• “Under the Cloak of War”. The flashbacks in this episode are set during the Federation-Klingon War seen during DIS season one, and a large part of that conflict was the new Klingon cloaking devices that T’Kuvma, and then Kol installed on their various ships. Get it? Yeah, you get it.
• This episode was written by Davy Perez, who also wrote “All Those Who Wander” and co-wrote “Memento Mori” and “Among the Lotus Eaters”.
• Jeff Byrd directed the episode; he also directed the DIS episode, “Rosetta”.
• Pike gives us the stardate 1875.4 in his captain’s log. M’Benga’s CMO’s log records the stardate as 1875.8.
| Episode | Stardate |
|---|---|
| “The Broken Circle” | 2369.2 |
| “Ad Astra per Aspera” | 2393.8 |
| ”Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” | 1581.2 |
| ”Among the Lotus Eaters” | 1630.1 |
| ”Among the Lotus Eaters” | 1630.3 |
| ”Among the Lotus Eaters” | 1632.2 |
| ”Charades | 1789.3 |
| ”Lost in Translation” | 2394.8 |
| ”Those Old Scientists” | 2291.6 |
• We are introduced to the USS Kelcie Mae NCC which, based on its appearance, answers the question, ”If there is a Utopia Planitia Shipyard, does it not follow that there is likely also a Dystopia Planitia?”
• It used to be that when you saw a ship like USS Buran (“Best of Both Worlds, Part II), or the USS Curry (“A Time to Stand”), or the USS Yeager (“Doctor Bashir, I Presume”) you knew that the design team was basically fishing for parts at the bottom of the box of leftover Federation starship bits, and hastily gluing them together so there could be something that resembled a Federation ship in the background of a shot for a fleeting half moment. But with the USS Kelcie Mae someone used the most powerful 3d design software available to create an entirely new ship to be front and centre on screen.
• I will never again complain about the Sombra-class from “All Those Who Wander” being a Constitution-class ship with a bit of blue paint instead of read, and a slightly larger bridge window.
• Prospero is the protagonist of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”. Data once portrayed the character on the holodeck while studying humanity in “Emergence”.
• Prospero’s lines from the play are also quoted by:
• Miranda Jones - “Is There In Truth No Beauty?”
• Chancellor Gorkon - “Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country”
• General Chang - “Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country”
• Jean-Luc Picard - “Et in Arcadia Ego, Part II”
• Beckett Mariner - “Crisis Point”
• The Emergency Janeway Hologram - “Kobayashi”
• Starbase 12 is has been mentioned mentioned in a number of episodes across multiple series, including SNW’s “The Serene Squall” but was first named in “Space Seed”.
• The H16 Starfleet boatswain’s whistle is slightly different from the C18 that appeared in “Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country” and the C19 from “The Next Generation”.
• Among Dak’Rah’s crimes Ortegas mentions the siege of Athos. Athos is apparently a colony on the J’Gal. However, there is also a planet named Athos IV in the Badlands where the Maquis had a hidden base, seen in “Blaze of Glory”.
• Captain Archer’s dog, Porthos, had a littermate named Athos.
• Klingons call Dak’Rah ”The Butcher of J’Gal”. We learned in “The Broken Circle” that Doctor M’Benga was stationed at J’Gal during the Federation-Klingon War.
• Spock and lieutenant Mitchell attempt to synthesize raktajino, a Klingon coffee. The mug that’s produced appears similar to the ones frequently seen in DS9, though more ornate.
• Mitchell states of their first attempt to create a raktajino that we see, this one’s cold.” According to “The Passenger”, Jadzia occasionally enjoyed her raktajino iced, with extra cream.
• With the second attempt, we see a cartridge of some sort lower into the bar, as the raktajino is produced. In some TOS episodes, such as “Tomorrow is Yesterday” and “And the Children Shall Lead” we characters with flat, coloured disks into a slot on a food synthesizer to produce the desired meal.
• *”On a recent mission, Spock was able to parlay with a Klingon captain.” Number One is referring to Spock’s encounter with Captain D’Chok in “The Broken Circle”.
• Shuttlecraft 12648, is very different from the Class C shuttlecraft that were aboard the USS Discovery in this era, but it does have the same paint colours as those ships.
• Shuttlecraft 12648 has a registry number, NCC-7901, presumably for the starship it is usually berthed on, which seems pretty high for this era.
• The Starfleet officers we see in the flashbacks to J’Gal are all wearing tactical vests that were introduced in SNW’s “Memento Mori”, not the ones worn through seasons one and two of DIS, introduced in “The Battle of the Binary Stars”.
• The badges everyone is wearing are also the ones the introduced with the Enterprise crew in season two of DIS, not the split delta design of DIS which everyone other than the Enterprise crew wore…
• The badge Trask is wearing when he shows up does not have a division logo on it. Chapel says that he is special forces.
