It’s April, it’s Spring (at least in the northern hemisphere) and it’s warming up (again, only for those of us up north). This means only one thing to many people – birth, growth, renewal. We can sum all of this up in the Christian celebration of Easter – the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. To many who celebrate (and many people who, like myself, don’t), Easter is symbolised as an Easter egg.
Now we could have asked you all about your favourite forms of chocolate (correct answer: all) and maybe we’ll do that next year, but we thought we’d ask about that other type of Easter egg – the in-joke, the reference, the little nugget of gold that’s only there waiting for the fans to leap upon and write about on countless internet forums… And our Discord, of course.
_Fair Warning: This post contains some spoilers for the new series of Star Trek: Discovery, Picard, and Star Trek: Lower Decks. We have warned you!_
The most recent, and arguably the greatest, Easter egg ever made by anyone ever (because it references my favourite Star Trek film) was the momentary reoccurrence of Kirk Randolph Thatcher in Picard. He originally played the “Punk Dude” who is accosted by Kirk and Spock in the masterpiece film, The Voyage Home, and memorably appears in the Picard episode “Watcher”.
Another little Easter egg is the delightful appearance of the famous Vasquez Rocks in pretty much every episode of the Original Series, as well as many other appearances in plenty of other Trek series (and a few other non-Trek films and TV shows including the A-Team, the Muppet Movie and the live action Flintstones).
The one that cannot go without mentioning is the use of Majel Barrett-Roddenberry as the voice of the computer in almost every series since the Next Generation; for me, when I write my sims I can always hear her responses as the computer. It’s like she’s still with us every time.
Who hasn’t simmed their character climbing through the Jefferies tubes on board their ship? Those maintenance crawl spaces have more in common with the nautical vessels, where space is at a premium and tubes are the way forward. These maintenance shafts on board our starships are named Jefferies Tubes, after the Starfleet Engineer W.M. Jefferies, who was named in homage to the real designer of the original Enterprise – Matt Jefferies!
And of course, absolutely every episode of Lower Decks features a ridiculous amount of Easter eggs in every scene, and to list them here would take up an entirely new poll! But suffice to say, I’m going to pick my favourite, which is the only canon appearance of the Spock Helmet toy from the 60s in Ensign Mariner’s stash of contraband.
But what’s your favourite? One of the above, or a completely different egg altogether? I’m egg-cited to hear your answers!
