Star Trek Picard: Every Easter Egg & Hidden Reference From 'The Impossible Box'

Beaming over to the Artifact, Picard sets foot aboard a Borg cube for the first time in over 30 years following Star Trek: The Next Generation's "The Best of Both Worlds, Parts I and II". As pointed out by Agnes in the LaSirena's mess hall, back then Picard was kidnapped by the Collective and turned into Locutus, the facilitator of Earth's assimilation.

Picard has a very "the line must be drawn here!" from Star Trek: First Contact speech in response to Jurati's expository dialogue, but his tune changes pretty quickly. More on that later.

Even before he's aboard the cube, Picard begins experiencing flashbacks similar to the way he heard Borg voices in First Contact and even sees Borg drones in clips from that movie. Aboard the cube, Picard is subjected to numerous shots from First Contact including a brief glimpse of himself as Locutus alongside the Borg Queen (played by Alice Krige).

Since we love too technical, that Borg Queen flashback in "The Impossible Box" using footage from Star Trek: First Contact was itself a flashback to "The Best of Both Worlds". Though "The Best of Both Worlds" didn't feature the Queen herself, the 1996 film implied she was present in some, non-three-dimensional way during the events of that earlier TNG episode.

Picard's arrival aboard the cube also appears to activate one of the few fully assimilated drones still populating the Artifact, though the show never follows up on this. At least, not yet.