• Similarly, the black uniforms are new, but appear to be the same cut as Chapel’s white jumpsuit, rather than resembling the ones worn in DIS which would have been common during the Federation-Klingon War.
• Doctor Buck is played by Clint Howard who previously appeared as:
• Balok - “The Corbomite Maneuver”
• Grady - “Past Tense, Part II”
• Muk - “Acquisition”
• A character credited as Creepy Orion - “Will You Take My Hand”
• It cost Doctor Buck a case of Romulan ale to get Chapel assigned to J’Gal as head nurse. Romulan Ale is illegal in the Federation, and was first named in “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan” but might have been the blue beverage the Romulan commander served Spock in “The Enterprise Incident”.
• ”Doctor, I need a doctor.” Chapel is a doctor, as established in “Strange New Worlds”, but presumably Alvarado would not benefit from epigenetic treatments.
• By “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” Chapel will also be an MD.
• Doctor M’Benga suggests keeping Alvarado in suspended animation in the transporter buffer, a technique he will later use on his own daughter aboard the Enterprise as seen in “Ghosts of Illyria”. The first time we saw it used in Trek was in “Relics” where Scotty’s pattern was able to remain stable for 75 years aboard the USS Jenolan, but not ensign Franklin’s. ”He was a good lad.”
• ”The Gorn attack as Finibus III,” Doctor M’Benga mentions in his log was seen in “Memento Mori”.
• Pike shows up in sick bay looking for Deltan parsley. In “The Enemy Within” the aggressive Kirk went to sick bay demanding Saurian brandy from Bones.
• Due to protests at Dak’Rah’s previous transport, Starfleet command has decided that veterans of the Federation-Klingon War are required to interact with him and make him feel welcome. For other ridiculous command decisions by the Starfleet admiralty, see: all of Star Trek.
• In flashback we see Doctor M’Benga tell Chapel to use her hand to manually pump their patient’s heart as part of their efforts to save him. In “Second Contact” Tendi had to manually pump Stevens’ heart to keep him alive.
• ”Convincing Propero Alpha to agree to an armistice was like getting a Tellarite to give a compliment.” The contentious nature of Tellarites was established in “Journey to Babel” when Sarek generalized the entire people.
• “We all just call it the Moon.” In “Valiant” Collins tells Jake Sisko that ”nobody who’s ever lived on the Moon calls it Luna, either. That’s just something they say on Earth.”
• We learn that Doctor M’Benga has ”The most hand-to-hand kills confirmed.”
• Doctor M’Benga’s wheatgrass shot seen in “The Broken Circle” is called protocol 12, and he’s the one who designed it.
• Doctor M’Benga says that protocol 12 is, ”adrenaline and pain killers,” and not just the ”green juice, extra green” that Tilly ordered from the food synthesizer in “Lethe”. It’s not canon, but the current storyline in the ongoing comics, “Star Trek” and “Star Trek: Defiant” involve the followers of Clone Emperor Kahless injecting the Red Path sacrament, a mixture of Klingon adrenaline and some chemical found in ketracel white.
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• Dak’Rah speaks of a chancellor who asked him about a Klingon speaking on behalf of the Federation, and he uses masculine pronouns while doing so. The title of chancellor has been used to describe a variety of positions, but I suspect that I am not the only one who initially assumed Dak’Rah was speaking of the chancellor of the Klingon Empire, their head of state. Last we saw, L’Rell was still chancellor, after having taken over in “Will You Take My Hand?”
• ”tlhIngan maH taHjaj.” Ortegas recites the rallying cry of T’Kuvma’s followers from “The Vulcan Hello”, ”Remain Klingon.”
• Uhura learned about Aenar philosophy from Hemmer in “Memento Mori”, and we learned that they’re pacifists in “The Aenar”.
• Doctor M’Benga and La’an have been practicing Mok’bara, a Klingon martial art Worf taught aboard the USS Enterprise D as seen in “Clues”. As per “The Vulcan Hello”, prior to the Federation-Klingon War, there was effectively no contact between the Federation and the Empire for 100 years, which does raise the question of how two Starfleet officers would have been able to learn Mok’bara.
• The red martial arts uniforms Doctor M’Benga and Dak’Rah wear for their Mok’Bara sparing session resemble the ones we see worn in “Charlie X” when Kirk is showing Charlie Evans some throws in the work facilities. Except those uniforms had tight leggings, an a Starfleet delta on the chest.
• In the flashback to J’Gal, we see the Klingons there all wore their hair long. Every Klingon we saw in season one, from heads of Great Houses to guys urinating in back alleys, was bald, and in “Point of Light” we learned that it was specifically because they were at war, first with other Klingons, and then with then with the Federation. We also so that each House had individual customs for dress and body modification, so unreasonable to assume that whichever House Dak’Rah and the other Klingons who held J’Gal were loyal to did not engage in such tonsure.
• The Klingon warlords we see Doctor M’Benga kill in the flashback are wearing the same armour as D’Chok in “The Broken Circle”.
