Star Trek Social Club

• The episode title refers to a textbook that several other characters have admonished Dal for not reading this season, beginning in “Into the Breach, Part I”.

• Rok-Tahk catches Murf having a discussion with a silhouetted figure in the USS Voyager A’s astrometrics lab. Previously we’ve seen Silik speaking with the silhouetted Future Guy, beginning in ENT’s premiere, “Broken Bow”.

• Janeway speculates that the temporal shielding aboard the Infinity is what’s preventing Voyager A from being affected by the changes to the timeline caused by Chakotay and Adreek escaping aboard that USS Protostar in the previous episode. Temporal shielding was used to great effect during the USS Voyager’s conflict with the Krenim temporal weapon in “Year of Hell, Part II”.

• A chyron informs us the stardate 52 years in the future where the Protogies are stuck is, 112152.1.

• ”Then we send a hundred ships.” It was established in “Preludes” that the Vau N’Akat did indeed send 100 ships into the anomaly in pursuit of the Protostar.

• Zero descends into the Va’Lu’Rah pit carrying Dal and Maj’el in a manner not dissimilar to Spock carrying Kirk and Bones up the turbolift shaft with his hover boots in “Star Trek: The Final Frontier”.

• Dal claims to be able to feel that Gwyn is in pain while displaced from time. Dal has latent telepathic abilities from this proto-Organian genetics.

• ”I’m a doctor, not an exorcist.” The Doctor has uttered variations on Bones’ famous, “I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer,” in 13 prior instances.

• ”I came across a mission log where lieutenant Worf was able to jump between quantum timelines by generating an inverse warp field, siphoned from a temporal anomaly.” Maj’el relates the events of “Parallels”.

• Characters this season have chided Dal for not reading Temporal Mechanics 101, but, to be fair, the text appears to be a short video lesson, so none of them actually read it either.

• Doctor Erin MacDonald was first mentioned in the LDS episode, “First First Contact”, and seen in “Supernova, Part II”. She is based upon, and voiced by, Doctor Erin MacDonald, the science advisor who has worked on every modern Trek series thus far.

• Temporal Mechanics 101 has three examples of how to travel through time:

    • Slingshot around the sun - “Tomorrow is Yesterday”, “Star Trek: The Voyage Home”, and “Penance”

    • Get on the wrong side of a Q - “Tapestry”, “All Good Things…”, “Deathwish”, “Farewell”

    • A wormhole - “Eye of the Needle”, “Into the Breach, Part II”

• Zero uses a chronitonic hypospray to temporarily prevent Gwyn from shifting between quantum realities. The Doctor did something similar in “Shattered” using a chroniton infused serum to bring Chakotay into temporal alignment after he was hit by a surge of temporal energy from an anomaly.

• The Doctor modified a phase discriminator to stabilize Gwyn. In “Timescape”, captain Picard, Data, Geordi, and Troi used phase discriminators to protect themselves from being trapped in a temporal fragment.

• The episode title is a callback to the TNG episode, “Who Watches The Watchers”.

• Maj’el uses a band of cloth to hide her Vulcan ears, a maneuver Spock first performed in “Star Trek: The Voyage Home”.

• A chyron informs us the stardate during the present time is 61860.1.

• Gwyn challenges Ascencia to Va’Lu’Rah, a “sovereign ritual” for the Vau N’Akat, mentioned in the previous episode. Certainly this isn’t going to be some trial by combat.

    • Cultures that have ritual combat include:

      • Vulcans

      • Ligonians

      • Klingons

      • Gelrakians

• ”Those Vau N’Akat put a weapon on our ship that threatens the entire Federation.” Adreek is referring to the living construct, which the Protogies discovered and dealth with during the previous season, by destroying the USS Protostar.

• ”It would not be the first instance of a causal time loop in Starfleet history.” Maj’el confirms that the events of “Past Tense, Part I”, “Past Tense, Part II” and “Star Trek: First Contact” were the results of bootstrap paradoxes.

• ”Vulcans do not lie.” Maj’el lies right in Dal’s face.

