The following analysis discusses the third season of Discovery and contains potential spoilers.
On Thursday Star Trek: Discovery returns in an entirely new setting. The show has jumped forward to the late 32nd century via a time travel wormhole opened up at the end of season two. This new era has been touted as taking the show to where canon has not gone before, and for the most part that is true. This analysis takes a look at what we know about the setting to season three and how that might fit in with what canon has established about out Trek’s future history.
Discovery is going “beyond canon”
At NYCC last week co-showrunner Michelle Paradise said moving the show from the 23rd century into 32nd puts the show “beyond canon.” It certainly sets the show well beyond any previous Trek series. The TNG-era shows (Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager) and movies were set in the mid-to-late 24th century (as is the new animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks). The first season of Star Trek: Picard is the latest, set in 2399.
Discovery season three takes us to 3188, almost eight hundred years later. As Paradise said last week, this is “some really fresh snow” for them to play in. However, she also noted, “while we are going past it, we also have to honor everything that came before.” Obviously, Discovery cannot ignore the rich history laid out from the 22nd through to the end of the 24th century, and in fact, we know that it will explore at least one element, specifically the Trill (see a previous analysis for our prediction on how that will play out).
Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Book (David Ajala) in Discovery season three character image
But Star Trek canon has also established some of the future history between the 25th and 32nd century, and beyond, especially coming from time travel elements from Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise. There are few elements of this that we think are worth discussing, including ideas that fans have suggested could play a part in season three.
The Federation thrives for centuries
It has been confirmed that by 3188 the United Federation of Planets, the unifying multi-planetary organization at the heart of the Star Trek franchise, is “much diminished,” with the stated goal for of season three “trying to bring it back.” However this state of affairs “didn’t happen because of the Federation collapsed in on itself because of disagreement or strife,” but due to an external event called “The Burn” (see a previous analysis for our theory on that).
According to Kurtzman, until this “cataclysm,” The Federation “was as strong as ever.”And Star Trek’s future history bears this out. Via time travel, Enterprise’s Captain Archer witnessed a 26th century with a powerful Federation that included Klingons and Xindi serving onboard a USS Enterprise-J. (ENT “Azati Prime“) The Federation was still going strong in the 29th century, by which time Starfleet even included “timeships,” operated by the Temporal Integrity Commission which was tasked with protecting the timeline. (VOY “Relativity“)
29th-century Starfleet officers on the USS Relativity
Time travel was commonplace by 31st century
Time travel has been part of Star Trek since The Original Series, but through to the 24th century, it was something usually presented as difficult. By the 28th century time travel became a political problem until the signing of an interstellar Temporal Accord, where the Federation and others agreed to not use time travel to alter history. (ENT “Cold Front“)
However, not all adhere to these accords, and some factions engaged in a Temporal Cold War, including Federation Temporal Agents based in the year 31st, where it was said that the fundamentals of time travel were taught in high school. (ENT “Shockwave, Part II“)
Michelle Paradise alluded to the Temporal Cold War when asked about why they specifically chose to jump forward 930 years for the new season, saying “There are some stories in Enterprise where there is some time travel-y stuff, and this takes us beyond.” Based on what we have seen of season three and these canon events, it’s a good guess that “The Burn” happened sometime around the dawn of the 32nd Century, plus or minus a few decades.
The issue of commonplace time travel is also important. The crew of the USS Discovery are jumping into the future to get the sphere data stored in the Discovery away from Section 31’s Control AI. The method they are using is a “red angel” time travel suit, but it is presented as a one-way trip, so it’s likely the suit won’t be able to take them back. Once the Discovery is safely in the 31st century they will have to establish a reason for the crew to stay, especially if all they need to do is ask the nearest high school student for a lift home.
It does look like they will take on the mission of restoring the Federation, but actors and showrunners have talked about the trauma the crew face leaving everything behind. Surely some will want to return, at least after they get the Federation back up on its feet. So perhaps “The Burn” has somehow prevented time travel, or at least made it far less commonplace.
