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In LD 1x08 Veritas, Rutherford is rotating some "EPS Capacitors" (These seem to have little mention outside this episode) to prevent them from overheating.

Before I ask my questions, I first want to establish what makes sense to me here. Although not previously mentioned, like electrical capacitors, EPS Capacitors probably help to "smooth out" plasma flow. As these are high-power systems, I am sure there is risk of overheating in these capacitors that is not as present in current electrical capacitors, which usually don't have a rotating mechanism.

Now, for the questions:

• Why do the capacitors rotate, and what does this do to prevent overheating?
• Why do they have to do this in the 24th century in a post-scarcity society?

For the first: My first theory is these are variable capacitors. Assuming the mechanics work similarly to electrical capacitors, Rutherford could be changing the capacitance of each capacitor to rotate the load. This doesn't feel completely right, though (for instance, how to keep the array within specification).

A better theory is that although its function is analogous to an electrical capacitor, the physical mechanics used behind it are different, and somehow wear in the internal materials is uneven unless rotated, somewhat like tires.

For the second: We practically mastered rotating crap with electricity in THE 20TH CENTURY and have only gotten better since. I don't understand why Starfleet couldn't just give each capacitor a servo motor running off an EPS tap that does the randomization automatically, or at the very least mount them all on a belt. Heck, if heat is the problem, why not a liquid cooling loop? The worst that can happen is an ensign has to go get a mop.

It could be possible that maybe it was kept there as a task to bully ensigns/make officers feel useful, but I feel that kind of thinking wouldn't necessarily exist at the Cali class drawing board. It could be possible that somehow the magnets in the motor interfere with the EPS containment field, but I feel like that would mean a lot more crap would have to be banned on board if the EPS conduits were that vulnerable.

Ultimately, I really can't make full sense of this second point, and would love insights on this and my first question.

Could any of the main characters of Prodigy have been affected by the Borg assimilation in Picard S3?

Season 1 of Prodigy takes place in 2383. This means the main characters would be about 18 years older at the time of Season 3 of Picard.

When the Borg assimilate the younger members of Starfleet, using "recievers" added to their genetic code through the transporter system, it's said to only affect individuals prior to a certain point in their brain development - around 25 for humans.

The characters' ages in 2383 are:

• Dal: 17
• Gwyn: 17
• Jankom: 16
• Rok: 8

No age is listed on Memory Alpha for Zero, but they're also Medusan, have already broken free from the Borg once, and I don't know if Medusans even have genetic material that the transporter could detect. (Also, Murf's age is explicitly said to be unknown.)

In 2401, Rok would be about 26 (not including the time spent in the slowdown in "Time Amok"). For her to be affected by the Borg assimilation, I think we'd have to make a few assumptions:

1. She's still in Starfleet
2. Either her brain development takes slightly longer than in humans, or the estimates are off and she's a bit younger than 26
3. The algorithms in Starfleet transporters that recognize common species DNA (which is what the Borg code hijacked to install the receiver) specifically recognizes Brikar like it does for other, more commonly seen species

Number 1 seems likely. Number 3 seems plausible - Rok wore an appropriately-sized environmental suit in (I believe) "Crossroads", although that was likely created by a replicator - perhaps the vehicle replicator, if the ordinary ones weren't large enough.

To me, number 2 seems the most unlikely; Prodigy a show aimed (in part) at teenagers, and - in the absence of any reference to these species differences in the show - it seems logical to me to assume these characters are intended to be at similar state in development as humans of the same age. And the estimate for Rok's age seems to put her just over the age where she would be affected. Part of me wonders if the writers for "Võx" were thinking about this.

Anything I missed (at least prior to Prodigy season 2)? Or any other characters we've seen who might be young enough to be assimilated in 2401?

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The title was first used in the context of the Progenitors in TNG: “The Chase” when Picard remarked, “[The puzzle] is 4 billion years old. A computer program from a highly advanced civilisation, and it's hidden in the very fabric of life itself.“ In DIS: “Red Directive” the phrase was used in conjunction with saying the Progenitor technology was “used to design life itself.”

Burnham activates her holographic tricorder function from her tricom badge, first introduced in DIS: “Scavengers” as the 32nd Century combination tricorder, communicator and personal transporter. She also materializes a 32nd Century phaser pistol, which can be summoned at will thanks to it being composed of programmable matter.

Window-like gateways allowing instantaneous travel to other worlds was a hallmark of another ancient civilization, the Iconians (TNG: “Contagion”), who used them to control a vast empire which was destroyed over 200,000 years prior, although there were still survivors existing into the 32nd Century (DIS: “The Examples”). Their gateways also survived, with one being the focus of conflict in DS9: “To the Death”.

Tahal’s fleet will arrive in 60 minutes. Primarch Tahal is one of the five remaining Primarchs of the Bree Imperium, and in the past conquered Kellerun, Rayner’s planet. Rayner was the only survivor of his family.

Burnham has indeed seen the future - in DIS: “Face the Strange” she and Rayner were jumped 30 years ahead to see a lifeless Discovery and a Federation HQ devastated by the Breen thanks to them using Progenitor tech.

Rayner refers to the avalanche caused by Moll and L’ak on Q’Mau in order to facilitate their escape (DIS: “Red Directive”).

Culber gives Book a shot to counter radiation sickness. In TOS: “The Deadly Years”, the drug of choice to do that was hyronalin, was which also used during the TNG era in several episodes. Culber has had an existential crisis ever since he became host to the memories and personality of Jinaal on Trill (DIS: “Jinaal”).

Moll put L’ak in her personal pattern buffer in DIS: “Lagrange Point” to keep him safe.

Using plasma to take out multiple hostiles was a tactic used by Worf’s brother Kurn, who went to warp near the surface of a star, setting off a flare which destroyed his pursuers (TNG: “Redemption II”). In TNG: “Descent, Part II”, the Enterprise-D under Beverly Crusher’s command fired a particle beam into a star to make it erupt and destroy a Borg ship.

Culber tells Book to adjust the tractor beam to subspace resonance frequency 5.1732, then uses the classic “I’m a doctor, not a…” trope associated most with McCoy from TOS (my personal favorite is from TOS: “The Devil in the Dark”, where he complains about treating the silicon-based Horta with, “I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer!”).

Ferengi rummy is presumably a card game. Rummy is the name given to a group of Earth card games, with the most common variant being Gin Rummy. It is claimed that the name comes from using rum as betting stakes.

The Progenitor that greets Burnham is in an updated version of the original Progenitor makeup from TNG: “The Chase” (played then by Salome Jens, who went on to play the female Founder in DS9).

The Galactic Barrier is an energy field that surrounds the Milky Way, penetrated by the USS Enterprise in TOS: “Where No Man Has Gone Before” and then again in TOS: “By Any Other Name”. The Barrier also featured in DIS Season 4, with Species 10-C living beyond it in extragalactic space. The origins of the Barrier have never been explained on screen, although beta canon has offered some possibilities, one of which was the Progenitors (William Shatner and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens’ Captain’s Glory).

The Progenitors were not the creators of the technology but think that it was made by their creators. So, basically, it’s Progenitors all the way down. And while they effectively could recreate a live body from a dead one, it would basically be a clone without any of the previous body’s memories or personality.

The Betazoid scientist Dr Marina Derex was one of those that discovered the Progenitor tech 800 years prior. Her clue was in the manuscript of her book, Labyrinths of the Mind (DIS: “Labyrinths”).

This is the first time Discovery has shown the ability to separate its saucer from its secondary hull. Saucer separation was mentioned as being possible in TOS behind the scenes documents but it was not until TNG: “Encounter at Farpoint” that separation (and rejoining) became a fact on screen.

“Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations” is a tenet of Vulcan philosophy, first mentioned in TOS: “Is There in Truth No Beauty?”, also known as IDIC. In-universe, it dates back to at least Surak’s time, c.300 CE (ENT: “The Forge”).

When Kovich tells her that all information regarding the Progenitor tech will be classified, Burnham quips she knows how those things work. When Discovery jumped to the 32nd Century at the end of Season 2 to prevent misuse of the Sphere Data, all knowledge of the spore drive was classified and scrubbed from 23rd century records, and even as far as the 32nd century was concerned the original Discovery was destroyed back then.

The device Burnham holds gives her access to the Infinity Room, a highly secure conference space, first seen in DIS: “Red Directive”.

Kovich cryptically says he’s “lived many years and many lives”. Given the scope of the Star Trek universe, this could very well be more than metaphorical. On the shelf behind him we see a bottle of Château Picard, Geordi LaForge’s VISOR and Benjamin Sisko’s baseball.

Agent Daniels first appeared in ENT: “Cold Front” as Crewman Daniels of the NX-01 Enterprise (which technically didn’t have a USS prefix until its refit). He was revealed to be a Time Agent, a temporal operative from the 31st Century fighting in the Temporal Cold War. He last appeared in ENT: “Storm Front, Part II”, informing Archer that due to his actions, the Temporal War was coming to an end.

Talaxians, of course, are Neelix’s race (VOY), last referenced in a reading list that included A Comprehensive Guide to Talaxian Hair Styles. The Eternal Archive also gave Book a cutting from the World Root, a tree system that extended across his now-destroyed planet Kwejian (DIS: “Labyrinths”). He planted it on Sanctuary Four, a planet used as a wildlife sanctuary for trance worms, one of which, nicknamed Molly was delivered there by Book in DIS: “That Hope is You, Part 1”.

The box on the table across from Admiral Burnham’s bed is the one made of Tulí wood, that contained the World Root cuttings, given to Book by the Eternal Archive. The color of the vegetation outside the window identifies the planet as Sanctuary Four.

Crepuscula was the very first planet we saw in the series, back in the first scene of DIS: “The Vulcan Hello”. Burnham and Philippa Georgiou performed a covert mission to restore the Crepusulans’ water supply, as the species was subject to General Order 1.

The age of Burnham’s son (and his Captain’s rank) implies that at least thirty-odd years have passed since Saru’s wedding.

Technically speaking, one “aye” means “I understand,” in response to information while “aye aye” means “I understand and will comply,” in response to an order.

Burnham’s shuttle bears the designation “UFP 47”, with 47 being a number which appears frequently in Star Trek, an in-joke started by TNG writer Joe Menosky, who was part of the 47 Society at California’s Pomona College. In the lake we see trance worms swimming. The warp streaks as the shuttle travels are consistent with what we saw of the pathway drive.

Burnham and Book’s son is named Leto, after Book’s nephew who died when Kwejian was destroyed (DIS: “Kobayashi Maru”).

The ending finally brings continuity in line with ST: “Calypso”, where Craft came across a deserted Discovery, empty save for Zora, adrift for a thousand years in deep space. For the longest time we were wondering how it would work since the starship was shown without its “A” suffix, which she obtained when refitted in the 32nd Century to hide her origins in the 23rd Century. The removal of the “A” by DOTs as Burnham’s shuttle flies in, the reattchment of the ship's nacelles and Burnham's use of the term “Red Directive” implies that this is due to Kovich/Daniels’ instructions, and the restoration of the original ship is to bring it in line with history due to timey-wimey reasons.

As stated in DIS: “Mirrors”, an erigah is a Breen blood bounty.

The ship holding Moll and L’ak’s shuttle in a tractor beam is the USS Locherer (NCC-325062), a Merian-class starship first seen in DIS: “Jinaal” and named after the late J.P. Locherer, who was a cinematographer on the show.

Burnham identifies subspace frequency Epsilon 19 as a courier channel and that “special offer” is a courier distress code. With her is Commander Nhan, a Barzan who journeyed with Discovery from the 23rd Century but subsequently transferred to Federation Security in the 32nd. She was last seen in DIS: “Rubicon”.

