khaosworks

The stardate is 2179.3. Enterprise is orbiting an M-class moon (later seen labelled Sigma-287D). In Star Trek, M-class (or as established in ENT, Minshara-class) means it is generally Earth-like or habitable by oxygen-breathing humanoids with minimal assistance.

Kirk was stabbed by La’An while she was in the thrall of whatever was aboard the USS Griffin (SNW: “The Griffin Incident”). Coradrazine is a powerful stimulant, which in small doses can save lives, but in large doses can cause psychosis and paranoia (TOS: “The City on the Edge of Forever”), as M'Benga says here. In that episode, Kirk questioned McCoy’s use of cordrazine on a wounded Sulu, indicating he was familiar with its effects. We see here his first encounter with the drug.

La’An had a romantic interlude with an alternate timeline Kirk in SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”, and while Prime Kirk and her shared a connection in SNW: “Subspace Rhapsody”, he was in the “on-phase” of his off-and-on relationship with Carol Marcus at the time. Now, however, both of them are single - La’An ended her relationship with Spock in SNW: “Level-Five Transporter Accident” and Kirk was ghosted by Carol at the end of “The Griffin Incident”.

When Ortegas speaks to La'An, she is eating sliced strawberries. In SNW: “Ghosts of Illyria”, La’An says that she picked up strawberries as a comfort food from Una, which may be a hint to her emotional state.

Altairans are presumably from the Altair system. The star is also known as Alpha Aquilae, part of the constellation Aquila (meaning “eagle”) and in Trek lore has at least six planets. Altair VI is inhabited in TOS: “Amok Time”, and is the origin port for Kobayashi Maru (ST II). Altair III and IV were mentioned in TNG: “Encounter at Farpoint” and DS9: “Prophet Motive”, respectively. Altair IV was also the titular Forbidden Planet of the 1956 movie, which was a huge influence on Star Trek.

Cadet A’Sha is with the landing party. Uhura mentions that once inside the cave, they’ll lose comms and the ability to transport. Beckett Mariner, who hates caves, sarcastically mentions in LD: “Caves” how rocks can successfully block centuries of technological process, and in LD: “Mining the Mind’s Mines”, she said that it’s not a real day in Starfleet until comms get blocked. How the SOS signal can get through if comms are going to be blocked is a question I leave for the interested viewer.

La’An’s diver’s watch is from the alternate timeline mentioned, and was worn by the alternate Kirk c. 2023.

The Klingon War took place during Season 1 of DIS, from 2257-2258. The USS Constitution, NCC-1700, was seen on a chart of ships undergoing repair at Starbase 11 in TOS: “Court Martial”, and presumably is the class ship for the Constitution-class starships of which Enterprise is one. This is the first time it’s been mentioned in on-screen dialogue, her other appearances to date being only in production and background art. Beta canon goes more into the ship’s story.

This is the first appearance of ADM Simon Reeger, played by Joe Morton. Ortegas is said to have helmed Pelanque during the war, presumably named after the Mayan ruins in Southern Mexico. Enterprise was at the Prospero system in SNW: “Under the Cloak of War”, where it was mentioned that Ortegas was stationed near it during the war.

This is the first mention of the Vaardan Massacre, an unprovoked attack that caused 5 million casualties.

Scotty mentions a cloaking system and refers to the Klingons using them. In DIS, the Klingons did use cloaks, which led to somewhat of a tizzy in fan circles because the impression was that cloaks where only used by Romulans at that point and in TOS: “Balance of Terror” the crew did not seem familiar with cloaks. I won’t get into it now, except to say that like many things, fan perception of what is canon isn’t as strong as they might imagine.

Ortegas says that during the Cold War, destroyers would follow enemy submarines via their trash. In the 1965 movie The Bedford Incident, the destroyer Bedford figures out that a Soviet sub they are hunting has been in the water for about 36 hours by analysing the thickness of the potato peels in the garbage it left behind.

The screen shows the mystery ship heading off in the direction of the Romulan Neutral Zone, which implies heavily that it might be Romulans who are responsible. The idea of tracing it via the emissions of its impulse engines also harkens back to Scotty’s line in “Balance of Terror” that the Romulan ship’s power is “simple impulse”. The incident in “Balance”, however, will not occur for another 3 or 4 years.

ADM Reeger commandeers Enterprise, presumably under Starfleet Order 104, Section B, paragraph 1(a) (TOS: “The Doomsday Machine”).

Enterprise warps out of orbit at Warp 5. The show has not really been consistent as to exactly when it is dangerous to go to warp while within a planet’s gravity well, or even a star system’s, although fan lore has long held that it is shouldn’t be done.

Zeta Reticuli is a real binary star system (consisting of Zeta-1 and Zeta-2 Reticuli) about 39 ly from Earth. It first appeared in a chart in ENT: “Cold Front”. In UFO lore, it is allegedly the home of the Grey aliens, also known as Reticulans.

George Samuel Kirk, Sr. is Jim and George Jr.’s father, who was played by Chris Hemsworth in Star Trek (2009), where he was first officer of the USS Kelvin in 2233. In the novel Final Frontier by Diane Carey he was first officer under Robert April on the maiden voyage of Enterprise.

Argus II could be related to Gamma Argus II, which was listed in production art in TNG: “Conspiracy”. The map on Ortegas’ console shows a system of four planets.

General Order 24 (TOS: “A Taste of Armageddon”) orders the destruction of “the entire inhabited surface of [a] planet.” Its mention here settles a long fan debate about whether Kirk was making it up when he ordered Scotty to implement it in “Armageddon”.

Increasing phaser power by routing it through the warp core became part of Enterprise’s design when it was refitted following the five-year mission (TMP).

Nadions are particles emitted when energy weapons like phasers or disruptors are used. The TNG Tech Manual says that nations can disrupt nuclear forces and free atomic nuclei. Nadion radiation can be fatal (VOY: “Nothing Human”) or used to slow the progress of a disease (DS9: “Extreme Measures”).

The Andorian leader, Tuur, says he has no love for Vulcans. In the 22nd century, Vulcans and Andorians were in a near constant state of hostilities (ENT: “Shadows of P’Jem”). Tuur is played by Currie Graham, who also acted in the Star Trek fan production Of Gods and Men.

As stated in “The Doomsday Machine”, if a medical officer certifies the commander medically or psychologically unfit, they may be relieved under Order 104, Section C.

Reeger's line, "And when that ship attacks again — and it will — the blood, the terror, will be on your head," is also another allusion to "Balance of Terror".

Pike tells Uhura, “You can do everything right, and sometimes things still don’t work out the way we hoped.” This echoes Picard’s advice to Data in TNG: “Peak Performance”: “[I]t is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life.”

Hemmer was Enterprise’s Aenar engineer, who Uhura referred to earlier in conversation with Tuur, and who sacrificed himself in SNW: “All Those Who Wander”.

The script seems to want to excuse George Kirk Sr.'s stalled career and absence as a parent when the brothers were growing up to Reeger's sabotage, but if that malice only dates back to the Klingon War and the Battle of Zeta Reticuli, it's only been about 4 or 5 years since the war ended.

This may be the first episode this season not to be a clear genre homage (although Crimson Tide would do), but "badmiral" episodes are a staple in Star Trek.

The episode title alludes to the famous opening narration of the long-running television soap opera, Days of Our Lives: "Like sands through the hourglass, so go the days of our lives." Soap operas, the subject of this episode's homage, are best known for melodrama and plot twists. Incidentally, Days is broadcast on NBC/Paramount. Chronitons are technobabble particles associated with time travel.

