uss voyager – Trekking with Dennis

Star Trek: Head Canon

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for the following Star Trek productions: The Original Series Season 1, Deep Space Nine Season 6, Voyager Seasons 1, 5, and 6, First Contact, Discovery Seasons 1-3, Strange New Worlds Season 1, and pre-release information for Starfleet Academy.

Star Trek has a wonderfully rich and engaging setting – a fictional universe that operates by established rules that have been built up over decades. This “canon” is part of what makes Star Trek feel like Star Trek… and while I’m not a stickler for the tiniest minutiae of canon, the fundamental building blocks of the Star Trek franchise need to remain consistent for stories to work.

There are some places where Star Trek’s writers have been deliberately vague and ambiguous, and others where an apparent “plot hole” has been created, either by a new story seemingly overwriting an old one or by one of the prequel shows making an apparent change to what had been previously established. These things can pass by inoffensively enough, but as Trekkies, I think we have a natural curiosity about this setting – and a need to ensure that things make sense in the context of Star Trek’s long-established universe!

An AI-generated image of a head floating above a cannon. — It’s… head cannon.

So that’s where head canon comes in. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, head canon (or headcanon, if you prefer; I like to write it as two separate words) is basically just a fan-made explanation for something that doesn’t appear on screen. A famous example from the Star Trek fan community is the belief some fans hold that Kirk and Spock were engaged in a romantic relationship. That’s something never shown on screen (nor even explicitly hinted at), but nevertheless has become popular in some quarters of the fan community.

There are also head canon explanations for apparent plot holes and head canon expansions that go beyond what we see on screen. Over the years, I’ve come up with several of my own – and it’s these that I want to share with you today.

Still frame from How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth showing Kirk and the crew on the bridge of the Enterprise. — Arex, Kirk, and Walking Bear on the bridge of the Enterprise.

Before we get started, a couple of important caveats! Firstly, this is head canon. None of this is official, none of it has ever been seen on screen, and it’s likely that none of it will ever be confirmed. I’m not saying that I’m right and that’s that – other fans can and will disagree, and that’s okay. I’m not claiming to be the only originator of some of these ideas. It’s very likely that other Trekkies have independently come up with similar head canon explanations for some of the story beats we’re gonna talk about today – so please don’t think I’m trying to take sole credit!

This is also the entirely subjective opinion of one old Trekkie. If you hate all of my ideas, if I miss something that seems obvious to you, or if my head canon explanations don’t make sense to you… that’s totally okay, too. There’s enough room in the Star Trek fan community for polite discussion and disagreement – and there’s no need to get into a fight about totally hypothetical things that will almost certainly never be confirmed on screen!

With all of that out of the way, let’s look at some head canon!

Head Canon #1:
There are different types of cloaking device.

Still frame from Minefield showing the NX-01 Enterprise and two de-cloaking Romulan vessels. — 22nd Century Romulan vessels de-cloaking.

Prior to Enterprise, it was pretty well-established that Starfleet’s first encounter with a cloaking device came when the USS Enterprise, under Kirk’s command, engaged a Romulan warbird that was attacking Earth Outposts along the Neutral Zone. Cloaks continued to be used by the Romulans, Kligons, and others into the 24th Century – but Starfleet only used a cloaking device on a couple of occasions.

Enterprise changed all of that, firstly with the Suliban’s cloaking technology – which, admittedly, was never explicitly called a “cloaking device” on screen – and later when the Romulans were introduced. Since then, both Discovery and Strange New Worlds have set the precedent that cloaking devices were known to Starfleet years before Kirk’s encounter with the Romulans. So how can we square this circle?

Still frame from Into The Forest I Go showing a simulation on the USS Discovery's viewscreen (cropped). — A Starfleet simulation of a Klingon cloaking device.

My answer is that there must simply be different types of cloaking devices. Not only that, but Starfleet Intelligence is working around the clock to figure out how to detect cloaked vessels. Similar to how the code-breakers of World War II worked to break enemy encryptions and read messages, Starfleet is locked in a constant battle to un-cloak cloaked ships.

Perhaps in the aftermath of Discovery’s Klingon War, Starfleet thought they’d finally broken the cloaking encryption – and that’s why Kirk was so surprised to see the Romulan warbird disappear from his sensors. Every time the Romulans or Klingons invent a new type of cloak, Starfleet gets to work figuring out how to recalibrate sensors to break through. This “arms race” could have been going on for decades – or even centuries.

Head Canon #2:
The USS Enterprise had a refit after Pike left the captain’s chair.