Nhan refers to what happened between her and Book at their last encounter, when she argued for destroying his ship to prevent him using the isolytic weapon she mentioned. So there’s a bit of awkward history there.

A sa-te kru cat is a Vulcan species, a large predator similar to the le-matya. It was mentioned in the novel Vulcan’s Forge, but this is its first on-screen mention.

Given the Breen first appeared in DS9, there are plenty of back references to the series.

Culber says that there’s some evidence Breen are capable of “somatic cell” regeneration in extreme cold. This tracks with reports that the Breen homeworld had a freezing climate (DS9: “Til Death Do Us Part”) and that they wore refrigeration suits (DS9: “The Changing Face of Evil”). I’m not sure why Culber needs to distinguish “somatic cell”, since that is really any other cell in the body aside from sperm and egg cells, but I guess it sounds medically cool.

Breen Dreadnoughts (Rezeth Destroyers) are ships from Star Trek Online. As we see later, the 32nd Century version is much bigger.

The Breen used to be a Confederacy in the 24th Century (DS9: “Strange Bedfellows”) but somewhere along the way it’s become an Imperium. There are six primarchs vying for the throne in the wake of the emperor’s death.

Rayner talks about the last time the Breen entered Federation space. With Vance saying that Starfleet was caught flat-footed, this is probably referring to the Breen sneak attack on Earth during the Dominion War which heavily damaged Starfleet Headquarters and San Francisco (“The Changing Face of Evil”). Tilly’s later remark about the Breen “destroying an entire city” may also refer to this.

Using thoron emitters and duranium shadows to fool enemy sensors is a reference to DS9: “Emissary”, when the station used such a tactic to block sensors and make themselves appear better armed than they were. In DS9: “The Way of the Warrior”, the Changeling Martok believed the station was pulling the same trick, but that time he proved to be wrong. The Romulan saying “Never turn your back on a Breen” is from DS9: “By Inferno’s Light”.

The yellow alert symbols are the same design as the “Alert: Condition Red” indicators dating back to ST II, albeit in yellow. The USS Mitchell (NCC-325027), another Merian-class starship, is named after the late Kenneth Mitchell, who played Kol, Kol-sha and Aurellio in DIS. She was last mentioned in DIS: “Coming Home”.

L’ak is Primarch Ruhn’s nephew and carries within him the genetic code of the Yod-Thot, “they who rule”. He is also a direct descendant of the emperor and Ruhn cannot claim the throne without him.

One of Reno’s former jobs was as a bartender - the closed captioning says “Ashalon IV”, but it might be a misspelling of “ Aschelan IV”. Aschelan V was a planet which housed a Cardassian fuel depot (DS9: “Dreadnought”). She refers to a cocktail named “Seven of Limes”, which is an obvious pun on Seven of Nine, although Reno may not know the name’s provenance given that she left for the future about a century before Annika Hansen was assimilated.

A “Code One Alpha” is probably related to or the same as the 23rd-24th Century “Code One Alpha Zero” which is an emergency condition ordered when there is an attack (ST 2009) or a distress call (TNG: “Relics”).

Kellerun was, for a time, used as a Breen forward base by Primarch Tahal. Since Rayner was there, it must have been relatively recent, although to be fair we don’t know how long Kellerun live.

Reno remarks that the hunt “sounds like something out of a holodeck adventure for the littles.” She may be referring to The Littles, a series of children’s adventure novels featuring a family of tiny humanoids with mice-like faces and tails that were written between 1967 and 2003 by John Peterson. There was also an animated series that ran for 3 seasons between 1983 and 1985. Or I’m overthinking and she’s just talking about kids in general.

Rayner says Tahal named her ship the Tau Ceti after a lethal viper with a slow acting venom. Tau Ceti, is of course, the name of a star 12 light years away from Earth and has been mentioned many times in Star Trek.

Bopak III was an uninhabited planet (at least in 2372) in the Gamma Quadrant and the location for the events of DS9: “Hippocratic Oath”.

Tricordrazine is a stimulant apparently derived from cordrazine (TOS: “The City on the Edge of Forever”) and appeared in several TNG episodes, including TNG: “Ethics” and “Shades of Grey”.

The Badlands is an area of space in proximity to Cardassia and Bajor (and DS9), known for its violent plasma storms (DS9: “The Maquis”). Both the Bajoran Resistance and the Maquis used it as a staging area to hide from enemy patrols during their respective conflicts. In 2371, while pursuing a Maquis ship there, the USS Voyager was hurled across the galaxy to the Delta Quadrant by an alien force (VOY: “Caretaker”).

The title of the episode, of course, pretty much telegraphs which parallel universe we’re likely to have elements of this week. The Mirror Universe was a major part of Season 1 of DIS, and the Mirror Philippa Georgiou was a supporting character through the first 3 seasons.

The Stardate is 866282.9. I’ve said this a lot, but the new Stardate system baffles me. By TNG reckoning the 866000s should be 3189, but they confirmed it was 3191 in DIS: “Jinaal”, so how it’s calculated now is anyone’s guess.

Book browses through Moll’s records - the first one is from the Federation, the third from Andor. I don’t recognize the logo or alien script from the second one, although it vaguely reminds me of Alienese from Futurama.

Burnham quotes from a Kellerun (Rayner’s species) classic, The Ballad of Krul, “Serve it without a grum of osikod.” From context it probably means not to sugarcoat whatever is said next, with “grum” as a quantity and “osikod” either as a flavoring ingredient, or a word meaning deception, i.e. “without an ounce of bullshit.”

Book makes reference to charging impulse capacitant cells and then releasing the energy into the drive coils. Impulse engines, although limited to sublight operations, have had warp driver coils as part of their design in various eras. In the 22nd Century, according to the USS Enterprise Haynes Manual, the NX-01 used the inertial mass-altering capabilities of a warp field to increase the apparent mass of ejected propellant to achieve greater thrust. In SNW: “Memento Mori”, there is a reference to only half impulse speed being achievable with one warp nacelle damaged. The TNG Technical Manual says that as of the mid-24th Century and the designing of the Ambassador-class, driver coils were built into impulse engines to lower the inertial mass of the ship so that even at sublight the ship would be easier to push.

Book is aware of the Mirror Universe, since he recognizes the ISS prefix (as opposed to USS) for Empire ships. And we see it is the ISS Enterprise, last seen in TOS: “Mirror, Mirror”.

Michael says that crossing between universes has been “impossible for centuries”. This is a stronger statement from from what Kovich said in DIS: “Die Trying”, when he stated that the MU and the Prime Universe had been drifting apart ever since Georgiou crossed over (back in the 23rd Century), and there hadn’t been a crossover between the two for 500 years. While it’s debated, I’m of the school of thought that Georgiou did cross universes (and time) during DIS: “Terra Firma” thanks to the Guardian of Forever. And in that same episode, Kovich related the tale of Yor, a Time Soldier, from the 2379 of the Kelvin Timeline to the 30th Century of the Prime Timeline.

Cardassian voles are rapidly breeding pests that are attracted to energy fields. They are native to Cardassia Prime and first mentioned in DS9, but have made appearances in ENT and also DIS Season 1. DS9 once suffered an infestation of voles.

A graviton pulse was used to seal up a subspace rupture in TNG: “Schisms”. While the idea is to use it to stop the antimatter reactions making the aperture pulse, the 43.7% chance of implosion sealing it forever makes sense with what it was used for in “Schisms”.

The bridge of the ISS Enterprise uses the same set as SNW, but with the Empire logos and a ISS dedication plaque as part of the redress. Michael wants to use the sensors to track quantum signatures from “our universe”. It was established in TNG: “Parallels” that every possible universe has a unique quantum signature as does its inhabitants.

Michael mentions her mirror counterpart and how she must have died before ISS Enterprise was trapped. The exact disposition of Mirror Michael is unclear. in DIS Season 1 she was lost in a shuttle accident and Prime Michael posed as her. In the licensed comic book Succession, (co-written by novel and series writer Kirsten Beyer) it was revealed that Mirror Michael had survived and managed to ascend to the throne, but she was in turn killed by Mirror Airiam. In DIS: “Terra Firma”, Mirror Michael finally makes an on-screen appearance. Mirror Georgiou and her fight and kill each other before Georgiou is returned to the 32nd Century, so it depends on whether you believe Georgiou was actually traveling in time or not or whether she was in the actual MU or not. In any event, Prime Michael is unaware of the events of the comic or Mirror Georgiou’s time/space travel.

Michael looks at her adoptive brother Spock’s station - or at least where it would be on the Prime Enterprise. Despite Michael’s assumption, Mirror Spock was not exactly “as ruthless as the rest”. As Prime Kirk described him in TOS: “Mirror, Mirror”, he was a man of integrity “in both universes”. Sadly, it would be Mirror Spock’s reforms towards peace that would lead to the Empire being toppled by a Klingon-Cardassian alliance.

The intermix chamber is where the matter/antimatter reaction of the warp core takes place. In TNG times, the entire warp core assembly consists of the intermix chamber plus the matter and antimatter injectors and tubes which is what is jettisoned when they order the warp core to be ejected (VOY: “Day of Honor”, et al.).

The plaque in the transporter room indicates Tartarus Base on Stardate 32336.6 - by TNG reckoning that would correspond with 2355, but who knows how the Terrans measured stardates? In any case, since they’re using the SNW sets, the ship itself is apparently showcasing mid-23rd Century levels of technology. Oddly, for a plaque apparently put up by dissidents, it says "Long Live The Empire". Tartarus Prime was mentioned as a planet with high temperatures in the novel The Rings of Time.

The Terran High Chancellor making reforms might be referring to Spock, who was said to have risen to be Commander-in-Chief of the Empire (DS9: “Crossover”). Mirror Saru was a Kelpien slave in the MU experienced by Georgiou in DIS: “Terra Firma” but was saved by her and consequently went on to save a lot of lives. If the plaque was put up in 2355, then these events would have taken place about 97 years after Mirror Saru was saved by Georgiou and about 88 years after Mirror Spock met Prime Kirk. We don't really know how long Kelpiens naturally live, but Su'Kal (the one who caused the Burn) lived to be over 120 years old, so it's possible.

Interestingly, there are holoemitters in Sickbay, which seem to indicate later-24th Century technology (i.e. the EMH of VOY). Of course, this is all assuming tech levels are consistent across universes. I have many questions.

An Erigah is a Breen blood bounty, and we have a fan theory confirmed: L’ak is indeed a member of the mysterious Breen that have never been seen unmasked on screen. In the Litverse, the Breen are actually a society rather than a single race, consisting of six species, none of whom match L’ak’s description.

In the flashback, the Breen Moll meets wear similar uniforms (although the helmets don’t have the pronounced “beak”) and speak the same unintelligible language from their appearances in DS9. The Breen also carry what must be a 32nd Century version of the neural truncheons they had in DS9, which acted like cattle prods.

Moll identifies L’ak as the “Primarch’s nephew”. Coincidentally, in DS9: “The Adversary” the leader of the Tzenkethi Coalition in the 24th Century is known as the “Autarch”.

When L’ak first removes his helmet, his skin and skull are almost transparent, reminding me of how the Gallamites were described with transparent skulls and brains twice the size of humans (DS9: “The Maquis, Part 1”). It seems that Breen skulls and skin get more opaque with exposure.

Callor V was previously mentioned in DIS: “Jinaal”. Rubindium is used in communications tech, first mentioned in TOS: “Patterns of Force” and subsequently in DIS: “Far from Home”. There is also a similar-sounding element called rubidium (VOY: “Think Tank”).