    • In “The Menagerie, Part I”, Spock tells Pike, “I have never disobeyed your orders before, Captain,” which contradicts “The Red Angel” where he refuses an order to stand down.

    • In “The Menagerie, Part I”, Spock made a false entry in the Enterprise’s log.

    • In “The Menagerie, Part 2”, it is revealed that Spock has been aware the entire time that the trial was a Talosian projection and thus has been making false statements in service of that deception.

    • In “A Taste of Armageddon”, Spock lies as a distraction, claiming there’s a bug on someone’s shoulder before nerve pinching them.

    • In “Errand of Mercy”, Spock tells Kor he’s a merchant.

    • In “Amok Time”, Spock lies about his excitement seeing that Kirk survived kal-if-fee, claiming it was simply logical relief that Starfleet did not lose a capable captain.

    • In “The Enterprise Incident”, the Romluan commander asks if it is merely a myth that Vulcans cannot lie, to which he responds, “It is no myth.”

    • In “The Enterprise incident”, Spock claims he was unprepared for Kirk’s attack, and used the *”Vulcan death grip” instinctually. Clearly the attack had been planned, and there is no such thing as a Vulcan death grip.

    • In “Yesteryear”, Spock lies about his identity after travelling to the past and visiting his family.

    • In “More Tribbles, More Troubles” Spock claims that Vulcans don’t have a sense of humour, which they obviously do.

    • In “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”, Spock lies about how long it will take to repair the Enterprise in case the transmission is being monitored. When Saavik calls him on this, he claims he merely exaggerated.

    • In “Spock Amok”, Spock told Chapel that he had a dream where he had to fight his human side, whereas it was obvious that in his dream Spock was the human half fighting his Vulcan side.

• The timeline changes with Chakotay and Adreek escape aboard the Protostar instead of launching it under autopilot, causing Gwyn to start disappearing from existence. In “Children of Time” the descendants of the crew of the USS Defiant and their colony disappear when the alternate future version of Odo chooses to let 200 years worth of people never be born so he can save Kira from dying.

Direct YouTube link

I hope memes are okay here

I seem to recall a few people who were upset that they didn't know these existed the last time it was discussed.

• It’s perhaps interesting that the opening sequence for the show (or at least this episode) has not changed from the first season. Because of that, we still see elements such as the USS Protostar which was destroyed in in season one’s “Supernova, Part 2”, and a representation of the Emergency Janeway Hologram, which sacrificed herself in that same episode.

    • In the episode, when asked if the Protogies would be taking a Protostar-class starship for their mission, the Doctor [Robert Picardo] says, ”The Protostar is still under construction.”

• The episode opens with Murf [Dee Bradley Baker] engaged in a tactical training exercise at Starfleet Academy. The cadets, other than Murf, are wearing a uniform we haven’t seen before.

• An officer hands Murf a PADD with a message from Admiral Janeway [Kate Mulgrew], and the other Protogies each receive one as well. In the message they’re referred to as ”Starfleet Academy hopefuls.” It was established in “Supernova, Part 2” that the Protogies wouldn’t be accepted into the Academy ahead of more qualified entrants, but would become warrant officers training under Janeway’s command.

• When Rok-Tahk [Rylee Alazraqui] receives the message, she is in the middle of a presentation on lieutenant Edward Larkin, and citing the events of the “The Trouble With Edward” short.

• ”She’s probably Queen of Solum by now.” The Protogies lament the absence of Gwyn [Ella Purnell], who separated from them in “Supernova, Part 2” on her own mission to her species homeworld.

• A shuttlecraft arrives, bearing the registry number NCC-74656-A. Hey, NCC-74656 was the USS Voyager’s registry!

    • Shuttles with the same registry were seen in “Supernova, Part 2”, fishing the Protogies out of San Francisco Bay.

• The shuttle contains Voyager’s Emergency Medical Hologram, the Doctor, who apparently still has not chosen a name for himself, though he is willing to claim the title ”Hero of the Delta Quadrant.”

• ”I’m a doctor, not a butler.” The Doctor echo’s Doctor McCoy’s phrase, first uttered in “The Devil in the Dark”, where he stated, “I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer.”

