Star Trek Picard: Every Easter Egg & Hidden Reference From 'Broken Pieces'

In the mess hall, Soji and Picard talk about life and Data.

Soji's troubled by memories that aren't her own, but Picard tells her she has a past that's waiting to be claimed. Yes, he says, he's talking about Data... among other things. Those other things could be the false memories that he was implanted with in the iconic TNG episode "The Inner Light". In that episode, Picard essentially lived a full life as a man named Kamen on a long dead planet called Kataan. The captain had to take those memories and reconcile them with his own life when the experience was over, much like Soji now.

Picard tells Soji about Data, describing all the qualities that made him special and relating that Date made the crew of the Enterprise laugh – except when he was trying. This is a reference to Data's continued struggle to understand humor as seen explicitly in "The Outrageous Okona" and Star Trek Generations.

Picard also mentions Data's limited capacity for expressing and processing emotion.

As we all know, during the entire run of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Data did not possess emotions (allegedly, see "The Offspring"), but gained an emotion chip in the season seven episode "Descent, Part II", which he installed in Star Trek Generations. Picard says Data's lack of emotion was a trait they shared, a nod to the fact that Picard has evolved from his earlier, more stoic portrayal in TNG and the TNG feature films.