[+] Star Trek Discovery (Fan) Thread

[Umbran]

The Burn was only somewhere a little over 100 years ago, so they had around 900 years of advancement prior to that. But maybe we're missing more in the big picture - maybe dilithium isn't the only resource that was running short.

I don't think we need to make that assumption.

Imagine that 100 years ago, there was, for almost all intents and purposes, a complete collapse of interstellar travel. That combines with a collapse of interstellar trade and economy. If it wasn't physically on a planet (so, like, say, shipyards) it was probably lost in the Burn.

Some of what we've been presented with suggests quite incredible collapses in communication and trade, even given the difficulty of warp travel. The situation that occurred in the last episode arose because Earth had lost communication with a research outpost on Titan - that's not even beyond our own solar system, and they still couldn't maintain useful links.

Yeah. That... isn't actually terribly plausible. You can communicate with Titan by basic radio, for cryin' out loud. And they still have ships with torpedoes and phasers. They could communicate if they wanted to - they just didnt' want to, until they were shamed into entering discussion.

 

[Hussar]

According to canon, Next Generation ships are several times faster than TOS ships because they use transwarp engines. That's how they get around the size of the universe problem in the show. So, yes, the current ships should be able to run circles around the Discovery, even if they don't have very large gas tanks. Which, frankly, would be in keeping with everything else we've seen - the fact that Disco is considered an antique as is everything they are using.

 

[Umbran]

According to canon, Next Generation ships are several times faster than TOS ships because they use transwarp engines. That's how they get around the size of the universe problem in the show. So, yes, the current ships should be able to run circles around the Discovery, even if they don't have very large gas tanks.

I am saying that, should the writers wish it, that does not have to be the case. The issue isn't really the gas tank - I admit that's not really the solid part of the best analogy The issue is... carburetors. For all that technology has improved, Future ships have to use these crappy little carburetors, and using them for anything serious means they need to be replaced. Discovery could be seen as having big honken carburetors with a ton of replacements on hand.

Basically, we'll see if/when we have any warp speed chase scenes.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

The Burn was only somewhere a little over 100 years ago, so they had around 900 years of advancement prior to that. But maybe we're missing more in the big picture - maybe dilithium isn't the only resource that was running short. Some of what we've been presented with suggests quite incredible collapses in communication and trade, even given the difficulty of warp travel. The situation that occurred in the last episode arose because Earth had lost communication with a research outpost on Titan - that's not even beyond our own solar system, and they still couldn't maintain useful links.

I wonder how much of the technology in the Star Trek universe is reliant upon resources available only in certain parts of the galaxy, even aside from dilithium. If you can't build or obtain the parts necessary to maintain your technology, you have to start falling back on what you can make locally.

I think the challenge might be that the 900 years of technology relied on ample availability of matter/antimatter reactions in warp cores, facilitated by Dilithium. If they suddenly lose a major source of power, their advanced tech might still be advanced, but they can't use it as often, or at full power.
And of course, some of the availability of tech might require reliable and large scale trade between people that have access to the necessary raw materials or can build the necessary components, and some could focus exclusively on some marvels of engineering while importing everything else from other planets. Suddenly everyone shifts to self-sufficiency or gets enslaved by couriers, who themselves barely seem to get by...

 

[Umbran]

I think the challenge might be that the 900 years of technology relied on ample availability of matter/antimatter reactions in warp cores, facilitated by Dilithium.

Which, in many instances, may not have actually been in warp drives - one could imagine, for example, shipyards with truly massive replicators using matter-antimatter reactions to satisfy their power needs, instead of plain old fusion reactors.

And, if that's the case, they probably lost all the facilities that used the technology. And the equipment to replace the facilities, and the personnel who knew the engineering...

 

[ART!]

So, do we have any theories about why all the dilithium went boom? They said is was mostly Federation (or Starfleet?) ships that were affected, and that they all exploded when the dilithium failed. What else do we know?

 

[MarkB]

So, do we have any theories about why all the dilithium went boom? They said is was mostly Federation (or Starfleet?) ships that were affected, and that they all exploded when the dilithium failed. What else do we know?

It happened after dilithium stocks started drying up galaxywide, and the Federation were already researching alternative propulsion solutions. Presumably, so was everyone else who used dilithium.

If someone else came up with a different propulsion method that worked, they would no longer be dependent upon dilithium. If they were then able to sabotage everyone else's dilithium, that would leave them in a far stronger position. However, so far nobody's really stepped up as this season's Big Bad.

Alternatively, maybe there's some kind of reverse "critical mass" thing going on for dilithium. Once the amount of it in the galaxy drops below a certain level, it undergoes some form of shift or transformation, which temporarily 'deactivated' it. But in that case, why was it just a single isolated incident?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Which, in many instances, may not have actually been in warp drives - one could imagine, for example, shipyards with truly massive replicators using matter-antimatter reactions to satisfy their power needs, instead of plain old fusion reactors.

And, if that's the case, they probably lost all the facilities that used the technology. And the equipment to replace the facilities, and the personnel who knew the engineering...

Things could have changed, but I think there is one practical argument against the idea of shipyards relying on matter-antimatter reactions, which seems to be at least suggested by stuff like the Technical Manual of the Enterprise and is a pretty popular stance on r/DaystromInstitute: Creating antimatter costs more energy than you're going to get out of it (in the real word right now a silly amount more, in Star Trek it's supposed to be just something like 50 % or so). Antimatter represents basically the most compact battery that can be thought off, which is why it's great for starships that cannot get too big without needing even more energy to operate.
But chances are that any fixed installations will not rely on antimatter, but instead of whatever power source powers the antimatter generators (which is supposed to be mostly solar collectors or fusion reactors).

Though maybe you're right, there is a possibilty that maybe some special industrial processes require so much energy that you spend 3 days creating antimatter to release all that energy within an hour, but if that's the only way to create, say, Neutronium Laced Tritanium Hull Plating, then that's what you gotta do. And without that Dilithium you can't build more of that hull plating...

 

[Hussar]

I wonder if they will do the logical thing in the next episode and hang around Earth for a while, upgrading their equipment. I mean, they've got all the money in the world right now, so, why not spend a month or two in Earth orbit, which is apparently pretty safe, upgrading Discovery a couple of centuries.

 

[Mallus]

I have some commentary on the new season in general, and the particular emotional timbre of Discovery — which is getting much clearer and is used to much better effect now — but for now let me just say “Forget Me Not” is one of the best episodes in the franchise.

(3rd season anti-curse in full effect!)