Star Trek

What are your favorite Star Trek filk songs?

as part of the end of Master Replica’s Official Starships Collection program, we’ve partnered with their team to give away one XL-sized USS Enterprise-D ‘dreadnought’ model to a lucky TrekCore reader!

Star Trek: Discovery: The Complete Series will also be available on August 27 on Blu-ray and DVD, featuring all 65 episodes and over 15 hours of special features including a BONUS DISC that takes you on a never-before-seen journey through all five seasons with the cast and crew.

• This is the series finale of the “Star Trek: Discovery”, the first instalment of what we might consider to be the modern era of Trek.

    • Premiering in 2017, DIS ran for five seasons over the course of seven years.

    • The show has a total of 65 episodes.

• The episode title, “Life, Itself” is a reference to the 1973 Disney animated classic, “Robin Hood” wherein the titular outlaw says the line, ”Marian, my darling, I love you more than life itself.” Q transformed captain Picard into a version of the cartoon fox in "Qpid".

• This episode’s credited director is series executive producer, Olatunde Osunsanmi, who has directed thirteen prior episodes of DIS, and two “Short Treks”. HIs presence is immediately apparent in the cold open when the first thing we see is the camera rotating upside down. The use of the flame jet emitters in the bridge is also one of his hallmarks.

    • Jonathan Frakes is the uncredited director of the final sequence of the episode, which was done in reshoots after it was announced the series was ending. That means Frakes is now responsible for closing out two Trek series, both DIS and ENT.

• I previously speculated that the floating wickets at the end of this season’s credit sequence were from the bridge of the Breen dreadnought, but that was incorrect. The interior of the Pregenitor technology features floating wickets as windows into different biomes, and they resemble the ones in the credits much more closely.

• We see a dead Breen whose helmet is smashed open and a bunch of green goo is spilled out, perhaps confirming the fan speculation that when a Breen dies while not in its solid form, their body loses cohesion, and that is why Worf’s statement in “‘Til Death Do Us Part” that no one had ever seen a Breen outside of the refrigeration suit remained true, despite Kira and Dukat incapacitating two Breen to steal their suits for disguises in “Indiscretion”.

• The Breen that tackles Burnham is the one who had a tether attached to their suit before attempting to enter the Pregenitor technology in “Lagrange Point”; you can see the snapped tether still protruding from their back.

• Production error: The hurricane force winds are strong enough that Burnham and the Breen whom she’s fighting are both blown horizontal, but Burnham’s braids remain hanging down from her shoulders.

• The final credits sequence brings back graphics from earlier seasons:

    • The captain’s chair from season one

    • The environmental suit from season one

    • The paired Klingon mek’leths from season one

    • The graphical representation of Zora from season four

    • Book’s unnamed ship, from season three

    • The flip communicator from season one

    • The Red Angel suit from season two

    • The DMA from season four

    • The badge from season one

• The Breen fighters we see have an asymmetrical design with some elements of what we saw from the Breen interceptors in DS9.

• ”This is like the avalanche all over again.” Rayner recalls the events of “Red Directive”.

• ”Ever since Jinaal, I’ve been trying to figure out what it means. This change inside me, or whatever it is.” Doctor Culber refers to the third episode of this season by its title.

• ”I know what it’s like to lose somebody who means everything to you. I do. But thankfully, I got him back.” In “Will You Take My Hand?”, Ash Tyler left to support L’Rell’s bid to become chancellor. They were reunited in “Saints of Imperfection”.

    • Moll does not get L’ak back.

• In the interior of Saru’s shuttle, we can see a pathway drive for the first time, though it was mentioned in the season four premiere, “Kobayashi Maru”.

• Burnham and Moll locate a cairn. Burnham surmises it is the grave for the sixth scientist, the one whom Jinaal mentioned having died when the group located the Pregentior technology.

• ”Nine. That’s the number you need to make a larger triangle.” There are ten triangles on the Pregentior interface when we’re shown an unobstructed close-up. Moll is as good at counting as L’ak was at not stabbing himself.

• The USS Discovery A destroys the fleet of Breen fighters pursuing them by using a photon torpedo to ignite a pocket of plasma. In “Shadows and Symbols”, the IKS Rotarran used an EM pulse to trigger a solar plasma ejection, destroying a Dominion shipyard.

• Doctor Culber remembers the resonance frequency of the Pregenitor technology portal from his time as host to Jinaal’s consciousness in “Jinaal”.

• ”My species are predators, and I have studied you like prey.” In season one of DIS, the Kelpiens were mentioned repeatedly to be a prey species, and Saru was the lens through which that was presented. It was not until “The Sound of Thunder” in season two that Kelpiens were established to have nearly driven the Ba’ul to extinction thanks to the changes they undergo post-vahar’ai.