31st-century Time Agent Daniels observing the timeline
The Doctor’s backup is also around in the 31st century
There is another piece of 31st century Star Trek history to consider and that is the fate of Voyager’s Emergency Medical Hologram. Or more specifically, the backup for The Doctor. Around the year 3074 (114 years ahead of Discovery’s arrival), a backup module of The Doctor was activated in a museum on a planet in the Delta Quadrant. (VOY “Living Witness“)
After helping resolve some issues between two warring races on that planet, he was given a vessel to find his way home to the Alpha Quadrant. Assuming time estimates are right, it appears “The Burn” is not a galaxy-wide phenomenon, so it’s entirely reasonable he made it back in time for the Discovery to show up, possibly decades ahead of them.
We know that actor Robert Picardo is game to play the character again, he said so in his most recent TrekMovie interview, giving no hint if he had actually already shot something. However, we don’t rate a Doctor appearance as very likely. While the 31st-century timing creates a thread of a connection, it’s hard to see a story reason to bring in this version of the Doctor. If Discovery’s creative team really wanted a Picardo cameo, there is no reason why the original Doctor’s program (who returned to the Alpha Quadrant in the 24th century) couldn’t be around in the 32nd century in some form. And if they wanted a witness to Federation history, the original would be the better choice. Although, we have already suggested another character could be even better at providing that exposition.
The Backup EMH in a 31st-century museum
Craft and the V’draysh are in the far future
Another bit of future history fans have been pondering is when the USS Discovery was found abandoned by the future soldier named Craft. At this point, the ship was being run by an AI named Zora who claimed the ship had been sitting empty for a thousand years (Short Treks “Calypso“). Based on all of that, these events seem to be into the far, far future, possibly even the 42nd century or beyond.
But there are still things to glean. It appears that the ship remains functional for quite some time, so even though the USS Discovery is essentially an antique relic when it arrives in the 32nd century, it isn’t going to be scrapped or destroyed. And with co-creator Alex Kurtzman talking about “years” of Discovery to come, it’s not likely we will see the ship be abandoned by this crew in season three… it is in the name of the show after all. Then again, there are always other letters in the alphabet.
More significantly Craft spoke of a war from his time involving a group called the “V’draysh.” Writer Michael Chabon later indicated the “V’draysh” was a term in that time for the Federation, although that isn’t strictly canon. But if the Discovery team chose to treat it as such, it could be that following “The Burn” at least in some parts of the galaxy The Federation changed and evolved, even to the point where it wasn’t even called The Federation anymore.
Aldis Hodge as Craft in on the USS Discovery in the far future
What say you?
The season 3 premiere of Star Trek: Discovery arrives on Thursday. Are there other elements of future Star Trek history you think may play into season three? Let us know in the comments below.
OK here’s the thing. If time travel was so common place before the Burn, and time travel that can go both forward and backward, shouldn’t those guys have found out something is going to happen, and try to prevent it from happening in the first place?
That would probably be a violation of the Temporal Accords.
Do the Temporal Accords matter if the very existence of the Federation and the well-being of galactic affairs itself is at stake? Even the Prime Directive is not THAT rigid. This is a galactic emergency.
Whatever the burn is, it probably isn’t as bad as an all out temporal war would be. If the Federation starts changing history to suit themselves, then every other temporal power will do the same. We got a brief taste of what a temporal war would look like in the WWII episode of Enterprise, and it wasn’t pretty.
The interesting question is, in all the talk so far the focus has been on the Federation only. The Burn however sounds like a fundamental alteration of physical reality that should affect ALL great powers equally. Or do Klingons, Romulans and Carcassians have all switched to non-subspace based propulsion in the meantime and the smartest of the Federation couldn’t figure out a remedy in the decades since?
The temporal powers exist across time. How would the Suliban benefactor in the 29th century react if the Federation altered history? Or powers from beyond the 32nd century, in an era after Discovery has helped to restore the galaxy?
OK – so if time travellers before the Burn have seen not just the Burn happening but it being corrected by time travelling St. Michael & Gang a few decades afterwards, maybe they wouldnt deem it necessary to interfere further. However, isn’t that time travel of Discovery that fixes the Burn in the end (we assume) then in itself a violation of Temporal Records?
Its probably fine, because they are only changing their future, not their past. Plus, the Federation hadn’t signed the Accords yet when Discovery left.
