USSBurritoTruck

• The episode title is a reference to the series title, “Star Trek: The Next Generation”.

    • The PIC series finale was also a reference to TNG, titled “The Last Generation”.

• This is the 50th and, ostensibly, final episode of LDS, making it the ninth completed Star Trek series.

• The fleet of Klingon Birds-of-Prey all appear to be the same arrangement as the HMS Bounty, introduced in “Star Trek: The Search for Spock”, though it’s unclear what specific class they are.

    • The one exception is Relga’s flagship, which is larger than the others, and has a number of noticeable differences.

• We’re introduced to Relga, who is the sister of Dorg and Bargh, introduced -- an killed by Ma’ah -- in “wej’Duj” and “A Farewell to Farms” respectively.

    • Like her brothers, Relga has a pet targ.

• The rift directed to the prime universe by William Boimler in the previous episode, “Fissure Quest”, opens up in front of Relga’s fleet.

• The IKS Krtas is struck by the energies emitting from the rift, causing it to transformed into a 23rd century Bird-of-Prey, first seen in “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not For the Lamb’s Cry”. Similarly, the ship captain’s armour is altered to be that of one of T’Kuvma’s followers, which we first saw in “The Vulcan Hello”. The captain himself loses his hair, but appears otherwise unchanged.

• Rutherford expresses disdain for the USS Cerritos’ older systems being unable to properly interface with his implant. This issue was mentioned earlier this season in “Shades of Green” and “Fissure Quest”.

    • This is also a reference to the modern day issue of trying to get both bluetooth headphones to pair with your phone while on your commute.

• We get a repetition of the moment at the end of the previous episode where Boimler receives the message from William regarding the imminent destruction of the prime universe, though this time we get the other lower decker’s reactions.

• Malor and Ma’ah were able to properly attach the animal tusks they had to their blood wine delivery truck, the task they set to at the end of “A Farewell to Farms”.

• ”Wake me if Kahless makes another appearance.” The clone of Kahless appeared in “Rightful Heir” and was installed by Gowron as a figurehead emperor. He was still emperor as of DS9 season four’s “Sons of Mogh”, but Malor’s comment implies that might no longer be the case.

• ”Sorry brother, but today is not a good day to die.” The iconic phrase, ”Today is a good day to die,” was first said in Trek by Worf in “Sins of the Father”.

• The Airolo scientist is voiced by Gabrielle Ruiz, who is T’Lyn’s voice actor.

• The rift’s Schrodinger field transforms the Cerritos into:

    • A Freedom-class starship - A wreck of the Freedom-class was previously seen in “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II”, though it did not have a deflector dish, and only one pylon connected the saucer to the nacelle

    • A second Freedom-class starship, with more yellow on the hull

    • A Terran Empire California-class - According to “Crossover”, the Terran Empire fell to the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance after Emperor Spock’s reforms weakened it, meaning there shouldn’t be a Terran Empire in the 24th century to have built the California-class, but presumably if there are infinite quantum realities, there exists one where the Empire didn’t fall

    • A Sovereign-class starship

    • An Oberth-class starship

    • A Galaxy-class starship

    • A Miranda-class starship

• Doctor T’Ana explains that the reason Relga’s ship does not appear to be changing is, ”It probably is; Klingons hardly ever update their fleet designs. They always want their ships to look like big stupid birds.” The Klingon Bird-of-Prey introduced in “Star Trek: The Search for Spock” was intended to be a Romulan ship, calling back to the TOS Romulan Birds-of-Prey. Even once the decision was made to have Klingons be the antagonists of the film as opposed to Romulans, early drafts of the script made it clear the HMS Bounty was a stolen Romulan ship.

    • One of the Klingon ships is transformed into a barge similar to the mythical Barge of the Dead seen in the VOY episode, “Barge of the Dead”, but this one has a mast.

• Olly is able to take down the Klingon shields, exposing them to the effects of the rift’s energy. Relga and her crew transform into mindless proto-Klingons, much like word did when de-evolved in “Genesis”, and her targ turns into a clam.

• ”Klingons do not hug.” All through TNG and DS9, Worf made several such proclamations regarding things that Klingons don’t do, most of which they actually do, but he’d prefer not to acknowledge the fact.

• Outside the stabilized rift we see:

    • A second California-class starship

    • A Parliament-class starship

    • A Luna-class starship

    • The USS Enterprise E

    • Starbase 80

• Captain Freeman is reassigned to Starbase 80 to oversee missions going into the rift. She learned her alternate self from the Minor Universe had been assigned to Starbase 80 in Dos Cerritos and preventing that fate became something of an obsession for her, as we saw in “Starbase 80?!”.

• Rutherford had his implant removed, and his face reconstructed. Shaxs ripped Rutherford’s original implant out of his head in “No Small Parts”.

• T’Lyn notes romantic attraction between Rutherford and Tendi, but Tendi states they’re just friends. “In Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” we saw that their attempting to pretend to be a couple led the pair to be extremely awkward.

• We see Karavitus wearing a Chu Chu shirt. The Zebulon sisters performed the Chu Chu dance aboard the Cerritos in “Terminal Provocations”.

• O’Connor drops out of a portal in sickbay without his boots on. When he ascended in “Moist Vessel” his steaming boots were left behind.

