Easter Eggs And References You Missed In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2

Contains spoilers for Season 2 of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds"

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" took the franchise back to the adventures of Captain Pike, Number One, and Mr. Spock, picking up where things left off in "Star Trek: Discovery," but with a more episodic approach, featuring 10 stories at the edges of the final frontier. Set several years before Captain Kirk took command, the series also featured Cadet Uhura, Nurse Chapel, and Dr. M'Benga, who all played key roles in the original "Star Trek" series, as well as plenty of new characters, including hotshot pilot Ortegas, tough-as-nails security chief La'an, and surly engineer Hemmer.

Over the course of the first season, we saw Pike confront his own fate and Mr. Spock be torn between duty and family, while Number One had to expose her deepest secret and risk her entire career to save the ship. We even got a glimpse of a dark possible future and met a different version of Captain Kirk. But Season 1 was also jam-packed with easter eggs and references to "Star Trek" history, including little-known alien races and subtle nods to old starships, planets, and characters we never thought we'd see again.

Now "Strange New Worlds" has returned for Season 2, picking up where the first left off, following up on several unresolved plot lines, and featuring plenty of homages to the franchise's past. We're checking out each episode, and putting together a list of our favorite easter eggs and references that you might have missed.

In Season 1 of "Strange New Worlds," Captain Pike's ready room — which also doubles as the senior staff's conference lounge — was seen decorated with all manor of mementos. It was also adorned with two pieces of wall art depicting ships from Starfleet's past, which were white-on-white engravings of the starship Essex (from the TNG episode "Power Play") and the USS Phoenix (from "Star Trek: First Contact"). But the ready room gets an overhaul for Season 2 that replaces at least one of the two starship images with a new piece of artwork depicting a different ship entirely.

"The Broken Circle" gives us a glimpse of the new artwork that replaces the Essex behind Pike during his communication with Number One at the beginning of the episode. And while it's a bit fuzzy, pre-release trailers that showed an extended scene from a future episode of the season confirm that it is in fact a painting of Captain Archer's NX-01 Enterprise, the title starship in 2001's "Star Trek: Enterprise." As the first Starfleet ship to bear that iconic name, it was the founding ship of the line with a much greater importance to Pike and the 1701 Enterprise than the Essex.

As fans may know, this is now the second glimpse at Archer's Enterprise this year, as "Star Trek: Picard" showed off the NX-01 at the Fleet Museum in an easter egg from Season 3.

When it comes to iconic starships, "Star Trek" is full of them, and it's not just the USS Enterprise, the original model of which now sits in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. Debuting in the original "Star Trek" series episode "Elaan of Troyius," the Klingon D7 class battlecruiser is another legendary ship in the franchise, appearing multiple times over the years. It was given a big screen facelift to become the K'Tinga Class battlecruiser for three of the "Star Trek" movies, which became the standard Klingon cruiser for the next few decades.

The D7 class battlecruiser made its return in a 2019 episode of "Star Trek: Discovery," which also gave it a slick new redesign with plenty of added detail for modern audiences. "The Broken Circle" is the first time in quite a few years that we've gotten a look at the original D7, making its triumphant debut in "Strange New Worlds." The episode is also chronologically the earliest instance we've seen of the USS Enterprise in a one-on-one face-off with the iconic Klingon starship, this time with acting captain Spock at the helm.

At the core of "The Broken Circle" is a plot to reignite the Klingon war, spearheaded by a group of rogue factions who are deeply unhappy with the state of peace that they now enjoy. Their plan is to assemble their own Starfleet ship from stolen parts and use it to create a false flag operation, tricking the Klingons into responding with a new declaration of war. Thankfully, the Enterprise's former security chief La'an Noonien-Singh has realized something troubling is afoot, and calls the Enterprise for help. When Spock commands the ship in Pike's absence, he's forced to confront this new Starfleet vessel.

That vessel may not be an official Starfleet ship, but when Ensign Mitchell spots it on the viewscreen, she calls it out as a Crossfield class starship. Attentive viewers will recognize that as the same class as the USS Discovery, though it looks quite a bit different. While it does have a similar saucer section, the secondary hull and nacelles are a radical departure. Those differences, however, can probably be chalked up to the rag-tag nature of the ship's design and assembly, while the class signature it's emitting could be the result of the Klingon's tampering with its transponder signal.

"Strange New Worlds" continues its episodic format in Season 2, but it hasn't forgotten to include a season-long subplot. At the end of "The Broken Circle," we get our first hint at what's to come as Admiral April meets with Starfleet brass and hints that there is a war brewing with the Gorn. On a star chart, they identify a possible Gorn attack ship, and near its location, we see the system called Cestus, our first reference in many years to one of the most famous planets in the "Star Trek" franchise.

That planet is Cestus III, which was the setting for one of the most beloved episodes of the original "Star Trek," Season 1's "Arena." It makes sense that we see it here with regards to a possible Gorn attack, because it was on Cestus III where the Gorn attacked a Federation colony. Captain Kirk and a Gorn warrior duked it out in a hand-to-hand contest orchestrated by the godlike Metrons. But that's not the only notable mention of Cestus III in "Star Trek" canon.

In the "Deep Space Nine" episode "Way of the Warrior," which saw the series debut of Lt. Commander Worf, Captain Sisko's girlfriend Cassidy says her brother has a baseball team on Cestus III, and invites him to watch them play. The name of that team, oddly enough, is the Pike City Pioneers, which the non-canon novel "Where Sea Meet Sky" suggests was named for Captain Pike.

The second episode of Season 2 of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" follows the biggest plot thread left dangling from Season 1's finale, "A Quality of Mercy." At the end of that segment, Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) was arrested by Starfleet after it had been revealed that she was really a genetically modified Illyrian. While the season premiere touched on Una's incarceration briefly, the follow-up, "Ad Astra Per Aspera," gets into the meat of the issue, and its title alone is a major reference to "Star Trek" history.

