Daystrom Institute

One of the biggest difficulties of most episodic dramas, including the various Star Trek series, is that putting main characters in danger is seldom believable. It's such a common syndrome that it's even a pop culture trope: plot armor. Watching the early second-season episode "Unnatural Selection," in which Dr. Pulaski is infected with a rapid-aging syndrome, I wonder if the writers are counting on the viewers not believing Dr. Pulaski has plot armor.

After all, she is a recent addition and she is not even listed on the main credits, instead being designated as a "guest star." More fatally still, the episode supplies fresh background about the character and especially her desire to serve with Picard -- and every viewer of a reality TV show knows that once a contestant gets backstory and calls their family on camera, they're probably going home that episode. Perhaps they even expect viewers to remember that they did really kill a main character, Tasha Yar. Maybe this will just be the season of rotating-door Chief Medical Officers, much like season one had a different Chief Engineer every time it came up.

I'm especially interested to hear from people who remember watching it when it first aired, but everyone who watches an episode is watching it for the first time. Did you think Dr. Pulaski could really die?

This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Strange New Worlds 2x08 Under the Cloak of War.

Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the content of the latest episode, this thread is a place to dig a little deeper.

In SNW: “Those Old Scientists”, the following facts are established:

• Horonium is an element that powers the time portal on Krulmuth-B

• Horonium was once used in the hulls of NX-class starships, officially because it was durable, lightweight and was just the right shade of gray

• The portal on Krulmuth-B had Nausicaan writing which said, “This is a time portal”

The name horonium, as I pointed out in my annotations, comes from the Greek hōra - the root word for horology, the art of constructing watches or clocks. This cannot be a mere coincidence. We can reasonably surmise, therefore, that whoever coined the name for it was aware of its uses in relation to temporal technology.

So the following questions raise themselves:

• Why was horonium used in the hulls of NX-class starships and not anywhere else? What made the NX-class special in that regard?

• Did the Nausicaans really build the portal on Krulmuth-B thousands of years ago?

• Why does the Nausicaan writing simply say, “This is a time portal”?

So here’s what I think: the Nausicaans didn’t build the time portal thousands of years ago. That being said, they did discover it at that time and figured out its nature - that’s why there’s a label on it saying “This is a time portal”.

If the Nausicaans had really built it, then why bother labelling it like that and with nothing else? It’s not as if they were leaving instructions, or wanting to share with other species. As we’ve seen, most Nausicaans don’t rise above the level of thuggery and as a species they seem just a step up from Pakleds in the bright bulb department. And for a species like that, a simple label is par for the course, comparable to the Pakleds naming their capital city Big Strong City.

I think that the Nausicaans of thousands of years past used the portal to jump ahead, perhaps to try and raid futuristic technology to advance their civilization. But in doing so, they attracted the attention of the powers fighting the Temporal Wars. Because of that, the discovery of an ore that could power time portals came to light.

Horonium may not just be a fuel source - its use in the hulls of NX-class vessels shows that it was part of the ship’s outer structure as well as being used in components like whatever that gas-cylinder like thing was that Spock pulled out of the floor of the Enterprise. Why use a metal that has temporal properties? Could it be that it was used as some kind of protective armor against temporal attacks, against enemies that could change the timeline?

The NX-01 was using polarized hull plating before shields were commonplace, so it’s not a stretch to say that horonium could be used as temporal shielding like Voyager in VOY: “Year of Hell”. And the horonium shielding was used in the NX-classes - on the hull and on key components - because that was the first era when Earth got caught up in the Temporal Wars.

So why did horonium run out? There are a few possibilities. One is that there wasn’t that much to begin with and all were used up in the NX-classes or other Federation ships that fought in the Temporal Wars. Another is that the Nausicaans just frittered away whatever horonium was left on Krulmuth-B in their temporal raids and just stopped because they ran out. Or it could be that the wars targeted sources of horonium so participants couldn’t use its shielding properties. Or it could be a combination of all these things.

So to tl;dr: why doesn’t horonium exist anymore? Because the Nausicaans used it, the temporal powers noticed it and then it was either all used up in ship construction or destroyed as a strategic resource.

Damn it, Nausicaans!

This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Strange New Worlds 2x07 Those Old Scientists.

Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the content of the latest episode, this thread is a place to dig a little deeper.

The title comes from an Albert Einstein 1931 essay, Mein Weltbid or The World as I see It: “Töten im Krieg ist nach meiner Auffassung um nichts besser als gewöhnlicher Mord.” It is often translated as, “It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”

The Stardate is 1875.4. The Enterprise is in the Prospero system rendezvousing with the USS Kelcie Mae. Since the end of the Klingon War, the system has been under Starfleet jurisdiction and the three inhabited planets in the system have just reached a ceasefire after years of infighting. The ceasefire was negotiated by a Federation Ambassador who is a Klingon, Dak’Rah, son of Ra’Ul, a former general who defected.

Rah makes note of the bo’sun (or boatswain) whistle. Pike says it’s become a tradition on the Enterprise to welcome honored guests. The sound of the whistle was used in TOS as an incoming message alert on the ship’s intercom. The first time we see it being used to pipe someone aboard is in TOS: “The Savage Curtain” when it is used to welcome a duplicate of Abraham Lincoln. We also see an electronic whistle welcoming Admiral Kirk aboard in ST II, and it appears variously throughout the shows.

Uhura cites Rah’s achievements: the Summit of Scorpi X, the Klingon Free Trade Agreement, negotiating the Perez Accords. Ortegas counters with the Slaughter at Lembatta V, the siege at Starbase Zetta and (as we find out later), the massacre of Colony Athos. Ortegas relates a story where Rah killed his own men to cover his retreat, and that the Klingons call him the Butcher of J’Gal (where M’Benga experienced the Battle of ChaKana as stated in SNW: “The Broken Circle”).

Rah remarks that, unlike Enterprise, a Klingon Bird of Prey isn’t built to take in its surroundings. Despite fanon for the longest time assuming that the Birds of Prey were imported Romulan designs, we saw Klingon Birds of Prey in DIS (DIS: “Battle at the Binary Stars”).

Raktajino, or Klingon coffee, is well known and widely imbibed by the 24th Century, but in the 23rd Century it is still a novel beverage (DS9: “Trials and Tribble-lations”). Spock remarks that the temperature of raktajino is a “simple matter of coding”, referring to the food synthesizers which are the precursor of 24th Century food replicators.

The cup that materializes with the raktajino is a Feltman-Langer no-spill mug from the 1980s, used often as a prop on Deep Space 9 for beverages. Rah burns his hand on the mug, and is brought to sickbay, where M’Benga suffers an PTSD panic attack on seeing him.

The flashback to the Moon of J’Gal is “a few years ago”, keeping it vague. The Klingon War lasted from 2256 to 2257, which makes it about 4 to 5 years ago if the current SNW takes place around 2261.

FOB is a military acronym for Forward Operating Base, which is a base set up closer to the front lines to support military operations. In this case, it’s a mile from the front. The uniforms that Chapel and the shuttle pilot wear are tactical uniforms with flashlights on the shoulders (seen in SNW: “Lost in Translation”).

CMO CMDR Buck Martinez is played by Clint Howard, who originally appeared as a child actor playing Balok in TOS: “The Corbomite Maneuver”. He’s also been in DS9: “Past Tense, Part II”, ENT: “Acquisition” as a Ferengi and DIS: “Will You Take My Hand” as an Orion.

“Bills and bows,” which Buck shouts as the arrival of wounded being transported in is announced, is an old call to arms originating in England, dating back to the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487). The call is going out for spearmen (bills, or pole arms) and archers (bows).

M’Benga suggests loading Alvarado’s pattern into the transporter buffer to preserve him until the convoy arrives. We see him doing that for his daughter in SNW Season 1. Transport buffers as holding areas are usually only temporary and emergency measures, as the pattern degrades if the subject isn’t materialized periodically. Janeway used it to hide refugees in VOY: “Counterpoint”, and Burnham put Discovery’s crew in buffers to protect them in DIS: “Stormy Weather”. The only known example for extremely long term preservation in a transporter buffer is Montgomery Scott, who jury-rigged a system to use it as a lifeboat for 75 years until he was rescued by the Enterprise-D (TNG: “Relics”).

It is now Stardate 1875.8. M’Benga refers to the Gorn attack at Finibus III (SNW: “Memento Mori”), around Stardate 3177.3. Pike asks about Deltan parsley. Deltans were introduced in TMP in the form of LT Ilia, and we last saw them in PIC: “The Star Gazer”, on the Deltan planet Raritan IV. The herb is delicious but deadly in excessive amounts.

M’Benga’s remark about pretending long enough until it becomes the truth echoes Pelia in SNW: “Those Old Scientists” quoting Cary Grant expressing the same sentiment. Ortegas was stationed near Prospero and agrees they are pretty stubborn.

Spock asks Rah for his opinion comparing Sun Tzu’s Art of War to the Klingon manuscript mL’parmaq Qoj. parmaq is romance or love, and Qoj is to make war, so maybe it’s something like “The Love of War”? Rah says that Klingon children are introduced to it “practically from birth”. Pocket Books once published The Klingon Art of War, by Keith RA DeCandido, but there the ancient text was named the qeS’a, or “indispensable advice”.

New Angeles is on Terra Luna (the Moon), and is known for its shipyards. I thought the fact that M’Benga calls it “Terra Luna” as opposed to just Luna or the Moon might mean he wasn’t an Earth native, but later we see his service record states his planet of origin as Earth. There is a boardgame called New Angeles, where the titular city is the site of a space elevator that connects Earth to Luna and its Helium-3 deposits.

M’Benga had the reputation of having the most hand-to-hand kills confirmed before he became a doctor. The Andorian special ops officer (LT Va’Al Trask) refers to Protocol 12 - a serum that M’Benga designed, and which he injected himself and Chapel with in “The Broken Circle”. It contains adrenaline and pain inhibitors. Later on he calls M’Benga the Ghost.

Ortegas says, “tlhIngan maH. taHjaj,” which Uhura translates as “We are Klingon. May we endure”. It was uttered by T’Kuvma’s followers in DIS and rendered in subtitles as “Remain Klingon”.

Uhura says Rah’s perspective bears a resemblance to Aenar existentialism. The Aenar, an offshoot of the Andorian race, was of course, Hemmer’s species, and likely Uhura learned it from or because of him.

Mok’bara is a Klingon martial art which Worf practiced and taught a class in on the Enterprise-D (TNG: “Clues”). M’Benga and La’An have been practicing full-contact Mok’bara in their sparring sessions (SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”). M’Benga calls it “Klingon Judo”, although some of the exercises Worf performed were more akin to Chinese tai chi.

M’Benga’s personnel file (as much as I can make out) states the following: Serial # JT-014 SP96J, DOB 12/29/2223, Nakuru, Kenya Earth. Parents Wangera and G’Chinga M’Benga. Brother Nicolas M’Benga, sisters Nyawpa Ochambo and Skuchani(?) M’Benga.

Una charts a course through the Chantico Nebula to get to Starbase 12 faster. Chantico is an Aztec household deity. From the map, Prospero is near Korvat (DS9: “Blood Oath”), on the edge of the Klingon Neutral Zone if not actually in it. The course makes Enterprise skirt by the Hromi Cluster (TNG: “The Vengeance Factor”), and I assume the Chantico Nebula is geographically part of that cluster.

On M’Benga’s service record entry on the Moon of J’Gal, he is indicated as being assigned to a Mobile Combat Surgical Unit (a MASH unit, in essence). Trask is listed as the Commanding Officer of the unit, with Medical Officers CMO D. Marten [sic], Doctor M’Benga and Head Nurse Chapel.

