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It appears that this is a promotional feature in Smithsonian Magazine for a a new book Reality Ahead of Schedule: how science fiction inspires science fact.

This seems a good fit for Daystrom Institute, but happy to relocate if it’s a better fit for another community.

In music, repetition legitimizes; in Star Trek, Spock legitimizes.

(Full disclosure, I've watched many Adam Neely videos but haven't actually watched the one above.)

Spock has been deployed again and again when Star Trek has "pushed the envelope". When JJ Abrams wanted to launch a new Star Trek film franchise, he brought in Leonard Nimoy to have Spock pass the torch. When Alex Kurtzman wanted to launch a new serialized streaming Star Trek series, he wrote it about Spock's sister (with Spock's father appearing from the first episode), and brought in Spock himself in the second season.

And when they needed to make the big swing for the fences and literally do a Star Trek episode where everyone is singing as if in a musical, who is the very first character to sing? Yes, of course, it's Spock.

The first Very Short Trek episode, "Skin A Cat", continues this trend. In this, Paramount's first officially non-canon official production (and debatably their silliest slice of Star Trek yet), the only character voiced by their "normal" actor is -- yes, you guessed it -- Mr. Spock.

Whenever the in-universe era permits, Spock is consistently invoked whenever Star Trek breaks new ground.

We can even extend this analysis retroactively all the way back to the beginning: when Star Trek was "rebooted" for the very first time -- after "The Cage" was rejected, and the premise reworked into "Where No Man Has Gone Before" -- only Mr. Spock and the Starship Enterprise herself were carried through into the new version, creating a lineage that indelibly legitimizes "The Cage" as Star Trek, even in spite of massive changes otherwise.

(And indeed, the Starships Enterprise play a similar legitimizing role across the franchise -- if an Enterprise appears, it's Star Trek.)

So, here is the question for us: why does Spock enjoy this particular ability to reify something into being Star Trek? Why is it he -- not Kirk, not McCoy -- that gets called on when the showrunners want to "bulk up" on their Star Trek bona fides? Why is it that, if Spock does it, it's Star Trek?

I really love the Federation starship design lineage, and love seeing how it all connects across the centuries of Trek history. This includes designs that at first may not seem copacetic with the rest, like the Starfleet vessels in Discovery. This is my attempt at a partly-speculative, mostly-canon history of human/Starfleet starship design.

I originally put this together in this infographic to post on /r/StarTrekStarships but have reformatted it for text.

I chose to leave the XCV-330 out because we really don't know where it fits in the timeline. Ostensibly it is a warp capable ship, but Into Darkness has it placed before the Phoenix in a chronological display. There's nothing to go off of.

​ ​ ​

EARTH STARFLEET DESIGN ERA

CIRCA 2063–2160

This is an era of expansion for humanity as they first venture out into deep space. Starship designs of this era are primarily influenced directly by Dr. Zefram Cochrane's Phoenix and traditional spacecraft design.

Distinguishing characteristics of this design era include exposed metallic hull plating, primitive iterations of familiar design elements, exposed deflector dishes, round nacelles

EXAMPLES

FRIENDSHIP 1

NX-ALPHA/BETA/GAMMA

SS CONESTOGA

SARAJEVO-TYPE

EMMETTE-TYPE

WARP DELTA / NEPTUNE-CLASS

INTREPID-TYPE

FREEDOM-CLASS

NX-CLASS

​

• Dr. Zefram Cochrane breaks the warp barrier aboard the Phoenix in 2063, launching an era of human expansion into the stars
• Only four years later, the arrival of the Vulcans and the goal of space exploration has begun to unify the globe. By 2067, the United Earth Space Probe Agency already exists, and launches Friendship 1, Earth's first warp-capable deep space probe.
• It is only another two years before the unaffiliated civilian colony ship SS Conestoga launches in 2069. The design appears makeshift, two Cochrane-style warp nacelles retrofitted to a hull derived from the earlier sublight DY-type transports. It is likely this is also around the time when the colony seen in The Masterpiece Society departed, as their descendants were unaware of transporters.
• While the first Lunar colonies were being founded around the turn of the century, the Emmette\-type enters service as the earliest known large-scale, warp-capable starship. Likely used primarily for intra-system travel, especially between Earth and Mars. The Emmette\-type still uses chemical-based rocket propulsion at sublight speeds (as seen in the ENT intro).
• The "warp delta" appears to have been developed from the earlier Emmette\-type test-bed as part of continued developments in warp drive and impulse engine research.
• The Warp Five Complex is dedicated by Zefram Cochrane in 2119. Dr. Henry Archer and his team begin work on the next generation of Earth's warp drive. The NX-Alpha and its later iterations are used as the primary research and development test-beds for warp drive development.
• The Sarajevo\-type transport's earliest known appearance is 2154, but it may have existed earlier. Its unique design and integrated nacelles suggest it may be an unaffiliated civilian transport rather than a Starfleet vessel. It may represent the pinnacle of early warp 1-2 drives being made available for civilian use.
• The Intrepid\-type represents Starfleet's earliest known iteration toward the now-familiar primary hull, perhaps as the necessity of keeping distance between the warp engines and the bulk of the crew for safety became more apparent. The Intrepid's Cochrane/Archer-type nacelles are significantly larger than its contemporaries, suggesting it was used to test newer, more powerful engines.
• The Freedom\-class is noted as Earth's first warp 4-capable starship. It is a very small ship, possibly one that had been under MACO command prior to being folded into Starfleet. It should be noted that the design seen here is probably not the ship's original appearance, as it may have been refit during the Earth-Romulan War.
• The Earth Starfleet Design Era culminates in the NX\-class starship, the ultimate peak of pre-Federation human starship design, and the first human starship to achieve warp factor 5, thereby finally giving humans access to deep space at reasonable rates of travel.

