Daystrom Institute

Cross-posted from r/daystrominstitute

In the DS9 episode "Past Tense, Part I", Sisko and Bashir are seemingly accidentally sent to Earth in 2024. But I would posit that this was no accident at all and was actually a plot orchestrated by the Romulans to weaken Earth.

The transporter "accident" was the result of two things: Chroniton particles emitted by the cloaking device, and a microscopic singularity that passed through the system. I suspect that Romulans knew that their cloaks would be susceptible to a singularity, possibly from their usage of artificial ones to power their ships. When they loaned the cloak to the Federation, they knew this aspect, but neglected to mention it, probably because it would've exploited a large weakness in their fleet. But it also could've strictly been part of a covert operation to trigger it at just the right time, as part of an attack in the temporal wars.

Think about it, doesn't it seem very convenient that Sisko and Bashir end up in this very formative period and place in Earth history? It has to have been calculated by the Romulans, or more specifically the AI that Romulans employ to seek out targets in the temporal war, as we are told in SNW's "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow." In that episode, a Romulan agent, Sera, is seen operating in this period on Earth in order to weaken it. This particular instance can't be the singular Romulan plot involving attacks in time.

And lastly, it would seem that the plot worked initially. The Federation disappeared, except for the Defiant, and a Romulan presence was detected on Alpha Centauri. The AI must not have anticipated Sisko's ability to take the place of Bell.

The title is taken from the lotus-eaters of Homer’s Odyssey, people who lived on an island filled with “lotus trees”, whose fruit had narcotic properties. Whoever ate it would fall into a state of apathy, content just to sit and eat the plant, forgetting their past and loved ones, never to return. In modern use, the term is applied to a state of hedonism. In the episode’s context it refers to the effects of Rigel VII’s radiation on the brain.

The Stardate is 1630.1. The USS Cayuga was first mentioned in SNW: “A Quality of Mercy”, which shares a title with a 1961 Twilight Zone episode that starred Leonard Nimoy, and made by Rod Serling’s production company Cayuga Productions.

Batel found the Operlian Mariner’s Keystone on Galt. It’s possible that the closed captioning got it wrong and it should be spelled “Gault”, which was the name of the colony where the Rozhenkos first raised Worf (TNG: “Heart of Glory”). Galt was also the name of the Master Thrall of Triskelion (TOS: “The Gamers of Triskelion”).

Batel was in line to be promoted to Commodore, but was passed over in favor of William Geary because of Judge Advocate Pasalk, in relation to her conduct during Una’s trial (SNW: “Ad Astra Per Aspera”).

Commodore is traditionally the most junior flag rank and is given to an officer which commands more than one ship. In Star Trek, commodores are most often seen in charge of starbases or relaying orders from Starfleet Command. In one case, Commodore Bob Wesley commanded a war games fleet from the USS Lexington that engaged with the Enterprise (TOS: “The Ultimate Computer”). Commodore Matt Decker commanded the USS Constellation (TOS: “The Doomsday Machine”). Geordi La Forge was a Commodore when he was in charge of the Fleet Museum (PIC: “The Bounty”).

Rigel VII first enters Star Trek lore as the planet where a disastrous mission took place weeks prior to the events of TOS: “The Cage” (2254), which left Pike’s yeoman and two others dead, with seven injured.

PIKE: My own yeoman and two others dead, seven injured… Oh, I should have smelled trouble when I saw the swords and the armor. Instead of that, I let myself get trapped in that deserted fortress and attacked by one of their warriors.

The incident left Pike in a state of soul-searching as to whether he still wanted to be a starship captain. The Talosians read this desire, leading to several illusions tempting him to retire, including one where he was forced to defend Vina against a Kalar, a brutish humanoid in Mongol-like furs and melee weapons.

Una says that Rigel VII happened 5 years prior, which makes the episode set in 2259. There’s a bit of a debate in my mind as to whether SNW Season 1 (and 2, since they are very close in time) takes place in 2259 or 2260, but I haven’t come to any definite conclusion.

Una says the Kalar were a Bronze Age society, organized in a caste system with a warrior caste and a secretive ruling caste. The mission only lasted 4 hours and ended with an emergency evacuation. The landing party was ambushed, with the three dead named as Yeoman Z. Nguyen, Ensign C. Plummer and Science Specialist M. Aberth. Spock was also severely injured and had to receive treatment on Vega colony. The visible parts of the report are as follows:

SECTION I - SUMMARY

1. During a routine survey mission on Rigel VII, on Stardate 2498.4, the landing party from the U.S.S. Enterprise was attacked by a force of unknown size. This force was comprised of multiple pre-warp native warriors. There were three deaths reported among the landing party.

2. There were seven (7) injured crew members, some critically.

3. The result of the deaths/injuries required an immediate evacuation and transfer to the medical facilities at the colony of Vega.

…

SECTION III - DISCUSSION

17. The lack of communications, in addition to the sparse nature of the population perceived before the attack on the landing party 1-B was the cause of the initial action.

18. An even greater amount of distance and time on approach should be taken as the Kalar appear to be particularly violent culture. Attack without warning or quarter given should be expected.

B. PERFORMANCE

19. It is to be noted that performance to duties went as planned. However, several members of landing party 1, both Teams A and B, reportedly were unable to specify the actions of the Kalar, leading to the assumption there was in some form of pre-entrapment set. This is probably in part due to the unknown nature of the Kalar social…

C. CASUALTIES

20. There have been confirmed casualties. As accounting of the number of injured Kalar are inconclusive as the ‘fog of action’ contributed to the loss of information and analysis, consistent with similar actions and must be attributed to the intensity of the attack, Enterprise sections subsequently concluded the numbers of ship’s casualties as seven (7) injuries and three (3) K.I.A., based upon investigation and final assessment.

The last time they went down they were in Starfleet uniforms, a mistake Pike acknowledges and does not want to repeat.