• The D’k thag dagger was introduced in “Star Trek: The Search for Spock”.
• According to Doctor M’Benga’s service record, he was born in 2223, meaning he would be 36 years old.
• The subtitles for the episode call the Klingon homeworld ”Kronos,” but fortunately the map Number One gives to Pike has it labelled ”Qo’noS,” as it should be.
• ”How can we represent a Federation that believes in peace if we say some people aren’t allowed to make up for their past.” For example, Pike will probably be very grateful that during the events of “The Menagerie, Part I” the Talosians choose not to display the moment where he claimed, “It’s just that I can’t get used to having a woman on the bridge.” Look how far he’s come in only five years!
• Doctor M’Benga tells Dak’Rah, ”You turned me into a monster.” In “The Wounded”, Chief O’Brien tells a Cardassian officer, “It’s not you I hate, Cardassian. I hate what I became because of you.”
• Dak’Rah accidentally stabs himself during the struggle with Doctor M’Benga. In “The House of Quark”, a Klingon named Kozak accidentally stabbed himself while fighting Quark, an in “The Vulcan Hello”, the Klingon Torchbearer stabbed himself after ambushing Michael Burnham.
This is the first time we’ve seen Ortegas in the captain’s chair.
She was in the captain’s chair in the pilot episode, and it wasn’t her first time either. When the alien escaped from sickbay she said something along the lines of “this always happens when I’m in the captain’s chair”.
That’s right! Thanks for the correction.
I’m only here to say thanks.
I love these posts. They drive my engagement and become required reading after every episode.
These posts are a boon to the community, so thanks for making them.
Wow didn’t realize how many times a Klingon ends up stabbing himself in the trek universe. All that aggression must really cause a lot of accidental deaths in the Klingon empire.
I’ll have to rewatch that scene but I’ve watched the episode twice. It wasn’t my impression that he accidentally stabbed himself but that M’Benga was pushed to defend himself and stabbed him, thus finishing his mission on J’Gal.
I know some people feel that M’Benga killing Dak’Rah felt disingenuous to Trek but I actually liked seeing that even though these characters are diplomatic and controlled have their limits of humanity and right and wrong and that some atrocities truly are unforgivable. The characters aren’t perfect and make mistakes and I like that - I feel like it’s a more accurate representation of humanities struggle for peace.
Nurse Chapel confirmed Doctor M’Benga’s story. You don’t think she would lie, do you?
Ok … so I’m not on top of stardates in Trek so I’ve been ignoring this … but, and sorry for my ignorance … what’s up with the startdates in this season? Are they doing something intentionally here?
Are they doing something intentionally here?
Violence. Against me. Personally.
But also, as others have pointed out, in TOS there was very little rhyme or reason to the Stardates, and SNW seems to have embraced that. It’s actually seems to be less non-sequential this season than in the first.
My personal headcanon is that after the Klingon, Starfleet implemented a sort of two factor authentication to the stardates so they’re somewhat randomized, and can’t be properly pieced together with the proper “key” that lets you know the actual sequence of events.
in TOS there was very little rhyme or reason to the Stardates
The explanation Roddenberry gave was that a stardate was dependent not just on time but location, but the real world reason was that the episodes were aired out of production order.
Roddenberry’s memo about stardates being the episode producer’s birthday multiplied by the ship’s distance from Earth was a joke.
However even when you order the episode by production date the stardates still don’t line up. Even in season three where the episodes were aired in production order, the stardates still bounce around a bit.
@maegul @USSBurritoTruck @startrek It’s probably an homage to TOS. Their stardates were famously not consistently kept in any kind of order either.
The stardates have been wonky since season 1. It might be intentional or maybe they just don’t care. Either way the randomness aligns with TOS.
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Am I alone in not carding about about inter-series continuity?
Not a criticism. Just wondering if I’m the odd one?
A lot of the people who’ve made Star Trek over the years did not care about continuity from one episode to the next, let alone between series.
Personally I find long running media franchises with ongoing continuity fascinating. It’s like the Winchester Mystery House; a beautiful maze like construct with sudden dead ends, doors to no where, abandoned additions, inconsistent design, and occasional Shakespeare quotes. Except instead of one mourning woman directing all the construction, it’s been 56 years of countless writers, directors, production designers, and showrunners all contributing to Trek continuity.
It’s fun to see how everything fits together, and those spots where it does not. That’s just my take, anyway.
I guess the times turned. I remember that before 2010 “we” fans cared a lot about inter-series continuity and had an absolut blast in favrious discussion groups if these where honoured.
Seems like “we” have turned to be the odd balls and people seem to care a lot less these days…
I guess the times turned. I remember that before 2010 “we” fans cared a lot about inter-series continuity and had an absolut blast in favrious discussion groups if these where honoured.
Seems like “we” have turned to be the odd balls and people seem to care a lot less these days…
Wait! There are Star Trek comics?
Yeah. Some of them are a lot of fun, too.
