Spoilers 31st/32nd Century Ships Revealed

I wouldn't mind seeing him as the ECH or full fledged captain of Voyager-J... but here's the thing.. its been over 800 years since the 24th century.
Even if holographic rights didn't start kicking off until say Picard series, or early 25th century... he'd easily enough be a full fledged Captain... but I'm thinking by the 32nd century, he'd definitely be an Admiral (assuming he survived throughout over 800 years and the temporal wars).

Though, there's no guarantee he'd want to REMAIN in the position. He might be alternating between medicine and command depending on his whims or where he thinks SF would benefit most.
Plus, if the doctor is alive in the 32nd century, his programming would have evolved to an enormous degree... so who knows where he might be or what he's up to.

 

That works too.
But it would be interesting to see if Starfleet or the EMH's might decide they want to 're-integrate'... but probably not.

Its bee 700 years for the backup EMH... so depending on how long he may have been in space travelling to Earth (60 000 Ly's)... assuming it took him 60 years, and 'Living Witness' episode is late season 4 (700 years since 2374 would mean the backup EMH was activated in a year 3074).
It was also mentioned the doctor served as a surgical chancellor for 'many years before he decided to leave'.

How much is 'many years' remains a mystery.

We know the Burn happened 120 years before Discovery landed in the 32nd century... so in 3069.
The backup EMH would not have been activated yet.

The Kyrians and the Vaskans would have had unsteady relations still... but there was 0 mention of the Burn... which means that both Kyrians and the Vaskand might not have been aware of it, if they were largely planet bound... or if they were, the Doctor was told about it after the second internal issue... plus we have no idea how far apart Vaskan and Kyrian planets are... they could be in the same star system... or relatively near by where no ships were in active use (or none of them had active warp cores) between the two planets when the Burn happened.

So, depending on what constitues as 'many years' for the backup EMH being a surgical chancellor (say 50 years with about 5 years for that initial 'transition' to a peaceful era - which would make his point of departure for the A.Q be the year 3129)... and if it took him about 60 years... or less than that to reach the Federation... eh... he'd have a hard time finding the HQ... unless he met with Senna Tal on Earth before he died and was then after a while assigned Voyager (since SF knew his program could be upgraded just like the original was).

Living Witness is a bit of a mess canonically speaking because there's no mention of it... which in itself is a bit of a big deal because you'd think it would have been mentioned... unless the Kyrians and Vaskans transitioned their power sources from M/AM and dilithium to something else in the 700 years (which seems plausible ... and again, utterly idiotically unrealistic that the UFP would not have moved on to different power sources).

 

Flying Banana

 

At 452+ meters, window sills on Intrepid are awfully thin and narrow. Enough it depicts the ships Bigger than real design would appear. Compared to 24th cen. Pill shaped windows.

 

How so? 120 years may round up or down only to 116-124 years, but 700 years can round up or down to 650 through 750 easily enough. Plenty of overlap options there.

Or then the Burn was still to happen during the main body of events, given the vagaries of timing.

Why would they? After all, they hadn't in the precending four billion years! That's how long folks have been doing warp one way or another, and by the time of TNG, the Federation has already met a good chunk of older and wiser folks. If there existed a non-dilithium warp method to be acquired, it would already have been acquired, by somebody the Feds knew.

Moving beyond dilithium could well be akin to moving beyond oxygen. Doabe in a lab, but not gonna happen until and unless somebody takes away all oxygen. And that will never happen... Until it does.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Except the dialogue didn't suggest that the years were round up. 120 years seems rather conclusive and accurate number given that Disco crew tapped into the Khi-ev's systems and got the full message along with when it was sent.

If that's the case, then the backup EMH was possibly destroyed in transit if his small ship used M/AM and dilithium.

Arturis' fake USS Dauntless didn't use Antimatter or dilithium (which was stated as much in the dialogue).

Alternative (and very potent) power sources were also established that they exist in Trek universe and some species like the Nacene used them (such as Tetryon reactors - which the Voyager crew also managed to work with up close and personal in 'The Voyager Conspiracy').
UFP was also seen as engaged in researching new power sources during TNG.

