Star Trek: Picard Confirms Spock Was Even More Important Than TOS Revealed
Spock has always been one of Star Trek's most famous figures — in-universe and out — but Star Trek: Picard reveals the Vulcan's hidden importance to franchise mythology. Star Trek: Picard season 2 has barely even started but, already, Patrick Stewart's Starfleet veteran is fending off another galactic-level threat to humanity. Following an unfriendly encounter with the Borg, Picard initiated self-destruct on the Stargazer, but Q interjected and sent his favorite plaything to a dystopian version of Star Trek's Prime timeline. The Picard Pals figure out Q changed history somewhere in 2024, meaning they need a method of time travel to go back and fix things. Picard suggests a slingshot maneuver, pointing out, "Kirk's Enterprise did it on more than one occasion."
Picard's not wrong. The Enterprise's first slingshot came during Star Trek season 1's «Tomorrow Is Yesterday» as a means of returning home after an accidental trip to the 1960s. They repeated the trick off-screen during Star Trek season 2's «Assignment: Earth,» this time visiting the 1960s intentionally. Not content with merely performing the feat in a standard Starfleet vessel, Kirk completed his slingshot hat-trick with a Klingon Bird of Prey during Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Introducing the slingshot maneuver created somewhat of a problem for Star Trek — why didn't Starfleet vessels use it more often? Across the franchise's subsequent output, numerous scenarios have prompted audiences to ask, "Why doesn't [insert ship here] just use the slingshot maneuver?"
Related: Picard’s Time Travel Creates A Borg Queen & Android Plot Hole
Various explanations have been put forth over the years, from Federation law restricting when the slingshot technique can be used, to
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