Lost in Translation (episode)

Real world article
(written from a Production point of view)

Uhura seems to be the only one who can hear a strange sound. When the noise triggers terrifying hallucinations, she enlists an unlikely assistant to help her track down the source.

Summary[]

Teaser[]

The USS Enterprise arrives at Bannon's Nebula on the edge of explored space, where Starfleet is building the Bavali Station, an outpost and refinery designed to harvest deuterium, used as fuel for starships. Captain Pike muses on the idea that a million years in the future, the stars born in the nebula would shine on explorers just like them, but the area would seem to be different. He looks over at Uhura at communications, asking if she was awake. Uhura replies that her eyes were technically open but admits she had not been getting much sleep for several nights. Pike is appreciative of her coordinating the mission but advises her that one should only "burn the candle at one end". Uhura then receives a message from the refinery, sending their greetings and reporting they were ready for the Enterprise's engineering details. Pike has her inform Chief Kyle to stand by.

Just then, Una emerges from the turbolift, remarking that congratulations were in order for Pike's promotion to fleet captain. Pike explains he has been given command over both the deuterium refinery and the USS Farragut until the station is brought online. Ortegas calls it the "shiniest gas station" she has ever seen, but Pike believes it more than just a "gas station", but the jumping-off point for the next age of exploration. Una jokingly expresses her fear of missing Pike's speech; Pike quips that he had started earlier, but Uhura had fallen asleep. Spock had thought the nebula's proximity to Gorn space was the reason for the mission, and Pike concedes he is probably right; the Gorn presence has been growing, and the station would help counter it. Spock reports that the Enterprise's Bussard collectors were operational while the refinery was off-line; though slower than the refinery, he advises that it might be logical to use the opportunity to refuel. Pike is of the same mind, and orders Ortegas to find a dense pocket of deuterium and "do some laps" – but not to take more than they needed. Just then, Uhura hears a strange signal in her earpiece, but when she tries to bring it up on speakers or find the recording, it is gone. She swears there was something there and goes to conduct a full diagnostic on the communication system.

Uhura heads up into one of the nacelles, reviewing a recording by Hemmer on how to re-calibrate the system, when she is approached by Pelia. Uhura explains that she had asked for these calibrations so often that Hemmer had eventually showed her how to do it herself, and they recorded the process. Pelia recalls Hemmer had been one of her best students at Starfleet Academy, before backtracking (admitting she only said that because he was dead) and saying he was only "okay", but still impressed with where he managed to find himself. She then asks why Uhura had never spoken to her before. Uhura is sure she has, but Pelia knows she hasn't. She admits she had been very busy and welcomes Pelia to the Enterprise. As the chief engineer returns to work, Uhura looks back at the recording she made with Hemmer, where he is reassuring her that he would not let her blow up the ship. Uhura pauses the video, looking at it for a moment, before returning to work.

Walking the corridors with Una, Pike calls the whole project a "fiasco", saying the refinery was supposed to be online two months prior. The delay was caused by what Starfleet called "organizational difficulties", including having the previous superintendent recalled to Earth, and believes the project could use some of Una's "managerial fervor". The first officer sarcastically remarks on the pleasures of cleaning up other people's messes.

As Uhura steps into the turbolift to return to the bridge, she hears the same droning signal she had heard in her earpiece. Looking around, she sees Hemmer as a rotting corpse, snarling and lunging at her, causing her to fearfully back up against the wall of the lift.

Act One[]

In sickbay, Dr. M'Benga runs scans; based on what Uhura saw and heard, as well as increased activity in the visual cortex of her brain, he believes she was experiencing hallucinations. She had said she was watching a video of Hemmer, and his death on Valeo Beta V was still fresh in her mind. Uhura doesn't think Starfleet officers should randomly hallucinate, but M'Benga assures her she did nothing wrong – and the hallucination was not random. While she was in the nacelle, she was exposed to a small amount of refined deuterium and chalks it up to a mild case of deuterium poisoning, which could cause hallucinations. He gives her something to treat it, but also notes an imbalance in her serotonin and cortisol levels, indicating she wasn't sleeping. M'Benga warns that exhaustion could exacerbate the effects of deuterium poisoning and advises her to rest. Uhura wonders how she is supposed to sleep after what she just saw. M'Benga empathizes, but also recognizes a stubborn patient when he sees one and relieves her of duty until he is satisfied that she has slept.