The Emerald Chain, an organized crime concern, was the central antagonist in Season 3, but are shattered by the end of it, so that dates the start of Moll and L’ak’s relationship to 3189.

Booker’s planet Kwejian was destroyed by the DMA in Season 4, in case anyone forgot, leaving him the last of his species.

The Primarch says L’ak carries the genetic code of the Yod-Thot, “They who Rule”. In DS9, “Thot” denoted a high rank (the script for DS9: “Strange Bedfellows” describes Thot Gor as a Breen general). As a side note, the Klingon word yoD means “shield”.

So Breen have “two faces”, one transparent and one not. Hopefully we can get some backstory to explain why this is, and why the non-transparent face is viewed with disdain. The weapon the Primarch materializes is a sleeker version of the 24th Century Breen rifle.

We see L’ak apparently bleeding, although the fluid isn’t red. In DS9: “In Purgatory’s Shadow”, Bashir says Breen don’t have blood, although how he knows this for sure is not explained. While this could be misinformation, some Earth invertebrates have circulatory systems that contain, not blood, but hemolymph, a fluid that carries carbohydrates, lipds, amino acides, hormones, etc. through the body. The Breen could be similar.

Rhys’s suggestion seems odd at first blush - don’t photon torpedoes already have antimatter in them? Then you realize his idea is to replace the matter in the torpedoes with antimatter as well, adding more antimatter to the aperture reactions. I’m still trying to figure out why hexagonal.

Michael comments that “hit it,” sounds weird and sticks with her own “let’s fly.” Of course, “hit it” was Pike’s catchphrase to go to warp.

I’m going to leave the question of how Stamets is able to recognize that it’s the ISS Enterprise from this distance unanswered. The setting and ending of the episode was kind of spoiled if you had paid attention to the Season 5 trailers anyway.

The face off between the ISS Enterprise and the refit Discovery reminds me of a similar face off between the USS Enterprise and Discovery at the end of Season 1 (DIS: “Will You Take My Hand?”).

Michael used the tractor beam earlier to signal 3-4-1-4, a reference to The Ballad of Krul Section 4, Verse 7 where Krul calls to his war brother for rescue with a drumbeat using that pattern.

I’m still kind of bummed we didn’t see any Tzenkethi despite being in their space. Which kind of makes me wonder what their status is in the 32nd Century.

Culber refers to his death and resurrection in Season 1 (DIS: “Despite Yourself” and “Saints of Imperfection”, respectively).

We find out that the MU refugees did make it to the PU, and one of them, Dr Cho, became a Branch Admiral in Starfleet. Presumably the trauma of existing in a different universe wasn’t as severe because there was no time travel involved, unlike Yor or Mirror Georgiou, who crossed universes and had a centuries-long gap.

The Branch Admiral rank was detailed in the FASA Star Trek RPG’s TNG Officer’s Manual, and was a new rank to extend Admiral’s rank and privileges to non-Command division positions like the Starfleet Surgeon General, or other divisions like Security or Engineering, or the Inspector General’s Office. This was to give them the requisite authority to carry out their policies.

Since Cho was a part of Jinaal’s group, which existed during the Dominion War (2373-2375), that makes the Starfleet. Presumably the trauma of existing in a different universe wasn’t as severe because there was no time travel involved, unlike Yor or Mirror Georgiouears old, assuming she was commissioned at the same time as her Prime counterpart, in 2245. Which leaves the question of why the tech is the same despite nearly a century apart up in the air, since they apparently added holoemitters. Maybe the show should have used the Enterprise-D sets from PIC Season 3. The Enterprise-D was commissioned between 2362 and 2364 (sources vary), so that’s actually a closer date.

The dedication at the end is to Allan Roy “Red” Marceta, who was a lead set dresser on DIS. He passed away in 2022.

In this post I’ll be proposing a model to understanding how Star Trek warp drive works. In doing so, I’ll be attempting to reconcile the way the TNG Technical Manual describes warp drive with the idea that warp drive somehow takes advantages of shortcuts through real space by warping space around the craft, yet still experiences inertial effects.

I want to point out at the outset that I am not proposing anything analogous to the Alcubierre drive that many fans seem keen on equating with Star Trek warp drive. My objections to conflating the two are laid out here. Ultimately, this model involves the ship actually moving at FTL speeds although spacetime distortion is involved.

I also fully admit I’m not a physicist, so I may - probably - have gotten many things wrong, even with the made-up science I’m going to talk about. I’d appreciate any discussions and suggestions to refine this model, even ones that outright say it’s rubbish and implausible (as long as you be constructive and explain why, so I can learn).

So let’s begin.

How Warp Drive deals with Relativity

To recap: the basic obstacle to superluminal or faster-than-light travel is Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity. Special Relativity says that as the velocity of an object with mass accelerates towards the speed of light (c), the mass of that object increases, requiring more and more energy to accelerate it, until at c, that object has infinite mass, requiring infinite energy to push it past c. In fact, Special Relativity says that nothing with mass can reach c - photons are massless and can only travel at c.

The first publicly available description of how Star Trek warp drive gets around this came from the licensed Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual (1991). At page 65:

>WARP PROPULSION

>The propulsive effect is achieved by a number of factors working in concert. First, the field formation is controllable in a fore-to-aft direction. As the plasma injectors fire sequentially, the warp field layers build according to the pulse frequency in the plasma, and press upon each other as previously discussed. The cumulative field layer forces reduce the apparent mass of the vehicle and impart the required velocities. The critical transition point occurs when the spacecraft appears to an outside observer to be travelling faster than c. As the warp field energy reaches 1000 millicochranes, the ship appears driven across the c boundary in less than Planck time, 1.3 x 10^-43 sec, warp physics insuring that the ship will never be precisely at c. The three forward coils of each nacelle operate with a slight frequency offset to reinforce the field ahead of the Bussard ramscoop and envelop the Saucer Module. This helps create the field asymmetry required to drive the ship forward.

As we read here, Star Trek gets around Special Relativity by using a warp field to distort spacetime around the ship and lower its inertial mass so that the shaping of the warp fields and layers around the ship can push and accelerate the ship itself towards c with reasonable energy requirements. We see warp fields lower mass in TNG: “Deja Q” and DS9: “Emissary”.

Note that while ships are equipped with impulse drives, impulse operations are purely sublight in nature. In fact, the Tech Manual says that impulse doesn’t even enter into it at all when a ship goes to warp. It is the increasing strength of the warp field, shaped by the asymmetrical firing of the warp nacelles that produce it, that ultimately propels the ship without the need for impulse or reaction engines being involved. However, the ship still experiences inertial forces through this propulsion, necessitating inertial dampening fields (VOY: “Tattoo”, ST 2009).

As field strength (measured in units of millicochranes) increases, the lower the inertial mass gets and it becomes easier to accelerate towards warp (TMP). When the field hits a strength of 1000 millicochranes, the ship hits c, or Warp 1. Or rather, it straddles the boundary between 0.999c and 1.001c, spending no more than 1.3 * 10^-43 seconds at either velocity, so that it can apparently maintain velocity at c without the infinite energy requirements otherwise needed.

This is in contrast to sublight impulse engines which work in tandem with a warp field to take advantage of its mass-lowering effect. In the 23rd Century, it is implied the nacelles assist with impulse operations (SNW: “Memento Mori”), and in the 24th Century, impulse engines have driver coils built in which create a sub-1000 millicochrane warp field (TNG Tech Manual). In the 22nd Century, the NX-01’s impulse engines also had driver coils installed, but for the opposite reason - to increase the apparent mass of the ejected propellant as it exited the engines so it could provide greater thrust (USS Enterprise Haynes Manual).

What about subspace?

Now, to be fair, the idea of using a warp field to distort spacetime around the ship to propel the ship does sound an awfully lot like Alcubierre. But where warp drive differs is that unlike Alcubierre, the ship still feels inertial effects and is able to interact with objects outside of the warp field. In other words, the ship is still firmly moving through real space, not completely insulated and stationary within the warp bubble while space moves around it. Alcubierre’s bubble also doesn’t have a mass-lowering effect.

We know from the show that subspace is its own realm, with its own layers and domains (TNG: “Remember Me”) where even life can exist (TNG: “Schisms”). That has led to a suggestion that when a ship enters warp, it enters subspace which serves like a sort of hyperspace shortcut or wormhole. However, this has its difficulties in that it doesn’t explain why a ship in warp can still interact with objects outside of subspace as if it were in real space.

It is clear, though, that subspace has its own physical laws and its own special frame of reference, one of which is that you can exceed the speed of light in it: for example, the use of subspace radio which transmits at, in TNG times, Warp 9.997 (approximately 79,000c). In Star Trek, they generate subspace fields like we generate electromagnetic fields - in fact, the warp field is a subspace field.

But how does this relate to warp drive? Allow me a little sidestep into another franchise to draw a rough analogy.

Domain amplification and subspace

In the manga/anime series Jujutsu Kaisen, one of the magical techniques that the most powerful sorcerers use to battle each other is called “domain expansion”. This creates a closed area centered on the sorcerer enclosing their target, an area in which the sorcerer sets the rules, akin to a zone in which they receive a power buff. Inside it, if the domain is not countered, the sorcerer’s strikes will always hit the target. The sorcerer’s abilities are enhanced and various other things can happen depending on the rules that the sorcerer has preset into the domain.

Another use of domains is called “domain amplification”. This is not a full domain expansion, but surrounds the attacking sorcerer with a skin or bubble that has domain effects. It doesn’t use as much power as a full expansion, but is used to nullify any defensive techniques the target sorcerer might have, by imposing the attacking domain’s own rules against the technique. This still allows the attacking sorcerer to interact with things outside this domain bubble while taking advantage of some of its effects.

(All this will make sense, I promise)

Let’s imagine that real space is a domain that follows the rules that we associate with an Einstein/Newtonian universe, where relativity holds sway. Then we have another domain - subspace - where relativity can be ignored or at least circumvented.

So what if generating a warp field is like domain amplification, creating a bubble of a subspace domain that encloses the ship? This subspace or warp bubble is then shaped by the nacelles, which distorts space locally, allowing the bubble and the ship to be propelled along at FTL speed. This is because while inside the bubble, the rules of subspace apply, not the relativistic rules of real space. It therefore becomes possible to exceed c in that special frame of reference. And yet, the bubble is still strongly connected to real space, so the ship can interact with objects outside the bubble. This explains the existence of Newtonian forces like inertia, acceleration and momentum still acting on the ship, and the continuing need for inertial dampers at warp.

This tight coupling to real space is also why we can see “stars” streaking by while in warp (more likely dust particles in real space being accelerated as they are caught in the ship’s warp bubble). The visual change in post-DIS Trek where the outside of the ship looks more like a Stargate-ish tunnel can be explained away as what the interior of the warp bubble looks like stretched out, as the ship speeds along within it like a canoe on a river, being propelled by layers of warp energy within the bubble and also carried along by the current within the bubble itself as it cruises along.

Subspace and spacetime shortcuts

The existence of subspace as a separate dimensional realm also provides us with a possible solution for the disparity between what the TNG Tech Manual gives us as absolute c values for various warp factors and the speed of plot that we see on screen. Often, the time taken between star systems and sectors is much shorter than what we would expect given the warp factors quoted, if the ship did indeed travel at the c values given by the Tech Manual.

My suggestion is that subspace is not a one-to-one correspondence with real space, but exists in a “higher” dimensional plane where distances in subspace are much shorter compared to their real space counterparts. For example, what would take 200 light years to traverse in real space would be, say only be equivalent to 20 light years travel distance in subspace.