Still frame from A Quality of Mercy showing Pike and Ortegas on the Enterprise's bridge. — *Strange New Worlds’* take on the bridge of the Enterprise.

Aesthetic changes from one Star Trek production to another usually don’t bother me very much – and I happen to really like the design of the USS Enterprise as it’s depicted in Strange New Worlds. The ship looks great inside and out, and some of the sets feel larger and more expansive than they did in past iterations of Star Trek, which allows for different types of shots, more characters on screen at once, and so on. But there’s no denying that the redesign hasn’t been wildly popular with every Trekkie!

So my suggestion here is simple: after Pike stepped down as captain of the Enterprise, the ship underwent a refit. Kirk would assume command of the refitted vessel in time for the five-year mission that we’re familiar with from The Original Series. This allows both versions of the Enterprise to exist in the same timeline without treading on anyone’s toes!

Still frame from How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth showing a top-down view of the bridge of the Enterprise. — The Enterprise bridge in *The Animated Series.*

There is precedent for ships being refitted and completely transformed. The Enterprise itself famously underwent a refit a few years after the events of The Original Series – we see the final stages of that refit in The Motion Picture, where changes made to the ship became a significant plot point early in the film. So not only does Starfleet regularly refit its ships, but the Enterprise itself has been refitted at least once.

It really isn’t much of a stretch to think that a ship that’s at least a decade old by the time of The Original Series (something confirmed in The Animated Series more than fifty years ago) would have had at least some modifications and changes made to it. And given what we see on screen, the ship has changed!

Head Canon #3:
Warp factors are re-designated as newer and faster engines are designed.

Still frame from Subspace Rhapsody showing the familiar flash of light effect after the USS Cayuga went to warp. — A flash of light left by a ship jumping to warp.

Warp speed has always been pretty ambiguous in Star Trek – and that’s a genuinely good decision! Pinning down exact speeds and distances risks constraining future stories, so leaving things vague and open-ended gives writers maximum manoeuvrability. But there are some instances where speed seems to vary a little too much!

Just to give one example, at the beginning of First Contact, the Enterprise-E was stationed near the Neutral Zone. But Captain Picard was able to get the ship back to Earth in record time when the Borg attacked; Starfleet had already begun to battle the Cube while the Enterprise-E was light-years away, yet the ship made it back in time.

Still frame from Nemesis showing the Enterprise-E at warp. — The Enterprise-E at warp.

So here’s my head canon: warp five in Enterprise is not the same as warp five in The Next Generation. As new engines are designed and built, warp factors change. Instead of having to keep adding new decimals to warp 9.99999, Starfleet would simply revise how warp factors are calculated and referred to – accounting for discrepancies in speed and travel time.

There are still some holes in this idea, like what Starfleet’s “transwarp” experiment was and how it can take 75+ years to traverse the galaxy at warp 9.975 while warp 10 is supposed to be instantaneous travel everywhere. But I think the idea of Starfleet changing the way warp factors are calculated and referred to makes some degree of sense – and it could explain why some travel times appear to vary wildly.

Head Canon #4:
Voyager didn’t run out of torpedoes and shuttles because the crew built replacements.

High-definition digital render of the USS Voyager (credit: TrekCore/Robert Bonchune). — The USS Voyager.
*Image Credit: Robert Bonchune/TrekCore*

I’ve actually tackled this idea before in a longer article – click or tap here to check it out! In short, some Trekkies have argued that the USS Voyager should have run out of torpedoes and shuttlecraft during its time in the Delta Quadrant – picking on a line from Season 1 in which Janeway said that there was “no way” to replenish the ship’s supplies. But I disagree with the idea that this is a plot hole and I can explain why in two words: Delta Flyer.

We see the crew of Voyager build not one but two Delta Flyers after getting stranded in the Delta Quadrant, using the ship’s industrial-sized replicator to do so. Though this may have been a drain on resources, it wasn’t fatal to the ship and crew by any stretch – so much so that they were able to build a like-for-like replacement when the first Delta Flyer was lost.

Still frame from Extreme Risk showing the Delta Flyer under construction. — The Delta Flyer’s construction.

Furthermore, we saw Voyager trade with numerous planets, ships, and stations during its journey home – potentially acquiring resources like antimatter that may be needed for torpedoes, engine parts for shuttles, and so on. Maybe some things can’t be replicated, but through trade, Voyager could have been able to acquire these resources.

In short, I’ve never bought into the idea that Voyager firing “too many torpedoes” is a problem, and I think it’s easily explained through a combination of a resourceful crew, powerful replicators, and bartering.

