Continuity Nod / Star Trek: Lower Decks

A list of Continuity Nods for Star Trek: Lower Decks. Prepare to be here for a while.

Note: these continuity nods are for the Trek universe at large. For continuity nods within the series, see the main page or the appropriate recap page.

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General

• In keeping with their time period (2380), the crew of the Cerritos wear post-TNG/pre-Picard era uniforms. The design is based mainly on uniforms designed for Star Trek: Generations that ended up being cut from the movie.
• The interior design of the Cerritos is the same as the USS Enterprise-E's.
• The holodeck is the style seen on the USS Enterprise-D, as opposed to the holodeck seen on Voyager.
• Douglas Station is a "Spacedock-type" starbase first used in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
• Ensign Barnes, given her surname, is likely half-human, half-Trill, and in keeping with such ancestry, has fewer and paler spots than a full-blooded Trill, as seen on "alternate future" episodes of DS9 such as "Children of Time".
• The Klingons' appearance matches their look from the TNG era instead of Discovery.

Season 1

"Second Contact"

• Mariner notes that Romulan whiskey is blue, like the better-known Romulan ale, although she assumed it would be green (like Aldeberan whiskey).
  • Her contraband also includes a bat'leth, the Klingon sword of honor, first introduced in the TNG episode "Reunion."
  • When interviewed on "The Ready Room" aftershow, Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan says that a whole episode could be done on the items in the contraband case (which counts as a Freeze-Frame Bonus).
• One of the transfers who arrives with D'Vana wears a VISOR similar to Geordi La Forge's (although it would be somewhat outdated tech by this point).
• Boimler mentions "cetacean ops," making the concept of whale and dolphin crewmembers canon in the prime timeline for the first time.
• Boimler finds it odd that the showers on the Cerritos smell musty because they're sonic. Sonic showers have been a standard feature on Starfleet vessels since at least Star Trek: The Motion Picture (where it strangely used water; you can see water drops on the Ilia probe, and it's implied in the film and made explicit in the novelization that the Ilia probe was using the sonic shower to cool itself down closer to the ambient temperature).
• Orion, the home planet of the Orions, after being mentioned for decades, is seen for the first time (albeit as a holodeck simulation).
• The sound of the Cerritos transporter beam is the same as on the Enterprise-D.
• The Argo buggy introduced in Star Trek: Nemesis makes a reappearance, as do transporter enhancers.
• The staff at the bar, fittingly, wear the same clothes as the civilians seen in the TNG episode "Lower Decks".
• Mariner exclaims to Boimler, "You'll be my cha'DIch from now on, baby!", a Klingon term for a designated champion in trial by combat.
• Mariner: "Do you know about Spock? Dude came back from being dead! Blew the frickin' Genesis device and fought Khan and some space whales! How about Sulu? Ooh, he rocked a sword that was his thing!"
• Mariner rattles off a list of Trek heroes: Kirk, Worf, Troi and Gary Mitchell.

"Envoys"

• Ensign Castro once served on the Enterprise (presumably the Enterprise-E).
• Mariner wins a scuffle against K'orin by placing his d'k tahg next to his throat. The traditional Klingon warrior's knife made its debut in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
• K'orin's eyepatch is attached by three bolts in a triangular pattern, just like General Chang's.
• K'orin and Mariner drink bloodwine, the famous Klingon alcoholic beverage which was first shown in TNG's "A Matter of Honor."
• An Evoran couple strolls in front of the gate of Little Qo'noS; the Evora became a Federation protectorate in Star Trek: Insurrection.
• Mariner suggests giving K'orin raktajino; Klingon coffee was a popular beverage on DS9.
• Boimler, a lowly ensign, is aware of Section 31's existence, so it seems that the No Such Agency within the Federation is no longer a Covert Group after the Dominion War.
• Two centaur-like aliens are in Little Qo'noS. These are Ariolo, a species described as being similar to centaurs in a role-playing game supplement and only ever seen from the waist up in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
• A Klingon woman owns a food stand which sells live gagh, serpent worms which are considered to be a Klingon delicacy that was first featured in the TNG episode "A Matter of Honor." She carries a mek'leth, the two-pronged Klingon dagger that made its first appearance in DS9's "The Way of the Warrior."
• Two Kaelons give a Disapproving Look to Mariner and Boimler, and the latter brings up the fact that they're notoriously isolationist. Kaelons were last seen in TNG's "Half a Life."
• The command training simulations that Rutherford undergoes are similar to the Bridge Officer's Test in TNG's "Thine Own Self."
• The Janeway Protocol is named after Kathryn Janeway, the captain of the USS Voyager.
• There's a large horga'hn statue at the center of a fountain in the Risan district of Tulgana IV. The horga'hn is the Risan symbol for fertility and sexuality that debuted in TNG's "Captain's Holiday." Jamaharon, a Risan sex rite, is mentioned several times, continuing the interest that many people in the Trek Verse have of the popular pleasure planet. Mariner's Ferengi friend Quimp tells her that he and wife plan to spend the weekend on Risa.
• A Vendorian — a Shapeshifting species not seen since 1973, in Star Trek: The Animated Series — causes mischief in an Andorian bar on Tulgana IV.
• In a Bar Brawl on Tulgana IV, a few Andorians are armed with an ushaan-tor, the traditional weapon in the Ushaan Duel to the Death, which was explored in the ENT episode "United."

