Star Trek

The narrator for the “Previously on…” segment sounds like Jonathan Frakes.

Starfleet Academy was founded in 2161 and first appeared on-screen in TNG: “The First Duty”. The flashback takes place in 2368 (13 years prior to 2381), the same year that episode took place.

Josh is Joshua Albert, the member of Nova Squadron who died when rehearsing the Kolvoord Starburst maneuver which underpins “The First Duty”. He was already deceased when the episode began, so never made an appearance. With him are Nick Locarno, Sito Jaxa (voiced by Shannon Fill) and Wesley Crusher (voiced by Wil Wheaton). Jean Hajar is missing, but she could be the small figure that is walking with the group and then turns to jog away at the start of the flashback.

Since Locarno is planning the Starburst maneuver, this means that it’s nearing the end of the academic year of 2367-2368. Mariner’s presence confirms that the latest she could have joined the Academy is in 2367, and since the earliest age she could have joined is 17, she is at least 31 in the present day. Sito’s remark about Mariner sounding like her “when I was a first year” seems to confirm this is Mariner’s freshman year.

Mariner’s xeno-history class covers the Preservers, who were a precursor race that transplanted a group of Native Americans to another planet (named in the script but not on-screen as Amerind), leaving behind an obelisk to protect the planet from asteroids (TOS: “The Paradise Syndrome”). The Xindi were the multi-species race that were the principle antagonists in ENT’s third season.

Nova One and Nova Fleet are obviously named after Nova Squadron. Coupled with the Kolvoord Starburst logo on his jacket (and the Klingon Bird of Prey), it seems Nick has had trouble letting go of the past.

Admiral Vassery last appeared in LD: “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place”. Admiral Alonzo Freeman, Mariner’s father, last appeared in LD: “Grounded” (although a photo of him also appeared in LD: “Mining the Mind’s Mines”).

Of course, Locarno looks like Tom Paris because both characters are acted by Robert Duncan McNeil. Let’s not go into the whole royalty urban myth here.

The Maquis were an insurgent movement trying to drive the Cardassians out of the Demilitarized Zone set up after the Federation-Cardassian wars. They were introduced in DS9 and played a major role in that series as well as in VOY.

Crews listening to Locarno’s address include Andorians, Independent Archeologist Petra Aberdeen (last seen in LD: “The Stars at Night”) and Tamarians. The “Detrion” system could be a misspelling of the Detrian system, a planetary system visited by the Enterprise-D in TNG: “Ship in a Bottle”.

Ransom summarizes Locarno’s sins from “The First Duty”.

Locarno unveils a black market Ferengi Genesis Device seen in “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place”. The Genesis Device was first seen in ST II and is capable of terraforming planetary environments instantly, wiping out any existing ecosphere (which is why it was supposed to be tested on a currently lifeless planet). Potentially, it could create planets, and did once, albeit an unstable one, in ST III.

The Trynar Shield is so named because it has three Bynars operating it.

Goodgey, the good part of the now-ascended ex-homicidal AI Badgey, was last seen in LD: “For a Few Badgeys More”, where the other lower deckers were understandably cautious about his working on the ship.

“Cerritos strong” as a rallying cry was first used by a holographic version of Freeman in LD: “Crisis Point” and by the real Freeman in LD: “First First Contact”. T’Lyn has been reading the ship’s logs, one assumes.

The ship that Mariner commandeers is a Steamrunner-class, first seen in ST: FC. The ship itself is the USS Passaro, NCC-52670, named after Fabio Passaro, a CGI artist who has worked on Star Trek related media like the Eaglemoss models, but has since passed away. Another USS Passaro, a Gagarin-class, was seen in PIC: “The Last Generation” near Sol Station.

(According to @BradinLA on X, this Passaro is a Sabrerunner-class, with Steamrunner-class aesthetics in a Sabre-class size.)

Freeman’s command code override is 06107.2. Mariner has had a lot of practice escaping space stations and stealing ships. Her workout program on the holodeck is staging Cardassian prison breaks and stealing a starship to escape (LD: “Strange Energies”).

D’Erika and Orion last appeared in LD: “Something Borrowed, Something Green”. Sword and Scabbard is perhaps the melee weapon equivalent of Guns & Ammo magazine?