Head Canon #5:
Fashion trends, hairstyles, uniform designs, etc. change over time – just like they do in the real world.

The main cast of The Original Series Season 2 in a promo photograph. — The cast of *The Original Series*.

Take a look at photos from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. It’s really easy to see how fashion sense and style changed in a relatively short span of time out here in the real world. Now look at the arguments some Trekkies were making about uniforms or hair styles being “wrong” in certain new Star Trek productions. It seems silly… doesn’t it?

Discovery was set ten years before The Original Series. It’s not a stretch to think that hairstyles and designs for things like uniforms might’ve changed in that time. When Discovery debuted with its all-blue uniforms, I liked the idea of that style and colour existing in between Enterprise’s submarine-style boiler suits and the more familiar Starfleet uniforms of the later 23rd Century.

The main cast of Discovery Season 1 in a promotional photograph. — Some fans weren’t keen on *Discovery’*s uniforms.

The same principle can apply to alien races and other factions. Why were bald Klingons a problem in Discovery, for example? It didn’t bother me – and a simple head canon explanation could be that the Klingon Empire went through a phase of preferring shaved heads in times of war. Maybe it was a revival of ancient Klingon culture, maybe other Klingons did it in honour of their leaders.

There are some oddities with Starfleet’s uniform choices that have been introduced by different Star Trek productions. The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine seemed, for a time, to establish that space stations and starships had the same combadges but different uniforms, for instance – until that went out the window! But I don’t buy into the arguments that some Trekkies have put forward about these design and aesthetic choices. It really isn’t much of a stretch to think that the 23rd and 24th Centuries go through different fashion trends.

Head Canon #6:
The “Borg Teasing Theory.”

Behind-the-scenes photo from The Next Generation showing the original model of the Borg cube. — The filming model of the original Borg cube.

I find it interesting that the Borg Collective – with its massively superior technology, huge fleet of near-unstoppable ships, and untold legions of drones – never really made a serious effort to conquer the Federation. On both occasions where the Borg directly attacked Earth, they sent a single ship and – at most – a few tens of thousands of drones. Why?

I’ve had a theory for a long time (that I really must write up in full one day!) that the Borg Collective has been “teasing” the Federation. Not for fun – but to push Starfleet to develop newer and better technologies for them to assimilate. It’s not unfair to suggest that humanity is one of the most resilient, creative, and versatile species that the Borg had encountered as of the mid-24th Century, but even so, conquering the Federation shouldn’t pose a challenge based on what we saw of the scale of the Collective in Voyager.

Still frame from First Contact showing the Borg Queen. — *First Contact* introduced the Borg Queen.

We know that the Borg seek “perfection,” and that they even ignore whole species if they think they have nothing to offer. Humanity clearly has plenty to offer the Borg… but in their push for even greater perfection, might the Borg be trying to see how far they can push the Federation?

The Borg attacks on outlying colonies, and later their attacks on Earth, prompted Starfleet to develop new and better weapons, shields, and medical technology. The Borg may have been hoping to assimilate these technologies later on – partly to add to their arsenal, but also partly to prevent them being used against them in a future conflict. By “teasing” the Federation with these smaller – but still pretty devastating – incursions, it’s basically a win-win for the Borg. Either their sole cube succeeds and assimilates Earth, then the rest of the Federation, or in its failure it not only gathers a ton of data, but also pushes Starfleet to develop newer and better things to assimilate in the future.

Head Canon #7:
Discovery Season 2 was originally going to be an “origin story” for the Borg.

Still frame from Discovery Season 2 showing the pseudo-assimilation of Captain Leland. — The “assimilation” of Captain Leland.

Is there such a thing as “production-side head canon?” I’m adding this one to the list either way! In short, no one is gonna be able to convince me that Discovery’s Control AI and time travel story in its second season was originally created/pitched as anything other than a Borg Collective origin story.

The way the Control AI was able to “assimilate” Captain Leland and others, using nano-technology, is just too eerily similar to the way the Borg operate to be a coincidence. When you add into the mix Burnham’s time travel suit… the stage was set for Control to become the progenitor of the Borg.

Still frame from Such Sweet Sorrow showing the Red Angel just out of focus. — The Red Angel suit could travel through time.

With relatively few tweaks to the final act of Season 2, Control could’ve seized Burnham’s Red Angel suit and, perhaps staring down the barrel of a Starfleet armada, escaped into the past. Crash-landing on a remote Delta Quadrant planet, Control could use its remaining nanites to conquer the native humanoid population… setting the stage for the Borg Collective to be a Federation creation.

