Title from the opening title sequence of the third season of Star Trek: Discovery . The above image is published here under the following terms:
License: Fair Use - this image is copyrighted, but used here under Fair Use guidelines.
Owner/Creator: ViacomCBS (was Paramount Pictures and/or CBS Broadcasting, Inc.).
Image retrieved from https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_Discovery
In typical Justin format, I’m getting this up after Season 4 of Star Trek: Discovery started. In fact, I finished making my notes the day that episode one aired, and yet I didn’t write them up into an actual post until today. But now that Season 4 has started, some of the things that I’ve been wondering about have some answers. At least, the beginnings of answers. And so I will include some of my thoughts about the first two episodes of the 4th season at the end of the post - there will be some spoilers, so be forewarned.
Season Three Questions
People
It’s been shown that Detmer seems to have developed PTSD - will we explore that further? It’s something that we need to destigmatize, and I’m hoping that Star Trek will be able to handle it with care and compassion. I really hope that Star Trek tackles this and does it well. Also, do Detmer and Owosekun have a secret handshake? I bet that they have an awesome secret handshake.
Will Gray continue to grow as a person? I mean, as a consciousness without a body, his body won’t “grow”, but since advanced computers can detect him as a separate entity, will his sense of self continue to evolve and grow as other living beings do? In fact, will Discovery’s computer recognize Gray as a separate person from Adira, and if so, can Gray make use of the holographic emitters that are on board?
As an aside, Grudge & Tilly are the best. I want to see more of them together. And I hope that Saru and President T’Rina are able to build on their budding friendship.
How do Book and Zareh know each other? I’m curious about their backstory.
How old is (was) Osyraa? It’s implied that she was in charge of the Emerald Chain when she met Aurellio, who was 10 at the time. Was Osyraa Aurellio’s partner, or was it another Orion? Will we see him again, and will we meet his family?
Does Stamets ever forgive Burnam for saving his life? Or Vance for making him evacuate Starfleet Headquarters?
Is Ina going to become a semi-permanent member of the cast?
Ships & Tech:
How is Linus not telefragging himself, seriously? The way that he is popping into and out of rooms randomly as he’s trying to work out his new combadge/transporter seems to be almost random - ending up in a turbolift instead of a science lab, for example - is a cause for concern.
As for the new holoPADD function of the new combadges, I hope that they become less distracting. They would be a nightmare to use - EC Henry has an excellent video that talks about the holographic displays in Star Trek, and I am forced to agree with what he says.
When Burnham was a courier, she had her own ship. She said so herself, though she sometimes also travelled with Book. So what happened to her ship? Is it also in the shuttlebay, or was it left at Starfleet Headquarters or at one of the Mercantile Exchanges?
We see that there is still a proper transporter room - at least on Discovery. I imagine that there will still be transporter operators for transporting cargo, people over long distances, emergency situations, and so forth. Will there still be an independent transporter chief, though?
Where is the music room on Discovery?
Starfleet uses cloaking technology now - is the Federation cloaking device based off of the ones used by the Klingons, Romulans, Suliban, or by another faction? Or is it completely home-grown?
Who created these transwarp tunnels? Are they leftover Borg tunnels, or are they naturally occurring? Or did the Gorn do it, when they destroyed 2 lightyears worth of subspace? Perhaps the Courier Network and the Emerald Chain, somehow?
Are the DOT-23s with the Sphere Data going to be a character at some point? Will they evolve as a person or an android? Or are they going to reintegrate with the ship’s computer? Maybe both? And how is all of this going to fit in with the Short Treks episode “Calypso” (ST 1x02)?
Also, I hope that the show fixes that dang TARDIS-like turbolift system. The turobolift system makes no sense - Trekyards crunched the numbers and demonstrated that the ship’s cavernous turbolift network is bigger than the ship itself is. And yes, though in “Future Tense” (ENT 2x16), that 31st century ship had a TARDIS-like interior, but we see a similar interior on the Discovery before they jump into the future, as well as a similar interior on the Enterprise. It makes no sense. In my personal opinion, they should have just stuck with the classic turboshafts - those were already slick and there was no reason to “fix” them.
