In the episode Context is for Kings Lorca showed Burnham all these worlds and the last world was a dark planet with a city. What civilization do you think it was? Borg or an undiscovered civilization?
...One wonders whether there's any correlation between what Lorca says and what Burnham sees. 1) The events could be edited for brevity, so Burnham actually sees more than we do. 2) Does Lorca actually see any of it, either directly in the booth or through his control console? It doesn't seem as if he were looking at either. And he isn't part of what Burnham sees. All that's sort of secondary to the big question, though: why is Burnham impressed with a low-res holoshow? Timo Saloniemi
Quite. Although out of the four, it's the one that looks the most different from the TOS original. Then again, TAS took even greater liberties. Who knows, perhaps the time-mangling doughnut regularly alters its surroundings? I doubt there are many Guardians around. But there could be plenty of Preserver Obelisks, so that location need not be the one from "Paradise Syndrome", where the one Obelisk we saw was not at any shore and the planet having several would have complicated the plot. OTOH, while starbases are decidedly generic and underground refineries might be common, I don't see a reason not to believe in a direct connection there. Timo Saloniemi