Asteroid Blues

The scene at the El Ray is an homage to Robert Rodriguezs Desperado. The bar is a replica of a
bar in the movie, which itself was filmed in Acua, a city in the Mexican state of Coahuila. Asimov
has a striking resemblance to Antonio Baderas' portrayal of El Mariachi (long hair, dark skin, and
dark-colored wardrobe) and travels with a beautiful Hispanic woman bearing a resemblance to
Salma Hayek's character. Asimov is also able to single-handedly defeat a bar full of mercenaries
hired to kill him just like the Mariachi character.

Laughing Bulls tent is filled with a clutter of junk including what appear to be a Sony PlayStation
1. (In the overhead shot of Spike and Laughing Bull, the PlayStation is next to Spikes right arm at
the top of the screen.)

Tijuana is a city in Mexico and the largest city in the Mexican state of Baja California. Much of its
international fame comes from being a major tourism destination, especially by high school and
college students from the United States. Zona Norte is a red light district in Tijuana, Mexico.

Wakan Tanka is a Sioux term often translated at the Great Spirita creator and supreme being
in apanentheism sense of existing in everything and everyone. Wakan Tanka might closer resemble
a Great Mystery for the Lakota Sioux who traditionally are not monotheistic.

Asimov is the surname of the famous science-fiction author, Isaac Asimov .

Stray dog Strut

Way of The Dragon: A 1972 martial arts action film starring Bruce Lee. In this film Lee's character
fights gangsters in Rome using nunchucks.

Abdul Hakim himself bears a resemblance to Kareem Abdul Jaamar, Bruce Lee's adversary from
"The Game of Death".

The title of the session, "Stray Dog Strut" is a reference to "Stray Cat Strut" by the Stray Cats, the
most popular song from their 1981 album.

The Kareem Abdul-Jaabar character dragging the coffin is a reference to the 1966
Western Django.

Honky Tonk Woman

Honky Tonk Woman is a 1969 hit song by the English rock band, The Rolling Stones. The song
describes a "honky tonk woman" as a sort of exotic dancer or prostitute.

A honky tonk is a name given to bars in the Southwest and Deep south as far back as
1894. They may feature piano or live band entertainment, typically cater to a rougher
clientle, and may be centers of prostitution.

Poker Alice was a 19th century professional gambler and card dealer that was skilled in counting
cards. Her fame grew in Sturgis and Deadwood, South Dakota around the same time as notable
Wild West figures as Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. Like Faye, she smoked cigars, carried a
gun and was a felon.

Charlie Parker was a 20th century American jazz saxophonist and composer, and is considered
one of the most influential jazz musicians. He is considered one of the primary musicians of
the bebop form of jazz that is faster and relies more on improvisation with harmony.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was an 18th century German writer famous for writing the
play, Faust, and was one of the key figures in the Weimar Classicism movement that spread across
Europe and has influenced literature around the world.

Gateway Shuffle

Gateway Shuffle: This remindes of the "Kansas City Shuffle" from the movie "Lucky Number
Slevin". A "Kansas City Shuffle" works because "when everybody looks right, you go left". This is
similar to the trick the terrorists play in this session

Ballad of Fallen Angels

The opera scene is reminiscent of the 1976 film Marathon Man, in which Roy Scheider's character
enters a private opera box to find his contact propped up in a chair with his throat slit.

At the end of the episode, when both Julia and Faye are humming, they hum a tune that strongly
resemblance an incident when singer Sam Cooke hummed "what soul represents".

Symphaty for the devil

"Sympathy for the Devil" Is a song by the rock band The Rolling Stones on their album, Beggars
Banquet. The narrator of the song is the Devil, who like Wen, watches as generations of people die
around him.

Circadian rhythm - Jet explains that Wen's circadian rhythm was affected by the hyperspace gate
crash, causing his body to produce a substance that inhibits aging.

Heavy Metal Queen

When Faye tries to capture Decker by staking out a restaurant, she mistakenly identifies him for
another man. This man has a tattoo that looks just like Decker's dragon tattoo but is in fact an eel.
When Faye points a gun at the man with the eel tattoo, Decker freaks out and runs away. Decker
looks strikingly likeWoody Allen, and since the restaurant where he is first introduced is called
Woody's it is probable that this is an homage.

V.T. are also the initials for the first woman to ever step foot in space, Valentina Tereshkova.

VT speaks with several truckers whose CB handles are Love Machine, Sneaky Snake, and Spider
Mike. These are a reference to the C.W. McCall song "Convoy", as well as the feature film based
on the song.

Waltz For Venus

Spike's description of his fighting style "like water", is likely a reference to a quotation by Bruce
Lee;

You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When
you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend. -Bruce Lee
Jammin Whit Edward

Jamming with Edward! Is the title of an album recorded by several members of The Rolling
Stones and released in 1972. The title refers to sessions pianist Nicky Hopkins, a talented studio

player who has played with such groups as The Beatles, The Who, Neil Young, and Jeff Beck
among others.

Uri Geller An Israeli-British performer and self-proclaimed psychic who alleges to be able to
bend spoons with the power of his mind and have other psychic powers. The conspiracy
theorist, Yuuri Kellerman, was influenced by Uri Geller at least in name.

