The episode cites several of the Star Trek movies: the prolonged shuttle tour around the Cerritos in dry dock references Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979); the egregious amount and style of the lens flares on the Cerritos' bridge are reminiscent of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013); the crash of the Cerritos bears similarities to the crash of the Enterprise-D in Star Trek: Generations (1994); the scene with Vindicta's escape pod mirrors the scene with Spock's photon torpedo casket in the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982); and the style of the credits with the signatures of the "cast" during the credits is taken from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991).
At several points in the episode, a black oval dot appears in the upper-right corner of the screen. This is a nod to the changeover cues (or cue marks) on films, which were black dots (later circles) burned in the upper-right corner of the negative, notifying projectionists that it was time to change reels (the dots were stretched into ovals on widescreen movies). The changeover cues often carried over into VHS and TV versions of films as well, as these were copied from an original negative. The cues gradually disappeared over time with the switch from celluloid to digital formats.
The holodeck movie end credits where the Lower Decks' officers "sign" their names on the screen is taken from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), where each actor in Captain Kirk's TOS crew "signs" their name, thus signaling the end of their era and the continuation of Star Trek movies with Picard's Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) crew. This was also the inspiration for the main cast members of Marvel's MCU to sign their names at the end of Avengers: Endgame (2019).
The fly-by music in the holographic "movie" is an obvious pastiche of James Horner's soundtrack to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
When Tendi leaves the holodeck, she's covered in holographic blood. As she crosses the threshold into the corridor, the blood immediately disappears. This goes along with the stated nature of the holodeck in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Voyager (1995): holographic materials can only appear in areas with holographic projectors, and will disappear when taken through the holodeck doors into the real world; a limitation that Captain Janeway exploits in The Killing Game, Part II (1998) when she lures an adversary out of holoprojector range, making his weapon disappear.