khaosworks

The title is named after the eponymous 1966 Laura Nyro song which was more famously covered by The 5th Dimension in 1969. It has lent its name to various other media, including a movie, an episode of Gilmore Girls, as well as an episode of Cheers. It’s sung from the point of view of a woman wanting her boyfriend to marry her. 

The Stardate is 2251.7, three months after the events of SNW: “Hegemony, Part II”. The Federation Day Centennial being 3 days away places the Earth year as 2261. Various non-canon sources give different dates for Federation Day, ranging from an unused newspaper clipping from Generations giving the date as October 11 to May 8 in Geoffrey Mandel’s Star Charts. 

The music being played as we move through a Starbase One biodome (SNW: “Strange New Worlds”) is “Hacker De Tu Piel” by Lavanda Son, a Venezuelan tropical salsa band. 

Chapel has returned from her three month fellowship and brings along with her Dr Roger Korby (her future fiancé as per TOS: “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”). Korby was played in the TOS episode by Michael Strong. In that episode, Spock referred to Korby as the Pasteur of archeological medicine, whose translation of old Orion records revolutionised immunization techniques. Of course, in the original, there is no hint that Korby and Spock had met before. In any case, if the timeline in the original still holds, Korby will disappear on Exo III within the year. Cillian O’Sullivan, who plays him in SNW, has an Irish accent which Strong did not display.

As Spock digests the information that Korby is Chapel’s date, the background music echoes the “fight music” from TOS: “Amok Time”, indicating his jealousy.

Ortegas’s personnel file seen in SNW: “Among the Lotus Eaters” seemed to mention only one sibling, Fabiola (a feminine name). Here her brother is named “Beto”, which a nickname for Spanish names that end in “-berto”.

Pike does have an impressive array of medals (Memory Alpha lists 17), and in 2256 was ranked among the most decorated captains in Starfleet (DIS: “Choose Your Pain”). Batel makes a crack about Pike’s hair products, a rather meta joke considering the Internet memes about his hair.

The closed captioning says “Tilarian Star Gems”, but it could be “Talarian”, a race first seen in TNG: “Suddenly Human”. The Talarian Republic encompasses at least two Alpha Quadrant star systems in the 24th Century.

The second act resets to the same opening narration of the first act (similar to TNG: “Cause and Effect”), but then takes it into different events - the celebration of Spock and Chapel’s wedding instead of the Federation Day Centennial. 

One of the items on the wedding checklist is for a wedding licence and Pike’s approval, giving us a clue as to the legal requirements for a wedding for Starfleet personnel. 

Kal-if-fee refers to part of the traditional Vulcan wedding ceremony (the kun-ut-kal-if-fee), specifically where the bride opts for a ritual challenge where two males fight for the right to mate with her (“Amok Time”).

Korby says he’s checked himself for phase variances to see if he’s in an alternate dimension. As we learned from TNG: “Parallels”, each parallel universe (and its inhabitants) has its own quantum signature. Spock refers to an improbability field that once made the crew sing (SNW: “Subspace Rhapsody”). 

The entity says, “Greetings and many felicitations”. In TOS: “The Squire of Gothos”, Trelane’s first message to Enterprise is “Greetings and Felicitations”. His snapping of fingers is also reminiscent of Trelane and Q. The possible relationship between Trelane and the Q has been the result of much fan speculation and made explicit in some licensed fiction (the late and much lamented Peter David’s Q-Squared being the best example). 

Scotty’s claim that he’s not much of a drinker is belied by his conduct during TOS, especially when he literally drinks the alien Tomar under the table in TOS: “By Any Other Name”. 

Korby’s remark about “wishing us all into a cornfield” is a reference to the classic Twilight Zone episode “It’s a Good Life”, where Bill Mumy (who would later star in DS9: “The Siege of AR-558”) plays a malevolent child with immense reality-altering powers who banishes people who defy him to “the cornfield”, where they are never seen again. 

Spock quotes from Pablo Naruda’s Love Sonnet XI as part of his vows (and I believe it was also quoted earlier when he was speaking with Korby). 

While no names are mentioned, I think it’s pretty clear it is Trelane (he even lets loose with a “Tally Ho!”), and his father, appropriately enough is voiced by John de Lancie, namely Q. Why Spock doesn’t remember this when “The Squire of Gothos” comes around is now an open question. Trelane also mentions an unnamed “old home world” Korby was digging around in and that he is 8,020 years old.  

The song that closes out the celebrations is, of course, “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” by 80s pop duo Wham!. And it appears that Ortegas was more affected by her encounter with the Gorn than we thought although whether it’s PTSD (like Keyla Detmer in DIS) or something more sinister remains to be seen.

We discovered that the Gorn used light for ship-to-ship communications in SNW: “Memento Mori”, and in that episode they used it to fool one Gorn ship into firing on another. 

The first mention of wolkite, a rare mineral which apparently contains “subspace gauge bosons”. Gauge bosons are an elementary subatomic particle that acts as a messenger particle that carries forces for fermions (don’t ask me to explain further - I’m a lawyer, dammit, not a particle physicist), which apparently can be tracked with sensors. Let’s roll with it.

Inertial dampeners create subspace fields which protect crewmembers from the worst effects of acceleration and deceleration, especially when moving at faster than light speeds (VOY: “Tattoo”). This tells us that ships at warp speeds experience intertial effects, and that subspace fields affect inertial mass, both which run counter to claims that *Star Trek* warp drives run on the same principles as Alcubierre drives.

There is a slight blurring effect on the bridge as *Enterprise* moves to warp, reminiscent of the “wormhole effect” in *TMP* and when *Bounty* goes into time warp in *ST IV*. 

Chapel says that without certain shots, Batel’s tissues might turn necrotic in the statsis field. Why exactly this would be the case, if a stasis field is designed to suspend all cellular growth, is not explained - unless it only prevents growth and not decay. Epinephrine is another name for adrenaline, and can be used to prevent cardiac arrest and anaphylactic shock, among others. Batel is allergic to cryoserum and hence can’t be put into stasis. So stasis isn’t just some kind of force field but also involves cryogenic suspension as well? I have so many questions…

Joseph (M’Benga) isn’t around because he was part of the landing party kidnapped by the Gorn at the end of SNW: “Hegemony”.

April says the Federation is still recovering from the Klingon War (2256-2257), which occured in DIS Season 1, some 2-3 years prior. Chapel and M’Benga served in that war (SNW: “Under the Cloak of War”). 

As we learned in“Hegemony”, Pelia was one of Scotty’s engineering instructors at the Academy. Scotty better get used to working under time pressures, considering what he’s going to face in the years to come (at least, until he starts padding estimates).

La’an was the sole survivor, as a child, of her colony ship SS *Puget Sound* which was captured by the Gorn. The person she sees in her dream is Manu, her brother, who sacrificed himself for her during that time. He discovered the Gorn’s use of light as communication, and passed that knowledge on to La’an (“Memento Mori”). 

Scotty says “bawheid!” which is a Scottish invective meaning a stupid person (originally a person with a round face/head). *Stardiver* was Scotty’s previous assigment which was attacked by the Gorn (“Hegemony”). 

I will not, for the moment, debate the plausibility of the Gorn relying entirely on instrumentation and not visuals for their ships.

Una says that the radiation in the binary star system is so intense that they can only use impulse and shields won’t protect them. This reminds me of the conditions in the Mutara Nebula in *ST II*, where the static discharge and gas rendered visual and shields useless (*Enterprise*’s warp drive was out, anyway). 

Debulking surgery is a type of surgery used to reduce the size of cancerous tumours, commonly used in cases of ovarian cancer. 

Some Illyrians still use genetic engineering among their community, which is against Federation laws (SNW: “Ghosts of Illyria”, “Ad Astra Per Aspera”), hence the use of Una’s blood being against regulations. 

The screen at Una and Uhura’s briefing first shows the Finibus system which featured in “Memento Mori”, and then the Galdonterre system which was mentioned in DS9: “Blood Oath” as a place where the Albino hid from Kang, Kor and Koloth. Both  are in the Beta Quadrant. The larger scale map also shows systems where CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) events have occured, stellar events which trigger Gorn attacks.

X-class flares are the largest category of solar flares, which can cause radio blackouts and trigger radiation storms in the upper atmosphere. Supra-arcade downflows are sunward-traveling plasma voids seen during solar flares, which appear as voids because they are less dense than surrounding plasma. 

“A couple of litres” of Una’s blood seems like a lot - a human body typically holds about 5 litres of blood, so 2 litres is like 40% of your volume, which would send you into severe hypovolemic shock. Maybe they meant pints.

Valeo Beta V was where SNW: “Not All Those Who Wander” took place, where the USS *Peregrine* crashed after a Gorn hatchling outbreak on board. 

Pike’s strategy is similar to how Picard defeated the Borg in TNG: “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II”, by sending a command to put them to sleep. While it works for now, Pike’s concern about whether they’ve just kicked the can down the road foreshadows Kirk’s future encounter with the Gorn about six years later in TOS: “Arena” (which has to be quite extensively retconned given the events in SNW). 

“I’m Erica Ortegas, I fly the ship,” was the mantra that kept Ortegas focused while a memory sapping field was affecting everyone during the events of SNW: “Among the Lotus Eaters”.

Pike reluctantly starts to recites the Lord’s Prayer, saying to his father, “You win.” Pike’s father was a science teacher who also taught comparative religion, who died some time previous (SNW: “Those Old Scientists”) and with whom he had a contentious relationship.

The title is named after the eponymous 1966 Laura Nyro song which was more famously covered by The 5th Dimension in 1969. It has lent its name to various other media, including a movie, an episode of Gilmore Girls, as well as an episode of Cheers. It’s sung from the point of view of a woman wanting her boyfriend to marry her. 

The Stardate is 2251.7, three months after the events of SNW: “Hegemony, Part II”. The Federation Day Centennial being 3 days away places the Earth year as 2261. Various non-canon sources give different dates for Federation Day, ranging from an unused newspaper clipping from Generations giving the date as October 11 to May 8 in Geoffrey Mandel’s Star Charts. 

The music being played as we move through a Starbase One biodome (SNW: “Strange New Worlds”) is “Hacker De Tu Piel” by Lavanda Son, a Venezuelan tropical salsa band. 

Chapel has returned from her three month fellowship and brings along with her Dr Roger Korby (her future fiancé as per TOS: “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”). Korby was played in the TOS episode by Michael Strong. In that episode, Spock referred to Korby as the Pasteur of archeological medicine, whose translation of old Orion records revolutionised immunization techniques. Of course, in the original, there is no hint that Korby and Spock had met before. In any case, if the timeline in the original still holds, Korby will disappear on Exo III within the year. Cillian O’Sullivan, who plays him in SNW, has an Irish accent which Strong did not display.

