• The episode title of course refers to a popular party game. In the PRO episode, “Mindwalk”, the Protogies where had to communicate with Dal using charades, because he didn’t learn any Morse code.
• Both Nurse Chapel’s and Spock’s personal logs gives us a stardate of 1789.3.
| 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 |
• The USS Enterprise is travelling to the Vulcan system, first seen in “Amok Time”.
• Alternatively, one could argue that the first visit to the Vulcan system was when the Enterprise visited the planet Delta Vega to affect repairs after sustaining damage attempting to travel through the Galactic Barrier in “Where No Man Has Gone Before”. Delta Vega is also the planet that Nero marooned prime Spock on (and Kelvin Spock marooned Kelvin Kirk on) in 2009’s “Star Trek”, and Spock was able to watch the destruction of Vulcan. In an interview, Robert Orci claimed they ”moved” the planet for the film because the easter egg of the name was more important than coming up with a new name fans wouldn’t be familiar with.
• Both the 2011 Kelvin universe “Star Trek“ comic series, and “The Enterprise War” novel attempt to reconcile this by claiming there are two Delta Vegas.
• We learn of the Kerkhov moon, and the fact that there was an ancient civilization there that vanished at one point. Other ancient civilizations which have disappeared from the galaxy leaving behind only ruins and mystery are:
• The Greek Gods
• The Arretans
• The Preservers
• The Tkon Empire
• The Iconian Empire
• The D’Arsay
• The Hur’Q
• The Vulcan Science academy was first mentioned in “Journey to Babel”.
• On Vulcan they preface everything by distinguishing that it’s Vulcan because it’s important to them that the rest of the galaxy be aware that it’s theirs.
• ”What are Korby’s three principles of archaeological medicine?” Spock mentioned Roger Korby is referred to as the Pasteur of archaeological medicine in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”
• Roger Korby will be Chapel’s future fiancée.
• The notion that Vulcans use nasal suppressants to overcome how debilitatingly pungent humans are was introduced in “The Andorian Incident”.
• ”Not to be indelicate, Captain, but the scent of humans is something most Vulcans must become…used to.” Spock grew up with a human mother, and human adopted sister.
• In “Broken Bow” Archer comments that Vulcan females specifically have a heightened sense of smell, but in “The Andorian Incident” it is a male Vulcan monk who comments that the smell aboard the NX-01 “must be intolerable.”
• Later in this episode, T’Pril repeats the claim that Vulcan women are more sensitive to odours.
• ”I am still not speaking to my father.” It was established in “Journey to Babel” that Spock had not spoken to Sarek in 18 years, which would mean their communication ceased nine years prior to this episode.
• The shuttlecraft Spock and Chapel take to scan Kerkhov is the Cervantes, which was previously used on the mission to investigate the USS Peregrine after it was divested by Gorn hatchlings in “All Those Who Wander”, and transported Captain Pike, La’an, and Doctor M’Benga down to Rigel VII where they lost their memories and were subject to a Starfleet yeoman turned Tyrant in “Among the Lotus Eaters”, and maybe they should leave the *Cervantes” in the shuttlebay next time.
• The Cervantes is also the shuttle Ortegas pilots herself, Chapel, and Uhura in back to the anomaly when they revisit it.
• ”The Vulcan Science Academy would be lucky to have someone of your experience.” “Battle of the Binary Stars” established that as of 2249, ten years earlier, Michael Burnham was the only human to have attended the Vulcan Science Academy. However, in “Brother” in 2257, Paul Stamets had accepted a full time teaching position there, so they weren’t entirely opposed to the idea.
• After the Cervantes crash, Spock had to be healed by the Kerkhovians who made him fully human. In “Faces” a Vidiian scientist split B’Elanna Torres into two separate beings, one fully human, and the other Klingon. The Klingon died to save her human counterpart during the escape, and the Doctor was later able to restore B’Elanna to her hybrid self using genetic material from the deceased Klingon.
• In “Spock Amok” Spock had a dream that he was human, fighting a fully Vulcan counterpart, but he later lied and claimed that in his dream he was the fully Vulcan half.
• The episode cuts off before Spock can finish saying, “What the fairly intriguing development.” As we all know, Spock was unfamiliar with profanity until visiting Earth’s 1980s in “Star Trek: The Voyage Home” despite living on a starship and closely working with one Doctor Leonard McCoy.