"Temporal Edict"

• The third episode opens with a crew concert in the ship's lounge, a frequent event in Ten Forward on the Enterprise-D, but in keeping with the comedic spirit of this show, it is a miserable failure.
• The Federation is engaged in peace negotiations with the Cardassians, which is the first post-Dominion War update we've had of them since the end of DS9.
• The concept of "buffer time," which kicks off the entire plot of the third episode, was explained by Scotty to La Forge on the Enterprise-D. The concept itself dates to as early as Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, when Kirk jokingly asks if Scotty always multiplies his repair estimates by a factor of four.
• Boimler reports to Freeman that he assisted with the baryon sweep of the warp nacelles. A baryon sweep was the Advancing Wall of Doom in TNG's "Starship Mine."
• Mariner blames the Delta shift for ratting out "buffer time" to Captain Freeman. Captain Jellico in TNG's "Chain of Command" had switched the original three-shift rotation of the Enterprise-D to a four-shift rotation which includes the delta shift.
• Ransom mentions the elements of a few older episodes that he's personally seen on away missions, including horned gorillas, sentient tar, and spores that "make you hook up with your best friend's sister."
• Mariner: "Circled by spears, this is a classic! What am I Kirk, what is this, the 2260s, all right!"
• Ransom also uses a few of Kirk's old fighting moves during his battle against the Gelrakian champion Vindor, notably the two-handed punch.
• Boimler mentions the ship having dilithium crystals, which are an important resource used in Starfleet warp reactors.
• The consoles of the far future classroom have a holographic display, which is a nod to the Holographic Terminals that have become standard Federation technology in Star Trek: Picard.
• In the far future, one of the young students is a former Borg drone, which proves that Hugh won't be the last xB to be granted Federation citizenship (which was revealed in Star Trek: Picard).
• The far future teacher references the Great Bird of the Galaxy, invoked as a blessing by Sulu in the first aired TOS episode "The Man Trap". This was a running joke behind the scenes of the original series as a nickname for Gene Roddenberry.
• The teacher in the far future informs her students that Chief Miles O'Brien, a recurring character on TNG before becoming a series regular on DS9, is "perhaps the most important person in Starfleet history."

"Moist Vessel"

• Both the Q and the Traveler are mentioned when the topic of ascension is discussed. These are two creatures with power over space and time who appeared in TNG.
• While attempting to help O'Connor with his ascension, Tendi brings up the Tamarians, who were introduced in TNG's "Darmok."
• Boimler blames his overheard Evil Sounds Deep voice on the holodeck's Moriarty program, a recurring villain on TNG, and the first hologram to become self-aware.
• Ascending to a higher plane of existence has been accomplished by a number of Trek characters, most notably John Doe in the TNG episode "Transfigurations", but it's not nearly as painful as what occurred to Lieutenant O'Connor.

"Cupid's Errant Arrow"

• Boimler says his girlfriend is "as real as a hopped-up Q on Captain Picard Day." Of course, Q was obsessed with Picard, but Captain Picard Day was a holiday where the children made art projects about the captain.
• Mariner believes Boimler's girlfriend only exists in the holodeck, a common theme on TNG. Riker, Geordi and Barclay all fell in love with holographic characters.
• Mariner suggests that, instead of Brinson, Brad date a Phylosian.
• Mariner's list of things Barb could be are a secret alien, Romulan spy, salt succubus, changeling, android, or the sexy people in rompers who murder you for going on the grass.
• Boimler describes Jet as a "Kirk sundae with Trip Tucker sprinkles."
• The Quito is an Olympic-class starship, like Beverly Crusher's ship the Pasteur in the alternate future of "All Good Things".
• In the flashback, Mariner's hairstyle is more like the look seen in the show in the 1990s, with First Contact-Nemesis-era Starfleet uniforms.
• In the flashback over at Deep Space 9, Angie gossips about Data's brother teaming up with the Borg.
• Mariner mentions how a specific sonic frequency would disrupt an android's positronic brain.
• On Mariner's String Theory board, she includes possibilities like a Dauphin, surgically-altered Cardassian spy, transporter clone, and Suliban.
• Barb thought that Mariner might be a rogue holodeck character or a Breen infiltrator.
• Docent complains about calibrating a Dyson Sphere, a Sun-enclosing gigastructure seen in the TNG episode "Relics".
• Docent's PADD password is "Riker," which is the surname of William Riker, the first officer of the Enterprise-D and the captain of the Titan.