Aboard the refinery, Una is leading the effort to bring the refinery online, sending a team to deck seven to stabilize the life support system. Pelia approaches, saying it was not as bad as it looked – it was "way worse". Una sees the central refining and storage systems were in good order, but Pelia points out the maintenance logs, which give her the feeling that things were breaking down faster than the crew was able to repair them. Luckily, Una points out, there were three crews at work now; the Enterprise and Farragut teams could fix the problem systems, while the station's teams could get the refinery running. Pelia is sure that she can "smell" an underlying issue that needed to be checked out. Una tells her she does not base her decision making on "feelings" and "smells", and any underlying issues would become clear as they proceed. Pelia just smiles and chuckles knowingly, before heading back to work.

In her quarters, Uhura tosses and turns restlessly, before finally rising from her bed. As she gets to her feet, however, she finds herself outside, and begins hearing the droning noise again, before looking to see a plume of smoke rising from the nearby woods. Then she suddenly awakens, back in bed in her quarters, wondering what she just saw.

In the transporter room, James T. Kirk beams over from the Farragut, greeted by his elder brother Sam. "Hell of a ship," Jim notes, before jokingly asking how Sam was part of the crew; Sam shoots back that Pike had asked for the more handsome Kirk brother and offers a tour. Jim accepts, as long as it ended at the bar. In the crew lounge, over a glass of Scotch whisky, Jim asks what was new and exciting in the world of xenoanthropology. Sam says everything was new and exciting in that field, but rather than give an answer he is sure Jim doesn't care about, he asks about his news. Jim detects a bit of hostility, and he soon finds out why: Sam has found out that Jim has been tapped as the Farragut's new first officer, the youngest in the fleet… breaking the record set by their father, George, on the USS Kelvin. Jim points out that Sam was the one with their father's first name, even though he chose not to use it, and he felt he had to do something to "keep up". Sam thinks Jim's rise makes him look bad, remembering how their father had "old-fashioned ideas" about what a successful career and fulfilling life looked like… and it was looking more like what Jim was doing. Jim asks why, if Sam was concerned about impressing their father, he was "wallowing" in a science lab, and Sam is offended by the implication. Jim believes records were made to be broken, and he put in extra work to break this one but believes they could make the "old man" proud in their own way. "Or not at all," Sam replies bitterly, as he finishes his drink and walks away.

Aboard the refinery, Una is relieved to see life support back online, but then the system begins failing almost immediately. As Pelia approaches, Una tells her they had to send a team to deck five to work on the EPS regulators. But Pelia has more worrisome news, having found something in the fuel regulation system. Pelia and her teams began looking into the functioning systems, despite Una's orders; Pelia justifies it by saying if she had followed Una's orders to the letter, she would never have found evidence of sabotage, which gets Una's full attention.

In the lounge, Spock is playing three-dimensional chess with Nurse Chapel, and brings up a matter he wishes to discuss, regarding the relationship they had begun. Given a starship's command hierarchy and the rules about fraternization among the crew, he believes he has to inform Starfleet. Chapel is reluctant, comparing it to the concept of Schrödinger's cat, the "cat" being their relationship existing (or not) in a "box"; if they let anyone see inside the "box", the "cat" might disappear. Uhura then approaches, admitting that she should be resting; Chapel remarks on how people tended to ignore the "orders" part of "doctor's orders". Uhura feels certain she does not have deuterium poisoning and mentions that she first heard the noise when she was on the bridge, before going into the nacelle. Chapel is certain that her symptoms are a classic sign of overwork and offers something to help her sleep. But for Uhura, sleep is the last thing on her mind. She walks up to the bar and asks for a Saurian brandy. In the seat next to her is Jim Kirk, who introduces himself. Uhura recognizes him as Sam's brother, and rebuffs what she believes is his attempt to hit on her. Kirk assures her he was not hitting on her, and that she looked like she needed a friend. She curtly replies she was not in the market for friends at that time, takes a sip of her drink, and walks out.

