Star Trek Social Club

The stardate is 3165.2. Batel was given the post of JAG director by ADM Pasalk in SNW: “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans”. 

Uhura pulls the same prank on Scotty as Ortegas did to her at her first Captain’s Table in SNW: “Children of the Comet”, telling him to dress formally. Scotty’s outfit is based on the one in TOS: “The Savage Curtain” as worn by James Doohan, and the tartan is indeed one of the ancient patterns representing the clan Scott. 

Pelia says “time-tra…” and then corrects herself to “doctor”. Considering the appearance of the TARDIS in SNW: “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail”, it’s not a leap to consider this a reference to the time-travelling Doctor of Doctor Who.

This is the first mention of the Ba-Dates system and the planet Skygowan. The Vezda-possessed Gamble said “Cali-katchna! Mika-tah, vezda-pah,” to Batel, who was seemingly driven by Gorn instinct to attack Gamble (SNW: “Through the Lens of Time”).

Korby continues his obsession about species with immortality, which will lead him to his final fate in TOS: “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”

The Vezda in its containment orb was dematerialised and kept in the transporter buffer at the end of “Through the Lens of Time”, where it was seen to take over the sickbay computer.

The data screen for Skygowan reveals it is an M-class planet, with a rotational period of 25.1 hours, a year of 355 days, a mean surface temperature of 14.1° C and an atmosphere close to Earth-normal.

Skygowan is not warp-capable but is aware of interstellar life (as they do trade with the Orions), like the inhabitants of Capella V in TOS: “Friday’s Child” or the Organians in TOS: “Errand of Mercy”. Tyree of Neural (TOS: “A Private Little War”) was aware that Kirk was not native to the planet, but it did not seem this knowledge was imparted to his people as a whole. A data screen on Cali-katchna indicates they have access to Orion warp technology. 

Vadia IX is the ancient homeworld of the Q (SNW: “Wedding Bell Blues”) and was where the Vezda possessed Gamble in “Through the Lens of Time”. 

M’Benga references a previous adventure on Rigel. However, Rigel is not a planet but a star system, and considering that in Star Trek about 12 planets belonging to the system are mentioned, it’s not clear which one he’s talking about. 

La’An demonstrates the Vulcan neck or nerve pinch. Non-Vulcans who have been able to perform it include Data (TNG: “Unification II”), Jean-Luc Picard (TNG: “Starship Mine”), Michael Burnham (DIS: “The Vulcan Hello”), Jonathan Archer (ENT: “Kir’Shara”), Odo (DS9: “Babel”) and Seven of Nine (VOY: “The Raven”). 

Pelia calls Spock “Spock-O”. Years later, Kirk would also use the nickname when speaking in the gangster patois of Sigma Iotia in TOS: “A Piece of the Action”.

Ley lines are alleged lines of energy running through the Earth, with people claiming that sacred sites are built along them or in places where they intersect and attributing all kinds of paranormal phenomena to them, including postulating it as some kind of fast-travel network. This is the first time they’ve been mentioned in Star Trek and the first time it’s been suggested they exist in space. Using it to apply to space seems odd, since the word “ley” is derived from “lea”, as in a grassy area, and there’s no grass in space. 

That being said, the existence of inter-dimensional express routes provides an explanation as to why travel times in Star Trek don’t usually match up with warp speeds given the immense distances traversed. Fans have long speculated about tachyon eddies (DS9: “Explorers”) and other quick routes through subspace for that purpose. 

The star chart displayed is based, as always, on Geoffrey Mandel’s Star Trek: Star Charts and shows Enterprise in the vicinity of a wormhole (perhaps the base graphic was made for SNW: “Terrarium”?). It shows the locations of the Talarian Republic (TNG: “Suddenly Human”) and the Tholian Assembly (TOS: “The Tholian Web”). Also of note is the presence of Cardassian space just “north” of Talar, and oddly, the presence of a “demilitarized zone”. 

The DMZ we best know between Cardassian and Federation space was established in 2370 by treaty (DS9: “Whispers”), although it was indicated on maps in *Section 31*, which is supposed to take place around 2324. This shows the presence of a DMZ 63 years before that, even, which is either that its presence in this map is in error, or conflicts between Cardassia and Federation have been going on for well over a century relative to DS9’s time. 