"Terminal Provocations"

• In the cold opening, Boimler is initially humming the sound of the Enterprise-D's warp core. Rutherford later joins in with Voyager's.
• One of the wrecked ships is an Antares-class cargo ship, which previously appeared in "More Tribbles, More Troubles".
• Rutherford guesses that the cargo in the floating wreckage might be cryo-frozen princesses, a reference to Trip finding Kaitaama, the First Monarch of the Sovereign Dynasty of Krios Prime, in a stasis pod in ENT's "Precious Cargo". Or perhaps some fruit.
• Tendi hopes for some of the TOS-era communicators with the clam shell design.
• Rutherford later lists off various historical and literary figures featured through the holodeck on the show previously, like Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood^note Robin Hood wasn't actually depicted on the holodeck, but as a Q-based simulation, Sigmund Freud, Cyrano de Bergerac^note Cyrano de Bergerac wasn't a holodeck program either, but a play performed by Reg Barclay in "The Nth Degree", Da Vinci, Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and Socrates.
• Delta Shift refers to our heroes as Beta Shift, which means that the Cerritos is on the four-shift rotation that Captain Jellico recommended in TNG episode "Chain of Command."
• Mariner mentions seeing the Zebulon sisters perform the Chu Chu dance on Deep Space 3, a station previously mentioned in the TNG episode, "Interface".
• The Bajoran temple in the holodeck simulation resembles the temple seen in the DS9 episode "Emissary".
• "Evasive pattern Sulu-Alpha" is named after Hikaru Sulu, the helmsman of the original USS Enterprise and the captain of the USS Excelsior.
• Fletcher wants to blame the core going rogue on a Q.
• Fletcher gets transferred to the Titan, the ship Riker became the captain of at the end of Star Trek: Nemesis.
• Mariner and Boimler give a sarcastic Vulcan salute after hanging up on Fletcher.
• Mariner had taken the keys to the captain's yacht (and signed them out in Boimler's name), a support craft that's docked in the underside of a starship's saucer section.
• The keychain attached to the captain yacht's keys is a toy tribble, a round furry creature that made its debut in TOS' "The Trouble with Tribbles."

"Much Ado About Boimler"

• The captain, first officer and chief of security wear the same black, skintight uniforms that Picard, Crusher and Worf wore on their secret mission in "Chain of Command, part 1". They are later seen in a dark cave similar to the one Picard, Crusher and Worf infiltrated in that episode.
• Mariner complains that she doesn't want the substitute captain to be a "babysitter Jellico-type", a reference to Captain Jellico, the hardass who subbed for Picard during said mission.
• Boimler confuses Division 14 with Temporal Investigations.
• The substitute crew include a Trill, a Vulcan, and a Rigellian.
• Ramsey calls Mariner "Number One" after she agrees to be the acting First Officer.
• The medical specialist aboard the Osler is an Edosian, the same race as Arex from the animated series.
• A woman exposed to high amounts of Delta radiation is sealed in a hoverchair, and is unable to speak outside of using a single blinking light - the ultimate fate of Admiral Pike a century prior in the TOS two-parter "The Menagerie".
• One of the freaks, a blobby amphibian-type thing that is said to have once been human, is none other than one of the post-human creatures that Janeway and Tom Paris temporarily evolve into after a trans warp flight in the infamous Voyager episode "Threshold" (probably one of the offspring they leave at the planet they escape to).
• The alien entity that destroys the Rubideau resembles the "space vessel lifeform" from the TNG pilot "Encounter At Farpoint".

"Veritas"

NOTE: Because this entire episode is relayed via exposition, nothing cited here can be considered 100% reliable (At least in the flashback segments).