Ortegas’ personal log is dated 1630.3. The Stecora Debris Field surrounds Rigel VII, likely the result of a collision between two moons several centuries ago. Pike reminds Ortegas he was a test pilot (his first assignment in Starfleet, DIS: “Light and Shadows”) and will steer the shuttle through the radiation and choppy atmosphere of the planet. The surmise is that this was caused by an asteroid impact thousands of years prior.

Pike confirms he brought La’An and M’Benga along because he needed people who could handle themselves without a phaser (SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”). He also mentions subdermal universal translators. Starfleet UTs were handheld devices in the 22nd and 23rd centuries (ENT: “Precious Cargo”, TOS: “The Changeling”, DIS: “Into the Forest I Go”, et al.), and eventually became embedded in combadges (VOY: “The ‘37s”). Implanted Ferengi UTs were seen in DS9: “Little Green Men”, but this is the first time we’ve heard of Starfleet UTs being implanted - although subdermal transponders were used in TOS: “Patterns of Force”.

The Kalar guards are armed with phaser rifles, originally seen in TOS: “Where No Man Has Gone Before”. The modern redesign was seen in DIS: “The Vulcan Hello”. They are dressed in a more streamlined variant of that seen in “The Cage”.

Former Yeoman Zacarias “Zac” Nguyen has assumed the title High Lord Zacarias. The reason for the deltas in the encampment and the garden was because the Kalar adopted it as his symbol. He explains the radiation here affects the brain, causing the symptoms La’An has been experiencing, leading to time loss, fear and forgetting their past, to become Kalar.

Uhura submitted a situation report to the UFP relay. Subspace relays are a vital part of the FTL communication network in the Federation, receiving and passing signals on to the next relay and increasing the range of subspace transmissions. Ortegas jokes that Uhura stays up late translating Tellarite sonnets.

Una says she flew the Enterprise before Ortegas. In “The Cage”, Number One is seen seated at the helm station before they encounter Talos IV.

Chapel detects deterioration in Uhura’s frontal, parietal and temporal lobes. The frontal lobes manage higher executive function, the parietal deals with sensory input and the temporal lobes with memory. This would be consistent with loss of memory, ringing in the ears and cognitive impairment degrading into brute-like Kalar behavior. Uhura’s regular breakfast is oatmeal.

Kalar clothes are color-coded like Starfleet divisions. Blue means you work in a quarry, while green chops the wood. Those in the palace keep their memories while the ones in the field lose them every night - explaining the caste system.

As Chapel discovers, explicit memory is lost while implicit memory remains intact. Spock theorizes the debris field can protect them from the radiation. Sadly, that turns out not to be the case, even with the shields up. As it turns out it’s the debris field that’s causing the issues.

According to her personnel file, Ortegas was born 23 May 2233, in Barranquilla, Colombia, Earth to Mircha and Fidel Ortegas. Oddly, the record also says, somewhat unnecessarily, that she is a “23rd Century Federation Starfleet Officer”. Her serial number is SC945-0710ROC and her quarters are on Deck 6, Section G, Room 629.

M’Benga is grazed and injured but not vaporized and Pike uses a metal plate to fend off Zac’s phaser blasts, so the rifles, while still injurious, obviously aren’t set to disintegrate.

Among the equipment in the supply box is a case of vaccine supplies and a tricorder. Zac explains that the palace contains an ore (like the Kalar helmets) that protects from the radiation. Being inside long enough will restore their memories.

Someday hopefully we’ll get an explanation for the under-the-eye finger sweep gesture that La’An and M’Beng share, but obviously not today. Once the Enterprise cleared the debris field, the crew’s memories came back. Spock devises a shield harmonic to protect them from the radiation and they tractor the memory-destroying asteroid off Rigel VII back into the debris field where it belongs.

SNW S2E02 introduce a new quirk of the canon: The time "push back", such that there will be some events (let's just call it Canon Event) that will always come about in Prime Timeline, albeit in different actual time. Aside from the aforementioned Eugenic War, I can think of a few other so-called "inconsistency", such as how there are already Cloaking technology for both Romulans and Klingons before Kirk's mission, despite TOS dialogue implies that Romulan first got cloak during Kirk's mission, and then transfer technology to Klingon. (I think the current explaination is different cloaking technology, which have various quirks.)

So here's the question: Under what situation would you consider "Time Pushback" being an acceptable explaination for discrepancy??

Back in the day on TrekBBS (alas, I cannot find the original post), someone pointed out that Odo shapeshifts less and less often as the series goes on. It was never a super frequent thing, but it occurred more often in the earlier seasons, but, even accounting for his time as a solid in Season 5, he seems to shapeshift less and less in later seasons.

What reasons (in-universe and real-world) might there be for this? Was it just a budget thing? Were the writers using it as a "trick" (writing crutch) earlier on? Are we supposed to believe that Odo is trying to assimilate, or reject his Changeling heritage?

This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Strange New Worlds 2x03 Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

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.

Uh, newest SNW episode spoilers I guess.

In "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" we are introduced to James Kirk, captain of the UEF Enterprise. This prefix is visible on the dedication plaque when La'an arrives on the bridge.

Curiously, later in the episode when La'an asks Kirk where he was born he says the USS Iowa.

What gives? Was the Iowa was a cargo ship? Maybe in this timeline, "USS" stands for "United Shipping Service." Or perhaps at some point, UEF ships did use the prefix and they changed it because the wanted "Earth" more clearly in the identifier.

What do you think?

SNW S2 EP3 piqued my curiosity in who this character was based off of and so I did a very basic search. I already knew Roddenberry named Khan and Dr. Noonian Soong that way to try to get the attention of his friend, but seems like the friend never noticed and reached out.

My current search yielded a VERY comprehensive post on R3dd!t from 2020 where the OOP and commenters came up with some possible iterations:

-Kim Noonien Singh

-Kim Noonien Wang

-Kim Ngyuen Singh

-Kim Noonan Singh

Unfortunately, the trail seems to have run cold as the OOP has not updated on any new leads and the last comment in that thread is a year ago.