"Ad Astra Per Aspera" isn't just the name of the episode, it's also Starfleet's official motto, though it's never been called out in dialogue before. Previous to this story, it had been seen on various logos in the background of episodes, most notably at Starfleet Command in the 2001 series "Star Trek: Enterprise." In the 2005 episode "Regeneration," for example, Commander Williams can be seen wearing an emblem that sports the Latin phrase, which, as Una notes in this episode, translates to "Through hardships, to the stars." That same episode also showcases the Latin phrase on a Starfleet flag, while Jonathan Archer himself wears a patch with the emblem in the very next episode, "First Flight." In "The Expanse," the phrase even adorns a Starfleet Command building, showing the long history of the slogan in "Star Trek" canon.

When "Star Trek: Discovery" launched in 2017, some fans were unhappy that the look and feel of the series was such a radical departure from the original "Star Trek," particularly given how close it was set to the original series in the franchise's timeline. "Strange New Worlds" has taken steps to more closely align with the aesthetic of the 1960s series, with a more retro-chic look that boasts a mid-century design form, and many nods to the original show. "Ad Astra Per Aspera" goes one step further, with a prop that calls back to an iconic original element: the chunky data disks used in the classic "Star Trek" series.

During the '60s run of the original "Star Trek," these were known as record tapes, and were likely an extrapolation of existing computer and audio disk technology of the time. The record tape actually wasn't all that different from 3.5" floppy disks that became the storage medium of choice in the 1990s. In "Trek," they were small, single-color squares with no markings, and definitely had a futuristic look in 1966. They were last seen in the 2005 "Enterprise" episode "In a Mirror, Darkly," where the Mirror Universe starship uses similar record tapes but made of a translucent material. That's exactly what they are in "Ad Astra Per Aspera," as the series moves closer and closer to the look of "Star Trek: The Original Series."

In the Season 2 premiere of "Strange New Worlds," we glimpse a new starship portrait in the captain's ready room of the NX-01 Enterprise, replacing an etching of the USS Essex seen in Season 1. Now, in "Ad Astra Per Aspera," we get another new starship portrait that wasn't seen in the premiere, opposite the image of Captain Archer's 22nd century flagship. This time, it's the Phoenix, a ship that played a central role in one of the best films in the "Star Trek" series.

Showing up in 1996's "Star Trek: First Contact," the Phoenix wasn't originally a starship at all, and was in fact a missile, retrofitted by scientist Zefram Cochrane. Equipped with the first-ever prototype warp reactor, it was fashioned with two crude nacelles, and became the first human-made craft to ever achieve warp speed. In the film, Captain Picard and his crew travel back to the time of that first test flight, which gains the attention of a passing Vulcan ship, leading to Earth's first offcial contact with alien life.

Models and other portraits of the Phoenix have been seen in "Star Trek: Enterprise" and even in J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek Into Darkness." A replica of the Phoenix was in a 2022 episode of "Lower Decks," where the site of its original launch in Bozeman, Montana, has since been converted into a tourist destination. The actual ship itself, meanwhile, resided in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum by the 24th century.

Everything about "Star Trek" has become iconic, including its uniforms. Fans and non-fans alike recognize the gold, blue, and red hues of the classic Starfleet tunics, but only those who watch the show may recognize the crew's dress uniforms. Worn for more formal occasions, they made their debut in the 1967 installment "Court Martial" — which incidentally is also the first episode to use the term "Starfleet" — in which Captain Kirk is put on trial for the death of a fellow officer. In "Ad Astra Per Aspera," we get a major callback to those original dress uniforms.

Updated for "Strange New Worlds," the dress uniforms that the crew dons for Una's hearing feature many elements pulled from the 1967 episode. This includes elaborate gold trim around the neck that stretches down the center, while also incorporating the shoulder stripes that originated from the dress uniforms on "Star Trek: Discovery," creating a blend of the two aesthetics. 

But the most direct nod to "Court Martial" might be the colorful badges the officers wear. Directly inspired by similar patches worn by William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and the other officers in "Court Martial," the likes of Dr. M'Benga, La'an Noonien-Singh, and Admiral April are all adorned with these same badges, which are made up of differently colored triangles in various configurations. Even Mr. Spock's badge is cleverly designed to be similar — but not the same — as the one worn by Nimoy, suggesting that he earned more accolades in the years between series.

During Commander Una Chin-Riley's hearing, both defense and prosecution call a number of witnesses to the stand to offer testimony, from Admiral April down to Una herself. In between, they also call members of the Enterprise crew as character witnesses who can attest to her reputation, honorable service, and distinguished career. One of those is Mr. Spock, who is grilled about his friendship with the first officer. Asked if he ever felt like she was hiding anything, to the court's surprise he answers, "Yes."

What Spock reveals, however, is that Commander Chin-Riley had hidden her love of Gilbert and Sullivan musicals. This is a direct reference to the 2019 "Short Treks" episode "Q&A," written by Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon. In that 14-minute short, released after Season 2 of "Star Trek: Discovery" had introduced the two characters to modern audiences, Spock starts his first assignment aboard the Enterprise as an ensign. While he tours the vessel under Commander Una, the two get trapped in a malfunctioning turbolift. They pass the time by singing a duet of the Gilbert and Sullivan tune, "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General," written for the 1879 comic opera "The Pirates of Penzance." 

"Star Trek" is filled with unanswered questions and unresolved plotlines that are still lingering today. Season 1 of "Strange New Worlds" managed to answer quite a few of them, but in Season 2's "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," we actually get an answer to a real-life question that has plagued historians — and law enforcement — for decades. 

Arriving aboard the Enterprise with her personal effects, Chief Engineer Pelia is given the third degree by Chief of Security La'An Noonien-Singh, who accuses her of possessing a number of stolen archeological relics. One of the items seen being handled by a security officer is none other than "The Concert," a celebrated work by 17th-century baroque artist Johannes Vermeer. When caught with it by a Starfleet security officer, Pelia insists that it's a fake and to "tell the Louvre to stop calling me!" 

For art historians, this is quite the Easter egg, because "The Concert" was the subject of one of the most famous art heists in history. Despite the episode claiming it had been stolen from the Louvre, it was actually taken from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990. As of 2023, its location remains a mystery, and it still stands as the largest property crime in U.S. history. But perhaps if police wait a couple of hundred years they'll find the thief aboard the USS Enterprise, who was once living not far from the Boston museum in nearby Vermont.

