Preview ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Episode 204 With New Photos And Trailer From “Watcher”

The second season of Star Trek: Picard returns this week with episode four and we have details, new photos, a trailer, and a clip to get you started.

“Watcher”

The fourth episode of Picard’s new season is titled “Watcher,” which indicates we may get an answer to the mystery of who is The Watcher? And like last week, this time travel adventure is directed by Back to the Future actress Lea Thompson. The episode debuts on Paramount+ on Thursday, March 24.

Synopsis:

With time running out to save the future, Picard takes matters into his own hands and seeks out an old friend for help. Meanwhile, Rios ends up on the wrong side of the law and Jurati makes a deal with the Borg Queen.

New photos:

Sir Patrick Stewart as Picard

Sir Patrick Stewart as Picard

Sir Patrick Stewart as Picard

Sir Patrick Stewart as Picard

 Sir Patrick Stewart as Picard

Trailer:

A trailer was released on startrek.com.

Clip:

A clip of Jurati and the Borg Queen was shown at the end of The Ready Room (starting at 32:54).

All photos by Trae Patton/Paramount+ 

New episodes of Star Trek: Picard premiere on Thursdays on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on Fridays where Paramount+ is available around the world. In Canada, it airs on CTV Sci-Fi Channel on streams on Crave on Thursdays. Picard is also available on Fridays on Amazon Prime Video around the world.


Find more stories on the Star Trek Universe.

41 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

If Picard is holding a bottle of Saurian Brandy (in 2024), then it’s very likely a certain Bartender will be guest starring in this episode.

As far as we know, there shouldn’t any alien influences or presence on Earth of this time period (official first contact doesn’t happen for another 39 years). One exception might be Mestral, who stayed behind in-hiding when the Vulcans visited Earth in 1957.

There’s nothing saying there aren’t aliens on Earth in 2024, just that humanity doesn’t know about them. Cast in point: Guinan, who was there in the 1800s. There’s also nothing in canon that says Guinan left Earth shortly after her appearance in “Time’s Arrow.” This episode may in fact establish that she stuck around for quite a while, or came back.

It’s also likely we’ll get at least a passing reference to “Time’s Arrow” here as Guinan will now have knowledge of Picard from her dealings with him then. It also retcons her future relationship with Picard, as during her tenure on the Enterprise she’ll have had knowledge of this encounter — whether it’s part of the proper timeline or not.

It may also help further explain their close relationship there, depending on how it plays out. Fascinating stuff, and I am loving it.

It doesn’t retcon the timeline for Guinan. When they repair the time line, this meeting will not have happened.

I’m not sure about that. I believe it’s been stated that they have arrived before the “event” or whatever has happened. If they prevent that event, any interaction between the two will still have occurred. Also, Guinan knew something was wrong in Yesterday’s Enterprise even though she technically shouldn’t have.

This is before the divergence point in the timeline. They are there to stop the divergence, so everything that is happening should be identical in each timeline.

I don’t think that’s a Saurian brandy, I think it’s something contemporaneous to 2024.

It doesn’t mean it’s not Guinan though – just that she’s not ‘out’ as an alien in this era.

This Guinan presumably also wouldn’t know about Picard’s visit to the bar in the 25th century or at least she wouldn’t ‘remember’ it. But we all know about her intuitions.

The label on the bottle says “Swaford”. I couldn’t find any drink with that name. It may have been made up for the show.

That wasn’t an adult toy?

What gets me is how do they explain the name of the bar in the 21st-century named “10 forward”? 10 forward is on the enterprise of the 24th century.

Will Wheaton on the radio room hinted last week we will get to know the history behind why it’s called 10 forward .

I meant ready room. It’s the one with John de Lancie.

I’ve never asked why it’s called 10 Forward. Fascinating!

What’s the history or the mystery? It was on deck 10 and at the forward most point of the ship.

Same reason her bar was ten forward in episode 1. Number 10, Forward Avenue.

Too clever by half.

This is just like when they gave us a sweaty origin story for McCoy’s nickname. It’s what you do when the job is to manage and deconstruct IP.

The fact Picard casually has a sawed off shotgun on his bar table is…

Interesting.

Good eye! Very interesting!

It’s probably Guinan’s. She set it down to stand up and go get something or shoo someone away. Remember when she showed off her little souvenir from Magus III?

He’s also standing in front of a butcher shop (Spanish) in one of the photos. Nice humorous detail considering who Picard is in this timeline.

Picard’s comm badge is in some photos and not in others. Either a mistake or maybe different visits to this location at different times?

Leah Thompson in a ST time travel episode?!! How fittingly ironic.

sounds like it could be wesley. travelers can pull themselves out of space & time to be able to observe.

It being Terry Matalas… the divergence is probably already known to us. My money is on the Borg queen. Her tech polluting the timeline may be too simplistic/circular, so she likely assimilates someone native to the timeline.

And on a queen sidenote, I don’t understand how she knows “Locutus.” Did Best of Both Worlds happen in the Confederation timeline?

They established that she has some awareness of other nearby realities, a bit like Guinan.

It’s nonsensical time travel. If she knows why wouldn’t she make sure they win wolf 359. Just be a good fan and pretend this is hard hitting sci-fi.

I just watched “Watcher,” and I’ll just say it now: Picard Ep. 4 completely destroys canon and the events of TNG.

