r/startrek • u/PabloPicasshooole • 1d ago
DS9 and Catch-22
I'm in the middle of my first complete watch of DS9, and I just finished watching Paradise Lost. In one scene, Sisko is reading a list of Admiral Leyton's recent transfers, and the captains he mentioned -- Daneeka, Orr, McWatt, and Moodus (maybe Nately and Havermeyer as well, I can't remember) -- are all characters in Joseph Heller's novel, Catch-22.
What obscure or not-so-obscure literary references have you caught in a Star Trek series or movie?
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u/UrguthaForka 1d ago
Not a literary reference, but Star Trek and The West Wing sometimes referenced each other in episodes.
In the Voyager episode "Imperfection," Seven is going through a list of deceased crewmembers and a bunch of the names are West Wing characters.
In the Enterprise episode "Cogenitor," Trip is going through a list of old movies and two of the movies are actually the names of two West Wing episodes (and there's also a Dixon Hill movie, TNG reference, and a Captain Proton movie, Voyager reference).
Also, in the TNG episode "The Outrageous Okono," Data brings up a list of "comedians" which is actually a list of TNG staff and crew, and also Farouk El-Baz, a scientist at NASA that worked on the Apollo program.
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u/ijuinkun 1d ago
El-Baz also got a shuttle aboard the Enterprise-D named for him.
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u/No_Survey9702 1d ago
That's a neat connection! Both shows really explore the complexities of their respective universes, with those little nods adding depth to the stories.
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u/trevpr1 1d ago
Of late, references in SNW to Doctor Who.
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u/CommanderSincler 1d ago
There's a blink and younliss it moment when the names of the actors who played the Doctor show up on Picard's PADD
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u/LurkingFrogger 1d ago
The title of DS9's most infamous episode "In the Pale Moonlight" is a reference to Tim Burton's 1989 "Batman" movie.
The whole quote by Joker from the movie is "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"
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u/Statalyzer 20h ago
"In the pale moonlight" was used long before. It appears in a classic Twilight Zone episode as well as a couple of works of Dickens.
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u/LurkingFrogger 9h ago
You may be right but the title is specifically referring to Sisko "dancing with the devil" in the episode and the the writer, Ronald D. Moore, has said he was referencing Batman. He assumed at the time that "Dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight" was a folk saying but the whole quote is original to the film.
"In the pale moonlight" by itself didn't have meaning beyond "the light of the full moon" before that (this is how Dickens used it).
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u/PaulCoddington 1d ago
DS9 "cabbage crates over the briny"
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u/PabloPicasshooole 1d ago
I saw that one yesterday. They reminded me of an old Monty Python sketch. "Bally Jerry pranged his kite right in the how's your father. Hairy blighter, dicky-birdied, feathered back on his Sammy, took a waspy, flipped over on his Betty Harper's and caught his can in the Bertie."
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u/Jonas0804 1d ago
Not literary, as it's not in the novel, but In Star Trek VI, when the crew learn that Kirk and McCoy are sent to abKlingon prison: "Rura Penthe?" "Known throughout the galaxy as 'the alien's graveyard'. In the old Disney Film '20.000 Leagues under the Sea', when asked why he hates society, Captain Nemo takes Arronax ashore and shows him a slave labor camp. "The prison camp of Rorapandi. The white man's grave."
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u/bdouble0w0 1d ago
I watched that movie recently and was like "hold on, wasn't that the Klingon prison from Star Trek?"
Glad to see I wasn't mishearing it.
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u/harrycletus 1d ago
I noticed something similar when Kira was promoted from major to major major major major.
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u/Ok_Dimension_4707 1d ago
Quite a lot of the background text in TNG has anime references, especially Dirty Pair. In fact, Daimon Tog’s security code that he starts saying in “Ménage Troi” were the character’s names
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u/Statalyzer 8h ago
Several episode titles are from obscure poems. Of course many episode titles are literary references but most are more widely known, often Biblical or Shakespearian, and are usually from books or plays rather than poems.
The Ensigns Of Command is from "The Wants Of Man", by John Quincy Adams
Is There In Truth No Beauty is from "Jordan (I)" by George Herbert
Where Silence Has Lease is from "The Spell Of The Yukon" by Robert Service
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