Star Trek: Discovery has been in the habit of sprinkling easter eggs and nods to other Trek shows since its beginning, and that hasn't changed in Season 2. Eagle-eyed fans who watched "Lights and Shadows" may have noticed as a very subtle nod was shown that referenced the four previous shows in the franchise. Take a look at the picture of the ship console below, which shows controls labeled with the abbreviations for other Star Trek shows.
For those struggling to remember what all of those abbreviations stand for, the control labels reference Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Enterprise, and Voyager. The dials, unfortunately, probably don't have any other connection to the shows other than that, and this is more of an homage easter egg than some revelation Section 31's escape pods have time-traveling abilities. Looks like we'll have to wait a little longer to find out how the Discovery gets into the future.
Even if the Star Trek: Discovery easter egg tweeted by Jeff the Colonist isn't relevant to the plot, it's still incredibly cool. To see someone on the crew go to such lengths to throw in a reference -- that 99% of people who watched saw without realizing what it was -- is another show of how passionate this team is about Star Trek. Is it any wonder CBS All Access gave this show a Season 3 renewal?
As mentioned, Star Trek: Discovery is known for peppering easter eggs into episodes. Season 1 featured a plethora of nods to the original series, and Season 2 has also shown love to the O.G. Star Trek. Captain Pike recently ordered communications on the U.S.S. Enterprise be reverted to "old school methods," due to his distaste for hologram communication. It was a cool story element that also served as a plot device to explain the lesser tech of the original series.
Star Trek: Discovery hasn't made many references to any of the four recently mentioned shows, however, probably because they don't take place as close to the same timeline. Three of those 4 shows take place over a hundred years after Discovery, so there's not a ton of connections that can be made. Still, the show does what it can, and has used this unwritten portion of Star Trek history to bridge gaps and make connections between previously existing stories.
Star Trek: Discovery's easter egg is cool, but doesn't do a lot to help explain the current mystery of Season 2. The mystery of the "Red Angel" remains, and at the moment, it doesn't appear as though Michael or her obsessed brother Spock are any closer to unraveling the mystery behind it. Could this Angel somehow be a character from one of these shows? Is this easter egg more relevant than we gave it credit to be?
Star Trek: Discovery uploads new episodes on CBS All Access Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. ET. Keep tabs on all things happening on television in the coming weeks by visiting our midseason premiere guide.