Do you think we are ever going to be able to find out who the real life "Khan Noonien Singh" is/was?

In "The Wounded," Captain Picard and the Enterprise are tasked with intercepting the USS Phoenix, commanded by Captain Benjamin Maxwell. Maxwell is destroying Cardassian ships and outposts, convinced that the Cardassians are preparing for another war.

Lets make some changes to this setup and explore a hypothetical: what if Captain Kirk is sent to intercept the Phoenix instead? How do you think Captain Kirk would have approached and handled Captain Maxwell's actions differently compared to Captain Picard?

There are actually several ways you could construct this hypothetical so here are my suggested substitutions:

• Lets say that this is happening in the 23rd century, i.e. Captain Maxwell is the displaced captain.
• Lets say we're talking about Paul Wesley's Kirk, for two reasons. One, we all currently have a big crush on Paul Wesley, and two, I think there's another interesting choice we can make here...
• Lets say that Kirk is in command of the USS Farragut and La'an is his XO. Rather than the Galaxy-Nebula showdown where the Enterprise significantly outgunned the Phoenix, Lets say that the Phoenix is Hoover-class, and lets say that the Phoenix is better armed but not as fast as the Farragut.
• Since we're in the 23rd century lets sub in the Klingons considering the context is the same: last war just ended, everyone is touchy about starting a new one by accident.

One last bit of food for thought: how does Kirk feel about the Klingons in the early or mid 2260s? If David is alive he's an infant, but is it possible that Kirk was already primed to hate the Klingons due to his experiences in the first Klingon war? Is Kirk more inclined to believe Maxwell because he distrusts the Klingons?

It is one of the most dire aspects of Star Trek Picard: a long-running ban (under "galactic treaty") that eliminates not only research into synthetic life, but appears to ban synthetic lifeforms themselves.

And, candidly, I don't think it's an element of the story that is plainly justified on first read. It appears incredibly -- to the point of being implausibly -- reactionary, to an extent that we haven't seen from the Federation before. It also stretches credulity that a single event -- no matter how catastrophic -- could lead to such a long-lasting draconian policy. For it to be believable, we really need to assume that the Federation already was morally corrupt and weak-willed in a way that makes it in turn seem hard to believe that people of good character like Picard could hold the Federation in such high esteem. (Of course, there is ample evidence that the Federation, or at least Starfleet, has been immoral in this area for quite some time.) This is worsened, of course, by the sudden turnaround at the season's end wherein the ban is lifted, with apparently very little effort.

It's a weakness of storytelling in PIC S1. But, when we start to layer in stories from other series, a new picture emerges.

Let's work backwards. From PIC, we know what happens in 2385:

2385: in the Attack on Mars, rogue synths surreptitiously hijacked by the Romulan anti-AI extremist group known as the “Zhat Vash” lead a devastating attack on Mars, destroying the colonies, the Utopia Planitia shipyards, and the Romulan Rescue armada. Romulan involvement remains unknown for years after.

2385: a political crisis erupts following the Attack on Mars, with at least fourteen Federation members threatening secession. Starfleet chooses to abandon the evacuation mission, and Admiral Picard resigns in protest. Soon thereafter, a wide-ranging interstellar treaty – signed by so many powers that it was sometimes described as a “galactic treaty” – bans research, construction, and even the mere presence of synthetic lifeforms. Dr. Bruce Maddox flees the Federation shortly after and settles on Coppelius with Altan Soong.

Prior to that, PRO tells us about 2382-2384ish:

2382 (speculative): the Protostar launches under the command of Captain Chakotay, an experimental vessel equipped with a new propulsion technology called “proto-warp”, on a mission to return to the Delta Quadrant.

(PRO seems intentionally vague on the exact timing of this launch; potentially it could be placed as far back as 2378, or even maybe as late as 2384.)

2383 (speculative): Construction of the Romulan Rescue armada at Utopia Planitia is underway.

(The timing of the fleet construction is vague, but I argue it needs to be early enough such that the attack in 2385 creates a setback too large to recover from. As I recall, PIC is a little unclear on whether it would have been feasible to rebuild the fleet in time after the attack. But for there to be such severe political blowback, I think the project needed to have been underway for at least a couple of years.)

2383: following temporal displacement, the Protostar is discovered and commandeered by Dal R’El and his crew.

2384: the Dauntless, under the command of Vice Admiral Janeway and equipped with a (limited) quantum slipstream drive, embarks on a search for Captain Chakotay and the Protostar.

2384: the Battle of the Living Construct wreaks a heavy toll on the gathered Starfleet armada, which includes the starships Defiant, Centaur, Sovereign, and possibly Enterprise, as a viral AI hijacks starships via communication transmission and pits them against one another. The crew of the Protostar destroy the ship to terminate the signal and end the battle.

2384: full production of the Protostar class commences

There are two things to highlight here. First, this now marks the second instance of a destructive AI within as many years. It's unclear from PRO's finale how many ships are destroyed, but it is eerily reminiscent of the Attack on Mars a year later.

Second, the early 2380s saw the release of not one but two experimental FTL technologies, to say nothing of the use of sentient holograms as crew members. And yet none of that seems present by PIC S3 -- perhaps an illustration of the profound impact of the destruction of Utopia Planitia (and the all-but-certain brain drain as thousands of Starfleet designers perished).

Finally, we come to LDS' contribution to the tale of the early 2380s:

2381: the Battle of the Texas Trio, in which three autonomous Texas-class starships go rogue due to the malfunction of the AI known as “Badgey”. Before being stopped by a fleet of California-class starships, the “Texas Trio” carried out a devastating attack with significant loss of life, including that of Vice Admiral Buenamigo, who led the development of the Texas class.

That marks three rogue AI catastrophes in four years, with consecutively higher costs each time, culminating in what appears to be the destruction of an entire generation of technology development and Starfleet researchers, whose loss still appears apparent fifteen years later.