    • In “Die Trying”, the medical hologram Eli claimed that Saru might be the last Kelpien to display biochemical traces of vahar’ai.

• The Progenitor whom Burnham meets reveals that her people were not actually the originators of the technology, and shares a theory that there was some sort of pre-Progentiors who created it, and them as well. Some sort of Pregenitors, if will.

• Apparently the Discovery A can perform a saucer separation. It’s unclear if this was a feature of the Discovery pre-refit, but in “The Apple” Kirk suggested, ”Discard the warp nacelles if you have to,” to Scotty in order for the USS Enterprise to be able to devote as much power as possible to the impulse engines.

• The Progenitor causes Burnham to experience four billion years of development in a moment. In “Hard Time”, O’Brien was implanted with memories of 20 years in prison, and it messed him up pretty badly for the rest of the episode.

• “Nothing here can bring him back. I’m so sorry.” Burnham informs Moll that the Pregenitor technology can’t be used to bring L’ak back to life. Things that have been used to bring characters back to life in Trek include:

    • Scotty was revived by Nomad after Nomad had killed him in “The Changeling”.

    • Spock died in “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan” but the Genesis planet, revived his body as an infant, allowing for his katra, which had been transferred to Doctor McCoy, be returned to his now alive body.

    • Worf and Wesley were both killed in a battle with bestial soldiers conjured by Q. Riker resurrects them with his temporary Q powers.

    • Harry Kim had to die in “Emanations” to get transported back to the USS Voyager. The Doctor was able to revive him with medicine.

    • Neelix dies in “Mortal Coil”, but is revived with Borg nanoprobes.

    • Kelvin universe Kirk died in “Star Trek Into Darkness”, but Doctor McCoy was able to filter Khan’s augment blood through a tribble and save him. Or something.

    • Doctor Culber’s neck was snapped by Ash Tyler in “The Saints of Imperfection”, and beings that live in the mycelial network revived him using fungus material from an interdimensional transporter as his new body in “Despite Yourself”.

    • Shaxs died aboard an exploding Pakled clumpship in “No Small Parts”, but returned in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris” with story of having visited the black mountain and fighting three faceless apparitions of his father.

• ”I realized we already have infinite diversity in infinite combinations.” The IDIC is a Vulcan philosophy first mentioned in “Is There In Truth No Beauty?” so that Gene Roddenberry could sell merch.

• Outside Federation HQ there is:

    • An Eisenberg-class starship

    • A Mars-class starship

    • A Saturn-class starship

    • A Merian-class starship

    • A Courage-class starship

• Among the trinkets in Kovich’s display are:

    • A Terran knife

    • A type-2 phaser of the sort introduced in season five of TNG

    • A bottle of Chateau Picard dated 2249

    • A VISOR, presumably the one Geordi wore beginning in season two of TNG

    • A baseball; it’s too clean to be Sisko’s so perhaps it’s Rom’s from “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place”

    • Perhaps it’s noteworthy that Kovich does not have any items from the NX-01

• Kovich reveals himself to be Daniels, the temporal agent introduced in “Cold Front”.

    • Kovich says he’s from the USS Enterprise, but the NX-01 did not have the USS designation.

• Book had a confrontation with Talaxian pirates. Neelix established in “Non Sequitur” that Talaxian piracy is mostly cased around the procurement of haircare supplies.

• Molly was the endangered trance worm Book rescued from the Emerald Chain in “That Hope is You, Part 1”.

• In Burnham and Book’s 33rd century home on Sanctuary Four, they have the Tuli wood box in which the Eternal Archive and Gallery’s World Root cuttings were stored in “Labyrinths”, and captain Georgiou’s telescope, first seen in “The Vulcan Hello” and received by Burnham in “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry”.

• We learn that Burnham has attained the rank of Admiral.

• There is a deer-like creature on Sanctuary Four that Burnham calls Alice. Presumably she named the creature for “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, a book we learned Amanda Grayson read to her as well as Spock in “Context is for Kings” and “Once Upon a Planet”.

• ”I thought you’d be on your way to Crepuscula by now.” The Crepusculans were a pre-warp civilization in “The Vulcan Hello”. Georgiou and Burnham visited their world to help mitigate the effects of a drought caused by an industrial accident in nearby space.

• ”One, aye,” calls back to “People of Earth” where Book disguised himself as a Starfleet officer.

• The shuttle captain Leto picks Burnham up in is UFP-47.

• Book has planted the World Root cuttings on Sanctuary Four, and we see several trance worms swimming in a river.

