Star Trek

• Like many Trek episodes, this one’s title was inspired by a great work of art, specifically “Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace”.

• The Ferengi lower deckers we see are cataloguing Cardassian, Klingon and Romulan handheld disruptors before apparently throwing them out.

    • Cardassian weapons were frequently called phasers, not disruptors in dialogue in DS9, such as in the episodes “Profit and Loss”, though in “Return to Grace” Kira refers to them as ”phase-disruptor” weapons.

• The Ferengi have a scaled down Genesis device which among the weapons they’re discarding. In “Star Trek: The Search for Spock”, Commander Kruge believed Genesis was designed as a Federation weapon.

• The Mysterious Threat appears again, making this the fourth attack since its introduction in “Twovix”.

    • The Ferengi, Jeef, implies that he was aware that the Mysterious Threat was going to be there and he’d made a deal with whomever is operating it.

• The bridge of the Ferengi ship appears to be a recreation of the one seen aboard Quark’s shuttle, Quark’s Treasure in “Little Green Men”, which was later used for Brunt’s shuttle in “The Magnificent Ferengi”.

• As is tradition with Ferengi episodes, we’re going to get some Rules of Acquisition. The Rules of Acquisition were first mentioned in “The Nagus”.

    • Rule 62: ”The riskier the road, the greater the profit.” - “Rules of Acquisition”

    • Rule 10: *”Greed is eternal.” - “Prophet Motive”

    • Rule 8: ”Small print leads to large risk.” - This is the first time it’s been said in canon, but was included in the “The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition” reference book written by Ira Steven Behr

• The USS Toronto NCC-70494 is a Parliament-class starship. We first saw the USS Vancouver in “Cupid’s Errant Arrow”.

    • Despite the fact that Parliament-class ships appear to all take their names from Canadian capital cities, the USS Winnipeg is a Daedalus-class, and the USS Regina is an Oberth-class, seen in “An Embarrassment of Dooplers” and “First First Contact” respectively.

• Cap’n Freeman records the Stardate as 58901.5 in her log.

• This is our first view of Ferenginar from orbit.

• Admiral Vassery was introduced in “Moist Vessel”.

• ”It makes Moab IV inside the dome look like Moab IV outside the dome.” Moab IV was a human colony built as a planned society fostered with eugenics introduced in “The Masterpiece Society”.

• It’s Rom! From Star Trek! Rom is played by Max Grodénchik, who played Rom in DS9, showing up in the series premiere, “The Emissary”.

    • Grodénchik played several other Frenengi as well: his first Trek role was as Sovak in “Captain’s Holiday”; he played Par Lenor in “The Perfect Mate”; finally he appeared as Grand Nagus Gint in Quark’s dream in “Body Parts”.

• It’s Leeta! From Star Trek! Leeta once again portrayed by Chase Masterson. The character first appeared in “Explorers”.

• Rom and Leeta are accompanied by a Hupyrian attendant, as both Zek and Brunt were when they were Grand Nagus. This one is the first female Hupyrian we’ve seen.

• The Ceremonial Invoice for the Bust of Good Fortune features Ferengi script, first seen in “Ménage à Troi”.

• We see the Lower Deckers working on the Sequoia, the shuttle introduced in “Second Contact”. This is the first time we’ve seen the shuttle this season.

• Mariner is weathering a self-sealing stembolt, a device introduced in “Progress” which use has never been made entirely clear.

• ”The Cerritos *is statistically the horniest and least romantically committed crew in Starfleet,” I’d like to know what metrics they use for gauging that, but Starfleet is a notoriously horny organization. See: All of TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, and SNW.

• ”Maybe I should have Honus and nurse Westlake take a crack at it.” Honus, Westlake, along with Matt are Ransom’s self described ”Friends for life.”

• The skyline of Ferenginar includes the Tower of Commerce, first mentioned in “Prophet Motive” and seen in “Family Business”. The angle here is different, showing more of the capital city and less marshland.

    • It is raining pretty heavily on Ferenginar. According to Quark in “Let He Who is Without Sin…” there are 178 different words in the Ferengi language for types of rain.

    • There’s a Ferengi shuttle flying over the city. The first Ferengi shuttle on screen was seen in “The Price”

• Among the business and billboards we signs for:

    • All You Can @#$%!

    • Slug-O Cola - “Profit and Lace”

    • Acquire Pour Homme

    • Now Playing: Latinum Lost

    • Maximum Oo-Mox Rub Dungeon

    • Uncle Quark’s Youth Casino

    • Lobe’s Lodge

    • The Museum of Gambling

    • The Museum of Haggling

    • Slug-Nasium

    • The Ferenginar Historic Public Library

    • Quark’s Federation Experience Bar & Grill

• One of the ships parked at Lobe’s Lodge is one resembling the ship the Ferengi used when they attacked the NX-01 Enterprise in “Acquisition”.

• There are payboxes for several amenities on Ferenginar for depositing latinum, which we saw introduced in “Family Business”.

    • Shuttle parking

    • Mini bar

    • Hotel bed

    • Toilet

    • Bathroom access

    • Hotel viewscreen

    • Brunch restaurant

    • Dressing rooms

• The confetti canon Parth fires off is shaped similar to a Ferengi hand phaser, like the ones seen in “Ménage à Troi”.

• The viewscreen in in Boimler’s hotel room is very suspiciously familiar, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.

• Mariner meets up with Quimp whom we previously saw in “Envoys” helping her to scam Boimler into believing he was a capable officer.

