Hidden References, Cameos, and Easter Eggs from ‘Star Trek Beyond’

Star Trek Beyond has been out for over a week, so now it’s time to talk about all the cool little winks, nods, and less than obvious “Easter eggs” in the film. There were many really great homages to past Trek in Beyond. For great coverage of the homages, we highly recommend friend of TrekMovie Laurie Ulster’s post on Screen Rant, she did a great job. Our version then, will focus on smaller and less obvious or more real-world (rather than in-universe) nods, cameos, etc.

Music

Michael Giacchino worked some homages to TOS and TOS-movies into his score:

  • When Kirk and Chekov are in Jaylah’s trap there’s a small refrain that sounds like the “Shore Leave” music from TOS.
  • As the Enterprise arrives at Altamid, there are sort of haunting space chimes, that are very reminiscent of a TMP score track titled “Games.”

Calling the Beastie Boys “classical music” is both a Futurama reference and a long running joke in Sci-Fi in general to call contemporary pop music “classical music.”

Beastie_Boys-Futurama

Famous Names

The Franklin was lost in the Gagarin Radiation Belt – This is a double reference, it was mentioned in the ENT episode “Strange New World”, and it is named after Yuri Gagarin, first man in space.

yurigagarin

The USS Franklin‘s registry number is NX-326, Leonard Nimoy’s birthday is March 26th or (3/26), it was confirmed by production staff that this was another way in which Beyond pays tribute to him.

qmx-franklin-model

The bridge escape pods were named Kelvin Pods in the movie because of the sacrifice of George Kirk on the bridge of the USS Kelvin as seen in Star Trek (2009). It also bears a resemblance to the all purpose spacedock “Work Bee” units first seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

kelvin-pod-cover

tmp-worker-bee

A nod to Captain Picard’s old ship can be overheard as the crew disembarks on to the Yorktown, the USS Stargazer NCC-2893 is called out over the starbase’s communication system.

uss-stargazer

The USS Franklin is named for Frank Lin, Justin Lin’s father. The dedication plaque even has a tiny space between the “Frank” and “lin” as a way to signify the namesake.

uss_frank-lin

Other fun bits

Kirk tells Spock to “skip to the end” a reference to Simon Pegg’s Spaced.

spaced

When Bones comes into the officer’s lounge he finds Kirk drinking Saurian Brandy, a long running favorite adult beverage of choice in Trek series.

kirk_saurian

The ephemera control panel on the USS Franklin. John Cho tweeted this picture recently. Trek production staff have often had fun with the tiny labels on control panels which are never going to seen up close.

ephemera

Scotty discusses the various theories about the Franklin‘s disappearance, he mentions a “giant green space hand”, which is a reference to the TOS episode “Who Mourns for Adonais?”
But did you catch that during the end credits a giant green hand appears after all the cast names and crew, right when the names Paramount Pictures and Skydance come up on screen? From the left, the giant hand quickly fills screen and dissolves. The hand is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment.

Apollo-green-space-hand

The giant green space hand is more easily seen on the home video release.

Cameos

Justin Lin’s son is the green boy that the camera whizzes past but pauses on briefly, on the Yorktown

lin_son

Greg Grunberg plays Commander Finnegan, the name is a call back to Finnegan from “Shore Leave.” Grunberg is a life-long friend of JJ Abrams and pops up in pretty much every show or movie JJ is involved with. Grunberg was also the angry voice of Kirk’s step-father when the young Kirk took his classic car out for a joyride in Star Trek (2009).

Grunberg-Finnegan

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, plays the alien Starfleet officer who calibrates the universal translator for Kalara’s language.

jeff_bezos

Screenwriter Doug Jung appears as Ben (Sulu’s husband).

sulu_husband_daughter

Danny Pudi from cult sitcom Community along with Fast and Furious alum Kim Kold, are two of the aliens that intimidate Scotty after he crashes on Altamid.

danny_pudi-kim kold

 


We’re sure there’s even more, so feel free to add to the list in the comments.

