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The title refers to both Caleb’s adjusting to Starfleet Academy and the arrival of the Betazoids.

The episode opens with a caption saying it’s the Fall Semester. The US Naval Academy starts its Fall Semester in the last week of August, so it’s a safe assumption that Starfleet Academy starts its academic year around there or early September, which dates the season as beginning end-August 3191. I’m aware that Memory Alpha says it’s 3195, but I disagree with their calculations.

These are the first mentions of mutageocillus arniopolus (self-replicating mucus) and Ferengal tape-worms (presumably from Ferenginar). The cadet speaking to Caleb wears spectacles. Usually vision issues like long-sightedness can be treated by a dose of Retinax Five (ST II), but some people are allergic and so wear glasses instead.

As Nahla addresses the student body, we see a cadet in a wheelchair. This can be for a variety of reasons, including coming from a low-gravity environment (DS9: “Melora”). However, this cadet does not have the same visible braces as Melora Pazlar did.

Lura is the product of a Jem’Hadar father and Klingon mother, given that “Victory is life,” is the Jem’Hadar credo, and “Today is a good day to die,” a Klingon aphorism.

The cadets are at Boothby Memorial Park, named after the groundskeeper (played by the inimitable Ray Walston) who was a mentor to generations of cadets in the 24th Century, many of them becoming captains, including Picard and Janeway (TNG: “The First Duty”, VOY: “In the Flesh”).

The fireworks delta formed by the celebration flight is lit in blue, gold and red, the traditional division colours of Starfleet.

The rocky cadet walking down the corridor is a Brikar. The Brikar were introduced in Peter David’s Starfleet Academy YA Novel Worf’s First Adventure and then used in his New Frontier novels before making their way to the screen in PRO. The look of the cadet mirrors our beloved Rok-Tahk from that series, although the latter was more pinkish in colour and spoke in a higher-pitched voice. The Digitial Dean of Students making announcements is voiced by comedian and talk show host Stephen Colbert.

Behind Caleb and Sam are displays, one mentioning an Association of Cardassian Cadets, a starship escape room and the other with an oft-quoted Picard line from TNG: “Peak Performance”, “[I]t is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life.”

Jay-Den does a little growl we’ve heard often coming from Worf when he’s frustrated.

A red-coloured exocomp (TNG: “The Quality of Life”) is seen in the turbolift with Lura, Nahla and the Doctor and has to keep shifting as the humanoids occupy their space. The closed captioning names them as “Almond Basket”, which is reminiscent of Peanut Hamper, the less-than-heroic exocomp introduced in LD: “No Small Parts”. Kether Donohue voices both.

While San Francisco has been the traditional location of Starfleet Headquarters, the office of the President of the Federation was established to be in Paris (ST VI).

On Nahla’s shelf in her office are three Grateful Dead artifacts: the album covers from Aoxomoxoa (1969) and Wake of the Flood (1973), and a psychedelic poster advertising a gig at the Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, with Oxford Circle opening for them (September 16-17, 1966).

Talaxian furflies are native to Neelix’s home planet of Talax (VOY: “Timeless”). If one stowed away on a ship, it was supposed to be good luck.

Commander Kelrec wears four pips, indicating a captain-rank (O-6) equivalent. It may be that either the War College uses a different rank system, or “Commander” is being used to mean the title“Commandant”, like Nahla is Chancellor of the Academy at her captain’s rank.

The implication seems to be that the War College is more militarily oriented than the Academy. In today’s terms, war colleges exist for the various branches of the armed forces, but they are meant to train experienced officers. Given that in Starfleet, both are foundational education institutions, the distinction might be more like Army/Navy.

Jett Reno was part of Discovery’s crew when they jumped 930 years into future at the end of DIS Season 2, ending up in the 32nd century.

Reno misquotes the saying: “Old age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill.” It is not usually attributed to Wilde, either - its origins are unclear, but variations can be traced back to the early 20th century.

The “holo-guide” that appears to neutralise the mucus on Caleb is a hologram. Caleb glitches it while trying to leave the campus by giving it impossible commands. In DIS: “Die Trying”, Georgiou manages to glitch a 32nd century hologram by blinking at their “harmonic rate”, creating a reference loop that makes them shut down.

President Emrin Sadal signs rather than speaking out loud, indicating that he is probably deaf. The last deaf character that signed of note was the Ramatsian mediator Riva (TNG: “Loud as a Whisper”).

The DDS mentions the Kirk Pavilion, named after James T. Kirk, as we see later.

The joke about not realising gazpacho is served cold calls back to the BBC science fiction comedy Red Dwarf. Rimmer complains about it being cold, which embarrasses him in front of the senior officers.

“Gideon S. Turner” is not a previously known name in lore. The Replicafé now serves raktajino, which is commonly called “Klingon coffee”, but its origins are a bit more complex. We see that the War College sports team is called the Mugatos (TOS: “A Private Little War”), while the Academy team is called the Laplings (TNG: “The Most Toys”).

Humpback whales were hunted to extinction in the 21st century (at least in Star Trek’s timeline), but the species was repopulated beginning in 2286 when two whales were brought from 1986 by Kirk and his crew (ST IV). One of their descendants, Gillian, was seen in 2384 in PRO: “Into the Breach, Part I”, serving on board Voyager-A.

Tamira wears a gem in her tooth, which she claims represents the sacred eye of Nadia, ritually bestowed upon the first daughter of the First House when she reaches Moonflow (a nice euphemism for menses) and becomes Guardian of the Holy Mantle of Betazed. Similarly, Lwaxana Troi was a daughter of the Fifth House, Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx and heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed.

The star charts in Stellar Cartography are based on Geoffrey Mandel’s initial work in Star Trek: Star Charts, which have been the basis for on-screen star charts since. You can tell from the placements of Minos Korva and Tagra in relation to Betazed. In more recent episodes of SNW, the star charts are taken from Modiphius’ Star Trek Adventures TTRPG 2nd Edition, which were also developed from Star Charts.

Betazoid weddings are traditionally in the nude (TNG: “Haven”), although there are options to follow the customs of the respective spouses-to-be.

The Doctor is performing in the duet “Pa-pa-pa Papageno”, from Mozart’s The Magic Flute, which also sang a bit of to himself in SA: “Kids These Days”. The waiter that snatches the glass out of Caleb’s hand appears to be either robotic or cyber-enhanced. The empty space where one would expect a brain is reminiscent of the Decraniated from Star Wars. As Tamira leaves to meet Caleb, the duet - appropriately enough a love song between Papageno and Papagena - reaches its end.

