Star Trek: Picard’s Timeline Explained - How Long After TNG Is Jean-Luc’s Show? (2024)

With the advent of new Star Trek streaming shows came Star Trek: Picard, a sequel series to Star Trek: The Next Generation that focused on Patrick Stewart's Admiral Jean-Luc Picard long after TNG ended. After first announcing Picard as a new Star Trek show in August 2018, followed by a year of production, Star Trek: Picard's first season dropped on Paramount+ (then CBS All Access) in January 2020. The second and third seasons of Star Trek: Picard were filmed back-to-back to accommodate the schedules of the cast and crew, and released in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

Because Patrick Stewart and other Star Trek actors in Star Trek: Picard's first season had clearly aged, it could be assumed that the same amount of time had passed for the characters and the real world alike, but that wasn't quite the case. Although 18 years had passed between audiences' last contact with Captain Jean-Luc Picard in 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis and reuniting with Admiral Picard in the 2020 premiere episode of Star Trek: Picard, the Star Trek universe's timeline moved on at a different pace than time in the real world.

Star Trek: Picard Takes Place From 2399 To 2402

Picard Season 1 Uses Flashbacks To Fill In The Gaps Since Nemesis

Star Trek: Picard pushed the Star Trek timeline into the first years of the 25th century, taking place from 2399 to 2402. Instead of each of Star Trek: Picard's three seasons roughly corresponding to one year of real time, a full year — 2400 — passes between Star Trek: Picard's first and second seasons. Seasons 2 and 3 of Star Trek: Picard both take place in 2401, and the epilogue of Star Trek: Picard season 3, when Admiral Jean-Luc Picard and Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) take their son Ensign Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers) to the USS Enterprise-G, happens in 2402.

The first season of Star Trek: Picard uses flashbacks to show the key events in the 20-year gap between Star Trek: Nemesis. Before Star Trek: Picard, the furthest point in Star Trek's late 24th century "present" was the Romulan supernova in 2387, which was established in J.J. Abrams' Kelvin Timeline Star Trek movies as being a major event in the Prime Timeline. Star Trek: Picard uses the Romulan supernova as a turning point in Jean-Luc Picard's career, which leads to Picard's resignation from Starfleet, and sets up Jean-Luc's character arc in Star Trek: Picard season 1.

How Long After TNG Does Picard Happen?

Star Trek: Picard Happens Almost 30 Years After TNG

Instead of the 26 years that passed in the real world since the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Picard tacked on 3 more years, so the events of Star Trek: Picard's first season happen in 2399, 29 years after the events of the Star Trek: The Next Generation series finale, "All Good Things..." When Star Trek: The Next Generation started, Jean-Luc Picard was 59 years old and Patrick Stewart was 47, so the extra three years mean that Patrick Stewart, who was 78 when Star Trek: Picard began filming, began the series playing a 93-year-old Admiral Jean-Luc Picard.

Star Trek: The Next Generation's seven-season run began in 1987, and ended with the TNG finale in 1994. Each season of Star Trek: The Next Generation equaled one year of real time, so the events of the show that took place between 2364 and 2370 easily mapped onto the years between 1987 and 1994. That one-to-one correlation between Star Trek time and real-world time continued through the next Star Trek spin-offs, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, and ended with the last TNG movie, 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis taking place in 2379.

How Long After TNG Movies Does Picard Happen?

Star Trek: Picard Picks Up 20 Years After Nemesis

Star Trek: Picard picks up 20 years after the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies conclude chronologically, but only 18 years after the release of Star Trek: Nemesis. The Star Trek: The Next Generation films use a one-to-one ratio of real time to in-universe time, like Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager did. The four TNG movies that were released between 1994 and 2002 collectively take place between 2371 and 2379, and all happen while the events of Star Trek: DS9 and Star Trek: Voyager are ongoing.

New Star Trek shows don't keep time in the same year-to-year way that the Star Trek: The Next Generation era series did. Each Star Trek show takes place in its own time frame, so they can account for time however they like. Exactly how much time passes between seasons of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Lower Decks is kept vague, especially compared to the TNG era. Star Trek: Picard took advantage of this feature to let more time pass after TNG, and set the stage for what could happen in Star Trek's 25th century and beyond.

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8.9/10

Star Trek: Picard

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Cast

Santiago Cabrera , Alison Pill , Orla Brady , Michelle Hurd , Jeri Ryan , Brent Spiner , Harry Treadaway , Rebecca Wisocky , Evan Evagora , Isa Briones , Patrick Stewart

Release Date

January 23, 2020

Seasons

3

Writers

Terry Matalas

Directors

Jonathan Frakes , Patrick Stewart , michael dorn

Showrunner

Michael Chabon