Season 2 of Picard brings the Borg Queen back to life to fix the Star Trek timeline

Instead of avoiding nostalgia or indulging in nostalgia entirely, the makers of star trek Channel it often, using references and reboots to revitalize the characters audiences know and love. Picard Season 2 has its own fun, calling characters aboard the USS Sulu or (in an upcoming episode) doing its own homage to one of the lighter Trek films. This season also marks the return of the Borg Queen.

[Ed. note: This piece contains some light spoilers for the end of Picard season 2 episode 1.]

Among the more controversial characters in Trek lore, the Borg Queen first appeared as an antagonist Star Trek: First Contact, who commanded the Borg that took over Earth. Many fans contradicted her role

for, well, she had never been mentioned before by the established Borg race, and the notion of a single queen somehow undermined the hivemind’s terror that made the Borg so unstoppable. Despite this, the Borg Queen assimilated another day and returned for episodes of Traveller and Lower decks.

In Season 2 of Picard she’s back. In the final moments of The Star Gazer season opener, the Queen boards the ship carrying Picard and his crew. “We wish…peace,” she says in her usual mechanical voice, “but first…we demand it […] Energy.” She then unleashes her tendrils, assimilating approximately 90% of Starfleet ships and stunning crew members.

Image: Paramount Plus

No one is less pleased about this than Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), whose traumatic history with the Borg defined much of her arc Picard and Deep Space Nine

and left them permanently in her skull using Borg technology.

“I think that kind of stunned, angry disbelief that she hears, you know, from Picard, who shared some of her experience [being assimilated, …] to hear him say You know what, maybe it’s not that bad‘ Ryan tells Polygon. “It’s just amazing that she cares, that they actually think about it.”

With Q also showing up to tease Picard (and throwing him through some serious time loops), it seems certain that the Borg Queen isn’t done wreaking havoc on our Starfleet heroes.

And yet, w hen co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman sat down and found storylines that went together, he realized that Seven wasn’t dating the Borg Queen at all. With a season focused on connection and intimacy (or lack thereof), Goldsman found inspiration in how the Borg queen existed as “rather binary”; She’s either connected to everyone or completely separate.” To answer that, the authors found Agnes Jurati to be the most logical and interesting companion for them.

In the three episodes shown to critics, Seven barely came into contact with the Borg Queen.

“Seven is working on her relationship with Raffi,” says Goldsman. “Although there are clearly feelings and encounters that are driven by feelings with Seven and the Borg Queen and Picard in the Borg Queen – we know those stories. We told these stories. We might retell them with some kind of darker, more graphic grammar because we’re streaming. But otherwise it’s the same story.

“So the hope here is to have Seven deal with some relationship issues in real time.”

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 is now airing on Paramount Plus. New episodes appear every Thursday.