Star Trek Social Club

The title alludes to old time radio plays, and modern reproductions such as the “Thrilling Adventure Hour”, which ran as a podcast and staged performances in Los Angeles from 2005 to 2015. It is also an episode where the cast play different characters, like SNW: “The Elysian Kingdom”.

The first music cue is from TOS, and of course the lighting, costuming and props all evoke the style of TOS and 1960s science fiction. The wave-form on the large screen reminds me of the Control wave from the title sequence of The Outer Limits.

“Maxwell Saint” is sitting in a very typical James Kirk pose in the chair and speaks in a parody of William Shatner’s acting and diction. “Lee Woods” mentions the war - Ortegas served in the Klingon War. Zipnop of the Triathic Agonyan Empire has very visible wire rods holding up their “eyes”. The face also reminds me of the aliens in the 1957 movie Invasion of the Saucer Men.

The title sequence has been altered to resemble TOS’s opening narration and titles. For what it’s worth, 84 months is 7 years, alluding to the 7 seasons given TNG, DS9 and VOY. The USS Adventure has a registry number of 20-1. The title The Last Frontier riffs off Trek’s “final frontier” line.

We’ve seen holographic battle simulators in DIS: “Lethe”, and Enterprise had a recreation or rec room in TAS: “The Practical Joker” , so the concept of a holodeck predates TNG by quite a bit, although the model first seen in TNG: “Encounter at Farpoint” was supposed to be the latest model and both Riker and Wesley seemed impressed by it. The screen in the briefing room displays the “Holodeck Program Power Distribution”. In VOY: “Parallax” it was said that holodecks run off holodeck reactors which are incompatible with standard power systems on the rest of the ship.

Spock took dance lessons from La’An in SNW: “Wedding Bell Blues” and is continuing them in lieu of his morning calisthenics routine. Much like Picard enjoyed Dixon Hill stories from the 1930s, La’An enjoys Amelia Moon mysteries from the 1960s. Using transporter buffer patterns to create holographic avatars is similar to what happened in DS9: “Our Man Bashir”.

La’An’s request for a mystery that is challenging to solve is at least less foolhardy than Geordie’s request for an adversary capable of defeating Data (TNG: “Elementary, Dear Data”). The grid pattern of this 23rd Century holodeck is the same as those in 24th Century holodecks. La’An even gives the standard “run program” command.

Spock alluded to his ancestor being Conan Doyle (or as some speculated, Sherlock Holmes) in ST VI when he quoted the aphorism that “when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” This confirms it. In the real world, none of Doyle’s children had offspring, so Spock can’t be a direct descendant.

La’An - I mean, Amelia Moon switches into an American accent when speaking to Uhura - I mean, Joni Gloss. The voice-over narration alludes to that in classic noir films and hard-boiled detective stories.

Amelia refers to Gloss, a Hollywood agent, as “William Morris” - the William Morris Agency represented some of the biggest names in Hollywood history.

Max Factor does have a Ruby Red shade, but it was released in 2015 and inspired by Marilyn Monroe.

The Sunny Lupino character, with allusions to an ex-husband and relationships with the studio, not to mention the red hair, has characteristics of comedienne Lucille Ball, her ex-husband Desi Arnaz, and Desilu Studios’ involvement with the production of Star Trek. Her reference to Alfred (Hitchcock) putting her in Crows (1963’s The Birds) also references Tippi Hedren, who Hitchcock discovered and gave her first leading role. Hedren didn’t win an Oscar for that, however. Her name also echoes film star Ida Lupino.

Woods’ remark, “I’m an actor, not a doctor,” is an inversion of Dr McCoy’s catchphrase, “I’m a doctor, not a…”

Having a lead detective’s partner be a “bumbling idiot” is akin to the stereotype of Watson being bumbling next to Holmes, thanks to Nigel Bruce’s portrayal of him in the Basil Rathbone films. In the stories, however, Watson was not at all bumbling, but merely appeared less intelligent because he served as an audience surrogate for Holmes to explain his amazing deductions.

