What was "The Burn" and what caused it?

Wow, I couldn't disagree with you guys more. That was legitimately the best episode of Discovery to me. The series finally has it's own Inner Light, Far Beyond The Stars, In The Pale Moonlight, etc.

Then again, my absolute favorite Trek is always weighty character drama. I don't really care for action-adventure.

 

It was probably the most 90s Star Trek episode Discovery has ever had, and it wasn't bad.

 

The emotionality just seemed manufactured/forced. Again.
Meanwhile, watched Mando today and the actual "humanity" (involved another species) seemed much more real/moving. To me. YMMV

 

Yeah, this, the Mudd time travel episode, the Saru episode on the planet with the sentient spore aliens and "New Eden(DSC)" are the most like Berman and Roddenberry Trek. They all feel like the Trek we grew up on.

 

We must have watched different episodes of both shows. Mando's been pretty flat in Season 2.

Spoiler: Mando

And Baby Yoda eating the eggs of a sentient species was pretty off putting, especially when played for laughs.

 

Mileage definitely varies.

 

Possibly something from a wormhole caused the dilithium to explode. In Star Trek I : The Motion Picture, we witnessed a dilithium imbalance that pulled the Enterprise into a wormhole.

It is believed that this material exists in more than three dimensions at the same time.

With dilithium crystal existing in more than three dimensions at the same time, dilithium crystals must come from a black hole or formed at the Event Horizon of the black hole where all dimensions exist at one time, just for fraction of second before being annihilated and consumed by the black hole. But perhaps in moment at the Event Horizon when all dimensions and time are one, a planet was on the verge of being consumed and for whatever reason, the black hole collapsed. The crystal structure of a mineral was then transformed into dilithium crystal somehow and contained just not the energy of the black hole, but even possibly the memories that black hole consumed. The time line that created black holes and the events above would have taken place before life existed in the Universe and just after the first planets began to form.

But I digress.

If all ships with dilithium that were using warp drive when the Burn happened, then perhaps some malevolent entity contained within a set of dilithium crystals, not able to escape the fate of being imprisoned forever in the crystal, much like the entity was not able to escape the black hole, was able to access the three dimensions that dilithium exists in and out of spite and hate, destroyed all ships in warp flight that it possibly seen as trying too and being able to escape.

 

Mariner was probably trying to get rid of dilithium on the Cerritos one day to avoid having to work because she was hung over, and it causes a future chain reaction she didn't report.

 

I reckon the burn resulted from a desparate attempt by Burnham’s mother to stop Control (unleashing something that caused dilithium to become inert) all from a miscalculated time jump - not knowing that she travelled to a point in ‘the timeline’ where Control was defeated at end of S2

 

Based on the latest episode, it makes me think about what I said to my father when we first learned about the Burn.

Dilithium is basically a crystal. I always thought that the Burn was a weapon of some kind with repeaters or emitters placed equidistantly around the galaxy that emitted a sonic pulse at precisely the resonance frequency needed to shatter the crystals, like an opera singer.

Like a song you can't get out of your head, but only remember fragments of, the lullaby could be the remnants of this resonance burst. After 120 years, essentially 5 generations, no one would remember where they first heard it.

My question is why we have not seen a Vulcan, Romulan, or Klingon. Did the resonance burst kill these long-lived species?

 

If this is the case, how can it be mined on a planet?

 

You can't be serious! The TNG/DS9 episodes you mentioned were epic classics with a deep emotional impact, while this DSC episede was barely average. By DSC's standards, it was was one of the more interesting ones because of the Trill nostalgia factor ... but other than that, it's quite forgettable.

 

Why not? Everyone enjoy different aspects of Star Trek. I certainly don't enjoy "Inner Light" and "In the Pale Moonlight" (while memorable) is stand out because of the moral grayness of it all but not enjoyable.

DSC, for me, is more engaging on a personal level. So, it sticks in the old memory banks better for me.

Mileage definitely varies in personal enjoyment.

 

Adira's cello music is the Tholian national anthem. The Tholians were singing it as a victory hymn at the end of the temporal wars, and the sheer number of Tholians singing it all at once in resonance with their crystalline makeup destroyed all dilithium everywhere.

 

Don't they explicitly say in dialogue that the TMP wormhole is caused by an intermix imbalance between the matter and antimatter reaction? They even go to the detail of showing Spock upload a bunch of mathematical formulas onto a science station screen when he first arrives on the bridge. He also mentions "fuel equations". I don't think it's ever implied that the propulsion problems have anything to do with the dilithium crystals.

 

My initial guess as to what caused "The Burn" was something to do with the "Omega Particle" as we saw in Voyager. But it seems to me that now we have met up with The Federation, that if it was that they should have been able to determine that. They have no clue.

So neither do I.

I have a question for the experts.

What exactly is the predicament now? Is it a lack of dilithium or when it is used in a warp core it fails? Could Discovery use her warp drive now?

 

They could but they're saving it.

Dilithium was running low. 120 years ago all dilithium in active use went inert at once, causing every warp ship in the galaxy to have a warp core breach. Anything not in use during the burn continues to function and is very valuable.

 

This person actually is serious, because we all have different opinions and they are all ok. The TNG/DS9 episodes mentioned aren't universally loved either. There's plenty of fans who didn't like those episodes.
I personally felt that the last few episodes of DSC have really started to hit that classic TNG/DS9 vibe in terms of feeling like the Star Trek from back then, but all in its own unique way.

 

You don't have to lecture me. Last time I checked this was a discussion board, not a "all opinions are ok and we won't discuss them" hippie board. Actually I'm quite sure I saw you challenging some opinions here. But let's return to the topic now!

 

Telling someone they can't be serious is moving from discussing with an open mind to nearly telling someone they're wrong. Challenging an opinion is different, that's using words like 'I think' and 'I feel'. Not using statement like 'this is'. As you did.