Jean-Luc Was Already Synthetic Before Becoming An Android In Star Trek: Picard

Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) received a synthetic android body in Star Trek: Picard, but he had been at least partly synthetic since before his Star Trek: The Next Generation days. Set about twenty years after the events of Nemesis in the Star Trek timeline, Picard finds Jean-Luc spending his retirement on his family's vineyard before getting pulled into another adventure. Near the end of Picard season 1, Jean-Luc reveals that he has been diagnosed with a terminal brain abnormality (which is later revealed to be the result of residual Borg DNA left over from Picard's time as Locutus).

Jean-Luc Picard officially died on the planet of Coppelius, but Dr. Altan Soong (Brent Spiner) and Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) were able to transfer his consciousness into a new android body in Picard. This gave Picard a second chance at life, allowing him to live out the rest of the years he would have if not for his brain condition. While this would seem to be a drastic change, Picard was not one hundred percent organic to begin with. Since his introduction in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Jean-Luc has had an artificial heart, courtesy of an angry Nausicaan​​​​​.

How Jean-Luc Picard Was Synthetic Since His Star Trek: TNG Introduction

Captain Picard Had An Artificial Heart & Later Got Borg DNA.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2, episode 17, "Samaritan Snare," Captain Picard tells Ensign Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) about a near-fatal injury he suffered as a young man. Soon after graduating from Starfleet Academy, Picard ended up in a bar brawl during which he was stabbed in the heart by a Nausicaan. After being rushed to emergency surgery, Picard received a new, synthetic heart. By the time he became Captain of the USS Enterprise-D, Picard had had an artificial heart longer than he had ever had a real one.

From the moment audiences first met Captain Picard, he was not fully organic, but he changed even more throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the classic TNG two-part episode, "The Best of Both Worlds," Jean-Luc is assimilated by the Borg and forced to be their mouthpiece, Locutus. As part of this assimilation, the Borg grafted several cybernetic attachments to Picard's body, including a replacement arm. While Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) was able to repair most of the damage done to Picard's body, organic Borg DNA remained inside of his brain for the rest of his human life.

Why It Doesn’t Matter That Star Trek: Picard Turned Jean-Luc Into An Android

Picard's Android Body Does Not Alter His Star Trek Legacy.

Ultimately, it does not matter that Star Trek: Picard gave Jean-Luc a synthetic android body. Although an android body could theoretically allow Picard to live indefinitely, the particular body he received will age and die as Picard originally would have. Aside from the fact that he no longer has Borg DNA and presumably will not ever get sick, very little has changed about Picard in any way that matters. He does not appear to have enhanced strength or any other abilities androids often have, and his mind remains fully intact.

The fact that Picard is an android has very little impact on his stories in Star Trek: Picard seasons 2 or 3 (aside from the Changeling/Borg plot involving his organic body). Jean-Luc remains the same man he would have been in his human body. It's Data's (Brent Spiner) new android body that steals the show in season 3, as he finally has the chance to experience organic human emotions. With the advances in medical and cybernetic technology in Star Trek: Picard, Jean-Luc's synthetic body is indistinguishable from his human one, meaning it ultimately doesn't change his Star Trek story.