Spoilers Things you wish season 2 had answered.

[Dr Helen Noel]

Why did Picard not care about Elnor's death? I can understand him wanting to focus on the mission and keeping the Borg Queen alive while Elnor was dying but did he even grieve at all over Elnor? Raffi seemed much more upset. Even when Elnor returned, Picard wasn't that bothered about him.

How does young Picard know where the key is? Old Picard said the key migrated all over the house when he was young which means there must have been two keys: one to migrate and one to stay behind the brick for young Picard to find later. Did young Picard find the hidden key but then never moved it, even though the other one moved a lot? And no one ever noticed the obvious loose brick until young Picard did on that day? What happened to the other key? Or was there only one key that migrated but then on the day his mother went to hang herself it just happened to return to the same spot where old Picard left it?

Why did Elnor have a mobile emitter if he was on a ship that has holo projectors everywhere? Where did the emitter come from? Why was holo Elnor dodging bullets? Why did Confederate Rios have Elnor's sword on his ship?

 

[Mogh]

Why did Picard not care about Elnor's death? I can understand him wanting to focus on the mission and keeping the Borg Queen alive while Elnor was dying but did he even grieve at all over Elnor? Raffi seemed much more upset. Even when Elnor returned, Picard wasn't that bothered about him.

Picard, like many Starfleet officers we've seen, definitely managed to put aside his feelings for the mission. If anything, it makes Raffi the odd one out for being quite so hostile to Picard and obsessed with Elnor, even though Picard has the far longer and arguably deeper relationship.

But yeah, odd that even when he came back, only Raffi seemed to care. A weird choice to make him only Raffi's concern.

 

[Dr Helen Noel]

I'm not sure if this is one or not but would changing an alternate timeline be considered a Prime Directive violation? It's not their timeline to say what is right or wrong and the past version of the confederate timeline does not have warp drive. Q never really makes it clear why he sent them there and Q isn't held by the Prime Directive anyway. I'm assuming Q understands the outcomes of what he is doing but why doesn't Picard or someone else question the ethics?

 

[Romulan_spy]

Why was Q, from a species of omnipotent beings, dying?

1. Why was Q dying alone, if he has a kid? And a female companion? What happened to them?

Yeah, this is my big question. The death of De Lancie's Q should be a pretty big deal, not a passing "oh by the way, I am dying, you were my favorite, I have a nice life Picard."

And if Q is dying alone, that seems to imply that maybe the entire Q Continuum is dying or is already gone. Again, that should be a big deal, not something you gloss over. I feel like we should have gotten more info.

Perhaps the Q Continuum simply being so old, was at the end of his "life", kind of like a star reaching the end of his sequence. It eventually implodes into a supernova. My theory is that the big explosion at the end of finale that created the big transwarp conduit may have been the by-product of the Q Continuum disappearing. Basically, the Q Continuum disappearing created a massive vacuum in subspace which resulted in a massive implosion, which we saw the effects of in that massive release of energy and the formation of a transwarp conduit.

 

[The Wormhole]

Another question: Why was everyone ok with La Sirena's holograms being combined? Season 1 was about accepting synthetic life. While holograms were never banned, it seems odd that holograms wouldn't be reconsidered as lifeforms too. Picard became a synth and then just didn't care about other artificial lifeforms? Voyager's Doctor also pushed for rights for holograms. So why was it ok to combine five holograms into one when they each had distinctive personalities and abilities? How was Seven able to fly the ship with only one hologram?

The holograms weren't combined, rather with the exception of the tactical hologram, the others were all deleted. According to an interview with Jeri Ryan, the intent was Seven found all the holograms annoying except the Tactical and therefore deleted the others.

Which, I guess when you look at it in that context is even worse. Seven, someone who knows holograms can be just as much people as organic life went and killed four people just because they annoyed her.

Why did Elnor have a mobile emitter if he was on a ship that has holo projectors everywhere? Where did the emitter come from?

Yeah, the mobile emitter raises way too many questions.

 

[Llywela]

The holograms weren't combined, rather with the exception of the tactical hologram, the others were all deleted. According to an interview with Jeri Ryan, the intent was Seven found all the holograms annoying except the Tactical and therefore deleted the others.

Which, I guess when you look at it in that context is even worse. Seven, someone who knows holograms can be just as much people as organic life went and killed four people just because they annoyed her.

The dialogue in 2.01 clearly says that the holos were merged, not deleted. It's why Seven grumbles about Emmett having therapeutic plug-ins (which came from Emil). Jeri Ryan must have misremembered that line when she gave interviews months after the fact.

 

[Norad]

I'm not sure if this is one or not but would changing an alternate timeline be considered a Prime Directive violation?

Well, it has to be distinguised between an altered timeline and an alternative universe.

An alternative universe is a universe separate from your universe (for example the mirror universe). Changes in an alternative universe don't directly impact your ("the main") universe. Therefore, they are similar to foreign cultures, so not-interference can apply.

