Star Trek references (intentional or not) in The Clone Wars

There have been quite a few times when watching TCW that it had something that made me think of Star Trek. Sometimes it seems like it was probably intentional, other times I think it's just me. This thread is far discussing all of the above. I'd like to get a list going of episodes with perceived references to Star Trek. Please suggest your own along the way. Off the top of my head:

Shadow of Malevolence
Trespass
Jedi Crash
Lethal Trackdown
Heroes on Both Sides
Overlords
Altar of Mortis
Ghosts of Mortis
Slaves of the Republic
Point of No Return
Sabotage
The Wrong Jedi

Some of them have significant things that reminded me of Star Trek while others are just minor. Eventually I'll get to explaining all of them, but to avoid starting this thread with a wall-of-text, I'll just explain some of the simple ones.

Shadow of Malevolence uses music from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I think there's another episode that does to, maybe it was Cat & Mouse? Pretty sure CT told me about that, maybe he can confirm.

Lethal Trackdown and Sabotage both feature a speeder that looks an awful lot like the U.S.S. Enterprise (I think it looks most like the one from Star Trek: Enterprise but CT, who first pointed this out to me, thinks it looks most like the one from Star Trek: The Next Generation):





From CT:



Compare to:



Some slightly edited comments I made comparing Trespass to Star Trek elsewhere:

"In the original series episode Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, the two opposing sides have spurious reasoning for believing in their own superiority, and they both spend the whole time trying to order Captain Kirk around in handling their opponents with him turning them down time after time, just as Chairman Cho is constantly barking orders at people who mostly ignore him based on his belief in his own superiority to the Talz. In the Next Generation episode The Drumhead, that crazy old lady sticks to her species-ist anti-Romulan ideology to the bitter end but because of her high position no one realizes she's basically crazy and the bureaucracy doesn't stop her until she goes way overboard, just like Chairman Cho in Trespass."

Okay, this first post is already longer than I wanted. There's more to come from me, and I'm looking forward to seeing what other Star Trek fans took special note of in TCW because of a connection.

 

I'm going to ST nerd out a bit here, but the saucer section of the Galaxy-class startship (bottom picture/Enterprise from TNG) is quite a bit higher than the warp nacelles (glowy blue things). The opposite is true of the NX-class starship (top picture), I'd say that big distinction makes the TCW speeder look more like the NX.

As for the topic, I've not really had it ever strike me that there were ST references - either intentional or unintentional.

The closest thing for me was Cat and Mouse but only in the VAGUEST of senses.



But General Chang didn't have the audacity to return as a cyborg after and explosion like that and took it like a champ.

Chang 1, Trench 0.

 

What does the Son need with a starship?

What does God need with a starship?

 

After I got a look at the speeder after the episode, I actually thought it looked like the Enterprise-E, not the D.



It doesn't really matter, because most versions of the Enterprise share similar aesthetics.

But the speeder is clearly based on the Enterprise, I'm sure it was intentional.

I'm not certain if I've noticed more Star Trek references in TCW (I think I have, but I'm not sure), but it's something I'll keep an eye out for and if I spot something I come back and report it in this thread. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread as well.

 

I'll admit that I'm not really a big Star Trek nerd, as I've only watched a few episodes of the original series, TNG and Voyager when I was younger, so I probably won't catch (m)any references, overt or subtle, from ST in TCW. I have watched a few of the movies, including the 2009 reboot, as well.

That being said, Lola Sayu from Season 3's Citadel trilogy really reminded me of the Klingon moon Praxis; both are cracked celestial bodies, having lost huge chunks of mass. Praxis' appearance was a result of a massive explosion from a mining accident, but I've wondered what caused Lola Sayu to suffer such trauma that it would become cracked. Perhaps a collision with another large satellite or multiple satellites? Who knows.

Here's a picture of Lola Sayu:


And here's a picture of Praxis, for comparison's sake:

 

Anakin's "suicide" run against Mar Tuuk

 

Planets with exposed cores wasn't something first seen in TCW in GFFA.


Lok Durd being played by George Takei is probably the biggest one I can think of.

 

Hondo reminds me of a less awesome version of Garak.

 

Star Trek and Star Wars both has the word "Space" in their name and title.