Remember for this version, we purposefully skipped listing the homages, because Laurie did a great job covering them here:

http://screenrant.com/retro-references-star-trek-beyond/

 

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I also considered Commodore Paris to be a reference to Tom Paris on Voyager

Yep, I thought she was a distinguished ancestor of out Tom.

*our Tom*

So did I……

Carlo Angelotti , Trainer of FC Bayern Munich has a cameo on Yorktown as medical doctor as well. He is friends with Zoe Saldana !

@Stefan_Str

Think you’ll find it is ‘Ancelotti’….

Any who, I did hear about that but completely forgot about! Did he get into shot??

Chekov ‘s “little old lady from Leningrad” who invented Scotch is from TOS “Trouble With Tribbles”

Yes, caught that one – made me smile!

“Little old lady from Russia” don’t you mean? Leningrad is no more. The city is now known by its original name, St Petersburg.

You missed Fiona Vroom, Lolani from STC.

Also, I could have sworn that the Vulcan giving Spock the bad new is Jeffrey Tambor. Could be wrong….

When the swarm first appears on the Enterprise screens, its formation appears to be identical to the “space lips” from Spock’s journey into V’ger in ST:TMP.

Chekov that comments that scotch was “inwented” by a little old lady from Russia (trouble with tribbles)

Kelvin is originally a reference to JJ’s grandfather.

Hhmmmm…Any chance that theory could be absolute BS and that the Kelvin is actually named after the freaking scientist?

There was a USS Kelvin in TOS

No, both the Kelvin and its Captain (Roboue?) were named after family members of JJ Abrams and Roberto Orci. Of course the name Kelvin also fits Star Trek tradition, by being also the name of a well knwon sciencetist, and the basic temperature scale used on earth.

There are at least 3 Voyager references I can remember.

Commodore Paris
Scotty not wanting McCoy & Spock spliced together (Tuvix)
McCoy says ‘feels like my innards (or insides) feel like they’ve been in a barn dance. This one is a stretch but there was somewhat of a barn dance in Caretaker.

Didn’t catch any DS9 Easter Eggs, there was a 3 nacelled ship near Enterprise at Yorktown, maybe that was the Saratoga or Defiant.

Actually the McCoy Spock spliced together line was a reference to McCoy being the keeper of Spock’s Katra in Star Trek III.

I just went by the transporter accident in that episode & what might have happened since the one on Franklin wasn’t safe for bio transport.

My first thought went to “Tuvix” as well where the characters actually were spliced together. Spock and McCoy weren’t spliced together in TSFS. McCoy was no more than storage spage for Spock’s consciousness.

says who?

Speaking of musical cues, right before the Enterprise arrives at Yorktown at the beginning of the movie, the chord progression is very reminiscent of James Horner’s “Star Trek III” score when that Enterprise arrives at space dock.

Yep, I heard that as well.

I find it interesting that kirk had no romantic interests in this film… perhaps carol broke his heart before she left the ship.

Or perhaps he has figured out that shipboard romances between the C.O. and subordinates are (a) inappropriate; (b) probably against regs, for very good reasons; and (c) downright dumb. (A and B are also my main objections to the Spock/Uhura pairing, but I digress.) Also, the general pace of the film didn’t leave much room to introduce, develop, and get rid of the Space-Bimbo-of-the-Week.

lol. did not keep Chekhov from it though

NOPE
Just as well Kirk did not appear to have a love interest, lest she automatically be labelled “Space-Bimbo-of-the-Week”. Charming – NOT…:(

Also bear in mind what Kirk said to Jaylah after it was confirmed that she could go to Starfleet Academy. He said that there were a lot of rules, but that she did not need to follow all of them…

Was following your feminist logic until your concluded with term bimbo.

Kirk never let regulations get in the way of shipboard romance

“Kirk never let regulations get in the way of shipboard romance”

Such as when?

@TallguyToo numerous to mention.