An altered timeline is a changed version of your universe where changes directly change your universe (for example The City on the Edge of Forever). So, e.g. if you change something in the past, your present will be different.
The same way as acting in an alternative universe is similar to "foreign culture interference", acting in an "altered timeline" is similar to "own culture interference". So, not-interference can not apply

In PIC, season 2, it is clearly stated that this is an altered timeline, not an alternative universe. Especially they made very clear, that the presented 2024 was the past of both, the Federation 2401 future, but also the Confederation 2401 future. So, I would say in PIC season 2 there was no violation of Prime Directive possible.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Another question: Why was everyone ok with La Sirena's holograms being combined? Season 1 was about accepting synthetic life. While holograms were never banned, it seems odd that holograms wouldn't be reconsidered as lifeforms too. Picard became a synth and then just didn't care about other artificial lifeforms? Voyager's Doctor also pushed for rights for holograms. So why was it ok to combine five holograms into one when they each had distinctive personalities and abilities? How was Seven able to fly the ship with only one hologram?

I'd hope that after the Federation realised what had happened to the Doctor (and Moriarty) they changed their hologram systems to make sure that there was no chance of people accidentally creating synthetic life again. Especially not when they're making emergency systems for their freighter, because that's Black Mirror-level horrifying. I've always assumed that La Sirena's holograms are about as alive as the gangsters in Picard's Dixon Hill program, as it would be really weird if Picard went through so much trouble to save Dahj and Soji, became an android himself, and yet didn't give a damn about the AIs living with them on the ship.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

I wouldn't mind seeing any of these answered, but the one that was personally driving me crazy finally got addressed. (Why Seven left the Federation and became a Ranger.) Now that that's finally addressed, I'm good.

 

[Charles Phipps]

In PIC, season 2, it is clearly stated that this is an altered timeline, not an alternative universe. Especially they made very clear, that the presented 2024 was the past of both, the Federation 2401 future, but also the Confederation 2401 future. So, I would say in PIC season 2 there was no violation of Prime Directive possible.

Bizarrely, the Confederation actually fits into Star Trek temporal physics as we've seen before. In "Shockwave", Archer leaving the time stream for a short time results in the creation of a post-apocalypse Earth that never forms the Federation. This despite the fact he immediately jumps back into the timestream a few hours (at best) later. The Confederation seems to have been formed in the time between Picard and company being removed from the timeline by Q and then reinserted.

Because when they were removed, they can't go back in time to the Earth of the 21st century to help Rene Picard and Rios to raise his stepson to meet Rene Picard and thus cure the environmental damage of WW3 (as well as the centuries prior). The Confederation is the timeline pre-Q tampering but a predestination paradox so it literally only exists for as long as our heroes have visited it.

I wouldn't mind seeing any of these answered, but the one that was personally driving me crazy finally got addressed. (Why Seven left the Federation and became a Ranger.) Now that that's finally addressed, I'm good.

I just assumed Seven was used to living in lawless wildspace due to her time on VOY.

 

[Roald]

I kind of like Screenrant’s take on Q’s goals:

https://screenrant.com/star-trek-pi...hdAVVevek-2Opahry_sEPA_T5fCiRu7Y1rtBipVpwwrII

 

[johnnybear]

Yes we were never told why Q was dying. The writers didn't seem to be able to tell us why only that Q admired Picard so much that he was drawn to him and his adventures.
The Soong thing might have been that if Q had of won then Soong's a human galaxy is a safe galaxy theme would have continued and prevailed into the projected dark future!
Was this Soong the same man from Brothers? And why did he have a name similar to that of Khan Noonian Singh who had left earth nearly thirty years earlier?
JB

 

[Charles Phipps]

Yes we were never told why Q was dying. The writers didn't seem to be able to tell us why only that Q admired Picard so much that he was drawn to him and his adventures.

Q doesn't know why he's dying.

The Soong thing might have been that if Q had of won then Soong's a human galaxy is a safe galaxy theme would have continued and prevailed into the projected dark future!

Q would hardly be interested in making humanity a violent fascist race since he's always dared humans to prove they aren't.

Was this Soong the same man from Brothers? And why did he have a name similar to that of Khan Noonian Singh who had left earth nearly thirty years earlier?
JB

Given we see a PROJECT: KHAN and he's a genetic engineer, it seems that Soong is the man who created Khan in the Nineties.

 

[The Wormhole]

Was this Soong the same man from Brothers?

No. This was Adam Soong. The man from Brothers who created Data and Lore was Noonian Soong.

 

[Romulan_spy]

Q doesn't know why he's dying.

Yeah but that seems like something you would want to follow up on. Q has been a major recurring character since the start of TNG and the Q Continuum have been very important in Trek. So it seems like we should get a story that explains what happened. It seems very unsatisfactory to me the way S2 just drops the bombshell that our Q is dying and says goodbye to Picard with no answers. Maybe S3 will answer why the Q Continuum is gone? Maybe that big transwarp conduit that formed at the end of S2 is related to the death of the Q Continuum?

