The whales Gracie and George were stated to have wandered into San Francisco as calves. Outside of feeding events which can include the famous bubble nets, humpback whale pods usually consist of a lone mother and calf (or calves) pairing with a trailing "escort" male. Humpbacks are one of the few mammals that can be nursing and still get pregnant. So anyway, the implication seems to be that if they were both calves and coming in the same time as a pod, they must have been orphaned from their mother and part of the same family group. Therefore, when its later revealed that Gracie is pregnant this one question comes to mind:

"Was the pregnancy a product of incest?"

No wonder they were originally going to be called Adam and Evie.

So, the plot in season five of Disco is hunting down clues left behind by scientists who uncovered the technology left behind by a precursor race of alien beings who panspermiad their genetics all over the galaxy, resulting in all your favourite humanoids, like humans, Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians, as seen in the TNG episode, "The Chase".

And the antagonists of the season are not actually the tragically dumb young lovers, Moll and L'ak, but instead appear to be the Breen. We've learned Breen are, as Captain William Shaw might say, goo people. Or at least they're semi-transparent so long as they're within the confines of their refrigeration suit. If L'ak is any indication they can take a more solid, humanoid form, but the Breen appear to prefer to be Sour Patch Kids.

I'm going to speculate that we will learn that the Breen are not actually one of the species who resulted from the Progenitors seeding the galaxy, and as such the Progenitor technology is of limited use for them.

I've known for years that Gene Roddenberry wrote lyrics for Theme from Star Trek so that he could receive 50% of the royalties, but it never occurred to me that I should try and find out what those lyrics were. However, the lyrics did come up recently in a nerdy trivia show I watch, "Uhm, Actually", and now that I know them, I thought it important to share.

Beyond the rim of the star-light

My love is wand'ring in star-flight

I know he'll find in star-clustered reaches

Love, strange love a star woman teaches.

I know his journey ends never

His star trek will go on forever.

But tell him

While he wanders his starry sea

Remember, remember me.

From user Uniderth on Trek BBS

The USS Locherer, a Merian-class starship, was first seen in DIS: “Jinaal”. It is named after the late JP Locherer, who was a cinematographer on DIS before he passed in 2022.

Kovich says he likes the feel of paper. A similar preference for “old-fashioned” books over electronic versions was exhibited by attorney Samuel T. Cogley in TOS: “Court Martial”. Fanon has often held that it was Cogley who passed on his love of physical books to Kirk, who from then on, as Spock noted in ST II, had a fondness for antiques.

Culber’s abuela is of course a simulation, since the real one would have died nearly a millennium before. The use of holograms as grief alleviation therapy was also in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, invented by Tony Stark as seen in Captain America: Civil War. Reflecting current events, people have been trying to AI to recreate the personalities of deceased loved ones.

The list of names are: Jinaal Bix (Trill, “Jinaal”), Carmen Cho (Terran, “Mirrors”), Vellek (Romulan, “Red Directive”), and the two not yet encountered Marina Derex (Betazoid) and Hitoroshi Kreel (Denobulan).

Silver iodide is indeed used in cloud seeding in order to encourage precipitation. Atmospheric extraction is also a very old method of getting water dating back as far back as the Incas. In science fiction, it’s probably best represented by the moisture farms on Tattooine in the Star Wars movies.

Halem’no has a pre-warp and pre-industrial civilization, so the Prime Directive applies. A discussion about whether or not Kreel already violated the PD by putting up the towers in the first place is beyond the scope of these annotations, but I’m looking forward to reading the discussions.

Whistled languages are rare, but exist on Earth, in various cultures. Michael’s enthusiasm for it speaks of her primary training as a xenoanthropologist (DIS: “The Vulcan Hello”).

Subcutaneous transponders date all the way back to the 22nd Century, first appearing in TOS: “Patterns of Force”. Subdermal communicators/transponders also appeared in ENT: “Stratagem”, TNG: “Who Watches the Watchers” and VOY: “Workforce”. This the first appearance of retinal tricorders.

The Halem’nite “sound cure” may look mystical and exotic, but they’re actually just using Tibetan singing bowls, albeit with a more intense effect.

