I know novels are not considered actual canon but have ships such as the Discovery and things like the spore drive ever been mentioned in novels or other media outside of TV?
I posted it here in the tech forum as i assumed it was a tech question and not so much a literary one
Lit readers would be more likely to have the answer to your question.
Ah, ok can always repost there thrn and have this deleted or moved
Canon established that a lot of the details about Discovery were made classified after its time jump to after the Burn, including the Spore Drive, in the name of avoiding any more efforts to obtain the Sphere data Discovery housed. As a result, it's not likely to really appear, except maybe in, as examples, references in private discussions between, say, Pike and Spock (who actually interacted with Discovery) in SNW novels, or in Spock's private thoughts elsewhere.
Staying with canon, the only place to really play around with Discovery's tech would seem to be in the 32nd century, and so far, we only have two novels, as well as a short story or two in the Star Trek Explorer anthologies, set in that time frame.
Staying with canon, the only place to really play around with Discovery's tech would seem to be in the 32nd century, and so far, we only have two novels, as well as a short story or two in the Star Trek Explorer anthologies, set in that time frame.
Which was completely unnecessary, because season 1 established that using spore drive endangered the entire multiverse, so there was a built-in explanation for why it wouldn't be used again. Unfortunately season 2 kind of walked that back by having them continue to use the potentially everything-annihilating drive "for emergencies," and then seasons 3-5 just ignored it altogether and kept on using the drive. (My mental handwave is that 32nd-century technology found a way to make it safe to use.)
But OK in the novels what about during Kirk's time? Were there any other attempts at exotic propulsion methods that were out of the box in the novels?
"The Wounded Sky" by Diane Duane includes testing of a new type of drive, the Intergalactic Inversion Drive, with the assistance of K't'lk, a Hamalki scientist.
This episode inspired Duane's TNG episode, "Where No One Has Gone Before", featuring the Traveler in K't'lk's role.
There was a very weird interpretation of early transwarp experimentation in Diane Carey’s Battlestations!.
How did the drive in the novel work?
Duane's and Michael Reaves's, rather -- although their script was so heavily rewritten by the show's staff that hardly any of their work remains beyond the general concept.
Memory Beta says: "While it was capable of intergalactic travel by sending a vessel through 'de Sitter space', the drive had several unforeseen side-effects. Inversion often caused hyper-realistic 'visions' akin to intense 'out-of-body experiences' in most humanoids, as well as a great deal of damage to the fabric of the universe. These effects made it so dangerous for use that the drive's development and any further research into the technology was discontinued."
That's pretty wild.
They must have tried it to know all the possible side effects.
De Sitter space is a real physics concept, by the way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Sitter_space
Well, yes, that is the plot of the novel. The TNG episode has the same general premise, testing an experimental intergalactic drive and experiencing reality distortions as a result.
Well, yes, that is the plot of the novel. The TNG episode has the same general premise, testing an experimental intergalactic drive and experiencing reality distortions as a result.
Rather ironic that Memory Beta's article on de Sitter space mentions a couple of novels in which it was an eminently forgettable bit of throwaway, but fails to mention the one novel in which it's central to the plot.
Mine, too. And it's not like there isn't plenty of canonical precedent for that kind of handwave.
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