Mariner questions whether you can have three Bynars, since Bynars usually work and live in pairs (TNG: “11001001”). Her moving into the ring system of the planet is reminiscent of the Millennium Falcon hiding in an asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back.

Rule of Acquisition 91: “Your boss is only worth what he pays you” and Rule 289: “Shoot first, count profits later” are new rules, never mentioned before on-screen or in beta canon.

Billups’ willingness to defend the Cerritos’s honor as her Chief Engineer is what Scotty did in TOS: “The Trouble with Tribbles”, where he kept his cool while the Klingons insulted Kirk, but finally lost it when they trash talked the Enterprise.

“Look at the size of that thing!” was Wedge Antilles’ reaction when first seeing the Death Star in Star Wars.

ENS Livik is Rutherford’s nemesis/rival, first introduced in LD: “I Have No Bones and I Must Flee”. Sorting things out with a stint on the Mark Twain riverboat holodeck program is from the same episode.

Ion storms are standard hazards in Star Trek, appearing in many episodes. This particular one is reminiscent of the Mutara Nebula in ST II, especially the camera angles, music, lighting, and static effects on the viewscreen when Locarno pursues Mariner into it.

Not exactly sure how 12-dimensional chess would work, but 3-dimensional chess is a regular game in Star Trek (first seen way back in TOS: “Where No Man Has Gone Before”), with the Four Dimension variant introduced in Diane Duane’s novel My Enemy, My Ally.

The James Horner ST II style music is strong in the Orion destroyer sequence. The shot of the destroyer crashing into the shield is like the Super Star Destroyer crashing into the Death Star in Return of the Jedi.

Boimler’s remark about never seeing someone actually using the captain’s yatch is true. We saw Cerritos’s captain’s yacht in several episodes but it was never taken out. Similarly, the Enterprise-D had one (the Calypso) but it was never used. The Enterprise-E’s yacht, the Cousteau, was used in ST: Insurrection.

Locarno points a pump-action phaser rifle at Mariner, the same type used by Beverley Crusher in PIC: “The Next Generation”.

“Mirab, with sails unfurled,” is Tamarian for “Let’s depart/travel,” (TNG: “Darmok”).

The Genesis Device detonates much the same way its predecessor blew up the Reliant at the end of ST II, with the same nebula rings accompanying it while the yacht zooms off like the Enterprise did. It even forms an M-class planet like the Genesis Planet, except this one seems stable. Starfleet names it Locarno, since his atoms are part of it. Start your speculations on whether this will bring him back to life.

Written by: Top Secret (May Darmon)

Directed by: Top Secret (Bob Suarez)

• The episode title, “The Inner Fight” calls back to two previous titles, TNG’s “The Inner Light” and VOY’s “The Fight”.

• We’ve seen outpost scientists wearing the same jumpsuits as the Persioff IX researchers in “Mining the Mind’s Mines” and “Reflections”.

• T’Lyn comment’s that Mariner’s behaviour ”has grown increasing dangerous since [the] mission to Ferenginar” referencing travel guide updating duty the Lower Deckers were assigned in “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place”.

• Ransom pulls up a display of four of the vessels we’ve seen attacked by the Mysterious Threat over the course of the season: Bynar, Orion, Romulan, and Ferengi. The only ship missing is the Klingon Bird of Prey, IKS Che’Ta’.

    • Ransom specifies that all the attacks have been against non-Federation ships, which establishes that the Bynaus is not a Federation member world.

• Apparently someone is targeting ex-Starfleet officers, and there are four specific individuals the Starfleet is concerned about locating:

    • Seven of Nine - Though she severed on the USS Voyager, Seven of Nine was technically never Starfleet; instead she was more akin to a civilian contractor. She will not actually become a Starfleet officer until season three of PIC, 20 years after this episode, more or less. Seven may have already joined the Fenris Rangers by this point.

    • Beverly Crusher - At this point, Doctor Crusher has left Starfleet and is still pregnant with, or has given birth to her son with Captain Picard, Not David Marcus.

    • Thomas Riker - Will Riker’s transporter duplicate. Last seen in “Defiant” leading a team of Maquis. He turned himself over to the Cardassians to serve in a labour camp; Kira gave him her word they would get him out, and he was never mentioned on DS9 again.