Psilocynine is a neurotransmitter involved in telepathy that exists in Betazoids. In TNG: “Eye of the Beholder”, Troi had elevated psilocynine levels after experience a traumatic empathic vision.

The piece that the Doctor and his singing partner are performing is from Beethoven’s Fidelio, with the repeated line, “Oh, when will you say to me yes?”. In the opera, Jacquino repeatedly proposes to Marzelline with this line and she repeatedly refuses, paralleling Sadal’s refusal to rejoin the Federation.

The reason why Earth is the seat of the Federation has never been outright said, but it’s been assumed that it’s because of the vital role it played in establishing the Federation in the 22nd century. With Vulcans and Andorians and Tellarites at each other’s throats, it was Humans who brought them all together and made the alliance work. A new Federation doesn’t have to be bound to that history.

Band-Aid is a brand name, but it’s become a generic term for plasters (much like hoover became generic for vacuum cleaners). Still, to have the term survive for 13 centuries, with dermal regenerators being commonplace, was a bit anachronistic to my ears.

As Caleb walks back to his room, we see a Kelpien cadet sidle by with their hands waving in typical Kelpien fashion. Ocam Sandal has joined the Academy while Tarima has opted for the War College.

The title refers to both Caleb’s adjusting to Starfleet Academy and the arrival of the Betazoids.

The episode opens with a caption saying it’s the Fall Semester. The US Naval Academy starts its Fall Semester in the last week of August, so it’s a safe assumption that Starfleet Academy starts its academic year around there or early September, which dates the season as beginning end-August 3191. I’m aware that Memory Alpha says it’s 3195, but I disagree with their calculations.

These are the first mentions of mutageocillus arniopolus (self-replicating mucus) and Ferengal tape-worms (presumably from Ferenginar). The cadet speaking to Caleb wears spectacles. Usually vision issues like long-sightedness can be treated by a dose of Retinax Five (ST II), but some people are allergic and so wear glasses instead.

As Nahla addresses the student body, we see a cadet in a wheelchair. This can be for a variety of reasons, including coming from a low-gravity environment (DS9: “Melora”). However, this cadet does not have the same visible braces as Melora Pazlar did.

Lura is the product of a Jem’Hadar father and Klingon mother, given that “Victory is life,” is the Jem’Hadar credo, and “Today is a good day to die,” a Klingon aphorism.

The cadets are at Boothby Memorial Park, named after the groundskeeper (played by the inimitable Ray Walston) who was a mentor to generations of cadets in the 24th Century, many of them becoming captains, including Picard and Janeway (TNG: “The First Duty”, VOY: “In the Flesh”).

The fireworks delta formed by the celebration flight is lit in blue, gold and red, the traditional division colours of Starfleet.

The rocky cadet walking down the corridor is a Brikar. The Brikar were introduced in Peter David’s Starfleet Academy YA Novel Worf’s First Adventure and then used in his New Frontier novels before making their way to the screen in PRO. The look of the cadet mirrors our beloved Rok-Tahk from that series, although the latter was more pinkish in colour and spoke in a higher-pitched voice. The Digitial Dean of Students making announcements is voiced by comedian and talk show host Stephen Colbert.

Behind Caleb and Sam are displays, one mentioning an Association of Cardassian Cadets, a starship escape room and the other with an oft-quoted Picard line from TNG: “Peak Performance”, “[I]t is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life.”

Jay-Den does a little growl we’ve heard often coming from Worf when he’s frustrated.

A red-coloured exocomp (TNG: “The Quality of Life”) is seen in the turbolift with Lura, Nahla and the Doctor and has to keep shifting as the humanoids occupy their space. The closed captioning names them as “Almond Basket”, which is reminiscent of Peanut Hamper, the less-than-heroic exocomp introduced in LD: “No Small Parts”. Kether Donohue voices both.

While San Francisco has been the traditional location of Starfleet Headquarters, the office of the President of the Federation was established to be in Paris (ST VI).

On Nahla’s shelf in her office are three Grateful Dead artifacts: the album covers from Aoxomoxoa (1969) and Wake of the Flood (1973), and a psychedelic poster advertising a gig at the Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, with Oxford Circle opening for them (September 16-17, 1966).

Talaxian furflies are native to Neelix’s home planet of Talax (VOY: “Timeless”). If one stowed away on a ship, it was supposed to be good luck.

Commander Kelrec wears four pips, indicating a captain-rank (O-6) equivalent. It may be that either the War College uses a different rank system, or “Commander” is being used to mean the title“Commandant”, like Nahla is Chancellor of the Academy at her captain’s rank.

The implication seems to be that the War College is more militarily oriented than the Academy. In today’s terms, war colleges exist for the various branches of the armed forces, but they are meant to train experienced officers. Given that in Starfleet, both are foundational education institutions, the distinction might be more like Army/Navy.

Jett Reno was part of Discovery’s crew when they jumped 930 years into future at the end of DIS Season 2, ending up in the 32nd century.

Reno misquotes the saying: “Old age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill.” It is not usually attributed to Wilde, either - its origins are unclear, but variations can be traced back to the early 20th century.

The “holo-guide” that appears to neutralise the mucus on Caleb is a hologram. Caleb glitches it while trying to leave the campus by giving it impossible commands. In DIS: “Die Trying”, Georgiou manages to glitch a 32nd century hologram by blinking at their “harmonic rate”, creating a reference loop that makes them shut down.

President Emrin Sadal signs rather than speaking out loud, indicating that he is probably deaf. The last deaf character that signed of note was the Ramatsian mediator Riva (TNG: “Loud as a Whisper”).

The DDS mentions the Kirk Pavilion, named after James T. Kirk, as we see later.

The joke about not realising gazpacho is served cold calls back to the BBC science fiction comedy Red Dwarf. Rimmer complains about it being cold, which embarrasses him in front of the senior officers.

“Gideon S. Turner” is not a previously known name in lore. The Replicafé now serves raktajino, which is commonly called “Klingon coffee”, but its origins are a bit more complex. We see that the War College sports team is called the Mugatos (TOS: “A Private Little War”), while the Academy team is called the Laplings (TNG: “The Most Toys”).

Humpback whales were hunted to extinction in the 21st century (at least in Star Trek’s timeline), but the species was repopulated beginning in 2286 when two whales were brought from 1986 by Kirk and his crew (ST IV). One of their descendants, Gillian, was seen in 2384 in PRO: “Into the Breach, Part I”, serving on board Voyager-A.

