Spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Picard, season 1, episode 2, “Maps and Legends.”
Turns out, the Romulans–or a significant secret society of them–have a serious bone to pick with “all forms of synthetic life.” The latest wrinkle in Star Trek: Picard has added a new detail to the origin story of the Romulan’s Tal Shiar spy network in the form of a new cabal called “the Zhat Vash.” We know only two things so far: They’re thousands of years old and they really don’t seem to like synthetics or artificial intelligence.
But why are they active now? What is it about near-human synthetic life that they hate and fear? And if we pull on this thread far enough…do we encounter Control, the big bad artificial intelligence from the latest season of Star Trek: Discovery?
Are these two shows more connected than we thought?
At the start of “Maps and Legends,” Picard’s loyal Romulan companions, Laris and Zhaban, give him the skinny on a scary Romulan rumor: The idea that the Tal Shiar was a “mask” for a group called the Zhat Vash. Laris describes them as a “far older cabal” than the Tal Shiar, and they are founded on secret war against androids. The question is, how much older? Picard happens in the year 2399, and in The Next Generation, the first mention of the Tal Shiar happened in the episode “Face of the Enemy” in 2369. Obviously, the Tal Shiar is older than that, though, but it’s not clear if their origin predates the 24th-century era of Star Trek or not.
To put it another way, what we tend to forget about Trek is that there are sometimes more than a century in-between the different series. Meaning, the myths of one era could have been something relatively commonplace say…142 years before. In other words, the Zhat Vash Romulans in the late 24th century could have started to hate A.I. way back in the 2250s, during the era of Discovery and The Original Series.
Star Trek: Discovery season 2 is set in 2257, during a time when Starfleet doesn’t even know what the Romulans look like. (That didn’t happen until “Balance of Terror” in 2266.) This means, there’s no mention of the Romulans or Tal Shiar in Discovery, at all. Of course, this doesn’t mean the Tal Shiar or the Zhat Vash doesn’t exist in 2257, it simply means that people in the Federation would have no clue about it. The Federation would also have zero idea of what kind of tech the Romulans were playing around with because as Spock points out in “Balance of Terror,” humans haven’t even seen a Romulan ship since the 22nd century.
So, we’ve established there are some pretty big gaps in what we humans know about the Tal Shiar. Here’s the only thing we know for sure. The Tal Shiar existed at some point before 2369, because in “Face of the Enemy,” a Romulan named Toreth says her father was “dragged” out of their house by the Tal Shiar. If this happened when Toreth was a kid, then it’s reasonable that the inception of the Tal Shiar could have still happened in the early days of the 24th century. This means…the Zhat Vash could have been the proto-Tal Shair — the “far older cabal” – doing Romulan dirty work in the 23rd century, and perhaps, earlier.
If we grant the premise that the Zhat Vash is operating in the Discovery era of Star Trek, around the 2250s, then perhaps they developed their own version of an A.I. similar to Section 31’s rogue super-computer, Control. In “Maps and Legends,” Laris says the Zhat Vash has kept their secret of hating A.I. for “thousands of years.” She also says they have operated outside of treaties, which means, its possible members of the Zhat Vash could have been easily posing as Vulcans in Starfleet during Discovery. So, what if Admiral Patar in Discovery was a Romulan Zhat Vash member and also not a Vulcan? (This would be an interesting link, considering a fake-Vulcan who is really a Romulan also was central to the plot of “Data’s Day” and TNG episode framed as a letter to Bruce Maddox, who is suddenly a super-big deal on Picard!)
The larger point is this: There could be Zhat Vash hunting down all sorts of artificial intelligence throughout Star Trek history. Laris says that the Zhat Vash are Romulans with “hate and fear and pure loathing for any form of synthetic life.” Laris doesn’t know why the Zhat Vash poses this hatred and surely, Picard will reveal just exactly how all of this came about. But, if it’s so embedded into this Romulan sub-culture, then it stands to reason the Zhat Vash have been fighting A.I. or at least aware of it, in other eras of Star Trek.
The rogue A.I. called “Control” was created by Section 31, which is basically the equivalent of the Tal Shiar within the Federation, and in very short order it comes close to taking over Starfleet and crippling the Federation.