• The practice of Twaining began in “Something Borrowed, Something Green”. Boimler and Rutherford were banned from twaining, but we see other characters, including Lundy, Big Merp, and Federov have taken it up.

• In Castro’s quarters, we see one of her salons, where apparently they’re attempting to summon an anaphasic lifeform from an ancient candleholder, similar to Ronin in “Sub Rosa”.

• Ransom has been promoted to captain.

• Ransom makes both Mariner and Boimler provisional first officers. When Captain Ramsey was briefly in charge of the ship, she selected Mariner to be her first officer.

• We see Fletcher serving aboard Starbase 80. He was last seen in “Terminal Provocations” where he was fired almost immediately after being transferred to the USS Titan, and sent back to Earth.

• Ransom chooses ”Engage the core” as his signature command for warp speed.

• The episode title may be a reference to the 1999 film, ”Galaxy Quest”, which satirizes Star Trek, and Trekkies.

• We learn that Rutherford’s cybernetic implant is called an oculus, which is a Latin word meaning ”eye.”

    • This is the second time this season Rutherford has been attempting to get his implant to reconnect to the USS Cerritos’ systems, the first being in “Shades of Green”.

    • We also learn that oculus can fire directed beams of plasma, which isn’t really a canon connection, but does renew my long held desire for a Star Trek fighting video game.

• Against all odds, Boimler’s ongoing facial hair storyline, the A-plot of the season, seems to have culminated in his growing a full beard, resembling that of Beardler, as seen in “Dos Cerritos”. Good for him.

• ”This is our last Boimler; we don’t got anymore after this.” Boimler learned his transporter duplicate, William Boimler, died in “Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus”. Of course, at the end of that episode, we the audience learned that William’s death was faked so he could join Section 31.

    • T’Lyn was not previously aware of Boimler’s duplication, conveniently allowing Tendi to recount the events of “Kayshon, His Eyes Open”.

• ”Shaxs exploded, and he’s doing great.” Shaxs sacrificed himself to save the Cerritos and Rutherford in “No Small Parts”, and returned to active duty in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.

• In another quantum reality, we see that William is the captain of a Defiant-class Anaximander, presumably named for the Greek philosopher who speculated on the existence of multiple realities.

    • Mariner promised Boimler, ”We’re going to get your butt in a captain’s chair!” in “Second Contact”. That was before the transporter duplication, so it became true for at least one Boimler. Granted, Mariner’s direct involvement in William’s career was fairly minimal.

    • William wears a *”Star Trek: First Contact” uniform, with the conspicuous black Section 31 badge he received in “Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus”.

    • William is able to maintain a 5 o’clock shadow, though presumably that’s because he’s haunted by the actions he’s undertaken as a Section 31 operative, and not because he found an alternate reality where a very successful version of himself wears that facial hair style.

• The MSD of the Anaximander is…interesting to say the least. The Defiant-class has been shown to have four decks, and this MSD has at least double that, and the shuttlebay appears to be in the nose assembly, where the deflector dish, docking port, and phaser emitter usually are.

• The crew of the Anaximander is comprised of different individuals each from a distinct quantum reality, including:

    • T’Pol, portrayed by Jolene - This T’Pol comes from a reality where she and Trip Tucker were married for 63 years.

    • Curzon Dax, portrayed by Fred Tatasciore - Native to a reality where Curzon Dax hasn’t yet died. Also, appears to be more physically aggressive than the more libertine prime reality version described by both Captain Sisko and Jadzia Dax.

    • Doctor Garak, portrayed by Andrew Robinson - Garak apparently joined Starfleet to become a plain, simple surgeon.

      • Doctor Garak wears the “Star Trek: First Contact” uniform with a bright blue undershirt, similar to what we’ve seen previously on LDS. He is a lieutenant.

    • The Emergency Bashir Hologram, portrayed by Alexander Siddig - From a reality where an emergency medical hologram was modelled on Doctor Bashir.

      • The EBH wears the “Star Trek: First Contact” uniform with dark teal undershirt matching the live action version we’ve seen previously, and has lieutenant junior grade pips. In the prime reality, the Doctor never got pips or a rank, outside of one deception and his fantasies.

      • Doctor Bashir was a candidate for the model for the long-term medical hologram in “Doctor Bashir, I Presume”, before it was revealed he was genetically augmented as a child.

    • Harrys Kim, portrayed by Garrett Wang - So many Harrys Kim.

      • The Harrys Kim wear the DS9/VOY uniform, the “Star Trek: First Contact” uniform, and one is in the racing uniform introduced in “Drive”, and is clearly the cool bad boy of the group.

• Doctor Garak and the EBH are married. Good for them.

• William records the Stardate as ”Confidential” in his captain’s log.

• The Anaximander locates a Federation escape vessel, and William speculates as to who might be aboard. ”Neelix with a crew cut? Really big Spock?” “A Comprehensive Guide to Talaxian Hairstyles” was a book mentioned in the DIS episode, “Labyrinths”, and a giant clone of Spock was introduced in “The Infinite Vulcan”.

    • The occupant is another Harry Kim, who has some sweet corn on his collar, making him appear to be a lieutenant.