The fourth episode of Season 2 of "Strange New Worlds" is titled "Among the Lotus Eaters." It follows Captain Pike and the crew of the Enterprise to Rigel VII, a planet they'd been to five years before. But now they've learned that they must have accidentally left something behind on this primitive planet and altered the course of their history, because surveillance has detected the Starfleet logo emblazoned in the courtyard of a medieval castle. The funny thing is, we've heard of this planet before, and in fact have even heard of their prior visit — in the very first pilot episode of "Star Trek" from 1965, titled "The Cage."

Unaired until 1988, "The Cage" featured Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Pike, right after his mission to Rigel VII. The episode was scrapped and the series retooled with William Shatner as new captain James T. Kirk, but footage from it eventually found its way into the two-part 1966 episode "The Menagerie." But in the complete version (which is now included as part of the series on Paramount+), the adventure opens with Captain Pike still reeling from his visit to Rigel VII. 

In the years since, Rigel VII has been mentioned many times, appearing on various viewscreens in episodes of "The Next Generation" and "Deep Space Nine." When mentioned, it's usually called out for its unique architecture, including its spectacular castles, like the ones seen in "Among the Lotus Eaters."

"Among the Lotus Eaters" gives us the long-awaited return to Rigel VII, but it also name-drops Vega Colony, another oft-mentioned world in "Star Trek." Once again, this is a location first referenced all the way back in the original pilot, "The Cage," where it's said that Pike took his crew to lick their wounds after their ill-fated mission to Rigel VII. It's said again in "Among the Lotus Eaters" that they had to take Spock to Vega Colony to recover from a devastating injury, and it's this injury that likely accounts for Leonard Nimoy's noticeable limp in "The Cage."

Since that original episode, Vega Colony has been mentioned many times. It may, in fact, be located on one of the earliest planets explored by Starfleet. We know this because it was one of the Earth colonies set up around the same time as those at Alpha Centauri and Terra Nova, as mentioned in early episodes of "Star Trek: Enterprise." That series, of course, was set a hundred or so years before Kirk and Spock, and explored the early days of Earth's space exploration. But the colony continues to exist hundreds of years later, as it has been name-dropped in more recent "Star Trek" shows, including showing up in a star chart on "Star Trek: Picard" in 2020. 

Heading back to Rigel VII for the first time in five years, Pike must assemble a small landing party. Based on their last disastrous visit, where they encountered the primitive but brutally violent Kalar, Pike wants to be prepared for anything. He also knows that he can't risk contaminating the pre-warp culture by bringing phasers, tricorders, or other advanced technology, so that means he'll have to take with him crew members who can handle themselves without the wonders of 23rd-century technology. To that end, he asks Dr. M'Benga to join him and La'An on the mission.

At first, M'Benga — and the audience — believe it's his medical expertise that is needed, but Pike makes it clear he has something else in mind. When he tells M'Benga that they won't be bringing any advanced weapons, the good doctor realizes why: Pike wants people on the landing party who know how to fight. So why M'Benga? Well, this is a reference to the doctor's service during the Klingon War, which has been mentioned before, though we haven't gotten a lot of information about it yet to this point. Clearly traumatic for him, his service was mentioned briefly in the Season 2 premiere, and the repeated callbacks force us to wonder if this will be an ongoing character arc for M'Benga this year.

Throughout Season 1 of "Strange New Worlds" fans were given insight into the lives of a number of its crew. From Captain Pike's struggle with knowing his own future to Dr. M'Benga's fight to save his terminally ill daughter, every episode of the show's main cast got a chance to shine in a story of their own. Except for one: Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) sadly had little to do beyond flying the ship and getting in a few good zingers, and fans have been waiting for her to take center stage ever since. "Among the Lotus Eaters" finally gives her a juicy story, as she saves the day on the Enterprise despite having no memory of who she really is.

Faced with amnesia, Ortegas goes to her quarters, where there are starship models that give us some insight into Ortegas' past. In addition to a model of the USS Enterprise, there's another, smaller ship, which is no doubt the previous vessel on which she served. Season 1's "Memento Mori" was the first time we'd learned of it: the USS Palenque, for whose lost crewmates she wore a commemorative badge on Starfleet Remembrance Day. Though little is known of the ship, from the model in her quarters it would appear that it's the same class of starship as the USS Shenzou, seen in "Star Trek: Discovery."

When "Among the Lotus Eaters" opens, we see Captain Pike preparing a romantic meal for his part-time lover, Captain Batel. But it's not just a delicious meal he has prepared: Pike also has a bottle of wine to share with her. And eagle-eyed fans have noticed that the bottle is no ordinary merlot, but a bottle from the Picard Chateau in France, as its label is identical to that seen in "Star Trek: Picard." While that series is set more than a hundred years later, we know that the Picard vineyard has been in operation for generations, and thus it makes perfect sense for Pike to have a bottle of his own.

Of course, another detail that some fans have noted is that the bottle of Chateau Picard appears to have a screw top, something rather unusual for high-quality wines, which ordinarily use cork stoppers. This might suggest that there is something to the notion that the Picard wine wasn't quite as top-shelf as Jean-Luc liked to claim, which was something of a running gag throughout Season 3 of "Star Trek: Picard." 

Nevertheless, the inclusion is a good reminder of the interconnected nature of "Star Trek." It gives at least one strong canonical connection between the captain of the 23rd-century Enterprise and the captain of the 24th-century iteration of the vessel — even if they are separated by more than a hundred years.

In sickbay, we find that Christine Chapel is taking the opportunity of some down time not to have fun like the rest of the crew, but to study in preparation for an interview to land an internship with the Vulcan Science Academy. To that end, Dr. M'Benga is quizzing her on what he calls "Korby's three principles of archeological medicine." The first is that medicine is always ancient and new as cultures' understanding of what medicine is changes over time. The second is that the keys to solving problems are often found by looking backward. And the third is that as a result of #1 and #2, archeological medicine is as much a study of history as it is of science.

For those familiar with the original "Star Trek," these three principles are nothing new, because we've heard them before in the classic episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" That episode reunited Chapel with her one-time lover and former professor Dr. Roger Korby, who developed the three principles. If "Strange New Worlds" producer Akiva Goldsman is to be believed, we may yet meet him in person in Season 2 — perhaps to ignite his romance with Chapel. Last year Goldsman responded to a question about a possible appearance from Korby on Twitter, saying, "Stand by."

