‘Star Trek: Discovery’ S3 Theory: An Episode Of ‘Voyager’ Is The Origin Of “The Burn”

NOTE: The following analysis speculates about the third season of Star Trek: Discovery and contains SPOILERS.

What is The Burn?

The trailer released last week for Star Trek: Discovery season 3 made clear that the galaxy has fallen on hard times by 3188, and the Federation has “mostly collapsed.” According to showrunner Alex Kurtzman, the Federation remained “strong” until “something cataclysmic went down that changed everything.” In the trailer, Book (David Ajala) describes this cataclysm to Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) as “The Burn,” saying it “was the day the galaxy took a hard left.”

So far that is all we know about “The Burn,” but some fans, including us at TrekMovie, think we have it figured out. And the answer comes from a surprising place: Star Trek: Voyager.

The 32nd-century character Book reveals “The Burn” to Michael Burnham

Omega answers the question

One of our first clues leading to Voyager comes from the moment in the trailer when Saru encounters a Coridanite on the planet where the USS Discovery crash-landed, and the alien says to Saru, “I always believed you were out there somewhere and that we were part of the Federation no matter what.” This, along with the appearance of several other familiar aliens in the trailer, shows that “The Burn” didn’t seem to kill off life in the Federation, but it appears to have cut off communication and travel, leaving planets isolated.

A 32nd-century Coridanite is happy to finally see someone from the Federation

If you are looking for something that could stop travel and communication you need to look no further than the Omega molecule.

The Star Trek: Voyager fourth season episode “The Omega Directive”  introduced the Omega molecule into Trek canon. According to Captain Janeway, synthesized Omega is “the most powerful substance known to exist,” derived from extremely rare boronite. A single Omega molecule has the same energy as a warp core. It was first discovered by the Federation in the 23rd century in the search for an inexhaustible power source; however, there was an accident and a single particle of Omega destroyed a Starfleet science station and destabilized an entire region.

It turns out there is no known way to stabilize Omega molecules—any attempt to create them resulted in disaster. The first try by the Federation created ruptures in subspace affecting an entire sector. The incident was classified and the Federation implemented the “Omega Directive,” known solely to captains and flag officers. After any detection of Omega, orders were to destroy it “at all costs,” even if this required violating the Prime Directive. Omega was so dangerous that the Federation was willing to violate its most core principle to destroy it.

Janeway briefs the Voyager senior staff on the dangers of Omega

Omega can “burn the sky”

The danger of Omega wasn’t just that a sufficient quantity could (according to Janeway) “wipe out half a quadrant.” The Federation was even more concerned about the larger effect on subspace. As explained in Voyager, disruptions in subspace kept ships from being able to go to warp in the sector around the failed 23rd-century test with Omega, even into the 24th century. And warp travel is fundamental to the Federation—potential member species don’t even merit “first contact” until they independently develop warp technology.

Crew of USS Voyager observe devastation left by an alien Omega experiment

A sufficiently large Omega explosion could eliminate warp travel within the entire Federation and possibly throughout the whole galaxy. It would also cut off subspace communication between worlds. Messages would take years, if not decades, to travel at light speed, and ships would be back to flying at sublight speeds. This would separate members of the Federation and other galactic powers. This is exactly the kind of thing that could isolate planets and peoples, like the one talking to Saru in the new Discovery trailer.

As for who caused “The Burn,” the most obvious suspect is The Borg. The Voyager episode revealed that The Borg were obsessed with the perfection they saw in Omega. They learned about Omega even before the Federation and assimilated a dozen species with myths about it, including one that described “a powerful substance that could burn the sky.” Sound familiar?

Seven observes Omega particles with awe

Eventually, The Borg assimilated a civilization with more advanced knowledge and attempted to create Omega themselves, which resulted in the loss of 29 vessels and over 600,000 drones sacrificed. Seven still saw this as something of a win, because they were able to keep it stable for “one trillionth of a nanosecond.” Maybe eight centuries later the Borg are still around, and they gave it another shot on an even bigger scale… a scale big enough to “burn” the sky across the galaxy, sending it on that left turn.

It’s also possible another civilization tried to stabilize Omega—or maybe “The Burn” was even done on purpose. Some anti-technology or isolationist faction may have wanted to reset the galaxy back to a time before warp travel, with all the societal and cultural impacts that would have. Maybe finding out who was behind setting off a massive Omega event is a core mystery for season three.

Michael Burnham and Georgiou in a less civilized 32nd century

Omega gives Discovery purpose

So, Omega fits the facts as we know them, but this theory also answers the meta-question of why the creatives behind Discovery sent the 32nd century back into a dark age. After dealing with issues of running into (and periodically conflicting with) Star Trek canon in the TOS era, Discovery producers decided to move the setting of their show to new ground—and there is no newer ground than the 32nd century, beyond all canon set by previous Trek series, including various future time-travelers who popped into episodes of Voyager and Enterprise. As star Sonequa Martin-Green says in the latest Star Trek Magazine, “We’re literally boldly going where no one has gone before.”

While the 32nd century gives the show a mostly blank slate in terms of canon, jumping forward over 900 years makes our heroes a bit out of date, and their ship, the USS Discovery, an ancient museum piece. In his recent TrekMovie.com interview Doug Jones (Saru) described it as a “Model T comes driving into the new neighborhood.”

The USS Discovery engages the spore drive in the season 3 Discovery trailer

But there is something special about the USS Discovery, something explicitly erased from the Starfleet historical record at the end of season two: the spore drive. This unique technology allows the USS Discovery to travel throughout the galaxy via the mycelial network. USS Discovery’s resident mycologist Paul Stamets describes the network as “a discrete subspace domain,” with the key word being “discrete,” allowing plenty of room for it to be immune to Omega’s impact on the rest of subspace.

The new trailer also showed us various shots featuring a lot of spaceship debris, around at least two planets. While this wasn’t established in the Voyager episode, it’s possible “The Burn” not only prevented ships from going to warp but also destroyed ships either trying to go to warp or already at warp. Thus all the debris we see in the trailer would be what remains of the Federation fleet and other starships.

Future starbase surrounded by a debris field

According to Alex Kurtzman, season three of Discovery is all about restoring the Federation, which has been “diminished” and in “survival mode.” It’s clear that Starfleet’s resources and assets have been severely impacted by “The Burn.” And undoing the damage caused by it could be the core mission for the season. Having a ship immune to the effects of “The Burn” would be vital.

We can also see Michael Burnham and Saru joining the new Starfleet, putting on the new Starfleet badges, and heading off into space on the USS Discovery. If travel and communications have been cut off due to some kind of Omega event, then the ancient USS Discovery may now be the most important ship in the galaxy.

Captain Saru with his 32nd-century Starfleet badge, commanding the 23rd century’s USS Discovery

What say you?

The season 3 premiere of Star Trek: Discovery arrives in four weeks. Do you buy into the Omega hypothesis? Do you have your own theory for “The Burn?” Let us know in the comments below.


Keep up on all the Star Trek: Discovery news and analysis at TrekMovie.com.

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Much like Andromeda – ancient, but after 300 years of decline it was the most powerful ship in the galaxy.

