The title comes from Sam’s full name, the first photonic cadet from Kasq. Sam is only 217 days old at this point, having been created as the first hologram to reintegrate with organics, but programmed to act like a 17-year-old.
Sam states that in the last millennium (i.e. since 2191, close enough to the founding of the Federation in 2161 that we can probably just take it as a rounding error), the Federation has encountered 4633 sentient species, over 27 trillion individuals.
We see a Cheronian cadet. The Cheronians first appeared in TOS: “Let There Be Your Last Battlefield”, where the ruling half-white class (white on the left side) held the half-black (black on the left side) class in contempt. Cheronians are extremely long lived; Bele had been chasing Lokai in that episode for 5000 years. The race was assumed to be extinct since 2268, casualties of a civil war that wiped out Cheron’s population. However, Virgil, a half-white Cheronian appeared in the Section 31 movie, which takes place c.2324. The cadet here is of the half-black population.
It’s been 97 days, or a little over 3 months, after Sam began the Fall Semester of Starfleet Academy (SFA: “Kids These Days”), placing this episode at the end of 3191 (Sam says later that the semester is nearly over).
Of the list of homeworlds displayed in Sam’s database, the names that are not known Federation worlds in the 24th Century are Denobula, Bajor, Ferengar, Hirogen Prime and Kazon Prime. Whether this means that these worlds are now, in the 32nd century, Federation members is not clear.
The Priority One Mission Darem is given consists of chicken, banana (which he hates) and yeel pudding. The yeel tree exists within the mycelial network (DIS: “Saints of Imperfection”), but its bark is deadly to the jahSepp who also live there.
Darem’s personnel file says his major is Sciences and he’s 17 years old, born on Stardate 851095.82, and he graduated from Khionian Royal High on Stardate 868490.0 (consistent with the in SFA: “Vitus Reflux”). By TNG stardate reckoning, that still makes the current year 3191, and he was born in 3174. The file also notes his captaincy of the Khionian All-Planet Under-18 Calico Team and being part of the Premiere Team Khionian Parrises Squares, among other achievements.
Polyphenol oxidase is indeed the enzyme that causes browning and damage to fruits and vegetables. Also, Khionians vomit glitter.
Sam is playing a theremin, a musical instrument that creates different tones as your hands interact with its magnetic field. Patented by Leon Theremin in 1928, its unique sound has been used as to evoke an otherworldly atmosphere in science fiction movies and television. Contrary to popular belief, the TOS Star Trek theme did not use a theremin, but was rather performed by coloratura soprano Loulie Jean Norman.
The original Emergency Medical Hologram Mark 1s (of which the Doctor is one) were repurposed by the Federation to become menial labourers in the 24th century (VOY: “Author, Author”), primarily because they were not viewed as sentient. Photonic lifeforms do naturally exist, as in seen in various VOY episodes (“Heroes and Demons”, “Bride of Chaotica!”, “The Voyager Conspiracy”) as well as in LD: “Of Gods and Angles”.
Sam speaking to her Makers reminds this old man of how the Orkian alien Mork used to report to his supervisor Orson on the strange habits of humans in the 1978-1982 sitcom Mork and Mindy.
The “stupid talking plants” refers to the events of “Vitus Reflux”.
While watching Tamira, Caleb is chewing on a jumja stick, a Bajoran confection made from the sap of the jumja tree (DS9: “In the Hands of the Prophets”).
Appropriately enough, the cadet sniffing Caleb’s pheromones is Orion. Orion women secrete a powerful pheromone which can intoxicate and dominate the males. Underground “scentuaries” on Orion exist, akin to sex and BDSM clubs (LD: “Something Borrowed, Something Green”).
The screens in the “Confronting the Unexplainable” course show “Origins of the Omega Molecule” (VOY: “The Omega Directive”), “Psionic Effects of the Galactic Barrier” (TOS: “Where No Man Has Gone Before”), “Déjà Vu - Alternate Universe Theories” (TNG: “Cause and Effect”), “Katra Stones” (DIS: “Light and Shadows”), “Immortal/Non-Corporeal Entities” (the Guardian of Forever, TOS: “The City on the Edge of Forever”), “Subspace Divergence Fields” (VOY: “Deadlock”), “Alternate Continuums” (like the Q Continuum, VOY: “Death Wish”) and “Multi-Species Accelerated Evolution” (VOY: “Threshold”, perhaps).
