the Federation and the discontentment of the Maquis in the Alpha Quadrant.

- The extent the Federation (and Klingons & Romulans) helped the Cardassians rebuild in the aftermath of the war. And how much of this impacted the Federation's response to the Romulan supernova.

These are the ripples that make sense following up on.

 

But, the show has already engaged its own ripples to follow up on.

 

Yes, it has.

But, if PIC is going to address some aspect of the Dominion War, the Cardassians are the only actors from the conflict that makes sense to address. I don't even think an episode based around this would last beyond an episode anyways.

 

Yeah. I don't mind if a few more TNG alums get their coda, but I'd like the remaining seasons to follow up more on S1 story hooks and plot threads rather than back-tracking a decade or more again. Let Lower Decks deal with issues that will be a lot more the immediate past to them; the writers there can do decent dramatic moments as well as comedy.

 

I’m doubling down on the theory that Kestra’s contact was and is a washed-up, booted-from-the-Continuum, Q.

Why? Because I like it!

 

Way too much time has passed since DS9 ended for the Dominion War to still have impact on anyone besides the Cardassians. Sloan said it would take the Klingons "10 years" to recover. They should've been fully recovered by 2385. And he made it sound like the Federation and Romulans would both be recovered long before the Klingons. So the Romulans' problems in 2399 stem from Hobus, not the Dominion.

Maybe, if the second season takes place in 2400, they can mention something about the 25th Anniversary of the ending of the Dominion War. But considering Picard has focused on the Borg and the Romulans with its story-arcs, and the series is general is oriented towards TNG and VOY, that seems really, really out of place for PIC and what it's been.

Maybe, maybe, Musiker's early-career in Starfleet involved serving in Starfleet Intelligence during the Dominion War. And she thinks of something she remembers from those days that comes in handy for the story. Then they talk about "how much things have changed since then... " That would be addressing the aftermath of the Dominion War and doing it on Picard Terms.

 

When people talk about long-term developents that began with, say, WW II, then that would at some time come up, if only in passing. And that's in a far more distant past than the Dominion War is for our heroes. (Has nothing to do with these ridiculous "6 hrs documentary, har, har".) So IF, at some point, the current state of the Federation became a theme or topic, I'd expect it to be mentioned. If, otoh, that's never touched upon again, or if everything's peachy now that the synth ban has been lifted, then of course not.

@Lord Garth , you made some good points about PIC in a DSC thread, may I bring them over?

 

By all means.

 

'Kay!

I don't have the time right now, but will share my thoughts later.

 

My hopes for season 2:

Again a main story arc (changing from a serial to an episodic format would be strange), but this time a more grounded one - it was alright in season 1, but it doesn't always have to be about preventing the end of the world.

Further guest appearances by classic TNG and in general ST characters, portrayed by the original actors. Season 1 already did a great job with bringing up Bruce Maddox (though not portrayed by the original actor, still very good and I think the new actor also had some kind of similarity to the original one when you ignore the beard), Riker, Troi, Seven of Nine, Data and Hugh. I'd like to see, for instance, LaForge, Worf (both have already been mentioned in season 1 which gave me absolute chills), O'Brian or Beverly Crusher.

More emphasis of Picard's philosophical points of view. Season 1 already had this, but sometimes it seems the plot didn't leave enough time to go on fully on that. It made Picard in TNG so special when he used philosophical approaches to attend problems. That's also why I, like I said, wish for a sort of calmer plot for season 2 that leaves room for that. I get that there's not much time left to become philosophical when you literally have to save the world.

Narek getting a full redemption arc and joining Picard's crew. I kinda like that character and I think his redemption started out already quite well in the last episode with him working together with Raffi, Rios and Elnor.

 

I agree with your point about Narek, but unfortunately the actor isn’t slated to return in season 2 — though I’m very much hoping he at least gets an episode or two in as a guest star. As much as I enjoyed the season finale (especially after a Part 1 which I was decidedly muted on), Narek’s last scene is just... him helping out. He’s been left completely up in the air, narratively.

 

Right, after watching the season finale for the first time, I was wondering about Narek's whereabouts. We see him and part of the crew at their attempt to destroy the beacon, but then he just doesn't show up anymore. I read somewhere that it was explained in an interview or so that he went into jail for his crimes, but I don't know where this information comes from and if it's valid.

 

I think the info came from Michael Chabon's instagram. IIRC, he said he'd written a scene in which Narek was taken into Federation custody, but it was cut from the final draft and never filmed. I got the impression a lot of his scripts ran long and had to be cut down - he said Narek and Narissa suffered the most in that regard, they lost a lot of material that would have fleshed them out more. He's an excellent novelist, but an inexperienced showrunner, I guess.

 

Yeah, pretty much. Really hoping we see Harry Treadaway back eventually!

 

Hmm, that's a pity indeed. Especially Narissa could have needed a bit more background. I think she was an interesting character, superficially seen she was portrayed as some badass villain, but there were in fact those moments that gave us a little bit more insight and showed that in the end she also did what she did because of fear and because she thought it was the right thing to do and, even more, the thing necessary to do in order to save the organic living beings. This actually adds much more depth to her, and you can definitely find this conclusion by following the character in the show, but it could have been emphasized more. Same goes for Narek whereas he definitely has more depth than Narissa. I actually think that both were strong and interesting characters and especially that both were not as "evil" as the show sometimes portrayed them, especially Narissa. In the end, they were driven by fear and thus also victims in their own way.