The NPCs notice Spock’s uniform, much like Trixie did when Picard walked into the Dixon Hill simulation in TNG: “The Big Goodbye”.

Ortegas’ suspension for insubordination was in SNW: “Shuttle to Kenfori”.

Omnidirectional holodiodes are a primary component of holodecks, first mentioned in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual but never on-screen until now.

Jess Bush uses her natural Australian accent as Adelaide Shaw (Adelaide is a city in South Australia). Hedda Gabler is an 1891 play by Henrik Ibsen. The West End refers to London’s theatre district.

The lack of safeties and the inability to end the program is a long-honoured Trek trope that has finally made its way to SNW.

“You know what’s not realistic? A lady first officer.” Roddenberry always claimed that the reason Number One (Majel Barrett) had to be replaced was because the network didn’t want a woman in a command position. It may be truer that they didn’t want Roddenberry’s mistress to be one of the leads of the new show.

“Mick Bowie” may be a real character in this world, or Saint just mocking McBeau with a portmanteau of Mick Jagger and David Bowie.

Gloss’s very meta description of what Bellows wanted to do with The Last Frontier is what Roddenberry wanted to do with Star Trek.

Scotty’s suggestion provides an explanation why holodecks have their own dedicated power sources and processors. Pike’s Enterprise having a crew of 203 was first mentioned in TOS: “The Cage”.

The end credits are printed in the style of TOS (as is the music), but instead of still photographs we have bloopers, including “space acting” (what the actors call the moving from side to side as if the ship is being shaken about) and Saint trying to get in the chair using the Riker Maneuver.

• The episode title, “Shuttle to Kenfori”, is a reference to the South Korean zombie film, “Train to Busan”, and the planet’s Kenfori was named for Ken Foree who played Peter in the original “Dawn of the Dead” film.

• Pike records the stardate as 2449.1 in his personal log.

    • This actually follows the previous episode, “Wedding Bell Blues”’ given stardate of 2251.7 in a way that makes sense. Is our long galactic SNW stardates nightmare finally come to an end?

• Pike refers to the “restricted zone” between Federation and Klingon territories following the war depicted in season one of DIS, and Number One calls it a ”buffer zone”. The term ”neutral zone” was not used to refer to the Federation-Klingon border until “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan”.

• ”He never gets caught.” “I never get caught.” In “The Elysian Kingdom” Doctor M’Benga was fully possessed of his faculties when he was betrayed by Spock as the sorcerer Pollux, and captured and imprisoned by Uhura’s Queen Neve.

• Number One is certainly trying something with her hair this episode. Apparently one of the abilities granted by the Illyrian genetic augmentation revealed in “Ghosts of Illyria” was foresight to know when the grav plating will be disabled and to prepare accordingly to cut down on filming costs.

    • Similarly La’an’s ponytail is up, and apparently Mitchell took the day off from tactical.

• Pike and Doctor M’Benga reminisce about the time they smoked Vedalan cigars and M’Benga became sick. Assuming that Vendalan refers to the same species, in “The Jihad” it is stated that the Vendala are the oldest known spacefaring race, so apparently smoking isn’t actually that bad for you.

• We’ve seen Starfleet ships leave plenty of warning buoy to ward off ships from encountering the hazards of exploration, such as telepathic pitcher plants, or Armus, but this is the first time we’ve seen a Klingon warning beacon.

    • The Klingon alphabet used for the warning beacon’s graphic is the one created for the “USS Enterprise Officer’s Manual” fan publication, published in 1980.

    • The text of the beacon translates literally to ”Don’t dead open inside.”

• ”What do you think about this whole Korby-Christine thing?” In referring to the revelations of “Wedding Bell Blues”, Pike establishes that much like Captain Picard, he too enjoys his tea hot.

• The Klingon skeleton has a honeycombed ribcage, matching the anatomy diagram displayed on a screen in “Affliction”.