Starfleet Casualties:

208,834

Civilian Casualties:

1,028

Civilians Evacuated:

36,945

Coordinates:

3367.7041

Rotation Period:

1.88005 days

Escape Velocity:

2.624 km/sec

Defence:

Blast Shields

Rotation Period:

1.88005 days

SUMMARY:

The Battle of J’Gal:

The Oryb J Planetary system was in disputed territory prior to the Klingon War, due to the active Federation Colony Athos, a Mobile Starfleet Base and Mobile Armament Starfleet Hospital were stationed on the Moon of J’Gal.

(Rotation period is repeated on the file)

Aside from the DNA from the four Klingons on the blade, the scan also shows two sets of fingerprints, from Rah and M’Benga.

M’Benga’s last log is Stardated 1877.5, noting that Biobed 2 is working again, at least for now. He notes that some things, once broken, can never be repaired, only managed.

@daystrominstitute@startrek.website What can we know (or at least guess) about Tellarite culture and behavior from Jankom Pog?

This is going to be pretty open-ended, but I'm curious: given that Jankom is the only Tellarite main cast member of any Star Trek series, what might his personality, behavior, relationships (etc.) tell us about Tellarites as a whole, or their relationships with other species within or outside the Federation? Obviously, it's not easy to know much from Jankom in particular (given that he's a kid and grew up among pre-Federation Tellarites), but thematically, I think it would be nice if one could draw some lines (even if it's wild speculation) between his his role in the team, and the fact that the Tellarites we see in ENT not only help found the Federation, but never leave it, even after the Burn (IMO, one of the most fascinating bits of worldbuilding that's ever been dropped in an off-screen monologue).

Like most of us, I am greatly enjoying Strange New Worlds. One of the small benefits of the series, in my mind, is that it has finally broken one of the strangest of fan habits -- the insistence on literalism for TOS visuals, especially on things like ship designs and controls. Is there anyone still holding out for a "refit" of the beautiful SNW Enterprise so that it "really" looks like a set from the late 1960s? The updated look is a big part of what makes the TOS world seem relevant and alive for contemporary viewers, instead of just a nostalgia trip (as it was in the tribute episodes that showed TOS sets within a TNG/DS9 context).

Given that they have made the biggest remaining move of recasting Kirk, the idea of continuing past SNW into Kirk's Five-Year Mission seems unavoidable. Given that Paramount seems to be contracting their streaming footprint, it is admittedly unlikely that anything like this would ever get made. But something like the Kelvin Timeline tie-in comics where they redo TOS stories and intersperse them with new ones could actually be a good format -- reintroducing new viewers to classic stories while retrospectively granting more cohesion to TOS.

Obviously there would be drawbacks to redoing the old episodes. Fans would howl at any changes to the scripts, and of course there would be questions about whether any of this was worth anyone's time or talents. And maybe it wouldn't be! But redoing the most stone-cold classics of TOS in a more modern style could literally be the only way some new fans would engage with those stories. Young people are very intolerant of entertainment that seems old or outdated. Looking back at my childhood, I never liked TOS in large part simply because it looked too old and the acting style felt weird. If we really think that these stories are classics that deserve to endure for the long haul, a remake could be a way to inject new life into them.

What do you think? [UPDATE: You all have convinced me this is a bad idea. I will keep that in mind if I ever become head of Paramount.]

The title comes from LD’s 1st Season finale, “No Small Parts”, when CMDR Jack Ransom, XO of the USS Cerritos, refers to the TOS era as “Those Old Scientists”.

We start on Stardate 58460.1 in an animated segment. This places it in 2381, and sometime between LD 3x06: “Hear All, Trust Nothing” (58456.2) and LD 3x09: “Trusted Sources” (58496.1). 3x07 and 3x08 don’t have stardate references. The ship is doing a check on the Krulmuth-B portal, which has been dormant for 120 years - and if you do the calculations you can see where this is going.

Boimler says the portal was discovered by Pike and the “second” Enterprise and refers to Una as “Numero Una” to Mariner’s annoyance. Rutherford talks about teleron radiation. I’m assuming it’s not a CC typo and it’s distinct from “thalaron radiation” (Nemesis).

Tendi’s great-grandmother was on an Orion science vessel, and she claims the Orions were the ones who actually discovered the portal (which looks vaguely Stargate-like). Rutherford is wearing a holographic imager around his neck (last seen in LD: “Veritas” and of the type first seen in VOY: “Latent Image”).

Rutherford picks up traces of horonium. Hōra is the Greek word for “time”, from which we get the word horology, the art of making clocks. Boimler says Starfleet used horonium in NX-class ships, because it was lightweight, durable and was the right shade of grey (Mariner refers to the Starfleet History Museum - it’s not clear if this is the same as the Fleet Museum from PIC).

Boimler screams “Remember me!” as he gets sucked into the portal, in the way that Beverly Crusher is also almost sucked into one in TNG: “Remember Me”. The phrase is originally from Shakespeare, specifically Hamlet Act I, sc v when the Ghost says: “Adieu, adieu, adieu. Remember me,” as he exits. The line is repeated by Hamlet later in the scene.

The title sequence for this episode is animated in the LD style, with the space beast from the LD titles now suckling on the back of the Enterprise. Now I want an animated model of the Enterprise to match my Titan. At the end when the title card comes up we see the outline of the cosmic koala next to the planet (LD: “Moist Vessel”).

Pike’s log is stardated 2291.6. Enterprise is delivering a shipment of grain to a colony on Setlik II. In the future (c. 2347), the Setlik III colony would be the site of an infamous massacre during the Cardassian wars with the Federation (TNG: “The Wounded”).

Una reports that Boimler’s delta is also a communicator, confirming once and for all that SNW’s deltas are not. Boimler has purple hair, like he does when animated. On awakening he calls out, “Computer end program,” thinking he’s on a holodeck. He refers to the ship’s S/COMS operating system as opposed to LCARS in his era.

La’An is uniquely qualified to lecture on temporal protocols as she’s gone through the same experience (SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”). She talks about not making any attachments owing to the trauma she underwent when the alternate Jim Kirk died in her arms in the past. Boimler accidentally lets slip Worf’s name.

Boimler waits in Pike’s office, as evidenced by the presence of the saddle and he calls out “Riker” as he mounts it with the Riker Maneuver (the popular explanation for the move is that Frakes suffered a back injury but although that injury did result in him doing the “Riker lean”, Frakes said in an interview that the chair maneuver was that he felt it was a cocky move suited to Riker, and no one stopped him so it stuck).

Boimler asks if M’Benga is holding a classic TS-122 tricorder and M’Benga says it’s a TS-120. In the 24th Century, tricorders are of the TR series. Boimler theorizes that radioisotopes from the holographic imager set the portal off. Boimler is startled when Spock laughs.

The ship is an Orion scout ship, technically first appearing in TOS: “Journey to Babel” as just a glowing blob, but redesigned as a more detailed CGI model for the remastered episode by Michael Okuda. A slight continuity contradiction arises: in “Babel” Spock doesn’t recognize the configuration of the scout ship when they encounter it then.

Boimler says “NCC-1701 dash nothing,” referring to the future ships’ names in homage to the original and of course puzzling Una and La’An. He identifies Ortegas as a war hero, referring to her service in the Klingon War. Captain Harr Caras commands the Orion science vessel D’Var.

I can’t feel that sorry for Boims having his chops busted, because I’d just love being paid attention to like that by Jess Bush and Melissa Navia. He says this is the “golden age of exploration”, echoing Pike’s words from the previous episode. He lets slip that Pike’s birthday is on Friday (on movie night) and is a holiday in the 24th Century.

Chapel is rather devastated to learn that she’s not mentioned in books on Spock in the future. Boimler refers to Spock’s pet sehlat (TAS: “Yesteryear”). Ortegas calls Boimler “Future Boy”, a nickname Doc Brown applied to Marty McFly in Back to the Future.

Turns out the grain Pike is carrying is trititicale. Its variant, quadrotriticale, would be central to the Federation’s efforts on Sherman’s Planet in TOS: “The Trouble with Tribbles”. Presumably it’s a three-lobed version as opposed to the four-lobed quadrotriticale. Triticale is a real life grain that writer David Gerrold based quadrotriticale on in “Tribbles”.

Mariner uses up the last of the horonium in the portal, and Una says there’s hasn’t been a supply for a hundred years. Mariner says for all she knew Boimler could have been “stuck in a dystopian San Francisco in the middle of a riot”, referring to the Bell Riots of DS9: “Past Tense”. She finds young Spock hot, much like Jazdia Dax did to his slightly older counterpart in DS9: “Trials and Tribble-lations”.

Boimler does the “Section 31 speed walk” when walking away from Mariner down the corridors (LD: “Envoys”), which he claimed conserved energy. Una wonders if Boimler’s poster is a “pin-up” poster, of which there are very many of Rebecca Romijn.

Uhura says she’s 22 (the same age as Celia Rose Golding), which immediately makes this old chronologist’s mind start doing calculations. The official Star Trek website places her birth year as 2239, which would make the present year 2261, which sort of tracks (my estimate is between 2260-61).

Mariner quotes Starfleet labor codes: section 48-Alpha-7: “Officers must take meal breaks at regular intervals”. She claims that she knows those that help her slack off. She makes Orion Hurricanes for Uhura and Ortegas, although they don’t have Orion delaq, which she says will mess them up. Uhura’s PADD shows her comparing the inscriptions on the portal to Bajoran and Cardassian script.

Ortegas refers to Starbase Earhart, probably best remembered as housing the Bonestell Entertainment Facility where Jean-Luc Picard was stabbed by Nausicaans in 2337 (TNG: “Tapestry”). It also had a dom-jot table. Mariner and Tendi visited it in LD: “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”. Mariner says Nausicaans are terrible at dom-jot, a billiard-type game, but still love to bet on it. Ortegas’ recognition of the letters leads Uhura to discover the language is a thousands-years old ancient Nausicaan dialect.

Boimler seeks solace in Engineering. Pelia says there is nothing quite so soothing as a properly calibrated warp core, which Boimler would agree with as he’s often said in LD that warp cores are cool. Pelia’s quote is from Cary Grant, which implies she knew him.

Mariner chides Boimler for shouting “Holy Q” because they hadn’t met him yet in the 23rd Century but qualifies it with “they had kind of a Trelane thing going on.” Fanon often states that Trelane (TOS: “The Squire of Gothos”) and Q are related because their MO is remarkably similar. This link was made explicit in the novels (Q-Squared). Mariner has met Q before (LD: “Veritas”).

Boimler remarks how slow and quietly everyone talks in this era, in stark contrast to the high-speed and intense dialogue they use on the half-hour animated Lower Decks.

Boimler once dressed up as Pike for Halloween, and had to contour his chin to fit. Pike confesses he and his father never got along, and that was never resolved. This year is the first year he’s older than his father when he died. He planned to fish on Setlik II’s ice moon with a bottle of whiskey and have an imaginary talk with his father.

Pike refers to Archer’s Enterprise, the NX-01, which reminds Boimler that horonium was used in its construction (a little over a hundred years ago). Boimler talks about the NX-01’s grapplers (which La’An loves), the precursor to a ship’s tractor beam. Grapplers were also seen in SNW: “Life Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach”.

Starfleet tradition is that every time a new ship is commissioned, construction starts with an old piece of the last ship that bore the name (which explains why Boimler called this the “second” Enterprise). Which means there’s a piece of horonium on the ship.

The piece in question appears to be a gas cylinder. Ortegas says she’s a fan of Travis Mayweather, first pilot of the NX-01, and her middle school gym was named after him. Uhura mentions Hoshi Sato, who spoke 86 languages - Uhura wrote 3 papers on her at the Academy. I’m happy to see the NX-01 crew get the love they never quite got when the series was around.

Mariner tells Una that Boimler’s pin-up of her is a recruitment poster and inspired Boimler to join Starfleet. Una is moved that they put “ad astra per aspera” on the poster, the Starfleet motto she quoted during her trial (SNW: “Ad Astra Per Aspera”).

