On episode eight of Star Trek: Picard, titled "Broken Pieces," we finally learn the dark
truth behind the synthetic attack on Mars 14 years before the start of the series, and
the crew of the La Sirena makes some surprising discoveries.
Here are all the Easter eggs and references you may have missed in "Broken Pieces."
We finally get confirmation in "Broken Pieces" that Commodore Oh is what many have long suspected
-- a half-Romulan, half-Vulcan spy for the Zhat Vash, who orchestrated the attack on
Mars.
"Where do we begin?"
"On the world the humans call Mars."
This isn't the first time Romulan spies who are half-Vulcan have played a significant
role on Star Trek.
In The Next Generation season 4 episode "Data's Day," Data is assigned to serve as an escort
for a "Vulcan" ambassador named T'Pel who later is revealed to be a Romulan spy.
Given that "Broken Pieces" reveals that the Zhat Vash's mission to prevent the evolution
of synthetics goes back hundreds of years, it's safe to assume that the Zhat Vash was
wary of Data from the moment he was created.
Perhaps T'Pel wasn't just a Romulan spy, but was actually an earlier generation of Zhat
Vash, gathering information on Starfleet's only sentient synthetic.
After finding out in episode 7 of Star Trek: Picard that Agnes Jurati had ingested a Romulan
tracking device, we learned in "Broken Pieces" that it was made of viridium.
Despite never having appeared in its shiny blue pill form before, viridium trackers have
actually been used in Star Trek since Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
In that film, Spock places a viridium patch on the uniform of Captain Kirk before Kirk
beams over to a Klingon ship.
Later, Spock uses the viridium patch to rescue Kirk and McCoy from where they're being held
captive.
Star Trek: Picard has been doling out a new Rios-based hologram on the La Sirena every
couple episodes, but by "Broken Pieces," it seems as though we've finally met them all.
In total, there are five, each with a different accent: an Emergency Medical Hologram, an
Emergency Navigational Hologram, an Emergency Tactical Hologram, an Emergency Hospitality
Hologram, and one last emergency hologram, whom we meet in episode 8.
"Are you Chris?"
"No, lassie, I'm the Emergency Engineering Hologram.
But I go by Ian."
While the different accents and mannerisms of the various holograms are an effective
way of differentiating between six different characters that all look exactly the same,
Picard's inclusion of a Scottish engineer who liberally tosses around the word "lassie"
feels far from coincidental.
On the original Star Trek series, the chief engineer was Montgomery Scott, known amongst
the rest of the Enterprise crew as "Scotty."
While Ian, the EEH, appears to be his own character, and not a carbon copy of Scotty,
his heavy accent and Scottish slang all seem to be deliberate tips of the hat to the much-beloved
original character.
"Computer?
Ah.
Hello, computer."
When Rios acquired the La Sirena, he selected the "self-scan" option, ostensibly by accident,
which led to the ship creating five identical copies of Rios.
However, although the self-scan option seemingly preserved all of Rios' memories, the captain
later went in and deleted a few of them in order to cover up what happened on his previous
ship, the Ibn Majid.
In the process, Rios also made some careless deletions of unrelated information.
"Ask me the proper temperature for making Yridian tea, I no longer have any idea."
The Yridians were an alien species that first appeared on The Next Generation, when a Yridian
named Jaglom Shrek lured Worf to a Romulan prison camp by lying to him about his father
still being alive.
The ENH also says he's lost his knowledge of Medusan astrogation techniques.
The Medusans are a non-corporeal race first introduced in the original series In the episode,
the Enterprise finds itself flung into uncharted space, and has to use Medusan astrogation
techniques to get back.
While Rios is sequestered in his quarters, we get a good look at his bookshelves, which
is how we learn that the captain is an avid reader of existentialist novels and philosophical
texts, including a Vulcan philosophy book, Surak and Existentialism.
The Vulcan philosopher Surak was first introduced in the original series' third season episode,
"The Savage Curtain," and is credited as being the father of Vulcan civilization.
Of all the books on Rios' shelf, it is Surak's teachings that are the most unique, since
he was a proponent of peace and his teachings led to the Vulcans purging themselves of emotion,
while many of Rios' other books advocated for the value of intense feeling.
Interestingly, it is Surak's teachings which are off the shelf, suggesting that it is the
more controlled Vulcan philosophy, and not the emotional Earth-originated teaching, which
Rios gravitates toward when he's feeling lost.
When Agnes finally comes face to face with a sentient synthetic in Soji, she marvels
over the many human-like details in Soji's construction, calling her a wonder and a work
of art.
Agnes goes on to explain that while Noonian Soong considered himself an artist, he never
came close to creating anything like Soji.
This refers back to the fourth season Next Generation episode "Brothers," in which Soong
likened his creation of Data to the sculptures of Michelangelo, saying his process of creating
Data was similar, but harder.
"Wasn't quite that easy with you, Data.
But the need to do it, my need to do it, was no different than Michelangelo's need."
When Agnes finally comes clean about why she killed Bruce Maddox earlier in the season,
she explains that the Admonition was constructed to warn future civilizations away from developing
synthetic life, so that they could avoid the catastrophe that befell its creators once
they passed a "threshold" of advancement.
Rios immediately realizes what Agnes is talking about, likening it to when Zefram Cochrane
invented warp drive.
In First Contact, it's explained that the Vulcans had thought of humans as too primitive
to make contact, until they saw Cochrane's warp drive test flight.
Then they changed their plans in order to make contact.
It sounds as though there's another advanced race out there that may be ignoring the Federation
for similar reasons for now, at least.
After gaining access to knowledge that had previously been inaccessible to her, Soji
plans to use a transwarp conduit to get back to her home world, which she hopes to reach
before the Romulans can get there.
Transwarp conduits were first mentioned in the Next Generation episode "Descent, Part
I," in which Geordi explained how they worked.
"A ship, when entering the conduit, is immediately accelerated to an extremely high warp velocity.
It's like falling into a fast moving river and being swept away by the current."
However, the technology played a much more significant role in Star Trek: Voyager, in
which the crew made several attempts to use transwarp conduits to make their way back
to the Alpha Quadrant.
Although they were unsuccessful the first couple times, they finally succeeded in the
series finale, "Endgame," when they used a transwarp conduit to travel safely back to
Earth.
On the bridge of the La Sirena during a quiet moment in "Broken Pieces," Picard reminisces
that it reminds him of an old memory.
"I remember standing the night watch as a young ensign on the bridge of the Reliant."
While we've heard many tales of Picard's service aboard the Stargazer throughout The Next Generation,
he's never talked much about his time on the Reliant.
However, there was another, earlier version of the U.S.S.
Reliant that played a much more significant role in Star Trek history.
In Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, the 23rd century Reliant is commandeered by the villainous
Khan.
The Reliant ultimately wound up being destroyed in the final showdown between Khan and the
Enterprise, but it appears that Starfleet later commissioned another starship with the
same name.
Toward the end of "Broken Pieces," Picard mentions that he once met Rios' former captain
when he served as first officer to one of Picard's Starfleet Academy classmates: Captain
Marta Batanides.
Marta Batanides played a central role in the Next Generation episode "Tapestry."
In the episode, Q brings Picard back to pivotal moments in his past, allowing him to change
actions that he regrets.
Marta Batanides was one of those regrets; she and Picard were close friends, but he
never acted on his romantic feelings for her.
Initially, he decided to change this, but ultimately reversed that decision when he
realized that a romantic relationship would lead to the end of their friendship.
Marta was also present for the bar fight with the Nausicaans which ended with Picard getting
stabbed through the chest, leading to him receiving his artificial heart.
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