​

EARLY STARFLEET DESIGN ERA

CIRCA 2161–2270

As of the founding of the United Federation of Planets in 2161, Earth Starfleet has been folded into the newly-founded Federation Starfleet. Starships capable of velocities up to warp 7 are becoming common, and the venerable NX\-class is being decommissioned.

Distinguishing characteristics of this design era include metallic hulls in varying finishes and levels of armor, continued use of Cochrane/Archer-style nacelles in the main production line of starships, exposed but protected and heavier-duty deflector dishes, and experimentation with new materials, layouts, and engine designs. This century sees an explosion in Starfleet R&D as new technologies and techniques from Federation member worlds like VULCAN, ANDORIA, and TELLAR PRIME are tested, developed, and integrated into existing Starfleet technology.

EXAMPLES

NX REFIT

DAEDALUS-CLASS

CONSTITUTION-CLASS

KELCIE MAE-TYPE

ARCHER-TYPE

FARRAGUT-TYPE

WALKER-CLASS

MALACHOWSKI-CLASS

CARDENAS-CLASS

HIAWATHA-TYPE

NIMITZ-CLASS

SHEPARD-CLASS

CROSSFIELD-CLASS

​

• The NX-01 Enterprise is decommissioned in 2161. At some point, it is refit with more powerful warp engines necessitating a secondary hull slung beneath the primary hull, connected by a neck. This would become a mainstay characteristic of Federation starships for at least a century.
  • NOTE: There is a discrepancy in the timing of the NX-01 refit. The finale of STAR TREK ENTERPRISE states that the NX-01 was decommissioned in 2161, in which the final episode takes place, yet the ship still has its original body. It is possible that the ship was recommissioned after the founding of the Federation, refit, and rechristened the USS Enterprise (as it is named in the 25th century Fleet Museum). It is also possible Commander Riker's holodeck program is inaccurate.
• This design era marks the beginning of several distinct efforts by Starfleet to branch out and experiment with new ship and engine technology after a century of iterating on the designs of Dr. Zefram Cochrane and Dr. Henry Archer.
• Among the first of these experiments is the Daedalus\-class starship. While still making use of standard Cochrane/Archer-type warp engines, it marks a radical departure from previous starship layouts. The NX Refit's secondary hull is expanded to a large cylinder, and the primary hull is made spherical. The Daedalus\-class was among the first starship classes fielded by the newly-formed United Federation of Planets — the USS Essex, under the command of Captain Bryce Shumar, is lost with all hands in 2167, only six years after the founding of the Federation. The Daedalus-class is retired by 2196
• By the 2220s, Starfleet has launched the Walker\-class starship as a test-bed for new engine development. In a nod to its experimental nature, the ship's design evolves directly out of the lineage of the NX-01. The Walker\-class includes a prototype nacelle design not featured on any other starship class.
• Starfleet's main production line of starships continues iterating from the noble lineage of the NX-01, with the NX Refit evolving directly into the Constitution\-class starship, launched in the 2240s. In 2245, the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 is launched.
• ​At the same time Starfleet is developing the Constitution\-class and its derivatives in the 2230s, other starships are developed as testing platforms for new ideas in space-frames, hull materials, layouts, and engine design, possibly utilizing new technologies and techniques adapted from Starfleet member worlds. Ships like the Cardenas\-class, Malachowski\-class, Shepard\-class, and Nimitz\-class lay the groundwork for centuries of future starship design to come.
• The Cochrane/Archer warp nacelle design has reached a development plateau, having achieved incredible speed and power as seen with the Constitution\-class and its design contemporaries, the Farragut-type and Archer-type starships.
• The Kelcie Mae\-type starship demonstrates a wild departure from typical Starfleet design, mixing a standard Cochrane/Archer nacelle with a body plan possibly influenced by similar Vulcan or Andorian starship designs.
• The Early Starfleet Design Era is closed by the Crossfield\-class starship, considered new and impressive in 2256. Outfitted with advanced technology, the Crossfield\-class was specifically designed as a scientific test-bed for new propulsion technologies. The project's failure and loss with all hands of the only two known ships of the class led to its design being abandoned.

​

MODERN STARFLEET DESIGN ERA

CIRCA 2270–PRESENT

Following the completion of Captain James T. Kirk's five-year mission aboard the USS Enterprise, Starfleet begins a major fleet overhaul program to integrate new technologies and techniques into their starship designs.

Distinguishing characteristics of this design era include advanced hull materials, integrated and illuminated deflector dishes, standardized photon torpedo launchers, and transitional phases between old and new technology as devices like phasers and warp drives are perfected.

