For even more on the show, be sure to check out our essential Picard viewing guide to prep you before Jean-Luc’s return, find out why Seven of Nine blames Picard in the new series, or let us explain the Star Trek: Picard timeline.
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The last episode of the second series of Short Treks dropped recently, and not surprisingly “Children of Mars” serves as a prelude to the new Picard show which debuts on January 23. Up until now, the creators of Star Trek: Picard — which sees the return of Patrick Stewart to the iconic title role after an almost 20-year break — have kept pretty quiet about what the show will be about. But “Children of Mars” clearly sets up what will surely be a major element of the show.
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How Picard Connects to “Children of Mars”
The short is mostly a wordless but effective tale about a couple of schoolgirls on Earth whose parents work out at the Federation shipyards on (and above) Mars. The two wind up in a spat, which escalates over time into a full-blown physical fight, but when tragedy strikes, they find themselves united. And it’s that tragedy that connects to Star Trek: Picard.
On viewscreens at the girls’ school, we see an emergency unfolding in real time back on Mars, where the girls’ parents are based. The planet is under attack by “rogue synths” and some 3,000 people are believed dead (although it looks like most of the planet is being carpet-bombed from space, so who knows what the actual casualty total is). We also briefly see an image of Jean-Luc Picard on the Federation news network, with the caption “Devastating: Admiral Picard reacts to Mars attack.”
But what is a rogue synth anyway? It seems they’re some kind of androids like Picard’s old friend and shipmate Data (Brent Spiner). But why are they attacking a Federation site and murdering its citizens?
Rogue Synths, Androids, and Data
During the Star Trek: The Next Generation time period, Data was the only android in existence. Mostly. Of course, it eventually turned out that he also had an evil “brother” named Lore, because TV. He also had a “daughter” named Lal (Hallie Todd) who he built in the third-season episode “The Offspring,” but because of the advanced — even by Star Trek standards! — tech of an android’s brain, her neural net failed and she died that same episode. Not even Data could fix her.
Then there was another long-lost brother of Data’s, named B-4, who appeared in the last TNG film, Star Trek: Nemesis. While Data died at the end of that story, B-4 was still functioning and had possibly absorbed his brother’s memories. It’s currently unknown if he will figure into Star Trek: Picard.
There were a couple of other androids who popped up here or there, but generally, they were one-offs and the basic concept was that Data was the only stable, functioning example of his kind. As such, he was also something of a valuable asset, and coveted by a variety of folks, be it Saul Rubinek’s greedy uber-collector from “The Most Toys,” or the nasty Starfleet scientist Commander Maddox (Brian Brophy) from the great Season 2 episode “The Measure of a Man.”
In that segment, which was written by Melinda Snodgrass and nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award — a rare recognition for Star Trek at the time — the crew of the Enterprise encounter Commander Maddox while visiting a starbase. The cybernetic lifeforms expert is from the Daystrom Institute (a nice nod to the Original Series episode “The Ultimate Computer”), and he’s arrived in order to study Data’s positronic brain and figure out what makes the android tick… which will include taking Data apart!
Data assesses the risks of the procedure, and since he’s freaking Data and smarter than everyone else, he realizes that he may not survive this one. Maddox doesn’t see the issue as he doesn’t consider Data to be an actual sentient person, and it all winds up having to be resolved via a classic Trek trope: a courtroom drama. But the episode is so much better than it sounds, with Jonathan Frakes’ guilt-ridden Riker forced to prosecute the case against his friend while Captain Picard defends Data. In the end, Picard wins the day for Data — Data’s day! — thanks in part to a rousing speech from Patrick Stewart:
“Now sooner or later, this man — or others like him — will succeed in replicating Commander Data. The decision you reach here today will determine how we will regard this creation of our genius. It will reveal the kind of people we are; what he is destined to be. It will reach far beyond this courtroom and this one android. It could significantly redefine the boundaries of personal liberty and freedom, expanding them for some, savagely curtailing them for others. Are you prepared to condemn him — and all who will come after him — to servitude and slavery? Your honor, Starfleet was founded to seek out new life. Well, there it sits! Waiting.”
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The Class System, Slavery, and Starfleet
It looks like the captain’s words have finally come to fruition and the rogue synths are part of a race of androids by the time of Star Trek: Picard. We even get a glimpse of them in the Picard trailers.
But could it be that what Picard feared most back in “The Measure of a Man” has come to pass, and that these beings are being treated as less than equals?
There is precedent for this, as we would learn on Star Trek: Voyager regarding the Emergency Medical Holographic programs. Played by Robert Picardo on that series, the EMH was essentially a sentient computer given physical form via hologram. He was considered a part of the crew of the USS Voyager, which was lost on the other side of the galaxy. But back in Federation space hundreds of the original EMH programs were eventually deemed obsolete and replaced by more advanced models. As such, they were consigned to less desirable jobs such as mining or other hard labor, apparently with no say in the matter of their own.
The fact is the people of the Federation and Starfleet aspire to high ideals of liberty and freedom for all, but they also carry with them a history of occasional wrongdoing, and sometimes even grave criminal acts against those they don’t understand or who are simply in their way. Just ask Commander Maddox.
So perhaps there’s more to the story of the rogue synths of Star Trek: Picard than at first meets the eye. Maybe they have a reason to attack their makers. Of course, the slaughter of 3,000 people cannot be justified, but this, it appears, is war.
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What do you think of this revelation regarding Star Trek: Picard? Let’s discuss in the comments!
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Talk to Executive Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottCollura, or listen to his Star Trek podcast, Transporter Room 3. Or do both!
