Because of his original purpose, it makes sense that the Doctor wouldn’t have held a Starfleet rank during Voyager.

However, in Prodigy, he still doesn’t have pips. This leads to my questions:

• Can a self-aware hologram hold rank or a non-com position in Starfleet?
• If so, how would the Doctor attaib it?

According to the STO wiki, he doesn’t wear them by choice but does have a rank. That might be a reasonable explanation; I can’t imagine Janeway not at least trying to field commission him.

Darwin Station was an explicitly Federation genetic research facility which was creating human children with telepathic and telekinetic powers, rapid physical maturation, and immensely powerful active immune systems (the last of which unwittingly killed the crew of a transport ship). This seems like precisely the sort of genetic engineering which has been banned in the Federation since it's conception, in regulations which are repeatedly referenced in TNG, DS9, and VOY. And yet, nobody even hints at there being an ethical, legal, or regulatory issue with what these researchers are doing. Dr. Pulaski even says of one augment child, without any apparent concern, "We could be looking at the future of humanity."

One would think that if one has a broad reaching policy against genetic augmentation principally motivated by the genetic wars, and by subsequent reinforcement of the idea that arbitrarily enhanced people are likely to be dangerously unstable, this sort of genetic program is exactly what that policy exists to prevent. And yet, there is it.

So, what happened here? Was this the product of a brief lull in Federation policy regarding genetic augmentation? A Federation research team going way off the rails, meeting an Enterprise crew feeling unusually liassez-faire about Federation law? Or something else?

Here’s a bigger bugbear (than the Vulcan question): how does it all work in Ferengi society?

I’ll split order my post by my pre-Rom and post-Rom thoughts.

Pre-Rom:

• Gay (not Lesbian) Ferengi are probably a normal thing.
• Based on DS9 “Profits and Lace” and Nilva’s reaction to the transitioned Quark, it might be possible that male to female transition, while considered very weird, would be considered fine if you make a sufficiently good female by Ferengi standards, if you know what I mean.
• Conversely, female to male transition probably wouldn’t be accepted, based on the reaction to Pel, although Pel didn’t necessarily actually change her gender identity or get her lobes surgically enlarged. It may be possible that some trans Ferengi existed and simply hid that they weren’t cis, although it’d be more difficult considering the mobility limitations on females. There were probably surgeons on the planet who were like “If you’ve got the Latinum, I’ll totally do it.”
• Overall, I think the sentiment would be, “If you’ve got the lobes and you’ve got the Latinum, I don’t care what you do.”
• For instance, if a non-binary Ferengi made lots of profit, they might not be totally respected, but at least not bothered as much.

Post-Rom:

• Lesbian Ferengi are probably legal but still frowned upon.
• Transitioning either way is probably easier, considering the shift in gender roles as seen by 2381 in Lower Decks.
• Generally, with the Federation membership bid, probably a lot more open but still rife with social issues.

Questions:

• Do Ferengi experience dysphoria when their ears are the wrong size? (Very possibly yes, considering the dysphoria humans can experience from other secondary sex characteristics.)

I've often pondered about how Vulcans view gender and sexuality.

I think pre-Surak/logic, they may have demonstrated homophobia and transphobia, but modern Vulcan Society would probably be chill with it under the reasoning that discrimination would reduce a person's efficacy as a functional member of Vulcan Society. For instance, given a choice between allowing a person to contribute verses driving them to the brink of suicide, Vulcans would probably tend to lean towards the first option.

There could very well still be stigma (Vulcans are far from a perfect society; some may have views that it is illogical to have a romantic relationship without a child), but it's dampened by the logic from the previous paragraph.

There's also the Pon Farr to keep in mind. Not only would it be hard to fight a person in the Ponn Farr, but also you'd literally be killing them by trying to prevent expression of their orientation.

I can’t think of a single VOY episode with mind-melds that didn’t have a character treating it as a super taboo or dangerous telepathic ability.

Is there a reason The Alamo was a heavily discussed historical event during Deep Space Nine’s seventh season? Was there an anniversary of the event? Did it come into popular consciousness in the 90s? Was someone on the writing staff related to Davy Crockett?

I am aware that ENT retcons the change in Klingon physiology as augments Klingons. Is there an accepted theory as to why legacy characters who return after TOS, are shown to have changes? Do people simply retroactively apply the events of “The Augments”?

As said in LD 2x07 Where Pleasant Fountains Lie, Billups is from Hysperia and there is still the technicality that can force him on the throne.

This kind of condition makes me wonder what Hysperia's political status with the Federation is. What stops Billups from e.g claiming asylum with the Federation, especially considering the Hysperians are not a powerful force?

I have three theories:

• Hysperia is a Federation colony, so they are able to apply their throne law on Billups and Billups is unable to claim asylum with a political entity he was already born into.
• Hysperia is not a Federation member, but has a scare resource (like dilithium) that makes Starfleet want to maintain good relations with Hysperia.
• Alternatively, it could be some sort of weird prime directive thing.

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.

In LD 4x06 Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place, Ransom mentions that there are no married officers on board. However, way back in LD 1x02 Envoys, when trying command in the simulation, Rutherford accidentally kills all the ship’s children via destruction of the pre-K and Kindergarten decks. I am thus wondering, are there actually any children on the Cerritos? I do have several theories (some of which could co-exist together), none of which I am certain of:

For No:

• Due to their longer-term mission, Starfleet legally requires schools on the California class in case officers with kids transfer on. These sit empty on the Cerritos.
• Perhaps during Envoys there were some kids, but they transferred off the ship before the Ferenginar visit.
• Alternatively, the training simulation (which seems to represent the Cerritos due to the bridge, LCARS colors, and addition of officers like Ensign Casey) drew upon a generic ops division Cali class configuration for the rest of the ship, thus falsely assuming there were children.