As Spock digests the information that Korby is Chapel’s date, the background music echoes the “fight music” from TOS: “Amok Time”, indicating his jealousy.

Ortegas’s personnel file seen in SNW: “Among the Lotus Eaters” seemed to mention only one sibling, Fabiola (a feminine name). Here her brother is named “Beto”, which a nickname for Spanish names that end in “-berto”.

Pike does have an impressive array of medals (Memory Alpha lists 17), and in 2256 was ranked among the most decorated captains in Starfleet (DIS: “Choose Your Pain”). Batel makes a crack about Pike’s hair products, a rather meta joke considering the Internet memes about his hair.

The closed captioning says “Tilarian Star Gems”, but it could be “Talarian”, a race first seen in TNG: “Suddenly Human”. The Talarian Republic encompasses at least two Alpha Quadrant star systems in the 24th Century.

The second act resets to the same opening narration of the first act (similar to TNG: “Cause and Effect”), but then takes it into different events - the celebration of Spock and Chapel’s wedding instead of the Federation Day Centennial. 

One of the items on the wedding checklist is for a wedding licence and Pike’s approval, giving us a clue as to the legal requirements for a wedding for Starfleet personnel. 

Kal-if-fee refers to part of the traditional Vulcan wedding ceremony (the kun-ut-kal-if-fee), specifically where the bride opts for a ritual challenge where two males fight for the right to mate with her (“Amok Time”).

Korby says he’s checked himself for phase variances to see if he’s in an alternate dimension. As we learned from TNG: “Parallels”, each parallel universe (and its inhabitants) has its own quantum signature. Spock refers to an improbability field that once made the crew sing (SNW: “Subspace Rhapsody”). 

The entity says, “Greetings and many felicitations”. In TOS: “The Squire of Gothos”, Trelane’s first message to Enterprise is “Greetings and Felicitations”. His snapping of fingers is also reminiscent of Trelane and Q. The possible relationship between Trelane and the Q has been the result of much fan speculation and made explicit in some licensed fiction (the late and much lamented Peter David’s Q-Square being the best example). 

Scotty’s claim that he’s not much of a drinker is belied by his conduct during TOS, especially when he literally drinks the alien Tomar under the table in TOS: “By Any Other Name”. 

Korby’s remark about “wishing us all into a cornfield” is a reference to the classic Twilight Zone episode “It’s a Good Life”, where Bill Mumy (who would later star in DS9: “The Siege of AR-558”) plays a malevolent child with immense reality-altering powers who banishes people who defy him to “the cornfield”, where they are never seen again. 

Spock quotes from Pablo Naruda’s Love Sonnet XI as part of his vows (and I believe it was also quoted earlier when he was speaking with Korby). 

While no names are mentioned, I think it’s pretty clear it is Trelane (he even lets loose with a “Tally Ho!”), and his father, appropriately enough is voiced by John de Lancie, namely Q. Why Spock doesn’t remember this when “The Squire of Gothos” comes around is now an open question. Trelane also mentions an unnamed “old home world” Korby was digging around in and that he is 8,020 years old.  

The song that closes out the celebrations is, of course, “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” by 80s pop duo Wham!. And it appears that Ortegas was more affected by her encounter with the Gorn than we thought although whether it’s PTSD (like Keyla Detmer in DIS) or something more sinister remains to be seen.

We discovered that the Gorn used light for ship-to-ship communications in SNW: “Memento Mori”, and in that episode they used it to fool one Gorn ship into firing on another. 

The first mention of wolkite, a rare mineral which apparently contains “subspace gauge bosons”. Gauge bosons are an elementary subatomic particle that acts as a messenger particle that carries forces for fermions (don’t ask me to explain further - I’m a lawyer, dammit, not a particle physicist), which apparently can be tracked with sensors. Let’s roll with it.

Inertial dampeners create subspace fields which protect crewmembers from the worst effects of acceleration and deceleration, especially when moving at faster than light speeds (VOY: “Tattoo”). This tells us that ships at warp speeds experience intertial effects, and that subspace fields affect inertial mass, both which run counter to claims that *Star Trek* warp drives run on the same principles as Alcubierre drives.

There is a slight blurring effect on the bridge as *Enterprise* moves to warp, reminiscent of the “wormhole effect” in *TMP* and when *Bounty* goes into time warp in *ST IV*. 

Chapel says that without certain shots, Batel’s tissues might turn necrotic in the statsis field. Why exactly this would be the case, if a stasis field is designed to suspend all cellular growth, is not explained - unless it only prevents growth and not decay. Epinephrine is another name for adrenaline, and can be used to prevent cardiac arrest and anaphylactic shock, among others. Batel is allergic to cryoserum and hence can’t be put into stasis. So stasis isn’t just some kind of force field but also involves cryogenic suspension as well? I have so many questions…

Joseph (M’Benga) isn’t around because he was part of the landing party kidnapped by the Gorn at the end of SNW: “Hegemony”.

April says the Federation is still recovering from the Klingon War (2256-2257), which occured in DIS Season 1, some 2-3 years prior. Chapel and M’Benga served in that war (SNW: “Under the Cloak of War”). 

As we learned in“Hegemony”, Pelia was one of Scotty’s engineering instructors at the Academy. Scotty better get used to working under time pressures, considering what he’s going to face in the years to come (at least, until he starts padding estimates).

La’an was the sole survivor, as a child, of her colony ship SS *Puget Sound* which was captured by the Gorn. The person she sees in her dream is Manu, her brother, who sacrificed himself for her during that time. He discovered the Gorn’s use of light as communication, and passed that knowledge on to La’an (“Memento Mori”). 

Scotty says “bawheid!” which is a Scottish invective meaning a stupid person (originally a person with a round face/head). *Stardiver* was Scotty’s previous assigment which was attacked by the Gorn (“Hegemony”). 

I will not, for the moment, debate the plausibility of the Gorn relying entirely on instrumentation and not visuals for their ships.

Una says that the radiation in the binary star system is so intense that they can only use impulse and shields won’t protect them. This reminds me of the conditions in the Mutara Nebula in *ST II*, where the static discharge and gas rendered visual and shields useless (*Enterprise*’s warp drive was out, anyway). 

Debulking surgery is a type of surgery used to reduce the size of cancerous tumours, commonly used in cases of ovarian cancer. 

Some Illyrians still use genetic engineering among their community, which is against Federation laws (SNW: “Ghosts of Illyria”, “Ad Astra Per Aspera”), hence the use of Una’s blood being against regulations. 

The screen at Una and Uhura’s briefing first shows the Finibus system which featured in “Memento Mori”, and then the Galdonterre system which was mentioned in DS9: “Blood Oath” as a place where the Albino hid from Kang, Kor and Koloth. Both  are in the Beta Quadrant. The larger scale map also shows systems where CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) events have occured, stellar events which trigger Gorn attacks.

X-class flares are the largest category of solar flares, which can cause radio blackouts and trigger radiation storms in the upper atmosphere. Supra-arcade downflows are sunward-traveling plasma voids seen during solar flares, which appear as voids because they are less dense than surrounding plasma. 

“A couple of litres” of Una’s blood seems like a lot - a human body typically holds about 5 litres of blood, so 2 litres is like 40% of your volume, which would send you into severe hypovolemic shock. Maybe they meant pints.

Valeo Beta V was where SNW: “Not All Those Who Wander” took place, where the USS *Peregrine* crashed after a Gorn hatchling outbreak on board. 

Pike’s strategy is similar to how Picard defeated the Borg in TNG: “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II”, by sending a command to put them to sleep. While it works for now, Pike’s concern about whether they’ve just kicked the can down the road foreshadows Kirk’s future encounter with the Gorn about six years later in TOS: “Arena” (which has to be quite extensively retconned given the events in SNW). 

“I’m Erica Ortegas, I fly the ship,” was the mantra that kept Ortegas focused while a memory sapping field was affecting everyone during the events of SNW: “Among the Lotus Eaters”.

Pike reluctantly starts to recites the Lord’s Prayer, saying to his father, “You win.” Pike’s father was a science teacher who also taught comparative religion, who died some time previous (SNW: “Those Old Scientists”) and with whom he had a contentious relationship.

To be honest, I found it a bit pedestrian and the continuity geek in me is a bit annoyed with some bits.

Sigh. Okay, here we go.

The opening Star Trek Universe sequence features the old scow used in this movie as well as a mirrored version of the Star Trek logo, referencing Philippa Georgiou’s Mirror Universe origins and the plot’s connections to the MU.

Aeschlyus was a playwright of Ancient Greece often considered the father of tragedy. The full quote is actually, “The anvil of justice is planted firm, and fate who makes the sword does the forging in advance.”

The opening scene takes place in the Terran Empire, the Mirror Universe counterpart of the Federation, although exactly where (or when) is not specified.

San was first mentioned in the DIS novel Die Standing as a friend of the younger Giorgiou, and then subsequently seen in flashbacks in DIS’s third season. We know little about him except that Giorgiou saw herself standing over his body and she believed she was dead (DIS: “Terra Firma, Part 2”).

This version of Giorgiou’s rise to power, by participating in a Hunger Games-esque event and murdering her family, is different from the “official” version seen in DIS: “Terra Firma, Part 1”, where Giorgiou, as a peasant girl, is said to have driven back a Klingon invasion single-handedly. Why precisely the Empire chooses its Emperor like this I leave it for my fellow Daystrom researcher to ponder.

Control was the name of a rogue computer system used by Section 31 that attempted to gain sentience to destroy all organic life in the galaxy in DIS Season 2. It was destroyed in 2258, so the name was given to another Section 31 operative which served the same purpose.

The unredacted text reads:

PHILIPPA GEORGIOU

PRIORITY CLEARANCE REQUIRED

The subject is EMPEROR Philippa Georgiou, former ruler of the TERRAN EMPIRE She’s an established threat and tyrant with a vast history of calculated atrocities, against her people as well as others.

Located in a PARALLEL UNIVERSE with the highest criminal population in recorded history. After an unexpected event, thought to have been around circa 2257, Georgiou was brought to our universe. Starfleet lost contact after a short time with Section 31.

There’s some fragmentary text visible in the close-up, “Recently spotted using an alias”, “located outside federation space, where we are tracking”, “new black market threat.” Section 31 lost contact with Giorgiou because, like the rest of Discovery’s crew, she was transported to 3188 (DIS: “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2”).

The starmap, like all starmaps from DIS on, is based on Geoffrey Mandel’s *Star Trek: Star Charts”, but with some alterations. One thing I spotted is the existence of a demilitarized zone around Chin’toka - but smaller than the one depicted in Star Charts which circa 2378 or so.

Georgiou’s location is near Hupyria (where the species of Maihar’du, Grand Nagus Zek’s servant, hails from). While not marked on the map, it is in proximity to Ferengi space as well.

