Continuity tie-ins and references in Discovery

[DigiFluid]

I thought it might be fun to try to note the continuity tie-ins now that we finally have new Star Trek on TV (who could have imagined?)

So I rewatched the premiere this afternoon, took some notes, and then spent an unhealthy amount of time on Memory Alpha trying to cross-reference stuff. In this post: Klingons!



Notes from the premiere, episodes 101 and 102....

We meet the Klingon High Council! The High Council was first mentioned way back in TOS, in the classic episode "The Trouble With Tribbles." In their holographic appearance on T'Kuvma's ship, there appear to be about six of them--which is more-or-less consistent with the number of Councillors that we later saw depicted in the High Council's appearances in TNG and DS9.

Appearing on this incarnation of the High Council are a Klingon by the name of Kol, and representatives of the Houses of D'Ghor and Mo'Kai (among the others who are not named yet).

Kol, according to the actor playing him is a member of the House of Kor. Kor is a Klingon who appeared first in TOS's "Errand of Mercy," reappearing in TAS's "The Time Trap," and then finally appearing in three episodes of DS9, going on various quests with Dax.

The House of D'Ghor appeared in the Quark-centric DS9 episode "The House of Quark." D'Ghor (of the DS9 era) is the Klingon who tried to take over Grilka's House by financial chicanery, and who was foiled by Quark's financial skills.

House Mo'Kai is a slightly more obscure reference. Mo'Kai was the House that Klingon-ized Janeway allegedly belonged to, when the Hirogens took over Voyager and had her altered to look like a Klingon in the feature-length episode "The Killing Game."

T'Kuvma himself is a fanatical worshipper/follower of Kahless the Unforgettable, whom we know very well is essentially the founder of Klingon civilization and regarded as a holy icon. A version of Kahless appeared in TOS's "The Savage Curtain," and then later appeared (as a clone) in TNG's "Rightful Heir."

The Klingon homeworld is named here as Qo'noS, consistent with ENT, TNG, DS9, and VOY.

When Burnham is in the EVA suit and kills the Torchbearer on the hull of the Klingon ship, there's a blink-and-you-miss-it shot where blood sprays out of him--pink blood. This is, of course, a reference to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

When the dead Torchbearer is launched from T'Kuvma's ship over to the tomb ship, all the Klingons in the chamber do the 'death howl' that was introduced in the TNG Season 1 episode "Heart of Glory"

During the funeral ceremony, T'Kuvma mentions that the dead Torchbearer will be welcomed into the Black Fleet. While this has not been mentioned in canon before, it was a name and concept introduced in a 1984 TOS novel as being part of the Klingon afterlife--this invention predating the real-world inception of Sto-Vo-Kor. Sto-Vo-Kor, the Klingon afterlife, is also mentioned in these episodes, thereby canonizing the Black Fleet concept and adding it to the official lore.

Rejac, the dead Torchbearer, is another name with its origins in licensed (non-canon) media. One of the modules for the Star Trek RPG refers to "Line Rejac" as a Klingon family.

When T'Kuvma's ship first decloaks, the Shenzhou crew don't understand what they're seeing, they think it has somehow come out of warp without their detecting a warp signature. This is consistent with Starfleet having no idea what cloaking is in the TOS era. Along the same lines: T'Kuvma's new Torchbearer Voq tells the High Council that only he has the ability to make his ships invisible, which also tracks with the Klingons of TOS, who don't have cloaking tech until the movies.

It's stated in dialogue that almost no-one has seen a Klingon "in a hundred years," meaning that there has been virtually zero contact between Earth and the Klingons since the time of Enterprise.

During Burnham's chat with Sarek, he tells her that first contact between the Vulcans and the Klingons happened 240 years ago. Given that we know this episode is set in 2256, that means that this encounter would have been in 2016 - most likely just a reference to when they were filming. But there's more to this as well; they say that the encounter happened at H'atoria. H'atoria was the name of the Klingon colony where Worf was governor in the alternate future timeline we saw in TNG's finale, "All Good Things..."

At one point, it's stated that the last time the Empire and the Federation fought was at Donatu V. Donatu V was first mentioned in TOS's "The Trouble With Tribbles" as the site of a confrontation between the Klingons and the Federation. It was also name-dropped in the TNG episode "Inheritance" as the location of a spaceport.

Toward the end of the episode, when Burnham and Georgiu board T'Kuvma's ship, they get into a fight. T'Kuvma attacks the captain with a weapon that is not a bat'leth, but rather it bears more than a passing resemblence to a mek'leth, which is that short-sword weapon that Worf came to prefer later in TNG and in DS9 (the thing he used to hack off the Borg's arm when on the hull of the Enterprise in First Contact).