I love everything you said. And, “Space-Bimbo-of-the-Week.” Very appropriate. Considering everything that’s gone before…

I don’t think anyone mentioned that, in ST:Beyond, Kirk mentions the Saurian brandy they got on Thasis. Thasis was where the picked up “Charlie X” in TOS, LOL!

I thought that’s what I heard but I hadn’t seen it anywhere else

Isn’t the music blasted at the aliens the same music blaring over the corvette speakers as the young Kirk drives it to it’s demise in the opening scene of ST2009? Kirk smirks and says “good choice”…

I think you are right on that one

100%. JJ apparently is a big Beastie Boys fan, and this is the same from his car stealing scene in the first reboot movie.

I give the film 3 of 5 stars. It was not epic, more episodically reminiscent of a tv script. In a nutshell it was SW Meets Fast & Furious using Trek characters.

ABSOLUTELY! ! !

I think you need to join the meeting across the road,,guest speaker ,george lucas

Yeah I think the production Staff are all there taking notes for Star Trek 4

Hardcore Star Trek fans seem to prefer the movie being reminiscent of an episode. Just goes to show you can’t please all the people all the time.

“I ripped my shirt again” that was a nice reference to Treks first season where Kirk’s shirt was ripped several times.

Ok Film, the parts were better than the whole I thought. #3 of the new ones in my book.

Ok so clearly the new ship created at the end with the registry 1701-A is a throw back to what happened at the ebd if STIV:TVH

Every day I come to the internet to see if finally I will have the chance to see her schematics! The new ship seems to be the jjprise minus all the features I disliked the most about the ‘original’ jjprise!! Did anyone else notice this? Surely I’m not the only one who is acutely observant of changes in starship design…

I think the new 1701-A REALLY overcompensated for the previous flimsy nacelle pylons, but overall a spectacular design.

Agreed with your observations. The weird thing is….I didn’t realize how used to the JJprise I’d gotten until I saw her being torn apart. I realized I’m actually gonna miss that ship. Still…..can’t wait to see the new one in action, she’s a beaut!

Ooh yes. It is rad. Reducing the pushed forward deflector dish and removing the flimsy and curved nacelle pylons is an amazing move.

Knowing that the jj-prise was going down in this film I was super keen to see where the next ship called ‘Enterprise’ would go in terms of design… I did not expect to see it in this film though! I agree, I have seriously warmed to the jj-prise since I saw it for the first time. I look to it with love now; initially it disgusted me.

This film was full of surprises. The new ‘A’, and the photo of the original crew were awesome touches ^^

I’m going to see it for a 4th time :D

If I am being pedantic, I think the pylons could meet the nacelles halfway down, instead if at the leading edge

I’m with you. I hated the original hot-rod JJprise, and while I haven’t seen a lot of the JJprise-A, from what I have seen I think I can live with it.

As far as I know the Franklin is named after Justin Lins father, Frank Lin

It’s interesting that knowing that, one can see the extra space between the K and L on the dedication plaque than between the other letters.

It says that in the story above.

Did anyone think that the Yorktown’s design was reminiscent of Larry Niven’s Ringworld?

No not at all and it’s not

I saw another hidden Easter egg/ cameo/ homage story on YouTube for Beyond that says because it’s the 50th anniversary there were 50 new alien species sprinkled throughout the movie. I did notice quite a few in background scenes of the Yorktown especially.

Wouldn’t it be great if they released each of the 50 new alien races ( as well as the other BEYOND figures ) as high end action figures ( instead of those ghastly funko-pop travesties )?

Out of the 3 Kelvin-timeline movies, Beyond screams out for new toys, but alas it seems that in space no can hear you scream…

Rolls eyes

McCoy saying “In a pigs eye” is a reference to “Amok Time”.