Now, I’m not saying this would’ve been a good story. And I’m definitely not saying that Discovery’s writing team could’ve pulled it off successfully. Those are moot points now, anyway. But unless someone comes forward with concrete, definitive proof that Season 2’s Control/time travel story was never intended as a Borg story… well, let’s just say that would be a tough thing to convince me of! I have a longer article about this theory, by the way, and you can find it by clicking or tapping here.

Head Canon #8:
The Romulans eventually discovered Sisko’s underhanded tactics.

Still frame from In The Pale Moonlight showing Senator Vreenak's famous "it's a fake" line. — “It’s a faaaaaaake!”

One of my fantasy Star Trek stories is a follow-up to the outstanding Deep Space Nine Season 6 episode In The Pale Moonlight. But unless and until that happens, I’ll have to make do with my personal head canon! In short, I struggle to believe that Sisko’s actions in that episode – where he lied, schemed, and murdered his way to an alliance with the Romulans – would never come to light.

Whether this would set the stage for a full-scale conflict or not isn’t certain, and with the Romulan Empire in a much-weakened state in the early 25th Century, perhaps they wouldn’t be spoiling for a fight. Romulan leaders might even want to keep the revelation a secret, not only because it shows them in a bad light, but in order to avoid jeopardising an alliance that they relied upon in the aftermath of the loss of Romulus and Remus.

Still frame from In The Pale Moonlight showing Sisko looking directly at the camera. — I think the Romulans will eventually uncover the truth…

So how could it happen? The only people involved were Garak and Sisko, and neither would be likely to spill the beans. Garak, though, might’ve boasted about his achievements in private, if not to Dr Bashir then to someone else back on Cardassia. It’s one of his biggest achievements if you think about it, and it could become a legend within the re-established Cardassian intelligence agency.

More likely, though, would be the Romulans re-examining the fake “evidence” of the Dominion plot to invade. Garak believed that any imperfections in the recording would be written off as damage from the shuttle explosion, but I’m not so sure. Under proper forensic examination, would the fake recording really hold up? Or could Senator Vreenak have sent a message warning about the forgery before his assassination? There are multiple ways this could go – and serious consequences for Starfleet if and when the truth comes out!

Head Canon #9:
Starfleet will find a way to prevent the Burn – pushing Discovery’s far future into an alternate timeline.

Still frame from Su'Kal showing a flashback to the Burn. — The Burn.

If you’re a regular reader, you might remember that – only a few weeks ago – I pushed back hard against the idea that some or all of Discovery has been “rendered non-canon” by one brief clip in Lower Decks. And to be clear: I stand by what I said then! Discovery, at time of writing, remains fully canon, and its far-future setting is the ultimate destination for the prime timeline.

But the Burn is particularly depressing, and knowing that the Federation will suffer such a horribly devastating blow – even if not for centuries – potentially changes how we react to stories set in the 23rd, 24th, and 25th Centuries. So my current head canon is this: at some point in the future, perhaps after Discovery’s new spin-off, Starfleet Academy, has finished its run, the far future setting will be quietly dropped. If there’s more Star Trek being made at that point, or at some point in the future, it will either totally ignore those events or perhaps even find a way to imply that they didn’t happen.

Still frame from That Hope Is You II showing a simulation/recording of the origin of the Burn. — The Burn originated on a wrecked ship in a toxic nebula.

We’ll need to discuss this in more detail on another occasion, but I don’t think that Discovery’s “post-apocalyptic Star Trek” idea worked. I don’t think the concept was a good one in and of itself, but I also feel that the execution was poor. Aside from a few moments in Season 3, Discovery never really did a lot with the idea of rebuilding the Federation, and the things we did see were smaller moments that were blitzed past to get to other, generally less interesting stories.

So I think there’s a case to be made to quietly push Discovery and Starfleet Academy into their own timeline at some future point. In my head, it works better that way – allowing Discovery to continue to exist and for Starfleet Academy to hopefully build on the foundations it laid, but also not constraining future stories that may be set in the 24th or 25th Centuries.

Head Canon #10:
Section 31 regularly uses cloaking devices.

Still frame from Section 31 showing a Section 31 ship. — A Section 31 vessel of the late 23rd/early 24th Century.

Maybe I’m forgetting or overlooking an episode, but I can’t remember seeing Section 31 using cloaked ships. It seems logical to me, though, that the Federation’s black ops/off-the-books security organisation would take advantage of cloaking technology whenever possible. Starfleet may be bound by the Treaty of Algeron not to use cloaking devices… but does anyone really think that Section 31 – an organisation which has attempted genocide and overthrown governments – would abide by the law?

