Star Trek: Picard: Easters Eggs and References in Episode 4, “Absolute Candor”

A new episode of Star Trek: Picard debuted today on CBS All Access, bringing with it new Easter eggs and references to Star Trek: The Next Generation and other corners of the Star Trek universe. Here we’ve gathered up those nods with some background information about what they mean and where they come from. Keep reading to see what we noticed and why it matters. SPOILERS for the new episode follow.

The fourth episode of Star Trek: Picard is titled “Absolute Candor.” It sees Picard visiting the Romulan refugee community on the planet Vashti and reuniting with the young Romulan called Elnor. It also features a pretty significant return from an old Star Trek favorite.

Are you excited to see more Star Trek Easter eggs in Star Trek: Picard? Let us know in the comments.

New episodes of Star Trek: Picard become available to stream Thursdays on CBS All Access.

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The Three Musketeers

In the episode’s opening flashback, Picard gifts Elnor a copy of The Three Musketeers, the 1844 novel written by French author Alexandre Dumas. Later in the flashback, he reads to Elnor from the book.

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Hollow Pursuits,” Reginald Barclay created a holoprogram based on The Three Musketeers. He cast holographic versions of Picard, Data, and Geordi La Forge as the titular characters. In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Image in the Sand,” Miles O’Brien reminded Worf of the program while reminiscing about their time aboard the Enterprise.

In addition, Spock referred to Sulu as D’Artagnan when Sulu began waving a rapier around in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “The Naked Time.” In Star Trek: Enterprise, Captain Jonathan Archer’s dog was named Porthos after a character from the book. The dog came from a litter of four where each puppy was named after one of the novel’s main characters.

Picard and Kids

During the flashback, Zani informs Elnor does not like children. This is one of the first things fans learned about Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation when he clashed with Wesley Crusher on the Enterprise’s bridge.

Despite his reticence, Picard became a father figure to Wesley and showed he was capable of leading children through a crisis during the events of the episode “Disaster.” He was so beloved by the children aboard the Enterprise that they all celebrated “Captain Picard Day.”

Fencing

Inspired by their reading of The Three Musketeers, Picard takes some time during the flashback to train Elnor in fencing. This training foreshadows Elnor’s skill with a blade as an adult.

Picard’s fencing skills came up in several Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes, including “We’ll Always Have Paris,” “I, Borg,” and “Lessons.” His opponents included Guinan and Will Riker.

Directed by Jonathan Frakes

As the credits show, this episode is directed by Jonathan Frakes. Frakes played Commander Will Riker opposite Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Frakes learned to direct while working on Star Trek: The Next Generation. He directed eight episodes of the series — “The Offspring,” “Reunion,” “The Drumhead,” “Cause and Effect,” “The Quality of Life,” “The Chase,” “Attached,” and “Sub Rosa — as well as two Star Trek movies, Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection. He also directed three episodes each of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. He has so far directed three episodes of Star Trek: Discovery, with more to come in the show’s third season. This is the first of two episodes he directed in the first season of Star Trek: Picard.

Klingon Opera

Back in the present day aboard the La Sirena, Dr. Jurati comments to Captain Rios about how the ship’s music library is limited to Klingon Opera. He says its a “long story.”

Klingon Opera is a well known and often studied genre of music in the Star Trek universe. It was most often discussed in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, where Worf gained a reputation for playing it loud.

Holodeck

In this episode, we see Picard aboard the La Sirena in a holographic recreation of his study at his chateau in France. This kind of technology is commonplace in this era of the Star Trek.

The Enterprise-D was outfitted with multiple holodecks that saw frequent use throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation. Voyager had a similar setup in Star Trek: Voyager. In Star Trek: Deep Space, Quark rented out holosuites at his bard on the station.

Romulan Ale

In their first scene together in the episode, Narek and Soji share a blue drink that is served from a bottle with a tiered upper half. This is Romulan ale. Romulan ale is so potent that it was illegal in the Federation. That didn’t stop Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy from gifting a bottle to James T. Kirk for his birthday in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Kirk served Romulan ale during his dinner with Klingon High Chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI: The Wrath of Khan, though the hangover it gave him made him regret that decision.

Romulan ale was served at the wedding of Will Riker and Deanna Troi in Star Trek: Nemesis, with Worf suffering a hangover the day after. It was mentioned during a few episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and was temporarily made legal while the Federation was allied with the Romulan Star Empire during the Dominion War in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Bird of Prey

The local warlord in this episode makes use of a restored Romulan bird of prey. This is a class of military ships employed by the Romulan Star Empire’s military during the 22nd and 23rd centuries.

As such, this class of ship appears in multiple episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: Enterprise. By the era of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Romulans mostly employed Warbird class cruisers.

Spot

Picard has been telling Elnor stories about his old friend Data. Those stories included mentions of Data’s pet cat, Spot.

Spot lived with Data aboard the Enterprise. Data once wrote a poem titled “Ode to Spot.” He recited it in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Schisms.” The poem popped up again in the episode “A Fistful of Datas.”

Seven of Nine

The big, fun moment at the end of the episode: Seven of Nine arrives. Fans of Star Trek: Voyager will need no introduction to this former Borg drone.

Seven of Nine first appeared in the fourth season premiere of Star Trek: Voyager. She is a human who was assimilated by the Borg. She joined the crew of Voyager and remained with them until they made it home. It seems she’s kept busy since then.