So, apart from seeing several species using non M/AM power sources (and no dilithium) that weren't that much more particularly more advanced than the UFP, I found it stupid that as organisation as big as the UFP and based on free exchange of knowledge, ideas, resources, etc. wouldn't have been able to create a new power source which doesn't need dilithium or M/AM.

The Romulans used a forced Quantum singularity as a power source too.

And technically, we have been told (and have seen) the Spore drive CAN power the ship on its own, which is what Stamets also mentioned to Reno when he described on how much environmental damage is caused by dilithium mining and saw the spores as the future of starships using clean renewable energy.

Next to the fact that Starfleet could have at least tried to build a spore power core at least without needing to actually use the propulsion component of it.
The Disco crew DID seed spores on a barren world which propagated in minutes to extremely high levels. More than enough to restock their own garden on board (they encompassed a good chunk of the planet and likely expanded to the whole planet in the proceeding 100 years - nevermind 930)... which is probably equivalent (or better) to the Dilithium planet in the Verubin nebula... in the 23rd century no less.

Oh and have I forgot to mention the Omega molecule? Voyager DID found a way to sucessfully stabilze and control Omega using the harmonic resonance chanmber.
The only issue I could see here would be finding enough Boromite ore to make new molecules (something even the Borg had problems with)... except for tha one D.Q species which made 200 million molecules successfully with.

No shortage of different power sources in Trek. Its just lazy writing.

 

They also mine dilihtium on Remus.

So they clearly use it for something. Nothing in dialogue said their ships don't use Dilihtium.

 

That drum hasn't broken yet, eh?

Regardless of the evil lazy writing (trademark pending) working in universe shows that dilithium is preferred for a variety of reasons. Omega is unstable unless perfectly handled, and would devastate the local space, making warp drive impossible if it goes wrong. As you note, there are some ores required to make new molecules which means it isn't reliable. Same with the spore drive, as well as the potential impact on the living beings in the mycelial network.

Dilithium appears to be the easiest, most reliable, and flexible enough to accommodate many species ship designs. As the old saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I believe the saying originated in Russia.

 

It might be nice , cheap world building if there are sections of space that warp travel is not possible in because of past experiments with Omega molecules. Not in the way where TNG tried to install that warp speed limit, but once in a while add some flavor to a scene by saying, 'we will need to make a course correction on the way to avoid an Omega dead zone, but other than that, the trip should be uneventful.' Before something else eventful happens. I think there's a minable story about Discovery jumping into a star system in a completely cut off section of Omega space and how they might be doing after messing everything up. It's like the Burn being effected by the burn and then shooting yourself in the foot.

 

When Omega was neutralized, it didn't really do large amount of damage to subspace. That was the whole point of building the harmonic rezonance chamber - to stabilize and neutralize Omega... effectively controlling it, at which point, a detonantion of Omega molecule becomes a proverbial 'blip' that doesn't really inconvenience anyone.
And besides, by the mid/late 25th century, you'd expect the UFP would have perfected the harmonic resonance chamber technology to such a degree where they would remove any kind of possibility of Omega destroying anything (or at least, reduce the factor to the same level as M/AM - I mean, ANY technology has the potential for massive destruction if misused). And heck, if a SF crew on a starship with limited resources could do that with the help of a former Borg drone, then just think what they could do if they put some effort into studying all that data upon Voy's return.

Heck, give it 25 years of automated R&D in UFP and that would be more than enough time to cover majority if not all possible scenarios that could occur with the substance in question before you start making the thing, and initiate a decade long transition to non dilithium and M/AM power matricies.

My point is that beyond Omega, there have been several examples of Trek species using power sources without non Dilithium and M/AM which worked just fine.
The writers not progressing UFP beyond Dilithium and M/AM on its own is just stupid and lazy writing for the sake of drama and somewhat anti-Trek.
I'm sorry, but for a space faring organisation comprised of THAT many species working together, that kind of scenario wouldn't have occurred.

And how many new technologies did SF encounter where M/AM and dilithium simply weren't going to cut it?

