Star Trek is expanding its mythos in some monumental ways through its new TV series. In the first three episodes of Star Trek: Picard alone, we’ve seen the Romulan and Borg races both undergo major changes, while the role of synthetics has taken on a bold new form, as well. However, with all these big important to Star Trek mythos happening, it’s nice to see that Picard episode 3, “The End is the Beginning” takes some time to add something more irreverent and fun to the mythos – like the Star Trek version of pot, which only grows on an alien planet!
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Warning: Star Trek: Picard Episode 3 SPOILERS Follow!
In Star Trek: Picard episode 3, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is desperately trying to assemble a crew, in order to embark on his mission to locate Commander Data’s only surviving “daughter” Soji Asha (Isa Briones). That mission takes Picard to Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park in California, where he reconnects with his former Starfleet colleague, Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd). To say that Raffi has become something of a broken woman, would be an understatement: After Picard resigned from Starfleet over the Romulan evacuation incident, Raffi was unceremoniously fired for being one of his collaborators in the push to carry out that Romulan rescue. When we find her in Picard, she’s spending her days depressed and haunted by the past, drinking herself into a stupor, and smoking up on a flower called “Snakeleaf,” which is ingested through a bong-like apparatus.
A quick wiki search on Memory-Alpha reveals the following insights about Snakeleaf:
“Snakeleaf was a type of flowering plant. Though not native to planet Earth, it could be grown and harvested on Earth, including areas with desert environments. In the late 24th century, snakeleaf was frequently smoked by individuals seeking a euphoric high.”
…In other words, it’s basically weed for the Star Trek universe.
Star Trek has never shied away from introducing its own version of controlled substances; each installment of the series has introduced extravagant alcoholic drinks, or (on rare occasions) psychotropic alien drugs; however, Star Trek: Picard gets extra cool points for keeping things more science-fact than science-fiction in this case – especially since Raffi looks so darn cool smoking it. Turn the kids away from the screen, parents!
Hopefully being a Snakeleaf-head won’t impair Raffi too much, because as “The End is the Beginning” concludes she does in fact join Picard’s new rag-tag crew, for reasons that have yet to be revealed (foreshadow alert!).
Star Trek: Picard is now streaming on CBS All Access. New episodes are released every Thursday.
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