Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard season 2
The time travel plot of Star Trek: Picard season 2 has recalled several time travel stories from Star Trek history, but there's one influential story that's been forgotten. Over the course of Picard season 2, the show has referenced many of the classic Star Trek time travel stories. Most notably, the environmental concerns of Star Trek: The Voyage Home and the social commentary of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 2-parter Past Tense. As the show builds towards the season finale, Picard season 2 is revisiting Star Trek: First Contact.
In Star Trek: Picard the former Enterprise captain (Patrick Stewart) and the crew of the La Sirena travel back to Los Angeles 2024 to reverse Q's (John De Lancie) manipulation of the timelines. Q's manipulations center around Renée Picard, one of Jean-Luc's ancestors. The importance of a Picard ancestor to the future of the Star Trek universe is key to another, lesser-known, adventure for the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast. The story in question wasn't a canonical episode of The Next Generation, however. It was a specially recorded film that formed part of the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas, Nevada. Opening in 1998, the Experience was an ambitious, 65,000 square foot exhibition, motion simulator, and immersive shopping experience. In order to give visitors something unique, a special Star Trek adventure was also written to bridge the exhibition with the shopping experience.
Entitled Klingon Encounter and featuring appearances by the original Star Trek: The Next Generation cast in specially filmed inserts, it focused on the removal of one of Captain Jean-Luc Picard's ancestors from 21st century Las Vegas by the Klingons, in an attempt to stop him from ever being born. With Picard erased from the timeline, Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) informs the visitors that one of them is Jean-Luc Picard's ancestor and they must be returned to Las Vegas in order to set the timeline on its correct course. While being a potential Picard ancestor was a fun addition to the visitor experience, the ride's story highlights the Renée Picard plot as another nod to Star Trek's past in Picard season 2.
The Star Trek Experience closed in 2008 and, according to those who visited it and worked at it, Klingon Encounter is still greatly missed. It's not hard to see why, as well as a motion simulator ride in a shuttle piloted by Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) there was also a recreation of Quark's bar and Deep Space Nine's shopping arcade once visitors were safely deposited there after their Klingon encounter. While there are obvious similarities between a vengeful Q targetting one Picard ancestor and a vengeful Klingon kidnapping another, it's likely an unintended but pleasing coincidence for those who visited the Star Trek Experience.
When a franchise has lasted as long as Star Trek has, it's unsurprising that writers make both intentional and unintentional nods to the past when crafting new episodes for Star Trek: Picard as a continuation of Star Trek: The Next Generation. In promoting this second season, Paramount recalled the spirit of the Star Trek Experience, by opening their very own Ten Forward Experience in Los Angeles. It's clear that the immersive and interactive experience is bubbling under the surface throughout Star Trek: Picard. For a season that has become all about being stuck in the past, it feels appropriate to recall this forgotten adventure for Picard, Riker, Geordi, and the many visitors to the Star Trek Experience.
Star Trek: Picard season 2 releases new episodes every Thursday on Paramount+.