In the corridor, she sees the lights flickering and hears the droning noise again, before turning to see bloodied, broken bodies lying all along the deck. She tries to assure herself it was not real, but the droning noise persists, and she turns to see an illusion of herself, a knife in her hand and murder in her eyes. Uhura fights off her illusory self and brings it down with one punch. As she does, the lights return to normal, the corridors are empty… and Kirk is lying at her feet with a cut on his nose. "I told you I am not hitting on you," he says, while Uhura can only stare in shock.

Act Two[]

Uhura apologizes profusely, unable to believe what she just did; Kirk can't believe it either, saying she seemed so "pleasant". She offers to take him to sickbay to have Dr. M'Benga fix his nose, but he doesn't think it a good idea; he could tell she had been seeing something that wasn't there, and thinks she has bigger problems than simply striking a superior officer. Sighing, she replies she has a dermal regenerator in her quarters, and all but drags him along.

In her quarters, Uhura repairs the damage to Kirk's nose. He remarks that the "nightmare visions" were turning her into a sadist, but assures her he does not think it was all just in her head. He has had deuterium poisoning before, and has also gone days without sleep, but never punched out a fellow officer due to either. He considers himself an "exquisite" judge of character, and he believes what she has told him, offering to help figure out what was really going on. Uhura has triple-checked the sensor logs, and there was nothing but deuterium in the nebula; according to M'Benga, she is the only one experiencing these symptoms… at least on the Enterprise. Kirk sees a potential line of investigation, offering to check in with the chief medical officer on the Farragut, and asks if he can bring her Uhura's medical file. He jokingly tells her not to punch any more officers until he returns.

On the refinery, Una and Pelia search for the saboteur. Una thinks it would have been easier if the lights or internal sensors were online, but Pelia counters that the station could have exploded if she had brought them up. They soon discover their saboteur is one of the Starfleet engineers, who appears to also be hallucinating, and urges them to keep "him" away. Una assures him no one was there, and no one would hurt him. The engineer keeps babbling that "it can't be real". Una puts her hand on his shoulder; when he asks if she was real, she gives him a reassuring nod, and asks for his name. He identifies himself as Lieutenant Saul Ramon. Una asks him why he sabotaged the station. Ramon is dumbfounded and keeps repeating that it wasn't real. Una calls the Enterprise, reporting a medical emergency.

Sitting alone in her quarters, Uhura looks up as the red alert klaxon begins to sound and steps out of her quarters… and onto the bridge, where she asks what was happening. Pike says only that they were under attack by an enemy. The viewscreen begins to crack and then finally shatters, venting Pike, Spock, and other members of the crew into space. As Uhura stares dumbfounded, she can hear Pike's voice calling to her; she is sitting at her station, and the entire bridge crew are looking at her in concern. Pike asks if she was not supposed to be on medical leave.

In the conference room, Pike tells Uhura that as her captain, he wants all of his officers healthy, both physically and mentally, and as her friend, he wants to help. Uhura notes the irony of a communications officer who can't communicate what was wrong with her. Just then, the door chimes, heralding Kirk returning from the Farragut. He congratulates Pike on his promotion, which Pike insists was only temporary, before saying he had come looking for Uhura, mentioning their earlier encounter. Kirk has heard about Ramon, who was now in the Enterprise sickbay. The Farragut's CMO had received a report about him the previous day; one of his friends had expressed concern about him, saying that he was seeing things that were not there… just like Uhura.