The Treaty of Ka’Tann was negotiated the Vulcan ambassador V’Lar in the 21st or 22nd Century (ENT: “Fallen Hero”). This is the first time we have details of it forbidding Federation entry beyond the borders delineated by the treaty. Known states in that part of the Galaxy include the Talarian Republic, the Cardassian Union, the Tzenkethi Coalition, the Ferengi Alliance and the First Federation (TOS: “The Corbomite Maneuver”). As pointed out to me, this might explain why we never saw these species that much during the TOS era.

But that being said, we can see Starbase 17 (two of them, in different locations!), Starbase 25 and Deep Space 3 across the treaty line, and a few places Kirk and Pike’s Enterprise did visit, including Sarpeidon (which shouldn’t be there since it got blown up when its sun went nova in TOS: “All Our Yesterdays”), Gideon (TOS: “The Mark of Gideon”), Gamma Trianguli (TOS: “The Apple”), Galen (SNW: “Children of the Comet”) and Kiley (SNW: “Strange New Worlds”). There’s also Maxia, where Picard’s Stargazer was lost in 2355. So it’s all a bit of a muddle as far as production art is concerned.

The Stardate is 1292.4, at a space station called the Baraam. This is a TOS-style stardate, but back then stardates were pretty much random, and given the state of stardates these days, tells us absolutely nothing about when this is set

Virgil is a Cheronian (TOS: “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”), specifically of the ruling half-white class (white on the left side), who hold the half-black class in contempt. Cheronians are extremely long lived (Bele was chasing Lokai for over 50,000 years), but were assumed to have been extinct since 2268, casualties of a civil war which wiped out Cheron’s population.

Quasi is a Chameloid, a shape shifter whose species first appeared in ST VI as a prisoner on Rura Penthe, a Klingon prison planet. Like the other Chameloid, his irises are amber and don’t change when he shape shifts.

Melle is a Deltan, a species known for their extreme sensuality which most other species find irresistible. Those serving (officially) in Starfleet have to take an oath of celibacy so as not to take advantage of sexually immature species.

Giorgiou suggests Vulcans never laugh, which is a generalization because it doesn’t take into account v’tosh ka’tur (Vulcans without logic, first appearing in ENT: “Fusion”), who eschew arie’mnu (passion’s mastery). She also suggests he lost his mind during pon farr, the Vulcan mating frenzy (TOS: “Amok Time”).

Rachel Garrett first appeared in TNG: “Yesterday’s Enterprise” as the Captain of the USS Enterprise-C, which was destroyed with few survivors during the Battle of Narendra III in 2344. Given that this is her younger counterpart, and that she appeared in her 40s in 2344, this would place the events of Section 31 in the mid 2320s, some 860 years in the past since Giorgiou entered the Guardian of Forever seeking redemption in DIS: “Terra Firma, Part 2”. Her presence on the team appears to be official, so that means Section 31 at this point in time is still operating as part of the Starfleet chain of command, unlike by 2374 (DS9: “Inquisition”).

Part of the reason Giorgiou did this was to stave off her impending death because of her separation both in time and universes between her rightful location in the Mirror Universe c. 2257. 2325-ish is still nearly 70 years separated from her rightful time, although that’s not as bad as 8.5 centuries and she’s obviously she’s dealing with it well.

“Where fun goes to die” is also the nickname given by the crew of Pike’s Enterprise to First Officer Una Chin-Riley and Security Chief La’an Noonien-Singh (SNW: “Spock Amok”).

Fuzz, a Nanokin (first species appearance), drives a Vulcan body much like the Teselecta in Doctor Who’s Series 6.

According to the readout, Minosians are a thriving, technologically advanced humanoid civilization allegedly from Minos Korva, and ruled by a High Council called the Minosian Sway. They also are arms merchants whose motto is “Peace Through Superior Firepower”.

Minos Korva is best known as a planet the Cardassians wanted to annex in 2369 (TNG: “Chain of Command, Part II”). However, production art in that episode suggested that the Class-M planet in that system was uninhabited when the USS Berlin surveyed it in 2343, and it was later annexed into Federation territory. The map seen here shows Minos Korva in proximity to Betazed, as it is in Star Charts.

Section 31, however, makes Minos Korva host to a thriving civilization of arms dealers, equating them with the Minosians of TNG: “The Arsenal of Freedom” (who had the same motto). Those Minosians were from the planet Minos in the Lorenze Cluster and were destroyed by the very weapons they were trying to hawk by 2364. So once again it’s a bit of a muddle.

Much like how Ro and Geordi somehow don’t fall through the floors of Enterprise in TNG: “The Next Phase”, Georgiou’s phase pod has the same effect despite her being otherwise out of phase.

San mentions that Giorgiou could have created something beautiful, which suggests this scene takes place before she was replaced by her future self in “Terra Firma, Part 1”.

Alok Sahar says he was born in the 20th Century and was alive during the Eugenics Wars. However, as we know now from SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” the Eugenics Wars no longer took place in the 1990s but in the 2020s instead thanks to time agent tampering. He was baseline human but augmented as a child much like Julian Bashir was (DS9: “Doctor Bashir, I Presume?”). Did I say muddle?

Georgiou’s titles, “Her most Imperial Majesty, Mother of the Fatherland, Overlord of Vulcan, Dominus of Qo’noS, Regina Andor, Philippa Georgie Augusus Iaponius Centarius”, were first mentioned in DIS: “Vaulting Ambition”.

An ion storm, a perennial hazard in Star Trek, was the cause of Kirk’s foray into the MU in TOS: “Mirror Mirror”, as well as part of the confluence of factors that caused the Narada to split off the Kelvin Timeline (ST 2009). An anomaly allowing passage between universes reminds me of the overarching plot of LD’s final season.

The Crescent Nebula doesn’t show up in Star Charts but does in this movie’s starmap. It is in the same approximate place as the Tong Beak Nebula (DS9: “Children of the Empire’).

The collapsing Terran Empire described by Mirror Dada Noe is consistent with the conquest of the Empire before 2370 by the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance of the MU (DS9: “Crossover”).

Terbium is 65 on the period table and first mentioned in TNG: “Manhunt”. The metal reacts with water, giving off hydrogen.

Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal! But wait, if San died before 2257, how does he still look so young? LD comes to the rescue: since we saw during Season 5 that people from different time periods can enter through the portals. It’s possible that San just found a portal from 2257 (or thereabouts) to 2324 (or thereabouts).

Georgiou performs percussive maintenance on the scow to get it going, something Jankom Pog was fond of in PRO.

The lack of shields and weapons locks in a nebula is long established in Trek lore dating back to the Battle of the Mutara Nebula in ST II. Generally, one needs shields to be down to transport through them, although there are known workarounds (TNG: “The Wounded”).

Garrett identifies the toy as coming from a “Droom planet”. Coincidentally or not, Droomplanet is a learning platform from India for storytelling to kids. This is the first mention of Droom technology, terrenium or tomohite.

Control is portrayed by Jamie Lee Curtis, who co-starred with Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Turkana IV was the home planet of Tasha Yar, the first Security Chief of Picard’s Enterprise-D, who died in 2364 (TNG: “Skin of Evil”). While civil unrest and secession from the Federation would lead to chaos and Tasha escaping from the colony around 2353, that collapse wouldn’t start until around 2339.

If we’re going to take that last shot literally, Baraam is warp-capable. We wouldn’t see warp-capable space stations until the 32nd Century (Federation headquarters, the Pax-class USS Federation, in DIS: “Coming Home” ).

To be honest, I found it a bit pedestrian and the continuity geek in me is a bit annoyed with some bits.

Sigh. Okay, here we go.

The opening Star Trek Universe sequence features the old scow used in this movie as well as a mirrored version of the Star Trek logo, referencing Philippa Georgiou’s Mirror Universe origins and the plot’s connections to the MU.

Aeschlyus was a playwright of Ancient Greece often considered the father of tragedy. The full quote is actually, “The anvil of justice is planted firm, and fate who makes the sword does the forging in advance.”

The opening scene takes place in the Terran Empire, the Mirror Universe counterpart of the Federation, although exactly where (or when) is not specified.

San was first mentioned in the DIS novel Die Standing as a friend of the younger Giorgiou, and then subsequently seen in flashbacks in DIS’s third season. We know little about him except that Giorgiou saw herself standing over his body and she believed she was dead (DIS: “Terra Firma, Part 2”).

This version of Giorgiou’s rise to power, by participating in a Hunger Games-esque event and murdering her family, is different from the “official” version seen in DIS: “Terra Firma, Part 1”, where Giorgiou, as a peasant girl, is said to have driven back a Klingon invasion single-handedly. Why precisely the Empire chooses its Emperor like this I leave it for my fellow Daystrom researcher to ponder.

Control was the name of a rogue computer system used by Section 31 that attempted to gain sentience to destroy all organic life in the galaxy in DIS Season 2. It was destroyed in 2258, so the name was given to another Section 31 operative which served the same purpose.

The unredacted text reads:

PHILIPPA GEORGIOU

PRIORITY CLEARANCE REQUIRED

The subject is EMPEROR Philippa Georgiou, former ruler of the TERRAN EMPIRE She’s an established threat and tyrant with a vast history of calculated atrocities, against her people as well as others.

Located in a PARALLEL UNIVERSE with the highest criminal population in recorded history. After an unexpected event, thought to have been around circa 2257, Georgiou was brought to our universe. Starfleet lost contact after a short time with Section 31.

There’s some fragmentary text visible in the close-up, “Recently spotted using an alias”, “located outside federation space, where we are tracking”, “new black market threat.” Section 31 lost contact with Giorgiou because, like the rest of Discovery’s crew, she was transported to 3188 (DIS: “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2”).

The starmap, like all starmaps from DIS on, is based on Geoffrey Mandel’s *Star Trek: Star Charts”, but with some alterations. One thing I spotted is the existence of a demilitarized zone around Chin’toka - but smaller than the one depicted in Star Charts which circa 2378 or so.

Georgiou’s location is near Hupyria (where the species of Maihar’du, Grand Nagus Zek’s servant, hails from). While not marked on the map, it is in proximity to Ferengi space as well.

The Treaty of Ka’Tann was negotiated the Vulcan ambassador V’Lar in the 21st or 22nd Century (ENT: “Fallen Hero”). This is the first time we have details of it forbidding Federation entry beyond the borders delineated by the treaty. Known states in that part of the Galaxy include the Talarian Republic, the Cardassian Union, the Tzenkethi Coalition, the Ferengi Alliance and the First Federation (TOS: “The Corbomite Maneuver”). As pointed out to me, this might explain why we never saw these species that much during the TOS era.

