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.
Star Trek‘s 10 Forward: The Experience also appeared at San Diego Comic-Con in 2022 as a way to promote the Star Trek Universe on Paramount+. Star Trek: Picard's 10 Forward Avenue set made another comeback in 2025, as one of the Star Trek experiences at Universal Fan Fest Nights. This event runs select nights from April 25 through May 18, 2025, and also features a walkthrough of the screen-used Enterprise-D bridge set from Picard season 3. Ultimately, the 21st-century version of 10 Forward Avenue makes little sense, but the Star Trek: Picard location has provided some fun experiences for fans.
