The meaning of the title becomes obvious at the conclusion of the episode when we discover that Ortegas' ordeal is an observational experiment.

It is Stardate 2198.7. Ortegas mentions that the strange phenomena that the region of space is known for is “the kind of thing Division 12 usually looks into.” This is the first mention of such a division, which in context might imply a kind of X-Files type investigative branch of Starfleet.

Ortegas keeps a picture of her kid brother Beto (she mutters in Spanish, “hermanito”) on her mantle, along with models of planes; one is a SR-71 Blackbird but I’m not sure what the others are.

The science lab Spock and Uhura are in is the same set as was used for La’An’s katra-space in the previous episode, which appeared to contain Cetacean Ops. “Let’s light this candle,” was said by astronaut Alan Shepard when he was about to become as the first American in space on May 5, 1961, in frustration when the engineers were still debating whether to launch Freedom 7.

Ortegas is flying the shuttle Archimedes, named for the Greek philosopher best associated with the phrase “eureka” which, according to legend, he shouted when discovering the principle of displacement. In 2381, the Obena-class starship USS Archimedes was commanded by CAPT Sonya Gomez (LD: “First First Contact”). We also see that Archimedes is outfitted with blast shields.

“Five by five” is an expression that means everything is fine, or optimal. It dates back to World War II, measuring the strength and clarify of a radio signal (on a scale of 1 to 5). Una asks if Pike is jealous, referring to his first assignment out of the Academy as a test pilot (DIS: “Light and Shadows”).

Ortegas says her stardate is unknown, probably because her location is unknown. This goes back to the TOS series bible, which stated: “Stardates are a mathematical formula which varies depending on location in the galaxy, velocity of travel, and other factors, can vary widely from episode to episode.” This was to provide a Watsonian explanation as to why stardates in consecutive episodes might be out of sequence, and so writers didn’t need to worry about being sequential with stardates in other episodes.

Wormholes are indeed notoriously unstable, although some can remain stable for a long time, like the Barzan wormhole (TNG: “The Price”). The only known completely stable wormhole is the Bajoran wormhole connecting the Denorios Belt in the Bajoran System with the Gamma Quadrant, but that wormhole is constructed by the Prophets.

The USS Constellation (NCC-1017) was a Constitution-class starship which was under the command of CDRE (at this point CAPT) Matthew Decker when it was destroyed by the Planet Killer five years from now in 2267 (TOS: “The Doomsday Machine”). This is the first mention of Epsilon Indi III, although Epsilon Indi II and IV have been mentioned prior (TNG: “Eye of the Beholder” and DIS: “Terra Firma, Part 1” respectively). Epsilon Indi is a trinary star system 12 ly from Earth.

There is a very TOS/Sol Kaplan-ish music cue when Ortegas spots the Gorn, but I’m uncertain if it’s taken from TOS: “Arena”.

Uhura calls her shuttle simulation Kamili Alpha One. As mentioned in SNW: “Lost in Translation”, Kamili was the name of her pet cat, the name meaning “perfect” in Swahili.

The most famous example of the “enemies working together for survival” trope in science fiction is the 1979 novella Enemy Mine by Barry B. Longyear which was adapted into a movie in 1985. In Star Trek, the trope appears several times but is closest to the novella in TNG: “The Enemy”, TNG: "Darmok", DS9: “The Ascent” and ENT: “Dawn”, in that the reluctant alliance takes place in when both are stranded in a hostile environment.

Enterprise uses a static warp field to try and prop the wormhole open. In TNG: “Remember Me”, Wesley creates a static warp field, or bubble, in an attempt to recreate the Traveler’s actions in TNG: “Where No One Has Gone Before” but it results in the creation of a pocket universe when Beverley Crusher is caught in it. In TNG: “All Good Things…”, a static warp shell acted as a subspace barrier between time and anti-time. The gas giant has 396 moons. In contrast, Saturn has 274 moons as of 2025.

The idea of sending up a flare was also used in TOS: “The Galileo Seven” when Spock jettisoned the shuttle’s remaining fuel and ignited it, creating a signal that Enterprise could see. I leave it to your head canon as to whether now we can say Spock got this idea from Ortegas.