But that being said, we can see Starbase 17 (two of them, in different locations!), Starbase 25 and Deep Space 3 across the treaty line, and a few places Kirk and Pike’s Enterprise did visit, including Sarpeidon (which shouldn’t be there since it got blown up when its sun went nova in TOS: “All Our Yesterdays”), Gideon (TOS: “The Mark of Gideon”), Gamma Trianguli (TOS: “The Apple”), Galen (SNW: “Children of the Comet”) and Kiley (SNW: “Strange New Worlds”). There’s also Maxia, where Picard’s Stargazer was lost in 2355. So it’s all a bit of a muddle as far as production art is concerned.

The Stardate is 1292.4, at a space station called the Baraam. This is a TOS-style stardate, but back then stardates were pretty much random, and given the state of stardates these days, tells us absolutely nothing about when this is set

Virgil is a Cheronian (TOS: “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”), specifically of the ruling half-white class (white on the left side), who hold the half-black class in contempt. Cheronians are extremely long lived (Bele was chasing Lokai for over 50,000 years), but were assumed to have been extinct since 2268, casualties of a civil war which wiped out Cheron’s population.

Quasi is a Chameloid, a shape shifter whose species first appeared in ST VI as a prisoner on Rura Penthe, a Klingon prison planet. Like the other Chameloid, his irises are amber and don’t change when he shape shifts.

Melle is a Deltan, a species known for their extreme sensuality which most other species find irresistible. Those serving (officially) in Starfleet have to take an oath of celibacy so as not to take advantage of sexually immature species.

Giorgiou suggests Vulcans never laugh, which is a generalization because it doesn’t take into account v’tosh ka’tur (Vulcans without logic, first appearing in ENT: “Fusion”), who eschew arie’mnu (passion’s mastery). She also suggests he lost his mind during pon farr, the Vulcan mating frenzy (TOS: “Amok Time”).

Rachel Garrett first appeared in TNG: “Yesterday’s Enterprise” as the Captain of the USS Enterprise-C, which was destroyed with few survivors during the Battle of Narendra III in 2344. Given that this is her younger counterpart, and that she appeared in her 40s in 2344, this would place the events of Section 31 in the mid 2320s, some 860 years in the past since Giorgiou entered the Guardian of Forever seeking redemption in DIS: “Terra Firma, Part 2”. Her presence on the team appears to be official, so that means Section 31 at this point in time is still operating as part of the Starfleet chain of command, unlike by 2374 (DS9: “Inquisition”).

Part of the reason Giorgiou did this was to stave off her impending death because of her separation both in time and universes between her rightful location in the Mirror Universe c. 2257. 2325-ish is still nearly 70 years separated from her rightful time, although that’s not as bad as 8.5 centuries and she’s obviously she’s dealing with it well.

“Where fun goes to die” is also the nickname given by the crew of Pike’s Enterprise to First Officer Una Chin-Riley and Security Chief La’an Noonien-Singh (SNW: “Spock Amok”).

Fuzz, a Nanokin (first species appearance), drives a Vulcan body much like the Teselecta in Doctor Who’s Series 6.

According to the readout, Minosians are a thriving, technologically advanced humanoid civilization allegedly from Minos Korva, and ruled by a High Council called the Minosian Sway. They also are arms merchants whose motto is “Peace Through Superior Firepower”.

Minos Korva is best known as a planet the Cardassians wanted to annex in 2369 (TNG: “Chain of Command, Part II”). However, production art in that episode suggested that the Class-M planet in that system was uninhabited when the USS Berlin surveyed it in 2343, and it was later annexed into Federation territory. The map seen here shows Minos Korva in proximity to Betazed, as it is in Star Charts.

Section 31, however, makes Minos Korva host to a thriving civilization of arms dealers, equating them with the Minosians of TNG: “The Arsenal of Freedom” (who had the same motto). Those Minosians were from the planet Minos in the Lorenze Cluster and were destroyed by the very weapons they were trying to hawk by 2364. So once again it’s a bit of a muddle.

Much like how Ro and Geordi somehow don’t fall through the floors of Enterprise in TNG: “The Next Phase”, Georgiou’s phase pod has the same effect despite her being otherwise out of phase.

San mentions that Giorgiou could have created something beautiful, which suggests this scene takes place before she was replaced by her future self in “Terra Firma, Part 1”.

Alok Sahar says he was born in the 20th Century and was alive during the Eugenics Wars. However, as we know now from SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” the Eugenics Wars no longer took place in the 1990s but in the 2020s instead thanks to time agent tampering. He was baseline human but augmented as a child much like Julian Bashir was (DS9: “Doctor Bashir, I Presume?”). Did I say muddle?

Georgiou’s titles, “Her most Imperial Majesty, Mother of the Fatherland, Overlord of Vulcan, Dominus of Qo’noS, Regina Andor, Philippa Georgiou Augustus Iaponius Centarius”, were first mentioned in DIS: “Vaulting Ambition”.

An ion storm, a perennial hazard in Star Trek, was the cause of Kirk’s foray into the MU in TOS: “Mirror Mirror”, as well as part of the confluence of factors that caused the Narada to split off the Kelvin Timeline (ST 2009). An anomaly allowing passage between universes reminds me of the overarching plot of LD’s final season.

The Crescent Nebula doesn’t show up in Star Charts but does in this movie’s starmap. It is in the same approximate place as the Tong Beak Nebula (DS9: “Children of the Empire’).

The collapsing Terran Empire described by Mirror Dada Noe is consistent with the conquest of the Empire before 2370 by the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance of the MU (DS9: “Crossover”).

Terbium is 65 on the period table and first mentioned in TNG: “Manhunt”. The metal reacts with water, giving off hydrogen.

Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal! But wait, if San died before 2257, how does he still look so young? LD comes to the rescue: since we saw during Season 5 that people from different time periods can enter through the portals. It’s possible that San just found a portal from 2257 (or thereabouts) to 2324 (or thereabouts).

Georgiou performs percussive maintenance on the scow to get it going, something Jankom Pog was fond of in PRO.

The lack of shields and weapons locks in a nebula is long established in Trek lore dating back to the Battle of the Mutara Nebula in ST II. Generally, one needs shields to be down to transport through them, although there are known workarounds (TNG: “The Wounded”).

Garrett identifies the toy as coming from a “Droom planet”. Coincidentally or not, Droomplanet is a learning platform from India for storytelling to kids. This is the first mention of Droom technology, terrenium or tomohite.

Control is portrayed by Jamie Lee Curtis, who co-starred with Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Turkana IV was the home planet of Tasha Yar, the first Security Chief of Picard’s Enterprise-D, who died in 2364 (TNG: “Skin of Evil”). While civil unrest and secession from the Federation would lead to chaos and Tasha escaping from the colony around 2353, that collapse wouldn’t start until around 2339.

If we’re going to take that last shot literally, Baraam is warp-capable. We wouldn’t see warp-capable space stations until the 32nd Century (Federation headquarters, the Pax-class USS Federation, in DIS: “Coming Home” ).

The title plays off Star Trek: The Next Generation, which succeeded TOS in 1987 - the last time that label was used being in PIC Season 3’s opener, “The Next Generation”, with its finale, “The Last Generation”, evoking that as well. Of course, by episode’s end, we see the aptness of the title as a torch is passed for a new frontier.

Relga’s lapdog is likely just a toy breed of targ. I originally thought it might be a variant of the Alfa 177 canine first seen in TOS: “The Enemy Within” as it appears to have the same unicorn horn but it's the wrong color and the Alfa 177 dog has antennae and no tusks.

As mentioned last episode, a soliton wave in Star Trek is a faster-than-light wave that was thought to have practical applications in warp propulsion or faster than light communications (TNG: “New Ground”), but was also potentially destructive.

As the wave hits the ships, a Klingon is transformed into a DIS-style Klingon, specifically the alien design and white costume of L’Rell in Season 1. An external shot also shows the ship (the Krtas) transformed into a DIS-style Bird of Prey before it collides with another K’Vort-type and is destroyed.

Honus (last seen in LD: “Caves”) is tending bar. T’Ana suggests Sexy Treasure Island to Shaxs, another in their series of erotic holoprograms (they had a black-and-white Bonnie and Clyde one in LD: “Room for Growth” and a Robin Hood one in LD: “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”).

This unnamed cadet is a different one from the younger one we last saw in LD: “Upper Decks”. He’s also wearing glasses, which might indicate he is allergic, like Jim Kirk, to Retinax 5 (ST II).

I honestly don’t know if T’Lyn and Tendi are messing with Mariner or not, but I will dutifully file away that half of all bopples are corbed, and corbopples are foundational elements of artificial gravity. Artificial gravity systems generally rely on generated graviton fields (TNG Technical Manual) and gravity plating.

A Bramble is an actual cocktail, consisting of dry gin, lemon juice, sugar syrup, crème de mûre, crushed ice and finished off with fresh red fruits and a slice of lemon.

In the real world, Boimler and Mariner’s account would sound insane, but this is Starfleet. As Janeway said in VOY: “Deadlock”, “Weird is part of the job.”

This is Ma’ah’s cargo freighter (last seen in LD: “A Farewell to Farms”), instantly recognizable with its brush devil tusks decorating the bow.

Relga’s brothers are revealed to be Bargh and Dorg, the latter being Ma’ah’s former commander whom he killed to gain the captaincy of the IKS Che’Ta’ in LD: “wej Duj” and the former being the head of the Oversight Council who Ma’ah killed in “A Farewell to Farms”. Both deaths were justified, though, with Dorg killed in a proper captain’s challenge and Bargh in self-defense after an attempted backstab.

A Schrödinger possibility field is named after physicist Erwin Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment involving a cat in a box whose state of life or death cannot be determined until the box is opened and the quantum wave function representing the cat collapses into one of the two possible outcomes.

Starfleet says Enterprise is en route. As of LD’s current year of 2382, this would still be the Sovereign-class Enterprise-E, since it would participate in the Battle of the Living Construct in 2384 (PRO: “Supernova”).

The alien researcher is an Ariolo, a centaur-like species that first appeared in ST IV and has made multiple background appearances in LD.

We see Ensign Meredith (last seen in LD: “Upper Decks”) and Ensign Olly (last seen in LD: “Of Gods and Angles”).

“[Mariner] is my cha’DIch’s cha’Dich”, says Malor. A cha’DIch is the title for a Klingon’s “second”, which also holds implications of mentorship.

Carol Freeman’s husband is Admiral Alonzo Freeman, who was on the conference call briefing Cerritos on her mission. petaQ can be translated as “weirdo”. Hu’tegh (untranslated) is a general invective in Klingon.

Boims using the ship’s shields to nudge one BoP into another is actually a pretty cool maneuver.

The first wave turns Cerritos into a Freedom-class, a kit-bash that appeared as part of the wreckage of the Battle of Wolf 359 (TNG: “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II”).

Freeman brings up an interesting point about warping with one nacelle. Traditionally, two nacelles create two balanced, interacting warp fields which can be shaped to maneuver the ship. According to the TNG Tech Manual, experiments in 2269 confirmed that two was the optimum number for power generation and vehicle control. As Tendi says, one nacelle for warp is still possible…but we don’t have time to nerd out about this now.