(I’m just tossing out figures here - I don’t obviously mean this as an exact ratio, and for all we know depending on the architecture of subspace the exact correspondence can vary widely, which again helps fit the speed of plot.)

So this further suggests that the TNG Tech Manual c values are meant to reflect speeds in subspace, or rather the ship’s velocity within the warp bubble, which translates to faster velocities and thus further distances travelled in real space. In effect the ship, by surrounding itself with a subspace domain, creates its own shortcut/wormhole through real space.

Conclusion

So, TL;dr: Star Trek warp drive works by surrounding the ship with a warp field, a bubble of subspace which both lowers the inertial mass of the ship and removes it from the relativistic requirements of real space. Propulsion is achieved by shaping the field, but within the subspace bubble the ship still moves and can act on real space as well as experience inertial forces. Additionally, the warped relationship of subspace to real space means that distances travelled in subspace move the ship much further in real space, and that warp factor velocities reflect the speed at which the ship moves in subspace rather than real space.

Thank you for your attention.

Excuse me if this post isn't up to the usual standards of Daystrom Institute, but as I'm looking for an in-universe discussion of this topic, this community felt the most appropriate.

Does anyone else feel like the Temporal Prime Directive is a potential security risk? You're a security officer, and you find an intruder on board. Before you can call it in, they implore you "Stop! Temporal Prime Directive! This is important!"

Now you've paused, thinking any action could cause a temporal paradox, or damage to the future timeline.

Hell, just that pause alone might be enough for them to draw a weapon on you and neutralize you, if they are hostile.

But, assuming they don't attack, suppose the intruder says "I can't tell you what I'm doing or why, but just know it's imperative, and I have to remain hidden. Please go about your business and ignore me."

You're in a catch 22. If you leave them be, it could turn out they are an enemy spy or saboteur. If you report them, it could turn out they are telling the truth, and you cause a big temporal problem.

This question is inspired by VOY S05E24, "Relativity", where Seven of Nine is sent back in time to Voyager (before she had joined the crew), and she gets caught and confronted by Janeway. Ultimately, Janeway doesn't just take Seven at her word, and makes her explain what's going on, but I'm not sure we should be taking cues on the proper application of the Temporal Prime Directive from Captain Kathryn Janeway.

What are your thoughts?

Just a forward that I wasn’t sure if this belonged on Startrel or Daystrom… but the fact that this deals with minor spoilers for the latest episode and an analysis made me lean to here.

Anyways, it was brought to my attention by u/tunkfurmer on Reddit that every scene about the attacks started with some lower deckers complaining about their captains before the attack.

So I went back and reviewed those scenes and… IMO it tracks.

Starting with the most recent episode, the Ferengi Keith admits that he was in communication with the vessel in return for profit. He was earlier complaining about Rom’s policy changes.

Next most recent, the Orion vessel made an unplanned encounter with the vessel. The Orion plagiarist/buttmonkey was the only one focused on his console during the encounter. The Captain demands to know how it got past their systems before the ship is destroyed.

With the vertical Romulan warbird, we learn both the male and female Romulans intended to betray the captain. The captain accuses the male officer, but he claims innocence. The female remains off frame for that exchange, but otherwise doesn’t trigger my suspicions outside of ‘By omission’.

And finally the Bird of Prey. Somewhat similar to the Orion Plagerist, the Spear Wielding Klingon seems more detached from his female counterpart to the vessel’s presence. But otherwise, like the Female Romulan, doesn’t act especially suspicious.

So…All four crews include at least one Lower Decker who was:

• Dissatisfied with the chain of command
• Operating a bridge console at the time of the attack
• Could be interpreted as not being surprised by the ship’s presence (the death beam,though, is another story.

Couple this with Keith’s betrayal and the Orion Captain’s bewilderment at the downed systems… I think we have saboteurs amongst the Lower Decks across the quadrant. Saboteurs that seem not to expect the sudden death beam.

All that said… I’m not sure what the vessel is after. The ships are destroyed, with no discernible corpses amongst the wreckage. It’s unlikely to be salvage considering how thoroughly the ships are vaporized. And none of the ships seem to fit a profile. You’ve got the small and nimble Orion Vessel to the large Warbird. None of the vessels seem to be in the midst of any especially important task.

With that established… I think we can possibly project what the vessel will strike next.

T’Lyn’s arc this season is about coming to terms with her exile from the Vulcan vessel. It seems likely to me that we’ll revisit the ship this season. And… given what we know of the profiles of the purported saboteurs… I suspect T’Lyn, as a misfit amongst Vulcans, is likely to be put in contact with the vessel.

As for the Cerritos herself, this season we’ve been introduced to two new ensigns. A command one who’s aware of the favoritism Ransom gives to Mariner and an engineer who out performs Rutherford, but gets snubbed out of a promotion. If the Cerritos gets put out of commission, I’d have my eyes on those two.

I was originally disinterested in the ongoing attacks… but in this light things have gotten quite fascinating to me.

It appears that this is a promotional feature in Smithsonian Magazine for a a new book Reality Ahead of Schedule: how science fiction inspires science fact.

This seems a good fit for Daystrom Institute, but happy to relocate if it’s a better fit for another community.

In music, repetition legitimizes; in Star Trek, Spock legitimizes.

(Full disclosure, I've watched many Adam Neely videos but haven't actually watched the one above.)

Spock has been deployed again and again when Star Trek has "pushed the envelope". When JJ Abrams wanted to launch a new Star Trek film franchise, he brought in Leonard Nimoy to have Spock pass the torch. When Alex Kurtzman wanted to launch a new serialized streaming Star Trek series, he wrote it about Spock's sister (with Spock's father appearing from the first episode), and brought in Spock himself in the second season.

And when they needed to make the big swing for the fences and literally do a Star Trek episode where everyone is singing as if in a musical, who is the very first character to sing? Yes, of course, it's Spock.

The first Very Short Trek episode, "Skin A Cat", continues this trend. In this, Paramount's first officially non-canon official production (and debatably their silliest slice of Star Trek yet), the only character voiced by their "normal" actor is -- yes, you guessed it -- Mr. Spock.

Whenever the in-universe era permits, Spock is consistently invoked whenever Star Trek breaks new ground.

We can even extend this analysis retroactively all the way back to the beginning: when Star Trek was "rebooted" for the very first time -- after "The Cage" was rejected, and the premise reworked into "Where No Man Has Gone Before" -- only Mr. Spock and the Starship Enterprise herself were carried through into the new version, creating a lineage that indelibly legitimizes "The Cage" as Star Trek, even in spite of massive changes otherwise.

(And indeed, the Starships Enterprise play a similar legitimizing role across the franchise -- if an Enterprise appears, it's Star Trek.)

So, here is the question for us: why does Spock enjoy this particular ability to reify something into being Star Trek? Why is it he -- not Kirk, not McCoy -- that gets called on when the showrunners want to "bulk up" on their Star Trek bona fides? Why is it that, if Spock does it, it's Star Trek?

I really love the Federation starship design lineage, and love seeing how it all connects across the centuries of Trek history. This includes designs that at first may not seem copacetic with the rest, like the Starfleet vessels in Discovery. This is my attempt at a partly-speculative, mostly-canon history of human/Starfleet starship design.

I originally put this together in this infographic to post on /r/StarTrekStarships but have reformatted it for text.

I chose to leave the XCV-330 out because we really don't know where it fits in the timeline. Ostensibly it is a warp capable ship, but Into Darkness has it placed before the Phoenix in a chronological display. There's nothing to go off of.

​ ​ ​

EARTH STARFLEET DESIGN ERA

CIRCA 2063–2160

This is an era of expansion for humanity as they first venture out into deep space. Starship designs of this era are primarily influenced directly by Dr. Zefram Cochrane's Phoenix and traditional spacecraft design.

Distinguishing characteristics of this design era include exposed metallic hull plating, primitive iterations of familiar design elements, exposed deflector dishes, round nacelles

EXAMPLES

FRIENDSHIP 1

NX-ALPHA/BETA/GAMMA

SS CONESTOGA

SARAJEVO-TYPE

EMMETTE-TYPE

WARP DELTA / NEPTUNE-CLASS

INTREPID-TYPE

FREEDOM-CLASS

NX-CLASS

​

• Dr. Zefram Cochrane breaks the warp barrier aboard the Phoenix in 2063, launching an era of human expansion into the stars
• Only four years later, the arrival of the Vulcans and the goal of space exploration has begun to unify the globe. By 2067, the United Earth Space Probe Agency already exists, and launches Friendship 1, Earth's first warp-capable deep space probe.
• It is only another two years before the unaffiliated civilian colony ship SS Conestoga launches in 2069. The design appears makeshift, two Cochrane-style warp nacelles retrofitted to a hull derived from the earlier sublight DY-type transports. It is likely this is also around the time when the colony seen in The Masterpiece Society departed, as their descendants were unaware of transporters.
• While the first Lunar colonies were being founded around the turn of the century, the Emmette\-type enters service as the earliest known large-scale, warp-capable starship. Likely used primarily for intra-system travel, especially between Earth and Mars. The Emmette\-type still uses chemical-based rocket propulsion at sublight speeds (as seen in the ENT intro).
• The "warp delta" appears to have been developed from the earlier Emmette\-type test-bed as part of continued developments in warp drive and impulse engine research.
• The Warp Five Complex is dedicated by Zefram Cochrane in 2119. Dr. Henry Archer and his team begin work on the next generation of Earth's warp drive. The NX-Alpha and its later iterations are used as the primary research and development test-beds for warp drive development.
• The Sarajevo\-type transport's earliest known appearance is 2154, but it may have existed earlier. Its unique design and integrated nacelles suggest it may be an unaffiliated civilian transport rather than a Starfleet vessel. It may represent the pinnacle of early warp 1-2 drives being made available for civilian use.
• The Intrepid\-type represents Starfleet's earliest known iteration toward the now-familiar primary hull, perhaps as the necessity of keeping distance between the warp engines and the bulk of the crew for safety became more apparent. The Intrepid's Cochrane/Archer-type nacelles are significantly larger than its contemporaries, suggesting it was used to test newer, more powerful engines.
• The Freedom\-class is noted as Earth's first warp 4-capable starship. It is a very small ship, possibly one that had been under MACO command prior to being folded into Starfleet. It should be noted that the design seen here is probably not the ship's original appearance, as it may have been refit during the Earth-Romulan War.
• The Earth Starfleet Design Era culminates in the NX\-class starship, the ultimate peak of pre-Federation human starship design, and the first human starship to achieve warp factor 5, thereby finally giving humans access to deep space at reasonable rates of travel.

​

EARLY STARFLEET DESIGN ERA

CIRCA 2161–2270

As of the founding of the United Federation of Planets in 2161, Earth Starfleet has been folded into the newly-founded Federation Starfleet. Starships capable of velocities up to warp 7 are becoming common, and the venerable NX\-class is being decommissioned.

Distinguishing characteristics of this design era include metallic hulls in varying finishes and levels of armor, continued use of Cochrane/Archer-style nacelles in the main production line of starships, exposed but protected and heavier-duty deflector dishes, and experimentation with new materials, layouts, and engine designs. This century sees an explosion in Starfleet R&D as new technologies and techniques from Federation member worlds like VULCAN, ANDORIA, and TELLAR PRIME are tested, developed, and integrated into existing Starfleet technology.