The bright and hazy environment is typical of the lighting in daytime soaps, which are usually shot on video. “The dreaded Abbott-Chancellor Collision” is a reference to two rival families in The Young and the Restless. The dramatic pauses, looking to the side, camera angles, music and excessive exposition are all imitative of the style of soaps.

Pike hears the dramatic music, which means it is diegetic in nature. He wonders if he’s back in the musical (SNW: “Subspace Rhapsody”) or in a simulation (SNW: “A Space Adventure Hour”).

Dr Elanor Chivers is played by Deidre Hall, who has played the character of Dr Marlena Evans on Days of Our Lives for 50 years. Old fogeys like me also remember her as Electra Woman on the Sid and Marty Krofft series Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. Chivers is described as the ship’s counselor, which is a position that until now we did not think existed on 23rd century starships but was only established in the 24th century with officers like Deanna Troi. In an early draft of TNG: “Relics”, Troi says that counselors were only assigned to starships starting in 2330. Prior to that, the role of looking after the ship’s psychological welfare seemed to come down to medical officers like McCoy. That being said, in the fan production Star Trek Continues, Kirk’s Enterprise had a ship’s counselor, Dr Elise McKenna, played by Michele Specht.

The teaser ends with the reveal that the trickster cosmic entity (unnamed but definitely Trelane from TOS: “The Squire of Gothos”) from SNW: “Wedding Bell Blues” is behind this. Sadly, they didn’t do a soap-opera remix of the theme for this.

Sybok (ST V) is the half-brother of Spock and a v’tosh ka’tur, one who rejects the denial of emotion that Vulcan society demands and embraces it. He was mentioned last in SNW: “The Serene Squall” as being imprisoned at the Ankeshtan K'Til Vulcan Rehabiltation Center on the 3rd Moon of Omicron Lyrae, where he used the alias Xaverius. Sybok was played by Laurence Luckinbill in ST V, who did not resemble Leonard Nimoy in the slightest (the role was originally written for Sean Connery) but is played by Ethan Peck here, likely because plot twists like “evil twins” are also a common soap trope, as are secret offspring.

Trelane starts to say his name but only gets as far as “Tre—“ before Pike cuts him off, preserving the idea that we don’t get his name until his proper debut in “The Squire of Gothos”.

The fact that Pike understands what a soap opera doesn’t necessarily mean the format has survived to the 23rd century (although given Ferengi television - LD: “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” - who knows?), because Pike has a fondness for classic media (SNW: “Strange New Worlds”).

Some of our younger viewers may not know that they literally did say “and now for a word from our sponsors” before ad breaks on television, much like YouTubers do nowadays.

The recipe book’s blank pages may be a reference to the days when television props weren’t as detailed as they are now because without HD television, nobody could really see it.

The robes and elaborate headdress of Trelane’s proctor resemble Q’s judge’s robes first seen in TNG: “Encounter at Farpoint”.

“Vulcans can’t engage in subterfuge,” is a misconception. Vulcans (and Spock) are perfectly capable of lying (TOS: “The Enterprise Incident”, et al.). Kal-toh is a Vulcan logic puzzle game, playable solo or with an opponent. It was first seen in VOY: “Alter Ego”, several times in VOY and later on in LD and PIC. 

“Space madness”, like “cosmic amnesia” might refer to the habit of pulp science fiction to make something typical seem exotic by affixing a prefix to it. In TOS: “The Naked Time”, Spock says, “It could be some sort of space madness we’ve never heard of.” 
Sybok here paraphrases his dialogue from ST V: “Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me and gain strength from it.”

The Arachnid Nebula was first mentioned in ENT: “Fusion”. There is no such nebula in real life, although the Tarantula Nebula exists in the Larger Magellanic Cloud, outside the Milky Way, some 160,000 ly from Earth.

Cadet A’Sha’s name has been in the credits when she has appeared, but this is the first mention in dialogue.

Uhura’s parents were killed (on Stardate 1443.2 as per this episode), along with her older brother, in a shuttle accident a week before she was due to start at the University of Nairobi where they taught. Her grandmother, a former Starfleet officer, inspired Uhura to enlist (SNW: “Children of the Comet”). 
Ortegas, together with M’Benga and others, was kidnapped aboard a Gorn ship in SNW: “Hegemony, Part I” at the end of Season 2, escaping in “Hegemony, Part II” at the start of Season 3. Ortegas says this was “last year”, which more or less jibes with my calculations that the current year is around 2262-63.

Trelane’s screens display the status: “technical difficulties” as we enter the act break. While “technical difficulties” that interrupted a broadcast did happen, there is a trope that uses it as a euphemism when there is a need to cut transmission but not reveal why to the audience, like it is here.

Spock’s blood is definitely green here, despite showing red bruises in SNW: “Off-Hour”. The X-ray type scan shows his heart around where a human liver should be (TOS: “Mudd’s Women”). Having Sybok donating a cloned heart to Spock and lying next to him echoes Sarek’s cryogenic open heart procedure in TOS: “Journey to Babel” where Spock was also lying next to his father while donating blood for the operation.

Pike dealt with time travel most recently in SNW: “Valles Marineris”, zombie Klingons in SNW: “Last Shuttle to Kenfori” and his lover Marie Batel’s ascension in SNW: “New Life and New Civilizations”. 
 Juliet Pike, played by Anna Mirodin, was Pike and Batel’s daughter in the vision created by Batel in “New Life and New Civilizations”, although she was only named in the credits. Two weeks ago was Pike’s last memory, hosting a Captain’s Table, before waking up at the start of this episode, as stated earlier. This is Galor III’s first mention in lore, although the Cardassians have Galor-class cruisers (TNG: “The Wounded”), and Galor IV was the site of a Starfleet Research facility (TNG: “The Offspring”). 

The stardate is 2654.9, and it’s established that Sybok’s appearance is not the same as Spock’s. Dr Chivers is apparently real, though. In the part of the vision we saw, Juliet was engaged to Elijah April, the son of Admiral Robert April.

I was wrong! The soap opera mix and titles comes after the credits. I don’t know what the Jackaroony cereal box is referencing, unless it’s the BBC children’s programme Jackanory, broadcast between 1965 and 1996, which featured actors reading stories aloud for the child audience.

If anyone’s counting, this is the fourth episode this season involving hallucinations (SNW: “The Griffin incident”, SNW: “Human Best Friend” and SNW: “Level-Five Transporter Accident” being the other three). At least Spock didn't hallucinate this time. 


This is basically SNW's take on disaster movies, like The Poseidon Adventure and TNG: "Disaster”, in the same way so far this season they’ve homaged Doctor Who, Event Horizon, The Hangover, Casablanca and The Muppet Show. There's also some 24 in here with the ticking clock and near real-time action.

The stardate is 1213.72, and the “weekend” is about to begin. The jaunty notes of the soundtrack at the beginning remind me of a motif from TOS: “Shore Leave” when his old nemesis Finnegan appears to taunt Kirk.

As established in TNG: “Chain of Command”, starships work on a three-shift rotation, although some captains prefer four. Alpha shift is also usually the one where the captain is on duty.

The Bussard collectors that Ortegas mentions are the glowing caps at the front of the nacelles. They generate a magnetic funnel that sweeps in front of the ship gathering stray hydrogen from space which is then used to top up the ship’s fuel.

Dr Boyce would be Phillip Boyce, the former chief medical officer of Enterprise in 2254, who was played by John Hoyt in TOS: “The Cage”. This is the first time we are told he was actually interim CMO until M’Benga came along.

