I remember an interview with Garrett Wang who talked about a conversation with Rick Berman where he asked him whether Kim would ever be promoted to Lieutenant. Berman pretty much shot him down, saying that someone has to be an ensign.

I always thought it would’ve been a fun twist if Harry got a promotion once Tom got demoted in Thirty Days.

In TNG: “The Defector”, Picard performs Henry V, and Data and he do the same in “Emergence”. Picard uses the excuse of the away team being actors performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream in “Time’s Arrow”. In DS9: “Improbable Cause”, Garak and Bashir debate Julius Caesar. In ENT: “In a Mirror, Darkly” the similarities between Shakespeare’s plays between the Prime and Mirror Universe are mentioned. Various bits of Shakespeare are quoted as well, notably General Chang, a Shakespeare aficionado in ST VI and Spock quoting Hamlet in DIS: “Perpetual Infinity”.

No love for Picard reciting a sonnet in TNG: “Ménage à Troi”? :) Or were you just specifically listing references to Shakespeare plays?

To offer a counter-point to humanocentric ships: different species have different environmental preferences and needs. We know Vulcans are used to warmer temperatures and higher gravity; Andorians thrive in cold environments, Tellarites (from what little I recall) gravitate towards swamps and bogs.

It seems pragmatic to have ships favor a species on account of not having to maintain several layers of environmental settings, some of which might be opposed if not outright incompatible. A ship full of Benzites would have an atmosphere that does not necessitate wearing the breathing apparatus we see Mendon wear; a ship full of Elaysians may be able to run minimal artificial gravity, etc.