10 Star Trek Movies And TV Episodes That Enhance Picard Season 2

5. Star Trek: First Contact

All good things Star Trek The Next Generation
Paramount Pictures

Star Trek: First Contact is another key text in the Picard canon. It's a retelling of Moby Dick but instead of a white whale it's a race of cyborgs linked by a hive mind. There's a time travel element too, as the crew of the Enterprise has to ensure that a key moment in Star Trek history occurs as planned. This is also the plot of Picard season 2, complete with a guest role for the Borg Queen.

Played by 24's Annie Wersching rather than Alice Krige, the uneasy relationship between Picard and the Queen is still there. The moment in episode 3 where she welcomes back "Locutus" is spine chilling. Patrick Stewart's portrayal of fear and rage shows that, despite the intervening years, Picard still hasn't quite moved on from the tortured, self-destructive man he was in First Contact.

Like First Contact, Picard season 2 is also about preventing a change to the history of the Federation. Whatever it is that Q has done, it has fundamentally changed the founding principles of Starfleet. Much like the Borg's invasion of Earth and prevention of first contact with the Vulcans changed the timeline in the second TNG movie.

Contributor
Contributor

Citizen of the Universe, Film Programmer, Writer, Podcaster, Doctor Who fan and a gentleman to boot. As passionate about Chinese social-realist epics as I am about dumb popcorn movies.