The Klingon BoP is turned into an ancient Klingon sailing barge, a mythical version of one ferrying dishonored Klingon souls to Gre’thor, the Klingon equivalent of the Norse Hel (VOY: “Barge of the Dead”), as opposed to Sto’vo’kor, the Klingon Valhalla.

Matt and Kimolu, the Cetacean Ops beluga whales, were last seen in LD: “Starbase 80?!”

The next wave turns Cerritos into a Terran Empire variant of the California-class. The Terran Empire is of course from the oft-encountered Mirror Universe (TOS: “Mirror Mirror”, et al.), which we last saw in PRO: “Cracked Mirror”.

Ensign Olly, being a descendant of Zeus (or the alien the Ancient Greeks called Zeus as per TOS: “Who Mourns for Adonais?”), has lightning powers which I hope she finally sees actually are useful.

The proto-Klingons Relga and her crew are turned into resemble to a large degree the same form Worf devolved into in TNG: “Genesis” when affected by Barclay’s Protomorphosis Syndrome.

The next wave turns Cerritos into a Sovereign-class, like Enterprise-E, including of course the bridge design (First Contact), then an Oberth-class (ST III), Galaxy-class (TNG), Miranda-class (ST II), and back to California-class.

The engineer to observe Rutherford’s speed is his nemesis/rival Livik, last seen in LD: “Starbase 80?!”

Cerritos splitting into two quantum possibilities is similar to what happened to Voyager in VOY: “Deadlock”, where a subspace divergent field duplicated the ship and personnel.

Next to Ma’ah on his new bridge are Malor, together with the pet targ that Ma’ah inherited from Dorg (LD: “wej Duj”), and K’Ellara, his would be paramour from LD: “A Farewell to Farms” (voiced by Mary Chieffo in that episode).

Starbase 80’s systems, as stated in the titular episode, hadn’t been updated since the 2260s, which makes it ideal for guarding the newly created quantum portal, much like DS9 guarded the Bajoran wormhole or Jurati’s Borg fleet guards the mysterious fissure of PIC Season 2. Kassia was also last seen in that episode. We see that Anximander and her crew (LD: “Fissure Quest”) made it.

I won’t bother identifying all the personnel shown in the final montage, just point out a few notable things.

Olly is showing off her Kamehameha move in her bunk. One of the players in the poker game is wearing a Zebulon Sisters Chu Chu Dance shirt. The Sisters performed on Cerritos in LD: “Terminal Provocations” but were later banned from performing on active duty starships by Admiral Jellico (LD: “Grounded”).

In engineering, Livek and Meredith are working on what seems to be an even more improved version of the Billups Tubes from LD: “I Have No Bones and I Must Flee”. The Billups Tubes were an “improved” version of the Tucker Tubes (Modern Props 195-290-1, also known as “The Most Important Device in the Universe”, a common sci-fi prop seen in many movies and shows).

In case anyone doesn’t know, that isn’t Badgey, but Goodgey, his good twin (LD: “A Few Badgeys More”), who remained on Cerritos when Badgey ascended. Speaking of which, the person being ejected from the portal in Sickbay is O’Connor, who we last saw ascending to a higher plane in LD: “Moist Vessel”. Guess it didn’t take.

“Twaining” is a form of dispute resolution that involves dressing up like Mark Twain in a riverboat holoprogram, last seen in LD: “Old Friends, New Planets”. We see another one of Castro’s salons (LD: “Hear All, Trust Nothing”) but this time they’re lighting a plasma candle - one of which housed the infamous anaphasic “ghost” of TNG: “Sub Rosa”. Which also makes their cheering a bit suspect.

Shaxs always wants to detonate the warp core, but Freeman only allowed it in LD: “The Stars At Night”, which brought him to tears.

The idea of captains formally having their individual go-to-warp catchphrases didn’t really become a thing until SNW: “The Broken Circle” when Spock was encouraged to have one and he came up with, “I would like the ship to go now.” Prior to that, each captain just had their own go-to order. For example, Picard had a few but it was usually, “Engage.” Pike’s is, “Hit it.” Burnham’s is, “Let’s fly.” Freeman’s is, “Warp me,” and Dal’s (from PRO) is “Go fast.” Ransom’s is “Engage the core,” a very dad joke given his exercise obsession.

And so, farewell Lower Decks, for now. It’s been a gas.

The title plays off Star Trek: The Next Generation, which succeeded TOS in 1987 - the last time that label was used being in PIC Season 3’s opener, “The Next Generation”, with its finale, “The Last Generation”, evoking that as well. Of course, by episode’s end, we see the aptness of the title as a torch is passed for a new frontier.

Relga’s lapdog is likely just a toy breed of targ. I originally thought it might be a variant of the Alfa 177 canine first seen in TOS: “The Enemy Within” as it appears to have the same unicorn horn but it's the wrong color and the Alfa 177 dog has antennae and no tusks.

As mentioned last episode, a soliton wave in Star Trek is a faster-than-light wave that was thought to have practical applications in warp propulsion or faster than light communications (TNG: “New Ground”), but was also potentially destructive.

As the wave hits the ships, a Klingon is transformed into a DIS-style Klingon, specifically the alien design and white costume of L’Rell in Season 1. An external shot also shows the ship (the Krtas) transformed into a DIS-style Bird of Prey before it collides with another K’Vort-type and is destroyed.

Honus (last seen in LD: “Caves”) is tending bar. T’Ana suggests Sexy Treasure Island to Shaxs, another in their series of erotic holoprograms (they had a black-and-white Bonnie and Clyde one in LD: “Room for Growth” and a Robin Hood one in LD: “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”).

This unnamed cadet is a different one from the younger one we last saw in LD: “Upper Decks”. He’s also wearing glasses, which might indicate he is allergic, like Jim Kirk, to Retinax 5 (ST II).

I honestly don’t know if T’Lyn and Tendi are messing with Mariner or not, but I will dutifully file away that half of all bopples are corbed, and corbopples are foundational elements of artificial gravity. Artificial gravity systems generally rely on generated graviton fields (TNG Technical Manual) and gravity plating.

A Bramble is an actual cocktail, consisting of dry gin, lemon juice, sugar syrup, crème de mûre, crushed ice and finished off with fresh red fruits and a slice of lemon.

In the real world, Boimler and Mariner’s account would sound insane, but this is Starfleet. As Janeway said in VOY: “Deadlock”, “Weird is part of the job.”

This is Ma’ah’s cargo freighter (last seen in LD: “A Farewell to Farms”), instantly recognizable with its brush devil tusks decorating the bow.

Relga’s brothers are revealed to be Bargh and Dorg, the latter being Ma’ah’s former commander whom he killed to gain the captaincy of the IKS Che’Ta’ in LD: “wej Duj” and the former being the head of the Oversight Council who Ma’ah killed in “A Farewell to Farms”. Both deaths were justified, though, with Dorg killed in a proper captain’s challenge and Bargh in self-defense after an attempted backstab.

A Schrödinger possibility field is named after physicist Erwin Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment involving a cat in a box whose state of life or death cannot be determined until the box is opened and the quantum wave function representing the cat collapses into one of the two possible outcomes.

Starfleet says Enterprise is en route. As of LD’s current year of 2382, this would still be the Sovereign-class Enterprise-E, since it would participate in the Battle of the Living Construct in 2384 (PRO: “Supernova”).

The alien researcher is an Ariolo, a centaur-like species that first appeared in ST IV and has made multiple background appearances in LD.

We see Ensign Meredith (last seen in LD: “Upper Decks”) and Ensign Olly (last seen in LD: “Of Gods and Angles”).

“[Mariner] is my cha’DIch’s cha’Dich”, says Malor. A cha’DIch is the title for a Klingon’s “second”, which also holds implications of mentorship.

Carol Freeman’s husband is Admiral Alonzo Freeman, who was on the conference call briefing Cerritos on her mission. petaQ can be translated as “weirdo”. Hu’tegh (untranslated) is a general invective in Klingon.

Boims using the ship’s shields to nudge one BoP into another is actually a pretty cool maneuver.

The first wave turns Cerritos into a Freedom-class, a kit-bash that appeared as part of the wreckage of the Battle of Wolf 359 (TNG: “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II”).

Freeman brings up an interesting point about warping with one nacelle. Traditionally, two nacelles create two balanced, interacting warp fields which can be shaped to maneuver the ship. According to the TNG Tech Manual, experiments in 2269 confirmed that two was the optimum number for power generation and vehicle control. As Tendi says, one nacelle for warp is still possible…but we don’t have time to nerd out about this now.

The Klingon BoP is turned into an ancient Klingon sailing barge, a mythical version of one ferrying dishonored Klingon souls to Gre’thor, the Klingon equivalent of the Norse Hel (VOY: “Barge of the Dead”), as opposed to Sto’vo’kor, the Klingon Valhalla.

Matt and Kimolu, the Cetacean Ops beluga whales, were last seen in LD: “Starbase 80?!”

The next wave turns Cerritos into a Terran Empire variant of the California-class. The Terran Empire is of course from the oft-encountered Mirror Universe (TOS: “Mirror Mirror”, et al.), which we last saw in PRO: “Cracked Mirror”.

Ensign Olly, being a descendant of Zeus (or the alien the Ancient Greeks called Zeus as per TOS: “Who Mourns for Adonais?”), has lightning powers which I hope she finally sees actually are useful.

The proto-Klingons Relga and her crew are turned into resemble to a large degree the same form Worf devolved into in TNG: “Genesis” when affected by Barclay’s Protomorphosis Syndrome.

The next wave turns Cerritos into a Sovereign-class, like Enterprise-E, including of course the bridge design (First Contact), then an Oberth-class (ST III), Galaxy-class (TNG), Miranda-class (ST II), and back to California-class.

The engineer to observe Rutherford’s speed is his nemesis/rival Livik, last seen in LD: “Starbase 80?!”

Cerritos splitting into two quantum possibilities is similar to what happened to Voyager in VOY: “Deadlock”, where a subspace divergent field duplicated the ship and personnel.

Next to Ma’ah on his new bridge are Malor, together with the pet targ that Ma’ah inherited from Dorg (LD: “wej Duj”), and K’Ellara, his would be paramour from LD: “A Farewell to Farms” (voiced by Mary Chieffo in that episode).

Starbase 80’s systems, as stated in the titular episode, hadn’t been updated since the 2260s, which makes it ideal for guarding the newly created quantum portal, much like DS9 guarded the Bajoran wormhole or Jurati’s Borg fleet guards the mysterious fissure of PIC Season 2. Kassia was also last seen in that episode. We see that Anximander and her crew (LD: “Fissure Quest”) made it.

I won’t bother identifying all the personnel shown in the final montage, just point out a few notable things.

