khaosworks

The title may be a reference to the Aristotelian concept of the common good, although that has been used to justify utilitarian positions, where the correct decision is deemed to be one that benefits the greatest number of members of a given community. Of course, that means that the minority may bear the brunt of the disadvantages.

The synopsis of the episode confirms the spelling of Elborean and Delmonda.

McGivers’ log says it’s the 208th day of the exile, which means about a month has elapsed since the last episode.

Delmonda says a “pandem” is “a collection of minds bonded beyond convenience or aptitude”. Given the literary proximity of Khan’s story to Milton’s Paradise Lost, one can’t help but think of “pandemonium”, which was Milton’s name for Hell, or “the place of all demons” (pan + demon).

The deception that Delmonda detects from Khan is of course his spin on how he came to Ceti Alpha V - not by choice, but because Kirk exiled them there.

Joachim calls the Elboreans “Elbs”. Erica says he’s the best fisherman of their group and the first one to chart the “Sunless Sea”, taking the name from McGivers’ quoting of the opening of Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan”: “Where Alph, the sacred river, ran / Through caverns measureless to man / Down to a sunless sea.”

Ursula says her and Madot’s baby is due in eight more weeks (two months), which is consistent with it being about seven months since the start of the exile, since the baby was conceived about a week into the exile (KHA: “Paradise”).

Khan says the four most terrifying words in the English language are, “We come in peace.” In DIS: “The Vulcan Hello”, T’Kuvma exhorts his people to “lock arms against those [the Federation] whose fatal greeting is… ‘We come in peace.’”

McGivers alludes to the fairy tale of “Hansel and Gretel” when she says “no wandering through the caverns without breadcrumbs”.

As noted at the start of “Paradise”, in 2287 (six years prior to 2293) an “anonymous source” (or so she told the Starfleet Civilian Resource Allocation Committee) gave Lear McGivers’ logs recorded while on Ceti Alpha V. She now reveals that it was Delmonda.

Sulu dates the scans made by Enterprise of the Ceti Alpha system as Stardate 3143.1. TOS: “Space Seed”, according to the logs, takes place between Stardate 3141.9 and 3143.3. The latter log is apparently recorded just before the hearing where Kirk decides Khan’s (and McGivers’) fate. This is consistent with Kirk already having decided to offer Khan exile before the hearing commences.

The ban on genetic augmentation is such a core part of Star Trek lore now that it’s easy to forget that it was only inserted into continuity in DS9: “Doctor Bashir, I Presume” - Season 5, Episode 15, in 1997. Indeed, in episodes like TNG: “Unnatural Selection”, 9 years earlier, Picard and Pulaski come across a genetic manipulation program on Darwin Station and don’t even blink.

Lear asks why Kirk never checked on the “seeds he planted”, echoing Spock’s last words from “Space Seed”: “It would be interesting, Captain, to return to that world in a hundred years and to learn what crop has sprung from the seed you planted today.”

Ceti Alpha VI’s explosion places this episode six months into the exile, which is about two months after the previous episode where Khan and McGivers are married. McGivers confirms this a few minutes later into the episode.

Khan uses the same phrase (“laid waste”) as he does in ST II to describe the consequences to Ceti Alpha V of Ceti Alpha VI exploding.

Joachim’s advice to Erica about aiming the pointy end echoes a line from The Mask of Zorro, where Alejandro Murrieta is asked if he knows how to use a sword and replies, “The pointy end goes in the other man.”

McGivers relates the events of Zefram Cochrane’s first warp flight, making a warp-capable ship from a nuclear missile, and making contact with Vulcans, as chronicled in First Contact. She would be unaware of the involvement of time-traveling Borg and the crew of Enterprise-E, of course.

“Superior” is an adjective often used by and with Augments. In “Space Seed”, Spock notes that “superior ability breeds superior ambition,” a sentiment Archer echoes in ENT: “The Augments”. Khan describes McGivers as a “superior woman” as he accepts her going into exile with him. In ST II, Joachim and Kirk both refer to Khan as the “superior intellect”, although Kirk does so mockingly.

The alien is Delmonda of Elboria, many thousands of light years away, and they have journeyed two “spans”, presumably meaning years. I am not certain of the spelling of Elboria (and for a minute I thought he was saying El-Auria, i.e. Guinan’s system), but the Alborians are a reptilian race that appeared in the DS9 YA novel The Pet, and they don’t fit the description of these aliens.

McGivers quotes the first lines of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1797 poem “Kubla Khan: or A Vision in a Dream”. Famously, Coleridge claimed he composed the entire poem in an opium-induced dream, but only managed to get a few stanzas down before he was interrupted by a “man from Porlock” on business, causing him to forget the 200-300 line poem.

