Star Trek: Does Data's "Resurrection" Connect Picard to The Next Generation's Finale?

A new Star Trek: Picard trailer released at New York Comic Con. The new trailer once again showed Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) speaking with the android Data (Brent Spiner), who should be dead after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. The new trailer is cut in a way that suggests Picard is seeing Data in a dream. That both are wearing their Starfleet uniforms from their time aboard the USS Enterprise-D seems to confirm the notion. But what if Data isn't appearing to Picard solely in dreams? If Picard is also seeing data during his waking hours, this could be related to a plot point from the Star Trek: The Next Generation finale episode, "All Good Things…"

In "All Good Things…," through the intervention fo Q, Picard finds himself slipping back and forth between three periods of time. In the present day, he's been commanding the Enterprise for years. In the past, he's reliving his first day aboard the Enterprise. In the future, he's retired from Starfleet.

In the future, he's also been diagnosed with advanced Irumodic Syndrome, a degenerative neurological disorder. Its symptoms include confusion and delusions, which is why his former crewmates are hesitant to believe his claims about slipping back and forth in time.

After learning this about himself in the future, Picard in the present has Dr. Beverly Crusher run a test on him to scan for signs of the disease. Crusher confirms that he does not have the disease… yet. Crusher did find a small structural defect in his parietal lobe that could lead to a number of different neurological disorders, Irmodic Syndrome being one of them.

It could be that in the future of Star Trek: Picard, Picard is feeling the symptoms of Irumodic Syndrome. Data made be one of the delusions brought on by the disorder, fueled by the guilt Picard still feels (expressed in the show's first trailer) over Data sacrificing himself to save Picard's life in Nemesis. That would explain Data's "resurrection" while B-4 remains disassembled in a drawer in a Starfleet laboratory.

There's still a lot we don't know about the plot of Star Trek: Picard. The creators have been particularly secretive about the circumstances around Data's return. Time will tell if Irumodic Syndrome has anything to do with it.

What do you think of Data's return in Star Trek: Picard? Let us know how you feel about it in the comments section. Star Trek: Picard premieres on CBS All Access on January 23, 2020.