SPOILERS:

When Picard meets up with Guinan, this is a young 20s Guinan played by some unknown actress. Further, she acts as though she’s never met him!! This wipes out Guinan meeting Picard in the 19th century as had been previously well-established by “Times Arrow.” How can the writers completely ignore that two part cliffhanger? Not only had they met but Guinan was still Whoopi in the 1870’s. Now we go from Whoopi, to unknown girl, and back to Whoopi. And how can she not remember Picard? My love for this show just took a massive dive. I’m just the first, the next set of critics will be brutal!

Hm but doesn’t technically destroy canon if this timeline is different (the murderous Picard from this timeline never went back to meet her).

The Confederation wipes out Time’s Arrow. Picard is traveling from the Confederation future into the past. And they didn’t make Guinan totally aware of a change in the timeline because that would’ve stepped on the Borg Queen having that awareness already. Too, they still sort of get into that awareness with her getting time sick or whatever.

Right. I mean technically Times Arrow changed stuff alluded to during TNG’s run, so the urgency/desperation of the situation meant Picard had to tell her who he was. I’m fine with it.

I haven’t seen the episode yet (Have to wait 27 hours till I can see it on amazon prime) but already got that spoiler and some reactions. It’s a question how you define “temporal mechanics.” I thought about it already last week when I debated if Sisko could be in 2024, if the Sisko from the alternate timeline never made that time travel.
That spoiler obviously answers it: Confederation-Picard never time-travelled to the 19th century, therefore it isn’t a contradiciton.

It even clears other speculations about the watcher and events: Data’s head isn’t buried in the past, Siskso didn’t arrive in 2024 and First contact didn’t happen in 2063.Or will not going to be have happened? Damned, we need new Big-Bang-Theory-Back-to-the-future tenses ;-)
^^^^ this is supposed so hide spoilers, don’t know if it works….

My issue with this is they are there to stop a divergence that didn’t create a new timeline, altered an existing one. So the events of the past would seemingly be the same. HOWEVER, this was my problem with the divergence in ST 2009… with all the time travel that has happened in the various series, you have to assume that Time’s Arrow did not happen, as you’ve said. The butterfly effect from that not having happened creates so many other issues that basically says, the entire timeline has been altered from the very beginning.. but they don’t seem to be presenting this that way. They could and should add clarity to that.

I’m just going to address my nitpick… I definitely agree that de-aging Whoopi is not the way to go. But the person here looks nothing like Guinan… bigger than that, she seems to the old version of Guinan from the season premiere, and not the Guinan we know at a younger age. I suppose that’s Akiva Goldsman using that ‘body English’ thing he talked about. This is the most annoying thing about their handling of canonical stuff. They don’t think they should have to have the actress study Guinan from TNG. Let’s just try to make her Sassy Guinan like we want her to be. So annoying.

I was OK with the recasting. It made sense, and the actress did a good job I thought. While having Whoopi play Guinan every time would have been nice, it’s just not practical all the time.

I had no problem with recasting, and I don’t want stunt casting. But any casting needs to try to be faithful to the character, and this just doesn’t. A lot of that is the way it’s written, so I’m not blaming and certainly not trying to trash the actor.. but I never bought her as a young Guinan, and it’s much less about looks but characterization. The best example I can give you of a recast that works – Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo. He doesn’t look like Han Solo, but he captures the important parts, and I bought this was the character at a younger age. I just didn’t get that with this take on Guinan.

Star Trek goes down a lot easier if you try not to think about it too hard and just let whatever is shown wash over you. Like all TV, it exists solely to occupy your time. Anything else is an unintended side effect, for better or worse.

I just finished it. I have a very specific gripe that I’ll save for the review post thread so I don’t get into spoilers here, but I’m growing increasingly tired of what feels like episodes that deal with B plots and do nothing but act as a bridge to the next episode with some service given at the end to advancing the a plot so they can do a cliffhanger for the next episode. These seasons could be like 4 episodes if they wanted to get serious about advancing the story. I mean.. how much money was spent for this production to have an episode that serves so little purpose?

THIS I agree with. Let’s get the story moving. It was MUCH WORSE in Season 1, when the entire season could have been one TNG two-partner. But yes, I would like this season to move on a bit too.

This is the problem with telling a singular story over the course of the season… it becomes more character driven than plot driven. This is the curse of syndication. I’m REALLY curious how things work with Strange New Worlds blending episodic and syndication.

NOT MY comments but I like and agree. Source: Engadget comments on Ep4:

No, the writers got it right. You’re not remembering that they’re in a changed timeline

Q merely shifted the consciousness of Prime/Federation reality Picard and crew into the changed Confederation timeline. It’s why Seven doesn’t have any Borg implants, and Picard is still an android because of Confederation Picard’s battle with Gul Dukat. They’re in the confederation timeline still.

So that means that Confederation Picard would never have gone back in time to meet Guinan in the 19th century, because the events of Time’s Arrow in TNG never occurred in the Confederation timeline (because they occurred in the Prime/Federation Timeline). Thus, Guinan never met Picard.

So in the Confederation timeline 2024, this is the first time she is meeting Picard (she’s actually meeting a time travelling Confederation Picard with the consciousness of Prime/Federation timeline Picard). So the writers are right to place this Confederation timeline Guinans’ first encounter with Picard at 10 Forward.

Give the writers more credit, it looks like their did their homework on this one!