Tamira wears a gem in her tooth, which she claims represents the sacred eye of Nadia, ritually bestowed upon the first daughter of the First House when she reaches Moonflow (a nice euphemism for menses) and becomes Guardian of the Holy Mantle of Betazed. Similarly, Lwaxana Troi was a daughter of the Fifth House, Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx and heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed.

The star charts in Stellar Cartography are based on Geoffrey Mandel’s initial work in Star Trek: Star Charts, which have been the basis for on-screen star charts since. You can tell from the placements of Minos Korva and Tagra in relation to Betazed. In more recent episodes of SNW, the star charts are taken from Modiphius’ Star Trek Adventures TTRPG 2nd Edition, which were also developed from Star Charts.

Betazoid weddings are traditionally in the nude (TNG: “Haven”), although there are options to follow the customs of the respective spouses-to-be.

The Doctor is performing in the duet “Pa-pa-pa Papageno”, from Mozart’s The Magic Flute, which also sang a bit of to himself in SA: “Kids These Days”. The waiter that snatches the glass out of Caleb’s hand appears to be either robotic or cyber-enhanced. The empty space where one would expect a brain is reminiscent of the Decraniated from Star Wars. As Tamira leaves to meet Caleb, the duet - appropriately enough a love song between Papageno and Papagena - reaches its end.

Psilocynine is a neurotransmitter involved in telepathy that exists in Betazoids. In TNG: “Eye of the Beholder”, Troi had elevated psilocynine levels after experience a traumatic empathic vision.

The piece that the Doctor and his singing partner are performing is from Beethoven’s Fidelio, with the repeated line, “Oh, when will you say to me yes?”. In the opera, Jacquino repeatedly proposes to Marzelline with this line and she repeatedly refuses, paralleling Sadal’s refusal to rejoin the Federation.

The reason why Earth is the seat of the Federation has never been outright said, but it’s been assumed that it’s because of the vital role it played in establishing the Federation in the 22nd century. With Vulcans and Andorians and Tellarites at each other’s throats, it was Humans who brought them all together and made the alliance work. A new Federation doesn’t have to be bound to that history.

Band-Aid is a brand name, but it’s become a generic term for plasters (much like hoover became generic for vacuum cleaners). Still, to have the term survive for 13 centuries, with dermal regenerators being commonplace, was a bit anachronistic to my ears.

As Caleb walks back to his room, we see a Kelpien cadet sidle by with their hands waving in typical Kelpien fashion. Ocam Sandal has joined the Academy while Tarima has opted for the War College.

There is a new Star Trek 60th anniversary opening, which starts with the TOS Enterprise going into warp and then transforming into each subsequent series’ hero ships, from the refit to Enterprise-D, Defiant, Voyage, NX-01, Discovery, the SNW Enterprise and finally the USS Athena. The font used in the series captions is the one first seen in TMP.

The Burn was a catastrophic event that occurred about 120 years prior to 3188, which resulted in a galaxy-wide phenomenon of dilithium crystals being rendered inert and severely reducing the speed of faster-than-light travel, cutting off whole systems from each other, the near-collapse of the Federation and the shutting down of Starfleet Academy. The mystery of the Burn and its resolution were central to DIS Season 3 and following that, the Academy was re-established. For those keeping track, DIS Season 5 (with the exception of a flashforward in the finale) took place in 3191, so presumably this new series picks up where it left off.

The opening scene takes place on Stardate 853724.6, 812 years after TNG’s first season which takes place in 2364 (TNG: “The Neutral Zone”), placing it in 3176, 15 years before DIS Season 5. This is the first appearance of Federation Outpost Pikaru (incidentally, Pikaru is a brand of keratin shampoo from Indonesia).

We get out first look at the series’ big bad, Nus Braka, a half-Klingon, half-Tellarite pirate. Neither of his genetic lineages are known for their genteel nature. We also meet Nahla Ake, a half-Lanthanite Starfleet officer who will become Chancellor of the revived Starfleet Academy. She is wearing a tricom badge of the 32nd century and a Captain’s four pips on her collar and shoulders (it’s also indicated on the badge), with a uniform we saw in DIS Season 3.

Lanthanites, introduced in SNW, are a very long-lived race, with lives spanning millennia. We learn later that she is 422 in 3191, which makes her birth year around 2769. The Federation crest on the dais is one with noticeably less stars than the 23rd-24th century one most of us are used to, reflecting the state of the Federation post-burn. It was first seen in DIS Season 3.

Nahla says that Anisha Mir, while she would only have been guilty of theft, is now guilty of felony theft because of the death of an officer. I’m actually surprised the Federation still has a distinction between misdemeanours and felonies, which is very American and doesn’t really exist elsewhere. So if a death occurs in the commission of a misdemeanour, it gets bumped up to a felony?

Bajor is the homeworld of the Bajoran people, who feature centrally in DS9.

The action now moves 15 years later, so to 3191, and the Stardates should be in the 868000s.

Toroth is a system in the Alpha Quadrant. The unnamed Torothan homeworld was first seen in ENT: “Desert Crossing”, and since then the system has been seen marked on various star charts in other series. Star Trek: Star Charts notes that the NX-01 visited the planet (now named also as Toroth) on February 12, 2152. The name V’Rilik sounds Vulcan - or Ni’Var as it is known in the 32nd century. The shuttle Teracaq is named after a Torothan animal, which was roasted and served to Archer and Tucker in “Desert Crossing”. That said, in that episode the Torothan homeworld was arid and desert-like, not like what it is now, but it’s been 1031 years.

The probe flashes through Caleb’s criminal records. The first is from the Federation, I don’t recognise the second, next is Andorian, then Ferengi and Cardassian. The thugs harassing Caleb are Torothan, with the same chin markings seen in “Desert Crossing”. And Anisha is still in prison 15 years later? That’s very… Les Miserables.

The Starfleet Academy motto is “Ex Astra, Scientia” which is Latin for “From the stars, knowledge”.

Fleet Admiral Charles Vance is the CIC of Starfleet, last seen in DIS: “Life, Itself”. Starfleet Academy’s traditional location - at least its main campus - has been in San Francisco since the 23rd century. We saw San Francisco and the Academy grounds still existing in the 32nd century in DIS: “People of Earth”.

Programmable matter is a 32nd century technology, made up of what is probably nanomachines which can be configured in a variety of ways.

Nahla flips through personnel records, one of which is Commander Lura Thok, the Jem’Hadar-Klingon first officer of the USS Athena. The images are projected from her tricom badge. We get our first good look at Athena, NCC-392023.

