Star Trek: Picard Reuses A Romulan Weapon From Nemesis
Star Trek: Picard brought back a weapon only seen before in Star Trek: Nemesis. With the Romulan Narek being pushed by his malevolent sister, Narissa - undercover as Starfleet officer Lieutenant Rizzo - to pump Soji Asha for as much information as possible on the location of the synth home world, the dashing young Romulan spy ramps up his efforts in "The Impossible Box." In addition to the Borg cube, the "impossible box" of the title refers to a small toy - something akin to a Romulan Rubix cube - Narek fiddles with while he plots.
His sister finds the toy frustrating and pointless, but Narek sees the value in it - revealing a small statue inside when it's twisted in the right order. After using a Romulan dream ceremony to help pinpoint the location of the synth planet, Narek reveals to Soji that she is indeed an android, locking her in the chamber with the cubic toy. The chambers of the toy slowly open, and radiation fills the room. Soji only manages to survive by using her android strength to smash through the floor of the chamber, where she encounters Jean-Luc Picard and escapes.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Start nowNarek's lethal toy has a brief history in Star Trek, as a variation of it was seen in Star Trek: Nemesis, the final film to feature the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It appeared in that film's opening scene, in which the Romulan senate is debating whether or not to align themselves with Shinzon, a faulty clone of Jean-Luc Picard that rose up to lead a revolution on the sister planet of Remus. The general consensus in the room is that Shinzon is a terrorist and not to be trusted.
As things appear to come to a head in the scene, Commander Danatra excuses herself from the proceedings, leaving behind a device very similar to Narek's cube. The device slowly opens, dispersing radiation that kills everyone in the Romulan senate, paving the way for Shinzon's conquest of Romulus.
For such a little-loved film, Star Trek: Nemesis has gotten a surprising number of shout outs during Star Trek: Picard. Of course, there was no getting around the death of Data which happened in that film's climax, and B-4 had to be dealt with as well. The Romulan callback is largely an aesthetic one, but one that proves the producers of Star Trek: Picard are looking to honor what's come before whenever given the opportunity. The show may be darker than most Star Trek fans are used to, but the Easter eggs are more than plentiful.
Source: screenrant.com