Eyelessness seems to be a thing for Vezda, as we see several aliens sporting the same look as Gamble. Gamble chants, “demittis tenebris”, which means “bring down the darkness,” in Latin. He adds, “interitus vide clara,” meaning “see the destruction clearly.” Why the Vezda is using Latin, a distinctly Earth language, is not explained.

Enteprise saved Farragut and her Vulcan captain V’Rell, in “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Own Tail”.

Batel’s patient records detail her treatment for the Gorn infection, and concludes with her having a unique hybrid of Gorn, Illyrian and Human DNA. But her going on to say that she contains every race that has ever faced evil seems to be a bit of an exaggeration.

Pike paraphrase Clarke’s Third Law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

This is the first time Spock has called Kirk “Jim.” I feel a disturbance in the Force, as if millions of Trekkies suddenly squeed. Even Ortegas is thinking, “Get a room.”

“Let’s light this candle,” was said twice by Ortegas in SNW: “Terrarium”, and as noted there was first said by astronaut Alan Shepard in 1961. And yes, chill, Pelia, you’re laying on the analogy of Kirk and Spock moving in synchronicity a bit thick. 

The initial vision takes place on what appears to be Pike and Batel’s second wedding anniversary (cotton), in Pike’s cabin in Bear Creek, Montana, which we first saw in SNW: “Strange New Worlds”. This would then be around 2263. 

The second part of the vision sees Pike in a Fleet Captain’s uniform and black FCPT backing on his delta (first seen in SNW: “Lost in Translation”). His mood is because he realises he’s about to meet his fate (as seen in TOS: “The Menagerie”), being exposed to delta rays due to ruptured baffle plates while saving cadets on a J-class training vessel (first named here as Lucas). This would be around 2266, five years in the future. Pike and Batel’s daughter is named in closed captioning as Juliet, although she seems older than 3 years old. 

Pike is rightfully concerned about the consequences of avoiding the accident because of what he learned in SNW: “A Quality of Mercy”, namely that his survival will doom Spock, who is needed for his actions in the future. 

In the third part of the vision, Elijah April is wearing a cadet’s badge with four lines indicating he’s in his senior year (making him at the minimum 20-21 years old). Juliet called Spock, “Uncle Sock”, so it appears in this vision Spock has avoided being doomed. Batel is now an admiral. This would place this segment around 2283, but Elijah’s uniform doesn’t match what we would expect from cadet uniforms of this era as seen in ST II which takes place in 2385.

The repeated knocking on the door in the segments is reminiscent of a motif used during the Tenth Doctor era of Doctor Who. There, a series of four knocks is connected to the Master, as well as a prophecy that the same ominous sound heralds the end of the Tenth Doctor’s life.

The trope of having an entire simulated life lived in a matter of moments is an old one, most obviously in TNG: “The Inner Light”. Other examples in film where the protagonist dreams a life before dying include An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge and Jacob’s Ladder. In Neil Gaiman’s short story set in the Matrix universe, “Goliath”, a man is given skills in the Matrix by the Machines so he can pilot a ship to destroy aliens attacking the Earth in the real world. Once he has accomplished his mission, he is told there is no return, but the Machines reconnect him to the Matrix so that, in the hour before dying, he can live out 15 years of a happy life.

The song played over the montage is M83’s “Wait”, which has the lyrics, “Send your dreams where nobody hides / Give your tears to the tide / No time / There’s no end / There is no goodbye”, reinforcing Pike’s monologue.

La’An needn’t be too worried about Kirk’s insight into Spock’s mind. Despite the meld (the apparent contradiction with TOS: “Dagger of the Mind” where Spock claims he’s never probed a human before notwithstanding), Kirk evidently doesn’t pick up anything intimate like pon farr, Spock’s parentage or siblings since he remains ignorant of them in TOS: “Amok Time”, TOS: “Journey to Babel” and ST V.

In "Requiem for Methuselah" Kirk and Spock encounter a human man calling himself Flint, whom they learn was more than 6,000 years old, and over the course of history was also Soloman, Alexander the Great, Lazarus, Merlin, Leonardo da Vinci, and Johann Brahms.

Then, in "The Broken Circle", Pelia becomes chief engineer of the Enterprise and we're told she's a Lanthanite, and extremely long lived species who resided on Earth, living among humans. She claimed to be at least 5,000 years old herself in "The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail".

I think it's a reasonable possibility that Flint was a Lanthanite himself, or perhaps part Lanthanite, without being aware of the fact. That would account for his long lifespan.

