Spoilers Santiago Cabrera as Captain Cristóbal "Chris" Rios

Rios is a caricature who surrounds himself with caricatures. Is this a defense mechanism? I think what we do to keep reality at bay is among the series' themes.

 

Rios is a blank slate who manifests aspects of his true personality via the holo-avatars.

 

The Emergency Captain Hologram came with the ship.

Starfleet had to call for a ban on the Emergency Gigolo Holograms lest nothing get done.

 

Speculation: the ibn Majid was a ship with a human captain and an all-hologram crew. The name of the dead captain: Cristobal Rios.

The Rios we've met is a hologram; that shrapnel in his shoulder was holographic and done so that Picard would believe that he's not a projection. (He probably has a mobile emitter.)

If true, this is why Starfleet denies the existence of the ship.

 

Seems just a bit far-fetched to me.

Raffi has supposedly known Captain Rios for a number of years, be pretty tough to fool an Intelligence Expert with nothing but time on her hands and a penchant for finding out the truth in everything.
And if she knows, she would certainly have told Jean-Luc by now.

Also, Chris gets dressed up to go to Freecloud this week.
It also seems a bit to far-fetched for a Hologram to actually physically change clothing.

The Doctor never did, he just adjusted his program.
(even once he got the Mobile Emitter)

 

The Doctor didn't have anything to hide.

 

True, but I just think that there would be more clues for this to be true.

The fact that Rios uses Holograms for his crew is more relatable to his circumstances as a "Loner."

 

What if Rios is actually The Doctor? I just have a weird sneaking suspicion that this is going to be the case because A: The Doctor IS/WAS a former Starfleet officer (Could still be current but unsure at this point) and B: IS a hologram, and the whole ship is dealing with holograms of every kind. What if The Doctor decided to put his programming into the La Sirena at some point, becoming the ship and changing appearance? And I bet Seven already knows who he is. I mean, it might be some kind of way to keep his identity hidden from former friends and foes alike...but this is mere speculation.

 

Except, we already know that Robert Picardo isn't in this season and is only in talks about possibly appearing next season.
Nice idea, but obviously not the direction the Writers are going with Captain Rios' character.

 

Has anybody actually asked Mr. Chabon if Chris Rios is a Holographic Character?

 

There are a few more clues, but they are subjective and circumstantial.

1. His seeming obsession with the book about existence and the certainty of death.
2. In relation to my speculation about the ibn Majid, he seemed sanguine -- even happy -- when Picard twice overstepped his bounds and gave orders to the crew. A hologram programmed to take orders from a flesh-and-blood authority would react that way.
3. The medkit that the EMH used: was it holographic or did it get transported?

But, as I said, these pieces of evidence can point one way or the other.

 

All I know is that Robert Picardo wants to appear in the show - Picard meets Picardo. Great!

 

I don't know the answer to this question, but I do know that during the publicity tour, when all the 'synth' speculation was (correctly) about Dahj, Santiago Cabrera said outright that his character is human. I can't remember which of the various panels it was now, but I think they were talking about the refugee parallels with the Romulans, and he observed that although in modern-day America he is classed as a resident alien, being Chilean, in the Star Trek universe, his character is human, a Federation citizen.

I am confident that Rios is flesh and blood human. I think if there were any mystery about his origins the show would be dropping hints by now. It isn't. The mystery around Rios is to do with what happened to the Ibn Majid and how it affected him, why it made him the man he is today, etc - but there are no hints being dropped as to whether he is human or synthetic. The show has other angles on that issue.

 

Any speculation different than mine as to why Starfleet has erased the existence of the ibn Majid?

 

have they? I've missed that. I thought it was just an unregistered ship

 

La Sirena is an unregistered ship, owned by Rios as an independent operator - that's the ship he's flying now, with Picard and company on board as passengers. The Ibn Majid was the Starfleet heavy cruiser where Rios once served as XO, the existence of which was erased from all records after the apparently violent death of the captain. I daresay we'll learn more later.

We don't know enough yet to speculate as to what happened to the Ibn Majid.

 

ah, got the ships mixed up. nevertheless, must have totally missed the "erased from all record" stuff

 

I don't think these are clues pointing to Rios being a hologram, it's a pretty massive reach to try to make them so.
Reading a philosophical book about life and death? He has been shown to have deep-seated issues around the violent death of his former captain, so the book relates to his struggle with that - a very human reaction.
He did not seem happy about Picard automatically assuming command, he simply did not overreact - he gave a very pointed look the first time and Picard backed down at once, and the second time was in a fraught combat situation where not engaging in even a minor power struggle was the correct thing to do, especially since Picard was advocating a course of action he agreed with (and let us note that Raffi didn't comply until Rios confirmed the order). His reaction isn't evidence that he is secretly a hologram, but rather is strong characterisation, showing us what kind of captain he is - calm, measured, patient, not prone to losing his head in a crisis or to overreacting when elderly passengers long-accustomed to command (and who he secretly admires) default to giving orders in times of heightened emotion.
There is no evidence that the medkit was anything but what it seemed: a medkit, transported to the location where it was needed, as was his drink - which he offered to Picard, let us remember, so that was clearly not holographic.

There is absolutely zero evidence that Rios is a hologram, while conversely, all evidence both on and off-screen is that he is human.

 

As an aside, has Rios's ship been mentioned by name yet?

 

from a narrative standpoint, Rios being a hologram doesn't make much sense. It would be a twist just for the sake of a twist and doesn't add anything to the plot. Holograms are not illegal, so him being one can't be used for reasons of "see? AI ban is bad", whis is a role Soji is filling right now anyway.
I know that streaming shows now operate mostly with twist or unsuspected turns as plot tools and therefore I understand the urge to spot them before they happen, but aside from the obvious one (Jurati being brainwashed by Oh) I suspect the twists this season will be either Romulan or Borg related and Rios has nothing to do with them.