The third season of Star Trek: Picard is finally underway. The series takes place around twenty years after the events of The Next Generation and follows the retired Admiral Picard on his quest to save the galaxy once more.
The show is filled with Easter eggs and characters from previous Star Trek series and films, including the return of favorites like Seven of Nine from Voyager and the Borg Queen from First Contact. Fans were also excited to see the return of many beloved characters from what some consider to be the best Star Trek series to date, The Next Generation.
Updated June 9th, 2023 by Janine Engelbrecht: Now that the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard has concluded, we have had the privilege of witnessing all the characters from The Next Generation that have made a return. Here's an expanded look at all of the characters from The Next Generation that have shown up within Star Trek: Picard.
Warning: Spoilers ahead!
12 William Riker
Serving as first officer to Captain Picard on the Enterprise for fifteen years, William Riker is Picard's right-hand man. Riker later gains his own command, becoming Captain of the USS Titan.
In season 1 of Picard, the android Soji and Picard take refuge at Riker and Troi's house on Nepenthe. The couple do not hesitate to help Picard, and their daughter Kestra plays a vital role in helping Soji realize she is an android. In season 3, Riker returns as Captain of the USS Titan.
11 Deanna Troi
A Human-Betazoid hybrid, Deanna Troi is capable of extra-sensory empathy. In The Next Generation, she therefore serves as counselor on the USS Enterprise and gets its crew out of some tricky situations with her unique abilities. She and Riker get married in the year 2379 in the Star Trek film, Nemesis.
Fans were delighted to see Troi appear alongside Riker during Picard's visit to Nepenthe in Picard. Reference to her empathetic abilities are also made in the episode, as she immediately realizes something is wrong upon touching Picard.
10 Beverly Crusher
Dr Beverly Crusher serves as chief medical officer of the Enterprise in The Next Generation. Crusher and Picard have a complicated relationship, to say the least. Throughout The Next Generation, they oscillate between being friends and lovers; however, a romantic relationship between them never materializes.
Crusher returns in season 3 of Picard as a gun-toting heroine. It came as a huge shock to fans to find out in episode 3 that the young man accompanying Crusher on her ship is her son — and that his father is Jean-Luc Picard.
9 Worf
Perhaps one of the most famous and influential Klingons in Star Trek, Lieutenant Commander Worf is Picard's chief of security on the Enterprise for most of The Next Generation. Worf ends up becoming ambassador between the Klingons and the Federation before returning in season 3 of Picard for what seems to be his final act.
In Picard, Worf appears as a wise old Klingon master who does not necessarily resort to violence as a first option. Like others, it seems that this character has grown significantly after twenty years.
8 Geordi La Forge
Lieutenant Commander La Forge is chief engineer under Captain Picard's command of the Enterprise in The Next Generation. He is likely one of the most famous augmented humans in Star Trek, with his iconic Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement, or VISIOR.
He returns in Star Trek: Picard (without the VISOR), and for the first time in Star Trek canon, viewers are introduced to his two daughters, Alandra and Sidney La Forge. His daughters are also in Starfleet, and are perhaps a representation of the real "Next Generation" of Star Trek.
7 Data
The fully functional and self-aware android, Data, is one of Captain Picard's most loved and oldest friends. Lieutenant Commander Data is second officer and chief operations officer aboard the Enterprise and provides many of The Next Generation's most iconic moments.
Although actor Brent Spiner appears mostly as Data's "father," Dr. Soong, in Star Trek: Picard, there is a meaningful scene between Data and Picard in season 1 of the show. In this scene the two have a long conversation about life and death, before Data asks Picard to terminate his consciousness.
6 Q
The omniscient and omnipotent Q is Captain Picard's biggest annoyance in The Next Generation, constantly playing tricks and games on him, often with cosmic consequences. Q constantly challenges and question's Picard's values and ideals, and often those of the viewers as well.
In Picard, the character plays a major role in the narrative arc of season 2. To many fans' shock, not only do Q and Picard part as friends, but Q (sort of) dies in the season finale in an attempt to send Picard and his crew back to their timeline.
5 Guinan
Another character from The Next Generation that fans were delighted to see in Picard is Guinan, briefly reprized by Whoopi Goldberg herself in season 2 of the show. Guinan is the bartender that runs the Ten Forward lounge aboard the Enterprise in The Next Generation.
She often provides counsel to Captain Picard, which saves him and his crew on many occasions. In Picard, viewers are also introduced to a much younger Guinan, and the full extent of her powers as an Al-Aurian or "listener" is explored in season 2.
4 Hugh
The Next Generation is one of the Star Trek series that deals a great deal with the infamous Borg. Hugh is a Borg that gets separated from the collective and ends up on the Enterprise in the classic episode "I, Borg."
In Picard, Hugh works on a reclaimed Borg ship to help ex-Borg (those who were once part of the collective) rehabilitate after assimilation. It is great to see him fight alongside another notable ex-Borg, Seven of Nine, in season 1 of the show.
3 Wesley Crusher
Wesley Crusher is one of Beverly Crusher's sons, and for fans, one of the less likable characters in The Next Generation. Many fans felt that he was annoying and arrogant during his time on the Enterprise, yet he was a recurring character for many seasons of The Next Generation.
In Picard, he does not return as a regular, but appears as a surprise cameo in the season 2 finale, "Farewell." This is a huge Easter egg for fans of The Next Generation, as he is a Traveler — a being who possesses the ability to alter time and reality.
2 Ro Laren
A Bajoran and survivor of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, Ro Laren became a Maquis after a complicated career within Starfleet. At some point during The Next Generation, Ro Laren faces a court-martial after an away mission that goes horribly wrong, but ultimately redeems herself when she re-appears in Star Trek: Picard.
Admiral Picard is surprised to see her as a member of Starfleet Intelligence when she arrives on the Titan to warn him of a Changeling invasion. Although their relationship is also complex, she ultimately gives her life in order to give Picard and his crew a fighting chance.
1 Lore
Data's evil older brother, Lore, once again gives Picard and his crew a hard time when his personality and that of Data are combined in a new body that Soong constructed in Star Trek: Picard. The android was the first successful Dr Soong android with a positronic brain, but was disassembled and deactivated in The Next Generation.
Lore and Data fight for either of their personalities to remain in the final golem Dr Soong constructed before his death, but Data ultimately prevails and finally completely erases his older brother.
Star Trek: Picard is streaming now on Paramount Plus.