Granted, we don't actually know how long Lanthanites have been living on Earth. At least since the 1980s, but that's as far back as Pelia has mentioned. Also, if Flint's stories are accurate he is highly resistant to physical damage, having recovered from being stabbed in the heart. Pelia isn't affected by LSD or Chapel's epigenetic serums, but we've never seen her be physically attacked. Also, in "Requiem for Methuselah" Spock makes no mention of Lanthanites. Obviously from a real world perspective, it's because they didn't exist until season two of SNW, but in universe he is certainly aware of their existence, so we might extrapolate that, for whatever reason, he doesn't believe Flint is a Lanthanite.

The first episode has dropped, and should be available on your podcast app of choice.

Annotations for Star Trek: Khan 1x01: “Paradise”

The framing sequence takes place three months after Kirk’s apparent death at the start of Generations, which places it sometime in 2293 (confirmed later by Rosalind Lear as 26 years after TOS: “Space Seed” in 2267). Sulu is still captain of Excelsior, with Tuvok as an ensign.

Sulu’s remark that he’s one of the few people still alive who’s met Khan raises the question of how many are “few”? Even assuming this is after Scotty’s disappearance, five of the main bridge crew are still around. Uhura commanded the training vessel Leondegrance until her retirement in 2333 (PIC: “The Star Gazer”), McCoy lives until at least 2364 (TNG: “Encounter at Farpoint”) and Spock’s apparent death was in 2387 (ST 2009). I doubt Chekov would have died in the three months since the start of Generations and there are still four hundred crew that were on Enterprise during TOS: “Space Seed” that could potentially still be alive.

Joachim was Khan’s right hand man in ST II, played by an uncredited Judson Scott in the movie. McGivers refers to him as a “boy”, although we did not see any children as part of Khan’s people in “Space Seed”, and Day 72 of exile (about 10 weeks in) rules out a birth on Ceti Alpha V.

That being said, there were 72 surviving Augments on board Botany Bay, and we didn’t see that many on screen, so possibly the children Khan rescued from the laboratory in Montana were left in stasis until the exile. The acknowledgement of children explains why Khan’s crew in ST II in 2285 appeared to be so much younger than him, as opposed to the Augments who were revived in 2267.

The term “Augment” was never used in “Space Seed”, ST II or even DS9, but first came up during ENT: “Borderlands” as a term to describe the Eugenics Wars’ supermen.

Khan quotes Lucifer from Milton’s Paradise Lost, “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven”. He alluded to the same line in his parting words to Kirk in “Space Seed”. To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonian Singh is a novel by Greg Cox telling a version of Khan’s stay on Ceti Alpha V. Another account is found in IDW’s comic series Khan: Ruling in Hell.

Khan refers to Kuwait and tanks they called “Babylon Lions”. The Iraqis built their own variant of the Soviet T-72 main battle tank which saw use during the 1990 Invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent Gulf War, as well as the 2003 Iraq War. The T-72M1 was known as the Lion of Babylon tank or اسد بابل (Asad Babil). A few survive today as training vehicles.

Ursula says Kirk has given them “more than a fighting chance”. In ST II, Chekov says, “On Ceti Alpha V there was life! A fair chance…” Ursula states later that Augment women’s eggs were harvested in infancy (females are born with a finite ovarian reserve, which cannot be replenished), which is why she and Madot are eager to start experimentation to reverse this.

McGivers is much more assertive in this portrayal. While she did stand up to Khan eventually in “Space Seed”, she was much more submissive and deferential to him initially, which is how Khan managed to briefly hijack Enterprise in the first place. McGivers sees part of her role as recording the history Khan is going to make, as befits a former ship’s historian.

Khan’s lieutenant, named Joaquin in “Space Seed” is established here as the father of the younger Joachim, his mother being an unaugmented human. The phrase, “What fresh hell is this?” is usually attributed to Dorothy Parker - the original being “What fresh hell can this be?”

“Quintessence of dust” comes from the “What a piece of work is man,” soliloquy in Shakespeare’s Hamlet Act II sc ii. Hamlet extols (sarcastically) the virtues of humans, but concludes that all these amount to dust, or insignificance.

“I make you no promises today beyond sweat, tears, toil and blood,” paraphrases Winston Churchill’s address to his Cabinet when he became Prime Minister in 1940: “I have nothing to offer but blood, tears, toil and sweat.”

