Spoilers Star Trek: Prodigy General Discussion Thread

The ship might not even have travelled by warp to the Delta Quadrant even if it had warp capability, it could quite easily have fallen through a wormhole. Alternatively a species such as the Nacene could have ‘wished’ the sleeper ship in to the Delta Quadrant, as Neelix might have said. Whether the Tellerite sleeper ship was warp capable or not is irrelevant, there are *many* possibilities as to how it found its way in to this area of the galaxy. Q may even have had a hand to play, but I can’t think of a reason why Q would be interested in a Tellarite sleeper ship. Until the Tellarite vessels logs are recovered, we may never know.

I am also not sure if the technology exists even in the 24th century to power a warp drive for such an extended period of time, never mind in the 22nd century. I do not think that Tellarite warp technology was more advanced than the Federation in this era, but I could be wrong. Enterprise era warp drives were only capable of a maximum of warp 4.5 and that was from the latest model starships, I’m sure that the warp standard for most ships was probably around one half to two thirds this speed so the journey would have probably taken the sleeper ship far more than double the length of time that it would have taken the USS Voyager to traverse a similar distance at warp 9.975 in the late 2300’s.

We also have to consider the various obstacles that would have been in the way of the sleeper ships journey to the Delta Quadrant. Just how far in to this quadrant did the Tellarite ship go? Did it have to traverse Borg Space at all? It is also possible that the sleeper ship could have accidentally followed in the wake of a Borg Cube and travelled through a transwarp conduit.

 

I think we can be sure the vessel is supposed to be warp-capable. In Jankom's story in "Preludes", Boxy says "Oooooops - cracked warpcore". It's easily missed as it is in Boxy's rapid-fire section, testing poor Jankom to the limit.

 

I am not disputing the fact that the sleeper ship had a warp core and warp engines, I am just stating that it is irrelevant as it could have traversed great distances using other means. If the entire journey was conducted via warp, then who was maintaining the warp core and engineering whilst the ship was on its long journey to the Delta Quadrant? I am assuming that it was the Star War’s like ‘droid’? In Star Trek: Voyager’s episode ‘One’ the USS Voyager needed Seven of Nine to remain conscious whilst the crew were in stasis in order to maintain ships functions. If starship engines are so low maintenance to run and maintain at warp speed, then why do starships need engineering crews in the first place?

Also, was the Tellarite vessel heading to the Delta Quadrant with a specific purpose and target? Or was it just aimlessly ‘travelling’ with no end destination?

 

That's a good question, that may yet be revisited in later episodes/seasons. It did seem to me like a way to dispose of "unwanted", rather than a genuinely serious attempt to start a colony. The crew was very small. Jankom may have been the only engineer, as he was the one who got woken.

 

So it could have been a bit like the Botany Bay then after all, just *with* warp drive and obviously *without* eugenics. Perhaps the sleeper ships crew did not agree with the Tellarites joining the newly formed Federation and were traditionalist Tellarites? They could even have been expelled from Tellarite society for being traditionalists and opposing Federation membership? When Jankom’s family (could be Tellarite royalty) realised that their society was changing and it was out of their control they could have either decided to leave Tellar or have been forced out and ousted/ expelled.

 

Then why would the writers have made it a sleeper ship in the first place? That makes no sense. The only reason the writers would have chosen to make it a sleeper ship is that they intended it to have taken a long time to get there. That's confirmed by their use of a 22nd-century design.

The whole point of a sleeper ship is to save power by minimizing life support needs, and to enable a ship to be smaller and lighter because it doesn't need to carry enough food, water, air, furnishings, etc. to support a large, active crew. Both of those would free up more fuel for the engines and let them operate for a more prolonged period.

It also makes sense that it takes more power to initiate a warp bubble than to maintain it once it's settled in. And we know from the TNG Tech Manual that accelerating to a higher warp factor causes the power usage to ramp up considerably, then drop back down once a new stable configuration is achieved (the integer warp factors are the stable, lowest-power ones). So it seems reasonable to assume that it takes less power to maintain a stable warp bubble at a constant velocity than it does to make frequent stops, starts, and course changes -- sort of like how a car gets better mileage on the highway than in the city.