    • Nick Locarno - The senior cadet in Nova Squadron, Nick was expelled from Starfleet Academy after getting one of his team members killed performing a dangerous and banned flight maneuver, and then getting the other members to lie about it, in “The First Duty”.

       • Ransom summarizes the events of “The First Duty”.

• The USS Vancouver was seen in “Cupid’s Errant Arrow”.

• Mariner, Tendi, T’Lyn, and Boimler take the shuttlecraft Death Valley on their danger buoy girls trip, which is the shuttle Tendi arrived to the USS Cerritos on in “Second Contact”.

    • Normally the Death Valley has the same NCC-77567 registry that all the Cerritos shuttles have, but in this episode we see that registry, along with NCC-70492, which is the registry of the Vancouver.

• Tendi comments that it looks as though someone tampered with the communication relays on the danger buoy, and then we see it through the viewscreen of the Che’Ta’. In “The Vulcan Hello”, the USS Shenzhou was investigating a communications relay that had been sabotaged by T’Kuvma’s followers.

• The Che’Ta’ appears to be under the command of G’reck, who was introduced in “wej Duj” as one of the Klingon lower deckers.

    • In “Twovix” G’reck commented that Ma’ah “[would not] be captain much longer,” and his spear was the one floating in the fabricated wreckage of the Che’Ta’

• When we see the exterior of the Che’Ta’ is has a representation of the Kolvoord Starburst, as shown in “The First Duty”, painted on the port wing structure.

    • Nick has the same image on his jacket when we see him later in the episode.

• On the planet Sherbal V, we see the commanding officers of various ships attacked by the Mysterious Threat throughout the season:

    • Gem - Ferengi captain introduced in “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” - played by Eric Bauza, who a number of characters in PRO, LDS, and the “Very Short Treks”, including Ass Face, Screwhead, and the information broker in this episode

    • Vreck - Romulan sub-commander introduced in “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee” - played by Paul F. Tompkins who is the voice of Doctor Migleemo

    • Ma’ah - Klingon captain introduced in “wej Duj” - played by Jon Curry

    • Cosmia - Orion captain introduced in “Something Borrowed, Something Green” - played by Kari Wahlgren voices a variety of LDS characters, such as the Anabaj from “Envoys”, and news anchor Sylvia Ront in “Grounded”

    • Z’oto - Orion first officer introduced in “Something Borrowed, Something Green”

    • The Ferengi first officer introduced in “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place”

    • The Romulan officer introduced in “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”

    • The Bynar co-captains introduced in “A Few Badgeys More”

    • There is also a pair of Cardassians commanding officers; we did not see any Cardassian vessels attacked by the Mysterious Threat

• When Ma’ah steps in the trap set up by Gem and Vreck, we see that his blood is a bright pink, as Klingon blood has occasionally been depicted, such as in “Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country” and “Battle at the Binary Stars”.

    • G’reck’s blood is also the same colour and Ma’ah bites him to death.

• ”Captain, did you know we have pockets?” Rutherford discovers that Starfleet uniforms are made from smart technology that accommodates the wearer’s needs, such as in “Ensign Ro” when Ro was able to unzip her uniform jacket in the front, despite the uniform clearly having its closure in the back.

• Cap’n Freeman, Rutherford, and Shaxs visit Mudds, a dive bar which shares it’s name with one Harcourt Fenton Mudd, introduced in “Mudd’s Women”.

• The doorman at Mudds is played by Paul Scheer, who voices chief engineer Billups.

• ”Jippers are half price for tripeds today.” In “The Escape Artist”, Mudd’s android duplicates were programmed to claim, ”If I had any money, I’d be sipping jippers on a beach somewhere.”

• ”The Klingons are up to something. Just like when they attacked us with the Pakleds.” Mariner references the events of “wej Duj” and she, Tendi, and Boimler learn that T’Lyn was present at that fight. T’Lyn also apparently learns that the Cerritos was Starfleet ship the VCF Sh’vhal was fighting alongside.

• ”Teach me how to tap-dance, Beverly Crusher.” We learned in “Data’s Day” that Doctor Crusher was once known as the Dancing Doctor, and she taught Data to dance in that same episode.