In TOS: “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”, Kirk mentions that Chapel gave up a career in “bio-research” to sign aboard a starship. When first introduced in SNW: “Strange New Worlds”, Chapel was on a civilian exchange from the Stanford Morehouse Epigenetic Project (mentioned again later in this episode), although it was revealed later she did serve with M’Benga during the Klingon War a few years prior.

Scotty is right that there doesn’t really seem to be much of a difference between the terms “Bussard collectors” and “Bussard ramscoops”, the latter of which is just another name for the same technology. 

LT Radha (assuming it’s the same character) first appeared as a helm officer in TOS: “That Which Survives”, played by Naomi Pollack. On the wall in the briefing room we see a picture of Phoenix, the first Earth vessel to break the warp barrier (First Contact).

The person playing the piano is a Bolian - although I’m not sure if this is the ENS Rankin that Uhura mentioned earlier, which sounds like a human name.

Getting caught in a wormhole slipstream seems similar to what happened to Enterprise when initiating its upgraded warp engines in TMP. An antimatter imbalance created a wormhole and sent them speeding out of control.

M’Benga isn’t being wholly unfair when he says Chapel runs when things get real. In SNW: “Spock Amok” she confesses that she avoids relationships because they require sacrifice. When Spock became more serious about her, she applies for the archeological fellowship and broke up with him (SNW: “Subspace Rhapsody”). We’ve not been updated on the state of her current relationship with Roger Korby, although we do know they get engaged before he vanishes on Exo III (“What Are Little Girls Made Of?”). Chapel’s retort hints at what she knows about M’Benga’s past in the Klingon War and the trauma he carries from it.

Pike’s recklessness in reaching for an electrified control may be due to his knowledge that he has yet to meet his destined accident in a few years (DIS: “Through the Valley of Shadows”).

Scotty’s thought that the ship’s computer doesn’t recognise his accent (which is fairly mild by Scottish standards) reminds me of a sketch from the Scottish comedy show Bornistoun, where an elevator equipped with voice recognition technology hilariously fails to understand Scottish accents.

“Neutrino radiation at lethal levels” strikes me as a bit odd, because neutrinos have no charge, have almost zero mass, and trillions of them coming from the Sun pass through our bodies all the time with no issues since they rarely hit other atoms (and even if they do the radiation is negligible). That being said, the number of neutrinos emitted during a supernova could be lethal, and if they were focused enough, but the levels would really have to be ludicrous.

Inertial dampeners are what protects the crew from being smeared against the walls at high impulse or warp velocities. Ortegas is referring to the high G-forces produced at such velocities when she talks about “nosebleed city”.

The Vulcan cadet is A’Sha, who first appeared in SNW: “Valles Marineris” and has only ever been named in the closing credits. Black pudding is not a dessert, but a sausage made from flour, onions, grains, pork/beef fat and pork blood. It’s a vital part of a Full English Breakfast and really yummy.

Scotty calling Enterprise a “damn useless bucket of bolts” is a far cry from the affection he will feel for the ship in time to come, even willing to come to blows with people who insult her (TOS: “The Trouble with Tribbles”). This episode shows that transition. Princess Leia calls the Millennium Falcon a “bucket of bolts” in The Empire Strikes Back.

The lab table holding M’Benga’s vital organs in place and keeping him alive despite a fatal injury is similar to what happens in the Homicide: Life on the Street episode “The Subway”, where a man is only kept alive because a subway car is pinning him between it and the station platform. This was based on an apparently real incident related in the HBO show Taxicab Confessions by a New York City detective.

Boyce makes his first SNW appearance, played by Brian Markinson, who previously appeared in various other roles in Star Trek, notably as Dr Elias Giger in DS9: “In the Cards”. He also appears in TNG: “Homeword” as Vorin and VOY: “Cathexis” and “Faces” as LT Pete Durst/Sulan. He is wearing a pin above his delta which I can’t quite make out but it looks like the design on the tunic he wears in TOS: “The Cage”, which is an Earth map encircled by laurel leaves.

I know Una’s an Illyrian, but why isn’t Spock going? Vulcan is normally portrayed as a high-gravity planet in various RPG source books, and Vulcans are physiologically hardier.

Scotty invokes Starfleet Safety Protocol 429 to shut off life-support in the corridors (first mention).

The warp threshold Scotty refers to sounds similar to the concept established in TNG that nothing can exceed Warp 10 (on the TNG scale Warp 10 is infinite speed, where the ship is simultaneously at all points of the universe at once). VOY: “Threshold” refers to the “transwarp threshold” that divides warp and transwarp speeds. The maximum speed the TOS Enterprise achieved was Warp 14.1 (TOS: “That Which Survives), which by the TOS warp scales was about 2,803c. In TAS: "The Counterclock Incident", Enterprise exceeds Warp 22 while being dragged long by an alien starship capable of Warp 36.

M’Benga says the temperature will reach “negative 400 degrees”. He must be referring to the Fahrenheit scale, because temperatures can’t go below -273°C (0 Kelvin, or absolute zero), which is -459.67°F. The vacuum of space is approximately 2.7 K, or -270.45°C or -454.81°F.

The ion pod is a manned pod that is usually used to take readings during ion storms. It can be jettisoned if it picks up a dangerous charge from the storm (TOS: “Court Martial”). We’ve seen spacewalks while the ship is at warp before (Trip Tucker in ENT: “Divergence, Dal R’El in PRO: “Mindwalk” and Michael Burnham in DIS: “Red Directive”) - it’s usually okay as long as you remain within the warp bubble. 

Scotty materialises in a Jeffries tube, a maintenance tube named after real-life Enterprise designer Matt Jeffries, in a shot instantly familiar to those who have seen James Doohan in that exact position.

Rukiya was M’Benga’s terminally ill daughter which he placed in the care of a non-corporeal life form (SNW: “The Elysian Kingdom”).

“Strong force neutrinos” are made up because neutrinos and other leptons don’t possess any color or electromagnetic charge, and are therefore non-interactive with strong and electromagnetic forces. It’s not a question of a big enough lab. And since we’re making stuff up, sure, these “strong force neutrinos” could very well heal tissue. And be a dessert and a floor wax. Pike points out that neutrinos are “ghost particles” (thank you!) and Chapel retorts that these are “new ones” that act differently. Ooohkay. And now they can make more deuterium? Can I call them deus ex neutrinos?

Pike does the same as Kirk did in “Court Martial”, jettisoning the pod with a man inside (in the latter’s case LT-CMDR Ben Finney) before it endangers the ship.

Pelia tells Scotty he has to be a “miracle worker”. This is something he will try to continue to keep up a reputation for being (ST III, TNG: “Relics”).

Spock’s bruises look like they’re red with green scabs. Vulcan blood is supposed to be green, i.e. copper-based as opposed to human iron-based blood (although hemocyanin should be blue), and Spock does bleed green in TOS: “Patterns of Force”. The colour of his bruises here could be a function of his half-human heritage. That being said, in Star Trek (2009) young Spock had apparently red blood, and in SNW: “Ad Astra Per Aspera” Spock’s knuckles are red after he punches a wall.

Aquans first appeared in TAS: “The Ambergris Element”, and we recently saw one in the Cesnar Grand promotional video in SNW: “Human Best Friend”. Lanthanites are Pelia’s very long-lived race. Benzar is the homeworld of the Benzites (TNG: “A Matter of Honor”).

If Chapel’s fingers can get frozen to the table, why doesn’t vital tissue from M’Benga also break off when she pushes the table away? Oh fine, I give up.

Scotty says to tell Chapel she “rewrote the laws of physics”. In TOS: “The Naked Time”, Scotty says, “I can’t rewrite the laws of physics,” and in TNG: “Relics”, he says “You canna change the laws of physics,” when he relates the story of “The Naked Time” to Geordi.

