I’ve been doing a rewatch and making notes of things that are referenced later. Considering most classic Trek has a reputation for being episodic, you’d be surprised just how much gets referenced later, whether in a passing comment or an in-joke or something. The only episodes of TNG season 1 where I didn’t spot at least a passing reference later was “Too Short a Season”, “Home Soil”, and “When the Bough Breaks”. (The references to a few of the others are vague and/or arguable though, and admittedly “Knowing where that clip in ‘Shades of Gray’ is from” qualifies a few of them.)

So it kind of depends on how strictly you define “important.” Most people could probably skip almost the entirety of TNG season 1 and not be that confused, but for example:

• “All Good Things…” loses a lot without “Encounter at Farpoint”
• “The Naked Now” is important to “The Measure of a Man”
• “Haven” introduces Lwaxana Troi, Mr. Homn, naked Betazoid weddings, and the running gag of data being too precise. “In the Cradle of Vexilon” loses something without it too.
• “Where No One Has Gone Before” is crucial in introducing the Traveler, and that plot continues into “Remember Me” and “Journey’s End” and beyond.
• “The Last Outpost” has first contact with the Ferengi, though you could argue that future Ferengi episodes make more sense without it? Though it’s important to the game Star Trek: Resurgence.
• “Justice” doesn’t seem important, but if you skip it you won’t know what Remmick’s talking about in “Conspiracy”.
• “The Battle” isn’t referenced often, but “Bloodlines” depends on it. Remmick mentions this one too.
• “Hide and Q” introduces concepts like the Q Continuum, and the events of it lead to Q’s status in “Q Who”, which introduces the Borg.
• “The Big Goodbye” introduces Dixon Hill and explains holodeck matter. The Jarada are mentioned again later too.
• “Datalore” introduces Lore and the Crystalline Entity and explains Data’s past, somewhat.
• “11001001” is important to understanding “Future Imperfect”… though that episode isn’t really referenced again other than that it introduces a fictionalized version of Nurse Ogawa. So is it still important if you skip both of them?
• “Coming of Age” introduces a lot of the characters and concepts that will be in “Conspiracy”. Fun fact: This is the first episode to name Murf’s species from Prodigy.
• “Heart of Glory” introduces Khitomer and gives Worf’s backstory and sort-of sets up “The Neutral Zone”.
• “The Arsenal of Freedom” is the first mention of Crusher’s grandmother from “Sub Rosa”, but arguably more important for relationship-building between Crusher and Picard.
• “Symbiosis” becomes very relevant in Lower Decks in the episode “Trusted Sources”.
• “Skin of Evil” features the death of Tasha Yar. Armus also returns in Lower Decks.
• Even though the cliffhanger isn’t followed up on, “Conspiracy” becomes important again in “The Drumhead”.
• “The Neutral Zone” pays off the hints that the Romulans were gone, though if you skipped “Heart of Glory” you didn’t catch this in the first place, and “Angel One” arguably contradicted it. But this is the first hint of the Borg, as confirmed in “Q Who” and “The Best of Both Worlds”.

I could add other subtler things, but those are some of the bigger ones just from that highly-episodic season.

I have one. I want to say ThinkGeek used to sell them, but I definitely recognize that backing as being from the same device I have.

It’s cool and fun to wear, but not amazing as a Bluetooth device. Microphone didn’t pick up super-well, which isn’t too surprising when it’s clipped on your shirt. Magnet would sometimes slip off if the shirt bunched up or something too. (I haven’t used it in a few years, so I’m a little hazy on some of this.)

A Bluetooth version of the TMP communicators might have better success, albeit at the cost of having to hold your arm up for the whole conversation.

She’s definitely missed.

Incidentally, sounds like you might appreciate this podcast if you aren’t into it already. I’ve heard it mentioned a few times, though to be honest I haven’t given it a listen myself yet. (I’m behind on too many podcasts already to add another one at the moment.)

https://www.alltheasiansonstartrek.com/

I look forward to them, so thanks for the update. Take your time.

Not sure your country of origin, but in the U.S. it has all 13 theatrical films + Section 31, as well as Woman in Motion and Building Star Trek.

https://www.paramountplus.com/collections/star-trek/

Nice notes, other than the Berman comment, which was tacky and unnecessary.

