The first episode invokes Horseback Heroism by showing Pike riding a horse across the Montana countryside, but this is actually an inversion of the trope, as Pike can't be a horseback hero on Earth like the cowboys of old and also be The Captain of a starship exploring the frontier. Earth is the very cradle of humanity, and as far from the dangers of the galaxy as one could hope to get.
He's also galloping away from the shuttle, metaphorically fleeing from his duty — and failing, as the shuttle and his duty overtake him.
The main cargo bay is located directly beneath the shuttle bay, even having a large hangar door opening to space. This likely makes it easier for shuttles to load and unload cargo. There is probably even an elevator for moving shuttles and cargo between the two bays, similar to the flight deck and hangar deck arrangement on aircraft carriers.
In Memento Mori the crew all wear badges dedicated to ships that they lost friends and loved ones on. Captain Pike wears a badge for USS Discovery, which was officially lost with all hands at the Xahea system. The badge can be both metaphorically true for Pike, as the surviving crew is effectively lost to him due to time travel, and also literally true, as it commemorates individuals lost as well as the ships they traveled on, and Pike lost several officers while commanding Discovery, to include Ariam and Connolly.
"A Quality of Mercy" explains why Spock was so hell-bent to get the wheelchair-bound Pike to Talos IV in "The Menagerie" to the point of disobeying Starfleet regulations and risking court-martial — he learned that had Pike not wound up in that chair, he would've suffered that fate. This isn't just mere loyalty to his former captain; it's his way of repaying a debt.
The same episode also shows why Kirk and Spock were such an effective team; the two of them were both lateral thinkers who weren't afraid to play Pragmatic Hero when the occasion called for it. Since Pike remained Captain of the Enterprise in this alternate timeline, Kirk and Spock never had a chance to develop that rapport, which is exactly what that specific conflict with the Romulans needed. Pike tried to play it by the book, but "Balance of Terror" required someone to think outside the box.
Kirk is not happy with Pike's strategy, but is willing to play ball with him. Even after the loss of the Farragut, he continues to be a team player after initially giving the other captain a What the Hell, Hero?. So why does he keep helping Pike even though Kirk has not been above trying to get around or get the better of antagonistic captains in the original timeline? Well, because Pike is neither insane nor cruel. He is failing because he won't abandon Starfleet's ideals, and Kirk respects that enough to keep backing his plays and doing what he can to help Pike succeed. This is in contrast to the relationship between the Romulan commander and his first officer, who undercuts his commander's authority at every turn because the commander is not living up to the ideals of the hawkish Romulan Star Empire.
Not only that, but as part of Pike not being insane or cruel, Kirk is following Starfleet protocol - in Voyager's "Equinox", Starfleet procedure states that in combat situations, the vessel with superior firepower has superiority. Likewise, after the Farragut is taken out of commission, Kirk is simply a guest on Pike's vessel, rather than in command - he can suggest ideas and be involved in strategy, but he is not calling the shots. While many people try to frame Kirk as a maverick, that reputation only built up as a result of his actions in the movies, and the extraordinary situations there, while in the Original Series itself, Kirk very much followed Starfleet rules and protocol, at least as long as they were established for the situation he was in.
During a pitched space battle, Spock either dies or is left crippled (Chapel simply says that, if he survives, he will never be the same) as a result of injuries received repairing critical damage to the ship, including severe radiation burns, a fate which his captain is willing to do anything to reverse. "A Quality of Mercy" or "The Wrath of Khan"? It seems where Pike is destined to his fate to save his cadets, Spock is destined to his fate to save the Enterprise. And just as Pike will have a new life (figuratively) thanks to Spock bringing him to the Talosians, Spock will have a new life (literally) thanks to being deposited on Genesis and later rescued by his friends after his resurrection.
Pike's failed attempt at a diplomatic resolution against a Romulan scout attempting to instigate a war is very similar to the situation faced by Georgiou at the Binary Stars, down to their second in command being a hawkish officer from the House of Sarek advocating for a first strike.
At the end of the pilot, Pike is chastised for breaking the Prime Directive by intervening directly in the Planet of the Week's internal politics, and it's mentioned that Starfleet is going to attempt to re-brand it to get starship captains to be less cavalier about it. This suggests that the extreme Obstructive Code of Conduct treatment of the law in the TNG era may have been a result of this effort having Gone Horribly Right: changing the culture of an entire organization this way can take decades.
