Did Star Trek Beat Marvel to a Secret Invasion Story on Streaming With Picard Season 3?

On Sunday, Marvel Studios released the trailer for Secret Invasion, its upcoming alien invasion thriller. In Secret Invasion, the aging Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and his allies must work the thwart the clandestine takeover of Earth by shapeshifting aliens. That plot may sound a bit familiar to Star Trek fans. That's because Star Trek: Picard Season 3 sees an aging Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his allies working the thwart the clandestine takeover of the United Federation of Planets (of which Earth is a founding member) by a group of shapeshifting aliens. Did Star Trek beat Marvel to the punch?

The basic premise of Secret Invasion is similar to Star Trek: Picard Season 3 on the surface. However, there are some important ways that they differ.

How Secret Invasion and Star Trek: Picard Season 3 are alike

As mentioned, the basic plot synopses of the two stories resemble each other. In Secret Invasion, the Skrulls have infiltrated Earth using their shapeshifting abilities. Their precise goal with the invasion is unclear, especially since they were depicted sympathetically in their first Marvel Cinematic Universe appearance in Captain Marvel.

In Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Picard and his friends learn that Starfleet has been infiltrated up to its highest levels by Changelings. Decades ago, the Federation, the Klingon Empire, and the Romulan Star Empire formed an unprecedented alliance to stop an invasion by the Dominion, controlled by the Changelings. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine chronicled that conflict, which came to be known as the Dominion War. The war only ended after Starfleet introduced a biological weapon that targeted the Changelings' shapeshifting physiology. Star Trek: Picard Season 3 isn't about a second Dominion War, but an attempt at getting revenge by a splinter group of extremist Changelings. Their exact goals remain as uncertain as the Skrulls' other than that they somehow involve Starfleet's Frontier Day celebration and Picard's original body.

The difference between Secret Invasion and Star Trek: Picard Season 3

On paper, these two stories sound pretty similar. The difference is in the execution. Based on the Secret Invasion trailer, Marvel is leaning hard into the Disney+ series being an espionage thriller, with Fury not knowing who to trust or turn to for help.

Star Trek: Picard played with that conspiracy story vibe for the episode that brought back Ro Laren, and it's still in the background of the story, but it isn't the central narrative. Star Trek: Picard Season 3 seems to be a much more character-focused story.

Yes, the Changelings infiltrating Starfleet is a big deal and it isolates Picard and his friends from their usual support network.  However, that's not really what the season is about, not in the same way that it's what Secret Invasion appears to be about. The plot is orchestrated to get the old Enterprise crew back together and pose a credible threat that only they can handle. But what the story is really about, as showrunner Terry Matalas has put plainly, is legacy. The Changeling conspiracy is there to facilitate Picard and the rest of the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew reckoning with their legacies, dealing with their complicated family relationships, and what they'll leave behind to "the next next generation." And, in a way, the Changelings are a reflection of that as the legacy of Starfleet's actions during the Dominion War returned to haunt them.

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 and Marvel's Secret Invasion share some surface-level similarities, but judging from what we know about both at present, they're both different stories. Star Trek: Picard's alien infiltration elements are a means to an end. For Secret Invasion, as the name implies, that alien invasion and the spy genre thrills it brings is the point.

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 debuts new episodes on Paramount+ on Thursdays. Secret Invasion premieres on Disney+ on June 21st.