It’s the same dumb cycle that’s happened with every new Trek show since TNG (and probably TAS). It’s tiresome, but at least it’s predicable, I guess? Just ignore the obligatory backlash and see how it turns out.

I love Prodigy, but I’ve seen people struggle to get past the first episode. If someone’s coming in reluctantly it’s not where I’d start.

I’ve shown this as a first episode (or at least first 2-3 episodes) and it hasn’t been an issue. If you’re sitting with them you can explain significant items, but generally they get enough without much help.

Great episode, but I’d argue it doesn’t really give a new viewer much of a feel of what Star Trek is. Probably works better when you have a few episodes of TNG already under your belt.

Might be worth showing him the first episode of Lower Decks then. Or “Temporal Edict” is another strong early episode that’s still fairly introductory and really gives a lot of the Star Trek vibes about being capable and ethical while still showing it as a fun time.

They’ve retracted the comment.

“The premiere date for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S3 was given to one of our members in error and is incorrect. Apologies for the inconvenience caused. We share your excitement and can’t wait for the 3rd season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to premiere.”

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN67nU54jJap8YLNTbSPBZg/community?lb=UgkxyY8OW7LJKPTqVl1gc46zFVOUZHBfFFZz

Though it could still be accurate and they’re just doing damage control. Maybe we’ll find out for First Contact Day?

To clarify, Melumad does the incidental music in Prodigy, but the theme is by Michael Giacchino. He also scored, among many other things, the three Kelvin Timeline films, so he probably brings that “cinematic” feel you’re describing.

Melumad does occasionally integrate part of Giacchino’s Kelvin Timeline themes. For example, I want to say it appears toward the beginning of Prodigy 1x11.

Westlake is great, but so is Nami Melumad (who does the music for Strange New Worlds and Prodigy), so I’m absolutely not behind a call to have her fired, whether that call is meant to be tongue-in-cheek or not.

I agree it’s overused for the average episode of Trek, but if we accept that they’re doing a Section 31 movie, what’s the point of a low-stakes feature film (even a streaming film), especially one centered around Section 31?

Also worth noting that the article describes it as “Big stakes emotionally, big stakes for the characters in our story”, so the “stakes” are referring at least in part to character stakes, not necessarily universe-ending stakes. (Though I admit in practice it will probably be both.)

Great notes, as always.

In addition to the already-cited references, the Beagle could additionally be a sly reference to Archer’s pal Porthos.

Interestingly, Jolene Blalock is credited simply as “Jolene”. EDIT: Mike McMahan says this was at her request. https://bsky.app/profile/mikemcmahan.bsky.social/post/3ld3v4usznc2i

Our T’Pol also had some indirect experience with the concept of katra transference when Archer briefly carried Surak’s katra.

Nice notes, as usual.

V’Ger is the antagonist in TMP

Also it’s in the Lower Decks opening credit sequence this year.

the Cambodian word for “toilet” is bangkon, which is pronounced similarly.

Interesting catch. That didn’t occur to me, ហើយខ្ញុំចេះភាសារខ្មែរ។

Nurse Westlake is named after Chris Westlake

He’s also appeared as far back as the series premiere, though he’s rarely spoken until now, and I don’t think he’s ever said more than a couple of lines.

I guess I could add a similar note to this for every episode this year with a Stardate, but the launch date of the Protostar is Stardate 59749.1, placing this episode just under 100 days before that ship launches under Captain Chakotay.

The Star Trek: New Frontier novel series previously featured Mark McHenry, a Starfleet officer who was a descendant of Apollo and had powers as a result.

Nice notes!

Since you went through the history of Cetacean Ops, it’s worth remembering it was referenced more noticeably albeit less overtly in “The Perfect Mate” when La Forge says “Listen, have you had a chance to see the dolphins yet?”

This may just be a coincidence, but the room with the divided gravity reminded me of the “sweet spot” that Mayweather enjoyed, but since there’s no point where the gravity seems to cut entirely, this may not be an intended allusion. Though they do mention having a problem with the gravity plating, which was mentioned in many episodes of ENT starting with “Unexpected”. (Also a few times on Voyager.)