• The Klingon fighter craft is a raider, introduced in “Choose Your Pain”.

• I believe this is the first time a Klingon scanning device has been referred to as a tricorder on screen.

• The disruptor rifles the Klingon hunting party are weilding were first seen in “Context is for Kings”, but Bytha’s pistol appears to be new design similar to the Klingon pistols introduced in “Star Trek: The Search for Spock”.

• Pike says the Klingons are, ”chasing [them] like Skral rabbits.” There is a Skral river on Qo’noS as per “Barge of the Dead”.

• Spock offers to mind meld with Captain Batel to help guide her through the pain she’s suffering. In “Dagger of the Mind” Spock informs Bones that he’s never performed a mind meld on a human before.

• Spock briefly experiences Gorn vision, which has a hex gird, recalling the compound eyes of the TOS Gorn. Of course, SNW Gorn do not have the same compound eyes of the TOS iteration.

    • Gorn vision also highlights the critical hit points on enemies.

• Pike refers to the chimera moss infected humans and Klingons as ”zombies,” much to Doctor M’Benga’s chagrin. in “Star Trek: First Contact”, Lily Sloane called the Borg ”bionic zombies.”

    • The Vulcans exposed to trellium-d in “Impulse” were referred to as zombies in the script, but not in the episode itself.

• Pike comes to the realization that the chimera plant is going cause Batel to become a hybrid with the Gorn genetics infecting her body. Like a chimera! In “Tuvix” a Delta Quadrant Orchid created a hybrid of Tuvok and Neelix, and that was the most controversial thing that happened in the episode.

• At Doctor M’Benga’s suggestion, Pike overloads the charging coil on his phaser, creating a small explosion that stuns some of the mossmen. In “The Conscience of the King” Kirk has to eject an overloading phaser off the USS Enterprise before it explodes, because it could take out an entire deck of the ship.

• The dagger Bytha stabs Pike with is a d’k tahg, the first of which was seen in “Star Trek: The Search for Spock”. Fortunately for Pike, he does not meet the same fate as David Marcus.

• Bytha states that she had a Rongovian tag Doctor M’Benga with a viridium tracker, but having it put in his drink’s garnish. We saw a Rongovian introduce himself to M’Benga in “Wedding Bell Blues”.

    • Spock used a viridium patch to track Kirk and Bones in “Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country”. Additionally, we learned n “Napenthe” Commandant Oh had Doctor Jurati swallow a viridium tracker so she could be traced.

• Bytha introduces herself as the daughter of Dak’Rah, whom Doctor M’Benga killed in a scuffle in “Under the Cloak of War”.

    • Following his defection to the Federation, we learn House Rah’Ul has suffered discommendation. Worf accepted discommendation for the House of Mogh in “Sins of the Father”, and Quark was able to demonstrate that D’Ghor used accounting to undermine a rival house, leading to the House of D’Ghor to receive discommendation in “The House of Quark”.

• The Klingon starship is a D7-class battlecruiser; this CGI model appears to be identical to the ones previously shown in SNW, starting with “The Broken Circle”, which was an update of the one introduced in DIS’ “Through the Valley of Shadows”.

This is the song Christina teased long ago.

Nacelle’s Star Trek Action Figures Panel

Thurs, July 24, 4:00-5:00 PM PT, Room 32AB

Brian Volk-Weiss (The Toys That Made Us, Disney's Behind the Attraction) and Nacelle Toys present an intergalactic deep dive into their officially licensed Star Trek action figure line, featuring an exclusive first look at the renders for wave two and a sneak peek at wave three. Brace for impact, because Nacelle's materializing something stellar for your Star Trek collection.

