SPOILERS ALERT!!!
Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ and I’m Tim Bradley.
And yes! I’ve seen Season 2 of ‘Star Trek: Picard’! Since I saw Season 1 of ‘Picard’ back in 2020, it’s only fair that I check out Season 2 on Prime Video. I didn’t know what to expect when it came to checking out Season 2 of ‘Picard’, but hoped I would enjoy it and find it a season worthy of my time.
When I saw Season 1 back in 2020, I found it very enjoyable and interesting, as it contained nostalgic elements from previous ‘Star Trek’ shows as well as new ones that echoed the reboot trilogy. I know people have been divided on ‘Picard’ as a series so far, but I wanted to be open-minded in seeing it.
With that said, I can’t say I’m wholly satisfied with Season 2 of ‘Picard’ in general. There are elements of the season that tickled my interest and had me gripped, but the result and revolution in the final episode was quite disappointing. I was hoping for a better outcome with some of the characters.
Like Season 1, Season 2 is ten episodes in total. Patrick Stewart returns as Jean-Luc Picard, as he and his new friends end up travelling back in time to Earth’s past in order to save the future from being turned into a Confederation dictatorship. Picard also struggles to confront his past about his mother.
Now on the one hand, the time travel plot featured in Season 2 of ‘Picard’ is very interesting and enjoyable. It could have worked if it had a fun element to it, like it was in ‘Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home’. Picard’s crew end up going back in time to the year 2024, about two years in our future here.
However, like it seems to be with most recent ‘Star Trek’ properties (I still haven’t seen ‘Discovery’ yet, but I’m sure it’s still the case for this), most of the time travel stuff feels too serious. This is especially with so many complicated elements to wrap your head around concerning Picard’s crew trying to save the future.
The 2024 future in Los Angeles also looks ugly in terms of colour palette. I recall ‘Star Trek IV’ and the ‘Voyager’ two-parter ‘Future’s End’ being cheerful when going back to Earth’s past. At least, there are fewer F-bombs said by the cast compared to Season 1 where there was a plethora of them. The s**t word and the BS word gets used quite often though.
The scenes involving Picard confronting his past about what happened to his mother are interesting to see in Season 2. I don’t think Picard’s past as a young boy was explored enough in the ‘TNG’ series and it was fascinating and saddening to uncover that Picard’s mother tragically hanged herself.
It was nice to see most of the cast of Season 1 back in Season 2. As well as Patrick Stewart, Alison Pill returns as Agnes Jurati. I’m disappointed about what happened to Agnes, as she ends up becoming the new Borg Queen. I quite like her in the series and I hoped that her conversion would be reversed.
Jeri Ryan is back as Seven of Nine as well as Michelle Hurd as Raffi Musiker. Whilst it was nice to see Seven again, I’m not satisfied with how her and Raffi ended up becoming a couple. I felt like that hadn’t been earned in Season 2. Season 3 perhaps, but not Season 2. It all felt too soon for my liking.
Also, didn’t Seven have a relationship with Chakotay in Season 7 of ‘Voyager’. I know people weren’t happy with that angle between Seven and Chakotay, but I can’t recall a reference of their relationship in both Seasons 1 and 2 of ‘Picard’. What happened? Did the two break up at some point?
There’s Evan Evagora as Elnor, who sadly gets killed early on in Season 2 and doesn’t get to go on the time travel mission with Picard and the others. He’s okay when our heroes return to the future. There’s also Santiago Cabrera as Chris Rios, who ends up staying in the past with a new love interest.
I like that Chris gets to end up ‘happily ever after’ with someone in the past, but how come the new love interest in Sol Rodríguez as Teresa Ramirez and her son didn’t go with Chris in the future instead. You know, like when Gillian Taylor ended up going to the future with Kirk in ‘Star Trek IV’?
There’s also Orla Brady as Laris in the future and Tallinn in the ‘past’ (I’m not sure if these two are the same person), and are like the love interests for Picard in Season 2. There’s also Isa Briones as Soji Asha and Kore Soong. Not very sure how Kore Soong is connected to Soji Asha and her sister in the future.
It gets bizarre and confusing when Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher makes an appearance in the final episode of Season 2. It was nice to see Wesley in the series, but how come he never got to have a scene with Picard. Maybe that’s saved for Season 3 to explain how he happened to be in Season 2. 🙂
There’s Brent Spiner as Adam Soong. I enjoyed Brent Spiner’s appearances in Season 2, but I’m intrigued as to how he ended up being the villain and what his motivations were. I believe that Adam Soong came before Arik Soong in the ‘Enterpirse’ trilogy of episodes he was in and he came way before Noonien Soong. 🙂
It was nice to see John de Lancie make a return as Q in Season 2 of ‘Picard’ and interesting how he makes Picard and his crew travel back to the past. There’s also Whoopi Goldberg back as Guinan in the series, although I wish she was in the 2024 scenes as well as the 25th century scenes in Season 2.
Instead, Ito Aghayere plays a young Guinan in Season 2 of ‘Picard’. This confused me, as didn’t Guinan first meet Picard in the ‘TNG’ two-parter ‘Time’s Arrow’ when she was Whoopi Goldberg? Maybe there’s more to Guinan than I thought, but it had me baffled as I watched the season itself. 😐
There’s Madeline Wise as Yvette, Picard’s mother and James Callis as Maurice, Picard’s father. There’s Annie Wersching as the Borg Queen (not Alice Krige sadly) and Penelope Mitchell as Renée Picard, Picard’s ancestor, who’s about to go on an important space flight that could save the future. 🙂
Kirk Thatcher also plays the punk on the bus – the same punk who appeared in ‘Star Trek IV’. I will admit, I found it funny when I saw Kirk Thatcher’s punk on the bus once Seven and Raffi were on it. I’m certain the punk learnt his lesson about playing loud music after being nerve-pinched by Spock. 😀
In terms of the directors of some of the Season 2 episodes of ‘Picard’, Lea Thompson of ‘Back to the Future’ fame directed two episodes and Jonathan Frakes (who played William Riker in ‘TNG’ and Season 1 of ‘Picard’) directed two. I’m quite amazed Lea Thompson directed two ‘Picard’ episodes. 🙂
So, I can’t really say Season 2 of ‘Picard’ is a satisfying season compared to other ‘Star Trek’ seasons I’ve seen over the years. I enjoyed checking out each of the ten episodes in the season on Prime Video, but I wish the season was better in terms of delivering satisfying resolutions for the characters.
Maybe I’ll change my opinion on the series as time goes on. Hopefully by the time I check out Season 3 whenever that comes out, I’ll appreciate ‘Picard’ more as a ‘Star Trek’ series. But at present, I’m looking forward to seeing Season 3 of ‘The Orville’ called ‘New Horizons’, as that’s more ‘Star Trekky’ for me. I’ve also got episodes of ‘Voyager’ to review. 😀
I’m disappointed there wasn’t enough familiar Borg drones in the season. 😦
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
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