Star Trek has a healthy range of expanded universe media, with the Star Trek novel series being possibly the longest-running tie-in book series in all of television. From classic stories that slot neatly into the ongoing narrative to entire new crews and worlds, the novels have vastly expanded the depth of their parent shows.
That brings us to Star Trek: Picard, which premieres its second season on Paramount+ on March 3. The tie-in novels are important for this show; by the time it beings, a considerable amount of time has transpired between the events of the 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis. Though the show features a lot of flashbacks to events that happened in the interim, with only 10 episodes per season it’s difficult to truly get a rounded picture of the experiences Picard and his crew had during those times of turmoil for the Federation.
That’s where the Star Trek: Picard novels come in. Currently standing at three books, they serve as prequels to season 1, fleshing out the new characters and adding context to events we heard about on the show. Just what happened when the Romulan relief mission failed? How did Raffi’s Starfleet career really end? How did Rios acquire La Sirena?
As the countdown to season 2 gets underway, let’s take a look at what else the Picard universe can offer, starting with the man himself…
Jean-Luc Picard
Una McCormack’s 2020 novel The Last Best Hope extensively deals with the events immediately surrounding Jean-Luc Picard leaving Starfleet and the initial efforts to relieve Romulus following the news that their star will go nova. Picard is the central character in the novel. At the same time, there are appearances from Geordi La Forge and Beverly Crusher from The Next Generation era as well as Raffi Musiker and Agnes Jurati, who are introduced in Picard.
Fleshing out Picard’s decision to leave Starfleet, the novel covers events between 2381 and 2385 when he is promoted to admiral and given command of the mission to save as many Romulans as possible, the most incredible relief effort in history. Picard was the first choice for the task. Still, not everyone within Starfleet or the Federation is interested in saving the Romulans, and the admiral is constantly challenged by those who wish to either scale back the mission or cancel it altogether.
The task is deemed too politically sensitive for the Enterprise. Picard willingly surrenders his command of the flagship to take on the Romulan mission. Instead, he takes command of the USS Verity, an Odyssey-class cruiser. Worf is promoted to captain of the Enterprise at Picard’s recommendation, and Jean-Luc never again sets foot on the ship.
Picard chooses Raffi Musiker as his new first officer and is assigned Lieutenant Koli Johan, a Bajoran specialist whom he admires for her communication skills and empathy. All agree that the refugee program must be dealt with sensitively, which becomes near impossible. When the initial facilities are not deemed adequate, Picard risks the wrath of both the Federation and Romulan Empire by settling refugees in Federation space.
There are successes on the mission, including settling Romulans on the world of Vashti, where Picard makes a connection with a young Elnor. Yet events on Nimbus III are a disaster. As seen in Star Trek V, the planet is located in the Neutral Zone, and armed Tal Shiar forces demand that the Federation withdraw. Picard has no choice but to obey; dozens of Romulan refugees are massacred, which leads to Lieutenant Koli Johan’s resignation and much bad feeling.
Picard throws himself into the mission anew and visits Vejuro, one of the most populated worlds outside the Romulan system, which allows him to experience Romulan culture and politics first hand. Picard is eventually recalled to Earth to deal with the fallout from the synth attack on the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards. He believes the attack was caused by the androids somehow gaining sentience and rebelling.
The attack on Mars’ fleet yards is devastating to the Federation. Outer worlds, riled up by politicians exploiting their xenophobia, openly discuss leaving the alliance. The Federation decides to end the Romulan relief mission, condemning millions to death, all to keep their own alliance stable.
Picard is shocked at the failure of the overall mission, the loss of life accepted by the Federation, and the failure of the values he held so dearly. He resigns from Starfleet and returns to Labarre, where we find him at the beginning of Star Trek: Picard.
Raffi Musiker
Raffi becomes the new first officer to Admiral Picard in 2381, as we read about in The Last Best Hope. She is personally chosen by the captain to be his XO and the foremost authority on Romulan Affairs. At this time, she has a husband, Jae Hwang, and a son, Gabe. Both are upset at Raffi for abandoning them, as her attention is increasingly taken up by the time-consuming complexity of the Romulan mission and her dedication to Picard. She is torn throughout the book between the mission and her family, and in the end, it tears them apart. Deciding to move on with their lives, Raffi’s husband Jae eventually files for divorce.
Raffi cannot cope with the loss of her family, the loss of the mission she chose instead of them, and the resignation of Picard, the man she had given up so much for. She spirals into depression and substance abuse. Her drug of choice is snakeleaf, which can cause paranoid delusions.
Seeking answers for how things went so wrong and convinced that the attack on the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards was intentional, Raffi’s poor mental state, bitterness, and substance abuse lead her to advocate a “conspiracy theory” that the attack on Mars wasn’t an accident and the Tal Shiar were involved.
Agnes Jurati and Bruce Maddox
During the events of The Last Best Hope, Agnes is a graduate student enthralled by Bruce Maddox’s brilliance, with Maddox similarly taken with her genius. The two remain teacher and student for a long time, until Jurati’s awkwardness and love of baked goods wins over her former mentor. The two fall head over heels in love, all while Maddox struggles with his new life amidst the Romulan relief effort.
Maddox believes that intelligent synthetic androids like Data are the future, and his goal is to create a being equal to the Soong androids. Tasked with creating mindless drones for the Mars shipbuilding, he is angered that his research is being utilized for something less than he’d dreamed. He reluctantly creates the Daystrom A500-model, which eventually goes rogue and destroys Mars. There are indications that he had been distracted by his private efforts to create genuine, intelligent artificial life, unable to entirely give up his life’s work to concentrate on the A500s.
