Full spoilers follow for Star Trek: Picard Episode 1.
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Now that Star Trek: Picard is out in the world, Trekkies (c’est moi) are scrambling to discuss the new wrinkles in the Star Trek universe that the show has now introduced, and are eager to dissect how said wrinkles may or may not connect to the fabric of the franchise’s history at large. And, boy howdy, has there been a lot to discuss.
There are new questions about Data’s android lineage (!), the state of the Borg, the operational ethos of Starfleet, and where AI technology might be 18 years after we last saw the Next Generation crew in action. Let’s dig into the biggest spoiler topics from the Picard premiere episode (read our review!) and how they’ve changed the world of Star Trek already.
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Data’s Legacy
Brent Spiner, reprising his role as Data, appears in Star Trek: Picard in dream sequences. In the first episode, Picard (Patrick Stewart) imagines himself to be playing poker with the android, discussing art, and having conversations like the ones they used to have decades previous. In those dreams, Data appears to be giving Picard clues as to the mysterious tenacity of his positronic brain, even after death, and the true nature of Dahj (Isa Briones), a mysterious young woman who may or may not be a synthetic life form herself.
While Data died in Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), it was implied in that film that his legacy was to live on in the form of B-4 (also Spiner), a rudimentary prototype made by Data’s creator. B-4 also appears in the Picard premiere, seen as body parts in a drawer. A clever android scientist (Alison Pill) explains that, while Data’s memories and brain functions were uploaded into B-4’s brain (as explained in Nemesis), the information didn’t really take, and B-4 did not succeed Data. And, because of a mysterious attack on Mars by rogue androids (called Synths in Picard), all synthetic life forms have been banned by Starfleet. This may be a difficult ban to enforce in the world of Star Trek, seeing as Data and Geordi once created a sentient hologram of Moriarity from Sherlock Holmes entirely by accident.
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But the ban is in place, meaning there are no artificial beings in the time of Star Trek: Picard in quite the same way as we’ve seen in the past. The fate of Voyager’s EMH has yet to be discussed, but we do know that holograms like him are now programmed to behave more like machines, as is demonstrated in the scene wherein Picard visits his archive; the Index hologram is cold and robotic and talks about how “humor” is a relatively recent addition to its programming.
Data, however, will continue to loom large over Star Trek: Picard, as Dahj is something like Data’s daughter. This is, no doubt, a direct allusion to Lal, the android daughter Data attempted to build in the Next Generation episode “The Offspring.” We don’t know yet who created Dahj or why, but we do know, as of this episode, that only a tiny piece of Data’s positronic brain needed to survive in order to replicate the technology that, essentially, made him alive. Evidently, android technology is such that only a single android “cell” is needed in order to “clone” an android. And Dahj has memories of Picard, too… somehow. So while Data may not play a direct role in Star Trek: Picard, he now may finally have the daughter he always wanted.
The Borg
This goes to a larger theme of the show when it comes to the relationship the human body and the life sciences have to artificial intelligence. It’s revealed at the very end of Star Trek: Picard’s premiere that a mysterious cadre of Romulans has salvaged a Borg ship, and has been enacting a mysterious plot from deep within it. One supposes it wasn’t going to be long before Star Trek: Picard was to address the Borg, and the show’s creators went for broke in the very first episode. Picard, as we all likely know, was once assimilated by those cybernetic villains, and had their parasite-like technology working its way into his body and his brain. Picard, then, was once technically partly machine.
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Data was a machine that longed to be human and Picard was a human that was forced to be a machine. Dahj is as close to human as a machine has yet become in Star Trek (from what we know; we don’t spend a lot of time with Dahj before her assassination), so, from a thematic viewpoint, it makes perfect sense that Picard and Data — both somewhere between humanity and the mechanical — should be the ones to explore who she is.
The last time we saw the Borg proper in the Trek series timeline (that is; not Seven of Nine, who will also appear in Star Trek: Picard) was in “Endgame,” the final episode of Star Trek: Voyager. In that episode a future version of Captain Janeway infected the Borg with a pathogen that essentially wiped out the entire species (and, yes, technically Janeway commits genocide). The remnants and debris of the Borg was not addressed, so it’s entirely possible that defunct Borg ships are adrift everywhere in the Delta quadrant, ready to be picked up and repurposed by anyone enterprising enough to find and repair them. And, if Borg drones can be revived in a shadowy plot to cause an android uprising, you can bet that Star Trek: Picard will go there.
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The Romulans, the Supernova, and Picard’s Retirement
And what about those Romulans? In the opening scenes of Star Trek: Picard, we see that Picard has been living with a pair of Romulan citizens (Orla Brady and Jamie McShane). These Romulans are without a home, as Star Trek: Picard is following an event seen in Star Trek 2009 (which, technically overlaps the Kelvin timeline of the reboot movies and the original Trek canon): the destruction of the Romulan homeworld by a supernova. It’s explained in a news interview that Picard participates in that he was the one to aid in the rescue and relocation of some 900 million Romulans, having left command of the Enterprise in order to do so. Soon thereafter, however — and partly because of the Synth attack on Mars which destroyed the ships that would’ve been used in the Dunkirk-like rescue operation — the Federation changed their minds and ordered Picard to abandon the effort, as the Romulans were the organization’s oldest enemy. Picard, objecting to the Federation’s cold rejection of humanitarianism (Romulanitarianism?), bitterly retired.
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There’s not enough space here to explore the full history of the Romulan Empire. Needless to say, the last time we saw them, the Empire was not in the best shape, having crumbled after Shinzon’s uprising in Nemesis, and then their sun going supernova. This means that all the Romulans we’ll see on Star Trek: Picard are struggling refugees which Picard himself aims to protect. No points for recognizing the modern-day parallels to many 2020 governments’ treatment of refugees. This is classic Trek, using sci-fi to explore sticky modern politics, and it will play directly into who Picard is as a character.
It also points to a dark downturn for the Federation, though. The Federation has traditionally lived by an ethos of inclusion and diplomacy. Even when faced with singular rogue enemies, Starfleet captains have always erred on the side of protecting and caring for them. Alliances and cultural exchange has always been more valuable to Starfleet than combat and power and domination. In turning their back on Romulan refugees, the Federation seems to have become more self-protecting. More selfish. Perhaps less diplomatic. You can be sure these themes will be explored in later episodes of Star Trek: Picard.
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As a declaration of intent, the premiere of Star Trek: Picard seems focused and cohesive. Fans have only had one episode to get used to the new ideas above, but the show is well-anchored by Stewart’s dignified performance and shows promise. Some are eager to see where this will go.
What do you think of all of these revelations? Let’s discuss in the comments!
Source: IGN.com How Picard Changes Everything for Star Trek