Star Trek - Discovery - 3.05: Die Trying

[Dave]

Discovery finally gets a reunion with a futuristic Starfleet.

I do like this series, and really liked this episode, but I also have two problems with this season:

1. Yet another episode with an antagonistic official (this time Admiral Charles Vance) who softens to Discovery's charms before the close of the episode. We already had the Trill and the Earth Defence Force, and you could also add Book too (who seems to have gone missing in action.)
2. Yet another episode that feels like a "new beginning" for Discovery, but without them having got anywhere or learned anything. I think some might say that rather than "beginnings" each has been a "stage" within a "transition" to the new place and time, but they really haven't changed; clearly they are as dysfunctional and disjointed a crew as they ever were. They are still going to be allowed to do their own thing, only under new orders.

The Admiral's attitude is not that surprising given the Temporal Wars and that Discovery has time travelled illegally from a time not too long after the events shown in Enterprise. What is surprising is that he has accepted them so quickly. They must have been working very quickly behind the scenes on the data from Discovery and the crew interviews, cross-checking them and verifying claims.

Those interviews were great, and Georgiou's interrogation best of all. She was knocked off her pedestal by the news about the Terran Empire though.

If I was Starfleet, I'd be stripping down Discovery and reverse-engineering Spore Drives for every ship. And I would be training additional crew to use it. It sounds like they are practically at War with the new Alliance, so you need to be on a war footing.

The Admiral said there were many theories about the burn, but when pressed on his favourite, he said there were more important things. Is this going to be answered before the end of the season or not? During Georgiou's interrogation we did discover it was likely deliberate and not natural.

 

[Narkalui]

And there was a very unsubtle hint that a particular tune had something to do with the Burn.

I'm glad that Discovery has come 'home', the uniforms are even more rubbish than Discovery's. I am VERY intrigued by Glasses Man and I did like the new EMH.

I am looking forward to the crew learning about the original Voyager's journey and the Dominion War, scenes beginning with the end of conversations about Janeway, Sisko and or Picard.

That makes me think of something: Since Picard has become a synthetic life form, in theory, he could still be around........

 

[Dave]

Since Picard has become a synthetic life form, in theory, he could still be around.......

It only had a 50-year life-span but, yes, anything is possible.

Edit: Yeah, sorry, I spoilered that, but then, that Picard has become an android is a bigger spoiler.

 

[Glaysher]

That makes me think of something: Since Picard has become a synthetic life form, in theory, he could still be around........

Spoiler!

Spoiler

However Picard was given just a normal human lifespan

 

[AE35Unit]

Was that Voyager we saw briefly? What timeline is Voyager set in? I was hoping to see an older Janeway, sipping a cup of coffee...

 

[Dave]

IRRC Voyager went slightly forward in time before they got back home, but not into the 31sth Century, They arrived back well before the Temporal Wars began. Yes, it was the USS Voyager, and there was also a USS Nog there too!

 

[AE35Unit]

IRRC Voyager went slightly forward in time before they got back home, but not into the 31sth Century, They arrived back well before the Temporal Wars began. Yes, it was the USS Voyager, and there was also a USS Nog there too!

Nog? Not heard of that one.

 

[AE35Unit]

Picard has become a synthetic life form,

Err, what??

 

[Dave]

Nog? Not heard of that one.

Named for the Cadet, who was Quark's nephew, first Ferengi in Starfleet and wounded serving in the Dominion War.

Err, what??

There are events in Star Trek: Picard that are far in the future of the first two seasons of Discovery, but which are now a long way in the past.

What can I say? Keeping spoilers out of Star Trek (and out of Star Wars) has now become an impossible task for me here. Unless you have seen every TV show, Film, and animation, and played every game, then I'm sorry, but you will see spoilers. It is impossible to know what some people have seen and other people have not because of the differing availabilities of each to view within different regions, and TV channels.

 

[Vladd67]

Named for the Cadet, who was Quark's nephew, first Ferengi in Starfleet and wounded serving in the Dominion War.

Not to mention the fact that the actor Aron Eisenberg, who played Nog, sadly died last year.

 

[Narkalui]

Err, what??

Yeah.... Erm.... I'm really sorry for the spoiler!

 

[REBerg]

IRRC Voyager went slightly forward in time before they got back home, but not into the 31sth Century, They arrived back well before the Temporal Wars began. Yes, it was the USS Voyager, and there was also a USS Nog there too!

Maybe they were decommissioned and had their dilithium removed before The Burn.

 

[REBerg]

Starfleet HQ was spectacular, especially so because I was expecting rubble and relics.
I thought that it might be just an enormous defensive hologram that would dissipate as they approached. Glad it wasn't, but I was as disappointed as the crew members about their lukewarm welcome.

