• Spock shows up wearing a toque to cover his rounded ears and eyebrows. In TOS Spock used a toque to hide his pointed ears in “City on the Edge of Forever”, “Bread and Circuses”, and “Patterns of Force”.
• The delta on Spock’s toque is flipped backwards, perhaps implying that he hastily adhered it to the cap himself.
• The V’Shal dinner appears to be a series of petty tests intended to determine the fitness of both individuals in a Vulcan relationship to join the other’s family, as determined by their parents. In “You Are Cordially Invited” the Lady Sirella put Jadzia through a similar ordeal before she could marry Worf and join the House of Martok.
• It is worth noting that we learned in “Amok Time” that Spock and T’Pring were not just betrothed to one another, but psychically linked as children by arrangement between their families.
• ”Plus you aren’t a practiced liar.” Spock lies all the damn time.
• The traditional Vulcan teapot has Vulcan script on it that appears to be composed of a fan-made alphabet based on what was seen on screen. Part of the lettering reads ”J O I N E D T O G E T H E R.”
• T’Pring’s ring looks very similar to one the character wears in “Amok Time”.
• This is the first time T’Pril and Sevet have been seen on screen. Perhaps not surprisingly given the events that unfold, they were not in attendance for the Koon-ut-kal-if-fee in “Amok Time”.
• Captain Pike has apparently offered the use of his quarters for the V’Shal dinner. In “Spock Amok” T’Pring noted that Spock’s quarters were too human.
• Pike’s wrap tunic is not the same one he wore in “A Quality of Mercy”. That one had leather for the yoke and outer sleeves, where as this one does not. It does, however, add white piping parallel to the edge of the closure.
• Kirk wore three different wrap tunics during the course of TOS.
• Pike claims the Enterprise”runs at a hotter temperature than a typical Vulcan kitchen.” Vulcan is notably a hot world, so much so that it is uncomfortable for humans. Apparently they take pains to keep their kitchens cool.
• On one of the Cervantes’ displays we see a map of the Vulcan system, and series motion graphics designer shared the map to his twitter account. It confirms the long held theory that Vulcan shares its orbit with another planet, and names that world T’Khut. We also learn that Vulcan has two other stars in the system, 40 Eridani B and 40 Eridani C, which orbit around the primary, 40 Eridani A.
• We know from another display, that Kerkhov is a Class-J planet orbiting Eridani C.
• No indication on the map of where Delta Vega is.
• When Ortegas suggest contacting the Enterprise, Uhura claims she can’t reach anything more than a light year away with all the interference. The diameter of our solar system is about .00127 light years.
• Restored, Spock is able to mind meld with Amanda to complete the V’shal ritual. In “Dagger of the Mind” Spock tells Bones he had never melded with a human before, and that it could be dangerous to do so. Of course, he also melded with Gabrielle Burnham prior to this, as seen in “Perpetual Infinity”.
• The memory Amanda shares with Spock is of the first time Vulcan children asked him to play with them. In “Yesteryear” we saw that other Vulcans bullied Spock as a child, specifically claiming that by marrying Amanda, Sarek brought shame to Vulcan.
• Spock’s reaction to T’Pril referring to Amanda as a ”handicap” echoes Kelvin timeline Spock’s reaction when the ministers of the Vulcan Science Academy called Kelvin timeline Amanda a ”disadvantage,” resulting in his refusing admission to the Academy.
• ”We have shared katras.” T’Pring is referring to the events of “Spock Amok”.
• T’Pring and Spock decide to take time apart, but we know this isn’t permanent, as they are still involved in “Amok Time”.
• Of course, in “Amok Time” Chapel is surprised to when Spock reveals to the bridge crew that T’Pring is his wife. That is the first time she says to Spock, “I don’t know. Shut up.”
I have no problem with this solution. See for example, the other Paris.
Archer comments that Vulcan females specifically have a heightened sense of smell, but in “The Andorian Incident” it is a male Vulcan monk who comments that the smell aboard the NX-01 “must be intolerable.”
You can reconcile this: To Vulcan males we really smell. To Vulcan females, we really, really smell.
so perhaps that’s a cultural practice that fell out of usage between ENT and DIS/SNW/TOS
There's a tendency to treat every alien race as a monoculture, but maybe Spock and T'Pol just came from different parts of Vulcan.
As a human Spock chooses to eat bacon
I actually kind of assumed that it might have been facon. While I can see the Enterprise growing real plants on its five year mission (hence Pike's preference of real herbs), I can't see it breeding real pigs.
T’Pring and Spock decide to take time apart, but we know this isn’t permanent,
The real question is, when T'Pring finds out about Spock and Chapel getting it on, will his excuse be that they were on a break?
I have no problem with this solution. See for example, the other Paris.
There are plenty of examples of cities in different countries, or even different territories in the same country having the same name. I feel like it’s different when we’re talking about a planet.
There’s a tendency to treat every alien race as a monoculture, but maybe Spock and T’Pol just came from different parts of Vulcan.
That tendency is built into Trek, for good or ill, and I would say it even applies to humans.
I actually kind of assumed that it might have been facon. While I can see the Enterprise growing real plants on its five year mission (hence Pike’s preference of real herbs), I can’t see it breeding real pigs.
In “Charlie X” Kirk does say to the galley chef, “On Earth today, it’s Thanksgiving. If the crew has to eat synthetic meat loaf, I want it to look like turkey,” which would seem to imply that in this era fake meat is not outside the norm. The question is though, is Pike such a foodie that he would throw his weight around be certain that there is a supply of real bacon on the ship for him to use vs. whatever’s coming out of the food synthesizers.
And there’s a whole other debate to be had about whether or not replicated meat would qualify as plant based which I don’t feel like the body of the post is the appropriate place to get into it. My personal opinion is that replicated meats would still not be suitable for a vegan diet, because at some point there was an original source that the replicator pattern must have been based upon.
I feel like it’s different when we’re talking about a planet.
I suppose I kind of figure that planets in the Star Trek world are more analogous to cities/countries in our world. Also, "Delta Vega" is such a generic-sounding, human-centric designation anyway that in my head canon the full, formal designation of a planet in the Federation catalogue of stellar objects might be a lot longer, with "Delta Vega" in this case just one part of the full name. Think about the billions of stars that Starfleet has catalogued, and thousands of planets containing life. There's surely room for more than one "Delta Vega". Not to mention that planets have different names used by different groups or contexts, just like Earth is also referred to as Terra, Sol III, Die Erde, La Monde etc. So I figure there's different Delta Vegas around, and people know which one is being talked about from context.
That (monoculture) tendency is built into Trek, for good or ill, and I would say it even applies to humans.
Agreed, and put me down "for ill", but I like the idea of explaining apparent canon contradictions by expanding the universe beyond the monocultures we usually see. One of my favourite little moments in Picard was Laris tapping Shaban on the Westmore appliance and calling him a "stubborn northerner". In just those two seconds the Romulan culture got a lot more interesting.
The question is though, is Pike such a foodie that he would throw his weight around be certain that there is a supply of real bacon on the ship for him to use
If we ever see an episode where he hunts down a boar, guts it, dresses it and serves it to his crew with a nice sprig of coriander, we'll know for sure. ;-)
Pike is absolutely the kind of foodie who’d keep a supply of real bacon aboard. The good stuff keeps a while and they’ve probably got stasis fridges. I’m sure he’s got a whole network of food purveyors across the quadrant to restock with meat and dairy every starbase visit.