For Yes:

• Birth out of wedlock is common in some Federation cultures, including United Earth.
• It could be possible there are married officers that serve on different ships, with the kid(s) of that couple living on the Cerritos.
• There could be married couples on the Cerritos, but only ONE is an officer (a la O’Brien and Keiko); for instance, Lt. Holly has a husband who is a botanist. The Cerritos cannot allow her husband to do travel guide duty and must assign someone else.
• Similarly, maybe non-commissioned couples exist on the Cerritos, but an officer is required to do the duty.
• Maybe Ransom wasn’t totally literal. Officer couples may just be very rare aboard the Cerritos, and the only ones that are aboard include officers doing a duty so vital they can’t do travel guide duty. Ransom didn’t feel the need to fully explain this and went with the simple version when giving the job to the Beta shifters.

Update (8/23/2024): I was rewatching Lower Decks 2x10 First Contact and the mentions of Captain Freeman probably thinking the Captain Freeman Day decorations were for children implies that at least during season 2, there were children on the ship. I feel that the Archimedes incidents could be impetus for the ship being declared too uncomfortable for a family. I'll see in my rewatch if I come across any other implied children on the Cerritos in later seasons.

Another update (12/27/2024): In 1x07:”Much Ado About Boimler”, there are kids aboard the Rubidoux, which suggests at least some Cali-class vessels have children.

I've often wondered how with the advanced medical science of the Federation how they can, for instance, revive practically dead people, but not create a communication device for Pike (or any of a number of people in the background of Lower Decks) more advanced than a blinking light.

One theory I had recently is that somehow, Pike (and people with similar conditions) received most of the brain damage in Broca's Area, leaving them able to understand speach through Wernicke's Area but unable to produce speech. The chair thus might be a replacement for Broca's Area, but primitive in comparison to the original, biological one. (And further, perhaps the Talosians are able to simulate a human Broca's Area when Pike is left in the illusion on Talos.)

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 comes from the David Bowie song “Changes” from the 1971 album Hunky Dory. The song also has the lyric “Time may change me, but I can’t trace Time.” Given the theme of this episode, it seems appropriate.

The latinum bars are soaked in fop’yano poison (first mention). Latinum, a Ferengi currency, is a metallic liquid which is encased in gold (considered by Ferengi to be worthless), and persists as a currency in the 32nd Century (last seen in DIS: “All In”). The dead weapons dealer is Annari, a Delta Quadrant species which first appeared in VOY: “Nightingale”.

Deuterium manifolds were mentioned in dialogue in VOY: “Course: Oblivion” and VOY: “Renaissance Man”, with deuterium being the fuel used in fusion reactors on Federation starships. A manifold distributes fluids and gas from one pipe to many and vice versa. In internal combustion engines, an intake manifold distributes the fuel-air mixture to the cylinders and an exhaust manifold distributes exhaust from multiple sources to a single pipe for venting.

Polarons are particles that can be used in weaponry (DS9: “The Jem’Hadar”) or for scanning for vessels (VOY: “State of Flux”), among other things. Polaron radiation is fatal to humanoids (DS9: “Apocalypse Rising”).

The Red Angel is indeed Michael, forming a major part of the plot for DIS Season 2. Michael and Rayner appear to have been transported to the end of Season 2, when Michael pulled Discovery along with her to the 32nd Century (between DIS: “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2” and “Far From Home”).

Michael identifies the second jump as being in drydock in San Francisco when Discovery was first being built. The original dedication plaque for the NCC-1701 says “San Francisco, Calif.”, so that tracks. The dedication plaques for Discovery, Shenzhou and Franklin also indicate they were launched from the San Francisco Fleet Yards. That being said, the assumption was always that the fleet yards were in orbit, the scene in ST 2009 showing the Enterprise being constructed on Earth notwithstanding.

The next jump is to Stardate 1051.8, the climax of Season 2 of DIS (“Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2”), the Battle near Xahea with Control, just before the time of the first jump.

Rayner identifies the culprit: a Krenim chronophage or a “time bug”, left over from the Temporal War. The Krenim were Krenim were a Delta Quadrant species with the technology to manipulate time (VOY: “Year of Hell”). A chronophagey a “time eater”. The Temporal Cold War was a feature of ENT’s stories, which became a hot war around the time of the 31st Century (ENT: “Storm Front”), although the nature of a time war means that it was fought across different time periods. Eventually, as a result of the War, time travel was outlawed.

The time jumping into the past of the ship is very similar to the events of VOY: “Shattered”, as many have pointed out. In the VOY novel A Pocket Full of Lies by Kristen Beyer, it is revealed that the shattering of Voyager into 37 time frames was due to the detonation of a chroniton torpedo launched by the Krenim Beyer was hired as a staff writer for DIS and was an executive producer on PIC and SNW.

Stamets’ consciousness exists outside of the normal flow of time (DIS: “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”) because of his tardigrade DNA, which he spliced into himself so he can function as the navigator required to use the Spore Drive (DIS: “Choose Your Pain”).

The fourth jump takes them to Osyraa’s hijack of Discovery in Season 3 (DIS: “Su’Kal”). The Black Alert was Tilly trying to jump away, but Stamets was interrupted before the jump could be executed by an Emerald Chain boarding party. Reno is dressed in Discovery’s 23rd Century uniforms, since this is before the crew changed to 32nd Century uniforms at the end of Season 3.