Star Trek Universe Panel

Saturday, July 26, 12:30-2:00 PM PT, Hall H

The Star Trek Universe panel returns to San Diego, featuring exclusive back-to-back conversations with the cast and executive producers from the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and the upcoming new series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Plus, exclusive first looks, reveals and surprises! Moderated by Star Trek legend Robert Picardo.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Cast members scheduled to appear include Rebecca Romijn, Ethan Peck, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, and Paul Wesley alongside executive producers and co-showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers, and executive producer Alex Kurtzman.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy: Cast members scheduled to appear include Holly Hunter, Sandro Rosta, Karim Diané, Kerrice Brooks, George Hawkins, and Bella Shepard along with executive producers and co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau.

Star Trek: The Next Frontier

Sun, July 27, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Room 7AB

Whether it's the return of Captain Kirk in The Last Starship or the shocking Red Shirts, this panel is set to spill all of the plans that IDW has for Starfleet this year. Moderated by Heather Antos (group editor) and featuring bold creators Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Christopher Cantwell, Robbie Thompson, Travis Mercer, and Tilly and Susan Bridges, the next frontier of Star Trek comics starts here.

Direct YouTube link.

• As the episode opens, we see DOT-7 robots repairing the hull of the USS Enterprise; this is the first we’ve seen the DOTs on SNW, though the “Ask Not” short did show that the Enterprise was equipped with them.

• Spock records the stardate as 2251.7 in his personal log.

    • Spock states that it is three months following the events of “Hegemony, Part II” which was a continuation of the events of “Hegemony”, and that was stardate 2344.2, so the SNW stardate madness would seem to continue.

    • At the beginning of the episode, it is three days until the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Federation.

• In stationkeeping at Starbase One, we see:

    • A vessel of the same spaceframe as the USS Archer, seen in “Strange New Worlds”

    • A spaceframe inspired the Larson-class destroyer from the “Demand of Honor” module published by FASA for their “Star Trek: The Roleplaying Game” in 1984.

    • A Nimitz-class starship with updated nacelles, first seen in “Battle at the Binary Stars”

    • A Malachowski-class starship with updated nacelles, first seen in “Battle at the Binary Stars”

    • A vessel of the same spaceframe as the USS Kelcie Mae, seen in “Under the Cloak of War”

    • A vessel of the same spaceframe as the USS Hiawatha, seen in “Brother”

    • A Bellerophon-class starship, first seen in “A Quality of Mercy”

    • A Shepherd-class starship with updated nacelles, first seen in “Battle at the Binary Stars”

• La’an is teaching Spock to dance, recalling the scene from “Data’s Day” where Doctor Crusher teaches Data how to dance. Both are too stiff.

• ”Perhaps that is why Vulcans, as a rule, do not dance.” Tuvok insisted ”Vulcans do not dance” in “Homestead” before performing a small dance later in the episode.

    • In “Whom Gods Destroy” Spock stated that Vulcan children do dance in nursery school.

    • In “Fusion” Kov claimed that Vulcans dance, “Only when it’s part of some tedious ceremony.”*

• Scotty is still aboard the Enterprise and he arrives to operate the transporter. Scotty was frequently in charge of the transporter in TOS, and though it has yet to be said on screen, the phrase, ”Beam me up, Scotty,” is an intrinsic part of Trek pop culture.

• This is the first we’ve seen La’an wearing the skant style uniform.

• It’s Doctor Roger Korby! From Star Trek! Except this would be the first actual appearance of Korby, as the Roger Korby seen in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” was an android whom the original Korby transferred his consciousness into to save his own life, but removed all his human flaws.

    • Apparently Korby also removed his accent during the transfer, and somehow Chapel did not notice. Granted, she will have also lost all semblance of a personality by that point.

• We learn that Korby has published 234 papers on archeological medicine. In “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” Spock states that Korby was ”often called the Pasteur of archeological medicine.”

• Spock is surprised to learn that Korby is there as Chapel’s date, but from “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”, we know that when he goes missing, presumably later this same year, Korby and Chapel will be engaged to be married.

• Pike claims he doesn’t know what all the medals he has are for. In “Choose Your Pain” Pike was included in a list of five of Starfleet’s most decorated officers, when we see Pike’s service record in “Brother”, he has 17 different awards listed, including a Cardassian Legate’s Crest of Valor.