EXAMPLES

CONSTITUTION II-CLASS

MIRANDA-CLASS

OBERTH-CLASS

EXCELSIOR-CLASS

AMBASSADOR-CLASS

CONSTELLATION-CLASS

CALIFORNIA-CLASS

GALAXY-CLASS

DEFIANT-CLASS

PROMETHEUS-CLASS

INTREPID-CLASS

SOVEREIGN-CLASS

AKIRA-CLASS

STEAMRUNNER-CLASS

SABER-CLASS

LUNA-CLASS

PROTOSTAR-CLASS

ODYSSEY-CLASS

EXCELSIOR II-CLASS

SAGAN-CLASS

CONSTITUTION III-CLASS

INQUIRY-CLASS

​

• The Modern Starfleet Design Era is inaugurated in the 2270s by the launch of the refit USS Enterprise NCC-1701, retroactively classified as a Constitution II-class starship. The refit Enterprise leaves behind the reliable Cochrane/Archer-style warp nacelles that had been standard for two centuries. Its newer, slimmer, squared-off engine design suggests a design evolution derived from the experimental nacelles tested on Early Design Era starships.
• Like the original Constitution\-class Enterprise, the refit's new design elements are carried over to its contemporaries, like the Miranda\-class, whose design also evokes the Nimitz\-class seen earlier.
• Starfleet once again experiments with radical starship body plans, using a unique split design in the Oberth\-class science vessel, perhaps for crew safety.
• By 2285, the USS Excelsior NX-2000 is launched as a test-bed for yet another refinement in starship propulsion. The ultimate success of this project leads to the recalibration of Starfleet's warp scale toward much faster velocities. The long, exposed warp coil grills of the Constitution II-class and Excelsior\-class starships become the new standard in nacelle design.
• The Constellation\-class starship is introduced by 2285, relatively unique with its four nacelle layout hearkening back to the Cardenas\-class, and becomes a mainstay of Starfleet. New vessels of the class continue to be launched for at least the next 40 years, such as the USS Stargazer.
• The next 80 years are spent by Starfleet, rather than on further experimentation, on refining and perfecting their existing technologies. The Ambassador\-class starship, with its clear lineage from the earlier Excelsior, launches by 2340 as the result of this effort. It features the now-standard glowing warp nacelles ubiquitous in 24th century starship design, while once-typical ball-type phaser banks have now been replaced by more flexible and capable phaser arrays.
• Having mastered the art of designing and constructing modular starships, Starfleet begins building fleets of specialized vessels, such as the California\-class, for specific purposes — such as engineering, emergency management, and medical — to be deployed across the Federation.
• By the early 2360s, the Ambassador\-class design has evolved into the enormous Galaxy\-class starship, as best exemplified by one of the most iconic Starfleet vessels of all time, the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D. At 42 decks tall, the Galaxy\-class is the most advanced machine ever built my humankind up to that point.
• With the emergence of the Borg threat in 2365, followed by the loss of 39 starships to a single Borg cube in 2367, Starfleet R&D once again turns to radical approaches to counter their new nemesis. This results in the USS Defiant, a new class of starship dedicated entirely to combat, with an overpowered engine, robust weapons array, and minimal facilities for either science or medicine. The Defiant is formally launched in 2370, and deployed to Deep Space Nine to protect the Bajoran wormhole against the Dominion.
• By 2370, Starfleet launches the Intrepid\-class starship, a science vessel designed for deep space exploration and outfitted with some of Starfleet's most advanced technologies, including prototype variable-geometry nacelle pylons, intended to counteract the potentially destructive nature of warpfields on subspace as discovered earlier in the year.
• Only shortly thereafter, the Sovereign\-class starship is introduced in the early 2370s as a replacement for the aging Galaxy\-class, and one capable of defending itself better. The Sovereign\-class immediately superseded the Intrepid\-class as the most advanced in the fleet, with a new nacelle design that rendered the variable-geometry pylons unnecessary.
• The success of the Defiant in early engagements against the Dominion leads to Starfleet pursuing its combat-forward nature, while settling on larger space-frames to counter the Defiant's propensity for tearing itself apart. These combat-oriented development projects result in compact, battle-ready designs like the Akira\-class, Steamrunner\-class, and Saber\-class, each capable of being quickly crewed and deployed, all of which helped to defend Earth against the incursion of the Borg in the Battle of Sector 001 in 2373.
• In addition to the Defiant and related projects, Starfleet also develops the prototype Prometheus\-class starship, utilizing an advanced multi-vector attack mode in which the starship split into three smaller vessels. The Prometheus is launched in late 2373, following the Battle of Sector 001.
• By the end of the Dominion War in 2375, Starfleet has taken incredible losses. Century-old designs like the Miranda and Excelsior\-class starships are being refit to participate in the fighting, as with the USS Lakota, with their old 2270s and 2280s-era nacelles being upgraded to generate more power — thus gaining glowing warp coil grills, unlike their earlier predecessors.
• Between 2375–2400, Starfleet focuses on rebuilding its ruined fleets. With limited resources available in the wake of the quadrant-wide Dominion War, tried-and-true designs and methodologies are designated for refurbishment and reuse.
• In 2379, Starfleet launched the Luna-class starship as part of a consolidated effort to return to their principal objective of exploration and discovery. The Luna\-class starship built on technologies developed for vessels like the Akira and Sovereign\-class starships during the Dominion War, now putting them to use for peaceful purposes instead.
• Following the return of the USS Voyager to Earth in 2378, Starfleet began research and development once again on advanced propulsion technologies. This resulted in the prototype USS Protostar as a test-bed for the protostar drive. The class was ordered into full production in 2384.
• The Odyssey-class starship is launched in 2385, a decade after the end of the Dominion War. One of the largest ships ever constructed by Starfleet, the Odyssey\-class builds on the many successes of the venerable Galaxy and Sovereign\-class heavy cruisers.
• In addition to the lack of available resources following the Dominion War, the end of the conflict sees a desire by Starfleet and its personnel to return to Starfleet's glory days of exploration. To accommodate scarce equipment, older ships are cannibalized and refurbished into "old-new" designs based heavily on successful designs of the past, refreshed for service in the 24th and 25th centuries. Notable among these are the Excelsior II-class starship, the Constitution III-class, and the Sagan-class.
• By 2399, Starfleet has introduced the Inquiry\-class starship, described as "the fastest and most tactically-capable ships in the Federation fleet."