Section 31’s use of cloaked ships could also explain things like their abduction of Dr Bashir in Inquisition – the faction’s first appearance in Star Trek. That episode left it deliberately unclear how Section 31 was able to infiltrate DS9 to capture Bashir, but if you imagine them using a ship with a cloaking device, things start to fall into place.

Still frame from Inquisition showing a close-up of Sloan. — Deputy Director Sloan.

Starfleet (and presumably the Federation government, too) refuse to officially acknowledge Section 31’s existence – at least in the mid/late 24th Century. So that makes it easy for them and their ambassadors to deny that any officially-sanctioned Starfleet or Federation ship is using a cloak in violation of the treaty with the Romulans. The Federation would, presumably, deny the existence of any such vessel and would abandon any captured Section 31 operative to their fate.

An organisation that likes to exist in the shadows would, surely, want to take advantage of every possible way to hide. Cloaks in Star Trek are imperfect – but they’re still very useful pieces of kit. For spies and assassins, a cloaked ship could be the difference between reaching a target and failing the mission. Section 31 would obviously use this technology – even if we’ve never seen it!

So that’s it… for now.

Still frame from The Undiscovered Country showing General Chang looking at the Enterprise. — The Enterprise-A on a Klingon viewscreen.

I have a few other ideas that I didn’t have time for on this occasion – so stay tuned, because I might revisit this subject in the future. It was a bit of fun for me, and pretty cathartic to talk about some of these ideas. Several of these head canon explanations are things I came up with years or even decades ago, so it’s definitely fun to air them for the first time!

As I said at the start, this is just for fun and isn’t something to argue about or get upset over. Head canon is a great way for fans to plug holes or expand stories – but it isn’t worth taking too seriously; none of this will ever be seen or confirmed on screen. In fact, it’s quite likely that some of what we talked about today will be actively debunked in future!

I hope you’ll stick around here on the website, as there’s more Star Trek content to come! I finally finished reviewing Strange New Worlds’ fantastic second season a few days ago, and earlier in the year I took a look at the Section 31 TV movie, too. I hope you’ve found some of these head canon ideas interesting, in any case.

Most Star Trek shows and films discussed above can be streamed on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the service is available. Most of the Star Trek franchise is also available on DVD and Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including all films, shows, and properties discussed above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Ten Things That Have Always Bugged Me In Star Trek

Mon 20.05.24Mon 20.05.24Dennis

Spoiler Warning: Beware spoilers for the following Star Trek productions: The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery, Picard, Generations, and First Contact.

Let’s have a little bit of fun today at the expense of the Star Trek franchise! I’ve been a Trekkie for almost thirty-five years at this point, and I’ve seen a lot of Star Trek in that time! For a franchise that now runs to over 900 individual episodes of television, Star Trek’s internal consistency and the attention to detail shown by the writers and creative teams are generally incredibly good, and there aren’t many true inconsistencies or things to get worked up about. But that doesn’t mean there are zero!

If you’re a regular reader, you might’ve seen me use the expression “glorified nitpick” in some of my Star Trek episode reviews. Sometimes I’ll point out something that I felt didn’t work very well or that seemed to run counter to what we already knew about a situation or character. Well… most of what we’re going to talk about today doesn’t even rise to that level! These aren’t things that I’m cross about or that “ruined” an episode or story for me. They’re just, as the title says, little things that bug me!

Publicity photo for Star Trek: Picard showing the rebuilt Enterprise-D bridge. — The bridge of the Enterprise-D.

Before we go any further, here are my usual caveats! Firstly, all of this is my entirely subjective opinion. If you disagree with any or all of the points below, think I’m “overreacting,” or feel that I’ve totally got the wrong end of the stick… that’s okay! These are just a few stray thoughts that I have about Star Trek, and most of them are so minor that they’re not gonna be worth getting into an argument about! Secondly, this is intended as light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek fun – so I encourage you not to take me too seriously and to engage with this article in that spirit!

Finally, I’m not counting the old excuses of “it’s just a story” or “because the writers thought it worked better that way” as explanations! Sure, everything in Star Trek is “just a story,” and if the writers needed to move characters into place or kick off certain storylines in a way that opens up a minor inconsistency, that’s just the way it goes sometimes. But as a fan, and as someone engaged with this fictional setting, that excuse doesn’t really work for me – and it never has. So it’s true that “none of this is real,” but that doesn’t change anything for me!

With all of that out of the way, let’s get started!

