Times in Trek where the universe or galaxy was saved

[Dale Sams]

Help me out here. I THINK, that Kirk and Co. only saved the universe once and that was in The Alternative Factor

I think that Burnham et al in saving the spore network said they saved the universe.

Both examples are kind of head scratchers. The universe must be a very fragile place to be saved by the coincidental presence of some jumped up monkeys.

I can't think of any galaxy wide threats that were stopped. Sure there were various invasions and such but nothing of certainty. Closest i can think of is in PICARD where they say these fifth dimensional synths will lay waste to half the galaxy.

 

[Herbert]

I can think of two large threats right off.

The Immunity Syndrome. It's implied in the episode that if the giant space amoeba was allowed to keep growing that it could wipe out all life in the galaxy.

The Doomsday Machine could have presented a similar threat.

 

[Nyotarules]

The V'ger incident because the universe revolves around Earth
The whale probe because the universe revolves around Earth

 

[Christopher]

Star Trek onscreen has generally been pretty good at avoiding the "entire universe in danger" trope. Aside from the instances the OP mentioned, I think DS9: "Playing God" was the only time it was used.

Although it's surprisingly common in tie-in fiction, in contrast -- TOS: The Entropy Effect, Corona, The Wounded Sky, Killing Time, Time for Yesterday, and The Three-Minute Universe; the Shatnerverse Totality trilogy; TNG: I, Q and Q&A; DS9: Millennium; VGR: The Eternal Tide.

 

[Dale Sams]

I can think of two large threats right off.

The Immunity Syndrome. It's implied in the episode that if the giant space amoeba was allowed to keep growing that it could wipe out all life in the galaxy.

The Doomsday Machine could have presented a similar threat.

Given how limited the Doomsday Machine was (One weapon that be fired in only one direction, can be tanked, a bomb down its throat stops it) I never thought it that great a threat other then when its immediately found

But the Space Ameoba...yup. Good point. Would make a good story to find that some galactic threat injected it into the Milky Way to wipe everyone out.

 

[Annorax849]

Scorpion, there was an implication Species 8472 would have gone on to destroy the rest of the galaxy.

The Xindi arc, given the Sphere Builders apparently wanted the Expanse to span the galaxy

The Mirror arc of Discovery probably wins though, since it was the entire Multiverse at stake...

 

[Christopher]

When characters talk about something like the amoeba or the Doomsday Machine threatening the entire galaxy, I see that as hyperbole, since that's 400 billion stars and it'd take forever to devour them one by one. I suppose the amoeba could've theoretically reproduced and eventually overrun the galaxy, but surely some civilization would've hit upon the rather obvious idea of throwing antimatter at them before they bred out of control. Same with a threat like the Borg or Species 8472 -- they might be able to pose a threat to a fairly large portion of the galaxy, but their expansion would only be gradual, and the galaxy is so inconceivably immense that it's hard to accept the idea of any single entity eradicating the whole thing.

 

[Dale Sams]

Star Trek onscreen has generally been pretty good at avoiding the "entire universe in danger" trope. Aside from the instances the OP mentioned, I think DS9: "Playing God" was the only time it was used.

Oh DS9....that reminds me that the Pah Wraiths were supposed to 'set fire to the galaxy'.

 

[Mojochi]

I think we're supposed to accept that the backwards moving temporal anomaly in TNG's All Good Things... was a potentially universally catastrophic event, but when Q's involved, who can really gauge anything as being real?

 

[Christopher]

Oh DS9....that reminds me that the Pah Wraiths were supposed to 'set fire to the galaxy'.

More hyperbole. Characters in Trek often talk about "the galaxy" when discussing something that could realistically only affect the relatively tiny part of it that humanity has occupied or explored. "The known galaxy" would be a better choice of words.

 

[NCC-73515]

In TOS Alternative Factor, 2 universes were at stake

 

[Christopher]

In TOS Alternative Factor, 2 universes were at stake

Yeah, but also it said any matter-antimatter reaction would destroy the universes, and that annihilation would only occur if entire people met their antimatter counterparts rather than just individual particles. It's a stupid episode and there's a reason it's never, ever been referenced in any subsequent Trek production (aside from its coinage of the term "dilithium").

 

[F. King Daniel]

Help me out here. I THINK, that Kirk and Co. only saved the universe once and that was in The Alternative Factor

I think that Burnham et al in saving the spore network said they saved the universe.

Both examples are kind of head scratchers. The universe must be a very fragile place to be saved by the coincidental presence of some jumped up monkeys.

