On Friday Star Trek: Picard stars Isa Briones (Soji / Sutra / Dahj), Evan Evagora (Elnor), and Michelle Hurd (Raffi Musiker) took part in a virtual panel for the ReedPop Metaverse. The trio of actors talked about joining the series and their experiences during the first season, as well as expressing their hopes for season two. We have the highlights plus the full video below.
Picard stars talk season two hopes
The second season of Star Trek: Picard was supposed to begin production over the summer, but has been delayed for obvious reasons. While they wait, the stars of the show are pondering what they want to be doing once they get back on the set.
Michelle Hurd talked about that final scene in the season one finale showing the crew of La Sirena together, headed off to parts unknown. She expressed her desire to learn more about how this group will get to know each other in the next season:
I would just love to see how this crazy group of people learn to function together. Because we haven’t really seen that until the last bit [of the season one finale]. I think it would be really exciting to just see who clashes with who. Who gets along with who. Who’s got a crush on who… I’m really just curious to see how this little group, this beautiful perfectly imperfect motley crew, navigate the universe. I think that would be really cool.
One strong possibility for Hurd’s hope for crushes may be for her Raffi and Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine. The season one finale showed a brief moment of romance between Raffi and Seven, and Ryan has already confirmed she will be back in season two.
Isa Briones also picked up on the same theme, and tied it into larger themes about Star Trek:
It’s cool how the end really leaves it open to anything. At this point we just kind fly off into the sunset. So it can go in any direction. I do think that no matter what, I think we’re going to see relationships developing even more.
I think that’s the most exciting thing, especially about Star Trek. What it’s always done so well is developing these characters. It’s so character-driven and seeing how these relationships form. Because it’s all about humanity; how we all coexist with each other. So seeing how we all interact with each other and become this funny little family is going to be really exciting.
The crew of La Sirena as we last saw them in the season finale
Evan Evagora agreed, but had a special request:
I’d also like to see this dynamic of how all the crew are together. But I’d also like to see more of the alum make their appearances. I think I’d be really excited for that.
In addition to Sir Patrick Stewart and Star Trek: Voyager’s Ryan, season one of Picard also featured several Star Trek: The Next Generation alumni: Jonathan Del Arco (Hugh), Brent Spiner (Data, Alton Soong), Jonathan Frakes (Riker), and Marina Sirtis (Troi). Recent comments from Stewart and Picard producers have indicated that some of those actors may return in season two, with Brent Spiner’s Dr. Soong being the most likely. Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan) has been confirmed to have a role in season two, and both LeVar Burton (Geordi) and Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher) have strongly hinted they will appear as well.
Brent Spiner as Alton Soong
Watch the full panel
Keep up with all the Star Trek: Picard news and analysis here at TrekMovie.com.
“The crew of the La Sirena as we last saw them in the season finale.”
Okay, this is really superfluous nitpicking on my part but I think La Sirena should not be given with an additional English article.
Ship names can be given with or without an article. It can be THE Enterprise (TOS/TNG) or just Enterprise as it was mainly done on ENT and VOY.
But if the ship’s name already includes a foreign language article, it sounds a bit strange: the The Siren…
No one would say: the crew of the The Flying Dutchman or the crew of the The Millennium Falcon…
Okay, that was by far the most pointless post I’ve ever written… :-)
You’re correct, that’s a mistake. I’ve fixed it. We’ve generally been pretty careful to not do that.
Star Trek Picard ist realy offensive to all People out in the World who dont live in a happy world and got inspired by Star Trek TNG that one day there would be a better life for all of us. Thanks to Kurtzman for take that away from all the people out there who need a little hope. Thanks for nothing taking an utopian idea of menkinds future away and show as the same moral decline and violence as we see it in nearly every other dams TV show at the moment. Kurtzmann Trek is offending and discriminating and you guy call it “entertainment”.
