• “Under the Cloak of War”. The flashbacks in this episode are set during the Federation-Klingon War seen during DIS season one, and a large part of that conflict was the new Klingon cloaking devices that T’Kuvma, and then Kol installed on their various ships. Get it? Yeah, you get it.
• This episode was written by Davy Perez, who also wrote “All Those Who Wander” and co-wrote “Memento Mori” and “Among the Lotus Eaters”.
• Jeff Byrd directed the episode; he also directed the DIS episode, “Rosetta”.
• Pike gives us the stardate 1875.4 in his captain’s log. M’Benga’s CMO’s log records the stardate as 1875.8.
| Episode | Stardate |
|---|---|
| “The Broken Circle” | 2369.2 |
| “Ad Astra per Aspera” | 2393.8 |
| ”Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” | 1581.2 |
| ”Among the Lotus Eaters” | 1630.1 |
| ”Among the Lotus Eaters” | 1630.3 |
| ”Among the Lotus Eaters” | 1632.2 |
| ”Charades | 1789.3 |
| ”Lost in Translation” | 2394.8 |
| ”Those Old Scientists” | 2291.6 |
• We are introduced to the USS Kelcie Mae NCC which, based on its appearance, answers the question, ”If there is a Utopia Planitia Shipyard, does it not follow that there is likely also a Dystopia Planitia?”
• It used to be that when you saw a ship like USS Buran (“Best of Both Worlds, Part II), or the USS Curry (“A Time to Stand”), or the USS Yeager (“Doctor Bashir, I Presume”) you knew that the design team was basically fishing for parts at the bottom of the box of leftover Federation starship bits, and hastily gluing them together so there could be something that resembled a Federation ship in the background of a shot for a fleeting half moment. But with the USS Kelcie Mae someone used the most powerful 3d design software available to create an entirely new ship to be front and centre on screen.
• I will never again complain about the Sombra-class from “All Those Who Wander” being a Constitution-class ship with a bit of blue paint instead of read, and a slightly larger bridge window.
• Prospero is the protagonist of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”. Data once portrayed the character on the holodeck while studying humanity in “Emergence”.
• Prospero’s lines from the play are also quoted by:
• Miranda Jones - “Is There In Truth No Beauty?”
• Chancellor Gorkon - “Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country”
• General Chang - “Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country”
• Jean-Luc Picard - “Et in Arcadia Ego, Part II”
• Beckett Mariner - “Crisis Point”
• The Emergency Janeway Hologram - “Kobayashi”
• Starbase 12 is has been mentioned mentioned in a number of episodes across multiple series, including SNW’s “The Serene Squall” but was first named in “Space Seed”.
• The H16 Starfleet boatswain’s whistle is slightly different from the C18 that appeared in “Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country” and the C19 from “The Next Generation”.
• Among Dak’Rah’s crimes Ortegas mentions the siege of Athos. Athos is apparently a colony on the J’Gal. However, there is also a planet named Athos IV in the Badlands where the Maquis had a hidden base, seen in “Blaze of Glory”.
• Captain Archer’s dog, Porthos, had a littermate named Athos.
• Klingons call Dak’Rah ”The Butcher of J’Gal”. We learned in “The Broken Circle” that Doctor M’Benga was stationed at J’Gal during the Federation-Klingon War.
• Spock and lieutenant Mitchell attempt to synthesize raktajino, a Klingon coffee. The mug that’s produced appears similar to the ones frequently seen in DS9, though more ornate.
• Mitchell states of their first attempt to create a raktajino that we see, this one’s cold.” According to “The Passenger”, Jadzia occasionally enjoyed her raktajino iced, with extra cream.
• With the second attempt, we see a cartridge of some sort lower into the bar, as the raktajino is produced. In some TOS episodes, such as “Tomorrow is Yesterday” and “And the Children Shall Lead” we characters with flat, coloured disks into a slot on a food synthesizer to produce the desired meal.
• *”On a recent mission, Spock was able to parlay with a Klingon captain.” Number One is referring to Spock’s encounter with Captain D’Chok in “The Broken Circle”.
