Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Episode 5 Easter Eggs & References

| December sixteen, 2021 |

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Saru in Star Trek: Discovery — *Photo: Paramount*

This Star Trek: Discovery commodity contains spoilers for Flavour iv, Episode five.

Post-obit in the footsteps of Flavour three, the first batch of episodes in Star Trek: Discovery Season iv do two things: The overall story of the season-long arc is explored, but, the episode itself presents a standalone story in the classic Star Expedition tradition. Last week, Tilly got her "Galileo Seven" moment, but this week, in "The Examples," DISCO tackles a classic Trek upstanding dilemma.

Equally Burnham and Book navigate the morality of saving prisoners on a doomed colony, "The Examples" front end-loads the episode with a ton of callbacks and Easter eggs to the rest of the franchise. Here's every Easter egg and large reference we spotted in Star Trek: Discovery Season 4, Episode 5…

USS Janeway

Correct away, the episode hits us with a few starship names that sound familiar. The commencement is the USS Janeway, an obvious reference to Helm Janeway from Star Expedition: Voyager , and more than recently, Star Expedition: Prodigy . Interestingly, however, the USS Janeway doesn't appear to be of the souped-upwards 32nd Century "Intrepid Form" ships. Instead, it looks like information technology'southward i of the new Constitution-class ships, kind of like the USS Armstrong, which was referenced in Episode four.

Interestingly, although the Voyager-J is a 32nd Century Intrepid Class when this way of transport was incorporated into the game Star Trek: Online , a variant grade was called "Janeway-class."

The T'Pau

The other ship, which is almost certainly from Ni'Var, is chosen "the T'Pau." This references the character T'Pau, first introduced in the TOS episode "Amok Time," and after appeared in the Enterprise iii-parter which began with "The Forge." In the TNG episode "Unification I," Geordi and Riker are also trying to analyze the wreckage of a Vulcan send called the T'Pau, proving that this is one Easter egg Star Expedition loves; naming Vulcan ships later the lady who officiated Spock'south nuptials.

Vance name-drops a lot of god-similar alien species

If someone asks you if yous are a space god, you lot say…yes! In trying to figure out diverse candidates as to who could accept constructed the DMA, Admiral Vance throws out some very deep cuts to aliens who might have had the super-advanced tech to melt up this artificially constructed space wave of doom. Although the DMA kind of looks like V'ger from The Motility Moving picture , nobody mentions V'ger,and V'ger continues not to go the dearest information technology needs.

Just, Vance does mention the following 4 groups

Metrons– These were the god-similar beings who forced Kirk to fight the Gorn on Cestus 3 in the TOS episode "Arena."
Nacene– A catchy 1. This is the formal proper name for the "Caretaker" species from Voyager . Does DISCO love referencing Voyager or what?!
Iconian Empire- This 1 is such a deep cutting, that, when information technology comes to bodily visual canon, nosotros've non fifty-fifty really seen the Iconian Empire. They originated in the TNG episode "Contamination," and in terms of onscreen catechism are technically extinct. The big thing they're known for is their "gateways," which can instantly send people across space. Not to exist confused with the Tkon Empire, another super-powerful extinct empire from "The Last Outpost."
Q Continuum – Vance says there hasn't been contact with the Q in "600 years." Past this, we accept to assume reported contact. The events of Picard take identify over 700 years prior to Discovery seasons 3 and 4. So that checks out. Merely does this mean the Q have ignored the mere mortals of the galaxy for vi centuries? Why?

Working with Aurelio

We're told hotshot scientist Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle) is "working with Aurelio," on research about the DMA. Aurelio is the homo scientist, formally working for the Emerald Chain, introduced in Discovery Season 3. Although he doesn't appear in this episode, is played past longtime Discovery star, Kenneth Mitchell.

No Owosekun or Detmer upwardly front

Notably, this episode is one of the start times we don't see Owosekun and Detmer in their usual positions at the ops station, and at the helm. Instead, there are two new characters, upfront. This isn't an Easter egg exactly, but information technology does mean that the crew of Discovery seems to finally be on some kind of sensible shift rotation.

Tig Notaro in opening credits

Although Tig Notaro's Jett Reno has appeared as a semi-regular since the start of Discovery Season ii, the opening credits for this episode seem to give her a promotion to series regular! Cool.

"Non harming the jahSepp"

Stamets mentions that he's been giving notes to Ruon Tarka about "not harming the jahSepp." This references the conflicting species, the jahSepp, who live inside of the mycelial network. The jahSepp were first revealed in Discovery Season 2, and for much of that flavor, took the form of May Ahearn (Bahia Watson), someone Tilly had known as a child.

