Really? It was a proven technology that was apparently just abandoned and never spoken of again. Starfleet still uses warp drive as its main means of interstellar propulsion right into the late 24th century despite supposedly developing instantaneous travel across the galaxy in the mid 23rd century.
Spoilers So now Discovery is 'synched-up' with canon
- Thread starter Amasov
- Start date
Really? It was a proven technology that was apparently just abandoned and never spoken of again. Starfleet still uses warp drive as its main means of interstellar propulsion right into the late 24th century despite supposedly developing instantaneous travel across the galaxy in the mid 23rd century.
I mentioned it earlier, but, it was stated on two separate occasions by Stamets about how first; Starfleet was searching for a non-human interface to operate it. He later says that it was decommissioned. My point being that even thought it isn't EXPLICITLY stated that Starfleet stopped using it, if you left it at that, it would be easy to just fill in the blank and assume Starfleet didn't succeed in finding an alternative way of operating it, so, the technology was abandoned.
When the first rumors about a new series were coming out, my best hope was that it would be a JJ-verse adaptation of the Vanguard novel miniseries. Book adaptations were (and are) popular, it did a great job taking advantage of what made the 23rd century unique as a Star Trek setting while broadening and deepening it, and tying it in with the movie franchise would allow them to get their USS Enterprise cross-promotion and maybe borrow some sets and costumes now and again.
Two seasons in, any prospect of that has fallen away. The TOS tie-ins are superficial and often nonsensical (Let's reference the old BTS idea that Number One is her actual name because she's the best on her home planet at everything in the same episode we show she doesn't understand geometry), the broader strokes are totally ignored (the Klingons seem awfully chummy for people who were at war with the Federation last year, and will be at war again in ten years), and the best solution the writers can think of to the fact that they can't make the TOS era interesting is to invent a totally new era that, spoiler alert, they'll probably also fail to make interesting, because the problem is not the calendar.
We probably didn't even need that much. They found one giant tardigrade in all of space, and now it's gone. Likewise, Stamets' operation on himself seems to be impossible to replicate (at least, without another tardigrade), so Starfleet can have, at most, one spore-drive ship, and that's only as long as Paul Stamets is alive. You can fill in more details, but the upshot is always going to be the same; Discovery is unique. Why didn't Voyager build a spore drive to get back home faster? The same reason they didn't build a copy of Data to invent something that'd get them home faster; they couldn't.
Granted, there could be some interesting drama in playing that out. Some kind of "Measure of a Man" thing where they try to draft Stamets into staying on Discovery permanently because it's an irreplaceable resource, or helping another ship trying to lure out tardigrades for examination only for it to end in disaster, but DSC has made it clear it doesn't have time to develop its ideas. For a show that made a "Actually, there are bad ideas in brainstorming" joke, they seem absolutely incapable of not putting every thought they can think of on-screen.
My thoughts exactly. And without the Tardigrade or a navigator with its DNA you're ultimately limited by the processing power of your computer; just remember the kinds of calculations Discovery required for jumps of a few hundred kilometers and how high the risk that they'd end up inside a star still was back then. Without a replacement for Stamets, even if someone independently created another working spore drive somehow, they'd basically have a fancy and overcomplicated toy with the effective range and usefulness of a transporter but a kajillion times of the power requirements of one.
Last edited:
Discovery shouldn't have been set in TOS era anyway. All the Canon issues it created itself. I'm looking forward to seeing a season 3 free of Canon dodging. That's what I've wanted since Nemesis. Now I've got Picard and Discovery Season 3. Still want Pike and Georgiou shows though
Discovery shouldn't have been set in TOS era anyway. All the Canon issues it created itself. I'm looking forward to seeing a season 3 free of Canon dodging. That's what I've wanted since Nemesis. Now I've got Picard and Discovery Season 3. Still want Pike and Georgiou shows though
Now we can look forward to them reading the historical database and finding out Supreme Leader Janeway declared martial law and wiped out half the galaxy and other random references to literally all the shows.
I'm hoping for Quark buying out the Moon and using its face as ad space. Either that, or Supreme Overlord of the Known Galaxy Elim Garak.
Quark buys a whole solar system turned into a pleasure resort outshining Risa. His tomb has his corpse resting in a lake of liquid latinum to this day.
I remember wanting a post nemesis series when we were discussing hopes for the new TV show. My argument was essentially the one now put forward by the producers - to free the show from the continuity hardcore constantly slamming it for reasons that are nothing to do with story or production quality. I thought that making a show that is set alongside one that is pure 1960s futurism in 2017 was bound to cause heartache because you either had to abandon the pretense of being a real future and tongue in cheek mimic what the 60s thought the 23rdC would be like, or update for fifty years of real world development and piss off the canon purists. Discovery in the end (rather mercifully) went for the latter. And the backlash occurred as predicted.
Having said all that, Discovery had put its cards on the table. It was set in the Prime 23rd century, and that was that. This story was taking place in that period and tied into all sorts of canon references to place it there. It established a setting, a wider universe, and connections to people and places. To now turn around and say "oh actually, we need to fix this somehow with a handwaved solution to restore the holy canon" just seems a really weird decision. It really undermines my impression of the writers' confidence in their own show and plays into the worst stereotype of the Comic Book Guy fan who would need that sort of 'problem' fixed.
Having said all that, Discovery had put its cards on the table. It was set in the Prime 23rd century, and that was that. This story was taking place in that period and tied into all sorts of canon references to place it there. It established a setting, a wider universe, and connections to people and places. To now turn around and say "oh actually, we need to fix this somehow with a handwaved solution to restore the holy canon" just seems a really weird decision. It really undermines my impression of the writers' confidence in their own show and plays into the worst stereotype of the Comic Book Guy fan who would need that sort of 'problem' fixed.
Future Guy was meant to be a 26th century Romulan. Whether he was acting on behalf of whatever passed for authority after the Hobus event we'll never know.
At least two, probably three. What they care to bother covering is another matter.
Well, there goes the DSC Farragut episode that I was hoping they'd do. 
I can do without the Section 31 show, thank you.
I can do without the Section 31 show, thank you.
Well, there goes the DSC Farragut episode that I was hoping they'd do.
They might still. We don't know what year the Academy/Lower Decks/S31 series take place in.
At some point we'll get a Kirk series or Kirk will appear.
They made themselves a hostage to fortune by tying themselves specifically to the continuity established in TOS, the movies and the TNG era which limits creative decisions. They would have been better off setting it in a separate universe where they would have had the freedom to do what they wanted without worrying about contradicting existing continuity and canon.
