Episode 6 of season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail,” was all about the testing of a captain, but what about a Doctor? The latest entry from SNW had a number of fun Easter eggs and connections, and we’ve rounded them up.
The Doctor will see you now
The most fun and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Easter egg is the inclusion of the TARDIS, Doctor Who’s famous mode of transportation. It’s hard to spot but after the Enterprise is swallowed up by the Scavenger ship, a zoomed-in shot to the bridge has a familiar blue box right behind the ship.
Guys, why is there an old London police call booth behind us?
Doctor Who has been quietly worked into Trek canon for years, mostly in background graphics, and the long-running British sci-fi series has made a few nods to Trek over its long run too, most recently when the 15th Doctor said “he’d like to visit them [referring to Star Trek] one day.” Seems he might have just done that. There have been non-canon crossovers in comics and mobile gaming as well.
Look closer… the Doctor is in.
Old Klingon legends
The new episode has Trek references too, of course. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2 episode “Where Silence Has Lease,” Worf talks about “…an old Klingon legend of a gigantic black space creature which was said to devour entire vessels.” Strange New Worlds nicely picks up on this thread for the Scavenger ship, and mentions that various cultures have a similar legend. Ortegas gives the Klingon version a name: Chach-Ka.
A devourer of ships
Ortegas brings up the Klingon legend.
More Klingons inside
The Klingons had good reason to give this thing a spooky name. In the episode, there is mention of a Klingon D7 being taken by Scavenger ship, and we can see there are parts of a D7 inside the ship [in yellow box below]. But what’s also in there is a standard Klingon Bird of Prey, first introduced in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and then used again in many subsequent movies and TV shows [in the red box].
There be whales a Bird of Prey in here!
Early human exploration, ties to TMP and Enterprise
The big reveal at the end of the episode is that the Scavenger ship began life as an Earth ship. When the crew zooms in on some hull fragments, we see a United States flag, a delta with what appears to be an United Nations logo inside (this is likely the UESPA logo), and the registry number XCV-100.
The XCV-100 is at the core of the Scavenger ship.
According to Star Trek lore, one of the first spaceships named Enterprise, prior to Earth Starfleet’s formation, had the registry number XCV-330 (TMP, ENT: “First Flight”), it is notable for its unusual ring ship design. You can get a good look at what the XCV-330 looked like from this QMx model of the ship below.
QMx Enterprise ring ship
What did you see?
Spot any new Trek references we missed? Have a favorite? Sound off in the comments below.
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source: trekmovie.com