In sickbay, Pike questions Ramon about what he saw, but M'Benga warns that he might not be able to understand. His scans show significant damage to the speech and language centers of his brain, and it was getting worse, his auditory nerves firing wildly. Ramon suddenly doubles over in pain, hearing the same droning sound as Uhura. Ramon looks over at Uhura before grabbing one of the diagnostic tools from the nearby tray and slashing M'Benga across the chest, barreling through the nearby security officer before fleeing into the corridor. M'Benga assures Pike he was fine. Pike calls for security to deck four as he and the security officer give chase. Uhura thinks it was another hallucination, but Kirk assures her it was real, and that they had to stop Ramon before he hurt anyone else and urges her to follow him.

Act Three[]

Pike and the security officer move quickly into the corridor as the lights suddenly switch to emergency power. Stopping at nearby flashlight storage panel, he grabs two flashlights and hands one to the security officer. They find one of the crew lying outside astrometrics, a deep slash across her stomach. Pike calls sickbay to send a medic. La'an catches up to them, saying that Ramon had cut the power conduit, which explained the loss of lighting. Pike tells the security man to stay with the wounded officer, while he and La'an pursue Ramon to engineering.

Kirk and Uhura, similarly armed and equipped with flashlights, are also part of the search, but Uhura is soon overwhelmed by the droning noise, as well as a hallucination of the walls closing in all around her. Kirk helps return her to reality, and she apologetically tells him she should go back to sickbay. He offers to accompany her, but she assures him she will be fine, and urges him to keep up with the search.

Pike and La'an catch up with Kirk in the corridor. Pike notes that La'an seems to know him, but she replies that it was no time to explain. If none of them have found Ramon, Kirk suspects he must have found a place to hide. Pike suggests doubling back. La'an looks for a moment at Kirk, recalling her previous interaction with him, before joining Pike.

Uhura finds a bloodstain near the access point of the port nacelle, and calls to all teams saying she may have found Ramon. Kirk is closest, and tells her to wait for him. Uhura, however, removes the access panel from the access tunnel and goes inside alone. There, she finds Ramon at the power console, and tells him to step away. She tells him she has been seeing and hearing the same things he has, but assures him they were not real – but she was. She identifies herself, saying she was born in Kenya, that she had a cat named Kamili, and that her first memory was her father playing the piano. She pleads with him to step away from the console. Ramon appears almost convinced, but then lunges to the fuel pod ejection systems. Uhura tries to physically stop him, but he is able to disarm her and push her away – right into Kirk, who calls for an emergency transport. As Uhura screams for them to wait, they are beamed to safety… and the fuel pod explodes, venting Ramon into space.

In sickbay, the wounded officer has died from her injury, and Chapel covers her body. Pike reflects on the situation – two were now dead, M'Benga in surgery, and the ship nearly disabled… and no one knew why. Uhura explains Ramon must have been hearing the same sound she had been, which to Pike is good news: it proved Uhura was not crazy, and that something was affecting her just as it had been affecting Ramon, and they would figure out what. Uhura believes she should be confined to quarters, wondering how long before she would sabotage the ship or throw herself out an airlock, but Pike assures her it would not come to that. He has to confer with Una about getting the refinery online, but with Ramon dead, Starfleet has given Pike access to his personal logs and private medical files, which may hold the answers they need to help Uhura.

La'an spots Kirk just outside of sickbay, Kirk recalling her as a "stickler for orderly security records". She asks if he was injured, and he replies he was not, but was waiting on Uhura. La'an didn't realize they were friends, and Kirk explains they had just met, but she had looked like she needed help. From his perspective, Uhura was somebody who had a hard time asking for help, especially from friends, while from La'an's, Kirk was the kind of person to offer help to strangers in need. He explains that his father had been in Starfleet, and that he, Sam, and their mother Winona had followed him for Jim's entire childhood, one posting to another, and barely saw him. When Jim asked his mother why, she told him that he was helping people who really needed it; as a child, he wondered why his father put strangers' lives ahead of his, a feeling La'an is familiar with. He ultimately told himself if his father spent his life helping total strangers, it must have been important. La'an assures him that as one of those strangers helped by Starfleet herself, it was. As she leaves to continue her rounds, Kirk reminds her of the drink she owes him.