The tops of the kiosks in the shopping area are shaped like TNG-era comm badges.

“dress Sciences uniform from TNG”

Just to add to this, this is the uniform type primarily seen in seasons 1-2 with the extra line across the top.

“a Command top from DIS Season 2”

Nothing to add on this one; just wanted to say good catch noting the collar on that one! I had to look a few times before I realized which one you meant.

“a torn Monster Maroon from the movie era”

Also an excursion jacket from that era (on the left side).

The grav plate manual is on one of a set of cylindrical record tapes. I feel like these probably appeared in TOS at some point, though I’m not positive. In any case, they definitely exist in real life; cylindrical magnetic tapes were used for decades, and probably still are in some cases. https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/1980s-computer-tapes.html

A sign (about 17 minutes in) mentions “astro-medicine ward 4”. A sign with the same text is visible outside of sickbay in TOS, as well as in early promotional photos of Paul Fix as Dr. Piper and Sally Kellerman as Dr. Elizabeth Dehner. You can also see a re-creation at the Star Trek Set Tour in Ticonderoga, NY.

https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/photography/cast-photos/guest-stars/paulfix_drpiper02.jpg https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/photography/cast-photos/guest-stars/kellerman_tospb.jpg

There’s a sign that says “Trav…” and is cut off (also 17 minutes in). It’s probably regarding “Travelers” or something and not an allusion to Travis Mayweather. Probably.

When Chad whips out the corn dogs at the end, the gesture and sound effect (snikt) resemble Wolverine from the X-Men expanding his claws.

This is the first time we’ve learned about the making of bloodwine, and seemingly the first confirmation that it’s made from actual blood of some sort of worms (or worm-like plants?) grown in the ground.

The band near the beginning features an accordionist playing the same style of concertina Ron Taylor’s Klingon chef played in DS9: “Playing God”.

K’Ellara’s “boob window” design was featured on Lursa and B’Etor starting in TNG: “Redemption”.

They mention Martok fighting in a bar in the Ketha lowlands. Martok said this was where his family was from in DS9: “Once More Unto the Breach”. We later saw the Ketha Province in Star Trek Into Darkness.

“Experience bij!” is a reference to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Interactive VCR Board Game. Whenever Robert O’Reilly’s (non-Gowron) Klingon said a player would “experience bij” this meant they had to draw a card, usually resulting in something bad happening to them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjAvGNn20Y8

As mentioned above, Fek’lhr was a Klingon “devil” seen in TNG: “Devil’s Due”. There are legends of Klingons killing their gods (DS9: “Homefront”), so it’s possible Kahless killing Fek’lhr is in reference to that.

Councilor Enaj, named only in the subtitles, is Jane spelled backwards.

I guess I’m saying the obvious here, but Boimler’s transfer was to the Titan starting in LD: “No Small Parts” and lasting through LD: “Kayshon, His Eyes Open”.

Consistent with earlier episodes of Lower Decks, Klingon blood is pink as it was in Star Trek VI and I believe some of Discovery. Otherwise Klingon blood is generally red.

“I can see Kahless! The first one! The original one!” Presumably in contrast with the clone from TNG: “Rightful Heir”.

Mary Chieffo is credited in this episode. She played L’Rell on Star Trek: Discovery. I’m not great at recognizing her voice, but she presumably played K’Ellara or Enaj, though maybe I’m just typecasting her and she played food critic Madame Gonald. Screen Rant says she was K’Ellara. https://screenrant.com/star-trek-lower-decks-mary-chieffo-discovery-klingon-comeback/

In any case, one of the female Klingons was played by Dulcé Sloan of The Daily Show. She teased this in an interview last February. https://people.com/dulce-sloan-on-new-book-exclusive-8557416

EDIT: https://trekmovie.com/2024/11/07/recap-review-star-trek-lower-decks-serves-up-a-delicious-cold-dish-in-a-farewell-to-farms/ also says that Chieffo was K’Ellara. It also says that Sloan was Gonald. Since Sloan said she played a Klingon, I assume she was playing Enaj as well.