Picard season 3 is here, and we're back with an episode 1 breakdown! This season returns the entire (surviving) TNG crew, but also contains numerous homages to classic Trek movies, and especially--the Wrath of Khan.
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Written by Ryan Britt ( RyancBritt)
Hosted by Ryan Arey ( ryanarey)
Edited by Harriet Lengel-Enright, Randolf Nombrado, and Brianna McLarty
#StarTrek #Picard #EasterEggs
Right away, this debut episode beams in a double Easter egg with a font style and specific text on the screen with the phrase “In the 25th Century…” This font is reminiscent of the onscreen text at the beginning of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which began with “In the 23rd Century…” This aesthetic callback isn’t just superficial either. Because, as we’ll see, this episode has other similarities to The Wrath of Khan.
[CLIP: Wrath of Khan opening, “In the 23rd Century…”]
As we get our first scene, we’re hit with two musical Easter eggs back-to-back; we briefly hear a snippet of Jerry Goldsmith’s overture from Star Trek: First Contact, [clip] and then, as we see the SS Eleos surrounded by enemy ships, we get th e 1941 song “I Don’t Want to Set the World On Fire,” from the Ink Spots. This intro, complete with a nebula and a golden oldie is very similar to the very beginning the season premiere of Picard, Season 1’s “Remembrance,” which opened with very similar shots set to the Bing Crosby version of “Blue Skies.”
But the Ink Spots have an even deeper connection to Next Gen nostalgia. In 1991, Brent Spiner released an album of standards called Ol’ Yellow Eyes is back. On the track, “It’s a Sin To Tell a Lie,” Spiner was joined by four backup singers called “The Sun Spots,” who were Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, and LeVar Burton. So, The Ink Spots singing at the start of Picard Season 3, could be interpreted as foreshadowing the reunion of the TNG crew, or maybe, that Brent Spiner might sing later in the season? Or is that wishful thinking?
[CLIP, Data singing Blue Skies in Nemesis]
Before we see Beverly Crusher, we’re shown a slew of objects that should remind us of the good doctor, including her flowers, from “Cause and Effect,” her pearls from “The Big Goodbye,” as well as two drama masks, reminding us of Bev’s love of playwriting and the theater, which cropped up in the episodes “The Nth Degree,” “Disaster,” “Frame of Mind,” and “A Fistful of Datas.” In the latter episode, it was kinda implied that Bev’s play, “Something For Breakfast,” was probably a play about her having breakfast with Captain Picard.
[Clip: Bev saying “Something For Breakfast” IN TNG]
We also get a very deep cut here with an award that says “Cor Caroli V, Medical Away Team, Honorary Citizens.” This references a mission of the Enterprise-D from TNG, which we NEVER ACTUALLY saw. In the episode “Allegiance,” Picard mentions that the Enterprise’s medical relief mission to Cor Caroli V had been classified, which, at the time, allowed him to realize that Cadet Mitena Haro was an imposter. [CLIP: Picard saying “Starfleet has classified the Cor Caroli V plague…]
“Allegiance” also featured a Jean-Luc imposter on the Enterprise-D, who made romantic moves on Beverly.