The lines are also used in Orson Welles’ 1941 classic Citizen Kane to describe the opulent estate of the titular Charles Foster Kane, an extension of Kane’s ego and hubris but ultimately a crumbling ruin where he dies in isolation - foreshadowing the fate of Khan’s colony, perhaps?

The title refers to Khan and McGivers’ discussion about the importance of memorialising the dead, which he describes as magical thinking - the state of mind that connects seemingly unrelated events or phenomena, usually with supernatural causes. In psychiatric terms, it is thinking that one’s inner beliefs and thoughts can influence external events.

Khan says he knows what Ursula is doing in the medlab. In the previous episode, Madot and Ursula had successfully made Madot pregnant.

Khan asks Ivan, “My brother, what have I done?” and Ivan replies, “What you always do. Guided us, inspired us, protected us.” In ST III, after destroying Enterprise, Kirk asks McCoy, “My God, Bones, what have I done?” and McCoy replies, “What you had to do. What you always do. Turn death into a fighting chance to live.” This is the second time the series parallels Khan with Kirk, the last episode noting that when things don’t go according to plan, Khan changes the plan, much like Kirk changing the rules when faced with a no-win situation (ST II).

Ursula’s medical analysis translated says Richter died from a broken neck, and that he suffered fractures to his arm and legs before his death. She notes his age at 16 and his race as Caucasian.

Ursula’s description of the Ceti eel is consistent with Khan’s own description of them to Chekov and Terrell in ST II.

Paolo extended his dynoscanners’ range last episode by scavenging a Starfleet part - a coil - that he found in McGiver’s quarters.

Madot’s suggestion to use diatomaceous earth is a good one. It’s used for pest control even today in exactly a manner as she says.

Lear says Reliant’s mission to the Ceti Alpha system in 2285 was “5 years ago”. It is clearly rounding, since the current year established in the first episode was 2293. Lear’s skepticism about Reliant not noticing a missing planet or Enterprise being unaware of Ceti Alpha VI’s instability are questions that occasionally pop up in fan discussions about ST II.

McGivers’ recording now jumps to Day 119, nearly 4 months into the exile.

Ursula says McGivers’ HCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, known as the pregnancy hormone) levels are over 30,000. At 6 weeks of pregnancy, the expected HCG level is between 152 to 32,171 mIU/mL.

McGivers says that in 4 months they’ve only lost 3 to the eels. Counting Richter as one of them, that means two more of the colony have died, which would bring the numbers down to 67.

Marla tells Khan how the Prime Directive is drilled into them, specifically not to provide advanced technology to those who haven’t developed it themselves.

Khan weds Marla, the ceremony officiated by Ursula, transforming her status from Khan’s Woman to his wife, as he called her in ST II.

It’s been a busy week, so I apologise for the lateness of the annotations.

Lear estimates the opening recording (Tape CA5-29-4), where Khan admits he lied to Joaquin about the circumstances of his father Joachim’s death, between Day 6000 and 6500 of the exile, which makes it about 16.4 to 17.8 years after, or around mid-2283 to late 2284. This is assuming that TOS: “Space Seed” takes place in early 2267, given that it was the last episode of Season 1, which mostly takes place in 2266, and was broadcast on 16 February 1967.

This brings the years in line with the now-accepted 2285 dating for ST II, rather than taking Kirk and Khan’s statement that 15 years have passed literally. That would have been true if you took the real world time span between 1967 and ST II’s release in 1982, but the preponderance of evidence places ST II in 2285 - not least the 2283 vintage of McCoy’s Romulan Ale - rather than 2282.

Lear then cross references between Days 30 and 45, the former of which is one day after the events of the previous episode.

“Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown,” is from Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 2, Act III sc i.

Khan’s recording continues to state it’s been more than 15 years since it rained on Ceti Alpha V. Ceti Alpha VI exploded six months into the exile, laying waste to Ceti Alpha V, so that is another indication that the 15 years statement in ST II should no longer be literal.

Richter becomes the first victim of the Ceti eel. Khan states in ST II that they eventually kill 20 of his group, including McGivers. Incidentally, they are not named in the movie, but are named in the script. The name is also present in the novelisation by Vonda M. McIntyre and then picked up by Shane Johnson (as she then was) in the 1989 Star Trek: The Worlds of the Federation and also in Greg Cox's 2005 To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh.

Dynoscanners were first mentioned in ST II, when Reliant picked up signs of life on what they thought was Ceti Alpha VI. Dynoscans were also mentioned in TNG: “Reunion” and TNG: “Ethics”.