• Curzon slips Klingon words into his sentences, and wields a bat’leth. Prime universe Curzon was a Federation negotiator to the Klingon Empire, and joined in a blood oath with three Klingon Dahar masters.

• ”I’m so sick of the fucking multiverse.” The only entertainment available aboard the Anaximander is an archive of early 21st century superhero films.

• ”Lovers never fall out of the rifts for Curzon!” Prime reality Curzon Dax died mid coitus on Risa, as we learned in “Let He Who Is Without Sin”.

• As the Anaximander is repairing a rift, a type-7 shuttlecraft comes through in critical condition. When the occupant is beamed aboard it’s Mariner in a operations division LDS uniform, with ensign pips.

    • We previously saw prime universe Mariner wearing operations gold in “Moist Vessel,” though she was briefly promoted to lieutenant at the time.

• In Mariner Gold’s universe, it was Troi who was transporter duplicated and stranded on a planet, and not Riker.

• In the Mariner Gold universe, Boimler wears a leather jacket at all times. Prime universe Boimler replicated a jacket that was half leather, half letterman, all, ”boy’s size small.”

• ”What’s it like having your own quarters?” The Harrys Kim interrogate two-pip Kim about his life. Prime universe Harry had his own quarters aboard the “USS Voyager” despite being an ensign, and was also a member of the senior staff.

• ”Y’know, between all the Borg infiltrations and aliens trying to steal our organs, it didn’t seem like that big a deal.” Borg infiltrated Voyager in “Scorpion”, and the Vidiians tried to harvest the crew in “Phage”, “Faces”, “Deadlock”, and “Resolutions”.

    • It seemed like it might have been a big deal to prime Harry, who lamented not getting promoted when Tom Paris was in “Unimatrix Zero”.

    • Garrett Wang has said that he was told the reason Harry was never promoted was ”Someone’s got to be the ensign.”

• ”I know that you carry the Dax symbiont, which must be protected for its next host, of which there is none on the Anaximander*.”* In “The Host”, Riker was able to carry the Odan symbiont for a number of days until a Trill could be found, and we learned in “Forget Me Not” that a symbiont can bond with a human permanently.

• Mariner Gold is able to devise a plan to have the next rift opened by the people opening them appear where the Anaximander wants it to, resulting in the Beagle arriving in the same system.

    • The Beagle appears to have been based on the UCC Enterprise XCV-330, paintings of which were seen in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”, “First Flight” and “Home”, and a model of which was displayed in “Star Trek Into Darkness”.

• The EBH claims that in his reality Risa ”has an entire moon devoted to growing heirloom grapes,” and Doctor Garak counters claiming his Risa ”has two vineyard moons.” In the prime reality, Risa has two moons, total, though there’s little information regarding how much viticulture is performed on either one.

    • ”You will once you taste their reds.” Apparently the EBH has a sense of taste.

• ”Oh, he’s a big Starfleet nerd, like Archer. You had one of those, right?” T’Pol confirms that she knew an Archer in her reality

• The Anaximander is able to land on the surface of Khwopa. This is the first time we’ve seen a Defiant-class ship land on a planet.

    • The turbolift shaft is able to be extended from the underside of the Anaximander to allow people to disembark.

• Mariner Gold complains about bog planets being wet and cold, echoing prime Mariner’s sentiments when she visited Khwopa in “Much Ado About Boimler”.

• ”At least they aren’t trying to drink our bones.” Moopsey!

• ”I’ve never been in a prison before, it’s kinda freaking me out.” Prime universe Mariner has:

    • Spent a significant amount of time in the brig aboard the Cerritos, and apparently other ships as well

    • Been imprisoned by the Galrakians in “Temporal Edict”

    • Assumed an alien party venue was a prison she was in in “Veritas”

    • Spent months in prison on Dilmer III in “Fully Dilated”

• The captain of the Beagle is Lily Sloane! From Star Trek! More accurately, an alternate version of Lily from a reality where she and Zephram Cochrane built a quantum reality drive as opposed to warp. Lily is portrayed by Alfre Woodard.

    • Captain Lily is wearing an ENT era uniform.

• Doctor Garak is able to retrieve a mobile emitter for the EBH.

• ”I don’t know what a warp drive is…” Captain Lily’s crew has Vulcans as well as humans, which raises the question of how she could be ignorant to the existence of warp, unless the Vulcans in her universe call it something else or are keeping it secret because humans have not achieved warp capability.

• ”You’d love to rub that in my face, wouldn’t you, Vulcan?”
”I would not.”
Vulcans lie all the time.

• T’Pol absorbs the Dax symbiont’s katra so it can be returned to Curzon’s reality. We’ve previously seen that a katra can be passed on from one person to another, such as McCoy hosting Spock’s memories in “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan” and “Star Trek: The Search for Spock”, or Archer carrying Surak’s katra in “The Forge”, “Awakening”, and “Kir’Shara”. Similarly, a Trill host’s memories can be transferred to another being via the zhian’tara ritual, as depicted in “Facets”, “Choose to Live”, and “Jinaal”.

• ”Soliton waves will spread across all quantum realities!” Soliton waves were explored as a potential form of transportation in the TNG episode “New Ground”, but the experiment resulted in a wave that was going to destroy an inhabited world before the USS Enterprise D crew was able to devise a solution.

