2 Attachment(s)
Star Trek: Picard's Borg Cube Was First Introduced In Voyager
Was Star Trek: Picard's Artifact site referenced long ago in an episode of Voyager? Introduced in the premiere episode, the Artifact is a Borg Cube that attempted to assimilate a Romulan scout ship and suffered a "submatrix collapse" as a result, rendering the ship and the drones on board inert. In the wake of the Cube's fall, Romulans swept in and established their Reclamation Site, aiming to salvage what technology they could from the vessel. Meanwhile, the Federation were given permission to carry out their own project on board, reverting the Borg severed from the Collective into humans under the guidance of The Next Generation's Hugh.
The Artifact is a vital piece in Star Trek: Picard's overall puzzle, not just as the workplace of Soji, but as an intrinsic link between the Borg and the Romulans that has yet to be explained. Star Trek: Voyager season 5 included the episode "Timeless," where a crash kills everyone on board but Chakotay and Harry Kim, who were safely on the Delta Flyer at the time. Although both men make their way back to Earth, they spend the next 15 years ruing the mistakes that led to Voyager's destruction and decide to alter the timeline. Sending a message to his past self, Kim succeeds in changing the course of history and the Voyager avoids calamity.
The most interesting part of "Timeless" in relation to Star Trek: Picard, however, are the materials Kim and Chakotay use to execute their time-bending plan, the main ingredient being a Borg temporal transmitter. While the two Voyager characters stole the device through Starfleet, the episode reveals that Starfleet Intelligence initially swiped the item from the wreckage of a Borg Cube in the Beta Quadrant. As pointed out by several Star Trek fans on Reddit, the Borg Cube mentioned by Chakotay in Star Trek: Voyager could actually be the Artifact from Star Trek: Picard.
The "where" and "when" of this theory both line up remarkably well. In geographical terms, Voyager places its defunct Cube in the Beta Quadrant, and in Star Trek: Picard's sixth episode, "The Impossible Box," an on-screen caption confirms the Artifact is also located in the Beta Quadrant. In terms of the timeline, the two Borg Cubes also coincide neatly. The future timeline of "Timeless" takes place in 2390, marginally less than a decade shy of when Star Trek: Picard begins. The "5843 days without an assimilation" sign glimpsed on the Artifact confirms that the ship has been out of action for 16 years, meaning it would've been floating around in the Beta Quadrant during the future narrative of "Timeless." This establishes the "when" of the theory, and a possible sequence of events emerges: a Borg Cube suffers a submatrix collapse in the Beta Quadrant and is taken over by Romulans, Starfleet Intelligence steal the temporal transmitter from said Cube, Chakotay and Kim steal it from their former employers to rescue the Voyager.
It's unlikely that this parallel between Star Trek: Picard and Voyager is a coincidence. From a fictional point of view, the Beta Quadrant may be a huge expanse of space, but Borg Cubes don't go down easily. It's not likely that Star Trek: Picard would introduce another Cube ruin when one has already been established in that same region of space by a past series. In production terms, Star Trek: Picard has provided a treasure trove of Easter eggs thus far, some extremely obscure, and this is more likely to be another in the same vein, rather than a happy accident.
Naturally, it's also plausible that the connection between Star Trek: Picard and Voyager is no accident at all, and that the temporal transmitter could factor into Jean-Luc's current adventure. In "Timeless," the two other components needed to change the future were both sourced from Seven of Nine, and with Jeri Ryan returning in the new series, either Picard or the Zhat Vash may seek to change the course of history in order to engineer an outcome more favorable to their ethics.
Star Trek: Picard continues with "Broken Pieces" March 12th on CBS All Access and Amazon Prime the next day.