The long night has come. The United Federation of Planets, the greatest civilization in history, has burned. Now one ship, one crew, have vowed to drive back the night and rekindle the light of civilization. On the starship Discovery… hope lives again.

Oy.

HA HA HA. Spot on!

Hahaha

It was a great premise for a series, galactic empire destroyed, now we must reassemble it. They would certainly be visiting strange new worlds, actually old worlds who went in a strange new direction after the burn. It would really be a shot in the arm for DSC, to return to its TOS roots.

Everything that has happened before will happen again. Oh wait, that’s Picard. I… I mean Battlestar.

In the short treks “Calypso”, didn’t that guy use a shuttle to warp away? I could be wrong. Also maybe that short trek didn’t matter.

The guy in Calypso was a different person

Also, we don’t really know where or when “Calypso” was set. All we know is that Discovery had been sitting abandoned in a nebula for a thousand years. That could be a thousand years after the 32nd century, in which case the subspace damage could have been repaired somehow. Or the nebula (and Craft’s homeworld) could be in an area that was not affected by the Omega detonation.

Yeah, I predict that Calypso is the epilogue to Discovery–they will get home, but without the starship, and the show will end a thousand years later with Craft finding it.

How sad for the Discovery sentient computer, then. :(

In all honesty, this was my favorite of all the Short Treks, because in just a very short time span, it really sucked me in deep in this new unknown time period and its thick atmosphere and still the core narrative was a very (not quite) human bonding story, where two unlikely lifeforms meet – very trekkish. I’d actually like to see an entire series about Craft and his voyages, maybe loosely based on the Odyssey.

I hope they return to the 23rd and Starfleet gives them another Crossfield class ship.

different person? he just wrote “that guy”

The Burn got better

While all this is fine and makes sense, I’m still considering the idea that spore drive technology was “erased” from history, so that even Voyager or Starfleet under the conditions of post-omega explosion couldn’t use it, ridiculous. If Discovery is done justifying this moronic erasure from history, then I call bullshit on this.

It took 1400 years to rediscover the clockwork principles behind the Antikythera mechanism.

If you didn’t know the Spanish empire used mastiffs descended from Roman war dogs trained to tear open a victim’s stomach and run off with the intestine unraveling, and that Christopher Columbus’s mastiffs were the first off the landing craft in 1492.. then forgetting the spore drive isn’t so moronic.

I’m with you Jeffries Tuber. Even known technologies don’t get used.

How many here know that Alexander Graham Bell was a speed lover who, with his wife, developed the hydrofoil that was several times as fast as as any steamship?

Canada actually built Bell’s type of hydrofoil, the Bras d’Or, as a high-speed sub hunter and commissioned it in the 1970s. However, it’s seakeeping in the North Atlantic was an issue, and convention technology of helicopters operating off of steamship platforms.

The Bras d’Or, arguably one of the fastest naval vessels ever sits in a museum.

I miss Brador, eh

I had a snappy reply at the ready, and was then reminded by a friend that there is a lot of American history by people of color and natives that is missing as well. That makes the suspension of disbelief a bit easier.

Why are some fans SOOOO hilariously melodramatic?

Attention seekers and virtue signalers.

Isn’t it ironic that people who call out other people for virtue signaling are signaling their own virtue to someone else? “Look, fellow colonizers, I correctly called out the oppressed people for daring to ask not to be oppressed any more! Give me a cookie.”

Starfleet would probably see the spore drive as a failed experiment like the transwarp drive in Star Trek 3. Plus without a mycelium life form or mycelium dna infused lifeform as a pilot the spore drive is dangerous. Stamets almost flew Discovery into the middle of a star when he tried to pilot it as a normal human.

CBS won their lawsuit, so the spore drive is/can come back.

It has not been confirmed that that alien is Coridanite. The rest of the analysis is plausable.

Has anyone been able to make out details with the new badges? It looks very Bajoran, but I know it’s not. Just need a little more detail on it.

If you look closely, it’s like an evolution of the 29th century badge with the delta and the “jet trail”. The top of the oval is a curved Starfleet delta and the bottom has more details (meaning to be determined, I guess).

If so, I for one like it.

I think it’s a fantastic theory, but, at the same time, I think it’s really reaching, too. What we know of the event in Discovery could be just about anything. Tying it back to Voyager simply because the word “burn” is used in both instances and that planets are “isolated” isn’t enough, in my opinion. Nothing about what is said in the trailer is specific enough to point it back to Omega.

But, hey, if this turns out to be the case, I’m into it.

Nothing is specific enough because they are not going to flat out tell you everything that’s going on thus giving the story away in the trailer. You don’t need evidence this is just a theory thats either correct or wrong. Simple

Sure, why not?

Honestly, Discovery should had always taken place far in the future, but at least this fixes that mistake.

Agreed, the show would have worked much better on a number of levels if it’d been set far in the future to begin with, as I was hoping for when the show was first announced. Perhaps many cringe-worthy, melodramatic sequences would have been avoided. However, if the writer’s room remained the same, I have no faith in that. Still don’t, honestly.

Agreed as well.

Discovery starting in the far future should’ve been the direction to go in and could’ve avoided so many of the problems the show had at the beginning. Then again, it would be hard to have someone a sibling a Spock and here we are. ;)

Discovery gave us Anson Mount as Christopher Pike and spawned a great new series. Thank you, Discovery.

Pike could have been literally any other character imaginable, not named Pike, and he’d be JUST as cool, without the baggage. Hell, could have been Pike’s great-great grandson with Vina for all I care, as long as we don’t KNOW how his story ends.

Every episode of a prequel is a new, exciting way to disregard or rewrite a story we already know. It’s very dangerous and will likely have consequences.

It’s like a prequel of the Lord of the Rings, but this time, we know that Frodo was actually an alien sent to destroy the Dark Lord, but had his memory wiped, and Gandalf’s magic is derived from an iPhone shaped like a stick. And WOOOOW… we look at the whole story in a different way. Because it’s a different damn story, and not the one any of us signed up for.

I’ve said this many times myself. Mount did a great job but it really didn’t matter if his name was Pike or not. He could’ve been any character. Of course you wouldn’t have stuff like Spock and the Enteprise show up (which was the real point) but I think if Discovery had a character like Mount on day one, that show would’ve been much more popular in general.

Hear, hear. It would have justified a LOT of stuff people have been complaining about. But even if it wasn’t FAR in the future, a decade after Nemesis would have been FINE, and they could have gone “far future” later.

  1. Eliminating the Spock’s unknown human adopted sister connection makes Burnham her own person, rather than “someone who never should have existed”.
  2. The holo-comms and drastically teched-out Disco bridge feels like a natural evolution of 24th century LCARS, rather than a precursor to Jolly Rancher Buttons. Disco probably has my favorite bridge, but it doesn’t belong where it is. Or was.
  3. Klingons looking weird, going bald to go to war, and a female chancellor can be explained by some future upheaval, genetic experimentation, body modification, or whatever. Even a genetic “aftershock” from the Augment experiments in Enterprise.
  4. Klingons having “ancient” cloaking technology ahead of the Romulans who invented it 10 years later, and Starfleet having no idea what it was. Did they not get the memo about the war that annihilated most of the Federation?
  5. The spore drive being a new development along the lines of a soliton wave, transwarp or slipstream drive, rather than an antiquated or covered-up technology.
  6. Pike, as awesome as he is, could have been Anson Mount playing a different character, let’s call him “Captain Speer”, EXACTLY the same way, and he would have been just as cool, without all of the baggage. It’s hard to get attached to Anakin when you know how it’s gonna turn out. These lessons were learned 20 years ago.
  7. They still could have gone with their “20% different design model” by blazing a future trail, rather than shoveling over and repaving an old one.

