Star Trek: Picard Explained: All Three Seasons, the Cast and How It Connects to The Next Generation

Star Trek: Picard is the sequel series that brought Patrick Stewart back to the role of Jean-Luc Picard, nearly two decades after he last played him on screen in Star Trek: Nemesis. It ran for three seasons of ten episodes each, starting in January 2020 and ending in April 2023, and it moved from a story about an old man’s regrets to a full reunion of the Next Generation crew. This guide explains what each season is about, who is in it and how it connects to what came before. Spoilers for all three seasons follow, and each section says so up front.

How the series came about

StarTrek.com announced Stewart’s return on August 4, 2018, at a Star Trek convention in Las Vegas, alongside producer Alex Kurtzman. The novelist Michael Chabon was named showrunner for the first season in June 2019. The series premiered on CBS All Access, which later became Paramount+. Stewart also served as an executive producer.

If you are new to the character, start with our Jean-Luc Picard explainer, and if you want the original series material that matters most, our TNG watch guide covers it.

Season 1 (2020): an old captain, a new mission

Spoilers for the premise of season 1. The first season premiered on January 23, 2020, with an episode titled “Remembrance.” StarTrek.com’s recap finds Picard retired and living at his family vineyard, with two Romulan companions, Laris and Zhaban, and his dog, Number One. The loss of Data still weighs on him. The arrival of a young woman named Dahj, and the question of what synthetic life is owed, pulls Picard back into Starfleet’s orbit and eventually into command of a new ship.

The premise connects to the Romulan supernova from the 2009 Star Trek film. The season finale, “Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2,” aired on March 26, 2020, and StarTrek.com’s recap was published that day.

The main cast included Alison Pill, Isa Briones, Harry Treadaway, Michelle Hurd, Santiago Cabrera and Evan Evagora. Several Next Generation and Voyager favorites returned: Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine, Jonathan Frakes as Riker, Marina Sirtis as Troi, Brent Spiner and Jonathan del Arco.

Season 2 (2022): Los Angeles, Q and the Borg Queen

Spoilers for season 2. The second season ran from March 3 to May 5, 2022. In StarTrek.com’s recaps, the crew finds itself in present-day Los Angeles. Q (John de Lancie), Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) and the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching) are all part of the season, according to StarTrek.com’s art and making-of feature. It is the season that brings Picard’s old history with Q back into the story.

Season 3 (2023): the reunion

Spoilers for season 3. The final season premiered on February 16, 2023, and Terry Matalas is credited on StarTrek.com as its showrunner. It opens with a distress call from Beverly Crusher. Over the course of the ten episodes, the Next Generation crew comes back together.

The new cast included Ed Speleers as Jack Crusher, Todd Stashwick as Captain Liam Shaw, Amanda Plummer as the villain Vadic, Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut as Sidney La Forge and Mica Burton as Alandra La Forge, according to StarTrek.com. The Next Generation regulars returned alongside Stewart, with Brent Spiner also playing Lore and Daniel Davis reprising Moriarty.

The third season is also the one that most directly links back to Generations and Nemesis. Jack Crusher, it turns out, is Picard’s son, and the season builds toward the reconstruction of the Enterprise-D, which was destroyed in Generations. StarTrek.com’s recap of the finale covers the ending, and the finale streamed on April 20, 2023.

How it fits with the rest of Star Trek

The series is a direct continuation of The Next Generation and its films. It refers back to the loss of Data in Nemesis, and its third season links to Generations. The other modern Star Trek series are outside the scope of this guide.

Why the series mattered to Stewart’s legacy

Picard gave Stewart a chance to play the character as an older man rather than a captain in his prime. It let him revisit what had been unfinished, such as the Borg, Data and the family he never had. It also gave fans of the original series a long-awaited reunion. For more on his work across stage and screen, see our career guide.

Our tribute covers the announcement of his death on October 29, 2026.