Whoa, this new Picard trailer has some weird Next Generation cameos

The central premise of Star Trek: Picard’s third and final season has always been pretty clear: To give fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation the reunion tour this particular show had always resisted becoming for its first two seasons on the air. There’s nothing really wrong with that, either: It’s not like Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, LeVar Burton, and Gates McFadden aren’t still compelling as Riker, Worf, Troi, LaForge and Crusher—or that it’s not fascinating to see how these characters are handling Federation life 20-plus years after the show ended.

That being said: It is pretty dang weird to watch the trailer for this upcoming season—released Saturday at New York Comic Con—and see some of the deep TNG pulls it’s running. The reappearance of Data’s evil brother Lore isn’t too unexpected—Brent Spiner’s been a regular feature of the series since its first season, so it makes sense that his figurative mustache-twirling android might make an appearance. But Daniel Davis as the sentient Professor Moriarty hologram from “Elementary, Dear Data” and “Ship In A Bottle”? Now you’re just getting nerdy, Star Trek!

Of course, it’s not all callbacks: The trailer also revealed the new antagonist for the season: Amanda Plummer as Vadic, commander of a ship called the Shrike that seems readily equipped to blow Picard’s new vessel (captained by Jeri Ryan’s Seven Of Nine) out of the sky. We don’t yet know why Vadic has a grudge against the federation, but Plummer certainly seems to be having a good time getting her Khan on to poetically express it.

The third (and final) season of Star Trek: Picard is currently aiming at a February 2023 release date on Paramount+.