Khan says there are 73 lives left, which adds McGivers to the 72 in “Space Seed”

The drugs McGivers identifies include sterilite for infections (TOS: “A Private Little War’), dermaline for burns (VOY: “Deadlock”), stenophyl for anaphylactic shock (VOY: “Nothing Human”). Endometrial thickness refers to the thickness of the inner lining of the uterus. Estrogen and progesterone are hormones that play a vital role in female reproduction. Clomiphene citrate is used to induce ovulation in women whose ovaries are unable to produce eggs.

McGivers points out a machine that can manufacture the medications if given the specifications. This is likely an early replicator or matter synthesiser.

Khan relates the legend of how in 1519 Hernán Cortés burned his ships in order to motivate his men to conquer the Aztec Empire. The same story is told by Marko Ramius in the movie version of Tom Clancy’s novel The Hunt for Red October.

Hugo refers to Ivan’s “boombox”, which further dates the departure of the Augments to the 1990s as their use started to decline with the advent of portable sound devices like the Walkman. This, coupled with the reference to the T-72M1s noted above, may contradict the new timeline seen in SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” which pushes the Eugenics Wars into the 21st Century.

Ivan says, “We swore to live and die by his command,” which is a repeat of Khan’s statement to CAPT Terrell in ST II: “These people have sworn to live and die at my command 200 years before you were born.” When he kills Hugo, he says in Russian, “До свидания, лжец (Do svidaniya, lzhets),” which means “Goodbye, liar.”

The same as Star Trek Prodigy, it seems to be missing, or is because region block?

• The sehlat referenced in the episode title is an animal native to Vulcan, first mentioned in “Journey to Babel” where we learned that as a child, Spock had one as a pet. The first time one was on screen was “Yesteryear”.

• Kirk opens his first officer’s log with, ”Stardate…what is a stardate?” On this show? Please do not get my started. However, stardates have been part of Trek since the show’s second pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before”.

    • A memo provided to writers on TOS stated that, stardates were to obfuscate what century TOS was taking place in, and stated that Stardates were unique to their point in the galaxy, so they didn’t to follow from one episode to the next.

    • For TOS, TAS, the TOS movies, and SNW, stardates generally all follow the system set up for TOS, wherein there are four digits and a single digit percentage point following a decimal; the percentage point divides the day into tenths. SNW has had some variations, including having two numbers following the decimal, and once even using the Kelvin timeline method of calculating stardates.

    • DIS used the same four digits and a percentage point of the other 23rd century shows, except it’s numbers only ever increased. And upon transitioning to the 32nd century for season three on, they used six digits and a percentage point. On the whole though, Stardates were relatively rare in the series.

    • TNG, DS9, and VOY used a system introduced in TNG, where stardates began with 4, indicating they were set in the 24th century, followed by the corresponding season of TNG -- i.e. all the TNG season three stardates begin with 43 -- and then three random numbers, and another digit fallowing a decimal place. Sometimes within a season the number would decrease.

      • An obvious issue is that TNG, DS9, and VOY collectively ran for 14 years, from 1987 to 2001. The DS9 season five and VOY season three both had stardates beginning with 50, which would indicate they were in the 25 century, despite it being 2373.

    • The Kelvin universe stardates are just the year according to the Gregorian calendar, followed by the date expressed as the number of days in the year. So, 2009’s “Star Trek” was set in 2258, January 1 would be 2258.1, and December 31 would be 2258.365. Presumably.

    • PIC seasons one and two did not use stardates because showrunner, Michael Chabon, was not a fan. Season three did include stardates for two episodes, both of which began with 78, presumably indicating that they continued counting from the TNG, DS9, VOY seasons to reach that for the number of in universe years that had passed.

    • According to LDS co-producer, Brad Winters, LDS and PRO used a “unified stardate theory” devised by Trek science consultant, Doctor Erin MacDonald. LDS began with stardates starting with 57, in season one, but did not follow the one year per season convention that was used for TNG, DS9, and VOY.

    • So, to answer the question posed by Kirk in his log, stardates are a headache.

• Kirk’s log continues by complaining that he’s bored with the mundanity of space exploration. Kelvin Captain Kirk’s log at the beginning of “Star Trek Beyond” had a similar complaint.

• The USS Farragut’s interiors are reused USS Enterprise sets with little redress beyond the battle damage. We see the bridge, the captain’s ready room, and sickbay. Despite Scotty being dispatched to engineering, it does not show up on screen. In fact, we have yet to see the engineering set for the Enterprise this season, either.

