This episode shows 'Number One' from The Cage (1966), the pilot episode of Star Trek. There, she was the unnamed intellectual, problem-solving second-in-command serving under Captain Christopher Pike on The Enterprise. And was played by Majel Barrett, who became the second wife of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.
The title of this episode refers to the ancient practice of placing a coin in the mouth of a dead person before burial to pay the fare for transportation to the land of the dead. This episode deals strongly with transition from life to death.
When Captain Pike and Number One are conversing near the replicators, one of the replicator units is labeled A-113. A-113 is an inside joke, an Easter egg in media created by alumni of California Institute of the Arts, referring to the classroom used by graphic design and character animation students including John Lasseter, Tim Burton, and Brad Bird.
Jett Reno makes specific reference to the ship's chief engineer, a key department head that, throughout the series, is never seen or given a name.
- When the universal translators malfunction and cause everyone to start speaking different languages Burnham calls Saru to the bridge, when he arrives Captain Pike says "Welcome to the Tower of Babel" (in Hebrew, appropriately). Pike is referring to a story from the Bible about human's first attempt to congregate in one place and build a large city with a huge tower, contrary to God's commandment that humans spread out, multiply and fill the Earth. When the humans living in Babel failed to heed the warnings and continued to build the tower legend has it that God caused them all to speak different languages, with their ability to understand each other gone the tower went unfinished and the people spread out into groups that spoke the same language
- When the universal translated is broken and Saru is attempting to fix it, the computer speaks to Saru in Rigalian - Captain Pike asks Michael Burnham "Why are you speaking in Klingon", he is asking her in French.