The Tholians are going to be joining the Gorn for the Final Frontier edition of the game.

There are two previews of what to expect:
https://gamefound.com/en/projects/gf9/star-trek-ascendancy/updates/5
https://gamefound.com/en/projects/gf9/star-trek-ascendancy/updates/6

• The episode title is a play on the TNG season episode, “Lower Decks”, which also served as the inspiration for the name of this series.

• Boimler’s beard has progressed to the point where his moustache and goatee have connected.

    • Rutherford appears to have shaved off his beard, perhaps indicating that after the previous episode’s michelada incident, he’s no longer trying to emulate Beardler.

• Halloween has previously been mentioned in:

    • “Catspaw” - Bones compared the situation he, Kirk, and Spock found themselves in to the holiday

    • “The Big Goodbye” - A holodeck character insulted Captain Picard by claiming his uniform made him *”ready for Halloween.”

    • “Crisis Point” - We learned that Mariner dressed up as Toby the Targ for Halloween on multiple occasions.

    • “Those Old Scientists” - We learned that Boimler dressed as Pike for Halloween on the USS Cerritos

    • Additionally the USS Discovery’s registry number, NCC-1031, is a reference to the date Halloween falls on

• Mariner claims she was ”trapped in a painting,” but describes the situation more as being trapped in a holoprogram, a more common experience on Trek.

• V’Ger appeared in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”.

• It’s Steve Stevens! From Star Trek! Stevens is voiced by Ben Rodgers, former story editor and writer on the series.

    • We haven’t seen Stevens since season four’s “Empathological Fallacies”, and he hasn’t had any dialogue since season three’s “Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus”.

    • This is the first episode where we get some insight into Stevens’ role on the ship as Cap’n Freeman’s personal assistant.

• A pathogen caused ensign Barnes devolved into a cavewoman, not unlike what happened to Riker in “Genesis”, while simultaneously developing the ability to read minds, similar to Gary Mitchell and Elizabeth Dehner in “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, or Charlie Evans in “Charlie X”.

• ”The who?” Freeman previously acquired a star chart of the neutral zone from the Clickets before upsetting them with her courtesy in “Veritas”

• ”My team refreshed all the Cordry rocks in the ceiling panels on the bridge.” We get a technobabble explanation for the debris that occasionally falls from the bridge ceiling when the ship is hit by an attack, such as in “Yesterday’s Enterprise”.

    • The Cordry rocks may have been named for Marian Cordry, the director of Paramount’s Star Trek franchise library and archive.

• ”Well, they look like cows to me.” Ransom has never seen a cow.

• The researcher/Clicket infiltrator Zurkel is played by Paul F. Thompkins, who also voices Doctor Migleemo.

• The ensigns trying to wrangle the buhgoon are from both beta and delta shift, calling into question how the shift system works entirely.

    • This is the first time we’ve seen Federov wearing more than a towel.

• The buhgoon have a natural cloaking ability. Other living beings with the ability to cloak include:

    • Beings infected by the Tarchanne parasite - “Identity Crisis”

    • The beast captains Picard and Dathon confronted - “Darmok”

    • The hunters from Yautja Prime - “Family”

    • Jem’Hadar - “The Jem’Hadar”

    • Tosk - “Captive Pursuit”

• Ransom begins his story with, ”Back a few hundred stardates ago.” A hundred stardates is roughly 36.5 days in 100 stardates, Ransom is talking about a matter of months.

• Tempassa was mentioned in “Ties of Blood and Water” as the location of a raid by the Shakaar resistance cell. Shaxs was established as having been part of that cell in “Hear All, Trust Nothing”.

• Shaxs has a Bajoran flag, as seen in “The Star Gazer” in his quarters.

• Billups mentions having had a bagel and it giving him an upset stomach in his logs. In “Starbase 80?!” it was established that Billups is branching out from only eating hot cereals.

• In “Twovix” Westlake had commander pips after being restored to his original form, yet here he’s back to being a lieutenant. Perhaps it was just a piece of sweet corn?

• ”We’re good to go the next time some virus makes everyone sing or whatever.” Sadly we haven’t seen any singing viruses on Star Trek. Nurse Westlake’s hyposprays would not do much in the case of a quantum probability field, like the one in “Subspace Rhapsody”.

• Feeman tells the pregnant crewperson she wasn’t aware they weren’t human. There are a number of species outwardly indistinguishable from humans. The non-extinct, non-shapeshifting ones include:

    • Earth Two natives - “Miri”

    • Betans - “The Return of the Archons”

    • Eminian - “A Taste of Armageddon”

    • Capallans - “Friday’s Child” - While human in appearance, all Capallans were notably tall and large

    • Argelians - “Wolf in the Fold”

    • 829-IV natives - “Bread and Circuses”

    • Neural natives - “A Private Little War”

    • Iotians - “A Piece of the Action”

    • Ekosians - “Patterns of Force”

    • Zeons - “Patterns of Force”

    • Kohms and Yangs - “The Omega Glory”

    • Elasian - “Elaan of Troyius”

    • Morg and Eyemorg - “Spock’s Brain”

    • Minarans - “The Empath”

