Spoilers Star Trek Discovery - Starships and Technology Season Five Discussion

[Mike McDevitt]

No offence to Kovich or whoever, but is that Red Directive a good use of Zora's (potentially very long?) life? Thank you for your service, enjoy a retirement so lonely you're like to go mad?

Possibly that's just the peril it takes to plug a predestination paradox.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Thanks to Picard series creators, it may now be that the NX-01 became the USS Enterprise later in life, maybe in 2161 after Daniels served on her, although I thought in the moment that Daniels was talking about his unseen service on the J.

Being a time traveler, it's possible that Daniels could have served on an Enterprise we haven't seen yet. but went all the way back to NX-01 because it had a major role to play in the Temporal Cold War. Given the number of 24th-Century collectibles in his office, I'm inclined to think Daniels came from the 26th-Century or later...

 

[Ithekro]

It is possible that Daniel's technically servers on the "current" USS Enterprise...whichever one that is.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Indeed possible. The ENT Daniels was posing as a steward and was aboard her for (checks Memory Alpha) about five months before being discovered and leaving the ship. While this and subsequent adventures with Archer and crew were all important, it's hardly enough of a career highlight to say he was "Daniels of the USS Enterprise".

While the INTENT was doubtless to relate Kovich and ENT Daniels as one and the same, it could easily be explained that he was a proud veteran of some other Enterprise(s) to make up for it.

Mark

 

[Ithekro]

Well Captain James T. Kirk was described as a menace by 24th century Temporal Investigations. A later agency might want to keep someone on hand to keep Kirk from being more of a menace than he actually was....and to keep other players from trying to remove Kirk from the table. Plus who knows how many temporal incursions happened regularly on the USS Enterprise-D or -E under Captain Picard? The ships are so large you could beam in with a 26th+ century transporter, wonder around and never be noticed.

 

[Mike McDevitt]

Daniels DOES appear dressed as a Kirk era redshirt in Star Trek Online. It's starting to create a picture of a guy who might as well have said he served on "EVERY USS Enterprise."

 

[Dukhat]

I'm pretty sure the intent of the line was that he was referencing the NX-01.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Daniels DOES appear dressed as a Kirk era redshirt in Star Trek Online. It's starting to create a picture of a guy who might as well have said he served on "EVERY USS Enterprise."

He did say he's lived many years...and many lives.

 

[Ronald Held]

Why not Daniels as a lower decks guy on the 1701 or 1701-A?

 

[NCC-73515]

One of those on either side could be voyaJer

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

There's at least one more Intrepid further pack on the right, too. Good to see, until now Voyager-J looked to consistently be the only example of her class.

Mark

 

[Markonian]

We saw more Janeway-class ships in the final scene of season 4.

 

[Ithekro]

Wonder what they did with the ISS Enterprise? Be sort of fun if they made it the Academy training ship like her Prime counterpart.

Means they could use the SNW sets for the Star Fleet Academy series

 

[B.J.]

Surprised nobody's mentioned the Discovery separating the saucer section. From what we saw, it looked like a mechanical separation, rather than the programmable matter separation that the nacelles use. I don't think there are any impulse engines on the saucer, but I don't think that's a problem for a ship that's been retrofitted with 32nd century technology, since I don't remember seeing any visible impulse engines on any of the 32nd century ships. EDIT: Impulse engines are visible on some ships, but not all.

Speaking of 32nd century ships, I'm a little disappointed we never got to see a proper 32nd century bridge. I don't count the Discovery's, and I'm not sure we actually saw what could be called the command bridge of the USS Federation.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Surprised nobody's mentioned the Discovery separating the saucer section. From what we saw, it looked like a mechanical separation, rather than the programmable matter separation that the nacelles use. I don't think there are any impulse engines on the saucer, but I don't think that's a problem for a ship that's been retrofitted with 32nd century technology, since I don't remember seeing any visible impulse engines on any of the 32nd century ships. EDIT: Impulse engines are visible on some ships, but not all.