• Chapel attempts to return the book that Spock gave her, and he says he still desires for her to have it. In “Star Trek Beyond” Spock told Uhura, ”It is not the Vulcan custom to receive again that which was given as a gift.”

• It’s Trelane! From Star Trek! Maybe! Trelane was originally portrayed by William Campbell in “The Squire of Gothos” and the Wedding Planner is played by Rhys Darby here. Also, we briefly see the Wedding Planner’s Vulcan appearance in a reflection, and for that moment he was portrayed by Myles Dobson who also played a Vulcan waiter in “Strange New Worlds”

    • According to Akiva Goldsman, the character credited as The Wedding Planner is Trelane. Certainly they have similar appearance, including Trelane’s distinctive muttonchops and medals but there are some notable differences as well.

      • In “The Squire of Gothos” Trelane’s appearance, affect, and the home he created on Gothos are implied to be based on the 14th century because Gothos is 900 lightyears away from Earth, and Trelane’s information was based on his observations at the time.

      • Trelane claims he did not believe humans were capable of space travel in “The Squire of Gothos”, again basing his information on observations of Earth 900 years out of date.

      • Trelane’s preoccupation in “The Squire of Gothos” is strictly martial. He claims to be a retired general, and wishes to speak with Kirk about matters of death and war. He views humans as a predator species.

      • In “The Squire of Gothos” Trelane does not recognize Spock, nor does he appear to be familiar with Vulcans, asking Spock if they’re predatory when they first meet.

    • There is a chiming sound effect associated with the Wedding Planner similar to, but not identical to the one used in “The Squire of Gothos” to indicate a usage of Trelane’s powers.

• The Wedding Planner references the Vulcan kal-if-fee, a ritual combat in which the woman who declared the kal-if-fee becomes the property of the victor. This was first seen in “Amok Time”

• ”Perhaps an improbability field. We once entered one that made us…sing.” Spock is referring to the events of “Subspace Rhapsody”.

• Spock tells Sam that ”No one likes your moustache,” once again demonstrating the common wisdom that Vulcans cannot lie is nonsense.

• Pike claims that one of Spock’s favourite dishes is jumbo mollusk. Spock, like most Vulcans, is depicted as vegetarian, and in “All Our Yesterdays” is upset with himself when he regresses to an earlier point in Vulcan evolution and consumes animal flesh.

• ”Honestly, I’m not really much of a drinker.” By the time of TOS, Scotty is practically a functioning alcoholic who was tasked with drinking an alien cosmic horror under the table in “By Any Other Name”.

• The morning of the wedding the Wedding Planner is in the bed beside Spock, recalling the time Captain Picard woke up next to Q in “Tapestry”.

• He says if I don’t play along, he’s going to wish us all into a cornfield.” Korby alludes to “The Twilight Zone” episode, “It’s a Good Life”.Trip mentioned “The Twilight Zone” in “Carbon Creek”, and two Trek guest stars, Bill Mumy who played Kellin in “The Siege of AR-558” and Don Keefer who played Cromwell in “Assignment Earth” appeared in “It’s A Good Life”.

• We see Scotty wearing a kilt, with the same white and black tartan he was depicted wearing in “Is There In Truth No Beauty?”

• An energy cloud voiced by John de Lancie arrives to the wedding. In “The Squire of Gothos” , timely intervention by Trelane’s parents also interrupted his childish antics.

    • Again, according to Akiva Goldsman, this episode is supposed to make canon the connection between Trelane and the Q Continuum first posited in the novel “Q-Squared” written by Peter David, and published in 1994. And again, there are some issues/

      • If we accept the fact that the Wedding Planner is Trelane, it is uncommon for a Q to be named anything other than Q. Quinn adopted the name to differentiate himself from Q for the sake of the USS Voyager’s crew. Amanda Rogers was raised as a human. Every other member of the Continuum we’ve met has gone by Q, including Q Junior.