Tilly is using a simplified Newton’s First Law (or the principle of inertia) as a mantra: a body in motion remains in motion in straight line, a body at rest remains at rest - unless acted on by an external force.

Tritanium is a super-hard metal first mentioned in TOS: “Obsession”, being 21.4 times as hard as diamond. In TNG: “The Arsenal of Freedom” Riker claimed that melting tritanium was beyond 24th Century technology. The metal routinely shows up in hulls, walls, tools, ammunition, etc. so while it may not be able to melt, it can certainly be fabricated with.

Culber uses the “they” pronoun to refer to Ravah.

Culber introduces Book to his abuela’s mofongo con pollo al ajillo. Mofongo is a Puerto Rican dish made from plantains mashed with fat. This variation is served with chicken (pollo) with an oil infused with garlic and guajillo chile (al ajillo).

Just had a thought while watching TNG.

In “Code of Honour,” the episode begins as stardate 41235.25. Then, after Natasha is captured, Picard voices that “one whole day” has gone by and the stardate is 41235.32. Does this mean one day in TNG is equal to 0.07 (stardate)? Or do the last 5 numbers have no meaning at all?

I know it’s a widely discussed issue in this community. Maybe I’m on the completely wrong track and maybe there is another consensus. But I thought it would spark conversation. Cheers!

Direct YouTube link

Written by: Kenneth Lin & Brandon Schultz

Directed by: Chris Byrne

Note: Episode 5x07, "Erigah," was released in some regions, presumably by accident, hours ago. If this hasn't been fixed by now, and you are able to watch "Erigah," please don't post spoilers from that episode in this thread. We will create an episode discussion post for that episode once we're confident it has been properly released globally.

• The episode title references the mirror universe, a dark reflection of the familiar reality of Star Trek where humans, or Terrans as they’re more commonly called there, evolved to be more sensitive to light, resulting in everyone tending more towards malevolence, and barbarism, and queer coded villainy. Other episodes involving the mirror universe that reference mirrors, include:

    • “MIrror, Mirror”

    • “Through the Looking Glass”

    • “Shattered Mirror”

    • “In a Mirror, Darkly”

    • “In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II”

• Despite not being Starfleet, Book apparently keeps a personal log. He records the stardate as 866282.9.

    • Other non-Starfleet personnel whom we know kept logs include: Neelix, Seven of Nine, and T’Pring.

• The digital ”Federation Watch List” wanted poster for Moll shows the emblems of:

    • Starfleet

    • Ni’Var

    • United Earth

    • Trill

    • Fernginar

    • Risa

    • Hornish

    • Orion

    • Andoria

    • We also see Orion and Andorian files on Moll, including Orion and Andorian script, first seen in “Borderland” and “The Andorian Incident” respectively.

• Rayner suggests to Burnham that the mission into the wormhole is too dangerous for the ship’s captain to take themselves. Picard says it’s a general policy in “Time’s Arrow” that the captain does not join away teams, and in “Star Trek Nemesis” Data sites a specific regulation. However, no captain we’ve seen other than Picard really observes this regulation.

• On the other side of the wormhole, Burnham and Book find the ISS Enterprise. The ship’s only other appearance was in “Mirror, Mirror”. For this episode, the Constitution-class appearance seen in both DIS and SNW is used for the ship, and redressed SNW sets are used for the interior.

    • In “Despite Yourself”, a wireframe model of the Constitution-class USS Defiant was displayed aboard the USS Discovery; at that time the ship had been in Terran Empire custody for over a 100 years, and appeared to have some alterations to both the nacelle pylons, and the bridge, but apparently when the Terrans got around to building their own Constitution-class, they opted for a configuration closer to the original.

• It was established in “Die Trying” that ”Crossing between universes has been impossible for centuries.”

• ”That was my brother’s station, aboard the USS Enterprise*.”* Burnham was raised by Sarek after the apparent death of her parents, as established in “The Vulcan Hello”.

    • ”I’m sure he was just as ruthless as the rest of them.” We learned in “Crossover” that mirror universe Spock became High Chancellor of the Terran Empire, after being inspired by Kirk in “Mirror, Mirror” and instituted major societal reforms, making the Empire more peaceful, resulting in it being conquered and enslaved by the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance.

