Star Trek: Picard - Thoughts and Theories

Five Queens.

What do you think of when you see five queens?  

"Well, that's not right of course."  There are only 4 Queens in a deck and they are of different suits.  This is wrong."

But, this is a dream.  It's Picard's dream that opens the first episode of "Star Trek: Picard".  As Data reveals his hand, Picard looks on in astonishment.  Below, Mars becomes engulfed in explosions and suddenly, 10 Forward of the Enterprise-D erupts into flames.

What do I think when I see five queens?  I think of the Borg Queen.  

Before the season started there was heavy speculation that Dahj was destined to become the next Borg Queen.  That was before we witnessed the demise of Dahj as she fought mysterious assassins.  However, we come to learn her twin sister, Soji, is alive and well and living aboard a reclaimed Borg Cube.

"Lordy" as James Comey would say.

So, there is a tangential association there.  But has Soji ever dreamed of Picard or had visions of him?  We have no evidence of that.  Dahj did, but, only after she was "activated".  Will "activation" bring these visions to Soji?  Perhaps.

It is my thinking that Dahj and Picard were able to "envision" each other because of their respective Borg connection.  Picard once being Locutus of Borg and Dahj, well, we are still uncertain.  

Then there is also the "Destroyer" connection.

If you watched through to end of the "Remembrance" episode and caught the trailer for the upcoming season, you'll see some woman wail, "She's the Destroyer!"  Who, Soji?  She's the only mysterious character left.  "Destroyer" as in Borg Queen?  How would this woman know?  Is she ex-Borg like Hugh or Seven of Nine?  In a trailer we also see Soji running along some corridor in obvious distress with Hugh in the lead.  

Perhaps the woman that wailed "Destoyer" senses Soji the way Picard sensed Dahj and vice versa.

We shall see.

In any event.  The connection between Soji/Dahj, Picard and The Borg still have a tenuous connection.  I'm still not done as Soji beinga nascent Borg Queen candidate.  There is some evidence but nothing conclusive.

Yet.



The Maddox Menace

Don't say, "Who's Maddox?"

Boy, is this guy getting a lot of attention on the Internet.  He was mentioned in passing during the first "Picard" episode and he was a known associate of Dr. Agnes Jurati whom we also met in the first episode of "Picard".  (Played by Alison Pill.)  

Maddox, a cyberneticist famously (infamously?) had a run in with Data and Picard during the STTNG episode, "The Measure of a Man" first aired back in 1989.  Maddox had argued Data should not be classified as a sentient being. But, by the end of the episode, he came to know Data as his own species and in time they communicated with each other over research done through their common studies.  (For more Maddox info please go over to Memory Alpha at this Bio link.)

With this mention in "Picard" and his relation to Dr. Agnes Jurati, there is more coming out in the form of a summary for episode three of "Picard"

Spoiler Warning!

According to that summary Picard and Dr. Jurati will head into space to search for Maddox.


Okay, spoilers over.  It should be mentioned that Dr. Jurati has been searching for Maddox ever since his disappearance from the Daystrom Institute without success.

So, ready for my tin foil hat theory?

I first elucidated this on the initial podcast of "The Captain's Chair" on the FanGirlZone.Net before I learned of episode three.  But, now I can polish it up a little.

So, it goes like this.  Maddox isn't missing he was captured by the Romulans.  He was then forced by them to create an Army of Synths who then attacked the Mars colony and the orbital shipyard above the Red planet.  The Romulans used the "re-claimed" and reverse engineered Borg technology from the Cube to guide the Synths in their mission en-masse.  They did this because there is faction of the Romulans that still doesn't trust Earth and the Federation as we learned in "Star Trek Nemesis" and the newly released IDW comic "Star Trek Picard" prequel series.  Thus, they destroyed the rescue mission that Picard had organized prior to the Romulan sun going supernova.

Got it?  I know, there is a lot of Star Trek to catch up on.  It can be pretty convoluted and a little byzantine but it is there.

Of course, it could be that Maddox continued his research alone in space and far from the Daystrom institute.  But, if they locate him, who doesn't want to see a rescue mission aboard a Borg/Romulan Cube?  We may even see two if Soji gets caught there.  (Suddenly, I'm worried about Hugh.)

I, for one, would like to see a return of Brian Brophy to the small screen.  He played Maddox in that "Measure of a Man" episode.  According to IMDB.com he hasn't had a role since 2014.  Time for a comeback.

As a fun fact, the Romulan, Narek, that runs into Soji aboard the Cube in episode one is played by Harry Treadaway.  Treadaway, played Dr. Victor Frankenstein in the short lived series, "Penny Dreadful".  Small world.  It seems man never tires of building a better human  BTW, I suspect Narek as Tal Shiar that was sent to romance Soji aboard the Cube.  I did say there were two Romulan factions working out there!


The Shrinking Violets

Pictured above are actually orchids but whoever heard of "Shrinking Orchids?".  Until now.

Did you notice how the flowers seemed to shrink just before the assassins arrived in Dahj's apartment?  The Stamen, Stigma and Carpel parts noticeably sagged.  It could be the transporting of the assassins  effected the flowers.  Or, it could be the transporting in addition to a cloaking device killed the flowers.  Remember, when Picard and Dahj were attacked near the Federation Archive, there was no video evidence of the attackers at all.  This either speaks of a cover up or a cloaking device.  (A flower killing cloaking device!)

Speaking of that apartment attack against Dahj.  As you can see above, her captors interrogated her as to, "Where are the rest of you?" Huh?  If these people knew of Dahj shouldn't they know there is only one other like her?  "The rest of you" speaks of the plural not just a total of two.  "Where are you from?" is suspicious also.  If these Assassins were Romulan then they would know of Soji's status aboard the Cube since it's in Romulan hands.  What gives?

Unless, these assassins are the other Romulan faction and perhaps even Tal Shiar.  Or, if you really want your head to spin, they aren't Romulan at all.  They are Synths working for who knows who?  They did speak some unfamiliar language (to me) in the apartment attack.  Are they working for Maddox?

Oh, my poor aching pointy ears.

I think that's enough for now.  "Picard" will be back on the 30th and I need to rest my synthetic pre-frontal cortex.

Thanks for reading and leave any feedback in the comments below.