The line "every revolution begins with a single act of defiance" is a famous quote from Mohandas K. Gandhi.
The Union admirals all appear together for the first time. Three of them are named after admirals associated with the United States' early conflict with Japan. American admiral Matthew C. Perry forcibly opened Japan to trade with the US by sailing a fleet into one of the country's harbors. Admiral William F. Halsey fought against the Japanese in the Second World war. Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa was one of the last commanders of the Japanese carrier fleet, and the last Commander in Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Halsey and Ozawa opposed each other at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, where Halsey was lured into attacking a decoy fleet of empty aircraft carriers commanded by Ozawa.
This is the last appearance of the full, original version of the opening sequence. The remainder of season two used a truncated version of the opening, while season 3 introduced a new opening title sequence and modified version of the theme song.
Marina Sirtis (the schoolteacher) played Deanna Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and derivative projects.