• Mariner explains to Ma’ah that she received a promotion she didn’t want, and that she tired to get demoted but her commander wouldn’t follow through, recalling events in “Twovix” and “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”.

• ”Back at the Academy my dream was to be a captain.” In “Much Ado About Boimler” we learned that everyone in Mariner’s class thought she would be the first of them to make captain.

• We learn that Mariner was friends with Sito Jaxa, who was introduced in “The First Duty” and died in the TNG episode, “Lower Decks”. Mariner references both episodes explaining who Sito was to Ma’ah.

• We learned in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris” that Mariner was stationed on Deep Space 9, but this is her first mention of having actually fought in the Dominion War.

• “Klingons do not hug!”

    • Worf hugged an Edosian woman in “Justice”

    • Worf hugged Alexander in “Reunion”

    • Kor hugged Jadzia upon their reunion in “Blood Oath”

    • Worf hugged Doctor Crusher in “The Bounty”

    • Worf hugged Troi and Riker in “Surrender”

    • Worf hugged Raffi in "The Last Generation"

• The information broker has had cosmetic surgery to resemble the puppet Balok used to appear intimidating in “The Corbomite Maneuver”

• Tendi is able to use her leverage as Mistress of the Winter Constellations to get Cosmia to listen to Mariner. We learned of Tendi’s title during the first girls trip in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.

• Nick Locarno was behind the Mysterious Threat! The Nicksterious Threat!

• Nick is voiced by Robert Duncan McNiell, who played the character in “The First Duty”, as well as Steth and Janeway in “Vis à Vis”, and the Marseilles character featured in the EMH’s holonovel in “Author, Author”.

    • The animated version of Nick Locarno looks similar to the animated version of Tom Paris, both there are some noticeable differences beyond the stubble and scar. Nick eyebrows angle up, where as Paris’ angle down, and Nick’s nose points down while Paris’ is slightly upturned.

While there was an announcement shortly before the WGA strike, and Alex Kurtzman confirmed the writers room is back up and at work during an NYCC panel, Paramount+ is moving forward on promotional information about the forthcoming new ‘Starfleet Academy’ show.

Will be keeping an eye out for information about preproduction design work starting up in Ontario.

@startrek Calling all Trekkies, there some explaining to do. https://medium.com/flicks-tv-hound/calling-all-trekkies-21bbf70680cf #startrek #anniversary #sciencefiction

Not sure how accurate it is but given the figures I vaguely recall, this feels pretty accurate.

Realizing that the Discovery is longer than any of these ships really puts shit into perspective

We know from Kurtzman’s messaging at NYCC recently that Michelle Yeoh put her Academy Award star power towards ensue that her Section 31 ‘movie event’ moves forward on Paramount+.

Checking in on the Director’s Guild of Canada Ontario round up of information for its members (Hot List), there’s been an interesting update.

While ‘Dovercourt’ (working title alias for the direct to streaming movie) still has a bold ‘POSTPONED’ due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, it’s moved from the ‘Preproduction stage’ section of the list to ‘Production.’

What does this suggest?

It would seem that the key preproduction production design work in Toronto has been able to be completed since the WGA strike ended.

Like SNW, the crews in Toronto are basically ready to go into production once the actors’ strike is settled. Logistically, it’s not entirely clear that both could shoot at the same time as they share some of the same crews, but it is encouraging.

I thought this was an interesting read. You can see that the seeds of what would become Star Trek were already growing.

Also, despite the name "Transporter" sounding familiar, his description of it is closer to a holodeck. It "transports" the user to different scenarios. Wild.

Kev & Rob get stuck in a cave and are forced to pass the time awaiting rescue discussing "Caves". As their supplies dwindle, they plumb the hidden depths of other cave-based episodes from Star Trek history, including "The Devil in the Dark" (TOS), "Heart of Stone" (DS9), "Final Mission" (TNG), and "Waltz" (DS9).

The title is a play on the TNG episode “The Inner Light”, where Picard is hit by a beam from a Kataan probe that makes him live out a lifetime of memories in the space of less than an hour. A similar probe last appeared in LD: “In the Cradle of Vexilon”.

