Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 1 - "The Next Generation"The season 3 premiere of Star Trek: Picard contains numerous callbacks and references to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Designed to be the final Star Trek: The Next Generation movie fans never got after Star Trek: Nemesis, albeit 10 hours long, Star Trek: Picard season 3 is also a loving ode to the franchise itself, including the widely popular Star Trek: The Original Series, especially the two directed by Nicholas Meyer. With this in mind, it's no surprise, really, how much love and fan service The Wrath of Khan receives in Picard's season 3 premiere.
Over 40 years after its release, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan endures atop the list as the best Star Trek movie of all. The two failed attempts to remake Wrath of Khan, 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis and 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness, focused on violence, an over-the-top villain, and the death of a Star Trek character to ape Spock's (Leonard Nimoy) noble sacrifice. However, Star Trek: Picard season 3 takes a different, more respectful route, peppering the first episode, "The Next Generation," with Easter eggs to Wrath of Khan that are organically woven into the story. As a result, Picard season 3's references to Wrath of Khan come off as part of the fabric of Star Trek itself. Here are the coolest callbacks.
15 In The 25th Century...
Star Trek: Picard season 3 starts with a title card announcing "In The 25th Century..." It's an update to the title card at the top of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan that says, "In The 23rd Century..." and it even uses the same font. The difference between the two eras spans about 118 years, however. Wrath of Khan took place in 2285 while Star Trek: Picard season 3 takes place around 2403.
14 Dr. Crusher Is In A No-Win Scenario
Star Trek II starts with the introduction of the Kobayashi Maru simulation, a virtual no-win scenario Lt. Saavik (Kirstie Alley) faces as a test of character. Star Trek: Picard season 3's premiere begins with Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) in a no-win scenario, but her plight is very real. When unknown alien marauders board her medical ship, the USS Eleos, Beverly fights them off while protecting her son (Ed Speleers). Unlike Saavik, Crusher prevails but at a cost as she's seriously wounded. At the end of the Kobayashi Maru, Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) joked to Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelly), "Physician, heal thyself," but Dr. Crusher can't.
13 Dr. Crusher's Jacket Is Like Kirk's In Wrath Of Khan
A cool visual homage to Wrath of Khan is Dr. Crusher's jacket. Beverly's rugged outer gear has a distinctive white ribbed high collar, and it's nearly identical to the high white collared burgundy jacket Admiral Kirk wears in Star Trek II. Kirk wore the height of Starfleet fashion in 2285, while Beverly is no longer part of Starfleet 120 years later, but that jacket is still in style in the early 25th century.
12 Picard: "I Want A New Adventure."
As they pack up Chateau Picard to move to a different planet, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) declares to Laris (Orla Brady) that he's "not a man who needs a legacy," but also, "I want a new adventure." It harkens back to a very different scene at the start of Wrath of Khan when McCoy visits Kirk on his 50th birthday. Bones' advice to the melancholy Admiral is to "Get back your command! Get it back before you turn into part of this collection. Before you really do grow old."
Star Trek: Picard season 3's premiere deals with aging with grace, intelligence, and humor, just like Wrath of Khan. Later, Picard and Captain Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) trade notes on their physical impairments as a result of old age, as well as how they spent most of their lives seeking outer space adventure. Kirk could certainly relate in Wrath of Khan.
11 Crusher's Distress Call Echoes Carol Marcus' SOS To Kirk
Picard receives an urgent subspace distress call from Dr. Crusher, whom he hasn't seen in over 20 years. It's reminiscent of how in Wrath of Khan, Dr. Carol Marcus (Bibi Besch) contacted Kirk regarding her well-founded fears that Starfleet was going to steal the Genesis Project, her crucial technology. Beverly warns Picard to "trust no one," including Starfleet.
10 Coming Aboard The Titan
Riker and Picard board a shuttle in order to come aboard the USS Titan-A, Will's previous command. It echoes how Admiral Kirk and members of his Enterprise crew take a shuttle to come aboard Kirk's old command in Wrath of Khan. Star Trek: Picard evokes nostalgia by using an identical score as Picard and Riker gaze at the gorgeous Constitution III Class Titan, just like Kirk and his crew admired the Enterprise.
9 The Titan's Boatswain Whistle
When Picard and Riker board the Titan, their arrival is announced by an Ensign blowing a boatswain whistle, just like in Wrath of Khan and in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Both films were directed by Nicholas Meyer, who infused naval traditions into Starfleet to better reflect a Navy in outer space. Star Trek: Picard season 3's showrunner, Terry Matalas' unabashed love for Meyer's Star Trek movies is on full display.