• Shuttlecraft 12648, is very different from the Class C shuttlecraft that were aboard the USS Discovery in this era, but it does have the same paint colours as those ships.
• Shuttlecraft 12648 has a registry number, NCC-7901, presumably for the starship it is usually berthed on, which seems pretty high for this era.
• The Starfleet officers we see in the flashbacks to J’Gal are all wearing tactical vests that were introduced in SNW’s “Memento Mori”, not the ones worn through seasons one and two of DIS, introduced in “The Battle of the Binary Stars”.
• The badges everyone is wearing are also the ones the introduced with the Enterprise crew in season two of DIS, not the split delta design of DIS which everyone other than the Enterprise crew wore…
• The badge Trask is wearing when he shows up does not have a division logo on it. Chapel says that he is special forces.
• Similarly, the black uniforms are new, but appear to be the same cut as Chapel’s white jumpsuit, rather than resembling the ones worn in DIS which would have been common during the Federation-Klingon War.
• Doctor Buck is played by Clint Howard who previously appeared as:
• Balok - “The Corbomite Maneuver”
• Grady - “Past Tense, Part II”
• Muk - “Acquisition”
• A character credited as Creepy Orion - “Will You Take My Hand”
• It cost Doctor Buck a case of Romulan ale to get Chapel assigned to J’Gal as head nurse. Romulan Ale is illegal in the Federation, and was first named in “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan” but might have been the blue beverage the Romulan commander served Spock in “The Enterprise Incident”.
• ”Doctor, I need a doctor.” Chapel is a doctor, as established in “Strange New Worlds”, but presumably Alvarado would not benefit from epigenetic treatments.
• By “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” Chapel will also be an MD.
• Doctor M’Benga suggests keeping Alvarado in suspended animation in the transporter buffer, a technique he will later use on his own daughter aboard the Enterprise as seen in “Ghosts of Illyria”. The first time we saw it used in Trek was in “Relics” where Scotty’s pattern was able to remain stable for 75 years aboard the USS Jenolan, but not ensign Franklin’s. ”He was a good lad.”
• ”The Gorn attack as Finibus III,” Doctor M’Benga mentions in his log was seen in “Memento Mori”.
• Pike shows up in sick bay looking for Deltan parsley. In “The Enemy Within” the aggressive Kirk went to sick bay demanding Saurian brandy from Bones.
• Due to protests at Dak’Rah’s previous transport, Starfleet command has decided that veterans of the Federation-Klingon War are required to interact with him and make him feel welcome. For other ridiculous command decisions by the Starfleet admiralty, see: all of Star Trek.
• In flashback we see Doctor M’Benga tell Chapel to use her hand to manually pump their patient’s heart as part of their efforts to save him. In “Second Contact” Tendi had to manually pump Stevens’ heart to keep him alive.
• ”Convincing Propero Alpha to agree to an armistice was like getting a Tellarite to give a compliment.” The contentious nature of Tellarites was established in “Journey to Babel” when Sarek generalized the entire people.
• “We all just call it the Moon.” In “Valiant” Collins tells Jake Sisko that ”nobody who’s ever lived on the Moon calls it Luna, either. That’s just something they say on Earth.”
• We learn that Doctor M’Benga has ”The most hand-to-hand kills confirmed.”
• Doctor M’Benga’s wheatgrass shot seen in “The Broken Circle” is called protocol 12, and he’s the one who designed it.
• Doctor M’Benga says that protocol 12 is, ”adrenaline and pain killers,” and not just the ”green juice, extra green” that Tilly ordered from the food synthesizer in “Lethe”. It’s not canon, but the current storyline in the ongoing comics, “Star Trek” and “Star Trek: Defiant” involve the followers of Clone Emperor Kahless injecting the Red Path sacrament, a mixture of Klingon adrenaline and some chemical found in ketracel white.
Roddenberry’s memo about stardates being the episode producer’s birthday multiplied by the ship’s distance from Earth was a joke.
However even when you order the episode by production date the stardates still don’t line up. Even in season three where the episodes were aired in production order, the stardates still bounce around a bit.