Star Trek: Picard star Isa Briones says season 2 puts a big emphasis on the characters' mental health. Patrick Stewart's triumphant return to the Star Trek franchise first premiered in early 2020 and introduced viewers to an older and wearier Jean-Luc Picard. Season 1 of Star Trek: Picard saw Jean-Luc settling in alongside a new crew while dealing with a galactic crisis over synthetic lifeforms. The series was renewed for season 2 before the first even premiered, though unfortunately Picard's sophomore run has been delayed somewhat by the coronavirus pandemic.
With production on Star Trek: Picard season 2 having taken place earlier this year, the series is set to return to Paramount+ in February 2022. As revealed by the trailer that premiered on Star Trek Day, Picard and his crew will find themselves facing a brand new crisis, one that now involves time travel. In fact, co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman even confirmed season 2 was inspired by the movie Star Trek: The Voyage Home, a classic adventure that finds the crew of the Enterprise traveling back to the 1980s to save the future.
Briones, who plays Soji (among other characters) on Star Trek: Picard, recently sat down with TrekMovie.com to preview the upcoming season. The actress revealed her favorite thing about the new episodes is the way they show the characters in a new light. This is done through a new focus on mental health, which Briones said feels like a relatable story these days. Briones said:
I would say that my favorite thing about it is that we’re seeing these characters in a new light. And there’s a big emphasis, I think, on mental health, for sure. We’re seeing these characters going through some hard moments and really leaning on each other and prioritizing their own mental health in order to save everyone else. And I think that’s a very relatable storyline and a storyline that we need right now.
Star Trek is arguably at its best when it connects its complex sci-fi concepts to relatable, real world issues. This is a franchise that has built itself upon deeper themes of acceptance and exploration, and with its characters so often facing impossible obstacles, it makes sense that there should be a conversation about how they process these things. For Star Trek: Picard in particular, season 2 already feels like the perfect time to delve into this because of all the things the characters have already dealt with. Picard, for example, actually died in season 1 and will begin season 2 in a new synthetic body. That is bound to leave some internal trauma.
One just has to hope that the creative team behind Star Trek: Picard will handle these topics with sensitivity. They need to find a smart way to balance the character-driven moments with the action that will surely be included in season 2. After all, Picard and the others will soon find themselves in an alternate totalitarian future, a situation that will leave them in more than a few precarious situations. Based on Briones' comments, it sounds like Star Trek: Picard is taking a new approach to season 2 - and it sounds very interesting.
Star Trek: Picard returns to Paramount+ in February 2022.
Source: TrekMovie.com