Bat'leth-man.

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

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

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

She's definitely missed.

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

https://www.alltheasiansonstartrek.com/

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

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

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

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

Great notes, as always.

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

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

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

Nice notes, as usual.

V’Ger is the antagonist in TMP

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

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

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

Nurse Westlake is named after Chris Westlake

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

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

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

I'd probably just start the PIC era in 2399. We only see the 2380's in a handful of flashbacks. Prodigy definitely has some PIC connections, but it's far more a continuation of Voyager, and it starts like a year after season 5 of Lower Decks.

Fun fact: The TNG episode of the same name was originally intended to star Patrick McGoohan as Ira Graves.

Not only do you not need to catch up with Disco, but the end of season 2 of Disco doesn't dovetail to the beginning of Strange New Worlds super-well when you watch them back-to-back; if anything, they feel like they lightly contradict each other.

Though if I were to recommend a single episode it would be "Through the Valley of Shadows" from season 2, which is probably the only "important" episode as far as Strange New Worlds goes, though the key stuff gets recapped in SNW.

The Short Treks episode Q&A gets some references in the series too, though if you don't watch it you likely won't realize you missed anything.