McGivers says that when things go wrong Khan changes the plan. This reminds me of Kirk’s penchant of changing the rules in order to win, something Saavik comments on in ST III.

Richter’s compulsion to obey Khan’s commands is an effect of the Ceti eel, as Khan explains in ST II. But eventually as the larva grows, comes madness and death.

McGivers says it is Day 41 of the exile, with just about 3-4 months to go before Ceti Alpha VI explodes. However, this must be a mistake, because she also says Khan and Richter have been missing for two days, which makes it Day 31, since the hunting party left on Day 29.

Ursula calls for 10 ccs of “coranaline” to treat Richter, which I don’t believe has been mentioned before, but from the context could be a sedative or analgesic.

Sylvana and Richter are the next deaths, bringing the numbers down to 69.

The tape Lear is listening to is from Day 29 of the exile. Lear mentions that the stardate is unknown. While this may harken back to the TOS Writer’s Guide where (to let writers off the hook for not being consistent with stardates from episode to episode) they say that stardates depend on a variety of factors, including the velocity of the object and its positioning within the galaxy, surely the position of Ceti Alpha V would be known? Unless Lear is just being lazy and not wanting to calculate it.

McGivers says Khan avoided her for three weeks after discovering her communicator, which happened last episode. That means that KHA: “Paradise” (and Hugo’s death) took place about a week, give or take, into the exile.

Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan, near the Kazhakstan border. As far as I’m aware, although there are forests in the mountains nearby, there were no jungles filled with deserters and death squads in the 1990s, although car bombs in 1999 were attributed to Islamic militants.

Richter’s flower is identified by Ivan as a corpse flower, or a carrion flower, which describes several species which smell of rotting flesh to attract flies for pollination. His description of a red flower about three feet around is similar to Earth’s rafflesia kerrii, whose blooms are about that size.

Richter and Sylvana allude to a place where he was bullied, and possibly raised. In “Paradise” we find out that Khan liberated child Augments from a laboratory, and in SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” we see the Noonien-Singh Institute where a young Khan lives, c.2022, together with a cohort of at least 6 other children.

McGivers tells the Augments the tale of Scheherazade, the storyteller of the Arabian story cycle The Thousand and One Nights, which gives the episode its name. McGivers also echoes the senior staff of Enterprise are discussing Khan from TOS: “Space Seed”, namely that there were no massacres under his rule, and no wars until he was attacked, although Spock points out that there was little freedom as well.

Socrates was indeed accused of not worshiping the gods of Athens and corrupting the minds of the city’s youth. What Khan and McGivers leave out is that he was tried and sentenced to death for that, of which he executed the sentence by drinking a cup of hemlock. Plato was Socrates’ pupil, and one of the main sources for an account of the latter’s life.

McGivers’ observation that Kirk didn’t even know her name before that day is essentially correct, as Kirk mispronounces her name to Spock as “McGIHvers”.

The theme of a seeming paradise hiding dangerous lifeforms is a feature of TOS: “The Apple”. The “insect” that attacks Sylvana is christened the Ceti eel, which will of course eventually be Ceti Alpha V’s only surviving indigenous lifeform and the cause of McGiver's death.

Hugo and Joaquin have died so far, bringing the population of Khan’s colony down to 71.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The “half” refers to Spock, who is only half-Vulcan.

The Stardate is 3111.1, and Enterprise is headed for Purmantee III where the crew will take shore leave. Una says La’An, of all people would understand why she’s remaining on board, as she likes to do work when it’s quiet. Indeed, the two did that in SNW: “Spock Amok” when the crew was on shore leave in Starbase 1. This is the first mention of Greerian cocktails.

Vice-Admiral Pasalk is a Vulcan who headed the JAG office in SNW: “Ad Astra Per Aspera”. He also has an antagonistic relationship with Spock, although that is only apparent to people who can read Vulcan body language, like M’Benga. Batel was a JAG officer who was then promoted to command, being recalled to JAG duty for Una’s trial in that episode.

Tezaar is an M-class planet (Minshara-class, as per ENT: “Strange New World”), capable of supporting humanoid life, but are not warp capable, hence protected by the Prime Directive. Spock explains that the Vulcans made contact with Tezaar before the founding of the Federation (in 2161), but we know that Vulcans had their own non-interference directives long before before official First Contact with Earth in 2063 (see ENT: “Carbon Creek”), as La’An points out.