Dilithium is far from easiest, reliable or flexible ... its just more abundant and inroads were made for dilithium mining and M/AM generation at the start (similar to fossil fuels). You don't stick with something 'just because it works'... I mean come on, we had the ability to move to renewables for nearly 100 years now and the only reason we stuck with fossil fuels was because huge businesses were built around it.
In Trek and UFP, change of that magnitude wouldn't be feared or shunned (no Capitalism to worry about for one thing). The way it was presented, it should be embraced, and people could retrain and transition into a new area of technology - much like animal farmers for example instead of continuing the outdated and grueling practice of rearing and slaughtering animals could grow plants instead - but even that's completely unnecessary when you factor in all the technology and science we developed along with automation.

Its not like people have livelihoods to worry about in UFP which are based around dilithium mining and M/AM (and yes, we have seen Trill families engaging in dilithium mining and being pressured to meet increased demands from UFP, but still... that was before VOY returned), and even Stamets was smart enough to know how dirty dilithium mining was back in the 23rd century - it was one of the reasons he developed the Spore drive.

Also, 'danger to mycelieal lifeforms' isn't really a problem. The path to that option was supposedly 'sealed' so there is no danger of ships destroying lifeforms in the network. Otherwise, Discovery wouldn't have been able to continue using the network for its jumps.

And besides, those aren't the only options. VOY brought back multiple technologies back with it, including the fact the UFP was already researching new power sources during TNG era actively.

Like I said, the writers needed a quick and dirty solution for something that would cripple UFP (and most of the galaxy it seems) to create a 'darker setting' so that Disco could 'swoop in and save the day'.
I mean, they could have delayed the show a bit more and come up with something better instead.

 

I wouldn't expect any such thing. This presumes much that somehow because this Federation of individuals is not pressed for resources that it will dump unlimited things in to solving a problem already solved. So, the automatic assumption that the Federation would immediately dump dilithium in favor of Omega while still concerned of potential side effects that would be devastating to them as an organization may sound short sighted but also completely understandable. And they could have just as easily had "the Burn" caused by Omega and then the thing would be "Well, why would they invent new power generation that could cause that damage?"

Don't care. It's the nature of the Star Trek world as currently presented to ignore technological development until forced to do so. Burning the writers in effigy is accomplishing nothing. At this point the fans can ignore it, rationalize it, or continue to whine over the terrible writers.

I prefer the second option. Dilithium output will vary.

 

With enough Dilithium around plus recrystallization techniques, why wholesale try to convert to a new propulsion method?

 

Agreed. I think that the Burn showed the flaw in the methodology of not exploring further alternatives more, but I don't think it is bad writing either that they kept using dilithium. But, now, the Burn exposed a potentially fatal flaw and exploring alternatives would be appropriate.

 

31st Century Connie in STO. This size scale is from CBS.
Cryptic is calling it the 'Kirk Class' as they already have a lot of Connies, but they did confirm CBS themselves is calling it the Constitution class. The concepts they got from CBS called it a pre-burn ship class.

 

I like that the ship is called USS Kaaaaaaaaaaahn. I wonder if there is also a USS There are four lights! or a USS It's a faaaaaake

 

32nd Century Earth Ship.
I tend to think the designers had some anime fetish, because detached nacelles and separated hull elements contour to anime and western sci fi who for years it's "Futuristic" to have technologies that don't attach or Hover. Look no further than Halo franchise whee forerunner tech is based on hovering doo-dads

Or anime for decades had spaceships/technologies with detached doohickies



We already have "Hovering" technology, so far it's merely novelty/toys. Will we have floating chairs/desks? Probably not, because it would need a lot to hover one meter off the ground.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/619VkEGw-mL._AC_SX425_.jpg

 

Wow, think of all the amendments it'd take to make a Constitution that big

 

The Enterprise would probably be a bit further on the "M," since they started suffixing earlier. We know there was at least one Excalibur that wasn't a 1664 in the 24th century, so even if the next Excalibur after that was NCC-1664-A (and not, as in the novels, NCC-26517-A), that would mean the Enterprise had already gotten up to D or E. If the average lifespan of both names was the same, then we're looking at an Enterprise-Q or -R, at least.

And somehow, I bet the damn shuttlebay and rec deck still aren't going to fit.