And if Disco started 10 years after Nemesis, with Picard starting 10 years after that, would let us see what happened after Disco left. Ash Tyler could still be a recurring character, having periodic meetings with Oh and Admiral Sheer Frakking Hubris. Plus the production could save on uniform designs by not having to go from spangly blue to a DS9 ripoff. Just make one GOOD one and stick with it.

Not this again…

I’ve been assuming that The Burn took place from the crushing suck of “Picard” season one.

unfortunately picard was amazing… wow what a great show. the first 3 were so good and loved his romulan friends… the story was paced out like a movie with the first 3 being like a first act… eps 4 and 5 by frakes were great. absolute candor and stardust city rag. yes some weak minded trek fans weren’t able to handle the 20 seconds of sound and gorey fx but it’s a standout ep and frakes made one of the best eps of trek in probably 30 years. funny, scarey, reveals, action… the show just grew and grew with excitement and so many new great characters. raffi is awesome. rios. elmore. 7’s return was nothing short of spectacular. data’s end was so touching. it was really amazing. my only issues were how quickly the main story ended… and the sister romulan was a bit one note evil… but probably the best first season of a trek show since TOS

Incoherent ramblings from Tom Riker. What a surprise.

I didn’t enjoy much about Picard, but I’m glad you liked it.

It had a lot of promise – took some chances, did some neat universe-expanding, but a lot didn’t really work for me. I’d had enough by the time we got to the silly ‘70s android planet and the silly cataclysm – not to mention the mostly unexamined repercussions /moral implications of the Federation building synthetic life as, basically, slaves.

That Voyager episode showing obsolete, self-aware medical holograms hauling garbage or whatever it was, really bothered me too.

I’m hoping season 2 is better (and hope Chabon stays with it).

I agree Jack, Picard had lots of promise, but unfortunately it was a big let down by the end. And a lot of the ideas you mentioned could’ve been great to explore but sadly ignored.

Still hoping season 2 will be better though!

Why do you guys watch Star Trek. Be more positive.

Go away loser. You seem to have a sad life.

Why are you being a dickhead?

You are welcome to draw your own conclusions.

Intolerance of other opinions from Bryant Burnette. What a surprise.

Please do point me toward evidence of my being intolerant toward the opinions of others. I don’t recall this.

“Incoherent ramblings from Tom Riker. What a surprise.”

Attacking another poster for having a different opinion to yourself. That is intolerance right there. You are utterly incapable of accepting other people think differently to you. Toxicity at its very worst.

Let’s recap.

I offered an opinion as a comment to this article. Another commenter (tom riker) comes along and attempts to refute my opinion. So because I choose to defend my opinion — albeit in a rude and inflammatory way (I can’t stand his writing style, so sue me) — it’s ME who is intolerant of someone else’s opinion?

Nope, that’s not how that works. I am VERY capable of accepting that other people think differently than I think. I love that other people love these shows. I don’t, though, and I feel no need to keep my mouth shut about it. You seem to want me to, though, so which of us is being intolerant?

You are guilty of the exact thing you are accusing me of. You don’t like what I’m saying, or the way I’m saying it. That’s fine; feel free to argue with what I’m saying, or to point out (as Rios did) that I’m being rude.

However, you don’t get to tell me not to say it, and you ESPECIALLY don’t get to claim some sort of false moral high ground in doing so. Take your hypocrisy someplace else; I got no use for it. And while you’re doing that, you might want to prepare yourself mentally for whenever in life you actually DO encounter toxicity at its very worst. If you think you’re getting it from little old me, let me assure you, you are not. I genuinely hope that never happens to you, because you will not be able to handle it.

Apparently we weren’t watching the same show. Perhaps it’s time to watch it again.

Not for me! I probably will watch it again eventually, but it’s not going to be anytime soon.

Lol. It would last for several centuries too.

What an awful series Picard is.

I liked the first couple of episodes, and the one where Troi and Riker showed up; otherwise, agreed, it is an off-the-charts disappointment.

The detonation of Omega molecules and a resultant catastrophe sending the Federation into survival mode was also the premise of the proposed animated series “Star Trek: Final Frontier.”

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_Final_Frontier

I’m *not* saying that the Discovery writers copied this idea from this unmade animated series (though I’m sure many people will, if this theory turns out to be accurate). It’s a logical development that solves several problems with telling stories even further into the future than the TNG/DS9/Voyager era: a universe that has merely progressed further towards utopia presents few opportunities for drama, conflict and exploration. A universe recovering from a disaster, however, presents lots of dramatic possibilities. And the Omega molecule is a perfect candidate for the source or means of the disaster.

Even if the Discovery writers were unaware of this proposal from 2006, it’s entirely possible that they would arrive at the same answer as the “Final Frontier” folks, because they were asking the same narrative/dramatic questions, with the same universe as backstory.

But I’m sure that won’t stop the haters from screaming that Dave Rossi was robbed, that the Discovery writers have no original ideas, and so forth.

I think the new Trek products use many elements from previously unmade or unused stuff. The design of the Discovery itself comes from Ralph MacQuarrie’s design for the Enterprise for the proposed Phase II series from the 70s, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the producers actually took a little bit from that Final Frontier animated concept.

This site has lots of information about the “Final Frontier” proposal. You’ll see there are some aspects that seem similar to what it looks like Discovery will be finding in the 32nd century, but others that seem quite different. (For example, it seems unlikely that the surviving Federation has become more isolationist and militarized.)

http://www.startrekff.com/overview/

Although in Calypso the main character didn’t really have trust in the Federation.

Yes, but as I said elsewhere we don’t really know when Calypso is set. We can’t necessarily draw any conclusions about the 32nd century Federation from Craft’s attitude towards the V’draysh.

Yikes. I hope CBS got permission from those guys or bought them out. Unless they were already paid by CBS for their work in 2005, this could get messy.

There’s a LOT of precedent for that in this creative team, unfortunately.

Not a problem. No permissions required.

Given that StarTrek.com is owned by the franchise owner (now ViacomCBS), the writers would have been “writers for hire.”

We know from the Trek-lit novel authors that CBS has retained all intellectual property rights for all the books. ViacomCBS can use any of the the ideas or content without even the courtesy of an acknowledgement.

For example, it’s clear that some of David Mack’s concept of “Control” from his sequence of S31 novels were drawn upon for Discovery S2, but he was never acknowledged. (Apparently the other big franchise has acknowledged non-canonical material in the deep credits as a courtesy, but not Star Trek.)

By the way, Kirsten Beyer did explore some of the dire possibilities with the Omega molecule in her Voyager novels. While the dire outcome was avoided in the Prime Universe timeline, other timelines in the multiverse were not so fortunate. There’s a possibility that Discovery builds off of one of these thought experiments. In which case, ViacomCBS still would have the rights, not Beyer.