Spock was turned human and back again by the Kerkhovians in SNW: “Charades”. Pike being overwhelmed by emotions is an expected response, as Vulcans feel emotions much more intensely than humans, hence the necessity to practice arie’mnu (passion’s mastery) to control them. However, given this is a learned response, the sudden snap to “emotionless” Vulcans requires some explanation.

The song is “Reckless Youth” by indie group The Home of Happy. Pike is carrying a lirpa, a traditional Vulcan weapon first seen in TOS: “Amok Time”. Ortegas mentioned she had fought with a lirpa in “Spock Amok”. The away team also carries cylindrical hardshell duffle bags, which were first seen in TNG. Music reminiscent of the Vulcan fight music of “Amok Time” can also be heard as part of the soundtrack.

Pike’s opening narration for this episode is in a stilted manner, as a nod to his status as a Vulcan.

Una’s explanation for why the away team is acting so coldly is because the serum was derived from Spock’s “perceived experiences”, leading them to assume the manners that Vulcans normally years to develop. That being said, how a serum can be based on “experiences” is not explained.

Kirk’s mention of Sam reminds me that we haven’t seen him since SNW: “Through the Lens of Time”.

It is well established that Vulcans have an enhanced sense of smell compared to humans and that they find human odors unpleasant. As mentioned in ENT: “The Andorian Incident” and “Spock Amok”, Vulcans take nasal suppressants/numbing agents to help with this.

La’An’s obsession towards martial matters and conquest is meant to seem Romulan in nature (as Kirk says, aggressive and manipulative) but as we find out later, it’s her Augment ancestry influencing her Vulcan state.

It’s interesting that M’Benga and Spock are now talking openly about katras, when it was first presented as a deeply personal thing to Vulcans (Sarek says in ST III that Spock would not have spoken of it openly). But then again mind melds were also supposed to be things Vulcans didn’t talk about (TOS: “Dagger of the Mind”).

Pike’s allusion to a mission he is not permitted to discuss is his knowledge of the Romulans gained on a trip into an alternate future (SNW: “A Quality of Mercy”). La’An learned about Romulans while also time traveling in SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”.

Someone on Lemmy has pointed out that Ortegas' reference to sandwiches with fries inside them (and the name "Purmantee") is likely a reference to Primanti Bros., a Pittsburgh-based sandwich chain famous for having fries and slaw packed inside their sandwiches.

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of mending broken ceramics by filling in the gaps between shards with a metallic lacquer made from gold or sometimes silver. The philosophy behind the practice is to embrace imperfections and find beauty in them instead of keeping them hidden.

15 years puts the end of Una and Doug’s romance in 2244, a year before Enterprise was launched. My best guesses put Una at around 42 years of age (I’ll spare you the math) so she last broke up with Doug when she was 27.

Batel says Pasalk used to call Pike “the human with inappropriate hair”, which is clearly a meta joke as Pike’s hair is a frequent topic of conversation among fans.

Doug attributes Spock’s ability to lie to his human heritage and claims that as a full-blooded Vulcan he cannot lie, but full-blooded Vulcans have been known to lie (or at least obfuscate) before - especially T’Pol and Tuvok - on numerous occasions.

Kirk says he’s served under Vulcans. The current CO of Farragut is V’Rel, a Vulcan female captain.

La’An’s katra space includes a lab with beluga whales, which might suggest that Enterprise, even at this point in time, has a Cetacean Ops department. Cetacean Ops was a throwaway piece of background dialogue in TNG: “Yesterday’s Enterprise” and then elaborated on in the 1992 TNG Technical Manual as well as included on the 1996 Galaxy-class blueprints. The Tech Manual mentioned that Enterprise-D had two whales who helped in navigation. The USS Cerritos’s own Cetacean Ops was mentioned in LD: “Second Contact” and finally seen - the first time Cetacean Ops had been shown on-screen in any Star Trek series - in LD: “First First Contact”. A Cetecean Ops has also appeared in PRO, on the Lamarr-class Voyager-A.

Plomeekkatra is a traditional Vulcan dish, which can be bland or spicy. Chapel made plomeek soup for Spock in “Amok Time”, although Spock, in the throes of pon farr, threw the bowl into the corridor.

It appears that we are meant to believe that it was Kirk who introduced Scotty to the pleasures of Scotch.

First Firstthe post-credits scene is that the inability to use contractions was part of the character of Data in TNG (yes, it’s debatable). Also, while his smiles are often wry and subtle, Spock has grinned a number of times before, in TOS: “The Cage”, TOS: “Amok Time” and laughed in SNW: “Children of the Comet” and SNW: “Those Old Scientists”.