• ”I never thought you’d dig your way out of crashing that Oberth.” Was it the USS Regina? We may never know.

    • Presumably the incident with the Oberth-class happened prior to the start of the series, which means that Mariner has been promoted and demoted at least once since then, during the events of “Moist Vessel”, and Quimp is merely unaware that happened.

• Mariner Orders two shots of Cardassian tequila, which presumably can only be produced in the Tequila region of Cardassia Prime.

• Mariner also orders a ”dagger of the mind on the rocks.” “Dagger of the Mind” was a first season TOS episode, but also part of a line from “Macbeth”.

• ”I like baseball. It’s fun.” Rom was the worst player on the Niners in “Take Me Out to the Holosuite” but Max Grodénchik played in high school and was good enough that he considered going pro before pursuing a career in acting. During the filming of “Take Me Out to the Holosuite” he had to play left handed because he couldn’t convincingly look bad while playing the game with his dominant hand.

• Boimler is watching “Pog & Dar: Cop Landlords” and one of the tenants has a dog-like pet with horns and antenna like the one seen in “The Enemy Within”

    • Pog, Dar, and the tenant all have Ferengi hand phasers, which were last seen in the TNG episode “Bloodlines”.

    • The tenant has muttonchops, and is the only Ferengi we’ve seen to have hair of any kind.

• ”Haha, they put commercials in the shows? It’s like mind control.” When Boimler says this line, the wall art of a mountain with some stars above it twinkles, and I can’t quite place why it’s familiar.

• Quark’s Federation Experience Bar & Grill is based on Star Trek: The Experience, a now defunct attraction that used to be at the Hilton in Las Vegas, which did include a Quark’s Bar. Among the features here are:

    • Models of the USS Enterprise D and the USS Voyager hanging from the ceiling, both of which were in Star Trek: The Experience.

    • A Mugato - “A Private Little War”

    • The Guardian of Forever - “The City on the Edge of Forever”

    • A Vulcan wedding venue/gladiatorial arena - “Amok Time”

    • One of the primitive peoples encountered on Taurus II - “The Galileo Seven”

    • A holodeck arcade - Ferengi generally refer to them as holosuites

    • A rack of red shirts

    • A Jefferies Tube entrance

    • A Ten Forward exhibit

    • A ”blind box” shaped like a Class-F shuttlecraft

• Production Error: Despite what the sign says, Rutherford refers to it as *”The Starfleet Experience Bar & Grill”.

• One of the Ferengi women eating in the background of Quark’s Federation Experience is nude. Before Zek changed the law leading to the events of “Profit and Lace”, it was illegal for Ferengi omen to wear clothes.

• Rom and Leeta host Vassery and Freeman in the Chamber of Petitioners, seen in “Ferengi Love Songs”.

• Cap’n Freeman tricks Rom into signing a contract which hinges on him bringing Qo’noS into the Federation. In the TNG episode, “Samaritan Snare”, Wesley asks Picard “Was this before the Klingons joined the Federation?” regarding a story of his Academy days, and in “Heart of Glory” we see a Klingon bridge displaying the Federation Emblem alongside that of the Klingon Empire.

• Rom reveals that his outrageous demands were all part of a test to see if there were those in the Federation who would respect Ferengi culture. Captain Pike realized the delegation from the R’ongovian Protectorate were doing something similar in “Spock Amok”.

• The Ferengi ”local authorities” is wearing a simplified version of the Ferengi uniform introduced in “Peak Performance” and has a military tattoo on his forehead, which we haven’t seen since “Bloodlines”. He’s also wielding an energy whip, introduced in “The Last Outpost”.

Clearly there is some chemistry between the characters, but it often appears that Shaxs is putting up with a lot that he is not interested in, or is even finds unpleasant.

Specifically in “Room For Growth” and “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee” we get insight into their off duty time together, which appears to be running a holodeck program where Doctor T’Ana escalates the violence and then wants Shaxs participate in sexual activity, while making their holographic victims watch. In both episodes Shaxs implies that this is not something he enjoys. In “Room For Growth” we see Shaxs open up to Doctor T’Ana about things he’s going through and she mocks him for it.

And obviously Shaxs is a character capable of tremendous violence, and it’s something he enjoys, but unlike Doctor T’Ana, he’s also interested in wellness. In “Envoys” we see that Shaxs is concerned about the job satisfaction of his subordinates, and in “Empathological Fallacies” he makes it clear that he views part of his responsibilities as the Cerritos chief of security to see to the mental wellbeing of the crew as well as their physical wellbeing. He puts that in action for himself as well, which we see in “wej Duj” where he’s using art therapy to deal with his own trauma. T’Ana, by contrast, is hostile to the idea. In “Mugato, Gumato” we see that she’s removed her own name from the list of patients aboard the Cerritos.

It seems as though Shaxs is the one putting in all the effort, and Doctor T’Ana is somewhat toxic.I feel like Shaxs could do better.

The title is a play on the term “pathological fallacy”, where traits seen in one person or group are extrapolated to be part of the entire population that person belongs to.

Captain Sokel of the VCS (“Vulcan Command Ship”?) Sh’val was last seen in LD: “wej Duj” as T’Lyn’s commanding officer, who recommended that she be reassigned to Starfleet.

Angel I is the titular planet in TNG: “Angel One”, which is ruled by women. It was visited by the Enterprise-D in 2364. Risa, of course, is a resort planet that has featured or been mentioned in almost every post-TNG series.

