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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

K'Ellara's "boob window" design was featured on Lursa and B'Etor starting in TNG: "Redemption".

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Grain of salt since I can’t remember where I heard this, but my understanding is that TOS-ENT and the first ten movies is generally a single combined license, but all of the new shows need to be licensed individually, I’m not sure if the Abrams films are licensed as a package or individually, but they’re separate from the other films.