    • Fabrini - “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky”

    • Platonians - “Plato’s Stepchildren”

    • Scalosians - “Wink of an Eye” - While outwardly indistinguishable from humans, they do move too fast to be seen by humans

    • Gideons - “The Mark of Gideon”

    • Ardanans - “The Cloud Minders”

    • Sarpedion natives - “All Our Yesterdays”

    • Deltan - “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” - All Deltans are bald and are considered to be conventionally attractive by human standards

    • Bandi - “Encounter at Farpoint”

    • Betazoids - “Encounter at Farpoint” - Betazoids have all black eyes

    • Ligonian - “Code of Honor”

    • Edo - “Justice”

    • Tarellians - “Haven”

    • Angel One natives - “Angel One”

    • Mordanites - “Too Short a Season”

    • Aldeans - “When the Bough Breaks”

    • El-Aurian - “The Child”

    • Omega Sagitta system natives - “The Outrageous Okona”

    • Ramatasian - “As Loud As A Whisper”

    • Angosians - “The Hunted”

    • Rutians - “The High Ground” - Two-tone hair seems to be a species trait, and colours appear to depend on gender

    • Ventaxians - “Devil’s Due”

    • Yedera Prime natives - “Shadowplay”

    • Sikarians - “Prime Factors”

    • Teplans - “The Quickening”

    • Takarians - “False Profits”

    • Vori - “Nemesis”

    • Mari - “Random Thoughts”

    • Dinali - “Critical Care”

    • Ba’ku - “Star Trek: Insurrection”

    • Toroth system natives - “Desert Crossing”

    • Illyrian - “Damage” - Illyrian appearances vary depending on their genetic modifications, but most of the ones we see on SNW appear indistinguishable from humans

    • Kwejian - “That Hope is You, Part 1” - Their foreheads do light up when using their psychic abilities

• The pregnant alien is voiced by Phil LaMarr, who also portrays Admiral Freeman, Dirk, and handful of other characters.

• ”I felt stuck out of phase, like Geordi and Ro…” Winger Bingston Jr. references the events of “The Next Phase” in his one man show.

• We previously saw this model of Clicket ship in “Veritas”.

• ”Ransom role!” Ransom has previously called out names while engaging in physical activity, specifically during the combat with Vindoor in “Temporal Edict”, he alternatingly yelled ”Kirk!” and ”Spock!” while hitting the Galrakian with double fist strikes.

• The tear in Zurkel’s disguise looks very reminiscent of torn mask worn by a Malurian disguised as an Akaali in “Civilization”. Both are on the left side of the face, and show a very alien visage beneath false, human(esque) flesh.

• ”You are the worst commander I’ve ever had in my life.” It was established in “Envoys” that Castro served on the Enterprise, though which one wasn’t specified. Still, barring time travel, that narrows it down to Riker, Data, or whomever had the position after Data.

• Billups is briefly stuck in a tube, apparently dying, in a scene inspired by Spock’s death in “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan”.

• The cadet who approaches Billups about a burned out indicator light previously asked Boimler for advice in “wej Duj”. He is voiced by Nolan North.

• It’s the Freemans’ anniversary, which raises the question of whether or not they got married on Halloween.

    • It appears that the holodeck location Admiral Freeman selected for their anniversary dinner is Café des Artistes, as seen in “We’ll Always Have Paris”. The chairs are different, but the balcony and the view are the same.

• ”No. I have made a joke at your expense. Boom.” The real joke here is the perpetuated myth that Vulcans never lie.

• Though the episode title, “Fully Dilated”, is referring to the time dilation effect of the planet, Dilmer III, in “Disaster”, Worf described Keiko O’Brien as being, ”fully dilated to ten centimetres,” while she was in labour.

• Cap’n Freeman records the stardate as 59499.6 in her log.

• The USS Cerritos has been dispatched to deal with the season’s B-plot, a dimensional fissure. The fissures have factored into three other episodes this season, “Dos Cerritos”, “The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel”, and “A Farewell to Farms”.

    • A purple iteration of the USS Enterprise D crossed over to the prime universe while, apparently, battling evil clones of Tasha Yar. Assuming the purple universe is on the same timeline as the prime universe, that would indicate that their Enterprise D was not destroyed during the events of “Star Trek Generations”, and that their Data did not die in “Star Trek Nemesis”.

• This is the first mention of the Viltan Flats on screen, but they originated in the “The Way of Kolinahr: The Vulcans” sourcebook for Last Unicorn Game’s “Star Trek Role Playing Game”.

• Cap’n Freeman mentions filling the senior science officer position. Tendi was transferred from sickbay to senior science officer training in “First First Contact”.

• A new development in the season’s A-plot is that after the events of the previous episode, Rutherford is now also growing a beard in an attempt to mimic the success of the minor universe’s Beardler. As opposed to finding a more successful version of himself to emulate.

    • Boimler’s beard growth continues, but it seems to have slowed down, which is saying something.

• ”The position should go to the most qualified candidate, not just the one who’s dreamt about it since they were old enough to carry a dagger.” Tendi has dreamt about become a Federation science officer since she was eight months old.

• T’Lyn claimes to be, “particularly sensitive to odour.” As per “Broken Bow”, Vulcan females have a heightened sense of smell.