• Starfleet HQ now has three of the station/ships in the 33rd century.

• We see DOTs working on restoring the USS Discovery to it’s original configuration before the 32nd century refit.

• ”I did hear a word in passing. ‘Craft.’” Zora encounters Craft in “Calypso”, according to her, almost 1,000 years after being left in a nebula.

• Despite the years that have passed, all the ships we see in attendance for the *Discovery’*s last mission are spaceframes we’re familiar with from the 32nd century.

Hi all! Long time Star Trek fan here with my first post. I'm gonna start out by saying that I promise I'm not a hater of Discovery at all. It just has done nothing for me and from what I read, has not made any changes that would have solved my personal issues with it. I'm fine with others liking it and honestly wish that I did too. I would love to be in on the discussion but... it's just not my cup of tea from what I've seen.

Anyway, my question is, do I need to have caught up with Disco to watch SNW? I have heard from other people who are like minded to me (who couldn't get into disco, but aren't straight up haters either) that they enjoyed SNW despite not really liking Disco. That makes me excited, I would love to have a new trek show that I can enjoy. But I don't want to jump in and not understand certain things because I haven't kept up with Disco.

I'd appreciate any feedback. Also, if you feel I should give Disco another go, let me know. Even if it's just certain fan-favorite episodes, I'd be willing to give them a shot. Like I said, not a total hater, just not into it. I wish that I was!

https://youtu.be/yX_-yrJgpH4?si=eqtbH3vw-BkqJJ6w

No word yet on what this means for Canada, where CTV still has the rights.

Just curious as I want to rewatch some overlooked episodes from each of the series out so far.

In Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5, "Mirrors", Detmer and Owosekun were assigned to pilot the Mirror Universe's ISS Enterprise to Federation HQ by Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green). This explained Detmer and Owo's absence for the rest of Discovery season 5.

However, Detmer and Owo do appear in Star Trek: Discovery's epilogue scene, and they were a sight for sore eyes.

The title was first used in the context of the Progenitors in TNG: “The Chase” when Picard remarked, “[The puzzle] is 4 billion years old. A computer program from a highly advanced civilisation, and it's hidden in the very fabric of life itself.“ In DIS: “Red Directive” the phrase was used in conjunction with saying the Progenitor technology was “used to design life itself.”

Burnham activates her holographic tricorder function from her tricom badge, first introduced in DIS: “Scavengers” as the 32nd Century combination tricorder, communicator and personal transporter. She also materializes a 32nd Century phaser pistol, which can be summoned at will thanks to it being composed of programmable matter.

Window-like gateways allowing instantaneous travel to other worlds was a hallmark of another ancient civilization, the Iconians (TNG: “Contagion”), who used them to control a vast empire which was destroyed over 200,000 years prior, although there were still survivors existing into the 32nd Century (DIS: “The Examples”). Their gateways also survived, with one being the focus of conflict in DS9: “To the Death”.

Tahal’s fleet will arrive in 60 minutes. Primarch Tahal is one of the five remaining Primarchs of the Bree Imperium, and in the past conquered Kellerun, Rayner’s planet. Rayner was the only survivor of his family.

Burnham has indeed seen the future - in DIS: “Face the Strange” she and Rayner were jumped 30 years ahead to see a lifeless Discovery and a Federation HQ devastated by the Breen thanks to them using Progenitor tech.

Rayner refers to the avalanche caused by Moll and L’ak on Q’Mau in order to facilitate their escape (DIS: “Red Directive”).

Culber gives Book a shot to counter radiation sickness. In TOS: “The Deadly Years”, the drug of choice to do that was hyronalin, was which also used during the TNG era in several episodes. Culber has had an existential crisis ever since he became host to the memories and personality of Jinaal on Trill (DIS: “Jinaal”).

Moll put L’ak in her personal pattern buffer in DIS: “Lagrange Point” to keep him safe.

Using plasma to take out multiple hostiles was a tactic used by Worf’s brother Kurn, who went to warp near the surface of a star, setting off a flare which destroyed his pursuers (TNG: “Redemption II”). In TNG: “Descent, Part II”, the Enterprise-D under Beverly Crusher’s command fired a particle beam into a star to make it erupt and destroy a Borg ship.

Culber tells Book to adjust the tractor beam to subspace resonance frequency 5.1732, then uses the classic “I’m a doctor, not a…” trope associated most with McCoy from TOS (my personal favorite is from TOS: “The Devil in the Dark”, where he complains about treating the silicon-based Horta with, “I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer!”).

Ferengi rummy is presumably a card game. Rummy is the name given to a group of Earth card games, with the most common variant being Gin Rummy. It is claimed that the name comes from using rum as betting stakes.