When caught in a shuttle accident in "Charades," a race of aliens attempts to heal Mr. Spock's injuries, but they don't understand his mix of Vulcan and human DNA. As a result, he's turned completely human, and to make matters worse, it all happens right before he's supposed to impress his fiancee's mother with an elaborate Vulcan ritual. Her disdain for his human heritage is bad enough, but now that Spock has been turned fully human, he fears there's no way he can pass her test. So when his mother arrives on the Enterprise, Spock initially tries to hide the fact that he's no longer Vulcan from her, and to do it, he uses a knit cap to hide his now-human ears.

The ruse doesn't work on his mother, though, who susses out what's happened right away. But while the beanie may seem like an odd choice of headwear for Spock, longtime fans will get right away that it's a nice tip of the knitted cap to a classic episode of "Star Trek: The Original Series." It's essentially a reversal of Spock's situation from "City on the Edge of Forever," the iconic time travel episode that sent Kirk and Spock back to 1960s New York City. There, Spock had to hide his Vulcan ears from unsuspecting 20th-century humans, using a similar knitted cap to cover his pointed lobes.

Fans new to "Star Trek" may have expected the romance between Spock and T'Pring to last. But diehard Trekkies who know the history of the franchise well were probably expecting the developments at the conclusion of "Charades." When Spock is finally able to restore his proper Vulcan DNA, and his pointed ears have returned, the episode ends with his beloved T'Pring putting a hold on their relationship.

Thanks to his emotional outburst, and the fact that he hid his human transformation from her, T'Pring decides that, like Ross and Rachel, she and Spock need some time apart. No surprise to longtime fans, this breakup was more than expected, because in the original series episode "Amok Time," T'Pring and Spock don't appear to have seen each other for quite some time.

After their breakup, though, Spock finally has his first real kiss with Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush), finally resolving a long-running question that goes all the way back to the original series. Hopefully T'Pring never finds out, or else Spock will have to explain it, because after all — again, like Ross and Rachel — they were on a break.

It was just a couple of episodes earlier that "Among the Lotus Eaters" offered up a major sequel to a story first introduced in the original unaired "Star Trek" pilot episode, "The Cage." Now, in "Lost in Translation" — in addition to a stirring episode about a strange alien race — we also get a follow-up to a single line of dialogue from "The Menagerie," the two-part 1966 episode that re-used footage from that first pilot. In the opening moments of the episode, we learn that Pike has been promoted to the rank of Fleet Captain for a mission alongside the USS Farragut. How does this connect to "The Menagerie"? 

Back in that episode, when the wheelchair-bound Pike is first revealed, Kirk mentions offhandedly that he's only met Pike once before: When he was first promoted to Fleet Captain. While many at the time may have inferred that the meeting took place during some kind of ceremony where Pike was handed his new rank, we learn here that it was during an otherwise routine mission. Sure enough, James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) — having just been promoted himself, to first officer aboard the Farragut — strolls into the story and ultimately meets Pike face to face for the first time.

A subplot in "Lost in Translation" involves new Chief Engineer Pelia (Carol Kane) adjusting to her crewmates — specifically, how she is forced to deal with something of a resentful attitude on their part, due to her presence as a replacement for their former friend and colleague Hemmer, who died in Season 1. Throughout the episode, she faces friction from both Uhura and Number One, and during a confrontation aboard the deuterium refinery, it's Lt. Commander Chin-Riley who unleashes a hail of criticism on her, calling her a "space hippie."

Though Number One's use of the nickname refers to Pelia's aversion to following orders and her sloppy uniform, the term "space hippie" is almost certainly a meta reference to a classic "Trek" episode. That would be "The Way to Eden," a 1969 episode that aired at the height of the hippie movement in the United States, in which a group of free-spirited young people board the Enterprise. Appearing in one of the most famously bad episodes of the franchise, which has since become known as the "space hippie" episode, their odd obsession with music and idealistic attitude have made them a source of mockery among fans for years.

When James T. Kirk first arrives on the Enterprise, his first stop is the mess hall, where he shares a drink and a chat with his brother Sam, the ship's resident anthropologist. Sam pours his brother a round from a bottle of Scotch whiskey, which is not one but two deep cuts. The first relates to the 1969 episode "The Savage Curtain," where Captain Kirk and his crew meet recreations of historical figures including Genghis Khan and Abraham Lincoln (don't ask). During that adventure, Kirk indeed remarks that he "occasionally" drinks whiskey, something that this episode of "Strange New Worlds" confirms.

But it's more than just Kirk's drink of choice that this is an allusion to. The bottle itself appears to be identical to the container of Scotch produced by Chief Engineer Scott in the 1968 episode "By Any Other Name" (the same episode where Scotty utters the now-iconic line, "It is green"). 

In that episode, aliens called the Kelvans commandeer the Enterprise and plan to use it to conquer the entire Milky Way galaxy. Scotty eventually gets their engineer, named Tomar, drunk with what he calls "a very, very, very old" bottle of Scotch. Considering that "Lost in Translation" is set a decade before "By Any Other Name," it could very well be the exact same bottle.

In Season 1 of "Strange New Worlds," some fans were taken aback by the clear romantic overtures of Christine Chapel towards Mr. Spock. While we knew from the original "Star Trek" that the good nurse had a crush on the ship's science officer, it was something of a surprise to see that Spock seemed to reciprocate. In "Charades," their relationship went to the next level, after T'Pring effectively ended her and Spock's engagement. In "Lost in Translation," the show seems to be referencing many fans' concerns about these apparent retcons to "Trek" continuity.

In their first scene together, in the mess hall playing chess, Chapel and Spock discuss their burgeoning new romantic entanglement. But Spock has some concerns about protocol, and Chapel is unsure about what revealing their love might do. In fact, she's not sure she wants anyone to know about their relationship at all, and suggests they keep it to themselves for the time being. Should things not evolve further, and their romance fall apart, the secretive nature of their relationship would go a long way to explaining why we'd never heard about it before.