Following the synth attack on the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, Maddox is ostracized and left doubting his own work. With Daystrom’s Robotics Division permanently shut down, Maddox flees Earth to continue his research in secret away from the interference of the Federation. Agnes, however, isn’t ready to abandon her life to go on the run. Though she is heartbroken, she decides to stay behind and the two part ways.
Cristóbal Rios
Cristóbal’s story and background are heavily featured in the third Star Trek: Picard novel Rogue Elements by John Jackson Miller, published in August 2021. This book is much lighter in tone than Star Trek: Picard itself. Rios comes off as a fun combination of Han Solo and an intergalactic James Bond. If you enjoyed the season 1 episode “Stardust City Rag,” you’ll love this.
While the novel doesn’t go super deep into Cristóbal’s background, the character and his motivations are fleshed out. This heist novel is basically Picard‘s answer to Solo, infused with a healthy dose of Firefly. We learn the answers to a lot of the questions raised during the television show, including just how Rios came to command La Sirena: he acquires the ship from the Iotians, the Prohibition era-obsessed race featured in the Original Series episode “A Piece of the Action.” Whether he was originally going to steal it, we may never know. The Iotians rope Rios into a lengthy payment plan for the ship, which leads to him forming a crew of roguish characters in order to take on jobs. Kivas Fajo and Vash also make appearances.
In many ways, the book is a love letter to fans; it includes a tie-in to The Undiscovered Country and features plentiful references to other parts of the mythology. The book firmly entrenches Rios in the franchise’s continuity outside of Picard.
Rogue Elements also explores the events surrounding Rios’ exit from Starfleet and his time on the USS ibn Majid, introducing us to former shipmate Royce Claggett. After Rios reported him for brutalizing prisoners, Claggett was thrown out of the service. The rest of the crew of the ibn Majid blamed Rios for ending up cashiered, which is what led to Rios going off on his own and acquiring La Sirena.
Like Raffi, Rios is struggling here, though he puts on a braver face than his future shipmate. He drinks himself into unconsciousness, womanizes, and makes endless poor decisions; Raffi appears several times to look after him. We also learn that Rios admired Jean Luc-Picard from afar, but as far as Starfleet itself goes, he has no respect left for the organization after the cover-up of his captain’s suicide, which we saw in the season 1 episode “Broken Pieces.”
However, the best part of Rogue Elements is the hilarious explanation for the creation of the ship’s holograms, one I won’t spoil here.
Geordi La Forge
In The Last Best Hope, Geordi transfers to Mars’ Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards to oversee the construction of the thousands of starships needed for the Federation’s refugee fleet; an event also chronicled in the three-part Countdown comic prequel. Here he finds a lot of resistance to the mission, with many angered that their research and engineering work is being set aside for the bigger campaign. La Forge is keen to raise production and accepts the idea from Commander Estella Mackenzie to use bio-neural synthetics. The Daystrom Institute was tasked with undertaking the creation of the androids, and Geordi enlists the help of Bruce Maddox.
Geordi is on his way to Earth and not present on Mars when the synth plan goes hideously wrong and they attack the shipyards. The atmosphere of Mars ignites, thousands are killed, and the ships in orbit are all destroyed. La Forge believed that Maddox was distracted and made a mistake that led to the tragedy. Having seen his coworkers and colleagues all horrifically slaughtered, there is no doubt that La Forge has been deeply affected by their deaths and is likely suffering from survivor’s guilt. This is a story that needs to be told onscreen, and hopefully Geordi will make a return before the series concludes.
Will Riker and Deanna Troi
Taking place in 2386, around a year after the destruction of the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, The Dark Veil by James Swallow focuses on Will Riker and Deanna Troi’s experiences before the events of Picard season 1. It’s also a crossover with Pocket Books’ Star Trek: Titan book series, so it ties those novels into the Picard continuity. Many elements that had previously featured in the Titan series are retconned to fit into the new TV timeline, such as Riker being promoted to admiral, Picard marrying Beverly Crusher and having a son, the resurrection of Data in the body of B4, and Riker and Troi having another daughter, Natasha.
The book introduces us to Will and Deanna’s son, Thaddeus Riker, who has already died by the time we learn about him in the Picard episode “Nepenthe.” The boy is highly gifted at languages and is an explorer at heart, full of life and the desire to connect with new people and races. He is perhaps the perfect candidate to one day become a counselor or Starfleet captain, a future that nobody at this point could possibly know he wouldn’t live long enough to see.
Getting to know the character and the Riker family makes his death before Picard even more poignant. Of everything from these three books, his presence in The Dark Veil adds the most emotional depth to the television series.
The book also introduces the Jazari, an alien race with excellent reason to be afraid in the new post-Utopia Planitia atmosphere. Their storyline adds texture to the story of the synths and the Federation’s ban.
The Next Generation gave us a Will Riker as an excellent XO, while Picard gave us a Riker at the end of his career. It’s almost easy to forget that we’ve never actually seen him at the height of his power as a captain onscreen. As such, The Dark Veil is a treat, showing us Riker in his prime as captain of the Titan. It remains to be seen whether the Titan novel series, which ended in 2017, will be rebooted to fit into the new continuity, but for now it’s a welcome glimpse into a previously unknown part of this iconic character’s history.
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