When Kirk comes aboard the Enterprise at the beginning of the episode, La'an is in the transporter room to receive him. Her actual motives for being there are... complicated, but she claims to be there so she "can run a security clearance on [Kirk]." Allegedly this is "just standard operating procedure", which Commander Chin-Riley does not question.

To the best of my knowledge, we've never seen a security officer carry out this "standard operating procedure" before, nor do we actually see it done here. further, Kirk is a reasonably respected Starfleet officer who has been on the Enterprise before (and quite recently). It seems unlikely that he represents a reasonable security risk. Are we meant to interpret this as La'an digging through the regulations for an outdated excuse to be present for Kirk's arrival, or is this a legitimate precaution that we should expect is routinely taken quietly and off-screen? If the later, what could actually be going on that requires the physical presence of the security clearance and can't be accomplished by a simple scan?

I've written about aspects of this before over the years, but this is the first time I'm trying to put down a synthesis of those ideas. The upshot of my thesis is this: the irony at the heart of the Prophets' existence is that the ability to see all of time as simultaneous both grants them an omniscient perspective but at the same time traps them in an existence they have a frustratingly limited amount of control over.

Let's start by looking at time from two different perspectives.

From our linear perspective, time has a beginning, and an end. Events move according to cause and effect (let's put time travel and changing history aside for now). As we progress along the line, our past fades from view, becoming inaccessible and immutable. Our future, on the other hand, is unknowable and does not come into existence until we reach it. The only point of time on which we can exert any influence at all is the present, and that is only because it has the consequence of affecting the future.

From the Prophets' non-linear perspective, however, it's a very different story. For them, time is not a line but a point - a single moment where everything in the universe, including them, simultaneously comes into being and non-being. There is no past for them, no future, only an eternal present on which they can see everything and act on everything and nothing at the same time - because despite being able to act on the present, they cannot actually change anything because cause and effect are indistinguishable from each other, and also because they know what history is supposed to look like.

It may help to think of the entirety of history from the Prophets' perspective as a stained-glass window that comes into existence (from their point of view) all at the same time and which they can see and experience all at once, every moment, while from our linear point of view, each piece is assembled in sequence. We see only pieces of the window as it forms, while the Prophets can see its final form because for them it all happens in one moment.

This is what ultimately traps them, because they find themselves committed to the pattern that they know and see. One question that we often hear being asked is why the Prophets are so concerned with the Bajoran people? The answer, from this perspective, is simple: they are concerned because linear history says they did, and if they didn't, that would create a paradox that would disrupt their non-linear existence. So the actions they perform are according to the pattern they need to conform to in order to maintain that existence, namely the shape of the window/tapestry they perceive.

That form of the window (which we see as a goal being assembled whereas they already see it as complete) is not a goal, per se, inasmuch as it's what they have to make sure it is that way because it's meant to look that way. The ultimate benefit is not so much specifically the defeat of the pagh-wraiths, but simply because that making sure the final form is what it is will maintain the existence of the Prophets' history/timeline.

For the Prophets, everything is always happening right now, and they cannot depart from their predetermined actions any more than we can stop what's happening to us this specific nanosecond because from their perspective, the past - allowing them to anticipate the present moment and the moments to come - does not exist. And because their very existence is dependent on that single eternal present, they are helpless to do anything but follow what is already in the pattern, what has always been in the pattern. Any deviation from the way that pattern is supposed to be laid down causes them harm (that's what chroniton particles do - they create chronal disruptions), which could threaten their very existence.

To put it another way, the Prophets have to keep to the final shape of the window of history because that's the form that to them has already happened and has always happened. But we poor corporeal monkeys, not being able to see and therefore not bound to that pattern have the ability to change the pieces, or place the pieces in a different sequence, which annoys and terrifies the hell out of them. Annoys because we're not following the sequence which will lead to that finished form, terrifies because the picture in the end may not be consistent with what they know should be, or worse, the whole window could shatter.

