While April 5 was just another Monday for the rest of the world, it was a real national holiday for Trekkies: First Contact Day. This year’s many celebrations include some exciting announcements, including a trailer for the highly anticipated second season of Star Trek: PicardUnderstandably, most Trekkies were losing their marbles to some not-so-subtle references to the return of favorite character Q, but they may have missed another, possibly just as stunning, blink-and-you – miss-it reveal in the Picard Season 2 trailer.
Although it’s on screen for only a split second, eagle-eyed fans can get a glimpse of the Bajoran Reckoning Tablet, an artifact of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that could indicate the return of another beloved character.
Unless you enter the trailer to search for it, the Reckoning tablet can pass you right away. If you look with a keen eye, you can see the tablet in the trailer’s second shot (right around the 12-second mark): it’s an oval stone with Bajoran carvings missing a few pieces due to wear. It’s easy to miss among the mishmash of others trek references in it, but if you are a fan of it Deep Space Nine, it’s an exciting Easter egg that could hint at the long-awaited return of everyone’s favorite emissary: Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks).
But wait, what is a Bajoran Reckoning Tablet? If the name doesn’t ring a bell, don’t feel bad – it’s certainly not an important part of it trek lore as a Borg cube or Data’s beloved cat place. The Reckoning Tablet made its first and only TV appearance in the DS9 episode “The Reckoning” when it was discovered and taken to Deep Space Nine to be studied. Captain Sisko worked with Dax to try to decipher the markings on the Tablet, an ancient Bajoran artifact with important links to The Prophets, wormhole aliens who also serve as gods to the Bajoran people. In addition to housing a Prophet, the Tablet also housed a Pah-Wraith – an evil false Prophet.
The Tablet bore a number of inscriptions, some of which Dax and Sisko were able to translate before Sisko destroyed it in a fit of frustration. One of the inscriptions was the phrase “Welcome Emissary” – which, of course, refers to Captain Sisko himself – serving as the envoy of the prophets (or, in other words, the Bajoran Pope).
So, big whoop – the Picard trailer had a shot of an old, broken tablet that used to play a house for a Bajoran god. Why is it important in the larger context of Picard and Deep Space Nine
A quick refresher on the DS9 finale: The series ends with Captain Sisko remaining in a spectral plane called the “Ancestral Temple” where the Prophets tell him he will stay indefinitely and continue his duties as Emissary. Although the epilogue shows Kira Nerys and Jake Sisko mourning the loss of the Emissary, in an earlier scene Sisko promises his wife Kassidy that he will return to her at some point – although time with the Prophets can be fickle. – and the viewer is not sure if that means Sisko will be back in a few months or a few hundred years.
Deep Space Nine ends on that final mystery: if and when Captain Sisko will return. With the Bajoran Reckoning Tablet in the Picard trailer, we may finally have a hint at an answer. Captain Sisko smashed the Tablet to pieces during the events of Deep Space Nine, but in the Picard Season 2 trailer, it has been reassembled. Since the Tablet itself bears the inscription “Welcome Emissary”, it is not a huge leap in logic to wonder if the Tablet could signal the long-awaited return of Captain Sisko.
Of course, outside the context of the show, Sisko’s return would be a big surprise on a whole other level; Actor Avery Brooks is believed to have retired from acting. Even if Sisko does not return, the presence of the tablet is in the Picard trailer is an encouraging sign for everyone DS9 fan because, up to this point in Picard‘s been performed, there are no references to the “dark horse” of the trek universe. Still, the Star Trek franchise is no stranger to surprise cameos – so when it comes to the return of the emissary, never say never.