with Jörg Hillebrand

The first season of Star Trek: Picard has concluded, and now that the dust has settled, our Canon Connections series is back to take a walk through all ten episodes of the first year’s adventure to find all the callbacks, references, and sly winks to Star Trek‘s past.

Moving now into the fourth and fifth episodes of the season — “Absolute Candor” and Stardust City Rag” — the story takes Star Trek: Picard into its second act. Aboard La Sirena and warping away from Earth, the newly-formed crew swings by planet Vashti to recruit young Romulan warrior Elnor to their lost cause, and then beams down to Freecloud with former Star Trek: Voyager ex-Borg Seven of Nine along for the ride.

Jolan Tru

“Absolute Candor” – A number of times during this episode, Picard greets various Romulans with the phrase “Jolan Tru.” This traditional Romulan greeting was first featured in the ‘Next Generation’ episode “Unification, Part I.”

Not Overly Fond of Children

“Absolute Candor” – During the flashback scene to the early days of the Romulan resettlement effort on Vashti, Zani observes to Elnor that Picard is “not overly fond of children” as they “interfere with duty and pleasure alike.”

Zani, through the Qowat Milat tradition of absolute candor, is identifying a character trait of Picard that goes all the way back to ”Next Generation’ pilot “Encounter at Farpoint” and the line “I‘m not a family man, Riker!”

Fencing

“Absolute Candor” – In two instances in this episode, Picard’s skills at fencing are on display. In the first instance, he is giving a fencing lesson to young Elnor and re-enacting a scene from “The Three Mustketeers.”

In the second, he is parrying an attack from an aggrieved former Romulan senator. Picard was seen in several episodes of ‘The Next Generation’ to be skilled with the rapier.

Beware Romulans Bearing Gifts

“Absolute Candor” – Aboard the Artifact, Narek and Soji share a drink in the Romulan mess hall. Their beverage of choice is Romulan ale, served in the same type of bottle that Doctor McCoy gifted to Admiral Kirk – also containing Romulan ale – in ‘Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.’

Felis Catus

“Absolute Candor” – Reunited with a now adult Elnor, Picard tells him why he is seeking the protection of the Qowat Milat. In explaining why he is searching for Soji and he relationship to Picard’s deceased comrade Data, Elnor recalls Picard having talked of Data when he was a child.

The detail he remembers? That Data had “an orange cat named Spot,” a callback to Data’s feline friend throughout the latter half of the series.

Classic Bird of Prey

“Absolute Candor” – By 2399, the Qiris Sector is under control of several “petty warlords,” including Kar Kantar. Kantar runs his operations from a 23^rd century Bird of Prey, the design first seen in the episode that introduced the Romulans, the Original Series episode “Balance of Terror.”

Inertial Dampers

“Absolute Candor” – During the battle with Kantar’s bird of prey, La Sirena reroutes power to the inertial dampers. The starship technology, which helps to reduce violent jostling aboard ships, particularly when they are under attack, is a longtime staple of Star Trek tech.

…and rerouting power to them is standard procedure during battle!

Hard-to-Find Hardware

“Stardust City Rag” – As Icheb is mutilated and his Borg implants removed by force, his attacker holds a tool to his forehead and indicates she is looking for Icheb’s cortical node. “Gotta be in there somewhere, buddy” she says to him.

Except it isn’t… because Icheb donated his cortical node to Seven of Nine in the ‘Voyager’ episode “Imperfection.”

Drink Up

“Stardust City Rag” – While Maddox is telling Bjayzl about the destruction of his lab, she offers him a drink of tranya. The drink, which may originate in the First Federation, was first mentioned in the Original Series’ intended second pilot, “The Corbomite Maneuver.”

A Bolian of a Different Color

“Stardust City Rag” – Nobody knows their way around the Kaplan F-17 Speed Freighter like the “Red Bolian,” at least according to the ad served to Rios as they enter orbit of Freecloud. It is unclear if the red Bolian is actually a red Bolian – Bolians have previously only been seen in various shades of blue – or if it is just a character.

But this is the first appearance of the Bolians in the show, and the tool held by the avatar of the Red Bolian is a common engineering tool seen most prominently in ‘Deep Space Nine.’

Feely’s Venom Garden

“Stardust City Rag” – Raffi’s targeted ad is for an Orion drug dealer named Feely, who appears to sell the snakeleaf that Raffi smokes in her 24th century version of a vape pen. Feely is the first appearance of an Orion in ‘Picard.’

Familiar Names on Freecloud

“Stardust City Rag” – The establishing shot of Freecloud includes a number of references to previous shows.

Mr. Mot’s Hair Emporium is a reference to the Bolian barber aboard the Enterprise-D, while Quark appears to have franchised his bar by 2399. Alongside an ad for Dabo tables and a graphic of a Tongo wheel (both popular games at the original Quark’s Bar on Deep Space 9), the bar’s is motto “What is yours is ours.”

“Mister Quark of Ferenginar” is later referenced in dialogue as having been “especially satisfied with” Rios’s “handling of his trouble with the Breen” in providing a reference to Mister Vup.

Twain. Clemens? Yes.

“Stardust City Rag” – As the crew are conversing in the holographic recreation of Picard’s office at Chateau Picard, a picture of Picard with Mark Twain can be seen on a side table. (A closer view of the prop can be seen here.)

Picard met Samuel Clemens in the ‘Next Generation’ episode “Time’s Arrow, Part II” which also showed us the very first chronological meeting of Picard and Guinan.

…with Two Umbrellas!

“Stardust City Rag” – At the bar, Rios orders a Temtibi Lagoon (with TWO umbrellas!) The drink is named after the Temtibi Lagoon on Risa, which several members of the Deep Space 9 crew visited in the DS9 episode “Let He Who is Without Sin.”

Pocket-Sized Pattern Enhancer

“Stardust City Rag” – While hypospray technology does not appear to have advanced much in the 30 years since ‘The Next Generation,’ transporter pattern enhancers certainly have.

What used to be bulky tripod stands during the TNG era have been reduced to a handheld device. Their function, to help with beaming in and out when there is interference, remains the same.

Traditional Transporter Tech

“Stardust City Rag” – Like many transporter consoles throughout the Federation, the civilian transporter on La Sirena features three sliders to activate the engerizing coils.

[td_smart_list_end]