Pelia's introduction of the Really 700 Years OldHuman Alien Lanthanite species in "The Broken Circle" raises the question of who else happens to be one and has been living on Earth in the Star Trek universe without the audience's knowledge. For instance, could legendary Academy groundskeeper Boothby be one as well, explaining his longevity through Picard, Chakotay, Janeway and Wesley Crusher's periods at the school?
The end of Una's trial seems to be a victory (albeit a very limited one) for the genetically modified. Yet in the TNG era, laws against genetic enhancements still exist and there doesn't seem to be any major opposition to them. Why was there so little progress? Because in less than a decade Khan Noonien Sing will return and remind everyone why the No Transhumanism Allowed laws exist in the first place.
There are hints in later shows that some progress has been made. Bashir was allowed to remain in Starfleet after the truth about his modifications came out, and Dal R'El was granted an exception that would allow him to join Starfleet, implying that while the ban still exists, it is reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
Kirk from the alternate timeline misidentifies Toronto as NYC. This is obviously a joke based on California Doubling, but it could actually make sense in-universe—assuming that Kirk has only seen Earth cities in old TV and films, he would legitimately associate Toronto's streets and landmarks with locations identified as New York City.
The events of "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" very easily explain why La'an wouldn't stick around on the Enterprise when Kirk takes command - not just her being ordered not to speak of her visit to the past, but also in the fact that she almost certainly wouldn't want to be serving on the same vessel as him, knowing that they certainly can't be what they'd been becoming in that timeline. "Subspace Rhapsody" further reinforces this, as La'an decides to confess her feelings to Kirk and gets gently shut down when Kirk reveals that he already has a pregnant girlfriend.
During the previous mission on Rigel VII, no trace of the radiation-induced memory loss was shown because they were only on the surface for four hours, and confined to inside the castle, where it wouldn't affect them much. The second time, they were outside with no protection for an extended period.
In "Amok Time", Spock does warn Stonn that "After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true." After seeing his would-be-mother-in-law, it's clear that he wasn't talking about T'Pring in that moment. True, she would have been more approving of Stonn, but seeing how picky she is about her daughter's romantic prospects, Stonn may have come to regret that decision.
It also applies to his relationship with Chapel, with both pining over each other when Spock was committed to T'Pring, only to find that once they were free to get in a relationship, they couldn't make it work.
"Charades" showcases a few older-generation Vulcans displaying haughtiness and contempt for humans (T'Pril, Chapel's interviewer), closer to the depiction of Vulcans in Archer's time period than what viewers are used to seeing. Given the timeline of Strange New Worlds though, these Vulcans would be at most one generation removed from the rediscovery of Surak's teachings, T'Pau reformations, and the founding of the Federation. Cultural realignment doesn't happen overnight, and even slower for a society like Vulcans.
"Those Old Scientists" has Boimler making mess after mess on the Enterprise, with Mariner not helping anything when both try to steal a shuttlecraft. With their antics, it's clear why Boimler hasn't gotten promoted or transferred to a better ship, or why Starfleet is somewhat disdainful of the California class; with constant disregard for protocol and a severe lack of discipline amongst its lower ranks, no crew would want the headaches of having to reign anybody from that side of the fleet towards the more structured system they have on prestigious postings like Enterprise or Deep Space Nine. Kirk, Picard, Sisko, and Janeway would have drummed them all out of Starfleet within five minutes (to say nothing of Ensign Fletcher, who got drummed off Titan for throwing trash in the warp core).
That same episode also depicts the SNW crew in animated form, where they all realize the effects of the Orion drink they just had are making things extremely weird. If this is the regular choice of drink on the Cerritos, and if one crew member (likely Mariner), or even the whole ship, was taking this stuff regularly, it would certainly explain why everything is so dysfunctional. Fridge Horror kicks in when you start to wonder who on the ship is drunk, or how many of them are drunk on the job...
Boimler mentions that Mariner was the first in the door to the Fleet Museum, which she denies. We also know she's a big fan of Uhura, and which ship is displayed there? The U.S.S. Leondegrance, which was Uhura's command prior to her retirement, and is one of only three ships commanded by the original Enterprise crew besides the Enterprise-A and the Excelsior. Although it wasn't seen in Picard, the Leondegrance is there based on a placard about the ship in that show's second season confirming its display at the Museum. No wonder Mariner was in such a hurry to get inside.
When Mariner tells Una that Boimler has a poster of her, she asks if its a pin-up, to which Mariner replies that "it's pinned up". It makes sense that she doesn't know what a pin-up poster is since by her time holographic technology would have made such posters a Forgotten Trope.