      • The Wedding Planner/Trelane is presented as being a child of their or his species. We’re told he’s 8,020 years old, Q Junior had the mannerisms of a teenager at four human years of age.

      • In “The Q and the Grey”, Q claims that he is not cut out for raising a child himself, stating he’s more of ”An ideas man.”

      • We see both Trelane’s parents in “The Squire of Gothos” as energy beings, but in “The Q and the Grey” Q claims that two Q have never mated before.

• The bartender hired for the Federation Day celebration is an Edosian, notable because the species has only previously appeared in animated form, first showing up in the TAS premiere, “Beyond the Farthest Star”.

    • Previous Edosians we’ve seen have had three fingers on each hand, but this individual has very human, five fingered hands.

Given the plot, the title probably alludes to the Korean zombie movie “Train to Busan”. Also, actor Ken Foree played Peter Washington, the lead character in 1978’s Dawn of the Dead.

The stardate is 2449.1, and Enterprise is on a routine scanning mission. Pike, for once, refers to the ship as Enterprise and not “the Enterprise”. This is actually the correct naval nomenclature, since you wouldn’t use “the” before a proper name; for example, “Hello, this is the John Doe.”

There’s big hunk of text on screen which these old eyes can barely make out. We get the scientific name of chimera blossom, or chimera weed, chimeralca oleracea (the second word just means “herb” or “vegetable” in vulcanate There’s a big hunk of text on screen which these old eyes can barely make out. We get the scientific name of chimera blossom, or chimera weed, chimeralca oleracea (the second word just means “herb” or “vegetable” in Latin - brassica oleracea is cabbage). The science report is dated 2257 and talks about chimera as sparsely distributed throughout the galaxy, a source of omega-15 fatty acids and antioxidants and its use as a medicinal herb in many areas near the “Klingon region”. It is also used to treat hypotension and “diaphorous ceti syndrome”. It has the highest level of “vitamin alpha 15” among green leafy vegetation, chock-full of other vitamins and minerals (including iron vulcanate) and plays a role in "vision healthy mucus membranes" and protection from lung and oral cavity cancer. brassica oleracea* is cabbage). The science report is dated 2257 and talks about chimera as sparsely distributed throughout the galaxy, a source of omega-15 fatty acids and antioxidants and its use as a medicinal herb in many areas near the “Klingon region”. It is also used to treat hypotension and “diaphorous ceti syndrome”. It has the highest level of “vitamin alpha 15” among green leafy vegetation, chock-full of other vitamins and minerals (including iron vulcanate) and plays role a in vision healthy mucus membranes and protection from lung and oral cavity cancer.

Ortegas says it’s been a long time since she flew into disputed Klingon territory, alluding to her service during the Klingon War (SNW: “Those Old Scientists”, “Under the Cloak of War”).

Pike mentions a mission he and M’Benga were on in Zeta Borealis. Zeta Coronae Borealis is a double star system about 520 ly away from Sol. M’Benga blamed his nausea on Vedalan cigars. The Vedalans (TAS: “The Jihad”) are a felinoid species and the oldest spacefaring race known.

M’Benga translates the Klingon warning as “Go Back Or Die”. The text is not in the usual pIqaD script used in transcribing Marc Okrand’s tlhIngan Hol but one that was created by Geoffrey Mandel for his fan-made USS Enterprise Officer’s Manual in 1980 and is meant to be a one-for-one substitution for English. Since this particular alphabet has no “c” equivalent, the warning actually reads “GO BAOOK OR DIE” and the words under that are (taking “oo” as “c”) “By Order of the Klingon High Council”. My very basic Hol would translate "Go Back or Die" as yiHeD ghap bIHegh.

I missed this last time, but this season’s title sequence includes shots of a Klingon D7-type cruiser, a shuttlecraft and Starbase One.

There is no animal life on Kenfori. The last planet I recall from Star Trek that had no animal life was Omicron Ceti III (TOS: “This Side of Paradise"), but that was because the planet was being bathed in Berthold rays, which disintegrate animal tissue with prolonged exposure.