The Synth Ban wasn't just a reaction to the Attack on Mars -- it was a reaction to half a decade of AI disasters. No doubt the Ban was encouraged both explicitly and implicitly by Romulan (and Zhat Vash) elements, and even within this broader context, the Ban is still an overreaction. But the Attack on Mars "struck while the iron was hot", at a time when the Federation populace would be more anti-AI than at any point in history.

As a topic for a separate post, but the more I look at the pre-2385 vs post-2385 stories, the more stark a shift I see, and the more potential for potent storytelling becomes apparent. The Attack on Mars and the Romulan Supernova became a generation-defining event: the 9/11 of its time, separating the 90s-esque optimism of TNG, LDS, and PRO, from the 2000s-2010s-esque troubled times of the Synth Ban and PIC.

Of course, it doesn't literally have to be the orchid -- although it's thought-provoking to consider that angle. (An orchid suddenly gets super-evolved with the ability to speak and walk -- damn straight it's gonna want to live and would happily lie to do it.) But the point to consider is the source of various claims that are made about the situation.

Critically, Tuvix claims that he speaks for both Neelix and Tuvok -- that both of them are present and both of them are happy being merged.

But that's actually a somewhat bold claim, especially the second point. Given what we know of Tuvok and Neelix, it seems hard to imagine either of them voluntarily signing up for this -- certainly given their mild personal animosity, but also because we really have no evidence to suggest that either of them feel "incomplete". Like, Tuvok really doesn't seem that interested in becoming more in touch with his emotions; Neelix is a little more debatable, but even he doesn't really seem like he is longing to be more logical or serve in Starfleet.

So Tuvix is making at least one implausible claim; that claim is important because, if it were accurate, then yes, Janeway's decision goes against the wishes of Tuvok, Neelix, and Tuvix, which would be bad.

For the sake of argument, imagine then that Tuvix is actually neither Tuvok nor Neelix, but is the orchid, with access to Tuvok and Neelix's memories, knowledge, and personality -- and maybe even holding mental versions of their persons as silent captives. The orchid would have incentive to lie, and would have all the means at its disposal to engage in a convincing deception.

In that scenario (and certainly if Janeway discovered this to be true), it seems pretty straightforward that deintegrating Tuvix is the right thing to do: Tuvok and Neelix are being held captive with no ability to advocate for themselves. The orchid, while surely benefiting from the situation, does not have the right to usurp the autonomy of Tuvok and Neelix.

It is, of course, unknowable whether the orchid was in fact holding Neelix and Tuvok hostage. But even if we set aside the orchid, and take the more conventional interpretation that Tuvix is a composite individual arising from the transporter combination of Tuvok and Neelix, I think the above argument still holds.

Tuvix is not Tuvok nor Neelix -- that much is clear externally as well as by his own account. Tuvix (who is not Tuvok nor Neelix) claims to speak for both Tuvok and Neelix and makes an assertion that would seem out of character for both individuals. Tuvix makes claims that blatantly serve his self-interest. Tuvix advocates action that benefits him, and which has an unknowable impact on Tuvok and Neelix but either way denies them their autonomous existence.

Whether "Tuvix" is a malicious masquerading hyper-evolved orchid, or a genuine composite individual speaking from his unique perspective, it doesn't really matter. There is no usable evidence of consent from either Tuvok or Neelix, and there are ample reasons to believe that they would not consent to this situation. Janeway has no way of knowing that Tuvok and Neelix aren't both screaming inside of Tuvix, demanding to be freed -- a scenario that does seem likelier true than not.

Tuvix's death is a tragedy, as was his birth.

I want to live!

- EvilKirk's last words

Whatever else you want to say about EvilKirk, it's pretty clear that he didn't want to be merged back into the single Kirk. Despite this, there is no shortage of reasons why it was a good idea to merge the Kirks: the Enterprise needed its CO back, GoodKirk wanted to do it, and it seems possible that the strain of remaining split would have eventually killed EvilKirk anyways. However, the fact remains that EvilKirk did not consent to the procedure which ended his existence.

Clearly the circumstances here are quite different and there's basically no argument to be made that allowing EvilKirk to continue to exist would benefit any involved party, EvilKirk included. But for the purposes of this comparison, the only fact that really matters is that EvilKirk was just as passionate about his desire to continue existing as Tuvix was.

Yet—and it's obvious where I'm going with this—"Spock murdered EvilKirk" is not a meme.

So what gives? Did Spock murder EvilKirk or not? If yes, why does he get a pass while Janeway is condemned?

In DS9 Profit and Loss, three Cardassian political fugitives arrive at the station after evading the Cardassian military. Garak alerts the Cardassian Central Command of their presence. Gul Toran passes by his shop and tells Garak that he would be allowed to return home to Cardassia if he made sure the trio did not leave the station. Garak then successfully intercepts Lang, Rekelen, and Hogue as they board their ship to escape, and claims to be about to kill them... until Gul Toran swings by, tells Garak that he won't be returning home regardless, and relieves him of his weapon. When Toran goes to shoot Lang himself, Garak produces a second phaser, vaporizes Toran, and allows the trio to escape. He justifies this to Quark in the closing moments of the episode by stating that "I love Cardassia."

This is typical of Garak's twisty tales and unclear motives, but it stands out as a case where Garak came extremely close to actually doing one thing, and winds up doing the exact opposite. Which leaves the question: what was he actually planning here? Did he intend to kill the three dissidents until he learned he wouldn't personally benefit from doing so? Did he never intend to kill them, but wanted to lure Gul Toran into a trap and allow them to escape after? Or do his motives run even deeper somehow?

The title comes from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Act V, sc v, fatalistically describing the inevitability of death and banality of life:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

Shakespeare has a long history with Trek. Apart from Picard’s interest in his plays, the Bard’s words have lent themselves to episode titles, including TOS: “The Conscience of the King” (Hamlet), “Dagger of the Mind” (Macbeth), “All Our Yesterdays” (Macbeth), ST VI: The Undiscovered Country (Hamlet), VOY: “Mortal Coil” (Hamlet).