Sam stops in front of “The Fate of Benjamin Sisko - Emissary of the Prophets” and poses two questions: whether he died in the Fire Caves of Bajor or lived on in the Celestial Temple at the end of DS9: “What You Leave Behind”. As viewers, we know that the latter is true, but also that he promised to return (“Maybe a year, maybe yesterday.”). As the screen implies, this has not happened by the 32nd century. Part of the reason, speaking in a Doylist sense, is because Avery Brooks has retired from acting (among other eccentricities).
Professor Illa (played by LD’s Tawny Newsom) is of Cardassian descent, with the distinctive loop over her forehead (which led to the racial slur “spoonheads” being applied to Cardassians by veterans of the wars of the 2340s). She says it is midterm season, which usually happens between mid-October and early November. The scene ends with the DS9 theme song swelling.
Darem refers to the Schrodinger’s Cat paradox, a thought experiment where a cat in a box with a poison that has a fifty-fifty chance of triggering is, accordingly to quantum theory, neither alive nor dead until the box is opened.
The grabbing of the earlobe to feel a person’s “pagh” was first demonstrated in DS9: “Emissary”.
The Sisko Museum is in New Orleans because Sisko is a native of that city. During DS9, his father ran a restaurant there which was still open as of 2381 (LD: “Grounded”).
This is the first mention of the planet Alpherat in lore. There is a star named Alpheratz (Alpha Andromedae or Delta Pegasi), mentioned in the Franz Joseph Starfleet Technical Manual and the Star Trek Adventures RPG, but this may be a different place. Earth has its own fire eels, but Alpherati ones are presumably not the same.
The uniform on display is the version Sisko wore from DS9: “Trials and Tribble-lations” onwards, having been introduced in the movie First Contact.
On display is a Deep Space Niners cap (the station baseball team, DS9: “Take Me Out to the Holosuite”), Sisko’s Niner baseball card, and the baseball signed by the team in that episode. On another pedestal is a box used to contain an Orb of the Prophets and Benny Russell’s typewriter sits on another (DS9: “Far Beyond the Stars”).
There are signs showcasing Sisko’s Creole Kitchen, the Dominion War, Jake Sisko with an article he wrote for the Federation News Service on the arrival of a Dominion Founder, and a video titled Jada Ava Sisko.
Jada Ava Sisko does not seem to appear on the family tree, nor does Sisko’s daughter with Kasidy Yates, as yet unborn in the DS9 finale. While this may be ominous, in the Litverse novels the daughter was born and named Rebecca Jae Sisko.
Cirroc Lofton reprises his role as Jake Sisko. He mentions Sisko punching out Q (DS9: “Q-Less”), how he supported Jake’s writing, and his ability as a chef.
Krebbs’ Talaxian furfly is now eating its own fur.
Jay-Den claims Klingons invented raktajino, which isn’t really true if you prefer Marc Okrand’s explanation for how what the Federation calls “Klingon coffee” came about. Raktajino is more of a hybrid beverage, with human and Klingon elements involved in its creation. This could simply be like Chekov claiming everything was a Russian invention.
Jake began writing his novel Anslem in DS9: “The Muse”, but as we find out, never published it. In the alternate timeline of DS9: “The Visitor”, it was published in 2381. This is the first time we find out “Anslem” means “father” in Bajoran - the novel does feature the father of the protagonist.
The story of a Vulcan punching out Sisko refers to when Solok defeated Sisko in a wrestling match when they were cadets at The Launching Pad (“Take Me Out to the Holosuite”).
The Kometa fish looks similar to an Earth blobfish, which although it looks like jello on land, has a relatively normal appearance deep underwater where it lives. The
As we take in 32nd century San Francisco with the San Francisco Ferry Building in the foreground, there is a neon sign behind it saying “King Mei”. This same sign appeared in an underground city on Turkana IV (TNG: “Legacy”).
Nahla left Starfleet 15 years prior because of how they treated Caleb and his mother (“Kids These Days”), but returned when Vance offered her the chancellorship of Starfleet Academy.
Sam drunkenly refers to Sisko building sailboats (DS9: “Explorers”) and starting riots (DS9: “Past Tense”).
Muir Woods is part of the Golden Gate Recreation Area, north of San Francisco and near the Academy campus. It’s best known for its grove of coast redwoods, which are the tallest living things on Earth.
The cover of Anslem has a Bajoran crest on it. Sisko bought a plot of land in Kendra Valley on Bajor in DS9: “Penumbra”, the same episode the Prophets warned him that if he married Kasidy - if he did not walk his path alone - he would know nothing but sorrow.
We discover that Illa is Illa Dax, the latest host for the Dax symbiont, a Cardassian-Trill hybrid.
That last voice-over is indeed Avery Brooks, not from Star Trek but from Here… a spoken word and jazz album he released in 2006.
The DS9 theme plays over the closing credits.