What was "The Burn" and what caused it?

[Tosk]

"The Burn" sounds like a lame/cool nickname that Michael Burnham tried out in high school. It didn't stick.

Seriously though, I really hope it has nothing to do with her.

 

[Awesome Possum]

It was a gender reveal party that really got out of hand.

 

[Dale Sams]

I have a weird feeling there are Mirror peeps talking to Space Hitler in the trailer...so maybe The Burn was some kind of merge of the universes or a long ass war.

 

[Lord Garth]

My first speculation was that the Federation was hacked system-wide. But that sounds too low-tech for the 4th Millennium. So it's probably not that. I'm thinking there was some Galactic Catastrophe.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Maybe multiple Star Trek 2009 style supernovas wiped out a lot of solar systems.

 

[Colonel Midnight]

Whatever it is... I’m sure Section 31 is behind it, in some way. Because... Section 31. *oy* *rolling eyes*

Cheers,
-CM-

 

[Lord Garth]

Whatever it is... I’m sure Section 31 is behind it, in some way. Because... Section 31. *oy* *rolling eyes*

Cheers,
-CM-

Not that Section 31 wouldn't resort to extremes, but I'd think they wouldn't try to do anything that would result in the Federation not ending up on top.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I'm thinking the Burn was a major interstellar disaster that the Federation leadership at the time had handled poorly, leading to the vast majority of member worlds to lose their faith and leave.

 

[saddestmoon]

I’m wondering if... something, something... time crystals? [from season 2]

If not that, my hunch is pointing me towards something that was introduced or yet to be extrapolated, from either season 1 or 2 of Discovery...

 

[Search4]

The Burn. Burnham. It’s all about her.

She disappeared from the 23rd century and the Federation collapsed.

 

[Lorcan Kelly]

i have a feeling it could be that subspace was destroyed somehow preventing warp travel.

 

[dupersuper]

It sounds like something Crusher had to treat Riker for after he got back from Risa...

 

[Mudd]

Taco Bell.

 

[arch101]

A galaxy- wide EMP? That’s a big real-world fear right now.

 

[NCC-73515]

The Burn. Burnham. It’s all about her.

She disappeared from the 23rd century and the Federation collapsed.

It's like ENT Shockwave

 

[Jackson_Roykirk]

NILZ BARIS: You heard me.
KIRK: I heard you.
SPOCK: He simply could not believe his ears.

 

[The Wormhole]

If I am to be a little serious, something as noun-tastic as 'The Burn' seems to me, and with their Time-Travel Shenanigans and Time Ships and Temporal Departments, that something got screwed up - MAD, maybe, on a Temporal level, a final stop to the endless warfare by destroying the tech or the records or something like it - maybe burning the literal agents, planets, databases, a galactic-wide reaction.

Of course by 3100? the Federation had been messing with time, hard, since around 2600?, so this is like cutting out half of their own history, maybe even literally. Five hundred years of off-and-on constant warfare and guarding will burn out anyone (pun not intended) and the galaxy went all counter-reformation? on it.

Which could explain why the timecops are apparently no longer a thing.

i have a feeling it could be that subspace was destroyed somehow preventing warp travel.

Actually, you might be onto something. If such a thing did occur, that could easily make Disco the most important ship around despite being nine hundred years old, because with its spore drive, it actually can travel interstellar distances.

 

[SJGardner]

Harry Kim was finally promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade at the age of 138, upsetting one of the most crucial constants of the universe, and the fabric of reality folded in on itself.

 

[BillJ]

Actually, you might be onto something. If such a thing did occur, that could easily make Disco the most important ship around despite being nine hundred years old, because with its spore drive, it actually can travel interstellar distances.

I thought they used its parts on the Red Angel suit? I doubt there's an AutoZone for several thousand light years...

 

[The Wormhole]

I thought they used its parts on the Red Angel suit?

Honestly, I can't remember. But even if they did, there a reason they can't retrieve the suit when they reunite with Michael and put everything back together again? Especially since they apparently are meeting up with a 32nd century engineer as per the trailer?