Planets & Governments:
We’re told that there is a Bajoran Exchange. I want to know what happened to Bajor and the Bajoran Wormhole - did Bajor join the Federation, like in the books? And what happened to Cardassia? Did Cardassia eventually join the Federation as well?
Where will the Federation house the refugees from Hunhau? It’s good to see that the UFP is still doing good, but I’m curious about how they will protect people from the Emerald Chain (or whatever is left of it).
What is left of the Romulan Free State, and how are they related to Ni’Var? Is there still a Vulcan High Command? Both the Vulcans and Romulans had more than one star system under their jurisdictions - does the Ni’Var government have control over both former governmental bodies? Will Ni’Var rejoin the UFP?
Will Kwejian join the Federation?
One thing that people keep saying is that the Federation is a communist society. Even in the episode “There Is A Tide…” (DIS 3x12), Osyraa says to Vance that capitalism is fundamentally valid and ethical, and that they can do that “by acknowledging that capitalism is already happening within the Federation.” Except that capitalism has always happened within the Federation - there are two books that talk about this, The Economics of Star Trek by Rick Webb and Trekonomics by Manu Saadia. Though the economics of the future are different, yes, that doesn’t mean that capitalism is totally gone. Federation credits and gold-pressed latinum are seen in plenty of places, along with estates and private property. Steve Shives has an excellent video on this, “How Do the Economics of Star Trek Actually Work?”.
What will happen to the Emerald Chain without Osyraa and the Viridian? We know that the Emerald Chain fractures, but they don’t say that it goes away permanently. Will there still be factions from the Emerald Chain?
And how big was the pre-burn Federation? What is the status of the Borg, Dominion, and Kazon? I’m curious about the major powers.
Season Four Thoughts
I’ll admit, I am digging the new uniforms so far. My primary complaint, just like in the previous seasons, is that the rank pips for the majority of the uniforms are on the combadge. They are hard to see - they get washed out in the lights, and they are hard to tell apart at any distance.
And Tilly is still the best. “Is this a chase? Are you in a chase?”
But I wonder why the Alshain satellites used dilithium instead of something more conventional, like solar power or fusion. It is important to diversify one’s power sources, and in a post-fusion society, it should be possible to use other power sources than just dilithium or matter/antimatter reactors. And why isn’t recrystallization possible?
We know the size of the post-Burn Federation, and we see it growing. But I have to wonder - why did Starfleet Academy close? How was starfleet getting new officers and crew - were they just doing direct commissioning and on-the-job training, or were member worlds doing their own training programs from their own space defense forces and then having personnel transfer to starfleet?
Is Christopher going to be a semi-regular or regular cast member? He was covering for Bryce, after all. And after having Ida in Season 3, I’m starting to wonder if we’re going to get some extended named extra cast members, like we did on The Original Series (Leslie, DeSalle, Hadley, Palmer).
Is Stamets the Chief Engineer now? I mean, he’s the spore drive navigator and astromycologist, but they keep calling him for engineering problems (transporter being out and such). And will we see Jett Reno (such an awesome name) again? And is Rhys the XO now, or is Burnam still undecided?
Adira is young, and they are writing that well so far in my opinion. I hope that we get to see them continue to grow and mature - it is not easy being 16 and working with adults. Hopefully the writing we get for them will be easier to smoother than what we got for Wesley Crusher (not a dig against Wesley, but rather a hope for lessons learned in writing). I’m especially liking how Adira and Tilly are interacting with each other, and how they both are growing as people.
Oh… and they’re using a Soong-type android for Gray. Nice. And Gray mentioned transitioning in a not-weird way, so I’m feeling good about how this season is moving forward.
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