So to try and get us to reach that final shape, they give us plans, hints, clues (the orbs, the visions, the emissaries) as to how these funny linear creatures should be building the window/timeline. "Put that piece there - no, there! - and that piece is next... no, not that piece, damn it, and no, you shouldn't even be using that piece!" And they can't tell us directly what to do because that action isn't in the pattern, and thus unavailable to them.

So when Sisko did his suicide run into the wormhole, he was deviating from the assembly instructions, sending the Prophets into an apoplectic fit and explaining their angry confrontation with him. So in the end, faced with losing a vital tool that will enable them to construct that final form versus having to change the shape or picture of it, they are forced to chose to go with Sisko's request, but warn him that the new picture that will be shaped is not going to be something he likes, and that's his punishment for not doing what he's told.

Now, this doesn't mean the Prophets don't have free will. It's that their "free will" is constrained by certain hard, almost insurmountable limits. Firstly, the completely free exercise of will in the same way as linear beings do requires the space and time to exercise it, and as far as the Prophets are concerned, there's no progression of time in which they can exercise the same kind of free will that we do.

It's similar to the concepts in the movie Arrival and "Story of Your Life", the short story it's based on. If understanding the alien language of Heptapod B expands your consciousness so you can perceive the future, does ensuring that it unfolds as you foresee it mean that your free will is abrogated? Or does knowing the future create an obligation that you should act precisely as you foresee it?

(There's also similarities to the differences between Elves and Men in Tolkien's Legendarium, where Elves are doomed to fate while Men are allowed to change their destinies... but that's practically another essay by itself)

From this perspective, the Prophets do have free will - they could very well choose not to act according to the pattern even though the pattern says they will act this way because they've always acted this way. But this is dangerous, as seeing the whole of their existence in this way creates an obligation to act just as the pattern says or else their reality runs the risk of collapsing, or changing into a form which makes them cease to exist.

So to sum up: the Prophets may seem omnipotent, and they have incredible powers, but they are still trapped by their very existence and perception of time.

I like thinking of it this way because it's both mind-blowing and ironic at the same time. Mind-blowing because it forces us to consider the perspective of a species who see everything in time in one single instant and raising the accompanying questions of free will and/or determinism. Ironic because for all the power the Prophets seem to have, they can only exercise it in this fashion.

In that sense, the so-called lesser, linear races have more agency than the gods because of the former's limited perspective, and that's just too delicious for words.

>KIRK: You're bothered by your performance on the Kobayashi Maru. > >SAAVIK: I failed to resolve the situation. > >KIRK: There is no correct resolution. It's a test of character.

The Kobayashi Maru Test is one of the central themes of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. In the movie, it represents the inevitability of defeat, and teaches the lesson that how we face it - with dignity, with acceptance, with strength - is at least as important, if not more so, than how we deal with victory (to paraphrase Kirk early in the movie). As Picard would say in "Peak Performance": "It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life."

And yet, the Test is often misunderstood, especially in terms of what it's actually for, in an in-universe setting. In one interpretation, it plays the same role in a cadet's development as it does thematically in the movie: to show the cadet that there will come a time where a no-win scenario will present itself, and teach the cadet how to deal with it. But then it's not really a test, in that sense, but a lesson.

In another interpretation, the Test is to see how the cadet faces defeat, that is to say, their response to defeat. While I agree that this is certainly an important part of the test, it focuses solely on the aftermath of it and therefore makes the cadet's responses during the test itself irrelevant.

One other interpretation, as seen in the 2009 Star Trek movie, is that the Test is supposed to make a cadet face fear. I've argued before that it seems illogical that Spock would design such a test for the simple reason that fear is an emotion, and at this stage in his life Spock does not (consciously at least) find any value in emotional responses. But this again is not a test, but an experience, an extended hazing exercise with no discernable purpose on the face of it.

The Test may allow for all of these things, but that's not the actual purpose of it. The point is not whether you win or lose, or face defeat or face fear. The fact that it's a command-level exercise tells us that it's supposed to tell the instructors something about the cadet's command performance. It's not just whether a person is fit for command; there's a whole different battery of tests and exams along the way in Command School to find that out. It's about what kind of command they're fit for. While undoubtedly the Test brings in all that the cadet has learned during the course of their Academy training in a simulation, ultimately, it's the cadet's response to the Test during the course of the simulation - not after it, not because of it - that does that.

Do they go in guns blazing? Do they sacrifice their crew against overwhelming odds? Do they try diplomacy? Do they abandon the Kobayashi Maru to its fate? Do they keep trying to win, never giving up, beating their head against a brick wall to the point of insanity? Do they refuse to accept a no-win situation? Do they cheat?

I suspect most cadets would react like most people do - like Saavik did - resent the hell out of the Test and throw themselves into the gauntlet again and again trying to figure out how to beat it, not realizing that said more about them than the Test itself. And so did Kirk, for a time, until he realized that the game was rigged, that the instructors, under normal circumstances, would never allow a victory.

It's likely that the simulation adapts to whatever the cadet does and makes it more difficult on the fly. Try to eject the warp core? The ejectors are frozen due to battle damage. Challenge the Klingon captain to single combat? He refuses because you are undeserving of honor. Defeat the first wave somehow? They just keep coming. Try to run? They catch up. You get the idea. So the only real way to "win" is to reprogram the simulation so it can't adapt to whatever you throw at it.

