Who is they? And where do you go to get this inside information?
The Spore Drive Technology. What Do You Think About It?
- Thread starter Kane_Steel
- Start date
The producers. The internet. Including this very forums news page.
I literally do not believe them any more. It would be nice if it would be true, but I'm not holding my breath.
The show-runners said there'd be what seems to be glaring issues that would get resolved so I'll give them a break. I'm paying for CBSAA and I'll see this through till the end. I'm hoping to be like "Holy crap - of course they did it like that!" but obviously there is a high bar to clear 
Due to After trek, I have an idea. The mention of exotic matter/energy may indicate wormholes, perhaps a large network of them in the Galaxy, with dense number of entry /exit points. Might exist in higher dimensions. Navigation could only be done if the entire network were completely mapped. A way to destroy the network is to disrupt the distribution of exotic energy?
You know, I heard about this "Spore Drive" and I thought it sounded utterly stupid and ridiculous as it was presented, explained and how it's apparently shown to work in operation. (Installing a canister into something, then there bio-tank with spore-material sprinkling down in it, etc.
And the more I think about it, see about it and "learn" about it the more stupid it sounds. Of all the stupid things to come up with, a drive system based on "spores" that are ethereally connected to a system of spore-veins in another layer of space through which a vessel can transport. And... I just can't accept it in my mind.
Yes, there's a lot one has to accept in order to watch Science Fiction but, much of the time, they try and not ask too much of you and Trek tried to established a set of "rules" and ground itself in something of a "reality." There's a LOT of fudging with numbers for plot reasons but on an interstellar scale warp drive is "slow" and it's intended to be this way to keep the galaxy, and universe, "big." It's a lot smaller when a ship can cross the galaxy in a short length of time as opposed to the better part of a century. But here's the Spore Drive and we can not jump to pretty much anywhere instantly. (Yeah, yeah, the greater distances and such carry with it larger risks.)
And it just seems so... Silly. Why the fuck spores? Why not a super-fast form of warp using "protomatter" that's very unstable and dangerous hence the prohibition on its use by the time of TWK? But, nah, fuzzy seedlings that can throw a ship anywhere instantly and it really helps to have a ginormous tardigrade to make things really work well! Oh, and the saucer has to spin like a fidgit-spinner too, 'cause.
One of the reasons why warp was tried to keep so "slow" was the notion of "getting there is half the fun," you can have more story, interactions, and suspense when your characters have to travel somewhere over a course of time, rather than just zipping there virtually instantly. But, nah, I guess Discovery needs to zip us to the next action scene without any of that "story" or "character" stuff along the way. (Yes, yes, the show is still doing these things too. But, dammit, they're not going to be restricted by travel times to do it dramatically!)
There's a lot I can accept in Trek because it tried to ground it in something of a "reality" mostly in terms of matter and energy. It takes a lot of energy to move a starship, hence higher warp speeds being more stressful on ships and not being speeds they can maintain for long. Or fuel and things being limited (more of a case on Voyager.)
But, nah, spores in biome and, I dunno, "science stuff" and we can just be there! No concerns about matter and energy conversion, fuel, reaction times or anything of the sort. Space Spores!
Ugggggghhhhhhhh
Maybe the show somehow makes it "work", I dunno. I'm going off things I've seen, read, and heard but not from having watched the show. (Not paying for yet another streaming service to watch a single TV series I may not even like.) But everything I've seen on the "Spore Drive" just makes me sigh heavily and roll my eyes.
Hell, even DS9 with the wormhole going to the other side of the galaxy came with it some degree of risks and limitations and a travel time.
Then there's the fact that, if we're to accept that this show is in the "Prime Universe" and not in the "Kelvin" one or it's own (as it seemed it was originally intended to be) that apparently something happens that makes this technology to never be used by anyone, anywhere for the next couple hundred years at least.
Spore Drive.
Fucking Spore Drive?!
Was regular old warp just too mundane to stick with, show writers?
And the more I think about it, see about it and "learn" about it the more stupid it sounds. Of all the stupid things to come up with, a drive system based on "spores" that are ethereally connected to a system of spore-veins in another layer of space through which a vessel can transport. And... I just can't accept it in my mind.
Yes, there's a lot one has to accept in order to watch Science Fiction but, much of the time, they try and not ask too much of you and Trek tried to established a set of "rules" and ground itself in something of a "reality." There's a LOT of fudging with numbers for plot reasons but on an interstellar scale warp drive is "slow" and it's intended to be this way to keep the galaxy, and universe, "big." It's a lot smaller when a ship can cross the galaxy in a short length of time as opposed to the better part of a century. But here's the Spore Drive and we can not jump to pretty much anywhere instantly. (Yeah, yeah, the greater distances and such carry with it larger risks.)
And it just seems so... Silly. Why the fuck spores? Why not a super-fast form of warp using "protomatter" that's very unstable and dangerous hence the prohibition on its use by the time of TWK? But, nah, fuzzy seedlings that can throw a ship anywhere instantly and it really helps to have a ginormous tardigrade to make things really work well! Oh, and the saucer has to spin like a fidgit-spinner too, 'cause.
One of the reasons why warp was tried to keep so "slow" was the notion of "getting there is half the fun," you can have more story, interactions, and suspense when your characters have to travel somewhere over a course of time, rather than just zipping there virtually instantly. But, nah, I guess Discovery needs to zip us to the next action scene without any of that "story" or "character" stuff along the way. (Yes, yes, the show is still doing these things too. But, dammit, they're not going to be restricted by travel times to do it dramatically!)
