Star Trek: Picard: The 10 Best Moments From Season 1

This year, Star Trek fans saw the return of Sir Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: Picard 18 years after Stewart hung up in Starfleet uniform in Star Trek: Nemesis. 10 weeks and 10 episodes later, the first season of Star Trek: Picard has come to an end. The finale episode, “Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2,” granted Picard a new lease on life, bid farewell to a fan-favorite character (for good this time), saw another fan-favorite character return to active duty, hinted a romance in the show’s second season, and had plenty of other exciting moments that reshape the Star Trek universe for the future.

But there were so many great moments in the show’s first season that we thought it worthwhile to round up some of our favorites. Some are silly, others are poignant, and a few are jaw-dropping. In order to spread the love throughout the season, we’ve picked one great moment from each fo the 10 episodes that make up the first season of Star Trek: Picard.

What was your favorite moment from the first season of Star Trek: Picard? Let us know what you thought fo the first season fo Star Trek: Picard in the comments. Writing for Star Trek: Picard Season 2 is already underway.

“I Don’t Want the Game to End”

Star Trek: Picard opens with a scene that plays with the audience’s sense of nostalgia. We see the Enterprise-D moving through space. Within, Picard and Data play poker in Ten Forward. 

Yet things are just a bit off. Data is in the wrong uniform and holds a hand of five queens. Soon, it all comes apart and is revealed to be a dream, but it was a nice dream while it lasted.

“Sheer. F—ing. Hubris,”

In the show’s second episode, “Maps and Legends,” Picard heads to Starfleet headquarter in San Francisco. The scene offers a nice bit of familiarity as we see the new Starfleet uniforms and past iterations of the USS Enterprise.

But things don’t go as Picard hopes. His explosive meeting with Admiral Clancy, the head of Starfleet, let fans know that things have changed a great deal in regards to Picard’s relationship with Starfleet. 

“Engage”

The first three episodes of the show serve as the first act of the season. The third episode, “The End is the Beginning,” ends with the perfect crossing the threshold moment.

Joined by Dr. Agnes Jurati and with Romulan agents in pursuit, Picard beams to the La Sirena. He’s greeted by Raffi and Rios. His motley crew assembled, he then gives the command and the adventure is truly underway.

“You Owe Me a Ship”

It isn’t long before Picard puts his crew in a dangerous position. A pit stop to pick up Elnor puts the La Sirena in the crosshairs of a Romulan warlord with an old Bird of Prey. They end up in a fight and things start to look bad for the La Sirena.

Then a mysterious ship shows up with an excellent pilot. The ship saves the La Sirena, but is damaged in the process. Picard orders the ship’s pilot beamed over and it turns out to be none other than Star Trek: Voyager‘s Seven of Nine.

“It’s a free planet!”

The episode “Stardust City Rag” sees Picard and crew catching up with Bruce Maddox at Freecloud. This disreputable community isn’t hospitable to hero types like Seven and Picard, and so they need to put on a disguise and try to bargain for Maddox.

While everyone puts on a flamboyant disguise, there’s something special about Jean-Luc Picard putting on a beret and eyepatch and speaking in an over-the-top French accent. Maybe this is why they didn’t try to make Patrick Stewart affect a French accent in Star Trek: The Next Generation?

“You’re Jean-Luc Picard, not Locutus”

The episode “The Impossible Box” saw the La Sirena crew arrive at the Artifact, the abandoned Borg cube where Soji was working. Picard has to go to the cube alone, but he’s greeted by a familiar fac.e

Picard finds Hugh aboard the ship. The powerful embrace he shares with the former Borg drone was workshopped on set during filming, and it is one fo the show’s most touching moments. 

“Thank you… for not trying to talk me out of this.”

Speaking of powerful reunions, the show’s seventh episode, “Nepenthe,” was one big one of those. Seeking a place to rest and figure out his next movie, Picard takes Soji to the planet Nepenthe.

There he reunites with his former first officer Will Riker and former ship’s counselor Deanna Troi. This entire episode is one long tender moment for Star Trek: The Next Generation fans, but perhaps the most tender is when Picard steals a moment with Riker to thank him for everything he’s done.

“We are Borg.”

In the eighth episode, “Broken Pieces,” Seven comes to the rescue again. This time, she answers Elnor’s distress call and finds him aboard the Artifact.

In order to help save the ex-Borg on the cube, Seven hooks herself back into the cube’s hivemind and temporarily becomes the ship’s queen. It’s a big moment for anyone who has followed Seven’s journey from Star Trek: Voyager.

“Fascinating.”

In order to find the truth about the Admonition, Soji’s sister Sutra performs a Vulcan mind-meld with Dr. Jurati. This reveals the message to androids from an extradimensional alliance of synthetic life.

The moment says a lot about how far synthetic life has come, seeing that they can perform a technique difficult even for many Vulcans. It also ties together the stories of tow classic Star Trek outsider characters, Spock and Data.

“Blue Skies”

Picking a favorite moment from the finale was tough. There’s Riker returning to duty, and the new twist on the Picard maneuver.

But in the end, we had to go with the one the exemplifies what the season was all about. Picard dies, but he is sent into a quantum simulation where Data’s consciousness still resides.

By the end of their conversation, Data asks Picard to allow him to die. This is a moment carrying a lot of different meanings. It symbolizes Picard coming to piece with Data’s sacrifice, and the natural conclusion to Data’s quest to become more human. On top of that, it also serves as a much better sendoff than the one Data got in Star Trek: Nemesis.