Katrot says she loves the Starfleet carpeting. In PIC: “Võx”, Picard says he misses the Enterprise-D’s carpeting. The other Betazoid diplomats are Cathiw (who makes a pass at Ransom and Freeman) and Dolorex.

“Anything glowing and green” might refer to Aldebaran Whiskey, which matches the description (TNG: “Relics”).

Romulan ale was illegal in Kirk’s time (ST II, ST VI), became legal during the Dominion War when the Romulans allied with the Federation (DS9: “Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges”), but then apparently became illegal again after (Nemesis). Then again, Romulan Ale was part of a consignment of Alpha Quadrant gifts to be handed to the Karemma (LD: “Hear All, Trust Nothing”), and in PIC: “Disengage” it’s implied to be contraband, so who knows?

The names Boimler are trying to memorize include Jet Manhaver (LD: “Cupid’s Errant Arrow”), the second coolest person on the Cerritos, Hans Federov (named in LD: “Room for Growth” and “The Stars at Night”) a.k.a. Towel Guy and the ship gossip, Honus (LD: “Mugato, Gumato”) the bartender, Kayshon (LD: “Kayshon, His Eyes Open”) the Tamarian security chief, Taylor (named in LD: “In the Cradle of Vexilon”) the Kzinti ensign, Merp (named in LD: “I, Excretus”), Big Merp (“In the Cradle of Vexilon”) and Sleepy Merp.

Tsunkatse is a mixed martial art arena fight (VOY: “Tsunkatse”). Boims thinks he’s being initiated into a fight club - well, there’s slamming of a sort anyway.

Worf, son of Mogh, grew up on the farm colony of Gault (TNG: “Heart of Glory”), raised by his human adoptive parents, the Rozhenkos. The security officer reciting the poem is named Haubold.

Lwaxana Troi, while suffering from Zanthi Fever, empathically broadcast her feelings of affection for Odo, making a number of the crew act amorously (DS9: “Fascination”). Betazoids are telepathic among themselves, but can teach others to hear their thoughts, too, as Troi apparently did to Riker (TNG: “Encounter at Farpoint”), although this was kind of dropped after the pilot.

Alterian flaking may come from the same planet as the Alterian chowder that Sisko attempted to order in Quark’s (DS9: “Armageddon Game”).

The jigsaw puzzle (Starfleet Security Series, 1000 pieces) has a picture of the NX-01 Enterprise and Malcolm Reed on its cover.

The map of the Romulan Neutral Zone, like most maps in the post-DIS era, is based heavily on Geoffrey Mandel’s Star Charts. The Cerritos is in the vicinity of the planet Syrma, or Iota Virginis (in a starchart in PIC: “Disengage”). The planets marked on the map are Romulus and Romii (TOS: “Balance of Terror”) and Cheron.

It’s unclear whether this is the same Cheron as that in TOS: “Let There Be Your Last Battlefield”, and beta canon sources are contradictory on this point. Cheron is stated to be the site of a humiliating defeat for the Romulans (TNG: “The Defector”) and in ENT: “In a Mirror Darkly”, the USS Defiant database identifies the Battle of Cheron as the one that ended the Earth-Romulan War.

Sarek suffered from Bendii Syndrome, which caused him to lose control of his emotions and also affect people around him (TNG: “Sarek”) and he eventually died from it (TNG: “Unification”).

T’Lyn is 62 years old. In comparison, T’Pol was 63 when she joined the NX-01 in 2151.

The (apparently Bajoran) Tarot cards show the Emissary, Derna (the fourth moon of Bajor, DS9: “Image in the Sand”), the Borhya (a Bajoran word for ghost, TNG: “The Next Phase”), Invasion, the Celestial Temple and the Ten of Orbs (Nine orbs were said to have appeared over the centuries in DS9: “Emissary”, with a tenth orb recovered in DS9: “Shadows and Symbols”).

Shax says the Invasion card is more of a rebirth, rather like the traditional Earth tarot card Death, which is associated with transformation and also rebirth. Then again Boimler says all the cards are about rebirth.

Tendi’s admittedly heightened desire to make T’Lyn be her friend harkens back to LD: “Moist Vessel”, where she admits that it kills her if someone doesn’t like her. As Tendi hugs T’Lyn, we see Big Merp at the back using the Game headset (from TNG: “The Game”).

When Mariner says that Sarek was “Vulcan as a motherfucker”, both her hands are in the Vulcan salute. She showed a similar two-handed salute to Freeman, described as a “sarcastic Vulcan salute” in “Moist Vessel”. Interestingly enough, the Vulcan salute was invented by Leonard Nimoy based on the Jewish Priestly Blessing, which also uses both hands.

It’s always struck me as strange that while technically nobody on either side is supposed to enter the Neutral Zone, the Romulans routinely seem to lurk inside the Zone just outside of the Federation border of it. While startrek.com claims the Zone is only one light-year wide, that’s still a lot of room compared to what is usually depicted.

Written by: Jamie Loftus

Directed by: Megan Lloyd

This one was written by Star Trek: Prodigy's Aaron J. Waltke.

Direct YouTube Link

Direct link to "The Scheimer Barrier, Chapter 4"

Star Trek #12
Written by: Collin Kelly
Art by: Jackson Lanzing, and Angel Unzueta
Cover Artist: Malachi Ward

The crossover event between Star Trek and Star Trek: Defiant comes to a thrilling conclusion in part five of Day of Blood! Using powers bestowed upon him by the Prophets, emissary Benjamin Sisko withstands the god-killing weapon for now, but forces of the Orb of Destruction wear on him with each passing moment. Meanwhile, Worf agonizes over a fatal wound of his own that he can never hope to heal. What will become of our heroes? What will become of the universe? Can the crews of the Theseus and Defiant stop the godkiller once and for all?
 