Chapel finally signs on permanently to Starfleet, fulfilling Kirk’s remark in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”

In TNG, the lower the level of something the higher in intensity it was (a Level One Diagnostic was more intensive than a Level Four). In the 32nd century, the opposite seemed to be the case, as Reno talks about a Level-10 diagnostic in SFA: “Rubincon”. SNW seems to be taking the latter approach as well. This episode is not the first time we’ve seen people turned into puppets - in LD: “Kayshon, His Eyes Open”, Cerritos security chief Kayshon was turned into an (albeit inanimate) puppet by an energy beam. Fans might also remember the Angel episode “Smile Time”, a parody sequence in Stargate SG-1’s “200” and an imaginary sequence in Community’s “Advanced Documentary Filmmaking”.

The stardate is 3019.4. Enterprise is patrolling Rizonian space (first mention) on her way to Vulcan. Space piracy is indeed extant in Star Trek, with various species and factions engaging in piratical or privateering activities, notably the Orions (TAS: “The Pirates of Orion”), the Ferengi (TNG: “Rascals”) and the Breen (DS9: “To the Death”).

Spock and Scotty discuss longer-range transportation. Spock says 27,000 km is 2,000 km further than any transport achieved. By the 24th century, transporter ranges on the Galaxy-class could reach up to 40,000 km (TNG Tech Manual). To be honest, 27,000 km seems a bit short, since Earth geosynchronous orbit is 35,786 km. This might be a “Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale” trope issue.

That Scotty is working on increasing transport ranges references Star Trek (2009), where the Kelvin timeline Scotty is working on transwarp transportation to allow transmission across interstellar distances. Prime Spock helped him with this, giving him the necessary equations his Prime counterpart had already solved.

While chanting the mantra, “Logic is the rhythm of your katra,” (katra being roughly the Vulcan equivalent of the soul, ST III), Spock hears echoes from SNW: “The Griffin Incident”.

Kal Rekk, a day of “atonement, solitude and silence” was first mentioned in VOY: “Meld”.

T’Pring’s suspicion of “hijinks” refers to her two previous trips to Enterprise, one which resulted in a body swap (SNW: “Spock Amok”) and another which had Spock turned physically human (SNW: “Charades”). Specifically, in “Spock Amok” while in Spock’s body she says she does not like hijinks.

When Spock turns to see the puppet T’Pring, the music echoes bits of the soundtrack to TOS: “Amok Time”, the episode that introduced her and Vulcan.

April is actually less nonplussed about the situation than would be expected. But then again, as Janeway said in VOY: “Deadlock”, “We’re Starfleet officers. Weird is part of the job.” He says the nearest ship is two days away, but didn't Spock say the USS Witmere was 29,647 km away? This is answered at the end of the episode.

La’An has been concerned since SNW: “Four and a Half Vulcans” that her Augment heritage is asserting itself.

Orion interceptors first appeared in ENT: “Borderland” and are playable Tier 6 ships in Star Trek Online. Ch'Rol is played by Rachael Harris, who played Kes' mother Martis in VOY: "Before and After" and is better known for playing Dr Linda Martin in Lucifer. Her lieutenant Ejachi is played by Joe Lo Truglio, best known for playing Charles Boyle on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

This is the second time in the series that someone has captured Enterprise, the previous time being Captain Angel in SNW: “The Serene Squall”. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: to lose a ship once may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose it twice looks like carelessness.

While the stereotype of the submissive Orion slave girl is prevalent in popular culture, it is true that Orion women control the males via the use of pheromones (ENT: “Bound”). Another matriarchal society was seen in TNG: “Angel One”.

Spock “touching hands” with Pike while separated through glass and Pike saying, “The needs of the many…” echoes Spock and Kirk’s scene at the end of ST II when Spock dies. The full phrase - a Vulcan aphorism - is, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.” Kirk, naturally, disagrees, sacrificing his ship and career to save Spock in ST III because “The needs of the one outweighed the needs of the many.”

Wait, how did Pike get back into the ship (and that room) if none of them can operate doors and they couldn’t even get out of the room? This is answered at the end of the episode.

Pike, La’An and Una in Vulcan robes is the first time the classic totem pole trench trope has been used in Star Trek.

When T’Pring rescues Spock, we can see a Romulan ale bottle behind the counter, although the liquid inside does not appear to be Romulan ale blue.

While the phrase “my mind to your mind, my thoughts to your thoughts,” is forever associated with mind melds, it was not actually used in TOS. The phrase debuted in TAS: “The Infinite Vulcan”, said by Spock’s giant clone.

And to round off a trilogy of tropes, we have the “All Just a Dream” trope, which was used to probably better effect in DS9: “Far Beyond the Stars”, although the dream appears to have had some therapeutic effect for Spock. Hoshi also experienced an entire episode’s hallucination during 8 seconds in the transporter buffer in ENT: “Vanishing Point”.

The title refers to the black-and-white aesthetic of the episode. Chiaroscuro is an artistic technique that uses strong lights and darks (chiaro, bright and oscuro, dark) to create contrasts, so as to give a starker, more dramatic and sometimes three-dimensional feel to the two-dimensional image. A notable user was Leonardo Da Vinci, whose hologram has made a number of appearances in Star Trek (VOY: “Scorpion, Part 1”).

The stardate is 2122.4. The system shown on screen is Mat’Aar, its first appearance in lore. The technobabble explanation for the black-and-white look is the “infrared blackbody spectra” from the Mat’Aaran star whose radiation affects how people see colour. This is the same explanation as to why the outdoor scenes on the Harkonnen homeworld of Gledi Prime were black-and-white in the movie Dune: Part Two. The 9th episode of the fan film series Star Trek Continues, “What Ships Are For”, featured Hyalinus, an asteroid whose sun produces radiation that stops the eyes’ cones from working, making everything appear monochrome.

The last time the Klingons and the Federation were in open conflict was during the Klingon War of 2257-2258, some 5-6 years ago from SNW’s present day. Since then, the two powers have enjoyed an uneasy peace, which will once again erupt into open conflict a few years from now in 2266-67 (TOS: “Errand of Mercy”).

With Una on the mission is Uhura and M’Benga. The latter served in the Klingon War as a special forces operative code-named “The Ghost” (SNW: “Under the Cloak of War”).

Una’s fondness for rules is why the crew nicknamed her “Where Fun Goes to Die” (SNW: “Spock Amok”).

The art deco architecture and fashion of Mat’Aar XII, coupled with the black-and-white motif and plot are designed to evoke a 1940s film noir atmosphere, with the Klingon occupation, resistance and collaborators reminiscent of other films of the era like 1942’s Casablanca.

M’Benga’s reference to Una pretending to be someone she’s not refers to her years hiding her Illyrian heritage (SNW: “Ad Astra Per Aspera”).

Uhura quotes partially from Casablanca, “Of all the gin-joints in all the towns in all the world… she walks into mine.”

La’An’s transformation into a Vulcan took place in SNW: “Four and a Half Vulcans”, where she began to exhibit aggressive and paranoid traits more commonly associated with Romulan culture. Some of it was chalked up to her Augment heritage.

The legendary Commander Kor was first played by the inimitable John Colicos in “Errand of Mercy”, who subsequently reprised the role in DS9: “Blood Oath”, “The Sword of Kahless” and “Once More Unto the Breach”. As M’Benga notes, Kor is a member of the House of Kor, part of the Klingon Imperial Family (“Once More Unto the Breach”), which traces its descent from Kahless the Unforgettable, founder of Klingon civilization (TOS: “The Savage Curtain”). He is played here by actor Demore Barnes who, like Colicos, is Canadian.

