The first two seasons of Star Trek: Picard had their share of Easter eggs for longtime fans to spot. But just with one episode, season three blew the previous two out of the water in this regard. With the final season a swan song for the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew, the producers stuffed these episodes full of fun winks and nods for fans. Here are a few of the best ones we spotted in Picard‘s episodes.
Jump to Easter Eggs From: Episode One // Episode Two // Episode Three // Episode Four
Picard Episode One “The Next Generation” Easter Eggs
The Opening Title Card
The opening title card says “In the 25th Century…” This didn’t just tell us when the show took place, but it’s a direct homage to how the title card from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan appeared. Only in that film, it said “In the 23rd Century…” Even the font is the same.
Aboard the S.S. Eleos
Among Dr. Crusher’s belongings we saw aboard her medical vessel the Eleos was the Comedy and Tragedy masks, which represented Beverly’s time running an acting class on the Enterprise-D. This was something we saw in the TNG episode “The Nth Degree.” She and Lt. Barclay even did a production of Cyrano de Bergerac together.
We also see her orchids, which we once saw in her Enterprise quarters in “Cause and Effect.” There’s also a large case with the belongings of her deceased husband Jack Crusher, which she brought out of storage on Earth in the episode “Family.”
We also see a plaque honoring her service in saving the planet Cor Caroli V from a deadly plague. We saw the aftermath of that event in the third season TNG episode “Allegiance.” Most importantly, there’s an old Enterprise-D computer console, which is playing Captain Picard’s log entry from the episode “The Best of Both Worlds,” where t he crew faced off against the Borg Collective.
Inside Picard’s Office
Hanging in his office was Picard’s painting of the Enterprise-D, which we saw displayed in his Ready Room on TNG. On his office desk was the Ressikan flute he learned to play when he lived another lifetime in the episode “The Inner Light.” Also on his desk was an ancient artifact given to him by his mentor and archaeology professor Dr. Galen. It was a Third Dynasty Kurlan naiskos, something Galen gave him in the sixth season TNG episode “The Chase.”
In Ten-Forward
At Guinan’s bar Ten Forward in Los Angeles, we found the bartenders selling souvenirs for the upcoming Frontier Day. This is a day celebrating the founding of Starfleet. They had an overstock of Enterprise-D models at the bar, as the bartenders said “nobody wants the fat ones.” Riker doesn’t care for this Enterprise-D shade, and we don’t either. Show some respect, young lady. That was the Federation flagship once.
Starfleet Spacedock
The massive Earth-orbiting Starfleet Spacedock was shown, now expanded with extra levels. The Spacedock first appeared in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and then appeared in the following three movies. The model was also used a few times on TNG. However, there it was meant to represent a different spacedock, one not in orbit of Earth. This is the first time we’ve seen it in the era of Jean-Luc Picard.
On Board the Titan
The newly retrofitted U.S.S. Titan is itself an Easter egg of a sort on Picard. The ship was given to the newly minted Captain Riker at the end of Star Trek: Nemesis to command, but we never actually saw her. It finally appeared on Star Trek: Lower Decks, which takes place almost 20 years before Picard season three. But this Titan has been retrofitted to the new Constitution Class model, and is now considered the Titan-A.
When Admiral Picard and Captain Riker board the Titan for their inspection, we hear the classic nautical boatswain whistle upon their entrance. This recalls Admiral James T. Kirk’s arrival on the Enterprise for his inspection in Wrath of Khan.
When the crew of the Titan stands in formation for the arriving Picard and Riker, we see officers from various classic alien races. There’s a green Orion, a Vulcan, a Trill, and perhaps the deepest cut, what looks like a Chalnoth. We first saw this usually savage alien race in the TNG episode “Allegiance”
When Picard and Riker have their extremely awkward dinner with Captain Shaw on board the Titan, Jean-Luc hands him a bottle of wine from his own vineyard, Chateau Picard.
Raffi’s Mission
When we first meet Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) this season, she’s on the planet M’Talas Prime. This is a cute little Easter egg nod to Picard showrunner Terry Matalas. Raffi’s under deep cover on a mission for Starfleet Intelligence, searching for a deadly weapon stolen from the Daystrom Station. The Daystrom Institute was first named-dropped on TNG, and referenced scientist Richard Daystrom. He first appeared in the TOS episode “The Ultimate Computer.” Daystrom Institute in Okinawa, Japan was first seen in Picard season one.