    • Though Bones was the originator of the phrase, the Doctor is easily the character who has uttered it the most.

    • Doctor Bashir, the EMH Mark II, Doctor Phlox, and Doctor Culber, have all had variations of the line as well. Doctor T’Ana has not used the phrase on screen, but Boimler has imitated her saying it, albeit with a lot more curses than most Starfleet doctors.

• The Doctor explains that he’s able to move about thanks to his mobile emitter, and bit of 29th century technology he acquired in “Future’s End, Part II”.

• The Doctor refers to having written a holonovel he wrote that ”was very well received.” Presumably he is not recalling “Photons Be Free” the holonovel he wrote features in the episode “Author, Author” as that was not about a bond between a hologram and its crew.

• The mission Janeway is taking the Protogies on is to observe the wormhole created by the destruction of the Protostar in “Supernova, Part 2”.

    • The Doctor explains that a distress call from Captain Chakotay [Robert Beltran] came through the wormhole, reiterating what we saw in “Supernova, Part 2”.

• We get to see the USS Voyager A in spacedock. It is a Lamarr-class starship.

    • The Lamarr-class was named for scientist and actor, Hedy Lamarr, according to the Hageman brothers.

    • According to Zero [Angus Imrie], the Voyager-A has 29 decks, a crew of more than 800, and two schools.

    • In engineering, we’re also shown a quantum slipstream drive, a Delta Quadrant technology first encountered in “Hope and Fear”.

    • “Twovix” is set in 2381, and this episode is set in 2384.

    • The Doctor says that ”There are over 16 holodecks.” Not really clear why he choose not to give a specific number.

    • The Voyager A also has a cetacean ops, large enough to accommodate a humpback whale.

      • Rok-Tahk mentions that it’s her turn to feed the dolphins at one point in the episode. Apparently the navigators in Cetacean Ops don’t get access to their own replicators.

    • There are two shuttlebays, not three.

• ”Her predecessor is a floating museum.” We saw the decommissioned Voyager’s journey to be installed as an orbiting museum in “Twovix”.

• The Doctor claims that the rest of Starfleet is busy with the Romulan evacuation. As we learned in “The End is the Beginning”, Starfleet and the Federation abandon that effort in 2385, following the synth attack on Mars. Perhaps something to look forward to for season three?

• Nova Squadron is an elite group of cadets, introduced in “The First Duty”.

• ”I already promised Admiral Picard I wouldn’t lose this one in the Delta Quadrant.” Admiral Picard was previously mentioned in the LDS episode, “The Stars at Night”. Apparently he’s some sort of mummy aficionado.

• ”And we need all these people to…observe a hole.” Traditionally all the important tasks aboard a Starfleet vessel are carried out by the three to seven most important members of the crew, while the other sometimes hundreds of officers aboard the ship are there to do routine maintenance, keep the seats warm on the bridge when the senior staff is off engaging space adventure, and occasionally serve as human shields. For more information, please see Star Trek. All of it.

    • All of it.

• In Dal’s [Brett Gray] quarters we see a model of the Protostar as well as the goggles he wore in the mines of Tars Lamora in the series premiere, “Lost and Found”.

• ”Borg is short for cyborg!” While perhaps Dal is correct metatextually, that’s never been previously stated in Trek. In the Borg’s first appearance, “Q Who”, Guinan simply states, ”They’re called the Borg.” The Borg refer to themselves as such, there would be little reason for them to have named themselves after a term that originated in 1960s Earth science fiction.

• ”Well, cloaked ships are illegal in Starfleet.” Jankom Pog [Jason Mantazokus] is referring to a provision in the Treaty of Algeron, explicitly stated in “The Pegasus”.

    • The titular USS Pegasus in “The Pegasus” did have prototype cloak, which would also allow the ship to phase through matter.

    • The USS Defiant did have a Romulan cloaking device on it, and was originally only able to be operated by a Romulan officer billeted aboard the ship, as seen in “The Search, Part I”.

