TOS references to past Starfleet events unexplored in canon

Hey all,

With the recent news that Discovery is set around d a decade prior to TOS and that a major plot point will be an even referenced in TOS but never explored in Canon I was hoping we could come up with a list of such events. To start off here's a few of the big ones:

- Axanar - Battle won by Garth/peace mission
- Garth was injured and he recovers with help from the inhabitants of Antos, then attempts to lead them to conquer the galaxy
- Tarsus IV - Genocide
- The Farragut Incident - former posting of Kirk, half the crew killed by Obsession cloud
- Battle at Donatu 5 referenced in "The Trouble With Tribbles."
- conquest of Vulcan mentioned by McCoy in "The Conscience of the King".
- Kirk canceling the wedding with the "blonde lab technician"
- Daystrom introduced his duotronics breakthrough which was subsequently incorporated into Starfleet's ships.
- Robert April

EDIT: I'm updating this list with suggestions below to keep everything in one place

I look forward to more!

 

The incident with the Farragut might not be all that unusual given what we've seen other Starfleet ships encounter in terms of alien lifeforms and deep space phenomena.

There is also the Battle at Donatu 5 referenced in "The Trouble With Tribbles." Was this engagement part of the "Axanar" conflict or something else entirely? Kirk was a "newly pledged cadet" when he went to Axanar. Did that happen not long after Garth's victory? If so then Axanar happened about fifteen years prior to TOS. But the Donatu 5 reference is stated as happening twenty-five years prior and so right around the time the first Constitution-class ships were supposedly being launched.

All this gets murky. Garth's victory at Axanar might not be part of a "Four Years War" popularized in fanon given there is no "four years war" mentioned in all of TOS. Garth's victory could be something else entirely. The Axanar fan project is all based on very skimpy references in TOS and the rest is fan rationalizations, but many fans seem to have gotten the idea it's more substantial than that. It's not.

 

What is interesting about "Whom Gods Destroy" and its loose ends is that Kirk doesn't completely shoot down Garth's insistence that our hero is in fact a war hero. He just demurely says he considers himself more an explorer nowadays.

What war(s) did Kirk fight in? How and when? Did these heroics earn him the command of a starship? Odds should be that these war heroics took place in the rough Discovery timeframe...

Timo Saloniemi

 

There was a conquest of Vulcan mentioned by McCoy in "The Conscience of the King". We don't know a date an it's a bit tricky because in "The Immunity Syndrome" Spock says that Vulcan was never conquered and no Vulcan can even imagine a conqueror.

But maybe the "event" Fuller suggested isn't a warlike conflict. Possibly the "event" is just Kirk canceling the wedding with the "blonde lab technician" bringing her to request a post on the next ship leaving earth which is the Discovery.

 

I had not considered that, maybe he is just playing with us all by implying it is a major event. In my headcanon that blonde was Carol Marcus. Now I'm not going to be able to get the idea of a 20ish Lieutenant Commander Carol Marcus as the focus of Discovery out of my head...

(Though that might be a little young for a Lieutenant Commander...)

 

McCoy's remark about Vulcan being conquered could have been sarcastic humour.

 

Or just one of the many, many contradictions that should be ignored under suspension of disbelief in TOS back when it was an anthology series with the same cast and no real worry over canon.

 

Garth in "Whom Gods Destroy" is totally nuts insane. A lot of what he says has to be taken with a generous serving of salt. In extent some of Kirk's responses needn't necessarily be taken literally given he might just be trying to keep Garth from going into one of his fits.

Assuming there was a war or running conflict which Garth brought to an end with his victory at Axanar. It doesn't necessarily mean it was with the Klingons. Thats mostly an assumption on the part of fans.

The implication in "The Trouble With Tribbles" is that the Battle of Donatu 5 was fought with the Klingons, but that incident looks to have taken place several years before the battle at Axanar, unless Axanar takes place years earlier and Kirk's trip to Axanar happened years after Garth's victory. Kirk did say Garth's exploits were required reading at the Academy.

Garth looks to be not that much older than Kirk so how could he possibly have been so active about twenty or so years earlier? Well he might not be human and he has also mastered changing his appearance at will. Possibly his real appearance is of someone much older, but his ability allows him to look much younger than he really is.

 

People from that era might in general look youthful, including regular humans. Certainly there's a ten-year gap between the age and appearance of Picard. OTOH, McCoy is quite a bit younger than DeForrest Kelley in modern reckoning (established in "Encounter at Farpoint")...

As for TOS references that might fall in the 2250s time brackets, the major political or military ones are already covered here. The rest is career moments and the like. Right?

It just doesn't seem as if shows other than TOS would have referenced the 2250s much. The Sheliak thing is just about the only one that fits.

Timo Saloniemi

 

The production design sets and costuming should fit into the "The Cage" look.

 

Not necessarily. After all, the look of "The Cage" is mostly just ship interiors - and Starfleet always operates ships from multiple eras in parallel. The bridge and corridors of Pike's ship might look drastically different from that of the new hero skipper's (whose vessel appears to be 700 "NCC points" older than Pike's and thus not obligated to fall in between Pike and Kirk in any fashion).