When JJ Abrams rebooted the franchise for the 2009 film "Star Trek," starring Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, and Zachary Quinto, some longtime fans were unhappy at how the characters were portrayed. While many weren't thrilled with how Spock was overly emotional, others were more frustrated by the portrayal of Kirk as a laissez-faire womanizer who was chasing any woman in his field of vision. Sure, the image of Kirk kissing a beautiful woman was an iconic one from the original "Star Trek" series, but he was rarely cavalier about it. In "Lost in Translation," Paul Wesley's new version of the character seems to be making some meta commentary about that confusion.

Talking to Uhura in the mess hall, the young ensign confuses his approach for a sexual advance, and Kirk isn't pleased. "C'mon, nobody's hitting on anyone ... You just look like you could use a friend." While the affable Kirk seems genuine, the more eye-opening revelation is that the perception of James Kirk as a ladies man may actually come from his brother Sam, and his penchant for telling stories out of school. Perhaps Kirk really isn't the dapper womanizer after all, and his reputation is just the result of some brotherly tall tales.

The first major crossover between two active "Star Trek" shows in decades, "Those Old Scientists" sees Boimler and Mariner from "Lower Decks" travel back in time to meet Pike and the crew of "Strange New Worlds." But it might also be the boldest episode ever in the franchise, opening a live-action installment with an animated intro, which itself is packed with Easter eggs. In fact, the title "Those Old Scientists," pokes fun at how fans refer to the classic "Star Trek" series as "TOS" — short for "The Original Series." 

Meanwhile, on their survey mission, Ensign Rutherford snaps holo-pics with the same camera the Doctor used on "Star Trek: Voyager." The deepest cut? Boimler's desperate cry of "Remember me!" when he's pulled through a time vortex. "TNG" fans will recognize that phrase as the title of the episode in which Dr. Crusher was pulled into a strikingly similar vortex (though it didn't send her back in time). 

The funniest Easter egg gag, of course, comes in the form of the episode's opening titles, which turn the usual fanfare into an animated opening sequence. It even mirrors the titles of "Lower Decks" with a strange alien creature holding onto the ship, and closes out with a faded shot of the Great Koala, a running joke from the Mike McMahan series.

Ensign Boimler continually disturbs Number One throughout "Those Old Scientists," and he seems to react negatively to her presence. Never able to make eye contact, and often avoiding her, Boimler's confusing behavior leads her to one inescapable conclusion: some terrible event must have befallen her in the future, and Boimler is fully aware of it. This fear proves unwarranted, but the whole subplot feels very much like a wink to the audience about Number One. 

First introduced in the original pilot episode of "Trek" that went long unaired, Number One only showed up in the re-used footage from that installment in the 1966 two-parter, "The Menagerie." Prior to her re-introduction in "Star Trek: Discovery," though, nobody ever knew anything else about her, or why she mysteriously disappeared from canon, her future fate unknown. Fans too had spent decades wondering if indeed something terrible had happened to her, just as she fears in "These Old Scientists." It's possible "Strange New Worlds" will reveal her ultimate fate at some point, but from this episode, we also learn that she at least became famous enough to be plastered all over Starfleet recruiting posters in the 24th century, as Boimler later reveals.

When he first turns up on Pike's USS Enterprise, Ensign Boimler finds himself overwhelmed, giddy at the thought of actually meeting his childhood heroes. But he also loves the ship, and gets the treat of a lifetime when he accompanies Spock and Uhura to the bridge after the arrival of an Orion science vessel. Though a nervous Boimler eventually helps Pike deal with the Orions, he first must get over his jitters at seeing the iconic Enterprise command center. When he enters, he calls it the "1701 dash nothing." 

No doubt fans will get this one, because while Number One and La'An don't understand what he means by "dash nothing," it's a clear reference to later versions of the starship. After the Enterprise is refit, and later destroyed in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock," the next version of the Enterprise received the registry NCC-1701-A, with subsequent versions given B through F. Most recently, in "Star Trek: Picard," the latest Enterprise was christened the Enterprise-G, with Captain Seven of Nine at the helm.

The problem at hand for the Enterprise crew in "Those Old Scientists" compels Uhura to decipher — or try to — the ancient language etched into the portal device that brought Boimler and Mariner to the 23rd century. She can't make heads or tails of it, but Lt. Ortegas thinks she's glimpsed some of the symbols before. She remarks that she witnessed cheating Nausicaans using a really old dom-jot set while on Starbase Earhart, and that's no random name-drop because we've seen a similar situation play out before.

In the "TNG" episode "Tapestry," a flashback depicted a younger version of Picard awaiting his first assignment at Starbase Earhart. There, he and a friend have a nasty encounter with some surly Nausicaans who cheat during a game of dom-jot. At the climax of the episode, Picard and his friend get into a brawl with the vicious aliens, and Picard winds up stabbed through the back with a knife, resulting in the implantation of an artificial heart that he'll need for the rest of his life. "Those Old Scientists" seems to suggest that the "Tapestry" fight was nothing new, and Nausicaans have been hassling Starfleet officers for a very long time indeed.

Desperate to fix the dire situation he's caused, Ensign Boimler decides to take matters into his own hands. He'll use a shuttlecraft to communicate with Orion scientists to get back the precious grain Pike traded to them. But when he arrives in the shuttlebay ... surprise! Mariner is already there, and she exclaims "Holy Q!" While this is an obvious reference to the immortal trickster from "TNG" played by John de Lancie, Mariner's reply supplies a subtle Easter egg, as she says the people of the 23rd century haven't met Q yet, and they're having "a Trelane thing going on."

The villainous Trelane, played by William Campbell, appeared in the "TOS" episode "The Squire of Gothos." Over the years, many have mused about the striking similarities between Q and Trelane, with Peter David's "Star Trek" novel "Q Squared" positing that they're from the same race of omniscient beings. Even de Lancie himself has said he thinks his character was at least inspired by Trelane. While Mariner's remark doesn't confirm that the two characters are the same alien race, it is the first time they've been mentioned together on-screen in "Star Trek."

As a crossover with "Star Trek: Lower Decks," the episode makes good use of the Easter egg formula, and takes it to a whole new level with a series of quick one-off name drops of classic "Trek" characters. It's something that happens often in the animated comedy, but rarely in "Strange New Worlds," and "Those Old Scientists" delivers a few good ones. These include Boimler promising not to talk about the future by holding up his hand and swearing on "Worf's honor" — an oblique reference to the "TNG" security chief and honorable Klingon warrior.