In that sense, Kirk also missed the point of the no-win scenario, because he wanted to win. At the same time, he was philosophically opposed to the concept of a no-win scenario. So he cheated - changed the conditions just enough so it was possible to rescue the ship and win.

(As a side note, Kirk was a bit hard on himself when he said he'd never faced a no-win scenario: I'd argue that he faced it in "The City on the Edge of Forever" when he had to decide between Edith Keeler and the universe, and he passed that test admirably at great personal cost.)

But Kirk did not frustrate the intentions of the Test, nor did he provide a "wrong" response, because there really is no “correct” resolution. That was why Kirk was never sanctioned for it and in fact got the commendation for pulling off the feat in the first place. Kirk didn't seem to realize that the commendation wasn't a reward for beating the Test - it was for thinking laterally in general by going outside the simulation. The Test had already gotten what it wanted out of Kirk.

In Kirk's response, the instructors recognized a few things: a person who knew when to follow rules, to critically assess them so he knew when to question them and more importantly, when to break or circumvent them, throwing the book away and creating a new one. In his refusal to accept a no-win scenario, they also saw someone that would do whatever was necessary to push ahead in the face of overwhelming odds to search for a solution where seemingly there was none.

And in the wild final frontier of what was then 23rd Century space, which tested and claimed the lives and souls of so many of his peers - Decker, Tracy, et al., he was absolutely the kind of captain that was needed.

This hypothesis is predicated on the fact that the explicit intent behind Zefram Cochrane, whether or not this has been successfully communicated on screen, is that he is the inventor of warp drive as we commonly know it in Star Trek, and that prior to his invention, the existing warp-capable galactic powers were utilizing some other means of generating warp fields.

Citing Ron D. Moore after First Contact was released,

>"Certainly Cochrane is credited with the invention of warp drive as we know it in Trek, so we could assume that the Vulcans were using something else – possibly a variant of the contained singularity used by the Romulans. That might have been a much more dangerous and inefficient technology which was quickly abandoned by most of the galaxy when Cochrane's system was introduced."

Now, let's look at some Vulcan ships...

The pre-Cochrane D'Vahl-type starship: This is the type of starship that rescued the survivors of the Vulcan survey ship in Carbon Creek. It is also the type of ship that patrolled above the Forge on Vulcan (as seen in the image). These are warp capable but possess what look like only rudimentary nacelles. The glowing bits look more like impulse engines to me.

The pre-Cochrane Vulcan survey ship: Similar in design to the D'Vahl, with no obvious warp nacelles despite being warp capable.

The pre-Cochrane T'plana-Hath: this ship again possesses no obvious nacelles of any kind, and has what appear to be some kind of engine bells or drive units that angle downward for landing.

The post-Cochrane Vahklas-type starship: this is the only Vulcan starship I can think of that possesses what could be argued to be more typical warp nacelles instead of an annular drive. Obviously the ring shape is hinted at, but it looks like it's only an aesthetic choice here.

When the NX-01 Enterprise encounters a Vahklas-type ship in 2151, T'Pol states that they had not been in use for "a long time."

My hypothesis is that the Vahklas-type represents the first (or one of the earliest) Vulcan attempts at adapting the Cochrane-style warp drive to their own vessels, perhaps utilizing the partial ring shape to increase efficiency over Cochrane's nacelle design, which they consider inefficient.

I think it was this continued lack of preferred efficiency that led the Vulcans to continue working on adapting Cochrane's design for their own purposes, eventually leading to the development of the annular warp drive, possibly sometime between the 2070s and 2100. Definitely prior to the dedication of the Warp Five Complex in 2119.

Presumably, the Vulcans came to the humans with their design if only to show them how their warp drive had ultimately proven inefficient and could be, at least by Vulcan standards, drastically improved upon. This led to the development, perhaps not by United Earth Starfleet or UESPA, of the USS Enterprise XCV-330, the only known human attempt at annular warp drive design.

Ultimately, the annular warp drive proves highly efficient but also highly resistant to course corrections and maneuverability. While this trade off is acceptable to the Vulcans, who do not place an emphasis on exploration, it is antithetical to the very purpose of Starfleet. The design is thus quickly abandoned as a technological dead-end, in favor of the homegrown, For Humans, By Humans nacelle design originated by Dr. Cochrane.

Vulcans, meanwhile, continue to favor the annular warp drive for their own ships, and the High Command quickly adopts it.

This leads to the development of the Suurok-class starship by at least 2136 (when Captain Vanik says he took command of the Ti'Mur in ENT S1E8 Cold Front).

The success of the Suurok-class leads to the further development of the D'kyr-type starship.

Throughout the 2100s, Vulcan starships of all types are designed with the annular warp drive, including ships as small as shuttles and transports.

Over the next century, there would be refinements and adjustments of the annular warp drive design, leading to some slightly different but still ultimately hoop-shaped implementations, as in the 23rd century T'plana-type starship and the early 24th century Apollo-class starship as exemplified by the starship T'Pau in TNG Unification I/II.

But ultimately, the ring-shaped annular drive as developed in the 22nd century remains the favorite, lasting well into the 24th century largely unchanged, although with the addition of what appear to be some slightly more traditional nacelle-like elements, as seen on the Sh'vhal-type starship on Lower Decks.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

Hope it’s ok to bring a link to a deeper dive article here. It seems a Daystrom Institute kind of analysis, and the background on Gene Coon’s shared script credit is worth documenting. (It’s new to me.)