Thats an interesting rationale. However, probably moot anyway since the writers won’t bother with all the fine print and deep thoughts anyway. I remember the intricate theories we came up with about the nature of Control and the future AIs in Picard, even tieing in the Temporal Cold War of Enterprise, and in the end it was really just the simplistic “Evil wants to destroy all life in the galaxy” again!
Maybe there is some time-travel barrier how far in time you can get forward and backward, just like there is the light barrier (circumvented by the theory of warp, black holes, etc.). In fact there exists theory that, if there would exist a time machine or some kind of device which lets you jump in time, you can’t get past the time before that device existed. Time travel in one direction by time dilation is already proven.
In Star Trek we have seen time travel forward and backward but we never saw them making big jumps in time (except on the finale of TNG where Q had the power to send them back far away into the past and the Guardian of forever). So they have the ability to travel back and forward in time, but it is very limited according to the age of the universe.
Arguably, the very time suit they employed in Discovery though provided the biggest time jump ever *forward* (900 years) while Daniels & Co. also must have jumped forward several centuries every time after they jumped back since they did not get stuck in the past (save for Braxton of the Relativity).
If the Burn indeed occured only a few decades before the time Disovery jumps to, and the Federation indeed was thriving until right before the Burn, time travel and all, then they wouldnt need to go forward centuries to see the issue, and even Discovery’s fix of it, since that would surely occur within the series’ runtime (i.e.,within the next 5 years max)
It is already obvious that their time travel might have caused the BURN(ham) or some incident caused by the use of the time travel suit by Michael or her mother. So we might have another “cause=effect” situation here solved by the reset button and the end of the season.
Oh yeah, Discovery thinking of having saved the universe with the almighty God of Technology, only to create a new galactic calamity of nature striking back – that would be both ironic and hilarious (without an explicit reset button). Given our previous experience, not sure Colonel Kurtz & Gang would showcase such depth though :)
Ha, the Kurtz reference just made me think, “I see Burnham … crawling … on a straight razor, inching … it’s my dream, she’s my nightmare.”
Kurtz had a good intention in spite of his madness in the Coppola film … I wouldn’t go that far with Kurtzman on the intentions.
Thanks DaveCGN.
I was thinking that it was just too coincidental that The Burn happened shortly before the outer limit of mama Burnham’s excessive time travel searches across the multiverse.
Burnham made a very specific calculation in the S2 finale: her mother said she had travelled back 950 years from her base on Terralysium so Burnham subtracted the 20 years that had passed since the Klingon attack on the S31 research outpost to arrive at a 930 jump.
For sure, trying to explain all this to Janeway, all that is happening in Discovery Season 3, will quickly give her a headache. =D
Makes sense to me. We already know that an untrained and inexperienced time traveler could accidentally blow up the Sol system in Future’s End.
I’m just re-watching that episode to get maybe some hints…
What if the burn caused tachyons to be scattered which blocked the temporal sensors that these time agencies use to scan time, maybe that’s why they couldn’t have prevented it.
A time travel barrier wouldn’t make sense. The Discovery has travelled from the 23rd century to the 31st. The burn has to occur after the 25th century so that would be a shorter time jump. Violating the temporal accords or not having the scientific capability to correct the problem would be more credible solution to rule out time travel. That’s assuming of course that the plot doesn’t actually involve more time travel.
Just like a galatic barrier wouldn’t make sense? ;-) Of course this is only a suggestion but one could ask why they only do time travel inside that short time frame. Just like they rarely came out of the galaxy due to a Warp10 barrier or something like that. Some writer could come with that idea afterward.
Sure you could make up a reason that prevented time travel but it doesn’t make sense to say that the jump is too long when it’s shorter than the time distance they travelled in the first place. Now I know you pointed out that it’s been suggested in the real world that it wouldn’t be possible to travel back to a point earlier than the time machine existed but we’re talking about a fictional universe and that ship has already sailed.
Of course we are talking about a fictional show with its own rules but in that show they only did time travel within short frames. My idea was that the writers could invent a reason why time travel doesnt work to fix that events or that it is limited. What about a rule that jumping too far into the past could have too grave consequences to calculate and therefore is avoided by all species?
That the writers could invent a rule that prevents the use of time travel to solve the problem is very credible, I just don’t think that the idea that it’s too far in the past would be a practical barrier from what we’ve seen historically in Trek. That’s just my opinion of course and for all I know they may go and do exactly that. Your idea that they might have a rule about travelling so far back because of the difficulties of essentially managing the butterfly effect I do like.
