• When we see Starfleet Academy in the open shot of the episode it is a recreation of the closing shot of “The First Duty”.
• In the flashback there is a figure in a straw hat and overalls tending the grounds. We only see them from the back, but based on their appearance I think we can assume it’s Boothby, the Academy’s head groundskeeper, and occasional advisor to both Picard and Janeway during their academy days. Boothby was introduced in “The First Duty”.
• We see all of Nova Squadron during the establishing shot, but Jean Hajar waves goodbye and runs back down the path before the close-up.
• As we saw last episode, Robert Duncan McNeill reprises his roll as Nick Locarno.
• Shannon Fill reprises her role as Sito Jaxa. This is her first acting credit since 1995.
• Welsey Crusher is played Wil Wheaton, the host of Paramount+’s “The Ready Room”.
• This is the only on screen appearance of Joshua Albert as he was dead before the USS Enterprise D arrived to Earth in “The First Duty”.
• “I don’t know Nick, the starburst maneuver is banned for a reason.” In “The First Duty” it was established that the Kolvoord Starburst was banned because an entire flight group was killed while attempting it some years earlier.
• Cadet Becket Mariner is excited to learn about various alien species’ history:
• The Perseveres - First mentioned in “The Paradise Syndrome”, and have a habit of relocating Indigenous peoples and leaving their obelisks lying about
• The Xindi - The Xindi attacked Earth in “The Expanse” and were the antagonists for much of season three of ENT
• Mariner is wearing the pips of a second year cadet, meaning she was in the same year as Wesley. Of course, at the end of “The First Duty” Picard informed Wesley that he would be losing all academic credit for the year and not advancing with his class.
• Nick’s Nova Fleet has a number of familiar alien vessels:
• The vertically arranged Romulan-warship - “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”
• Cardassian Hideki-class starships - “Profit and Loss”
• A Tellarite cruiser - “Babel One”
• I am basing this on the arrangement of the impulse engines; the original Tellarite cruiser model was a redress of the CGI model used as an Arkonian warship in “Dawn”, and then a Xindi-Arboreal ship in “The Council” but both those models had slightly different impulse engines
• A Pakled starship - “Samaritan Snare”
• Klingon Birds-of-Prey - “Star Trek: The Search for Spock”
• An Orion Interceptor - “Something Borrowed, Something Green”
• Federation Sphinx-class workpods - Andy Probert made this particular design for TNG, but it was too expensive, and until now did not show up on screen, but was in the “TNG Technical Manual”
• A Bynar ship - “A Few Badgeys More”
• A Ferengi ship - “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place”
• Admiral Vassery was introduced in “Moist Vessel”.
• Admiral Alonzo Freeman was introduced in “Second Contact”.
• There are a number minor characters who were introduced this season who make appearances this episode:
• Risik was introduced in “Something Borrowed, Something Green”.
• The three Bynar defectors were introduced in “A Few Badgeys More”.
• Malok was introduced in “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”
• The female Romulan lower decker was introduced in “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”
• Livik was introduced in “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”
• Jeef was introduced in “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place”
• The second male Ferengi lower decker was introduced in “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place”
• ”He looks like Tom Paris.” Personally, much like Boimler, “I don’t see it.”
• The Maquis were an independent, unaligned fleet fighting against Cardassian oppression and occupation, introduced in “The Maquis, Part I”.
• We saw Andorians wearing the uniforms here on on Tulgana IV in “Envoys”
• Petra Aberdeen was introduced in “Reflections”
• The PADD the Hysperians are using appears to be the same design as the Betazoid PADD seen in “Empathaological Fallacies” flipped horizontally and coloured peach as opposed to blue.
• The large Tamarian lower decker is wearing a towel, following the precedent established by Hans Federov (“Second Contact”), Big Merp (“First First Contact”), and one of the Klingons aboard the IKS Che’Ta’ (“wej Duj”).
• The black market Ferengi Genesis device was first seen in “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place”.
• ”This guy sucks!” Mariner’s enthusiasm for Starfleet is frequently underestimated, such as when everyone assumed she purposefully made the crew of the USS Cerritos look bad in an interview in “Trusted Sources” be she was actually full of praise.
• It’s Goodgey! From Star Trek!
• Mariner is able to take control of the *USS Passaro” NCC-52670, a Sabrerunner-class starship.
• The Sabrerunner-class bears a lot of visual similarity to the Steamrunner-class introduced in “Star Trek: First Contact” but is significantly smaller.
• A Gagarin-class USS Passaro was seen PIC’s “The Last Generation”
• Both Passaros are named for Fabio Passaro, a CG model maker for Eaglemoss Collections who passed away in October 2022. The Sabrerunner-class version’s registry reflects his birthday, May 26, 1970.
• The Sabrerunner class name was provided by producer Brad Winters on the bad social media site. You know the one.
• Mariner is able to transfer controls to the captain’s chair, causing a stick to sprout from the chair. Riker was able to control the USS Enterprise E with a joystick in “Star Trek: Insurrection”.
• D’Erika was introduced in “Something Borrowed, Something Green”
• The tryna shield bears some resemblance to the Tholian web seen in “The Tholian Web” and Q’s energy net introduced in “Encounter at Farpoint”.
• ”What about Rule of Acquisition 91: Your boss is only worth what he pays you?” This is a new rule not from any previous source.
• ”You’re forgetting Rule 289: Shoot first, count profits later.” It was established in “Rules of Acquisition” that there are only 285 rules, though the Nagus can add or change them as they see fit, as in “Acquisition” there were only 173 in the 22nd century, and Zek was going to release an entirely new set in “Prophet Motive”.
• Twaining was established as a sometimes effective means of conflict resolution in “Something Borrowed, Something Green”.
• Mariner and Locarno playing cat & mouse inside the ion storm recalls the USS Reliant hunting the USS Enterprise through the Mutara nebula in “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan”.
• Boimler has been made acting captain of the Cerritos despite being outranked by at least two other officers we see on the bridge, and several more besides. In “The Arsenal of Freedom” Geordi was made acting captain over chief engineer Logan, who outranked him.
• The Cerritos’ captain’s yacht is a similar design to that of the Enterprise E but distinct enough to assume they’re not supposed to be the same spaceframe.
• ”Wow, I’ve never actually seen someone use the captain’s yacht.” Apparently Boimler skipped watching any video logs recorded during the events of “Star Trek: Insurrection”. It’s hard to blame him, but it still seems out of character.
• Mariner signed out the keys to the Cerritos’ captain’s yacht in Boimler’s name in “Terminal Provocations” and then invited him along, though it sounds like he was either able to prevent Mariner from actually taking the ship out for a joyride, or hid in his bunk until she returned it.
• The explosion of the Ferengi Genesis device recalls the original detonation in “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan”.
• Like that explosion, this one also creates a planet, seemingly from the material in the ion storm. Unlike Genesis, the planet Locarno is apparently stable.
• T’Lyn ignores a call from Captain Sokel. In “Empathological Fallacies” she was so stressed over not being able to transmit a message to him that she telepathically caused the crew to lose control of their inhibitions.
• The Orion ship that arrives to collect Tendi is inspired by the one introduced in “The Pirates of Orion”, but appears to be a more modern iteration of that craft, as well as being significantly larger.
I was glad to see this - the most obvious difference is the design of the nacelle struts, which was obviously a compromise in Insurrection to fit the yacht into the underside of the saucer. It really wouldn't make sense on another ship.