In 1976, the American comedy series M*A*S*H, set in the fictional 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, during the Korean War, produced “The Interview”, an in-universe documentary about the characters. Breaking the sitcom format, it was aired in black and white as the last episode of Season 4, consisting mostly of improvised in-character interviews.

“The Interview” is a milestone in television history, copied several times by other series - notably in the SF genre by Babylon 5 with “And Now For a Word” and (partly) “The Illusion of Truth”, as well as Stargate SG-1’s “Heroes” - except those were scripted rather than improvised. M*A*S*H itself repeated the format in Season 7’s “Their Finest Hour”.

A Star Trek fan-made production, Return to Axanar, also used the documentary format. Some licensed novels like The Final Reflection, Spock’s World, The Romulan Way and Strangers From the Sky have also used in-universe texts as part of the storytelling, but this is the first time it’s been used on screen.

Beto makes reference to “investigating the mysteries within ourselves.” In ENT: “Terra Prime”, Archer says, “[T]he most profound discoveries are not necessarily beyond that next star. They're within us, woven into the threads that bind us, all of us, to each other.” In DIS: “Brother”, Burnham describes space, the final frontier as “Above us. Around us. Within us.”

The length of Enterprise as 442.6 metres long is a recent retcon. For decades, the established figure was 289 m, or 947 ft as stated in The Making of Star Trek, but revised upward for the DIS era in production graphics, clearly seen in SNW: “Memento Mori” to the figures we see here. The crew complement of 203 is based on dialogue in TOS: “The Cage”. The dedication plaque states the dimensions as Length: 442 m (1450 ft), Beam: 201 m (659 ft) and Height: 93 m (305 ft), with Weight: 190,000 tonnes (209,439 tons). The caption also establishes the ship’s weaponry as 6 phaser banks and 2 photon torpedo tubes.

The Plain of Blood on Vulcan was first seen in ENT: “The Forge”, an arid expanse that legend holds was flowing with the green blood of battle until Surak cooled it with logic. This is the first time a Vantu blade has been mentioned. Other Vulcan weapons include the lirpa and ahn’woon. This is also the first mention of Kolaran blades.

The back of Uhura’s delta has her name and presumably her Starfleet serial number (and birthdate?). We saw similar name and serial number markings on the backs of deltas in DIS.

This is the first mention of Lutani VII and Kasar, and the stardate of the Kasar attack is 2177.9. The briefing takes place on 2191.4. PADD stands for “Personal Access Display Device” - while first named in TNG, ENT: “Terra Nova” established that the term PADD was used as far back as the 22nd Century.

Jikaru is the Lutani name for “starlight” and the species have lived on the oceanic moon Tychus-B. The transformation Uhura refers to allows it to move through space. Space-borne lifeforms have appeared several times in Star Trek, notably TOS: “The Immunity Syndrome”, TNG: “Tin Man”, TNG: “Galaxy’s Child”, VOY: “The Cloud”, DIS: “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”, LD: “Grounded”, LD: “Upper Decks”, among others I’ve probably missed. The Jikaru sound is reminiscent of whalesongs (which were a plot point in ST IV).

This is the first time where it is stated that practitioners of Surakian meditation gain increased esper sensitivity and makes mind melds more efficient. The term esper to describe psychic powers was first used in TOS: “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, where esper ratings were part of Starfleet officer records.

Quadroline was first mentioned in TNG: “First Contact” as a drug used on Malcor III. Hyronalin was first mentioned in TOS: “The Deadly Years” as the accepted treatment for radiation sickness.

M’Benga chooses his words carefully when he doesn’t answer if Starfleet has ordered him to kill and says killing people is not a function of his “current job”, given his past as a covert ops wetworks specialist called “The Ghost”. Protocol 12 is a combat drug he developed that gave its user increased strength, endurance and pain resistance, but with side effects. He was present at the Battle of ChaKana which took place on J’Gal during the Klingon War (SNW: “The Broken Circle”) as well as the final Battle of J’Gal (SNW: “Under the Cloak of War”). M’Benga is also cagey about scrubbing sickbay’s surveillance logs (SNW: “The Elysian Kingdom”).

Uhura’s story of the death of her parents and older brother in a shuttle accident was first told in SNW: “Children of the Comet”. Her grandmother, who used to be in Starfleet, steered her toward Starfleet Academy. The USS Cayuga (NCC-1557) was a Constitution-class ship commanded by CAPT Marie Batel which was destroyed by the Gorn over Parnassus Beta in SNW: “Hegemony”. The stardate as stated in that episode and here was 2344.2.

Pike’s love of horseriding was fist established in TOS: “The Cage” and we saw him on horseback in SNW: “Strange New Worlds”.