The best name drops, though, come not from Boimler or Mariner, but from Lt. Ortegas and Uhura. When they're retrieving the piece of the NX-01's hull in engineering, they geek out about handling a part of the classic Enterprise from a century earlier in much the same way Boimler has been excited about their ship. Then Ortegas fangirls over Travis Mayweather, her counterpart on the original ship called Enterprise, while Uhura waxes poetic about the NX-01's resident comms officer, Hoshi Sato, who she says could speak more than 80 languages.

If there's anyone more excited to be on Pike's Enterprise than Boimler, we'll probably never meet that person. The proverbial kid in a candy store, the 24th-century ensign proves so affectionately giddy over his time travel adventure that even Number One calls him a "fanboy." And when he finds himself alone in Pike's ready room, he takes the opportunity to sit atop the captain's saddle. When he does, he lifts one leg over the side and blurts out, "Riker!" More than just a simple namedrop of the Enterprise-D's first officer, it's a reference to "The Riker Maneuver."

Over the years, fans began noticing how actor Jonathan Frakes, in the process of sitting down, would lift one leg over the back of his chair. The result of an old injury, according to the actor, it became his signature move, and the line was apparently ad-libbed on the set by Jack Quaid, who plays Boimler. Making the moment even more self-referentially hilarious, Frakes himself was just off-camera as the episode's director, and he did not expect Quaid to deliver that line.

The most enjoyable part of "Those Old Scientists"? The subtle jokes address the stark differences between "Strange New Worlds" and "Lower Decks," such as when Boimler calls the crew "very realistic." But that's not all, because when Boimler and Mariner commiserate over their experience on the Enterprise, they call out how weird it is that everyone speaks so slowly and quietly, a hallmark of more serious, dramatic prestige television. Likewise, Pike and his crew grow visibly annoyed at Boimler's casual and unprofessional behavior, and the fact that he and Mariner never shut up. Number One points out the "weirdly specific references" that Boimler and Mariner keep making, something that critics of "Lower Decks" often cite as being out of character for "Star Trek."

But one of the funniest moments comes when Boimler first arrives on the Enterprise and meets Captain Pike. Struck by Pike's sense of humor, he can hardly understand how that's possible, which feels like a dig at the Cerritos' own Captain Rutherford, who on "Lower Decks" has been derided more than once for being totally humorless. Boimler also mentions Pike's incredible hair, which has become something of a meme on social media since "Strange New Worlds" debuted. And when Ortegas and Uhura namedrop the NX-01 crew, they even mention the fact that they're starting to talk like Boimler and Mariner, mocking their penchant for making explicit and persistent references to "Trek" history.

Not everyone on the Enterprise is as uncomfortable with the presence of the Klingon ambassador as M'Benga, Chapel, and Ortegas. Some, like Spock, are actually excited to show off their diplomatic skills — as excited as a Vulcan can be, at least. To that end, Spock decides to prepare a special Klingon beverage that he's been working on recreating. It's a caffeinated one, and apparently a favorite of the ambassador, which he announces as raktajino. This is another callback to "Deep Space Nine," in which raktajino is the favorite morning drink of many.

As longtime "Star Trek" fans will know, raktajino is a Klingon coffee, and a particularly powerful one, too. It was available on station K-7 during the period of the original "Star Trek," as seen in the "DS9" flashback episode "Trials and Tribble-ations." In this episode, Sisko and his crew go back in time, where they met Kirk and Spock. However, in "Under the Cloak of War," it seems that the Enterprise computers have yet to incorporate the drink into its synthesizer, as Spock is seen trying (and failing) to replicate it in the mess hall. Unfortunately, the drink comes out far too hot, burning the ambassador's hands.

"Strange New Worlds" has had some top tier guest stars so far, including Jesse James Keitel of "Big Sky" and Yetide Badaki from "American Gods." In "Under the Cloak of War," we get two more: Robert Wisdom from "The Wire" as the Klingon ambassador, and Clint Howard as Commander Martinez, a Starfleet officer serving on the moon of J'gal in the flashback sequences. If you don't know Howard by name, you almost certainly know his face, especially if you're a "Star Trek" fan. With this episode, he sets a record for the longest-tenured actor in the franchise in terms of the years between his first and most recent appearance.

Back in 1966, Howard — then a child actor — appeared as Balok in the classic episode "The Corbomite Maneuver." Now, nearly 60 years later, he's back in "Strange New Worlds." In between, he has made several other appearances in the franchise, including a role in the second installment of the "Deep Space Nine" two-parter "Past Tense" as a wide-eyed drifter named Grady, and as a Ferengi named Muk in the "Star Trek: Enterprise" episode "Acquisition." More recently, Howard (the younger brother of actor and director Ron Howard) popped up in a Season 1 episode of "Star Trek: Discovery" as an Orion.

The flashback scenes in "Under the Cloak of War" show us just what happened on the moon of J'gal, first referenced in the Season 2 premiere. It's a bitter battle with Klingon forces for a strategically important piece of real estate, but it's also the site of one of the bloodiest massacres in the war. While there, Dr. M'Benga meets and treats a young Starfleet officer called Ensign Inman, who is struggling with the horrors of war and is overwhelmed with the existential nature of their conflict with the Klingons. In an effort to connect with the young man, M'Benga asks about his upbringing, and their conversation recalls yet another episode of "Deep Space Nine."

During their chat, the soldier says that he grew up on the moon, which Dr. M'Benga calls "Terra Luna." In response, the young man remarks that only people on Earth call it that, saying that those who live there just call it "the moon." This is a throwback to the "DS9" episode "Valiant," where a young Starfleet cadet talks to Jake Sisko and has an almost identical exchange. "Nobody who's ever lived on the moon calls it Luna," the cadet says. "That's just something they say on Earth." In that episode, we learn that those born on the moon are referred to as "Lunar schooners."