TL;DR: Coon unintentionally mirrored plot lines from a June 1944 Astounding Science Fiction piece by Frederic Brown when he wrote an episode to fill a gap. The similarity was caught during a legal review so that the story’s author received co-credit.

Here’s the database synopsis of Brown’s novelette:

> An advanced alien entity intervenes to stop a catastrophic war between humans and Outsiders. The entity chooses a champion from each side to decide the fate of the two races by fighting to the death in an arena designed to test their intelligence and courage.

Credit to Ryan Britt for this deep dive for Inverse. I’m not sure that I would go with his assessment that TOS is the only one that gave us the reflective version given that we’ve only seen the first part of Hegemony. The SNW season finale seems to be set up as a test of Pike that yet to come to a head. Spock and Chapel’s defeat of the environment-suited Gorn on the Cayuga’s saucer seems likely to be a set-up, to be expanded upon and mirrored in the second part yet to be seen.

Could it be possible that Pike might yet have his own toe-to-toe face off with the Gorn? Actually, or metaphorically as he takes on the Gorn’s leadership?

And like both Kirk and the protagonist of the original story, might Pike keep his learned, deeper understanding of the other species somewhat secret?

That would resolve the Gorn arc in SNW while preserving Kirk’s understanding of the Gorn as monsters for Arena. It would also be consistent with the theme of the personal cost ‘keeping secrets’ that has been running through the show.

In musical terms, a rhapsody is a single movement musical piece, characterized by a free-flowing structure where moods and tones can vary considerably, flowing in and out of each one. It is derived from the Greek rhapsōidia, in turn derived from rhaptein (to stitch) and ōidē (song/ode): literally, a stitched together song - with ode also meaning a poem/song of praise. A rhapsody can also mean an ecstatic, enthusiastic expression of emotion. The songs in this episode were written by Kay Hanley and Tom Polce of Letters to Cleo.

The Stardate is 2398.3. This is the first time a “subspace fold” has been mentioned on screen, but it is a ship’s ability in Star Trek Online which allows a starship to be propelled 6.66 ly forward. In essence, rather like a geodesic fold (VOY: “Inside Man”), it’s a shortcut through space - or in this case, subspace.

Usually routine ship’s comms are handled by the computer, so as all resources are being devoted to Spock’s theory, Uhura has to route them manually like an old-timey phone operator.

As previously established, Jim Kirk is serving on the USS Farragut (TOS: “Obsession”), where he has just become XO. Chapel’s message is from her future fiancé Dr. Roger Korby (TOS: “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”), regarding her fellowship in archeological medicine at the Vulcan Science Academy.

Crivo is a Portuguese word meaning “sieve”, for what it’s worth. Batel mentions the Crivian Planetary Museum, Glass Islands and Smoke Lakes.

Una notices La’An’s anxiousness at Jim’s arrival. La’An had a brief encounter with the Kirk of an alternate timeline in SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”, something which the Prime Kirk is unaware of.

M’Benga calls Korby the Louis Pasteur of Archeological Medicine, a term Spock repeats in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”.

It was noted in SNW: “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach” that the speed of subspace radio is 52,000c, and requires relays as subspace radio signals degrade over distance. According to the TNG Tech Manual, in the 24th Century subspace radio has a speed of Warp 9.9997, or approximately 79,000c, but still has an upper range of 22.65 ly, necessitating relays at 20 ly intervals (or a sector’s length, given the size expressed in Geoffery Mandel’s Star Charts).

Uhura first selects Cole Porter’s 1934 song “Anything Goes”, which geeks will probably best know as the opening number to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (albeit in very badly pronounced Mandarin). The version she plays sounds to me like Eileen Rogers’ from the 1962 Anything Goes cast album.

LT Jenna Mitchell is at the Ops/Navigation position on the bridge. The bosun’s whistle signals Pike’s arrival on the bridge. Mitchell reports no other ships in the sector despite a ship apparently having just dropped off Jim.

The effect is not just limited to singing, but is making the crew do choreography as well. Having an outside force forcing characters to perform musical theatre is of course best known from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: “Once More With Feeling”, but that was from a supernatural cause.

The theme song from the titles is rearranged as a choral piece, like the title sequence was animated for the LD crossover, “Those Old Scientists”.

The bunny conversation is too specific not to be a reference to the song “I’ve Got a Theory” from “Once More With Feeling” , where a whole verse is devoted to how the explanation for the phenomenon could be bunnies. Or maybe midgets. Uhura even says later, “I have a theory.”

The idea that a subspace fissure can lead to different quantum realities was first presented in TNG: “Parallels”, where Worf passed through one that kept shifting him into different parallels. None of them were musical, sadly.

The Heisenberg compensator is a technobabble component invented for TNG by Michael Okuda and Rick Sternbach, in order to explain how the transporter would work with Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, since that states that it is impossible know the momentum and position of a given particle simultaneously, which would severely hamper the transporter’s functions. How the compensator works is purposely left vague, and the usual jokey answer is, “[It works] very well, thank you.”