A Vesper martini is a cocktail invented by Ivar Bryce, a friend of writer Ian Fleming’s, who used it in Casino Royale, the first James Bond novel. It consists of gin, vodka and lillet.

The fifth jump takes them to 3218, 27 years in the future. Zora says that Michael and the crew died “decades ago” when the Progenitor tech fell into the wrong hands.

The Breen (DS9: “Strange Bedfellows”) are an antagonistic alien race usually hidden behind their masked suits. They were originally referred to as a Confederacy but in the 32nd Century are an Imperium. They have been mentioned previously as being in a state of infighting.

Michael refers to the first time she boarded Discovery while still serving her sentence for the mutiny she attempted on the Shenzhou in DIS: “The Vulcan Hello” that (debatably) set off the Klingon War.

The diagram that Zora flashes up is a light cone, used in physics as a way to visualize a path through spacetime, converging on the event where the past and future cones meet.

The tone of this future jump is similar to the Short Treks episode “Calypso”, where a future Discovery is seen devoid of life except for Zora, who has been alone for a thousand years. However, that version of the ship does not bear the NCC-1031-A number of the refit (as the episode was made before the Discovery’s time jump at the end of Season 2) and how “Calypso” can fit in with continuity as it stands now is a matter of debate.

Chronitons are Trek particles with temporal properties and associated with time travel. World lines are curves in spacetime describing the path an object takes through spacetime, and therefore its corresponding history. Scaravelli’s Constant is not a real thing as far as I can tell. Mark Rothko was an abstract painter known for his color field paintings.

Just as a note - the reason why Michael and Rayner are in their 32nd Century uniforms and Stamets is not is because the first two are physically jumping through time thanks to being in mid-transport when the jumps started. Stamets remembers only because his consciousness is the one that retains its memory despite the time jumps, as he did in “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Turn Mad”.

Book pronounces raktajino in its usual form, so Reno’s pronunciation of it as “raktachino” last episode must be idiosyncratic in nature.

The warp bubble does indeed insulate whatever’s within from the effects of Special Relativity - it has to, or else faster than light travel would be impossible. This is true whether or not you subscribe to the Alcubierre model for the warp drive (which I do not), the TNG Tech Manual version where the warp bubble lowers inertial mass (which I do), or some other method.

Rayner expresses concern that breaking the warp bubble would rip Discovery (and them) apart and Stamets says inertial dampeners will take care of that - which to me discounts Alcubierre once again because there are no inertial forces acting on the ship in such a model.

Airiam was Discovery’s cyborg spore drive ops officer who was taken over by Control and had to be killed (DIS: “Project Daedelus”).

Michael (and Michael) is presumably using Suus Mahna in the fight, a Vulcan martial art that T’Pol was also proficient in (ENT: “Marauders”). She finishes herself off with a Vulcan nerve pinch. Non-Vulcans have been known to use the nerve pinch, and Michael herself used it in “The Vulcan Hello” to disable Georgiou.

Let's imagine that there is an Earth from an alternate timeline where the planet received alien interference in the late 20th century that makes humanity certain of alien life and warp drive (note: not warp-capable), with the early 21st century on technological par with the prime timeline's 21st century. In this early 21st century, a person accidentally make both a universe and temporal crossing into Earth in the prime timeline and the late 24th century.

Starfleet quickly locates this highly confused person. How would Starfleet handle the situation while abiding by the (Temporal) Prime Directive?

Personally, I would think given the exceptional circumstances, that Starfleet might given the person limited mobility on Earth and only Earth, and eventually allow them to live permanently in the prime timeline if they have exhausted the list of possible ways to return the person to their timeline. This is especially considering that the alternate Earth has already been interfered with, and Starfleet has no way to know the natural development of neither the alternate timeline nor its native earth.

Time travel in Star Trek is a tricky business. As much as we try to make sense of it, and to be fair the way it works and the way historical changes affect the timeline is for the most part consistent, it still is “only for the most part”. For every instantaneous change to history shown in TOS: “The City on the Edge of Forever”, there’s a kind of delayed effect as exhibited in DS9: “Past Tense”. For every reset of the timeline in VOY: “Year of Hell”, there’s the lasting effects implied in SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”.

One conundrum is TAS: “Yesteryear”, probably the most memorable episode of TAS. The set up is that Kirk and Spock are returning from a trip to Orion’s past via the Guardian of Forever. When they emerge from the temporal donut, they are startled to discover that the McCoy and the party of welcoming scientists do not recognize Spock.

(As a side note, why don’t they remember Spock? As we saw in “The City on the Edge of Forever”, being in close proximity to the Guardian protects you from the changes in time - when McCoy goes through and changes history, the Enterprise vanishes from orbit but Kirk and the landing party still retain their existence and memories. One possibility is that McCoy took the scientists up to the Enterprise briefly while Kirk and Spock were in the past, whereupon they were subsumed into the changed timeline, but then we also know from “City” that the trip into the past and back takes only an instant, no matter how long you stay in the past. It’s a problem, and I’m not sure I’ve got a good solution for it. But see below.)

Returning to the Enterprise, Spock discovers that he has never been First Officer (replaced by an Andorian) and in fact died as a child on Vulcan during the kahs-wan ritual. But yet, Spock recalls that during the ritual he was saved by a distant cousin named Selek. Realizing that Selek was Spock himself, Kirk surmises that history was changed because Spock followed Kirk to Orion and so didn’t go back in time to Vulcan. Spock realizes that he must go back in time and save his past self.