Captain Rachel Garrett
Raffi is looking for something or someone called “The Red Lady.” She’s not sure if it’s a person, a ship, or something else. It turns out, it’s a statue. We then see that there’s a red statue in front of a Starfleet recruitment center of Captain Rachel Garrett. She was in command of the Enterprise-C, and she gave her life to save a Klingon base on Narendra III. This took place 25 years prior to The Next Generation. This act cemented the peace treaty between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. We met her in the classic TNG episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise.”
Beverly in Cryofreeze
This one’s not a reference relating to the Star Trek franchise, but another classic sci-fi franchise, Alien. When Riker and Picard board the Eleos, they find Beverly in cryofreeze, in what seems like a nod to how they discovered a frozen Lt. Ellen Ripley at the beginning of James Cameron’s Aliens.
Closing Credits Sequence
Even the end credits sequence for Picard season three is one giant Easter egg. There are close-up shots of LCARS interfaces from a starship, potentially teasing future episodes. One has a readout for a Holodeck program for Guinan’s Ten-Forward bar in Los Angeles.
Another mentions the destruction of a ship called the Constance, cited as “War Damage.” The only ship by that name in the franchise was a Constellation Class vessel from the TNG game Birth of the Federation from 1999.
A readout for the Starfleet museum shows that as the final resting place for Voyager, Kirk’s Enterprise-A, and Captain Sulu’s Excelsior. Another ship, Pioneer, is from the Star Trek Online game.
The music used for the closing credits is Jerry Goldsmith’s theme from Star Trek: First Contact, which segues into his classic theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which also doubled as the Star Trek: The Next Generation theme.
Picard Episode Two “Disengage” Easter Eggs
Here are some of the Easter eggs we spotted in Picard episode two, titled “Disengage.”
Romulan Ale
In the episode’s opening flashback, we saw the S.S. Eleos going through an inspection. Among Jack Crusher’s (Ed Speleers) contraband onboard the Eleos were several bottles of Romulan Ale. The drink is illegal in Federation space, but that has never stopped Starfleet officers from imbibing frequently.
An Old-School Music Cue
When the enemy starship Shrike appears in front of the Titan, the score sounds a lot like the original music cue when the Romulans first appeared in the classic TOS episode “Balance of Terror.” That would make two references in modern Trek to that episode recently. Strange New Worlds also paid homage to it.
An Homage to an Underappreciated Vulcan
The Titan’s destroyed shuttlecraft bore the name Saavik. That’s the name of the Vulcan officer introduced in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, played by Kirstie Alley. Robin Curtis continued the role in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Recent data files released for Picard season three show that Saavik was the captain of the first U.S.S. Titan. The shuttle’s red script font is the same one from the shuttlecraft Galileo in the sixties TV series. It’s a very clever Easter egg that Picard left for us to find.
Transporter Inhibitors Return
The transporter inhibitors used to keep Jack Crusher from beaming onto an enemy ship were first introduced in Star Trek: Insurrection. In that film, Data used them to prevent transporting off a Starfleet shuttle. He later used them to keep the citizens of the planet Ba’ku from beaming away.
The Synthetic Man
When Vadic (Amanda Plummer) appears on the view screen and meets Picard face to face, she refers to meeting him “in the synthetic flesh.” This refers directly to the end of Picard season one, where the Jean-Luc Picard we knew died, and was reborn in a new synthetic flesh and blood body.
New Ferengi with an Old Name
Raffi meets with a Ferengi crime lord named Sneed on M’Atalas Prime. Although Sneed is a new character, he was possibly named for a Starfleet officer from the novel The Long Night. His appearance was very reminiscent of a Ferengi crimelord from The Next Generation named Omag, who we first met in the episode “Unification.”
A Familiar Space Station?
When Raffi (Michelle Hurd) meets with her ex-husband to get information, we see what looks like Deep Space Nine on a background monitor. Although we suppose it could be another Cardassian space station with a similar design, it sure does seem like Picard planted this Easter egg for our enjoyment.
Starship Collision Course
When the Shrike used its tractor beam to literally throw another starship at the Titan, thus crashing into her spectacularly, it recalls similar “two starships ramming into each other” moments from the franchise’s history. We saw this first in the TNG episode “Cause and Effect.” Later, in the Voyager episode “Year of Hell.” Most famously, the Enterprise-E rammed itself into the warbird Scimitar in the film Nemesis.