And finally...eagle-eared fans may have noticed that the alarm chime that's played on the bridge of T'Kuvma's ship has been played before...on various Klingon ships as an alarm chime, in TOS movies, in TNG, in DS9, and so on.



More later!

[DigiFluid]

Episodes 101-102: Referencing The Original Series

At the start of episode 1, Burnham and Georgiu refer to Starfleet General Order #1, which is of course an obvious reference to what most of us know as the Prime Directive. But there's an extra bit of continuity here as well: the name "General Order 1" and its exact text were first given in the TAS episode "The Magicks of Megas-Tu." The wording was "No starship may interfere with the normal development of any alien life or society."

I'm sure you noticed that Georgiu repeated refers to Burnham as "Number One." And while there's certainly a nod to TNG in there, this was likely meant more as a direct nod to the original TOS pilot episode "The Cage," in which Majel Barrett played the Enterprise's first officer, who was only ever referred to as Number One (hence the term's resurrection in TNG).

I'm sure you also noticed the more obvious prop items as well -- like the TOS-style phaser and flip communicator. That's not all though; if you look at the Starfleet badges on their uniforms, they've also kept consistent with the TOS-era separate icons for separate departments (the star for command/operations, the swirl for sciences, etc). Bonus TNG reference here: the Starfleet badges also show their ranks (Capt Georgiu's has 4 marks on it, Cdr Burnham's has 3, etc.)

There was also a lot of attention paid to little details on the bridge. The background din was very clearly lifted from the TOS bridge, complete with whistles, door whooshes, panel sounds, and of course the red alert sound. At a couple of points you can also see on the monitors (and on robot guy's head) the pulsing red Red Alert screen, which was how Red Alert was shown on screens from Wrath of Khan through Undiscovered Country.

Unlike the shimmery silver (and sometimes blue) Federation transporter effects in later TOS movies all the way through TNG/DS9/VOY, we see here Federation transporters depicted as being yellow and sparkly, keeping consistent with the transporters shown in TOS.

This episode gives us a Stardate of 1207.3, ditching the JJverse Stardate style to make sure that we're consistent with the Prime timeline's style. While "The Cage" (the TOS pilot, set two years pre-Discovery) didn't provide a Stardate, the very first regular episode of TOS, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (set 9 years later in 2265), was 1312.2.

At one point, the dialogue refers to an Andorian colony on Gamma Hydra, six light years away from the binary star system. Gamma Hydra previously (or in the future, if you prefer) came up in TOS's "The Deadly Years," in which radiation from a passing comet killed all life on Gamma Hydra IV. It was also part of the Kobayashi Maru exam as seen in The Wrath of Khan--the student's ship is en route to Gamma Hydra when it receives the Kobayashi Maru's distress call.

One possible other thing I noted, which I fully admit may be me reading into things too much: when Burnham is in the space suit zipping along toward the "artifact," we get a 'wonder' close-up on her face and eyes. I couldn't help but note the similarity here to close-up shots of Spock's face through the EVA suit as he was rocketing toward V'Ger, in The Motion Picture. (Which itself may well have been a reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey).

[DigiFluid]

Other miscellaneous bits and pieces from episodes 1 and 2:

The Shenzhou and other Starfleet ships are specifically mentioned as having phase cannons rather than phasers. This is a reference back to Enterprise, and apparently in the intervening 100 years Starfleet hasn't yet invented phasers (or at least, hasn't installed them on the Shenzhou).

At one point when Burnham is EVA, the shot is on the bridge and an audio tone plays which is distinctly a DS9 Ops chime.

Burnham uses a Vulcan nerve-pinch on Georgiu near the end of episode 1. While explicitly described as difficult for non-Vulcans to learn, this is not without precedent: Archer could do it while carrying Surak's katra, Picard could do it after mind-melding with Sarek, Data could do it, Odo used it in an episode of DS9, and Seven used it on Tuvok in an episode of VOY.

In episode 2, during the flashback to 7 years ago, the Shenzhou's dedication plaque is visible as Georgiu and Burnham exit the turbolift. Every Starfleet ship in every series has had a dedication plaque on its bridge.

The flashbacks to a young Burnham being educated on Vulcan show her in the 'learning pods' that we first saw in the JJverse alternate timeline in Star Trek 2009. For my two cents, this is not an inconsistency. The Narada first appeared (in the alternate timeline) in 2233, which is approximately when these Burnham flashbacks would have been taking place (20ish years ago in 2236, at a guess). As the two timelines are identical up till 2233, I don't think it's at all unreasonable to see Vulcan still using the same technology in the same timeframe in both timelines.



