In the sixth episode of Star Trek: Picard, Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the La Sirena
reach the Borg Artifact, and Soji finally begins to learn the truth about who and what
she is.
From Voyager nods to visuals pulled straight from Deep Space Nine, here are all the Easter
eggs and references in "The Impossible Box."
Early on in "The Impossible Box," as the La Sirena nears the former Borg cube now known
as "The Artifact," Picard instructs the computer in his study to search for the terms "the
Artifact," "treaty," and "the Borg."
When he sits down to reluctantly scroll through the results, several of the images on which
Picard chooses to linger are easily identifiable.
There's the ex-Borg, Hugh, both when he first came aboard the Enterprise on The Next Generation,
and then again as he appears in Picard; several shots of ex-Borg in the midst of their reclamation
procedures; and of course, Picard as Locutus of Borg.
But there are also several other quick glimpses of search results you may not have recognized.
The first was a shot of a Federation ship firing on a Borg cube and seemingly doing
some damage, which could have been from the battle at the opening of Star Trek: First
Contact.
The next image is of the Romulan Continuing Committee, which is taken straight from the
Deep Space Nine episode in which a character becomes entangled in a Tal Shiar plot.
There is also a brief image of the Paris skyline in the year 2372, which was taken from the
Deep Space Nine episode "To the Death."
In that episode, the DS9 crew has to destroy an Iconian Gateway, a technological portal
which could instantly transport people over enormous distances, which is very similar
to the device Picard and Soji use to escape the Romulans at the end of "The Impossible
Box."
As the La Sirena nears the Borg Artifact, Raffi turns on the charm to contact her old
friend and Starfleet contact, Emmy, requesting diplomatic credentials for Picard.
But Emmy refuses at first, saying that the Romulans are in a "250-year bad mood."
If you're wondering what happened to the Romulans two and a half centuries ago to make them
so cranky, well, that's about the time they first came in contact with humans in 2152.
Just a few years later, in 2156, the Earth-Romulan war began, which only lasted for four years,
but is still having repercussions over 200 years into the future.
The end of the war was marked by the establishment of the Romulan neutral zone in 2160, and led
directly to the formation of the United Federation of Planets in 2161.
Given the Romulans' long-running tension with the Federation, it's no wonder that they're
still in a bad mood.
When Hugh mentions in "The Impossible Box" that the former Borg on the Artifact refer
to themselves as "xBs," Picard wonders out loud at the reason for renaming themselves.
Hugh explains,
"A new name can be the first step to a new identity.
I learned that on the Enterprise all those years ago."
The lesson Hugh is referring to took place in the episode where he first appeared on
The Next Generation, titled "I Borg.”
At first, Hugh doesn't see himself as an individual, but as a member of the Collective, referring
to himself only as "we," and telling the crew that he is "Third of Five."
However, after Geordi and Beverly explain the purpose of names to him, he decides he
wants one for himself.
"Do I have a name?"
"Do you want one?"
"A name."
Adopting his own name marks the beginning of Hugh's ability to think of himself in terms
of "I," not "we," and ultimately leads to his lifelong mission to free and rehabilitate
other Borg.
In part, Hugh's job as the Executive Director of the Borg Reclamation Project involves him
overseeing the rehabilitation efforts of the traumatized ex-Borg who are trying to recuperate
from their assimilation.
However, as he shares with Picard, even after the xBs have gone through reclamation, they
still aren't accepted by free society.
Hugh says that the xBs remain the most hated people in the galaxy, just as helpless and
enslaved as before, but that now, their queen is a Romulan.
This is a clear nod to the Borg Queen that Picard himself encountered in Star Trek: First
Contact.
The Queen was the one who directed the Borg's actions, and she revealed in First Contact
that it was her idea to assimilate Picard as "Locutus."
Rather than have just another nameless Borg drone, the Queen had hoped Picard would serve
as her counterpart.
However, Picard's resistance proved not to be futile after all, forcing the Queen to
abandon her plan.
When Picard finds Soji alive on the Artifact, it's great news for the two of them, but not
so good for Raffi, who had placed a bet with Rios that Picard's target would already be
dead.
"You owe me two strips of latinum.
The twin's still alive."
While latinum has popped up here and there across multiple Star Trek shows, it was most
frequently mentioned in Deep Space Nine as the preferred currency of the Ferengi Alliance,
and specifically of Quark, the Ferengi bartender on the space station.
Latinum is often referenced in the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition, around which Ferengi
society is structured.
"Rule of Acquisition number 102."
"Good lad!"
When Picard and Hugh enter Soji's quarters, a voice can be heard in the background announcing
that "Sectors 5-8 through 5-21 are temporarily closed due to detected chronometric activity."
In Star Trek: First Contact, the controlled emission of chronometric particles is what
allowed the Borg to travel back in time and assimilate Earth, which forced the Enterprise
crew to chase after them and re-establish the original timeline.
But in addition to the chronometric activity, the specific sectors that are mentioned may
also have a hidden meaning.
In the fifth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, episode 8 and episode 21 were
both directed by Cliff Bole.
While neither of these episodes feels particularly relevant to "The Impossible Box," the same
cannot be said of two other Bole-directed episodes of The Next Generation: "The Best
of Both Worlds," parts I and II.
Those, of course, are the episodes in which Picard is assimilated by the Borg and becomes
Locutus, an event which was heavily referenced in "The Impossible Box."
When Picard, Soji, Hugh, and Elnor find themselves trapped in the former Borg Queen's chamber,
Hugh is able to use his Collective memories of the area to grant them access to the Queen's
failsafe escape route.
It turns out the Queen has a spatial trajector, an instant teleportation device with a wide
range, which Hugh says was built from technology the Borg acquired after assimilating Sikarians.
Star Trek fans have actually seen a spatial trajector once before: on the Star Trek: Voyager
first season episode "Prime Factors."
In the episode, Captain Janeway and her crew encounter the Sikarians, whose teleportation
technology has the potential to cut their decades-long journey home in half.
"I've just been to Alastria and back.
Alastria is 40,000 light years away.”
However, the Sikarians are reluctant to share their technology due to their own version
of the Prime Directive, which prohibits them from interfering in the development of less
advanced cultures.
Sadly, it seems that the technology the Sikarians were so protective of in Voyager has since
been taken out of their hands by force.
Although Picard was certainly grateful for the escape, he'd probably be the first to
agree that the cost was too high.
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