The alien that appears before Ortegas is a Metron, dressed in Roman/Greek-esque fashion like the Metron who appeared to Kirk did in TOS: “Arena”. The Metron’s reference to resetting the memory of the Gorn for humans in future is a way to resolve the biggest discontinuity between SNW and “Arena”, namely why Starfleet doesn’t seem to have heard of the Gorn (or the Metrons) despite them being major antagonists in SNW.

Consider this a reminder for people currently watching Star Trek, old and new.

Logic and controlled emotion aren't inherent to being a Vulcan. Somehow gaining Vulcan traits, or biologically transforming into a Vulcan, will not make you logical and emotionless. In fact, quite the opposite would happen.

Vulcans used to be warlike, barbaric (as Spock would describe them) and nearly wiped themselves out. It was the teaching of Surak in the philosophy of pure logic, after centuries of war, that made Vulcans what they are today. Vulcans do this by training logic and emotional control throughout their childhood and teenage years. Ultimately culminating in Kolinahr, the final stage to "purge emotion". But Vulcans still experience emotion, and their state of control is something that requires constant maintenance through meditation and practice.

Vulcans are far more emotional and passionate than even Humans. If a Human so much as houses a portion of a Vulcan's Katra (the mind/spirit), said Human would struggle immensely to keep their feeling under control.

I'm writing all this because I'm getting the feeling that this very important part about Vulcans is being forgotten (perhaps more-so by the current writers of Star Trek).

Yes I know I'm behind everyone else!

First the away team spends a long time debating if they should proceed or... step outside for five seconds to call the ship. They ultimately decide that stepping outside for five seconds is not feasible.

But then literally one minute later Ensign Gamble is somehow beamed up. Presumably they must have called the ship to do this? Did they just... leave out the part about the (now obvious and real) danger? Was there a scene where Pike said "ok yeah his eyes are gone but you can keep going"?

Then later in the episode the away team spends a long time talking about trust and friendship while debating if they should walk on an invisible walkway instead of just like, I don't know, tapping it lightly with their toe or throwing a pebble on it first?

The Ensign Gamble B-plot was good and freaky and featured some great acting by everyone involved. But the A plot felt like it was vibe-scripted! I love SNW but come on.

The “half” refers to Spock, who is only half-Vulcan.

The Stardate is 3111.1, and Enterprise is headed for Purmantee III where the crew will take shore leave. Una says La’An, of all people would understand why she’s remaining on board, as she likes to do work when it’s quiet. Indeed, the two did that in SNW: “Spock Amok” when the crew was on shore leave in Starbase 1. This is the first mention of Greerian cocktails.

Vice-Admiral Pasalk is a Vulcan who headed the JAG office in SNW: “Ad Astra Per Aspera”. He also has an antagonistic relationship with Spock, although that is only apparent to people who can read Vulcan body language, like M’Benga. Batel was a JAG officer who was then promoted to command, being recalled to JAG duty for Una’s trial in that episode.

Tezaar is an M-class planet (Minshara-class, as per ENT: “Strange New World”), capable of supporting humanoid life, but are not warp capable, hence protected by the Prime Directive. Spock explains that the Vulcans made contact with Tezaar before the founding of the Federation (in 2161), but we know that Vulcans had their own non-interference directives long before before official First Contact with Earth in 2063 (see ENT: “Carbon Creek”), as La’An points out.

Spock was turned human and back again by the Kerkhovians in SNW: “Charades”. Pike being overwhelmed by emotions is an expected response, as Vulcans feel emotions much more intensely than humans, hence the necessity to practice arie’mnu (passion’s mastery) to control them. However, given this is a learned response, the sudden snap to “emotionless” Vulcans requires some explanation.

The song is “Reckless Youth” by indie group The Home of Happy. Pike is carrying a lirpa, a traditional Vulcan weapon first seen in TOS: “Amok Time”. Ortegas mentioned she had fought with a lirpa in “Spock Amok”. The away team also carries cylindrical hardshell duffle bags, which were first seen in TNG. Music reminiscent of the Vulcan fight music of “Amok Time” can also be heard as part of the soundtrack.

Pike’s opening narration for this episode is in a stilted manner, as a nod to his status as a Vulcan.

Una’s explanation for why the away team is acting so coldly is because the serum was derived from Spock’s “perceived experiences”, leading them to assume the manners that Vulcans normally years to develop. That being said, how a serum can be based on “experiences” is not explained.