The Progenitor that greets Burnham is in an updated version of the original Progenitor makeup from TNG: “The Chase” (played then by Salome Jens, who went on to play the female Founder in DS9).

The Galactic Barrier is an energy field that surrounds the Milky Way, penetrated first by the USS Enterprise in TOS: “Where No Man Has Gone Before” and then again in TOS: “By Any Other Name”. The Barrier also featured in DIS Season 4, with Species 10-C living beyond it in extragalactic space. The origins of the Barrier have never been explained on screen, although beta canon has offered some possibilities, one of which was the Progenitors (William Shatner and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens’ Captain’s Glory).

The Progenitors were not the creators of the technology but think that it was made by their creators. So, basically, it’s Progenitors all the way down. And while they effectively could recreate a live body from a dead one, it would basically be a clone without any of the previous body’s memories or personality.

The Betazoid scientist Dr Marina Derex was one of those that discovered the Progenitor tech 800 years prior. Her clue was in the manuscript of her book, Labyrinths of the Mind (DIS: “Labyrinths”).

“Infinite diversity in Infinite Combinations” is a tenet of Vulcan philosophy, first mentioned in TOS: “Is There in Truth No Beauty?”, also known as IDIC. In-universe, it dates back to at least Surak’s time, c.300 CE (ENT: “The Forge”).

When Kovich tells her that all information regarding the Progenitor tech will be classified, Burnham quips she knows how those things work. When Discovery jumped to the 32nd Century at the end of Season 2 to prevent misuse of the Sphere Data, all knowledge of the spore drive was classified and scrubbed from 23rd century records, and even as far as the 32nd century was concerned the original Discovery was destroyed back then.

The device Burnham holds gives her access to the Infinity Room, a highly secure conference space, first seen in DIS: “Red Directive”.

Kovich cryptically says he’s “lived many years and many lives”. Given the scope of the Star Trek universe, this could very well be more than metaphorical. On the shelf behind him we see a bottle of Château Picard, Geordi LaForge’s VISOR and Benjamin Sisko’s baseball.

Agent Daniels first appeared in ENT: “Cold Front” as Crewman Daniels of the NX-01 Enterprise (which technically didn’t have a USS prefix until its refit). He was revealed to be a Time Agent, a temporal operative from the 31st Century fighting in the Temporal Cold War. He last appeared in ENT: “Storm Front, Part II”, informing Archer that due to his actions, the Temporal War was coming to an end.

Talaxians, of course, are Neelix’s race (VOY), last referenced in a reading list that included A Comprehensive Guide to Talaxian Hair Styles. The Eternal Archive also gave Book a cutting from the World Root, a tree system that extended across his now-destroyed planet Kwejian (DIS: “Labyrinths”). He planted it on Sanctuary Four, a planet used as a wildlife sanctuary for trance worms, one of which, nicknamed Molly was delivered there by Book in DIS: “That Hope is You, Part 1”.

The box on the table across from Admiral Burnham’s bed is the one made of Tulí wood, that contained the World Root cuttings, given to Book by the Eternal Archive. The color of the vegetation outside the window identifies the planet as Sanctuary Four.

Crepuscula was the very first planet we saw in the series, back in the first scene of DIS: “The Vulcan Hello”. Burnham and Philippa Georgiou performed a covert mission to restore the Crepusulans’ water supply, as the species was subject to General Order 1.

The age of Burnham’s son (and his Captain’s rank) implies that at least thirty-odd years have passed since Saru’s wedding.

Technically speaking, one “aye” means “I understand,” in response to information while “aye aye” means “I understand and will comply,” in response to an order.

Burnham’s shuttle bears the designation “UFP 47”, with 47 being a number which appears frequently in Star Trek, an in-joke started by TNG writer Joe Menosky, who was part of the 47 Society at California’s Pomona College. In the lake we see trance worms swimming. The warp streaks as the shuttle travels are consistent with what we saw of the pathway drive.

Burnham and Book’s son is named Leto, after Book’s nephew who died when Kwejian was destroyed (DIS: “Kobayashi Maru”).

The ending finally brings continuity in line with ST: “Calypso”, where Craft came across a deserted Discovery, empty save for Zora, adrift for a thousand years in deep space. For the longest time we were wondering how it would work since the starship was shown without its “A” suffix, which she obtained when refitted in the 32nd Century to hide her origins in the 23rd Century. The removal of the “A” by DOTs as Burnham’s shuttle flies in, the reattchment of the ship's nacelles and Burnham's use of the term “Red Directive” implies that this is due to Kovich/Daniels’ instructions, and the restoration of the original ship is to bring it in line with history due to timey-wimey reasons.