Star Trek: Picard Showrunner Akiva Goldsman Says Season 2 Is a Redemption Story

Star Trek: Picard returns to Paramount+ this week with the debut of its second season, which finds Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) with a new lease on life after season one and potentially ready for romance. But co-creator/co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman tells ComicBook.com that the new season is still looking to dig deep into what makes Picard tick, which means looking towards untold chapters of Picard's past. 

 "I think season one was resurrection, and this might be redemption," Goldsman says. "I think we're going deeper in reverse, and what I mean by that we're going backwards in both time and in spirit, in psychology, so it's a look inward, a look back."

When Goldman says they're going backward in time, he means that literally. Picard's second season has a plot involving time travel. That, plus the inclusion of a Borg queen, might lead some fans to think of this season as a spiritual sequel to Star Trek: First Contact, similar to how the first season seemed to address plot threads from Star Trek: Nemesis. Goldsman says that's he's not thinking of it that way.

"I don't, although I do certainly think that your assessment of season one is germane, and I think it's right," he says. "I think there was some closure required there, giving everybody an opportunity to say goodbye to Data in a more fulsome way. That was a territory that, although had been trodden, we wanted to retread. This takes us into Picard's heart and mind in a way that is, I think, new territory.

"Having said that, obviously our guide [in Season Two] is familiar. And so, in some ways, it could be a spiritual sequel to any and every Q episode you might have liked."

That guide is Q, the near-omnipotent alien being played again by frequent Star Trek: The Next Generation guest star John de Lancie. His return as Q, and Whoopi Goldberg reprising her role as Picard's confidant Guinan, seems like a shift from the previous season, as the creators were reluctant to have too many returning TNG stars.

"It's not that we didn't want to bring people back, just to be clear," Goldsman says. "We only wanted to bring people back with reason. And we do have a a three season plan and I think that you'll see that, not shockingly, to reach into Picard's psyche., there are a couple of folks who are uniquely suited to do that. First among equals would be Q and Guinan. So they're there because the story wants them ."

As for what makes that relationship between Picard and Q special, Goldsman says, "I think that Q and Picard have a deep connection that abides and I think that we don't typically see this with our protagonists. I think, as fidelity goes, Q and Picard are as durable a relationship as any parent, and I think that we've always responded to that. I think it's always beguiled us. We always want more and, hopefully, you get a little bit more."

Star Trek: Picard Season Two premieres on Paramount+ on Thursday, March 3rd. Star Trek: Picard Season One is streaming now.