 

[Vladd67]

Starfleet HQ was spectacular, especially so because I was expecting rubble and relics.
I thought that it might be just an enormous defensive hologram that would dissipate as they approached. Glad it wasn't, but I was as disappointed as the crew members about their lukewarm welcome.

Given the time difference, it would have been like a trireme sailing into Pearl Harbor.

 

[Dave]

Maybe they were decommissioned and had their dilithium removed before The Burn.

Probably it was a museum or training ship. I think they said in the first episode that ships who were at Warp exploded (when the Dilithium stopped working to control the matter-antimatter reactions) but those that were stationary were okay.

 

[Dave]

Given the time difference, it would have been like a trireme sailing into Pearl Harbor.

Except for the Spore Drive and the Cube Data. The Admiral also was quite interested in the whereabouts of Time Crystal too. So, more like a Viking Longboat with a haul of ransacked treasures.

 

[Droflet]

I have a feeling that Star Fleet is going to turn feral. Hmm, conflict is at the heart of drama, is it not? We'll see what happens.

 

[farntfar]

It's going to go all Andromeda or Foundation, and Discovery'll have to rebuild the Federation bit by bit.

They'll probabably have to call it something different though. The Dominion? The Collective? (*)

* (I thought we were living in an autonymous collective....)

 

[wgchurch]

Hello all, This is my first post to the site and wanted to see what others are thinking about "The Burn". For me, I'm pretty sure it has a lot to do with an episode from the 4th season of Star Trek Voyager. The episode is the 21st of the 4th season titled "'The Omega Directive". I just finished re-watching the episode where the Omega molecule has been discovered in the Delta Quadrant. It's mentioned that a single molecule is as powerful as a warp core. The episode mentions that a molecule was first synthesized around 2270 by a Starfleet physicist named Ketteract. However, it destabilized after a fraction of a second before destroying a classified Starfleet research center located in the Lantaru sector, killing 126 of Starfleet's leading scientists. Rescue teams were dispatched to the site, however, before they could reach the research center they discovered a secondary effect caused by the explosion. The explosion of the Omega molecule caused subspace ruptures to occur extending several light years. Meaning, due to the subspace ruptures, it was impossible to create a stable warp field in the Lantaru sector. Thus, all ships traveling through that sector could only do so at sublight speeds. Sound familiar? A chain reaction involving a handful of Omega molecules could devastate subspace throughout an entire quadrant. If that were to happen, then warp travel would become impossible, causing space-faring civilizations
to cease to exist. Janeway mentions that if a large scale Omega explosion were to occur, the ability to go to Warp will be lost forever. The Borg, per seven of nine, were also aware of the Omega Directive after the assimilation of Starfleet Captains. However, the Borg were aware of the Omega molecule some 229 years ago based on Voyager's present timeline 2370's after the assimilation of 13 different species. Seven of Nine mentions that it started with species 262 who referred to a powerful substance which could "Burn the Sky".

In the latest episode of Discovery, I don't think it was an accident that one of the ships that Discovery came across, as they arrived at the new Starfleet Headquarters, was none other than Voyager. So I believe this will all come back to the Voyager episode "The Omega Directive". Now, who is the actual culprit that caused the "Burn event" to happen? I would say my first guess would be the Borg, perhaps? What are your thoughts?

Regards,
Geno

 

[Dave]

I'm familiar with the the Omega Directive, but I don't think it is connected to "The Burn". We have been told that "The Burn" was a result of Dilithium no longer doing the job of stabilising the matter-antimatter reactions at the heart of every Warp engine. If you get hold of the Star Trek TNG Techincal Manual it explains the chemical composition of Dilithium and how it works

So, Dilithium has nothing to do with sub-space travel itself, anymore than a car's alternator affects the surface of the road it travels upon. While I guess it is possible that some kind of sub-space change could have affected Dilithium crystals, and been the cause of their breakdown, that didn't seem to me how they were explaining it. They haven't mentioned sub-space deterioration once. Wouldn't Book have mentioned their were regions of space they couldn't visit?

"The Burn" apparently occurred everywhere at the same time. The Omega particle only affected certain regions of sub-space. I take on board that you say Janeway warned of a much larger scale "explosion" being possible, and really, anything IS possible if they want to write it, but I would question why they still are uncertain of the cause, because if it was Omega particles, it is something already recorded, albeit kept secret.

Starfleet has suffered a huge number of other disasters, none of which were connected. Also, in the TNG episode "Force of Nature" it was discovered that all sustained warp drive was destroying the fabric of space itself, and the Federation Council then issued a new directive limiting all Federation vessels to a speed of warp five, except in extreme emergencies. So, sub-space was being worn out anyway, without any help from Omega particles (though I might be arguing against myself with that point as it would only make it more likely).