Olly is showing off her Kamehameha move in her bunk. One of the players in the poker game is wearing a Zebulon Sisters Chu Chu Dance shirt. The Sisters performed on Cerritos in LD: “Terminal Provocations” but were later banned from performing on active duty starships by Admiral Jellico (LD: “Grounded”).

In engineering, Livek and Meredith are working on what seems to be an even more improved version of the Billups Tubes from LD: “I Have No Bones and I Must Flee”. The Billups Tubes were an “improved” version of the Tucker Tubes (Modern Props 195-290-1, also known as “The Most Important Device in the Universe”, a common sci-fi prop seen in many movies and shows).

In case anyone doesn’t know, that isn’t Badgey, but Goodgey, his good twin (LD: “A Few Badgeys More”), who remained on Cerritos when Badgey ascended. Speaking of which, the person being ejected from the portal in Sickbay is O’Connor, who we last saw ascending to a higher plane in LD: “Moist Vessel”. Guess it didn’t take.

“Twaining” is a form of dispute resolution that involves dressing up like Mark Twain in a riverboat holoprogram, last seen in LD: “Old Friends, New Planets”. We see another one of Castro’s salons (LD: “Hear All, Trust Nothing”) but this time they’re lighting a plasma candle - one of which housed the infamous anaphasic “ghost” of TNG: “Sub Rosa”. Which also makes their cheering a bit suspect.

Shaxs always wants to detonate the warp core, but Freeman only allowed it in LD: “The Stars At Night”, which brought him to tears.

The idea of captains formally having their individual go-to-warp catchphrases didn’t really become a thing until SNW: “The Broken Circle” when Spock was encouraged to have one and he came up with, “I would like the ship to go now.” Prior to that, each captain just had their own go-to order. For example, Picard had a few but it was usually, “Engage.” Pike’s is, “Hit it.” Burnham’s is, “Let’s fly.” Freeman’s is, “Warp me,” and Dal’s (from PRO) is “Go fast.” Ransom’s is “Engage the core,” a very dad joke given his exercise obsession.

And so, farewell Lower Decks, for now. It’s been a gas.

The title refers to the transdimensional fissures that Cerritos has been dealing with in this season.

Raktajino is “Klingon Coffee”, although in truth its history is a bit more complicated. In short, raktajino is a Federation version of ra’taj (Klingon coffee with liquor) with added nutlike flavoring (making it raktaj) and cream, creating a portmanteau of “raktaj” and “cappuccino”: raktajino. A fuller explanation can be found here. As a side note, the Klingons got coffee from raiding human ships, and both developed a taste for it and started growing it themselves on Qo’noS.

Mariner and Boimler are drinking from Highwave Hotjo 14 oz. travel mugs, which were used as props on DS9. Boimler’s full beard has finally grown in, mutton chops and all.

Boimler was transporter cloned by accident in LD: “Kayshon, His Eyes Open”, with the clone taking the name William Boimler, taking Bradward’s place on the USS Titan. William was apparently killed by a neurocine gas leak in LD: “Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus”, but that was a cover for his recruitment by Section 31.

Oddly enough, Section 31 - the rogue covert intelligence organization that does (officially) unsanctioned ops in the name of preserving the Federation, first mentioned in DS9: “Inquisition - is never mentioned in the episode. However, William is wearing a Section 31 combadge (first seen in DIS: “Point of Light”).

Shax died in LD: “No Small Parts”, but reappeared with only vague allusions to dark truths about scientific depravity and the afterlife in LD: “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.

William’s command, the Defiant-class USS Anaximander, escapes Quantum Reality 582.76-Φ. With him are alternate universe counterparts of characters we know. Anaximander (c.610 to c.546 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Thales, who subscribed to the notion the the universe arose from a boundless ultimate reality, the apeiron.

The Anaximander name was given to a Ptolemy-class transport tug (NCC-3804) in Franz Joseph’s 1975 Star Fleet Technical Manual.

In our reality, T’Pol (voiced by original actor Jolene Blalock) was Archer’s first officer on the NX-01 Enterprise, from ENT, who had a relationship with Chief Engineer Trip Tucker . Curzon was the Trill Dax host immediately before Jadzia, from DS9.

Garak (voiced by original actor Andrew Robinson) was the tailor/spy exiled to DS9, and given his thinly veiled relationship with Dr Julian Bashir (voiced by original actor Alexander Siddig), it’s appropriate his counterpart is married to an EMH based on Bashir. In the Prime universe, the Mark II EMH was supposed to be modeled on Bashir until his secret as an Augment was revealed (DS9: “Doctor Bashir, I Presume”). The EMH Bashir uses a mobile emitter like the Prime universe’s Doctor EMH (obtained in VOY: “Future’s End”).

There is a fan fiction script by Ellie K-E/@almaasi, “Little Achivements”, a dialogue between Garak and Bashir 20 years after the events of DS9, which depicts them as being married, and notable for having been performed by Robinson and Siddig. It’s sweet. You should go see.

As a side note, a team made up of alternate reality counterparts was also the basis of the 2000s Marvel comic Exiles.

Neelix was the cook/morale officer on the USS Voyager during most of her time in the Delta Quadrant. A “really big Spock”, a giant clone, was seen in TAS: “The Infinite Vulcan” and its skeleton displayed as part of a collection in LD: “Kayshon, His Eyes Open”.

William is understandably jaded by all the variations on a theme he’s seen (he does a Picard face-cover meme gesture at one point). This is a meta commentary on not just how the multiverse has been treated in Star Trek (Mirror Universe, Kelvin Timeline, et al.) but how multiverses have been treated - especially recently in the MCU - in popular culture in general.

Harry Kim (voiced by original actor Garrett Wang) was the Operations Officer on Voyager, who famously was never promoted from Ensign in its entire seven-year run. The one just beamed on board wears lieutenant’s pips, though. Harry is treated better in the beta canon, with the IDW comic and the post-“Endgame” novels promoting him to a full Lieutenant and Star Trek Online making him a Captain.

The black and white outfit with red piping worn by one of the Kims is a Starfleet racing uniform seen in VOY: “Drive”.

Curzon was known for his close relationships with Klingons and his love of Klingon culture, explaining his skill with a bat’leth.

The uniform variations seen on the Harrys are the First Contact-era uniforms, the original Voyager uniforms and the aforementioned racing uniform. They all seem to be wearing the DS9 and VOY-era combadgea. One Harry is playing the clarinet, as does his Prime counterpart.

Julian Bashir and Miles O’Brien went from being rivals to best friends on DS9, who played various sports together, darts and racquetball being most prominent.

Alt-Mariner says her Troi (presumably Deanna Troi) was transporter cloned and stranded on a planet for years, like William Riker’s transporter clone Thomas (TNG: “Second Chances”). Her Boimler wears a leather jacket all the time, perhaps like the one Prime Boimler wore in LD: “Cupid’s Errant Arrow”.

Voyager did have more than her fair share of Borg infiltrations. The aliens trying to steal organs are a reference to the Viidians (VOY: “Phage” et al.).

Two-Pip Kim complains that everyone gets promoted before ops because no one knows what they do. To be fair, Ops is a rather vague description. According to the Star Trek TNG Technical Manual, Operations Management Officers coordinate activities and mission goals between departments, prioritizing and resolving conflicting demands on ships resources. They also allocate power during crisis situations, routes information to specific departments and the ship’s computer and monitor incoming and shipboard communications.

Alt-T’Pol says she “was” married to a human for 63 years, which suggests that Alt-Trip is now dead in her reality (he would be 261 years old if still alive, which is not likely for a human, even in the 24th Century). In the Prime reality, Trip ostensibly died in 2161 (ENT: “These Are the Voyages”), and he and T’Pol never married. However, the novels retconned this death, and it is a testament to how universally hated Trip’s death was that it’s one of the few retcons about which I have never heard anyone complain about.

petaQ is a Klingon epithet which can be translated as “weirdo”.

The ship flying out of the rift reminds me of the XCV-330 Enteprise from the 22nd Century, first seen as part of the Enterprise lineage of ships in a painting in TMP. It is based on an early Matt Jeffries design concept for Enterprise from 1964. The ring structure might be a coleopteric warp drive which the XCV-330 used, also used by Vulcan starships.

biHnuch means “coward”, first appearing in TNG: “Sins of the Father” and then in LD: “The Least Dangerous Game” as part of the name of the tabletop RPG the Lower Deckers play, Bat’leths & BiHnuchs.

The appearance of the Khwopian and the bog environment tells us that they’ve landed on a version of the planet Khwopa (LD: “Much Ado About Boimler”), on which Cerritos helped repair a water filtration system.

Alt-Curzon mentioning drinking bones is a reference to moopsies, otherwise cute looking animals who do just that (LD: “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”).

The woman in an ENT-era jumpsuit (but with a different shoulder patch) is an alternate of Lily Sloane (voiced by original actor Alfre Woodward), an associate of Zefram Cochrane in the mid-21st Century (First Contact).

Alt-Garak is not “just” a surgeon, in the same way Prime Garak is not “just” a “simple tailor”.

Alt-Lily’s ethical boundaries against contacting species who can’t cross realities on their own is similar to how Starfleet’s Prime Directive uses warp drive as a guide as to whether a civilization is ready for First Contact.

Alt-Lily’s ship is called the Beagle, probably named after Charles Darwin’s HMS Beagle, an early ship of exploration. As a Star Trek related cut, the merchant ship SS Beagle was involved in the events of TOS: “Bread and Circuses”. An even deeper cut is that A.E. Van Vogt’s 1950 SF novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle is sometimes cited as a proto-Star Trek type story.

So the final villain this season is Two-Pip Kim, which in a meta way is appropriate since last season’s big bad was Nick Locarno, who totally does not look like Harry’s best friend Tom Paris.

A “micro warp jump”, a jump over much shorter distances than usual, was the basis of the Picard Maneuver (TNG: “The Battle”).

Alt-T’Pol’s transferring Alt-Dax’s memories to herself is like the reverse of what Spock did to McCoy when he transferred his katra in ST II.

A soliton wave in a Star Trek context is a faster-than-light wave that was thought to have practical applications in warp propulsion or faster than light communications (TNG: “New Ground”), but was also potentially destructive.

The first time “To Be Continued…” was used on LD was at the end of LD: “First First Contact”.

The title refers to the transdimensional fissures that Cerritos has been dealing with in this season.

Raktajino is “Klingon Coffee”, although in truth its history is a bit more complicated. In short, raktajino is a Federation version of ra’taj (Klingon coffee with liquor) with added nutlike flavoring (making it raktaj) and cream, creating a portmanteau of “raktaj” and “cappuccino”: raktajino. A fuller explanation can be found here. As a side note, the Klingons got coffee from raiding human ships, and both developed a taste for it and started growing it themselves on Qo’noS.