• As a human Spock chooses to eat bacon despite most Vulcans including himself being vegetarian. In “All Our Yesterdays” Spock appears to be disgusted with himself for enjoying consuming animal flesh after being transported to the past causes him to regress to an earlier stage of Vulcan cultural development. As we all know, all humans eat meat, and this scene certainly didn’t disgust any vegans who might be watching and then later writing a point form list of how the episode ties in to other Trek canon.
• According to T’Pol in “Broken Bow”, Vulcans also do not touch food with their hands, but we see Spock picking up the bacon with his fingers here. Of course, Spock also touched his food with his hands in “All Our Yesterdays” as well as his marshmallow in “Star Trek: The Final Frontier” so perhaps that’s a cultural practice that fell out of usage between ENT and DIS/SNW/TOS.
• Later this episode, Sevet does not hesitate to go in on some tevmel with his hands.
• ”I just thought that my field work would be relevant.” In “Journey to Babel” Kirk argued to Amanda Grayson that Spock’s time aboard the Enterprise was “a better opportunity for a scientist to study the universe than he can get at the Vulcan Science Academy.”
• ”She did seem awfully enthusiastic about purchasing dilithium.” The Federation of this era is a moneyless society, as established in such episodes as:
• “Mudd’s Women” - The character of Harry Mudd is transporting three women around to find them husbands out of the goodness of his heart, and lithium miners on Rigel XII offer to give the crystals to the Enterprise for free.
• “Errand of Mercy” - Kirk intimates to Spock that Starfleet would not be troubled by their potential deaths, because their training cost nothing.
• “Catspaw” - Lieutenant DeSalle says he would make a bet on the effectiveness of their strategy, but there is no money and hence no gambling.
• “The Trouble With Tribbles” - Cyrano Jones gives away exotic animals, and no one pays for drinks at the bar, because what would they pay with?
• “The Escape Artist” - We see several android duplicates of Harry Mudd captured by concerned citizens intending to hand him over to Federation authorities, because there’s no need to collect a bounty when everything is free. Also, Mudd doesn’t complain about Federation taxes, because what would they tax?
• Spock shows up wearing a toque to cover his rounded ears and eyebrows. In TOS Spock used a toque to hide his pointed ears in “City on the Edge of Forever”, “Bread and Circuses”, and “Patterns of Force”.
• The delta on Spock’s toque is flipped backwards, perhaps implying that he hastily adhered it to the cap himself.
• The V’Shal dinner appears to be a series of petty tests intended to determine the fitness of both individuals in a Vulcan relationship to join the other’s family, as determined by their parents. In “You Are Cordially Invited” the Lady Sirella put Jadzia through a similar ordeal before she could marry Worf and join the House of Martok.
• It is worth noting that we learned in “Amok Time” that Spock and T’Pring were not just betrothed to one another, but psychically linked as children by arrangement between their families.
• ”Plus you aren’t a practiced liar.” Spock lies all the damn time.
• The traditional Vulcan teapot has Vulcan script on it that appears to be composed of a fan-made alphabet based on what was seen on screen. Part of the lettering reads ”J O I N E D T O G E T H E R.”
• T’Pring’s ring looks very similar to one the character wears in “Amok Time”.
• This is the first time T’Pril and Sevet have been seen on screen. Perhaps not surprisingly given the events that unfold, they were not in attendance for the Koon-ut-kal-if-fee in “Amok Time”.
• Captain Pike has apparently offered the use of his quarters for the V’Shal dinner. In “Spock Amok” T’Pring noted that Spock’s quarters were too human.
• Pike’s wrap tunic is not the same one he wore in “A Quality of Mercy”. That one had leather for the yoke and outer sleeves, where as this one does not. It does, however, add white piping parallel to the edge of the closure.
• Kirk wore three different wrap tunics during the course of TOS.
• Pike claims the Enterprise ”runs at a hotter temperature than a typical Vulcan kitchen.” Vulcan is notably a hot world, so much so that it is uncomfortable for humans. Apparently they take pains to keep their kitchens cool.
• On one of the Cervantes’ displays we see a map of the Vulcan system, and series motion graphics designer shared the map to his twitter account. It confirms the long held theory that Vulcan shares its orbit with another planet, and names that world T’Khut. We also learn that Vulcan has two other stars in the system, 40 Eridani B and 40 Eridani C, which orbit around the primary, 40 Eridani A.