It's a stretch, yes, but no more so than a ton of other things in Star Trek (like how ships in Strange New Worlds are able to make interstellar journeys in a matter of hours instead of days or weeks). Ultimately, it's all made up, and any assumption we make about how the technology should work can be thrown out by a single line of dialogue.

Probably not, since we know Tars Lamora is close to the Beta-Delta border (since Dal was familiar with a star formation that was mentioned in a late-season Voyager episode). So we're talking a journey of maybe 35,000 light years from Tellar, just a little across the border from Beta.

We were literally shown the answer to that in last week's episode. The ship's AI awoke the passengers to do any necessary repairs along the way.

No. The whole "royalty" thing started when Barniss Frex mentioned to Jankom that Tellarites were one of the Federation's founding species, and Jankom, having a poor understanding of Federation egalitarianism, jumped to the conclusion that Tellarites as a species were Federation royalty.

 

See post above.

No, this is not the purpose of a sleeper ship. The whole point of a sleeper ship is to keep its crew/cargo in suspended animation or cryostasis so that they can survive very long journey’s, such as this Tellarite vessel’s journey in to the Delta Quadrant.

Yes but this does not answer the question of who maintains engineering on a sleeper ship whilst all this technobabble is going on.

I like to call it creativity.

I can not recall Voyager being near the Beta/Delta border. They could have mentioned Tars Lomora but I do not think that this Star system was given any defined location.

They should have put an R2-D2 in to the episode then.

The Federation does not have royalty. Perhaps that is why Jankom’s sleeper ship left Tellar.

 

No no no. The whole Royalty thing was a misunderstanding Jankom had about the Federation.

 

Why do you think that's a contradiction? They're two ways of saying the same thing. In order to have a long journey, you need to have enough fuel for that long journey.

https://i.imgur.com/sfX1Jp3.jpeg
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/g...a/Delta.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090329212839

They spent the last two and a third seasons there, after the nearly 10,000-light year jump Kes gave them in "The Gift," the 2500 ly through the Malon vortex in "Night," the 10,000-ly slipstream trip in "Timeless," and the 20,000-ly jump they made with the Borg transwarp coil in "Dark Frontier."

Yes, that is the whole point of the gag -- that Jankom is wrongly assuming the Federation has royalty.

 

He didn't arrive until Tuesday...the ship left Monday...

That would ruin the joke.

 

I actually had forgotten about the joke, I cannot even remember the context that it was in. I was speculating about the Tellarite sleeper ship. Jankom might not even have known that he is Tellarite royalty because he is so young and his family could have been protecting him from political upheaval on Tellar as a result of the on world controversy surrounding Federation membership which they may have opposed.

I never said that it was a contradiction, I was just clarifying *exactly* what a sleeper ship is for. Do we even know what ‘fuels’ Tellarite ships? I’m assuming it is the standard antimatter/matter reaction as filtered through a dilithium crystal, but I could be wrong. I don’t think that it has ever been stated on screen, it is an assumption. I doubt that they are powered by something as sophisticated as Quantum singularities like 24th century Romulan ships. I’m not sure if a standard nuclear reactor would provide enough energy to power a warp drive. For all we know, the Tellarites might have to keep shoveling some form of fuel in to their engines like coal on old Earth steam trains... to make them ‘go’ (hehe). It is possible to automate warp drive but I do not think that it would be safe for any ship, especially a 22nd century one to travel for so long without an engineering team to manage it, the crew would probably have to work in cycles of being in cryostasis and being woke. But we do not know what the dangers are (if any) of repeated cycles of crysostasis on individuals. Now, if the sleeper ship was traveling at sub warp speeds that would *definitely* be a lot safer for the passengers and cargo if it was not being managed by a crew and engineering team. A bit like the Nostromo in the movie Aliens, but I can’t remember if the Nostromo had warp drive or not - it might never have been mentioned on screen.

But due to the sheer scale of the galaxy and the time that it takes to traverse the vast distances, it is debatable as to what the actual definition of being ‘near’ the Beta/Delta Quadrant is.