Kirk’s mention of Sam reminds me that we haven’t seen him since SNW: “Through the Lens of Time”.

It is well established that Vulcans have an enhanced sense of smell compared to humans and that they find human odors unpleasant. As mentioned in ENT: “The Andorian Incident” and “Spock Amok”, Vulcans take nasal suppressants/numbing agents to help with this.

La’An’s obsession towards martial matters and conquest is meant to seem Romulan in nature (as Kirk says, aggressive and manipulative) but as we find out later, it’s her Augment ancestry influencing her Vulcan state.

It’s interesting that M’Benga and Spock are now talking openly about katras, when it was first presented as a deeply personal thing to Vulcans (Sarek says in ST III that Spock would not have spoken of it openly). But then again mind melds were also supposed to be things Vulcans didn’t talk about (TOS: “Dagger of the Mind”).

Pike’s allusion to a mission he is not permitted to discuss is his knowledge of the Romulans gained on a trip into an alternate future (SNW: “A Quality of Mercy”). La’An learned about Romulans while also time traveling in SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”.

Someone on Lemmy has pointed out that Ortegas' reference to sandwiches with fries inside them (and the name "Purmantee") is likely a reference to Primanti Bros., a Pittsburgh-based sandwich chain famous for having fries and slaw packed inside their sandwiches.

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of mending broken ceramics by filling in the gaps between shards with a metallic lacquer made from gold or sometimes silver. The philosophy behind the practice is to embrace imperfections and find beauty in them instead of keeping them hidden.

15 years puts the end of Una and Doug’s romance in 2244, a year before Enterprise was launched. My best guesses put Una at around 42 years of age (I’ll spare you the math) so she last broke up with Doug when she was 27.

Batel says Pasalk used to call Pike “the human with inappropriate hair”, which is clearly a meta joke as Pike’s hair is a frequent topic of conversation among fans.

Doug attributes Spock’s ability to lie to his human heritage and claims that as a full-blooded Vulcan he cannot lie, but full-blooded Vulcans have been known to lie (or at least obfuscate) before - especially T’Pol and Tuvok - on numerous occasions.

Kirk says he’s served under Vulcans. The current CO of Farragut is V’Rel, a Vulcan female captain.

La’An’s katra space includes a lab with beluga whales, which might suggest that Enterprise, even at this point in time, has a Cetacean Ops department. Cetacean Ops was a throwaway piece of background dialogue in TNG: “Yesterday’s Enterprise” and then elaborated on in the 1992 TNG Technical Manual as well as included on the 1996 Galaxy-class blueprints. The Tech Manual mentioned that Enterprise-D had two whales who helped in navigation. The USS Cerritos’s own Cetacean Ops was mentioned in LD: “Second Contact” and finally seen - the first time Cetacean Ops had been shown on-screen in any Star Trek series - in LD: “First First Contact”. A Cetecean Ops has also appeared in PRO, on the Lamarr-class Voyager-A.

Plomeekkatra is a traditional Vulcan dish, which can be bland or spicy. Chapel made plomeek soup for Spock in “Amok Time”, although Spock, in the throes of pon farr, threw the bowl into the corridor.

It appears that we are meant to believe that it was Kirk who introduced Scotty to the pleasures of Scotch.

First Firstthe post-credits scene is that the inability to use contractions was part of the character of Data in TNG (yes, it’s debatable). Also, while his smiles are often wry and subtle, Spock has grinned a number of times before, in TOS: “The Cage”, TOS: “Amok Time” and laughed in SNW: “Children of the Comet” and SNW: “Those Old Scientists”.

Written by: Dana Horgan & Henry Alonso Myers

Directed by: Jordan Canning

thanks to everyone for sharing about Star Trek books! i've never given them much thought but just thanks to your posts i've decided to dive in with my first two books!

i'm getting the first book from the Titan series because i've wanted to see Captain Riker since i was kid, and from the SNW series, since i can't get enough of this crew.

thanks all!

Any series

Treklit has some great offerings. The Relaunch universe books in particular developed coherent serialized storylines and a group of strong authors. There is also a deep library of standalone books from across all eras of the franchise.

By contrast, serialized Star Trek is struggling onscreen. Of the current era, only Prodigy has excelled in serialized storytelling.

