WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 5, "Fly Me to the Moon," streaming now on Paramount+.
With Star Trek: Picard Season 2 leaving Jean-Luc Picard and his crew scrambling to restore the timeline after it was tampered with by the omnipotent Q, La Sirena traveled back to Los Angeles 2024. Learning that a mysterious figure known as the Watcher was their best hope for preserving human history, Picard sought them out, with the Guinan of this time period facilitating their meeting. And upon introducing himself to the Watcher, Picard learns they hold a similar role to forgotten Star Trek: The Original Series character Gary Seven, continuing the show's trend of being inspired by -- and celebrating -- Star Trek history.
Meeting with the Watcher after they guide Picard to a portal through the use of a series of temporary host bodies, Picard is surprised when the enigmatic figure takes on the form of Picard's Romulan friend Laris from the 25th century. The Watcher explains that they are in charge of ensuring the natural flow of Earth's history progresses as planned, with time-travelers like Picard being held under intense suspicion for intruding in on the timeline. Picard observes that this makes the Watcher hold a similar role to Gary Seven, aware of his 20th century encounter with Captain James T. Kirk and his crew on their own time-travel mission.
Gary Seven was introduced in the TOS Season 2 finale "Assignment: Earth," which saw the crew of the USS Enterprise travel back to 1968 for historical research of the time period. Gary Seven's arrival on the 20th century Earth is intercepted by the Enterprise, with him eventually identified with a human traveling back from the 24th century. Gary Seven is assigned to ensure the flow of history progresses as planned on Earth after his two predecessors are killed in a traffic accident. Raised on a faraway planet in his time, Gary Seven works for that planet's unseen time-keeping agency along with feline companion Isis and human assistant Roberta Lincoln, from a New York City office loaded with advanced tech.
Gary Seven and his supporting characters were intended to star in their own spinoff series from Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, with "Assignment: Earth" serving as a backdoor pilot episode. However, the network passed on picking up the pilot for a full series order, leaving the TOS episode as their sole on-screen appearance. Gary Seven, Roberta and Isis would show up in tie-in Star Trek novels and comic books expanding on their backstory and mission, but the official canonicity of all this ancillary material remains in question.
The Watcher that Picard encounters in 2024 does not dispute his comparison of them to Gary Seven, suggesting they may be carrying out the same role in safeguarding human history. This suggests that Gary Seven and his associates have left, for reasons unknown, in the 60 years since they encountered Kirk and Spock in Manhattan. This also raises the question of why the Watcher was unable to stop Q's tampering in the first place, before Picard and his friends arrived from the resulting divergent timeline.
The Watcher agrees to help Picard and his friends stop Q from altering history, though more of her capabilities and any other links to Gary Seven remain a mystery. The Watcher has identified Picard's ancestor Renee as Q's target, leaving La Sirena's crew to scramble to protect her from the omnipotent ne'er-do-well's mischief. And now with someone holding the same temporal safeguarding role as Gary Seven on their side, Picard may finally have the edge in ensuring galactic history proceeds as it's supposed to.
Created by Akiva Goldsman, Michael Chabon, Kirsten Beyer and Alex Kurtzman, Star Trek: Picard releases new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+.