Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 9 – “Vox.”Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 9, “Vox”, ramps up the stakes for the finale, as the truth about Jack Crusher (Ed Speelers) is finally revealed, a Starfleet officer falls in battle, an old enemy returns, and Commodore Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) reveals what he’s been keeping in Hangar 12. After eight episodes, and cryptic hints, a therapy session with Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) reveals the terrifying truth about Jack Crusher, which puts the entire future of the United Federation of Planets at risk. As the Frontier Day celebrations begin, a nightmarish alliance between two of Starfleet’s biggest enemies disturbingly separates the last generation from the next.
To save the lives of their children, and the Federation itself, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), and Commodore Geordi La Forge and the rest of their Star Trek: The Next Generation crewmates return to the Athan Prime Fleet Museum. Stored there is the one Starfleet vessel that is free of the dystopian Fleet Mode that has proved to be the armada’s undoing. The identity of the starship, the major threat to Frontier Day, and Jack’s quest for answers about his gifts set the stage for an epic Star Trek: Picard season 3 finale.
TNG’s Enterprise-D Return Explained
In the emotional climax to Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 9, it’s revealed that the USS Enterprise-D is what Geordi’s hiding in the Fleet Museum. Geordi explains that, after the Enterprise crashed on Veridian III in Star Trek: Generations, the Prime Directive dictated that all evidence of the starship be removed from the pre-warp planet. For the past two decades, Geordi has been working on restoring the classic ship in his free time, presumably with the help of Ensign Alandra La Forge (Mica Burton), as a father-daughter project. Because he’s been restoring the ship as a period piece of 24th-century technology, it doesn’t have the same systems installed as the 25th-century starships currently headed for Earth, making it impossible for the Enterprise to be assimilated into the new fleet.
Interestingly, Geordi reveals that they’d be unable to use the USS Enterprise-E, a loaded statement that puts Captain Worf (Michael Dorn) on the defensive, by stating that whatever happened to the starship wasn’t his fault. It’s a fun moment that tacitly hints Worf succeeded Jean-Luc Picard as Captain of the Enterprise, something previously mentioned in the Star Trek logs on Instagram. Hilariously, Worf reveals that he still has a preference for the Enterprise-E’s weapons systems, an abrupt statement that comes across as incredibly dismissive of Geordi’s painstaking reconstruction of the D. The Next Generation crew then take their former positions on the Enterprise, ready to fly into one last battle to save the Federation and Starfleet’s next generation from the plans of the Changelings and their new allies – the Borg.
Jack Crusher Is VOX – Borg & Locutus History Revealed
After eight episodes, Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 9 revealed what was behind Jack’s red door – a Borg Cube. This revelation confirmed to Jean-Luc and the crew that Jack didn’t inherit Irumodic Syndrome from his father, but organic Borg DNA left behind after his conversion into Locutus of Borg was reversed. Star Trek: First Contact set up Jack Crusher when it revealed that Jean-Luc was still able to hear the voice of the Borg Collective, thanks to the DNA that had been left behind. Breaking free of the USS Titan-A to seek further answers, Jack comes face-to-face with the Borg Queen, who says that while Locutus of Borg was a receiver of the voice of the Collective, Jack Crusher is VOX, the broadcaster of the Borg Collective. After confronting the Queen, Jack becomes fully wired up to the Collective, to broadcast its voice across the fleet.
This explains how Jack has been able to enter the minds of others, effectively creating a small-scale hive mind. The voices and nightmares that Jack has experienced since childhood have been visions of the Borg Collective, and the voice of the Borg Queen (Alice Krige), weakened after her final confrontation with the older Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew). The reason that Picard himself never manifested these gifts was because the Borg DNA effectively acted as a failsafe after he was separated from the Collective. While the Borg failed to assimilate the Federation 35 years earlier, passing that Borg DNA down to Jack has allowed them a second, much more successful attempt at assimilation.
First Contact’s Original Borg Queen Is Back – Changeling Team-Up Explained
Star Trek: Picard has brought back Star Trek‘s original Borg Queen, as played by Alice Krige, and she’s been working with the Changelings. It’s unclear who approached who in this ultimate team-up of Star Trek villains, but the Queen’s reference to “what Vadic knew” suggests that it was the Changelings who discovered the Borg DNA and sought out their Queen to propose an alliance. Upon discovering the Borg DNA, the Changelings isolated the genetic code, and implanted it in the transporter signature, meaning that everyone that used a transporter was infected with Locutus DNA, allowing instantaneous assimilation. This explains why Changeling impersonators replaced transporter technicians like Ensign Foster (Chad Lindberg) as it gave them the access they needed to insert the code.