A DOT-23 greets them as they board - DOTs are repair robots that have been in use since the 2250s (as DOT-7 models), working aboard and outside Starfleet ships. They first appeared in DIS: “Such Sweet Sorrow”. Nahla greets Lura as “Number One”, an old nickname for first officers dating back to the Royal Navy. CAPT Christopher Pike referred to CMDR Una Chin-Riley by that nickname, as did CPT Jean-Luc Picard with CMDR William Riker. Lura is the daughter of Asmaret from the Klingon House of Dak’Hatas, and the Jem’Hadar lineage of Kah-Baj.

Jay-Den Kraag declared his subjects as molecular biology and regenerative therapies - science division, in other words, with a lean towards medical. Not a usual choice for a Klingon, but Klingon medics have to exist.

The officer in operations gold that greets Jay-Den and Kraag at the top of the stairs is a Saurian, a species first seen in TMP. Linus, a Saurian officer, was a supporting character on DIS.

The Regulation Appearance Arches quickly cut Caleb’s hair and put a cadet uniform on him. Technology that materialises clothes on people has been seen as far back as TMP, when Kirk materialised a dress on the Ilia probe who appeared naked in a sonic shower.

The Doctor’s bedside manner has not improved in 800 years. Orillian lung maggots were first mentioned in VOY: “Fair Trade”. They are native to the Delta Quadrant, which explains the Doctor’s surprise at finding them in Caleb.

“Ad Astra per Aspera,” Latin for “To the Stars Through Hardship/Difficulties,” or “A Rough Road Leads to the Stars”. It is the motto of the state of Kansas, can be found on NASA’s Apollo I memorial, and also in-universe the motto of the United Earth Starfleet in ENT.

You can find the names on the Hall of Fame dissected ad nauseam elsewhere, so I won’t go into them, but merely to note that Harry Kim finally made it past ENS, Samantha Wildman became a CMDR, and Zero (from PRO) apparently had a third generation.

Catecholamines are not technobabble - they’re a class of neurotransmitters that prep the body for a fight-or-flight response. A spike in levels means shit is about to go down, in other words.

Sato Atrium is likely named for Hoshi Sato, the NX-01’s communications officer and xenolinguist. The Doctor pushes the Opera Club, a callback to his fondness of it during his days on Voyager. He walks away singing “Pa-pa-pa Papageno” from Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

One of the clubs cadets can sign up for is Parrises Squares, a sometimes violent court-based game first spoken of in TNG, although we didn’t actually see a game being played until PRO: “Is There in Beauty No Truth?”

The Doctor mentions he put an aging program 5 centuries before to put organics at ease, which is obviously the Watsonian explanation for why Robert Picardo looks older. A similar explanation was given by Guinan in PIC to explain Whoppi Goldberg’s appearance.

Sam makes a reference to PRO and the crew of Protostar, including Dal R’El, Murph and Captain Gwyndala (which is where we left her at the end of the series), which makes me so happy. PRO needs more love.

(continued)

By the way, Nahla is doing the stereotypical bisexual chair sitting meme. Just saying. Ion storms are a regular thing in Star Trek (and usually come with nasty effects). Lura notes that they are near the Badlands, which is an area located near the Cardassian border, inside the Demilitarised Zone that separated Federation and Cardassian space in the 24th Century. It was also known for its turbulent plasma storms and gravitational anomalies.

Nahla tells Lura to “get to the kids”, and Lura beams out with her tricom badge’s personal transporter, another bit of 32nd Century technology.

The Doctor says that damage to the emergency holo-emitters mean that medical staff is in short supply, implying that the medical staff is augmented by EMHs like him. The fact that he can say there are injuries but no casualties with such confidence might also mean he’s tied into the internal life signs sensors.

When Caleb goes to the computer panel, it’s displaying a quote from Janeway from VOY: “Dark Frontier”, which she said to Naomi Wildman: “There are three things to remember about being a starship captain. Keep your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship, and never abandon a member of your crew.”

Lura’s authorisation code is “Thok-Gamma-616-Pi”. She gives instructions to inject a broad spectrum vasosuppressant, and then remove the foreign object. This should narrow the blood vessels and reduce the amount of bleeding when they remove it. From my first aid training I still think it’s a bad idea, but hey, I don’t know about 32nd century medicine and Jem’Hadar-Klingon physiology.

Nahla makes a reference to taking apart the warp drive “bolt by stem-seal”, which is reminiscent of the mysterious “self-sealing stem bolts” whose function nobody seemed to know in DS9: “Progress”.

Lura says, “I am dead. I go into battle to reclaim my life,” which is a paraphrase of a Jem’Hadar pep-talk before they go into battle from DS9: “To the Death”: “I am First Omet'iklan, and I am dead. As of this moment we are all dead. We go into battle to reclaim our lives. This we do gladly, for we are Jem'Hadar. Remember. Victory is life.”

Darem, a Khionian, claims he’s survived pressure differentials up to 7,000 pounds. In pounds per square inch that’s about 476 atmospheres, or the pressure at nearly 5 km under the ocean. He also says he can stand temperatures up to -271 degrees Celsius, which is just a couple of degrees above absolute zero (-273.15 C), the lowest possible temperature. For reference, the vacuum of space averages about -270.4 C and liquid nitrogen’s boiling point is -196 C.

Transporter systems are off-line which apparently also renders personal transporters also unusable? But we’ve seen personal transporters being used without a regular transporter unit in sight, so PTs are not just relays for a main system.

Before Darem goes outside, Genesis asks him to place a device on his neck that will pick up his vocal vibrations so she can hear him even in vacuum.

The Doctor’s command code is “Doctor-delta-10-sigma-3-1”.

Sam warns Jay-Den that a Jem’Hadar’s heart is near where a human liver is supposed to be. Coincidentally, the Vulcan heart is located around there as well (TOS: “Mudd’s Women”).

Why doesn't Caleb just ask the bridge to tractor Braka's escape pod? It's not as if it can get very far, and we know the tractors are functioning because Genesis just used them to rescue Darem.

The song that plays as they approach Earth is “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)”, originally sung by Scott McKenzie in 1967, one of the anthems of the countercultural movement of the 1960s, especially the Summer of Love in that year. This version is performed by Rufus Wainright.

When the Burn hit, all ships using dilithium as a rectifier for their warp cores found the dilithium go suddenly inert, creating instant warp core breaches for those ships in warp.

There is a new Star Trek 60th anniversary opening, which starts with the TOS Enterprise going into warp and then transforming into each subsequent series’ hero ships, from the refit to Enterprise-D, Defiant, Voyage, NX-01, Discovery, the SNW Enterprise and finally the USS Athena. The font used in the series captions is the one first seen in TMP.

