Picard and his crew go undercover when they finally reach Freecloud in the fifth episode
of Star Trek: Picard.
From dire character fates to some surprising nods to the past, here are all the Easter
eggs and references you missed in "Stardust City Rag."
The fifth episode of Star Trek: Picard opens with easily the grisliest scene in the series
so far, as an ex-Borg Starfleet officer has his ocular implants removed.
While the scene would be difficult to watch no matter who it was on that operating table,
it becomes even more of a gut punch when Seven of Nine arrives to rescue him, and reveals
that the poor guy being tortured is in fact Icheb, who was first introduced to audiences
during Star Trek: Voyager's sixth season.
My name was Icheb."
"Your name is Icheb."
"I remember now."
Icheb was one of several young Borg drones recovered by the Voyager crew in the episode
"Collective," in which the ship comes across a Borg cube manned only by five Borg children
who have been cut off from the Collective.
Seven served as a surrogate parent to Icheb and the other ex-Borg children, and nurtured
Icheb as he demonstrated an advanced aptitude for astrophysics, and voiced a desire to eventually
enter Starfleet Academy.
However, although an adult Icheb made an appearance in the Voyager episode "Shattered," which
takes place in an alternate 2394, we now know that in the prime Star Trek timeline, Icheb
tragically didn't make it past 2386, although he did at some point achieve his dream of
becoming a Starfleet officer.
When we finally meet Dr. Bruce Maddox in the fifth episode of Star Trek: Picard, he's not
looking too great.
Fearing for his life, the cyberneticist is hiding out on Freecloud, seeking aid from
a crime lord named Bjayzl . At first, Bjayzl orders Maddox killed, but then thinks twice
about it and decides to try to find out who he's running from, thinking she might profit
from trading him to his pursuers.
In her attempt to butter the traumatized doctor up, Bjayzl offers him a drink of "tranya,"
a bright yellow beverage that she keeps in a crystal decanter.
Star Trek has long been characterized by its distinctive food and drink, and tranya actually
dates all the way back to the earliest episodes of the original series.
The beverage first appeared in the episode, "The Corbomite Maneuver," in which it is offered
to the crew of the Enterprise as a gesture of goodwill.
Tranya has since popped up here and there throughout the Star Trek universe.
"Two tranyas please, very cold."
Unfortunately for Maddox, the drink that was originally introduced as a way to signify
trust and friendship didn't carry the same significance in Picard; Bjayzl used it to
drug the scientist, rendering him unconscious so she could keep him as her prisoner.
Several times throughout "Stardust City Rag," characters mention that ex-Borg Seven of Nine
originated in the Delta Quadrant, relaying that information with an air of near-awe.
"Seven, the ex-Borg Fenris ranger from the Delta Quadrant."
This is, of course, a reference to the mysterious area of the galaxy that served as the setting
for Star Trek: Voyager, where Seven of Nine was first introduced.
While Starfleet has a decent presence in the other three Quadrants of the galaxy, the Delta
Quadrant is full of unknowns due to how far removed it is from the rest of the Federation;
when the Voyager first became stranded in the Delta Quadrant, they estimated it would
take them 75 years to return to familiar space.
While in the Delta Quadrant, the crew of Voyager encountered a number of new alien species,
but the most powerful force in the Delta Quadrant was actually one that had been introduced
much earlier in Star Trek lore the Borg.
The Borg's first appearance was in The Next Generation season 2 episode "Q Who", in which
the alien Q flings the Enterprise deep into uncharted space -- in this case, the Beta
Quadrant -- to prove to them that they're not yet ready to handle all the challenges
of the universe.
"You judge yourselves against the pitiful adversaries you've encountered so far.
The Romulans, the Klingons.
Although the species originated in the Delta Quadrant, it was this encounter with the Enterprise
that prompted the Borg to travel to Federation space, with the goal of assimilating its many
planets.
As soon as the La Sirena draws near to Freecloud, its crew becomes inundated with the Star Trek
version of pop-up ads, in the form of holograms that aggressively attempt to hawk their wares
until they are dismissed by their targeted customer.
One such ad, aimed at Rios, is for a maintenance service called The Red Bolian, which promises
to be able to boost the La Sirena's power conversion efficiency up from 91%.
Rios gets rid of the ad with a flick of his fingers, but the Bolians have a long history
in the world of Star Trek.
First introduced in the Next Generation season 1 episode "Conspiracy," the Bolians were named
for that episode's director, Cliff Bole.