    • The Farragut bridge lighting is more white than the Enterprise, and obviously the displays are off the ‘Farragut’.

• The * Farragut* is captained by a Vulcan named V’Rel. The first captain Kirk served under aboard the Farragut was Garrovik, though he would have died in 2257, four years earlier, as per the TOS episode, “Obsession”.

• ”Risk is why we’re here, isn’t it?” This line from Kirk’s speech in “Return to Tomorrow”, ”Risk is our business.”

• Chapel, Uhura, Spock, and Scotty all beam over to the Farragut, which is notable as they’re all future members of Kirk’s crew aboard the Enterprise during TOS. The obvious exception in the group is La’An, whom there has been some foreshadowing of a romantic involvement with Kirk, specifically in “Subspace Rhapsody”, and he will no doubt ghost her for a three breasted purple woman at some point, hence the reason she does not continue to serve aboard the ship. Or she’ll live(?) up to her red shirt reputation by the series end.

• The Destroyer of Worlds is designed with a mouth, and swallows the Enterrise whole. Other times the hero ship has has been fully engulfed by another ship include:

    • In “Distant Origin” the Voth beamed the USS Voyager into their city ship

    • In “Endgame”, a Borg sphere captured the Voyager, though it was all part of the plan

    • In “The Crossing” the Wisps disabled the NX-01, and brought it into their ship

    • In “Countdown” and “Zero Hour” Xindi-Aquatic ships were used to transport the NX-01

    • In “That Hope is You, Part 2” the Viridian tractored the USS Discovery A aboard

    • In “Let Sleeping Borg Lie” the Protogies flew the USS Protostar into a dormant Borg cube

    • in “The Last Generation”, Data flew the USS Enterprise D/USS Syracuse through a massive Borg cube

• The Destroyer of Worlds is made up of a variety of other cultures ships, including Klingon. In “Samaritan Snare” we were introduced to the Pakleds who lured more advanced species in and stole their technology. We eventually saw Pakled Clumpships in LDS’ “No Small Parts” with a breakdown of all the species’ components.

    • Scotty and Spock make note that one of the other ships is a D7-class Klingon ship. The D7-class would only be about four years old at this point, the design having been finalized in “Point of Light” and the first completed vessel being seen in “Through the Valley of Shadows”.

      • This assumes we ignore the Klingon Sech-class cruiser in being referred to as a D7 by a shuffleboard computer in “Choose Your Pain”, but that was also quite clearly a different spaceframe.

• We learn that the Destroyer of Worlds is something of a local legend, known to remote colonies, as well as other species, including the Klingons and the Gorn. The Klingons call it the Chack-Ka, or Annihilator. In “Where Silence Has Lease”, Worf shared that there was a Klingon legend about ”a gigantic black space creature which was said to devour entire vessels.” We have no indication if the Destroyer of Worlds was the inspiration for that legend, but it’s a neat idea.

• Captain V’Rel has a three-dimensional chess board in her ready room. Kirk and Spock were first seen playing three-dimensional chess in the second TOS pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before”.

    • The board appears to be the one sold by The Nobel Collection with a custom stand, as previously seen in “Lost in Translation” but with custom pieces as well.

• ”Those are the signatures from the picked-apart alien ships we saw in Nessie’s gob.” Scotty also made reference to the Loch Ness Monster in the TAS episode, “Bem”. Nessie’s only other mention was in ENT episode, “Stormfront, Part II”.

• Scotty appears unclear on what to call Kirk while he’s acting Captain. In “Behind the Lines” O’Brien explained to Nog that it is an old naval tradition that whomever is in charge of a ship is referred to as captain, regardless of rank. Presumably Scotty skipped that day.

• Pelia implies she is at least 5,000 years old. Previously she’d indicated she was at least 3,000 years old.

• This is the first time there’s been any indication that Starfleet vessels use copper wiring in their consoles, a fact that is necessary for Pelia’s plan in the episode to work. Her plan is:

    • Strip the copper cables out of the bulkheads

    • Collect all the catalytic converters from the shuttles in the shuttle bay

    • Raid sickbay’s supply of sudafed

• Kirk informs Scotty that the Destroyer of Worlds was harvesting aldentium from the world it destroyed. In “Family”, Data described aldentium as a mineral that is ”firm and chewy, but with a slight resistance to the bite.”