Speaking of 32nd century ships, I'm a little disappointed we never got to see a proper 32nd century bridge. I don't count the Discovery's, and I'm not sure we actually saw what could be called the command bridge of the USS Federation.

I assume most StarShips have "Gravimetric Drive", similar to what Babylon 5 Alien ships have.
We see the Borg manage to move around in all directions w/o any impulse engines.

+ "Gravimetric Drive":
PRO(s): Omni Directional Movement
CON(s): Linear Acceleration isn't great.

+ "Impulse Drive":
PRO(s): Great Linear Acceleration for reasonable fuel cost thanks to Fusion Rockets & Subspace Field Drivers
CON(s): They're largely Linear Pointing, ergo you can only point the thrust in one direction at a time or Vector Thrust via EM Field Guidance, but the amount of vectors you can thrust is largely limited by the aperture of your Impulse Exhaust.

That's why we see most StarShips with Impulse Drive Exhausts mounted on the back facing directly Aft.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Similarly, I don’t think if we ever noticed that the saucer had gained impulse engines in the refit. They were lit here (during AND after the separation), and fit the overall aesthetic well, but I’m not sure if we saw them before.

and the tricom / buffer tech remains a mystery. Here Burnham shifts from “tricorder mode” to “environmental mode” on her device, like there should be a difference. And then she’s somehow able to call a dermal regenerator into existence without any difference from how she calls her phaser, and re-absorb L’ak’s body into Moll’s buffer device by simply tapping it. The more we see this tech in use without any physical cues, the more I come to think that there is a psychic or mental component to the technology that lets a user do whatever they need by just thinking about it.

Still, with the show being over now, I guess that it feels odd to have been commenting on 32nd century tech that has remained pretty magical compared to what we’ve seen before. There hasn’t been much consistency let alone explanation for it, and likely won’t be even with the Academy series coming (unless that new series changes in tone). I get that all sci-fi technology in Trek is used first and foremost as a storytelling tool to advance a plot and serve an emotional story; but in this era it’s felt much less grounded - like trying to explain the sonic screwdriver in Doctor Who (post 2005) as anything but a magic wand. I hope that this will change with further stories set in this century.

Mark

 

[Macintosh]

Surprised nobody's mentioned the Discovery separating the saucer section. From what we saw, it looked like a mechanical separation, rather than the programmable matter separation that the nacelles use. I don't think there are any impulse engines on the saucer, but I don't think that's a problem for a ship that's been retrofitted with 32nd century technology, since I don't remember seeing any visible impulse engines on any of the 32nd century ships. EDIT: Impulse engines are visible on some ships, but not all.

One of the things I really didn't like about the finale was just how rushed, tacked on, and incidental the saucer separation was. We don't even get a good look at it!

On the other hand, I'm quite happy to believe that 32nd century technology would render saucer separation a routine and easily reversible process even above and beyond what we see with the Galaxy-class and the Prometheus, and for regular thrusters to be reconfigured as mini impulse engines as necessary. Hell, I almost wish they'd gone further and had each individual module of Discovery reconfigure into an independent ship at this point. Each saucer ring, each nacelle, maybe have the secondary hull split into multiple sections too. Push the programmable matter to its limit.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I might be in the minority, but I kind of liked that the Discovery was returned to her original 23rd-Century configuration--more or less--and her original hull registry on her final mission. I know the real reason why, but I see it as more of a special honor given to that particular ship and her unique history more so than a way to tie the series to "Calypso."

As relatively easy it was to convert the Discovery from a 23rd-Century ship to a 32nd-Century one, it's probably wasn't that more difficult to remove those enhancements, IMO.

 

[Ithekro]

Be sort of funny if just after "Craft" leaves the Enterprise (any version, even one from the museum) arrives to retrieve the Discovery following the end of her Red Directive mission.

Can one leave the Infinity Room someplace other that were they started? That seems like the perfect way for Burnham to leave Discovery behind.

 

[Macintosh]

Wonder what they did with the ISS Enterprise?

I'm kind of glad we didn't see it again. I was worried as soon as it appeared that it would prove to be integral to the season/show finale. Not everything has to be about an Enterprise.