The Burn was a catastrophic event that occurred about 120 years prior to 3188, which resulted in a galaxy-wide phenomenon of dilithium crystals being rendered inert and severely reducing the speed of faster-than-light travel, cutting off whole systems from each other, the near-collapse of the Federation and the shutting down of Starfleet Academy. The mystery of the Burn and its resolution were central to DIS Season 3 and following that, the Academy was re-established. For those keeping track, DIS Season 5 (with the exception of a flashforward in the finale) took place in 3191, so presumably this new series picks up where it left off.

The opening scene takes place on Stardate 853724.6, 812 years after TNG’s first season which takes place in 2364 (TNG: “The Neutral Zone”), placing it in 3176, 15 years before DIS Season 5. This is the first appearance of Federation Outpost Pikaru (incidentally, Pikaru is a brand of keratin shampoo from Indonesia).

We get out first look at the series’ big bad, Nus Braka, a half-Klingon, half-Tellarite pirate. Neither of his genetic lineages are known for their genteel nature. We also meet Nahla Ake, a half-Lanthanite Starfleet officer who will become Chancellor of the revived Starfleet Academy. She is wearing a tricom badge of the 32nd century and a Captain’s four pips on her collar and shoulders (it’s also indicated on the badge), with a uniform we saw in DIS Season 3.

Lanthanites, introduced in SNW, are a very long-lived race, with lives spanning millennia. We learn later that she is 422 in 3191, which makes her birth year around 2769. The Federation crest on the dais is one with noticeably less stars than the 23rd-24th century one most of us are used to, reflecting the state of the Federation post-burn. It was first seen in DIS Season 3.

Nahla says that Anisha Mir, while she would only have been guilty of theft, is now guilty of felony theft because of the death of an officer. I’m actually surprised the Federation still has a distinction between misdemeanours and felonies, which is very American and doesn’t really exist elsewhere. So if a death occurs in the commission of a misdemeanour, it gets bumped up to a felony?

Bajor is the homeworld of the Bajoran people, who feature centrally in DS9.

The action now moves 15 years later, so to 3191, and the Stardates should be in the 868000s.

Toroth is a system in the Alpha Quadrant. The unnamed Torothan homeworld was first seen in ENT: “Desert Crossing”, and since then the system has been seen marked on various star charts in other series. Star Trek: Star Charts notes that the NX-01 visited the planet (now named also as Toroth) on February 12, 2152. The name V’Rilik sounds Vulcan - or Ni’Var as it is known in the 32nd century. The shuttle Teracaq is named after a Torothan animal, which was roasted and served to Archer and Tucker in “Desert Crossing”. That said, in that episode the Torothan homeworld was arid and desert-like, not like what it is now, but it’s been 1031 years.

The probe flashes through Caleb’s criminal records. The first is from the Federation, I don’t recognise the second, next is Andorian, then Ferengi and Cardassian. The thugs harassing Caleb are Torothan, with the same chin markings seen in “Desert Crossing”. And Anisha is still in prison 15 years later? That’s very… Les Miserables.

The Starfleet Academy motto is “Ex Astra, Scientia” which is Latin for “From the stars, knowledge”.

Fleet Admiral Charles Vance is the CIC of Starfleet, last seen in DIS: “Life, Itself”. Starfleet Academy’s traditional location - at least its main campus - has been in San Francisco since the 23rd century. We saw San Francisco and the Academy grounds still existing in the 32nd century in DIS: “People of Earth”.

Programmable matter is a 32nd century technology, made up of what is probably nanomachines which can be configured in a variety of ways.

Nahla flips through personnel records, one of which is Commander Lura Thok, the Jem’Hadar-Klingon first officer of the USS Athena. The images are projected from her tricom badge. We get our first good look at Athena, NCC-392023.

A DOT-23 greets them as they board - DOTs are repair robots that have been in use since the 2250s (as DOT-7 models), working aboard and outside Starfleet ships. They first appeared in DIS: “Such Sweet Sorrow”. Nahla greets Lura as “Number One”, an old nickname for first officers dating back to the Royal Navy. CAPT Christopher Pike referred to CMDR Una Chin-Riley by that nickname, as did CPT Jean-Luc Picard with CMDR William Riker. Lura is the daughter of Asmaret from the Klingon House of Dak’Hatas, and the Jem’Hadar lineage of Kah-Baj.

Jay-Den Kraag declared his subjects as molecular biology and regenerative therapies - science division, in other words, with a lean towards medical. Not a usual choice for a Klingon, but Klingon medics have to exist.

The officer in operations gold that greets Jay-Den and Kraag at the top of the stairs is a Saurian, a species first seen in TMP. Linus, a Saurian officer, was a supporting character on DIS.

The Regulation Appearance Arches quickly cut Caleb’s hair and put a cadet uniform on him. Technology that materialises clothes on people has been seen as far back as TMP, when Kirk materialised a dress on the Ilia probe who appeared naked in a sonic shower.

The Doctor’s bedside manner has not improved in 800 years. Orillian lung maggots were first mentioned in VOY: “Fair Trade”. They are native to the Delta Quadrant, which explains the Doctor’s surprise at finding them in Caleb.

“Ad Astra per Aspera,” Latin for “To the Stars Through Hardship/Difficulties,” or “A Rough Road Leads to the Stars”. It is the motto of the state of Kansas, can be found on NASA’s Apollo I memorial, and also in-universe the motto of the United Earth Starfleet in ENT.

You can find the names on the Hall of Fame dissected ad nauseam elsewhere, so I won’t go into them, but merely to note that Harry Kim finally made it past ENS, Samantha Wildman became a CMDR, and Zero (from PRO) apparently had a third generation.

Catecholamines are not technobabble - they’re a class of neurotransmitters that prep the body for a fight-or-flight response. A spike in levels means shit is about to go down, in other words.

Sato Atrium is likely named for Hoshi Sato, the NX-01’s communications officer and xenolinguist. The Doctor pushes the Opera Club, a callback to his fondness of it during his days on Voyager. He walks away singing “Pa-pa-pa Papageno” from Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

One of the clubs cadets can sign up for is Parrises Squares, a sometimes violent court-based game first spoken of in TNG, although we didn’t actually see a game being played until PRO: “Is There in Beauty No Truth?”

The Doctor mentions he put an aging program 5 centuries before to put organics at ease, which is obviously the Watsonian explanation for why Robert Picardo looks older. A similar explanation was given by Guinan in PIC to explain Whoppi Goldberg’s appearance.

Sam makes a reference to PRO and the crew of Protostar, including Dal R’El, Murph and Captain Gwyndala (which is where we left her at the end of the series), which makes me so happy. PRO needs more love.