    •In “Star Trek: Insurrection” Starfleet also had a cloaked holoship intended to be used to forcibly relocate the Ba’ku.

• Janeway reveals to her senior staff that Admiral Jellico is concerned that the classified mission to use the Infinity to enter the wormhole and rescue Chakotay would put the timeline at risk. Jellico was introduced in “Chain of Command, Part I” where he wanted to negotiate with Cardassians first by appearing to be a loose canon, and then by threatening them with mines attached to their ships. In “Masquerade” ordered Janeway to avoid entering the Neutral Zone to prevent provoking the Romulans, and instead commanded that they fire a torpedo into the Zone to destroy the Protostar. No doubt he also has a good plan regarding the Vau N’Akat.

This is the c/startrek discussion thread for "Brink" - join the conversation in the replies!

Written by: Diandra Pendleton-Thompson

Directed by: Ruolin Li

Screenshot from DS9 - 101/102 - Emissary

Processed with the Orb of Enhancement:

Raw:

This is the premiere of the fifth and final season of “Star Trek Discovery”, the first iteration of Trek’s modern era. I think it is important in this moment to acknowledge that, regardless of individual opinions of quality the series -- personally I am a fan, but this is not about my personal perspective -- without DIS we would not have the abundance of new Trek available to us.

With that acknowledgement aside, on with the very serious business.

• This episode is the first mention of the titular Red Directive. Starfleet has a number of directives most recognizable of which is the Prime Directive, introduced in “Return of the Archons”, which codifies interactions with non Federation cultures, and their principles of non-interference. There is also:

    • The Temporal Prime Directive forbidding interference with historical events, first mentioned in “Future’s End, Part II”

    • The Omega Directive, dictating the necessity of destroying any and all omega particles that might be encountered during the course of Starfleet activities, introduced in “The Omega Directive”

• This episode was written by DIS co-showrunner, Michelle Paradise, and directed by executive producer, Olatunde Osunsanmi.

• The episode opens with Captain Burnham [Sonequa Martin-Green] on the exterior of a ship at warp. We’ve previously seen characters outside ships traveling faster than light in “Divergence” and “Mindwalk”.

• The crew of the USS Discovery A attends a Millennium Celebration commemorating 1,000 years of the Federation. The Federation was founded in 2161, as per “These Are the Voyages…” and this episode takes place, presumably, in 2191. The cadet serving the signature cocktail, Tonic 2161, does comment ”Give or take a few decades,” when Tilly [Mary Wiseman] explains to Adira [Blu del Barrio] the context for the drink.

    • Tonic 2161 is blue with stars floating in it to match the emblem of the Federation emblem.

    • Ross claims the stars taste like jumja sticks, a Bajoran treat first seen in “A Man Alone”. Bajor has, to the best of our knowledge, not been inducted into the Federation at any point.

• Stamets [Anthony Rapp] is upset because Starfleet is “shuttering the spore drive program.” In season four, the program’s lead scientist used a stolen prototype to attempt to reach Species 10-C and kill them with an illegal weapon.

• A prototype pathway drive was mentioned as having been installed aboard the USS Voyager J in “Kobayashi Maru”.

• President T’Rina mentions the Tholian Republic and Breen Imperium as polities outside the current Federation, and seems to imply they’re antagonistic if not hostile to the Federation. The Tholian Assembly was introduced in the TOS episode “The Tholian Web”, and the Breen Confederacy was mentioned in “Strange Bedfellows”.

• The 800 year old Romulan science vessel is an update of the Romulan ship seen in “The Next Phase”.

• When L’ak removes his helmet, there is a brief moment where his face appears to be non opaque, not entirely dissimilar from how Changelings are see through in the natural state, or Mellanoid slime worms, such as Murf.

    • L’ak is played by Elias Toufexis, who previously had a role DIS season one’s “Context is for Kings” as one of the other prisoners aboard the transport shuttle rescued by Discovery along with Burnham. He never asked for this.