Jack Crusher’s Shady Past
As Captain Shaw (Todd Stashwick) went through Jack Crusher’s record, he discovered one of his aliases was “James Cole.” That’s a character from Terry Matalas’ series 12 Monkeys. When Jean-Luc also later goes through all of Jack’s arrests and citations, he names drops well-known Trek planets like Andoria. However, he also mentions Bynar III, home of an alien race not seen since TNG’s first season episode “11001001.”
Section 31
Sneed name-drops Section 31, Starfleet’s off-the-books intelligence agency. The agency first appeared in Deep Space Nine, where it played a big part in many episodes. It later popped up in Star Trek: Into Darkness and Discovery. The agency’s existence was more like an urban myth. Now it seems even the Ferengi know about it in this Picard Easter egg.
An Entrance Worthy of a Warrior
When Worf (Michael Dorn) first appears to rescue Raffi, we hear Jerry Goldsmith’s Klingon theme music. It was first introduced in the opening moments of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Later, it became Worf’s defacto theme music by Star Trek: First Contact, which Goldsmith also scored.
Jack Crusher’s Daring Escape
Jack Crusher’s escape from the Titan’s brig was a callback to the Angosian soldier Roga Danar from the third season TNG episode “The Hunted.” In that episode, Danar leaned on his ingenuity and combat experience to get out of a jail cell surrounded by a force field.
The Titan’s Doctor Hails from a Familiar World
The doctor on board the Titan is a Trill, the same species as Jadzia and Ezri Dax on DS9. The joined species were first introduced in the TNG episode “The Host,” with a very different alien appearance.
Enemy Ship with a Familiar Name
Vadic’s ship, the Shrike, was also the class of a Romulan vessel. We saw it in the TNG video games Starfleet Command, Armada, and Armada II. Could this be a hint at a Romulan connection?
Hiding in the Nebula
The final moments of episode two saw the Titan going into a nebula to hide from the Shrike. This is a direct callback to the Enterprise hiding from the Reliant in Wrath of Khan.
Picard Episode Three “Seventeen Seconds” Easter Eggs
The Birth of Riker and Troi’s Son
In the flashback opening scene, which takes place in 24th century Los Angeles at the Ten Forward bar, we see Riker and Picard having a toast to Will’s newborn son Thaddeus. Riker mentions that it was a difficult birth, and he was afraid he was going to lose him. This foreshadows Thad’s untimely death we learned about in Picard season one.
Seven of Nine’s Little Piece of Home
We see a model of the U.S.S. Voyager in Seven of Nine’s crew quarters, while she tinkers with some electronics while confined to quarters by Captain Shaw.
Beverly and Jean-Luc’s Big Conversation
When Beverly Crusher and Picard see each other again and discuss their son Jack after so many decades, it recalls the conversation Captain Kirk and his former lover Carol Marcus had about their son David in Wrath of Khan. David also never knew his dad, and did not meet him until he was an adult.
Captain Riker Takes Command
Captain Shaw gets seriously injured in the Shrike’s attack, forcing him to give Captain Riker an emergency field commission in command of the Titan. This recalls how Captain Pike gave Spock the emergency position of Captain in Star Trek 2009 after Nero’s attack. This made Kirk First Officer, just as Picard defaulted to becoming Riker’s Number One.
An Operatic Callback
The opera that Worf is listening to while training with his Bat’leth to is Hector Berlioz’s Les Troyens. The aria in particular is called “ Vallon Sonore.” This is the same piece of music that a pensive Picard listened to before the Borg attack on Earth in Star Trek: First Contact.
Worf’s Credentials
When Worf introduces himself formally to Raffi, he says he is “Worf, son of Mogh, House of Martok. Son of Sergei, House of Rozhenko. Bane to the Duras family. Slayer of Gowron.”
All of this references different pieces of Worf’s history in the franchise. His father was Mogh, killed by Romulans at the Khitomer outpost. He was then raised by human Starfleet officer Sergey Rozhenko, as revealed in the episode “Family.” When the Duras family tried to strip Worf of his family honor, Worf killed Duras, and later came into conflict with his sisters.
This conflict between Worf and the Duras family formed a long-term arc over several seasons of TNG. Particularly in the episodes “Sins of the Father,” “Reunion,” and “Redemption.” During the Dominion war arc on DS9, Worf killed Klingon High Chancellor Gowron for his poor leadership, giving the reigns of the empire to House Martok. It was House Martok who adopted Worf into their family after Gowron had stripped him of his family titles.
