[+] Star Trek Discovery (Fan) Thread

[Vael]

S3E3: People of Earth

Solid episode, very Trek. First impression, Adira is interesting, we'll see. Human carrying a Trill symbiont and long term? And from such a young age, definitely an interesting character concept.

I really liked Tilly and Burnham's reunion scene, I'd missed seeing them interact.

 

[MarkB]

I liked that they showed that Burnham's not going to be able to just drop back into place with the crew after a year away from them.

So, the Spore Drive's formal name is the Displacement Activated Spore Hub Drive? Or, presumably, DASH Drive for short. That's really cute.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

That name was actually given in the first season. But it's almost never used, as Stamets points out.

 

[Hussar]

I liked the episode, but, then, I'm easy to please.

They are leaning HARD into the Andromeda plot lines. Which is fine, they are pretty cool plot lines, but, it does make the show a bit repetitive for me who watched Andromeda. Although, to be fair, it's a bit different this time around. Andromeda was this incredibly powerful warship. Discovery is not, at all.

So, over arching plot theorizing. All dilithium blows up at the same time. That has to be some form of sabotage. There's no way that's natural. But, it would make sense that the Federation would fall apart so badly. Every star system would be cut off almost instantly throughout the Federation and Klingon Empire. The Romulans might have avoided it, but, they are very far away, and, that far into the future, they might have integrated dilithium into their space ships anyway.

This would make a fantastic era to RPG in. So open.

 

[MarkB]

I liked the episode, but, then, I'm easy to please.

They are leaning HARD into the Andromeda plot lines. Which is fine, they are pretty cool plot lines, but, it does make the show a bit repetitive for me who watched Andromeda. Although, to be fair, it's a bit different this time around. Andromeda was this incredibly powerful warship. Discovery is not, at all.

So, over arching plot theorizing. All dilithium blows up at the same time. That has to be some form of sabotage. There's no way that's natural. But, it would make sense that the Federation would fall apart so badly. Every star system would be cut off almost instantly throughout the Federation and Klingon Empire. The Romulans might have avoided it, but, they are very far away, and, that far into the future, they might have integrated dilithium into their space ships anyway.

This would make a fantastic era to RPG in. So open.

To me, the fact that it's all dilithium, everywhere in the known galaxy, makes it more likely to be a natural phenomenon. It's hard to see an artificial effect having such range.

On the other hand, there's also the mention that dilithium had been running out, and the Federation were experimenting with other means of warp travel even before the Burn.

That means that (a) there was a lot of research attention being focused upon dilithium at the time, both in terms of replicating its effects and making more efficient use of it. And (b) plenty of other people aside from the Federation were also researching other forms of FTL travel.

If some other faction managed to develop a reliable alternative, and also found out how to deactivate dilithium, they might take the opportunity to corner the FTL travel market.

 

[Vael]

I hope they don't answer the question of what caused the Burn, but one theory I want on the record (so I can crow about being right, lol): It was the Omega Particle from Voyager. We know it destroys subspace, perhaps a type of Omega weapon resonated through subspace, shattering dilithium.

 

[Older Beholder]

There’s a part of me that hopes Q was responsible for the burn, if only to have him show up at some point. Would love to see how they’d do his costume design in Discovery.

 

[Zardnaar]

Good episode/season.

Wife's comment last night "quality has improved".
Got a bit eh around middle season 1 and half of season 2.

 

[ART!]

I could see some Q-like entity deciding to destabilize all dilithium everywhere in the universe...

 

[Janx]

I wonder what percentage of their dilithium they just gave away, without realising just how valuable it now is, and what that does to the ship's operational time.

Dilithium's a little odd in that it's not actually a fuel - Federation starships are fuelled by antimatter. The dilithium is what allows the matter and antimatter to come together in a controlled fashion inside the warp core, emitting their energy into the warp nacelles instead of in a random direction. However, dilithium crystals do break down gradually when in use, and as of Discovery's origin time they hadn't yet developed the technology to recrystalise spent crystals (introduced as a plot point in Star Trek IV, and built into the warp drive as standard by the TNG era), so Discovery is actually thirstier in terms of dilithium consumption than more modern vessels.

On the other hand, they only really need to use dilithium when they're travelling at warp speeds, so this could make their Spore drive even more valuable to them than it already was.

Do the writers of Disco know this? There's been a whole lot of hand-wavium and traveling and transporting vaster distances than other shows have demonstrated. I'm sure the people involved love star trek, but this series doesn't abide limits.