• It’s perhaps interesting that the opening sequence for the show (or at least this episode) has not changed from the first season. Because of that, we still see elements such as the USS Protostar which was destroyed in in season one’s “Supernova, Part 2”, and a representation of the Emergency Janeway Hologram, which sacrificed herself in that same episode.
• In the episode, when asked if the Protogies would be taking a Protostar-class starship for their mission, the Doctor [Robert Picardo] says, ”The Protostar is still under construction.”
• The episode opens with Murf [Dee Bradley Baker] engaged in a tactical training exercise at Starfleet Academy. The cadets, other than Murf, are wearing a uniform we haven’t seen before.
• An officer hands Murf a PADD with a message from Admiral Janeway [Kate Mulgrew], and the other Protogies each receive one as well. In the message they’re referred to as ”Starfleet Academy hopefuls.” It was established in “Supernova, Part 2” that the Protogies wouldn’t be accepted into the Academy ahead of more qualified entrants, but would become warrant officers training under Janeway’s command.
• When Rok-Tahk [Rylee Alazraqui] receives the message, she is in the middle of a presentation on lieutenant Edward Larkin, and citing the events of the “The Trouble With Edward” short.
• ”She’s probably Queen of Solum by now.” The Protogies lament the absence of Gwyn [Ella Purnell], who separated from them in “Supernova, Part 2” on her own mission to her species homeworld.
• A shuttlecraft arrives, bearing the registry number NCC-74656-A. Hey, NCC-74656 was the USS Voyager’s registry!
• Shuttles with the same registry were seen in “Supernova, Part 2”, fishing the Protogies out of San Francisco Bay.
• The shuttle contains Voyager’s Emergency Medical Hologram, the Doctor, who apparently still has not chosen a name for himself, though he is willing to claim the title ”Hero of the Delta Quadrant.”
• ”I’m a doctor, not a butler.” The Doctor echo’s Doctor McCoy’s phrase, first uttered in “The Devil in the Dark”, where he stated, “I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer.”
• Though Bones was the originator of the phrase, the Doctor is easily the character who has uttered it the most.
• Doctor Bashir, the EMH Mark II, Doctor Phlox, and Doctor Culber, have all had variations of the line as well. Doctor T’Ana has not used the phrase on screen, but Boimler has imitated her saying it, albeit with a lot more curses than most Starfleet doctors.
• The Doctor explains that he’s able to move about thanks to his mobile emitter, and bit of 29th century technology he acquired in “Future’s End, Part II”.
• The Doctor refers to having written a holonovel he wrote that ”was very well received.” Presumably he is not recalling “Photons Be Free” the holonovel he wrote features in the episode “Author, Author” as that was not about a bond between a hologram and its crew.
• The mission Janeway is taking the Protogies on is to observe the wormhole created by the destruction of the Protostar in “Supernova, Part 2”.
• The Doctor explains that a distress call from Captain Chakotay [Robert Beltran] came through the wormhole, reiterating what we saw in “Supernova, Part 2”.
• We get to see the USS Voyager A in spacedock. It is a Lamarr-class starship.
• The Lamarr-class was named for scientist and actor, Hedy Lamarr, according to the Hageman brothers.
• According to Zero [Angus Imrie], the Voyager-A has 29 decks, a crew of more than 800, and two schools.
• In engineering, we’re also shown a quantum slipstream drive, a Delta Quadrant technology first encountered in “Hope and Fear”.
• “Twovix” is set in 2381, and this episode is set in 2384.
• The Doctor says that ”There are over 16 holodecks.” Not really clear why he choose not to give a specific number.
• The Voyager A also has a cetacean ops, large enough to accommodate a humpback whale.
• Rok-Tahk mentions that it’s her turn to feed the dolphins at one point in the episode. Apparently the navigators in Cetacean Ops don’t get access to their own replicators.
• There are two shuttlebays, not three.
• ”Her predecessor is a floating museum.” We saw the decommissioned Voyager’s journey to be installed as an orbiting museum in “Twovix”.
• The Doctor claims that the rest of Starfleet is busy with the Romulan evacuation. As we learned in “The End is the Beginning”, Starfleet and the Federation abandon that effort in 2385, following the synth attack on Mars. Perhaps something to look forward to for season three?
• Nova Squadron is an elite group of cadets, introduced in “The First Duty”.
• ”I already promised Admiral Picard I wouldn’t lose this one in the Delta Quadrant.” Admiral Picard was previously mentioned in the LDS episode, “The Stars at Night”. Apparently he’s some sort of mummy aficionado.
• ”And we need all these people to…observe a hole.” Traditionally all the important tasks aboard a Starfleet vessel are carried out by the three to seven most important members of the crew, while the other sometimes hundreds of officers aboard the ship are there to do routine maintenance, keep the seats warm on the bridge when the senior staff is off engaging space adventure, and occasionally serve as human shields. For more information, please see Star Trek. All of it.
• All of it.
• In Dal’s [Brett Gray] quarters we see a model of the Protostar as well as the goggles he wore in the mines of Tars Lamora in the series premiere, “Lost and Found”.
• ”Borg is short for cyborg!” While perhaps Dal is correct metatextually, that’s never been previously stated in Trek. In the Borg’s first appearance, “Q Who”, Guinan simply states, ”They’re called the Borg.” The Borg refer to themselves as such, there would be little reason for them to have named themselves after a term that originated in 1960s Earth science fiction.
• ”Well, cloaked ships are illegal in Starfleet.” Jankom Pog [Jason Mantazokus] is referring to a provision in the Treaty of Algeron, explicitly stated in “The Pegasus”.
• The titular USS Pegasus in “The Pegasus” did have prototype cloak, which would also allow the ship to phase through matter.
• The USS Defiant did have a Romulan cloaking device on it, and was originally only able to be operated by a Romulan officer billeted aboard the ship, as seen in “The Search, Part I”.
•In “Star Trek: Insurrection” Starfleet also had a cloaked holoship intended to be used to forcibly relocate the Ba’ku.
• Janeway reveals to her senior staff that Admiral Jellico is concerned that the classified mission to use the Infinity to enter the wormhole and rescue Chakotay would put the timeline at risk. Jellico was introduced in “Chain of Command, Part I” where he wanted to negotiate with Cardassians first by appearing to be a loose canon, and then by threatening them with mines attached to their ships. In “Masquerade” ordered Janeway to avoid entering the Neutral Zone to prevent provoking the Romulans, and instead commanded that they fire a torpedo into the Zone to destroy the Protostar. No doubt he also has a good plan regarding the Vau N’Akat.
My interpretation of Rom's portrayal was that he was playing up the simple earnestness of the character, as a ploy to lull Admiral Vassery into accepting the terms of deal as part of a test to see if the Federation had the lobes to be viable allies to the Ferengi Alliance.