Enemies Within
The Titan being sabotaged by someone onboard recalls many episodes of Deep Space Nine. In that series, Changelings disguised themselves as Starfleet officers and sabotaged ships from within. We saw this kind of sabotage as well on board the Enterprise, in the feature film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
The True Enemy Revealed
Worf reveals the true enemy behind the terrorist attacks on Starfleet installations when he interrogates a suspect who morphs into a liquid state. The terrorist was a Changeling, the shape-shifting Founders of the Dominion. The Dominion waved a long and deadly war on the Alpha Quadrant for three seasons of Deep Space Nine.
The actor who played the Changeling posing as a human named Titus Rikka was Thomas Dekker. He famously played John Connor in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but has real Trek bonafides. As a child actor, he played Jean-Luc Picard’s imaginary son in Generations. He also played the holographic Victorian child Henry Burleigh on Voyager in two episodes, “Learning Curve” and “Persistence of Vision.” The part of the Changeling is his first “real” role in the franchise.
Picard Episode Four “No Win Scenario” Easter Eggs
The Kobayashi Maru
The title of the episode, “No Win Scenario,” is a direct reference to Starfleet’s Kobayashi Maru test. This test was the first scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, performed as a way of seeing how Starfleet cadets handle a no-win scenario where the loss of life is inevitable. We saw it referenced again in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot film, only this time, with a young James T. Kirk.
The Hirogen
In the flashback opening scene at the Ten Forward bar, young Starfleet officers ask Picard about facing off against the Hirogen. The Hirogen were a species of big game hunters (think Predator) who Voyager encountered in the Delta Quadrant. A young officer asks if he asked Admiral Janeway for advice since she was the first Starfleet officer to make contact with this species. Picard’s non-answer suggests he didn’t give Kathryn a call.
Arcanis Lager
In the holodeck version of Ten Forward, we see a neon sign advertising Arcanis Lager. This same sign was seen in the Starfleet bar Dr. McCoy goes to in The Search for Spock. It seems Arcanis Lager has kept their logo the same for a century.
Odo’s Bucket
The Changeling’s plot to kill and impersonate Starfleet officers mimics their plot to take over the Federation in Deep Space Nine. When Seven of Nine begins searching the Titan for a Changeling’s bucket where they regenerate in their liquid state, it looks exactly like the one Odo used on DS9. The same bucket was also used as a flower pot during the brief time he became solid.
Paying Homage to Christopher Plummer
Amanda Plummer chews the scenery as the evil Vadic and spins her Captain’s chair around, cackling like a gleeful child on board the Shrike. This is exactly as the villainous Klingon Commander Chang did in his chair on board the Bird of Prey in The Undiscovered Country. This is a fun nod to the similarity between father and daughter actors, as Chang was played by Amanda’s father, Christopher Plummer.
The Tamarians
In another flashback to Picard telling stories to younger officers in Ten Forward, Jean-Luc spins the tale of how he made first contact with a race called the Tamarians, a species that only spoke in metaphors. Together, he and a Tamarian Captain fought against a deadly beast together. This is all a reference to the TNG fifth season episode, “Darmok.”
Stargazer Stories
Picard tells his son (Ed Speleers) about a near-death situation he and his best friend, Jack Crusher, found themselves in decades before on a shuttlecraft. Although this isn’t a reference to a specific episode, many books and comics have detailed the close bond between Jack Crusher and Picard in their younger days aboard the Stargazer.
Wolf 359
Captain Liam Shaw tells his painful story of being a young engineer on the U.S.S. Constance during the Battle of Wolf 359. This was from the episode “The Best of Both Worlds,” when the Borg captured Picard and turned him into Locutus. They used all the information in his brain to stage an attack on Starfleet in star system Wolf 359. We only saw the aftermath of Wolf 359 in TNG, but a flashback in the pilot of Deep Space Nine showed the devastating attack itself.
“Encounter at Farpoint”
When the Titan gets out of the gravity well in the nebula, they realize it’s actually a womb for a spacefaring species that can survive in a vacuum. Picard realizes they’re very similar to the beings the Enterprise-D encountered in the TNG pilot episode “Encounter at Farpoint.” Upon seeing this species, Beverly Crushers says, “to seek out new life.” This is, of course, itself a reference to the spoken word intro to Star Trek TOS and TNG.
More Callbacks and References to Come
We expect many more Trek Easter eggs as this season of Picard unfolds. Star Trek: Picard season three drops new episodes every Thursday on Paramount+.
Featured Image: Paramount+
Originally published on February 16, 2023.