Presumably, the Changeling infiltration explains the installation of the controversial Fleet Mode that Picard describes as “Borg-like“. The Fleet Mode effectively turned the whole of Starfleet into a flotilla of Borg ships, headed toward Earth with the intention of destroying its defenses and assimilating the planet into the Collective. Why the Changelings would ally themselves with the Borg is inadvertently explained by Jack Crusher when he talks of how everyone sharing just one mind would instantly remove problematic personality traits like bigotry and selfishness. The Dominion has long sought to impose order on the Alpha Quadrant, so Starfleet and the Federation acting as one voice under the Borg Queen and Jack Crusher/Vox would finally fulfill this wish.
The Borg Assimilates Starfleet – But Only The Young Generation
It’s explained that the Borg DNA can only affect brains that haven’t fully developed, which means that anyone under the age of 25 becomes immediately assimilated into the Borg Collective. It’s unclear what this means for alien species whose brains develop at different rates to Humans, but ultimately, every young officer on every starship in the fleet has become a Borg drone. While it’s a neat narrative trick to ensure the older TNG generation get their last hurrah, it also leads to some genuinely heartbreaking moments in the episode. Data (Brent Spiner) offering comfort to Geordi as he worries about Alandra and Ensign Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) is a great moment for the two friends that also emphasizes how far the new Data has come.
Interestingly, the young Borg drones don’t attempt to assimilate their older crew mates and instead take the Borg mantra of “resistance is futile” to heart, by killing anyone who attempts to stop them. The USS Excelsior managed to briefly wrestle control back from the Borg drones, before being destroyed by the other ships when it broke away from the fleet. The same is true on the Titan-A, as the older generation race against time to make it off the starship before they’re killed by the Borg drones that are in command of the starship.
Captain Shaw’s Heroic Death & What It Means For Star Trek: Legacy
Captain Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick) is once again faced with a Borg attack, after surviving the Battle of Wolf 359. Shaw’s harrowing Borg story tragically set up his Star Trek: Picard death; like the senior officer who saved him aboard the USS Constance, Shaw gives his own life to ensure that Jean-Luc Picard made it to the shuttle. It’s a devastating moment, but it shows how much Shaw has grown as a character, as his distrust of Picard has given way to respect. The most telling moment is when Shaw hands over command of the USS Titan-A to his Number One, to whom he finally refers as Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan).
With Shaw gone, it means that should Terry Matalas’ proposed Star Trek: Legacy get a green light, it will be Captain Seven of Nine who’s in command of the Titan. Star Trek: Picard‘s finale could perfectly set this up, as the former Borg drone rescues the Federation from the Collective’s latest plan. Seven has always had trouble fitting into Starfleet, but now that Shaw has finally accepted her, it feels like a big moment that marks her acceptance by Starfleet and sets her up as a lead in Star Trek: Legacy.
Riker’s Rival Admiral Shelby Commands The Enterprise-F & Is Killed By The Borg
The final flight of the USS Enterprise-F begins Starfleet’s Frontier Day celebrations, and the starship is commanded by Riker’s TNG rival, Admiral Elizabeth Shelby (Elizabeth Dennehy). Riker is still not a big fan of Shelby, as he derides the former Borg expert’s eager acceptance of the new Fleet Mode system. When Riker and Shelby first met in “The Best of Both Worlds”, she was working with Starfleet Tactical on defensive planning for the inevitable attack by the Borg Collective. Shelby made no secret of her ambitions to replace Riker at Picard’s side, and it’s clear that her career ambitions have seen her surpass Riker by reaching the position of Admiral before him.
In a moment of dark irony, it’s revealed that for all her time in Starfleet Tactical, Shelby didn’t predict Star Trek: Picard‘s new Borg attack. When the Borg assimilates the entire fleet’s junior officers, she’s immediately killed by phaser fire as she sits in the captain’s chair of the Enterprise-F. In horror, Riker and Picard watch the events unfold, as they realize they haven’t been staring down a repeat of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Dominion War, but they’re engaged in the high-stakes conclusion to a battle with the Borg that first began 30 years earlier.
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.