The version of the Enterprise seen in "Strange New Worlds" has no holodecks, but it does have a gym of sorts. This is where Dr. M'Benga is seen sparring with the likes of Christine Chapel and La'An Noonien-Singh. M'Benga, we discover, is more than just a talented doctor and surgeon, but also a skilled fighter, a man proficient in various forms of hand-to-hand combat. In "Under the Cloak of War," we learn that he's taken to a particular form of Klingon martial arts that he must have picked up during his experiences in the Klingon War.

A mixture of meditation, mindfulness, and brutal but graceful combat, mok'bara is similar to tai chi chuan according to Thomas Riker, who participated in a class regularly taught by Worf. It made its debut in the "TNG" episode "Clues" and popped up again several more times, including in the episode "Lower Decks" and in the "DS9" episode "The Sword of Kahless." In "Under the Cloak of War," M'Benga is joined in a sparring session by the Klingon ambassador, and they even wear similar robes to the ones worn by Worf and his students, though here they are a deep maroon rather than a bright white.

"Star Trek" often finds clever ways to show how ordinary modern-day technology has evolved. Whether it's through food synthesizers or holodeck programs, today's amenities have a new look in the 23rd century, and that even extends to the bathroom — we've heard about so-called "sonic showers" many times. In "Under the Cloak of War," we actually see one in action. Dr. M'Benga uses one, taking a hot cleansing shower to decompress after a stressful moment.

This isn't actually the first time we've seen a sonic shower. They've been shown a few times over the years, but seeing them is exceptionally rare. We saw Lt. Torres using one in an episode of "Star Trek: Voyager," and Ilya was seen taking a sonic shower in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." More recently, "Star Trek: Lower Decks" poked a bit of fun at them. The one used by Dr. M'Benga in "Under the Cloak of War" is consistent with the ones we've seen before, with a glowing honeycomb pattern on the wall.

The problem faced by the Enterprise in "Subspace Rhapsody" goes beyond the fact that everyone is forced to sing and dance. They're stuck performing elaborate musical numbers because their musical communication dislodged a quantum uncertainty field that "collapsed so rapidly and randomly" that it put them into contact with a musical reality, where singing and dancing is apparently motivated by their emotional state. To reverse the effect they have to close the subspace fold, and that means tying in the ship's Heisenberg compensator, a part of the ship we've heard about a few times before.

First mentioned in the "TNG" episode "Ship in a Bottle," the Heisenberg compensator is a part of the transporter system. It allows the targeting scanners to locate the exact movement and position of the most minute particles. It gets its name from the fact that it's compensating for the Uncertainty Principle, formulated by renowned German physicist Werner Heisenberg. "The uncertainty principle states that we cannot know both the position and speed of a particle, such as a photon or electron, with perfect accuracy; the more we nail down the particle's position, the less we know about its speed and vice versa," The California Institute of Technology explains.

This didn't work for "Star Trek" writers, who came up with the Heisenberg compensator and invented the whole subspace concept to circumnavigate this pesky principle. As such, it makes perfect sense that Spock would suggest using the Heisenberg compensator in an effort to fix a problem involving a subspace quantum uncertainty field. Later, we see the two Kirk brothers James and Sam working on the compensator. Like its counterpart on "TNG," it is located directly beneath the ship's main transporter pad, which was first seen in the 1992 episode "Realm of Fear."

The star maps in "Star Trek" have always been packed with Easter eggs, and with the new Enterprise on "Strange New Worlds" using massive display screens, it makes them even easier to spot. In "Subspace Rhapsody," Pike and Spock look over a star chart of the sector being impacted by the quantum uncertainty field, and it shows not just Federation space, but the bordering Klingon Empire, too. This gives us a look at some deep-cut references that harken back to some classic "Star Trek" installments from days gone by.

The first is the presence of Forcas, a system whose third planet was mentioned in the "TNG" episode "Parallels." This reference might not be a coincidence because that story also involved alternate quantum realities, with Lt. Worf being shifted between a string of alternate universes. The story is kicked off with his return from a bat'leth tournament on Forcas III, which we now know isn't far from Federation space.

Another key location on the star chart is Ya'vang, a Klingon planetary system. Fans of "Deep Space Nine" may recall that in Season 6 episode "You Are Cordially Invited...," Worf's son Alexander and much of the crew of General Martok's IKS Rotarran get reassigned to another Klingon ship named the IKS Ya'vang.

The locations on the Federation side of the star chart in "Subspace Rhapsody" also have a few interesting callouts. First is Persephone, a star system that's been explored in past episodes. In the first season of "The Next Generation," during the episode "Too Short A Season," the Enterprise-D led by Captain Picard visited Persephone V to pick up Starfleet Admiral Jameson. Decades later, in the first season of "Strange New Worlds," Persephone III was the planet that Pike's crew had to protect from an approaching stellar body in "Children of the Comet."

The most delightful Easter egg on the map might be Cait, a planet with a long history in "Star Trek" but which hasn't become that important until lately. It's the homeworld of the feline-like Caitians, who made their debut in the short-lived "Star Trek: The Animated Series." The show featured Caitian bridge officer Lt. M'Ress, a communications officer. Aside from background cameos in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" and "Star Trek Into Darkness," Caitians wouldn't return until 2020. That year, "Star Trek: Lower Decks" debuted, which features Caitian sciences division officer T'Ana.

Joining the recurring cast of "Strange New Worlds" in Season 2 was Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk. In "Subspace Rhapsody," he returns, arriving on the Enterprise for some first officer training to prepare him for his promotion aboard the USS Farragut. His arrival also sets him up for an emotional meeting with La'An Noonien-Singh, who fell in love with his alternate universe counterpart a few episodes earlier. After finally opening up about her experience with his doppelganger, La'An is shocked to discover that Kirk isn't available: He has a girlfriend, and her name is Carol.

The Carol in question is surely Carol Marcus, a scientist who we met in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." In that film, she comes back into Kirk's life and introduces him to his adult son David. We also learn that Carol had demanded Kirk stay out of their lives years before. Fans have for decades debated when exactly Kirk learned that he had a son and when he had his falling out with Carol. In "Subspace Rhapsody," we finally get concrete answers, because the younger Lt. Kirk in this episode reveals that Carol — stationed on Starbase One — is pregnant.

It's worth noting that this revelation also finally gives us new information on David, as his birth within a year of the events of this episode would make him roughly 25 at the time of his death in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock."