Captain Caras recognizes Tendi’s title “Mistress of the Winter Constellations” (“We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”) and says that he has an Astrea Tendi on his ship. Pike’s offer to give the Orion scientists credit also explains why Tendi tells Boimler that Orions discovered the portal. I wish we could have seen Nöel Wells in live action, though.

Ransom calls “Numero Una” the hottest first officer in Starfleet history. Ransom is voiced by Jerry O’Connell, who is married to Rebecca Romijn. Mariner says Ransom sleeps face down “like a baby”.

We are rewarded with an animated SNW epilogue, which is explained by them hallucinating after imbibing Orion Hurricanes with real delaq.

In season three of "Star Trek: Discovery," Captain Saru makes a somewhat surprising decision and appoints Ensign Sylvia Tilly as his acting first officer. This was a source of considerable debate at the time, particularly in light of the mission to the Verubin Nebula at the end of the season.

Now that quite a bit of time has passed, I wanted to revisit the events of that mission and evaluate the decisions Tilly made while in command of Discovery. I've broken each significant decision or order down according to the following criteria: the circumstances under which the decision was made, what the decision was, and what the general outcome. I've tried to reserve my personal judgment until the end.

Episode: "Su'Kal"

Circumstances: The USS Discovery discovers the source of the Burn - a planet in the Verubin Nebula featuring a massive dilithium deposit, as well as a crashed ship with a Kelpien life sign aboard. The Verubin Nebula is difficult to navigate, and contains deadly radiation and harmful electromagnetic fields.

Command Decision: Captain Saru chooses to lead the away team, leaving Ensign Tilly in command of Discovery.

Outcome: Admiral Vance expresses misgivings, but allows this plan to proceed. He also reveals that the Emerald Chain appears to be attacking Kaminar in order to lure Discovery there to obtain the spore drive.

Circumstances: Discovery jumps into a stable pocket of space within the nebula, which affects the ship's shields - a three-hour repair job, according to Tilly. The away team beams to the planet.

Command Decision: Tilly assumes command and jumps Discovery out of the nebula.

Outcome: Discovery is able to avoid further damage and commence repairs to the shields while the away team is on the surface. Innoculated against the radiation, the away team is able to spend a maximum of four hours on the planet.

Circumstances: While the shields are being repaired, Commander Burnham reports that the away team has found something and growling. Communication with the away team is then lost.

Command Decision: Tilly orders Commander Stamets to prioritize the shield repairs, diverting power from other systems as needed, so they can retrieve the away team.

Outcome: The shield repairs are accelerated. Shortly after this order, an unidentified Federation ship is detected on long-range sensors. Ten minutes out, it does not respond to hails, but sends correct response codes.

Circumstances: With the unidentified ship now two minutes out, the crew discusses how the vessel's presence in the region doesn't really make sense.

Command Decision: Tilly orders Owosekun to scan the area around the ship.

Outcome: The crew discovers that the approaching ship is, in fact, the Viridian, as no one else has the motivation and the means to travel such a distance.

Circumstances: The Viridian arrives at Discovery's location.

Command Decision: Tilly orders red alert. Rejecting the possibility of retreating via transwarp tunnel or spore drive, as it would leave the away team vulnerable, Tilly orders Discovery to cloak.

Outcome: This successfully hides Discovery from the Viridian, though it also deprives them of the ability to use the spore drive. The Viridian cloaks as well.

Circumstances: The crew ascertains that Osyraa must be able to track Discovery's jumps, and that she must require the ship, as she didn't open fire immediately upon arrival. Stamets reports that Discovery cannot jump for another 30 minutes. Osyraa hails Discovery.

Command Decision: Tilly orders Stamets to find a way to repair the shields in the next ten minutes. On a comm channel, Osyraa claims to want Discovery and her crew for "leverage."

Outcome: Repairs to the shields continue to be prioritized as the situation escalates.

Circumstances: Unbeknownst to either ship, Su'Kal creates a spatial disturbance, destabilizing Discovery's dilithium. Discovery's engineering team is able to contain the effects, but both Discovery and Viridian lose their cloaks.

Command Decision: Tilly orders weapons ready.

Outcome: The situation with the Viridian continues to escalate.

Circumstances: Discovery's shields have been repaired to 54% as the standoff with the Viridian continues.

Command Decision: Tilly orders Stamets to prepare to jump Discovery to safety, rather than allow it to fall into Osyraa's hands. Booker volunteers to remain behind in his own ship to retrieve the away team.

Outcome: Over the protests of Stamets, this plan is put into action.

Circumstances: Osyraa hails Discovery again. Osyraa notes that Discovery has not yet jumped away, and deduces that Captain Saru must be in the nebula. She also claims that the structural weakness in Viridian that Discovery exploited in "The Sanctuary" has been repaired. Booker leaves the shuttlebay in his ship.

Command Decision: Tilly orders the spore jump.

Outcome: Emerald Chain soldiers beam into the engineering lab and attack Stamets before he is able to follow this order. Viridian ensnares Discovery with some kind of tendrils, and Emerald Chain soldiers begin capture the ship. Ultimately, they are able to take the bridge and remove Tilly from command, jumping away just as Booker and Burnham emerge from the nebula in Booker's ship.

Continued in the comments...

Uhura’s log is stardated 2394.8. Bannon’s Nebula (named after Melissa “Erica Ortegas” Navia’s late partner Brian Bannon) is on the edge of explored space, and is a stellar nursery full of deuterium. An outpost is being built to collect and refine it. Deuterium is used as fuel for the fusion reactors that power a starship’s impulse drives. It is also used in warp cores where deuterium and anti deuterium streams meet in a matter/antimatter reaction, the resulting energy being tuned by dilithium crystals into electroplasma which is used for ship’s systems and warp drive.

The design of the refinery is likely a Bussard ramscoop, utilizing a magnetic field to funnel the deuterium atoms into a collector. Starships have their own Bussard collectors (the glowing caps on the nacelles) so they can refuel if necessary and we see Enterprise doing just that.

Pike has been temporarily promoted to Fleet Captain (with a black disc backing his delta) because he’s been given command of the refinery and the USS Farragut for this mission. The Farragut is where LT James T. Kirk is serving as we saw in the alternate timeline of SNW: “A Quality of Mercy”. This is a few years after CPT Garrovick, his CO, was killed by a dikironium cloud vampire (TOS: “Obsession”).

Spock notes that outpost is also in proximity to Gorn space, so the hope is that this will counter their expansion. Uhura listens to Hemmer’s recorded instructions on maintaining the subspace antenna. Hemmer apparently died last season (SNW: “All Those Who Wander”), having been infected with Gorn eggs.

Pelia asks what Uhura is doing inside “her nacelle”, and we see behind her the cylindrical row of warp coils stretching off in the distance. We’ve seen the inside of a Galaxy-class nacelle in TNG: “Eye of the Beholder”. The communications array antenna runs through the nacelles. Hemmer was one of Pelia’s students.

M’Benga says that deuterium poisoning can cause hallucinations, headaches, blurred vision and nausea. Exhaustion can exacerbate the condition.

Uhura now has her own quarters. She was sharing a room with some other Lower Deckers in SNW: “Ghosts of Illyria”, where we also found out that she needs pitch blackness to sleep.

Jim Kirk is about to become XO of the Farragut, which will make him the youngest first officer ever (at age 26-27). George Kirk, Sr. held the previous record as XO of the USS Kelvin (ST 2009).

Spock notes that Starfleet has protocols about fraternization, which would be familiar HR policy today. We’ve seen relationships between Starfleet officers before, but this is the first time we’ve heard that there are formal procedures surrounding it.

An Andorian bartender serves Uhura Saurian brandy in its distinctive curved bottle. Jim comments on Spock’s 3D Chess game, foreshadowing the days when he would routinely beat Spock at it. Sam has apparently told Uhura about Jim’s proclivities around women. As a side note, Jim is older than Uhura here, but in the Kelvin Timeline they were of the same graduating class.

This is the first time we’ve seen a dermal regenerator (or at least had it referred to as such) in the 23rd Century. Dermal regenerators have appeared several times from TNG on.

In Uhura’s hallucination, the main viewer shatters and people are blown out into vacuum. In the original TOS Constitution-class design this would not have happened because the main viewer is not a porthole. Having a starship’s main viewer be an actual window started with ST 2009 and was seen in the Prime Universe in DIS: “The Vulcan Hello”.

Jim meets Pike for the first time (from his POV, seeing as Pike met an alternate Kirk in “A Quality of Mercy”). This also clarifies when exactly Jim met Pike. Previously it was assumed that Jim only met him when taking over the Enterprise due to this dialogue from TOS: “The Menagerie, Part I”:

MENDEZ: You ever met Chris Pike?

KIRK: When he was promoted to Fleet Captain.


MENDEZ: About your age. Big, handsome man, vital, active.

KIRK: I took over the Enterprise from him.

Now we know these were two separate occasions and removes a writing obstacle from having the “real” Kirk appear in SNW.

Sickbay is on Deck 4 here. In the original Franz Joseph deck plans it was on Deck 7 (with additional facilities on Deck 16) while Deck 4 housed junior officer’s quarters.

La’An addresses Jim as “James”. The only occasion they’ve met in this timeline was over a subspace communication, whereas La’An had a brief encounter with the Jim Kirk of an altered timeline in SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”, where he died.

Uhura removes an access panel to “Engineering Circuit Bay D-24” which opens onto a Jeffries Tube that leads to the port nacelle. In TOS, Jeffries Tubes were usually seen already exposed.

Uhura was born in Kenya (SNW: “Children of the Comet”), used to have a cat named Kamili (meaning “perfect” in Swahili) and her first memory is of watching her father play the piano.

Pike says Starfleet gave him permission to decrypt the deceased Ramon’s medical files and personal logs. In SNW: “Ad Astra Per Aspera”, we found out that Regulation 25, Section B prohibits unsealing personal logs unless by order of Starfleet Command.

La’An correctly assesses Jim as someone who can’t walk by a stranger in need. In TOS: “The City on the Edge of Forever”, Kirk tells Edith Keeler that a 21st Century novelist will recommend the words “Let me help,” over “I love you.”

Kirk’s status as a Starfleet brat who barely saw his father growing up is consistent with some beta canon depictions of Kirk’s childhood, specifically novels like Best Destiny by Diane Carey and Desperate Measures by Dayton Ward.

La’An, of course, was rescued as a child by then-Ensign Una Chin-Riley, who subsequently sponsored her admission to Starfleet (SNW: “Strange New Worlds”).

Una calls Pelia a “space hippie”. We met actual space hippies in TOS: “The Way to Eden”.

Uhura tells Kirk that she lost her parents and brother in a shuttle accident. This was first mentioned in “Children of the Comet”.

Jim says that their job as Starfleet officers puts them up against death and they have to face it. Years later, he would confess to his son David that he’s never faced death - merely cheated his way around it and congratulated himself for his ingenuity (ST II). He was wrong, of course.

Uhura is on the receiving end of a Jim Kirk pep talk for the first time, but not the last. We see here the foundations of her loyalty to him and her looking to him for reassurance in future.

Uhura notes that the Universal Translator hooks on to commonalities in the way different species handle ideas and language. The theory behind the UT was first stated in TOS: “Metamorphosis”:

KIRK: There are certain universal ideas and concepts common to all intelligent life. This device instantaneously compares the frequency of brainwave patterns, selects those ideas and concepts it recognises, and then provides the necessary grammar. 
 Guess we now know from whom Jim picked this up.

The idea that aliens in the environment could be inadvertently harmed by human operations has been used before, in TNG: “Home Soil”. In VOY: “Equinox”, the titular ship tortured and killed alien life forms to harvest their energy.

