Star Trek: Picard recently began its second season, with a time-jumping premiere featuring a few more familiar faces for fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Finally, the franchise left the 24th century behind, embarking on a bold new future (or two) in the 25th century. And on March 8, 2022, Picard wrapped principal photography for its third and final season. With that in mind, we have a few things we need to see Star Trek: Picard tackle before Jean-Luc calls it a day and retires to his winery in France for good.
The Return of Dr. Crusher, Geordi, Worf, and Wesley
So far, we’ve seen a lot of beloved characters from Star Trek past show up in Picard. This includes Patrick Stewart’s former TNG castmates Brent Spiner as Data, as well as both Commander Riker and Deanna Troi. (Played by Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis, respectively.) And, of course, Seven of Nine. Plus, in just the first episode of season two, another pair of former TNG stars are back for more—Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan and John de Lancie as Q.
But it’s not a full TNG reunion quite yet. We have yet to hear of a return of Dr. Beverly Crusher, as played by Gates McFadden. She and Picard had a long history going back even before the events of TNG. Not to mention a lot of unresolved romantic feelings. And Geordi La Forge (Levar Burton), Worf (Michael Dorn), and Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) also deserve a chance to reconnect with their old Captain in some form. If Picard is going to include some of the TNG main crew, they better include them all by the time the series ends.
Exploration of the Dominion War’s Fallout
The Dominion War was a great galactic upheaval that covered the last two seasons of Deep Space Nine. It had Starfleet, the Klingons, and the Romulans teamed up to save the Alpha Quadrant from the threat of the Dominion. The Dominion was a sort of dark version of the Federation. One also made of several different species, all hell-bent on conquering all of those in their path.
The consequences of this conflict were never really explored when the series ended, because Voyager was still on the other end of space for the remainder of its run. How did this great conflict that united blood enemies change the landscape of the Star Trek world we knew? The fallout of this war should have affected the world of Star Trek as much as World War II changed the geopolitical landscape of the real world. Star Trek: Picard really needs to explore this. And so far, we’ve seen almost no talk about how the war changed things in the Alpha Quadrant long term.
References to “The Inner Light”
One of the greatest episodes of TNG‘s run was the fifth season’s “The Inner Light.” The award-winning hour of television found Jean-Luc living out a complete lifetime on a distant planet. He married, raised a family, became a musician, and grew old. Only, of course, to find out it was all a simulation projected into his brain from an extinct species. And it only took up a few minutes of his “real” life. Although they touched lightly on the fallout of that episode later, the nature of non-serialized TV in the early ’90s meant they only explored it very little. Star Trek: Picard comes in a different era of television, and we’re hoping this classic story gets referenced at least once.
New Starship Enterprise
There are nearly two decades between the events of Star Trek: Nemesis and the events of Star Trek: Picard. But twenty years is a long time. And by this point, we think Starfleet would have introduced us to the next USS Enterprise. Are we finally at the point where there is an Enterprise-F now? The Star Trek Online game introduced one, although that’s not exactly hard canon. But it would be hard to imagine a Picard series without seeing a version of the Enterprise in some form. Could Worf or Geordi be her Captain? Or could it be someone totally new? Enterprising minds want to know.
Bring on the Shakespeare
In a case of art imitating life, Jean-Luc Picard had an incredible fondness for the works of William Shakespeare. This was only fitting, given the Shakespearean pedigree of the actor who portrays him. We can’t imagine a series that focuses on Picard and doesn’t have some allusions to the great works of the Bard. But we hope the Shakespearean references go even deeper than before. In fact, if Star Trek: Picard becomes a sci-fi version of King Lear, I think that would be brilliant.
Featured Image: Paramount+
Originally published on July 23, 2019.