HAL 9000 At the very begining of the session, MPU resembles the computer HAL 9000 from
Arthur C. Clarke's book and Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The pictures drawn by MPU are almost identical to the geoglyphs in the Nazca Desert, southern
Peru.

Ganymede Elegy

Black Dog, Jet's nickname, is a reference to 1971 song of the same name from the
band Led Zeppelin.

Baker Panchorero, the name of the bounty head in the beginning of the eisode, is
named after the last names of the main characters from the 1970's police drama
CHIPs. Jon Baker and Francis Panchorero

Toys in the attic

The plot structure and atmosphere of this episode, with an unseen alien monster
attacking the crew, is an homage to the 1979 movie Alien.

The jettisoning of a container, the use of "Waltz of the Flowers", and the autopilot
flying the ship while all of the passengers are incapacitated could be in homage
to 2001: A Space Odyssey

The episode's fridge monster might be a reference to the blob creature in John
Carpenter's first film "Dark Star".

The episode title is a reference to the Aerosmith album of the same name.

Route 66 is one of the first interstate roads to stretch the majority of the continental
United States.

Spike gearing up to fight the creature is similar to a scene from Arnold

Bohemian Rhapsody

The Chess matches portrayed in this episode are famous matches from history:*

Chessmaster Hex vs. Deep Blue was a match between Paul Morphy and Adolf
Anderssen

Chessmaster Hex vs. Ed was a match between Paul Morphy and John William Schulten

Bohemian Rhapsody is a song by the English rock band Queen from their 1975 album A Night at
the Opera.

Bohemianism was first introduced in France in the nineteenth century as a term to describe the
nontraditional lifestyles of poor artists, writers, musicians and actors in the low-

rent Romanineighborhoods of major European cities. Bohemianism is comparable to the Beat

Antonio, Carlos, and Jobim are references to the Brazilian bossa nova composer and
musician Antnio Carlos Jobim.

My funny valentine

My Funny Valentine is a song from the musical Babes in Arms that has been
covered by several artists such as Frank Sinatra and Miles Davis.

Mushroom Samba

A restaurant which appears is named "Mobi Dik," presumably after the famous novel. Moby Dick
is also a reference to a Led Zeppelin song of the same name.

The frog saying "This is a stairway to heaven. You know that, right?", is a reference to the song
"Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin.

The bounty hunter Coffee was probably inspired by the protagonist of the Pam Grier film Coffy.

Wild Horses

NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia, which incidentally was destroyed on re-entry in 2003, two years
after the episode aired.

Aircraft in Doohan's scrapyard include a B-25 Mitchell, a Mil Mi-24, an F-22 Raptor, and an F-16
Fighting Falcon. The tank which his assistant drives is an M4 Sherman.

"Wild Horses" is a song by the band The Rolling Stones off their 1971 album Sticky Fingers.

Baseball is referenced throughout the episode, most notably by Miles. Additionally the pirates
names are George, Herman and Ruth - a play on George Herman "Babe" Ruth.

When Spike makes marks on the glass of his ship window to keep the Swordfish at a certain
angle to avoid burning up in the atmosphere, that is based on the last flight of the Mercury program,
when pilot Gordon Cooper had to do the same thing during reentry.

Pierrot le Fou

Pierrot Le Fou is a 1965 postmodern film directed by the French and Swiss filmmaker Jean-Luc
Godard, who was one of the founding members of the French New Wave in cinema.

Tongpu's character seems to be based off a mixture of two of Batman's notable nemeses: The
Penguin and The Joker and less popular villain the Tally Man who is also an assassin, also sporting
a top hat, and like Mad Pierrot first appears massacring a group of criminals, he who also has the
seeming ability to fly, a cruel almost permaent grin, and with distrubed childlike personality. Which
when all the vilains are combined reflect Tangu's attire and personality quite well.

Hard Luck Woman

Hard Luck Woman is a 1976 lead single by American hard rock band KISS from their
album Rock and Roll Over.

Walking on the Moon, the title of a book Spike is seen reading, shares it's name with the 1979
hit single by the English new wave band The Police.
It is also the title of a romantic science fiction book by Susan Sizemore.

Merlion is a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish, and is a national
symbol of Singapore. The landmark Faye recognizes resembles that of the merlion statue found in
Singapore.

The Real Folk Blues

The Real Folk Blues is a series of blues compilation albums released between
1965 and 1967 by Chess Records and distributed by MCA Records. Each album in
the series highlighted the music of one major Chess artist, including John Lee
Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Sonny Boy Williamson II.

The story Jet tells is a rough summary of Ernest Hemingway's 1936 short
story, The Snows of Kilimanjaro.

The Real Folk Blues II

is a series of blues compilation albums released between 1965 and 1967 by Chess Records and
distributed by MCA Records. Each album in the series highlighted the music of one major Chess
artist, including John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Sonny Boy Williamson II.

You're Gonna Carry That Weight (The final words shown on-screen before the episode fades
out) is a reference to the song Carry That Weight, the 15th track of the seminal album Abbey Road,
by The Beatles. It was written to tell their fans that the Beatles had broken up and was part of the
final suite on the last album they ever made as a group.