In TNG: “The Defector”, Picard performs Henry V, and Data and he do the same in “Emergence”. Picard uses the excuse of the away team being actors performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream in “Time’s Arrow”. In DS9: “Improbable Cause”, Garak and Bashir debate Julius Caesar. In ENT: “In a Mirror, Darkly” the similarities between Shakespeare’s plays between the Prime and Mirror Universe are mentioned. Various bits of Shakespeare are quoted as well, notably General Chang, a Shakespeare aficionado in ST VI and Spock quoting Hamlet in DIS: “Perpetual Infinity”.

The Stardate is 1581.2, whereas last episode it was 2393.8, and it was stated that 1224.3 was four months prior to that. Pelia says she still has a bunker in Vermont in case this “‘no money, socialist utopia’ thing” doesn’t work out, echoing explicitly for the first time the fan view that yes, the Federation economy is basically socialist in nature. She has a painting she claims is a fake and says the Louvre can stop calling her, indicating that at least the institution and some art survived World War III. Her artifacts have labels identifying them as the property of the Archeology Department.

La’An spars with M’Benga. The doctor was shown to be a proficient fighter in SNW: “The Broken Circle”, and actor Babs Olusanmokun is a 2nd-degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. On the wall of the gym we see Klingon-esque weapons on the wall, including a few that look like variants of the standard bat’leth and mek’leth.

The dying stranger tells La’An there has been an attack in the past, and shows her a holographic diagram which we’ve seen on the main viewer of the 29th Century Federation timeship USS Relativity (VOY: “Relativity”), using the TCARS interface (as opposed to LCARS). This indicates he’s either from the 29th or 31st Centuries, as Agent Daniels used a similar interface in ENT. At some point between the 31st and 32nd Century, following the Temporal Cold War the Temporal Accords included a complete ban against time travel (DIS: “Die Trying”).

The blurry ripple that accompanies the change in history is reminiscent of the visual effect used to signal a shift into an alternate timeline in TNG: “Yesterday’s Enterprise”. The disappearance of the time agent and La’An’s continued existence in this altered timeline is attributed to her holding on to his device.

Kirk is wearing a different badge insignia, and identifies the ship as the United Earth Fleet ship Enterprise. Spock is in command of a Vulcan ship, the Sh’Rel, so this timeline doesn’t appear to have a Federation, and the Vulcans are losing a war with the Romulans.

It’s of note that of Kirk’s two appearances in SNW so far, they have both been alternate timelines versions - which still jibes with Prime Kirk’s claim in TOS: “The Menagerie” that he only met Pike once, when he took over command of the Enterprise.

La’An says Starfleet has regulations to deal with situations like this. Given the Temporal Cold War impacted at least the 22nd Century, that doesn’t surprise me. The Department of Temporal Investigations was first seen in DS9: “Trials and Tribble-lations” and the licensed novels say it was first created in 2270. As we find out later, the DTI doesn’t exist yet in SNW’s time, but La’An implies that regulations dealing with time travel exist. That means Starfleet acknowledges the existence of the phenomenon, rejecting the 22nd Century Vulcan Science Directorate’s determination of that time travel is impossible (ENT: “Cold Front”).

Despite Kirk’s identification of being in New York, mid-21st Century, they’ve landed in Toronto, specifically Yonge Dundas Square. Kirk claims never to have been to Earth at all, having been born in space on the USS Iowa. His counterparts were born in Iowa, USA, in the Prime Universe 2333 and on the USS Kelvin in the Kelvin Timeline. Kirk says in his time Earth was a battleground, occupied and now a ruin. Earth is filled with clouds of ash that won’t clear for a thousand years and has underground lunar habitats.

Kirk says indignantly to La’An asking him about revolving doors, “I’m from space.” In ST IV, when Gillian Taylor asks Kirk if he’s from outer space, he replies, “No, I’m from Iowa. I only work in outer space.”

Kirk hustles chess for cash. Kirk has been established to be an excellent chess player ever since TOS: “Where No Man Has Gone Before”. Kirk beat Spock regularly at 3D Chess (he calls the 2D version “idiot’s chess”), and in this timeline he also kept beating his XO, a woman.

Kirk points out that if they fix La’An’s timeline, they’ll destroy his, which is consistent with the model of the Trek timeline as a palimpsest - overwritten rather than branched.

Addressing Kirk’s worry that he won’t even exist in La’An’s timeline, she says she’s heard stories about Kirk from his brother Sam (who was still a member of the crew last time we checked). Kirk and La’An both remember the bridge explosion - one of the longest in the world destroyed soon after completion - from their timelines, so this isn’t the nexus point. The bridge seems to be fictional, as I can’t identify a real world bridge in Toronto that resembles it.

La’An identifies the charring on the wreckage as that left by a photonic bomb, a technology that won’t be developed for at least a century. Photonic technology was first seen in ENT: “The Expanse” as a precursor to photon torpedoes, using variable yield antimatter warheads, so the timeline is consistent.

(Continued in comments)

It's a brief mention in PIC S3. As the crew approaches the restored Enterprise-D at the Fleet Museum, La Forge makes a stray comment, to the effect of:

...and obviously we can't use the Enterprise-E

at which point, everyone turns to Worf, who insists with indignation,

That was not my fault.

There's a beat as everyone makes a face and gives each other a knowing look, and then... that's it.

It's clearly meant to be a wink and a nod from the writers: "Yes, we know you want to know what happened to the E, and no, we aren't going to tell you."

Even the behind-the-scenes materials are mum on the topic. The Star Trek: Picard Logs, posted on Instagram, mention both an incident at Kriilar Prime that apparently led to Worf's departure, as well as a subsequent classified mission after which the ship was taken out of service. (To me, this seems at odds with what is shown on-screen: it's obvious that Worf had something to do with the E's demise, and it's also obvious that the story is common knowledge -- even known to Crusher, who has been "out of the loop" for 20 years. So I think neither of the Logs' stories are satisfactory explanations.)