EXAMPLES

NX REFIT

DAEDALUS-CLASS

CONSTITUTION-CLASS

KELCIE MAE-TYPE

ARCHER-TYPE

FARRAGUT-TYPE

WALKER-CLASS

MALACHOWSKI-CLASS

CARDENAS-CLASS

HIAWATHA-TYPE

NIMITZ-CLASS

SHEPARD-CLASS

CROSSFIELD-CLASS

​

• The NX-01 Enterprise is decommissioned in 2161. At some point, it is refit with more powerful warp engines necessitating a secondary hull slung beneath the primary hull, connected by a neck. This would become a mainstay characteristic of Federation starships for at least a century.
  • NOTE: There is a discrepancy in the timing of the NX-01 refit. The finale of STAR TREK ENTERPRISE states that the NX-01 was decommissioned in 2161, in which the final episode takes place, yet the ship still has its original body. It is possible that the ship was recommissioned after the founding of the Federation, refit, and rechristened the USS Enterprise (as it is named in the 25th century Fleet Museum). It is also possible Commander Riker's holodeck program is inaccurate.
• This design era marks the beginning of several distinct efforts by Starfleet to branch out and experiment with new ship and engine technology after a century of iterating on the designs of Dr. Zefram Cochrane and Dr. Henry Archer.
• Among the first of these experiments is the Daedalus\-class starship. While still making use of standard Cochrane/Archer-type warp engines, it marks a radical departure from previous starship layouts. The NX Refit's secondary hull is expanded to a large cylinder, and the primary hull is made spherical. The Daedalus\-class was among the first starship classes fielded by the newly-formed United Federation of Planets — the USS Essex, under the command of Captain Bryce Shumar, is lost with all hands in 2167, only six years after the founding of the Federation. The Daedalus-class is retired by 2196
• By the 2220s, Starfleet has launched the Walker\-class starship as a test-bed for new engine development. In a nod to its experimental nature, the ship's design evolves directly out of the lineage of the NX-01. The Walker\-class includes a prototype nacelle design not featured on any other starship class.
• Starfleet's main production line of starships continues iterating from the noble lineage of the NX-01, with the NX Refit evolving directly into the Constitution\-class starship, launched in the 2240s. In 2245, the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 is launched.
• ​At the same time Starfleet is developing the Constitution\-class and its derivatives in the 2230s, other starships are developed as testing platforms for new ideas in space-frames, hull materials, layouts, and engine design, possibly utilizing new technologies and techniques adapted from Starfleet member worlds. Ships like the Cardenas\-class, Malachowski\-class, Shepard\-class, and Nimitz\-class lay the groundwork for centuries of future starship design to come.
• The Cochrane/Archer warp nacelle design has reached a development plateau, having achieved incredible speed and power as seen with the Constitution\-class and its design contemporaries, the Farragut-type and Archer-type starships.
• The Kelcie Mae\-type starship demonstrates a wild departure from typical Starfleet design, mixing a standard Cochrane/Archer nacelle with a body plan possibly influenced by similar Vulcan or Andorian starship designs.
• The Early Starfleet Design Era is closed by the Crossfield\-class starship, considered new and impressive in 2256. Outfitted with advanced technology, the Crossfield\-class was specifically designed as a scientific test-bed for new propulsion technologies. The project's failure and loss with all hands of the only two known ships of the class led to its design being abandoned.

​

MODERN STARFLEET DESIGN ERA

CIRCA 2270–PRESENT

Following the completion of Captain James T. Kirk's five-year mission aboard the USS Enterprise, Starfleet begins a major fleet overhaul program to integrate new technologies and techniques into their starship designs.

Distinguishing characteristics of this design era include advanced hull materials, integrated and illuminated deflector dishes, standardized photon torpedo launchers, and transitional phases between old and new technology as devices like phasers and warp drives are perfected.

EXAMPLES

CONSTITUTION II-CLASS

MIRANDA-CLASS

OBERTH-CLASS

EXCELSIOR-CLASS

AMBASSADOR-CLASS

CONSTELLATION-CLASS

CALIFORNIA-CLASS

GALAXY-CLASS

DEFIANT-CLASS

PROMETHEUS-CLASS

INTREPID-CLASS

SOVEREIGN-CLASS

AKIRA-CLASS

STEAMRUNNER-CLASS

SABER-CLASS

LUNA-CLASS

PROTOSTAR-CLASS

ODYSSEY-CLASS

EXCELSIOR II-CLASS

SAGAN-CLASS

CONSTITUTION III-CLASS

INQUIRY-CLASS

​

• The Modern Starfleet Design Era is inaugurated in the 2270s by the launch of the refit USS Enterprise NCC-1701, retroactively classified as a Constitution II-class starship. The refit Enterprise leaves behind the reliable Cochrane/Archer-style warp nacelles that had been standard for two centuries. Its newer, slimmer, squared-off engine design suggests a design evolution derived from the experimental nacelles tested on Early Design Era starships.
• Like the original Constitution\-class Enterprise, the refit's new design elements are carried over to its contemporaries, like the Miranda\-class, whose design also evokes the Nimitz\-class seen earlier.
• Starfleet once again experiments with radical starship body plans, using a unique split design in the Oberth\-class science vessel, perhaps for crew safety.
• By 2285, the USS Excelsior NX-2000 is launched as a test-bed for yet another refinement in starship propulsion. The ultimate success of this project leads to the recalibration of Starfleet's warp scale toward much faster velocities. The long, exposed warp coil grills of the Constitution II-class and Excelsior\-class starships become the new standard in nacelle design.
• The Constellation\-class starship is introduced by 2285, relatively unique with its four nacelle layout hearkening back to the Cardenas\-class, and becomes a mainstay of Starfleet. New vessels of the class continue to be launched for at least the next 40 years, such as the USS Stargazer.
• The next 80 years are spent by Starfleet, rather than on further experimentation, on refining and perfecting their existing technologies. The Ambassador\-class starship, with its clear lineage from the earlier Excelsior, launches by 2340 as the result of this effort. It features the now-standard glowing warp nacelles ubiquitous in 24th century starship design, while once-typical ball-type phaser banks have now been replaced by more flexible and capable phaser arrays.
• Having mastered the art of designing and constructing modular starships, Starfleet begins building fleets of specialized vessels, such as the California\-class, for specific purposes — such as engineering, emergency management, and medical — to be deployed across the Federation.
• By the early 2360s, the Ambassador\-class design has evolved into the enormous Galaxy\-class starship, as best exemplified by one of the most iconic Starfleet vessels of all time, the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D. At 42 decks tall, the Galaxy\-class is the most advanced machine ever built my humankind up to that point.
• With the emergence of the Borg threat in 2365, followed by the loss of 39 starships to a single Borg cube in 2367, Starfleet R&D once again turns to radical approaches to counter their new nemesis. This results in the USS Defiant, a new class of starship dedicated entirely to combat, with an overpowered engine, robust weapons array, and minimal facilities for either science or medicine. The Defiant is formally launched in 2370, and deployed to Deep Space Nine to protect the Bajoran wormhole against the Dominion.
• By 2370, Starfleet launches the Intrepid\-class starship, a science vessel designed for deep space exploration and outfitted with some of Starfleet's most advanced technologies, including prototype variable-geometry nacelle pylons, intended to counteract the potentially destructive nature of warpfields on subspace as discovered earlier in the year.
• Only shortly thereafter, the Sovereign\-class starship is introduced in the early 2370s as a replacement for the aging Galaxy\-class, and one capable of defending itself better. The Sovereign\-class immediately superseded the Intrepid\-class as the most advanced in the fleet, with a new nacelle design that rendered the variable-geometry pylons unnecessary.
• The success of the Defiant in early engagements against the Dominion leads to Starfleet pursuing its combat-forward nature, while settling on larger space-frames to counter the Defiant's propensity for tearing itself apart. These combat-oriented development projects result in compact, battle-ready designs like the Akira\-class, Steamrunner\-class, and Saber\-class, each capable of being quickly crewed and deployed, all of which helped to defend Earth against the incursion of the Borg in the Battle of Sector 001 in 2373.
• In addition to the Defiant and related projects, Starfleet also develops the prototype Prometheus\-class starship, utilizing an advanced multi-vector attack mode in which the starship split into three smaller vessels. The Prometheus is launched in late 2373, following the Battle of Sector 001.
• By the end of the Dominion War in 2375, Starfleet has taken incredible losses. Century-old designs like the Miranda and Excelsior\-class starships are being refit to participate in the fighting, as with the USS Lakota, with their old 2270s and 2280s-era nacelles being upgraded to generate more power — thus gaining glowing warp coil grills, unlike their earlier predecessors.
• Between 2375–2400, Starfleet focuses on rebuilding its ruined fleets. With limited resources available in the wake of the quadrant-wide Dominion War, tried-and-true designs and methodologies are designated for refurbishment and reuse.
• In 2379, Starfleet launched the Luna-class starship as part of a consolidated effort to return to their principal objective of exploration and discovery. The Luna\-class starship built on technologies developed for vessels like the Akira and Sovereign\-class starships during the Dominion War, now putting them to use for peaceful purposes instead.
• Following the return of the USS Voyager to Earth in 2378, Starfleet began research and development once again on advanced propulsion technologies. This resulted in the prototype USS Protostar as a test-bed for the protostar drive. The class was ordered into full production in 2384.
• The Odyssey-class starship is launched in 2385, a decade after the end of the Dominion War. One of the largest ships ever constructed by Starfleet, the Odyssey\-class builds on the many successes of the venerable Galaxy and Sovereign\-class heavy cruisers.
• In addition to the lack of available resources following the Dominion War, the end of the conflict sees a desire by Starfleet and its personnel to return to Starfleet's glory days of exploration. To accommodate scarce equipment, older ships are cannibalized and refurbished into "old-new" designs based heavily on successful designs of the past, refreshed for service in the 24th and 25th centuries. Notable among these are the Excelsior II-class starship, the Constitution III-class, and the Sagan-class.
• By 2399, Starfleet has introduced the Inquiry\-class starship, described as "the fastest and most tactically-capable ships in the Federation fleet."

When Kirk comes aboard the Enterprise at the beginning of the episode, La'an is in the transporter room to receive him. Her actual motives for being there are... complicated, but she claims to be there so she "can run a security clearance on [Kirk]." Allegedly this is "just standard operating procedure", which Commander Chin-Riley does not question.

To the best of my knowledge, we've never seen a security officer carry out this "standard operating procedure" before, nor do we actually see it done here. further, Kirk is a reasonably respected Starfleet officer who has been on the Enterprise before (and quite recently). It seems unlikely that he represents a reasonable security risk. Are we meant to interpret this as La'an digging through the regulations for an outdated excuse to be present for Kirk's arrival, or is this a legitimate precaution that we should expect is routinely taken quietly and off-screen? If the later, what could actually be going on that requires the physical presence of the security clearance and can't be accomplished by a simple scan?

I've written about aspects of this before over the years, but this is the first time I'm trying to put down a synthesis of those ideas. The upshot of my thesis is this: the irony at the heart of the Prophets' existence is that the ability to see all of time as simultaneous both grants them an omniscient perspective but at the same time traps them in an existence they have a frustratingly limited amount of control over.

Let's start by looking at time from two different perspectives.

From our linear perspective, time has a beginning, and an end. Events move according to cause and effect (let's put time travel and changing history aside for now). As we progress along the line, our past fades from view, becoming inaccessible and immutable. Our future, on the other hand, is unknowable and does not come into existence until we reach it. The only point of time on which we can exert any influence at all is the present, and that is only because it has the consequence of affecting the future.

From the Prophets' non-linear perspective, however, it's a very different story. For them, time is not a line but a point - a single moment where everything in the universe, including them, simultaneously comes into being and non-being. There is no past for them, no future, only an eternal present on which they can see everything and act on everything and nothing at the same time - because despite being able to act on the present, they cannot actually change anything because cause and effect are indistinguishable from each other, and also because they know what history is supposed to look like.

