Star Trek: Picard is about to enter its third and final season; from the looks of it, it will be a good one. Picard promises a full cast reunion from The Next Generation and will bring back some of the old series’ most sinister villains.

Picard already stunned audiences in its first season when it reinvented the Star Trek universe while paying homage to Patrick Stewart’s iconic performance as Jean-Luc Picard. It created an entirely new cast of compelling characters and managed to hide some surprising old ones along the way. Though the balance between new story and old is usually maintained, Star Trek: Picard seems to be tipping the scales with a full reunion this season.

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Season 3’s new enemy, Vadic, played by the legendary Amanda Plummer (Pulp Fiction), is still very much in the dark. But if anything can be gleaned from the Star Trek: Picard teaser trailer, she’s a powerful force that inspires fear even in the heart of Captain Picard. The show’s creators said the story for the third season was inspired by a Wrath of Khan-type conflict, so the audience should be prepared to see the crew of the Enterprise – or the Titan as it were – face their most dangerous challenge yet.

Star Trek: Picard: The Plot

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In season 2 of Picard, Q (John de Lancie) shows us a cruel binary future in which the Federation is replaced by a cruel, domineering human society where humanity strives to wipe out all other alien races. We learn that the existence of Earth as we know it hinges on Picard’s ancestor discovering the first form of sentient life. But geneticist Adam Soong (Brent Spiner) seeks to foil this plot in pursuit of power over the human race. When Soong when defeated and the future is saved, Soong pulls out a folder that has the words “Project Khan” written on it.

While we aren’t certain about Khan’s origins, we do know that he, and his augmented human followers, were involved in the Eugenics War. What Picard did in season 2 may have prevented the racist human Confederation from existing, but it may have inadvertently caused the creation of one of Star Trek’s deadliest villains.

In season 3 of Picard, we know that Amanda Plummer’s Vadic is meant to be the central enemy, but her origins remain a mystery. It’s possible that Doctor Soong’s “Project Khan” may have set off a chain of events that created Vadic. Her need for revenge against Picard could be the result of something done long in the past during season 2. Or it’s possible she could be an augment herself; some failed side effect of the Eugenics war who learned that her twisted existence was caused by some mistake Picard made while time traveling.

Picard’s season 2 journey into the past could have also altered familiar characters. Doctor Adam Soong’s descendant would eventually experiment with the design of a positronic brain, thus creating Data and his evil brother Lore. We saw in the trailer that Lore has returned, but we don’t know how or why. It could be that Captain Picard might need the most devious minds in the universe to help him stop this threat. Lore is also uniquely positioned to understand the research of Adam Soong and his descendant. Picard may have reassembled Lore in order to help him fight Vadic. It’s also possible that Vadic found Lore and sent him after Picard.

Star Trek: Picard: The Cast

As we said earlier, this season of Picard will feature a huge reunion of the cast members from The Next Generation. As always, Patrick Stewart will play Jean-Luc Picard, but this year, this cast will also feature LeVar Burton as he returns as Geordi La Forge, Michael Dorn as Worf, Gates McFadden as Beverly Crusher, and Brent Spiner back, not as Data, but as his evil twin Lore. Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis will also return to reprise their roles as Will Riker and Deanna Troi, respectively.

This season’s cast will also include a few surprises. Daniel Davis will appear, starring as TNG’s villain Moriarty. In the old series, La Forge and Doctor Pulaski created Moriarty in the Holodeck as a computer-generated puzzle capable of defeating Data. During an accidental power surge, Moriarty became real and served as another of the Enterprise’s most dangerous evil geniuses.

Two excitingly new castings in this season of Picard come in relation to LeVar Burton’s character. Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut (Cruel Summer) and Mica Burton (Critical Role) will be joining the cast. Chestnut will be playing Ensign Sidney La Forge, eldest daughter of Geordi La Forge and helmsman of the U.S.S. Titan, and Mica Burton (LeVar Burton’s actual daughter) will play Ensign Alandra La Forge, Geordi’s younger daughter who works alongside her father.

Release Date

Star Trek: Picard is set for release on Paramount+ on February 16th, 2023.