I have come to realise that Star Trek has always been steeped in allegory, though I only recently discovered this fact myself... I just blindly enjoyed the stories, ships and characters etc more than often oblivious to any deeper meaning. I am, however, curious about the allegory(s) present, if any, in Picard season 3 and would love to hear your thoughts and ideas as to what they may be. 
There could be many hidden allegories interwoven in to the season long narrative, or perhaps this seasons story was just totally random creativity and fan servicing with no basis in reality; a piece of pure light hearted escapism with the occasional bit of rollicking fun. I sometimes read too much in to things, but it is fun to speculate on the writers motives and agendas even if we are way off the mark. It is important to remember that allegory is often open to interpretation and there may be other meanings present in the story as well. The only people who *really* know the meanings and subtleties of their work are the writers themselves.
Please note, I will also be discussing events that take place at the end of the season, so there will be spoilers hence the spoiler tag.
To begin with, at the start of this season, we had the situation where Captain Shaw was refusing to refer to Commander Hansen as Seven of Nine, causing Seven to almost feel ‘bullied’ by her senior office and disenchanted with her role within Starfleet. I remember some of us discussing how at the time this seemed like an allegory of an issue within trans rights, with the use of preferred names in an official ‘by the book’ environment, names which are not listed on official documentation or identity records due to various reasons. Looking back at these early season 3 interactions between Shaw and Seven and knowing how the season ends, in particular regarding Shaw’s character developments, do we still believe this to be the case?
I have a few other allegorical ideas of my own from this season, but will start with the most obvious and post about my other theories separately later on in the thread if anybody is interested to know about them.
In the season finale, we see the Borg utilise a new process of "biological assimilation," which does not require nano probes, implants or technological augmentation. Picard season 3 has had a recurring theme of pathogens and virus infection, specifically in regards to the Section 31 infection of the Founders (Changelings) and Janeway’s infection of the Borg with a neurolytic pathogen. We have to assume that the pathogen which the Borg are suffering from in Picard season 3 is the same as that from Endgame, however we are shown that the Borg were adapting to this neurological pathogen, I cannot see how they would not eventually continue to adapt and overcome it. I do not want to repeat myself, but the Artifact in season 2 of Picard seemed pretty much unaffected by the pathogen and functioning as a standard cube.
Anyway, This new assimilation process causes the youth to become a part of the Collective once ‘activated’, after a preliminary infection via Changeling sabotage of Starfleet wide transporter systems. Upon activation, the resulting assimilations lead to the partial annihilation of the older population who could not be assimilated using this method. It is possible that this could be interpreted as an allegory for the way that COVID-19 has affected our society, with young people initially becoming infected and transmitting the disease to the elderly, resulting in a devastating loss of life among the older generation. In the end, everyone is vaccinated, the youth are cured of the Borg blight and the deaths of the older generations stopped - however *not* reversed with a reset button.
I am sure that I read a long time ago that one of the creative staff, I forget who, wanted to do a story reflecting COVID and its effects on our world but could not think fo a way of doing it.
Any other allegory ideas?
There could be many hidden allegories interwoven in to the season long narrative, or perhaps this seasons story was just totally random creativity and fan servicing with no basis in reality; a piece of pure light hearted escapism with the occasional bit of rollicking fun. I sometimes read too much in to things, but it is fun to speculate on the writers motives and agendas even if we are way off the mark. It is important to remember that allegory is often open to interpretation and there may be other meanings present in the story as well. The only people who *really* know the meanings and subtleties of their work are the writers themselves.
Please note, I will also be discussing events that take place at the end of the season, so there will be spoilers hence the spoiler tag.
To begin with, at the start of this season, we had the situation where Captain Shaw was refusing to refer to Commander Hansen as Seven of Nine, causing Seven to almost feel ‘bullied’ by her senior office and disenchanted with her role within Starfleet. I remember some of us discussing how at the time this seemed like an allegory of an issue within trans rights, with the use of preferred names in an official ‘by the book’ environment, names which are not listed on official documentation or identity records due to various reasons. Looking back at these early season 3 interactions between Shaw and Seven and knowing how the season ends, in particular regarding Shaw’s character developments, do we still believe this to be the case?
I have a few other allegorical ideas of my own from this season, but will start with the most obvious and post about my other theories separately later on in the thread if anybody is interested to know about them.
In the season finale, we see the Borg utilise a new process of "biological assimilation," which does not require nano probes, implants or technological augmentation. Picard season 3 has had a recurring theme of pathogens and virus infection, specifically in regards to the Section 31 infection of the Founders (Changelings) and Janeway’s infection of the Borg with a neurolytic pathogen. We have to assume that the pathogen which the Borg are suffering from in Picard season 3 is the same as that from Endgame, however we are shown that the Borg were adapting to this neurological pathogen, I cannot see how they would not eventually continue to adapt and overcome it. I do not want to repeat myself, but the Artifact in season 2 of Picard seemed pretty much unaffected by the pathogen and functioning as a standard cube.
Anyway, This new assimilation process causes the youth to become a part of the Collective once ‘activated’, after a preliminary infection via Changeling sabotage of Starfleet wide transporter systems. Upon activation, the resulting assimilations lead to the partial annihilation of the older population who could not be assimilated using this method. It is possible that this could be interpreted as an allegory for the way that COVID-19 has affected our society, with young people initially becoming infected and transmitting the disease to the elderly, resulting in a devastating loss of life among the older generation. In the end, everyone is vaccinated, the youth are cured of the Borg blight and the deaths of the older generations stopped - however *not* reversed with a reset button.
I am sure that I read a long time ago that one of the creative staff, I forget who, wanted to do a story reflecting COVID and its effects on our world but could not think fo a way of doing it.
Any other allegory ideas?
