Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 4 – Easter Eggs and Reference Guide
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 4
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ fourth and final episode, “Memento Mori,” is its darkest yet. There are lots of nods to The Original Series, the classic films, and an interesting sideways nod to Lower Decks. It continues the grittier vibe from Discovery, which also references the rough-and-tumble nature of The Original series.
Security officer’s log
Strange New Worlds episode 4 continues the tradition started in episode 2, “Children of the Comet,” in which the episode begins with a different person’s log entry. We’ve now had log entries from Uhura, Number One, and now, La’an frame three separate episodes.
Starfleet Remembrance Day Pins
The Farragut is probably a reference to the ship James T. Kirk served on in roughly 2257, which would be just a few years before this episode. Yorktown was an early candidate for the name of the Enterprise. And, the Kongo popped up in several older Star Trek books, starting with The Making of Star Trek, which lists it as possibly one of several sister ships.
S.S. Puget Sound
Named for a region in Washington state, it’s a non-Starfleet vessel, but appears to belong to the Federation at least as much as the Klingons. The jackets worn by her and her brother in flashbacks indicate they were crew members of the same ship.
Spock says “SEN-SORS”
Spock’s pronunciation of the word “sensors” is consistent with Leonard Nimoy’s pronunciation in The Original Series. In the Lower Decks episode “Moist Vessel,” Mariner balked when Admiral Vassery pronounced the word this way.
DISCO phaser rifles
Some of the landing party are carrying phaser rifles – similar to the ones used by Captain Georgiou and Michael Burnham in the first episode of the series.
TOS music cues
There’s a lot of TOS-inspired music in this score, including drums and cues reminiscent of “Arena,” the first episode of the series about the Gorn.
Deep-space transfer tube
Discovery Season 2 Episode 1 – “Such Sweet Sorrow Part 1” – shows the crew of the Discovery being transferred from the ship to the space station, the Enterprise. The Enterprise uses a physical transfer tube to move people off of the freighter.
Sound weapons
The survivors of the Gorn attack mention a “loud ringing sound,” which later is postulated to be an “ultrasonic canon”. This references similar Gorn tactics in the TOS episode “Arena” and refers to similar tactics used by the Rom at the start of the Star Trek series.
Flying blind in the Brown Dwarf
The notion that the Enterprise and the Gorn ships can’t use their shields or sensors in close proximity to the Brown Dwarf seems to reference the Mutara Nebula in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. In that film, the Enterprise heads into a nebula so Reliant can’t see them, and nobody has shields.
“Memento Mori,” was designed to reference the TOS episode “Balance of Terror,” as well as WWII submarine films, and this also connects to Wrath. Nicholas Meyer was inspired by submarine warfare for The Wrath of Khan as well. In real life, the 40th anniversary of The Wrath Of Khan is on June 4, pretty much one week after “Mementa Mori,” will have aired.
“Matter synthesizers”
In an episode of Star Trek: Discovery, Dr. M’Benga mentions “matter synthesizers,” going offline. Think of this as a forerunner to the replicator. In The Next Generation, food replicators were used throughout the ship’s galley on board the USS Enterprise.
Archaeological medicine
M’Benga mentions that Chapel has an interest in “archaeological medicine,” which would include sewing up wounds with a needle. This slightly references Bones getting totally grossed out by 20-century hospitals in “The City on the Edge of Forever,” in TOS.
You just turned a compass into a radar
In this episode, Captain James Tiberius Spock modifies navigation tech on the Enterprise to locate the Gorn ships. The sound effect used is pretty much spot-on the same as it was in The Original Series, specifically in “Balance Of Terror”.
Photon Torpedo location
The photon torpedoes are launched from right under the middle of the saucer section of the Starship Enterprise, just like they were in the original Star Trek films.
Cutting off the lower decks
The phrase “lower decks” comes from The Original Series episode “Day of the Dove,” where hundreds of crew members are cut off from the rest of the ship on the lower decks. In Strange New Worlds, both Kyle and Uhura could be viewed as “lower deckers” in the same way.
Dive dive dive
Ortegas says “dive dive dive.” This references submarine warfare, specifically the 1958 film Run Silent, Run Deep.
“Take the Galileo”
Pike tells Spock and La’an to “take the Galileo.” This is, arguably, the most famous Enterprise shuttle of them all, specifically from the TOS episode “The Galileo Seven”
Spock and Michael Burnham in Discovery
At one point, she hears Michael Burnham’s voice saying to Spock, “I love you too, brother”. This comes from the Season 2 finale, when Spock tearfully sees Michael off for the last time. Of note, there’s no sign of Michael’s face, meaning the secret of his existence is still pretty much safe.
“The Pike Maneuver”
The idea is to make it look like the ship has stopped, even though it hasn’t. This is kind of like “the Picard maneuver,” in which Picard made it look as if the ship was in two places at the same time.
The black hole effect
The black hole effect used reflects current thinking from astrophysicists in terms of what black holes “really” look like. This black hole looks similar to the illusionary black hole from Discovery Season 2, in the episode “If Memory Serves”. The scene in which the Enterprise escapes the black hole and then flies triumphantly seems to visually reference the opening montage in Lower Decks.