It’s also possible that whatever caused the Burn may be whatever Star Trek’s equivalent of “fixed point in time (to use Doctor Who Parlance)” might be.
Fixed points in time — i.e. the same across the multiverse, are in fact the definition of a time crystal in physics.
The physical time crystals in Discovery seem to be some kind of physical form that contains that possible fixed event.
Once removed from Borath, the point becomes fixed (in this case Pike’s fate) while the medium of the crystal can enable travel across time anchored by that fixed point.
That’s why time travel stories at the end of the day are a bad story telling concept. Why not go back in time and save everyone?!?
This has been mentioned over and over again, because there is a temporal prime directive that makes it clear you CAN’T do that.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Temporal_Prime_Directive
You ask this over and over again and there is a canon reason for it for decades now.
But Tiger, its equally bad storytelling to say you can’t do this and that because a fictitious in-universe rule says so (that even the bad guys inside and outside Starfleet adhere to? Section 31? Romulans?) It’s the same level as the “solution” that Discovery and Burnham were not mentioned in any other shows because Starfleet redacted it and Spock lied. Ultimately it’s a narrative cop-out because it goes beyond disbelief nobody would ever act against it.
And are we really going to belief countless Starfleet captains have flat-out violated the Prime Directive to save other civilizations, but the Federation wouldn’t violate it to save itself, not believing its survival is a net benefit for the galaxy, even going ad aspera ad astra? If that is the reason, maybe it didn’t deserve to survive then.
Obviously we seen people violate the temporal prime directive as much as the basic prime directive, so I’m not really arguing with you. Kirk apparently broke it 17 times lol. But thats what creates the drama obviously. I’m only saying they just don’t ALLOW anyone to go back in time and save their son from dying or something. They have rules against it and most will abide by them. Questions like if the Federation would go back in time and save itself, well it has lol. In First Contact as an example. But I guess you mean if it just broke down in a normal way. I guess it will depend on the situation but at least based on the little we know about Discovery in season 3 no one seems to try and do that to save it.
But time travel has been part of Star Trek literally since its first season. There is really no way to change it now unless you go back in time and stop those episodes from being written. ;) But you can’t just ignore it and Star Trek does some amazing time travel stories so I want them to continue. We wouldn’t have season 3 of Discovery without it, right?
The Most thing will Give Discovery a Crossover with other Past Trek Shows in the Prime Timeline would actually be Danile of Temporal investigation (star Trek Enterprise) and USS Relativity(Star Trek Voyager) that will help change things in the 32end Century by going back to a point in history where the Great Burn happen and Try to Prevent it witch I think it was Braxtin who did it all because of Voyager and the Federation locked him up !!!
Um……… what? I have no idea what you were just trying to write.
tying braxton with daniels and using it to re set the timeline so the ‘burn’ never happens.
Or the attempt at prevent or reset the “burn”(ham) leads to the “burn”.
Punctuation. Spelling. Paragraphs.
I don’t know what it is with the current crop of Star Trek writers wanting everything to be dystopian. Even though they were in the 23rd and 24th century Discovery and Picard had a subtle dystopian motif to them. Now it sounds like they’ve intentionally jumped forward in time enough so that they can go full dystopian.
Star Trek has always played sort of within the current climate of World Affairs.
TOS a 60s show through and through. It all screams 60s with the mini skirts and the the eccentric colours.
TNG started off 80s and then fully embraced the 90s look and feel I guess.
Maybe the reason Trek is darker is just simply down to how society currently is feeling. You look at last ten years in particular and it really does feel like endless crisis keep affecting us all. Its no wonder entertainment has become a lot more darker and serious all around.
I never felt Picard was ‘dystopian’. The Federation was just as bustling as before. They showed Earth for three straight episodes, nothing about it felt ‘dystopian’. I think people just throw this word around anytime they see conflict within the Federation. The Federation is an ideal society but its still not perfect.
In Picard the two questionable things we saw them do was ban synths and not help the Romulans, which both of those were spurred by the attacks on Mars. But I don’t think either one affected the typical Federation citizen though. We didn’t see people being jailed because they were suspected of harboring synth technology. There were no draconian laws introduced or any freedoms reverted.