So don’t watch it if you find it offensive. It takes nothing away from you unless you let it.
you should answer this to Cancel Culture proponents
What on earth does “cancel culture” (assuming such a thing really exists; a different debate) has to do with PICARD or its portrayal of humanity’s future?
That’s the problem. There is no awareness of what Star Trek meant to some people. It was an anchor of hope for people who live in really difficult circumstances. Now Star Trek is just a slap in the face of today’s world, showing violence and moral decline. This is an insult to all those people who have changed their lives through this series.
On the surface, PIC is riddled with “trailer moments” right out of your average adult/mature premium show. There certainly is a certain ignorance on the producers’ part when it comes to some core values of Trek.
But while that is very well the case, it is also true that against that unfortunate backdrop, there is still an ongoing exploration of values, morality and the human condition. These people are still discussing their flaws and failures, hope is not entirely lost.
Trek has never been a surgically sterile, stale portrayal of a perfect future. There have always been instances of murder, terror, war and violence, though arguably the POV has shifted a bit.
On the old shows, these vices used to be of external provenience: the bad guys were some alien terrorists from the outside while there was relatively little conflict among the Starfleet crew. On PIC, we have main characters with numerous character flaws, which is a bold step away from what Trek had been originally.
But none of this is entirely new: we had flawed former Bajoran freedom fighters and flawed Maquis terrorists on both DS9 and VOY, we had MACOs and torture on ENT: The amount of ambivalence has increased significantly on DSC and PIC but neither show is “rotten to the core”…
There is still good in them. I can feel it. They can still be turned back to the light side… Oops… wrong franchise :-)
Sorry, but “cancel culture” is an intolerant, authoritarian way of dealing with important issues. Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters, even if you righteously loath what some backward people believe in. Imposing virtues with a sledgehammer will only lead to a malicious counter movement endangering the precious steps of progress made over the last 50 years. Especially since “cancel culture” doesn’t seem to have made up its mind what exactly they really want.
For example: there are many ways to fight racism: one would be simply ignoring one’s race and treating everybody equally. Another way is putting an emphasis on racial identity and awareness. Who is right? The one fighting racism by simply overcoming the concept of race as it was tried in the 60s? Or the one putting a major stress on identity as woke culture does now? I don’t know! Do you?
For example: genderism. There are languages like German whose feminist speakers insist on always including the gender suffix. The English language feminists try to get rid of the gender suffix as in actress or empress. I don’t know who’s right either. Do you?
Many of these progressive concepts are work in progress and it is very dangerous to impose one’s interpretation of “woke” on other people based on a hunch that could be outdated in a decade or two. That way, your support becomes fragmentary as not everyone on “your side”, on “our side”, shares the same concepts of “woke”…
Star Trek was rarely about magic solutions or a perfect future. The crew was often fighting/overcoming darkness of various kinds, both internal and external — even if it was G-rated darkness.
I do agree to your post to some degree although I want to differenciate a bit. There are certainly elements in Picard that don’t really add up to Trek’s original vision as seen on TOS and certainly TNG: smoking, drinking, cursing, some instances of very graphic violence, instances of an indifferent, loveless sexuality, tattoos, pointless provocations against the Prime Directive, the prevalance of a monetary economy etc…
These elements don’t feel like sticking to the spirit of Trek but seem downright taken from shows like GoT, TWD, The Expanse, you name it. Sames with some elements from DSC… and these elements literally go against statements from classic Trek shows which had claimed that such despair was ancient history…
While I’m not happy myself with these developments at all – actually I happen to increasingly dislike contemporary TV because of its bad influence on Trek – I also have to respect Trek’s second pillar: IDIC… infinite diversity in infinite combinations. So all of these unfavorable elements not only CAN be part of Trek, they – to some degree – HAVE TO be part of it, unless you eradicate them from “infinity”…
Even TNG’s most utopian era, season 1, had its fair share of controversy such as Conspiracy’s gory outcome, the innuendo in Justice or the racism of Code of Honor. Shows like DS9, or ENT S3, even some eps. of VOY, have already introduced ambivalence and grit to Trek, breaking with some ancient taboos of the franchise.