• The stealth uniforms make another return.
• Rutherford starts dancing with feathered fans to distract a guard while Shaxs is busy stealing a ship.
• Q actually visits the ship in the 2079 judge's outfit he wore in the series premiere and finale of TNG, voiced by John de Lancie. At the very end of the episode, he even sits on the same chair.
• Boimler praises Roga Danar, when Mariner says that Khan is a bigger badass.
• Mariner complains that Earth is boring where you can just make wine and enjoy soul food. The wine is referring to Picard's vineyard while Sisko's father ran a soul food restaurant.
• Shaxs says that he doesn't want Rutherford getting Denobulan flesh-eating bacteria on his penis.
• Shaxs tells Rutherford to "tell that to Spock and Spock", suggesting "Spock" is a particularly common Vulcan name (or a common mocking name for Vulcans, such as calling any Russian "Ivan").
• Billups rambles "Mark Twain's got a gun" while his suit is low on oxygen. He also says, ""Look out, Tasha! The trash bag is behind you!"
• After one of his blackouts, Rutherford finds himself interrupting a Gorn wedding. This marks the first time the Gorn have been seen onscreen in the prime timeline since the first animated series.
• A salt vampire makes a reappearance for the first time since the first aired Star Trek episode "The Man Trap", an absence partially explained by Ransom's claim that they went extinct a century ago.
• T'Ana initially believes the crew is being replaced since they don't recognise her, similar to Worf's situation in "Parallels", O'Brien's in "Whispers", or Crusher's in "Remember Me". Turns out she just got on the wrong ship.
• Boimler: "Did Picard know about the Borg? Did Kirk know about that giant Spock on Phylos? Did Doctor Crusher know about that ghost in the lamp thing from the Scottish planet that she hooked up with that one time, that whole thing?"
• Boimler's "mic drop" moment is accompanied by the cry "Drumhead!"
• Q complains that Picard is "always quoting Shakespeare and making wine", though in truth, while he presumably owned the family vineyard after his brother and nephew died in Star Trek: Generations, he wouldn't take up that profession permanently for about a decade.

"Crisis Point"

• The Leonardo da Vinci hologram from Voyager makes a reappearance, though sadly not voiced by John Rhys-Davies.
• Rutherford ponders if Boimler creating holodeck simulations of the crew by using their personal log entries violates their privacy, which is exactly what Leah Brahms accused Geordi of when he did it to her.
• "Vindicta" claims that Tendi comes from a long line of Orion pirates, much to Tendi's embarrassment. This marks the first time the show has acknowledged the criminal stereotypes of Orions seen in previous Trek. A flustered Tendi later says that piracy is not her thing, and that many Orions haven't been pirates "for over 5 years."
• Mariner says she dressed up as Toby the Targ every Halloween, a reference to the popular children's holonovel character first mentioned on Voyager.
• Shaxs cries, "When you get to Hell, tell the Pah Wraiths that Shaxs sent you special delivery straight from Bajor!" A reference to the evil Prophets in the Bajoran religion, though they aren't in any Hell- they actually exist in our reality.
• "Vindicta" uses the intrinsic shielding of a Borg drone's head as defense against Shaxs's phaser fire.
• Tendi feels uncomfortable putting on Shaxs's earring, due to its religious significance, and the bit of ear still on it.
• When Freeman wakes up after the Cerritos has crashed, the ship gives the alert that it had crashed. Voyager did a similar thing upon crashing.

"No Small Parts"

• Rutherford says that "Captain Freeman Day is going to be super-awkward this year", suggesting that the Enterprise-D was not the only ship to have a "Captain [insert name here] Day".
• Mariner says that "Wesley Crusher works with his mom", a statement that suggests some surprising facts: first, that Beverly is a captain (not so surprising), second, that her son rejoined Starfleet (more surprising)^note although a deleted scene from Riker and Troi's wedding in Star Trek: Nemesis confirms he did return to Starfleet and third, that he's more famous than his mother (very surprising).
• Steve Levy says that Wolf 359, the devastating defeat of the Federation by the Borg, was an inside job, changelings aren't real, and, perhaps most astoundingly, that the Dominion War, the preoccupation of the entire Alpha Quadrant for much of the previous decade, didn't happen.
• Ransom cries, "They're carving us up like a First Contact Day salmon!" Apparently, salmon is a thing on First Contact Day.^note A somewhat odd choice, given that human first contact was with the Vulcans; a vegetarian race who live on a desert planet. But hey, maybe it was what the humans ate.
• Some of the items that Mariner stowed away include a fencing foil similar to what Sulu used in "The Naked Time", bottles of Klingon Bloodwine and Romulan Ale, a Tribble, Bat'leths and Mek'leths.
• Mariner notes that the Federation doesn't use money.
• Mariner says she'll feed Boimler to an Armus, the creature that killed Tasha Yar in "Skin of Evil". Apparently there was more than one.
• The crew of the Titan still wear Dominion War era uniforms.
• Troi groans at Riker referencing jazz again. Both Riker and Jonathan Frakes are avid jazz fans.
• Riker says he was on the holodeck recreating Archer's Enterprise, just like he was in the Enterprise series finale.

Season 2

"Strange Energies"

• The Batman Cold Open has Mariner fighting out of a Cardassian torture room, similar to the one Picard was tortured in in "Chain of Command Part 2". To further this, the holographic Boimler begs Mariner to let him out as they keep showing him lights.
• T’Ana mentions Gary Mitchell when discussing people with strange energies, the hapless crewman who was given godlike powers in the second Star Trek: The Original Series pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before", when Ransom gets a a god-complex from "strange-energy" similar to how he did. She also mentions how Kirk defeated him by dropping a boulder on him, a method that cures Ransom of his own empowered state.