This is an interesting theory, but ultimately, does it matter, from a story perspective?

I question the need for everything to be connected to something we’ve seen before. I think this need for everything to be “consistent” is a foolish consistency. It ties writers’ hands, and all it does is please a niche subsection of the fandom who can’t tolerate ambiguity.

If an unknown, and unknowable force sweeps through the galaxy and somehow changes everything then we are presented with a small set of storytelling options:

  • The reason for the change is the MacGuffin, and we’re then either:
  • in pursuit of the Magic Reset Button to fix everything
  • trying to meet whoever caused the change to convince them to undo it

OR

  • We accept that things have changed and deal with the new reality
  • There’s no reset button
  • We accept that we might never know what caused things, and it doesn’t really matter
  • There’s no MacGuffin in a technobabble sense
  • Stories then focus on forward-looking goals (restoring the Federation) in this new, changed world, basic Star Trek stories about morals, ethics, allegories to present-day problems, etc.

On the other hand, if the source of the catastrophe is unknown (to our heroes and the universe at large) but knowable, we can still tell the latter type of story, but also pursue the quest for “who detonated the Omega particle, and why” as a loose, overarching arc. And finding an answer to that question doesn’t necessarily imply a Magic Reset Button; whatever the reason for the detonation (intentional or accidental), perhaps the damage can’t be undone, and our heroes have to learn to live with that.

I think this creative team will need someone or something to BLAME. And they won’t learn to live with it. They’ll just bellow “WE ARE STARFLEET!” and find a way. Because that’s what Starfleet does. Dramatic pose, tight close up, crescendo. Even if it takes them 7 seasons, they’ll find that reset button, even if they have to break a few rules to do it.

Oh, wait. That was Janeway. Maybe they’ll look her up in historical records and say “Yep. My kind of gal”. Wink at the audience.

True. That would probably be an effective way to split the difference, but it’s still kind of unsatisfying to me. I’d rather see them be brave enough to say “This weird thing happened, no one knows who or why, and ultimately it doesn’t matter.”

Like, in historical fiction, we accept that the Black Plague happened, Pompeii happened, Krakatoa happened, and history was affected by these events. It’s kind of pointless to wonder why or who caused these things, but it is interesting to see what life was like after the fall of a civilization that had been at its peak, or how people survived challenges.

That said, here in 2020 we’re arguably facing multiple historic challenges, but we all don’t think about them 24/7. If we were to do a historic drama set in the time of polio, would polio be the front and center thing (unless it’s a documentary about Jonas Salk) or would it be “regular people’s lives, possibly affected by this, one of many background events”?

I would argue there’s a difference between connection and consistency. In a franchise this size there will always be a level of inconsistency, but aiming for consistency doesn’t have to feel like forcefully coloring inside the lines if you start from a position of creativity. Discovery willfully boxed themselves in when they chose to place it around established events. Connection on the other hand is like a spice a little bit can add great flavor, too much can be overwhelming. Connecting too much, yes that can very much limit writing options. Like with Discovery, again your forcing connection to TOS, and thus creating consistency sink holes.

I absolutely LOVE the spice analogy, and it’s working for me on a number of levels. Thank you for that.

To further the analogy, I would also add that something like Lower Decks is “a spicy meal”. It’s riddled from start to finish with in-jokes, call-outs and references. REALLY enjoyable for folks that like that sort of thing.

You see a “comedy Star Trek cartoon”, and you kind of know what to expect, just as if you’re looking at a menu and see “Habanero Tearjerkers”. No, it’s not for everybody, but everyone has their taste. And if you eat it expecting pasta and butter, you’re gonna be in for a disappointment.

That said, ripping off other franchises would be akin to seeing tacos on an italian menu. Yes, I’ve had these before, and I like them… they just don’t belong here. And why do the tacos have basil and rosemary in them? It ain’t right.

well stated. Yeah, I enjoy how Lower Decks leans on the in-jokes (though you don’t need to know them to enjoy the show).

Discovery is now in a unique position to do new worldbuilding. Sure, some of the old worlds / races will be there, but everything else is up for grabs. If they forge a new Federation, how similar will it be to the old one, and, how different will it be?

Yeah, I don’t mind connection. I think, though, throwing the ship 900 years into the future is a way to purposefully cut connections (except by occasional wink to the audience) and forge a new path that can be “true to Trek,” in terms of restating and recasting the values of Starfleet/Federation against a different backdrop, without being fettered too much by the weight of canon (and its gatekeepers).

I don’t care about theories. All I want is for Discovery to be good. That is all.

Then why are you reading any of this? Clearly, you care or you wouldn’t be.

Regrettably, I still maintain that the Burn has to do with Burn-ham. The writers seem to be committed to the “Archer Syndrome” where the lead character simply has to be the single most influential and key character in the entire galaxy. Personally, I don’t believe that the actress has the chops to handle the character the way it’s being written, but that is just my humble opinion.

Alternatively, I think the writing does the actress no justice. In The Walking Dead, SMG’s character wasn’t nearly as overbearing and annoying as the one in DSC, imo. Either way I agree with you, Discovery shouldn’t be the Burnham Show. But here we are.

I have never watched TWD so I can’t comment. As a woman I am not criticizing the choice of having a female lead, only the way they have written her and she is playing it. One minute she is steadfast and model Starfleet, the next minute she is a renegade, then back again and back again and back again. We all know the showrunner revolving door that has taken Discovery to this point and there are many reasons to excuse the discordant tones but it’s getting to the point where “the galaxy is about to be devastated and the only person who can save it is Burnham” gets a little old. Sure enough, S3 will pose the same problem and the same solution. Snore.

I do have another nit to pick about the lack of imagination and common sense from the production. 930 years have passed and basically all we change in the Starfleet uniform is a badge? That would be like modern military uniforms being essentially identical with the Knights Templar except changing the cross for a star..

What’s the point in jumping ahead 10 centuries if we are just rerunning the Voyager concept of “the ship far from home?”

However, I am not one of those knee-jerk naysayers who wants to shoot down a season before even watching it. So all I can do is hope that they don’t fall into the same old tropes and do something… original!

But… but… but… the uniforms now have HEXAGONS on them! That’s like totally futuristic and… wait. The Section 31 uniforms from the 23rd century also had hexagons. Never mind.

I am, unfortunately a knee-jerk naysayer just because I’ve been too excited too many times and then shot down. So maybe it’s a defense mechanism. But I signed up for the full year of CBS All Access so I’d be forced to finish the season rather than quit in outrage like I did in mid-season 2.

The S3 trailer interested me, which is a good sign. Totally giving Season 3 a fair shake. At least as long as the subscription lasts. When it’s time to renew, it’ll depend on how I feel about the season at that point.

“Archer Syndrome” : I don’t know if you coined it Icon, but it’s precisely what made me stop watching Enterprise in first run.

