Star Trek: Picard - What The Romulans Are Doing In [SPOILER]
Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard.
The premiere episode of Star Trek: Picard ended with a shocking reveal that the Romulans possess a Borg Cube and here's what this could mean for the future of the Alpha Quadrant. In Star Trek: Picard, Patrick Stewart returns as the former Enterprise Captain and picks up the next chapter of Jean-Luc's life after he retired from Starfleet. Picard's quiet life on his family vineyard is upended when a mysterious young woman named Dahj (Isa Briones) appears and asks for his help to unlock the mystery of who she really is.
Star Trek: Picard also follows up the events of both 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis, the final Star Trek: The Next Generation movie where Commander Data (Brent Spiner) sacrificed his life to save Picard, and J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek, where the Romulan star went supernova, which created the film's alternate Kelvin timeline. The supernova had a profound effect on Picard's life and career; the Admiral left the Enterprise-E to lead a historic rescue mission to save 900-million Romulan lives from the exploding sun. However, as Star Trek: Picard reveals, a tragedy on Mars involving rogue androids attacking the Utopia Planitia Fleetyards constructing the Romulan rescue fleet caused the Federation to withdraw from their rescue mission. Picard quit Starfleet in protest but despite the supernova, the insidious factions of the Romulans survived the cataclysm - and they somehow acquired one of the deadliest weapons in the universe: a Borg Cube.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Start nowIn the final scenes of Star Trek: Picard's first episode, "Remembrance", a Romulan named Narek (Harry Treadaway) arrives in the derelict Borg Cube, which has been designated as a Romulan Reclamation Site. There, Narek seeks out Dr. Soji Asha, the identical twin sister of Dahj. Complicating the issue, Picard discovered Dahj is a highly sophisticated synthetic android who is the 'daughter' of Commander Data; further, Dahj was created as twins by Dr. Bruce Maddox of the Daystrom Institute using one of Data's positronic neurons - which means Soji is also an android who is unaware of what she really is, like Dahj was. So, what is Soji doing on the Borg Cube working for the Romulans and what are the nefarious, pointy-eared aliens doing with the Borg technology?
When he met Soji, Narek referred to her work as "fixing broken people". This makes sense; the Borg Cube must contain thousands of assimilated Borg drones so as a cyberneticist (or an android posing as one), Soji's work must involve separating Borg technology from the organic lifeforms who were assimilated. Indeed, there seem to be thousands of Romulans and other alien species working on the Borg Cube so their experiments and this operation have been underway (likely in secret) for quite some time.
In fact, the Romulans likely have benefited from Borg technology for over a decade; the Star Trek: Picard trailer shows a sign inside the Borg Cube that says "This facility has gone 5843 days without an assimilation". 5843 days is over 16 years, which means since Star Trek: Picard is set in 2399, the Romulans somehow captured the Borg Cube at some point in 2383 - during the supernova crisis but before the attack on the Utopia Planitia Fleetyards on Mars. Perhaps the fact that they had access to Borg technology is the reason why the Romulans were able to survive the supernova even after the Federation abandoned their rescue efforts.
While the details of the Romulan reclamation of Borg tech will surely be revealed in Star Trek: Picard season 1, it's not hard to conjecture that the Romulans secretly possessing Borg technology makes them an even greater threat than ever before. The Romulans are the Federation's oldest enemy but armed with the tech and weaponry of Starfleet's deadliest foe - and possibly even the knowledge of how to defeat the Borg - the Romulans could potentially bring down the Federation once and for all in Star Trek: Picard.
Star Trek: Picard streams Thursdays on CBS All-Access and Fridays internationally on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: screenrant.com