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Some of the greatest Star Trek In-Jokes
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00:00Do you get it? Do you get it? Yeah, you kind of had to be there. In-jokes are often fun if you're on
00:07the in of them, forgive the pun, whereas if you are not they can be about as much fun as dry rot.
00:14None of these actually count as that though. Dry rot I mean, they all count as in-jokes.
00:18With that in mind I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture and here are the 10 greatest Star Trek
00:23in-jokes. Number 10, 47. 47 is 42, corrected for inflation. Executive producer Rick Berman
00:29once joked, the ultimate answer might cost you more in Star Trek, but what is the question?
00:34Well, have you ever wondered why Ronan in Sobrosa, Sex Ghost, said he was born in 1647,
00:40why shields were often down to 47%, or why Captain Janeway was really from Bloomington, Indiana?
00:46The reason is writer Joe Minoski, who began his Star Trek career in season 4 of The Next
00:51Generation and has worked on Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Discovery. Minoski graduated from
00:56California's Pomona College, which apart from excelling in the liberal arts, is known for
01:00having a thing for 47. The college even has a club dedicated to the number, the 47 Society,
01:06that Minoski was part of as a student. He then brought this university in-joke into Star Trek
01:11and it has stuck with the writers ever since. Bloomington, Indiana, zip codes 47401-47408,
01:18is more properly an homage to Voyager producer Jerry Taylor, who was born there, but there are pages
01:24of other examples of the 47 phenomenon. Here are just a small few. In Family, Picard is given the
01:3047 vintage, in Conundrum there are 47 Lysian Sentry Pods, in DS9 pads are often labelled 4747 and
01:39weapons lockers 47. In Voyager, the temporal variance of the Cranum Cranaton torpedo is 1.47
01:45microseconds, and I have just needed between 4 to 7 Aldebaran whiskies.
01:50Number 9. Some kinds of Star Trek. Rarely is anything more meta than the time Star Trek
01:55looked through a telescope and saw itself. Star Trek First Contact is one big self-reference,
02:00a trek to the past to ensure its own future. Zephram Cochran needs some kind of Star Trek
02:06as much as it needs him. In that film, First Contact gets a direct nod, although that was
02:10far from the first or last movie or episode title name drop in dialogue. They toasted the
02:15Undiscovered Country in The Undiscovered Country, and Captain Janeway provided a counterpoint,
02:20counterpoint in Counterpoint, amongst many other examples. Star Trek is also more subtly
02:25self-referential at times. In The Next Generation's 80th episode, Legacy, the Enterprise D has to bypass
02:31an archaeological survey of Caymus 2, which happens to be the last planet visited by another Enterprise
02:37in its 79th and final episode. Yes, we are counting them like that. According to the Star Trek
02:43Encyclopedia, the Caymus 2 mention was a deliberate tip of the hat to turnabout intruder on the
02:48part of Rick Berman, Jonathan Frakes, and producer Eric Stilwell. Of course, the end of the beginning
02:53of this kind of Star Trek is a prophecy of itself. We've only postponed the invasion until, what,
02:59the 24th century? Number 8. Commerce Seals and Blaine's twin brother. Our lovely writer Jack has
03:05already discussed television's demise in Star Trek, but it deserves a second mention here. Beyond the
03:10canonical prediction, the medium didn't last much past 2040, for humanity at least, the writers
03:15clearly take great delight in having assigned television to the history books. It's the perfect
03:19in-joke. By relying on a lack of awareness of the characters, the writers can poke fun at their
03:24own industry without having to totally demolish that fourth wall. The gag is perhaps also a gentle
03:29reminder to appreciate Star Trek for what it ultimately is, a piece of television, for as long as
03:34we have it. After all, in Star Trek, nobody's watching Star Trek. After Data's revelation in
03:39the Neutral Zone, there have been a few direct references to TV. When Voyager went back to the
03:4490s, Kess and Neelix were tasked with reviewing Earth broadcasts and became addicted to the soap
03:49opera. We still don't know if Blaine's twin brother was the father of Jessica's baby. More recently,
03:53spoiler alert, in Lower Decks, Boimler got hilariously hooked on Ferengi television, ironically
03:58unfamiliar with the commercials. Commer-seals? And the serial drama, Cop Landlord's Needs
04:04It's Own spin-off. Moreover, the title of that Lower Decks episode was itself a TV reference.