The scientists are studying the venomous tremble lizards of Persioff IX. Persioff IX could be a reference to veteran actor Nehemiah Persoff, who played Palor Toff in TNG: “The Most Toys”. The design of the anti-venom suits are similar to TOS-style EV suits, seen in TOS: “The Tholian Web”.

The list of ex-Starfleet Officers to be escorted include Seven of Nine, Beverly Crusher, Thomas Riker and Nick Locarno. At this point in their lives, Seven of Nine is with the Fenris Rangers (PIC: “Stardust City Rag”), Beverly Crusher has just left Starfleet after becoming pregnant with Picard’s son (PIC: “Seventeen Seconds”), Thomas Riker was last seen being sentenced to a Cardassian work camp (DS9: “Defiant”), and Nick Locarno was last seen expelled from Starfleet Academy (TNG: “The First Duty”). Space prevents me from going into beta canon sources for Riker and Lorcano, or the latter’s resemblance to Tom Paris.

The shuttle the team takes to Sherbal V is the Death Valley. As with the other Cerritos shuttles, she is named after the Californian National Park.

The Klingon Bird of Prey, based on an eyeballing of its relative size to the shuttle, is a B’rel-class scout, the same class as the Bounty from ST III and ST IV.

It may just be my imagination, but New Axton’s planetary force field which allows only ships in through a protected portal reminds me of the shield around Scariff in Rogue One: a Star Wars Story. The shuttle bringing Freeman, Rutherford and Shax to the surface has a profile and colors resembling a Tatooine landspeeder, and the staff handling planetary landings were in uniforms resembling Imperial ones and speak in pseudo-British accents (not to mention the control room looks like your standard Empire air traffic control). We had vague Star Wars references last episode, too.

Starfleet shuttles are equipped with a short-range transporter. We first saw one being used in TNG: “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II”, when rescuing Picard from a Borg cube. The standard range for a shipboard transporter is 40,000km (TNG Technical Manual), but one presumes the smaller shuttle transporters have a shorter range.

From the pink blood, the masked figure that had his foot caught in the trap is Klingon. He later turns out to be Ma’ah, captain of the IKS Che’Ta’. We saw his rise from Lower Decker to commander in LD: “wej Duj” and his ship was “destroyed” by the mystery ship in LD: “Twovix”.

Among the aliens coming out from the moon shuttle are a Gorn female and a Caitian. In TOS: “The Corbomite Maneurver”, McCoy quips, “What am I, a doctor or a moon shuttle conductor?”

The New Axton bar named Mudds refers to notorious conman Harcourt Fenton “Harry” Mudd, chronologically last seen selling love potions in TAS: “Mudd’s Passion”. The patron that falls off the stool is a Galardonian (LD: “Second Contact”). The bouncer says “jippers are half price for tripeds today” - a jipper was one of Mudd’s preferred drinks (ST: “The Escape Artist”).

T’Lyn was indeed at the Battle of System 7743.8 (“wej Duj”), on the VCF Sh’val which came to the Cerritos’ rescue (we last saw the Sh’val in LD: “For a Few Badgeys More”). Also at that battle was the Che’Ta’. She did mention an encounter with a Klingon and Pakled ship to Mariner in LD: “Empathological Fallacies”, but Mariner may not have connected that with the Cerritos.

Boimler’s dream about Crusher refers to TNG: “Data’s Day” where she teaches Data to tap dance.

A dk’ tahg is a Klingon dagger, first seen in ST III but officially named TNG: “Birthright, Part II”.

The “perfect friend” that Mariner modeled herself after was Bajoran ENS Sito Jaxa, who was part of Nick Lorcano’s Nova Squadron (“The First Duty”). Sito was subsequently killed in 2370 during a covert operation to return a double agent to Cardassia Prime (TNG: “Lower Decks”).

Forgive an old chronologist’s ramblings: Sito’s fall from grace happened in 2368, and she had to retake her classes from the past year. Since she was on the Enterprise-D in the middle of 2370, the latest she could have graduated was in 2369. Mariner’s account that Sito graduated ahead of her means Mariner would have graduated at the earliest in 2370. A four-year course means she entered the Academy in 2367 - entering at age 17 (Wesley took the entrance exam at 16) makes her born in 2350, making her 31 as of 2381.