Star Trek: Day of Blood - Shaxs' Best Day
Written by: Ryan North
Art by: Derek Charm
Cover Artist: Derek Charm

You've seen Captains Benjamin Sisko and Worf with their crews of the U.S.S. Theseus and Defiant stop the fascist, god-killing clone Kahless II from declaring war on non-followers across the galaxy in a brutal battle on Qo'noS. But you haven't seen it from the eyes of the man, the myth, the legend-Lieutenant Junior Grade Shaxs!
From the writer behind the best-selling Lower Decks comics series, Ryan North, with esteemed artist Derek Charm (The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl), comes a 30-page standalone tie-in to the Star Trek: Day of Blood event detailing the Bajoran's beast-mode brawl and showcasing all the behind-the-scenes Klingon-zealot butt-kicking in full animated glory!
 

Star Trek: Picard's Academy #1
Written by: Sam Maggs
Art by: Greco Ornella
Cover Artist: Sweeney Boo

From New York Times-bestselling author Sam Maggs (Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars) comes a new ongoing series unveiling the past of one of Starfleet's most celebrated officers: Captain Jean-Luc Picard! Before becoming the Federation's finest, Jean-Luc was an ordinary student at Starfleet Academy with sights on the stars. His path forward was charted: blow his classmates out of the water on the infamous Evasive Maneuvers exam and graduate early. But there's a detail Cadet Picard hadn't factored into his plan: the exam was a group project and he'd need to make friends with, ugh, people if he stood a chance at passing. Federation starships aren't run by a party of one, after all!

• The Orion starship we see in the opening is visually similar to the Orion interceptors seen in “Borderland” with some distinct differences.

     • Notably, this interceptor has a pair of arms extending from the underside of the ship, similar to the Orion starship seen in the TAS episode, “The Pirates of Orion.”

• Starting with Risik’s tattoos, we see several examples of the Orion alphabet introduced in “Borderland”.

• Among the plunder the Orion lower deckers are sorting is:

     • A Bat’leth

     • A number of 24th century Starfleet type-2 phasers

     • A Vulcan harp

     • A 23rd century Starfleet type-2 phaser

     • A Starfleet compression phaser rifle

• ”Hey, did you guys see that Maleer got big pieces of metal attached to her head?” In “Borderland” we were introduced to the idea that Orion body modification practices do include grafting bits of what appears to be scrap metal to their bodies.

• The captain’s chair aboard the Orion ship is similar in shape to the one seen in “The Pirates of Orion”.

• The Mysterious Threat destroys the Orion vessel, just as it did the Klingon Bird-of-Prey, IKS Che’Ta’ in “Twovix”, and a Romulan ship in “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”.

• “I have put my foot in my mouth enough when it comes to Orion stuff.” Tendi was hurt by Mariner’s insistence that all Orions are pirates who love to pillage in “Crisis Point”, and Mariner again insulted Tendi by suggesting she use her pheromones to influence a dom-jot game they were attempting to hustle in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.

• Among his possessions on display, Boimler has a USS Cerritos commemorative plate.

• Tendi, Mariner, and T’Lyn take the Yosemite II shuttle on their away mission/girls’ trip. The original Yosemite was destroyed in when Mariner and Boimler were caught in a gravity well and forced to crash land in “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie”, and the Yosemite II was introduced in “Grounded”.

• As the shuttle approaches Orion, we see an Orion barge of the type operated by Harrad-Sar in “Bound”.

• Several of the buildings on the Orion skyline bear the symbol worn by the Orion crew in “The Pirate of Orion”.

• “You grew up in a castle, like friggin’ Billups?” We learned that chief engineer Billups grew up as heir to the throne of the human colony Hysperia, which is populated entirely by “ren faire types.”

• Tendi confirms that her family is part of the Orion Syndicate, a criminal organization first mentioned in “The Ascent”.

• B’rt Tendi is played by Nolan North, who’s portrayed several Trek characters, including:

     • Bridge officer of the USS Vengeance - “Star Trek Into Darkness”

     • The Half a Rascal - “Much Ado About Boimler”

     • Cerritos transporter chief, Lundy

     • Sokel - “wej Duj”

     • K’ranch - “The Least Dangerous Game”

• The A.B. Chambers is the steamboat that Mark Twain briefly worked on.

• Boimler and Rutherford both show up dressed as Mark Twain. The real Samuel Clemens encountered the crew of the USS Enterprise D when they travelled back to 1893 in “Time’s Arrow”.

• Tendi was first referred to as the Mistress of the Winter Constellations in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.

• The bottle the Slit Throat bartender pours from features an image of the Orion captain from “The Pirates of Orion”.

• The stir stick in Madam G’s drink is topped with the symbol worn by the Orion crew in “The Pirates of Orion”.

• New Seattle is a colony on Penthara IV, a world the Enterprise D responded to a disaster on in “A Matter of Time”.

• The pattern on the privacy screens of the hump dungeon mirror those of the fence in the fantasy Captain Pike experienced of Vina as an Orion “slave girl” in “The Menagerie, Part II”.

• T’Lyn observes that the male Orions in the hump dungeon appear to be under the influence of pheromonal chemical manipulation. It was established in “Bound” that Orion culture is actually matriarchal, with women controlling the men via the use of pheromones.

