The first trailer for season 2 of Star Trek: Picard it was released on Monday, and it was certainly meant to get fans talking. There is no footage of the show yet, just an overview of various items in Jean-Luc Picard’s office: a clock and an hourglass, a painting and model of the Starship Enterprise, a copy of Milton Lost paradise and Dixon Hill’s novel The Long Dark Tunnel. But the real provocation comes at the end, with the image of a playing card dissolving to leave a revealing “Q” behind, and a single line said off by John de Lancie, the actor who played the powerful distortion alien from reality Q several iterations of Star Trek show the past.
The teaser implies that Q will return to face Picard, his first foil of Trek and favorite opponent, when the second season will air in 2022. Even more, however, the theme of this 63-second teaser seems to be about Picard laments, and how nothing can be done about “what could have been” – unless, that is, Q offers him a chance to change the past. The visual emphasis on watches, along with Patrick Stewart’s narration as star of the series Jean-Luc Picard, talking about “second chances” and history, suggests possible mischief in the timeline in Season 2.
A lot of Star Trek: PicardPicard’s first season focused on Picard’s feelings of failure and regret after the star of the Romulans’ home system became a supernova. He promised resettlement aid and assistance, but the Federation reneged on the promise, leaving the Romulans suffering a catastrophe. Picard left Starfleet furious and became an exile, and his feelings of betrayal and helplessness drove much of the often contradictory and troubled plot of the first season. It is possible that Season 2 will continue to deal with the consequences of these life-changing events, and how Q’s powers over space and time could change them and allow Picard to redeem himself. Or the series could just let Picard enter a past iteration of the show and deal with someone else’s problems, like the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine the episode “Trials and Tribble-ations” did when placing the cast in the original Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles.”
Where Q is concerned, almost anything is possible – including a DS9 flashback or crossover episode, given yet another mysterious item in the teaser. For some reason, sitting in the middle of Picard’s office, is the old Bajoran tablet that Captain Sisko broke on DS9 episode “The Reckoning.” It is unclear what this could mean for the second season – it could be anything from a return to Deep Space Nineplots of a disposable Easter egg for hardcore Trek fans. As a way to arouse public curiosity, however, it is a smart move. With possibly more than a year waiting for the next season to come, they will need something to reflect on in the meantime.