M’Benga has three ex-wives, four if you count an annulment. His enjoyment of fishing was revealed in SNW: “Spock Amok”.

M’Benga points out that certain poisons have medicinal value. To be fair, the opposite position is truer. As the Swiss doctor Paracelcus (said to be the father of pharmacology) opined in 1538, “All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; the dosage alone makes it so a thing is not a poison.”

The Klingon ship approaching the planet is a D7-type, probably a K’t’inga class since it appears to have an aft torpedo launcher. One was last seen in SNW: “Subspace Rhapsody”. I say D7-type because K’t’inga-classes - first named in Roddenberry’s TMP novelisation, are technically anachronistic in SNW, since they are supposed to be more advanced than the D7s we see during TOS (which only have a forward torpedo launcher). But Temporal War shenanigans, etc. etc.

Pike says the Klingons are hunting them like Skral rabbits. The River Skral is a river on Qo’noS (first mentioned in DS9: “The Way of the Warrior”), and features in Klingon mythology as well. Closed captioning identifies the female Klingon commander as Bytha.

Spock says Vulcans can regulate pain via meditation. In TOS: “Operation: Annihilate!” Spock fights through the pain of being infected by a Denevan parasite by chanting the mantra: “I am a Vulcan. I am a Vulcan. There is no pain.”

Christine slaps Spock to snap him out of the meld. In TOS: “A Private Little War” Spock instructs her to hit him to awaken him fully from a healing trance - Scotty stops her, not knowing, but M’Benga finishes the job. The new nurse (first appearing in SNW: “Wedding Bell Blues”) is credited as Ensign Gamble, but I don’t think his name has been mentioned yet on screen.

When Una is briefing the senior staff, we see pictures of the NX-01 (ENT) and Phoenix (First Contact) displayed at the end of the room. Una says that La’an should get what Ortegas is going through, as indeed she should, given her own history with the Gorn (SNW: “Memento Mori”).

Basically, the Chimera Blossom (and now we know why it was named that) allows for hybridisation of different species. In the research facility’s case it hybridised the humans and Klingons with the all-consuming moss, and now M’Beng intends to use it to hybridise Marie’s human genome with the Gorn DNA inside her.

Viridium is a material that can be tracked across star systems. Spock used a viridium patch to track Kirk to Rura Penthe in ST VI. M’Benga was offered a drink by a R’ongovian (SNW: “Spock Amok”) during Spock and Christine’s wedding (“Wedding Bell Blues”), so that’s when he ingested the viridium-spiked olive.

Bytha identifies herself as the daughter of Dak’Rah, and the Champion of House Ra’Ul. Ambassador Rah appeared in “Under the Cloak of War”, where M’Beng killed him - whether it was in self-defence or not is ambiguous.

Ortegas has a ritual of kissing her fist and then knocking on the console for luck. I don’t believe I’ve noticed her do it before.

Bytha says her father was a traitor. As related in “Cloak”, Dak’Rah defected to the Federation following the Klingon War and became an ambassador. Because of this, his House underwent discommendation, which is the equivalent of being excommunicated from Klingon society (TNG: “Sins of the Father”).

Una trying to inform the Klingons that they are on a rescue mission echoes Saavik’s Kobayashi Maru test in ST II, where she gave orders to do the same. Una’s reluctance to raise shields echoes Kirk’s similar reluctance when faced with the USS Reliant in the same movie.

M’Benga finally confesses that he murdered Dak’Rah.

Sto-vo-kor is the Klingon Valhalla, where honourable Klingons who die in battle go after death.

Another quote from ST II, this time from Ortegas: “Klingons don’t take prisoners.” Una’s reference to a warrant officer confirms there are indeed enlisted personnel within Starfleet at this time, as WOs stand in a gap between enlisted and commissioned ranks.

Written by: Onitra Johnson & Bill Wolkoff

Directed by: Dan Liu