 

They also both have the word "Star" in the name.

 

Point of No Return reminded me of a Star Trek episode because of the small crew eerily roaming around a mostly and inexplicably empty spaceship.

The same thing happens to Captain Kirk in the original series episode Wink of an Eye.

I'm pretty sure there's a similar episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation but it's not springing to mind.

 

Star Wars, not Space Wars

 

The EU has a lot more similarities. Marvel SW in particular springs to mind- in early issues they use "going to warp" instead of "going to hyperspace" and later, there's a "being of pure evil which was formed from the castoffs of a race's psyche" that's very like Armus in TNG's Skin of Evil.

I think it might even predate TNG.

 

No...

 

Apparently it was a long time before TNG- way back in 1982:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darker

 

I didn't think of it when I posted about Wink of an Eye the other day, but it's also similar to the Mortis arc in that it takes place in a kind of alternate dimension of time. I'll have a slightly longer post Overlords at some point. Altar of Mortis and Ghosts of Mortis are both on the list because they feature "evil" versions of the main good guys, Ahsoka and Anakin respectively.





Something similar happens in the Star Trek the original series classic episode The Enemy Within in which Captain Kirk goes through a transporter beam malfunction that splits him into two people, a "good" Kirk and "evil" Kirk.



And then there's the other Star Trek the original series classic episode Mirror, Mirror in which yet another transporter beam malfunction swaps Captain Kirk and a few other members of the Enterprise crew with their counterparts from an alternate dimension in which the Nazis dominated Earth history.



And a pair of episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise called In a Mirror, Darkly (parts I and II) also featured the Nazi mirror universe.

 

I hadn't heard of Star Trek references in TCW before. That is very cool! I wouldn't mind seeing a couple more references in the new animated series that's coming out.

 

There's no certainty that they're intended as Star Trek references, but the connections are there.

 

The Wrong Jedi is on the list because it's an episode where one of the main good guys is put on trial by his/her own side/team. That's the S5 finale episode where Ahsoka is framed and put on trial by the Galactic Republic.



In the classic Star Trek the original series episode (yes, they're pretty much all classic) Court Martial, Captain Kirk is framed and put on trial by Starfleet.



And in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Measure of a Man, a scientist from Starfleet wants to experiment on Data, Data declines them because he doesn't think they're safe, the scientist says he can't decline because as an android Data is Starfleet property, and whether or not Data is a sentient being who's free to choose becomes the subject of a trial with Captain Picard arguing in his favor and Commander Riker arguing against him because they're on a new space station that doesn't yet have the personnel in place for a normal trial (so the judge says if Riker won't do it she'll default to the scientist).

 

The trial of Ahsoka reminds me more of the Cardassian trial from the DS9 episode "Tribunal." The Cardassians decide guilt before the trial, which is then televised as propaganda to demonstrate the wisdom of the state.

"You have the right to refuse to answer questions, but such refusal may be construed as a sign of guilt." - Gul Evek

The setup of the court is also very much similar with the judge sitting up in a highly elevated position, which gives a grandiose sense of authority per Cardassian architecture as described in the series premiere.

The court is seen very briefly in this clip @ around 0:59

 

The scene in which Aurra Sing tries to kill Padme in Assassin is very similar to the scene in Star Trek VI when a Klingon tries to assassinate the Federation president.

 

That giant space-battle episode "Cat and Mouse" is loads and loads of Star Trek naval ship battle warfare. Star Wars space combat is very much inspired by WWII-dogfights but this took the big ships and had them fight basically like something outta the third act of The Wrath of Khan or Undiscovered Country.

 

Although I don't have as negative feelings toward it as I do Voyager, I'm not that familiar with DS9. Very cool comparison, thanks for that!

 

The Void episode was a little closer to a Voyager episode where they are traveling through a region of space without stars or really anything. At the end of the Voyager episode they get through after taking a shortcut through a wormhole (it would have taken them two years if they didn't) and Janeway like the commander of the mission started suffer from the lack of nothingness.

There is another one but right now I don't remember it.

 

I'm glad to find I wasn't the only one who noticed the Speederprise in Sabotage. It did kinda jump out at me.