Admiral Nagawa’s name sounds similar to Admiral Nogura, first mentioned in TMP and having a long storied role in the novels of the TOS period.

Pelia gave Una a C in the Starship Maintenance 307 course because her paper was "sloppy".

Sam refers to the Enterprise as the flag ship, which I think is the first time it’s been established as such. And in another historic first which should somehow feel more historic, really, Spock officially meets Jim for the first time.

小嘛小兒郎, 背著那書包上學堂 (Little, Little boy, carrying that bag to school)
不怕太陽曬, 也不怕那風雨狂 (fear not of burning sun, nor fear that crazy storm)
只怕先生罵我懶嗎, (but fear the teacher scold me lazy)
沒有學問 – 無臉見爹娘 (Being unlearned – no “lian”/face to face parents)
小嘛小兒郎, 背著那書包上學堂, (Little, Little boy, carrying that bag to school)
不是為做官, 也不是為面子光, (Not to be an official, or for one’s own “mianzi”/face)
只為做人要爭氣呀, (Just that a person must be determined not to fall short)
不受人欺負，也不做牛和羊 (Not to be bullied, nor to work like a draft animal)
(Classical children song “Du Shu Lang”/”Little School Boy”, Paula Tsui version)

富貴不歸故鄉，如衣繡夜行，誰知之者! When one who made his wealth doesn’t return home, he may as well wear glamorous clothing in the middle of the night, who would notice that!
人言楚人沐猴而冠耳，果然 I heard the Lord of Chu is like an anxious monkey wearing a crown, and I was right.
– <Shi’ji, Record of Xiang’yu>

Introduction

One of the common argument and complaint regarding Klingon honor is that, from the perspective of Human concept of honor, they are NOT honorable. Instead, they use cloaking, ambushes, to achieve victory above all. Instead of escape, they will rather suicide; they will do honor killings. They will attack and even murder the defenseless. In politics, Klingon’s politics is dirty to a fault.

Now, many already realized that perhaps we are too human centric. Some believe that Klingon are focus on duty, and that they refuse to accept failures. Another, which I think is approaching my proposal ( https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/gswny9/klingon_honor_is_nothing_of_the_sort_it_is/) , is that it’s likely related to reputation. Others attempt to square the stated that for them, To fail is to forfeit duty, thus dishonor.

However, what if I tell you that some group of humans may still utilize “Honor” that is extremely similar to that of Klingon? On a meta level, most know that Klingon was made into "Samurai in Space", thus also borrow some aspect from the alleged Samurai culture, include the honor suppose to be practice by Samurais. However, if you actually know about it, it is not honor. In fact, it is far closer to the concept known as “faces” in Chinese.

In short, the meta mistranslation of "faces" into "honor" yields the seemingly contradictory nature of Klingon honor

What is Face

「面子」，是我們在談話裡常常聽到的，因為好像一聽就懂，所以細想的人大約不很多。-- 魯迅, 說「面子」, 1934 (“Faces” is something we often hear in conversation; since it seems like something we instantly got when we heard the word, only small amount of people actually think about it in detail – Lu’Xun, About “Faces”, 1934)

Now I am not saying I know Faces – I am a not born in Mainland, and thus is already influenced by some western concept; and some authors seperate lian(臉) and mianzi 面子, which we don’t in where I lived (for both faces and “Faces”); but even at that place, “face” still affect whether a woman in 1970s will cancel a marriage, despite knowing her future spouse is bad. Nor do I say honor/glory doesn’t exist in Chinese – it does, as 榮譽, for example. However, to my understanding, it is always in terms of the Face. And even if I try to translate Face to dignity or reputation, I fear I will fall into pitfall that gave us “face as honor”.

So let’s look at a Chinese dictionary: Specifically, that of Taiwan Ministry of Education (dict.revised.moe.edu.tw), which also shows they treat “Lian” and “Mianzi” the same. Thus, for our discussion, we will only talk about 面子/Faces.

• 面子. Intepretation: 體面 (身分、體統、格局、規模 - )、名譽 (the name, reputation)、情面（情分與面子。多指私人關係) (feelings and relationships in private matters) Antonym: 實質 (substance of a person)

Okay, that seems simple. But the Revised dictionary also threw in various terms by adding suffix characters and prefix characters. Maybe that tell us more?

• 賣面子 (sell Faces): 故意予人好處，使人感激自己 (Purposely give others benefit, so others will feel grateful of the giver of benefit)
• 留面子 (leave faces, but can also mean “protect faces): 顧及情面，不使人難堪 (care about the situation/feelings, not to embarrass others)
• 夠面子 (have enough face): 夠威風體面。指影響力大，所說的話別人願意聽從 (have a strong face; or more precisely speaking, have huge influence, whatever they say can cause others to follow)
• 顧面子 (care face): 愛護自己的聲名或榮譽 (Love and care their own reputation). The example usage is “為了顧面子，他不惜犧牲一切。” (In order to “care faces”, he will sacrifice everything). If you read it in Chinese, it has negative connotation.

While some words can be translate as honor and glory, it works just as well as prestige, dignity, reputation. Regardless, it’s based on appearance. Or simply put: Face is related to but is not honor, glory, dignity; to translate it as simply is wrong. Based on my observation, in western concept, there is an implication of those words being related to the substance/character of the person. In Chinese at least, the implication of substance is not as strong, and for the most part can be seen just focus on the appearance; something that can be quantify by points, by money, by profit, by amount of supporters, etc. Prestige and reputation seems better suited, at least with 2020s vocab.

I started this article with a song that is taught to children. Written in 1945, when I first heard it as a kid, the message I got is why it’s important to study. But when I was thinking of how maybe Klingon’s Honor is actually “Faces”, I can’t help but to recall the song – and realize that the parallel message of the song is about the importance of faces – as the fourth line indicate, one who is unlearned has no “face” to face their parents. Then at the second half, while they claim it’s not actually about faces (sixth line), the seventh line explain why one must be learned: there’s the version as stated above, which stated one must be 爭氣. I translate it as “falling short”, but it can just be valid as “ambitious”, “fighting for prestige”, or even “showing weakness”. An earlier record even use “A poor person must turn [their life] around“（只爲窮人要翻身), which has similar meaning in that context. Factor in the last line of not being bullied, I can’t help but to recall another Chinese idiom: 成者為首，不成者為尾， “Those that succeed are those at the top; those that are not successful are at the bottom.” That evolve to 成者為王，敗者為寇 (Those who succeed are kings, those who failed are criminals)

Therefore, it can be seen that being “on top” is synonym to victory, and that’s when one will have “faces”. Or reword it: “Nothing is more than being face-full than being on top and having victory”. And this is my personal understanding of “Face”: “be the winner”.

Perhaps, then Klingon Honor is indeed as Worf stated “Nothing is more honorable than victory” – it only sound contradictory is one translate the Klingon’s concept to “honor”, instead of eastern concept of “faces”

A True Worthy Face

The only problem is that there are ways to think of “Victory” – and thus “Faces” even within Chinese history, and is in fact best examplified by Chu-Han Contention. Now do keep in mind that many of the description of that era is written by official of Han dynasty, so as historical documents they are questionable; but as morality stories they may not be entirely wrong. Xiang’Yu of Chu exemplify the appearance victory, and thus he focused upon an on-the-surface Face. Liu’Bang of Han, meanwhile examplify the true victory and thus Faces. This can be seen during the Feast of Hongmen, which shows Xiang’Yu do a lot of posturing, while Liu’Bang just take it humbly and not part take the various rituals. Yet in the end Liu’Bang became the Han Emperor.

And notice the Taiwanese MoE Dictionary actually treat the “substance of a person” as antonym to Face. In short, the Ministry of Education implies there are no merit to Face. It doesn’t sounds something honorable, because a proper honor helps build up society.

Klingon Honor is very, very close to Faces if not exactly the same.

Knowing what “face” is to the best of our ability, if we look at things that Klingon see as honorable (but dishonorable to us) from the lens of “faces”, then it will make perfect sense.

In Memory Alpha, a sentence used to talk about the ambiguity of Klingon’s Honor has some examples: “Worf indicated that it was necessary to challenge Gowron's leadership (because he was presumably acting in a dishonorable way), while General Martok was convinced that it was dishonorable to challenge the leader of the Klingon Empire in the middle of a war.”

But what if I change it from the PoV of Face when applicable?
“...General Martok was convinced it was face-losing to challenge the leader of the Klingon Empire in the middle of a war.” The “face losing” is not just for Martok; but also for Gowron, and even the entire empire. And it was the fact that there is a fight, and expose the issue of Gowron from implicit to explicit.

The above will make sense even in modern Chinese (and possibly Taiwanese) offices; even if you recognize your superior is making some stupid decision, even if everyone knows, you just don’t bring it up in the open if at all. My understanding is that it is even worse in Korea, which leads to some fatal issues such as Korean Air Flight 801. While officially it was “poor communication”, it is likely that the NTSB knows that the Korean culture (even more Face-concerning) affect why the crew didn’t challenge the captain, but choose not to wade into offending someone’s else culture. Ironically, this is an act that factor into face.

Another example:
When Doctor Antaak worked with Phlox to cure the Augment DNA, Antaak decided to deceive his superior and claim they actually stabilized Augment DNA and create Klingon Augments. He then claim that it will give him an honorable death for the mere fact of saving millions.

And translate it through face… well, Antaak is protecting his own face. In terms of “Face” based culture, he is someone that got a miracle. Only if discovered and failure to twist the words properly would he loses any face.

Lu’Xun, in his “About Faces”, talk of a story/myth of how, During Qing Dynasty, the westerners occasionally goes to the Mandarin’s office to ask for benefits with some threats, and the Mandarins just affirm it – but the Mandarins always sent them away through the side door instead of the main gate, as this will indicate the western does not have face, thus the Mandarin/China have face and thus have is in a superior benefit.

Who actually sees the westerner goes in and threaten the Qing Officials? Maybe they are just come in half-bowed and begged for benefit! It’s all about appearance and twisting of words – hence, even Lu’Xun say it may not be entirely true, and it’s precisely such unknown truth that provided him a good example of illustrating face.

Western Honor Fights Corruption; Faces don’t care or even help Corruption

Eastern Relationships, for the most part, is more toward internal. Between superior and underlings; between husband and wife; between the parents and children (三綱、五倫). Nowhere does it talk about outside of your state, except as the last step – to illuminate (ie: Conquer) everything “tian’xia” – the entire world. “Faces” is developed based on this. So just in that light alone, “Faces” doesn’t matter if you are facing a foreigner, even if they are not outright enemy.

So in that light, if one consider cloaking as an example of Kilingon false honor, It definitely does not make them lose face – it’s against an enemy. Heck, it is definitely face worthy, because they managed to trick the enemy.

Now being a someone not from Mainland that now lives in an English-speaking nation, it’s very difficult for me to even tie cheating to “Faces” in a positive way. The only way I can even square both together is that cheating, tricky, and scheming is only face-losing if caught. If not caught, it showed someone has intelligence, and thus actually increase faces. In Chinese mythology, humanity gets to build houses on Earth instead of living in caves because someone managed to trick a Tai’Shui deity. During the Three Kingdoms era, many generals and leaders, from Cao Cao and Kongming, is known to use schemes and tricks and smoke and mirrors, not just toward their enemy, but toward subjects that think of themselves too much.

A classic Chinese example of how failure to understand Face is the story of Kong Rong - a descendent of Confucius and example of “good kid” in Three Character Classic. He was known as someone who serve justice, and thus always fought against Cao Cao when he is an adult. In the end, Cao Cao place him under various false charges and executed his immediate family. The story was taught to show the importance of ensuring your superior’s faces.

In fact, if you think about it, Protecting “Faces” can even require “dishonorable” actions, and thus, acts that is “face worthy” helps corruption. Cao Cao’s face-loving act likely only left people who schemes just as well, and his descendant ended up losing the Wei throne to Sima Zhao. Sounds like a certain empire, doesn’t it?