The map that you linked to is *very* pixelated, it is hard to make out the details.

I do not think that the 10,000 jump in ‘The Gift’ would have put Voyager anywhere near the Beta Quadrant though. The journey home was 75,000 light years. How many light years off the journey did this take take off of the remainder of what Voyager had already traversed of this distance so far in the preceding 3 years? I do not think that it was actually mentioned on screen just how far they had actually travelled in the first three seasons. If we knew how far Voyager had travelled *exactly* in the first three seasons then this could all be plotted out on a map. The 10,000 jump in ‘Timeless’ combined with ‘Dark Frontiers’ could quite possibly have taken Voyager to where would be considered by some as being ‘near’ the Beta Quadrant.

Of course, Voyager bypassed the Beta Quadrant in it’s entirety thanks to the events of Endgame.

I had forgotten about the ‘gag’, and I do not get it anyway.

 

Actually, @Christopher , you can not prove a point on a two dimensional map, the galaxy is three dimensional. Voyager was not just travelling on a two dimensional x and y axis plane, it was also travelling -x and -y, and neither was the sleeper ship travelling so linearly. This map needs to be redrawn three dimensionaly, a bit like in Star Trek Online. But even Star Trek Online got it wrong, their galaxy is more like a ‘shallow fish tank’ rather than being spherical or elliptical.

 

He assumed that Tellarites being founding members of the Federation would give them increased privileges, like Royalty.

 

^^^ This.

 

This ‘gag’ is about an entire species being treated with privilege, not an actual royal family/monarchy on Tellar (which was probably expelled so that they could join/form the Federation), though I understand the comparison. Founding worlds such as Tellar *may* feel more entitled than newer worlds who join the Federation believing that they have more ‘ownership’ - but this is why the Federation has the Federation Council with representatives from all member world’s and a nominated President to represent them all and make sure that everything is ‘fair’. There may have been many things to gain from Tellar originally helping to form the Federation, for example the sharing of new technology, a supply of almost unlimited resources, transport and trade links as well as scientific research etc. I believe that in the Federation no one species would or should be treated with privilege over another regardless of how long they have been in the club for… it is not a pyramid hierarchy of worlds with Earth, Vulcan and Tellar at the top (I’m not sure where Andor would go!). This is why the Federation logo is not a pyramid like on the dollar bank notes but instead randomly placed stars on a star map surrounded by a peaceful reef of leaves. The Federation is not a “homosapiens only club” as a renowned Klingon once accused it of being. I do not recall any instances on screen which show one Federation member being treated with privilege over another, at least not in the late 24th century. But, on the other hand, if a species was *not* in the Federation then they would sadly not get the same privilege’s that membership of this union provides. So species would have to aspire to become Federation members if they wanted to be able to travel freely throughout shared Federation space and get all the fancy starships, dilithium mining rights on abandoned moons and industrial replicators etc.

 

Jankom was from pre-federation Tellar, he didn't know all of that.

 

Yeah I know, but this might have something to do with why the sleeper ship that Jankom was on left Tellar in the first place; the impending formation of the Federation. The Federation was not created in one night, it took many decades, maybe even the best part of a century. There would have been loads of negotiations and treaties that needed putting together and all the planets were probably squabbling over it all for a long time. We saw a bit of this on the series Enterprise (we know that Archer becomes the first Federation President) but they kind of skirted around the bush, they also cancelled the series before they could go in to any details about it all.

 

He wasn't the first. The Federation was founded in 2161, he was a Federation Councilman from 2175 to 2183, and finally President in 2183.

 

Nobody really wants to know how the sausage is made. Yeah, it would take time, effort, negotiation, reviewing of treaties, and establishing of all the appropriate departments to manage this new government. A real world example might be in the United States, which didn't get its constitution until after the Articles of Confederation failed. But, that's messy, and doesn't necessarily make for a good TV series about action and adventure in space. "Star Politics" was my failed pitch to a studio about a senator making a motion. Imagine my surprise when the Phantom Menace came out with that same storyline!

 

Well maybe you would have better luck pitching a Star Trek film.