It may help to think of the entirety of history from the Prophets' perspective as a stained-glass window that comes into existence (from their point of view) all at the same time and which they can see and experience all at once, every moment, while from our linear point of view, each piece is assembled in sequence. We see only pieces of the window as it forms, while the Prophets can see its final form because for them it all happens in one moment.

This is what ultimately traps them, because they find themselves committed to the pattern that they know and see. One question that we often hear being asked is why the Prophets are so concerned with the Bajoran people? The answer, from this perspective, is simple: they are concerned because linear history says they did, and if they didn't, that would create a paradox that would disrupt their non-linear existence. So the actions they perform are according to the pattern they need to conform to in order to maintain that existence, namely the shape of the window/tapestry they perceive.

That form of the window (which we see as a goal being assembled whereas they already see it as complete) is not a goal, per se, inasmuch as it's what they have to make sure it is that way because it's meant to look that way. The ultimate benefit is not so much specifically the defeat of the pagh-wraiths, but simply because that making sure the final form is what it is will maintain the existence of the Prophets' history/timeline.

For the Prophets, everything is always happening right now, and they cannot depart from their predetermined actions any more than we can stop what's happening to us this specific nanosecond because from their perspective, the past - allowing them to anticipate the present moment and the moments to come - does not exist. And because their very existence is dependent on that single eternal present, they are helpless to do anything but follow what is already in the pattern, what has always been in the pattern. Any deviation from the way that pattern is supposed to be laid down causes them harm (that's what chroniton particles do - they create chronal disruptions), which could threaten their very existence.

To put it another way, the Prophets have to keep to the final shape of the window of history because that's the form that to them has already happened and has always happened. But we poor corporeal monkeys, not being able to see and therefore not bound to that pattern have the ability to change the pieces, or place the pieces in a different sequence, which annoys and terrifies the hell out of them. Annoys because we're not following the sequence which will lead to that finished form, terrifies because the picture in the end may not be consistent with what they know should be, or worse, the whole window could shatter.

So to try and get us to reach that final shape, they give us plans, hints, clues (the orbs, the visions, the emissaries) as to how these funny linear creatures should be building the window/timeline. "Put that piece there - no, there! - and that piece is next... no, not that piece, damn it, and no, you shouldn't even be using that piece!" And they can't tell us directly what to do because that action isn't in the pattern, and thus unavailable to them.

So when Sisko did his suicide run into the wormhole, he was deviating from the assembly instructions, sending the Prophets into an apoplectic fit and explaining their angry confrontation with him. So in the end, faced with losing a vital tool that will enable them to construct that final form versus having to change the shape or picture of it, they are forced to chose to go with Sisko's request, but warn him that the new picture that will be shaped is not going to be something he likes, and that's his punishment for not doing what he's told.

Now, this doesn't mean the Prophets don't have free will. It's that their "free will" is constrained by certain hard, almost insurmountable limits. Firstly, the completely free exercise of will in the same way as linear beings do requires the space and time to exercise it, and as far as the Prophets are concerned, there's no progression of time in which they can exercise the same kind of free will that we do.

It's similar to the concepts in the movie Arrival and "Story of Your Life", the short story it's based on. If understanding the alien language of Heptapod B expands your consciousness so you can perceive the future, does ensuring that it unfolds as you foresee it mean that your free will is abrogated? Or does knowing the future create an obligation that you should act precisely as you foresee it?

(There's also similarities to the differences between Elves and Men in Tolkien's Legendarium, where Elves are doomed to fate while Men are allowed to change their destinies... but that's practically another essay by itself)

From this perspective, the Prophets do have free will - they could very well choose not to act according to the pattern even though the pattern says they will act this way because they've always acted this way. But this is dangerous, as seeing the whole of their existence in this way creates an obligation to act just as the pattern says or else their reality runs the risk of collapsing, or changing into a form which makes them cease to exist.

So to sum up: the Prophets may seem omnipotent, and they have incredible powers, but they are still trapped by their very existence and perception of time.

I like thinking of it this way because it's both mind-blowing and ironic at the same time. Mind-blowing because it forces us to consider the perspective of a species who see everything in time in one single instant and raising the accompanying questions of free will and/or determinism. Ironic because for all the power the Prophets seem to have, they can only exercise it in this fashion.

In that sense, the so-called lesser, linear races have more agency than the gods because of the former's limited perspective, and that's just too delicious for words.

>KIRK: You're bothered by your performance on the Kobayashi Maru. > >SAAVIK: I failed to resolve the situation. > >KIRK: There is no correct resolution. It's a test of character.

The Kobayashi Maru Test is one of the central themes of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. In the movie, it represents the inevitability of defeat, and teaches the lesson that how we face it - with dignity, with acceptance, with strength - is at least as important, if not more so, than how we deal with victory (to paraphrase Kirk early in the movie). As Picard would say in "Peak Performance": "It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life."

And yet, the Test is often misunderstood, especially in terms of what it's actually for, in an in-universe setting. In one interpretation, it plays the same role in a cadet's development as it does thematically in the movie: to show the cadet that there will come a time where a no-win scenario will present itself, and teach the cadet how to deal with it. But then it's not really a test, in that sense, but a lesson.

In another interpretation, the Test is to see how the cadet faces defeat, that is to say, their response to defeat. While I agree that this is certainly an important part of the test, it focuses solely on the aftermath of it and therefore makes the cadet's responses during the test itself irrelevant.

One other interpretation, as seen in the 2009 Star Trek movie, is that the Test is supposed to make a cadet face fear. I've argued before that it seems illogical that Spock would design such a test for the simple reason that fear is an emotion, and at this stage in his life Spock does not (consciously at least) find any value in emotional responses. But this again is not a test, but an experience, an extended hazing exercise with no discernable purpose on the face of it.

The Test may allow for all of these things, but that's not the actual purpose of it. The point is not whether you win or lose, or face defeat or face fear. The fact that it's a command-level exercise tells us that it's supposed to tell the instructors something about the cadet's command performance. It's not just whether a person is fit for command; there's a whole different battery of tests and exams along the way in Command School to find that out. It's about what kind of command they're fit for. While undoubtedly the Test brings in all that the cadet has learned during the course of their Academy training in a simulation, ultimately, it's the cadet's response to the Test during the course of the simulation - not after it, not because of it - that does that.

Do they go in guns blazing? Do they sacrifice their crew against overwhelming odds? Do they try diplomacy? Do they abandon the Kobayashi Maru to its fate? Do they keep trying to win, never giving up, beating their head against a brick wall to the point of insanity? Do they refuse to accept a no-win situation? Do they cheat?

I suspect most cadets would react like most people do - like Saavik did - resent the hell out of the Test and throw themselves into the gauntlet again and again trying to figure out how to beat it, not realizing that said more about them than the Test itself. And so did Kirk, for a time, until he realized that the game was rigged, that the instructors, under normal circumstances, would never allow a victory.

It's likely that the simulation adapts to whatever the cadet does and makes it more difficult on the fly. Try to eject the warp core? The ejectors are frozen due to battle damage. Challenge the Klingon captain to single combat? He refuses because you are undeserving of honor. Defeat the first wave somehow? They just keep coming. Try to run? They catch up. You get the idea. So the only real way to "win" is to reprogram the simulation so it can't adapt to whatever you throw at it.

In that sense, Kirk also missed the point of the no-win scenario, because he wanted to win. At the same time, he was philosophically opposed to the concept of a no-win scenario. So he cheated - changed the conditions just enough so it was possible to rescue the ship and win.

(As a side note, Kirk was a bit hard on himself when he said he'd never faced a no-win scenario: I'd argue that he faced it in "The City on the Edge of Forever" when he had to decide between Edith Keeler and the universe, and he passed that test admirably at great personal cost.)

But Kirk did not frustrate the intentions of the Test, nor did he provide a "wrong" response, because there really is no “correct” resolution. That was why Kirk was never sanctioned for it and in fact got the commendation for pulling off the feat in the first place. Kirk didn't seem to realize that the commendation wasn't a reward for beating the Test - it was for thinking laterally in general by going outside the simulation. The Test had already gotten what it wanted out of Kirk.

In Kirk's response, the instructors recognized a few things: a person who knew when to follow rules, to critically assess them so he knew when to question them and more importantly, when to break or circumvent them, throwing the book away and creating a new one. In his refusal to accept a no-win scenario, they also saw someone that would do whatever was necessary to push ahead in the face of overwhelming odds to search for a solution where seemingly there was none.

And in the wild final frontier of what was then 23rd Century space, which tested and claimed the lives and souls of so many of his peers - Decker, Tracy, et al., he was absolutely the kind of captain that was needed.

This hypothesis is predicated on the fact that the explicit intent behind Zefram Cochrane, whether or not this has been successfully communicated on screen, is that he is the inventor of warp drive as we commonly know it in Star Trek, and that prior to his invention, the existing warp-capable galactic powers were utilizing some other means of generating warp fields.

Citing Ron D. Moore after First Contact was released,

>"Certainly Cochrane is credited with the invention of warp drive as we know it in Trek, so we could assume that the Vulcans were using something else – possibly a variant of the contained singularity used by the Romulans. That might have been a much more dangerous and inefficient technology which was quickly abandoned by most of the galaxy when Cochrane's system was introduced."

Now, let's look at some Vulcan ships...

The pre-Cochrane D'Vahl-type starship: This is the type of starship that rescued the survivors of the Vulcan survey ship in Carbon Creek. It is also the type of ship that patrolled above the Forge on Vulcan (as seen in the image). These are warp capable but possess what look like only rudimentary nacelles. The glowing bits look more like impulse engines to me.

The pre-Cochrane Vulcan survey ship: Similar in design to the D'Vahl, with no obvious warp nacelles despite being warp capable.

The pre-Cochrane T'plana-Hath: this ship again possesses no obvious nacelles of any kind, and has what appear to be some kind of engine bells or drive units that angle downward for landing.

The post-Cochrane Vahklas-type starship: this is the only Vulcan starship I can think of that possesses what could be argued to be more typical warp nacelles instead of an annular drive. Obviously the ring shape is hinted at, but it looks like it's only an aesthetic choice here.

When the NX-01 Enterprise encounters a Vahklas-type ship in 2151, T'Pol states that they had not been in use for "a long time."

My hypothesis is that the Vahklas-type represents the first (or one of the earliest) Vulcan attempts at adapting the Cochrane-style warp drive to their own vessels, perhaps utilizing the partial ring shape to increase efficiency over Cochrane's nacelle design, which they consider inefficient.

I think it was this continued lack of preferred efficiency that led the Vulcans to continue working on adapting Cochrane's design for their own purposes, eventually leading to the development of the annular warp drive, possibly sometime between the 2070s and 2100. Definitely prior to the dedication of the Warp Five Complex in 2119.

Presumably, the Vulcans came to the humans with their design if only to show them how their warp drive had ultimately proven inefficient and could be, at least by Vulcan standards, drastically improved upon. This led to the development, perhaps not by United Earth Starfleet or UESPA, of the USS Enterprise XCV-330, the only known human attempt at annular warp drive design.

Ultimately, the annular warp drive proves highly efficient but also highly resistant to course corrections and maneuverability. While this trade off is acceptable to the Vulcans, who do not place an emphasis on exploration, it is antithetical to the very purpose of Starfleet. The design is thus quickly abandoned as a technological dead-end, in favor of the homegrown, For Humans, By Humans nacelle design originated by Dr. Cochrane.