And in case people were wondering about the numerous game cheaters from Mainland (for our purpose of discussing face, Klingon Honor, and cloaking): I shrugged.

Eastern Faces/Honor vs Western Honor

I consider the issue regarding the so-called contradictory nature of “Klingon Honor” comes from anchoring it around western concept of “honor”.

In my point of view, western concept of honor ties to not just the substance/character of the person, but also “Justice” (whether that is properly executed is a different manner). However, I dare say that eastern concept of Faces is based upon appearance for the most part. It may related to justice depend on situation, but can be easily seperated from Justice, unless Justice determine whether they are viewed as “correct”… which for the most part, comes from Strength.

Book of Rites, one of the Confucian canons, actually recorded “Pitch Pot”, a game. Analysis indicated that it was more about the ritual of gifter-gifting-gifts while receiver-refuse-gift, doing it back and forth three times, to show that neither the gifter nor the receiver are stingy. That being said, from my own point of view, just feel like falsehood for the sake of performance – yet it is consider good back then.

So if we take the assumption that Klingon’s Honor share way more similarity to Faces than Western Honor, Klingon “Honorable” action – or properly saying, “face saving” “face loving” “face earning” make sense and has no contradictory.

Now recall I mentioned earlier that “Face” is commonly tied with “successful”. Now recall that while Qapla is used as a greeting, its literal meaning is “success” – another aspect tied to the Traditional Chinese Face-focused culture.

In fact, I recall in Star Trek Klingon, when Gowron need to pay for a song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2F1X3Guiv8), the proper action is throw a chair, which allows Gowron pay for the damaged chair (and the song). If we think of it in terms of “faces”, it will actually make sense (the general concept, I mean - I will acertain no Chinese will throw a chair just to pay for something)

The only difference is that Klingon is said to be Samurai in space, but I wonder: while we Chinese definitely focus on “face” more than modern Japanese, I will say, with no evidence, that Traditional Japanese (especially pre Meiji) are just as focused on “faces”. Japanese have the term “Read the Atmosphere” (ie: Kuukiyomi; available as a game!). It’s about how everyone should do properly, in silence, without explicit wording. I can’t help but notice that it is not similar to the aspect of dealing with “Face” in Chinese.

TL;DR:

If you understand Faces/Mianzi, you understand Klingon Honor. In that regard, you will find Klingon’s mindset on “Face” has no ambiguity, no contradiction. But even Lu Xun, a famous early 20th century author, stated simply: “但「面子」究竟是怎麼一回事呢？不想還好，一想可就覺得糊塗。” (But what is “Faces”? It’s best not to think about it; once you think about it, it gets more confusing)

Further reading on faces:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_(sociological_concept)
• Lu Xun 說「面子」: https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/說「面子」
• https://www.china-mike.com/chinese-culture/cult-of-face/
• https://www.teachingnomad.com/blog/china/what-does-saving-face-mean/
• https://china-journal.org/2017/02/25/the-concept-of-face-in-chinese-culture-and-the-difference-between-mianzi-and-lian/ Especially interesting in that many examples are from Taiwanese.

Manny Coto and others involved in the production of Enterprise have mentioned that they planned to make Shran a member of the bridge crew in season five. Their motives are pretty obvious: Make a popular guest star (and the excellent actor who played him) as involved as possible. In Coto's own words, "get Jeffrey [Combs] Somehow."

The question for me is, why would Shran have been willing to take up a (presumably subservient) position aboard Archer's ship? Shran is frequently shown in command of Andorian Imperial Guard starships, which gives him significant practical and political power. He is clearly a man of action, and strongly dislikes feeling indebted to anyone. He certainly does not strike me as someone inclined to surrender a command position.

So, how could Shran's intended presence on the bridge of the NX-01 be explained?

This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Strange New Worlds 2x05 Charades.

Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the content of the latest episode, this thread is a place to dig a little deeper.

Since we now see Kirk as a LT in 2259-60 in SNW, thought I’d take a look back at figuring out his early service history in Starfleet. Originally posted here. Incidentally, Kirk, Tilly and Ortegas were all born in 2233.

——

Since I'm on a chronology kick, here's another analysis - my third in the series, by my reckoning (after sorting out where Uhura's service on Pike's Enterprise fits in and sorting out when each of PIC's seasons take place).

For the longest time, we have been confused about James T. Kirk's early service history. We know that he was born in Iowa, Earth on March 22, 2233, and we know that he took command of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 in 2265, and commanded her and her successor ship, off-and-on, until his official recorded death in 2293 and subsequently his actual death in 2371. However, what happened between 2233 and 2265 was shrouded in a bit of mystery and confusion (except for his stay on Tarsus IV in 2246 - TOS: “The Conscience of the King”).

Here are the following relevant pieces of the puzzle.

??: ENS Kirk is serving on the USS Republic with Ben Finney "some years" after they first met at the Academy when Finney was an instructor. Kirk logs a mistake which draws Finney a reprimand and gets him sent to the bottom of the promotion list (TOS: "Court Martial").

??: LT Kirk teaches at Starfleet Academy - one of his students is Gary Mitchell (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before").

2255: "[A] brash young LT Kirk on his first planet survey" visits Neural, 13 years prior to his next visit in 2268 (TOS: "A Private Little War").

2257: Kirk is serving on the USS Farragut, under CPT Garrovick, who was his CO "from the day [Kirk] left the Academy", when Garrovick is killed by a dikironium cloud creature, which Kirk re-encounters 11 years later (TOS: "Obsession").

If you look at these pieces, the conundrum becomes obvious. What ship was Kirk serving on when he left the Academy? When did he actually graduate? Which ship visited Neural? Was it the Republic or the Farragut? Did Garrovick command both the Republic and the Farragut in succession? When did Kirk teach Gary Mitchell?

There are all kinds of theories to try and reconcile this, and you'll find discussions on Memory Alpha about it. But recently, in the Season 1 finalé of SNW: "A Quality of Mercy", we get a glimpse of Kirk's service record. Granted, it's from an alternate timeline, but the divergent event being Pike's survival, Kirk's record precedes that, so we can be fairly sure that the Prime Kirk has the same record.

Kirk's service record in that episode states this as his assignment history:

USS Farragut

Starfleet Academy

USS Republic

We'll take it as it's in reverse chronological order, as most resumés are. While production art is always a toss-up, I think this gives us a decent basis to build an hypothesis on. What this tells us is that that the Republic came first - which tracks, as that's the lowest rank we have on Kirk at the time.

We also see that a Starfleet Academy assignment comes between his Republic stint and his service on the Farragut. This offers us a way to reconcile Kirk's claim that Garrovick was his CO "from the day [Kirk] left the Academy" - namely, Kirk wasn't talking about his graduation, he was talking about him leaving his instructor post.

Now we can get down to the details: what year did Kirk graduate? It had to be before 2255, and possibly at least a year or two before that, to fit in his Academy stint and his service on the Republic. If we take it that he entered the Academy at the usual age, which would be the year he turns 19, that would be 2252 and would graduate in the normal scheme of things in May 2256 (I assume May because the standard academic year in the US goes usually from September to May/June - the US Naval Academy graduates their classes in May).

But that doesn't jibe with our chronology, which requires that he be a LT in 2255. Which leads me to the idea that Kirk entered the Academy early - perhaps at age 17. As I've mentioned before, early entry to the Academy is possible: Wesley Cruser took the entrance exams when he was 16 (TNG: “Coming of Age”), presumably to enter when he was 17. If Kirk did the same, he could have entered the Academy as early as 2250, which would mean he graduated in May 2254 as an ENS.

We see in PIC: "The Star Gazer" (which I'd previously established as September 2400) Picard giving an address to cadets. We know the audience is cadets because Elnor is there and he specifically calls Elnor out as the first Romulan cadet. After the speech, the cadets get their assignments.

If we assume that things have not changed since Kirk's day in terms of the timing, then ENS Kirk would have gotten his assignment in September 2254 to the USS Republic. Squeezing in the Finney incident and his reassignment to Starfleet Academy in later 2254 to early 2255 is just possible.

Perhaps the Finney incident earned Kirk a quick promotion to LT due to his diligence but made Kirk unpopular enough among the rest of the Republic crew that they felt it'd be better for him to be reassigned to another starship.

So LT Kirk gets put into the Academy in a holding position as an instructor where he gains his reputation as a "stack of books on legs" and seriously dates a "blonde technician" that Gary Mitchell throws his way to get Kirk off his back. Then, in September 2255, the brash young lieutenant gets his next assignment, the USS Farragut and Garrovick really does become his CO from the day he left the Academy.

Later that same year the Farragut visits Neural and Kirk makes his first planetary survey and meets Tyree. He serves under Garrovick for two years, until the latter is killed by the dikironium vampire in 2257.

That also means he was still on Farragut during the Klingon War of 2256-2257. It's reasonable to think the ship may have seen some action during this period, which could go some way to explaining Kirk's general antipathy towards Klingons in TOS even before he held them responsible for David Marcus' death.

If my hypothesis is correct, then Kirk really was a wunderkind. Early entry into the Academy at 17, a quick promotion to LT by the time he was 22, then battle-tested both in the Klingon War and in a fight that killed his captain. As a teenager younger than most of his peers in the Academy, he would have more likely thrown himself into his studies than socialized much (although he did get involved with Ruth at some point then - TOS: "Shore Leave").

This version of events would explain his reputation as a nerd, why he was an easy target for an upperclassman like Finnegan (TOS: "Shore Leave", again) and how it gave rise to his general sense of loneliness and isolation as a commander (TOS: "Balance of Terror" and "The Ultimate Computer", to give two examples) and of course his sense of responsibility and guilt tempered by the Finney incident and the death of Garrovick.

Kirk's quick promotion ahead of his peers also fits with and gives an added layer to the conversation between McCoy and Kirk in TOS: "The Corbormite Maneuver":

MCCOY: I'm especially worried about Bailey. Navigator's position's rough enough for a seasoned man.

KIRK: I think he'll cut it.

MCCOY: Oh? How so sure? Because you spotted something you liked in him, something familiar, like yourself say about, oh, 11 years ago?

BAILEY [OC]: On the double, deck five! Give me a green light.

KIRK: Why, Doctor, you've been reading your textbooks again?

MCCOY: I don't need textbooks to know you could've promoted him too fast. Listen to that voice.

"The Corbormite Maneuver" takes place in 2266, and 11 years puts McCoy’s reference to 2255, which tallies with Kirk's time as a LT. McCoy would know how fast Kirk got promoted, which is why McCoy is accusing Kirk of overpromoting Bailey just because he reminds Kirk of himself.

As an added note, in TOS: “Court Martial” when Kirk goes to the Starbase 11 bar and meets with some unfriendly members of his graduating class, at least two of them look older than Kirk which might also support the early entry hypothesis.

I know that none of this was intended by the production team, but sometimes I marvel how with a little imagination, it can all fit together so nicely and lend insight into previous episodes.

(Sadly, this analysis removes my previous hypothesis that Kirk and Tilly were from the same graduating class.)

Thanks for sticking with this, and any questions are welcome.

Just finished watching Season 2 episode 4. During the shootout near the end of the episode, Captain Pike blocks at least a couple of shots with a random platter.

What was the platter made of that it could dissipate so much energy?

Strange New Worlds has really grown on me overall, but that scene seemed really silly.

To elaborate on my criteria: these should be episodes that can work with a minimum number of sets, no special effect and modest-to-minimal practical effects, and amateur though dedicated actors.

Two examples come to mind.

The first is TNG’s “Measure of a Man”. This episode is almost entirely dialogue and takes place in large part in a single conference room. You could probably do a pretty straightforward 1:1 rendering of this episode on stage.

