• Like many Trek episodes, this one’s title was inspired by a great work of art, specifically “Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace”.
• The Ferengi lower deckers we see are cataloguing Cardassian, Klingon and Romulan handheld disruptors before apparently throwing them out.
• Cardassian weapons were frequently called phasers, not disruptors in dialogue in DS9, such as in the episodes “Profit and Loss”, though in “Return to Grace” Kira refers to them as ”phase-disruptor” weapons.
• The Ferengi have a scaled down Genesis device which among the weapons they’re discarding. In “Star Trek: The Search for Spock”, Commander Kruge believed Genesis was designed as a Federation weapon.
• The Mysterious Threat appears again, making this the fourth attack since its introduction in “Twovix”.
• The Ferengi, Jeef, implies that he was aware that the Mysterious Threat was going to be there and he’d made a deal with whomever is operating it.
• The bridge of the Ferengi ship appears to be a recreation of the one seen aboard Quark’s shuttle, Quark’s Treasure in “Little Green Men”, which was later used for Brunt’s shuttle in “The Magnificent Ferengi”.
• As is tradition with Ferengi episodes, we’re going to get some Rules of Acquisition. The Rules of Acquisition were first mentioned in “The Nagus”.
• Rule 62: ”The riskier the road, the greater the profit.” - “Rules of Acquisition”
• Rule 10: *”Greed is eternal.” - “Prophet Motive”
• Rule 8: ”Small print leads to large risk.” - This is the first time it’s been said in canon, but was included in the “The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition” reference book written by Ira Steven Behr
• The USS Toronto NCC-70494 is a Parliament-class starship. We first saw the USS Vancouver in “Cupid’s Errant Arrow”.
• Despite the fact that Parliament-class ships appear to all take their names from Canadian capital cities, the USS Winnipeg is a Daedalus-class, and the USS Regina is an Oberth-class, seen in “An Embarrassment of Dooplers” and “First First Contact” respectively.
• Cap’n Freeman records the Stardate as 58901.5 in her log.
• This is our first view of Ferenginar from orbit.
• Admiral Vassery was introduced in “Moist Vessel”.
• ”It makes Moab IV inside the dome look like Moab IV outside the dome.” Moab IV was a human colony built as a planned society fostered with eugenics introduced in “The Masterpiece Society”.
• It’s Rom! From Star Trek! Rom is played by Max Grodénchik, who played Rom in DS9, showing up in the series premiere, “The Emissary”.
• Grodénchik played several other Frenengi as well: his first Trek role was as Sovak in “Captain’s Holiday”; he played Par Lenor in “The Perfect Mate”; finally he appeared as Grand Nagus Gint in Quark’s dream in “Body Parts”.
• It’s Leeta! From Star Trek! Leeta once again portrayed by Chase Masterson. The character first appeared in “Explorers”.
• Rom and Leeta are accompanied by a Hupyrian attendant, as both Zek and Brunt were when they were Grand Nagus. This one is the first female Hupyrian we’ve seen.
• The Ceremonial Invoice for the Bust of Good Fortune features Ferengi script, first seen in “Ménage à Troi”.
• We see the Lower Deckers working on the Sequoia, the shuttle introduced in “Second Contact”. This is the first time we’ve seen the shuttle this season.
• Mariner is weathering a self-sealing stembolt, a device introduced in “Progress” which use has never been made entirely clear.
• ”The Cerritos *is statistically the horniest and least romantically committed crew in Starfleet,” I’d like to know what metrics they use for gauging that, but Starfleet is a notoriously horny organization. See: All of TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, and SNW.
• ”Maybe I should have Honus and nurse Westlake take a crack at it.” Honus, Westlake, along with Matt are Ransom’s self described ”Friends for life.”
• The skyline of Ferenginar includes the Tower of Commerce, first mentioned in “Prophet Motive” and seen in “Family Business”. The angle here is different, showing more of the capital city and less marshland.
• It is raining pretty heavily on Ferenginar. According to Quark in “Let He Who is Without Sin…” there are 178 different words in the Ferengi language for types of rain.
• There’s a Ferengi shuttle flying over the city. The first Ferengi shuttle on screen was seen in “The Price”
• Among the business and billboards we signs for:
• All You Can @#$%!
