VisionQuest showrunner Terry Matalas is a big Star Trek fan. More than a fan, he was the showrunner on Star Trek: Picard in its celebrated third season. And he even worked on Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise when he was younger. And some of that Star Trek love has definitely found its way into his current MCU series, starring Paul Bettany as the android hero, and James Spader as his creator, Ultron. That Star Trek influence can especially be felt in the show’s seventh episode. “Immolation.” This penultimate chapter flashes back to the earliest days of the MCU, as well as reveals Jocasta and Ultron’s nefarious plan. Here are the key ways Star Trek: TNG influenced VisionQuest as it gears up toward its big finale.
Data’s Family in Star Trek: TNG Shares Many Similarities With Vision’s Family in VisionQuest
One of the most beloved Star Trek: The Next Generation characters was the android officer Data, played by Brent Spiner. Much like Vision, he was a synthetic being constantly searching for his own humanity. Of course, the comic book character of Vision predates Data by almost two decades. But there are clearly Data elements in his MCU portrayal by Paul Bettany. Some of those character traits go back to Vision’s first appearance in Avengers: Age of Ultron. In that film, Vision received his emotions from the Mind Stone. And in Trek, Data eventually receives an emotion chip, allowing him to feel.
In episode seven of VisionQuest, we flash back to 1939, and to the father of synthetic lifeforms in the MCU, Dr. Phineas Horton. Paul Bettany himself plays Horton, wearing slight old age makeup. We see him create his prototype synthetic man, which he calls J.I.M. He’s creating this android partially in response to his grief over losing his son, James. And Paul Bettany also plays the synthetic man, whose name means Joule Individual Machine. This concept, of the scientist creating his android children in his own image, came straight from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Particularly, the fourth-season episode “Brothers.”
Both Brent Spiner and Paul Bettany Play Multiple Generations of Their Respective Families
In “Brothers,” we finally meet Data’s creator, the often-talked-about Dr. Noonien Soong. And Brent Spiner played Soong wearing layers of old-age makeup. Also featured in that episode was Data’s “evil twin,” the prototype android Lore, also played by Spiner. In an early first-season episode, “Datalore,” it’s revealed that Dr. Soong deactivated Lore because his emotion chip was too overwhelming, leading him to sociopathic behavior. In VisionQuest, this android family drama plays out in a similar fashion, with Paul Bettany playing the human genius creator in makeup, the prototype with issues about controlling emotion, and the final, “perfected,” heroic android. Both prototype androids, Lore and J.I.M., also end up killing their human fathers.
The Borg Queen in Star Trek Seems to Inform VisionQuest’s Jocasta
But the android family isn’t the only Star Trek similarity in VisionQuest. In episode seven, we learn that Jo Carrington (T’Nia Miller), in her synthetic body and now bequeathed the name Jocasta by Ultron, has a plan for humanity. Jo Carrington creates microscopic nanites that enter into human bloodstreams and insert software that “upgrades” humanity. These nanites will essentially create a hive-mind in all humans on Earth, stopping them from conflict with each other, and preventing diseases. If all of this sounds a bit familiar, it’s because it’s the modus operandi of Star Trek’s Borg Collective. And in particular, its Queen.
The “big bad” of TNG was the cybernetic hive mind, the Borg. They didn’t see themselves as conquerors, but as a unified mind connected to each other at all times, with one goal in mind. And that goal was to assimilate all organic lifeforms, in an effort to “improve” them. Whether they wanted that improvement or not. In the film Star Trek: First Contact, we meet the central intelligence of the collective, the Borg Queen, played by Alice Krige. While the Borg drones are all of one mind, the Queen is an independent personality in control, and seeks “perfection.” She even tries to seduce Lt. Commander Data to her cause (and just seduce him in general). A lot of this is reflected in Jocasta’s plan to “perfect” humanity, via involuntary cybernetic enhancement. So too does her romance with Ultron reflect the Borg Queen’s search for a mate in First Contact.
The MCU Has Always Been Inspired By Star Trek
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has always worn its Star Trek influences on its sleeve. Marvel’s Kevin Feige is a huge Star Trek fan, and has injected much of that franchise into the MCU. Especially in Avengers: Endgame. But we think that VisionQuest has perhaps worn its Star Trek influences better than any previous MCU story yet. We’ll see if VisionQuest has other Star Trek elements waiting in the wings for the big series finale.