• ”This is going to be a fun alternate dimensional technology recovery girls’ trip.” Mariner and Tendi also referred to their running an errand for Doctor T’Ana in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris” as a girls’ trip.

• ”Oh, it’s like that planet Voyager went to.” Tendi refers to the events of “Blink of an Eye”, where the USS Voyager visited the Weird Planet Displaced in Time, though while Dilmer III’s time dilation causes a week to pass on the surface for every second in orbit, the WPDiT experienced one day every 1.03 seconds.

• Snell is played by Eric Bauza, who has voiced a number of characters across LDS, PRO, and the “Very Short Treks”, including Barniss Frex, as well as both Screwhead and Ass Face.

• Hey, it’s purple Data! From purple Star Trek! Purple Data is voiced by Brent Spinner, who has a story credit on “Star Trek Nemesis”,

• *”My away mission résumé is going to be more padded than a Romulan’s shoulder.” We first saw Romulan uniforms with somewhat robust shoulder padding in “The Neutral Zone”.

• ”This is starting to feel like when Picard got duped into thinking he was a family man by that probe.” Mariner is referring to the events of “The Inner Light”.

    • ”I gotta find a flute!” Despite Mariner’s chastising Boimler earlier in the episode for ”plagiarizing someone’s vibe,” she’s pretty quick to take away the wrong lesson from Picard’s probe experience.

• ”Why’s there always a suspicious lurker when you’re in a Carbon Creek situation?” Carbon Creek is the name of the town where T’Pol’s grandmother, T’Mir lived for some time after her survey team’s ship crashed on Earth prior to first contact, as well as the name of the episode where she shares the story. Notably, there wasn’t actually anyone doing much lurking in the episode.

    • Archer and Trip were skeptical of the story T’Pol told, though she did claim the information was documented in the Vulcan archives.

• ”Do not be concerned, I have been just a head before.” Purple Data apparently experienced the events of “Time’s Arrow” and “Time’s Arrow, Part II”.

    • Purple Data further confirms the purple universe engaged with their own “Time’s Arrow” by claiming that it was himself, Picard, and ”some guy in a silver jumpsuit” who located his missing head, as was the case in the prime universe.

    • Data was also just a head in “Disaster”.

• Apparently food is not allowed in the transporter bay. In “Tomorrow is Yesterday”, we saw there was food synthesizer in the transporter room aboard the USS Enterprise, and in “The Dauphin”, Wesley brings a visiting head of state a chocolate mousse in the transporter room before she leaves.

• Purple Data points out to Tendi that Vulcans rarely require sleep. In “The Paradise Syndrome”, Spock claimed he could go without sleep for weeks, and in “Muse”, Tuvok stayed awake for a full ten days.

• ”That is some Edo level bullshit, right there.” In “Justice”, the Edo legal system’s only punishment was execution via poison needle, so Mariner is exaggerating the consequences of her actions.

• Tendi is attempting to construct a transporter using resources available on Dilmer III.

    • In “The City on the Edge of Forever” Spock constructed a mnemonic memory circuit, while stuck on Earth in the 1930s

    • In “Time’s Arrow”, Data built a device to track time shifts while in 1893

    • In “Carbon Creek”, Stron was attempting to build a subspace transceiver in 1953 before the Vulcan survey team was rescued

• ”Wow, you really are fully functional.” Data claimed to be fully functional, and programmed ”in a broad variety of of pleasuring,” in “The Naked Now”. Programming, which apparently includes eating ropes.

• Mariner’s prison pals call her ”Big Mare,” which is also the name Tawny Newsome coined for Mariner’s depiction on large advertising banners at real life events, such as San Diego Comic Con.

• Ransom records the stardate as 59482.3 in his log.

• The USS Cerritos is hosting peace talks between two different photonic species, the creatively named Orbs and Cubes. Previous photonic lifeforms encountered include:

    • Beings interpreted as the monster Grendel by holodeck characters - “Heroes and Demons”

    • A trans-dimensional species that entered the holodeck, and promptly found themselves in a war against the pulp character Chaotica - “Bride of Chaotica”

    • Photonic fleas - “The Voyager Conspiracy”

• Among the bits of circular furniture ensign Olly is attempted to stack on a hover sled is a “ball chair” like the one Worf had in his quarters for much of TNG, and a dabo table, as seen in Quark’s in DS9.

• The USS Reseda has not been mentioned previously, but is likely a California-class, based on being named after a neighbourhood in Los Angeles.

    • According to Mariner, the crew of the Reseda is entirely reformed Maquis. Most of the Maquis were wiped out by the Cardaissian Union and the Dominion, as per “Blaze of Glory”.

• Olly is descended from the Greek god Zeus. We learned in “Who Mourns for Adonais” the Greek pantheon wer actually alien beings who visited Earth and were sustained by the worship of humans.

    • ”Didn’t Kirk kick their asses?” To the best of our knowledge, Kirk only encountered Apollo. The USS Enterprise destroyed his power source, a temple, from orbit.

    • ”I thought they all went off and became ‘one with the wind,’ or whatever.” In “Who Mourns for Adonis”, Apollo does claim the other Greek gods, ”returned to the cosmos on the wings of the wind.”