"Kayshon, His Eyes Open"

• The episode reintroduces collectors, previously seen in the person of Kivas Fajo, whom Data almost murdered in "The Most Toys".
• The Collector's Ship has numerous nods to various episodes throughout the franchise, from the normal Klingon Bat'leth to the skeletal remains of Space Abraham Lincoln and Spock Two. To list them all could almost be a page unto itself.^note So let's try it: One of the mind-controlling headsets from the TNG episode "The Game"; a baseball and bat, ala DS9; a salt vampire, ala TOS's "The Man Trap"; a trombone, Riker's signature instrument; the symbol of the Terran Empire; a Jem'Hadar tar'takin; a Vulcan lirpa; an Andorian ushaan-tor; the painting Jean-Luc Picard attempted in "A Matter of Perspective"; a crate of Chateau Picard; Odo's bucket; an Excalbian from the TOS episode "The Savage Curtain"; a kadis-kot game board played in various episodes of Voyager; a female uniform from TOS.
• Boimler gushes about the Enterprise-D, talking about how she traveled dimensions and fought the Borg. It was its successor, the E, that participated in an insurrection.
• Riker tells the computer to play "Nightbird", a jazz piece he has never been able to play himself.

"We'll Always Have Tom Paris"

• When Boimler reveals that he met Tom Paris, Mariner asks if he's still a salamander. Sorry, folks; "Threshold" is still canon.
• Boimler mentions Paris programming both Fairhaven and Captain Proton.
• When trying to figure out how Shaxs survived, theories offered are that he's from a pattern buffer (Scotty and Picard), from the Mirror universe (Georgiou), that the Borg Collective rebuilt him (Kirk from the Shatnerverse novels), that he returned from the Nexus (Kirk in Star Trek: Generations), revived thanks to a Genesis device (Spock) or that he's a future son from an alternate timeline (Sela).
• On Qualor II, there's a branch of Quark's seen on the planet. Other signs seen are for Vic Fontaine, a sentient hologram running on DS9, and the Zebulon Sisters.
• Rutherford's hallucination of how Shaxs returned from the dead includes a Moriarty-Shaxs, a Mirror-Universe Shaxs, an Enterprise-era Shaxs, a Borg Shaxs, and a Neelix-Shaxs.
• When Boimler crashes onto the bridge, Paris accuses him of being a Kazon.

"Mugato, Gumato"

• Rutherford, Boimler and Mariner play a round of Anbo-jyutsu, the "ultimate form of martial arts" first appearing in the Next Generation episode "The Icarus Factor".
• A couple of Denobulans came across a rogue mugato, the latter being a species seen in "A Private Little War". They've been labeled as an endangered species now.
• The Ferengi energy whips return, after having been used only twice in the previous 34 years; once in the TNG episode "The Last Outpost" and once in the Enterprise episode, "Acquisition".
• One of the Cerritos crew members is a Kzinti, marking the first appearance of one since the TAS episode "The Slaver Weapon". It also shows that at least one did join Starfleet, even if they didn't join the Federation as suggested in Picard.
• Boimler mentions Tuvok's time as a spy on a Maquis ship, as seen in the pilot of Voyager.

"An Embarrassment of Dooplers"

• Starbase 25 and the Kzinti both reappear from the animated series episode, "The Slaver Weapon".
• Amelia Earhart's picture can be seen in the Cerritos' viewscreen. Earhart appeared in the Voyager episode "The 37s".
• Boimler and Mariner wear the diplomatic uniforms last seen in Star Trek: Nemesis.
• Boimler suggests wearing skants, but Mariner refuses, saying they hadn't worn those in ages. Skants were a skirt/pants combination outfit seen in season one of TNG with Gene Roddenberry claiming people in the future would wear such things.
• Malvus is a Mizarian, a species last seen in the TNG episode, "Allegiance", notorious for immediately surrendering to any would-be conquerors.
• Malvus was stranded on Ceti Alpha IV, which Mariner apologizes claiming she thought there was life there. Kahn and his men were left of Ceti Alpha V, which did have life.
• Okona makes his first appearance since his self-titled TNG episode "The Outrageous Okona".
• Commander Shelby, who briefly became Riker's Number One in "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II", is now a captain.
• Mariner tries to claim she's from the Voyager-D. Star Trek: Discovery reveals that, by the 32nd Century, there have been ten generations of Voyagers.^note Though, since the episode takes place in 2381, just three years after Voyager's return to the Alpha Quadrant, the idea that there would already be a Voyager-D seems rather pessimistic, and a bit of a reach, even for Mariner.
• While Mariner and Boimler are driving through the aviary, they break the home of a pair of Aurelians, a species from TAS episode "Yesteryear".
• Other races briefly glimpsed at Starbase 25 include Arcadians, Bajorans, Benzites, Bolians (who, of course, own a barber shop), Gorn, Klingons and a Lurian, the same race as Morn.
• The bar on Starbase 25 has models of the Phoenix, Zephram Cochrane's warp ship, a planet killer, and the Guardian of Forever. Another Lurian is passed out on the table, a direct reference to Morn. Pictures on the wall include a Bajoran lightship, the USS Voyager, a salt vampire, Mudd's androids, and Abaddon from the Voyager episode "Alice". Many of the bottles on the bar's shelves have the 60s artistic glassware aesthetic that TOS passed off as being of alien origin (like the curve-necked Saurian brandy bottle).
• The model of Deep Space Nine is branded as "Quark".

