Star Trek Continues, Episode 4 - "The White Iris"

Also the mention of the Lexington's destruction in "Come Not Between the Dragons" and the destruction of the Hood in "Embracing the Winds" is obviously building some mystery as to what's happen to the other Connies, as some speculated here.

 

In TOS the Enterprise type ships were portrayed as the biggest and best things Starfleet had. If they come up with some design flaw rationalization for the ships starting to drop like flies after 20-30 years of service I will find that ridiculous.

 

Just like the B-2 replaced the B-52 bombers, it's time for a new design with state of the art weapons systems.
It's Interesting that we haven't seen the Romulans or Klingons yet, but I have a feeling that one or the other may come into play toward the end of the series with their cloaking technology and a reason that a redesign and upgrade to a new Star Ship class is necessary.

 

A call back to a previous doesn't make it a story arc. Like in TOS "By Any Other Name" when they reference "A Taste of Armageddon".

 

There is a story arc seemingly being built in these last couple of episodes — hints at something happen to the Constitution-Class ships — as we march toward the end of the Five Year Mission.

 

The larger point I was making however being that for the show to make sense as we are desiring it to, Lolani would have to come before Embracing the Winds.

Your clarification about story arcs vs. callbacks is correct, but as Ryan points out, there does seem to be a subtle story arc forming in these last few episodes.

 

Oh yeah. This does seem to be a continuing thread. Well, not a DS9 type arc but a continuing thread.