New Star Trek: Picard Trailer Offers First Look At Old Friends And Foes
The new Star Trek: Picard trailer has the titular character coming across all manner of folks from his past. Some friends, some enemies
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Hot off the news of its upcoming release date in March, Paramount+ has released the first official Star Trek: Picard trailer — and it’s quite a thing to behold. The Star Trek: Picard trailer opens very strong, with the famous character from Star Trek: The Next Generation facing some kind of new, immense peril accompanied by his crew of misfits he gathered from the first season of the spinoff series. As the crew faces their imminent threat, the voice of Jean-Luc Picard begins discussing history-making moments in life that exist in capsules of time. Each is essential to the world as we know it.
Of course, the Star Trek: Picard trailer then makes it clear that season 2 of the show will, of course, be breaking those rules. To make that clear, Jean-Luc wakes up in a room where he is greeted by none other than his old frenemy Q, played by returning Star Trek: The Next Generation cast member John de Lancie. For those unfamiliar, Q is an omnipotent being that encounters the crew of the Enterprise under Picard’s command and essentially says he will be watching them on their adventures to see if humanity is worthy of survival on a galactic scale. He returned in the series finale to determine, after some hemming and hawing, that they were. Check out the trailer:
However, the Star Trek: Picard trailer seems to indicate that Q isn’t done with Picard nor humanity. He seems to have something to do with the crew going back in time to their past, and our future, the year 2024, according to the season’s synopsis. Because all that sounds incredibly complicated, Picard decides to visit an old friend who just so happens to be the only person to have ever made Q nervous and the only other person who knows a thing or two about time travel — Guinan.
That’s right, after years away, fans were given their first at Whoopi Goldberg reprising her role as the former Ten Forward bartender with a slew of ineffable powers of her own. In true Guinan fashion, the Star Trek: Picard trailer sees her ordering her good friend’s favorite drink (“tea, earl grey, piping hot”) before he’s even announced himself to her.
What the Star Trek: Picard trailer won’t tell you is how very special EGOT winner Whoopi Goldberg is to the Star Trek: The Next Generation franchise in general. As Wil Wheaton wrote in 2020, shortly after it was confirmed that the actress and The View host would be reprising her role in Star Trek: Picard season 2, she was almost single-handedly responsible for keeping the show on the air.
As fans of the show will note, the first season of the spinoff to Star Trek: The Original Series didn’t go super well. It was, as Wil Wheaton called it “uneven.” So much so that the network was thinking of pulling the plug. Not only would there not have been a Star Trek: Picard trailer but there may not have been the remaining six seasons of television that are so beloved today. However, when Whoopi Goldberg decided to use her Hollywood clout to get a role on the seemingly down and out new series, it wasn’t hard for the network to give it one more shot. So, it’s only fitting that she’s one of the few characters reprising their role for more Star Trek: Picard in season 2.