"The Examples" and the Prime Directive

The premise of this episode of Discovery presents a somewhat classic Star Trek upstanding dilemma. Although the government of this colony doesn't autumn nether the Prime Directive, the people themselves are not Federation citizens. In all of Star Trek canon, the idea that a planet tin can be contacted, but not messed with is murky, and it almost ever has to do with the planet being a non-Federation globe. In Deep Space Nine , Sisko oftentimes had to take a step back from internal diplomacy on Bajor, even though he didn't want to. In The Next Generation, Picard couldn't straight influence the political diplomacy of the Klingon Empire, even though he totally did. But, on the other mitt, when Worf murdered Duras, Picard was in a legal grey area; by Federation law it was illegal, but under Klingon constabulary, it wasn't at all.

Book's negative reaction to Burnham granting autonomy that results in suicide isn't an intentional Easter egg, but it does repeat Lwaxana Troi'south reaction to ritualistic suicide in the TNG episode "Half a Life." Interestingly, that planet, Kaelon II, was also a non-Federation government.

TLDR: When not-Federation planets are involved, Starfleet tends to get kind of Prime Directive-y, fifty-fifty if the exact dominion doesn't use.

A reference to Battlestar Galactica, 1978?

This is probably a stretch, only the idea of symbolic prisoners, serving out entirely unfair sentences vaguely echoes an episode of the 1978 Battlestar Galactica called "The Long Patrol." In it, Starbuck (Dirk Bridegroom) crashlands on a planet populated by prisoners who are in jail for crimes committed by their ancestors. As such, they all take names like "Bootlegger 137." It likewise leads to the classic question: "what kind of crime is star-bucking?" Okay, BSG digression over.

"Counted Cards at a Tongo Club"

1 of the prisoners in "The Examples," mentioned that their law-breaking was that they "counted cards at a tongo gild." Tongo is a game that first appeared on Deep Space Nine , and is, seemingly, a Ferengi game. Like many sci-fi card games (see, sabacc in Star Wars), the rules of tongo are a trivial odd. It is a card game, only it besides has a spinning bicycle element to it, too. In DS9 , Dax was a tongo shark.

Culber's burden…bridge crew always come back

In a show-stopping therapy session, David Cronenberg'south Dr. Kovich reminds Dr. Culber — and the audience — of a somewhat unresolved plot point. "Yous died," Kovich says to Culber, and and so mentions that his official file was fairly generic in terms of how Culber recovered from that experience, emotionally. This references the events of "Saints of Imperfection," in Flavour 2 as well as "If Memory Serves…" But, more than broadly, this addresses an interesting trope in Star Trek, which Lower Decks interestingly tackled this year, too. Very oftentimes in Trek canon, major characters come back from having died. In LDS Season 2, this was turned into an within joke; insofar as inferior officers would often be entirely in the dark as to why a expressionless character returned to life…and active duty immediately!

With Culber and Kovich's conversation in this episode does something like: address a very common Star Trek trope, with a new level of scrutiny. This time though, what Kovich says is pretty smart: If someone did die and come up back to life, they might develop a martyr complex right away. Which, oddly enough, explains quite a fleck of Star Trek narratives from a physiological indicate of view.

It's a lot to unpack, simply Kovich'due south 10 minutes are upwards!

Phaser beams

When Burnham and Volume disable the forcefulness field surrounding the prison, their phasers emit solid beams. This is a pocket-size thing, but this rarely happens in Discovery . Although solid beams from phasers are a staple of the franchise before the 21st century, the post-Abrams era has seen most phasers fire little pew-pew bolts. In the Season 2 finale of Discovery , "Such Sweet Sorrow Role two," we did run into the Enterprise fire solid blue phaser beams, every bit information technology oftentimes did in TOS . In DISCO Season 3, we saw Burnham's new phaser fire a solid blueish beam when she was using it to cauterize a wound in her leg. And hither again, Burnham and Volume's phasers are emitting solid beams, kind of like an former-school TNG effect.

Information technology's a small affair, but for longtime Trekkies, it'south pretty absurd.

Risa

The biggest news in this episode is easily the introduction of Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle). While nosotros have no idea what the bargain is with that thing that Book spotted on his neck, we do know that the tattoo on his caput means he's from the planet Risa. In "The Examples," he jokes dismissively almost being from "the pleasure planet." Risa was first introduced in the TNG episode, "Captain'south Holiday," and has subsequently been referenced throughout the franchise.

Interestingly, there's never really been a major character on Star Trek from Risa though. As Tarka implies, it's a place people visit, but we oasis't ever really heard of anyone leaving there. Information technology seems unlikely that Discovery is going to have a holiday to Risa anytime shortly, but if Tarka sticks effectually this season, nosotros could encounter the planet again. For him, Risa isn't a vacation. It's home.

Star Expedition: Discovery airs new episodes on Thursdays on Paramount+.