Star Trek: Discovery is firing on cylinders! You can read my complete thoughts about the latest Discovery episode in Friday’s review of “New Eden,” but today we’re diving back into this new year of Trek by examining the show’s connections to the broader Star Trek franchise.
You had me at World War III…
Beta Quadrant
Burnham triangulates this episode’s red burst to a location deep within the Beta Quadrant – one of the galaxy’s four navigational quadrants and home to the Klingon and Romulan Empires – some 51,450 light- years away.
It is mentioned that at maximum warp it would take 150 years for Discovery to travel that far – a nod to the less technologically sophisticated warp drive of the 23rd century. Later in the 24th century, the USS Voyager would be stranded 70,000 light-years from home – a journey they forecast would take only 75 years, illustrating the slower warp speed capability of Discovery-era starship.
Chiming In
Heard after Captain Pike’s recovery in sickbay, the doorbell to his new ready room aboard Discovery shares the same three-toned chime used aboard the USS Voyager.
While the audio pitch is slightly different from the old episodes of Voyager – which could simply be due to the new audio mix — we’ll allow the minute variation as it’s clearly intended to be an homage to Captain Janeway’s ship.
World War III
The colony on Terralysium was founded after the red angels transported a group of survivors of World War III from Earth in 2053 to the planet, where they established a colony and their own religion based around the red angels – and here we learn that citizens of Earth were already referring to the conflict as “World War III” while it was occurring.
Burnham indicates World War III left 600 million dead and destroyed most Earth governments, echoing Riker’s comments about the war in Star Trek: First Contact. We also get to see our first on-screen portrayal of moments from the War, though the soldiers appear in different outfits than as portrayed by Q’s illusion in “Encounter at Farpoint” — though Q may have been illustrating those of the Eastern Coalition, the opposing side.
Luddite Collective
Lieutenant Owosekun was selected for the away team because her family grew up in a Luddite Collective, a group we can assume reject the use of technology.
This is not the first time we have encountered the idea of Federation citizens who choose not to participate in the advanced technological society humans have created – in the Deep Space Nine episode “Paradise,” Sisko and O’Brien encounter such a group.
Metreon Particles
The asteroid Tilly secured a sample had pockets of Metreon particles within it, which have previously been shown to interact with dark matter in the Enterprise episode “First Flight.”
In the Delta Quadrant, 24th century Haakonian scientist Ma’Bor Jetrel designed a weapon – the Metreon Cascade – that used Metreon particles to destroy all life on the Talaxian moon of Rinax (“Jetrel”).
Risian Mai-tai
I believe this is the first reference to the Federation vacation planet of Risa in Discovery — sound off in the comments if I am wrong! — and the Risian mai-tai was specifically referenced in the Enterprise episode “Two Days and Two Nights.”
Star Trek has previously been to the famed Alpha Quadrant vacation planet in “Captain’s Holiday,” “The Game,” “Let He Who Is Without Sin…” and “Two Days and Two Nights.”
[td_smart_list_end]
Not a huge list this week, but as the show returns to the Klingon Empire, we’ll be back next week with a look at the Star Trek canon connections of “Point of Light” as Discovery Season 2 continues!