Paramount+'s Star Trek: Picard season 2 will focus on traveling back in time to undo Q's (John de Lancie) actions; with all of the similarities between Picard and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, how do both of them handle time travel? There's been talk that the Star Trek: Picard series is largely inspired by the 1986 movie The Voyage Home. The topic of time travel has been explored at great depths within the Star Trek universe. Recently the topic was featured in season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery when the crew traveled to the 32nd century to avoid a machine AI apocalypse. There are a lot of rules to follow within the canon of the universe, and the trailer for Picard season 2 shows something different than fans are normally used to when it comes to time travel missions.
2022 is set to be Star Trek's biggest year yet. Set to release in February, Picard season 2 begins with Q's reintroduction to the universe, after Discovery teased the reunion in season 4. The trailer shows that Q has gone back in time to the 21st century. Somehow he created an alternate timeline in which the Federation has been destroyed and replaced by a new totalitarian regime. With the help of Queen Borg (Annie Wersching), Jean-Luc Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart) and crew must travel back in time to stop this from happening. The only problem with the exciting new storyline? It might not fit with how time travel has been depicted before.
The Voyage Home inspired Picard, but how the two deal with time travel is completely different. Though not quite a plot hole on Picard's part, the way the new series portrays the effects of time travel is largely different than other series installments. The Voyage Home enforces strict rules on Kirk's crew, and this is due to the Temporal Prime Directive, a mandatory Starfleet principle. When time traveling the Starfleet crew is never allowed to directly interfere with historical events, nor are they allowed to reveal anything about the future. This leads to some creative choices from Kirk and the rest of the crew, though they end up breaking the rules a few times anyways. Picard season 2 shows that history can in fact be meddled with in a major way, and seemingly without immediate consequences. Both The Voyage Home and Picard have their respective crews returning to Earth. However, it looks like these occurrences will hold vastly different results on their arrival.
The Temporal Prime Directive has been broken before Picard season 2. Dr. Leonard McCoy traveled from 2267 to 1930 and saves Edith Keeler from a car accident. The small action ended up with the Federation and the entire Starfleet being erased from existence. Luckily Kirk and Spock went back in time to reverse McCoy's actions, despite becoming romantically attached to Keeler. The timeline itself is a particularly important subject within the Star Trek universe, as established by the Temporal Cold War. While it seemed like the directive was temporarily lifted during the 31st century, the ultimate goal of the Federation during this time was to keep the timeline intact. It looks like Picard season 2 will liberally play around with these rules.
With Star Trek: Picard season 2 on the horizon, fans are understandably looking forward to all of the new adventures the series will host. In the meantime, viewers are given a chance to catch up on other Star Trek shows via Paramount+. Despite the halt on production that the show is currently facing due to covid, the second season will be available to stream in February of 2022.