(continued)

By the way, Nahla is doing the stereotypical bisexual chair sitting meme. Just saying. Ion storms are a regular thing in Star Trek (and usually come with nasty effects). Lura notes that they are near the Badlands, which is an area located near the Cardassian border, inside the Demilitarised Zone that separated Federation and Cardassian space in the 24th Century. It was also known for its turbulent plasma storms and gravitational anomalies.

Nahla tells Lura to “get to the kids”, and Lura beams out with her tricom badge’s personal transporter, another bit of 32nd Century technology.

The Doctor says that damage to the emergency holo-emitters mean that medical staff is in short supply, implying that the medical staff is augmented by EMHs like him. The fact that he can say there are injuries but no casualties with such confidence might also mean he’s tied into the internal life signs sensors.

When Caleb goes to the computer panel, it’s displaying a quote from Janeway from VOY: “Dark Frontier”, which she said to Naomi Wildman: “There are three things to remember about being a starship captain. Keep your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship, and never abandon a member of your crew.”

Lura’s authorisation code is “Thok-Gamma-616-Pi”. She gives instructions to inject a broad spectrum vasosuppressant, and then remove the foreign object. This should narrow the blood vessels and reduce the amount of bleeding when they remove it. From my first aid training I still think it’s a bad idea, but hey, I don’t know about 32nd century medicine and Jem’Hadar-Klingon physiology.

Nahla makes a reference to taking apart the warp drive “bolt by stem-seal”, which is reminiscent of the mysterious “self-sealing stem bolts” whose function nobody seemed to know in DS9: “Progress”.

Lura says, “I am dead. I go into battle to reclaim my life,” which is a paraphrase of a Jem’Hadar pep-talk before they go into battle from DS9: “To the Death”: “I am First Omet'iklan, and I am dead. As of this moment we are all dead. We go into battle to reclaim our lives. This we do gladly, for we are Jem'Hadar. Remember. Victory is life.”

Darem, a Khionian, claims he’s survived pressure differentials up to 7,000 pounds. In pounds per square inch that’s about 476 atmospheres, or the pressure at nearly 5 km under the ocean. He also says he can stand temperatures up to -271 degrees Celsius, which is just a couple of degrees above absolute zero (-273.15 C), the lowest possible temperature. For reference, the vacuum of space averages about -270.4 C and liquid nitrogen’s boiling point is -196 C.

Transporter systems are off-line which apparently also renders personal transporters also unusable? But we’ve seen personal transporters being used without a regular transporter unit in sight, so PTs are not just relays for a main system.

Before Darem goes outside, Genesis asks him to place a device on his neck that will pick up his vocal vibrations so she can hear him even in vacuum.

The Doctor’s command code is “Doctor-delta-10-sigma-3-1”.

Sam warns Jay-Den that a Jem’Hadar’s heart is near where a human liver is supposed to be. Coincidentally, the Vulcan heart is located around there as well (TOS: “Mudd’s Women”).

Why doesn't Caleb just ask the bridge to tractor Braka's escape pod? It's not as if it can get very far, and we know the tractors are functioning because Genesis just used them to rescue Darem.

The song that plays as they approach Earth is “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)”, originally sung by Scott McKenzie in 1967, one of the anthems of the countercultural movement of the 1960s, especially the Summer of Love in that year. This version is performed by Rufus Wainright.

When the Burn hit, all ships using dilithium as a rectifier for their warp cores found the dilithium go suddenly inert, creating instant warp core breaches for those ships in warp.

The story on the tapes jumps ahead to five years after McGivers’ death, around 2273. The exile started in late 2267, 4 months pass bringing us into 2268, McGivers becomes pregnant, dies, Kali is born late 2268, five years later brings us to 2273.

Lear refers to tapes CA5-47-31M, CA5-49-2P and CA5-39-17U. How the naming convention is organised is not clear, although the “5” could indicate the year of exile.

Lear notes that Kali’s maturity and intelligence at 5 were consistent with a child twice her age. Advanced development in children in science fiction is a common trope (see Alexander Rozhenko), but at least her Augmented heritage accounts for some of it.

In CA5-53-12K, Khan encourages Kali to quote from Kubla Khan (“The shadow of the dome of pleasure / Floated midway on the waves”) while Kali wants to read more Shakespeare, showing good taste for a child her age.

CA5-61-3P says that Paolo, Kamora, Joachim and Delmonda were selected for the rescue mission. It was established in the last episode that the ship could only hold four people.

Tuvok searches the entries from Day 1800-1900 and plays the last entry, which would be approximately 5.2 years into the exile. Khan quotes from William Butler Yates’s 1919 poem The Second Coming: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world” and references the last two lines of the poem: “And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” Yeats was contemplating the aftermath of World War I, the start of the Irish War of Independence and the flu pandemic of 1918-1919, which explains the poem’s apocalyptic imagery and its sense of the end of one era of history and the instability that accompanies the birth of another.

Ursula and Madot have broken up due to the death of their unborn child in the previous episode.

Kali packs a copy of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. In the cargo pod Chekov encounters in ST II, there is no copy of the Complete Works seen, but there is a copy of King Lear, Shakespeare’s play of a king’s descent into madness.

Kali references the sinking of Sea Venture as her inspiration for naming the rescue ship Venture. Sea Venture’s was part of a supply fleet to Jamestown in Virginia in 1609. It got separated from the fleet and was wrecked on the then-uninhabited island of Bermuda. It is believed to have inspired Shakespeare’s The Tempest. That play in turn also inspired the 1956 science fiction film Forbidden Planet, which also influenced Star Trek.

Khan corrects Kali, who believes the wreck also inspired As You Like It, by pointing out that the play was written in 1599. There is a bigger problem here, though, as while several of Shakespeare’s plays have shipwrecks, As You Like It is not among them. Kali may be thinking of The Comedy of Errors (1592) or even Twelfth Night (1601-1602), if we’re sticking to comedies, although those also predate the wreck of Sea Venture.

Once the ship leaves, the caves will collapse and be uninhabitable, which explains why Khan and his Augments were living in the cargo pod in ST II. The ship uses a “spatial compression drive”, which sounds similar to the coaxial warp drive that could fold space in VOY: “Vis à Vis” or the spatial trajector of VOY: “Prime Factors”.

Khan alludes to Starfleet not checking back on them in the five years since the exile, a question that is as yet unanswered in this series.

The question of what destroyed Ceti Alpha VI, however, is resolved. Delmonda explains that when the power that allows the drive to bend space and time was about to lose containment, he chose to vent the energy out of the Elborean ship’s forward ports, and that destroyed Ceti Alpha VI.