Boimler created both a Stable Time Loop and a Ship Sinking when he asked Christine if he'd 'broken' Spock—he told her he knew *everything* about Spock, but clearly didn't know who Christine was, which caused her to realize that whatever Spock's future held, she wasn't going to be in it. This causes her to withdraw emotionally from the relationship and eventually dump Spock.
"Under the Cloak of War" could be considered a sort of sequel to The Conscience of the King, with Dak'Rah (The Butcher of J'gal) serving as a Contrasting Sequel Antagonist to Kodos the Executioner. Kodos gave the order to execute half of the colonists in hopes that the other half wouldn't starve. Dak'Rah gave the order to kill anyone who wasn't a Klingon at J'gal, then fled like a coward when the Federation turned the tide of the battle. Kodos never apologizes for what he did, but you can see he's still haunted by those events, so he at least harbors some regret. Dak'Rah was happy to play the part of a changed man and go along with the rumor that he executed his officers before defecting, when really it was M'Benga who did it. In the end, while Kodos is still a monster, he has enough elements to make him a Tragic Villain. Dak'Rah, meanwhile, is a Dirty Coward and an opportunist who no one weeps for when he's killed, even if the circumstances of his death are sketchy.
Kodos never apologies because he fully, entirely grasps that what he did left him Beyond Redemption. Dak'Rah makes a big show of contrition, always talks about how he was shown what he'd done was wrong, but isn't truly sorry (he never apologies to M'Benga for the conditions on J'gal that were his fault, for one). Kodos buried his past because it was the only way he could live with himself after what he'd done; Dak'Rah pridefully boasts about how different he is now than he was before.
The way that Chapel dumps Spock is pretty brutal, to the point that he swears off emotion to not let himself be hurt again like that. He wasn't just rebuffing her advances on TOS because of a lack of interest; he had no intention of getting back with the ex who deeply hurt him (in song form!). It also retroactively adds a darker context behind his refusal to reconcile with his sister on Discovery, as TOS, via "Subspace Rhapsody", shows he's not one to forgive people who hurt him so badly.
This also explains his behavior during Amok Time. His feelings for her are still there, under the logic and pain, and they came back to the surface during the pon farr.
When the Enterprise crew realize that they're in a musical in "Subspace Rhapsody", the two officers who are most capable of sensing an impending song are Una and Uhura. Why them? Because music is part of their characters. Uhura has been a frequent singer since TOS, and Una is a noted fan of Gilbert and Sullivan — who, by the way, made musicals, meaning that Una is in her element.
The reason for the Grand Finale with all the crew singing and dancing? To close out the episode andclose out the subspace fold. By broadcasting songs from a musical into the fold, Uhura caused it to follow those rules and musicals of that era required a grand finale to end the show.
The first song of the musical, "Status Report," also serves the function of introducing the major players of the story, with Uhura and Pike cueing up the singers. This also serves to establish Pike as The Captain and Uhura as The Communications Officer. Uhura starts the music by (inadvertently) cueing Spock; she then calls Sickbay, which gets Chapel and M'Benga singing. Pike asking Ortegas for a status report gets the bridge crew to join the song.
Chapel's breaking up with Spock via cheerful music number seems unnecessarily cruel, but it is exactly what La'an warned about: The crew sharing their innermost secrets and feelings against their better judgement. Chapel feels trapped in her relationship with Spock because, as previously established, she feels trapped in any relationship, and leaving the Enterprise to join on with the Korby Fellowship presents her with freedom from her current situation. Without the influence of the musical, she would have found a more tactful way to end things with Spock.
Uhura's song is about how, despite her own considerable pain, she is always there for her friends so they have someone to share their pain with and not suffer alone. And what happens right before this song? Spock waiting until he was alone with Uhura to sing about his heartbreak, allowing him to share his pain with someone without the humiliation of singing to everyone in the galley. In fact, Uhura notices Spock being upset in the middle of being in the throes of Chapel's happy song about being accepted by the fellowship and breaking up with Spock, leading to her following him out of the galley.
When General Garkog hails the Enterprise, his unwilling musical number sounds like typical Klingon hostility, but his first line is questioning why the Federation only calls them when they have their dramas. Why else would the Klingons hope to get contacted by the Federation if not because there's a problem? When you consider that Klingon courtship involves the recitation of verse and the throwing of heavy objects (at the reciter of verse), it's possible that many in the Klingon Empire would not mind the Federation as allies or friends, and much of the hostility between the two races is due to Culture Clash. And indeed, the relationship between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, over the course of a few centuries, is basically a series of fights and begrudging partnerships evolving into a close alliance.