On the refinery, Una and Pelia finish bringing the routing system back online. Pelia thinks Una should be back on the Enterprise supervising the repairs there. Una had said so to Pike, but he disagreed, believing the station was top priority. Pelia can see Una has a problem with her. Una, somewhat heatedly, says she does not have a problem with Pelia, but with the situation, something Pelia dismisses as "malarkey". Una finally admits that she considers Pelia to be sloppy, disrespecting protocols, not following orders unless she felt like it… and she also had crumbs on her uniform, wondering when she could have eaten while they were there. She dismisses Pelia as a "space hippie". Pelia admits she has been called many things, but "space hippie" was a new one on her. She attributes Una's hostility to being too used to being the "smartest person in the room". Una protests against that, but Pelia is persistent, saying that Una hid behind order and discipline because it "killed" her when someone questioned her decisions, and asked whether her experience bought her any deference. Una concedes that Pelia has been in Starfleet since before she was born, but she was the ranking officer, and asks Pelia why she thinks that is. Pelia just smiles, before saying she would have the station online in a few hours.

Back on the Enterprise, Kirk and Uhura review Ramon's personal logs. Ramon recalls seeing his friend John standing in the mess hall like he was still alive, and tried to speak to him, causing his friends on the crew to look at him like he had gone mad; Ramon mentions the noise he hears, and wonders if he is going mad. Uhura is haunted by hearing someone experiencing the same thing she was, and based on the time index of Ramon's logs, she estimates she has a day and a half before she goes the same way he did. Kirk suggests they take a break and update Captain Pike on their progress (or lack thereof), and maybe get something to eat. He has heard that the mess hall was serving real cookies, not made in the matter synthesizer. Uhura heatedly says she does not need a cookie, to which Kirk jokes that now she sounded crazy. Seeing her reaction, he apologizes for the "dumb joke", but Uhura sees the problem: that it wasn't a joke.

Several years before, Uhura lost her parents and brother in a shuttle accident. She hadn't been there and never saw the crash site, but every time she closed her eyes, she could see the crash, see their deaths. It got so bad that she couldn't even look at their pictures. Hemmer's death brought those same feelings back, and she tried to cover it "with work and smiles and more work". She admits she has never been able to face death; everyone had their ways of dealing with it and moving on, but she doesn't know how. She wonders how she could be a Starfleet officer if she can't handle death. Rather than offer her some "comforting fairy tale", Kirk elects to be honest, saying that serving in Starfleet brought them up against death more than was fair. They didn't have to like it, but they did have to face it. And at the moment, death was winning; it had claimed Uhura's family and her friend, and it convinced her to forget them because that was less painful than holding onto their memories. "Now, you can let death win, or you can fight back," he urges her. "Hold onto them." He asks if she was still saying "no" to the cookie, earning a small laugh, before leaving for a moment. Uhura begins watching the recording with Hemmer again, walking her through recalibrating the communications system, telling her to dial down the gain on the subspace antenna, or else she would burn out the receiver. Hearing that last phrase leads Uhura to realize something, and she quickly heads out into the corridor, where she runs into Kirk. She shows him Ramon's brain scan, indicating the damage to the language centers of his brain, an area that Uhura was also being affected by, and both were hearing the same sounds. She suspects that something in the nebula was trying to communicate with them, but the signal was so strong, it burned out those portions of Ramon's brain. Kirk realizes they need to speak with Sam.