There's a lot I can accept in Trek because it tried to ground it in something of a "reality" mostly in terms of matter and energy. It takes a lot of energy to move a starship, hence higher warp speeds being more stressful on ships and not being speeds they can maintain for long. Or fuel and things being limited (more of a case on Voyager.)
But, nah, spores in biome and, I dunno, "science stuff" and we can just be there! No concerns about matter and energy conversion, fuel, reaction times or anything of the sort. Space Spores!
Ugggggghhhhhhhh
Maybe the show somehow makes it "work", I dunno. I'm going off things I've seen, read, and heard but not from having watched the show. (Not paying for yet another streaming service to watch a single TV series I may not even like.) But everything I've seen on the "Spore Drive" just makes me sigh heavily and roll my eyes.
Hell, even DS9 with the wormhole going to the other side of the galaxy came with it some degree of risks and limitations and a travel time.
Then there's the fact that, if we're to accept that this show is in the "Prime Universe" and not in the "Kelvin" one or it's own (as it seemed it was originally intended to be) that apparently something happens that makes this technology to never be used by anyone, anywhere for the next couple hundred years at least.
Spore Drive.
Fucking Spore Drive?!
Was regular old warp just too mundane to stick with, show writers?
Well USS Discovery does still have a warp drive as well. And the Spore Drive appears to function, but it is dicey on if it is truly working as intended, or if just the problems are minute for the moment and will become obtuse and deadly obvious in a few more episodes.
Starfleet wants to build more Spore drives to install on other ships....but they still need a navigation system. Something that they quite blatantly do not have. The tardigrade might be one of a kind, and its gone regardless. Meaning they have to soup someone up and jack them into the drive to make the thing move accurately more than one-light second. The side effects of strapping in a human and pumping them with tardigrade DNA are unknown, but are already potentially maddening, or universe jumping. They don't have a computer capable to doing this task (maybe that was one of the purposes for the M-series computers before the M5 war games disaster some 12 years from Discovery's present day).
It is also entirely possible that the Spore Drive actually jumps universes rather that just Space and Time. And they'll find that out later and be rather pissed about it, since they aren't were they should be.
Starfleet wants to build more Spore drives to install on other ships....but they still need a navigation system. Something that they quite blatantly do not have. The tardigrade might be one of a kind, and its gone regardless. Meaning they have to soup someone up and jack them into the drive to make the thing move accurately more than one-light second. The side effects of strapping in a human and pumping them with tardigrade DNA are unknown, but are already potentially maddening, or universe jumping. They don't have a computer capable to doing this task (maybe that was one of the purposes for the M-series computers before the M5 war games disaster some 12 years from Discovery's present day).
It is also entirely possible that the Spore Drive actually jumps universes rather that just Space and Time. And they'll find that out later and be rather pissed about it, since they aren't were they should be.
C
Captain pl1ngpl0ng
Guest
Reality today was science fiction only a few decades ago. One of the things that made "today" at all possible was that it began to be "allowed" to think controversially.
Thankfully, thoughts like "the multiple universe theory" are now an accepted hypothesis in the established science community, and people will not get fired for saying stuff like that out loud, instead new and different thoughts are encouraged.
We live in a world now, today, where EVERYTHING is possible!!
So... That the writers come up with space fungus as a way of riding the galaxies, in a sci-fi movie... That seems just fine to me. :-) besides... It doesnt work properly so i dont think the story/timeline/etc are in any danger.
At least technology giving us field effect makes sense--The ringship may be the only design that allows anything like a real warp drive.
But biology? That's going to take Voyager level technobabble.
Well this is...awkward.
http://anas-tronaut.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/star-trek-discovery-tardigrades.html
http://anas-tronaut.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/star-trek-discovery-tardigrades.html
The spore drive itself is goofy, but I could go with the notion of an organic subspace "web" that lets you jump from point to point ... if it weren't for the tardigrade itself. It happens to look just like a microscopic Earth creature, only a zillion times bigger, and even has the same survival mechanisms, to the point of rolling up when dehydrated? And it can magically vanish? And has a natural navigation computer as a brain? That's just too far for reasonable suspension of disbelief, IMO.
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Earlier on this thread, i was replied to not worry about this crazy stupidly ridiculous idea of bio spacial spore drive with a Klingon killing tardigrade acting as a super computer. Why because the writers are going to fix this mess of a story by the end of this seson and its going to tie into the previous star trek universe.
I truly am looking for this part of the mycielial story to end. I am starting to miss the good old days of 1 adventure per week. Didn't have to invest as much time, and bad stories were over quickly. This bad story of spore drive just won't go away fast enough.
That's what I think about it.
I truly am looking for this part of the mycielial story to end. I am starting to miss the good old days of 1 adventure per week. Didn't have to invest as much time, and bad stories were over quickly. This bad story of spore drive just won't go away fast enough.
That's what I think about it.
More than an amoeba the size of a small moon that eats solar systems?
Funny you say that, because it's a matter of scale. One episode vs. the conceptual underpinning of a whole season. And a season that could have profound effects on the future of the entire franchise.
But yeah, both are goofy ideas. Bad writing doesn't excuse bad writing.
Whats bad about it?
That is one of the most defining comments I've read. Both points.
It always amuses me for how fatal "bad writing" in new Star Trek is considered, in comparison to prior Treks. See "magic blood" for another example. 
Its just a matter of scale. Both are just stories.
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