• Pelia’s quarters are full of enough junk that Kivas Fagio would have heart palpitations looking at it. We saw in “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” that she was transferring a significant amount of personal affects to the ship. Here we see:

    • An Atari video game system, which is kind of like the titular game from “The Game” but more addicting.

    • ”This is a, uh…personal massager?” Oretegas confirms that vibrators still exist in the 23rd century.

• Pike and La’An come up with the idea to fill the umbilical stealing resources from the Enterprise with baryon particles from the waste system. We learned in “Starship Mine” that baryons are accumulated during warp travel, and need to be eliminated as part of starship maintenance.

• Kirk’s plan uses the Farragut’s now useless warp nacelles as improvised missles, causing the Destroyer of Worlds to disable itself with it’s own grappler cables attempting to catch them. The first time we saw Kirk order Scotty to detach the nacelles of the Enterprise was in “The Apple”.

• The waste tank La’An has the baryon particles in is cylindrical with a handle on one side, very similar to the holodeck biofiler waste tanks seen in “Moist Vessel”.

• We learn that once again the greatest monster is man! The core of the Destroyer of Worlds is the XCV-100, an Earth ship lunched in the 21st century, after World War III. The ship bears the flag of the United States, as well as a blue Starfleet delta with the United Earth symbol on it, a logo also seen on the Friendship 1 in “Friendship One”. This would be the earliest vessel to bear a delta, so far.

    • Other Earth ships that vanished include:

      • The Ares IV - “One Small Step”

      • The Bonaventure - “The Time Trap”

      • The USS Franklin - “Star Trek Beyond”

    • The ship was meant to carry humanity to the stars, and was presumably conceived of by billionaires attempting to escape the mess they made of Earth. Pelia claims ”they were the best of us,” which explains the distinctive red cap among the junk in her quarters.

• Data served Scotty Aldeberan whiskey in “Relics”.

• The episode ends with strains for the TOS theme playing after Pike calls Kirk “Captain Kirk.”

Written by: Alan B. McElroy

Directed by: Andrew Coutts

The meaning of the title becomes obvious at the conclusion of the episode when we discover that Ortegas' ordeal is an observational experiment.

It is Stardate 2198.7. Ortegas mentions that the strange phenomena that the region of space is known for is “the kind of thing Division 12 usually looks into.” This is the first mention of such a division, which in context might imply a kind of X-Files type investigative branch of Starfleet. In LD: “Much Ado About Boimler”, Division 14 deals with anomalous medical issues afflicting Starfleet personnel.

Ortegas keeps a picture of her kid brother Beto (she mutters in Spanish, “hermanito”) on her mantle, along with models of planes. Thanks to the screenshot people at the cygnus-x1 website,  I can spot an SR-71 Blackbird, a B-24 Liberator, a Supermarine Spitfire but there’s a couple I still can’t make out (an F-117 Nighthawk, possibly?). There’s also a model of the current Constitution-class Enterprise and a Walker-class starship.

The science lab Spock and Uhura are in is the same set as was used for La’An’s katra-space in the previous episode, which appeared to contain Cetacean Ops. “Let’s light this candle,” was said by astronaut Alan Shepard when he was about to become as the first American in space on May 5, 1961, in frustration when the engineers were still debating whether to launch Freedom 7.

Ortegas is flying the shuttle Archimedes, named for the Greek philosopher best associated with the phrase “eureka” which, according to legend, he shouted when discovering the principle of displacement. In 2381, the Obena-class starship USS Archimedes was commanded by CAPT Sonya Gomez (LD: “First First Contact”). We also see that Archimedes is outfitted with blast shields.

“Five by five” is an expression that means everything is fine, or optimal. It dates back to World War II, measuring the strength and clarify of a radio signal (on a scale of 1 to 5). Una asks if Pike is jealous, referring to his first assignment out of the Academy as a test pilot (DIS: “Light and Shadows”).

Ortegas says her stardate is unknown, probably because her location is unknown. This goes back to the TOS series bible, which stated: “Stardates are a mathematical formula which varies depending on location in the galaxy, velocity of travel, and other factors, can vary widely from episode to episode.” This was to provide a Watsonian explanation as to why stardates in consecutive episodes might be out of sequence, and so writers didn’t need to worry about being sequential with stardates in other episodes.

Wormholes are indeed notoriously unstable, although some can remain stable for a long time, like the Barzan wormhole (TNG: “The Price”). The only known completely stable wormhole is the Bajoran wormhole connecting the Denorios Belt in the Bajoran System with the Gamma Quadrant, but that wormhole is constructed by the Prophets.

