I finally got around to watching season two of Star Trek: Picard and, while the story itself was fine, I think the show’s pacing and editing ruined the whole experience.

I think if the showrunners had been forced to tell this story in eight episodes instead of ten, they would have gotten rid of the slack and produced a tighter, more enjoyable show.

*SPOILER WARNING* Season two of Star Trek: Picard discussed freely below

I liked the story, and everyone’s motivations were good

Time travel stories in the broader Star Trek universe can be fun: “how would people from the future navigate life on earth in this century?” is an interesting idea to explore. Sadly, these stories frequently end up being, well, a little bit tedious. And ST:P season two is no exception.

That said, I do like this season’s overall story, which is centred around the idea that ‘no one should be alone’. That’s what motivates the actions and decisions of all the principal protagonists:

• A story: Q doesn’t want to be alone when he dies, so he plans one last adventure with his favourite pet, Jean-Luc Picard. And since Q doesn’t want Picard to die alone either, he uses that adventure to force Picard to confront his past. Picard doesn’t want to be alone, but his difficult past (which we are shown in slow, excruciatingly drawn-out detail) stops him from having a genuine relationship with Laris (who also doesn’t want to be alone).

• B stories: Raffi and Seven want to be together, but Seven needs to stop hating her Borg-self and Raffi needs to stop trying to control Seven (and everyone else around her). Rios feels disconnected from everyone, which he tries in-part to overcome by attaching himself to father figures through his life (Picard being the latest). Tallinn has watched and guided Renée Picard from afar, but she has never been able to connect with her charge directly.

• C story: Jurati and the Borg Queen are alone in every timeline, and they go through their lives trying to connect with others in one way or another. And since this is a C storyline (ie not a standard, secondary-character development, B storyline) it merges with the A storyline at the end of the season.

• D stories (covering the junior principal cast): Elnor is torn between the Qowat Milat and Starfleet, and he doesn’t know which of his extended families he wants to be with. Kore wants to be free to live a life alongside everyone outside her bubble. Young Guinan feels isolated on this planet since she’s having a difficult time connecting with humanity.

• E stories (?): Adam Soong didn’t have a real storyline, did he? He was just given a shallow motivation for his antagonist-ey actions. And Renée Picard was just a convenient butterfly-wing-flap that Q used to change the future, so she didn’t have much of a metaphorical journey either.

None of the D stories needed to be told in this season, though at least Elnor’s journey provided Raffi with the drive to move forward. Young Guinan’s story was interesting for TNG fans, but Kore’s story was entirely unnecessary to the main plot. I’m guessing the showrunners didn’t want to drop Isa Briones as a principal cast member from a whole season of filming and that’s why they wrote in Kore’s mini story arc. Though maybe formerly-Wesley Crusher’s appearance will set up something interesting for season three? Who knows?

The editing could have been so much better

The real error ST:P’s showrunners made in this season, I think, was that they elevated the A story too far above the B and C stories. As a result, too much screen time was dedicated to Jean-Luc Picard and far too much screen time was dedicated to his past.

In telling J-L’s story painfully slowly it’s like the showrunners were creating a show for particularly dim twelve-year-olds who needed to be repeatedly hit over the head with the story stick for them to keep up with what was going on. From episode three onwards Nadia and I rolled our eyes and audibly groaned Every Single Time in which they showed us anything from J-L’s childhood.

In contrast we were both riveted to the screen every time Jurati and the Borg Queen interacted with each other. We could tell from early on in episode three that whatever transpired between these two characters would have far-reaching consequences on our rag-tag team of time travellers. This storyline was written beautifully, told tightly, acted brilliantly, and executed sharply. If only the A story had been written half as well.

I think there were three ways in which they could have improved the A story:  

• They could have gone with drastically variable episode run-times, which we know works just fine on streaming platforms. They could have skipped the entire FBI agent Martin Wells bit altogether, for example. That little aside served absolutely no purpose to the broader story, and they could have just made Picard and Young Guinan wait for Q in the bar for one whole episode instead.

• They could have gone with one, or even two, fewer episodes, which would have forced them to tighten their overall writing, cut down on the flashbacks, and generally move the story along at a much tighter clip.

• They could have trusted the audience to keep up with was going on, which would have helped them get to the point much, much quicker. There have been so many time travel stories told on film and television in the intervening years between the season finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation and season two of Star Trek: Picard. Viewers would have kept up. There have also been numerous stories about people confronting their past, understanding themselves better, and then changing their future decisions as a result. But no. We needed to be shown everything in a contrived/fake-clever manner and then had everything explained to us in a, frankly, condescending way as the season progressed. It was infuriating.

On the plus side, I thought the B stories were all told really nicely. Before watching season two I’d listened to the No Man's Land audio drama featuring Raffi and Seven that was set immediately after season one. Knowing what happened in that story made the Raffi/Seven storyline in this season more enjoyable. And Rios is such a puppy dog. I was lovely seeing him happy in this season instead of him being all mopey like he was for most of season one.

I’m still looking forward to season three

I sincerely hope the studio and showrunners take on the feedback they’ve received on season two, and that they do a better job with writing and editing season three – particularly on the A story. I know they’re capable of telling a great story, I just hope that this comes out in the execution.

*fingers crossed*