But, as I just alluded to, there are a few things we can infer about what happened to the E.

First, there's no way it was destroyed and no way it resulted in any loss of life. For one, La Forge's tone is too glib for that -- there's no way he would describe the destruction of a starship in those terms. But more importantly, there's no way that Worf would shirk responsibility for such a thing.

Second, we know it's something unusual, memorable, and (in my opinion) decidedly unclassified. And, I would argue, it seems like it's something... funny. Or perhaps whimsical or ironic or otherwise something that it's polite to strike a glib tone regarding.

Finally, I would suggest that, whatever it was, it happened around 2384. We get a brief sighting of the E in the battle of the end of Prodigy's first season (though it's a little unclear whether it was actually supposed to be the Enterprise or the Sovereign) so we know it's active at least until then. But it seems unlikely that any loss of a starship after the Attack on Mars in 2385 would be considered a laughable matter. What's more, we need the -E to be out of service early enough for the -F to have a reasonable career before being decommissioned in 2401. Assuming that a loss of a starship in the wake of the Romulan Supernova would also not be a laughing matter, that would push an -F launch date perhaps as late as 2389, which seems like an implausibly short service tenure. Retiring the -E in '84 gives some flexibility for when to launch the -F and still give it a long enough service life.

So, what do you think? What are some scenarios that could satisfy the clues we've been given? (I'll put a couple of my ideas in the comments!)

As you may have heard, Paramount cancelled Prodigy, halting production on its almost-complete second season, and removed the show from its service. The primary reason to do this, other than to streamline their content in light of the service's upcoming merger with Showtime, was to generate a tax loss -- a disturbing trend among streaming services.

Placing the commercial question aside, this has implications for the franchise. If Prodigy has effectively been deleted from the historical record and is no longer available to watch, is it still canon? The last time something equivalent happened was when the original Animated Series was unavailable for decades, and it was largely not treated as canon by subsequent shows. Nowadays it is counted as official canon (which introduces some complications), but it's also widely available. The likelihood that they will tell a story in the future where this makes a difference is low, but it's still worth clarifying.

What do you think?

I recently rewatched the premier of Picard season 2 and was puzzled by one thing that doesn't seem to fit, even on rewatch -- why does the Jurati-Queen act so aggressively and fail so dramatically to communicate clearly? It makes sense if she were representing the regular Borg, but she's supposed to be the "nice" Borg! What gives?

I think we can solve this puzzle if we realize that Picard season 2 is structured like TAS "Yesteryear" -- a theory that I planned to write out here, without realizing that I already wrote the exact post years ago! Long story short, TAS "Yesteryear" is a unique situation in Star Trek time travel where the "wrong" result has to occur to motivate the "right" action -- basically, Spock has to fail to go back in time to rescue himself, in order to be alerted to the fact that he needs to do it in the first place.

Similarly, when the Jurati-Borg sees her former self on the bridge of the Stargazer, she realizes that she needs to scare Picard into self-destructing the ship -- so that Q will send them back and lead to her own creation. The "wrong" timeline is integral to the process of getting us to the "right" timeline. If she had acted more reasonably, she never would have existed in the first place!

What do you think?

The purpose of this post is to examine the history of genetic modification in the Federation, prior to "Strange New Worlds". I've tried to compile various references to genetic engineering, eugenics, cloning, and genetic resequencing within the Federation across all series, with quotes and additional context as needed. All examples are presented in real-world chronological order, to better examine how these ideas have evolved over the history of the franchise.

The first reference to eugenics I could find is in the Original Series episode, "The Conscience of the King". In that episode, they briefly described how Kodos was employing his own theories of eugenics when he enacted the massacre at Tarsus IV:

Spock: Kodos began to separate the colonists. Some would live, be rationed whatever food was left. The remainder would be immediately put to death. Apparently, he had his own theories of eugenics.

McCoy: Unfortunately, he wasn't the first.

Spock: Perhaps not. But he was certainly among the most ruthless; to decide arbitrarily who would survive and who would not, using his own personal standards, and then to implement his decision without mercy. Children watching their parents die. Whole families destroyed. Over four thousand people. They died quickly, without pain, but they died. Relief arrived, but too late to prevent the executions.

The subject comes up again, of course, in "Space Seed", when Khan and his fellow prisoners are discovered:

McCoy: The Eugenics Wars.

Spock: Of course. Your attempt to improve the race through selective breeding.

A later statement from Kirk affirms the root cause of the Eugenics Wars:

Kirk: An improved breed of human. That's what the Eugenics War was all about.

Spock is the first to suggest that there was a fatal flaw in the engineering process:

Pock: In 1993, a group of these young supermen did seize power simultaneously in over forty nations.

Kirk: Well, they were hardly supermen. They were aggressive, arrogant. They began to battle among themselves.

Spock: Because the scientists overlooked one fact. Superior ability breeds superior ambition.

Kirk: Interesting, if true. They created a group of Alexanders, Napoleons.

Khan himself has some thoughts on his own abilities relative to the rest of humanity:

Khan: Captain, although your abilities intrigue me, you are quite honestly inferior. Mentally, physically. In fact, I am surprised how little improvement there has been in human evolution. Oh, there has been technical advancement, but, how little man himself has changed.

Little is said about genetic engineering for quite some time, until we get to The Next Generation's "Unnatural Selection". This one appears to be a bit of an outlier, given what we later learn about genetic enhancement, but it may be possible to reconcile it. When the Enterprise crew first meet Dr. Kingsley of the Darwin Genetic Research Station, she makes the nature of her research seem as innocuous as possible:

Kingsley: Our research here is limited to human genetics. I can assure you we're not dealing with something that got away from us. We believe that we were infected by a supply ship that was here three days ago.

Later, she acknowledges that the children aboard the station are genetically enhanced, with an interesting caveat:

Kingsley: Our ultimate achievement. The oldest is twelve, and all are telekinetic. Watch.

Pulaski: Genetically engineered?