• ”Tendi’s made it clear that Starfleet made those pheromones up.” Actually, all Tendi ever said in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris” is that she’s, ”not even that kind of Orion.”

• Coqqor is played by Eric Bauza, who’s portrayed several PRO and LDS characters, including:

     • Barniss Frex - “Asylum”

     • Scot’Ee and Sool’U - “All the World’s a Stage”

     • Assface and Screwhead - “Skin a Cat”

• Though there has previously not been any canon Chalnoth ships, the design here appears to be based on the ships seen on the cover of DC Comics’ “Star Trek: The Next Generation” #61, published in 1994.

• The starship boneyard that Tendi and D’Erika used to play in as children contains a Federation exploration vessel of the same design as the USS Raven, which Seven of Nine’s parents used to study the Borg and get assimilated. Ship type was first seen in “The Raven”.

• Coqqor devours Rutherford and Boimler’s bonsai tree. In “Allegiance” the Chalnoth Esoqq was unable to eat the food disks provided to Picard and the others by their captors, but did strongly imply that he could subsist on the Mizarian prisoner.

• ”I may not be a pirate, but I’ve rerouted my share of EPS conduits.” Tendi demonstrated her shipjacking abilities in “Hear All, Trust Nothing”.

• ”A report without the subject’s consent would be unethical.” Vulcans monitor other species without their consent all the time, such as in “Star Trek: First Contact”, “The Andorian Incident”, and “Carbon Creek”.

• Boimler and Rutherford end the episode on the holodeck, both dressed as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The works of Mozart have been featured in:

     • “Where No One Has Gone Before”

     • “The Ensigns of Command”

     • “Sarek”

     • “A Matter of Time”

     • “A Fistful of Datas”

     • “Cogenitor”

Rare Find: Lt. Uhura's Lost Singing Performance at Smithsonian!

Interesting discovery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIK21SonkSI

@startrek #StarTrek

I actually enjoy this weird episode a lot. Then again, one of my favourite VOY characters is Neelix, so what do I know? What's your take on this bizarre episode?

I don't know who greenlit this supposed celebration of TAS, but the writing is cheap, lowbrow and cringey. It's a total shame that the amazing animation and sound design are paired with this quality of writing. None of the three eps released so far impressed me.

I'm seriously shocked by the Youtube comments that found it funny. The latest one is literally supposed to be funny because it involves boogers. Paramount should be ashamed it spent money on this. Have they stopped for a moment to think if this is what TAS fans want? /rant

The title is a play on the wedding rhyme/tradition, dating back to 19th Century England, of the bride wearing “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue (and a sixpence in her shoe),” for good luck. The green, of course, refers to the pigmentation of Orions.

The ship seems to be a new class of Orion Interceptor with some extra added bits, the original design of which dates back to the 22nd Century (ENT: “Borderland”). The female Orion plays with a TOS style phaser pistol and then tosses it in the trash. They talk about body modification, specifically “bolts in the head”, which we saw on the Orion privateer Harrad-Sar (ENT: “Bound”).

Mariner calls Tendi “D”, which is a reminder that her full name is D’vana Tendi. Tendi refers to Orion “belly dancer outfits” (TOS: “The Cage”, “Whom Gods Destroy”, ENT: “Bound”). Mariner says she has put her foot in her mouth about Orion culture enough times (LD: “Crisis Point”, and Boimler did the same in SNW: “Those Old Scientists”, when both assumed all Orions were pirates).

This is the first time we’ve heard of Andorian linen, but Andorian silk was also prized as a fabric (DS9: “Q-Less”). On the shelves we see Boimler’s plate of the Cerritos, his figures of Mirror Archer, Spock in his monster maroons and Data holding a phaser rifle (LD: “I Have No Bones and I Must Flee”) and his “Boimler Effect” plaque (LD: “Temporal Edict”). On Rutherford’s side we see his DS9 model (and box) from LD: “Hear All, Trust Nothing” and a replica of Wesley Crusher’s tractor beam emitter model from TNG: “The Naked Now” (also seen in “I Have No Bones…”)

Grandmama Boimler said, “A cool duvet keeps the raisin rats away.” The Boimler family owns a raisin vineyard on Earth (LD: “Grounded”). “Lil Boney” the bonsai belongs to Boimler, who acquired it reluctantly in LD: “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.

As the Yosemite II shuttle approaches Orion, we see a space station in orbit and also an Orion barge, resembling that piloted by Harrad-Sar in “Bound”. In Star Trek Online the 25th Century version is known as a Blackguard-class Flight Deck Assault Cruiser. We see an Orion riding a purple rhino with two horns and two tusks.

Mariner references Chief Engineer Billups’ background as a prince of Hysperia when she remarks that Tendi also grew up in a castle (LD: “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie”).

One of Tendi’s titles is “Mistress of the Winter Constellations” (“We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”). We learn that Tendi’s parents are the Warrior Queen Shona and B’Rt. Harrad-Sar alleged in “Bound” that while most of the galaxy harbors the misconception that Orion women are slaves, it is actually the females who dominate the males via their pheromones.

Symbolic bridal kidnappings (as opposed to actual ones, which are considered sex crimes) are still part of some cultures on Earth. In the case of Orions, the kidnapping is done by a rival family between the save the date and the issuing of the invitations. Tendi is Prime Daughter.

The real Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain) appeared in TNG: “Time’s Arrow”.

Comparing the lettering with the name of the bar (“Slit Throat”), the Orion alphabet is a straight one-for-one substitution with English (like Gorn script in SNW).

New Seattle is located on Penthara IV (TNG: “A Matter of Time”).

