Hello all! Well a Star Trek Picard trailer dropped for season 2, so let’s take a look
at that for lore titbits. Straight up, this seems like it’s going to be a tale about
an alternate universe that Picard and crew are aware of, and they are trying to find
their way back to the Prime timeline. And Q. Q is in it, which of course means that
the assumption is that Q did it. Let’s be fair it’s always an assumption that Q did
something. From the way the dialogue unfolds, it suggests
that Q has brought Picard (and the crew of the La Sirena) into a different timeline.
The end of the Road not taken as it is said. “The road not taken” suggests a choice
that created this branch reality, akin to the Stat Trek Parallels episode where differing
choices are played out across multiple timelines, a lot of that going around at the moment.
So the question on my mind is “what timeline are we in?” We have two options, a previously
unrealised timeline, or one we have seen before, the most prevalent being of course, the Mirror
Universe. I don’t want it to be the mirror universe, because as much as I like it, I
hate seeing it overplayed, and Discovery has already dealt a lot with that. But, there
is evidence to suggest this might be the case. I would much rather have a story centred around
a choice made by Jean-Luc Picard himself instead, which I think would have a much stronger emotional
investment from the crew, if that were the case. I don’t see Q rocking up just to show
Picard the mirror universe, it’s far more likely to me that he pulls a TNG Tapestry,
and is showing an alternate history relevant to Picard as a person. If that’s the case,
then I want to see what the divergence point is, the decisions made in the prime that would
have resulted in this series 2 timeline, and honestly there are many. The most obvious,
is that it is something to do with the Romulan evacuation from 2381-85. Either it was never
attempted at all, or it succeeded altogether. I also think there are many shots in this
trailer that are not from this alternate timeline, but the original one. We see several scenes
set in Starfleet Command, or around it where Picard is delivering a speech. Now, he is
surrounded by officers in 2399 era uniforms, and he is wearing a new admiral’s jacket,
different from the one we saw in 2385, so this is not a flashback. The badges here are
also the same we saw in last season. I suspect Picard has re-entered Starfleet at his old
rank of Admiral to help the organisation get back to what it should be doing, and this
may even be a turn of the century speech as the calendar ticks over to the 25th century.
The emblem the camera pans over is that of the Prime Starfleet (since the 2380s anyway),
and the officers around him are surrounded by the flags of the Klingon Empire, the Tellarites,
the UFP, Starfleet, Starfleet Academy, Vulcan, Bajor and Ferenginar. The officers before
each one are not of those species, but may be representing them, but I doubt that. Also,
Raffi is back in uniform too and I think this is all to show what the crew are up to post
“Standoff over Coppelius”. Additionally, we get a shot of Soji outside
an embassy, in formal wear, adorned with her twin-pin and a diplomatic looking badge, I
can’t make out what it is, but it’s blue and round. I say Soji, because I believe this
too is from a scene in the Prime universe, and she is here as an ambassador of Coppelius.
But then we get reactions shots of Laris, who alongside her husband Zhaban is one of
the displaced Romulans, formerly Tal Shiar, who help Picard around his Chateau and moonlight
as his security. But from the initial scenes, we see that she is missing, something that
has bamboozled Picard, then Q appears to hopefully exposition all over Picard. Wait… let me
rephrase that- Evidently, the alteration that was made, either
by Q, Picard or something else, has removed Laris from the Chateau, which is why I think
this concerns the Romulan evacuation, again it either never happened, or went of flawlessly.
We also see Rios examining his surroundings on the LaSirena, as if he too has awoken to
find himself in an alternate history. There is much branding around the props and bridge
of his ship suggesting that he is operating it on behalf of what looks like Starfleet.
He is even wearing a badge with a single bar on it, but a different badge to the one we
just saw at Picard’s speech. This badge may actually be able to tell us
a lot more than it simply being, “hey, alternate universe”. Now, I am going to break it down
from a design point of view which is always open to interpretation if you don’t know
the designers original intent, but Ima do it anyway! First up, it is symmetrical, not
askew like the standard Starfleet Delta has always been. This is more classic delta shape
as used today, so we are looking at a Starfleet that has made a radical shift at some point,
reflected in the design. Secondly, it has lost any back plate, and is now a single arrowhead
design, noticeably tapered at the edges. This gives it an undeniably sleeker look to it,
but also one more representative of a blade. It evokes imagery of a dagger, or a sword
more than a star, which is sort of what the TNG era badges leant into. On top of this,
it even has a fuller carved into it; the grove you see on most bladed weapons reduced their
weight. I think overall, this design is supposed to evoke a more aggressive, lethal style,
so the culture that designed it may follow similar ideals. Also, the only other times
we saw bars used as rank indicators on a badge were in the TNG episodes, future imperfect,
about an illusionary future, and parallels where they were one of the alternate badges
in a timeline visited by Worf. Shenanigans badges.
Presumably then, this Starfleet is less than benign and that would be why Picard wants
to get everyone out of here and back to their home. Again, we might be seeing a Starfleet
that continued down a path of becoming increasingly insular, which following the Borg, the Dominion,
the Romulan crisis, was a very real threat. Now it’s at the point where it is less of
a diplomatic unification, and more of an Empire. Speaking of empires, what if this is the Terran
Empire? Again, I doubt it, but the sword-esc motifs
of the badge lean towards that style. The thing that throws a curveball into my idea
of it being centred on the Romulans, is Seven of Nine. She awakens, also displaced by this
alteration in a very nice double bed, surrounded by her things, that she doesn’t recognise
and with a trade in accessories. She has no visible Borg implants and she is wearing a
wedding ring. So how far back is this “road that was never taken”? Because the Romulan
thing happened in 2385 and Annika Hansen was assimilated in 2356, so either we are looking
at a timeline change from decades ago, which reduced the likelihood of Picard being the
culprit or involved, or she still has those implants and has just undergone further procedures
to remove some of them. She also has a badge on the desk, a third
one, and different still from the previous. This one, I have a hard time placing. It uses
the same colour scheme as the Romulan free movement from season 1, so she could still
be placed in the former Neutral Zone, but nothing else screams Romulan to me about it.
I see similarities with the Vulcan IDIC, notably the background. The four pointed star sort
of resembles the Starfleet command division logo, but that has 5 points, and I see nothing
else that denotes the UFP. 8 baubles could symbolise 8 planets, making this a Sol system
representation, but now I’m just speculating with no basis, so I’ll leave it there.
We also have a shot of Raffi an another in an alleyway or something running from a recently
downed opponent, but there is not enough here to tell where they are. Freecloud, Qo’Nos,
Earth, I don’t know, I couldn’t see enough signs or languages to place it, and even if
I did, theirs is not reason to assume that they’re not just in a district with multiple
cultures. My final idea is that what if this is a custom
reality created by Q, who has changed one detail in each of their lives, Seven was never
assimilated, Rios was never drummed out of Starfleet, Picard’s Romulan plan was altered
and so on. Quite why he would do this, I don’t know, because it doesn’t seem like a present
considering Picard and everyone want out… but that wouldn’t be entirely inconsistent
with previous Q actions either. Thanks for watching this breakdown and analysis
of the trailer. I’m off to go binge watch other breakdowns now, so see what I missed
because there is bound to be something. Let me know you theories so we can discuss, because
I presume if you watched this far, then you are like me and you enjoy unravelling a mystery,
because it doesn’t hinder the enjoyment for you. Thanks again, and I’ll see you
next time for another video, I’ve been Ric and goodbye!