04:11Number 7. Riker. I mean, how could we not? There are plenty of reasons to love Lower Decks,
04:16and top amongst them are the easter eggs, in-jokes, and altogether weirdly specific references. In a
04:22similar vein, Strange New Worlds has delighted fans by returning to the roots of Star Trek, all the
04:27while pushing the franchise forward. As I well know from Cetacean Observations, one episode alone
04:33of Lower Decks could have filled this list. But we're here for the Strange New Worlds crossover,
04:37all egg over. The episode's title is itself an in-joke, Those Old Scientists, a phrase first used by
04:43Commander Ransom to describe the 23rd century in no small parts. Then, when Boimler and Mariner are
04:49flung through a time portal to said century, they both basically become two excited fans at the greatest
04:55ever Star Trek convention. Actors Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome even took selfies on set during their own
05:01time. It's Ensign Boimler with the Riker maneuver in the ready room, however, that will surely go down,
05:06up and over, as the in-joke to end all in-jokes. In-universe, Boimler briefly served with the animated
05:12Riker on the Titan. On the set of Those Old Scientists, Jonathan Frakes was directing and Quaid
05:17improvised the Riker leg-swing, pike-saddle moment in front of him.
05:21Number six, smoothing things over. The Klingons have gone through many, many changes since their
05:27original appearance in Errand of Mercy. At first conceived by writer Jean L. Kuhn as the Soviet
05:32half of his Cold War allegory, core actor John Kalikos reportedly looked more to the likes of
05:37Genghis Khan for inspiration for the character, leading to some fairly problematic makeup choices.
05:43They certainly didn't have the budget in the original series that they did by the time the
05:47Klingons reared their ridges in the motion picture. The makeup and general look was further designed
05:51and redesigned in the films with Klingons that followed, then again and again in The Next
05:57Generation and Deep Space Nine, with no explanation given. As Michael Dorn knowingly commented in an
06:02interview with Cinefantastique volume 32, numbers 4 and 5, I guess they never thought they'd have to
06:07deal with it on screen at some point. Therein lies the in-joke when DS9 decided to tackle the changes
06:13in Klingon appearance head on, ish, in Trials and Tribulations. If you can't put ridges on it,
06:18hang a lantern on it instead. Worf's Laconic, it is a long story, we do not discuss it with
06:22outsiders, was all about the answer we needed and probably the only one we're going to get
06:27until the Enterprise Exploration, which everybody loved and there's been no problems about since.
06:32Number 5. Who writes for Mourne? We all know Mourne, the famously loose-lipped Lurian with a liking
06:37for Jumja Sticks, a small fortune in one of his stomachs, and his own seat at Quark's Bar. His name
06:42alone is an in-joke, Mourne is an anagram of Norm, the permanent patron of Cheers. The character's
06:48reputation as a chatty Cathy might well precede him, but of course Mourne never actually had any
06:53lines. This was far from the plan for Mourne from the beginning, however. According to the making of
06:57Star Trek Deep Space Nine, on the very first day of filming for Emissary, the man beneath the then
07:02nameless Mourne mask, Mark Alan Shepard, was asked by director David Carson to tell the funniest joke
07:07in the universe, and he did. We won't spoil it for you, but it involves a coconut concertina
07:11cosmological argument and a honeysuckle garbage upholstery rimfire. Mourne made it into the
07:16pilot, but evidently the joke did not. Later, lines that were planned for the character were
07:21written out before shooting. Eventually, it was far funnier for the great raconteur to
07:25say nothing at all, becoming what is certainly one of Star Trek's longest running inside
07:30jokes, especially when you take into account the Saritas' season 3 stop at Deep Space Nine.
07:35Number 4. Okudagrams. We owe graphic designers Michael and Denise Okuda a great deal for the
07:41look, lore and feel of Star Trek from the voyage home onwards, not to forget the Star Trek encyclopedia
07:48through four editions, the next generation technical manual, and other reference books
07:51that have become veritable fan bibles. Creator of the computer screen and console graphics
07:56for Star Trek IV, and the L-Cars designs for the next generation and beyond, Michael Okuda's
08:01instantly recognisable work was lovingly nicknamed the Okudagram. An artistic marvel in their
08:06own right, Okudagrams have also provided plenty of opportunities for a good in Joker 2, often
08:11never intended to be visible on screen and mostly replaced in the remasterings. For example,
08:16Troy's search for a family tree in the neutral zone pre-remaster gives some very interesting
08:20results, including the first six actors to have played the Doctor in Doctor Who, Miss Piggy,
08:26and Kermit T Frog. The Okudagram of the Enterprise D's engineering master display features, if you
08:32stare hard enough, a duck, a mouse, an airplane, a car, and nomad. Usually covered up for filming,
08:38these editions even made it into HD at around 38 minutes and 35 seconds of the remastered Galaxy's
08:45Child. Technically, that makes them canon. Number three, Great Birds of the Galaxy. In the far future,
08:50Miles O'Brien was, and will be, rightly instatued as perhaps the most important person in Starfleet
08:56history. Right along there with him was the less glowingly remembered Brad Boimler. History has its own
09:01effect. On Boimler's forever memorialised left arm was one of the Great Birds of the Galaxy,
09:06an in-joke which has a history in itself. You might well know by now that THE Great Bird of the Galaxy
09:11was Gene Roddenberry, or rather it was the nickname given to him by producer Robert Justman early in
09:17the run of the original series. In point of fact, in The Man Trap, Sulu says to Janice Rand,
09:22may the Great Bird of the Galaxy bless your planet. The epithet for Star Trek's creator certainly caught on.
