#Picard Season 2 Lays A Strong Foundation In ‘The Star Gazer’

The first season of “Picard” — set about 20 years after the events of “Star Trek: Nemesis” — began with the new conceit that The Federation had devolved into something a little bit more sinister and xenophobic, having deliberately refused to help the Romulans during a major planetary crisis (clearly meant as a metaphor for both Brexit and the intolerance of Trump’s America). Picard (Patrick Stewart) had left Starfleet in protest and trekked through the events of the season without Starfleet’s imprimatur or aid. From a storytelling perspective, this forced Jean-Luc Picard to act as a free agent, and allowed audiences to see what sort of action he would take while out of uniform. Thematically, it merely played into unexplored ideas of intolerance that were never addressed or undone, except to show that intolerance may lead to one releasing a robot Cthulhu into the galaxy. 

The second season mercifully seems to have ignored the conceit that the Federation is now intolerant, getting back to a more comforting, familiar place where the Federation can stand as a peaceful and hopeful organization once again. Indeed, seemingly fast-forwarding a few years, all the characters appear to be starting in a place of professional stability. Capt. Rios (Santiago Cabrera) is now a uniformed captain of a starship again. Dr. Jurati (Alison Pill) was cleared of the murder charges and has her job back. Raffi (Michelle Hurd) is back in uniform and is now wondering if she’ll have an opportunity to date Seven of Nine. And Elnor (Evan Evagora) has just recently graduated from Starfleet Academy (the flags at the graduation ceremony even reveal that Bajor and the Klingons have become members of the Federation). Even Soji (Isa Briones) seems to have landed a cushy gig as a diplomat, as we see her having a fancy dinner with a group of Deltans (Ilia’s species from “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”). Only Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) is in a dark place, as she’s still essentially a violent space adventurer, although in her introductory scene she is fighting off evil pirates and delivering much-needed cargo to a planet in need — a very “Star Trek” thing to be doing. Picard, meanwhile, is back at his vineyard, happily tending to the grapes, only occasionally putting on his Admiral’s uniform to address graduating Starfleet cadets. Everything, in short, is hunky-dory.

Except, we see, Picard’s encroaching mortality and pervasive loneliness. With the series starting in a familiar, comfortable place, the audience is allowed to see what the characters are really like, rather than just charging headlong with them into crisis situations. As such, we are able to revisit a notion about Picard first mentioned in “Star Trek: Generations”: That he is the last of his family. Picard’s brother and nephew burned to death in a fire in “Generations” and we saw later that one of Picard’s ultimate fantasies was to merely have a home full of children and a loving wife. Picard is now “hovering around a century” in age, and after all but admitting romantic feelings toward his longtime roommate/servant Laris (Orla Brady), Picard finds that he is looking forward to his twilight years alone. This is already a far deeper look at Picard than anything in season one.