But this raises a slight problem - what was the original timeline to start with? If Spock originally died, then how did he grow up to go back to save himself? Is this a bootstrap paradox at work? But then it’s not a perfect loop because the events of “Yesteryear” only occur because the loop breaks, creating a new timeline in the middle of it.

(Also, given the very nature of time travel, Kirk’s theory that history changed because Spock went back to Orion’s past and he couldn’t be in two places at once makes no sense because it’s time travel. Spock’s journey into the past doesn’t have to occur at a specific time for it to work.)

So what gives here? The only way this makes sense is if, in the original timeline, the change in history and the paradox were meant to happen.

In the original timeline, Young Spock nearly dies in the Vulcan desert, but is saved by Future Spock. But this leaves the question unanswered as to why Future Spock is there to begin with - the impetus for him to go back in the first place. The only reason Spock goes back is because he discovers that if he doesn’t, Young Spock dies. And the only way he discovers this is because of the existence of the paradox of the new timeline.

So it wasn’t because Spock went back to Orion that caused the paradox, as if it was a choice that started the dominoes falling. Spock had to go back to Orion so that he would find out that history had changed when he returned, which would then lead him to go back in time to change history “back”. The alteration in the timeline and the subsequent repair job was always part of the original history.

And perhaps that provides a solution to why McCoy and the scientists were affected by the timeline changes. Perhaps to impress upon Spock the necessity for him to go back in time, it had to be clear from the get-go that history had changed rather than for him to find out when he returned to the Enterprise.

And the entity that would be aware of this, and presumably have the capability to withdraw its protection from others, would be the Guardian itself. Well aware of how events are supposed to unfold and to protect the integrity of the timeline and Spock’s place in it, the Guardian allows the timeline to be changed. It then makes sure that Spock figures out what he must do to revert the changes, the Guardian’s own temporal directives preventing him from telling Spock outright. The best the Guardian could do was protect Kirk and Spock’s memories, so that Spock would recall what was supposed to happen and Kirk to give him the support he needed to go back in time.

But then the question becomes why the timeline had this snarl in it to begin with? Was there a previous timeline before that where Young Spock did survive without intervention but temporal shenanigans took place to alter that original, leaving this as a patch job? Therein lies another discussion, perhaps, or a fanfic.

This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Lower Decks 4x01 Twovix and 4x02 I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee.

Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the content of the latest episode, this thread is a place to dig a little deeper.

Like basically every current Star Trek fan, I love the character of Captain Pike as Anson Mount portrays him. I wonder, though, to what extent he is actually the same guy from "The Cage." If we had only that episode to work from (which the Discovery and SNW writers initially did), we would know that he is broody, that he struggles with the responsibility he bears for the lives of others, and that he is remarkably able to conjure up emotions like anger and hate on command. Does any of that fit with Pike as we know him now?

One way to answer this question would be to imagine a very literal remake of the original pilot recast with the current actors. Everyone else would basically make sense, but I think seeing the current Pike act out his scenes would be jarring and even a little upsetting.

I'm sure we can come up with in-universe explanations -- he was having a particularly bad day, he's grown as a person, etc., etc. -- but it does seem like the current-day writers are departing pretty abruptly from the ostensible basis for the character. What do you think?

(originally posted here)

Very often I see people confidently think or claim that the Star Trek warp drive works like the warp "drive" first proposed by physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994. Unfortunately, this is in error (I put "drive" in quotes because Alcubierre apparently dislikes calling it a drive, preferring to call it a "warp bubble"). As Alcubierre himself says, it was Star Trek that gave him the inspiration for his metric, not the other away around.

Why there is this conflation may be because people desperately want to think that Star Trek is based on hard scientific principles, or that the same principles in Star Trek are actively being worked on in real life. I don't propose to speculate further. There are also several fan ideas and beta canon ideas in licensed fiction about warp drive (notably in the excellent novel Federation by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens) but for the sake of brevity, I'm limiting my discussion to what we see on-screen and related behind-the-scenes documents.

Background

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. From there, it follows that theoretical objects with negative mass can only travel above c, hence given the name tachyons, from the Greek tachys, or “fast”.

Alcubierre wondered: if you can't move the object/ship without running into relativistic issues, why not move space instead? Alcubierre's idea was to warp space in two ways - contract space in front of the ship and expand space behind it, an effect he compares to a person on a travelator. So while the ship itself remains stationary in a flat area of spacetime between the two areas of warped space (the whole thing being the "warp bubble"), that flat area gets moved along like a surfboard on the wave of warped space. Of course, warping spacetime in this manner involves incredible amounts of negative energy, but that's another discussion.

So this is how the Alcubierre metric circumvents relativistic issues. Because the ship itself remains essentially motionless, there is no acceleration or velocity and thus no increase in inertial mass.

But that's not how Star Trek’s warp drive works, and has never been.

Warp Drive pre-TNG

There is no description on how Star Trek warp drive works on screen in TOS except perhaps for a vague pronouncement that the "time barrier's been broken" in TOS: "The Cage" (in the episode Spock also calls it a "hyperdrive" and refers to "time warp factors").

During the production of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), science consultant Jesco von Puttkamer, at the time an aerospace engineer working at a senior position in NASA, wrote in a memo to Gene Roddenberry dated 10 April 1978 (The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture by Susan Sackett and Gene Roddenberry, 1980, pp153-154) his proposal for how warp drive was supposed to work, in a way eeriely similar to Alcubierre's metric:

When going “into Warp Drive,” the warp engines in the two propulsion pods create an intense field which surrounds the entire vessel, forming a “subspace”, i.e. a space curvature closed upon itself through a Warp, a new but small universe within the normal Universe (or “outside” it). The field is nonsymmetrical with respect to fore-and-aft, in accordance with the outside geometry of the Enterprise, but it can be strengthened and weakened at localized areas to control the ship’s direction and apparent speed.