DSC and especially PIC are definitely taking this boundary pushing to a whole new level up to which it becomes difficult to recognize the fictional world it’s supposed to be set in. But hey, TMP or TWOK did not look like TOS either, DS9’s Dominion War arc was far from the selfrighteous perfect humanity in TNG’s pilot, the NextGen movies had already used crazy amounts of action and villain-driven plot devices that are more typical for CBMs or 007 than it used to be for Trek.
Trek has changed a lot over the last 54 years and it has to be possible to appreciate any change to some small degree.
I believe: if there is a God and this God is everything that ever was, is and will be, then this God also has to be evil to some degree. If Trek is my incarnation of God, it can contain some evil, it has to, because of IDIC… Infinity of diversity also includes evil, despair and suffering… hope only shines against the backdrop of those unfavorable circumstances…
And this comes from someone who constantly speaks up against certain elements I dislike…
How about better writing for season 2? That would be nice.
Sure would. I’m not holding my breath.
And less eye balls!!
Eyeballs are so Farscape S2… and that was closing on two decades ago.
Season 2 needs better writing. Season 1 wasn’t so great but at least we got to see Picard again.
It really wasn’t great – there were some interesting ideas and concepts, but overall it didn’t work.
I think it’s quite the opposite: there were some truly awful choices and unnecessarily provocative scenes a long the way, but overall it worked fine, either as a standalone entry or as a start for a bigger show.
I don’t feel like we did see Picard. I feel like we saw Patrick Stewart. In retrospect, I wish we hadn’t.
I remember seeing Picard on Picard.
Sir Patrick was certainly responsible for some of the changes in the universe. At least, he welcomed those changes from his artiste POV. PIC S1 wasn’t exactly Shakespeare, but Shakespeare is full of violence, betrayal, vices and cussing. From his POV, TNG was far too tame and sterile and he wanted to go fully Logan on Trek. Hence he changed the character to some degree.
I’ll say it again.
It was very much less, as a whole, than the sum of its parts.
So much so that despite several wonderful episodes, elements and performances, my reaction to hype about the next season is “meh” . And that saddens me. At this point, I’m more excited to see what happens with some of the less prominent roles in Discovery.
I really hope that Kurtzman and the writers continue to read and listen to “everything” as he said in the recent Gold Derby interview.
Serial television is a very unforgiving format, but it’s possible. I’ve watched both Farscape and Continuum over the past year and, despite both being cut short after season 3 by Syfy, both series landed with logical conclusions.
SH Trek needs to really lean in and commit to novel-quality plotting for its serial series. Hopefully, COVID’s disruptive change to the way Picard and Discovery are being written and produced will be for the better.
Agree 100% TG47!
Sadly both PIC and DIS just made a mess out of their story lines because the plotting ended up being so bad. There are plenty of TV shows that does a great job of it, but neither of these were it. I want to love both shows, especially Picard since its in the TNG era again and bringing back iconic characters but it was not to be first season. The irony is Lower Decks may end up being my favorite show in this new Trek era, but yes its still very early. But oddly the one thing it has going for it is that it’s episodic so its just easier to base the season on individual episodes unlike the other shows.
But as you said now that they have a LOT more extra time to write the scripts for season 2, they have the time to come up with a more compelling and better plotted story.
i would love to see raffi’s son make an appearance be like “um mom i’m sorry you were right”… picard dealing with his new body… will be fun to see elnor deal with life outside of life with the nuns… agnes has got to deal with the murder she committed… i love how they all really seem to like each other (the actors) and it’s a great new cast of characters.
Unfortunately, being right won’t magically restore the hurt of a broken attachment.