This actually connects to one risk of the Alcubierre drive (which also bends spacetime), which is that everything that is caught at the leading edge of the Alcubierre “warp bubble” gets accumulated and carried along. Once the bubble stops at its destination and collapses, all that accumulated energy/debris would be released with devastating effect. I emphasise as I have always done that Star Trek warp drive is not the Alcubierre drive.

Delmonda’s replies to Khan as the latter offers to part as friends, “I have been and always shall be yours.” This is, of course, what Spock says to Kirk in his room in ST II and then paraphrases of when he dies at the end of the movie.

Tuvok dates the crash of the rescue ship at 21 years prior. Give my sums above, this would place the time of the framing sequence in 2294, although the first episode started in 2293. The dates are a bit fuzzy here because Lear and Tuvok are on the surface of Ceti Alpha V twenty-six years after the exile, which would be consistent with the 2293 date but not 2294. Possibly Excelsior was in orbit for several months after that, which might explain Sulu’s impatience.

The story on the tapes jumps ahead to five years after McGivers’ death, around 2273. The exile started in late 2267, 4 months pass bringing us into 2268, McGivers becomes pregnant, dies, Kali is born late 2268, five years later brings us to 2273.

Lear refers to tapes CA5-47-31M, CA5-49-2P and CA5-39-17U. How the naming convention is organised is not clear, although the “5” could indicate the year of exile.

Lear notes that Kali’s maturity and intelligence at 5 were consistent with a child twice her age. Advanced development in children in science fiction is a common trope (see Alexander Rozhenko), but at least her Augmented heritage accounts for some of it.

In CA5-53-12K, Khan encourages Kali to quote from Kubla Khan (“The shadow of the dome of pleasure / Floated midway on the waves”) while Kali wants to read more Shakespeare, showing good taste for a child her age.

CA5-61-3P says that Paolo, Kamora, Joachim and Delmonda were selected for the rescue mission. It was established in the last episode that the ship could only hold four people.

Tuvok searches the entries from Day 1800-1900 and plays the last entry, which would be approximately 5.2 years into the exile. Khan quotes from William Butler Yates’s 1919 poem The Second Coming: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world” and references the last two lines of the poem: “And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” Yeats was contemplating the aftermath of World War I, the start of the Irish War of Independence and the flu pandemic of 1918-1919, which explains the poem’s apocalyptic imagery and its sense of the end of one era of history and the instability that accompanies the birth of another.

Ursula and Madot have broken up due to the death of their unborn child in the previous episode.

Kali packs a copy of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. In the cargo pod Chekov encounters in ST II, there is no copy of the Complete Works seen, but there is a copy of King Lear, Shakespeare’s play of a king’s descent into madness.

Kali references the sinking of Sea Venture as her inspiration for naming the rescue ship Venture. Sea Venture’s was part of a supply fleet to Jamestown in Virginia in 1609. It got separated from the fleet and was wrecked on the then-uninhabited island of Bermuda. It is believed to have inspired Shakespeare’s The Tempest. That play in turn also inspired the 1956 science fiction film Forbidden Planet, which also influenced Star Trek.

Khan corrects Kali, who believes the wreck also inspired As You Like It, by pointing out that the play was written in 1599. There is a bigger problem here, though, as while several of Shakespeare’s plays have shipwrecks, As You Like It is not among them. Kali may be thinking of The Comedy of Errors (1592) or even Twelfth Night (1601-1602), if we’re sticking to comedies, although those also predate the wreck of Sea Venture.

Once the ship leaves, the caves will collapse and be uninhabitable, which explains why Khan and his Augments were living in the cargo pod in ST II. The ship uses a “spatial compression drive”, which sounds similar to the coaxial warp drive that could fold space in VOY: “Vis à Vis” or the spatial trajector of VOY: “Prime Factors”.

Khan alludes to Starfleet not checking back on them in the five years since the exile, a question that is as yet unanswered in this series.

The question of what destroyed Ceti Alpha VI, however, is resolved. Delmonda explains that when the power that allows the drive to bend space and time was about to lose containment, he chose to vent the energy out of the Elborean ship’s forward ports, and that destroyed Ceti Alpha VI.

This actually connects to one risk of the Alcubierre drive (which also bends spacetime), which is that everything that is caught at the leading edge of the Alcubierre “warp bubble” gets accumulated and carried along. Once the bubble stops at its destination and collapses, all that accumulated energy/debris would be released with devastating effect. I emphasise as I have always done that Star Trek warp drive is not the Alcubierre drive.

Delmonda’s replies to Khan as the latter offers to part as friends, “I have been and always shall be yours.” This is, of course, what Spock says to Kirk in his room in ST II and then paraphrases of when he dies at the end of the movie.

Tuvok dates the crash of the rescue ship at 21 years prior. Give my sums above, this would place the time of the framing sequence in 2294, although the first episode started in 2293. The dates are a bit fuzzy here because Lear and Tuvok are on the surface of Ceti Alpha V twenty-six years after the exile, which would be consistent with the 2293 date but not 2294. Possibly Excelsior was in orbit for several months after that, which might explain Sulu’s impatience.

Lear’s senior thesis was an examination of the Federation ban on genetic engineering and the blurred lines when it comes to Augmentation, using the expression “God is in the grey areas,” a variation on the expression “God is in the details.” The phrase is attributed to various people, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Gustave Flaubert, and is usually taken to mean that when attention is given to details big rewards can be derived. A related expression is “the Devil is in the details”, meaning that while things may seem simple on the surface, an examination of the details will reveal complications. It’s more likely that Lear means the latter rather than the former.

Lear also mentions discrimination against hundred of people with small percentages of Augment DNA, many of them Starfleet officers. Known Starfleet officers with Augmented genetics include SNW’s La’An Noonien Singh, although to what extent she has Augmented abilities is unclear, and Una Chin-Riley, although she is not a descendant of Earth Augments but is augmented due to her Illyrian background - both as of 2261. Dal R’El (PRO) was a Human Augment hybrid, and as a result was initially barred from entering Starfleet Academy in 2385. The 2370s would see Julian Bashir (DS9: “Doctor Bashir, I Presume”) and the members of the Jack Pack (DS9: “Statistical Probabilities”).

Tuvok expresses skepticism about Starfleet officers judging people with Augment ancestry that they do not control but Lear says he’d be surprised. She may be referring to incidents like Chin-Riley’s court martial in 2260 for concealing her Illyrian heritage (SNW: “Ad Astra Per Aspera”).