I’ve just done a quick Googling and I think I may well have coined it in this particular application. While I pat myself on my back, I do agree with you that especially in the latter Manny Coto era the scripts became so formulaic that just about every imaginable event that led to the foundation of the Federation was suspiciously dropped into Archer’s lap. Not only does that stretch credulity, but it becomes a writing crutch. Granted, working with more than a half century of canon can drive sane people crazy but a fundamental quality of good screenwriting is to surprise the viewer. When the answer to every galactic challenge is the participation of an Archer/Burnham it’s not a script, it’s a paint by numbers set.

Of course it gets boring when “the answer to every galactic problem is the participation of Archer/Burnham” since everyone knows the correct answer is Kirk.

Never realized that about Archer at the time. I guess I rationalized it by thinking he was the first human captain out there and he brought some wonderful human quality to the table that the other races lacked.

Burnham, on the other hand, is a traitor, mutineer, and insubordinate and insolent whenever it suits her, and she gets patted on the back for it and makes speeches in front of the Federation Council about it. Evidently even the basest and most selfish human impulses are to be lauded.

I guess Star Trek has a history of the main character being the center of the universe. Disco just flips it by making a lower-grade officer the main character, but it still follows the same formula.

At least in the past, we’d get a Spock story, or a McCoy story, or a Data/Worf/Troi story. The latter usually involving mind rape or inappropriate relationships, or both. But I’d really love more of an ensemble show where everybody gets their due and nobody’s more important or mission-critical than anybody else.

It’s a Star Trek ideal that Star Trek rarely embraces.

well ds9 did the same with sisko’s actions affecting the future of the fed/starfleet during the dominion war as well as with the prophets and pah wraiths.

I don’t see that happening.

Yeah if this is the reason (Omega Particle) I’d be quite satisfied it fits well. However, this also makes the spore drive God Mode 2.0, when we were told several times they would “retire” it.

That maybe, but at the same time it also provides a vehicle (both figuratively and literally) to propel season 3 forward. There are statements made, which i can only assume by whoever is the leader of the remenants of the Federation/Starfleet/V’Draysh or whatever it is that they are called, in which he states that hope essetnailly walked thru the door in the form of Michael Burnham. It seems to me that this is a loose reference to Discovery and perhaps it’s spore drive…if this turns out to be the story. Anything is conjecture at this point. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I’ve never been a fig fan of being a slave to Trek cannon…except when it comes to the REALLY MAJOR stuff….I care about a good story that holds my interest. That’s all. Hopefully season 3 is able to do that…as the last 2 seasons did.

For example…Tyler/Voq…..while not technically plausible given what we know of Klingons and the medical logicstics of making that happen….was a great driver for L’Rell and Burnham in Season 1 and again in season 2.

Lorca…, while crossovers technically don’t work like that…was another great move in propelling story.

Lets just hope there is more stuff like that in season 3. All I’m asking for.

I don’t remember a single producer or writer said the spore drive will be retired. I read TONS of fan posts who thought the spore drive would be retired by the first or second season but every time the writers talked about it, they only said they were going to keep using it and made it clear it will be used in season 3.

Good idea. I have absolutely no faith in the producers to recognize a good idea let alone the competency to execute it.

Seconded.

Looks like they are reviving some of the story ideas from the failed animated star trek: final front that was being developed in 2000’s

Provo Dio Che caxzata

It’s a decent enough theory to hang a season on but the writers of this show are NOT smart enough or familiar enough with past Star Trek to ever pull off something that clever.
Most of the writers on ST:D have never even seen an episode of TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, or ENT. Not one. The writing of the last two seasons of Discovery proves that unequivocally.
This is ALEX KURTZMAN we’re dealing with here. He ruined Jean-Luc Picard by killing him off and making him a damn Android in 1 season.
He gave “Khan” magic blood in his 2nd movie.
He gave Spock a human half-sister never mentioned or hinted at ever in original Trek.
“The burn” is gonna be some ridiculous plot that will more than likely make no sense. Just wait and see …

Aaron, Kirsten Beyer has written something like 7 Voyager novels. She knows Voyager canon at the deepest level.

In fact, the Omega molecule drove the main plot points in at least two of her Voyager Relaunch novels.

Beyer is back in the Discovery writers room after working on Picard S1. More, she’s moving up the hierarchy and is at least a supervising producer.

So, it’s totally plausible that Beyer might have proposed the Omega molecule as a pretext for a galactic level physical disaster. She might have a few others in her canonical back pocket as well, but TrekMovie has made a good case from the hints in the trailer, that the Omega molecule is the best fit.

Aaron that isn’t true. As TG47 said, Beyer was hired because she wrote a dozen Voyager novels which are very popular in the fan base. Also in the first season of Discovery one of the writers/producers was Joe Menosky who had a hand in producing or writing over 100 episodes of Star Trek with TNG, DS9 and VOY. He was also the guy famous for including ’47’ in countless episodes in his scripts. He was probably the most prolific Star Trek writer on that show and there was so little fan fare about it. Everyone was awing and oohing over Nic Meyer being back. Unfortunately like Meyer, Menosky left the show in the second season to work on The Orville but they had writers very familiar with Star Trek early on.

Remember the guy who created Discovery, Bryan Fuller, also pretty big name in Trek fandom, but maybe the less said about him today the better.

So that’s not the issue. But they are making a new show and wanted to go their own direction, for better or for worse.

But I don’t disagree that some of their choices were bad. And yes Discovery next season could also be bad. So if you’re not happy with that show or Picard, I can’t blame you for feeling cynical. Hopefully season 3 will surprise people and be a great show but I’m prepared to be disappointed too and I liked (most) of last season at least.

While I don’t disagree with your final point, how can you say they aren’t familiar with classic Trek when their are direct connections to In a Mirror Darkly (and possibly The Tholian Web), The Cage, and The Menagerie. I still assert they mischaracterized some characters like Harry Mudd and got some major details wrong like Vulcan’s Forge being a forest and not the hottest desert, so yeah they could have done better, but the couple times they got it right they definitely got it right.

Yeah how they showed The Forge on Discovery bothered me a bit. We seen it on Enterprise and it’s the Sahara Desert times ten. ;)

I find this all very, very plausible. And I would bet that even if it isn’t Omega itself, but rather some new MacGuffin (or maybe something building off the subspace deterioration that led to the short-lived warp speed limit towards the end of TNG), the rest will be right on: Discovery, due to its unconventional propulsion, is the only, or one of the only, ships that can actually travel through space.

One thing I’d add: in one of the previews, it looked like the group with the Mega-Man style arm cannons (which included a Cardassian) just appeared out of thin air. Maybe with warp drive off the table, some faction is experimenting with Iconian-style gateways, or ultra long-range transporters (a la Trek2009), or wormhole technology (maybe inspired by the Bajoran wormhole), or spatial trajectors (which would make the Picard reference a bit of foreshadowing, which I certainly wouldn’t put past them…)

Or inter-dimensional travel, as in TNG, “The High Ground.”

The burn happens, but there are people sitting in a restraint, at the end of the universe, watching it all go down, like the Doctor and Rose watching Earth die.

Mycologist Paul Stamets describes the network as “a discreet subspace domain,” with the key word being “discreet,” allowing plenty of room for it to be immune to Omega’s impact on the rest of subspace.

Discrete.

And at the same time also discreet! Unless Spock blabbed…

Probably confessed it to I-Chaya when he traveled back in time. (Also, I enjoyed this theory article and wanted to make that clear, because my original post did not.)