Kingsley: Not engineered, created. Perfect in every way. Their body structure, their musculature, their minds.

I find it very interesting that Kingsley draws this line between "engineering" and "creation" - this distinction seems to hold some relevance to her, but it's not explored in the episode itself. Could Federation law draw a distinction between genetic modification of living individuals and cloning?

This episode also gives us an example of a genetic medical treatment of sorts, when the transporters are modified to filter out the genetic changes Pulaski endured when she transported over to the Darwin station.

Another Next Generation episode, "Up the Long Ladder", reveals some attitudes about cloning, specifically:

Riker: You want to clone us?

Granger: Yes.

Riker: No way, not me.

Granger: How can you possibly be harmed?>

Riker: It's not a question of harm. One William Riker is unique, perhaps even special. But a hundred of him, a thousand of him diminishes me in ways I can't even imagine.

Notably, when Riker and Pulaski are cloned without their knowledge or consent, Riker destroys the clones outright while they are still developing.

The episode also mentions "replicative fading," a process by which errors creep into the chromosomes of clones across successive generations, until the clones are no longer viable.

In Deep Space Nine's "A Man Alone", Odo arrests Ibudan for murdering his own clone in an attempt to frame Odo for murder:

Odo: Killing your own clone is still murder.

Notably, Odo is likely referring to Bajoran law, not Federation law, in this case.

The Next Generation's "Bloodlines" contains an early reference to DNA resequencing, a term which will be used more frequently going forward. It is also another example of flawed genetic manipulation:

Picard: You know as well as I do, Bok, he's not my son. I know what you've done. Miranda Vigo is his mother but I am not his father. You made it appear so because you resequenced his DNA. But your technique was flawed. He developed a neurological disorder. When my ship's Doctor investigated it, she discovered what you had done.

Later, Jason Vigo notes that he is responding well to an unspecified treatment provided by Doctor Crusher, and that the damage caused by the DNA resequencing may be completely reversed.

Federation law regarding genetic enhancements starts to come into focus in Deep Space Nine's "Doctor Bashir, I Presume":

O'Brien: You're not a fraud. I don't care what enhancements your parents may have had done. Genetic recoding can't give you ambition, or a personality, or compassion or any of the things that make a person truly human.

Bashir: Starfleet Medical won't see it that way. DNA resequencing for any reason other than repairing serious birth defects is illegal. Any genetically enhanced human being is barred from serving in Starfleet or practising medicine.

Later, Rear Admiral Bennett makes the case for these laws, echoing the sentiments of Spock in "Space Seed":

Bennett: Two hundred years ago we tried to improve the species through DNA resequencing, and what did we get for our trouble? The Eugenics Wars. For every Julian Bashir that can be created, there's a Khan Singh waiting in the wings. A superhuman whose ambition and thirst for power have been enhanced along with his intellect. The law against genetic engineering provides a firewall against such men and it's my job to keep that firewall intact.

It's interesting that ambition is something specifically cited by O'Brien that cannot be influenced by genetic resequencing, while Bennett says that it can.

In Voyager's "The Raven", the EMH uses genetic resequencing to neutralize Seven of Nine's nanoprobes. Borg nanoprobes are obviously not a birth defect, so it appears that other medical uses of resequencing are considered ethical and legal.

Continued in the comments...

In Star Trek Picard we see Raffi living at rock bottom for a while. She has no job after her discharge from Starfleet, and is clearly not doing as well. She describes her life as humiliation and rage.

And yet by modern standards she has a home, food, and power. Her drug usage isn't condoned but she's left largely alone to do it. By modern 21st century standards its a very soft landing.

Does it get worse than this? What is the worst possible economic outcome someone living on 24th Century Earth is likely to face.

The events of DS9: Past Tense imply that things aren't as bad as sanctuary districts and mass homelessness, but there's a lot of range between that and where Raffi landed. So what evidence do we have about how bad it can get?

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One of the fascinating things about this "third generation" of Star Trek (starting either with Star Trek 2009 or with Discovery) is the way the Star Trek universe has started to knit itself closer together by referencing existing backstory. For example, Discovery wholeheartedly embraced the idea that Andorians and Tellarites are key Federation members and should therefore be highly visible in Starfleet, building on lore originally implied in TOS, largely ignored by TNG, DS9, and VGR, and re-embraced by ENT. Prodigy, for its part, leaned very heavily on VGR for its worldbuilding source material.

This has also produced some interesting quiet exclusions from recent stories -- not to suggest they've been "decanonized" or anything like that, but clearly have been deprioritized. The Tholians come to mind as a ready example of this. Like the Gorn, they debuted in TOS, received stray mentions in DS9, before making an on-screen return in ENT. I wonder if the SNW writers considered using the Tholians but balked at a villain that had such different atmospheric requirements, and all the consequences that entails in terms of dramatic presentation. The Denobulans also seem to fall into a similar bucket; outside of a pair of appearances in PRO, they have received nary a mention since ENT.

Then of course we have the lengthy list of "one-off" civilizations, including the likes of

-the Sheliak
-the Husnock
-the Tzenkethi
-the Jarada
-the Miradorn

And in terms of "underexplored corners", I've only been focusing on the civilizations, but there are any number of other corners we could poke into. The Department of Temporal Investigations, the Corps of Engineers, the Federation Council, the Lunar Colonies... the Trekverse is littered with these little crumbs all over the place -- tiny seeds of ideas that suggest opportunities for imagination.

For my part, I would love to learn more about the Sheliak. For one thing, they seem like they would benefit from the advances in CGI over the last 30 years. But I like that they seem equally matched to the Federation in terms of strength, and that their hyperfocus on legal compliance gives them a generally underused "hat" to wear in the Trekverse. They have some similarity to Vulcans, but taken to an extreme, and layered in with real disdain for "lower life forms" that I think would make for a fascinating "adversary" -- I'd love to see Captain Pike or Captain Seven in a verbal jousting match with a Sheliak commander.

What is an underexplored corner of Trek lore that you think merits exploration?