Tuvok also thinks Lear isn’t telling him the whole story. He says Vulcans find it incredibly difficult to lie, and many are incapable of it, and that this somehow this makes them sensitive to others lying.

Tuvok’s admission that lying is difficult for Vulcans rather than impossible is probably as close as we can get to a fair formulation of the “Vulcans never lie” myth. If we accept Vulcan logic as being devoted to the principle of c’thia, or “reality-truth”, an acceptance of reality as it is, as opposed of what we want it to be, then one can see why it becomes difficult as a matter of principle to deviate from it. Most times when we see Vulcans lie it is usually for what they consider the greater good, or justified as such, with Spock being a prime example. Even Tuvok himself lied when he went undercover in the Maquis (VOY: “Caretaker”).

McGivers and Khan’s as-yet-unborn daughter is named Kali, the Hindu goddess associated with time, death and destruction, although Western depictions of her mostly emphasize the latter qualities, mainly because of her association with the Thuggee cult.

Barolo wine is a red wine from the Piedmont region of France, made from nebbiolo grapes. The bottle in Ivan’s possession comes from a warlord in Kashmir, at the Northern tip of India, bordering Afghanistan.

Ursula’s “If you strike at a king, you best not miss,” is a combination of a saying attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson (“When you strike at a king, you must kill him.”) and the more famous pop culture formulation from The Wire (“You come at the king, you best not miss.”). Ivan’s retort, “I never miss,” is also what James Bond quips when he despatches Elektra King in The World is Not Enough.

The song the young Augments are listening to on Ivan’s boombox is “Your Touch” by Particle House, released in 2021. There were several references in previous episodes to this still being a timeline where Khan and his people left Earth in 1996, but if we are to take this as accurate, perhaps we are in the timeline where the Eugenics Wars took place in the 2020s (SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”).

We know that McGivers eventually died because of the Ceti eels, and we are now told how she became infected.

Ivan’s scream of “Khan!” is of course echoing the infamous scene where Kirk also screams Khan’s name in ST II.

I’m pretty much on board with the idea that Lear is Kali. The sums work out (she would be around 25-26 years old), as well as why Delmonda would hand her McGivers’ logs and Lear’s interest in how the Federation deals with people with Augment ancestry. They could of course throw us a twist, but it’d be a cheap one given the build-up.

As Marla slips away, Khan quotes from the last stanza of Kubla Khan: “A damsel with a dulcimer / In a vision I once saw: / It was an Abyssinian maid / And on her dulcimer she played, / Singing of Mount Abora. / Could I revive within me / Her symphony and song, / To such a deep delight ’twould win me, / That with music loud and long, / I would build that dome in air…”

Lear’s senior thesis was an examination of the Federation ban on genetic engineering and the blurred lines when it comes to Augmentation, using the expression “God is in the grey areas,” a variation on the expression “God is in the details.” The phrase is attributed to various people, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Gustave Flaubert, and is usually taken to mean that when attention is given to details big rewards can be derived. A related expression is “the Devil is in the details”, meaning that while things may seem simple on the surface, an examination of the details will reveal complications. It’s more likely that Lear means the latter rather than the former.

Lear also mentions discrimination against hundred of people with small percentages of Augment DNA, many of them Starfleet officers. Known Starfleet officers with Augmented genetics include SNW’s La’An Noonien Singh, although to what extent she has Augmented abilities is unclear, and Una Chin-Riley, although she is not a descendant of Earth Augments but is augmented due to her Illyrian background - both as of 2261. Dal R’El (PRO) was a Human Augment hybrid, and as a result was initially barred from entering Starfleet Academy in 2385. The 2370s would see Julian Bashir (DS9: “Doctor Bashir, I Presume”) and the members of the Jack Pack (DS9: “Statistical Probabilities”).

Tuvok expresses skepticism about Starfleet officers judging people with Augment ancestry that they do not control but Lear says he’d be surprised. She may be referring to incidents like Chin-Riley’s court martial in 2260 for concealing her Illyrian heritage (SNW: “Ad Astra Per Aspera”).

Tuvok also thinks Lear isn’t telling him the whole story. He says Vulcans find it incredibly difficult to lie, and many are incapable of it, and that this somehow this makes them sensitive to others lying.

Tuvok’s admission that lying is difficult for Vulcans rather than impossible is probably as close as we can get to a fair formulation of the “Vulcans never lie” myth. If we accept Vulcan logic as being devoted to the principle of c’thia, or “reality-truth”, an acceptance of reality as it is, as opposed of what we want it to be, then one can see why it becomes difficult as a matter of principle to deviate from it. Most times when we see Vulcans lie it is usually for what they consider the greater good, or justified as such, with Spock being a prime example. Even Tuvok himself lied when he went undercover in the Maquis (VOY: “Caretaker”).

McGivers and Khan’s as-yet-unborn daughter is named Kali, the Hindu goddess associated with time, death and destruction, although Western depictions of her mostly emphasize the latter qualities, mainly because of her association with the Thuggee cult.

Barolo wine is a red wine from the Piedmont region of France, made from nebbiolo grapes. The bottle in Ivan’s possession comes from a warlord in Kashmir, at the Northern tip of India, bordering Afghanistan.

Ursula’s “If you strike at a king, you best not miss,” is a combination of a saying attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson (“When you strike at a king, you must kill him.”) and the more famous pop culture formulation from The Wire (“You come at the king, you best not miss.”). Ivan’s retort, “I never miss,” is also what James Bond quips when he despatches Elektra King in The World is Not Enough.

The song the young Augments are listening to on Ivan’s boombox is “Your Touch” by Particle House, released in 2021. There were several references in previous episodes to this still being a timeline where Khan and his people left Earth in 1996, but if we are to take this as accurate, perhaps we are in the timeline where the Eugenics Wars took place in the 2020s (SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”).

We know that McGivers eventually died because of the Ceti eels, and we are now told how she became infected.

Ivan’s scream of “Khan!” is of course echoing the infamous scene where Kirk also screams Khan’s name in ST II.

I’m pretty much on board with the idea that Lear is Kali. The sums work out (she would be around 25-26 years old), as well as why Delmonda would hand her McGivers’ logs and Lear’s interest in how the Federation deals with people with Augment ancestry. They could of course throw us a twist, but it’d be a cheap one given the build-up.

As Marla slips away, Khan quotes from the last stanza of Kubla Khan: “A damsel with a dulcimer / In a vision I once saw: / It was an Abyssinian maid / And on her dulcimer she played, / Singing of Mount Abora. / Could I revive within me / Her symphony and song, / To such a deep delight ’twould win me, / That with music loud and long, / I would build that dome in air…”

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.

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?

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?