Star Trek: 10 Episodes You Must Watch Before Picard Season 3

Picard's third season is just around the corner and there are some stories well worth revisiting.

Lore Star Trek TNG Picard
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Season three of Star Trek: Picard promises to be the biggest episodic event of the Kurtzman era since Discovery debuted in 2017.

Following on from the synthetic and Romulan threats of season one and the time-bending antics of Q in season two, this eagerly awaited third year has already laid out its Prime Directive. It firmly aims to provide the crew of TNG with a more fitting send-off than many fans thought they received through the oft-lambasted Star Trek: Nemesis.

The NYCC Comic-Con trailer has whetted the appetite if nothing else and contains several nods to the past, teasing positive moves for the future of the franchise. Terry Matalas has openly stated that there is at least one scene in the upcoming season that will see all of the TNG cast onscreen and both Gates McFadden and Marina Sirtis have gushed with excitement over their significant roles within the upcoming story.

Set to combine the Enterprise-D crew with returning canon villains and a new, mysterious Romulan threat, Picard’s third season appears to have everything going for it but what might fans could well need to refresh themselves before heading into the new final journey of the most influential crew in Starfleet history.

If fans need a crash course to keep up with the action then here are ten episodes that should help iron out some of the questions that are likely to come up.

10. Hope And Fear - Star Trek: Voyager, S4EP26

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A curveball entry to this list but it would be unfair not to touch on the returning Seven of Nine.

Including Hope and Fear comes down to the character exploration and a particular arc that runs through the episode. It may at first appear to have a tonne more in common with season one of Star Trek: Prodigy but for Seven there are some key conversations here that lay the foundations for her appearance in Picard.

Hope and Fear raises the question as to whether Seven will be welcomed back in the Alpha Quadrant. In the episode, she seriously considers remaining behind. This is a pre-cursor to Seven's actual experience with Starfleet when she does set foot on Earth following Endgame, which is referenced during her time on 21st Century Earth in Picard's second season.

Season one saw Seven as a member of the Fenris Rangers and season two raised that question of acceptance in Starfleet once more. Ultimately Farewell, the season two finale, would see Seven taking command of the USS Stargazer to close down a galaxy-threatening temporal anomaly, and season three will place her in Starfleet as the first officer of the new USS Titan-A.

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A Star Trek fan from birth, I love to dive into every aspect of the franchise in front and behind the screen. There's something here that's kept me interested for the best part of four decades! Now I'm getting back into writing and using Star Trek as my first line of literary attack. If I'm not here on WhatCulture then you're more than welcome to come and take a look at my blog, Some Kind of Star Trek at http://SKoST.co.uk or maybe follow me on Twitter as @TheWarpCore. Sometimes I force myself not to talk about Star Trek.