The second is DIS’s “Species Ten-C”, in which the crew make first contact with the titular species and determine how to communicate. This would require more creativity on the part of the production, but given that the 10-C communicate using light, I imagine that even an amateur production could do something compelling with practical effects.

I’ll admit that I am biased: I think I tend to prefer episodes that meet these criteria. I like my Trek talky and tend to have a soft spot for sappy and hammy episodes. But what intrigues me further about these stories is their ability to pass into cultural myth. I’m not saying that these are the only episodes that could transcend Trek and move into the cultural fabric of the era (think of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader), but they seem like they might have the best shot.

What do you think?

The title refers both to the deceptions that Spock and the crew engage in to cover what happens to him, as well as Pike’s desperate attempt to play the game “charades” as a delaying tactic.

The episode was written by supervising producer Kathryn Lyn and showrunner Henry Alonzo Myers. Lyn wrote what is the best LD episode to date, the amazing “wej Duj”. This explains the LD-esque type of observational humor in the dialogue.

Chapel’s personal log is stardated 1789.3. She and Spock are in the Vulcan system, to survey the moon Kherkov on the far side of the sector. It is unclear if this means that Kherkov is in the Vulcan system itself, or when she means sector she means the system. Star Trek has always been vague about how large a sector is, and in TOS days even how large a quadrant is. In Geoffrey Mandel’s Star Charts, a sector is defined as a cube of 20 ly. Kherkov was inhabited by a long vanished civilization and rumored to have had advanced medical knowledge.

What the script means by “sub-impulse” speeds is also unclear, as impulse operations are already sublight in nature. Perhaps this merely means at low impulse speeds.

M’Benga mentioned Korby’s principles of archeological medicine. Roger Korby, known as the Pasteur of Archeological Medicine, would eventually become affianced to Chapel, vanish on the frozen planet of Exo III and turn up five years later as an android (TOS: “What are Little Girls Made Of?”).

Spock is headed for Deck 12, which, according to Franz Joseph’s Enterprise deck plans, is in the interconnecting dorsal section, and contains an observation lounge.

M’Benga has been helping Spock with controlling his emotions (SNW: “The Broken Circle”) after he let them loose in SNW: “All Those Who Wander”.

Pike claims that you can tell the difference between fresh and synthesized herbs. At this point in history, starships use food synthesizers, not replicators, although the difference between the two processes is not entirely clear. The herb Pike pushes on Spock is basil.

Spock says he uses nasal suppressants to block out the smell of humans, which Vulcans take getting used to. In ENT: “The Andorian Incident”, T’Pol uses a regularly injected nasal numbing agent to help with the same issue, although she also partially acclimatizes.

Lieutenant Sam Kirk makes his first in-universe appearance since SNW: “All Those Who Wander”. An alternate timeline version did appear in SNW: “A Quality of Mercy”.

Sam mentions increased sunspot activity in Eridani B. 40 Eridani is a star system comprised of three suns - Eridani A, B and C. It was established in Franz Joseph’s Star Fleet Technical Manual as Vulcan’s system. It is 16 ly away, consistent with ENT’s mention of Vulcan’s distance from Earth. In 2018, an exoplanet was apparently discovered orbiting Eridani A which some fans wanted named Vulcan, but recently the discovery of 40 Eri b turned out to be a mistake.

A Vulcan ceremonial engagement dinner is known as a V’Shal dinner. Spock mentions that he is “still” not speaking with his father. In TOS: “Journey to Babel” it is revealed that the two fell out after Spock elected to join Starfleet rather than the Vulcan Science Academy, and had not spoken since 2249. Amanda assumed that it was because Sarek disapproved of Starfleet as an organization, but the reasons are a bit more complicated, as we find out in DIS: “Lethe”.

T’Pring’s parents here are T’Pril and Sevet. In the novel Vulcan’s Glory, T’Pring’s father was named Solen.

Spock’s (almost) use of the “f” word is of course for comic effect: the first time the expletive was used in Trek was in DIS: “Choose Your Pain”, used by Tilly and Stamets.

The alien entity identifies themselves as Yellow, of Kherkov. The rupture was a transport tunnel, which explains its visual similarity with the Bajoran wormhole (DS9). Yellow is pretty much a Customer Service operator who just wants to get you off the line.

Aliens not knowing how humans are put together is an old trope - we first see it in Trek in TOS: “The Cage”, when Vina’s disfigured form is explained as the Talosians not knowing what a human looked like before they healed her. A modern example can be seen in Doctor Who’s “The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances”.

Chapel is working to reverse Spock’s genetic alteration. As we saw in SNW: “Strange New Worlds”, she has an expertise in modifying genomes, although that was temporary and for the purpose of disguising away teams.

The enticing aroma of bacon - at least to humans - is due to the Maillard Reaction, which triggers our body’s natural cravings for salt and fat. Spock’s fascination and inexperience with bacon is also because post-Surakian Vulcans are vegetarian. As a human, Spock appears to have forgotten that. Spock would eat meat in TOS: “All Our Yesterdays” when transported thousands of years into the past and reverting to the Vulcans of those days.

M’Benga describes the Kherkovians as inscrutable, interdimensional beings that don’t experience space and time the way we do. They sound more and more like they could be related to the Prophets.

Pike tells Amanda that Pelia sends her regards but she’s off dealing with their “dilithium shortage”. It was established in SNW: “The Broken Circle” that Amanda was the first person to whom Pelia revealed her status as a Lanthanite. Dilithium was always a scarce resource in Trek, and its shortage would eventually lead to more dire consequences in the 31st Century. Pelia’s penchant for “acquiring” antiques was established in SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”.

Spock wears a beanie to conceal his (in this case) lack of ears. Spock first used such a hat to conceal his ears in TOS: “The City on the Edge of Forever”. Amanda says that Spock isn’t a practiced liar… yet. As we know, Spock will become a lot better at lying in future (TOS: “The Enterprise Incident”, ST II and ST VI being the most obvious examples aside from covert away missions).

The fake ears are probably the same kinds of ears Ethan Peck wears when made up as Spock. When teaching Spock how to act and sound Vulcan, Ortegas’ line about “Notice how I move my eyebrow but no other muscles in my face,” is very Beckett Mariner-like.

The V’Shal ritual starts with Spock making the bride’s family’s recipe for tea and serving it. Tuvok once served Vulcan tea to Captain Sulu (VOY: “Flashback”). Next is the Ritual of Awareness, when a young couple is made aware of all their faults and flaws. While a timer counts down, T’Pring’s parents will tell Spock all the things they think he is doing wrong. Last is the Mind Meld, where Amanda and Spock will share a memory of his childhood.

Spock’s open use of the mind meld and Pike and Una’s knowledge of it contradicts the first time it was used in TOS: “Dagger of the Mind” when he tells McCoy that it was a deeply private thing for Vulcans. He also said then that he had never used on a human before but here he says he’s used to seeing Amanda’s memories.

M’Benga says he has some gene therapy techniques he pulled from the Trinar. It’s not clear if he’s referring to a race or a ship, although closed captioning italicizes Trinar regression.

Pike has cooked traditional tevmel, but T’Pril criticizes the halak as not being fresh and being salted. Pike explains he uses salt to slow fermentation as starships run hotter than your typical Vulcan kitchen.

Ortegas says that she hates analogies because they’re never really like they say it is. Using analogies to make technobabble clearer (“It’s just like skipping a stone across a pond!”) is a time honored tradition in Star Trek.

T’Pring warns Spock not to rush the pouring of the tea or else the pomkot leaves will fail to bloom.

The interdimensional space the trio find themselves in reminds me, tonally, of when Dax and Sisko first entered the wormhole in DS9: “Emissary”. The Kerkhov they speak to this time is Blue, who notes that the complaint is lodged out of the response period. Chapel asks to speak with Yellow and is basically put on hold. Customer Service from hell, indeed.

The soundtrack during the Ritual of Awareness is underlaid with a slower version of the Vulcan fighting theme from TOS: “Amok Time”. During the meld, Amanda’s memory is of an ordinary day when she took Spock to school - the first time Vulcan children asked Spock to play with them.

Spock makes the excuse that he did not tell T’Pring because of the difficulty Vulcans have lying, but that can’t be true. A better explanation would have been that it was because she would be melding with T’Pril later and it might have been picked up. T'Pring also reminds Spock that they have shared katras (SNW: "Spock Amok").

Spock and Chapel’s confession and clinch, of course, is in opposition to what happened in TOS: “The Naked Time”, but at this point, with the popularity of Jess Bush’s portrayal of the character and time travel shenanigans as an excuse, it’s a minor point that only the truly pedantic would even point out as part of their annotations.

Sure, maybe Sera was an unreliable narrator, and it's just the USS Relativity working in the background to correct things (even if they end up happening a few years off from when they should).

But maybe in the time scale of millennia, it more or less evens out.

Khan comes to power later in the timeline, but DIS and SNW seem a little more modern than they should? Some things are slowed down, and others are sped up.

In season 3 of PICARD, there are two major plot points that strongly echo plots from the two current animated series. The struggle between Data and Lore for control of Data's body is very similar to Rutherford's struggle with his former self in Lower Decks s3e5, and the takeover of Starfleet by the Borg's virus is very similar to the takeover of Starfleet by the vengeful time-travelers' virus in Prodigy.

There is nothing wrong with reusing plots -- Star Trek has done it from time immemorial. Sometimes the results are good, sometimes they are redundant. They have to be judged on a case-by-case basis. In these cases, I believe that PICARD cheapens the original plots.

First, on Lower Decks, we had gradually been introduced to hints that there was something amiss about Rutherford's implants. Our curiosity naturally built over time, and the revelation that his memories had been overwritten to cover up his past self's malfeasance was at once surprising and organic. The resolution of the plot, where Rutherford doesn't want to let his past self disappear, shows us the best of the character we have come to love. Then the information we learn there serves the larger developing plot, culminating in the revelation of the automated fleet. The plot is well-paced and meaningful both to the individual character and the show's overall arc.

None of this is true of the struggle between Data and Lore in PICARD. The continued existence of Data is sprung at us at random, arbitrarily contradicting the fact that he has been killed not once, but twice. The fact that he has been combined with Lore is equally arbitrary, serving little more than a desire to call back to a familiar character. The resolution of the conflict is clever, as Data uses Lore's negative tendencies against him, but in the larger story arc it only serves to solve a problem that the combination of Data and Lore caused in the first place. Overall, the plot serves to put Brent Spiner back on screen in two familiar roles, seemingly for its own sake.

Turning now to Prodigy's fleet takeover plot. Again, this idea was introduced very early on and gradually evolved into the key plot conflict in the show. When it was finally triggered, it spawned two attempted solutions, both of which embodied Star Trek ideals. In the first, non-Starfleet ships helped to disable the infected vessels, giving the lie to the Diviner's vision of Starfleet as a malign influence. In the second, hologram Janeway sacrifices herself to save the fleet, providing a satisfying end to her character's development as a fully sentient being while solving the problem of how to handle the awkward co-existence of real Janeway with her holodeck double. As with Lower Decks, everything seems to fit together well.

By contrast, the takeover of young Starfleet members by the Borg virus -- based on DNA supposedly slipped into Picard decades ago and leveraging Jack's telepathic mind control abilities -- comes way out of left field only in the second to last episode. When it comes to the resolution, they seem to sidestep the possibility of using Seven's Borg identity as part of a meaningful solution. Instead, the entire thing seems gerrymandered to make the use of an older generation of ship, namely the Enterprise-D, necessary to save the day. Where the tweens of Prodigy take their situation deadly seriously, Picard makes jokes about the carpet even as Starfleet self-destructs and Earth is on the brink of oblivion. The message, such as it is, seems to be that the TNG crew effectively is the "last generation" of the series finale's title -- the last generation that is able to achieve anything meaningful. All of Starfleet is threatened with extinction and an entire generation is traumatized by their participation in mass murder, all so we can get a glamor shot on the old bridge.

