10 Star Trek Easter Eggs & References In Starfield

Star Trek has always liked to show us both the perils and the possibilities of artificial intelligence. We've had a smorgas-mother-bord of mad probes, despotic computers, that one with the whales, and, of course, Data, but he came with Lore. Starfield tips its hat (Sam Coe's probably) to this Trek phenomenon in the mission 'Juno's Gambit,' during which you catch up with the eponymous (and real-life) probe, now seemingly self-aware from her interstellar journey.

The Motion Picture's V'Ger or The Changeling's Nomad are perhaps the most probing parallel — both were (fictional) spacecraft sent from Earth that got lost in the vastness of space and then 'evolved'. In the end, for Juno, the player must make a choice — try to reinitialise her programming or let her go. Either way, Juno manages to escape, angry or contemplative, and you're left wondering whether you will see her again.

V'Ger happens to be central to the plot of another Bethesda publication — the 2006 game Star Trek: Legacy. In that, V'Ger survived the journey through a black hole, only to be found and altered by 'living machines'. Deciding carbon-based life was an 'infestation' of its creator's universe, V'Ger then went on an assimilation rampage, becoming the origin of, you guessed it, the Borg!