Sam reviews what Uhura has told him about the symptoms, and how they started when they arrived in the nebula, but none of the scans showed any signs of lifeforms. There is a theory ("a bit fringe, but hear me out," he qualifies) that extra-dimensional creatures could emerge for periods in their space and attach themselves to atoms in their dimension. Jim recognizes this would mean they were not sophisticated lifeforms capable of speech or even language. Uhura notes there were similarities in the ways different species processed thoughts and ideas, and that the universal translator worked by recognizing those similarities. Jim is incredulous at the idea of unseen aliens using Uhura's brain as a universal translator, but she thinks it possible. The aliens send simple ideas to the language centers of her brain, which interprets them the only way it can: through her thoughts and memories. She felt the walls closing in around her, because they felt trapped. She was attacking herself, because they were responsible for it. They showed the ship being destroyed because they were desperate to break free. They were showing her visions of the ones she had loved, because what Starfleet was doing was killing them. The Kirks come to the same conclusion: these aliens had become bonded with the deuterium in the nebula, and the harvesting and refining of the deuterium was essentially torturing them. Uhura calls Pike, telling her to stop the activation of the refinery. But it was too late – the refinery had been activated five minutes earlier.

Act Four[]

Uhura and Jim Kirk race to the turbolift, Uhura telling Pike to shut the station down immediately. But aboard the refinery, Una and Pelia are unable to get the station's automated systems to accept commands; Pelia fears that Ramon may have done more damage than they thought.

As they head to the bridge, Uhura hears the droning sound, and sees the visions of the shuttle crash that killed her family. Despite her fear, Uhura convinces herself to keep going, to see what she needed to see. She comes back to clarity on the bridge, Kirk looking at her with concern. Pike tells her they could not deactivate the automated systems, and asks for an explanation. Kirk begins to explain they may have found lifeforms in the nebula, and Uhura says that they were killing them. She sees Hemmer's rotted corpse standing on the bridge, staring at her. She explains that the aliens lived in the deuterium, and that they were being tortured and killed when they were pulled into the Enterprise's nacelles, and now the station was doing so at a much greater rate. Pike reminds her they could not see these lifeforms, but Uhura firmly tells him she could hear them, and so could Ramon, who had died trying to save them. Pike had told her that the station was a jumping-off point for seeking out new life, but what was the point of it if they were just killing what they found? Pike again tells her they couldn't shut the station down, and Uhura is adamant that they had to destroy it. Pike asks if she is certain, and she firmly answers she is; he then looks at Kirk, who nods once. Convinced, Pike asks for her plan. Uhura recommends evacuating the refinery, then venting all the deuterium from the fuel pods on both the Enterprise and the Farragut. Pike gives the order.

The Farragut and the shuttles clear the station, and Ortegas reports no lifesigns aboard. At Uhura's urging, the Enterprise fires a volley of photon torpedoes, destroying the station. Pike then asks Uhura if it worked. Uhura looks up, seeing Hemmer there still, but now healthy and whole. Hemmer smiles and nods to her, and she confirms aloud that they were safe. "That's it?" Ortegas asks, somewhat disbelieving. Smiling, Hemmer disappears from Uhura's view. "Yeah, that's it," she confirms. She remarks on Pike's earlier comment about the jumping-off point of a new age of exploration, and Pike concedes that they could build their "gas station" someplace else, without anyone living in the deuterium. He also assures her that if there was any blowback, it would be on him, taking full responsibility – or, he adds with a look at Kirk, he could say someone else's "brash influence" rubbed off on her. "Always happy to be of service," Kirk replies in good humor, before pointing out that Uhura may have just helped discover a new kind of life, and Starfleet might give her a medal. Pike has Uhura return to her station – first to contact the Farragut to tell them to depart the nebula as soon as the shuttles and escape pods were brought aboard, then to hail Admiral Nagawa on his private channel… and then after that, to take a nap, adding that it was an order.

Aboard their shuttle, Una brings up Starship Maintenance 307, the class Pelia had been her instructor in at the Academy, and that Pelia had given her a C grade. Una protests that her paper was meticulously researched, but Pelia counters, in a bit of a throwback to their earlier argument, that her work was "sloppy". Then she softens, saying that Una's issue with her wasn't about that "well-deserved" grade. It was because Hemmer was dead, and Pelia had taken his place as chief engineer; every time Una saw her, it dredged up the sadness. Una's expression confirms it, and Pelia tells her she knows that feeling well, having experienced it "too many times" in her long life, but adds that if Una wants to say it was about the C, she would not contradict it.

