What was "The Burn" and what caused it?

Why do they need dilithium now that they know about a spore drive?

Just start using that in other ships.

?

 

There is no guarantee that it will work.

They might not have a navigator. Or it violates genetic modification laws.

Are the spores still available beyond Stamets supply?

 

Stamets, stop bogarting the 'shrooms.

 

We've never been told in universe it can't be duplicated. I think that would be job A1+ rather than sending DSC off on rando missions.

 

Exactly. What if the Discovery gets destroyed? The Federation is right back to square one.

 

They are in crisis mode.

 

Not sure taking the Disco apart to see what makes it tick would be compelling television.

 

Do it offscreen like the refit.

 

Don't tell that to Brannon Braga, he thought that the first season of Enterprise should have been the building of the ship... with the launching happening in season 2... Go figure...

 

I mean, isn't Trek just about the tech?

 

[*Chuckles in long Refitted 1701 reveal from TMP*]

 

The Spore Drive works.
The navigator bit is the primary issue (but that's easily bypassed by the fact that computers in the 32nd century would be more than fast enough to replace an organic navigator by using tardigrade DNA (which Disco has) and I see no reason why it couldn't be adapted to ANY other ship.

Plus, Stamets and Tilly were ordered by Saru to find an alternative interface so they can operate the Spore drive WITHOUT Stamets... and Tilly then suggested the idea of using Dark Matter to facilitate the connection.
As for the Spores being available... I don't see why not.

Stamets has a massive spore garden on board (and I'm sure he can take a few to provide each SF ship with enough so they can multiply and grow on every ship (which they do pretty fast).
Also, Discovery planted the Spores on that desolate planet back in Season 1. Its probably still there and teeming with all the spores there.
It will be fascinating to see what became of that planet.

Anyway, Disco could easily jump to that planet and just harvest the needed supplies for other SF ships (who can then use Spore Drive for themselves easily enough) and then they could plant the Spores on various desolate planets throughout the Federation (there's plenty of those).

 

My biggest thing is the spore beings allowing anyone else access like Stamets. I think there are a lot of assumptions around 32nd century technology.

 

I would have watched that, and probably enjoyed it, but it doesn't exactly make good television for most people.

 

You'd have to have suspense and drama on Earth such as aliens interfering in humanity's first Warp 5 starship construction project. Espionage. Vulcan covert operations to undermine Starfleet's construction efforts. Enemy alien species visiting Earth and causing problems within human society or Starfleet Command while Enterprise is being built.

 

Could The Burn have been caused by a fleet wide virus of some sorts?

 

But assuming "spore beings" is already going a bit far. We know that the entire universe enjoys access to the spores - heck, the entire multiverse does. We have seen folks living in the spore realm, and the basic assumption ought to be that an infinite number of species and cultures exists within that realm (and a large type of infinite there, rather than a small one). We have yet to hear of any sort of a species that would be in "control" of the realm - May's folks certainly don't cut it, as they never displayed any power over the realm, and their only hope of making Stamets (Culber, really) stop was to try and reason with him.

The spores themselves don't appear prone to moralizing. And they do appear to be providing access to an infinite number of users at any given time, including Stamets, even though Stamets specifically has made a mess, perhaps the biggest mess in the history of the realm. Yeah, yeah, his evil twin and all that, but do you think mushroom spores would care? Caring not being on their agenda is what seems like the safe assumption, and what would grant every user equal rights in all situations.

Timo Saloniemi

 

I dont ser how assuming about spore beings goes too far. The incursions in to their realm might have impacts over time they don't want. So, there is just a push back, like a biological organism pushing against a foreign body.

 

I don't think it's proven yet that the Vulcan experiments didn't have a role in the Burn.

A couple things I hope it's not. A predestination paradox, the MU, or Burnham's fault. Out of those the predestination paradox is the one I'd be most open to, just that gets super overused.

I think it was either an accident caused by the Federation or something done deliberately by an enemy vanquished by the Federation. It could also be some sort of last shot from the temporal cold war thought to be ended.

They have a strange transmission from a distress call they can't decode. My tropey sense tells me, it may turn out to be sent by Discovery, just like in Parallax.

 

No. They're not going to solve this 'huge' mystery just to find that it was caused by some esoteric computer virus.