Number 1:
Why was the unfinished Enterprise-B the only ship within several light-years of Earth?
Star Trek: Generations

Still frame from Star Trek: Generations showing the launch of the Enterprise-B. — The Enterprise-B embarks upon her ill-fated maiden voyage.

Kicking off the plot of Generations is the maiden voyage of the Enterprise-B under the command of Captain John Harriman. Joining him for the voyage are Captain Kirk, Montgomery Scott, and Pavel Chekov, but during what was supposed to be a short shakedown cruise entirely within the Sol system, a distress call was received that took the Enterprise-B right into the path of a dangerous energy ribbon called the Nexus.

But here’s my question: why did Starfleet have no other ships anywhere close to the SS Robert Fox and SS Lakul? This is Sol – the home system of the Federation and Starfleet, where Starfleet Headquarters, the Federation government, and Spacedock are all located. With the Enterprise-B on a glorified joy-ride to show her off to a gaggle of journalists, and with weapons and other essential systems still not installed… why would she be the only ship in the area?

Still frame from Star Trek: Generations showing the Enterprise-B in the Nexus. — The Enterprise-B encounters the Nexus.

Think about it: this would be like the only military unit within a hundred miles of Washington DC being a single brand-new tank without its gun barrel. If the Enterprise-B’s shakedown cruise had taken her beyond Sol, then things might feel a little better. But having no other starships anywhere close to the stricken refugee vessels always struck me as bizarre!

If Starfleet leaves its home system and institutions of government so sparsely defended, it’s a miracle that the Klingons, Romulans, or Borg haven’t been able to warp into the system and conquer Earth! Jokes aside, I think the opening of Generations is pretty great – and the film in general is one of my personal favourites. But that doesn’t mean I can just overlook what appears to be Starfleet’s atrocious planning and non-existent defences!

Number 2:
What’s the United Earth Space Probe Agency?
Star Trek: The Original Series

Still frame from Star Trek: Voyager showing the probe Friendship One. — Friendship One, a probe launched by the UESPA.

Prior to settling on more familiar terms like the United Federation of Planets and Starfleet, the United Earth Space Probe Agency (or UESPA) was an organisation that was mentioned in a couple of early Star Trek stories. But what the organisation is and what its relationship is with Starfleet and the Federation was never elaborated upon, and plot points in Enterprise have further muddied the waters.

The out-of-universe explanation for this one is simple enough: as Star Trek was being created and those early episodes were being written, some titles and names were still being decided upon. It wasn’t even settled until well into production on The Original Series’ first season that the show was set in the 23rd Century – the original pitch for the series didn’t specify an exact time period, and the 27th Century was also suggested as a possibility.

But as I said at the beginning, out-of-universe explanations don’t count!

Still frame from Star Trek: The Original Series showing Kirk and Spock. — The UESPA was mentioned a handful of times in the first season of *The Original Series*.

Enterprise could have put this to rest, but instead the series – quite understandably – wanted to use familiar names like Starfleet, so the UESPA wasn’t included in a big way. Occasional references to it have popped up, including in Voyager where the UESPA had sent out at least one unmanned probe, but nothing to definitively explain what it was and whether it was independent of Starfleet.

To me, the “United Earth” part of the name seems to suggest that it’s a human-only organisation, but with humanity’s ships all seemingly flying under the Federation flag, what role there could be for a United Earth fleet – and where any of its ships or probes actually are – remains unknown.

Number 3:
Why was Starfleet unable to detect the octonary star system?
Star Trek: Picard

Still frame from Star Trek: Picard showing eight stars in formation. — Eight stars in perfect gravitational harmony.

In Season 1 of Picard, the ancient super-synths that I nicknamed the “Mass Effect Reapers” literally moved eight stars to form a stable octonary star system. They did so to make their presence known, and on the planet in that system they left their beacon behind. But… how did Starfleet – with all of its sensors, missions of exploration, advanced telescopes, and stellar cartography departments – fail to notice such an apparently obvious and incredibly interesting stellar phenomenon?

Using technology that we have right now – today, in the early 21st Century – we can look not only at stars, but detect the planets orbiting them, view distant galaxies, and even find black holes. I find it impossible to believe that Starfleet hasn’t at least scanned the entire Milky Way, detecting every star and star system – so how did they miss something so obviously artificial in nature?

Still frame from Star Trek: Picard showing Raffi and the ENH. — The symbol representing the octonary star system.