In my view, Raffi’s son’s response was completely authentic and that scene definitely ranks as one of the great moments in the season.
Kids don’t easily give up on rewriting the ending with their parents, it tends to be the last resort to protect themselves.
Being right might open the door to having some contact, but it doesn’t address the addictions.
But, as I said elsewhere in this thread, the plotting flaws in season one, particularly for the XBs, make it hard for me to care about how any particular plot thread for any of the characters may be picked up and resolved in season two.
there are no plotting flaws in season 1 as i’ve expressed before… and i dont mean her son would be omg everything is fine i just mean as you said it’s an opening… i hope they give us a little something even if it’s just a video letter he sends her or a comment she made how she’s talking with him again or she got a pic of her new granddaughter…
All I care about is that it’s just better written. Season 1 started off amazing but ended pretty badly souring most of the season. I don’t think I was as excited for any new Star Trek as I was for Picard since the 90s. Now with season 2, it’s basically a shrug. I’ll definitely watch it but the excitement is gone. But I’m sure once we hear real news about the story and which former characters are showing up, etc, that can change instantly. But right now basically only mildly interested.
Enjoyed series one, up and down, but would have been happy for Picard to have died at the end, job done! Especially with the Data closure
Still pretty much feeling the same way Tiger2.
The fact that I’m finding time to watch the In-house con panels with the Discovery bridge crew, but can’t seem to get up the energy to watch the ones with Picard tells me where I’m at.
I like the actors and characters. I even found that the finale works when taken as a standalone two-parter. But after so much excitement and early promise, I’m left with a sour taste in my mouth.
It’s best to just leave it until S2 is before me on the screen.
Yeah isn’t it weird? I mean I can’t tell you how excited I was every time we got just hint of news about the show before it aired. Now I just can’t muster up any excitement for it. It’s one of those things I was disappointed with after it aired but unfortunately my view of it has only gotten worse in the months sense. Reading how so many people who were disappointed with it tells me I’m not alone. And we’re far from ‘haters’ I was easily one of the biggest cheerleaders for this show, even during a lot of the season, certainly in the beginning. And I defended it time and time again when most were having issues with it early on.
But thats an interesting point you make about the finale though, that it works well as just a two-parter. Maybe I will try that. You know what’s sad, the last episode is the only episode I watched once (when it aired) and had no interest to watch it again. All the other episodes before it I watched at least twice. I just can’t get motivated to watch the final one just like how I felt with Discovery’s first season finale (but that’s still one of the worst season one finale for me than all the shows).
As said of course when season 2 gets here I will definitely be watching but I really hope they mean what they say when they take input seriously and make BIG changes to this show and I have given them credit for doing that with Discovery second season so fingers crossed I guess.
Don’t care much for the show but Michelle Hurd is always a delight.
All these actors are boring, and ultimately what is the point of the Romulan Elf?
He’s not an Elf, he’s a Ninja! But yeah, he was pretty pointless.
Elnor: Romulan Ninja Warrior
His character development was all over the place. One minute he’s Picard loyal servant, three episodes later he decided Picard can take care of himself and he was going to help Hugh, a guy he met for all of five minutes. And then the finale they made it sound like he was going to now help Seven with the Xb’s and help their plight and acted as if he may not even see Picard again (although they were both literally on the same freaking planet). Of course by the end of the finale they are all back together again—san Xbs.
Pointless is a word. Confusion on what to do with him seems just as valid.
He is a Romulan Ninja Elf… That’s exactly the point. The producers thought it’s cool to have a Romulan Ninja Elf with a cool name and a cool catch phrase and I can’t blame them. It’s probably something I would have written myself if I was in charge. I could have done without the graphic head chopping though…
BTW: Romulan Ninja Elves are never pointless due to their pointy ears and pointy sabers. They are the very opposite of pointlessness. I want my own Romulan Ninja Elf! Where can I get one? Don’t say Farpoint Station :-)