-Karl Urban’s unbuttoned shirt and necklace in the party scene are a tribute to McCoy’s civilian look from the beginning of TMP.
-Chris Pine’s hair is now close to the same color and parted on the same side as TOS Kirk’s, complete with little forehead flip when it gets roughed up.
-Justin Lin’s son’s alien look was inspired by Yoda. He gave them a description of what he wanted, and then later admitted he’d just wanted to be Yoda.
-The pantsless alien crew member is named Kevin. Kevin Riley, is that alternate-universe you??
-Bones’ line ‘In a pig’s eye!’ comes directly from the TOS episode ‘Amok Time’.

What pantsless aliens?

In the party scene, the little tiny guy walking with Keenser. Kirk says “Hey, Keenser. Kevin, see you’re still not wearing pants,” or something to that effect.

Wow. Totally missed that!

Even weirder “Kevin” appears to be one of the Teenaxians they beamed up with Kirk (since they were on him) from the failed diplomatic mission at the beginning.

“Justin Lin’s son’s alien look was inspired by Yoda”
Who was that?
Pantsless alien crew?

I wonder if the design of Yorktown looks like DS9 on purpose. That might be an Easter egg.
And the drinking scene between Bones and Kirk is very similar to the scene between Pike and Boyce from the Cage.

They don’t look anything alike, other than that are both designed to look like space stations

Looking at some other sites today, anyone know why in the UK version, Joe Taslim’s ( Manas/Anderson Le ) image does not appear next to Eddison in the “Case Closed” scene near the end of the film? Instead he’s replaced by another actor with a shaven head.

Lydia Wilson’s Jessica Wolfe ( Kalara ) remains intact to Eddison’s right in the holo-display, but Joe Taslim is definitely missing in the version I’ve seen at the cinema.

These are great, thanks. I especially love the significance of NX-326, and the Stargazer cameo which I totally missed. The “Shore Leave” theme and the Goldsmith and Horner cues were all very cool — glad they’re on the soundtrack! There’s also a Yorktown shot where we see the Enterprise through interior windows, very similar to a shot in Star Trek III.

Eager to see Beyond again and catch the floating hand in the credits. When Scotty said that, it was all I could do to not scream!

Shot of Enterprise entering space doors at Yorktown very reminiscent of Enterprise entering Spacedock in STIII

I thought the three glass toast between kirk and mcoy with chechovs brandy was in honour of Leonard nimoy

Wow. I assumed that was for George Kirk, but you know what they say when you assume…

Yeah pretty sure it was intended to be for Kirk’s dad

I like to imagine that in-universe it was primarily for Kirk’s dad, but also a little for Admiral Pike, who was like a dad to him too. Leonard got lots of other tribute through the movie.

And while they didn’t realize it at the filming… for Anton

He probably did it in the other two films, but my son pointed out that Karl Urban wears a pinkie ring, just as DeForest Kelley used to (it was his mother’s wedding ring and when Roddenberry told him to ditch the ring, Kelley told him “no ring, no DeForest”).

That’s a fine bit of DeForest trivia there, never heard that. Right on –

The sound design of the saucer breaking atmosphere as the ship passes by the screen you can hear a sound reference to the Enterprise of Star Trek 4 TVH as the ship goes to Warp.

McCoy’s hand held medical tricorder used to scan a drained corpse aboard the Enterprise has that heart pump sound effect as heard back in the 60’s when life readings were given in “sick bay”.

Scotty beams McCoy and Spock individually citing concerns that the Transporter technology was so outdated that the two (Spock/McCoy) could be spliced together. I thought this was a reference to McCoy holding Spock’s Marbles and the previous 3rd movie.

Yeah, when Kirk walks around, the sound of the rocks under his shoe sounds just like the sounds of Kirk walking on the Genisis planet in the Search for Spock.

Thats a bit cruel, some people are reaching, yes.

can you elaborate?.

Did anyone else notice that many of the computer sounds in Yorktown’s control room we’re from TNG/VOY and I think even from the later TOS movies? I’ll have to confirm this for sure when I get the blu-ray!

