Star Trek: Picard Gets New Trailer & Release Window

Warning: The following article may reference or include spoilers for Star Trek: Picard. Reader’s discretion is advised.

John de Lancie is the only man referred to as Q that I’ll listen to about mad conspiracies. It really is like the late 80s/90s all over again. There is half-decent Star Trek on TV and Discovery can sometimes be a bit like Voyager. Ok, given I’m about to talk about Star Trek: Picard, moaning about Discovery again is going to seem a little bit like a stretch. After all, season 1 did have an ending that was… a tad trite to say the very least, or at least all I can say about it without swearing profusely.

Given it was Star Trek Day yesterday, we got several announcements about the franchise as a whole, including Discovery‘s return this November, Picard’s season 3 renewal, and more such as cast reveals. Today I want to focus on Picard‘s latest trailer and the reveal of its release in February 2022 on Paramount+ in the US and Amazon Prime elsewhere. I say I want to focus on that, but Star Trek: Strange New Worlds does have Rebecca Romijn, and it is hard not to focus on that. Though it’s a bit obvious now since I opened the article with it, we’re getting Q back again because that’s all this series is, a nostalgia trip.

It is called Picard after all, and him dying at the end of the last season only to be brought back as robo-Picard was a bit naff. So why not just go the whole hog and let’s do the time-jumping, Q-created alternate timeline with the Borg, and have Picard swearing again. I never liked that, the point was always that Starfleet are professionals and therefore professionals don’t swear. That’s the in-universe reason we never got an R-rated Star Trek on TV through the 80s and into the 90s. Yet, it is clear as day in the trailer with the little comedy edit, as if it is something to be proud of.

It is visually stunning and of course, a little confusing with a bit of trailer editing, though it is generally interesting. This alternate-timeline totalitarian Picard could be an interesting topic to approach, and the time travel bits to the modern day is going to be something. Will it be good? I don’t know. I’m cautious to say either way after the robo-space-cop business last time out. Though I hope with this season they’ll have addressed the pacing issues, as that is the other major criticism I have of Picard. The first episode was fine, the majority of the series was a bit ponderous to move along, and the last 15-25 minutes of the season finale did all the heavy lifting.