And for a little Fridge Hilarity (and even more fanfic fodder), imagine the musical reality affecting, say, the Enterprise-D. Imagine the stoic Picard and the uptight Worf becoming part of a '90s boy band.
When giving his great admonishment to the Kilean civilization at large in the premiere episode, Captain Pike's entrance into the middle of the heated debate between the factions' leadership is an interesting juxtaposition: He beams in, to give the Kileans another reminder that the civilization he is from is so far beyond the Kileans right now technologically, and then puts on his trademark Adorkable act with an awkward "Hi... Sorry to interrupt."
It’s a good thing no one was hurt in that sword fight in "The Elysian Kingdom". Ortegas as Sir Adya seemed awfully eager to kill people with that sword.
"All Those That Wander" establishes that the Gorn reproduce by implanting parasitic eggs into humanoids. How could a species evolve like that... unless there was a second sapient species native to their homeworld, whom the Gorn now use for breeding stock?
There's also the problem of what will eventually happen to everything Uhura learned from Hemmer not long after Kirk's Enterprise receives a distress signal from the Malurians.
Given that ordinarily the Klingons would be all too happy to see the Federation and the Romulans tear each other to shreds for decades, one can only imagine how truly awful things must have gone for the Alpha and Beta Quadrants as a result of the Federation-Romulan War in the Bad Future of "A Quality of Mercy" for the Monks of Boreth to be so gung-ho about preventing Pike from altering the Prime Timeline.
It is worth noting that the Klingons have, at various points in the Prime Timeline, sided with either the Federation or the Romulans. It's possible that the Federation is still in the fight 20 years later in part because the Klingons threw in their lot with them, and then things got so desperate as to cause the monks to break their time travel taboo.
It’s also been shown that while the Klingons view the Federation as weaklings too willing to accept dishonor in the name of maintaining peace and consensus (rather than defending their own view of what’s right through violence), they also see the Romulans as chronic backstabbers who would sooner dishonor themselves than engage in a fair fight. When the chips are down, at least the Federation plays fair.
"Rightful Heir" established that the monks of Boreth view the Klingon government as corrupt and are not on board with their agenda. And "Judgment" established that not all Klingons are obsessed with violence and conquest. If the monks can use the crystals to see potential futures, they might have decided that the one where Spock lives and brings peace to the quadrant is the preferable one.
"Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow" reveals that Khan (yes, thatKhan) Used to Be a Sweet Kid. We learn in this episode that the reason the Eugenics Wars is inconsistently depicted across the franchise is because time travelers keep mucking things up trying to get of The Federation, and they've been moved from 1992 to the 21st century, leading to what Picard revealed as the eventual third world war; a war of which was caused by Adam Soong reading up on a file called "Project: Khan" from 1996. Just what the hell did he do to that poor kid that turned him into a monster?
Pelia makes a funny remark about how you don't live as long as she has without becoming a packrat, and also mentions that she's hanging onto a bunker in Vermont just in case the whole socialist utopia thing doesn't last. She's lived long enough to have seen the world go to hell around her multiple times, and hoarding is a known symptom exhibited by survivors of trauma.
In "The Broken Circle", Chapel asks M'Benga if he wants to use a drug, which we later learn is called Protocol 12 again, to which he responds with no, and after they inject themselves with it, proceed to decimate a group of Klingons. We learn more about it and their past in "Under the Cloak of War", when M'Benga is asked to produce more of it, and uses it to help in his task of assassinating J'Gal, and he gives Chapel a vial to use if she needs help with the evacuation. Given their dialog, and both of them being experienced in combat against Klingons, looks like Chapel was forced to use Protocol 12 in order to escape.
Oh, and M'Benga mentions that using Protocol 12 has bad long-term side-effects. Considering that he and Chapel have both used it at least twice, how much will they end up suffering for it?
Long time fans may recall episodes across the franchise when crewmembers have been taken over by aliens. Pike's WTF reaction isn't just "why are they singing" but could also be worry that his crew had been taken over and about to turn on the ship.
And as for the uncontrollable singing, someone could have easily confessed something seriously damaging — M'Benga, for example and in the wake of the previous episode, could have admitted that he was the real Butcher of J'Gal. (This one does get addressed In-Universe, as La'an decides to come clean to Jim Kirk about her brief encounter with his alternate self rather than letting it come out as a 17th-century sea shanty.)
Pike admits to Boimler and Mariner that he sometimes hated his father. This coming from a quintessential Nice Guy and All-Loving Hero. Just what the hell happened between them?