I can't think of any galaxy wide threats that were stopped. Sure there were various invasions and such but nothing of certainty. Closest i can think of is in PICARD where they say these fifth dimensional synths will lay waste to half the galaxy.

The Discovery crew didn't save just the universe, they saved the infinite multiverse. Which is so ridiculously over the top it means pretty much nothing.

Spock stopped the Romulan supernova in ST'09, which he claimed to Jim "threatened to destroy the galaxy" (although Picard's tie-in novel puts the radius of destruction at 9.7 light years, somewhat less)

 

[Christopher]

Spock stopped the Romulan supernova in ST'09, which he claimed to Jim "threatened to destroy the galaxy" (although Picard's tie-in novel puts the radius of destruction at 9.7 light years, somewhat less)

I tend not to take the specifics of the mind-meld sequence too literally. Since it had a distorted, dreamlike quality, I figure what we were seeing and hearing was Kirk's mind's attempt to decipher the thought impressions he was getting from Spock Prime, and thus what we got was an imperfect, somewhat figurative translation. Spock may have meant to convey the idea that the devastation of the Romulan Star Empire could trigger destabilization and conflict throughout the known galaxy, and Kirk's mind turned it into something more melodramatic.

For what it's worth, though, the 10-ly destruction radius in the novel was the initial estimate, and later research by the Federation showed that it would be somewhat wider, though the Romulan government covered up its own scientists' confirmation of that result and insisted on the original estimate.

 

[MAGolding]

More hyperbole. Characters in Trek often talk about "the galaxy" when discussing something that could realistically only affect the relatively tiny part of it that humanity has occupied or explored. "The known galaxy" would be a better choice of words.

It is possible that in the eras of TOS and TNG English has words or phrases for regions of the galaxy in various scales and possibly for parts or sections of the universe in various scales, and since 20th and 21st century English just has solar system, galaxy, and universe, several different 23rd and 24th century words or phrases might be translated into modern English as galaxy or universe.

Thus phrases like "first level galactic region" or "second level galactic region" might be translated into contemporary English as galaxy, confusingly to us, and phrases like "first level cosmic region" or "second level universal region" might be translated as universe.

 

[Rahul]

Y'all haven't even mentioned Control/Section 31 destroying all biological life in the galaxy from DIS season 2.

 

[Rahul]

For what it's worth, I hate that "save the universe" trope with a passion.

Ridiculously over the top stupid:

• DIS season 1: saving THE ENTIRE MULTIVERSE...
• DIS season 2: CONTROL destroying ALL biological life in the galaxy
• TOS: Alternate factor (I'm more forgiving, because it was a stupid one-off, when the boundaries and rules of the Trek universe weren't really defined yet)

Universe-threatening but kinda' okay given the SF-context:

• TNG: All good things (though, again, Q messing, so it's not a "apes save the universe" story, it's a "god plays games with a tiny monkey" story)
• DS9: Playing god (nice idea, no-one knows weather it would have really threatened the universe)

Galaxy-wide repercussions (generally okay IMO, also none ridiculously universe-threatening):

• Species 8472, the Borg, space amoeba - all reasonable.
• ENT season 3: the Expanse (I really liked this one)
• PIC season 1: the admonition (not a fan of this one)
• The Q civil war on VOY (iffy - threat level was okay, the story was just boring)
• The Pah-wraiths? Possibly? (Never liked the Christianity fan-fiction aspect of those)

Very much not galaxy-threatening, but talked in hyperbole by the characters about because of the unimaginable threat level (so IMO very much okay):

• V'Ger
• Doomsday device
• The Dominion War
• ST09/PIC - Romulan supernova (dumb, but not "destroying the universe"-dumb)

 

[Henoch]

Very much not galaxy-threatening, but talked in hyperbole by the characters about because of the unimaginable threat level (so IMO very much okay):

• V'Ger
• Doomsday device
• The Dominion War
• ST09/PIC - Romulan supernova (dumb, but not "destroying the universe"-dumb)

Maybe include the Kelvan Empire invasion?

 

[Rahul]

Maybe include the Kelvan Empire invasion?

The what now?
In all seriousness though: This category is faaar from complete. Uttering "this can threaten the entire galaxy" happens usually any time the heroes encounter a massively higher intelligence - you could inlcude a lot, from Balok to the crystal entity.

I just listed all the examples mentioned here in the threat that actually weren't universe- or galaaxy-threatening, but only referred to as such by the characters, because the threats were, well, unimaginable huge.

 

[Doom Shepherd]

It’s like saying that nuclear war would “destroy the world.”

Taken literally, obviously not. Not nearly enough energy released to do that.

Still, it would destroy OUR world.