If Picard had explained that, for instance, the Romulans deployed a cloaking device to shield the octonary system, or that Starfleet did know about the system but couldn’t explore it because of its location behind the Neutral Zone, then I’d have nothing to complain about. But a fairly sizable plot point in one episode involved the crew of La Sirena finding out that this star system had been deliberately hidden from Romulan star charts… when surely the Federation, who aren’t that far away from it in the same region of the galaxy, would have been able to see it through their telescopes! Again, if this system was in a far-flung part of the Gamma or Delta Quadrants, I’d still argue that Starfleet should’ve detected it, but its distance could be its saving grace. However, the octonary star system was supposedly in or near Romulan space – meaning it’s a mere stone’s throw away from the Federation.

In The Next Generation, the Enterprise-D is transported by Q to a system that would’ve taken them years to reach at top speed. But Starfleet already had a designation for this system: J-25. To me, that implies that the Federation has already categorised at least the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, even if ships haven’t been able to explore all of these systems yet. So once again… how did Starfleet miss an entire eight-star solar system?

Number 4:
How did the Enterprise-E reach Earth so quickly from its position near the Neutral Zone?
Star Trek: First Contact

Still frame from Star Trek: The Original Series showing a map on the main viewscreen. — A map of part of the Neutral Zone.

Star Trek’s geography has always been kept vague, and I think that’s been to the franchise’s overall benefit! But there are a few places where the distance between planets and systems seems to be inconsistent. At the beginning of First Contact, for example, we have the Enterprise-E sent away from the main fleet to patrol the Neutral Zone – despite an imminent Borg incursion. But when the battle turns against the Federation fleet, Picard is able to get the Enterprise back to Sector 001 in what seems to be a matter of hours, if not minutes.

Prior Star Trek stories, including in The Original Series and The Next Generation, had seemed to depict the Romulan Empire as being on the Federation’s far border, with outlying colonies disappearing in The Neutral Zone and “Earth Outposts” in Balance of Terror all being depicted as far-flung places. Even if we assume that Romulus is relatively close to Earth, and that the Enterprise-E was very conveniently positioned at the near end of the Neutral Zone, getting back to Earth while the battle was still raging still feels like a tall order.

Still frame from Star Trek: First Contact showing the Enterprise-E firing phasers. — The Enterprise-E at the Battle of Sector 001.

Warp factors in Star Trek are kept pretty vague – so that could account for some of this apparent discrepancy, I suppose. If the Enterprise-E could travel significantly faster than the Enterprise-D, the travel time from the Neutral Zone could be reduced. Again, it still seems to rely on the ship being fortunate with its positioning, but maybe that’s something that could be accounted for by Captain Picard preparing for this eventuality!

Still, it’s always struck me as more than a little odd that the Enterprise-E was able to reach Earth in time. Not only was Picard able to follow the Borg Sphere through the portal it created, but there was even time to save the USS Defiant and Worf before destroying the main Borg Cube. A very quick turnaround indeed!

Number 5:
Why wasn’t there a debate about which route to take?
Star Trek: Voyager

Still frame from Star Trek: Voyager showing Captain Janeway. — Captain Janeway ordered her crew to take the most direct route back to Earth.

After the crew of the USS Voyager found themselves stranded on the far side of the galaxy, Captain Janeway very quickly ordered her crew to set a course for Earth. But the most direct route to Earth, through the Delta Quadrant and later the Beta Quadrant, took the ship right into the heart of Borg territory. Janeway knew this – Starfleet had at least some idea of where the Borg’s territory was located. Even if the Delta Quadrant offered the quickest way home, I’m surprised that nobody objected or tried to propose an alternative – especially when there was a good one.

Before getting transported to the Delta Quadrant, the USS Voyager made a stop at Deep Space Nine. And what’s located right next to the station? The Bajoran Wormhole! The wormhole offers a shortcut to the far side of the Gamma Quadrant – and heading in the direction of the wormhole rather than directly for Earth is something that Janeway and the crew could have considered.

Still frame from Star Trek: Voyager showing the rear of the USS Voyager. — The USS Voyager prepares to begin its long journey.

At this point in the timeline, the Dominion War hasn’t started – so that can’t be used as a justification for not heading that way. And while all we have to go on are non-canon sources, there’s at least some tentative evidence that the wormhole’s terminus is located roughly the same distance from the Ocampa homeworld as Earth. If that’s the case, it would be no slower to head that way. Based on the Borg threat alone, I would have argued that heading for the wormhole is actually the smarter play.

