References in Star Trek

The writers of Star Trek have often made use of existing culture, sometimes as a central plot element and sometimes as a minor reference for the attentive viewer to pick up on. The references listed here need not be cultural – historical references or other noteworthy references are also listed.

If you would like to contribute to this page, please see the where there is a list of unconfirmed references to Star Trek.

Apart from sometimes giving away plot details, the descriptions may also spoil the fun of discovering the references for oneself.

Star Trek: The Original Series

The Conscience of the King

Lenore Karidian, speaking in private with Captain Kirk, recalls the old nursery rhyme Star Light, Star Bright.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Chain of Command

Gul Madred, using torture, tries to make Captain Picard see five lights in front of him when there are actually four. This alludes to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four where Winston Smith, under torture, is made to see five fingers when four are held up in front of him.

Timescape

Suffering from temporal narcosis, Captain Jean-Luc Picard laughed hysterically at a smiley he carved in a cloud of smoke that was frozen in time. The cloud was a product of a warp core explosion.

Star Trek: Voyager

The 37s

The crew of the USS Voyager encounter a Ford pickup truck floating in space, which leads them to a planet where they find Amelia Earhart and others cryogenically frozen.

Year of Hell, Part I

On day 47 of the Krenim attack, Ensign Harry Kim and Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres are trapped in a turbolift. Kim entertains her with a trivia game and mention the movie To Catch a Thief and actor Clark Gable.

Timeless

As Tom Paris runs a diagnostic on the quantum slipstream drive, he tells Harry Kim that the quantum slipstream drive is an Edsel and a failure.

Counterpoint

As Devore inspection teams search Voyager for telepaths, Inspector Kashyk drinks coffee and discuss Gustav Mahler's Symphony Number One with Captain Kathryn Janeway in her ready room.

Latent Image

As the Doctor struggles with guilt over killing a patient, Ensign Ahni Jetal, Captain Janeway reads La Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri. At the end of the episode, the Doctor quotes from the text:

"In that book which is my memory.../On the first page of the chapter / That is the day when I first met you... / Appear the words... / Here begins a new life."

Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy

The title of this episode is based on the novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré.

In a daydream, the Doctor sings the opera Don Carlos by Giuseppe Verdi in the mess hall to a cheering crowd.

One Small Step

Chakotay and Tom Paris briefly discuss human spaceflight pioneers Neil Armstrong and John Glenn while searching for the remains of a failed human space flight to Mars.

Virtuoso

In sickbay, The Doctor hums "I've Been Working on the Railroad" and sings "Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah" to some Qomar survivors. Later, in a reception in the mess hall, The Doctor sings the opera Don Carlos by Giuseppe Verdi in order to expose music to the Qomar species. He ends the episode singing "I've Been Working on the Railroad" to himself in sickbay.

Star Trek: Enterprise

Borderland

Malik quotes Friedrich Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra: "man kind is something to be surpassed".

Observer Effect

While in isolation, Trip asks Hoshi if she ever saw the movie The Andromeda Strain. Hoshi isn't familar with it, but guesses: "Dr. Andromeda builds a monster, and it kills him in the end." Her guess is closer to the story of Frankenstein. Later, she comments on Trip fixing the warp engines with "duct tape and a pocket knife", the trademark instruments of MacGyver.

Motion pictures

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Khan's fanatical pursuit of revenge leading to his ultimate self-destruction and demise, can certainly be seen as a reference to Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Indeed, Khan quotes the novel extensively throughout it's course. One such example would be Khan's final words, "No...no, you can't get away...from hell's heart, I stab at thee...for hate's sake, I spit my last breath...at thee..." uttered during his final moments alive and taken directly from Moby Dick.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

To test Spock's memory, Doctor Leonard McCoy quotes: "Angles and ministers of grace defend us", which Spock in turn accurately identifies as Hamlet, Act I, Scene 4.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

According to Spock, "only Nixon could go to China" is an old vulcan proverb. For the background of this reference, see Nixon in China.

There is a painting in Spock's room depicting the expulsion from paradise.

When it is decided that the Klingons will be having dinner on the Enterprise, Pavel Chekov says "Guess who's coming to dinner". Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is the title of a movie about confrontation of races from 1967.