This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Strange New Worlds 2x02 Ad Astra Per Aspera.

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.

Numerically speaking, the vast majority of Ferengi we see on screen are sporting what have sometimes been called “headskirts”. Virtually every Ferengi we see on-screen — from the marauder crewmen in Next Generation to Quark’s waiters to various Ferengi businessmen seen in the background — is wearing one. Rom and Nog even wear color-coordinated versions of them once they join the Bajoran militia and Starfleet, respectively.

However, there are a few conspicuous exceptions to this otherwise apparently universal practice, most notably among them being Quark, the only Ferengi character billed as a series lead. This is particularly jarring, as Quark otherwise frames himself as the most Ferengi Ferengi around.

From a real-world perspective, I suspect that the headskirts were originally created to avoid creating a full head prosthetic for guest actors. Once the character of Quark was created, the cost of a reusable full head prosthetic would have been less prohibitive.

In universe, after reviewing which Ferengi are shown with and without headskirts, I believe I have a theory that fits what we’re shown on-screen, and gives us some grounds to infer a few extra bits about certain characters.

First, I propose that the “default” practice for Ferengi is to wear a headskirt. That would explain why we see them worn so frequently. However, I suggest that it is an option to abstain from a headskirt — under certain conditions.

Fundamentally, I propose that the absence of a headskirt indicates that a Ferengi believes he is a “top dog” — in that he has no one above him who could be considered his “boss.” However, I also suggest that there is some subjectivity and risk in this. (Note that “top dog” is not a coincidental choice of words on my part: the Ferengi logo is said to have been drawn to describe the “dog eat dog eat dog” mentality of a capitalist society.)

Zek and Gint are the clearest examples of this: as Grand Nagus, they are the pinnacle “top dog.”

Quark would also fit this criterion: Odo, Kira and Sisko aside, there basically is no one whom Quark answers to (unlike his waiters, who answer to him). Rom and Nog do not fit this criterion, for a few different reasons. Nog is a child at the series start before starting essentially an apprenticeship on his way to joining Starfleet; and obviously once he joins Starfleet, he continues to have those who outrank him. Rom answers to his brother before joining the station’s maintenance crew, at which point he ultimately answers to O’Brien.

There are several other Ferengi who do not wear headskirts, and it definitely is not a clean and tidy division between the bosses and the workers. However, that is where some subjectivity comes in. Rather than being a hard-and-fast rule, the absence (or presence) of a headskirt may be an assertion: “I’m a top dog and I dare you to say otherwise.” It then turns to one’s peers to decide if the claim is justified; if you make the claim but then don’t have the status to back it up, then you lose credibility and standing. So removing one’s headskirt is not without its risk.

Who else have we seen without headskirts?

Galia: as an arms merchant who can purchase his own moon, he would likely be seen as a “deserving top dog” — perfectly reasonable for him to abandon the headskirt.

Brunt: an FCA liquidator, his bare head takes on some new significance in this framework. The FCA is described as “answering to no one” — if that is true, then Brunt’s bare head would serve to reinforce that idea to all those misfortunate enough to cross his path. It’s also possible that liquidators are supposed to answer to someone — a manager or the like — but that Brunt goes bald anyway, just to flaunt his de facto latitude.

Nilva: as the chairman of a large Ferengi company, he likewise probably enjoys “deserving top dog” status.

Reyga: a Ferengi scientist and a bit of a maverick; we might interpret his bare head as indicating some level of rejection of Ferengi norms; if my proposed framework is true, then it is a louder act of protest than we would otherwise realize

Prak: though I doubt this was an intentional choice on the part of the showrunners (I suspect his bare head is the result of extra prosthetics being available from the concurrent production of DS9), Prak does give us an interesting example of someone who perhaps is “too big for his britches” — it is rare to see a DaiMon without a headskirt (presumably because they must answer to some sort of Ferengi admiral), but it’s easy to imagine a DaiMon who is cocky enough to flaunt their bare head — and is probably ridiculed by all his underlings for it. (Recall how Starfleet Captain Styles in The Search For Spock has been mocked for his swagger stick.)

There are several Ferengi whom we might expect to go bare under this framework who still wear the headskirt. Chief among these is Lek, who by his own admission works alone. Lek probably could justify “top dog” status if he wanted to. But the default is to wear a headskirt: to go bare is to make an active statement, and thereby draw attention to oneself. I imagine there are more than a few Ferengi who could justify their own “top dog” status but who would rather keep a lower profile (Rule of Acquisition 168: “Whisper your way to success”).

~ ~ ~

What do you think? Are there any good counter-examples to this? (I admit, I did not check the appearance of every Ferengi in every episode. So it’s possible that I missed someone!) Is this consistent with other things we’ve seen in Ferengi society? Are there any other possible explanations for the pattern of skirted vs bare heads?

In "Looking for Par'Mach in All the Wrong Places", Grilka's senior retainer (Tumek) takes Worf aside and tells him that he cannot pursue Grilka, as he is from a dishonored house. But hadn't Gowron cleared the House of Mogh? I feel like I'm missing or forgetting something obvious. Otherwise, my best explanation would be that although the House of Mogh was formally cleared, it was still regarded with suspicion by more conservative Klingons.

We've seen it many, many times: the ship gets into a firefight, takes a few hits, shakes around, and consoles explode (possibly taking an unfortunate ensign with them). Eventually the battle is resolved with our heroes largely intact if somewhat shaken up. If it was a particularly nasty battle, there will be signs of damage: scorches on the walls, deformed equipment, busted lights, and rocks scattered about.

All of that seems reasonable... except the rocks, which look pretty out of place in a spiffy 24th century starship. So why are they there?

The traditional monologue, as used in TOS, TAS, TNG, Strange New Worlds, as well as the endings of Enterprise and several movies, can be taken as a sort of overall mission statement for the Enterprise, possibly even one that takes place in-universe.

If the other series-- Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, and Prodigy-- had similar mission statements, how might you phrase them?