The fact that the undisputed best season of PICARD is so easily upstaged by animated cartoons in the execution of basically identical plot points seems to me to be a major lesson. I don't begrudge anyone their moment of nostalgia, but to me this comparison shows that the franchise needs to get past the legacy characters in order to tell a coherent and satisfying story at this point. And given that Prodigy has been abruptly cancelled and removed, it doesn't seem like it's a lesson anyone in charge is likely to learn anytime soon.

But what do you think?

I’m not talking about stuff like O’Brien’s hollow rank pip, I’m talking about stuff like “Why make Chakotay a lt. commander rather than a full commander?”

It seems like there was at least some forethought put into who has what rank, but it’s not clear to me how much thought, nor how much meaning was supposed to be baked in to those decisions.

For example, Dr Crusher was a full commander from Day 1, matched only by Riker on the main cast. Was that supposed to signify the authority afforded to the CMO? Was it supposed to be blatant enough for the audience to “get” it?

One of the most prominent examples is Sisko starting his series as a commander. Again — was that supposed to signify that he was more junior, a younger officer?

Behind the scenes, I wonder if we can trace a waxing and waning military influence in the writers room over the years. I know Roddenberry served, and I think some of the early TNG writers did as well. But I feel like that became less common in later series? (But I don’t know for sure.)

I think it’s striking that rank is significantly downplayed on DSC, except for Burnham and potentially Saru.

This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Strange New Worlds 2x04 Among the Lotus Eaters.

Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the content of the latest episode, this thread is a place to dig a little deeper.

(originally posted here)

A recent post talked about the inherent contradiction between what Vulcans espouse and the way they treat other races and concluded that their culture is an open lie.

There are some excellent responses to this thesis, which I feel is a bit exaggerated and based on a misconception. Of course, Vulcans are not homogenous, and we can also go into the what I consider the very plausible fan theory that the differences between Romulans and Vulcans are down to their version of the Eugenics War(s). But I’ll save my ideas about what drove the Romulans and Vulcans apart philosophically for another time.

We know that Vulcans have emotions, but they keep a tight rein on them. Keeping a tight rein of them also inevitably means that sometimes the reins can loosen, and sometimes involuntarily.

I've recently spoken a few times in comments about Vulcan logic and how it's often misunderstood as being similar to when humans talk about logic. So this has prompted me towards writing another post which tries to synthesize most of what I've said about Vulcans over the years on Daystrom in one place - for my own edification and easy reference if nothing else. Given that it’s 8 years today since Nimoy left us, it seems appropriate.

VULCAN LOGIC ≠ HUMAN LOGIC

Diane Duane, in her excellent novels Spock’s World and The Romulan Way, among others, fleshed out Vulcan philosophy and Romulan codes of honor. I should note that Duane’s writings on Vulcan culture and history were tremendously influential on the Vulcan Arc in ENT’s 4th Season and have also made their way into more recent Star Trek series.

What Duane came up with, and I wholeheartedly endorse, is that what is logic for Vulcans is not quite the same was what we humans understand it to be for ourselves.

Human logic is a system of thinking, a method of reasoning. It is defined by clear rules, cause and effect, propositions, inferences and steps. It is a metric - rules of thumb to solve problems, and is not designed as a view of the universe. Rather, it assumes a particular view already, and works from there. Vulcan logic isn’t the same.

C’THIA AND ARIE’MNU - REALITY-TRUTH AND PASSION’S MASTERY

Duane’s idea is that Vulcan logic is more foundational and philosophical in nature. The word “logic” is our English/Federation Standard translation of the word/concept cthia, which literally means “reality-truth”. Cthia is the concept of seeing empirical reality for what it is, rather than what we wish it to be. To practice cthia is to face the universe with the utmost objectivity, without bias or preconception, emotional or otherwise, in order to promote the clearest reasoning and rationality.

This goes beyond using logic to solve problems, which of course it’s still useful for. But it is also a viewpoint that is supposed to be the basis for modern Vulcan culture: to state things plainly, without hiding behind metaphor, to put aside emotion lest it taint the cold assessment of facts. It also demands that one recognize nuance, to take in all the variables and not be rigid about it, to recognize the fact that, while you may be logical in the Vulcan sense, the universe itself may not be, and you have to deal with that, too (more on that below).

This also ties in with Duane’s other term: arie’mnu, or “passion’s mastery”, recently made canon by President T’Rina’s mention of it in DIS: “Choose to Live”. Arie’mnu is often misunderstood by non-Vulcans as the denial of emotion, but it is more about the control of it, to direct the aggression of the Vulcan psyche towards the practice of cthia, creating the conditions for the effective exercise of Vulcan logic.

We also have to recognize that cthia and arie’mnu are ideals, and not everyone manages to attain this, and the degree to which one is able to exercise this varies from Vulcan to Vulcan and even from day to day. Some eschew it entirely - like the v’tosh ka’tur, the so-called “Vulcans without logic” who embrace their emotional side, or keep a looser lid on it. Most Vulcans act cold because the Vulcan heart rages so profoundly that they are taught that to try to play fast and loose with arie’mnu is reckless and leads to a loss of control. That’s why the v’tosh ka’tur are viewed with such suspicion and treated accordingly.

Some even try to exercise what they consider the highest form of arie’mnu - the kolinahr ritual which attempts to purge all emotion from the Vulcan psyche (TMP). Again, this is something that not everyone is able to achieve. Spock tried, but failed because he could not get rid of his emotional attachment to Jim Kirk, and when Vejur called out, it called out to the human, emotional part of him. Spock managed to integrate his Vulcan and human “souls” better in later years, but that’s another story.

SURAK, THE KIR’SHARA AND THE VULCAN REFORMATION POST-2154

Cthia and arie’mnu are Surakian concepts, taught by him during the Time of Awakening, sometime around 350 CE (ENT: “Awakening”, in 2154, is said to be 1,800 years after that time), in order to stop the wars that were tearing Vulcan apart. And we have to remember that Surak’s teachings, in their original form, were lost for a very, very long time. It wasn’t until the mid-22nd century that Surak’s Kir’Shara, the artifact containing his writings, was rediscovered.

So we have to remember that the Vulcans in ENT, who are surly, arrogant, even to a degree emotional at times when dealing with humans and each other, are representative of Vulcans before Surak’s original teachings are rediscovered, so their understanding of cthia, arie’mnu, Vulcan logic and so on are necessarily imperfect. It was only after the rediscovery of the Kir’Shara that Vulcan society became closer to what Surak envisioned it to be. ENT’s Vulcans have to be seen in that context.

But even so, not every one succeeds. Even after ENT we’ve seen arrogant Vulcans, irritated Vulcans, and even angry Vulcans. We’ve seen Vulcans twist logic to their own selfish ends, or to justify repugnant positions. But this shouldn’t be a surprise, and it equally shouldn’t cause us to make sweeping generalizations about Vulcan logic. Every Vulcan is different, and to recognize that is also to practice cthia.

VULCANS LIE

Vulcans lying (and lying about lying) is a - pardon the term - fascinating subject, and I would argue that it actually does come from cthia. Objectively, while Vulcans celebrate Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations (which is also a recognition of empirical fact) the fact that they are usually the smartest people in the room and that most races - humans in particular - seem like toddlers on a drunken galactic rampage means that they naturally assume a parental stance, especially in the 22nd Century when their understanding of Surakian philosphy is inexact at best.

And it is perfectly in line with recognizing that reality that they would lie to “lesser races”, just to achieve greater goals in what they think is keeping those races safe or to maintain the peace. Spock lies quite readily in ST II and ST III but that’s always in service of a greater good. For Vulcans, the ends justifying the means, in certain situations, is logical. Rigid morality doesn’t come into it.

Now, I’m not saying they’re justified in their arrogance and condescension - as Spock put it in TOS: “A Taste of Armageddon”: “I do not approve. I understand.”

VULCAN RITUAL IS LOGICAL

If Vulcans are so logical, why do they shroud their past in ritual and custom?

Well, from a Vulcan perspective, one should first ask, "What is the function of ritual?" The usual function of rites and rituals is to preserve traditions handed down from the past, to provide a sense of continuity, to reinforce certain principles and tenets, and as an expression of those tenets and practices even if - at times - the person performing the ritual doesn't quite understand them, but the idea is that with study and repetition, they will understand in time.

In a sense, it's like military drilling, or kata in martial arts. When internalized, ritual becomes like muscle memory, a macro that carries with it all the practices and principles without the need to rationalize every step which, for whatever reason, is inefficient or unnecessary to do so. It is in this function which I think that the first Vulcan ritual we observe in TOS: "Amok Time" serves. Spock says:

SPOCK: The birds and the bees are not Vulcans, Captain. If they were, if any creature as proudly logical as us were to have their logic ripped from them as this time does to us. How do Vulcans choose their mates? Haven't you wondered?

KIRK: I guess the rest of us assume that it's done quite logically.

SPOCK: No. No. It is not. We shield it with ritual and customs shrouded in antiquity. You humans have no conception. It strips our minds from us. It brings a madness which rips away our veneer of civilisation. It is the pon farr. The time of mating.

During pon farr, Vulcan stoicism and their ability to suppress their emotions breaks down and they need external help to maintain civilized behaviour. That's where the ritual of the kun-ut-kali-fee comes in, so even if the plak tow - blood fever - is at full pitch, some part of the Vulcan knows that there is a procedure to be followed which will guide them through the worst of it and out the other side. They don't need to think, to reason out in what way or why this will help them; they know that it works, and they simply need to follow this road.

So this is perfectly logical! Rather than find some way to suppress the pon farr itself, the Vulcans recognize the reality-truth - the cthia - of their biology and come up with a metric to deal with it. Rather than re-invent the wheel at every step, they take the tried and tested route.

The more you think about not wanting to do something, the more your brain has to struggle. It’s like telling someone not to think of a white elephant. So beyond pon farr, ritual allows Vulcans to more easily practice arie’mnu in their daily lives. This also allows them to appreciate music, art, beauty, even games without the attendant emotional attachments. Structure, order, symmetry, clarity: these are all part of what Vulcans find aesthetically pleasing because they reinforce the central tenets of Vulcan logic.

Vulcans are always aware of their emotional, wild heritage and how it can easily explode. So every step of their lives is perfectly ordered and laid out in order to keep this emotional self in check. The discipline is paramount, for without it they believe their civilization as it is now could not exist.

THIS IS THE VULCAN HEART, THIS IS THE VULCAN SOUL

T’Pau said it best (in reference to ritual): "This is the Vulcan heart. This is the Vulcan soul." Fiery passion and razor-sharp intellect wrapped in millennia of history and tradition and discipline to create the highest understanding. And to practice it is to bring a net positive to that passion, to improve the universe. Spock said this in TOS: “The Squire of Gothos”, a line still close to my heart:

SPOCK: I object to you. I object to intellect without discipline. I object to power without constructive purpose.

Vulcan logic is ultimately an ideal - and on a personal note, one I think is really cool and worth examining and even emulating - in the right context, of course.

(originally posted here)

Very often I see people confidently think or claim that the Star Trek warp drive works like the warp "drive" first proposed by physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994. Unfortunately, this is in error (I put "drive" in quotes because Alcubierre apparently dislikes calling it a drive, preferring to call it a "warp bubble"). As Alcubierre himself says, it was Star Trek that gave him the inspiration for his metric, not the other away around.

Why there is this conflation may be because people desperately want to think that Star Trek is based on hard scientific principles, or that the same principles in Star Trek are actively being worked on in real life. I don't propose to speculate further. There are also several fan ideas and beta canon ideas in licensed fiction about warp drive (notably in the excellent novel Federation by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens) but for the sake of brevity, I'm limiting my discussion to what we see on-screen and related behind-the-scenes documents.