Christine’s reference to how Vulcans abandoned “these kinds of psionics” centuries ago may be a reference to psionic resonator weapons like the Stone of Gol (TNG: “Gambit, Part II”).

Ortegas yells, “¡Quítame eso de la cara!”, Spanish for “Get that out of my face!”

Spock’s mission to mind meld with the Jikaru in space echoes what he will do years later with V’Ger (TMP). Spock will also meld with alien species like the Horta (TOS: “The Devil in the Dark”) and with humpback whales (ST IV).

Galileo is the most iconic of Enterprise’s shuttles, prominently featured in TOS: “The Galileo Seven”. I think this the first time we’ve seen one (there were a few) named on screen in SNW.

Anti-grav stretchers or gurneys were used several times in TNG, DS9 and LD to ferry wounded personnel to sickbay. Spock was also in a Vulcan healing coma in TOS: “A Private Little War”.

The birthday party is for a Bolian officer. Pike’s cooking for his crew was first seen in “Children of the Comet”, and we get a glimpse of Batel among the party as well.

Like SNW: “A Space Adventure Hour”, this episode does not have the standard opening titles but serves its credits at the end of the episode.

Annotations for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail”:

A sehlat is a Vulcan animal akin to a large furry bear with pronounced saber-tooth tiger-like fangs. Spock’s childhood pet sehlat, I-Chaya, was first mentioned in TOS: “Journey to Babel” and subsequently seen and named in TAS: “Yesteryear”. A non-cartoon version of a wild sehlat was seen in ENT: “The Forge”.

We see the Bellerophon-class USS Farragut (NCC-1647). At this point in his career (2261), Kirk is her first officer, having served on it since he last left Startfleet Academy in 2255. 4 years prior, in 2257, Farragut lost her captain to a dikironium vampire (TOS: “Obsession”) at Tycho IV. Also see my post on making sense of Kirk’s early career history.

Farragut is doing a survey of Helicon Gamma, an unihabited M-class planet. M-class, or Minshara-class planets (as per ENT: “Strange New World”) are capable of sustaining humanoid life.

Farragut is currently under the command of Captain V’Rel, a female Vulcan officer. Kirk’s frustration at her risk-averse nature and his stating that “risk is why we’re here,” echoes his speech in TOS: “Return to Tomorrow” when he insists that “risk is our business.” Kirk’s desire to rewrite the book is also consistent with his character, who has always tended to change the rules (ST II).

Kirk says, "Starfleet could have sent a probe, but instead they sent us because some things you need to see for yourself to truly understand," which is a paraphrase of Archer's remark to T'Pol in ENT: "Civilization", "Starfleet could've sent a probe out here to make maps and take pictures, but they didn't. They sent us so we could explore with our own senses."

John Logie Baird (1888-1946) was a Scottish inventor, best known for demonstrating the first television system in 1926 and going on to invent colour television. Doctor Who fans will remember him being portrayed in the 2023 special “The Giggle”.

Speaking of, at approximately 11:33, to our right and along the same plane as the top of the bridge dome, the TARDIS can be seen among the scavenger’s tentacles.

This is the first time we’ve heard of Asaasllich, Destroyer of Worlds, or the Astrovore, but a lot of this - centuries old scavenger ship, comms interference, unable to get through the hull, gravitational beams destroying planets, consuming resources, large enough to swallow starships whole - reminds me very much of TOS: “The Doomsday Machine”.

Ortegas claims the Klingons call it Chach-Ka, “The Annihilator”. The Klingon word chach means emergency or auxiliary and qa’ means spirit, so I’m not sure if those are the right words or what the Klingon name should be.

We see a toppled 3-D chess set, similar to those on which Kirk and Spock would have regular games in future. This is the first time in SNW where Kirk has been addressed as “Captain Kirk” (excepting alternate timeline versions). As Spock enters the wrecked room, we see a picture of Starbase One on the wall.

Scotty refers to the scavenger as “Nessie”, the popular nickname for the Scottish cryptid known as the Loch Ness Monster. Kirk tells him to come up with some “miracles”, foreshadowing Scotty’s future reputation as a “miracle worker”.

The scene where Scotty is struggling in a wrecked Jeffries tube also reminds me of a similar scene in “Doomsday Machine”. Scotty’s time estimate looks ahead to a time when he always multiples his repair estimates by a factor of 4 to maintain his miracle worker rep (ST III, TNG: “Relics”).

Aldentium (first mention) is used by a few species in propulsion systems. This is also the first mention of Sullivan’s Planet and its pre-warp (and thus Prime Directive-protected) population of 100 million.