But the reality is the alpha quadrant had seen some bad stuff happen to it with the Dominion war and then Romulus being wiped out. So changes happened but nothing I describe as dystopian, but simply a reality that changes were happening beyond the Federation control and they had to adapt to those changes. Darker yes, but not dystopian.
And something people seem to miss is the Federation has a much closer relationship to the Romulans than they ever had in their history. Clearly Romulans still have to be Romulans though lol and probably destroyed whatever break through they were having the second it’s revealed they were responsible for the Mars attack but yeah.
Discovery however I do think is a bit more complicated but obviously a lot those issues were due to war with the Klingons.
ST:PIC had Jean Luc going from hope in the future and trust in the Federation to believing it had become morally corrupt and going downhill. Also there seemed to be a lot of complaining on ST:PIC.
OK, but in the end that didn’t turn out to be the case right? They lifted the synth ban once they realized it was the Romulans who corrupted them in the first place. Hell they even protected the synth planet from being destroyed by the Romulans EVEN THOUGH their very existence was still illegal and they were trying to bring some evil A.I.s into the galaxy that planned to wipe out biological life once they came. Instead that was utterly ignored and they were all given their freedom anyway.
I’m not saying Picard wasn’t a darker show, but to call it dystopian seems wildly off the mark to me but you’re not the first one here to say it was either.
True, but I don’t think that final scene changed the tone of the show enough.
Also, not dystopian environmentally, but there also seemed to be a lot of what I like to call amateur “CW drama” (i.e. arguing and complaining amongst the main characters equals drama).
I guess we’ll have to see if S2 improves in some way after they fixed the
Federation at the end of S1, or if the writers can’t imagine something better.
But that’s NOT what dystopia is though. Your example is literally what I said in my OP and that ANY internal conflict (or arguing) seems to imply that for some people which I think its odd. It implies the complete opposite for me and that is how a real democracy works.
One of the things that has always bothered me about the Federation is that ironically it came off very monolithic for a society made up over 100 different cultures and planets but everyone seem to agree on everything. You saw a few minor disputes in TOS and TNG between Kirk or Picard dealing with an admiral but overall everyone was on the same page. But that’s just not how a democracy works, we see it all the time in our own governments. Yes our governments are not as progressive as the Federation but that doesn’t imply everyone will come to the same agreement no matter what the issue is either.
DS9 was really the first show to show a real divide at times but even then the Federation stayed united. We saw real division in Picard over the Romulan issue and I think that was just realistic given the circumstances.
What would’ve made it dystopian in my view if the Federation just used the Romulan situation as an excuse to clamp down on its own citizens, strip away civil liberties in the name of national security, limit or track their movements, etc. The only thing they did was ban synth making and research which I agree was bad and MAYBE you can argue morally wrong, but it didn’t make the Federation into some dark place where individualism, progress or civil liberties was stymied.
I’m not sure dystopian is that specific, but I got the impression Picard, Raffi, and Seven of Nine thought the Federation was heading in that direction. The first time the show really seemed to push out a utopian feel was during the parts at Riker’s house. Everything else seemed like it all about working around this injustice or that injustice from their own society.
I agree they didn’t make it into a full blown thought police dystopia, but there’s a big “utopian” difference between the early shows where the bad guys were mostly from individuals or groups operating outside the federation and then ST:Picard where the heroes were a rag-tag group their sneaking around behind their government’s back almost.
“I’m not sure dystopian is that specific, but I got the impression Picard, Raffi, and Seven of Nine thought the Federation was heading in that direction. The first time the show really seemed to push out a utopian feel was during the parts at Riker’s house. Everything else seemed like it all about working around this injustice or that injustice from their own society.”
Ok, that’s fair and I agree. In fact that’s one of the things why Picard is such a popular character, because he believes very strongly in the values of the Federation but he has seen MANY people who suppose to believe in those same values bend or ignore them when its convenient enough and he’s the one who has to remind others of that. That’s one of the things this show got RIGHT IMO but it still didn’t go far enough. And I also liked they gave Seven that angle too but Seven was always a bit cynical. ;) But I wish we got more of that on the show and Picard pushing back on where he thought the Federation was heading, which was down a dark path.