Music has always been a big part of "Star Trek," long before "Subspace Rhapsody" was dreamed up. Since it premiered in 1966, the franchise has been delighting audiences with some of the most memorable themes and musical scores in sci-fi history, both on the small screen and the big one. While "Strange New Worlds" incorporates elements of the original intro music from the classic series into its opening titles, "Subspace Rhapsody" goes one step further.

After the crew has successfully closed the subspace fold, the last full musical number comes to a close on the bridge, and the episode's actual score kicks in. This is not a newly written piece of closing music, but the ending of the original theme song — the same one that played at the beginning and end of each episode in the 1960s. This might go over the heads of some fans, but those in the know will have no trouble identifying the iconic music.

The season finale of "Strange New Worlds" Season 2 doesn't begin on the Enterprise but instead focuses on Captain Batel and the crew of the USS Cayuga. They're visiting a Federation colony set up on a remote world that's patterned itself after an early 21st century midwestern American town. While this was probably done to save on production costs, it's also a nice nod to the history of "Star Trek." As far back as the 1960s, the crew of the Enterprise often visited planets where the surroundings were modeled on what life looked like in America at the time, or in the relatively recent past.

This includes classic episodes like "A Piece of the Action" — where Kirk and Spock visit an alien planet that looks like 1920s Chicago and come into conflict with a group of gangsters. It happened a season earlier too, in "The Return of the Archons," where Kirk and crew discover the people of Beta III have recreated the society of 19th century Earth. The "Next Generation" episode "Casino Royale" saw a recreation of an Earth casino on an alien planet, while the episode "North Star" in "Star Trek: Enterprise" had the crew visit a planet patterned after the Old West.

Though the reasons for these recreations vary in each story, the much-maligned "Next Generation" episode "Sub Rosa" had a similar Federation colony intentionally designed to look like 'Old Earth', in that case, 19th century Scotland.

The previous episode, "Subspace Rhapsody," brought back the time-honored tradition of using a simplistic analogy to describe a problem, and in "Hegemony" they use a little bit of pop culture to do the same. While Pike and an away team head down to look for survivors of a Gorn attack, Mr. Spock and Number One try to find a way of getting communications working again without crossing into the Gorn's stated territory. The solution can be found in the debris of the USS Cayuga, which the Gorn left destroyed in orbit: They'll modify a shuttle to appear as a piece of additional debris to elude Gorn sensors. This is a plan that Number One likens to "an old zombie movie trick."

Though Spock is confused by the analogy, Number One clarifies, and describes how in old zombie movies, survivors would dress and act like zombies themselves to move about undetected and evade the living dead. This tactic was indeed a zombie movie favorite and was even resurrected in "The Walking Dead," and parodied in Edgar Wright's "Shaun of the Dead." 

Of course, the "old zombie movie trick" might not be the best Hollywood analogy for their plan of pretending to be space debris. A similar plan of action was used by Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon in "Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back," but "Strange New World" probably wanted to stay away from comparisons to their rival franchise.

To reestablish a communications link with the away team stuck on the colony below, Uhura and Pelia realize they have to destroy a Gorn device situated on the far side of the planet. If they're going to do it without drawing the attention of the Gorn ships, however, they'll have to rig the remnants of the Cayuga's saucer section with retro rockets to crash it into the surface. To do this, Mr. Spock uses an EV suit to leave the Enterprise and place a series of retro rockets on the Cayuga's hull, in a suspenseful sequence punctuated by a slow, pulse-pounding synth score.

Listen closely, though, and you'll notice something strangely familiar about the music that accompanies the scene: It's a slowed-down, synth version of the original "Star Trek" theme, complete with the ambient notes that open the score. Admittedly, it might be hard for some to pick up on, but once you hear it, it's unmistakable.

"Hegemony" is the first true appearance of the Gorn — at least in live-action — in modern "Star Trek." They haven't been seen properly since a 2004 episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise" set in the mirror universe, but here they get a major facelift, completely redesigned to make them a truly fear-inducing alien race. And because the Gorn are famous for their iconic showdown with Captain Kirk in the 1967 episode "Arena," the Season 2 finale has loads of little homages to that classic installment.

Beyond the musical score reprised from that episode, and other callbacks already mentioned, several plot points pay homage to "Arena." Early in the episode, Admiral April confers with Captain Pike about the Gorn's demand for Starfleet to stay behind a line drawn on a star map, behind which the Federation colony has settled. Not only does this indicate their fiercely territorial nature as seen in "Arena," it mirrors that episode's plot about a Federation outpost inadvertently constructed in Gorn territory. Likewise, the Gorn even uses many of the same tactics in "Hegemony" that are used in "Arena."

This includes their jamming of all communications, as well as luring starships and away teams in with false signals to get the drop on them. Like "Arena," the episode also includes a close-quarters fight between a Gorn and a member of the Enterprise crew — this time Mr. Spock — who gets locked in the Gorn's grip in a battle to the death.

Since "Star Trek: The Next Generation" dropped jaws in 1989 with the Season 3 finale "The Best of Both Worlds" – forcing viewers to wait an entire summer to see if Captain Picard would live or die as a Borg — the season-ending cliffhanger has become a staple of the franchise. Spin-offs "Star Trek: Voyager" and even "Enterprise" repeated the format with regularity, but when "Star Trek" returned to the small screen in 2017, it mostly stayed away from ending its seasons on a direct cliffhanger. 

While "Star Trek: Discovery" finished off its second season with a big question mark, and Season 1 of "Strange New Worlds" left a plot point dangling, every live-action "Star Trek" season finale has thus far concluded its story by the time the credits rolled. "Hegemony," though, breaks that trend, and is the first live-action season finale in this new era that ends with a "To Be Continued." As the episode closes out, Pike is forced to make an unthinkable decision as he's ordered to leave the planet and avoid a fight with the Gorn even after the Cayuga survivors have been beamed away to an enemy ship. 

While fans only had to wait three months to see the conclusion to cliffhangers in the past, "Star Trek" shows these days take almost a year between seasons. To make matters worse, a pair of industry strikes have delayed production indefinitely, and the wait for the conclusion could be a lengthy one.