But it’s also discreet. This is why nobody has ever heard of it in 50 years of Star Trek. Shhhh. It’s a secret.

Wasn’t there talk of a cartoon a few years ago with a similar premise?

See my comment above, from 9:27 this morning.

Last time Discovery used something canon it was Section 31 and they change it 100%.
Leave Voyager, DS9, TNG and ENT alone Discovery!

Agreed, Athus. Let them stay way off in the future, so they can leave what is already established, alone (ie. not screw it up).

Canon is fluid. The TOS movies violated TOS canon on occasion, as well. Trek is littered with Supreme Beings, if one of them f**ks with continuity, so be it.

Although I didn’t love how they changed Section 31, changing them wasn’t really the issue so much as the ERA they were changed in that bothered me. Again, if Discovery was a POST-Voyager show and we saw Starfleet had decided to make Section 31 more legitimate after Bashier basically outed them, then it would’ve been fine. In fact all the crazy tech they used would’ve actually made sense and having ships and starbases could’ve been a more organic development if the show was several decades post-Voyager.

But in the pre-TOS era, it made NO sense at all. I didn’t mind it that much because I just told myself this is just the show, you either accept it or don’t but yeah.

But it makes Sense. Section 31 was the ones that gave the AI Control so much Power and maybe even invented it. So its logical that Section 31 was after that happend was taken down and operated from that time on in secret.

The problem comes believing that no one is going to ever know such an agency ever existed, even a 100 years later when you have them working so close to Starfleet? And my guess is they been working this close with them since the Federation formed. You have people who was still living in both the 23rd and 24th century who would know who they are LIKE, for example, Spock.

So even if I could get over the rest of it, it still makes no sense they can be so secretive in less than a few decades knowing all the people still alive and been around them. People should know Section 31 just by reputation even if they didn’t know they were still around. And how do you make all the other species that have dealt them for so long like the Klingons to also forget them?

Imagine it’s summer 2015. Someone from the future is going to tell you: “Look, in a few years from now, we’ll have numerous new Star Trek series. One is about Spock’s stepsister Michael trekking around the galaxy on a supership driven by magic mushrooms, fighting hairless, egg-headed Klingons with two members, dealing with Vulcan Logic Extremist suicide bombers and time crystals from a Klingon monastery. And yeah, there is that Emperor from the Mirror Universe who is going to join Section 31! And in Season 3, they are going to send her to the 32nd century and remake Andromeda because the fans want to see the future!
The next show will see the return of “JL” Picard surrounded by a crew of drinking, smoking, drug-abusing, cuzzing, tattoed, money-seeking, homicidal geezers and a cool Romulan Ninja Elf on a quest to find the source of some hot walking Bitcoins created by Data’s human brother Arik. And yeah, we’re getting a third show, an in-canon animated spoof in the style of Futurama, but all-canon, all-official Star Trek! Not kidding! For real!”

How would you have reacted? Honestly, I like some aspects of NuTrek, especially the fact that finally something is happening again, but summarizing the last few years is really weird.

This made me laugh. Thank you.

I think I would have said that the future sounds awesome.

I would say you’re crazy.

Kinda puts the mess that is 2020 in perspective when you put it like that…

Quite funny.

Reminds me a bit of the alternative summary of The Wizard of Oz: “Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again.”

You can make anything sound silly with the right slant.

But again, very humorous!

How would you have reacted?

I would have said it sounded like you’ve been taking a trip on the “Lonely Starship Discovery” ;)

This could be an interesting premise. What are the super-aliens doing? Always assumed things like this were the responsibility of Organians, Trelane and Metron type civilizations. Not to mention Q. This is a TOS contemporary series, too.

Good question Kev-1.

The Q definitely have some kind of alpha-omega responsibility for the universe.

However, they aren’t omnipotent in truth, and by their own rules on interference/non-interference, they may have had to just let it happen as long as it was limited to a single galaxy.

Wasn’t there an episode of st:the next generation where going over warp 6 or 7 messed up subspace and there was a directive that said star ships maximum warp speed is limited to warp 5 or 6?

Yes but the newer Warp-Drives compensate the problem. Voyager Warp-Drive is an example of it !

Yes. The episode is called Forces of Nature and had a similar effect to the Omega particle but not as dire.

If this theory will be the truth, then I hope they mention quantum slipstream drive and explain why it was not possible to use it as replacement.

Agreed Mark.

Slipstream technology leapt to mind for me too. It’s not clear that it would also be impeded.

It may be that the Federation had decided to stick with warpdrive even if they had the slipstream technology, and others certainly do.

However, if they’ve continued to go down the technological path of warpdrive dependence, it could take some time and resources to get quantum slipstream functional.

Discovery might give them the means to communicate and bring the experts and resources together in order to bootstrap a new slipstream or other FTL drive solution.

Also, do we know that QSS tech doesn’t rely on subspace being intact? It could have the same problem as warp. Most alternative transport tech (including folding space tech), it could be argued, rely on subspace and thus be impeded.

But I do like the idea of Discovery reestablishing a connection between Federation worlds and thus helping to identify a fix. I am hoping that the disaster is recent enough (based on that one line of dialog it would imply that lightspeed limited communications haven’t confirmed the continued existence of the Federation to all former member worlds, so maybe its only been a handful of years) that the Federation, with its disaster response ongoing just hasn’t been able to test out every single potential technology – but with coordination/communication between planets, they can quickly eliminate all the techs that have been tested and eliminated as potential solutions. Yay science and the process of elimination!

The Federation doesn’t have slipstream. Even using Borg technology, the Voyager crew was never able to get it to work. If they still hadn’t figured it out by the time that the Burn happened, then they may just have never managed to perfect the technology.

Quantum-Slip-Stream-Drive needs Benamit-Crystals which are very rare and would be embattled.
So may only a few ships are equipped with that drive ( one of them is the Enterprise ;-) ).
This Setting would be a bit like the old TOS-Days with Cowboy-Diplomacy !

Quantum slipstream drive works different from a warp drive right?

Yes, it’s a different technology, and not just a variant like transwarp.

The reason why Voyager couldn’t use it was that it didn’t have the correct ship design, even if they retrofitted a slipstream engine on it. They were able to generate a slipstream corridor and use the Delta-flyer to lead the way but it was unstable.

However, it suggests that with time and research, the Federation could design slipstream suitable ships.

It’s also possible the ST:TNG S7E09 Force of Nature may also play a part in this.

No lies detected. A reasonable speculation. And fits in the lore, and makes the DASH drive and spores the only way to fly.

As with seasons 1 and 2, I suspect that fans will again be at least two steps ahead of where the show may eventually land by season’s end. There seem to be few surprises left as each season unfolds.

Well, you know. A million monkeys at a million laptops can crank out speculation that eventually hits on the truth much faster than one writers room of people can create it in the first place. :)

As much as my personal head-canon so desperately wants VOY (as well as ENT) to be nothing more than poorly written fan fiction (although, 7 of 9 was awesome in Picard), I like this premise a lot. I can see it working. So bring back the Omega Particle and let’s boldly go!