T’Lyn observes the Orion males in the “scentuary” are under the influence of chemicals, possibly pheromones. Mariner claims that Starfleet made that up to explain why a starship captain could be taken down by “show girls”, referring to the events of “Bound”, but is proven wrong. Tendi clarifies that only some Orions control others through pheromones, but not her. Ingreeta later claims Tendi doesn’t have the pheromones (but didn’t need it).

Coqqor is a Chalnoth (TNG: “Allegiance”) and claims to be from South Chalnoth, although the name of the planet is Chalna. Coqqor could be referring to a region or a city on Chalna.

The ship that Tendi says was one her and D’Erika’s favorites appears to be of the same class as the SS Raven owned by Seven of Nine’s family (VOY: “The Raven”). Tendi was raised as a Syndicate assassin, a “prime”, to be the Tip of the Moonlit Blade.

If we’re keeping score, I think Mariner gets stabbed four times in the shoulder (at the Slit Throat, the scentuary, by D’Erika and at the daughter-daddy dagger dance).

While Mozart has never appeared on Star Trek, many of his works have been heard over the course of the series in episodes.

• Cap’n Freeman’s log records the stardate as 58759.1.

• The world of Corazonia is an artificial ringworld circling a star. In “Rosetta” and “Coming Home” we saw that Species Ten-C used similar Dyson rings to harvest energy from the stars of their original home system, and their newly established home.

     • The scale of Corazonia and its star is…questionable, but that’s hardly a new issue in Trek. Consider the USS Voyager traveling through the planetary ring in VOY’s title sequence, or the utterly massive Borg cube being visible in Jupiter’s eye in the PIC finale, “The Last Generation”.

     • Not canon, but Corazonia very much resembles the Ringworld from the cover art of Larry Niven’s 1970 novel, “Ringworld”, set in his Known Space series, which is also the origin of the Kiznti.

• Corazonia’s climate is controlled by a sentient computer, Vexilon. Other planet controlling computers have been seen in:

     • “The Return of the Archons” - Landru

     • “The Apple” - Vaal

     • “Spock’s Brain” - The Controller

     • “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” - The Oracle of the People

     • “When the Bough Breaks” - The Custodian

• Freeman roles up her sleeves before getting to work on Vexilon, not unlike the way Mariner keeps her sleeves all the time, despite it landing her in the brig at least once.

• Freeman states that she ”minored in archaic technology back at the Academy.” If Mariner is to be believed in “Room for Growth”, the USS Cerritos has been overwritten by D’Arsay technology three times.

• Boimler’s team’s shuttle is the Kings Canyon, presumably named for Kings Canyon National Park

• ”Statistically, ensigns serving under recently promoted commanders are more likely to experience death and/or dismemberment.” Wesley Crusher’s entire team in “Pen Pals” died during his first time in charge, and he wasn’t even recently promoted.

• Inside the anomaly storage room we see:

     • A probe resembling the Kataan probe from “The Inner Light” but with some notable differences

     • What appears to be an oversized Vulcan lirpa

     • Nomad from “The Changeling”, or a very similar Earth probe transformed into an artificial life form

     • A Wadi board game, from “Move Along Home”

     • What appears to be an empty transport case for a Medusan, including a visor missing the red protective lens; Ambassador Kollos used one in “Is There in Truth No Beauty?”

     • A bat’leth

     • A Betazoid gift box, like the one seen in “Haven”

     • A 23rd century Romulan cloaking device, like the one Kirk and Spock stole in “The Enterprise Incident”

• Billups’ pet ferret is named Lancelot; it was established in “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie” that Billups comes Hysperia, a planet colonized by “Ren faire type” humans.

• Tendi, Mariner, and Rutherford are using T-88 scanners to check the chips in the isolinear chip junction. T-88s were first seen in “Cupid’s Errant Arrow” and weren’t available fleetwide yet, but Rutherford and Tendi did steal a bunch from the USS Vancouver.

• ”Is it a unotronic?” Duotronic and multitronic systems were designed by Richard Daystrom, which we learned in “The Ultimate Computer”. This is the first mention of a unotronic system, though it’s not entirely clear if that’s an actual thing, or simply a bit for Billups’ joke.

• Dirks claims he was trapped in the Wadi game for a month as a child. The Wadi are a gamma quadrant civilization who were first encountered in 2369, 12 years prior to this episode.

• Boimler refers to the large blue guy as ”Big Merp.” In “I, Excretus” the scoreboard showed that another member of the same species was also named Merp. Are all members of the species named Merp? Is it the name of their species and just what they’re all called? Or is Merp simply a common name among their species?

• Rutherford ends up in the Wadi game, where he encounters the same puzzles Captain Sisko, Kira, Doctor Bashir, and Jadzia did in “Move Along Home”.

• Dirks states the Tellarite slop jazz musician Fats B’zirtak overdosed on ketracel-white. Assuming fats was not a Jem’Hadar, I believe this is the first time we’ve heard of a non-Jem’Hadar consuming ketracel-white in canon.

• The Betazoid gift box gets zapped by the not-Kataan probe and experiences an entire simulated life, similar to what happened to Captain Picard in “The Inner Light”, though at no point from Rutherford’s perspective does the gift box appear to be unconscious.

     • ”I miss my wife.” The gift box repeats Michael Sullivan’s line from two episodes ago in “Twovix”.

• After he dies we see Boimler in room which appears to be inspired by the red room from “Twin Peaks” based on the floor pattern, lamp, and end table. Outside the window he sees the black mountain, which Shaxs described as a ”spiritual battleground” in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.