Background

The basic obstacle to superluminal or faster-than-light travel is Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity. Special Relativity says that as the velocity of an object with mass accelerates towards the speed of light (c), the mass of that object increases, requiring more and more energy to accelerate it, until at c, that object has infinite mass, requiring infinite energy to push it past c. In fact, Special Relativity says that nothing with mass can reach c - photons are massless and can only travel at c. From there, it follows that theoretical objects with negative mass can only travel above c, hence given the name tachyons, from the Greek tachys, or “fast”.

Alcubierre wondered: if you can't move the object/ship without running into relativistic issues, why not move space instead? Alcubierre's idea was to warp space in two ways - contract space in front of the ship and expand space behind it, an effect he compares to a person on a travelator. So while the ship itself remains stationary in a flat area of spacetime between the two areas of warped space (the whole thing being the "warp bubble"), that flat area gets moved along like a surfboard on the wave of warped space. Of course, warping spacetime in this manner involves incredible amounts of negative energy, but that's another discussion.

So this is how the Alcubierre metric circumvents relativistic issues. Because the ship itself remains essentially motionless, there is no acceleration or velocity and thus no increase in inertial mass.

But that's not how Star Trek’s warp drive works, and has never been.

Warp Drive pre-TNG

There is no description on how Star Trek warp drive works on screen in TOS except perhaps for a vague pronouncement that the "time barrier's been broken" in TOS: "The Cage" (in the episode Spock also calls it a "hyperdrive" and refers to "time warp factors").

During the production of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), science consultant Jesco von Puttkamer, at the time an aerospace engineer working at a senior position in NASA, wrote in a memo to Gene Roddenberry dated 10 April 1978 (The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture by Susan Sackett and Gene Roddenberry, 1980, pp153-154) his proposal for how warp drive was supposed to work, in a way eeriely similar to Alcubierre's metric:

When going “into Warp Drive,” the warp engines in the two propulsion pods create an intense field which surrounds the entire vessel, forming a “subspace”, i.e. a space curvature closed upon itself through a Warp, a new but small universe within the normal Universe (or “outside” it). The field is nonsymmetrical with respect to fore-and-aft, in accordance with the outside geometry of the Enterprise, but it can be strengthened and weakened at localized areas to control the ship’s direction and apparent speed.

Because of the its non-symmetry about the lateral axis, the subspace becomes directional. The curvature of its hypersurface varies at different points about the starship. This causes a “sliding” effect, almost as a surf-board or a porpoise riding before the crest of a wave. The subspace “belly-surfs” in front of a directionally propagating “fold” in the spacetime structure, the Warp - a progressive, partial collapse of spacetime caused by the creation of the subspace volume (similar to but not the same as a Black Hole).

But there's no evidence that Roddenberry actually used this concept. In fact, Puttkamer said further in the memo that at warp, Enterprise would have "little or no momentum", which we will see is not how it's portrayed. Puttkamer was even against the now famous rainbow effect of going into warp:

The effect should not be firework-type lights but a more dimensional, geometric warping and twisting, an almost stomach-turning wrenching of the entire camera field-of-view.

So while an interesting document, there's no evidence that Puttkamer's ideas made it into any on screen incarnation of Star Trek.

Warp Drive in TNG and beyond

In TNG, the first publicly available description of how warp drive is supposed to work came from the licensed Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual (1991). At page 65:

WARP PROPULSION

The propulsive effect is achieved by a number of factors working in concert. First, the field formation is controllable in a fore-to-aft direction. As the plasma injectors fire sequentially, the warp field layers build according to the pulse frequency in the plasma, and press upon each other as previously discussed. The cumulative field layer forces reduce the apparent mass of the vehicle and impart the required velocities. The critical transition point occurs when the spacecraft appears to an outside observer to be travelling faster than c. As the warp field energy reaches 1000 millicochranes, the ship appears driven across the c boundary in less than Planck time, 1.3 x 10^-43 sec, warp physics insuring that the ship will never be precisely at c. The three forward coils of each nacelle operate with a slight frequency offset to reinforce the field ahead of the Bussard ramscoop and envelop the Saucer Module. This helps create the field asymmetry required to drive the ship forward.

As described here, Star Trek warp drive gets around Special Relativity by using the warp field to distort space around and lower the inertial mass of the ship so that the shaping of the warp fields and layers around the ship can push and accelerate the ship itself towards c with reasonable energy requirements. The stronger the field (measured in units of millicochranes), the lower the inertial mass gets and it becomes easier to accelerate. When the field hits a strength of 1000 millicochranes, the ship pushes past the c barrier. Presumably at this stage it's in subspace, where Relativity no longer applies, and can accelerate even faster to each level of warp until the next limit at Warp 10 (TNG scale), or infinite speed. I'm not getting into how warp factors are defined (but see here for a discussion on the change between TOS and TNG warp scales, which also goes into the definition of warp factors, if interested).

The Technical Manual was written by Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda, who were both technical consultants behind the scenes, and evolved from a document prepared by them in 1989 (3rd Season) to aid writers on the show in writing the technobabble in their script. (See also the history here.)

Here’s what the first, 3rd Season edition says about the way warp works, which is simply that the drive “warps space, enabling the ship to travel faster than light,” and that the ship is “‘suspended in a bubble’ of ‘subspace’, which allows the ship to travel faster than light”. This description also shows up in the 4th Season edition, and the Star Trek: Voyager Technical Guide (1st Season edition) in identical form.

While the actual text of the manual never made it on screen, there are several pieces of on-screen evidence that tell us Sternbach and Okuda's description of warp drive is followed: warp fields lower inertial mass, and the ship experiences acceleration and inertial forces during warp.

Evidence of warp fields lowering inertial mass

In TNG: "Deja Q" (1990), Enterprise-D uses a warp field to change the inertial mass of a moon:

LAFORGE: You know, this might work. We can't change the gravitational constant of the universe, but if we wrap a low level warp field around that moon, we could reduce its gravitational constant. Make it lighter so we can push it.

Later in that episode, we see the effect the warp field has on the moon:

DATA: Inertial mass of the moon is decreasing to approximately 2.5 million metric tonnes.

At the time "Deja Q" was broadcast, all that was said about warp drive in the technical guide was that warp drive "warps space" and the ship is in a subspace bubble with no mention of lowering inertial mass. Yet "Deja Q" shows warp fields doing exactly that, which tells us that either the writer gave Sternbach and Okuda that idea or they already had their ideas in place behind the scenes. The latter is more likely, given that the Technical Manual was published the following year.

In DS9: "Emissary" (1993), O'Brien and Dax use a warp field to lower the mass of the station so they can use thrusters to "fly" the station to where the wormhole is.

DAX: Couldn't you modify the subspace field output of the deflector generators just enough to create a low-level field around the station?

O'BRIEN: So we could lower the inertial mass?

DAX: If you can make the station lighter, those six thrusters will be all the power we'd need.

Evidence of inertia during warp

We've known from TOS on that during warp speed, inertia still exists. If it didn't, then there wouldn't be the bridge crew being subjected to inertial forces when maneuvering at warp speeds and being tossed around the bridge (TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday", when Enterprise slingshots around the sun at warp - with the last reported speed being Warp 8 on the TOS scale).

In TMP (1979), we see Enterprise accelerating to warp speed before the engine imbalance creates a wormhole.

KIRK: Warp drive, Mr Scott. Ahead, Warp 1, Mr Sulu.

SULU: Accelerating to Warp 1, sir. Warp point 7… point 8… Warp 1, sir.

As noted, a ship using the Alcubierre metric doesn't need to accelerate, because it's space that's moving, not the ship. Additionally there'd be no need for an inertial dampening field (as we see in TNG and beyond) that is supposed to protect the crew when accelerating to superluminal speeds. From VOY: "Tattoo" (1995):

KIM: Could we go to warp under these conditions?

PARIS: The ship might make it without inertial dampers, but we'd all just be stains on the back wall.

In the 2009 Star Trek movie, Enterprise was unable to go to warp unless the external inertial dampeners were disengaged.

SULU: Uh, very much so, sir. I'm, uh, not sure what's wrong.

PIKE: Is the parking brake on?

SULU: Uh, no. I'll figure it out, I'm just, uh...

SPOCK: Have you disengaged the external inertial dampener?

(Sulu presses a couple buttons)

SULU: Ready for warp, sir.

PIKE: Let's punch it.

If there's no acceleration or inertia, there's no reason why them being on would impede warp drive operation.

Closing Remarks

Taking all these pieces into account, I hope I've shown convincingly that the way the show treats Star Trek warp drive is consistent with a drive system that involves acceleration and inertial forces, and with warp fields that lower inertial mass - just like Sternbach and Okuda describe in the Technical Manual, and definitely not consistent with way the Alcubierre metric is supposed to work.

For those who want a deep dive into Star Trek warp physics, some canon and some speculative, I heartily recommend Ex Astris Scientia's series of articles on warp propulsion. I also recommend Jason W. Hinson's series on "Relativity and FTL Travel". Hinson was a regular participant in rec.arts.startrek.tech in the 90s and educated us on how Relativity worked and how it applied to Star Trek.

For example, the Federation's founding members (Tellarites, Andorians, Vulcans, Humans) were the subject of fan theories and "fanon" for many years before the ENT writers made it official. One of the interesting (and fun) aspects of this recent wave of series has been seeing the writers increasingly add nods to fan theories and pieces of fanon lore over the years. What are some good examples of this?

And relatedly: what's a fan theory, or piece of fanon, that you suspect the current writers believe, even if they haven't explicitly stated it on-screen?

There is something undeniably weird about the new Kirk that we're seeing in Strange New Worlds. He doesn't yet "feel" intuitively like Kirk to me, especially in the rom-com episode. But I do think his writing and, to a lesser extent, his performance show that the writers are thinking deeply about the character and what people have been missing about him. In a sense, SNW may be trying to counteract the phenomenon of Kirk drift, where pop culture stereotypes about the character's impulsive, womanizing ways makes it impossible to understand the person we actually see on screen.

What the first season finale shows us is a Kirk who is by the book, yet decisive and sure of himself. He does not disobey Pike, but he is not afraid to tell him he's wrong -- not based on gut feelings, but based on a sound tactical analysis that proves to be right. Compared to Picard, Kirk -- especially the movie Kirk -- may seem brash and prone to violate the rules, but TOS consistently shows us a captain who respects authority but is willing to push it up to the very limit to protect his crew and achieve his goals. It's interesting that the episode picks up on this aspect of the character as the one that creates an instant bond with Spock. It's not his emotional nature or his instincts or whatever else, it's his respectful yet firm leadership style -- a sharp contrast to Pike's tendency to leave his subordinates to their own devices.

In the romcom episode, the message is a little garbled by the fact that this is an alternate timeline Kirk, but I think it highlights the fact that (a) Kirk is not a compulsive womanizer by any means and (b) Kirk bonds sincerely with women who feel isolated by leadership or other burdens -- not in a predatory way, but in an empathetic way. In contrast to Chris Pine's layabout troublemaker who is constantly getting laid (at least in the first film), the Kirk from TOS is basically a lonely nerd. A charismatic one, to be sure, but still a lonely nerd. Even well into his second command, he's haunted by the guy who bullied him at the Academy! He is, if anything, sexually thwarted by his sense of duty and his "marriage" to the ship. Hence when he meets a woman with a similar predicament, they are drawn to each other. Everyone has a type! It's just a sad coincidence that he wound up meeting someone of his type virtually every episode in season 3.

I don't think it's perfectly executed, at least in the pairing with La'an, but I do like that they're trying to refresh our perspective on the character and that they're doing it in a way that reminds us of all the traits from TOS that the pop culture parody of "Captain Kirk" leaves out. But what do you think?