The spore drive still works with the information initially imputed into it from the Tardigrade, as I understand it. It needs a living component to engage the drive because of that information because.. uh.. Discovery
Discovery, a 32nd century starship.
- Thread starter Discofan
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The tartigrade was described as being essentially a supercomputer following it being found on the Glenn - so both ships had identical hardware but at that time the Discovery didn't have the processing power to 'hold a course' through the mycelial network further than a few miles. Once the tartigrade was plugged in to prove that processing power everything was hunky-dory.
Basically the spore drive needs a biological 'navigator' to make it feasible.
Basically the spore drive needs a biological 'navigator' to make it feasible.
In retrospect, the spore drive could have been rewritten as a variation of Borg transwarp, so that it wouldn't feel so odd that it was never heard of again outside of Discovery. For all we know the Borg transwarp system is them having their own spore drive system all along.
I actually liked the spore drive. It's an interesting sci-fi concept, way better than programable matter and some of the other stuff they introduced this season. I personally think it was a mistake from a storytelling standpoint to make Book able to operate it, as I think the concept works best as a one of a kind piece of technology that will only ever exist on Discovery.
The Kwejian are tardigrades. Some major evolution happened over 900 years. Burnham's going to pass out when she realizes her boyfriend is Ripper's great great great grandson.
It certainly raises some questions, like why Book and Stamets are allowed to be on the same ship together when they represent all Starfleet's available resources with such a valuable ability.
They could probably get any number of navigators from Kwejian, so Book and Stamets' values are somewhat decreased. And since Discovery is currently Starfleet's only spore drive (as far as I know), it's probably better to have two navigators who can operate it all around the clock. Would be a shame if the Emerald Chain tried to overtake Discovery again, but they can't jump because Stamets is currently sleeping and needs three and a half minutes to the spore drive chamber.
Especially true since the Emerald Chain can take over the ship in under 15 seconds
The longer the jump, the less accurate it was without the "map" per the dialogue, but they could do short jumps. Why couldn't they just jump a short way out of the Viridian? Or to escape the Viridian in the first place?
They don't represent all of Starfleet's available resources with spore ability, unless Osyraa ordered a genocide of all Kwejian offscreen or something.
On the one hand, it makes sense since they might want to be able to operate more drives.
On the other hand, I would really like there to be some sort of limit to the Spore Drive and Stamets being unique made that possible. I hope they come up with another limiter because otherwise it will become like the transporter problem.
It'd also be super dangerous. If everyone had access to the spore drive, some bombs and the coordinates of the Federation headquarters they could literally blow it up without any difficulty and only one casualty.
But they won't do that because the Fed will then just likewise blow up their headquarters. When everyone has that power, no one uses it. This reasoning is also the only thing keeping all nations from blowing each other up right now. It's the only reason our planet hasn't turned into a nuclear wasteland.
The Federation is in a very vulnerable position, with just a space station and no planet to be located on. If the Emerald Chain hq is located on a planet, they could just move their goverment to a secret location and be fairly save from spore drive bombing. Sure, the Federation hypothetically could bomb the Emerald Chain population, but the Federation probably isn't into killing civilians and the Chain goverment would use it as propaganda. Plus, the Chain doesn't strike me as the type to care much about its citizens.
In general, the Federation would have a hard time retaliating, if its civilian goverment and (to my knowledge) only military command center are destroyed at the same time. Plus, if the Emeral Chain covers its tracks they could blame it on another power, or at least cover up their involvement. At least with nukes you know where they were launched.
For what it's worth, I thought Staments was simply trying to mislead the Emerald Chain guy by saying tardigrades were extinct.
That's an interesting idea. I had not thought of that. Though it also makes sense that over the centuries, Starfleet and others would have been on the lookout for them.
Maybe Ephraim and her fellow tardigrades just thought it was better and safer to avoid this particular reality. Catch me once, shame on you..
catch me tw... you can't get caught again
That is my thinking as well.
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