Scotty better get used to Kirk just ignoring his protestations and getting on with it, or else it’s going to be a really long 32 years. This is Kirk’s command style - which is less consultative than Picard and Pike’s process.

Another “Doomsday Machine” reference. The procedure to replace a CO that Chapel refers to is covered by Starfleet Regulation 104, Section C.

The scavengers use ion particles in their weapons, which rip through flesh and bone like bullets.

The clock Pelia tosses is the iconic and once ubiquitous Kit-Cat Clock, first made in 1932. She hands M’Benga what is supposed to be an Atari Video Computer System (also known as an Atari 2600), one of the first video game consoles made, released in 1977.

The use of wired (as opposed to wireless) communications to insulate them from jamming is similar to the reboot Battlestar Galactica universe, where intership communications were hard wired to prevent them from being hacked by the Cylons.

Kirk’s mother is named Winona (first named in ST 2009). The story about the dog with the car crops up in Bruce Feirstein’s book Nice Guys Sleep Alone, where it’s used as a metaphor for someone who keeps pursuing a paramour but once they’ve “got” them, they don’t know what to do with them.

As Kirk’s crew come together, the first of the core group of people he will grow to rely on for the rest of his career, the music echoes James Horner’s rousingly nautical soundtrack from ST II.

Pike suggests baryon particles to give the scavenger indigestion (shades of souring the milk ala TNG: “Galaxy’s Child”), and La’An says they have to access the waste system of the warp drive. In TNG: “Starship Mine” it was established that operating warp drives led to a build up of baryons that needed to be occasionally purged from starships by means of a “baryon sweep”.

Pelia used to be a roadie for The Grateful Dead, who stand among the greatest rock groups in history.

While Uhura is usually pictured at her communications station, she has taken the navigation and helm stations on a few occasions, notably in TOS: “The Man Trap” and TOS: “Balance of Terror”. She temporarily took over Spock’s station in TOS: “The Galileo Seven”.

Kirk once told Scotty to “discard the warp nacelles if you have to” in TOS: “The Apple”, but this is the first time we’ve seen a starship do this on-screen.

Una’s trick of using a depressurising section of the ship as a makeshift reaction thruster was also used in TNG: “Cause and Effect” - Riker ordered the shuttle bay to depressurise so as to avoid Enterprise-D colliding with Bozeman. That being said, Una only uses a single airlock rather than an entire shuttlebay, which seems implausibly small when shifting something of Enterprise’s mass.

As we zoom in on the hull markings, we see a United States flag, a delta with what appears to be an United Nations logo inside, and the registry number XCV-100. One of the first spaceships named Enterprise, also prior to Earth Starfleet’s formation, had the registry number XCV-330 (TMP, ENT: “First Flight”).

Prior to First Contact with the Vulcans means prior to 2063 (STFC). Pelia narrows it down to just after World War III ended in 2053. Other ships launched around that time included Cochrane’s Phoenix in 2063 and the UESPA probe Friendship 1 (VOY: “Friendship One”) in 2067. Friendship 1 had the same delta with the UN logo.

Aldebaran whiskey is the “it’s green” liquor that Scotty imbibes with Picard in TNG: “Relics” (and possibly the same one he drinks in TOS: “By Any Other Name”).

Pike’s optimism is laudable - in the end, what Star Trek teaches us is whether we turn into monsters or not can’t be blamed on circumstance, it’s a choice (TOS: "A Taste of Armageddon"). The same choice faced Captains Janeway and Ransom in the Delta Quadrant (VOY: “Equinox”), and both chose differently. Kirk’s lesson that we’re not that different from the enemy would serve him well in situations where he can anticipate the enemy’s moves (TOS: “Balance of Terror”), reactions (“A Taste of Armageddon”) or when he reaches out with empathy instead of destruction (TOS: “Arena”).

Ensign Gamble identifies himself as a “junior medical officer”, not a nurse, but the two may be equivalent. The stardate is 2184.4, and it has been six months since he was assigned to Enterprise. Since Gamble came on board to sub for Chapel while she was away on her three-month fellowship with Korby, this places the episode six months after SNW: “Hegemony, Part 2” or three months after SNW: “Wedding Bell Blues”.

Gamble mentions Korby’s work on “molecular memory and corporeal transference”, and that “man’s fascination with resurrection and reincarnation might be based on forgotten technology” foreshadows the android technology Korby will discover on Exo III (TOS: “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”).