Vulcans, meanwhile, continue to favor the annular warp drive for their own ships, and the High Command quickly adopts it.

This leads to the development of the Suurok-class starship by at least 2136 (when Captain Vanik says he took command of the Ti'Mur in ENT S1E8 Cold Front).

The success of the Suurok-class leads to the further development of the D'kyr-type starship.

Throughout the 2100s, Vulcan starships of all types are designed with the annular warp drive, including ships as small as shuttles and transports.

Over the next century, there would be refinements and adjustments of the annular warp drive design, leading to some slightly different but still ultimately hoop-shaped implementations, as in the 23rd century T'plana-type starship and the early 24th century Apollo-class starship as exemplified by the starship T'Pau in TNG Unification I/II.

But ultimately, the ring-shaped annular drive as developed in the 22nd century remains the favorite, lasting well into the 24th century largely unchanged, although with the addition of what appear to be some slightly more traditional nacelle-like elements, as seen on the Sh'vhal-type starship on Lower Decks.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

Hope it’s ok to bring a link to a deeper dive article here. It seems a Daystrom Institute kind of analysis, and the background on Gene Coon’s shared script credit is worth documenting. (It’s new to me.)

TL;DR: Coon unintentionally mirrored plot lines from a June 1944 Astounding Science Fiction piece by Frederic Brown when he wrote an episode to fill a gap. The similarity was caught during a legal review so that the story’s author received co-credit.

Here’s the database synopsis of Brown’s novelette:

> An advanced alien entity intervenes to stop a catastrophic war between humans and Outsiders. The entity chooses a champion from each side to decide the fate of the two races by fighting to the death in an arena designed to test their intelligence and courage.

Credit to Ryan Britt for this deep dive for Inverse. I’m not sure that I would go with his assessment that TOS is the only one that gave us the reflective version given that we’ve only seen the first part of Hegemony. The SNW season finale seems to be set up as a test of Pike that yet to come to a head. Spock and Chapel’s defeat of the environment-suited Gorn on the Cayuga’s saucer seems likely to be a set-up, to be expanded upon and mirrored in the second part yet to be seen.

Could it be possible that Pike might yet have his own toe-to-toe face off with the Gorn? Actually, or metaphorically as he takes on the Gorn’s leadership?

And like both Kirk and the protagonist of the original story, might Pike keep his learned, deeper understanding of the other species somewhat secret?

That would resolve the Gorn arc in SNW while preserving Kirk’s understanding of the Gorn as monsters for Arena. It would also be consistent with the theme of the personal cost ‘keeping secrets’ that has been running through the show.

In musical terms, a rhapsody is a single movement musical piece, characterized by a free-flowing structure where moods and tones can vary considerably, flowing in and out of each one. It is derived from the Greek rhapsōidia, in turn derived from rhaptein (to stitch) and ōidē (song/ode): literally, a stitched together song - with ode also meaning a poem/song of praise. A rhapsody can also mean an ecstatic, enthusiastic expression of emotion. The songs in this episode were written by Kay Hanley and Tom Polce of Letters to Cleo.

The Stardate is 2398.3. This is the first time a “subspace fold” has been mentioned on screen, but it is a ship’s ability in Star Trek Online which allows a starship to be propelled 6.66 ly forward. In essence, rather like a geodesic fold (VOY: “Inside Man”), it’s a shortcut through space - or in this case, subspace.

Usually routine ship’s comms are handled by the computer, so as all resources are being devoted to Spock’s theory, Uhura has to route them manually like an old-timey phone operator.

As previously established, Jim Kirk is serving on the USS Farragut (TOS: “Obsession”), where he has just become XO. Chapel’s message is from her future fiancé Dr. Roger Korby (TOS: “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”), regarding her fellowship in archeological medicine at the Vulcan Science Academy.

Crivo is a Portuguese word meaning “sieve”, for what it’s worth. Batel mentions the Crivian Planetary Museum, Glass Islands and Smoke Lakes.

Una notices La’An’s anxiousness at Jim’s arrival. La’An had a brief encounter with the Kirk of an alternate timeline in SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”, something which the Prime Kirk is unaware of.

M’Benga calls Korby the Louis Pasteur of Archeological Medicine, a term Spock repeats in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”.

It was noted in SNW: “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach” that the speed of subspace radio is 52,000c, and requires relays as subspace radio signals degrade over distance. According to the TNG Tech Manual, in the 24th Century subspace radio has a speed of Warp 9.9997, or approximately 79,000c, but still has an upper range of 22.65 ly, necessitating relays at 20 ly intervals (or a sector’s length, given the size expressed in Geoffery Mandel’s Star Charts).

Uhura first selects Cole Porter’s 1934 song “Anything Goes”, which geeks will probably best know as the opening number to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (albeit in very badly pronounced Mandarin). The version she plays sounds to me like Eileen Rogers’ from the 1962 Anything Goes cast album.

LT Jenna Mitchell is at the Ops/Navigation position on the bridge. The bosun’s whistle signals Pike’s arrival on the bridge. Mitchell reports no other ships in the sector despite a ship apparently having just dropped off Jim.

The effect is not just limited to singing, but is making the crew do choreography as well. Having an outside force forcing characters to perform musical theatre is of course best known from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: “Once More With Feeling”, but that was from a supernatural cause.

The theme song from the titles is rearranged as a choral piece, like the title sequence was animated for the LD crossover, “Those Old Scientists”.

The bunny conversation is too specific not to be a reference to the song “I’ve Got a Theory” from “Once More With Feeling” , where a whole verse is devoted to how the explanation for the phenomenon could be bunnies. Or maybe midgets. Uhura even says later, “I have a theory.”

The idea that a subspace fissure can lead to different quantum realities was first presented in TNG: “Parallels”, where Worf passed through one that kept shifting him into different parallels. None of them were musical, sadly.

The Heisenberg compensator is a technobabble component invented for TNG by Michael Okuda and Rick Sternbach, in order to explain how the transporter would work with Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, since that states that it is impossible know the momentum and position of a given particle simultaneously, which would severely hamper the transporter’s functions. How the compensator works is purposely left vague, and the usual jokey answer is, “[It works] very well, thank you.”

Una says she’s aware of her reputation, but trying a new approach. In SNW: “Spock Amok” she learned that she and La’An were known as “Where Fun Goes to Die”, but in that episode both learned to cut loose a bit by playing “Enterprise Bingo”. We found out in ST: “Q & A” that Una had a secret passion for the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. This became a matter of public record when Spock revealed it to the Court in SNW: “Ad Astra Per Aspera”.

Christina Chong has just released her first EP, “Twin Flames”. While we’re at it, Celia Rose Gooding became famous making her Broadway debut in Jagged Little Pill, Rebecca Romijn has covered “Darling Nikki” for a Prince tribute album and Carole Kane has played Madame Morrible in Wicked.

La’An’s fear of losing control is tied to her fear about her Augmented heritage and that she could be a potential Khan. The watch she holds is from the past, which she and alt-Kirk used to track down a cold fusion reactor in 21st Century Toronto. She flashes back to the night she and alt-Kirk spent in a hotel, imagining if it turned out differently (“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”).

I think this is the first time that we’ve heard Batel’s first name, which is Marie. The map showing the subspace network shows the fissure in proximity to Cajitar (SNW: “The Broken Circle”) which is appropriately marked with both Federation and Klingon colors. We also see listed the USS Lexington (NCC-1709), Kongo (NCC-1710), Republic (NCC-1371) and Farragut (NCC-1647). The first two are Constitution-class ships - the Lexington was first listed on a chart in TOS: “Court Martial”. The USS Republic was one of Jim Kirk’s first ship assignments (also mentioned in “Court Martial”) as an Ensign.

The Kongo, named after the Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Kongō, originates from a behind the scenes list of Constitution-class (then named “Starship”-class) ships in TOS but first listed in Franz Joseph’s Starfleet Technical Manual before finally making its way on-screen in ST VI. Spock also wore a Kongo pin in SNW: “Memento Mori” for Starfleet Remembrance Day, indicating he once served on her.

Also on the map: the Persephone system (“Children of the Comet”), Eminiar (in FGC-321) (TOS: “A Taste of Armageddon”), Marjalis (SNW: “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach”), Beta Tauri (TOS: “The Galileo Seven”, not named in the episode but identified in Star Charts), Gamma Tauri and Delphi Ardu (TNG: “The Last Outpost”), Harlak (DIS: “The Wolf Inside”) and Forcas (TNG: “Parallels”).

Later we see on a wider-view chart, on the Federation side, Janus (TOS: “The Devil in the Dark”), Wurna Minor (DIS: “Despite Yourself”), Davlos (DS9: “Visionary”), Oryb-J and the J’Gal Moon (SNW: “Under the Cloak of War”), Hetemit (SNW: “Ghosts of Illyria”), Cygnet (TOS: “Tomorrow is Yesterday”), Cait (home of the Caitians from TAS). On the Klingon side, Boreth (TNG: “Birthright”), Tribble Prime (DIS: “An Obol for Charon”), and a few others I can’t make out.

When Una sings “the secrets you keep safe inside / might keep you awake and cut like a knife”, the camera focuses on M’Benga, recalling the events of “Under the Cloak of War”. Her ability to keep secrets is from years of concealing her Illyrian heritage.

Una disengages the artificial gravity in the ready room. We’ve seen in ENT: “In a Mirror, Darkly” that gravity can be varied in selected parts of the ship, as well as on Deep Space Nine in DS9: “Melora”. Shuttlebays in particular were variable gravity areas (signage in TNG).

La’An calls the Klingon ship a K’t’inga-class. This is a slight anachronism, as the K’t’inga-class, first seen in TMP and named in Roddenberry’s novelization, is supposed to be a distinct and more advanced version of the D7-class battlecruiser commonly seen in TOS. We could handwave it away as Temporal War shenanigans or being one of the first advanced models introduced or both. La’An is correct that the K’t’inga has an aft torpedo launcher (as opposed to the D7’s forward-only launcher).

Jim says he’s in the on-phase of an on-again off-again relationship and he names Carol, i.e. Carol Marcus (ST II), the mother of his son David. He says Carol is based on Starbase One and pregnant. This sort of tracks with a comic story by Howard Weinstein (“Star-Crossed”, Star Trek Vol 2, #73-#75, DC Comics), where David is conceived in 2260 when Carol and Kirk are serving together on the USS Eagle. That being said, there’s another relationship we know Jim was having around this time, with Janet Wallace (TOS: “The Deadly Years”), which would end in 2261, so maybe she’s the rebound after Carol.

The one-eyed Klingon General Garkog is played by Bruce Horak (a.k.a. the late Chief Engineer Hemmer).

Immediately after the grand finale we hear the traditional Alexander Courage arrangement of the Star Trek TOS theme. Batel says she’s being put on a priority one mission, which will probably tie into the season finale.

Spock engages in Klingon diplomacy over bloodwine, as he did in “The Broken Circle” (hopefully his hangover isn’t as bad this time). The USS Nimerfro is likely named after Scott Nimerfro, who co-wrote VOY: “Jetrel” and also was an associate producer on X-Men with Rebecca Romijn. Nimerfro passed away from cancer in 2016.

In SNW: “Those Old Scientists”, the following facts are established:

• Horonium is an element that powers the time portal on Krulmuth-B

• Horonium was once used in the hulls of NX-class starships, officially because it was durable, lightweight and was just the right shade of gray

• The portal on Krulmuth-B had Nausicaan writing which said, “This is a time portal”

The name horonium, as I pointed out in my annotations, comes from the Greek hōra - the root word for horology, the art of constructing watches or clocks. This cannot be a mere coincidence. We can reasonably surmise, therefore, that whoever coined the name for it was aware of its uses in relation to temporal technology.