    • Book finds a plaque with the story of the mirror Enterprise claiming that they escaped to the prime universe after the High Chancellor was killed for attempting to institute reforms. Presumably this still refers to mirror Spock, though he’s not mentioned by name.

    • Burnham and Book assume the ”Kelpien slave turned rebel leader” who helped the mirror Enterprise escape was mirror Saru, whom we saw in “The Wolf Inside”.

• Burnham find a plush doll of a mirror universe Gorn. Mirror Gorn, of course, also abduct members of other species to use as host bodies/food on their breeding planets, but in the Terran Empire that is considered to be a cuddly trait.

• Moll and L’ak created multiple holographic duplicates of themselves to stymie Book and Burnham. The Doctor did something similar in “Renaissance Man” by filling the holodock with copies of himself to escape Tuvok.

• We learn that L’ak is a Breen, a species whom we the audience have not previously seen outside of their refrigeration suits.

    • In “‘Til Death Do Us Part” Worf claimed that no one had seen a Breen outside their suits and lived. Though in “Indiscretion”, three seasons earlier, Kira and Dukat did incapacitate some Breen and steal their uniforms to use as disguises, so Worf’s claims are about as accurate as usual.

• In flashback we see a station operated and populated by Breen. Though their helmets no longer resemble something a character might wear during a War in the Stars, the asymmetric design of their refrigeration suits is inspired by what we saw in DS9.

• We learn through the flashbacks that Moll was saving latinum to be able to afford to set herself up on a colony in the gamma quadrant that she had never been to, but was described to her by Cleveland Booker as being the perfect home. In the season four episode, “The Galactic Barrier” we saw Tarka’s flashbacks to his developing a relationship with Oros, and their mutual obsession with finding a way to an alternate universe that was supposed to be a paradise.

• Unlike what we’ve seen of the Enterprise in DIS and SNW, it’s mirror counterpart has been upgraded with the same system aboard the USS Discovery A that belches gouts of fire into the bridge whenever it encounters a bit of turbulence.

• During a scuffle with Burnham, L’ak ends up stabbing himself, an advanced fighting technique usually only attempted by the most feared Klingon warriors, such as Kozak in “The House of Quark”, the Torchbearer in “The Vulcan Hello”, and most recently Dak’Rah in “Under the Cloak of War”. L’ak has not quite yet mastered the move though, as he lived.

• We learn that L’ak “Carries the genetic code of the Yod-Thot. Those that rule.” In DS9, Thot was a rank held by Breen flag officers.

• Book asks Burnham if she wants to give Pike’s catchphrase, “Hit it,” but she declines. Presumably Book looked up the catchphrases used by various captains of the Enterprise at some point.

• Detmer and Owosekun get to head a team to fly the mirror Enterprise back to Federation HQ. Rhys, whom it has been established twice this season in “Jinaal” and “Face the Strange” loves the Constitution-class more than any other ship, punches a bulkhead when he hears the news.

• A gormagander is a colloquial referred to as a space whale, and they were introduced in “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”.

• Doctor Culber mentions having died, which he did when Ash Tyler snapped his neck in “Despite Yourself”, his resurrection in “Saints of Imperfection”, and then hosting the Jinaal personality in “Jinaal”.

• The episode was dedicated to Allan “Red” Marceta, a set dresser who passed away in 2022.

Direct YouTube link

Written by: Johanna Lee & Carlos Cisco

Directed by: Jen McGowan

Happy 51st birthday, dear Star Trek! This supercut contains footage from all 13 Star Trek feature films as well as all SIX live action television shows (yes,...

• The arms merchant whom we see Moll and L’ak dealing with appears to be an Annari, who were introduced in the VOY episode, “Nightingale”, which I mention only because I believe it is the first time we’ve seen a member of Delta Quadrant species in DIS, though not the first mention.

    • The weapon he acquired for them is a Krenim “chronophage,” or time bug, which presumably would have originated in the Krenim Imperium, also in the Delta Quadrant, as seen in “Year of Hell” and “Year of Hell, Part II”. In those episodes, the Krenim also had a weapon that manipulated time.