Yes even on the bridge of the ENT, definate TNG era “hail” effect

Nice reference to saurian brand, even down to a similar bottle… but they got it wrong mentioning that it was illegal. Romulan Ale was the illegal stuff Bones had brought in from across the Neutral Zone. Saurian Brandy was everywhere.

Kirk’s birthday seemed to be influenced from Wrath of Khan. His toast to “absent friends” was identical to Kirks toast with Uhura, Sulu and Chekov in Trek 3, just before Sarek arrives. McCoy’s toast to good eyesight and a head full of hair also seemed to be influenced Kirk’s eye problems in Trek 2.

Some sounds aboard the Franklin were TOS sound effects.

The transporter pads were now MUCH easier to stand on. lol Flat and ringed, like those in TOS. The awkward spheres are, thankfully, gone.

Kirk mentions assembling an away team…wrong for the era, should’ve been “landing party”.

McCoy mentions med-bay, should be sick-bay…but he did this in earlier films too.

One glaring iconic omission, Spock, has yet to use a tricorder…hope they slip that in somewhere, next time.

I thought the toast to “good eyesight and a full head of hair” was not only a reference to the birthday scene in “Wrath of Khan…” “For patients your age, I usually recommend Retinax…” We all know how Kirk felt about those glasses! But I also thought it was an in-joke referencing the long standing rumor about Shatner and bad toupees.

Not bad, jabbing at both the actor and his character in one line!

Also thought the hair/eyesight line might be a polite little dig at Picard.

If you watch the distance to impact during the USS Franklin’s freefall, the last distance is 1967, which is the year of the Adonais/Green Hand episode, plus 4 or 5 other episodes that together look like the inspiration for this movie.

In TNG Technical Manuals it suggests that the Prime Universe NCC-1701 A was originally the USS Yorktown renamed. This contradicts the wildly non-canonical Mr. Scott’s Guide to the Enterprise which says that the NCC-1701-A was originally the USS TiHo, which was built from the keel up to be a transwarp test-bed.

Uh… no. The Kelvin Pods do not look like TMP’s pods.

Not sure if this has been mentioned , but if memory serves wasn’t Yorktown Gene’s second choice for names of the Enterprise?

previous Trek (movies/tv)

-Spock Primes death – Nimoy/Trek II

-saucer separation/destruction of the Ent with the saucer crashing on a rocky planet – Generations/Trek III

-Enterprise A – Trek IV

-‘absent friends’ scene* – Trek III/Nemesis (*no doubt a nod to the passing of Nimoy but the camera also seems to linger on Chekov)

-the end photo – Trek V comment image

-Yorktown – Roddenerrys original name for the Enterprise (also the Ent-A in Trek IV was originally the USS Yorktown)

-Yorktowns observation lounge with window showing Enterprise’s arrival – Trek III

-Scotty saying Spock and Bones could have merged in transporter – Trek III

-spock going through old spocks possessions in front of refracted mirror – Trek II (the refracted mirror in spocks quarters)

-crew using the enemys ship – Trek III

-Franklin crashing in water – Trek IV

-Villain marooned on inhospitable planet for decades out for revenge – Trek II (also a khan like villain out for revenge 5th time in a row – IX, X, XI, XII)

-kirk bones birthday scene ‘heres to perfect eyesight..and a full head of hair’ – Trek II (glasses/alcohol) and shatners ‘hair’ (also the scene was a call back to Pike/Boyce ‘bartender’ scene in The Cage)

-Kralls fountain of youth/rejuvenation thing – Insurrection

-cloaked Federation ship on alien world – Insurrection

-Enterprise being invaded/phaser fights in corridors – Nemesis/First Contact

-NX ship/uniforms/Maco/reference to Xindi & Romulan wars – Enterprise

-Scotty in the torpedo – STID (it actually looks like it might be a leftover from Khans torpedos)

-McCoys medallion – TMP

-rocky planet vistas – TOS (both pilots showing rocky planet matte painting backdrops)

-‘Episodic’/’Shirt ripped again’ – TOS

-day 966 – TOS (Sept 1966)