Spock helps us identify the first Shakespeare reference, which is also in the movies title:
:Gorkon: I offer a toast: the undiscovered country. The future.
:Everyone: The undiscovered country!
:Spock: Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1.
:Gorkon: You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon.
:Chang: taH pagh taHbe'
The words spoken by Chang are "to be or not to be" (Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1), or more exactly "to survive or not to survive", in the Klingon language.

Gorkon's comment about Shakespeare is an in-joke dating from the Original Series. Ensign Chekov was given to outrageously pro-Russian claims and once said the same phrase, replaced with "the original Russian". This was a then-topical joke about Soviet boosterism and over-the-top propaganda claims of prior invention in science and technology, a behavior which was rooted in the Cold War and not the Russian character (making it an appropriate in-joke to recycle in this context). Interestingly, Hamlet has been translated into the "original Klingon" by the Klingon Language Institute since the making of this movie.

The totalitarian references continue at the dinner table:
:Chang: To be or not to be. That is the question which preoccupies our people, Captain. We need breathing room.
:Kirk: Earth. Hitler, 1938.
Kirks reaction is a reference to the Nazi idea of Lebensraum ("living space").

Gorkon to Kirk in the transporter room:

"If there is to be a brave new world, our generation is going to have the hardest time living in it". The phrase "brave new world" is from The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1.

Chang to Kirk in the transporter room:

"Parting is such sweet sorrow." – Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2.

"Have we not heard the chimes at midnight?" (paraphrased) – Henry IV, part 2, Act 3, Scene 2.

Chang to Kirk during the trial:

"Let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings." – Richard II, Act 3, Scene 2.

"Don't wait for the translation, answer me now!" Similar words were originally spoken by Adlai Stevenson to V. A. Zorin in an emergency session of the United Nations during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Spock on the bridge of the Enterprise:

"An ancestor of mine maintained that if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." This ancestor is Sherlock Holmes or possibly the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Arthur Conan Doyle.

Chekov speaks to crewman Dax when the magnetic boots have been found:

"Perhaps you know Russian epic of Cinderella? If shoe fits, wear it."

Martia on the surface of Rura Penthe:

"I thought I would assume a pleasing shape." (paraphrased) – Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2.

Kirk to Spock onboard the Enterprise:

"I'm a great one for rushing in where angels fear to tread." This paraphrases the saying "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread" from Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism.[1]

Chang during the battle:

"No peace in our time". The phrase "peace in our time" is from Neville Chamberlain's famous speech after the signing of the Munich Agreement.

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends." – Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1.

"Tickle us, do we not laugh? Prick us, do we not bleed? Wrong us, shall we not revenge?" (paraphrased) – The Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Scene 1.

"The game's afoot." – Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1.

"Our revels now are ended." – The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1.

"Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war." – Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 1.

"I am constant as the northern star." – Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 1.

Kirk's speech at the Khitomer conference:

"It's about the future, Madam Chancellor. Some people think the future means the end of history. Well, we haven't run out of history just yet." This is a reference to Francis Fukuyama's argument that the end of the Cold War represented the "End of History".

When Kirk is asked for a course he replies:

"Second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning." (paraphrased) – J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan.

Star Trek: First Contact

When Captain Picard listens to Vallon Sonore from the opera Les Troyens in his ready room, Commander Riker enters and asks Picard if the music is by Bizet. Captain Picard corrects him, saying that it was by Hector Berlioz.

When appearing on the bridge with Lily Sloane, Picard said "Reports of my assimilation have been greatly exaggerated." This alludes to Mark Twain who in 1897 sent a telegram stating that "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated" after his obituary had been mistakenly published.[1]

As the magnetic locks around the deflector dish are removed, the letters "AE 35" appear on a monitor, alluding to .

In Captain Picard's ready room, Lily Sloane compared Picard to Captain Ahab from the novel Moby Dick as both were on an obsessive quest for revenge. Later, Picard quoted the novel to Lily, who never read it: "And he piled upon the whale's white hump, the sum of all the rage and hate felt by his whole race. If his chest had been a cannon, he would have shot his heart upon it." Patrick Stewart would later play Captain Ahab in a television movie of the novel.

Star Trek: Insurrection

In the battle between the shuttle and the scoutship, Captain Picard and Commander Worf sing A British Tar with Commander Data from the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta HMS Pinafore.