• Admiral Vassery was introduced in “Moist Vessel”.

• Olly has been removed from six ships before arriving to the Cerritos. In “Hollow Pursuits”, Captain Picard said of Reginald Barclay, “It’s easy to transfer a problem to someone else. Too easy.”

• Boilmer’s beard growth remains the most consistent storyline this season.

• In Rutherford and Boimler’s quarters, we see that Boimler has added a doll of Data in the “Star Trek: First Contact” uniform to his Mirror Archer and Spock figures. On Rutherford’s shelf, there’s the model of DS9 he got in “An Embarrassment of Dooplers”, as well as a recreation of Wesley’s portable tractor beam from “The Naked Now”.

• Rutherford is aware that Boimler keeps looking at the PADD he stole from the minor universe in “Dos Cerritos”.

    • ”Also it’s red.” We’ve seen red PADDs in “Coming of Age”, “Clues”, “Lower Decks”, “Homefront”, and “Image in the Sand”.

    • Tendi is also aware of Boimler’s stolen PADD.

• ”Good joke. We got a real Roland B. Moore over here.” Ronald B. Moore was a visual effects supervisor on TNG, and, according to a display outside the holodeck, was also the name of the stand-up comedian program played by Joe Piscao in “The Outrageous Okona”. Based on the fact that Boimler is claiming Rutherford was being funny, I believe we can assume he was talking about the visual effects supervisor.

• Apparently Olly was assigned Mariner’s old bunk, which we haven’t seen since the Lower Deckers moved out of the hallway bunks in “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”.

• ”You don’t have to be Dixon Hill to see that some bad shit went down in here.” Dixon Hill is the fictional private investigator whose adventures Picard likes to relive on the holodeck, as per “The Big Goodbye”.

• ”If we get some Ferengi blood, we’ll have an entire rainbow!” Ferengi blood is yellow, as first seen in “Mugato, Gumato”.

• ”What about Shaxs? You’re in the bear pack.” Boimler was made a member of the bear pack in “Empathalogical Fallacies”.

• The Sphere Rondus, as well as the gestalt Sphere, Orbiculus, are voiced by Fred Tatasciore, who voices Shaxs.

• ”Didn’t you learn this with the whole Hawaii thing?” Tendi is recounting the events of “wej Duj” when Boimler claimed to be Hawiian to be able to join Ransom’s group of other [fake] Hawaiians.

• The Cube Sexagus, as well as the gestalt Omegacube, are voiced by Carl Tart, who is the voice of Kayson.

• The Sphere Spheronius is voiced by Jerry O’Connell, who is the voice of Ransom

• ”To be fair, Qs are more annoying than scary.” In “Q-Less”, Sisko punches Q in the face and he never returns to Deep Space 9.

• The Cube Quadralon is voiced by Jack Quaid, who voices Boimler.

• The Sphere Radiara is voiced by Gabrielle Ruiz, who voices T’Lyn.

• We learn that Quadralon and Radiara were not murdered, but instead ran off together after a night of passion that trashed Quadralon’s room. No confirmation as to what the square shaped “photonic residue” on the walls of the chamber were. “The Outrageous Okana” also featured a “Romeo and Juliet” romance between two children of conflicting colonies, resulting in a pregnancy.

• SquAaron is voiced by Roan Lai, who was also the voice for the moopsy in “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”.

• ”I love the brig, this is my favourite place.” Olly echoes Mariner’s words to Ransom from “Temporal Edict”. However, she’s a bit more chill so she doesn’t also claim that she’s going to ”dance in [anyone’s] blood.”

Not my OC

• The episode title refers to the previously unseen Starbase 80, first mentioned in season one’s “Terminal Provocations”. It has the reputation of being a place where Starfleet consigns it’s worst officers.

    • In the season premiere, “Dos Cerritos”, we learned that the Cap’n Freeman of the alternate universe featured in that episode was stationed at Starbase 80.

• This season’s ongoing plot, Boimler’s facial hair, has progressed to the point where he’s got a little chin beard situation. Good for him.

• It’s Matt and Kimolu! From Star Trek! The Cetacean Ops whales have technically not been seen since “Trusted Sources” in season three, though we were introduced to Swhale Swahlens, the gestalt being who was a combination of Matt and Steve Stevens in “Twovix”.

• The pleasure planet Casperia Prime was first mentioned in “Change of Heart”.

• ”I’m hosting their first annual scatting battle.” We learned that Cap’n Freeman performs vocal jazz in “Moist Vessel”.

• ”Nooooooooooooooooo!” Mariner was reassigned to Starbase 80 in “Trusted Sources”, and it resulted in her temporarily resigning her commision.

• The shuttlecraft that flies at the screen appears to be a Type 15 shuttlepod.

• ”Check me out, I’m a total T’Pol over here.” The USS Cerritos crew needs to slather themselves with a gel, in a scene inspired by ENT’s somewhat maligned decon chamber scenes.

• The corridors of Starbase 80 are modeled after those of the USS Enterprise as we saw them in TOS, down to the ascending Jeffries tubes, intercom units on the walls, and multi coloured caples across the ceiling supports. Everything is just somewhat more distressed. The most noticeable departure is the access hatch doors are octagonal as opposed to rectangular.