Chapel asks how much “tarazine” is lethal. I’m not sure if she meant “thorazine”, which is a real world antipsychotic. Chapel jokes about “command function” being in the “left lobe [of the brain]”. The frontal lobe is where higher executive functions are regulated, and the left hemisphere controls speech, comprehension, math and writing.

Vadia IX was first mentioned in “Wedding” as where Korby and Chapel conducted a dig, and Trelane’s remarks imply it was the ancient homeworld of the Q.

According to the star chart, Vadia is in the same sector as Majalis (SNW: “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach”) and a sector away from Eminiar (TOS: “A Taste of Armageddon”) and Cait (home system of the Caitians), and about 100 ly away from Gorn space. It is under the jurisdiction of the M’Kroon, who have their first mention here.

Beto Ortegas first appeared in “Wedding”, but was mentioned prior to that in the SNW novel Toward the Night by James Swallow. As I noted previously, Beto is usually a nickname in Spanish for names that end in -berto, and we find out here his actual first name is Humberto.

“We’re gonna need a bigger landing party,” is a reference to the famous line, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” from the 1975 movie Jaws.

Polaris is also known as the North Star, the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor (or the Little Dipper), but we are unaware if it has any planets, let alone twelve. This is the first mention of Praetorian. La’An says, “Fascinating,” which is a phrase Spock often uses - Chapel seems to notice this.

“Ancient astronauts” is a reference to a dubious (not to mention racist) yet popular hypothesis in real-world ufology, where it is posited that aliens with advanced technology visited Earth in the past and left traces of their visits, including objects like the Pyramids or Stonehenge which proponents of this theory argue could not have been built by primitive man without help. In the Star Trek universe, however, aliens have visited more primitive cultures and either influenced them and/or been mistaken for deities. We have TOS: “Who Mourns for Adonais” where aliens are taken to be gods by the ancient Greeks and TOS: “Return to Tomorrow” where Sargon suggests humans are the descendants of Aretans. In TNG: “The Chase” (and DIS Season 5), much humanoid life throughout the galaxy is said to be seeded by the Progenitors. In TNG: “Who Watches the Watchers?”, Picard is mistaken for a god by the Mintakans.

“El Cucuy”, or Coco (meaning “skull”) is a mythical Spanish boogeyman, a monster who spirits naughty children away and eats them. The Ortegas family is from Colombia (SNW: “Among the Lotus Eaters”).

I’m not sure why the Universal Translator doesn’t pick up on N’Jal’s speech here and nobody seems to question it. Was N’Jal’s earlier speech translated or was he speaking Federation Standard, and if the latter, why doesn’t he speak it here? Uhura says her intepretation is the “closest translation”, so perhaps the UT somehow doesn’t want to be imprecise?

La’An translates the Chinese text as “Here stands the beholder sentry of eternal bridges.”The Chinese text reads, in traditional Chinese script, “這裡矗立著永恆之穚的旁觀者哨兵,” which I would translate (from Mandarin) as “Here stands the eternal bridge’s sentry.”

Korby’s challenge to Spock, that the latter does not believe that the science exists to prevent consciousness from fading after death is ironic considering the Vulcan (or at least the Syrannite sect) belief in the existence of katras and Spock’s future experience with that (ENT: “Kir’Shara”, ST III).

Rukiya was M’Benga’s terminally ill daughter which he placed in the care of a non-corporeal life form (SNW: “The Elysian Kingdom”). Gamble’s remark about the entity that emerged possibly just being something bearing Rukiya’s appearance and that it ate her echoes my own doubts about the ending of that episode. Thank you!

Scotty sends the orb “nowhere”. The idea of using the transporter to dematerialize but not rematerialize threats was first mooted by a crazed Chekov in TOS: “Day of the Dove” in reference to leaving a party of Klingons dematerialized. In TOS: “Wolf in the Fold” they beamed Redjac’s host body away, dispersing its components into space, but here they decide to keep the Vezda in the transporter buffer like M’Benga did to Rukiya to keep her alive (SNW: “Ghosts of Ilyria”).

What exactly the Vezda life forms are is not made explicit, but the fact that they are ancient, malign, non-corporeal entites draws parallels with beings like the pah-wraiths from DS9 (also, N’Jal says “Mika-tah Vezda-pah”, as does Batel when she sees Gamble). Also, what the connection between the Gorn and the Vezda (or indeed if there is a further connection with the Q) is as yet unexplored. And why there was Chinese on the console.

The containment orbs (although not for prison purposes) for ancient non-corporeal forms also remind me of the Aretan orbs in TOS: “Return to Tomorrow”.

And as the episode ends we finally have the now late Gamble’s first name: Dana.