It’s been over 20 years since the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast left the silver screen. Whether it was with a bang or a whimper is a matter of personal opinion. But whatever your thoughts on Star Trek: Nemesis – It’s certainly left a lasting legacy within the Star Trek franchise. What are Star Trek: Picard’s Nemesis connections?
For those that haven’t seen or have willed themselves to forget the movie, the story is a tale of two Picard’s. Or rather, one Jean-Luc Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart) and one defective Romulan clone of Picard, Shinzon (Tom Hardy). This clone decides the logical way to get revenge for the Romulans torturing him through most of his life is to… Uh… Kill Picard to stabilise himself and then destroy Earth. Makes perfect sense.
Previous Nemesis Connections
Star Trek: Picard’s Nemesis connections have been present since the first season. A widely praised aspect of the first season was that it gave Brent Spiner’s Data a more appropriate send-off. When Nemesis first hit the screens, fans weren’t too happy about his death essentially being a Wrath of Khan tribute act. This has been a point of contention for many years regarding Nemesis, and its legacy, which we can gratefully put to rest.
Season 2 seemed to stay away from the Nemesis themes after that coda to the TNG cast’s previous finale. But we’re a few years later, and Season 3 is bringing them back in force!
Shinzon of Remus
Star Trek: Nemesis‘ villain is Shinzon, a younger clone of Picard. The movie’s second act features him ‘playing diplomat’ to lure Picard into a trap. This provides a welcome respite from the film’s action sequences while also giving Tom Hardy and Patrick Stewart a chance to add some depth to the film.
Shinzon never met Picard or grew up with him, and much of their conversation centres around their differences in ideals. In particular, Picard cannot understand Shinzon’s use of wanton violence to achieve his aims, and Shinzon cannot understand Picard’s idealism and loyalty to the Federation and hold up. This is sounding a little familiar…
Jack Crusher
Then we have Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers). Jack is the son of Picard and Crusher. But nonetheless, the show seems to be going down the route of highlighting similarities between him and his old man. Though we haven’t seen much of Jack so far, we’ve seen that he’s tough and loyal. Famous qualities of Jean-Luc Picard. This isn’t even mentioning the last act of episode 4, where we see him and Picard working side by side to navigate the USS Titan-A out of trouble!
But it seems that his backstory also draws slightly from Shinzon, with his distrust/disdain for Starfleet and their way of operating. He certainly doesn’t have ‘JL’s enthusiasm for working in a crew until the end of episode 4, at least!
The Shrike
From the moment we saw the Shrike, fans began making connections to the villain’s ship from Nemesis, the Scimitar. Hell, the initial introduction of the ship felt like a tribute to the scene where the Scimitar decloaks. Compare for yourself:
40 isolytic burst warheads, 88 plasma torpedoes, 236 six photon torpedoes, 18 antimatter missiles. 20 pulse wave, 30 series five… And something… loaded in primary position in the bay, sir. Technology unknown.
Lt Mura – Star Trek Picard
Fifty-two disruptor banks, twenty-seven photon torpedo bays, primary and secondary shields.
Lt Cmdr Worf – Star Trek Nemesis
Of course, we find out later in Nemesis that the Scimitar also has something unknown in the primary position. But the similarities don’t stop there! The designs also evoke each other, with both ships being designed to look aggressive and featuring pointed tips. There’s even a shot at the end of Disengage, framed almost identically!
Vadic’s Knife
The episode, No Win Scenario, featured the appearance of a certain knife in the scene where Vadic has a… Conversation. It’s unclear whether the production or its creator (Gil Hibben) gave it the name ‘Jackal’, but it is one that’s stuck to distinguish this knife from others in the franchise.
The Knife previously appeared in, you guessed it, Nemesis! It was seen in scenes with Shinzon (in his fight with Picard) and his Viceroy (in his fight with Riker). But this knife may be familiar to those that haven’t seen Nemesis as well as it appeared in a number of other franchises in the early noughties, most notably Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
The ‘Face’
Okay, this one is a bit of a reach, but you never know. All good theories start somewhere, and all good stories lay eggs for the reader (or watcher) to follow as they go! As featured in Nemesis, The Remans featured a rather distinct and incredibly angular facial structure with prominent cheekbones and a… Lack of nose. Remind you of anyone or anything from the last episode? Take a look and decide for yourself:
Rounding Up
But what do all these parallels mean and references mean? Is it just a harmless wink to the fans, or is it a hint at the wider story of the season? Will we see more of the Remans, or are the showrunners embracing some beta canon (Tales of the Dominion War – Twilight’s Wrath) which establishes that the knife was a Jem’hadar weapon Shinzon took from a dead soldier?
We’ll have to wait and find out! Star Trek: Picard Season 3 airs on Thursdays via Paramount+ for those in the United States. Additionally, on Crave and the CTV Sci-Fi channel for viewers in Canada. However, new episodes air Fridays via Amazon Prime Video in international regions like the United Kingdom. Paramount+ also streams the episodes in select locations, such as Italy, Germany and France.
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