The machine the resistance woman refers to is the Klingon mind scanner (“Errand of Mercy”), also known as a mind sifter or mind ripper, which scans a subject’s thoughts but sometimes destructively. M’Benga alludes to the idea that in a vast universe, we will eventually run into our own doppelgängers. This is the kind of excuse that TOS came up with to explain the number of Earth-like civilizations Enteprise ran into by citing “Hodgkin’s Law of Parallel Planetary Development” (TOS: “Bread and Circuses”).

M’Benga refers to the Borgia plant, which is similar to the nightshade plant and common to Class M plants (TOS: “The Man Trap”). The Borgias were a powerful Renaissance family that were reputed to use poison to eliminate their rivals.

Kor is shown as a ridge-headed Klingon, unlike his depiction in TOS but in line with how he is portrayed in DS9. The whole Klingon ridges thing is a rabbit hole I really don’t have space to get into right now, but I’m sure someone will bring it up elsewhere in a thread.

Kor’s claim that serving the Empire is the noblest honour reminds me of the concept of kuve, or “servitor” species in the seminal TOS novel The Final Reflection which, although rendered non-canon by events, heavily influenced the depiction of Klingons as a sophisticated warrior culture. In the novel, the Klingons’ position is also that there is no shame in being conquered and rendered kuve because they are serving a superior species.

Uhura uses the alias Nyota Nakuru. M’Benga was born in Nakuru, Kenya on 29 December 2223 (“Under the Cloak of War”). Neodymium is a real-world rare earth element, commonly used in magnets, but it is mentioned in DS9: “In the Cards” as being part of a neodymium power cell. Here Kor mentions it in conjunction with munitions.

Allakas malt was an alcoholic beverage first mentioned in ENT: “The Communicator”.

A targ is a Klingon animal, like a cross between a pig and a dog, and often domesticated.

Scotty says, “Cross my heart, hope to get stuck in a pattern buffer.” He will, in fact, be stuck in a transporter pattern buffer for 75 years (TNG: “Relics”), but on purpose.

M’Benga says that a parent would do anything to protect their child. He might be thinking about his own daughter, Rukiya, for whom he took extraordinary measures to preserve her life when she was dying from chinokemia (SNW: “The Elysian Kingdom”).

This is the first time the T’Gal regional dialect of Klingon has been mentioned.

The Klingons entering the club are singing the same drinking song Worf and Huraga sang in DS9: “The Way of the Warrior”. The Doctor and Seven also sing it in VOY: “Barge of the Dead”. The Mat’Aarians singing back in defiance copies an identical scene from Casablanca where German soldiers singing the patriotic “Die Wacht am Rhein” are drowned out by other patrons singing the French national anthem “La Marseillaise”.

Bloodwine is a Klingon alcoholic beverage which is made from stomping on serpent worms in the same way wine is made from grapes on Earth (LD: “A Farewell to Farms”).

The USS Yang (NCC-321616) was a 32nd century Friendship-class starship (DIS: “That Hope is You, Part 2”, SFA: “Rubincon”). Chapel’s Yang would be, of course, the 23rd century namesake.

This is the first mention of Ülget in lore.

As the shuttle leaves the system, colour fades back into the closing scene.

The stardate is 2011.7. This is the first mention of the Rodaxian system in lore. It was established in TNG that starships run on a three-shift rotation (8 hours each), although some captains preferred four shifts (TNG: “Chain of Command”).

Uhura says the Rodaxians are very specific as to how they want to be spoken to. Another alien race which is very exacting in their diplomatic protocols - especially a ritual greeting to open negotiations - is the insectoid Jarada (TNG: “The Big Goodbye”).

Some of the promotional video for the Cesnar Grand is in a limited animation style resembling that of TAS. We see a female Aquan (TAS: “The Ambergris Element”) doing yoga, dressed the same way as in the episode, albeit not breathing water as her species is supposed to do. Next we see an Edosian singing, and an Andorian that resembles Thelin, the XO of Enterprise in an altered timeline (TAS: “Yesteryear). We see a Vulcan playing the Vulcan lute who resembles Sarek as portrayed in “Yesteryear”, and on the sofa is a woman dressed like the android Andrea from TOS: “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” Which reminds me, Roger Korby should have gone missing on Exo III by now.

We see a tribble purring and gliding over the wreckage of Ortegas’ shore leave (TOS: “The Trouble with Tribbles”). Ortegas is wearing a headband with fake Andorian antennae. On the table is a plush toy or stuffed Alfa 177 canine (TOS: “The Enemy Within”). Scotty is wearing a mugato costume (TOS: “A Private Little War”), which we also saw in SFA: “Vitus Reflux”, as the mugato is the mascot of the 32nd century Starfleet War College.

The episode is written by Kathryn Lyn, who previously worked in LD, first as a “canon consultant” and then writing the iconic LD: “wej Duj”, which was nominated for a Hugo award. This may explain the LD-ish tone of the episode.

Kirk and Spock shared a mind meld in SNW: “New Life and New Civilizations” in order to coordinate an attack between Enterprise and Farragut, the first of a number in their friendship over the decades.

Una is singing “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in Klingon.

“It’s green,” is a line Scotty uses to describe an alcoholic beverage in TOS: “By Any Other Name”. When Data takes a similar looking bottle from under Guinan’s counter in Ten Forward in TNG: “Relics”, he uses the same line to answer an older Scotty’s question. That drink is identified by Picard later in the episode as Aldebaran whiskey.

Pike asks what they think of a face tattoo. In VOY, the character of Chakotay has one. This is the second episode in a row Anson Mount gets to play his “crazed Pike” expression, although the one in SNW: “The Griffin Incident” was of course psychotic rather than drunk. Pike has a cabin in Bear Creek, Montana (SNW: “Strange New Worlds”).

The closed captions have Scotty saying “tellurite”, which is an oxyanion of the element tellurium. He probably meant “Tellarite”.

The running gag of Vulcans looking perfectly fine but insisting they are out of control originated in “wej Duj” and previously referred to in SNW: “Ad Astra Per Aspera”. The significance of the title is made clear when Spock says to Kirk that he’s never had a “human best friend”.

Anbo-jyutsu is a martial arts/competitive area game first seen in TNG: “The Icarus Factor”. It’s also appeared twice on LD (LD: “wej Duj”, “Mugato, Gumato”). The Bingo Caller is Kathryn Lyn herself, probably in the persona of K’Lyn, a Vulcan character she cosplays as, and the inspiration for T’Lyn’s name in LD.

Ortegas’ brother (last seen in SNW: “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans”) is Umberto Ortegas, but she calls him “Beto” (a common nickname for Spanish names that end in “-berto”). Scotty reveals he has 6 brothers, 4 of them adopted - previously undisclosed on-screen. He does not mention a sister, however, one assumes he must have at least one because his nephew in ST II was Peter Preston, not Scott, unless naming conventions have changed.

Pike has letters in pIqaD the Klingon script, tattooed on his face. However, it is a simple substitution and the words are English. The one on the forehead reads “hair today Gorn tomorrow”, both a pun on the saying “hair today, gone tomorrow” and a reference to Pike’s hair, a perennial fan obsession.

Isolinear chips were introduced into lore in TNG, but it was mentioned in “Relics” that they only replaced duotronic chips c.2329. However, technological progress has been altered, probably due to time travel shenanigans like those in SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”.