The Dominion War lasted from 2373 to 2375. If the above timeline is correct, Mariner would have served in it, especially since she served a stint on Deep Space 9 (LD: “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”, “Hear All, Trust Nothing”).

toDuj means courage or bravery in Klingon. It’s also the name of a Klingon fighter class in Star Trek Online. biHnuch doesn’t mean “idiot” but cowards - plural. The word nuch means coward and the biH means “they”, so Mariner’s usage of “a biHnuch”is grammatically incorrect.

I’m unable to understand what Ma’ah says before he hands the pip over to Mariner.

The alien at the table that Mariner, Shax and Rutherford approaches appears to be a Balok puppet (“The Corbormite Maneuver”), which was often seen in the series’ closing credits. The countdown that the “puppet” makes was also done in the TOS episode towards the Enterprise’s impending destruction. However… oops. In the non-canon novel The Face of the Unknown by Christopher L. Bennett, it was established the the Balok puppet was based on the features of the larger, more intimidating Dassik species, with which Balok’s species (the Linnik) were in conflict with.

The bounty hunter’s language is similar to the sounds made by the Breen from DS9.

Tendi, is of course, the Mistress of the Winter Constellations (“We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”) raised to be the Prime of her house, the Tip of the Moonlit Blade (LD: “Something Borrowed, Something Green”).

More Star Wars references, specifically Return of the Jedi. The monitoring station is practically identical to the Imperial bunker on the forest moon of Endor. Attacking the Bird of Prey armed only with primitive weapons is reminiscent of the Ewoks attacking Imperial vehicles armed with similar stone-tipped spears. Sherbal V also looks like the forest moon.

Freeman’s plan for Billups to be disguised as a bounty hunter refers to Leia’s gambit to infiltrate Jabba’s Palace. We should have known, since the bounty hunter ship has a vaguely Hysperian color scheme (LD: “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie”). The place where they search for Locarno even looks like Jabba’s Palace.

Of course, it stands to reason that if Mariner knew Sito, she’d know Locarno as well (the Kolvoord Starburst - the maneuver that got him drummed out of the Academy - is on his jacket as well as on the Bird of Prey). 



But if Mariner knew him at the Academy, that’s the clincher for her age. “The First Duty” takes place in 2368 as noted before, but Lorcano was graduating that year, which is why he was hell-bent on the Starburst stunt. If that’s so, then the latest time Mariner would have known Locarno is the 2367-2368 academic year, which means her latest entry into the Academy is 2367. Backtracking, her birthday is in 2350 at the latest. So coming at it from two angles - Sito and Locarno - comes up with the same minimum age: 31.

Written by: It's a secret (it was Mike McMahan)

Directed by: We're not tellin' (it was Brandon Williams)

No Discovery, Protostar, or La Sirenia… but I'll absolutely take what I can get.

• The episode title, “Caves” is a call back to the frequency in which caves or cave like structures are featured prominently in episodes of “Star Trek”, going all the way back to the original pilot, “The Cage”. Caves have been a significant part of the following episodes:

• This episode was Ben Rodgers, who voices lieutenant Steve Stevens.

CRITICAL LIST ERROR

• In this episode, we see caves on the following planets:

    • Grottonus - A grotto is a form of cave

    • Kyron 4 - Unfortunately not the fourth chyron we see in the episode

    • Balkus 9

    • Glish

• ”Oh, awesome. I feel like since we got promoted we never get paired up any more.” Boimler and Mariner were both on travel guide duty in “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” two episodes together, but even then they approached the responsibility separately. That is the only episode we’ve seen where they’ve been on a mission together since their mutual promotion in the season premiere “Twovix”.

• ”I hate caves!” Mariner revealed in the series premiere, “Second Contact” that she was once trapped in a sentient cave. *”That’s a dark place that knows things.”

    • Mariner mentions the sentient cave again at the end of this episode.

• “I feel like I’ve been in this cave a hundred times.” Throughout TNG, DS9, and VOY, the same cave set was reused frequently to depict caverns on multiple planets across the galaxy. It was not every cave, but many of them.

• “Like the time we all got stuck together after that rage virus outbreak on the ship.” Tendi is referring to the events of “Second Contact”.

• Steve Levy was introduced in “No Small Parts” where we learned he’s a conspiracy theorist.