Mariner and Boimler are drinking from Highwave Hotjo 14 oz. travel mugs, which were used as props on DS9. Boimler’s full beard has finally grown in, mutton chops and all.

Boimler was transporter cloned by accident in LD: “Kayshon, His Eyes Open”, with the clone taking the name William Boimler, taking Bradward’s place on the USS Titan. William was apparently killed by a neurocine gas leak in LD: “Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus”, but that was a cover for his recruitment by Section 31.

Oddly enough, Section 31 - the rogue covert intelligence organization that does (officially) unsanctioned ops in the name of preserving the Federation, first mentioned in DS9: “Inquisition - is never mentioned in the episode. However, William is wearing a Section 31 combadge (first seen in DIS: “Point of Light”).

Shax died in LD: “No Small Parts”, but reappeared with only vague allusions to dark truths about scientific depravity and the afterlife in LD: “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.

William’s command, the Defiant-class USS Anaximander, escapes Quantum Reality 582.76-Φ. With him are alternate universe counterparts of characters we know. Anaximander (c.610 to c.546 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Thales, who subscribed to the notion the the universe arose from a boundless ultimate reality, the apeiron.

The Anaximander name was given to a Ptolemy-class transport tug (NCC-3804) in Franz Joseph’s 1975 Star Fleet Technical Manual.

In our reality, T’Pol (voiced by original actor Jolene Blalock) was Archer’s first officer on the NX-01 Enterprise, from ENT, who had a relationship with Chief Engineer Trip Tucker . Curzon was the Trill Dax host immediately before Jadzia, from DS9.

Garak (voiced by original actor Andrew Robinson) was the tailor/spy exiled to DS9, and given his thinly veiled relationship with Dr Julian Bashir (voiced by original actor Alexander Siddig), it’s appropriate his counterpart is married to an EMH based on Bashir. In the Prime universe, the Mark II EMH was supposed to be modeled on Bashir until his secret as an Augment was revealed (DS9: “Doctor Bashir, I Presume”). The EMH Bashir uses a mobile emitter like the Prime universe’s Doctor EMH (obtained in VOY: “Future’s End”).

There is a fan fiction script by Ellie K-E/@almaasi, “Little Achivements”, a dialogue between Garak and Bashir 20 years after the events of DS9, which depicts them as being married, and notable for having been performed by Robinson and Siddig. It’s sweet. You should go see.

As a side note, a team made up of alternate reality counterparts was also the basis of the 2000s Marvel comic Exiles.

Neelix was the cook/morale officer on the USS Voyager during most of her time in the Delta Quadrant. A “really big Spock”, a giant clone, was seen in TAS: “The Infinite Vulcan” and its skeleton displayed as part of a collection in LD: “Kayshon, His Eyes Open”.

William is understandably jaded by all the variations on a theme he’s seen (he does a Picard face-cover meme gesture at one point). This is a meta commentary on not just how the multiverse has been treated in Star Trek (Mirror Universe, Kelvin Timeline, et al.) but how multiverses have been treated - especially recently in the MCU - in popular culture in general.

Harry Kim (voiced by original actor Garrett Wang) was the Operations Officer on Voyager, who famously was never promoted from Ensign in its entire seven-year run. The one just beamed on board wears lieutenant’s pips, though. Harry is treated better in the beta canon, with the IDW comic and the post-“Endgame” novels promoting him to a full Lieutenant and Star Trek Online making him a Captain.

The black and white outfit with red piping worn by one of the Kims is a Starfleet racing uniform seen in VOY: “Drive”.

Curzon was known for his close relationships with Klingons and his love of Klingon culture, explaining his skill with a bat’leth.

The uniform variations seen on the Harrys are the First Contact-era uniforms, the original Voyager uniforms and the aforementioned racing uniform. They all seem to be wearing the DS9 and VOY-era combadges. One Harry is playing the clarinet, as does his Prime counterpart.

Julian Bashir and Miles O’Brien went from being rivals to best friends on DS9, who played various sports together, darts and racquetball being most prominent.

Alt-Mariner says her Troi (presumably Deanna Troi) was transporter cloned and stranded on a planet for years, like William Riker’s transporter clone Thomas (TNG: “Second Chances”). Her Boimler wears a leather jacket all the time, perhaps like the one Prime Boimler wore in LD: “Cupid’s Errant Arrow”.

Voyager did have more than her fair share of Borg infiltrations. The aliens trying to steal organs are a reference to the Viidians (VOY: “Phage” et al.).

Two-Pip Kim complains that everyone gets promoted before ops because no one knows what they do. To be fair, Ops is a rather vague description. According to the Star Trek TNG Technical Manual, Operations Management Officers coordinate activities and mission goals between departments, prioritizing and resolving conflicting demands on ships resources. They also allocate power during crisis situations, routes information to specific departments and the ship’s computer and monitor incoming and shipboard communications.

Alt-T’Pol says she “was” married to a human for 63 years, which suggests that Alt-Trip is now dead in her reality (he would be 261 years old if still alive, which is not likely for a human, even in the 24th Century). In the Prime reality, Trip ostensibly died in 2161 (ENT: “These Are the Voyages”), and he and T’Pol never married. However, the novels retconned this death, and it is a testament to how universally hated Trip’s death was that it’s one of the few retcons about which I have never heard anyone complain about.

petaQ is a Klingon epithet which can be translated as “weirdo”.

The ship flying out of the rift reminds me of the XCV-330 Enteprise from the 22nd Century, first seen as part of the Enterprise lineage of ships in a painting in TMP. It is based on an early Matt Jeffries design concept for Enterprise from 1964. The ring structure might be a coleopteric warp drive which the XCV-330 used, also used by Vulcan starships.

biHnuch means “coward”, first appearing in TNG: “Sins of the Father” and then in LD: “The Least Dangerous Game” as part of the name of the tabletop RPG the Lower Deckers play, Bat’leths & BiHnuchs.

The appearance of the Khwopian and the bog environment tells us that they’ve landed on a version of the planet Khwopa (LD: “Much Ado About Boimler”), on which Cerritos helped repair a water filtration system.

Alt-Curzon mentioning drinking bones is a reference to moopsies, otherwise cute looking animals who do just that (LD: “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”).

The woman in an ENT-era jumpsuit (but with a different shoulder patch) is an alternate of Lily Sloane (voiced by original actor Alfre Woodward), an associate of Zefram Cochrane in the mid-21st Century (First Contact).

Alt-Garak is not “just” a surgeon, in the same way Prime Garak is not “just” a “simple tailor”.

Alt-Lily’s ethical boundaries against contacting species who can’t cross realities on their own is similar to how Starfleet’s Prime Directive uses warp drive as a guide as to whether a civilization is ready for First Contact.

Alt-Lily’s ship is called the Beagle, probably named after Charles Darwin’s HMS Beagle, an early ship of exploration. As a Star Trek related cut, the merchant ship SS Beagle was involved in the events of TOS: “Bread and Circuses”. An even deeper cut is that A.E. Van Vogt’s 1950 SF novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle is sometimes cited as a proto-Star Trek type story.

So the final villain this season is Two-Pip Kim, which in a meta way is appropriate since last season’s big bad was Nick Locarno, who totally does not look like Harry’s best friend Tom Paris.

A “micro warp jump”, a jump over much shorter distances than usual, was the basis of the Picard Maneuver (TNG: “The Battle”).

Alt-T’Pol’s transferring Alt-Dax’s memories to herself is like the reverse of what Spock did to McCoy when he transferred his katra in ST II.

A soliton wave in a Star Trek context is a faster-than-light wave that was thought to have practical applications in warp propulsion or faster than light communications (TNG: “New Ground”), but was also potentially destructive.

The first time “To Be Continued…” was used on LD was at the end of LD: “First First Contact”.

The title, an inversion of the series’ name, indicates the focus in this episode on the bridge crew. It is the flip side of and a play on TNG: “Lower Decks”, an episode focused on the lower deckers when the series is mainly about the bridge crew.

Whatever Stardate it is, it’s Halloween on Cerritos. Although Picard seemed to be unfamiliar with the holiday in TNG: “The Big Goodbye”, McCoy makes reference to it in TOS: “Catspaw”. Mariner used to dress as Toby the Targ for Halloween (LD: “Crisis Point”) and Boimler dressed once as Christopher Pike (SNW: “Those Old Scientists”). As a bit of trivia, the registry number for the USS Discovery, NCC-1031, was allegedly chosen by Bryan Fuller because he loved Halloween.

V’Ger is the antagonist in TMP, and Mariner quotes the Ilia probe from the movie’s climax. This season, V’Ger joined the ever crowded starship battle in the opening credits.

Boimler’s mustache has finally joined up with his goatee, although his muttonchops have yet to. His line about how the lower deckers are the stars of the show while the commanders fade into the background is a meta comment on LD itself.

Steve Stevens makes another appearance, this time a speaking one, and he appears to be assisting Freeman now rather than following Ransom around as he used to.

Barnes is a Trill Operations Officer who used to date Rutherford (LD: “Second Contact”). The most memorable example of a pathogen causing devolution is from TNG: “Genesis”, where a mutated T-cell allowed dormant genes to be transferred from one person to another. Nurse Ogawa, in particular, devolved into an ape-like form.

The Clickets, an insectoid race that treated thanks as a hostile gesture, first appeared in LD: “Veritas”.

Shax’s hallucination reminds me of the multiple Shaxes Rutherford thinks about when he’s trying to figure out how Shax returned from the dead (LD: “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”).

Freeman says she doesn’t want the buhgoon defecating all over the hull. Coincidentally enough, the Cambodian word for “toilet” is bangkon, which is pronounced similarly.

Billups talks about Cordry Rocks in the ceiling which Ransom complains always fall on him when they take damage. This is the first time anyone in-universe has ever acknowledged the rock-like material that flies about whenever consoles explode since TNG. Billups starts to technobabble that that “their non-centrosymmetry disrupts the charge leptons in the isolinear pathways of the main deflector, which then causes…” but is cut off. The rocks may be named after Marian Cordry, who works at the Star Trek Archive & Library at Paramount Global.

The Professor is a Grazerite, the same species as Federation President Jaresh-Inyo (DS9: “Homefront”). Ransom calls the buhgoon “space cows”. They are an extremophile, much like tardigrades are known as “water bears”. Tardigrades in the Trek universe can grow to much larger sizes than their microscopic terrestrial counterparts, of course (DIS “Choose Your Pain”).

Delta Shift, formerly the nemeses of our Beta Shift, has been assigned the task of bringing a buhgoon on board. The auburn-haired ensign is Moxy, who first appeared in LD: “Terminal Provocations” (from her forehead markings she could be a Trill). The one blaming “Ensign Friendly” is Karavitus, who also first appeared in “Terminal Provocations”. The burly male is Hans Federov, better known as “Towel Guy”, who was finally given a first name in LD: “The Stars at Night”. “Friendly” is Ensign Castro (from Beta Shift), who first appeared in LD: “Envoys” and is also voiced by Gabrielle Ruiz (T’Lyn).

