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In Star Trek: Picard - Season 2, Episode 4 - Watcher Admiral Picard visits

the 2024 version of Guinan in her bar Ten Forward

The person does neither recognize his face nor later his name when he gives it, at least not in a sense that they acknowledge personally knowing the name - only apparently sensing (as per usual) that they should be helping this stranger with this rather important name.

Which is strange, considering she personally

met Picard before in person in San Francisco in the year 1893, learned his name and when he is from (in the TNG Season 5 Finale Season 6 Premiere two part story Time's Arrow)

yet somehow there seemingly is no recollection of these events.

Is this an indication of

the event Picard and Company are trying to prevent changing things before it apparently happens (timey-wimey stuff) or have the writers forgotten or deliberately ignored (most likely for dramatic reasons [in that case there could be quotes]) their characters' pasts?

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Quite simple, actually. In this timeline there was no 24th century Enterprise-D so the time travel shenanigans that sent the crew back to the nineteenth century in "Time's Arrow" never occurred. Thus, in this timeline, 21st century Guinan has never met Picard.

GUINAN: "Do you remember the first time we met?"

PICARD: "Of course."

GUINAN: "Don't be so sure. I just mean … if you don't go on this mission, we'll never meet."

Quotation from Time's Arrow, Guinan and Picard discuss a potential time-travelling mission in Ten Forward

Here's a quote from show runner Terry Matalas:

“This Guinan wouldn't remember Picard because in this alternate timeline, the TNG episode "Time's Arrow" never happened. Because there was no Federation, those events did not play out the same. No previous relationship exists. However, she still was likely traveling to Earth and, as we know, she hung around a bit. So this Guinan is different. But she, of course, can sense something is off. She's going through a kind of time-sickness thanks to Q's meddling with the timeline.”

Of course, this seems to mean that whatever divergence in time that Q caused is not actually confined to the time after April 15th, 2024 since it appears to have indirectly also affected 19th Earth. But we'll just have to ignore that or assume it's not a detail that actually is important.

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  • So does this mean that Data's head is not in that underground cave?
    – Emsley Wyatt
    Commented Mar 25, 2022 at 14:40
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    @EmsleyWyatt: Well, yeah. It's too bad because otherwise Picard could have gone and dug it up and plugged it into La Sirena and then they wouldn't have had to deal with the Borg Queen's head.
    – ThePopMachine
    Commented Mar 25, 2022 at 17:18
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    I've run across some tweets from David Mack who, while not involved with "Picard" has written extensively in the Trek Universe. Basically, he's saying that the new timeline is complete with it's own present, past, and future. So, Picard and company are not in the 2024 of the original timeline or even some "common past", but in the 2024 of the altered timeline.
    – Emsley Wyatt
    Commented Mar 25, 2022 at 23:02
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    It also explains why this younger version of the character seems so much more cynical. When she met Picard in the the original timeline, that meeting would let her know there was a brighter future of humanity to look forward to. This version never found that out so all she knows is that humanity seems on a spiral toward doom.
    – Keith Morrison
    Commented Mar 28, 2022 at 15:03
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    @KeithMorrison: I'm not sure that's necessary. I just interpreted is as: in the 19th century, it looked like humanity was finally starting to get it together and move in an upward trajectory. Then in early 21th century, Guinan has seen World Wars, WMD, and environmental degradation and has thus become exasperated.
    – ThePopMachine
    Commented Mar 30, 2022 at 15:09

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