khaosworks

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 Judson Scott. 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 build 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 with all these amounting to 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 induce ovulation in women whose ovaries are unable to produce eggs.

McGivers points out a machine that csterilite for infections (TOS: “A Private Little War’), dermaline for burns (VOY: “Deadlock”), stenophyl 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 may contradict the new timeline seen in SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” which pushes the Eugenic 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 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 Judson Scott. 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 build 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 with all these amounting to 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 induce ovulation in women whose ovaries are unable to produce eggs.

McGivers points out a machine that casterilite for infections (TOS: “A Private Little War’), dermaline for burns (VOY: “Deadlock”), stenophylsynthesiser.

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 may contradict the new timeline seen in SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” which pushes the Eugenic 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 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”.

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.

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”).

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.

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.