We already knew that Star Trek: Picard is coming back for a second season, which will formally debut in 2022. The show will see the return of Patrick Stewart reprising his role as Jean-Luc Picard but details about the cast remain mysterious, to say the least. Yet, on First Contact Day, we may have gotten a better picture at not just the narrative of the second season but returning characters as well, mainly in the form of John de Lancie as Q.
In the trailer, we’re taken around what is presumed to be the office of Picard, with ornamental ships, pictures, and Starfleet com-badges littered throughout the grand room. The camera then pans to a table where a queen of hearts is laying on top of a chessboard. As the card fades away, only one portion remains, the red “Q”, and the voice of de Lancie can be heard declaring “The trial is never over.”
The trial obviously refers to the Q Continuum’s trial of humanity, with Picard often serving as the voice of humanity. With the central focus of the season being about time and how it’s the true “final frontier”, this may be setting up some grand finale of not just the show, but the character as well.
"The trial never ends." ✨ #StarTrekPicard #FirstContactDay pic.twitter.com/42ey4IyN2y
— Star Trek (@StarTrek) April 5, 2021
For fans of the show, and its predecessor series, the Next Generation, de Lancie and Stewart made the dynamic between Q and Picard one of the best portions of the show. de Lancie became so popular that he appeared on The Next Generation and its spinoff shows Deep Space Nine and Voyager.
de Lancie was gone from Star Trek for some time, before returning to Lower Decks for its inaugural season, reprising his character of Q. Now de Lancie will return again, this time as the foil of Picard yet again.