A nice appetizer before the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 this week, the four “Short Treks” that debuted in North America over the last few months provided four very different perspectives on the Trek universe.
In order to practice for what will probably be an onslaught of canon connections in the new season of Discovery, today we look at the connections across the four “Short Treks” releases – “Runaway,” “Calypso,” “The Brightest Star,” and “The Escape Artist” — as our series connecting modern Trek to the larger franchise returns!
Dilithium Recrystalization (“Runaway”)
Po tells Tilly that she has built a chamber to recrystallize dilithium, a somewhat remarkable feat for the age of ‘Discovery.’
By the 24th century, this technology would be commonplace on Federation starships (“Relics”) but apparently took some time to perfect, as by the late 23rd century it was still not in wide use (“The Voyage Home.”)
Heisenberg Compensator (“Runaway”)
“Does it function by compensating for the position and direction of the subject’s subatomic particles?” Po asks Tilly as she sniffs the transporter console.
She is describing the function of the Heisenberg Compensators, a core component of transporter technology.
V’draysh (“Calypso”)
Calypso had very few connections to the Star Trek canon, except for appearance of the USS Discovery by virtue of being set 1,000 years in the future.
However, Craft makes mention of his enemy, the V’draysh, which is heavily implied to be a future incarnation of the United Federation of Planets.
Sampling the Menu (“Calypso”)
Zora tells Craft that “chef is away,” implying that in the 23rd century (where the Discovery originated) Federation starships had a chef aboard, which was seen – or perhaps more famously unseen – in Star Trek: Enterprise.
The Prime Directive (“The Brightest Star”)
While discussing with Saru the option to leave Kaminar, Lt. Georgiou says “[t]here are many complicated rules that prevent me from doing more” when she tells Saru that he cannot return to Kaminar if he leaves with her.
She is, of course, referencing the Prime Directive; Kaminar is a pre-warp society (as Georgiou points out,) meaning that the Federation’s non-interference directive applies.
Tellarite Bounty Hunters (“The Escape Artist”)
Mudd is captured by Tevrin Krit, a Tellarite bounty hunter. Krit is not the first Tellarite bounty hunter we have encountered in Star Trek – Captain Jonathan Archer was captured by Skalaar in the episode “Bounty.”
Mudd’s Android Scheme (“The Escape Artist”)
This is not the first time we have seen one of Mudd’s schemes involve androids. In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “I, Mudd” Harry Mudd discovers a planet of androids who make him their leader. It is unclear where in the timeline “The Escape Artist” falls, other than being at some point after “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad.”
In another connection to that TOS episode, one of the Harry Mudd androids wears a coat with shoulder tassels that is very similar to the one that
Mudd wore in “I, Mudd.”
“Transfer the latinum to my account?” (“The Escape Artist”)
There are several references throughout the episode to the primary form of currency in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, gold pressed latinum.
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Star Trek: Discovery returns for its Season 2 premiere, “Brother,” this Thursday on CBS All Access and Space, and debuts around the world on Netflix on Friday.