• Antares is a well loved name for Starfleet vessels:

    • Antares, NCC-501 - “Charlie X”

    • USS Antares - A ship both Captain Pike and Number One served aboard, according to “Brother” and “Memento Mori” respectively

    • USS Antares, NCC-9844, Miranda-class - “Favor the Bold”

    • A Kelvin Universe USS Antares - 2009’s “Star Trek”

    • In addition there are also three different Antares-class ships: one used by the Corvallens in “Face of the Enemy”; a carrier used by both Cardassians and Bajorans, introduced in “Ensign Ro”; a civilian freighter like Kasidy Yates’ SS Xhosa first seen in “Family Business”.

• There are new aspects integrated into the title sequence. For the purposes of this comparison I’ll be mentioning changes from specifically the season four sequence. Such as:

    • A rotating planet with two moons has replaced the visualization of Zora’s program

    • The captain’s chair appears earlier in the sequence

    • A 3d representation of a symbol from a Romulan journal is shown

    • The Infinity Room key appears, replacing an exploded planet, and Discovery approaching the DMA

    • Book’s unnamed ship is replaced with Moll and L’ak’s

    • A number of rotating structures are now at the very end where there used to be a long range view of the DMA

• Burnham, Owosekun, and Rhys find the mummified corpse of a Romulan wearing a TNG era uniform.

    • We will learn that this Romulan was Doctor Vellek, a scientist present for the events of the TNG episode, “The Chase”.

• Burnham is able to grasp her phaser pistol, and stretch it out into a type-3 configuration. It’s unclear what advantage the transformation has. Other than Boimler’s assertion that, ”Uh, they take two hands,” from “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie”.

• Moll [Eve Harlow] and L’ak have a Romulan puzzle box, a tan zhekran, when Burnham confronts them. This puzzle box is larger than the one Narek had in “The Impossible Box”, and has more sides.

• When we see the Antares, it has the saucer of a Friendship-class starship, and the nacelles of Merian-class, both first seen in “People of Earth”.

• ”I would rather not die out here, I’ve got a saxophone lesson to get to.” Harry Kim took up playing the sax in “Ashes to Ashes”.

• Captain Rayner [Callum Keith Rennie] is a Kellerun, which have only previously been seen in the DS9 episode, “Armageddon Game”. I mention this only because Rayner lacks the somewhat distinctive topknot that all the men of his species styled their hair in in that episode.

• Book [David Ajala] has been helping refugees displaced by the DMA rebuild, as per the community service he was sentenced to in “Coming Home”.

• ”It’s like what it means to be a crew. I can’t crash all these kids on to an ice moon in order to teach them that.” Tilly is referring to the events of “All Is Possible”

• Fred is a synth with skin, eyes, and hair presumably inspired by Data. Or Lore? Or B4.

• Among the gear Moll and L’ak attempt to sell to Fred are:

    • Isolinear co-processors

    • PADDs

    • Tricorders

    • Self-sealing stembolts

• Fred claims to have not encountered a tan zhekran for 622.7 years, which would indicate he’s been functional since at least the mid 26th century.

• The script in the journal contained in the puzzle box is different from the Romulan language seen in TNG and other Star Trek shows and movies of that era; it was introduced into canon in “Absolute Candor” but was created in 1993 by linguist Trent Peherson who is credited in this episode as a language consultant.

• Fred has a number of weapons on display in his place of business, including:

    • A Klingon kur’leth as seen in “Disengage”

    • A d’k tahg,

    • A Klingon bat’leth of the type introduced in “The Vulcan Hello”

    • A TNG era Romulan disruptor pistol

    • A “First Contact” type-3 phaser rifle

• Book and Burnham are able to rent some sand bikes. The bikes have shields capable of protecting the rider from ship based weaponry, which probably has to reduce the deposit, right?

• Stamets determines that Fred’s serial number begins with AS as an homage to Altan Soong, and claims that Fred was based on Altan Soong’s designs, not Noonien Soong, despite the resemblance to Data.

• In Kovich’s quarters, he brings explains the basic plot of ‘The Chase’, and brings up stills from that episode featuring the Romulans, Captain Picard, and the Progenitor.

Lets just hope they don't mean the "I liked it before it got woke" jerkwads.