• We know from another display, that Kerkhov is a Class-J planet orbiting Eridani C.
• No indication on the map of where Delta Vega is.
• When Ortegas suggest contacting the Enterprise, Uhura claims she can’t reach anything more than a light year away with all the interference. The diameter of our solar system is about .00127 light years.
• Restored, Spock is able to mind meld with Amanda to complete the V’shal ritual. In “Dagger of the Mind” Spock tells Bones he had never melded with a human before, and that it could be dangerous to do so. Of course, he also melded with Gabrielle Burnham prior to this, as seen in “Perpetual Infinity”.
• The memory Amanda shares with Spock is of the first time Vulcan children asked him to play with them. In “Yesteryear” we saw that other Vulcans bullied Spock as a child, specifically claiming that by marrying Amanda, Sarek brought shame to Vulcan.
• Spock’s reaction to T’Pril referring to Amanda as a ”handicap” echoes Kelvin timeline Spock’s reaction when the ministers of the Vulcan Science Academy called Kelvin timeline Amanda a ”disadvantage,” resulting in his refusing admission to the Academy.
• ”We have shared katras.” T’Pring is referring to the events of “Spock Amok”.
• T’Pring and Spock decide to take time apart, but we know this isn’t permanent, as they are still involved in “Amok Time”.
• Of course, in “Amok Time” Chapel is surprised to when Spock reveals to the bridge crew that T’Pring is his wife. That is the first time she says to Spock, “I don’t know. Shut up.”
I have no problem with this solution. See for example, the other Paris.
You can reconcile this: To Vulcan males we really smell. To Vulcan females, we really, really smell.
There's a tendency to treat every alien race as a monoculture, but maybe Spock and T'Pol just came from different parts of Vulcan.
I actually kind of assumed that it might have been facon. While I can see the Enterprise growing real plants on its five year mission (hence Pike's preference of real herbs), I can't see it breeding real pigs.
The real question is, when T'Pring finds out about Spock and Chapel getting it on, will his excuse be that they were on a break?
There are plenty of examples of cities in different countries, or even different territories in the same country having the same name. I feel like it's different when we're talking about a planet.
That tendency is built into Trek, for good or ill, and I would say it even applies to humans.
In "Charlie X" Kirk does say to the galley chef, "On Earth today, it's Thanksgiving. If the crew has to eat synthetic meat loaf, I want it to look like turkey," which would seem to imply that in this era fake meat is not outside the norm. The question is though, is Pike such a foodie that he would throw his weight around be certain that there is a supply of real bacon on the ship for him to use vs. whatever's coming out of the food synthesizers.
And there's a whole other debate to be had about whether or not replicated meat would qualify as plant based which I don't feel like the body of the post is the appropriate place to get into it. My personal opinion is that replicated meats would still not be suitable for a vegan diet, because at some point there was an original source that the replicator pattern must have been based upon.
I suppose I kind of figure that planets in the Star Trek world are more analogous to cities/countries in our world. Also, "Delta Vega" is such a generic-sounding, human-centric designation anyway that in my head canon the full, formal designation of a planet in the Federation catalogue of stellar objects might be a lot longer, with "Delta Vega" in this case just one part of the full name. Think about the billions of stars that Starfleet has catalogued, and thousands of planets containing life. There's surely room for more than one "Delta Vega". Not to mention that planets have different names used by different groups or contexts, just like Earth is also referred to as Terra, Sol III, Die Erde, La Monde etc. So I figure there's different Delta Vegas around, and people know which one is being talked about from context.
Agreed, and put me down "for ill", but I like the idea of explaining apparent canon contradictions by expanding the universe beyond the monocultures we usually see. One of my favourite little moments in Picard was Laris tapping Shaban on the Westmore appliance and calling him a "stubborn northerner". In just those two seconds the Romulan culture got a lot more interesting.
If we ever see an episode where he hunts down a boar, guts it, dresses it and serves it to his crew with a nice sprig of coriander, we'll know for sure. ;-)
Pike is absolutely the kind of foodie who'd keep a supply of real bacon aboard. The good stuff keeps a while and they've probably got stasis fridges. I'm sure he's got a whole network of food purveyors across the quadrant to restock with meat and dairy every starbase visit.