Because of the its non-symmetry about the lateral axis, the subspace becomes directional. The curvature of its hypersurface varies at different points about the starship. This causes a “sliding” effect, almost as a surf-board or a porpoise riding before the crest of a wave. The subspace “belly-surfs” in front of a directionally propagating “fold” in the spacetime structure, the Warp - a progressive, partial collapse of spacetime caused by the creation of the subspace volume (similar to but not the same as a Black Hole).

But there's no evidence that Roddenberry actually used this concept. In fact, Puttkamer said further in the memo that at warp, Enterprise would have "little or no momentum", which we will see is not how it's portrayed. Puttkamer was even against the now famous rainbow effect of going into warp:

The effect should not be firework-type lights but a more dimensional, geometric warping and twisting, an almost stomach-turning wrenching of the entire camera field-of-view.

So while an interesting document, there's no evidence that Puttkamer's ideas made it into any on screen incarnation of Star Trek.

Warp Drive in TNG and beyond

In TNG, the first publicly available description of how warp drive is supposed to work 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 described here, Star Trek warp drive gets around Special Relativity by using the warp field to distort space around and lower the inertial mass of the ship 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. The stronger the field (measured in units of millicochranes), the lower the inertial mass gets and it becomes easier to accelerate. When the field hits a strength of 1000 millicochranes, the ship pushes past the c barrier. Presumably at this stage it's in subspace, where Relativity no longer applies, and can accelerate even faster to each level of warp until the next limit at Warp 10 (TNG scale), or infinite speed. I'm not getting into how warp factors are defined (but see here for a discussion on the change between TOS and TNG warp scales, which also goes into the definition of warp factors, if interested).

The Technical Manual was written by Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda, who were both technical consultants behind the scenes, and evolved from a document prepared by them in 1989 (3rd Season) to aid writers on the show in writing the technobabble in their script. (See also the history here.)

Here’s what the first, 3rd Season edition says about the way warp works, which is simply that the drive “warps space, enabling the ship to travel faster than light,” and that the ship is “‘suspended in a bubble’ of ‘subspace’, which allows the ship to travel faster than light”. This description also shows up in the 4th Season edition, and the Star Trek: Voyager Technical Guide (1st Season edition) in identical form.

While the actual text of the manual never made it on screen, there are several pieces of on-screen evidence that tell us Sternbach and Okuda's description of warp drive is followed: warp fields lower inertial mass, and the ship experiences acceleration and inertial forces during warp.

Evidence of warp fields lowering inertial mass

In TNG: "Deja Q" (1990), Enterprise-D uses a warp field to change the inertial mass of a moon:

LAFORGE: You know, this might work. We can't change the gravitational constant of the universe, but if we wrap a low level warp field around that moon, we could reduce its gravitational constant. Make it lighter so we can push it.

Later in that episode, we see the effect the warp field has on the moon:

DATA: Inertial mass of the moon is decreasing to approximately 2.5 million metric tonnes.

At the time "Deja Q" was broadcast, all that was said about warp drive in the technical guide was that warp drive "warps space" and the ship is in a subspace bubble with no mention of lowering inertial mass. Yet "Deja Q" shows warp fields doing exactly that, which tells us that either the writer gave Sternbach and Okuda that idea or they already had their ideas in place behind the scenes. The latter is more likely, given that the Technical Manual was published the following year.

In DS9: "Emissary" (1993), O'Brien and Dax use a warp field to lower the mass of the station so they can use thrusters to "fly" the station to where the wormhole is.

DAX: Couldn't you modify the subspace field output of the deflector generators just enough to create a low-level field around the station?

O'BRIEN: So we could lower the inertial mass?

DAX: If you can make the station lighter, those six thrusters will be all the power we'd need.

Evidence of inertia during warp

We've known from TOS on that during warp speed, inertia still exists. If it didn't, then there wouldn't be the bridge crew being subjected to inertial forces when maneuvering at warp speeds and being tossed around the bridge (TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday", when Enterprise slingshots around the sun at warp - with the last reported speed being Warp 8 on the TOS scale).

In TMP (1979), we see Enterprise accelerating to warp speed before the engine imbalance creates a wormhole.

KIRK: Warp drive, Mr Scott. Ahead, Warp 1, Mr Sulu.

SULU: Accelerating to Warp 1, sir. Warp point 7… point 8… Warp 1, sir.

As noted, a ship using the Alcubierre metric doesn't need to accelerate, because it's space that's moving, not the ship. Additionally there'd be no need for an inertial dampening field (as we see in TNG and beyond) that is supposed to protect the crew when accelerating to superluminal speeds. From VOY: "Tattoo" (1995):

KIM: Could we go to warp under these conditions?

PARIS: The ship might make it without inertial dampers, but we'd all just be stains on the back wall.

In the 2009 Star Trek movie, Enterprise was unable to go to warp unless the external inertial dampeners were disengaged.

SULU: Uh, very much so, sir. I'm, uh, not sure what's wrong.

PIKE: Is the parking brake on?

SULU: Uh, no. I'll figure it out, I'm just, uh...

SPOCK: Have you disengaged the external inertial dampener?

(Sulu presses a couple buttons)

SULU: Ready for warp, sir.