 

[fireproof78]

Yeah but that seems like something you would want to follow up on. Q has been a major recurring character since the start of TNG and the Q Continuum have been very important in Trek. So it seems like we should get a story that explains what happened. It seems very unsatisfactory to me the way S2 just drops the bombshell that our Q is dying and says goodbye to Picard with no answers. Maybe S3 will answer why the Q Continuum is gone? Maybe that big transwarp conduit that formed at the end of S2 is related to the death of the Q Continuum?

I figured it was just Q and not the Continuum.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Personally, season 2 left me rather unfulfilled. There were high spots, low spots, some good characterisation and some bad.

But mostly, a little too much either unanswered, unexplained or that didn't just seem to add up.

Now one can always do a variety of contortions to come up with an in-universe explanation ("oh, maybe Saavik has reconstructive surgery after a fire on the Grissom"), but ideally, the show should rarely necessitate it.

Here's the list of things I wish had been answered or clarified. What's yours?

1. Why was Q, from a species of omnipotent beings, dying?
2. Why was Q dying alone, if he has a kid? And a female companion? What happened to them?
3. How did Data paint a woman identical to one of the genetic products of his creator's distant ancestors, which in turn was a reference point for building Soji and her twin?
4. Where did Jurati and her Borg hide for, for 400 years? How do they relate to other Borg we've seen?
5. Why was Rios allowed to stay back for no more than a "but I really want to" speech, when the crew of the Enterprise-E were going to be exiled to a remote volcanic island in First Contact? Picard had no idea it would be a predestination paradox. Surely every bit the risk they were seeking to avoid?
6. Why was Rios so content to stay after a brief encounter with a woman? He'd got as far as being a Starfleet captain in his career. How was he suddenly a misfit, and didn't his sense of duty to his ship and crew factor in?
7. How was Adam Soong able to pronounce "a safe galaxy is a human galaxy", given it was a very long time before humans developed warp drive?
8. Why did Q try to aid Soong in killing Picard? By that point his powers had failed. If the idea was to teach Picard a lesson - surely this could very well have killed Picard?
9. Had Tallinn already procreated before her untimely death? Presumably she is an ancestor of Laris?
10. Why did Q bring back Elnor? Surely there are a dozen other closer people to Picard who might have been further up the queue?
11. Why did the Borg need Federation membership just to stay put? Is it just for their faction, or do they now represent the whole of the Borg?
12. By the time Picard did get back to the 25th century, surely he'd now be asking Guinan just how many more times he might be due to meet her in the past?
13. Why did Janeway give up on Seven and when did Starfleet basically become racist? Surely at the time in question, even if this had occurred, Picard would have intervened as someone else who'd been assimilated and come through? (not to mention Janeway herself or Tuvok).
14. How did Jurati turn the Borg Queen? She's assimilated "countless billions". What was different here? Surely not just her personality?
15. A big coincidence that Guinan's 21st century bar was an apt name for the forward deck of a ship she was on three centuries later. How did that happen?
16. How did humanity manage to conquer every other Alpha Quadrant power and the Borg by the end of the 24th century, in the other timeline? What on earth did they do, alone? Isn't that basically a sign that peace is weak, given the Federation has almost lost several wars against the other powers and couldn't even begin to take on the Borg in a straight fight?
17. If the Travellers hire the agents, does that mean Wesley's new crew intentionally abducted Gary Seven and others as children? Why would Wes have stayed involved?
18. Why did Picard's mother have a French accent in his memory?

Why was Q dying alone, if he has a kid? And a female companion? What happened to them?

This version of Q didn't have a kid or a companion. Not assessible for the single minded narrative the showrunners were conceiving.

The question I had was what made Tallinn's eyes red with cracks??? She's Romulan. I would've thought as she's dying the blood cracks from her eyes would be green and not red like a humanoid being.

Now that Jurati was the Borg Queen, she sure didn't seem to alter anything which would change Picard's existence especially his relations to the Borg. Is this really continuity to TNG??? Nah.

 

[Charles Phipps]

This version of Q didn't have a kid or a companion. Not assessible for the single minded narrative the showrunners were conceiving.

Q's wife dumped him by VOY. Did you forget that? Can you give a single reason why it's unbelievable Q wouldn't have alienated his family? The idea this is a plot hole ignores the fact that Q alienating other Q is a core component of his character.

Now that Jurati was the Borg Queen, she sure didn't seem to alter anything which would change Picard's existence especially his relations to the Borg. Is this really continuity to TNG??? Nah.

It would be bad to cause a time paradox. This is not a plot hole.

 

[gweeps]

Q dying alone does make sense. He'd been kicked out of the Continuum a couple times at least (TNG's 'Q Who' and 'Deja Q'). So maybe him being sick/"moving on" made them scared enough to boot him again?

 

[Mogh]

Q dying alone does make sense. He'd been kicked out of the Continuum a couple times at least (TNG's 'Q Who' and 'Deja Q'). So maybe him being sick/"moving on" made them scared enough to boot him again?

I mean, all of these things are very plausible.

I just wish we'd had something more like an explicit answer.

Doing "hey, you know that character who's been there 30 years and is immortal and has infinite powers? Yeah, he died" feels like one hell of a short-change.