     • The Koala appears, and according to the subtitles it’s ”speaking Koala” but if you reverse the audio it says, “It is not your time, Bradward Boimler.”

     • This is the second time Boimler has seen the Koala, the first being when he nearly drowned in “First First Contact”.

     • Despite being at the Black Mountain, Boimler did not have to fight three faceless aspirations of his father, nor did the surviving father feed Boimler his own heart, as Shaxs described in “We’ll Always have Tom Paris”.

• ”You never forget your first death.” Ransom implies that he too has died.

So we learn at the end that Sisko's birth was engineered by the Prophets, right? That he was always destined to be the Emissary because that's how it had to be, from the nonlinear perspective of the Prophets.

So what if they based him on a man from Earth centuries before (perhaps one of his father's ancestors)? He does say at one point that maybe God is trying to tell him to quit writing and go into the restaurant business, betraying a love for cooking, which maybe he passed on to his children - and maybe he passed this on to his descendants, one of whom moved to New Orleans and opened a Creole kitchen, which would stay in the family for many generations...

They chose this man because by some quirk he had genuine future-sight and saw forward into the life of Sisko because of their connection established by the Prophets - creating a self-sustaining loop.

Now of course that doesn't explain why all of the people in Benny's life are so similar to Sisko's people (or is it the other way around?), but maybe there's something there about celestial-temporal archetypes, or Benny is projecting those faces and personalities onto his coworkers because of his strange and exceptional mind.

Via https://twitter.com/leohoratio/status/1328778709667602436

Image transcription of a Tweet by @leohoratio: my body is not a temple. it is a federation starship with critical hull damage and shields at 0%

Can't write a review worth a damn, but figured I'd point out this story for anyone looking for something interesting to read.

So, a few things to explain, My Little Pony (MLP) was a cartoon about magical coloured ponies, MLP: Equestria Girls was a tween spin-off that introduced the character of Sunset Shimmer who passed through a magic mirror to a world of humanoids in a high school setting where we saw alternate versions of many characters from the original MLP.

So, I decided to give this a try thanks to a different story, Sunset's Isekai. I prolly don't need to explain what that one is, I mean it's such a sci-fi trope, but just in case, it's a time and dimension traveling bar run by a version of Sunset Shimmer. I was already aware of the story, but had figured it'd be MLP:EG in space, or ponies have a first contact or start their own space program, none of which particularly interested me. SI introduces us to this version of Sunset, field promoted Captain Sunset Shimmer of the USS Phoenix, and an overview of her life and current situation, all of which sounded like a well done Star Trek story, so I decided to read it.

At nearly half a million words and three seasons, there's a lot to catch up on, but it's worth it. Thanks to a 'magic' mirror, Sunset winds up at Starfleet Academy at 11 years old, and is obviously terrified to be surrounded by aliens, none of whom speak proper Equish.

Once she gets calmed down, and a medical examination, her life begins. Adopted by two teachers at the academy, she grows up on Earth, joins Starfleet because how else will she find home?

Six months into her life, she's joined by another pony that got sucked into the mirror, who will also join Starfleet.

Sunset winds up serving on the Enterprise, but thankfully the author doesn't insert her into the episodes we know, most times she has little to do with them and often times has know idea what occurred, after all she's just another ensign there, albeit a brightly coloured unicorn. The only change she makes to Star Trek is that she delays the warp core explosion long enough that the saucer section never crashes.

Beyond that, she dies, comes back to life (like that's never happened in Star Trek), becomes the XO on the Phoenix and takes part in the Dominion War, and eventually gets home.

The story is still going on, but the Phoenix, last surviving member of it's fleet, is limping home, limited to warp 4, barely any shields or phasers, a journey expected to take a year.

——————— Overall, it's a good read. Sure, fan fic, so it won't hold up like a professionally written story, but it is a very well done story. The author doesn't fall into traps like making the pony characters a huge part of canon, they don't replace anyone, and they don't save the galaxy. They do add an extra wrinkle to the dominion war, one you might be able to guess. Familiarity with MLP isn't necessary, the author explains most of what you need to know either in the story, or the author notes at the end of every chapter.

I rewatched the first episode of Voyager, and when Neelix first comes aboard the ship, he marvels at the great culture that created it. Tuvok says something along the lines of "The Federation is made up of many cultures. I am Vulcan". A few scenes later, Neelix calls Tuvok "Mr. Vulcan", and Tuvok does not correct him. So, yeah, 100% lack of communication on Tuvok's side. Sure, Neelix hears other people call Tuvok by his proper name, and as some point he understood "Vulcan" is the name of his race. But by then, as Tuvok never corrected him or shown any visible dislike to being called that, he might have come to the conclusion that Tuvok likes it, and thinks of it as a funny nickname.

Written by: Ben Waller

Directed by: Brandon Williams

StarTrek.com link featuring the second chapter of "The Scheimer Barrier".

• The episode title calls back to the VOY season two episode, “Tuvix”, in which Neelix and Tuvok are combined into a single being by due to the unique properties of an alien orchid and the transporter.

• This episode was written by series creator Mike McMahan.

• Boimler [Jack Quaid] has holodeck waste removal duty, a task Mariner [Tawny Newsome] was assigned in “Moist Vessel” as part of a plan to get her to transfer off the USS Cerritos.

• It’s the USS Voyager! From Star Trek!

     • The VOY theme plays as we see the ship, and again later when the ship is landed on Earth.