So the following questions raise themselves:

• Why was horonium used in the hulls of NX-class starships and not anywhere else? What made the NX-class special in that regard?

• Did the Nausicaans really build the portal on Krulmuth-B thousands of years ago?

• Why does the Nausicaan writing simply say, “This is a time portal”?

So here’s what I think: the Nausicaans didn’t build the time portal thousands of years ago. That being said, they did discover it at that time and figured out its nature - that’s why there’s a label on it saying “This is a time portal”.

If the Nausicaans had really built it, then why bother labelling it like that and with nothing else? It’s not as if they were leaving instructions, or wanting to share with other species. As we’ve seen, most Nausicaans don’t rise above the level of thuggery and as a species they seem just a step up from Pakleds in the bright bulb department. And for a species like that, a simple label is par for the course, comparable to the Pakleds naming their capital city Big Strong City.

I think that the Nausicaans of thousands of years past used the portal to jump ahead, perhaps to try and raid futuristic technology to advance their civilization. But in doing so, they attracted the attention of the powers fighting the Temporal Wars. Because of that, the discovery of an ore that could power time portals came to light.

Horonium may not just be a fuel source - its use in the hulls of NX-class vessels shows that it was part of the ship’s outer structure as well as being used in components like whatever that gas-cylinder like thing was that Spock pulled out of the floor of the Enterprise. Why use a metal that has temporal properties? Could it be that it was used as some kind of protective armor against temporal attacks, against enemies that could change the timeline?

The NX-01 was using polarized hull plating before shields were commonplace, so it’s not a stretch to say that horonium could be used as temporal shielding like Voyager in VOY: “Year of Hell”. And the horonium shielding was used in the NX-classes - on the hull and on key components - because that was the first era when Earth got caught up in the Temporal Wars.

So why did horonium run out? There are a few possibilities. One is that there wasn’t that much to begin with and all were used up in the NX-classes or other Federation ships that fought in the Temporal Wars. Another is that the Nausicaans just frittered away whatever horonium was left on Krulmuth-B in their temporal raids and just stopped because they ran out. Or it could be that the wars targeted sources of horonium so participants couldn’t use its shielding properties. Or it could be a combination of all these things.

So to tl;dr: why doesn’t horonium exist anymore? Because the Nausicaans used it, the temporal powers noticed it and then it was either all used up in ship construction or destroyed as a strategic resource.

Damn it, Nausicaans!

The title comes from an Albert Einstein 1931 essay, Mein Weltbid or The World as I see It: “Töten im Krieg ist nach meiner Auffassung um nichts besser als gewöhnlicher Mord.” It is often translated as, “It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”

The Stardate is 1875.4. The Enterprise is in the Prospero system rendezvousing with the USS Kelcie Mae. Since the end of the Klingon War, the system has been under Starfleet jurisdiction and the three inhabited planets in the system have just reached a ceasefire after years of infighting. The ceasefire was negotiated by a Federation Ambassador who is a Klingon, Dak’Rah, son of Ra’Ul, a former general who defected.

Rah makes note of the bo’sun (or boatswain) whistle. Pike says it’s become a tradition on the Enterprise to welcome honored guests. The sound of the whistle was used in TOS as an incoming message alert on the ship’s intercom. The first time we see it being used to pipe someone aboard is in TOS: “The Savage Curtain” when it is used to welcome a duplicate of Abraham Lincoln. We also see an electronic whistle welcoming Admiral Kirk aboard in ST II, and it appears variously throughout the shows.

Uhura cites Rah’s achievements: the Summit of Scorpi X, the Klingon Free Trade Agreement, negotiating the Perez Accords. Ortegas counters with the Slaughter at Lembatta V, the siege at Starbase Zetta and (as we find out later), the massacre of Colony Athos. Ortegas relates a story where Rah killed his own men to cover his retreat, and that the Klingons call him the Butcher of J’Gal (where M’Benga experienced the Battle of ChaKana as stated in SNW: “The Broken Circle”).

Rah remarks that, unlike Enterprise, a Klingon Bird of Prey isn’t built to take in its surroundings. Despite fanon for the longest time assuming that the Birds of Prey were imported Romulan designs, we saw Klingon Birds of Prey in DIS (DIS: “Battle at the Binary Stars”).

Raktajino, or Klingon coffee, is well known and widely imbibed by the 24th Century, but in the 23rd Century it is still a novel beverage (DS9: “Trials and Tribble-lations”). Spock remarks that the temperature of raktajino is a “simple matter of coding”, referring to the food synthesizers which are the precursor of 24th Century food replicators.

The cup that materializes with the raktajino is a Feltman-Langer no-spill mug from the 1980s, used often as a prop on Deep Space 9 for beverages. Rah burns his hand on the mug, and is brought to sickbay, where M’Benga suffers an PTSD panic attack on seeing him.

The flashback to the Moon of J’Gal is “a few years ago”, keeping it vague. The Klingon War lasted from 2256 to 2257, which makes it about 4 to 5 years ago if the current SNW takes place around 2261.

FOB is a military acronym for Forward Operating Base, which is a base set up closer to the front lines to support military operations. In this case, it’s a mile from the front. The uniforms that Chapel and the shuttle pilot wear are tactical uniforms with flashlights on the shoulders (seen in SNW: “Lost in Translation”).

CMO CMDR Buck Martinez is played by Clint Howard, who originally appeared as a child actor playing Balok in TOS: “The Corbomite Maneuver”. He’s also been in DS9: “Past Tense, Part II”, ENT: “Acquisition” as a Ferengi and DIS: “Will You Take My Hand” as an Orion.

“Bills and bows,” which Buck shouts as the arrival of wounded being transported in is announced, is an old call to arms originating in England, dating back to the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487). The call is going out for spearmen (bills, or pole arms) and archers (bows).

M’Benga suggests loading Alvarado’s pattern into the transporter buffer to preserve him until the convoy arrives. We see him doing that for his daughter in SNW Season 1. Transport buffers as holding areas are usually only temporary and emergency measures, as the pattern degrades if the subject isn’t materialized periodically. Janeway used it to hide refugees in VOY: “Counterpoint”, and Burnham put Discovery’s crew in buffers to protect them in DIS: “Stormy Weather”. The only known example for extremely long term preservation in a transporter buffer is Montgomery Scott, who jury-rigged a system to use it as a lifeboat for 75 years until he was rescued by the Enterprise-D (TNG: “Relics”).

It is now Stardate 1875.8. M’Benga refers to the Gorn attack at Finibus III (SNW: “Memento Mori”), around Stardate 3177.3. Pike asks about Deltan parsley. Deltans were introduced in TMP in the form of LT Ilia, and we last saw them in PIC: “The Star Gazer”, on the Deltan planet Raritan IV. The herb is delicious but deadly in excessive amounts.

M’Benga’s remark about pretending long enough until it becomes the truth echoes Pelia in SNW: “Those Old Scientists” quoting Cary Grant expressing the same sentiment. Ortegas was stationed near Prospero and agrees they are pretty stubborn.

Spock asks Rah for his opinion comparing Sun Tzu’s Art of War to the Klingon manuscript mL’parmaq Qoj. parmaq is romance or love, and Qoj is to make war, so maybe it’s something like “The Love of War”? Rah says that Klingon children are introduced to it “practically from birth”. Pocket Books once published The Klingon Art of War, by Keith RA DeCandido, but there the ancient text was named the qeS’a, or “indispensable advice”.

New Angeles is on Terra Luna (the Moon), and is known for its shipyards. I thought the fact that M’Benga calls it “Terra Luna” as opposed to just Luna or the Moon might mean he wasn’t an Earth native, but later we see his service record states his planet of origin as Earth. There is a boardgame called New Angeles, where the titular city is the site of a space elevator that connects Earth to Luna and its Helium-3 deposits.

M’Benga had the reputation of having the most hand-to-hand kills confirmed before he became a doctor. The Andorian special ops officer (LT Va’Al Trask) refers to Protocol 12 - a serum that M’Benga designed, and which he injected himself and Chapel with in “The Broken Circle”. It contains adrenaline and pain inhibitors. Later on he calls M’Benga the Ghost.

Ortegas says, “tlhIngan maH. taHjaj,” which Uhura translates as “We are Klingon. May we endure”. It was uttered by T’Kuvma’s followers in DIS and rendered in subtitles as “Remain Klingon”.

Uhura says Rah’s perspective bears a resemblance to Aenar existentialism. The Aenar, an offshoot of the Andorian race, was of course, Hemmer’s species, and likely Uhura learned it from or because of him.

Mok’bara is a Klingon martial art which Worf practiced and taught a class in on the Enterprise-D (TNG: “Clues”). M’Benga and La’An have been practicing full-contact Mok’bara in their sparring sessions (SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”). M’Benga calls it “Klingon Judo”, although some of the exercises Worf performed were more akin to Chinese tai chi.

M’Benga’s personnel file (as much as I can make out) states the following: Serial # JT-014 SP96J, DOB 12/29/2223, Nakuru, Kenya Earth. Parents Wangera and G’Chinga M’Benga. Brother Nicolas M’Benga, sisters Nyawpa Ochambo and Skuchani(?) M’Benga.

Una charts a course through the Chantico Nebula to get to Starbase 12 faster. Chantico is an Aztec household deity. From the map, Prospero is near Korvat (DS9: “Blood Oath”), on the edge of the Klingon Neutral Zone if not actually in it. The course makes Enterprise skirt by the Hromi Cluster (TNG: “The Vengeance Factor”), and I assume the Chantico Nebula is geographically part of that cluster.

On M’Benga’s service record entry on the Moon of J’Gal, he is indicated as being assigned to a Mobile Combat Surgical Unit (a MASH unit, in essence). Trask is listed as the Commanding Officer of the unit, with Medical Officers CMO D. Marten [sic], Doctor M’Benga and Head Nurse Chapel.

>Starfleet Casualties: > >208,834 > >Civilian Casualties: > >1,028 > >Civilians Evacuated: > >36,945 > >Coordinates: > >3367.7041 > >Rotation Period: > >1.88005 days > >Escape Velocity: > >2.624 km/sec > >Defence: > >Blast Shields > >Rotation Period: > >1.88005 days > >SUMMARY: > >The Battle of J’Gal: > >The Oryb J Planetary system was in disputed territory prior to the Klingon War, due to the active Federation Colony Athos, a Mobile Starfleet Base and Mobile Armament Starfleet Hospital were stationed on the Moon of J’Gal.

(Rotation period is repeated on the file)

Aside from the DNA from the four Klingons on the blade, the scan also shows two sets of fingerprints, from Rah and M’Benga.

M’Benga’s last log is Stardated 1877.5, noting that Biobed 2 is working again, at least for now. He notes that some things, once broken, can never be repaired, only managed.

@[email protected] What can we know (or at least guess) about Tellarite culture and behavior from Jankom Pog?

This is going to be pretty open-ended, but I'm curious: given that Jankom is the only Tellarite main cast member of any Star Trek series, what might his personality, behavior, relationships (etc.) tell us about Tellarites as a whole, or their relationships with other species within or outside the Federation? Obviously, it's not easy to know much from Jankom in particular (given that he's a kid and grew up among pre-Federation Tellarites), but thematically, I think it would be nice if one could draw some lines (even if it's wild speculation) between his his role in the team, and the fact that the Tellarites we see in ENT not only help found the Federation, but never leave it, even after the Burn (IMO, one of the most fascinating bits of worldbuilding that's ever been dropped in an off-screen monologue).