09:28By the time of the next generation, the bird began to make an appearance in graphic form.
09:32For Roddenberry's 60th birthday gift in 1987, senior next generation illustrator Andrew Probert
09:37painted a full colour Roddenberry-headed bird of the galaxy with Command Uniform Plumage,
09:42Combadge and NCC-1701 nacelles as tail feathers. A green Okudogram sketch version of the painting was
09:49then used on screen as part of the rapid computer searches carried out by Data in The Naked Now and
09:55Conspiracy. Number 2, Tubes of Jeffreys. Walter Matthew Matt Jeffreys, his full name is of importance
10:02later, is the man well known for designing the original Enterprise model, now so iconic it hangs
10:07in the Smithsonian. Jeffreys was also largely responsible for the majority of the Enterprise's
10:12interior design, as well as that of the shuttlecraft, the Klingon D-7 cruiser, the hand phaser and a plethora
10:17of other props, sets and landscapes. As shown in the Star Trek sketchbook, the original series, Jeffreys equally
10:23designed what he called the Engineering Power Shaft in his sketch for The Enemy Within. As he recalled,
10:29we needed a space where Scotty could fix things without taking up too much room, so I made a tube
10:34with all kinds of complicated looking stuff in it. Somebody hung the name Jeffreys Tube on it and the
10:38name stuck. And Stick It did, but only behind the scenes on TOS. It wasn't until the Next Generation
10:43Season 3 episode The Hunted that the term Jeffreys Tube was said on screen. On TOS, designers also
10:50liked to add the label GNDN for Goes Nowhere Does Nothing to the pipes on Jeffreys Tube sets. In
10:56canon, it is generally accepted that the famous crawlways were named after NX project designer
11:01of the 22nd century W. M. Jeffreys. Number 1. The Writer and the Principal
11:07Far Beyond the Stars will forever be considered one of the best Star Trek episodes ever made.
11:11Powerhouse performances from the cast, from Avery Brooks in particular who also directed, and the
11:16episode's brilliant narrative conceit bring the theme of racial prejudice and its harrowing
11:20consequences into sharp focus in a manner never before managed so directly in Star Trek. The
11:25episode is also notable for its use of insider references. The 1950s style drawing of Deep Space
11:309 that inspires Benny Russell to write his story in the first place was a nice touch, and you perhaps
11:35noticed the original series matte painting of Starbase 11 on the cover of competitor magazine Galaxy.
11:41For Benny Russell's group of writers' own publication, Incredible Tales of Scientific Wonder,
11:45the front cover of the March 1953 edition sports an image of Delta Vega from Where No Man Has Gone
11:51Before. The issue then features the stories First of a New Series, The Cage by E. W. Roddenberry,
11:56The Corbamite Maneuver by Jerry Sowell illustrated by Matt Jeffreys, Journey to Babel by DC Fontana,
12:03Metamorphosis by Jean L. Kuhn, and Where No Man Has Gone Before by Samuel Peoples. Finally,
12:08in a memo from editor Douglas Pabst to Herbert Rossoff, being played by Armin Zimmerman, apparently used as set
12:14dressing, but never visible on screen, was written, no one would believe that a cheerleader can kill
12:20vampires. The snide principal Snyder might also have been but a writer's dream. Hello, I'm Duncan
12:26Rillick, no relation, and my friend Sean Blass has been rushed to Starfleet Medical, so he's asked me to
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12:52purchase. Cheep, cheep, when you go, tell them Rillick sent you. No relation. Good luck,
12:57Sean Blass. Hope everything goes okay with the toenail.
13:02That's everything for our list. Do you reckon we missed any in here? Let us know in the comments
13:06below. Thank you so much to Jack Keighley for writing the original article that this is based
13:10on. You can check that out on whatculture.com. Make sure you're following us over on Twitter
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13:29I'm talking to you again, look after yourself, stay safe, stay calm, and stay logical if you can.
13:35You are awesome and wonderful. Thanks very much. Bye.
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