• The episode opens on a freighter ”Somewhere in the Beta Quadrant”; the ship is modelled off Kivas Fajo’s ship, the Jovis, from the TNG episode “The Most Toys”. The Jovis was itself a kit bash of the studio model for the Husnok warship from “The Survivors”.
• Tendi [Noël Wells] is seen using a holographic disguise to infiltrate this collector’s ship. Mirror Georgiou used a similar holographic disguise while infiltrating Klingon high society as an agent of Section 31 in “Point of Light”.
• The collector, Yorif, is voiced by Eric Bauza, who has portrayed a number of characters in LDS, PRO, and the non-canon Very Short Treks.
• Yorif is of the same species as fellow collector, Palor Toff, who was seen in “The Most Toys”. They even wear a similar golden ribbon piece of headgear, which is established this episode to be prescription.
• Among Yorif’s collection is:
• A Risian horga’hn
• What appears to be the Bajoran tablet that Captain Sisko broke in “The Reckoning”
• A Veltan lust idol - Palor Toff and Kivas Fajo both claimed to own Veltan sex idols in “The Most Toys”
• A gold Ferengi mask that may have been modelled off similar masks made in Ancient China.
• A type-2 phaser of the sort used in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”
• Unlike the Orion interceptor previously seen in “Something Borrowed, Something Green” the one that arrives to pirate Yorif’s vessel does not have a number of spikes on it, or a grapple claw; it does appear to have some extra cannons.
• Yorif’s ship is crewed by Hupyrians. This is the first time we hear a Hupyrian speak, as the ones we’ve seen previously have taken vows of silence as part of their service to the various Ferengi Grand Nagi.
• L’Kar was previously seen in “Something Borrowed, Something Green” and is voiced by Kari Wahlgreen, who has voiced a number of characters in LDS and PRO.
• The opening title now has a warp effect to it. In it’s fifth season, TNG’s title screen also gained a warp effect.
• In addition to Klingon, Romulan, Pakled, Borg ships, whale probe, and crystalline entity seen previous season’s opening sequence’s large battle, there is now:
• A giant green space hand, as previously seen in “Who Mourns for Adonis”
• Tholian ships forming a web, as seen in “The Tholian Web”
• V’ger, from TMP
• Mariner [Tawny Newsome], and T’Lyn [Gabrielle Ruiz] are playing kal-toh, a Vulcan game introduced in “Alter Ego”.
• Boimler [Jack Quaid] believes he’s going to be featured in Starfleet’s “Fleet” periodical, but he’s not. However, Naomi Wildman, does get an honourable mention in their 30 under 30 list.
• “She’s like ten years old.” Naomi was born in 2372 in “Deadlock”, and this episode takes place in 2382.
• The cover of the magazine claims to feature the Top 10 Riker moments
• The cover also teases an article on the Continuum, titled *”Q Who?” mirroring the title of the TNG season two episode.
• The USS Cerritos is pulled through a quantum fissure, and encounters an alternate universe version of themselves, which, in honour of the episode title, I will be calling the Cerridos. In addition to their uniforms being slightly darker, the Cerridos crew appear to exhibit only minor differences from the familiar crew of the Cerritos which resulted in their lives turning out different, such as:
• Mariner’s counterpart goes by Becky Freeman, and is the captain of the Cerridos
• T’Lyn’s counterpart says ”Remarkable” while she prefers ”Fascinating”. Fasmarkable.
• Boimler’s counterpart grew a beard
• Billups’ counterpart became King of Hysperia, which would imply that he is also not a virgin
• Rutherford’s counterpart wiped Tendi from his memory banks after she left to become a full time pirate, and then cyborged himself up.
• D’Erika was introduced in “Something Borrowed, Something Green” and is voiced by Ariel Winter”
• Tendi has a model of the Cerritos in her ready room aboard the Orion Interceptor.
• ”You miss debating the ethics of goop with your Starfleet nerds.” Most spineless goop in Trek has questionable ethics, at best:
• Armus is a Skin of Evil
• Odo is willing to engage in illegal surveillance techniques, and hold suspects under false pretenses
• Rick Berman treated several members of the cast very poorly, hired a known fraud as the consultant on Native American culture for VOY, and prevented TNG from having an episode depicting an openly gay couple back when that would still have been uncommon
• The Billups propose a plan where the Cerritos and Cerridos are linked together so they can create a pulse which will open the rift again, and allow the Cerritos to return to the prime universe. Spock devised a similar plan in “The Time Trap” to allow the USS Enterprise and a Klingon vessel to the Delta Triangle.
• We learn that Mariner is Mariner’s middle name.
• The crashed Orion vessel has orbs on rotating spokes, similar to we’ve seen on previous Orion vessels, beginning with the ship seen in the remastered TOS episode, “Journey to Babylon”.
• A group of blue skinned Orions appear, wearing the same uniforms as the Orions from “The Pirates of Orion”.
• The blues pronounce the name of their species as ”Or-ee-ahn”, which is how it was pronounced in “The Pirates of Orion” and no where else in the franchise until now.
• Becky recounts the events of “Second Contact” when Boimler gets gummed on by a Galardon spider-cow, implying that she experienced that episode very similarly.
• ”There’s no interpersonal conflict allowed on my ship.” Becky has the same views on human interactions that Gene Roddenberry held.
• Becky’s ready room captain’s trinkets include:
• A California flag - Captain Freeman [Dawnn Lewis] has the same one in her ready room
• A jewelled dagger - This looks like one of the ones Mariner was stabbed in the shoulder with in “Something Borrowed, Something Green”
• A bat’leth - Mariner accidentally cut Boimler with one she brought aboard the Cerritos while drunk in “Second Contact”
• *”Don't you give me that sarcastic Vulcan salute!” Captain Freeman yelled those same words to Mariner in “Moist Vessel”
• We learn that the alternate Captain Freeman was reassigned to Starbase 80, which was first mentioned in “Terminal Provocations” as the place where Starfleet ships off its screw-ups.
• In the Cerritos’ bar, there’s a bottle of Kanar with a tag featuring the mural from Quark’s.
• ”I have fooled you.” T’Lyn deceived the Lower Deckers into believing she was her Minor Universe counterpart. Because Vulcans lie all the damn time.
i love all the fan service in lower decks; i get a new trek story plus multiple mini-trips down memory lane with every episode.