I've only just watched episode 3 less than an hour ago, so no notes on that just yet

[Annoyed]

With 50+ years of material on the shelf, I wonder if maintaining accurate continuity is even possible, regardless of how detail oriented the continuity director / department is. There is just too much that has gone before.

And then there is Jar Jar's alternate timeline. Is Discovery new timeline or original? Or a hybrid?

[aretood2]

With 50+ years of material on the shelf, I wonder if maintaining accurate continuity is even possible, regardless of how detail oriented the continuity director / department is. There is just too much that has gone before.

And then there is Jar Jar's alternate timeline. Is Discovery new timeline or original? Or a hybrid?

Personally, I like to think that Enterprise's Temporal Cold war changed the timeline in some fundamental ways while still retaining the same basic events.

[jelgate]

I personally like to pretend the Temporal Cold War never happened

[DigiFluid]

It may as well have never happened, so far as the other shows are concerned. ENT is set in stone as the canonical events prior to DIS/TOS/TAS/TNG/DS9/VOY, so regardless of what happened in it, the Temporal Cold War changed nothing in the subsequent series.

Just because you read Chapter 10 first, flipping back to read Chapter 3 later and finding it's not what you expected does not mean that Chapter 10 happened differently than you remember.

[P-90_177]

Personally I'm choosing to recognise Discovery as being simultaneously canon AND a reboot.

Clearly the overall style doesn't fit with what we've seen before, so in that regard it's a reboot.

On the other hand I choose to recognise that the conflict between the Klingons and Federation started the way we see it, with all the same characters in place.

[aretood2]

It may as well have never happened, so far as the other shows are concerned. ENT is set in stone as the canonical events prior to DIS/TOS/TAS/TNG/DS9/VOY, so regardless of what happened in it, the Temporal Cold War changed nothing in the subsequent series.

Just because you read Chapter 10 first, flipping back to read Chapter 3 later and finding it's not what you expected does not mean that Chapter 10 happened differently than you remember.

Then we must explain a few things between Kirk's ship and Lorca's ship among other things...My head canon makes sense here. While it preserved the timeline of events, and the basic lives and experience of TOS/TNG/DS9/VOY (TAS is canon? I thought it was like that animated stargate show that we must not speak off?) are preserved. But some how the mundane details such as tech levels, species appearances and so on were changed by the multiple fronts of the Temporal Cold War. That is, that I don't see it as an alternate timeline, but the prime timeline modified.

Personally I'm choosing to recognise Discovery as being simultaneously canon AND a reboot.

Clearly the overall style doesn't fit with what we've seen before, so in that regard it's a reboot.

On the other hand I choose to recognise that the conflict between the Klingons and Federation started the way we see it, with all the same characters in place.

Out of universe, this is exactly what it is. It is a reboot hybrid. It takes the storyline canon of the prime timeline and uses the visuals/tech of the JJverse. What I like about it is that it sorta answers Picard's comment about that "Disastrous first contact" that lead to war. This would have been the first actual official first contact with Federation personnel. Not United Earth, not Vulcan High Command.
But the Federation. A big technicality, but it would make Picard's statement sorta accurate.

[P-90_177]

So I was looking up some Discovery stuff and came across a novel that's already been written that serves as a prequel of sorts and clearly establishes that Pike is still out there in command of the Enterprise. Memory Alpha notes thusly:

Bryan Fuller requested that this novel consist of a crossover between the crews of the Shenzhou and Captain Pike's Enterprise. Mack "addressed the difference in the ships' aesthetics to a human tendency to want to redesign even the simplest things every few years." The differences in technology were also explained: "I posited that the use of subspace holograms had fallen out of favor by the time the Enterprise was built because the holograms were bandwidth hogs on subspace channels and prone to encryption flaws. And while the interfaces on the Shenzhou's bridge look fancier, the characters who serve on the Enterprise feel proud that their ship is so advanced that it doesn’t need all these gadgets to get the job done." Regarding uniforms, "the crews of the Enterprise and other Constitution-class ships are considered elite units, so they’ve been issued special "diplomatic" uniforms to designate their status."

The uniform thing actually almost makes a strange sort of sense. After all the TOS uniforms are unlike anything else we ever see in star trek and the only ships we really encounter in TOS are Constitution class. However there is the stumbling block of how the Dress uniforms appear and how starbases in the TOS also wore the same uniforms.

[Annoyed]

I think we have to accept minor differences in uniforms, console / vessel sets and so forth; If Discovery used accurate recreations of the 1960's sets, it would look rather poor to 2017 eyes.