• Slug-O Cola - “Profit and Lace”
• Acquire Pour Homme
• Now Playing: Latinum Lost
• Maximum Oo-Mox Rub Dungeon
• Uncle Quark’s Youth Casino
• Lobe’s Lodge
• The Museum of Gambling
• The Museum of Haggling
• Slug-Nasium
• The Ferenginar Historic Public Library
• Quark’s Federation Experience Bar & Grill
• One of the ships parked at Lobe’s Lodge is one resembling the ship the Ferengi used when they attacked the NX-01 Enterprise in “Acquisition”.
• There are payboxes for several amenities on Ferenginar for depositing latinum, which we saw introduced in “Family Business”.
• Shuttle parking
• Mini bar
• Hotel bed
• Toilet
• Bathroom access
• Hotel viewscreen
• Brunch restaurant
• Dressing rooms
• The confetti canon Parth fires off is shaped similar to a Ferengi hand phaser, like the ones seen in “Ménage à Troi”.
• The viewscreen in in Boimler’s hotel room is very suspiciously familiar, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
• Mariner meets up with Quimp whom we previously saw in “Envoys” helping her to scam Boimler into believing he was a capable officer.
• ”I never thought you’d dig your way out of crashing that Oberth.” Was it the USS Regina? We may never know.
• Presumably the incident with the Oberth-class happened prior to the start of the series, which means that Mariner has been promoted and demoted at least once since then, during the events of “Moist Vessel”, and Quimp is merely unaware that happened.
• Mariner Orders two shots of Cardassian tequila, which presumably can only be produced in the Tequila region of Cardassia Prime.
• Mariner also orders a ”dagger of the mind on the rocks.” “Dagger of the Mind” was a first season TOS episode, but also part of a line from “Macbeth”.
• ”I like baseball. It’s fun.” Rom was the worst player on the Niners in “Take Me Out to the Holosuite” but Max Grodénchik played in high school and was good enough that he considered going pro before pursuing a career in acting. During the filming of “Take Me Out to the Holosuite” he had to play left handed because he couldn’t convincingly look bad while playing the game with his dominant hand.
• Boimler is watching “Pog & Dar: Cop Landlords” and one of the tenants has a dog-like pet with horns and antenna like the one seen in “The Enemy Within”
• Pog, Dar, and the tenant all have Ferengi hand phasers, which were last seen in the TNG episode “Bloodlines”.
• The tenant has muttonchops, and is the only Ferengi we’ve seen to have hair of any kind.
• ”Haha, they put commercials in the shows? It’s like mind control.” When Boimler says this line, the wall art of a mountain with some stars above it twinkles, and I can’t quite place why it’s familiar.
• Quark’s Federation Experience Bar & Grill is based on Star Trek: The Experience, a now defunct attraction that used to be at the Hilton in Las Vegas, which did include a Quark’s Bar. Among the features here are:
• Models of the USS Enterprise D and the USS Voyager hanging from the ceiling, both of which were in Star Trek: The Experience.
• A Mugato - “A Private Little War”
• The Guardian of Forever - “The City on the Edge of Forever”
• A Vulcan wedding venue/gladiatorial arena - “Amok Time”
• One of the primitive peoples encountered on Taurus II - “The Galileo Seven”
• A holodeck arcade - Ferengi generally refer to them as holosuites
• A rack of red shirts
• A Jefferies Tube entrance
• A Ten Forward exhibit
• A ”blind box” shaped like a Class-F shuttlecraft
• Production Error: Despite what the sign says, Rutherford refers to it as *”The Starfleet Experience Bar & Grill”.
• One of the Ferengi women eating in the background of Quark’s Federation Experience is nude. Before Zek changed the law leading to the events of “Profit and Lace”, it was illegal for Ferengi omen to wear clothes.
• Rom and Leeta host Vassery and Freeman in the Chamber of Petitioners, seen in “Ferengi Love Songs”.
• Cap’n Freeman tricks Rom into signing a contract which hinges on him bringing Qo’noS into the Federation. In the TNG episode, “Samaritan Snare”, Wesley asks Picard “Was this before the Klingons joined the Federation?” regarding a story of his Academy days, and in “Heart of Glory” we see a Klingon bridge displaying the Federation Emblem alongside that of the Klingon Empire.
• Rom reveals that his outrageous demands were all part of a test to see if there were those in the Federation who would respect Ferengi culture. Captain Pike realized the delegation from the R’ongovian Protectorate were doing something similar in “Spock Amok”.
• The Ferengi ”local authorities” is wearing a simplified version of the Ferengi uniform introduced in “Peak Performance” and has a military tattoo on his forehead, which we haven’t seen since “Bloodlines”. He’s also wielding an energy whip, introduced in “The Last Outpost”.