"The Spy Humungous"

• When the Kzinti ensign demonstrates poor posture, he looks as the race (More specifically the Kzinti telepath) was depicted back in Star Trek: The Animated Series.
• The Pakled spy asks to see the crimson force fields; the fake weapon that fooled the Pakled pirates in their first appearance into thinking they were disarmed.
• When Boimler gives his speech, he imagines himself on the bridge of the Enterprise-D.
• Mariner and company prank call Armus, the villain from "Skin of Evil", at the end of the episode. He even calls himself that.

"Where Pleasant Fountains Lie"

• The Cold Opening starts with the revelation of a computer tricking a civilization into a hundred year war. Things like this are a dime-a-dozen with Starfleet.
• Acknowledging this, the Federation has a "Self Aware Megalomaniacal Computer Storage" room, in which such A.I.s are kept.
• Captain Freeman congratulates the warring civilization for at least not considering the AI supernatural. The leader's response suggests they actually did.
• Captain Freeman tells the supercomputer he's being sent to the Daystrom Institute, a major think tank dealing with robotics throughout the 24th century. The Daystrom Institute's Okinawa campus is glimpsed at the end, identical to how it appeared in Star Trek: Picard.
• In begging for his freedom, he suggests he could join Starfleet and become the next Seven of Nine.
• Boimler and Mariner discuss Data's head, which was left in a cave for 500 years before being reattached in the TNG two-parter "Time's Arrow."

"I, Excretus"

• The Bakersfield is caught in a temporal causality loop; the same anomaly that trapped the Enterprise in the TNG episode, "Cause and Effect."
• Shari Yn Yem is a Pandronian, from the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode, "Bem".
• The Kobyashi Maru simulation, referenced multiple times in Trek canon, is one of the listed training options, as is "Carbon-based units", which is how V'Ger described the crew of the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
• Many of the training simulations are based off of popular events in Trek canon.
  • One of Mariner's simulations involves escaping the Mirror Universe, using the popular designs from "Mirror, Mirror" for the outfits. Of course, the Mirror crew all have goatees.^note Uncertain if this qualifies as a continuity nod or a mythology gag, though perhaps the goatee has become as legendary in the Trek verse as it has in ours. The agonisers from the original series also reappear.
  • Another of her simulations recreates the set from the TOS episode, "Spectre of the Gun".
  • Tendi's simulation has her dealing with trying to grant an injured Klingon's request to be put down, similar to the TNG episode "Ethics"
  • Rutherford's simulation has him trying to stop a warp core breach, reminiscent of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
  • The simulation of "The Naked Time" has "LOVE MANKIND" scrawled on a wall, as occurred in the episode.
  • A simulation the entire crew goes through is "Spacedock Escape", with the Cerritos being chased by the Excelsior.
  • Alice Krige returns as a simulation of the Borg Queen, reenacting her seduction of Data in Star Trek: First Contact. Borg babies, last seen in "Q-Who", make a reappearance.
  • After his simulated assimilation, Boimler declares himself "Excretus of Borg", just as Picard declared himself Locutus of Borg.
• The Cerritos encounters a real Crystalline Entity, the first time one has been seen since the TNG episode "Silicon Avatar"

"wej Duj"