I’ve quite enjoyed DIS and PIC and look forward to more seasons with these shows.

LDS, on the other hand, has yet to make me laugh, not even a snicker, and yet the show and its characters have been growing on me, so I’m still watching and VOY and ENT remain the only Treks where I haven’t seen every episode.

It would be funny and exciting. i wrote this Idea here shortly after the season 2 final.^^

The omega molecule can destroy subspace so I think this theory has some weight to it.

The spore drive uses subspace somewhat through the mycelial network so don’t how the omega molecule can affect that.

It’s funny, just by coincidence I rewatched The Omega Directive maybe 1-2 days before the trailer was dropped. I think that would be a GREAT idea and honestly it would be nice if the conflict was just based on actual science and not another uber-villain trying to take down the Federation like the Klingons in season 1 and then Control in season 2.

Janeway said it best in that episode: “The final frontier has some boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed”. I’ve always loved that line because it’s actually contradictory in a way to what Starfleet and the Federation is about: boldly going and discovering the impossible. But then what if you just come across something that is so advanced but deadly that you have to avoid it at all costs even if the upside to its discovery could be beneficial for all?

Maybe that’s all it was. In the 31st or 32nd century, the Federation or someone else had become cocky enough to think they were now advanced to control the particle and it ended up ruining most of the galaxy instead. Maybe they were trying to create them on a vast scale to give all the Federation worlds limitless energy and it blew up in their faces. Or maybe it was just the Borg finally gotten their hands on it. But there is no need for another big convoluted story lines of more A.I. robots trying to take control of the galaxy..again; just something science based they have to work through and Discovery has the advantage of the spore drive to help them. They may not even know who caused it, it just happened and because now everything requires decades of travel that use to take days to do, they are just left in the dark of where it came from and how.

So I think this could be a fantastic idea, which means its probably not it at all lol. But if it is, I’m completely on board. But maybe they have something even better in mind. If they do great, but I just HOPE it doesn’t deal with anymore crazy A.I.s ;)

It’s funny, just by coincidence I rewatched The Omega Directive maybe 1-2 days before the trailer was dropped. I think that would be a GREAT idea and honestly it would be nice if the conflict was just based on actual science and not another uber-villain trying to take down the Federation like the Klingons in season 1 and then Control in season 2.

Janeway said it best in that episode: “The final frontier has some boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed”. I’ve always loved that line because it’s actually contradictory in a way to what Starfleet and the Federation is about: boldly going and discovering the impossible. But then what if you just come across something that is so advanced but deadly that you have to avoid it at all costs even if the upside to its discovery could be beneficial for all?

Maybe that’s all it was. In the 31st or 32nd century, the Federation or someone else had become cocky enough to think they were now advanced to control the particle and it ended up ruining most of the galaxy instead. Maybe they were trying to create them on a vast scale to give all the Federation worlds limitless energy and it blew up in their faces. Or maybe it was just the Borg finally gotten their hands on it. But there is no need for another big convoluted story lines of more A.I. robots trying to take control of the galaxy..again; just something science based they have to work through and Discovery has the advantage of the spore drive to help them. They may not even know who caused it, it just happened and because now everything requires decades of travel that use to take days to do (which as stated, that also includes communication), they are just left in the dark of where it came from and how.

So I think this could be a fantastic idea, which means its probably not it at all lol. But if it is, I’m completely on board. But maybe they have something even better in mind. If they do great, but I just HOPE it doesn’t deal with anymore crazy A.I.s ;)

Remember they made Talosian world off limits on pain of death.

I think you were one of the first people here to suggest the Omega connection, so congratulations if you turn out to be right ;)

In the 31st or 32nd century, the Federation or someone else had become cocky enough to think they were now advanced to control the particle and it ended up ruining most of the galaxy instead. Maybe they were trying to create them on a vast scale to give all the Federation worlds limitless energy and it blew up in their faces.

Great suggestion. It would also explain why the Federation are regarded as villains by the time of “Calypso”.

Just for fun, here are some more ideas on what might happen. Expanding on something I wrote on another thread:

None of the Discovery crew are Starfleet flag officers. Saru’s apparent rise to the captainship has obviously happened in unusual circumstances too. Which means that none of them actually know about the Omega particle or the “Omega Directive”. Also, Burnham has apparently been taking trips back in time before the 32nd century to try to identify the event triggering The Burn, with no success.

So…maybe the triggering event actually happens in *the future* and involves some combination of Omega particles, the Discovery’s spore drive and/or Burnham’s time-travelling suit. They were using this tech to try to get back to the 23rd century. Something goes badly wrong, and the destructive effects impact time as well as space — in this case, killing the galaxy’s warp drive capabilities in the past too (some point between the 25th century and the 32nd century). Burnham is accidentally responsible, so “The Burn” really does refer to her name along with whatever disaster happened in the past.

In S3, Burnham and the gang unknowingly set these events in motion — or they eventually find evidence of their involvement “the first time it happened” and try to do it differently this time, realising that their actions would change history and save the Federation (and the rest of the galaxy) in the past as well as “the present”. The bittersweet twist: Burnham is left behind in a future that’s about to be overwritten, or she actually dies while successfully sending the rest of the Discovery crew home. But she willingly sacrifices her own life either way.

I may have been the first to mention the Omega particle theory here but I read that theory from other people on a different site beforehand; I didn’t think of it myself first. But I really liked the idea a lot.

And I love your theory personally, that somehow Burnham and the Discovery crew were the ones to cause the burn in the first place. It’s really original but we both can hear the groans from all the Burnham critics that will say the story is all about her again. Even for me in season 2, part of the story put me off a little because it was all about her family and of course she and her mother both ended up being the Red Angel and all of that. I didn’t hate the fact it was them so much as I was just wanting something a little more mysterious and imaginative in itself.They built the Red Angel up literally to the point an entire colony of people built a religion around it. But hey it got the show into the far future, so whatever.

I think many would love the part where she dies at the end though lol. I LIKE Burnham, I have my issues with her but overall she’s fine. I never had a big issue with any of the characters, but I can say that about every show from TOS-ENT. I generally liked them all.

I do think there will be another time travel angle to stop it though and the DIS crew will be involved to try and stop it from happening the first time. But knowing this group that will probably be another twist involved in itself. And your theory could end up being true since they seem to love having the ship in the center of their stories.

28 days to Season 3…..🙏💕

A theory that happens to fit the facts.

The Omega molecule hypothesis definitely sounds right. What an exciting story line!!!

I like that the writers felt The Bern and took a hard left.