8 Picard & Riker's "Inspection" Of The Titan
Picard and Riker's plan to rescue Beverly Crusher is to essentially hijack the Titan, and in order to come aboard, they fake an unannounced "inspection" of the new Neo-Constitution Class starship. The "inspection" is a deliberate nod to how Admiral Kirk came aboard the USS Enterprise in Wrath of Khan for an inspection of his own. But while Riker and Picard were perpetuating a ruse by looking over the Titan's crew lined up at attention just like in Wrath of Khan, Kirk only went through the motions since his inspection was just an excuse to come back aboard the Enterprise during its flight as a training vessel.
7 Seven Takes The Titan Out Like Saavik Did The Enterprise
On the bridge of the Titan, Admiral Picard yields the Captain's chair to the First Officer, Commander Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), who takes the starship out of space dock. It's a happy nod to an identical moment in Wrath of Khan when Captain Spock (Leonard Nimoy) invites Lt. Saavik to command the Enterprise during its departure from space dock. Only Star Trek: Picard's version lacked Spock's wise words, "For everything there is a first time." Picard and Riker also trusted Seven more than the visibly worried Kirk trusted Saavik not to crash the Enterprise.
6 Picard Uses The Wrath Of Khan's Score
When the Titan departs the Starbase, Star Trek: Picard's score by composer Stephen Barton tributes James Horner's stirring theme from The Wrath of Khan. It's an ideal homage that vividly evokes the same feeling from Star Trek II of the Enterprise departing on its next voyage. The Titan's redesign, after all, is deliberately meant to resemble the look of the classic Constitution Class Enterprise.
5 A Dangerous Weapon Is Stolen
Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán) stole the Genesis Device, a miraculous terraforming technology that he "perverted into a dreadful weapon." In Star Trek: Picard season 3's premiere, Commander Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) anchors the B-story as she goes on a one-woman hunt to learn who stole a secret experimental weapon from Daystrom Station. Raffi is horrified when the weapon is used to attack a Starfleet recruitment center on M'Talas Prime, but the weapon appears to be a device that creates portals, not an energy source that can remake planets.
4 The Ryton System Nebula Is Like Wrath Of Khan's Mutara Nebula
Against the orders of Captain Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick), Seven of Nine diverts the TItan to the Ryton System just outside of Federation space, where the starship comes face-to-face with a nebula that confounds their sensors. Of course, the climax of Wrath of Khan took place in the Mutara Nebula, a region of space that also knocked out the sensors of the USS Enterprise and the USS Reliant, launching Kirk and Khan's ships into a dangerous cat-and-mouse game.
3 Riker & Picard Boarding Crusher's Ship Echoes Kirk On Regula-1
After stealing one of the Titan's shuttles to dock with Crusher's ship, Picard and Riker board the Eleos, which is creepily abandoned. Will and Jean-Luc investigating the industrial spacecraft is reminiscent of Kirk beaming into space station Regula-1 to search for Carol and David Marcus (Merritt Butrick). What Riker and Picard find - phaser burns and remnants of a shootout - is considerably less ghastly than the corpses Khan strung up and left behind on Regula-1, however.
2 Beverly Is Cryogenically Frozen Like Khan
Picard finds Beverly in a cryo tube, which the Doctor placed herself in to stop what could be a mortal injury. While not a direct reference to Wrath of Khan itself, Crusher cryogenically frozen nods to how Captain Kirk found Khan and his genetically-engineered followers in a similar suspended animation aboard the SS Botany Bay in the Star Trek: The Original Series classic, "Space Seed." It's also the first time Picard saw Beverly in 20 years, and he reacts similar to Kirk when he first saw Carol Marcus after years apart.
1 Beverly's Son Could Be Picard's Like David Marcus Was Kirk's Son
"The Next Generation" ends with the shocking revelation of Picard and Riker confronting a young man who claims he's Beverly Crusher's son. Taking him at his word, the obvious assumption any viewer would leap to is that Jean-Luc Picard is somehow his father. After all, Ed Speleers' character speaks with a British accent. Whether Picard is the mystery son's father or not, this twist certainly evokes Kirk meeting David, his adult son, in Wrath of Khan. The difference, however, is that Kirk knew about David but stayed away at his mother's request. Meanwhile, Beverly and her son work together in the sciences like Carol and David Marcus. But Jean-Luc Picard had no idea Beverly Crusher's second son existed until the closing moments of Star Trek: Picard season 3's premiere.
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.