Star Trek: Picard season 3’s new Ferengi villain, Sneed (Aaron Stanford), has links to some big names from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The Ferengi broker appeared in Picard season 3, episode 2, “Disengage”, in which he was visited by Commander Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) as she investigates stolen weapons. As a violent and conniving gangster, Sneed is a more sinister Ferengi than beloved DS9 barman Quark (Armin Shimerman), and is therefore more like the more antagonistic Ferengi originally conceived by Gene Roddenberry and Herbert J. Wright for TNG season 1.
In a Twitter post by Star Trek: Picard season 3 research assistant Jörg Hillebrand, it was revealed that this isn’t the only thing that links Sneed to TNG and DS9. Sharing a screengrab from Sneed’s intelligence file, Hillebrand reveals some surprising blink-and-you’ll-miss-it information about the Ferengi broker, his criminal record, and his known associates.
Sneed is certainly connected to the seedy underbelly of the Star Trek universe by his business dealings with DS9’s Quark (Armin Shimerman), Liquidator Brunt (Jeffrey Combs), Morn (Mark A. Shepherd), and Larell (Bridget Ann White). Along with his ties to a rogues’ gallery of TNG and DS9 characters, Sneed’s file also reveals that the Ferengi was arrested for committing arson aboard DS9 in the year 2384.
Picard Season 3 Will Bring The TNG And DS9 Eras To A Close
Sneed’s file is one of many subtle nods to the TNG era in Star Trek: Picard‘s final season. Picard season 3 is planned as the final farewell story that was denied to the TNG cast by the failure of Star Trek: Nemesis. Showrunner Terry Matalas has also promised that Picard season 3 is a sequel to DS9 and Star Trek: Voyager, and the impressive list of Sneed’s associates is a testament to that. The Picard production team proves that the links to DS9 and Voyager go much deeper than Captain Worf (Michael Dorn) and Commander Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan).
Deep-cut characters like Larell, Morn’s co-conspirator on the Lissepian Mother’s Day heist, show the attention to detail in Picard season 3’s production design. In creating a list of known associates for a Ferengi gangster, the team could have created five random alien criminals. Instead, they chose fan-favorite characters like the Outrageous Thadiun Okona (Billy Campbell), recently seen in Star Trek: Prodigy, to emphasize the rich fictional universe created by TNG and its 90s spinoffs. It’s this rich fictional universe that Star Trek: Picard season 3 returns to as it brings the story of the TNG crew to a heroic ending.
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.
