Star Trek: Picard reinvented 10 Forward from Star Trek: The Next Generation, but the retcon never made sense to me.

With its premiere in 1987, TNG introduced the world to Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his crew aboard the USS Enterprise-D.

This cast of characters would go on to become one of Star Trek’s most beloved starship crews, as they became like a family to one another and the viewer. The Enterprise-D had a lounge and bar area called Ten Forward, where crew members could spend their free time, allowing viewers to better get to know the characters.

In 2020, Patrick Stewart returned to portray Jean-Luc Picard again in Star Trek: Picard, which picked up about twenty years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis.

In its first season, Picard introduced a new cast of characters alongside Jean-Luc, but some familiar faces soon joined the show as well. Whoopi Goldberg’s Guinan returned in Picard season 2, as the bartender at a Los Angeles bar located at 10 Forward Avenue. Picard visits Guinan at this bar in 2401, and later visits a younger version of Guinan (Ito Aghayere) at this location in 2024.

3 Years Later, Star Trek: Picard’s 10 Forward Bar Retcon Doesn’t Make Sense

Guinan’s 10 Forward Avenue Bar Existed In The 21st & 24th Centuries

While the 10 Forward Avenue bar in LA was named as a shout-out to the Enterprise-D’s Ten Forward, the name does not make any sense. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Ten Forward was so named because of its location on Deck 10, forward section 1 of the Enterprise.

Guinan served as the mysterious bartender throughout six seasons of TNG, offering advice to Captain Picard and his Enterprise crew. While it would have been fitting for Guinan to open a bar referencing Ten Forward sometime after her tenure on the Enterprise-D, it makes no sense that one would exist in the 21st century.

It’s far too much of a coincidence to believe that Guinan just happened to run a bar on 10 Forward Avenue centuries before she would operate a bar on Deck 10, forward section 1 of the Enterprise.

The only possible explanation is that Guinan had some knowledge of the future, either from time travel or her extrasensory abilities.

Perhaps the Guinan of the 21st century intentionally opened a bar at 10 Forward Avenue knowing (or sensing) that she would one day run TNG’s Ten Forward.

This doesn’t make much sense, either, but Star Trek: Picard offers no alternate explanation for the existence of the two 10 Forwards.

10 Forward Has Become Useful For Paramount+ To Promote Star Trek In The Real World

Some Lucky Star Trek Fans Got To Visit 10 Forward Avenue

If nothing else, the creation of 10 Forward Avenue has given Paramount+ a fun way to promote Star Trek, by establishing a set that’s much easier to recreate in the real world than the bridge of a starship.

In March 2022, Paramount recreated 10 Forward Avenue at the USC Roski Graduate Building in downtown LA for exclusive events to promote Star Trek: Picard season 2.

The pop-up bar was only around for ten days, but it provided fans with the opportunity to see the new set, try Trek-themed cocktails, and purchase exclusive merchandise.