PIKE: Let's punch it.

If there's no acceleration or inertia, there's no reason why them being on would impede warp drive operation.

Closing Remarks

Taking all these pieces into account, I hope I've shown convincingly that the way the show treats Star Trek warp drive is consistent with a drive system that involves acceleration and inertial forces, and with warp fields that lower inertial mass - just like Sternbach and Okuda describe in the Technical Manual, and definitely not consistent with way the Alcubierre metric is supposed to work.

For those who want a deep dive into Star Trek warp physics, some canon and some speculative, I heartily recommend Ex Astris Scientia's series of articles on warp propulsion. I also recommend Jason W. Hinson's series on "Relativity and FTL Travel". Hinson was a regular participant in rec.arts.startrek.tech in the 90s and educated us on how Relativity worked and how it applied to Star Trek.

One of the fascinating things about this "third generation" of Star Trek (starting either with Star Trek 2009 or with Discovery) is the way the Star Trek universe has started to knit itself closer together by referencing existing backstory. For example, Discovery wholeheartedly embraced the idea that Andorians and Tellarites are key Federation members and should therefore be highly visible in Starfleet, building on lore originally implied in TOS, largely ignored by TNG, DS9, and VGR, and re-embraced by ENT. Prodigy, for its part, leaned very heavily on VGR for its worldbuilding source material.

This has also produced some interesting quiet exclusions from recent stories -- not to suggest they've been "decanonized" or anything like that, but clearly have been deprioritized. The Tholians come to mind as a ready example of this. Like the Gorn, they debuted in TOS, received stray mentions in DS9, before making an on-screen return in ENT. I wonder if the SNW writers considered using the Tholians but balked at a villain that had such different atmospheric requirements, and all the consequences that entails in terms of dramatic presentation. The Denobulans also seem to fall into a similar bucket; outside of a pair of appearances in PRO, they have received nary a mention since ENT.

Then of course we have the lengthy list of "one-off" civilizations, including the likes of

-the Sheliak
-the Husnock
-the Tzenkethi
-the Jarada
-the Miradorn

And in terms of "underexplored corners", I've only been focusing on the civilizations, but there are any number of other corners we could poke into. The Department of Temporal Investigations, the Corps of Engineers, the Federation Council, the Lunar Colonies... the Trekverse is littered with these little crumbs all over the place -- tiny seeds of ideas that suggest opportunities for imagination.

For my part, I would love to learn more about the Sheliak. For one thing, they seem like they would benefit from the advances in CGI over the last 30 years. But I like that they seem equally matched to the Federation in terms of strength, and that their hyperfocus on legal compliance gives them a generally underused "hat" to wear in the Trekverse. They have some similarity to Vulcans, but taken to an extreme, and layered in with real disdain for "lower life forms" that I think would make for a fascinating "adversary" -- I'd love to see Captain Pike or Captain Seven in a verbal jousting match with a Sheliak commander.

What is an underexplored corner of Trek lore that you think merits exploration?

While some may argue in transparently bad faith that it isn't so, it's obvious to even a casual observer that Star Trek's setting depicts in the Federation a vision of society in which the goals of both the social and economic left wing have largely won out and largely been attained. The people of the Federation have relatively complete equality of race, gender, sexuality, and even species. Resources are abundant and housing, food, shelter, healthcare, education, and beyond even the necessities even most of the pleasures of life are provided to virtually all. The environment is protected and even controlled on many populated planets to protect the ecosystem.

What, then, is at the cutting edge of politics for the Federation? In the interests of disclosure, I have identified as an anarcha-feminist and a pacifist for more than a decade (albeit not a tremendously intellectual one), and my analysis here is based in large part on the issues I believe that, as a civilian living in Star Trek's universe, I would likely have strong positions on.

A few candidates immediately present themselves:

• AI rights. A major theme of 24th-century Star Trek, from the beginning of TNG right up to Picard, is the debate over the rights of artificial intelligences, whether in the form of androids and synths like Data and Soji or photonics like the Doctor, Vic, and Moriarty. Less attention is given to less anthropomorphic forms of artificial intelligence. As we see in Lower Decks, Starfleet and the Daystrom Institute keep rogue AIs such as AGIMUS, Peanut Hamper, and 10111, with no evidence that they received any kind of trial or evaluation. The tragedy of 2385 became a major impediment to AI rights, but after the events of season 1 of Picard they seem to be back on track, at least for Synths. The personhood of photonics and non-anthropomorphic AIs remains up in the air.
• Augment rights. This may be an internally contentious issue. on the one hand, it is clear that genetically-altered individuals are marginalized as of the Dominion War. It is by the narrowest of margins that Bashir avoids being drummed out of Starfleet for being the recipient of a medical procedure he had no ability to consent to or refuse, and the Jack Pack are in some ways treated more like inmates than patients. Less than a century and a half before, Illyrians were persecuted and La'an Noonien Singh faced bullying as a child for being the distant descendant of Khan. However the memory of the Eugenics Wars looms large in the human imagination and genetic augmentation may still be viewed by some as inherently hierarchical.
• Humanocentrism and Vulcan Supremacy. Azetbur's remarks on the Federation as a "Homo sapiens-only" club are not strictly true, but they're not strictly unfounded either. The Federation's capital has always been Earth, Starfleet's headquarters are on Earth, Earth seems to have more colonies than any other member world (and stay tuned while we discuss that further), Humans make up the bulk of Starfleet (even on the Cerritos, by far the most species-diverse ship shown in Trek canon, the majority of the crew seem to be human), Federation Standard is closely descended from English, and four out of six Federation Presidents named or depicted across Star Trek canon are either human or of partial human ancestry. Vulcans, meanwhile, are frequently openly prejudiced against other species and seem to face little opprobrium for being so. This is more prominent in the 22nd and 23rd century, with anti-human terrorism on Vulcan, Spock's childhood bullying, and Starfleet even declaring entire vessels (such as the Intrepid) Vulcan-only; but it still seems to be present in the 24th and even, in some respects, as far ahead as the 32nd century.
• Seceding worlds (and the Maquis.) Unlike the United States of America, which had a whole civil war over the matter, Federation member worlds, and even colonies, appear to have the right to withdraw Federation membership. Aside from the Cardassian Border colonies that produced the Maquis rebellion, Turkana IV is perhaps the most prominent example in the 24th century. We know later in history most of the Federation's worlds, including Earth, Ni'Var, and Andoria, will secede as well in the aftermath of the Burn, and there are some indications that M'Talas Prime may be ex-Federation by the time of Picard. Turkana IV and M'Talas prime serve as an effective demonstration of exactly why this might become a progressive issue: neither seems to have thrived without the Federation, and the Maquis secession resulted in years of violence ending in mass murder on the part of the Dominion. On the other hand making Federation membership irrevocable is not exactly respectful of the sovereignty of those worlds' people. This is likely an issue that sees divided perspectives.
• Expansionism and Imperialism. This may be another controversial one. It is undeniable that the Federation is expansionist, always settling new worlds, welcoming new members, and pushing its borders outwards. As an organization Boldly Going Where No Man Has Gone Before is a central element of Starfleet's mission. However it is clear that one of the key goals of the Prime Directive^1^ is in ensuring that this expansion does not come at the expense of sovereign indigenous civilizations. Nevertheless, we often see the citizens of other polities feel their people are pressured, or even subtly coerced, to join the Federation, especially in DS9. It is not hard to believe that these concerns are shared by at least some Federation citizens.
• Social issues in neighboring societies. It is clear that many of the Federation's neighbors do not place as high a value on the rights of the individual or of the people as do the Federation, from Ferengi misogyny to Klingon classism to Cardassian totalitarianism. This is the opposite side of the coin from the prior issue, and it seems like the dominant strain of thought in the Federation is to pursue a policy of not intervening even in other advanced societies in the name of inalienable rights, or even providing more than token support to internal resistance movements much of the time (witness the struggles of Bajor, for instance.)
• Section 31. It remains unclear how much of the existence of Section 31, particularly in its modern form, is known to the public. However if it is known, an organization willing to violate the Federation's every high-minded principle in the ruthless pursuit of protecting its interests is doubtless a fraught subject. If their existence only became public knowledge after the fact of their indiscretions, one could easily imagine it being a scandal that tarnishes entire governments.
• Criminal Justice. While crime is no longer as widespread as it is in our own time due to lack of deprivation, the Federation still practices a form of carceral justice. Better minds than I discuss elsewhere the matters of police and prison abolition. Here is one 21st-century left-wing cause that hasn't yet become obsolete.
• Militarism. A common criticism of Star Trek is that everything in the Federation seems to revolve around Starfleet. While that's partly a limitation of the nature of the show, it raises the question: how true is it really? And how true do the people of the 24th century perceive it to be? How comfortable are civilians with the prominence of Starfleet?

Please use the comments to offer your own insights, or to suggest any issues I may have overlooked.

^A subject about which liberal and left-wing arguments both for and against are so played out as to be not worth any further mention.

This unit has been assigned to recover valuable content submitted by organic units to the reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute wiki. This unit does not claim authorship over the contents of this post.

Algernon_Asimov's reviews of the Deep Space Nine relaunch novels

These books are set after the end of the 'Deep Space Nine' TV series, following on from the events of the DS9 finale. If you have not watched DS9 to the end, then be warned: HERE BE SPOILERS!

Prequels

The Lives of Dax, edited by Marco Palmieri

This book is not officially part of the relaunch - as the editor writes in the introduction, it was inspired by Jadzia's death at the end of Season 6. Also, most of these stories refer to the earlier hosts of Dax, which means they take place before the 'Deep Space Nine' TV series. However, some of the events in these stories are referred to in the later relaunch novels, so this book has de facto "Season 8" status: it was originally released as a generic Star Trek book, but later editions feature the DS9 relaunch logo and styling on the cover.

It's an anthology of nine short stories, each written by a different author and focussing on a different Dax host.

Ezri: Second Star To The Right ... And Straight On 'Til Morning

This framing story focusses on the current Dax host: Ezri. She's in the holodeck with Vic Fontaine, and starts telling him her history, starting with the story of how Ezri Tegan came to be joined with the Dax host. So, this story has three layers: Ezri Dax in the current day in the holodeck; Ezri Tegan in flashback on the USS Destiny; then the lead-in to the stories of the various previous Dax hosts.

As a framing story, it fulfils its purpose: it sets up the premise for us, the readers. As a stand-alone story, it's not so good.

The scenes in the holodeck with Vic Fontaine are laboured and overly descriptive. We spend way too much time learning that Ezri is wearing a blue-sequined spaghetti-strap cocktail dress with uncomfortable high heels. Vic doesn't talk like the Vic we've seen in the show. But, it's just a set-up.

