Star Trek Picard: Every Easter Egg & Hidden Reference From 'Et In Arcadia Ego, Part 1'

The first android the group meets is Arcana. Arcana recognizes Picard as Data's captain, perhaps an indication that all of these androids were based on that one, pissant neuron left over from Data after he exploded in Star Trek Nemesis (see "Remembrance").

Picard, Agnes, Rios, Soji, and Raffi are also greeted by a familiar face: "Data if he'd gotten old and gone soft", or Brent Spiner as Doctor Altan Inigo Soong. Altan Soong, as it turns out, is Doctor Noonian Soong's never mentioned son and Data and Lore's human brother.

This isn't the first time Spiner (who's known for playing Data, Lore, and B4) has played a Soong. In The Next Generation, Spiner played an aged Noonian Soong in the episode "Brothers", a young Noonian Soong in the episode "Birthright, Part I", and a slightly less young Noonian Soong in the episode "Inheritance". Spiner also played Noonian Soong's ancestor, Arik Soong in the standout Augments trilogy of episodes in Star Trek: Enterprise's "Borderland", "Cold Station 12", and "The Augments".

Altan describes himself as a "mad scientist" and this isn't too far off from how his predecessors have been portrayed. While Doctor Noonien Soong was generally depicted as benevolent, his methods were sometimes less than scrupulous (see "Inheritance"). Arik Soong, (dating back to the 22nd century) was an outright villain, hellbent on perfecting humanity by resurrecting the same genetic augmentations that gave rise to the mass murderer Khan. So let's just not trust anything Altan says.