In that episode, it is discovered that insect-like parasites have infected a trio of Starfleet
admirals and are controlling them from within, despite their normal outward appearances.
In "Stardust City Rag," Picard and the crew of the La Sirena all pretend to be people
they're not in order to infiltrate Bjayzl's operation.
Seven is also revealed to be secretly playing a very different game than Picard and the
others, and at the end of the episode, Maddox is betrayed by Agnes, a person he loved and
trusted.
While The Red Bolian was just a silly ad, it could also have been a subtle nod to the
episode's themes of misplaced trust and deceiving appearances.
Or...maybe it was just a silly ad!
There's a lot to take in when Rios first beams down to the neon-lit streets of Freecloud
in "Stardust City Rag," but it would be hard to miss the prominent signage for "Mr. Mot's
Hair Emporium."
A recurring character on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Mr. Mot was a Bolian barber who
worked aboard the Enterprise.
Despite the fact that Bolians are characteristically bald, Commander Riker had nothing but praise
for Mr. Mot's skills, saying,
"He's the best barber in Starfleet, what can you do?"
Mot often took it upon himself to give Picard and other members of the Enterprise crew unsolicited
advice that went far outside the bounds of his hairdressing expertise, and on a couple
occasions, he actually played an instrumental role in their missions.
In the fifth season Next Generation episode "Unification," Mot provided the hairpieces
that allowed Picard and Data to go undercover as Romulans in their search for Ambassador
Spock.
Of course, this seems extra significant in Picard, given its focus on both Data and the
Romulan people.
Later, in the sixth season episode "Starship Mine," Picard actually claimed to be Mot,
telling a group of mercenaries who had captured him,
I'm the barber."
In "Stardust City Rag," Picard dresses up as a different character, albeit without a
custom Mot hairpiece this time.
To the left of the screen when Rios beams down to Freecloud is a yellow sign advertising
"Dabo Tables," one of the many diversions offered to visitors of the Las Vegas-like
city.
Dabo is a Ferengi game of chance, similar to roulette.
"The rules are quite simple, actually."
Although games of dabo have been mentioned on several Star Trek shows, it was most prominently
featured on Deep Space Nine, where the dabo wheel was a fixture in Quark's bar.
Despite the game's simplicity, it's actually extremely difficult to win due to the high
prevalence of cheating in the game.
Hmmm...more subtle hints of all the trickery waiting in the episode?
"The first rule of dabo is, watch the wheel, not the girl."
Speaking of Quark, it appears the Ferengi barkeep has successfully franchised his establishment
in the years since he was a main cast member on Deep Space Nine, including a location on
Freecloud.
When Rios beams down to the city in "Stardust City Rag," a large sign advertising Quark's
Bar can be seen to the right of the screen, along with the slogan, "What is yours is ours."
This is likely a riff on the motto of the pleasure planet Risa, which Quark visited
in the Deep Space Nine season 5 episode, "Let He Who Is Without Sin…"
He was an enthusiastic recipient of the traditional Risian greeting, which he appears to have
since appropriated for himself in a new form.
"All that is ours is yours."
Quark is name-dropped again when Mr. Vup tells Rios that his references have checked out,
saying,
"Mr. Quark of Ferenginar was especially satisfied with your handling of his trouble with the
Breen."
When Seven of Nine confronts Bjayzl in "Stardust City Rag," she finally gives Picard the full
tale of what happened to Icheb 13 years earlier: he was stationed as a science officer aboard
the USS Coleman, but was on leave from his ship in order to help Seven attempt to maintain
order among the people who had been left behind by the Federation.
Icheb was on a recon mission near Daimanta when his ship responded to a distress call
that turned out to be an ambush orchestrated by Bjayzl and her people.
Icheb's ship, the Coleman, likely refers to a character from the original series, Dr.
Arthur Coleman, who appeared in the season three episode, "Turnabout Intruder."
In the episode, the Enterprise responds to a distress call, and the away team finds an
injured Janice Lester being tended by Arthur Coleman.
However, the distress call turns out to be a ruse so that Lester can switch bodies with
Kirk and take control of the Enterprise.
Icheb's stationing aboard the Coleman nods to a similar scenario playing out with him,
in which he responds to a fake distress call, and is ambushed so that someone else can take
control of his body.
Unfortunately, while in "Turnabout Intruder," the body swap is reversed and Coleman volunteers
to care for Lester, Icheb meets a much darker fate in "Stardust City Rag."
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