Then, Ezri starts telling the story of how she came to be joined. And it gets worse: the Ezri Tegan we meet on the USS Destiny is nothing like the Ezri Dax we meet on Deep Space Nine, even allowing for the changes brought about by being joined with Dax. We learn that Ezri Tegan is one of the few Trill who have not been screened for their suitability for joining with a symbiont, which is what we expect based on what we saw in the show: Ezri was a surprise host. However, more than simply neglecting to be screened, Ezri is actively against the concept of joining. She believes that "the whole of Trill society was dedicated to brainwashing its children into believing there could be no higher goal than sacrificing their individuality to a parasitic race of slugs", and thinks of the symbionts as "parasitic brain vampires".

The Ezri Dax we met at the start of Season 7 of 'Deep Space Nine' was confused, lost in her multiple identities, having trouble coping - all these things and more. But there was no sign that she resented having been forced to join with a "parasitic brain vampire". Even if she'd learned the truth about the nature of joining from Dax itself, there should still be some residual hints of this anti-parasite Ezri in the post-joining personality. But, there's none - because the authors of this story have created conflict just for the sake of it, without considering character continuity.

This story does its job competently in framing the book, but it's not great itself. It's clunkily written, it's laboured, and it introduces contradictory characterisation.

Lela: First Steps

The first story naturally centres on Dax's first host: Lela. And, one important thing to note with most of the hosts is that we don't have much first-hand information about these characters - most of them made only one on-screen appearance, in the Season 3 episode 'Facets'. This, plus a few off-hand remarks, is all we know about them. This gives the authors in this anthology more room to move, and makes it less likely that they'll contradict what we know of these characters.

Lela is a junior member of the ruling council of Trill at a time when Trill has only recently learned about the existence of other species. The Trill people's response to their first encounter with the Vulcans has been to withdraw into ignorant isolation, shutting everyone else out. However, an alien ship has now appeared in orbit, making a request that noone can understand...

Each story is prefaced with a quote from the TV show about the relevant host. In this case, the quote is naturally about Lela. However, a more relevant quote would be the one by Captain Sisko in Season 7 when Ezri goes off to search for a lost Worf: "She's a Dax. Sometimes they don't think. They just do." Because Lela does things, when the rest of the council won't. We also learn that the Dax symbiont has a wish to see the stars, which Lela herself did not have before being joined. This shows how the symbiont's qualities influence and are part of the joined Trill's personality.

Along the way, she meets a character we have met before: T'Pau. This is another common factor of these stories - they all have some reference to a character and/or event we already know from other Star Trek canon. In a minor digression in a larger conversation, T'Pau tells Lela about a recent species the Vulcans have encountered; even without naming names, we know she's talking about the events seen in the movie 'First Contact'. The reference is awkwardly inserted, even if gratifying, but it sets this story in the 2060s or 2070s.

Overall, this is a good story, and well told.

Tobin: Dead Man's Hand

Tobin, Dax's second host, is an engineer who is socially awkward. He's nervous. The Human captain of the ship he's on gave him a deck of Human playing cards, together with a book on card tricks, "to keep your hands busy. You fidget too much." The victim of his attempts to practice his card tricks is the only other non-Human on board: Skon, a Vulcan mathematician (here's the character from canon - Skon is mentioned as the father of Sarek in 'The Search for Spock'). The two of them, together with other engineers and mathematicians on the ship, are working on a secret prototype. Well, it must be secret, because we the readers don't get to learn what it does until more than halfway through the story. Suffice to say that it's a significant piece of technology that we see a lot of in Star Trek.

The story is prefaced by about a page of dialogue between two characters who are not named or identified in any way, and nor do we understand what they're talking about until later in the story. This preface is awkward, unhelpful, and ultimately unnecessary - it adds nothing to the story. In fact, the paragraphs after this preface make a much better opening to the story.

The story focusses on some Romulans' attempts to gain knowledge of warp drive by hijacking the ship that Tobin and Skon are on, because Romulus only has slower-than-light travel at this time. There is mention "that the humans and Romulans had been engaged in a vicious border war for the better part of three years", which places this story in the mid-2100s. Some of the references to the Human-Romulan war in this story may have been superseded by events in 'Star Trek: Enterprise', which was not even a twinkle in a producer's eye at the time this book was written.

The story operates a bit like a card trick itself: key pieces of information (such as the nature of the prototype) are hidden from the reader to artificially build suspense, and only revealed at the right "wow" moment. It's frustrating. The character of Tobin is written a little too simply: there really does seem to be nothing to him beyond him being an engineer and playing card tricks - the author has not added anything to what we know from on-screen references.

It's an okay story.

Emony: Old Souls

This story is actually told from the point of view of someone other than one of Dax's hosts: a young Leonard McCoy. It's basically an expansion of a brief exchange in the episode 'Trials and Tribble-ations', between Sisko and Jadzia Dax:

JADZIA: McCoy... McCoy... Leonard McCoy! I met him when he was a student at Ole Miss.

SISKO: Who met him - Curzon?

JADZIA: No. My host at the time was Emony. She was on Earth judging a gymnastics competition. I had a feeling he'd become a doctor... he had the hands of a surgeon.

McCoy is "a small-town boy a few months shy of his eighteenth birthday" who goes to a gymnastics competition with his Ole Miss dorm-mate, only to see the famous gymnast Emony Dax acting as one of judges. His mother was a fan of Emony when she won her three latinum medals in the '24 Olympics... twenty-one years ago. This sets the story in 2245, some twenty years before McCoy serves with Kirk on the Enterprise.

It also seems that Emony is old enough to be McCoy's mother! And, yet, they make a romantic connection. Brief, but still real. The romance is set against some interspecies conflict at the gymnastic competition, but this is basically a love story. And, it's nice. The story is short and sweet, like the romance itself.