If the Zhat Vash hate A.I., perhaps that’s because something similar happened to ancient Romulans–a complete A.I. takeover, and possible Skynet-level massacre. It that was true, it would stand to reason that the Zhat Vash would want to weaponize what they hated, and use it against the Federation.
We know living computers and advanced androids go way back in Star Trek history. The android Ruk, in “What Are Little Girls Made Of,” was built by a culture 50,000 years old. Could the Zhat Vash have had a hand in this, too? Or, more to the point, could the mysterious “Old Ones,” who built Ruk have, at some point in the distant past done something terrible to the Romulans? We know that the Romulans left the planet Vulcan around what would have been the 4th century on Earth, so there’s certainly a couple millennia of range for some kind of weird android invasion to have happened in Romulan space.
It’s also worth noting that in Discovery season 2, Control has access to time travel, meaning that Control could specifically be the A.I. responsible for creating the synthetic life and A.I. that promoted the Romulans to create the Zhat Vash.
Picard takes place 142 years after the last season of Discovery, but both shows deal with troubles with A.I. and A.I. revolts. It could be a coincidence. It could be an accident. Or, it could all be the product of a time-traveling artificial intelligence, that will somehow unify the Star Trek timeline in ways we never saw coming.
Ryan Britt is a longtime contributor to Tor.com and the author of the book Luke Skywalker Can’t Read and Other Geeky Truths (Plume 2015.) His other writing and criticism have been published in Inverse, SyFy Wire, Vulture, Den of Geek!, the New York Times, and StarTrek.com. He is an editor at Fatherly. Ryan lives with his wife and daughter in Portland, Maine.
The other question that “thousands and thousands of years” brings up is whether the Zhat Vash pre-date the Vulcan/Romulan schism and exist in both civilizations.
Sounds like the Buterlian jihad.
@1, excellent point. Or rather, <Monty Burns>Excelllllent….</Monty Burns>
What if, the Zhat Vash habe created The Borg….. mindblow…..
Or the Zhat Vash fought the Borg centuries ago.
One point: In the TNG episode “The Defector (S3E10), the Romulan defector Admiral Jarrok, sits with Data in Ten-Forward. Jarrok’s first words to Data are, ” I know a host of Romulan Cybernetisists that would love to be this close to you.”
I immediately thought of this quote when Laris told her story about the Zhat Vash/Romulans hatred for any kind of artificial life. If that’s true, why are there Romulan Cybernetisists? If they’re not trying to create another Soong-type android like Data, then WHY would they want to be that close to him? To kill him?
For the record, Jarrok suggests that Data shouldn’t find that notion very appealing, but to me, the inference is that they would want to take him apart to see what makes him tick (for reasons of creating a Romulan version)
To any and all writers of ST:Picard who might be reading this (and scoffing at our nit-pickiness): you KNEW what you were getting into. There’s NO WAY we’re going to let you make a Picard series and not scrutinize the shit out of it. You’d better bring your A game to this.
What if the big secret, the one that Romulan legend says is dangerous to even know, is that all Romulans are (and always have been) biomimetic androids, created by some ancient Vulcan — maybe even by Surak himself, in a failed attempt to create the ultimate logical being. Learning you’re an android sure seems to be swiftly fatal.
And those contour lines on Ruk’s face make him look a bit like a Reman, don’t they?
@5: That’s what worries me: that they ARE bringing their A game.
@5 – The Zhat Vash are a secret which the Tal Shiar operatives working for Picard referred to as rumours, and their hatred for AI is a theory posed by Laris. None of this is general knowledge in the Romulan Empire, so of course there will be Romulan cyberneticists who know nothing of this vendetta. They’re not necessarily even trying to recreate these curious alien artifacts that they are so keen to study.
And how do the Zhat Vash relate to Picard’s old “girlfriend” Vash the archaeologist?
Mysteries abound here.
@9 – I hear what you’re saying, but what’s the point of being a super secret society, who have concealed their existence so as to be only spoken about in rumor, if you’re not going to pull the strings and shape society into your image? I mean, one would think that a 3000 year old shadow organization would greatly influence public policy to restrict the things they don’t like.
One more point (and perhaps a plot hole), in reference to the Romulan hatred of artificial life, Laris tells Picard that Romulan computers use no A.I., running solely on mathematical operations. Once again, if this is true, then why are there Romulan Cybernetisists?