Spock mentions Quadrium particles which are native to the Rodaxian system. Varuvian is an ore which is a component of a varuvian bomb, which has enough explosive power to destroy a planet (LD: “First First Contact”). Niritlin is also an explosive compound (DS9: “Improbable Cause”).

A zeptosecond is one sextillionth of a second - the smallest unit of time ever measured. The time it takes for a photon to cross the length of a hydrogen molecule is 247 zeptoseconds. A transporter cycle, from dematerialisation to rematerialisation, in the 24th century takes about 3-5 seconds.

Scotty nearly gets his thumb blown off. In real life, actor James Doohan was accidentally shot six times by a sentry during D-Day, one of which cost him the middle finger on his right hand. He hid his missing finger during his acting career, usually by holding his hand at strategic angles, although occasionally you can spot it in episodes like “The Trouble with Tribbles” and TOS: “Catspaw”.

The stardate is 2903.9. La’An might be preoccupied because of her discovery that her Augment genes are asserting themselves as seen last episode. Kirk’s last appearance was in SNW: “New Life and New Civilizations.”

The USS Griffin has the registry number NCC-1067 and appears to be a Constitution-class based on its configuration and crew complement of 300 (in contrast Enterprise has 203). Griffin disappeared “nine years ago”, which by my reckoning that the current year is 2263, places the disappearance around 2254, the same year as TOS: “The Cage”.

Previously the number NCC-1067-M was assigned to the seed vault ship USS Tikhov (DIS: “Die Trying”) in the 32nd century, and it was said there that the starship’s predecessors dated back to the 23rd century. It is not clear if the 1067 number was reassigned to Tikhov after Griffin’s loss or if this is a continuity error.

Griffin’s commander was CAPT Taggert. In the affectionate parody Galaxy Quest, the captain of the fictional NSEA Protector was Peter Quincy Taggart.

Kirk claims he was a Boy Scout. In ST II, Carol Marcus says, “Jim Kirk was many things, but he was never a Boy Scout.” Kirk refers to his son, David Marcus. ADM William Smillie is the name given in the novelization of ST IV to the Commander-in-Chief of Starfleet in 2293, who was unnamed on-screen.

As Kirk empties out his bag, one of things that falls out is a paperback edition of Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander, the first of his Aubrey/Maturin nautical adventure novels set during the Napoleonic Wars. Ironically, the direct inspiration for Kirk is not Jack Aubrey but another famous fictional commander, C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower. Kirk having something as old-fashioned (at least in the 23rd century) as a physical book is also notable, as prior to this we assumed that he started his fascination with printed books only after meeting Samuel T. Cogley in TOS: “Court Martial”.

The masks that the landing party are wearing more modern-looking version of those worn by the landing party in TOS: “The Squire of Gothos”.

La’An’s saying how it seems like everyone took a coffee break echoes stories of the abandoned ship Mary Celeste. Arthur Conan Doyle’s account of the mystery of the deserted ship (“J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement") embellished it with fictional details such as the presence of still-warm cups of coffee and uneaten meals laid out, which have become part of the folklore.

Division 12, which seems to be an X-Files-type branch of Starfleet, was first mentioned by Ortegas in SNW: “Terrarium”. The name seems to be inspired by Majestic-12, the secret government group in charge of covering up UFOs in conspiracy lore.

La’An mentions “the MLK”. The USS *Martin Luther KingStarfleet, was first mentioned by Ortegasn she was cast adrift by the Gorn. Una Chin-Riley was an Ensign on that ship (SNW: “Strange New Worlds”).

A common belief among parapsychologists is that the presence of negative ions indicates the presence of ghosts. Kirk and Spock both appear to be familiar with this idea. With this, the Mary Celeste echo, Division 12, and the taking of ley lines and ancient astronauts as givens in “New Life” and SNW: “Through the Lens of Time” respectively, I’m pretty certain someone on the writing staff is into paranormal phenomena.

The body bag Spock picks up is labelled LT Ta’Arn, a Vulcan. It’s a bit dark so I can’t make out the serial number.

Kirk says that Carol has been approved for a “dream project”, which could refer leythe Genesisleyoject. His noting that she fears for his safety in Starfleet echoes her dialogue in ST II where she tells him that she didn’t want David “chasing through the universe with his father.” LT George Samuel Kirk, Jr., however, is able to balance his Starfleet duties with his wife Aurelian and three sons (TOS: “Operation: Annihilate!”)… at least for now.

Of note in CMDR Rose Harper's file is that she was born in 6 February 2227 and is from Epsilon Delta V. The planet Epsilon Delta IV was featured in the 1979 novel Trek to Madworld by Stephen Goldin. She was valedictorian in her class at Starfleet Academy and served on the USS Exeter (TOS: "The Omega Glory"). There, she survived the Battle of Caprell and took over the ship when the captain and XO had been incapacitated.

While on Griffin Harper noticed crew members exhibiting erratic behaviour and informed medical and CPT Taggert. This included violent outbursts, self-harm and delusions, although the file notes these reports were unsubstantiated (signed by Dr G’Har). Harper then became more paranoid, was relieved of duty by Taggert and confined to quarters. 13 deaths by stabbing and 8 deaths by strangulation followed.

Then there is a notation that she became Acting Captain. 287 persons were transported off the ship, the destination indeterminate ("possible non-inclusive space" says the file, the computer clarifies verbally as open space). Harper took the safeties offline.

La'An's summary largely aligns with this, although the computer says 13 strangulations and 8 stabbings instead despite the production art showing it the other way around.

The rising of an apparent corpse from sickbay beds echoes a similar scene (a hallucination) from TNG: “Night Terrors”. Who Spock sees is his ex-fiancee T’Pring, last seen in SNW: “Charades”.

The name of the party’s shuttle is Alvarez, probably named after Luis Walter Alvarez, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1968. Together with his son Walter, he came up with the Alvarez Hypothesis which sought to explain the extinction of the dinosaurs as resulting from an asteroid impact (SNW: “Valles Marineris”).

T’Pring knows that Griffin was missing? Just how famous is this disappearance? This should have been your first clue, Spock.

T’Pring* knows about the fact that Griffin is missing? How famous is this disappearance?

The kahs-wan is an ordeal all Vulcan children must go through as a coming-of-age ritual (TAS: “Yesteryear”). T’Pring also mentions a Vulcan poet, Ka’ninaanslated as “f**k your mother”), although I suspect the writers may not be aware of this.

Sam says Carol and David are headed to Epsilon V, which is vague enough a reference that it could be anywhere (Epsilon Eridani, Epsilon Hydrae, etc.). I mean, even Epsilon Delta doesn’t make much sense as a system name if you know standard stellar naming conventions, where the second word is the name of the constellation and if the first word is a Greek letter, it indicates a star within that constellation. And that’s before you add a Roman numeral to indicate which planet in that system.

According to the Franz Joseph Constitution-class deck plans, Deck 17 is crew quarters in the secondary hull.

T’Pring,Eridani, Epsilon Hydraek’s heart, starts to go for the mid- to lower-right side of his torso. It was established as early as in TOS: “Mudd’s Women” that Spock’s heart is where a human’s liver should be, but the series has not always been consistent about this.

Sam hears his son Peter’s voice - Peter Kirk is the only one of his sons named on screen (“Operation: Annihilate!”).

Ortega’s agony in the transporter is similar to the transporter accident at the beginning of TMP.

Sam says they’ll die in space, “alone… like Kirks are born to do.” Sam does die alone in “Operation: Annihilate!”. In ST V Kirk says that he’s always known he’ll die alone, but Generations has Picard with him as he dies. Prior to ST 2009, starship viewscreens were not actual windows but monitors that displayed the view outside. However, this has changed since the 2009 movie and DIS. Since Sam’s death here contradicts his actual canon death in “Operation: Annihilate!”, it’s our first explicit clue that what’s happening isn’t real.