We see the shuttles Kings Canyon, Yosemite II, Joshua Tree II and Redwood, named after Californian National Parks. The original Yosemite shuttle crashed in LD: “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie” and Joshua Tree in LD: “Grounded”.

Tempasa was a settlement on Bajor, outside of which was located a Cardassian heavy weapons unit. Kira and her resistance cell raided and destroyed it (DS9: “Ties of Blood and Water”), although her father died while she was away on the mission. Shax’s flashback to Tempasa explains how he got his right eye scarred.

Nurse Westlake is named after Chris Westlake, composer for LD’s soundtrack. He first appeared in “Second Contact” and has been around throughout the show, although this is the first time we’ve heard him speak. Westlake talks about viruses that can make “everyone sing or whatever”. While not viral-based, a singing plague did strike in SNW: “Subspace Rhapsody”.

The PADD schedule notes Barnes’ sousaphone recital, a fertility event, and Winger Bingston Jr’s One Man Show, “The United Federation of Characters”, last seen performed in LD: “Moist Vessel”.

The buhgoon have a natural cloaking ability. Other species with biological invisibility include the Jem’hadar (DS9: “The Jem’hadar”), Tosk (DS9: “Captive Pursuit”), Xaheans (ST: “Runaway”), the itronok of Trill (DIS: “Jinaal”). Technically, the Devidians as well, since their natural state is being out of phase (TNG: “Time’s Arrow”).

Bingston’s line “Stuck out of phase, like Geordi and Ro wandering alone,” refers to the events of TNG: “The Next Phase”. The USS Manticore is a Manticore-class destroyer in Star Trek Online, but Bingston’s line implies this is an Oberth-class vessel of that name. Stevens wakes up clapping, much like Riker does in TNG: “Schisms”.

The alien ship is of Clicket design, last seen in “Veritas”.

“Dumber than Fletcher,” says one of the Delta Shifters. Fletcher was a dangerously incompetent officer who was eventually transferred off Cerritos (“Terminal Provocations”). His stint on the USS Titan lasted only six days, after which he was demoted and sent back to Earth.

Ransom has a habit of working out when trying to make decisions (LD: “No Small Parts”).

Ensign Meredith first appeared in LD: “Room for Growth” and is voiced by Charlotte Nicdao, whose Aussie accent some might recognize from Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest.

The Bynars are a race of cybernetically enhanced humanoids who are gifted in programming (TNG: “11001001”). They last appeared on LD in LD: “Old Friends, New Planets”, and made an appearance in PRO: “Ascension”.

The Grazerite Professor (whose name is Zurkel) is revealed as a Clicket, in a reveal that reminds me of when the Visitors in V were exposed as reptilian rather than humanoid. It’s also reminiscent of the Bug coming out of its human disguise in the first Men in Black movie and the Raxacoricofalapatorians from Doctor Who.

As noted above, Freeman dealt with the Clickets in “Veritas”, which makes Zurkel’s infuriation understandable.

Billups’ situation is reminiscent of Spock’s death scene in ST II, where he too was dying in a tube, except that opening it would release radiation, not coolant.

Billups’ first name, Andarithio (his friends call him “Andy”) was revealed in “Veritas”. The unnamed cadet first appeared at the end of LD: “wej Duj”.

“Zo”, or Admiral Alonzo Freeman, is Carol Freeman’s husband and Mariner’s father. We last saw him in “Old Friends, New Planets”. The holodeck is set to Paris, and is similar to the view from the Cafe Des Artistes seen in TNG: “We’ll Always Have Paris”.

Shax is drinking out of a purple Highwave Hotjo 14 oz travel mug used in DS9. The purple ones were custom colored for the show, but they are currently available from Highwave (US and Australia shipping only) if you want them, in Deep Space Purple.

The title, an inversion of the series’ name, indicates the focus in this episode on the bridge crew. It is the flip side of and a play on TNG: “Lower Decks”, an episode focused on the lower deckers when the series is mainly about the bridge crew.

Whatever Stardate it is, it’s Halloween on Cerritos. Although Picard seemed to be unfamiliar with the holiday in TNG: “The Big Goodbye”, McCoy makes reference to it in TOS: “Catspaw”. Mariner used to dress as Toby the Targ for Halloween (LD: “Crisis Point”) and Boimler dressed once as Christopher Pike (SNW: “Those Old Scientists”). As a bit of trivia, the registry number for the USS Discovery, NCC-1031, was allegedly chosen by Bryan Fuller because he loved Halloween.

V’Ger is the antagonist in TMP, and Mariner quotes the Ilia probe from the movie’s climax. This season, V’Ger joined the ever crowded starship battle in the opening credits.

Boimler’s mustache has finally joined up with his goatee, although his muttonchops have yet to. His line about how the lower deckers are the stars of the show while the commanders fade into the background is a meta comment on LD itself.

Steve Stevens makes another appearance, this time a speaking one, and he appears to be assisting Freeman now rather than following Ransom around as he used to.

Barnes is a Trill Operations Officer who used to date Rutherford (LD: “Second Contact”). The most memorable example of a pathogen causing devolution is from TNG: “Genesis”, where a mutated T-cell allowed dormant genes to be transferred from one person to another. Nurse Ogawa, in particular, devolved into an ape-like form.

The Clickets, an insectoid race that treated thanks as a hostile gesture, first appeared in LD: “Veritas”.

Shax’s hallucination reminds me of the multiple Shaxes Rutherford thinks about when he’s trying to figure out how Shax returned from the dead (LD: “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”).

Freeman says she doesn’t want the buhgoon defecating all over the hull. Coincidentally enough, the Cambodian word for “toilet” is bangkon, which is pronounced similarly.

Billups talks about Cordry Rocks in the ceiling which Ransom complains always fall on him when they take damage. This is the first time anyone in-universe has ever acknowledged the rock-like material that flies about whenever consoles explode since TNG. Billups starts to technobabble that that “their non-centrosymmetry disrupts the charge leptons in the isolinear pathways of the main deflector, which then causes…” but is cut off. The rocks may be named after Marian Cordry, who works at the Star Trek Archive & Library at Paramount Global.

The Professor is a Grazerite, the same species as Federation President Jaresh-Inyo (DS9: “Homefront”). Ransom calls the buhgoon “space cows”. They are an extremophile, much like tardigrades are known as “water bears”. Tardigrades in the Trek universe can grow to much larger sizes than their microscopic terrestrial counterparts, of course (DIS “Choose Your Pain”).

Delta Shift, formerly the nemeses of our Beta Shift, has been assigned the task of bringing a buhgoon on board. The auburn-haired ensign is Moxy, who first appeared in LD: “Terminal Provocations” (from her forehead markings she could be a Trill). The one blaming “Ensign Friendly” is Karavitus, who also first appeared in “Terminal Provocations”. The burly male is Hans Federov, better known as “Towel Guy”, who was finally given a first name in LD: “The Stars at Night”. “Friendly” is Ensign Castro (from Beta Shift), who first appeared in LD: “Envoys” and is also voiced by Gabrielle Ruiz (T’Lyn).

We see the shuttles Kings Canyon, Yosemite II, Joshua Tree II and Redwood, named after Californian National Parks. The original Yosemite shuttle crashed in LD: “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie” and Joshua Tree in LD: “Grounded”.

Tempasa was a settlement on Bajor, outside of which was located a Cardassian heavy weapons unit. Kira and her resistance cell raided and destroyed it (DS9: “Ties of Blood and Water”), although her father died while she was away on the mission. Shax’s flashback to Tempasa explains how he got his right eye scarred.

Nurse Westlake is named after Chris Westlake, composer for LD’s soundtrack. He first appeared in “Second Contact” and has been around throughout the show, although this is the first time we’ve heard him speak. Westlake talks about viruses that can make “everyone sing or whatever”. While not viral-based, a singing plague did strike in SNW: “Subspace Rhapsody”.

The PADD schedule notes Barnes’ sousaphone recital, a fertility event, and Winger Bingston Jr’s One Man Show, “The United Federation of Characters”, last seen performed in LD: “Moist Vessel”.

The buhgoon have a natural cloaking ability. Other species with biological invisibility include the Jem’hadar (DS9: “The Jem’hadar”), Tosk (DS9: “Captive Pursuit”), Xaheans (ST: “Runaway”), the itronok of Trill (DIS: “Jinaal”). Technically, the Devidians as well, since their natural state is being out of phase (TNG: “Time’s Arrow”).

Bingston’s line “Stuck out of phase, like Geordi and Ro wandering alone,” refers to the events of TNG: “The Next Phase”. The USS Manticore is a Manticore-class destroyer in Star Trek Online, but Bingston’s line implies this is an Oberth-class vessel of that name. Stevens wakes up clapping, much like Riker does in TNG: “Schisms”.

The alien ship is of Clicket design, last seen in “Veritas”.

“Dumber than Fletcher,” says one of the Delta Shifters. Fletcher was a dangerously incompetent officer who was eventually transferred off Cerritos (“Terminal Provocations”). His stint on the USS Titan lasted only six days, after which he was demoted and sent back to Earth.

Ransom has a habit of working out when trying to make decisions (LD: “No Small Parts”).

Ensign Meredith first appeared in LD: “Room for Growth” and is voiced by Charlotte Nicdao, whose Aussie accent some might recognize from Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest.

The Bynars are a race of cybernetically enhanced humanoids who are gifted in programming (TNG: “11001001”). They last appeared on LD in LD: “Old Friends, New Planets”, and made an appearance in PRO: “Ascension”.

The Grazerite Professor (whose name is Zurkel) is revealed as a Clicket, in a reveal that reminds me of when the Visitors in V were exposed as reptilian rather than humanoid. It’s also reminiscent of the Bug coming out of its human disguise in the first Men in Black movie and the Raxacoricofalapatorians from Doctor Who.

As noted above, Freeman dealt with the Clickets in “Veritas”, which makes Zurkel’s infuriation understandable.

Billups’ situation is reminiscent of Spock’s death scene in ST II, where he too was dying in a tube, except that opening it would release radiation, not coolant.

Billups’ first name, Andarithio (his friends call him “Andy”) was revealed in “Veritas”. The unnamed cadet first appeared at the end of LD: “wej Duj”.

“Zo”, or Admiral Alonzo Freeman, is Carol Freeman’s husband and Mariner’s father. We last saw him in “Old Friends, New Planets”. The holodeck is set to Paris, and is similar to the view from the Cafe Des Artistes seen in TNG: “We’ll Always Have Paris”.

Shax is drinking out of a purple Highwave Hotjo 14 oz travel mug used in DS9. The purple ones were custom colored for the show, but they are currently available from Highwave (US and Australia shipping only) if you want them, in Deep Space Purple.