-Chekov’s russian inventions – TOS

-brandy from Thasus – TOS (Charlie X)

-Chekov and the green girl – TOS (Gamesters of Triskelion)

-Greg Grunberg/Commander Finnegan – TOS (Shore Leave)

-the opening of what we think are large aliens who turn out to be tiny aliens – TOS (Corbomite Manoeuvre/Catspaw)

-Captain gone mad/villainous after being marooned/losing crew – TOS (The Omega Glory/Doomsday Machine/Whom Gods Destroy)

-‘giant green space hand’ (also appears in the end credits) – TOS (Who Mourns For Adonis? – which was also recently referenced in XMen:Apocalypse)

-Doomsday Machine in end credits – TOS (Doomsday Machine)

-Genesis planet in end credits – Trek III

-Spock/bones stranded together – TOS (All Our Yesterdays)

-conflicted Kirk wrestling with the notion of taking desk job/Admiralty – Treks I-IV

-the opening was somewhat similar to the Klingon Courtroom scene – Trek VI

-Kirk washing his face in his bathroom – Picard at the start of First Contact

-Commodore Paris – Voyager

-announcement for “USS Stargazer” at Yorktown – TNG (The Battle)

-Enterprise A rapid building – looked like it inspired by this famous cutaway poster
http://i.imgur.com/iIwfC.jpg

-‘Sabotage’/Kelvin pods – ST09

-score during the nebula sequence – TMP (similar to entering V’Ger music)

-Kirk v Krall fight music – TOS (Amok Time fight music)

-Demora – Generations

-Gay Sulu – George Takei

-The mass swarm of smaller ships – Voyager (The Swarm)

-Franklin registry NX 326 – Leonard Nimoys birthday (March 26)

other SF movies:

-uncovering old footage on derelict revealing the twist – Event Horizon, Sunshine, Planet of the Apes remake
-the remnants of the crew of the crashed space ship on a distant planet becoming the basis for a war years later – Planet of the Apes remake
-long lost space captain gone ‘space-mad’ trying to kill crew – Sunshine, Interstellar
-igniting the fuel tank on the crashed ship to defeat the villain/using the past/future technology to destroy his army – Planet of the Apes remake
-strangely alluring ass kicking alien woman – Fifth Element, Avatar
-little white floating things bouncing in the air in the alien forest – Avatar
-the sprawling Syd Mead style space station – Interstellar, Elysium
-music destroying the attacking aliens – Mars Attacks
-‘skip to the end’ – Spaced
-at end villain appears to have conflicted conscience/looks to be turning good before reverting back to evil – Star Wars The Force Awakens
-the death star schematic on the Yorktown – Star Wars

Am I the only one that noticed Krall call Kirk “My Old Friend” A direct reference to Kahn from Star Trek !! the wrath of Kahn?

I’ve seen that posted a bit, but do not think it’s accurate. I don’t think Krall was referring to Kirk as “my old friend,” instead, I think he was referring to the U.S.S. Franklin, the starship that had been under his command, as his old friend. It was one of the subtle hints as to whom Krull really would turn out to be.

However, the use of the line itself is definitely an homage to Khan.

U.S.S. Franklin is who I thought was “my old friend”.

From “Wrath of Khan” and forward, including the Kelvin timeline, we all know that photon torpedoes are actually physical devices, the black cylinders from the original timeline or the white casings used in “Into Darkness” the one Scotty uses to escape the Enterprise in “Beyond.”

However, did anyone notice how, in “Beyond,” when a torpedo was fired and would pass into view from behind, all you could see was a bright white animated blob that was nearly identical to how the photon torpedoes were depicted in “The Original Series.” The sound effect from firing the torpedoes was almost identical as well. This is most evident when Scotty is shot into space in one, as the torpedo is launched and then tracked as it heads towards the planet. I thought that was nice homage to the original effects…

Star Trek is clearly in the wrong hands. JJ and his uncreative friends have refreshed the look (something that is partly due to the huge increase in the budgets for these movies) but have either chosen or are simply incapable of writing their own material. Instead of “rebooting” the original, they should have taken Star Strek 100 years further into the future after TNG. These guys are either simply bad at what they do or are not true Star Trek fans, thus their comfort with messing with the originals. Perhaps it’s both.