Pike talks about being “free of his fate”, referring to his knowledge that he will eventually become paralyzed due to exposure to delta rays (TOS: “The Menagerie”), a fate Spock is also aware of.

As La’An prophecises, David Marcus did indeed die “at the end of a blade”, killed by Kruge in ST III, although not in a dark corner of space but on the Genesis Planet.

Chapel refers to the brief Klingon-Federation War of 2257-2258 in which she served in a medical capacity together with M’Benga (SNW: “Under the Cloak of War”).

The title refers to the Valles Marineris (Mariner Valleys) canyon system on Mars, the largest in the Solar System. It stretches across nearly a quarter of the planet, roughly 3870 km (2400 miles) in length, spans 600 km (370 miles) at its widest and goes down 9.3 km (5.8 miles) at its deepest. The system was named after the 1971 Mariner 9 Mars orbiter.

The stardate is 2491.5, about six months after the events of SNW: “New Life and New Civilizations”. Pike says this is their 15th mission in a row. This is the first mention of Tulaxar in lore.

Pike’s affinity for horses dates back to his first appearance in TOS: “The Cage”, and he was seen riding in SNW: “Strange New Worlds” as well as keeping a saddle in his quarters (SNW: “Those Old Scientists”). Another captain who enjoys riding is TNG’s Jean-Luc Picard. The way Pike is speaking about meds and not being discovered makes me think this is an aid mission to a Prime Directive-protected planet.

Spock and La’An began a relationship in SNW: “A Space Adventure Hour”. Una is concerned that Pike is keeping busy to not think about the loss of his lover Marie Batel (“New Life and New Civilizations”).

These are the first mentions of the K’thonia disaster and the FFakisha conflict. S’Sha (as the Vulcan cadet is named in IMDB) says Uhura is “several years older” than she is, but is not clear by how much. Spock entered the Academy at age 19, and Uhura was 22 in Season 2 (“Those Old Scientists”), so I estimate her age to be about 23-24 now, making it around 2263-ish.

Pelia claims she saw a category 10 interstellar squall from inside a “phone box”, a reference to the Doctor’s space-time machine, the TARDIS, from the long-running British television series Doctor Who which is permanently stuck in the shape of a British police phone box from the 1960s. We saw the TARDIS floating in the background near a scavenger ship in SNW: “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail”.

Ortega’s console is showing Enterprise moving at Warp 6.25 around the storm.

Scotty says they cannot ignite the warp engines without iridium. In TOS: “Bread and Circuses”, the SS Beagle was in need of iridium after suffering unspecified damage.

The shuttlecraft is named Curie, presumably after Marie Curie, which follows the convention of naming Enterprise shuttles after scientists like Galileo (TOS: “The Galileo Seven”) or Einstein (TOS: “The Doomsday Machine”). The 24th century successor to Curie was attached to Enterprise-D (TNG: “Parallels”).

65 million years in the past would place the ship in the Cretaceous period, the last hurrah of the dinosaurs, and the period to which the Tyrannosaurus Rex belonged. One might ask where the Voth (VOY: “Distant Origin”) are, but the Doctor hypothesised that they descended from hadrosaurs that survived the extinction of the dinosaurs, which means they evolved after the end of the Cretaceous.

The episode attributes the origin of the Valles Marineris to the crash of a Dol’drm ship, the aliens being an insectoid species. The scar on the planet reminds me of what was left by the Xindi probe (ENT: "The Expanse").

La’An carries Augment genetics as a descendant of Khan Noonien Singh (SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”).

Like Archer did in ENT: "Damage" to an Illyrian ship and a warp coil during the Xindi war, the Martians steal a critical component from Enterprise in service of their war with the Dol'drms, in this case an antimatter fuel cell.

Spock finds a fifth planet between Mars and Jupiter. One of the theories about the origins of the Asteroid Belt are that it was either a planet that never quite formed or the remains of one. I guess the latter is where Star Trek is laying its hat.

The Chicxulub asteroid, named after the Chicxulub Pueblo community on the Yucatan Peninsular where its namesake crater is located, is believed to be the primary cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs. Pelia says she remembers the evolution of humanity, which is another hint to how old she actually is. While Homo sapiens arose around 300,000 years ago, the genus dates back some 2-3 million years at least.

What the crew describes at the end is a predestination paradox. We hate those (DS9: “Trials and Tribble-lations”).

A Princess of Mars is the first John Carter of Mars novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, describing the adventures of a former Confederate soldier who is astrally transported to a populated Mars in conflict.

Pike says they created the solar storm that sent them back in time as part of the paradox, but it’s not clear how that would have happened, since the explosion that sent them back took place 65 million years in the past and in the Sol system.

There is a new Star Trek 60th anniversary opening, which starts with the TOS Enterprise going into warp and then transforming into each subsequent series’ hero ships, from the refit to Enterprise-D, Defiant, Voyage, NX-01, Discovery, the SNW Enterprise and finally the USS Athena. The font used in the series captions is the one first seen in TMP.

The Burn was a catastrophic event that occurred about 120 years prior to 3188, which resulted in a galaxy-wide phenomenon of dilithium crystals being rendered inert and severely reducing the speed of faster-than-light travel, cutting off whole systems from each other, the near-collapse of the Federation and the shutting down of Starfleet Academy. The mystery of the Burn and its resolution were central to DIS Season 3 and following that, the Academy was re-established. For those keeping track, DIS Season 5 (with the exception of a flashforward in the finale) took place in 3191, so presumably this new series picks up where it left off.

The opening scene takes place on Stardate 853724.6, 812 years after TNG’s first season which takes place in 2364 (TNG: “The Neutral Zone”), placing it in 3176, 15 years before DIS Season 5. This is the first appearance of Federation Outpost Pikaru (incidentally, Pikaru is a brand of keratin shampoo from Indonesia).

We get out first look at the series’ big bad, Nus Braka, a half-Klingon, half-Tellarite pirate. Neither of his genetic lineages are known for their genteel nature. We also meet Nahla Ake, a half-Lanthanite Starfleet officer who will become Chancellor of the revived Starfleet Academy. She is wearing a tricom badge of the 32nd century and a Captain’s four pips on her collar and shoulders (it’s also indicated on the badge), with a uniform we saw in DIS Season 3.

Lanthanites, introduced in SNW, are a very long-lived race, with lives spanning millennia. We learn later that she is 422 in 3191, which makes her birth year around 2769. The Federation crest on the dais is one with noticeably less stars than the 23rd-24th century one most of us are used to, reflecting the state of the Federation post-burn. It was first seen in DIS Season 3.

Nahla says that Anisha Mir, while she would only have been guilty of theft, is now guilty of felony theft because of the death of an officer. I’m actually surprised the Federation still has a distinction between misdemeanours and felonies, which is very American and doesn’t really exist elsewhere. So if a death occurs in the commission of a misdemeanour, it gets bumped up to a felony?

Bajor is the homeworld of the Bajoran people, who feature centrally in DS9.

The action now moves 15 years later, so to 3191, and the Stardates should be in the 868000s.

Toroth is a system in the Alpha Quadrant. The unnamed Torothan homeworld was first seen in ENT: “Desert Crossing”, and since then the system has been seen marked on various star charts in other series. Star Trek: Star Charts notes that the NX-01 visited the planet (now named also as Toroth) on February 12, 2152. The name V’Rilik sounds Vulcan - or Ni’Var as it is known in the 32nd century. The shuttle Teracaq is named after a Torothan animal, which was roasted and served to Archer and Tucker in “Desert Crossing”. That said, in that episode the Torothan homeworld was arid and desert-like, not like what it is now, but it’s been 1031 years.

