Some Star Trek: Picard fans think Tallin is Isis from Assignment: Earth

Star Trek: Picard continues its second season on Thursdays on Paramount Plus.

Warning: This post contains spoilers from “Fly Me to the Moon.” 

In the most recent episode of Star Trek: Picard, Picard found himself face-to-face with the Watcher who is an exact replica of Laris (sans the Romulan features), the woman he left behind at Chauteau Picard…the woman he loves. At first, he assumed it was Laris, but this new character, Tallin, quickly dissuaded him of that notion and let him know that she is a supervisor, much like Gary Seven from the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “Assignment: Earth.” And that got some fans to theorizing.

In an interview with TrekMovie, Orla Brady, the actress who portrays Laris/Tallin, said that one of the best parts of playing a character she loves (along with working with Patrick Stewart) is what the fans say to her. Recently, fans have told her they think she is Isis, who was Gary Seven’s cat from The Original Series, in human form. Brady calls this her favorite theory.

Could the Star Trek: Picard character actually be a returning guest star from The Original Series?

Admiral Picard did mention Gary Seven in his first lengthy conversation with Tallin. She told him she was a supervisor, and that is when Picard brought up the character from The Original Series. Not much is known about Isis other than she was a shapeshifter, and those could possibly have extremely long lives.

As Assignment: Earth was meant to be the backdoor pilot for a series that didn’t get picked up, Isis would, most likely have been a regular character. Brady thinks the cat would have eventually become a character in human form.

"And I think Isis the cat was rather wonderful. I think there is some talk about that [episode] as pilot for a spinoff series. Had that been the case, Isis would have become a character in human form because she is shapeshifting. So I rather love that as a theory. I just think Trek fans are so inventive, and always make me laugh, in a good way."

It’s not like shapeshifters are unheard of in the franchise as Rene Auberjonois portrayed a shapeshifter, Odo, for seven seasons on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Most likely, though, Tallin’s position as a supervisor is merely an Easter egg that the producers found interesting enough to include in the series this season. If Tallin is, indeed, the human embodiment of Isis, then we can look forward to the cat making an appearance before Picard and his crew restore the timeline.