In the Enterprise lounge, a live band regales the crew, as Uhura sits with Kirk, showing him pictures of her family, remembering how her mother had always made her laugh. "To staying in the fight," Kirk says, toasting the occasion. When she asks why he thinks they chose her, he believes she was exactly what they needed – thoughtful and empathetic. Perhaps all that was needed was a good listener. Just then, Sam approaches, saying he planned to write a paper about their "deuterium friends". Uhura's enthusiasm is genuine, and Jim's a little less so. Sam expresses pride in his younger brother's accomplishments and that the Farragut was lucky to have him… but seems to be waiting for a reply in return. Uhura is confused as to what was going on, and so is Jim; Sam, exasperated, asks if he was seriously not going to offer an apology. Jim asks why he should apologize for being "extremely competent", at which point Sam snaps, telling him to have fun on his "stupid little ship" while Sam gets to work on Starfleet's flagship. Finishing his drink, he leaves it on the table and stomps off.

Kirk and Spock meet — The beginning of an amazing friendship

Kirk apologizes, calling it "Sam being Sam". As he is about to say Sam was frustrating, Spock finishes that sentence himself, before picking up Sam's empty glass and placing it on a waiter's nearby tray. Uhura introduces Spock to Kirk, and offers him a seat at their table, continuing their conversation as the party is in full swing around them.

Memorable quotes[]

"Sam."
"Jimmy. Welcome to the Enterprise."
"Hell of a ship! And they let you work here?"
"What can I say? Captain Pike asked for the more handsome Kirk brother."

- James T. Kirk, being welcomed aboard the Enterprise by his brother George Samuel Kirk

"Your move."
"I know."
"Is that not a polite euphemism for "make your move faster"?"

- Spock and Chapel, while playing three-dimensional chess

"James Kirk."
"Uhura. You're Sam's brother."
"Oh, you're friends with Sam."
"Uh, look, I really don't want to be hit on right now."
"Ah, you're friends with Sam. Come on, nobody's hitting on anyone. You sat next to me. You just looked like you could use a friend."

- James T. Kirk, meeting Uhura for the first time

"I got to know, what exactly is your problem with me?"
"I don't have a problem with you. I have a problem with the situation."
"That is malarkey and you know it!"

- Pelia and Chin-Riley

"I have been called more names than there are stars in the sky, but 'space hippie' is a new one on me!"

- Pelia

"James, meet our chief science officer, Mr. Spock. Spock, meet James Kirk, first officer of the Farragut."
"Why don't you join us?"

- Uhura, introducing James T. Kirk to Spock

Log entries[]

Communications officer's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)
Personal log, Saul Ramon

Background information[]

Continuity[]

Christopher Pike is temporarily promoted to fleet captain in this episode, and shortly thereafter meets James T. Kirk. This event was first mentioned in TOS: "The Menagerie, Part I".
The Kirk brothers reference their father, George Kirk and his record rise to first officer of the USS Kelvin, his posting shown in Star Trek.
In similar fashion to their alternate reality counterparts, Kirk meets Nyota Uhura for the first time while she's ordering an alcoholic beverage, with Kirk similarly striking up a conversation first. While the alternate reality counterpart of Kirk is clearly flirting with that version of Uhura, the Prime Timeline version of Kirk is more neutral to Uhura, with the character even clarifying that he isn't "hitting" on her. Also, like in the Star Trek film, this version of Kirk also ends up getting punched in the face shortly after his meeting with Uhura, as a result of their efforts to socialize with her.
Like in the 2009 Star Trek film, this version of Kirk meets Pike for the first time shortly after his first meeting with Uhura.
Kirk also meets Spock for the first time in this episode.