Summary
- In Star Trek: The Next Generation, an alternate future sees Admiral Picard helping Romulans, foreshadowing his actions in Star Trek: Picard.
- The show often explores the idea of enemies becoming allies, as demonstrated by characters like Chekov and Worf.
- While the future in TNG turns out to be a simulation, it still hints at Picard's willingness to help Romulans, which aligns with his character in the new series.
An episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation depicts a future timeline in which Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is helping Romulans, just as he does in Star Trek: Picard. In this alternate future, Picard is one of the key figures in drafting a peace treaty between the United Federation of Planets and the Romulan Star Empire, assisted by Tomalak (Andreas Katsulas), now an Ambassador, and the episode's viewpoint character, Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), whose promotion to Captain also sees him in command of the USS Enterprise.
In Star Trek: The Next Generation season 4, episode 8, "Future Imperfect", Riker wakes up after an accident to find that sixteen years have passed, and he doesn't remember anything, least of all befriending Romulans. It's not unusual for Star Trek to show that former enemies can become allies; that was the purpose of Russian Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) in Star Trek: The Original Series and the conceit behind Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn) being Starfleet's first Klingon officer. While this future turns out to be a total illusion, that history means both Riker and the viewer can entertain the possibility of a Federation-Romulan alliance, as unlikely as it seems.