At most, the new heroes should wear uniforms similar to Pike's - on occasion at least. Those, and sidearms/tricorders/communicators. But we have seen such things change within a timescale of months in the TOS movies, so there isn't much pressure on the producers in terms of Trek precedent.

They would be well advised to please the audience with at least a few references, but they can't really be faulted for doing their own thing, either. As long as it's imaginative and not a retread of something already done for the 2150s or 2370s!

Timo Saloniemi

 

In "The Ultimate Computer" McCoy states about twenty-five years earlier (before TOS) is when Daystrom apparently introduced his duotronics breakthrough which was subsequently incorporated into Starfleet's ships.

In "The Menagerie" Tyler mentions a time barrier being broken since the Columbia was lost eighteen years prior (18 plus 13 so about 31 years before TOS). When "The Cage" was first written it's possible GR was referring to the development of warp drive. But later learning Cochrane developed warp drive somewhere mid 21st century then Tyler's reference could be interpreted simply that advances in propulsion had taken a drastic leap forward since the Columbia disappeared. Perhaps the implication of dilithium in tandem with duotronics meant ships could now travel and navigate a lot faster than before.

 

Assuming ships visit bases often for restocking and upgrades, Discovery should have Cage era props and uniforms.

 

There might still be quite a gap between modern frontline ships and has-beens on milk runs: the new skipper might be provisioned for cutting edge action, while Pike would be 47th in line for receiving the previous batch of surplus sidearms.

Or vice versa. Perhaps the old NCC-1031, on a supposedly unimportant mission (as if!) isn't deemed worthy of receiving the new three-barreled pistols and has to make do with Robau era antiques despite frequently encountering fellow starships that flaunt their Pike style gear.

Timo Saloniemi

 

The Pike-era uniforms continued to be used well into TOS, so there is precedence of two sets of uniforms in use around this time. The 24th century had an even greater hodgepodge of uniforms in spite of the fact that presumably all any starship would need to change uniforms for the whole crew would be a subspace download to the replicators. I tend to think that the Starfleet uniform regulations allows for a wide number of past/different uniform styles to be worn at any time.

TC

 

Exactly. The bit about the Vulcans being conquered was an early misstep that's been pretty much ignored and treated as mistake ever since that episode.

 

Besides Garth's victory at Axanar there are three other historical events mentioned in "Whom Gods Destroy."

One involves when Garth was injured and he recovers with help from the inhabitants of Antos. Something goes wrong and Garth offers to lead the Antosians to victory over the galaxy (or something to that effect). When they refuse he tries to destroy them wherein Garth's crew refuses to follow his orders and mutinies. This could be the incident that results in Garth ending up in the insane asylum on Elba II. It is also definitely post Garth's victory at Axanar.

The other event mentioned is when Spock is trying to discern between Kirk and Garth impersonating Kirk. Spock asks how a Romulan torchship was defeated at Tau Ceti (I believe). Tau Ceti isn't far from Earth, but the Romulans supposedly were not heard from for a century until they came out again in "Balance Of Terror." There is reference to a maneuver caled the Cochrane Deceleration. So is Spock referring to a more recent event post "Balnce Of Terror" or an event that happened much earlier?

The third event referenced is the Axanar Peace Mission in which Kirk took part as a "newly pledged cadet." But Kirk was a cadet about fifteen years earlier yet if you subtract TOS from that you are close to a decade before TOS.

 

I think its Kirk and the Enterprise who use the Cochrane Deceleration maneuver to defeat the Romulans, not Garth.

So after BOT.

I think it's "fledged" as in a bird getting its feathers so it can fly. Meaning Kirk had just graduated.
So the Peace mission was when Kirk was about 21. Still a little over 10 years prior to TOS. (Assuming Kirk was 33 in Season One)The question I guess is how long the after the Battle was the Peace Mission? And what was the relationship between the Battle and the Peace Mission?

Looking at the transcript, Kirk says he studied Garth's victory at Axanar while he was a cadet. and it was required reading in Kirk's day as well as today. So there must be a bit of a gap between the Battle and the Peace Mission. Axanar may be just the site of the Peace mission and not directly related to it.

 

I actually kind of assumed it was some kind of joke on McCoy's part and not meant to be taken seriously or literally (also, later shows would establish that Vulcan does have alcoholic drinks that're still in use, indicating that Vulcan teetotaling is a lifestyle choice, not a rule). I've heard the theory that McCoy's comment is a retroactive reference to V'Las's conspiracy with the Romulans in "The Forge," "Awakening," and "Kir'Shara" [ENT]. Not sure how that would work, but there it is.

I think Spock was referring to a post-"Balance of Terror" incident that wasn't shown in an episode. He could've been referring to "Balance of Terror," but I can't think of any maneuver that would be a Cochrane Deceleration. It couldn't have been before that show, because it was the first time the Romulans had bothered the Federation since the Romulan War.

 

During his third year at the academy Garth was promoted to the rank of captain, and given command of Starfleet's newest flagship.

Nah, that would be ridiculous.