What was "The Burn" and what caused it?

I doubt any explanation will quite make it. If the spore drive is still being questioned the the Burn ain't gonna fair much better methinks.

 

I hope it's not an overly complex thing or tied to our heroes. What caused it doesn't really matter, just how to deal with it.

 

Please don't let it be a Super Galactic Being as the cause of it.

I'd rather it be Super Sneaky Malware inside the Warp Core Software than a Super Powered Galactic Being as the cause.

 

Spoiler

Tetryon? I thought he said Trilithium.

 

This was kinda my thought too in a way. Maybe after The Burn, planets of the federation became isolationist. Trek has often dealt with current political and social topics, and this could tie in with current views (Brexit, US isolation etc).

S3 is basically Make The Federation Great Again!

 

He says both

 

It could have been dilithium crystals that were in use just simply gave up, so any ship or space station using a warp core for power that was currently in use just went boom. Ships could have been destroyed but space stations may have been able to contain the blasts. Dilithium, as a benign crystal, can still be used, it just comes with extreme risk. It seems subspace was also affected. The interesting take was that it could effectively happen again, and using dilithium as a power source for warp drive was now fraught with danger?

In some ways I'd rather they didn't explain it. I don't want it to be found that dilithium is actually a life form and was tired of being exploited, or that it had something to do with the mycelium network leaking caused it, it happened, and not even a 23rd century crew can understand it, just that they need to re-evaluate the Federation for this new weird century.

 

Bah,! I'm sorry but the spore drive is no more out of line for Star Trek, then some of the other methods of travel they've come up with such as quantum slipstream drive, or trans warp drive.

And I still want to know how all the people and ships when they travel it near light speed under impulse drive avoid the relativity effects it would cause.

Star Trek has always been science fantasy. It's never been true "Hard" science fiction. So yeah I have no problem with the spore drive, Any more than I have a problem that they can get to nearly any star system in the galaxy in the 50 minutes needed for the plot of a given story they're telling this week.

Spoiler

It'll turn out to have been caused by the Cosmic Koala entity from the recently aired episode of Star Trek Lower Decks.

 

I know it doesn't make for dramatic storytelling for The Burn to have been caused by a natural phenomenon that made all processed dilithium in the galaxy suddenly unstable. More likely, it will be Section 31's failed plot to stop everyone, everywhere from using time travel.
I'm beginning to think Yeoh's Section 31 show will be set in the 32nd century, with her rebuilding of the agency. Or, maybe S31 survived the breakup of the Fed and had become a fiefdom unto itself? (and needs an Empress, er, Director?)

 

So Planets, like Coridan, with a good supply of Dilithium.. suddenly explode? Ouch.. Then how is there "shards" left? Bit more explaining.
And Book's ship at "FTL" didn't look like warp, more like and Andromeda slipstream with it weaving and such.. ??

 

^^^

Spoiler

Looked more like a form of Transwarp or maybe Quantum Slipstream.

 

Spoiler

It was just a new warp FX.

He needed the dilithium to go to warp, and they stole some dilithium as they escaped the mercantile.

He also mentioned not having any Benanite crystals for Slipstream at the start of the episode.

 

Spoiler

But seriously, maybe Book's "family" really are the Pah Wraiths. The way his face changed when he used his powers reminded me on Dukat in "What You Leave Behind".

And there's the way he described his people as hunters and murderers

And Book told Burnham about the location of the next wormhole. Another hint?

 

Spoiler

That's ok the Prophets already have things well in hand. In the final confrontation with Book just as he's about to burn the entire mycelial network to end interstellar travel for good, Grudge the cat will leap at him and push him into a bottomless pit, and everyone will realize that Grudge was Emissary Benjamin Sisko all along.

EDIT: Just realized Grudge was female. Oh well, wouldn't be the first time a cat changed gender on Trek (looking at you Spot).

 

I wonder if what actually happens by the finale winds up being half as interesting as some of the theories for this season.

 

I'm wondering if they will specify Processed Dilithium. That would explain why there's still any of the stuff left at all.

 

This wouldn't be Star Trek without a Beta III or Rubicun III-type of episode where the backward inhabitants of a planet try to execute Burnham for having Burn in her name -- therefore she must be responsible for The Burn -- while the crew figures out a way to save her without violating the Prime Directive, even though there isn't one in this Federation-free future.

 

Would the Prime Directive even apply to the Disco crew this far in the future? If anything, the people of this time would be prohibitive towards Disco, being from the past - quarantining them from the current timeline until they figured out a way to send them back. There are still elements of Starfleet floating around out there; they may not take too kindly to time travelers, irrespective of their point of origin or tech level, especially since it’s been banned. Not all of them will be as receptive of their presence, I would think, as that guy that Burnham met on the station.