• Voyager has been transformed into a museum piece. We see the ship displayed at the fleet museum in “The Bounty” some 20 years later. Exhibits on the ship commemorating the Voyager crew’s adventures include:

     • The Borg regeneration alcoves in Cargo Bay 2. One of the Cargo Bay 2s, anyway. - Established in “Scorpion, Part II”

     • The galley converted from what would have been the captain’s private dining hall, including authentic Talaxian foodstuffs.

     • The bridge.

     • The ”Neelix cheese”. - From “Learning Curve”

     • Janeway and Tom Paris’ hyper-evolved salamander forms after travelling at Warp 10. - Seen in “Threshold”

• The large battle in the title sequence has been updated again. In addition to Borg Cubes, Romulan Warbirds (season one), Klingon Birds-of-Prey, Pakled Clumpships (season two), and Crystalline Entity (season three), there is now a Breen Interceptor, and the Whale Probe introduced in “Star Trek: The Voyage Home”.

     • We can hear the Whale Probe’s call before the Cerritos warps away.

• Cap’n Freeman records the stardate as 58724.3 in her log.

• Tendi [Noël Wells] is moving a containment unit holding the orchid introduced in “Tuvix” when the lid pops off and a petal floats through the ventilation system into the transporter room.

• Billups tells Doctor T’Ana about the pet dragon he had growing up. Billups was established as coming from the Hysperian colony settled by “Ren faire type” people in “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie”

• Billups and Doctor T’Ana are combined into a single being calling himself T’Illups. Much like Tuvix, the yoke of T’Illups’ uniform has a floral pattern.

• Throughout the episode, more characters get Tuvixed:

     • Cap’n Freeman and Doctor Migleemo - Captain Doctor Frigleeman

     • Shaxs and Barnes - Shabarnes

     • Bartender Honus and Transporter Chief Lundy - Chondus

     • Matt the whale and Steve Stevens - Swhale Swhalens

     • Nurse Westlake and Jennifer - We don’t actually see the combined form

• ”She knows Janeway straight up murdered Tuvix, right?” This is an accurate description of the conclusion of that episode.

• Mariner accidently opens a panel on the Voyager bridge, releasing one of the Tak Takian macroviruses introduced in “Macrocosm”.

• “Uh, you know, Chakotay served here.” Technically true up until about season five of VOY, at which point the only characters aboard the ship were Seven of Nine, the Doctor, and sometimes Captain Janeway.

• ”Dude, this is nothing compared to, you know, that Pike thing we aren’t supposed to talk about.” Mariner is referring to the events of “Those Old Scientists”.

• ”How many…physical memories do you have from before?” Shaxs and Doctor T’Ana have an intimate relationship, implied at least as far back as "Mugato, Gumato".

• One of the macroviruses impacts a panel, causing it to create holograms of Doctor Chaotica from “Night”, the Clown from “The Thaw”, and Michael Sullivan from “Fairhaven”.

     • While Chaotica and Sullivan were holodeck characters created by Tom Paris, the Clown was a manifestation of the fears of five aliens neurally linked together in stasis. Mariner does point out that the Clown wasn’t a holodeck program.

     • Martin Rayner, Michael McKean, and Fintan McKeown are not credited for the episode, so it would seem that none of them are reprising their roles.

• Beljo Tweekle installed holo-emitters throughout the ship. In “The Killing Game” the Hirogen did the same, for the purposes of their wargame simulations with the Voyager crew.

• One of the marcoviruses has Harry Kim’s clarinet. It was established in “Caretaker” that Kim played the instrument, though he gave it up in favour of the saxophone by season six’s “Ashes to Ashes”.

• A Borg nanite attempts to assimilate to macrovirus, becoming a macronanite.

• “Computer, delete this guy! Come on, computer!” In “Fairhaven” Janeway uttered her famous line, “Delete the wife,” regarding Sullivan’s spouse.

     • “I miss my wife.” Apparently at some point Sullivan’s memories of his wife were restored to him, or he remarried.

• Boimler is concerned that if he’s promoted, it will negatively impact his relationship with Mariner, just as it did when he accepted the promotion to the USS Titan and left without telling any of his friends, or answering Mariner’s messages, in “No Small Parts”.

• Mariner was sent to Starbase 80 in “Trusted Sources”.

• T’Lyn is able to combine all the Tuvixed beings into one creature, which is then described by Tendi as a “Non-sentient blob of meat,” handily circumventing the ethical dilemma presented by “Tuvix”.

• Boimler claims to be the son of Captain Proton, the character whom Tom Paris played in these simulations, and Doctor Chaotica’s mortal enemy. First seen in “Night”.

• Rutherford [Eugene Cordero] gums up Voyager with the brill cheese as it did on it’s own in “Learning Curve”.

• Boimler, T’Lyn, Tendi, and Mariner all get promoted to lieutenant junior grade. Mariner was briefly a full lieutenant in “Moist Vessel”, and Boimler was lieutenant junior grade while serving aboard the Titan in “No Small Parts”, “Strange Energies” and “Kayshon, His Eyes Open”.

• ”My main objective here is to prove to the High Council that I should be reinstated to the Vulcan fleet.” T’Lyn was believes her provisional assignment to Starfleet is an unwarranted punishment, as per “wej Duj”.

• It’s the IKS Che’Ta’! From Star Trek! Specifically from “wej Duj”

     • The Mysterious Threat destroys the Che’Ta’, but even though we see a close up of the wreckage, including a spear and bloodwine barrel, but no bodies.

Qbyte?