    • ”Wolf 359 was a tragedy.” In “No Small Parts” Mariner said that Levy claimed Wolf 359 was an inside job during a date they went on.

• During the flashbacks to the various caves the Lower Deckers have been trapped in, they’re all lieutenants junior grade, meaning that for all of them, the events have occurred since getting promoted in “Twovix”.

• We learn that the Vendor Prime is in the Beta Quadrant.

    • In “The Survivors” Spock claimed that the Vendorian homeworld is quarantined; “Their practice of deceit as a way of life puts them off limits.”

• The Vendorians are played by:

    • Noël Wells - Tendi

    • Dawnn Lewis - Cap’n Freeman, and Thusa this episode

    • Jerry O’Connel - Ransom, and the carnivorous moss this episode

    • Fred Tatasciore - Shaxs, and Steve Levy

• ”I thought you were just a paranoid anxiety made up by people who needed an imagined enemy.” Boimler had previously encountered a Vendorian in “Envoys”.

• ”...how you guys falsified data that going warp speed damages subspace.” In “Force of Nature” Hekaran scientists demonstrated to the crew of the USS Enterprise D that traveling at warp can damage subspace.

• ”We did not, as you put it, ‘do the Klingon civil war.’” Presumably Levy’s theory refers to the conflict between those Klingons who supported Gowron’s claim to be Chancellor of the Empire, and those who supported the House of Duras, seen in “Redemption” and “Redemption II”.

• “Sure, hang out with a guy who thinks we’re in the evil mirror universe.” The mirror universe was introduced in “Mirror Mirror”, and has been featured in several episodes of DS9, ENT, and DIS.

• Rutherford informs the Lower Deckers that he and Doctor T’Ana had a ”cave baby” together. Apparently he was impregnated by contact from a dying alien that is able to reproduce parthenogenetically through touch with a host.

    • Troi was non-consensually impregnated by a non-corporeal intelligence in “The Child”.

    • Tom Paris and Captain Janeway had children together while they were hyper evolved salamanders in “Threshold”.

    • Trip was accidentally impregnated through touch by a Xyrillian woman in “Unexpected”.

    • The less said about Captain Picard and Doctor Crusher’s child, the better.

• Doctor T’Ana states that molecular fungo-sites can’t be replicated. Other things that cannot be replicated include:

    • The vaccine for Anchilles fever - “Code of Honor”

    • Ketracel White - “The Abandoned”

    • Bio-neural gel packs - “Learning Curve”

    • Borg cortical nodes - “Imperfection”

    • Presumably latinum also cannot be replicated, but this is never explicitly established

• Delta Shift and the Lower Deckers’ rivalry with them were introduced in “Terminal Provocations”.

    • This is the first time we’ve gotten names for Karavitus, Amadou, and Asif on screen.

• Mariner’s mission with Delta Shift used the shuttle, Kings Canyon, which is the same shuttle Boimler’s team used in “In the Cradle of Vexilon”.

• Pergium was introduced in “The Devil in the Dark”.

• Amadou explains that a nearby mineral vein is emitting chronitons, causing the aging effects. Chronitons were first mentioned in “The Next Phase” as subatomic particles with temporal properties.

    • In “Timescape” Picard’s hand ages rapidly when he reaches into a temporal fragment. It is not explicitly stated there are chronitons involved, but both incidents were the result of issues with a Romulan singularity drive.

• ”We’re just going to have the doc grow you a new one.” Nog’s leg was replaced with a bio-synthetic limb after he lost it in “The Siege of AR-558”.

• Delta Shift has a chant, like the Lower Deckers’ ”Lower Decks!” chant, first seen in “Second Contact”.

• The beginning of Tendi’s flashback to the USS Cerritos’ bar is taken from “Second Contact”.

• ”I thought synthohol let you shrug off the effects of alcohol.” Data explained that was the case to Scotty in “Relics”.

• Targs are Klingon animals used as pets, food, and candles. The first one seen on screen was manifested by Worf’s mind in “Where No One Has Gone Before”.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ended in 1999 after 7 seasons but didn't jump into feature films like The Next Generation. Here's why.

Today Paramount+ released a set of images for episode 409 but they did not release any other details, not even the title of the episode.