What shouldn't vary, however, is the actual abilities of the ship. For example, in TOS, Enterprise's design speed was Warp 8 max. In emergency siutations they could could get "a wee bit better than that", and aliens occasionally modified her to reach far greater speeds. This included speeds above Warp 10.

By TNG Era, the warp scale had been redefined so that Warp 10 was a theoretical maximum.

So, Discovery era ships should use the pre-TNG scale, and shouldn't be able to beat the Constitution class speed of Warp 8.

[aretood2]

I do wonder how they got so many reinforcements to come in all at once...were they all equidistant from that star system?

[P-90_177]

I think we have to accept minor differences in uniforms, console / vessel sets and so forth; If Discovery used accurate recreations of the 1960's sets, it would look rather poor to 2017 eyes.

What shouldn't vary, however, is the actual abilities of the ship. For example, in TOS, Enterprise's design speed was Warp 8 max. In emergency siutations they could could get "a wee bit better than that", and aliens occasionally modified her to reach far greater speeds. This included speeds above Warp 10.

By TNG Era, the warp scale had been redefined so that Warp 10 was a theoretical maximum.

So, Discovery era ships should use the pre-TNG scale, and shouldn't be able to beat the Constitution class speed of Warp 8.

True but just because the Enterprise could go at warp 8 it doesn't mean she was the fastest ship in the fleet. Nor does it mean that the Constitution was the largest or even most powerful class in the fleet.

From what I can figure the ships we've seen so far in Discovery are mainly the more specialised types in Starfleet. Long range science vessels and destroyer and frigate types. What the constitutions serve as however are multi-purposes heavy cruisers. They serve on the outer edges of federation space because no one knows what's out there. I suspect that's why the Constitution class bridge looks so much more boxed in than the Discovery designs. They're far more utilitarian to accommodate for greater armaments and hull armour. Not because it is a dedicated warship, but because it is out on the fringes alone and needs all the protection it can get for any situation it might find itself in.

Now over the course of TOS it would seem apparent that Starfleet realises that this approach to ship design is far superior to their Discovery era style which is much more indicative of a "Throw any idea at the wall and see what sticks" approach. Due to the Klingon war Starfleet chooses to standardise their ships towards this utilitarian and more militaristic ideal, which is what leads to the Constitution refit, Miranda and Excelsior classes.

This idea of Starfleet basically being very experimental with ship design in their first 100 years would make sense. After all among the first Starfleet ships for the Federation included the Daedalus class which is completely unlike anything we later see (alternate realities aside.) and come to think of it I love the idea of seeing a Daedalus class ship with a Discovery era design aesthetic.

[Annoyed]

True but just because the Enterprise could go at warp 8 it doesn't mean she was the fastest ship in the fleet. Nor does it mean that the Constitution was the largest or even most powerful class in the fleet.

From what I can figure the ships we've seen so far in Discovery are mainly the more specialised types in Starfleet. Long range science vessels and destroyer and frigate types. What the constitutions serve as however are multi-purposes heavy cruisers. They serve on the outer edges of federation space because no one knows what's out there. I suspect that's why the Constitution class bridge looks so much more boxed in than the Discovery designs. They're far more utilitarian to accommodate for greater armaments and hull armour. Not because it is a dedicated warship, but because it is out on the fringes alone and needs all the protection it can get for any situation it might find itself in.

Were any more powerful or faster Federation craft shown anywhere in TOS? The Constitutions were portrayed as the cream of the crop, weren't they?

[P-90_177]

Were any more powerful or faster Federation craft shown anywhere in TOS? The Constitutions were portrayed as the cream of the crop, weren't they?

Sure but take real life as an example. Whenever a Navy builds the latest warship it may be top of the line technologically but it doesn't mean they're the fastest ship in the fleet. Nor does it mean they have the most weapons.

We do know that the Constitution class ships are very powerful but in Prime canon the Enterprise is still 12 years old by Discovery's year. Enterprise was launched in 2244, Discovery is set in 2256. So there's a lot of leeway that other ships were constructed with better engines and weaponry.

But in Starfleet the fastest and most powerful doesn't always mean best. Because what Starfleet values most are exploratory vessels that are capable of going into deep space without back up or support. That requires a good balance between science and offensive and defensive capabilities. Not a specialisation like the Discovery as a science ship, or the Shenzhou which I suspect served as a sort of Survey craft, but an all rounder that can serve in any situation. That's why the Constitutions are the ones out on the 5 year missions.

Also it should be noted that Constitutions were the ONLY ship class depicted in TOS when other Fed ships were shown other than I think a freighter or two.