Spoilers I believe I have a VERY good Theory for the Burn...

As long as it sounds more like in TOS and less like in TAS, all voices are fine XD

 

Aware, watched the episode. My thought, which I guess needed to spell out, is that maybe in the intervening centuries the experiment could have been perfected, particularly if warp travel was becoming less of an option.

 

I guess the all time travel tech is outlawed thing can't really apply to the GoF. I was hoping that meant what it said and that this season would not involve any time travel.

The mirror universe thing is an angle that is more interesting as it could be a hand wavy reason for the burn. Who knows? All we do know is that Kurtzman says some will be surprised by the S31 show's setting and something weird is happening to Georgiou while the mirror universe is becoming more "distant".

 

Okay so they tried to move dilithium through time en masse using the GOF and caused the Burn. It's covered up since Starfleet probably did it and it's a violation of the Temporal Accords and would shatter what's left of the Federation.

That's my take.

 

And that's why dilithium was running out, cause they stole it from the past XD

 

Maybe the S31 show is actually set in the Mirror Universe Something, or someone, from the MU caused The Burn, so Georgiou is tasked, as a S31 agent, to return to the MU as part of Starfleet to make sure The Burn never happens. She can travel easily between the two timelines. Her connection with Burnham, who only exists in TOS timeline is what keeps her toeing the line

 

Spock caused it with Red Matter. Vulcans were right that they caused it.

 

Ok, my guess: the Federation tried to steal dilithium from the Mirror Universe, using the GOF, but it turns out it was actually the same dilithium crystal existing across dimensions, so pulling it out of one universe made it blow up in another universe.

 

I like that - reminds me of the parallel Voyagers sharing one warp core or something like that

 

that’s good. I like that theory.

 

The Guardian of Forever is the Guardian of *Forever*. Starfleet had the hubris of sending out time cops and starting a time war, and that did not sit well with the Guardian, since they were messing on his turf.

So the Guardian stopped all time travel, and then, for good measure, destroyed all the dilithium powered starships. He has done similar acts before, with the Tkon, the Promellians and the Menthar, the Roquarri Imperium...

 

Normally I would say this theory is even more far fetched than my pah wraith one, but rumors abound that the Guardian of Forever is going to play a big part in this season, so you may be on the right track.

 

I think the fact that the Guardian of Forever can access other timelines is going to be the explanation for DSC to be able to access the mirror universe (which is essentially just another timeline). If the MU is 'drifting' too far away to reach via transporter, perhaps the Guardian is the only device strong enough to enable a crossover (although the Bajoran wormhole would seem to be another option - but maybe the Prophets are cranky nowadays.

 

But I thought the Guardian was only equipped to show the past, not affect any change or do any more.

Then again, when it was first encountered, it was generating disruptive ripples in time for some reason.

 

I say it should be an ironic-sounding Jeff Goldblum.

Actually, it was my hope that an ironic Jeff Goldblum would have been the voice of the book in the Hitchhiker's Guide movie that came out some years back. But Stephen Fry is never a bad choice for anything...

So wait...Stephen Fry as the GoF?

 

The Guardian had powers beyond comprehension. It offered Kirk and co. a Gateway to their own past, but xould not alter the manner in which it displayed it, because it apparently went against its programming. It later (TAS) offered Federation historians Gateways into the pasts of Orion and Vulcan, and likely many others.

But the label "Guardian of Forever" implies something more than just a time portal machine. It's an advanced AI ("both and neither a machine and being") built by a civilization much older than the Sun (~5 Billion years at least). If it's guarding "forever", which apparently includes other dimensions and perhaps select timelines, then I assume it has to regard other upstart Guardians, like Daniels' group, Ducane's group, even early Starfleet authorized travel done by Kirk, with some minor annoyance.

Dilithium exists out of phase with the universe, that's why they can use it safely to regulate antimatter reactions. The Guardian might exist out of phase with all of space-time, and might have an intrinsic link with dilithium (sure, why not). If it destroys the empty dimension dilithium is phased into, even for a second, then it just becomes inert, another colored glass crystal, and the antimatter reaction inside won't like that.

 

For any of my theory to work, the Guardian would have to be a liar. Which it provably is: the ruins surrounding it were about one million years old ("ten thousand centuries" per Spock), but it hadn't been asked a question since before our Sun burnt hot (>4.6 Billion years), so it was clearly lying.

It's also pretty nonchalant and unconcerned the two times history was changed via its misuse, although I construe that to Earth and Vulcan history being peanuts to the Guardian's vast jurisdiction. Like a top DEA agent not worrying about his nephew smoking pot.

When a huge Temporal War broke out, it finally stepped in and said "Enough's enough, children. Go home."

 

Whoever built the GoF and the city that the ruins are from only gave him instructions. He was tired of just getting told what to do and finally wanted to get a question for a change.

 

Objection:
Why would the Federation steal dilithium from the mirror universe?
That would go entirely against its own principles and ideals to the point where its GUARANTEED to fail even before they tried it.
I mean, its a pretty ludicrous proposal.

 

Not the mirror universe, but perhaps "stealing" it (or, rather, mining it) from other universes, mostly uninhabited or little inhabited ones. That seems reasonable, even if the result is nonsensical.