Star Trek: Picard ended its first season with a huge transformation for its title character. Jean-Luc Picard had been suffering from a fatal brain disease, which he finally succumbed to during the battle with the Romulans on Coppelius. However, thanks to the tech of Alton Soong, he was resurrected in a sophisticated synthetic body. The artificial form was programmed to replicate Picard’s human physiology and to age as he would for a normal human lifespan.
That explanation seemed to tie up any loose ends, allowing Picard to go forth and continue to travel the stars with his crew aboard La Sirena without having to worry about his previous illness. However, star Sir Patrick Stewart has now hinted that there will be further consequences of Picard’s new body that will be explored in season 2. While speaking to Gold Derby, he suggested the question of how Jean-Luc will adjust to his new reality has to be answered.
“Brilliantly and wonderfully, they were able to perform surgery on me in such a way that I survived and came back,” Stewart says of the season’s ending. “But, now with an artificial life inside me – not a subservient cruel one like the Borg, but we shall see. We don’t know how Picard is going to live with this new condition which has become part of his life, which is going to extend his life.”
Season 1 was all about the conflict between organic/synthetic life, from the external conflict of the Zhat Vash and the Synths to the internal conflict of characters like Seven of Nine, who like Picard was once one of the Borg, and Soji, who believed she was organic but then discovered the truth. So, it only makes sense that this theme will be continued going forward by Picard becoming an android.
It’s interesting that Seven will apparently be a full-time member of his crew in season 2, as she could become a real confidante for Picard as he deals with his new situation. It will also be fascinating to see what his old friends might think about it, too, given that even more former The Next Generation stars will be returning when the show comes back.
Star Trek: Picard season 2 is being scripted now, so it’s presumably still on schedule to arrive sometime in 2021. Watch this space for more.
