Star Trek Picard Season 2: Same scam as “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”

• Star Trek: Picard Season 2 is finally here and it’s already so much better than Season 1!
• While Season 1 was a nostalgia tour that settled on bringing back fan favorite Patrick Stewart, Season 2 brings a breath of fresh air.
• The new episodes follow a concept that was already used in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”.

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 has finally started on Amazon Prime Video. A lot has already happened in the first episode: Whoopi Goldberg has returned as Guinan, Picard gets a little love story, the Borg are back and rogue Q (John de Lancie) reappears!

Without spoiling you, we can reveal that it will continue just as quickly, because we were allowed to see the first three episodes in advance. The second season of “Star Trek: Picard” follows a very clever strategy, which was also followed by the movie “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” in the early 80s.

But before we dive into the parallels, let’s talk about the similarities between Season 1 of Star Trek: Picard and its predecessors, Star Trek: The Movie. Because that’s the only way to see that the “Star Trek” makers took a similar path in both sequels.

Star Trek: The Tough Revival Tour

By the time Star Trek: The Movie, starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley as Kirk, Spock, and Bones, hit theaters in 1979, the Enterprise crew had been gone for ten years. Because the film was a continuation of the series “Spaceship Enterprise”, which was pulped in 1969.

Fueled by the sci-fi boom following the success of “Star Wars,” the Enterprise crew has been brought back, for the first time to the big screen. What fans got was a tough movie that turned out to be one big nostalgia tour. Lots of lengthy shots of the spaceship and lengthy character introductions of familiar favourites!

Some fans would even describe the film as “self-infatuated”. Let’s leave it at that though: the film rests on bringing back a well-loved crew using modern film technology that hasn’t been possible before in the implementation of the Enterprise adventures!

You can pretty much apply this sentence to the first season of “Star Trek: Picard”. With Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard, one of the most popular characters in the “Star Trek” universe has been brought back after 18 years. But the plot rippled along and the new characters were hardly worth mentioning. It was a nice nostalgia tour!

This may be appealing at first, but you can’t build a film series or series on it in the long run. The filmmakers noticed this in the late 1970s and took a new approach with “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”.

Star Trek: That’s why the second approach is so much better!

Instead of coming up with a new story, a popular villain from the series was brought back in Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán). The plot was a reinterpretation of “Moby Dick” and thus a well-known choice among moviegoers.

The familiar concept offered the chance to expand the characters further. It has introduced new dynamics, loosened up old ones, introduced new and fresh characters like Saavik (Kirstie Alley), and built on what fans know and love.

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 does the same thing. With Q (de Lancie) a popular opponent is brought back and with the time travel already promised in the trailers we are offered a story that is very popular with fans. This offers the chance to provide fans with what they love, but also to break with familiar patterns and tease out new nuances.

Parallel universes and time travel are always popular when implemented well. The concept has a lot of potential to address current issues and could bring back the humanity that has always characterized “Star Trek”. It’s about optimism, cohesion and the importance of individual decisions that can determine the well-being of many.

“Star Trek: Picard” season 2 has followed these approaches beautifully in the first three episodes and if the series continues like this, we can expect one of the best “Star Trek” adventures in a long time!

The new characters such as Captain Rios (Santiago Cabrera), Dr. Jurati (Alison Pill), Raffi (Michelle Hurd) and Elnor (Evan Evagora) used elegantly, so that you can even develop sympathy for them. In addition to Q, of course, the Borg also play a role again. But here the story is given a nice, small and above all new spin.

Watch Star Trek: Picard Season 2 on Prime Video

Parallel to the “Picard” episodes, “Star Trek: Discovery” season 4 is currently being released in Germany. After the finale of “Star Trek: Picard” Season 2, “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” will continue in May 2022. We’ll tell you which other “Star Trek” releases await you in 2022!