YouTube Screenshot from a trailer for Picard Season 2
During the First Contact Day celebration hosted by StarTrek.com and Paramount+, Patrick Stewart confirmed that production on season two of Star Trek: Picard is well underway. He then introduced a brand new trailer for the second season, which confirmed fan theories about the return of a fan-favorite character.
Q Will be Back in ‘Picard’ Season 2
The trailer focused on the concept of time, hinting that time travel may play a big role in the second season. At the very end of the trailer, the camera zoomed in on a Queen of Hearts playing card. The card began to slowly break apart into dust until the only piece of the card left was the Q. The table in the background faded away to a solid background with just the letter Q. A voiceover proclaimed, “The trial never ends,” followed by maniacal laughter.
While the host, Wil Wheaton, and Stewart were discussing the trailer, Wheaton announced that a special guest was joining them. After a moment of buildup, John de Lancie popped up on the screen. Of course, de Lancie is the actor who played the character Q in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Lower Decks.
Stewart looked shocked, suggesting that he didn’t know de Lancie was going to drop in on the panel. He and Wheaton greeted de Lancie, and they began to chat about the trailer.
Wheaton expressed his excitement about the confirmation that Q would be appearing in Picard. In response, de Lancie joked that he thought it was supposed to be a secret, but said that his presence on the panel must be an official confirmation. He went on to say that he thought his return to the Star Trek universe was a “long time coming.” He also said that he was “more than ready” to be back.
Q and Picard Face Off Again
Wheaton asked Stewart and de Lancie if they could give fans any hints about how Q and Captain Jean-Luc Picard will meet up in Picard. Both of the actors said they had to be careful about what they shared. They expressed their excitement about the storyline that brings the characters together and gushed about how wonderful it was to work with each other again.
Wheaton commented that he loved the dynamic between Picard and Q. This prompted Stewart and de Lancie to discuss the fine line their characters walked between being enemies and friends and how it created some hilarious tension. They promised that the interactions between Picard and Q will be just as entertaining as they were in The Next Generation.
What Role Will Q Play in Picard’s Journey?
Neither of the actors gave any hints about why Q will be back or how his reunion with Picard will happen. However, the teaser trailer gave some very interesting hints.
As Q has demonstrated before, members of the Continuum have the ability to manipulate the human experience of time. The Q themselves exist outside the confines of time, so they can move back and forth through time at will.
They can also bring people through time or even into alternate timelines, as demonstrated in the TNG episode “Tapestry.” Since the entire teaser focused on the concept of time, this suggests that Q might be bringing Picard through time or altering the timeline.
Toward the end of the trailer, there was another telling line — “Time offers so many opportunities, but never second chances.”
This seems to imply that the characters will be given the chance to change something that happened in the past.
The last line of the trailer, “The trial never ends,” is a reference to the very first episode of TNG. In “Encounter at Farpoint,” Q appeared for the first time and put the crew of the Enterprise on trial for all the crimes committed by humankind. The inclusion of that reference in the trailer could just be a clever way to confirm Q’s return. Or it could hint that the trial that began over 30 years ago never ended and that Q is returning to give his final verdict.
At this point, everything is speculation other than the fact that Q is coming back to wreak some kind of havoc.
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