The probe flashes through Caleb’s criminal records. The first is from the Federation, I don’t recognise the second, next is Andorian, then Ferengi and Cardassian. The thugs harassing Caleb are Torothan, with the same chin markings seen in “Desert Crossing”. And Anisha is still in prison 15 years later? That’s very… Les Miserables.

The Starfleet Academy motto is “Ex Astra, Scientia” which is Latin for “From the stars, knowledge”.

Fleet Admiral Charles Vance is the CIC of Starfleet, last seen in DIS: “Life, Itself”. Starfleet Academy’s traditional location - at least its main campus - has been in San Francisco since the 23rd century. We saw San Francisco and the Academy grounds still existing in the 32nd century in DIS: “People of Earth”.

Programmable matter is a 32nd century technology, made up of what is probably nanomachines which can be configured in a variety of ways.

Nahla flips through personnel records, one of which is Commander Lura Thok, the Jem’Hadar-Klingon first officer of the USS Athena. The images are projected from her tricom badge. We get our first good look at Athena, NCC-392023.

A DOT-23 greets them as they board - DOTs are repair robots that have been in use since the 2250s (as DOT-7 models), working aboard and outside Starfleet ships. They first appeared in DIS: “Such Sweet Sorrow”. Nahla greets Lura as “Number One”, an old nickname for first officers dating back to the Royal Navy. CAPT Christopher Pike referred to CMDR Una Chin-Riley by that nickname, as did CPT Jean-Luc Picard with CMDR William Riker. Lura is the daughter of Asmaret from the Klingon House of Dak’Hatas, and the Jem’Hadar lineage of Kah-Baj.

Jay-Den Kraag declared his subjects as molecular biology and regenerative therapies - science division, in other words, with a lean towards medical. Not a usual choice for a Klingon, but Klingon medics have to exist.

The officer in operations gold that greets Jay-Den and Kraag at the top of the stairs is a Saurian, a species first seen in TMP. Linus, a Saurian officer, was a supporting character on DIS.

The Regulation Appearance Arches quickly cut Caleb’s hair and put a cadet uniform on him. Technology that materialises clothes on people has been seen as far back as TMP, when Kirk materialised a dress on the Ilia probe who appeared naked in a sonic shower.

The Doctor’s bedside manner has not improved in 800 years. Orillian lung maggots were first mentioned in VOY: “Fair Trade”. They are native to the Delta Quadrant, which explains the Doctor’s surprise at finding them in Caleb.

“Ad Astra per Aspera,” Latin for “To the Stars Through Hardship/Difficulties,” or “A Rough Road Leads to the Stars”. It is the motto of the state of Kansas, can be found on NASA’s Apollo I memorial, and also in-universe the motto of the United Earth Starfleet in ENT.

You can find the names on the Hall of Fame dissected ad nauseam elsewhere, so I won’t go into them, but merely to note that Harry Kim finally made it past ENS, Samantha Wildman became a CMDR, and Zero (from PRO) apparently had a third generation.

Catecholamines are not technobabble - they’re a class of neurotransmitters that prep the body for a fight-or-flight response. A spike in levels means shit is about to go down, in other words.

Sato Atrium is likely named for Hoshi Sato, the NX-01’s communications officer and xenolinguist. The Doctor pushes the Opera Club, a callback to his fondness of it during his days on Voyager. He walks away singing “Pa-pa-pa Papageno” from Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

One of the clubs cadets can sign up for is Parrises Squares, a sometimes violent court-based game first spoken of in TNG, although we didn’t actually see a game being played until PRO: “Is There in Beauty No Truth?”

The Doctor mentions he put an aging program 5 centuries before to put organics at ease, which is obviously the Watsonian explanation for why Robert Picardo looks older. A similar explanation was given by Guinan in PIC to explain Whoppi Goldberg’s appearance.

Sam makes a reference to PRO and the crew of Protostar, including Dal R’El, Murph and Captain Gwyndala (which is where we left her at the end of the series), which makes me so happy. PRO needs more love.

(continued)

By the way, Nahla is doing the stereotypical bisexual chair sitting meme. Just saying. Ion storms are a regular thing in Star Trek (and usually come with nasty effects). Lura notes that they are near the Badlands, which is an area located near the Cardassian border, inside the Demilitarised Zone that separated Federation and Cardassian space in the 24th Century. It was also known for its turbulent plasma storms and gravitational anomalies.

Nahla tells Lura to “get to the kids”, and Lura beams out with her tricom badge’s personal transporter, another bit of 32nd Century technology.

The Doctor says that damage to the emergency holo-emitters mean that medical staff is in short supply, implying that the medical staff is augmented by EMHs like him. The fact that he can say there are injuries but no casualties with such confidence might also mean he’s tied into the internal life signs sensors.

When Caleb goes to the computer panel, it’s displaying a quote from Janeway from VOY: “Dark Frontier”, which she said to Naomi Wildman: “There are three things to remember about being a starship captain. Keep your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship, and never abandon a member of your crew.”

Lura’s authorisation code is “Thok-Gamma-616-Pi”. She gives instructions to inject a broad spectrum vasosuppressant, and then remove the foreign object. This should narrow the blood vessels and reduce the amount of bleeding when they remove it. From my first aid training I still think it’s a bad idea, but hey, I don’t know about 32nd century medicine and Jem’Hadar-Klingon physiology.

Nahla makes a reference to taking apart the warp drive “bolt by stem-seal”, which is reminiscent of the mysterious “self-sealing stem bolts” whose function nobody seemed to know in DS9: “Progress”.

Lura says, “I am dead. I go into battle to reclaim my life,” which is a paraphrase of a Jem’Hadar pep-talk before they go into battle from DS9: “To the Death”: “I am First Omet'iklan, and I am dead. As of this moment we are all dead. We go into battle to reclaim our lives. This we do gladly, for we are Jem'Hadar. Remember. Victory is life.”

Darem, a Khionian, claims he’s survived pressure differentials up to 7,000 pounds. In pounds per square inch that’s about 476 atmospheres, or the pressure at nearly 5 km under the ocean. He also says he can stand temperatures up to -271 degrees Celsius, which is just a couple of degrees above absolute zero (-273.15 C), the lowest possible temperature. For reference, the vacuum of space averages about -270.4 C and liquid nitrogen’s boiling point is -196 C.

Transporter systems are off-line which apparently also renders personal transporters also unusable? But we’ve seen personal transporters being used without a regular transporter unit in sight, so PTs are not just relays for a main system.

Before Darem goes outside, Genesis asks him to place a device on his neck that will pick up his vocal vibrations so she can hear him even in vacuum.

The Doctor’s command code is “Doctor-delta-10-sigma-3-1”.

Sam warns Jay-Den that a Jem’Hadar’s heart is near where a human liver is supposed to be. Coincidentally, the Vulcan heart is located around there as well (TOS: “Mudd’s Women”).

Why doesn't Caleb just ask the bridge to tractor Braka's escape pod? It's not as if it can get very far, and we know the tractors are functioning because Genesis just used them to rescue Darem.

The song that plays as they approach Earth is “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)”, originally sung by Scott McKenzie in 1967, one of the anthems of the countercultural movement of the 1960s, especially the Summer of Love in that year. This version is performed by Rufus Wainright.

When the Burn hit, all ships using dilithium as a rectifier for their warp cores found the dilithium go suddenly inert, creating instant warp core breaches for those ships in warp.