Picard Season 3 Episode 6 Easter Eggs Just Changed the Game for Star Trek
The Enterprise-A, Voyager, the Defiant, and… USS New Jersey?!
The last time we saw the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A was in The Undiscovered Country after the ship had just taken a pounding from a Bird-of-Prey that could fire while cloaked. Now, fans are probably aware that Christopher Plummer played Chang in that movie and his daughter Amanda Plummer plays Vadic in Picard season 3. But the easter egg of the Enterprise-A at the Fleet Museum cuts deeper than that. Unlike so many Enterprises, this is one that survived. The bulk of its hull is still intact enough to be on display at the Fleet Museum, giving the universe an idealized notion of that specific era of the 23rd century.
The Enterprise-A only exists because of the Bounty. If Kirk and the crew didn’t destroy the previous Enterprise, and stolen the Bounty, the Enterprise-A wouldn’t have happened. When Altan Soong is monologuing about the concept of evolution, we see the Titan parked in front of the Enterprise-A, showing us what nostalgia and the realities of time actually mean. The Titan being a Neo-Constitution-class ship isn’t just about cool retro starship lines. It represents how history shapes the present.
This thematic feeling is also true of the other big starship easter eggs at the Fleet Museum, such as the Constitution-class USS New Jersey introduced in the episode with its designation NCC-1975, which is a reference to where and when Picard showrunner Terry Matalas was born. The other ships that Jack and Seven talk about are all connected to the larger mosaic of the story of Trek. Seven says she was reborn on Voyager, and Jack pointing out the Defiant is relevant to the story we’re currently experiencing. Worf served on the Defiant, and that was the ship that was pivotal in beating back the Changelings the first time around on Deep Space Nine, even if, like the Enterprise-A, it is technically a replacement for the original, which was destroyed.
Data, Moriarty, and Jean-Luc’s Old Body
The second Defiant replaced the first. The Enterprise-A replaced the previous Enterprise. But these vessels aren’t the only things that have been replaced in Trek canon. Jean-Luc Picard and Data have both been given new life in new bodies. On Daystrom Station, Riker, Raffi, and Worf discover a new version of Data — or at least a composite of his memories, B-4, Lore, Soong, and Lal in a fresh vessel. This references Nemesis, the TNG episode “The Offspring,” Picard season 1, and TNG episodes like “Datalore” and “Brothers.” But more than that, the idea that Data seems to never die feels connected to the presence of the Moriarty hologram he sends out to greet old friends. After Riker remembers whistling “Pop Goes the Weasel” with Data in “Encounter at Farpoint,” Data’s consciousness allows the landing party access to the crucial part of Daystrom Station.
Riker has clearly processed his grief about Data’s death. In Nemesis, he couldn’t remember what song Data was trying to whistle, but years later he finally does. This is touching, but it also gestures at a bigger theme. Data is exactly like Sherlock Holmes in one specific way: his deaths are numerous and almost always false. Conan Doyle created Professor Moriarty for the short story “The Final Problem” in order to kill off Holmes forever in the minds of his readers. It didn’t work and Holmes was resurrected for subsequent stories, much like Data (and Spock!).
In “The Bounty,” Riker waxes poetic about the easter eggs relating to Data on Daystrom Station, saying, “I shared that tune decades ago with another dear friend. One who dreamt of crows [“Birthright Part 1”], aspired to thwart Moriarty with the intellect of Holmes [“Elementary,” “Dear Data,”], and somebody who couldn’t whistle worth a damn [“Encounter at Farpoint”].” In this trip down memory lane, complete with actual retro footage of Riker and Data from the pilot episode of The Next Generation, the purpose of Data’s journey is made clear. Holmes couldn’t die because the public demanded he be brought back. And Data’s journey, clearly, wasn’t over until he became properly human.
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