‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Drops an Intriguing Easter Egg from ‘Star Trek: Picard’

It’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility for Star Trek shows to reference each other. After all, they take place in the same, tightly knit and coordinated universe. And so far the rebooted Trek TV shows have mostly grown out of Star Trek: Discovery. The exception, though, is Star Trek: Picard — until now.

Actually, that’s not entirely true. There’s been a lot of speculation about whether the oft-teased A.I. apocalypse in Star Trek: Picard season one was tied in some way to the A.I. apocalypse that took over Star Trek: Discovery season two. And the Qowat Milat, a group of religious warriors led in the Discovery timeline by Michael Burnham’s (Sonequa Martin-Green) mother was first introduced over on Picard.

But both of those things run from speculation to the general color of the universe; not direct plot ties. That changes in Star Trek: Discovery‘s latest episode, titled “Anomaly”, which finds Dr. Culber (Wilson Cruz) developing a new body for the spirit of Gray (Ian Alexander) to inhabit.

In case you’re not up to speed on what’s going on there, last season we were introduced to Gray and Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio). Gray died, transferred a symbiote into Adira, and then popped up as sort of a mind/soul ghost in their body, one that only Adira could see. As the rest of the crew came around to realizing that Gray actually existed, they’ve promised to make a new body for him.

That comes to pass this episode, and it’s all thanks — very specifically — to technology that popped up towards the end of Picard‘s final episodes. Developed by Dr. Altan Inigo Soong (Brent Spiner), the man who also created and looks convincingly exactly like the android Data, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) actually died and had his own consciousness transferred into an android body.

That’s exactly what happens with Gray by episode’s end, but first Culber fills in some helpful information. For example, since Discovery is now set approximately 800 years past the events of Picard, this is “ancient technology,” as Gray notes. But more importantly, when Adira quips that they might want to use this after they die to “live forever,” Culber sighs and says it’s not likely.

“The process was attempted a number of times after Dr. Soong first used it on a Starfleet Admiral. Picard was his name?” Culber continues. “But the success rate was so low, people just stopped trying.”

Obviously, Gray and Adira are nervous about that news (spoiler, it works), but the intriguing question here is why did it work for Picard, and basically no-one else? Gray, as Culber explains, has the advantage of already having a consciousness transfered from his own body into Adira’s, so one more should a-okay. But Picard, other than being extremely full of tea and Shakespeare quotes, seems to be a normal human. Well, now he’s a normal human in an android body that will age and die at a regular human pace; but still, perhaps what allowed Picard to make the transfer — and what stopped others from doing so — is an intriguing question for the franchise to explore going forward.

It also raises the question of how much more, beyond Easter eggs and references, the ties between the rapidly expanding Star Trek universe will go. As mentioned up top, it’s not like there haven’t been crossovers before. But Discovery and Picard felt like they were on their own separate Starships, running in separate quadrants — until this week. So what’s next? Is Star Trek: Endgame coming down the road???

Maybe that’s a little ahead of ourselves. For now, it’s just neat to see the universe grow that much smaller.

Star Trek: Discovery streams new episodes every Thursday on Paramount+.

Where to watch Star Trek: Discovery