Una says she’s aware of her reputation, but trying a new approach. In SNW: “Spock Amok” she learned that she and La’An were known as “Where Fun Goes to Die”, but in that episode both learned to cut loose a bit by playing “Enterprise Bingo”. We found out in ST: “Q & A” that Una had a secret passion for the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. This became a matter of public record when Spock revealed it to the Court in SNW: “Ad Astra Per Aspera”.

Christina Chong has just released her first EP, “Twin Flames”. While we’re at it, Celia Rose Gooding became famous making her Broadway debut in Jagged Little Pill, Rebecca Romijn has covered “Darling Nikki” for a Prince tribute album and Carole Kane has played Madame Morrible in Wicked.

La’An’s fear of losing control is tied to her fear about her Augmented heritage and that she could be a potential Khan. The watch she holds is from the past, which she and alt-Kirk used to track down a cold fusion reactor in 21st Century Toronto. She flashes back to the night she and alt-Kirk spent in a hotel, imagining if it turned out differently (“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”).

I think this is the first time that we’ve heard Batel’s first name, which is Marie. The map showing the subspace network shows the fissure in proximity to Cajitar (SNW: “The Broken Circle”) which is appropriately marked with both Federation and Klingon colors. We also see listed the USS Lexington (NCC-1709), Kongo (NCC-1710), Republic (NCC-1371) and Farragut (NCC-1647). The first two are Constitution-class ships - the Lexington was first listed on a chart in TOS: “Court Martial”. The USS Republic was one of Jim Kirk’s first ship assignments (also mentioned in “Court Martial”) as an Ensign.

The Kongo, named after the Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Kongō, originates from a behind the scenes list of Constitution-class (then named “Starship”-class) ships in TOS but first listed in Franz Joseph’s Starfleet Technical Manual before finally making its way on-screen in ST VI. Spock also wore a Kongo pin in SNW: “Memento Mori” for Starfleet Remembrance Day, indicating he once served on her.

Also on the map: the Persephone system (“Children of the Comet”), Eminiar (in FGC-321) (TOS: “A Taste of Armageddon”), Marjalis (SNW: “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach”), Beta Tauri (TOS: “The Galileo Seven”, not named in the episode but identified in Star Charts), Gamma Tauri and Delphi Ardu (TNG: “The Last Outpost”), Harlak (DIS: “The Wolf Inside”) and Forcas (TNG: “Parallels”).

Later we see on a wider-view chart, on the Federation side, Janus (TOS: “The Devil in the Dark”), Wurna Minor (DIS: “Despite Yourself”), Davlos (DS9: “Visionary”), Oryb-J and the J’Gal Moon (SNW: “Under the Cloak of War”), Hetemit (SNW: “Ghosts of Illyria”), Cygnet (TOS: “Tomorrow is Yesterday”), Cait (home of the Caitians from TAS). On the Klingon side, Boreth (TNG: “Birthright”), Tribble Prime (DIS: “An Obol for Charon”), and a few others I can’t make out.

When Una sings “the secrets you keep safe inside / might keep you awake and cut like a knife”, the camera focuses on M’Benga, recalling the events of “Under the Cloak of War”. Her ability to keep secrets is from years of concealing her Illyrian heritage.

Una disengages the artificial gravity in the ready room. We’ve seen in ENT: “In a Mirror, Darkly” that gravity can be varied in selected parts of the ship, as well as on Deep Space Nine in DS9: “Melora”. Shuttlebays in particular were variable gravity areas (signage in TNG).

La’An calls the Klingon ship a K’t’inga-class. This is a slight anachronism, as the K’t’inga-class, first seen in TMP and named in Roddenberry’s novelization, is supposed to be a distinct and more advanced version of the D7-class battlecruiser commonly seen in TOS. We could handwave it away as Temporal War shenanigans or being one of the first advanced models introduced or both. La’An is correct that the K’t’inga has an aft torpedo launcher (as opposed to the D7’s forward-only launcher).

Jim says he’s in the on-phase of an on-again off-again relationship and he names Carol, i.e. Carol Marcus (ST II), the mother of his son David. He says Carol is based on Starbase One and pregnant. This sort of tracks with a comic story by Howard Weinstein (“Star-Crossed”, Star Trek Vol 2, #73-#75, DC Comics), where David is conceived in 2260 when Carol and Kirk are serving together on the USS Eagle. That being said, there’s another relationship we know Jim was having around this time, with Janet Wallace (TOS: “The Deadly Years”), which would end in 2261, so maybe she’s the rebound after Carol.

The one-eyed Klingon General Garkog is played by Bruce Horak (a.k.a. the late Chief Engineer Hemmer).

Immediately after the grand finale we hear the traditional Alexander Courage arrangement of the Star Trek TOS theme. Batel says she’s being put on a priority one mission, which will probably tie into the season finale.

Spock engages in Klingon diplomacy over bloodwine, as he did in “The Broken Circle” (hopefully his hangover isn’t as bad this time). The USS Nimerfro is likely named after Scott Nimerfro, who co-wrote VOY: “Jetrel” and also was an associate producer on X-Men with Rebecca Romijn. Nimerfro passed away from cancer in 2016.

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!

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.]

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...

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?

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.

(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.

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?