• Boimler suggests a Strategema tournament, the notoriously difficult game played in the TNG episode "Peak Performance".
• Boimler says he wishes he was on a more hierarchical ship, like the Bynars, a cybernetic hive-mind seen in the TNG episode "11001001".
• This episode confirms what was hinted on DS9; that Klingons, like Ferengi, sharpen their teeth.
• The Klingon lower deckers refer to Vulcans as "biHnuchs" ("cowards") and quote the famous Vulcan farewell of "Live long and prosper" as "Avoid death and cower."
• We see a Vulcan starship in action for the first time since Star Trek: Enterprise. The ship is very similar in appearance to the 22nd-century D'kyr-class, but is much larger and shares some design elements with the hard-edged ships of Star Trek: Discovery.
• The Vulcans refer to the lute and chess, presumably the Vulcan lute^note  which is NOT a lute but a lyre (Ka'athyra) and Vulcan chess (Kal'toh).
• Once more, Klingon Promotion is in full effect here.
• Klingon blood is pink again, as it was in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
• Poor Shaxs suffers a Heroic BSoD over the Occupation of Bajor.
• Mariner and Freeman play Velocity on the holodeck, like Janeway and Seven on Voyager.
• The Battle of Klach D'kel Brakt, in which Kor led the Klingons to victory over the Romulans, is mentioned.
• A model of the Kir'Shara, the ark containing the teachings of Surak, is seen in the background on the Sh'vhal, as is a Vulcan meditation lamp.
• Freeman wears a "RITOS" shirt similar to the "DISCO" shirts worn by the crew of the Discovery.
• T'lyn quotes Spock in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country: "Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end."
• The Moon buddies mention Tycho City and New Berlin, first mentioned in Star Trek: First Contact.
• Mariner's attempted "Clue" solution includes "the sniper rifle that can see through walls", a reference to the DS9 episode "Field of Fire."
• Dorg listens to Klingon opera and complains that Klingons are joining Starfleet and studying on Bajor.
• The Klingon transporter room is based on the K't'inga-class transporter room from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
• Ma'ah complains that Klingons have lost their lurDech ("tradition").
• When the Cerritos goes to red alert, two crew members are running to their stations wearing Crusher and Troi’s infamous workout spandex from the TNG episode “The Price". Others include Data's Sherlock Holmes outfit and an 18th century Admiral's uniform.

"First First Contact"

• Boimler decides to push the idea of a "Captain Freeman Day" to celebrate the captain. Captain Picard Day was an event for the kids aboard the Enterprise-D, as first seen in "The Pegasus". His banner is identical to the one seen in that episode and again on Star Trek: Picard.
• When she complains about her mother getting a transfer, Mariner says she doesn't want the new captain to be "some weirdo with a riding crop", ie Captain Styles of the Excelsior, who sported one, for some reason, in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
• Mystefied by the anger around her, Freeman demands to know if someone brought a mood-altering alien plant on board, a call back to the TOS episode "This Side of Paradise".
• When an Ensign trips up and Sonya Gomez checks up on her, she reassures her that she's done way worse to way more intimidating captains. You just never live down spilling hot chocolate on Captain Picard.
• The logo for Cetacean Ops is an elaboration of the logo of the Cetacean Institute in San Francisco, from which the humpbacks George and Gracie were brought forward in time to save the world in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.^note This doubles as a shout-out, since the logo of the Cetecean Institute was the logo of its real-life stand-in, the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
• Said cetaceans really want people to swim with them. In addition to being a "horny dolphin" (or at least dolphinoid) joke, it references the fact from Strange Energies that the crew uses Cetacean Ops as a swimming pool.
• When T'Ana tells Tendi she's moving her to Senior Science Officer training, Tendi namedrops Jadzia Dax when she thinks of the first science officer to work on the bridge in mind. T'Ana has no idea who that is and instead mentions Spock. Since Spock is an iconic paragon of what Starfleet science officers are supposed to aspire to while Jadzia is a recently-killed victim of the Dominion War, her confusion is understandable.

Season 3

”Grounded”

• Boseman, Montana is revisited, now a monument/amusement park. The iconic statue that La Forge mentions is there, though it appears to be made of bronze, not marble as La Forge claimed.
• Edward Jellico, now an Admiral, is still as much of a hardass as ever, having banned the Zebulon Sisters from performing aboard any active-duty Starfleet ship. Given how insanely over-the-top their performances are implied to be, it might be for the best to have them only perform groundside or on a station.
• Captain Morgan Bateson stayed around in Starfleet after getting out of the Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey mess he was in when the Enteprise-D found his ship, and was instrumental in clearing Freeman's name.
• And L.Q. "Sonny" Clemonds, revived from cryostasis by Doctor Crusher back in Season 1 of ST:TNG, apparently did find enough success playing his old music to a new world that his concerts are popular enough to have people get injured rushing the stage.

"The Least Dangerous Game"

• Rutherford mentions that Martok is still chancellor of the Klingon Empire.

"Mining The Mind's Eye"

• The U.S.S. Hood, an Excelsior-class ship that's been appearing ever since "Encounter at Farpoint", reappears here.
• Dr. Leah Brahms, the creator of the Galaxy-class warp cores, appears as an illusion, mentioning her accomplishment to Rutherford when she first shows up.
• Kuklakhan, a being from the Animated Series, reappears after Stevens breaks a bunch of the fantasy mines.