@11 – Blame that on the misuse of the term cyberneticist.
Cybernetics has little to do with AI. Per Merriam-Webster:
“the science of communication and control theory that is concerned especially with the comparative study of automatic control systems (such as the nervous system and brain and mechanical-electrical communication systems)”
Something as simple as a thermostat is a cybernetic device.
Even if we use the meaning that the writer probably intended, how do you oppose existing AI if you don’t understand it? What do you call those scientists tasked with studying the enemy? Cyberneticist is as good a term as any.
@11, 12 – Most references to cybernetics usually refer to body augmentations, like prosthesis or implants like insulin pumps or pacemakers. Data would be a gold mine to anyone working in that field. It doesn’t require any artificial intelligence.
If you want to keep your society secret, you don’t go around killing anyone studying AI. You buy Senators to outlaw their field, and sabotage those who persist.
Should also take the thousands of years old thing with a grain of salt. Urban legends of secret societies usually distort and exaggerate a lot.
@12 & 13 – insightful and thoughtful comments from both of you. I appreciate the discourse as we untangle the mysteries of where the writers will take this.
Like all of you, I have high hopes, and very high expectations. It’s still too early to tell if either will be satisfied. Fingers crossed.
Secret societies spanning thousands of years. Hatred of artificial intelligence. Potential manipulation of timelines.
Almost has the makings of a…temporal cold war, doesn’t it? ;)
@15/DonRudolphII: “Secret societies spanning thousands of years.”
That goes on my black list, together with villains bent on revenge and adult men with daddy issues.
I suspect that while ‘thousands’ of years is an exageration, ‘hundreds’ is not. I believe that the Cyberneticists in question are likely looking at prosthetics and augmentation. I doubt that this will connect to Control in the way listed here. It may end up involving Control, but I suspect the Z.V. AI problems predate the 23rd C. by a long way.
I like the idea that they may go back to before the split between Vulcan the and Romulan people, which could also explain why Commodore Oh was working with them, and it certainly seems likely that the Z.V. were involved in or responsible for the Synthetic’s attack on Utopia Planitia.
@11, even if the distrust towards AI is part of the entire Romulan culture and not a bias of just a secret cabal within their society, you can’t afford not to have people studying AI when you are at war with people that do have it.
Theory – the Zhat Vash is the future version of the Tal Shiar, which, using time travel technology harvested from Borg cubes, sends operatives back in time to combat the proto Borg-synthetic hybrids of the past, in the hopes that their dark future can be averted. The Romulan’s steadfast reliance on purely binary computer systems has protected them against the burgeoning Borg-Synth takeover, and has left the Romulans as the only survivors of a future war between synths and organic lifeforms.
If it is, I want nothing further to do with Star Trek. I’m not anti-Discovery or anything. But I hope that the Federation is involved with this plot and is for once, one of the bad guys. But knowing the Trek franchise, its showrunners lack the balls to go this far.
Look like another life form has offered synthetic life in that area a deal a deal with the Devil. A message viewed by biological life tell them that synthetic life will kill them all. If viewed by a synthetic it offers them a deal if they reach out they will destroy all biological life. The same enemy that offered control the same deal and probably told control the biological life is going to wipe it out.
I have been a lifelong fan of Star Trek. I am especially fond of the original series and of course have watched all the other series with a great interest. I love the positive nature that was always expressed in each of the series. In our modern world and in the future we will have problems, enemies and difficult choices to make, and hopefully we will work together with like minded people or species to a happy end. I loved how Star Trek would hold a mirror to us and discuss the challenges we faced as a species. They dealt with racism, hatred, pollution and more importantly that our power would surpass our wisdom and we would fail as a civilization. I build robots and it saddens beyond words to see how in this 21st Century we have developed an illogical fear of AI or as I prefer to call it machine intelligence. This has been beaten to death by the entertainment industry. From Terminator, Matrix, Ultron and now a possible time travelling AI that wants to pop us because it scared of its creator. So again science fiction is holding up a mirror and what I see looking back is worrisome to me. I believe, like Isaac Asimov, that the children of our collective genius will help us survive and thrive if they are nurtured properly. So please let us use our imagination and think in new ways and write more hopeful stories!!
Pius, have you finished watching Picard?