So, why not look to the books? Not just to lift an idea like Control or the end of the Borg, but to actually tell a coherent narrative across a season or season?

On Netflix, Prime and Apple, it’s become established that successful streaming shows are often based on novels and novel series. Those streamers have come to understand that novelists, not scriptwriters, excel in laying out long form storytelling, and resources are often better put in having the screenwriters adapt than create from the whole cloth.

Reading a recent interview with Mick Herron, author of the critically acclaimed and popular Slow Horses on Apple, with a second show based on his other books launching this fall, I was struck by the interviewer’s assertion of this truism.

I thought about several of the non franchise shows I enjoy and how many of them are more or less faithful adaptations of books.

I was also struck by the thought that both Skydance and Paramount are quite capable of producing excellent book adaptations for Netflix and Apple. Murderbot is a very current example.

So, what’s holding back Star Trek from exploiting the Vanguard series or the Starfleet Core of Engineers books?

Why insist on giving showrunners resources to keep retelling franchise stories with legacy characters and tropes?

Why not exploit that IP that Paramount already owns by adapting the best of decades of TrekLit?

No answers like, "They're all from Earth", "They're all in some version of Starfleet or United Earth Fleet", etcetera.

Bonus if you can think of other weird ones.

I just finished "A Stitch in Time" and started looking for some other Trek books.

Ended up buying the Millennium trilogy and the Destiny Trilogy.

Was going to start reading Millennium, but when I read the preview/prologue for Destiny before I bought it, it started out with Sisko and Jadzia discovering the derelict remains of the NX-02 Columbia in the Gamma Quadrant, and I was hooked and had to buy/continue reading that one.

Which ones have you read? Any other recommendations?

Oh, also, I'm gonna slightly plug ebooks [dot] com since they have a huge selection of DRM-free books, and all of the Trek books I was looking at were available without DRM. Saves me the hassle of jailbreaking an Amazon purchase or buying it from Amazon and pirating a DRM-free version I can actually use.

Preface: This post may include spoilers for "A Stitch in Time".

I started on a DS9 re-watch a few weeks ago but paused about halfway through the first season so I could read Andrew Robinson's "A Stitch in Time".

If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. I'll spare you the book report/review, but suffice it to say it puts every one of Garak's scenes in the show in a new light. While I'm aware the novel is not necessarily canon, there's nothing in it that contracts established canon, and nothing since DS9 has contradicted anything portrayed in it. So, that's good enough for me.

There's a lot to take away from the read, but the biggest are all the blanks that are filled in. For starters, Garak's entire affable demeanor is a carefully constructed mask based on training, self-control, patience, and cunning. He's definitely still a good man, honorable even (in his own way), but due to Cardassian culture and its ingrained sense of duty to the state, things get a little gray. And that's before his time with the Order.

Some other takeaways include:

• A recount of his time as a gardener on Romulus which was only mentioned in the show as an offhand remark but you knew was a good story (spoiler: it is)
• His history with Dukat and why there's so much animosity between them (and the reveal of Dukat's non-canon first name)
• A more in-depth look at the emotional toil he was going through leading up to the invasion of the Dominion-controlled Cardassia as well as the lingering hostility toward him from the Bajorans. In the show, we mostly see this as his claustrophobia flares up, but that's just the tip of the iceberg.
• How he ended up in the Obsidian Order as well as some of his missions with them
• Why and how he fell from grace with the Order
• His early life and relationship with Enabran Tain and exactly how much influence Tain had over him from his early life and even after Tain's death.
• The exact circumstances and what it was like when he was first exiled to Terok Nor (he was forced to be a tailor rather than choosing that as a cover)
• How absolutely full of shit Dukat was when he described himself as benevolent toward the Bajorans. The show makes it clear he's not exactly remembering correctly, but the novel makes it clear he was "excessive" in his methods even by Cardassian standards. Marc Alaimo's extremely charismatic performance left you wondering if maybe there was some truth to the way Dukat remembered things, but the book puts that notion to bed.
• And just so much more.

The whole novel added depth to an already deep character that had hidden depths and still left you wanting more. I think my only gripe with the novel was that it wasn't 300 pages longer.

So yeah, looking forward to continuing my DS9 re-watch with Garak's full backstory in mind.

[Spoilers mainly pertaining to the framing device, not the underlying plot]