"Room for Growth"

• In the Cold Open, Freeman is taken over by a Reality Warper mask, similar to Data in "Masks".
• A skeleton under Hydroponics is one of the Dooplers from "An Embarrassment of Dooplers"

"Reflections"

• Mariner and Boimler are both terrified of Starbase 80, something mentioned in a previous season.
• When Shaxs hunts down and later shoots Rutherford, he still affectionately calls him "Baby Bear".
• The Truthers bring up various dark pasts of Starfleet, such as the "butt bugs" from "Conspiracy".
• One of the collectors looks very similar to Kivas Fajo's friend Palor Toff (and could even be the same person, though he looks younger than he should be).
• During Boimler's tirade, he yells at a couple of Wadi to "stop trapping people in games".
• Mariner mentions "Warp 10 excitement" (Voyager's "Threshold") and "explore the undiscovered country" in her sales pitch.
• Tendi has a mind-control plant from Omicron Ceti III, as seen in "This Side of Paradise".
• Mariner mentions that Sisko is currently in the Celestial Temple.

"Hear All, Trust Nothing"

• Quark mentions that he has done business with the Karemma before, which led to the discovery of the Dominion.
• Quark's had been franchised in earlier episodes of Lower Decks and an episode of Star Trek: Picard. The original Bar also now sports the franchise logo that we saw in Picard.
• Kira still has Sisko's baseball.
• One of the "salon" attendees has a "Ritos" shirt similar to the "Disco" shirts worn by the crew on Star Trek: Discovery, which Freeman had been shown wearing in the previous season.
• Mariner has a copy of the holosuite program of Quark's head on Kira's body.
• This is not the first time that a group tried to arrest someone on the station by kidnapping them.

"Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus"

• The founding of the Federation looks exactly like it did in the series finale of Enterprise. A close observer can even see the walkway Archer uses to enter the auditorium. Considering that that was also a hologram, it may even be the exact same asset.
• The bomb the Romulans use in an attempt to blow up said founding is a direct copy of the Thalaron weapon used to kill the Romulan senate in Star Trek: Nemesis.
• When Boimler meets Sulu, he asks if they're in the Nexus from Star Trek: Generations — which is exactly where we first saw Kirk's farm in Idaho.
• Sulu explains that Kirk left him the farm and went off to travel through time or whatever, which is more or less what Kirk did in Star Trek: Generations, being trapped in the Nexus for several decades until being freed by Captain Picard.
• Section 31's black commbadges from Star Trek: Discovery are reintroduced here. William Boimler lampshades that it's an odd thing for a covert organization to have.

"The Stars at Night"

• Douglas Station has the same sort of retractable weapon emplacements as were installed on Deep Space 9 during the Dominion War.
• Scanning microbial life to make sure it is or is not sentient isn't some inconvenient bit of ass-covering paperwork, as this happened on TNG and people died for not taking into account even the smallest life-forms as being potentially sapient.
  • This was also a critical point in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, as it was Terrell and Chekov beaming down to investigate possible primordial life that set the whole movie in motion. In both cases, the life was a sensor glitch: the Reliant's scanners had detected the people on the surface but registered them as microbes, and Tendi's tricorder picked up microbes but it was a false reading.
• Of course, this (and 'Project Swing By' in general) are both nods to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan — and how the idea behind keeping track of how (and why) civilizations have progressed in the periods after being influenced by Starfleet crews is a VERY good idea.
• Captain Freeman says that one of the planets they have to visit is a "Brigadoon-type planet that only appears for an hour every year," a reference to the DS9 episode "Meridian."
• Mariner had suspicions over who was backing Petra's artifact recovery missions, and upon investigation learned that Admiral Picard was funding them. Picard did have an interest in archeology and nearly went down that path before turning towards command. The episode "The Chase" highlights this with him receiving a priceless artifact from a former teacher, as well as "Masks."
• For that matter, by this point, Picard has indeed been promoted to admiral in-universe (as of 2381) to help lead the Romulan evacuation effort in the face of their impending supernova, as established by Star Trek: Picard. However, the attack on Mars, and Picard's subsequent resignation, have not occurred yet since they occur four years hence (in 2385).
• Mariner mentions the Xindi as one of the groups she thought was funding Petra.
• One of the suggestions to defeat the Texas-class ships is to turn the deflector dish into a large laser. The Enterprise-D tried that at the start of "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II", and it might have worked had the Borg not assimilated Picard and learned what was coming.
• Similar to an earlier Starfleet rescue when the U.S.S. Discovery attempted to shield the U.S.S. Gagarin, the U.S.S. Vacaville appears to be moving to take the brunt of a torpedo headed for the Cerritos. Luckily, Mariner is able to shoot it down without anyone getting hit.
• The interface Buenamigo uses to communicate with the Aledo looks very similar to the one of the M5 computer from "The Ultimate Computer", Trek's most infamous example of a completely AI-controlled ship attacking fellow Starfleet vessels.
• Rutherford threatens the Aledo to stand down "or you're dunsel!" Dunsel, something that serves no purpose, was thrown around as a term a lot in "The Ultimate Computer". Probably the worst thing to insult a computer with, to be honest.

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