The USS Constellation (NCC-1017) was a Constitution-class starship which was under the command of CDRE (at this point CAPT) Matthew Decker when it was destroyed by the Planet Killer five years from now in 2267 (TOS: “The Doomsday Machine”). This is the first mention of Epsilon Indi III, although Epsilon Indi II and IV have been mentioned prior (TNG: “Eye of the Beholder” and DIS: “Terra Firma, Part 1” respectively). Epsilon Indi is a trinary star system 12 ly from Earth.

There is a very TOS/Sol Kaplan-ish music cue when Ortegas spots the Gorn, but I’m uncertain if it’s taken from TOS: “Arena”.

Uhura calls her shuttle simulation Kamili Alpha One. As mentioned in SNW: “Lost in Translation”, Kamili was the name of her pet cat, the name meaning “perfect” in Swahili.

The most famous example of the “enemies working together for survival” trope in science fiction is the 1979 novella Enemy Mine by Barry B. Longyear which was adapted into a movie in 1985. In Star Trek, the trope appears several times but is closest to the novella in TNG: “The Enemy”, TNG: "Darmok", DS9: “The Ascent” and ENT: “Dawn”, in that the reluctant alliance takes place in when both are stranded in a hostile environment.

Enterprise uses a static warp field to try and prop the wormhole open. In TNG: “Remember Me”, Wesley creates a static warp field, or bubble, in an attempt to recreate the Traveler’s actions in TNG: “Where No One Has Gone Before” but it results in the creation of a pocket universe when Beverley Crusher is caught in it. In TNG: “All Good Things…”, a static warp shell acted as a subspace barrier between time and anti-time. In TNG: “Relics”, Jenolan used its shields to prop open the exit out of a Dyson sphere so Enterprise-D could escape.

The gas giant has 396 moons. In contrast, Saturn has 274 moons as of 2025.

The idea of sending up a flare was also used in TOS: “The Galileo Seven” when Spock jettisoned the shuttle’s remaining fuel and ignited it, creating a signal that Enterprise could see. I leave it to your head canon as to whether now we can say Spock got this idea from Ortegas.

The alien that appears before Ortegas is a Metron, dressed in Roman/Greek-esque fashion like the Metron who appeared to Kirk did in TOS: “Arena”. The Metron’s reference to resetting the memory of the Gorn for humans in future is a way to resolve the biggest discontinuity between SNW and “Arena”, namely why Starfleet doesn’t seem to have heard of the Gorn (or the Metrons) despite them being major antagonists in SNW.

Consider this a reminder for people currently watching Star Trek, old and new.

Logic and controlled emotion aren't inherent to being a Vulcan. Somehow gaining Vulcan traits, or biologically transforming into a Vulcan, will not make you logical and emotionless. In fact, quite the opposite would happen.

Vulcans used to be warlike, barbaric (as Spock would describe them) and nearly wiped themselves out. It was the teaching of Surak in the philosophy of pure logic, after centuries of war, that made Vulcans what they are today. Vulcans do this by training logic and emotional control throughout their childhood and teenage years. Ultimately culminating in Kolinahr, the final stage to "purge emotion". But Vulcans still experience emotion, and their state of control is something that requires constant maintenance through meditation and practice.

Vulcans are far more emotional and passionate than even Humans. If a Human so much as houses a portion of a Vulcan's Katra (the mind/spirit), said Human would struggle immensely to keep their feeling under control.

I'm writing all this because I'm getting the feeling that this very important part about Vulcans is being forgotten (perhaps more-so by the current writers of Star Trek).

Yes I know I'm behind everyone else!

First the away team spends a long time debating if they should proceed or... step outside for five seconds to call the ship. They ultimately decide that stepping outside for five seconds is not feasible.

But then literally one minute later Ensign Gamble is somehow beamed up. Presumably they must have called the ship to do this? Did they just... leave out the part about the (now obvious and real) danger? Was there a scene where Pike said "ok yeah his eyes are gone but you can keep going"?

Then later in the episode the away team spends a long time talking about trust and friendship while debating if they should walk on an invisible walkway instead of just like, I don't know, tapping it lightly with their toe or throwing a pebble on it first?

The Ensign Gamble B-plot was good and freaky and featured some great acting by everyone involved. But the A plot felt like it was vibe-scripted! I love SNW but come on.