    • Rayner establishes that the time bugs are left over from the Temporal War, which was mentioned in “That Hope Is You, Part 1” as being the reason time travel is outlawed in the 32nd century.

• The Emerald Chain were the antagonist organization of season three of DIS.

• We see that the time bug is what Moll put on Adira’s uniform sleeve at the end of the previous episode, “Jinaal”.

• Burnham appears to keep either a copy of the Vulcan Kir’Shara or a similar artifact in her ready room.

• The opening credits sequence has changed to include both the parts of the key that the Discovery crew have secured being inserted into the ring.

• Burnham and Rayner find themselves being transported between multiple points in the USS Discovery’s existence.

    • The Discovery following Burnham in the Red Angel suit to the future in “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2”.

    • The construction of Discovery apparently in drydock in San Francisco. The first time we saw a starship being constructed at a ground facility was the Kelvin timeline USS Enterprise.

    • Stardate 1051.8, which was the stardate Burnham recorded in her log in “Such Sweet Sorrow” at the beginning of the episode when they’re preparing to abandon Discovery and destroy it, somewhat before the battle with Control depicted here begins. That battle was in “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2”.

    • Stardate 865422.4. Not a stardate previously given, but apparently during the Emerald Chain attack on Discovery in “There Is A Tide…”

    • 27 years in the future.

    • Some point after Discovery arrives in the 32nd century in “Far From Home”, but before the retrofit in “Scavengers”.

    • After Burnham becomes captain in “That Hope is You, Part 2”, but before the destruction of Kwejian in “Kobayashi Maru”.

    • Season one between “Context is For Kings” and “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not For the Lamb’s Cry”.

• The hardhat worn by the technician working aboard the Discovery during construction has the 23rd century symbol for Starfleet’s operations division on it.

• ”Well, he lives outside of time because of his tardigrade DNA.” Obviously. Stamets spliced the DNA of the giant tardigrade with his own in “Choose Your Pain”, and we learned that allowed him to exist outside normal spacetime in the time loop episode, “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”.

• The Temporal Prime Directive was first mentioned in “Future’s End, Part II”.

• Zora is listening to a rendition of “Que Sera, Sera”.

• ”Are you stuck in a time loop now right now, Stamets?” He’s not, but Stamets was the only one aware of being stuck in a time loop in “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”.

• Burnham runs into her younger self. Other characters have met iterations of themselves via time travel in:

    • “Yesteryear” - Spock

    • “Time Squared” - Picard

    • “Firstborn” - Alexander

    • “Visionary” - O’Brien

    • “Children of Time” - Odo; the Dax symbiont

    • “Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night” - Kira

    • “Time’s Orphan” - Molly

    • “Relativity” - Seven of Nine

    • “Endgame” - Janeway

    • “E²” - T’Pol

    • 2009’s “Star Trek” - Spock

    • “A Quality of Mercy” - Pike

• It’s Airiam! From Star Trek! Despite Airiam’s appearance here taking place during season one, it is Airiam’s season two actor, Hannah Cheesman, under the prosthetics.

• It’s Bryce! From Star Trek! Ronnie Rowe Jr. reprises the role he played in seasons one, two and three, before leaving the regular cast, and appearing in only four episodes of season four.

• Burnham demonstrates her familiarity with Owo by mentioning the operations officer joined Starfleet because she wasn’t able to prevent a childhood friend’s death, something Owo told Saru in “Stormy Weather”.

• Burnham convinces Airiam she’s genuine by telling Airiam she sacrifices her life to save everyone else in “Project Daedalus”, an act that none of the rest of the crew believe Airiam would perform.

• ”You love ships, you love the Crossfield.” “Who doesn’t?” Buddy….

• Rayner has to stick a chroniton stabilizer into a field of accelerated time protecting the time bug with his bare hand for some reason, causing the appendage to age rapidly. Picard accidentally stuck his hand in “Timescape”.

Screenshot from DS9 - 101/102 - Emissary

Processed with the Orb of Enhancement:

Raw:

I have been waiting on Star Trek Lower Decks Season 4 to be released on Blu Ray for months, does anyone know where I can buy it?

Amazon listed it last year and it turns out that was in error and searching lists the release as April 16th and yet I can't find it in any where.

I am in the UK