Of course, you’re wrong, but that’s ok.

Of course. It is. God forbid we create as opposed to re-create Johnny boy. Enjoy the blue ray.

No way to your suggestion.
I want me Kirk, Spock et al. Not enough is known about their prime timeline, let alone this new Kelvin timeline. And I am a true Star Trek fan, because I say so…:)

My favourite was seeing Sybok when The Beastie Boys were playing. I heard a voice say “I couldn’t help but notice your pain………”

Didn’t see anything about the name Yorktown, which was the first name choice for the Enterprise

Footage of the original crew of the USS Frank Linn. They are wearing ENT era uniforms.

You can also see a shuttle approaching in the background that looks like the ones used on Star Trek Enterprise.

Yeah I recognised the enterprise uniforms by their collars and shoulder badges. They seemed a little different though – couldn’t make out if they had the department-coloured shoulder piping like the tv ones? I was wondering if they reused the actual tv uniforms or whether they’d been made especially for this feature.

I think it’s Chris Pine assistant, the woman who is alongside Anton Yelchin, in one of the last scenes where Kirk makes a homage to absent friends.

I have no idea if the others who were in that scene are linked to the others actors, too.

Go back and look at the Dedication Plaque for the USS Franklin. Did you guys notice how it says, “To boldly go where no MAN has gone before.”?? A clear nod to the TOS verses the more inclusive language since the TNG.

Love the nod to the original TOS version, but still a little too “self-aware” for my tastes.

I might be imagining it, but I’m pretty sure the Teenaxi were inspired by the Gorons from The Legend Of Zelda series. They look damn near identical, and they curl up into a ball and roll around.

Kirks toast at his birthday part at the end where he say “to absent friends” is a reference to ST:III

Without knowing the connection to Justin Lin, I thought that the USS Franklin was a reference to the crew member that helped Scotty rig the transporter to keep his pattern alive for almost 75 years in TNG:Relics

I’ll have to go back and see it again but I could have sworn that I heard a quick music queue from the DS9 theme when we first saw Yorktown Station.

Hmm. I did note the Next Generation font used for the end credits. I also noticed James Kirk was listed in the credits for the VFX, I think it was. The hexagonal mirror panels in the tube where the Enterprise-A was being built were the same from the dry dock in The Motion Picture. Um…Scotty in a tube, putting cables together, just like in the original series. Although, that was what usually saved the ship in the TV series. Not this time.
There was an alarm sound taken from the Enterprise-E when Yorktown was being attacked.
McCoy may have made a subtle reference to ‘Q’, but I’m not sure if ‘Q’ counts as an anomaly.
The Giant green hand nebula actually made me chuckle once I noticed what it was.

So, is the audience supposed to believe that Kelvin timeline crew are the same physical counterparts as prime timeline crew? Pine looks more like Shatner in the new film, but Anton Yelchin looks nothing like Walter Koenig, nor does Simon Pegg resemble James Doohan. Can someone explain this to me?

Joke answer: Sadly, none of the cast were dedicated enough to undergo plastic surgery to turn themselves into exact duplicates of the original actors.

Real answer: It’s called “suspension of disbelief.”

I recognised the klaxon sound as Greg Grunberg ordered red alert on Yorktown. It’s the same sound as the klaxon on the Scimitar when the Remans realised Picard and Data had escaped. I’m also fairly sure it was used on Voyager a few times.

I believe that Greg Grunberg is a good friend of JJ Abrams.

If I’m not mistaken, Yorktown was the name Roddenberry originally intended to be the starship name until he changed it to Enterprise. Can’t remember where I heard that one…it was a long time ago.