For the first time in 20 years, Whoopi Goldberg is back in the Star Trek universe. In the new trailer for Star Trek: Picard season 2, Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard faces a time-bending problem. But there’s no one better-suited to give him advice than his old friend, Guinan (Goldberg). And while the future of humanity and the Federation may be at stake, Guinan tells Picard that the “answers are not in the stars. And they never have been.”
The trailer also seems to indicate that John de Lancie’s Q was not responsible for the incident that put Picard and his crew into a new timeline. However, Q is definitely taking advantage of the chaos to put Picard through another test. The nearly omnipotent being hasn’t appeared to Picard since the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. And Q always relishes his mind games, because the trial of humanity never ends.
Picard isn’t the only one who has been altered by this change in time. For example, Seven of Nine is now simply “Annika.” In this timeline, Annika was never assimilated by the Borg and she remains fully human. While Seven would ordinarily welcome that change, she is still working with Picard to fix the course of history. To do that, the crew has to make their way to 2024.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine established 2024 as a year of great social upheaval that marked the beginning of society’s transformation into something better. But if Picard and his friends want to restore their history, then they’re going to have to get used to a very rough century.
Goldberg had a recurring role on Star Trek: The Next Generation for six seasons, and she reprised her role as Guinan in two of the TNG feature films, 1994’s Generations and 2002’s Nemesis. Her return to the franchise shouldn’t be too surprising, considering that Stewart went to Goldberg’s day job as host of The View and personally invited her to appear in this season. That was nearly two years ago, but it remains a heartwarming scene.
Alison Pill also stars in the series as Agnes Jurati, with Isa Briones as Soji Asha, Evan Evagora as Elnor, Michelle Hurd as Raffi Musiker, Santiago Cabrera as Cristobal “Chris” Rios, and Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine. Annie Wersching will also recur this season as the Borg Queen.
Star Trek: Picard season 2 will premiere on March 3 on Paramount+.