I also think that’s why Pike became so popular on Discovery because he is basically Picard in a different package and you saw that constantly on Discovery. You saw him headbutting with Section 31 all the time but I would’ve loved to see him in first season even more considering the Federation was doing some pretty questionable things there too.
People like Picard and Pike are basically idealists in what is already suppose to be an ideal future, but I guess you can still be too idealistic at times. ;).
For the record, I’m not arguing with you that the shows didn’t present the Federation in a moral conflict with itself, especially Discovery in season one. I’m not excusing all their actions or pretend the shows presented an optimistic view of the future, that’s clearly not true either. But when people use the word dystopia, that implies a system that is just broken on every level, where injustice or suffering can’t be remedied through the system in place now. Where democracy has been overturned. That’s what dystopia is, ie, the government or system itself has to be overturned to stop these issues from continuing.
That’s why when you read or watch extreme stuff like Hunger Games or The Handsmaid Tale, it’s implicit the problems exist because that is the belief of the government that runs society and the ONLY way that can change is by taking down the government itself. There is rarely a middle option. It’s usually all or nothing.
But nothing is ever remotely suggested like that in Star Trek. Basically all that happens is that they realize they are doing something wrong (or someone went rogue lol), they own up to their mistakes and its corrected within the government. That is the system actually WORKING, it’s just not always a perfect system either that’s all. But no system is including the Federation.
Which is how our society is presently. Everyone wants to complain about everything and whine.
I think what they mean is the SHOW Picard is dystopian, not necessarily the Federation. It’s what they purposefully choose to highlight and feature in this show – commercial captains outside Starfleet, shady non-Federation worlds, the mayhem and violence in the former Neutral Zone, that makes the show dystopian. It’s the same as Discovery literally presented us two choices, two paths in its pilot: the glorious adventures of the Starfleet starship Shenzhou and its wise philosopher-captain Georgiou, or the darkness of the secret experimental vessel Discovery led by a Mirror Universe killer caught up in the horrors of an all-out interstellar war. And they chose the Dystopia, literally killed off the Utopia. So I fully agree with that assessment. It’s a choice they made, and Chabon literally announced it when he said the Federation needs to be “probed” in his mind and his stories are about DEconstruction.
No doubt LDS is the first Kurtzmen era show that qualifies as proper Utopian Star Trek, and hopefully – hopefully – SNW will follow!
But unless the whole Section 31 show is going to be set between seasons 2 and 3, isn’t Georgieu (sp.?) going to have to go back in time?
The way things are going, I wouldn’t be surprised at yet another blank slate at the end of this season, with all of them going back to, say, 2400 and Picard’s era.
It seems to be some rumors out there the Section 31 show may be time travel related. JUST rumors obviously but if true then Georgiou doesn’t have to go back to the 23rd century or anything.
Kurtzman keeps saying that the S31 series will be located geographically somewhere we haven’t seen before.
So, the where is very nonobvious, not just the when.
Wait what?!?! I thought Discovery was going to show up in the future 1000 years too early and then be rediscovered by her crew dealing with returning the ““V’draysh” to the ways of the Federation. Whoa, crazy that Craft is in the future yet that Discovery’s efforts won’t fully restore the Federation (and that we know the ship with AI will be abandoned!)
Gary Seven also had a cat. Just sayin’.
It’s definitely something to consider.
If so, there may be an additional surprise human cast member to come.
I know it won’t happen but would LOVE to see Daniels show up again in the 32nd century. It could still happen, especially if there a time travel component but I feel the burn won’t be time related.
I do feel we will see Craft again though. I remember one of the producers said they will eventually tie Discovery with Calypso. It doesn’t mean it will be this season or that we will even see Craft but it will be curious to see how they do it. I’m more convinced Craft met Zora and Discovery in the 42nd century or even farther out.
Nothing of what we have seen as the future might have happened. I don’t understand why people see everything that we have seen in Star Trek about their future as if that is set in stone. Time travel works in Star Trek in a way that it can change and influence the timeline. Therefore the future is not fixed.
Good point.
“People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey–wimey stuff.”
-The Doctor
What about the reappearance of whatever V’ger became when it joined with the captain in the first movie from 1979❓