Seriously, as much as I am looking forward to seeing DISCO S3 begin (I really am. I don’t like Lower Decks.), I really hate that we may never see conclusions to some interesting stories:
– Star Trek CSI Investigation into Mirror Lorca & Prime Lorca
– Did Mirror Lorca arrive in prime space, and destroy USS Burma to claim Prime Lorca’s identity?
– Is prime Lorca still alive? Are there any Buran survivors anywhere?
– What caused ML to appear in prime continuity?
– Did ML plan to do the 133 spore drive jumps to truly beat the Klingon cloak or did he do it to get more network data to finally use the spore drive to jump back to the Mirror continuity? He had to have planned much of this out as he was always so many steps ahead of everyone.
– Would love to see the impact of a Star Fleet filled with fear of A.I. trying to manage revised AI policy, A.I. Integration, tech advancement and starship design with minimal machine learning, and internal security moving forward.
– Has Lorca been expunged from Star Fleet history? What happens if Prime Lorca shows up at SF HQ?
– Those really cool Klingon crystals … there could be a thousand stories there. Will we see them crop up again? Maybe the Disco crew uses them in the future?
– I want to see more L’Rell as chancellor of the Klingon high council.
– I want to see more ethnic branches and more houses of the Klingon empire. Where is the house of Mog?
– Star Trek ought to just do a Klingon Game Of Thrones show. “ST: Blood, Wine & Honor”.
– I still say that Star Trek ought to do a show focused on Star Fleet / Federation politics and HQ intrigue, all shown from inside SF HQ. A terrestrial series. Then we can see how the suits manage Federation (or fail to do so as compared to the efforts of the very valiant front line captains and their crews who are the face of the Fed.). And we can see how / why so many corrupt leaders and admirals and spies end up in SF / The Fed.

Some of these questions could be answered in Strange New Worlds since they will literally be replacing Discovery in the same time period. This can also apply to Section 31 if that show really happens and also take place in the 23rd century.

And Jason Issacs hinted recently he could be coming back, so you never know.

I hope so.

I really hate when absolutely intriguing and once critical plot threads are left to dangle in an enterally forgotten state. It simply reinforces the notion that those threads were nothing more than expedient plot service tools for the writers; versus well-planned narrative elements for which there are full and fleshed arcs created to satisfy a hungry audience that the writers truly respect.

I hate ignored plot threads as much as I hate plot armored characters that always save the day after a long, preachy monologue. Thank goodness we don’t get that in DISCO!

Sorry for the snark.

I agree of course and yes that is the issue when you create serialized stories, you create a lot of plot threads that can go ignored. Discovery answered the biggest stuff both seasons so I’m generally happy where they left it off UNLIKE Picard where I felt they just left too much in the air and I mean the big story lines as well. But these things happen of course and even the old shows. I STILL want to know what happened with Tom Riker and if he ever got out of that Cardassian prison or not lol. You Would THINK Riker or Troi would care a little bit. Just throw out a line in season 2 of Picard, its NOT THAT HARD!!!!!!

Anyway, I wouldn’t get my hopes up all of this will be answered obviously but if they are going back t the 23rd century with SNW, I have to imagine some of these will be brought up, especially all the A.I. stuff. Lorca will just depend if Issacs comes back or not. And it may not be anytime soon, but I have a feeling they will find a way to bring him back eventually.

BTW … has anyone heard if there will be new Short Treks for S3 of DISCO? I feel like there will not be any new ones this year. Though my feels are very uninformed – full disclosure.

But you know what would be nice? If they used a few Short Treks to tie up dangling threads periodically.

Ok I am done. The Bern has Left the Quadrant.

No I don’t think so. It sounds like no new Short Treks this season. And with DIS less than a month away they would be talking it up about now.

From what Kurtzman said, there hadn’t been an order for a third Short Trek season (filmed after Discovery S3 and Picard S1).

However, he seemed hopeful that the series Emmy nomination for Short Treks season two would make the case for more.

When one recognizes that their main competitor, Quibi, is in financial difficulties because it only does shorts, it makes sense for CBS>>Paramount to keep a toe dipped in that niche of the market.

I’m sure they’ll do more Short Treks next year. They seem to come out between seasons of Discovery, so I’m sure we’ll hear more about it as Season 3 comes to a close. Also, if Short Treks wins an Emmy this weekend, I’m sure they’ll rush an announcement about “Season 3 of the Emmy-winning Short Treks series”!

It seems to be one of the most annoying features of serialized “mystery box” shows.

Credible alternative issues and “red herrings” need to be presented to the audience, but if they are well enough done to really be plausible alternatives, then they are often left dangling and unresolved.

Novelists seem to be able to avoid this because they plot things out tightly or go back and rewrite until they make it all work. Television writers though are trying to still get away with drafting scripts while production has started. It’s not working for me.

Hi TG47…. Thanks for your reply. Not sure if you will see this as I am getting back to you several days after Sept 19.

None the less, I agree with what you’ve stated.

I think I might send a note to the Star Trek writers to ask them to consider using one or two short treks per season to wrap up loose ends that have been ignored.

Might not do any good, but you never know what will happen until you go out on a limb and try.

Last week, I sent a note to the writers that was seen by a verified star “The Expanse” … she agreed with my statement… and she then asked the ST writers to seriously consider it.

This is truth.

Ask and it shall be given (Matt 7-7).

Thanks!

Eh, I don’t know. Sounds like a very Kurtzman-y plot device: take something minimally familiar and blow it up. A lot can happen in 800 years, but given how aggressive the omega directive was it doesn’t seem plausible that anyone could make that many molecules. This it ends up making Discovery the most important ship ever, just like Burnham is the chosen one. Besides, there was enough progress in transwarp and slipstream tech to overcome an omega explosion by the 32nd century.

I get the feeling this may all just be too much for some audiences to follow. Some may just end up just not caring anymore and turn away. It’s a lot to process. I know some fans just felt Discovery had too many characters. That the ending of season 2 was such a whirlwind of explosions and plot points that they became numb. Finally swearing those left behind from Discovery to secrecy was just too convenient a reset button.
I will keep an open mind, one step at a time.

I imagine you can find a lot of viewers who think that taking a “hard left” can, indeed, destroy civilizations. 😀 It has in the past.

I don’t agree with this hypothesis. Alex Kurtzman would never make Star Trek into something which shows a dystopian future (just like every other sci fi show in 2020). All of his iterations of Star Trek have remained faithful to Gene Roddenberry’s bright future of humanity.
That was the mirror universe Kurtzman, I’m talking about. The one in this universe doesn’t know how to make Star Trek hopeful.

hopeful but not without struggle.

Might explain the Bajoran influence on the insignia – their solar sail ships suddenly become more important

Oh, interesting. Solar sail is a slow way to travel, but it doesn’t rely on subspace.

The Burn… whoa … STD really is addressing the topical issue of STDs. No but seriously, THE BURN could be a cagey way for Kurtzman to decry the threat of climate change during promotional interviews- and this season of Disco could grapple with climate change as epically as past seasons of Disco and Picard left us gutted and shattered about Brexit. Well played, Mr. Kurtzman; this is why you are the resident Groppler of Santa Monica.

So, your theory is that the Discovery writers mined Trek history to find the-extremest-extreme-thing-that-ever-extremed so that they could retcon it in support of their universe-rending apocalypse moment in which the very existence of space-time as we know it depends upon what Michael Burnham had for breakfast?

Yeah- sounds like them.

But when no one can warp around, no one can reach another planet in time to have any conflicts.
So whats the point of a federation?

Temporal.
Cold.
War.

You picked the right substance, but the wrong Canon Trek.

Love the (conspiracy) theory. GO AHEAD!

in case someone didnt say it already..I think its more likely the Burn comes from micheal BURNham.
the whole season is about the lost federation is her fault and obviously she is the only person to fix it. because burnham is like superman.