Nobody expected Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to be missing traditional Star Trek Easter eggs. However, what turned into sudden turned into simply how hardcore SNW would be in its love and adoration for The Original Series. Considering this show might be the only that’s most welcoming to new enthusiasts, it’s rather ironic that it’s also the collection ultimate with the nerdiest Trekkie references, at the least seeing that Lower Decks Season 2.
From obscure characters unexpectedly getting into the leading edge, to fleeting references to conventional Trek aliens, and even one huge meta-fictional reference to a sci-fi conventional, in relation to Easter eggs, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has it all. Here’s every reference and deep reduce we caught in the series optimum.
“Mathematical probabilities”
The opening voiceover from Number One/Una — later discovered to be a part of her log entry — mentions the “mathematical chances” relative to whether or not there may be existence on other planets. This seems to reference a exquisite speech from Dr. McCoy within the TOS episode “Balance of Terror,” in which he says: “In this galaxy, there’s a mathematical probability of 3 million Earth-type planets. And in all of the universe, three million million galaxies like this. And in all of that, and perhaps greater, only one of each people.”“It’s labeled”
Throughout the episode, Pike and Number One both point out occasions which can be “classified.” As Una makes clean toward the stop of the episode, they’re talking approximately the finishing of Star Trek: Discovery season 2, wherein crews of both Enterprise and Discovery fought the evil AI known as Control, and Discovery opened a time portal wormhole to the destiny. Presumably, even April doesn’t recognise about this! (Though, with the aid of the quit of the episode, he does.)The Day the Earth Stood Still
Pike is looking the 1951 science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still, which apparently, he watches lots, regarding it as a “conventional.” This Easter egg is exciting in numerous ways.
First, The Day the Earth Stood Still changed into directed with the aid of Robert Wise, well-known to cinephiles as the person who directed The Sound of Music (1965) and West Side Story (1961), but, extra well-known to Trekkies as the director of Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979.
How can the director of The Motion Picture exist as a actual person in the Star Trek timeline? Well, in Star Trek: Picard season 2, we study Rick and Morty exist in the Trek timeline, which suggests that Star Trek: Lower Decks writer Mike McMahan also exists within the backstory of Trek, by some means. There are several more examples of this type of metafictional ouroboros in Trek. The most well-known might be the reality that beginning with The Motion Picture, and prominently established in Enterprise’s starting credit, the Star Trek timeline has a NASA Space Shuttle named “Enterprise.” In our universe, that space commute was handiest named “Enterprise,” because Trekkies hooked up a letter-writing campaign.
So, does Star Trek, the fictional art, exist inside Star Trek the fictitious universe? Pike watching The Day the Earth Stood Still appears to be the present day proof that the solution is a big sure.
But, The Day the Earth Stood Still component is even greater layered than that. The whole plot of the movie is a kind of anti-Prime Directive tale. Instead of averting contact with a lesser evolved culture, Klaatu arrives on Earth to at once intervene. He’s intent on stopping us from being destroyed through a nuclear war. This genuine type of thinking immediately parallels precisely what Pike does later inside the episode. Not answering your communicator
Pike ignoring his communicator, after which, getting immediately faced with the aid of a Starfleet officer in a shuttlecraft appears to reference Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. In that movie, Kirk just immediately-up doesn’t take his communicator with him on a camping experience, which ends up in Uhura flying a trip right down to Yosemite National Park to choose up him, as well as Spock and Bones. Robert April, the first Captain of the USAEnterprise NCC-1701
Adrian Holmes makes his debut because the first live-movement actor to play Robert April, a Starfleet hero with an odd records of quasi-canonicity. The name “Robert April” become one in every of Roddenberry’s earliest thoughts for the number one hero of Star Trek, which later have become Pike, after which, of course, Kirk.
For several years, which includes the early version of the Star Trek: Encyclopedia, a photograph of Roddenberry himself, seemingly carrying a Starfleet uniform, turned into thought to be “Robert April.” Additionally, the quasi-canon Animated Series episode “The Counter-Clock Incident” offered a reasonably everyday Robert April, voiced by means of James Doohan, and, who regarded type of like a knock-off Animated Series Kirk. (This episode also floated the bizarre concept that the Enterprise 1701 was the first deliver geared up with warp pressure, which glaringly makes zero sense.)
April’s canonicity changed into quite a lot up for debate for a completely long term until one moment in Star Trek: Discovery season 1, in the episode “Choose Your Pain,” while Saru researched referred to Starfleet captains. On that listing is Pike, Georgiou, Archer, and Robert April. From there, in Discovery Season 2, Pike’s service record additionally indicated that he turned into April’s first officer on the Enterprise. This changed into a very brief Easter egg from Discovery season 2 inside the episode “Brother,” however Strange New Worlds takes the concept that Pike changed into April’s first officer as given. This is why April says to Pike: “Your first officer doesn’t do downtime well, mine was plenty like that.” By “mine” he method Pike. Spock’s engagement
Some fans would possibly discover Spock’s engagement to T’Pring a form of violation of canon, however the truth is, several conventional TOS writers, inclusive of Dorthohy Fontana’s novel Vulcan’s Glory, created scenarios wherein Spock and T’Pring met previous to the occasions of “Amok Time.” Strange New Worlds takes place in kind of 2258 or 2259, while the occasions of “Amok Time” — in which T’Pring conspires to have Spock combat Kirk to the demise — happen in 2267. This way Spock and T’Pring have a completely lengthy engagement. Pike is studying a file approximately the Gorn
Briefly, as Pike is taking a shuttle as much as the Enterprise, we see on his datapad those words: “First Contact Report, Species Unconfirmed, GORN.” At this factor in canon, the Federation doesn’t sincerely recognise an awful lot about the Gorn. However, in Discovery season 2, Leland and Pike spoke about Cestus III, which, in TOS, is in which the Gorn attacked at the start of the episode “Arena.”
Interestingly, inside the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine technology, there’s a city on Cestus III called “Pike City.” They’ve even got a baseball crew.Shuttlecraft Stamets
Pike is apparently flying aboard the travel called “Stamets.” This is a clean connection with Paul Stamets from Discovery. However, as some distance because the massive majority of Starfleet is worried, Paul Stamets died while Discovery “exploded.” So, this go back and forth turned into named in his honor, but of route, Pike knows that Stamets didn’t absolutely die, and is, as a long way as Pike knows, hopefully living an awesome existence inside the thirty second Century. (Which is basically true!)Pike’s approach to the Enterprise references Star Trek: The Motion Picture
From the layout of the spacedock to the digicam angles, to the reflection of the Enterprise in the window of the shuttlecraft, nearly the entirety about Pike flying as much as the Enterprise feels evocative of a comparable scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture whilst Kirk and Scotty famously fly up and across the Enterprise for…a very long term! This scene is much shorter than in The Motion Picture, and drastically, Pike doesn’t take the shuttle all the way in, he beams on board once they’re near sufficient. Chief Kyle
The transporter chief in Strange New Worlds is known as “Chief Kyle” performed through André Dae Kim. In The Original Series, some other backup transporter officer named “Chief Kyle” became performed by using John Winston. Chief Engineer and Lt. Kirk aren’t on board yet
By the quit of the episode, we examine this “Lt. Kirk” isn’t exactly the Kirk you had been looking forward to (we’ll get to that in a moment). But, more apparently, is the concept that Enterprise leaves spacedock with out its new leader engineer.