Star Trek: Picard

side view of t-shirt

letter analysis

Sex Pistols Logo

Star Trek: Picard is a TV series of 2020 based on Star Trek with Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation in the main character. It is broadcasted on CBS All Access (now known as Paramount+) and appears one day later worldwide on Amazon Prime.

There were no Klingons in the show and no Klingon was spoken.

Klingon T-Shirt

In episode 7 ("Nepenthe") at about 54:44 Kestra (played by Lulu Wilson) is wearing a T-shirt with clearly recognized Klingons plus two words. Those words are not relevant to the story. The phrase is not entirely visible. The words are all written in Okrand's romanized spelling. The first line shows HIchmey "handguns" and the second line starts with nga-, but due to the camera angle, the second part is blurred. It can't be more than one syllable though.

Analysis of the letters

In one angle, the top part of some letters is partially visible. Since there are only few words starting with nga- that would make sense in this combination, it is quite sure that this means HIchmey nga'chuq.

Analysis of the meaning

If the intended meaning was to say "f**k handguns" - maybe because Klingons prefer to use blades - it is grammatically incorrect. The subject of nga'chuq are the parties doing it with each other, and it should follow the verb. If a literal translation was intended, the verb ngagh mate with would have been more appropriate.

The more likely interpretation is that this is an easter egg on the music group "Sex Pistols", as the verb nga'chuq is defined as "sex, perform sex" and a second definition of HIch (in addition to "handgun") is "pistol". Even then, the phrase still is ungrammatical and reads like "pistols, they have sex." Even in correct word order, the result "pistols are having sex" is surely not what was intended. This is a simply word-by-word dictionary translation.

On his Instagram acccount, showrunner Michael Chabon confirmed this, saying it was "Roughly translated: "Sex Phasers." A popular Klingon trash band".(1) Note that "phaser" is pu' and "phaser pistol" is pu'HIch. This may have been shortened deliberately.