    • The turbolifts are also modeled after what we see aboard the Enterprise, requiring handles to be turned to operate.

• We are introduced to commander Kasia Nox, who appears to be wearing a pre-Federation, ENT style uniform, including the gold piping for command. Though she has gold circular rank pips, and not the rectangular ones used by the crew of the NX-01.

    • In “Trusted Sources”, the Starbase 80 crew who arrived on the Cerritos to transport Mariner were wearing yellow jumpsuits. We also see green, and blue jumpsuits in this episode.

• Chief engineer Gene Jakobowski is played by Stephen Root, who also played Klingon captain K’Vada in “Unification I” and “Unification II”.

    • Like Nox, Gene wears an ENT style uniform. Later, in the arcade, Gene is also wearing a vest similar to the one Scotty first wore in “Star Trek: The Voyage Home”.

• ”Yeah, this base is basically controlled by a knife gang.” The Acamarians were introduced in “The Vengeance Factor”, and we learned about the Gatherers, a group of Acamarians who refused to accept the peace of nearly 300 years of blood feuds between clans, and became roving marauders.

    • One of the vendors in the food court area aboard SB80 has a sign advertising Parthas, a dish the Acamarian assassin Yuta prepared for commander Riker.

    • Another vendor’s sign reads ”Lornak’s.” the Lornak clan was wiped out by the blood feuds.

• Among the…second hand items at the vintage clothing store are:

    • TOS style female red operations uniforms

    • TOS style male blue sciences uniform shirts

    • Command gold ”new” uniform jackets of the sort worn by the Enterprise crew in DIS season two

    • SNW style female gold command uniform skants

    • TNG season one and two, blue science uniform top

    • A mirror universe dagger

    • A TMP security officer helmet

    • A TMP style admiral’s uniform

    • The jacket worn by Ruk in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”

    • The fedoras worn by Kirk and Spock in “A Piece of the Action”

    • A TOS style Klingon uniform with baldric

    • One of the harnesses worn by the Edo, including testical bulge

    • A Nazi officer’s cap, presumably from “Patterns of Force”

    • A type-3 phaser rifle of the sort introduced in “Star Trek: First Contact”

    • A movie era command division maroon uniform jacket

    • A movie era expedition jacket, as introduced in “Star Trek: The Search for Spock”

    • A hat seen worn by Vulcan technicians in “Star Trek: The Voyage Home” and Tendi when she attempts to help O’Connor ascend in “Moist Vessle”

    • TOS era tricorders

    • One of the Starfleet cylindrical shoulder bags occasionally seen on TNG

    • A giant pile of TOS era red shirts

• Doctor Harrison Horseberry was affected by the Tarchannen parasite that affected a Starfleet Outpost on Tarchannen III, as well as the away team of the USS Victory sent to investigate, including Geordi, as recounted in “Identity Crisis”.

    • The victims of the Tarchannen parasites turn invisible to the human eye, but apparently being cured prevented the half of Doctor Horseberry that was genetically rewritten from displaying that trait.

• ”I’m El-Aurian, I think I know how to fight.” Though we did see Soren fight both Kirk and Picard in “Star Trek Generations”, it has never been established that fighting is something El-Aurians are well known for.

• ”We don’t have combadges, we use old wall comms.” The SB80 officers who came to pick up Mariner in “Trusted Sources” did have combadges.

• In the arcade we see:

    • A “Space Invaders” style game where the player controls a Valdore-class Romulan ship defending against descending Starfleet Constitution-class ships

    • A game called “Cardboard Chinos” which has a sign that appears to be a Caitian in a box, much like we saw Doctor T’Ana playing with a box in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”

    • A game featuring the Koala. Why is he smiling? What does he know?

    • A game called “Ferengi’s Fortune” that looks to play like “Joust”

    • A game called “The Captain’s Chair”; there is a real world video game titled “Star Trek: Captain’s Chair” though this does not appear similar

• Jet is riding a Toby the Targ children’s ride. Toby the Targ. B’Elanna had a Toby the Targ plush with her aboard the USS Voyager according to Tom Paris in “Tsunkatse”.

• Doctor Horseberry discovers there is an anaphasic consciousness named Clem controlling Matt. Doctor Crusher’s deceased grandmother’s body was controlled by the anaphasic being Ronin in “Sub Rosa” and he used her to attack Data and Geordi with tendrils of green energy.

• Doctor Horseberry is able to exorcise Clem by hitting Matt with a pool net. Violence also disrupted Ronin’s influence in “Sub Rosa” when Doctor Crusher attacked him with a phaser.

• The SB80 crew is able to provide Clem with a stable vessel for them to inhabit. In “Sub Rosa”, Ronin’s being was tethered to an ancient candle holder.

    • Clem’s vessel looks a lot like a microwave, which is kind of a modern candle when you think about it.

Mariner’s voice actor, “Starfleet Academy” writer, and unnamed Trek series co-developer Tawny Newsome joins regular hosts Ben and Adam to discuss LDS episode, “Starbase 80?!”

https://maximumfun.org/episodes/greatest-trek/ep-300-fantasy-junk-league-lower-decks-s5e5-with-tawny-newsome/