Star Trek: Picard pays an homage to a former Star Trek character

Star Trek: Picard has paid homage to a famous Star Trek movie character.

Star Trek: Picard hopes to go out with a bang and some satisfied fans. One easy way to do that is to lay on the nostalgia, thick and often. The Next Generation crew is back, and old faces have returned, with plotlines from previous installments being brought back (Picard having a random son is just like Kirk in Star Trek II).

This is the trend in the new world of Star Trek; flood them with nostalgia, so they don’t notice anything else. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it’s a ploy we all see through. When it comes to the current Picard homage, we have mixed feelings.

In a recent Picard episode, one of the shuttles Jean-Luc uses is named Saavik, after the Vulcan character in Star Trek II and III. The character was famously played by Kirstie Alley and Robin  Curtis in Wrath of Khan before a pay dispute saw her replaced by Curtis for The Search for Spock.

Star Trek doesn’t need to honor every secondary character

Trek has a habit of doing these little easter eggs to little-known or remembered characters. Saavik is no exception. While many older Trekkies will probably view her with great reverence, that isn’t the case for every fan.

To many, she was a secondary, dare I say a tertiary character in two films. Her significance would’ve been more profound had Trek IV actually revealed the planned love child between her and Spock, but it didn’t and instead, she was left out of the rest of the franchise.

While some will like this little nod to a long-forgotten character who last appeared nearly 40 years ago, it feels unnecessary to constantly highlight that every minor character you may ever meet will go on to be a great Starfleet captain. It’s just not that likely.

Now, Star Trek’s official Instagram account does say that Saavik would go on to captain her own ship after the events of the film. To that, I say, “ok?” You can in fact have too much world-building. It becomes too much, just ask Marvel.

Enough with the nostalgia overload.