Obviously Voyager was pitched as “the Delta Quadrant show,” and we got some fantastic stories out of that premise. But given the way that Voyager’s writers handled the Borg when that time came… maybe there’s an out-of-universe argument to be made here, too! In any case, even if Janeway had ultimately made the decision to head back to Earth via the most direct route, some discussion or debate would have been an interesting inclusion as the series got going. It could’ve been a way to draw some dividing lines between Starfleet and Maquis characters – making more of the “one ship, two crews” idea that Voyager never really explored in much depth.

Number 6:
Why did Michael Burnham and the USS Discovery head into the far future?
Star Trek: Discovery

Still frame from Star Trek: Discovery showing the Red Angel opening a time-wormhole. — The USS Discovery approaches the time-wormhole.

Wait, stop! I know what you’re thinking: “this is the entire plot of Season 2 and was well-explained! They had to leave the 23rd Century to stop Control from wiping out all life in the galaxy!” And you’re correct, of course – but I’m not looking at the season as a whole or the entire plan. I’m focusing in on the final moments before Burnham opened the time-wormhole and the ship disappeared.

During the climactic battle against Control, the “assimilated” Captain Leland boarded the USS Discovery to attempt to seize control of the ship and its invaluable Sphere data. But after being cornered by Georgiou, Leland – Control’s human avatar – was defeated and killed. At that moment, the entire battle seemed to stop, and as Pike and his crew noted aboard the Enterprise, Control’s entire fleet of drone ships were simply hanging there, apparently dead or deactivated.

Still frame from Star Trek: Discovery showing Control's fleet. — Control’s fleet of drone-ships.

At this moment – before Burnham had entered the time-wormhole and before Saru, aboard Discovery, had followed her – there should have been a moment’s pause. Maybe Burnham herself couldn’t see what was going on, but Saru and Pike could, and even communicated with one another confirming the death of Captain Leland. There was still time for the time-wormhole to be closed, for Discovery and Enterprise to regroup, and potentially for Discovery to remain in the 23rd Century.

Even if Pike and Saru had decided that the risk of Control re-establishing itself was too great, it’s bizarre to me that neither of them even considered the possibility for a moment. With their enemy apparently vanquished – at least temporarily – and with Discovery’s spore drive meaning the ship could’ve evaded Control by jumping to a different part of the galaxy, there was time to regroup and come up with a plan that didn’t involve stranding everyone in a totally different century.

Number 7:
How could Starfleet possibly prioritise anything other than hanging onto Bajor and the wormhole?
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Still frame from What We Left Behind showing Deep Space Nine. — Deep Space Nine remastered, from the documentary *What We Left Behind.*

I adore Deep Space Nine’s Dominion War arc – it’s one of the best (and most under-appreciated) in the franchise, in my opinion. But as the war got started, Starfleet made what appears to be a catastrophic strategic blunder. In the episode Call to Arms, which ended the show’s spectacular fifth season, Sisko informs his crew that Starfleet won’t be sending any reinforcements to hold DS9 – their priorities lie elsewhere.

We later learn that Starfleet used the diversion of the attack on DS9 to destroy a Dominion-Cardassian shipyard… but given the strategic importance of the wormhole, and the fact that the Dominion is more than capable of producing vast quantities of ships and Jem’Hadar troops in the Gamma Quadrant, it never made sense to me that Starfleet wouldn’t have thrown every available resource at the galaxy’s most strategically vital location.

Still frame from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine showing a battle in space. — DS9 could only hold off the Dominion-Cardassian attack for a short time.

The minefield that the crew of DS9 erected bought the Federation some time (as did the subsequent intervention by the Prophets), but Starfleet must’ve known that, even with the best will in the world, the minefield wouldn’t last forever. With the Dominion in control of Bajor and DS9, they could work on shutting it down without interference. The successful attack on the Toros III shipyard may have been little more than a morale-boosting pyrrhic victory.

In war, you’d almost always rather be defending a position than having to attack – and it would have been far easier to try to hold onto DS9 while the station was still under Federation control than to try to re-capture it later after the Dominion had been given a chance to entrench. For a number of reasons, the decision to essentially abandon the station is questionable at best! If part of the story had been to show Starfleet’s admiralty as out-of-touch or incompetent, that might’ve worked. But that didn’t happen, either, so I’m just left wondering what went wrong at Starfleet Command! Still, at least we got some spectacular episodes out of this storyline.

Number 8:
What happened to Dr Pulaski?
Star Trek: The Next Generation

Still frame from Star Trek: The Next Generation showing Diana Muldaur as Dr Katherine Pulaski. — Dr Pulaski in the episode *Time Squared*.

Although I really liked the character of Dr Pulaski in Season 2 – you can find a longer piece about her here, if you’re interested – I think it’s fair to say that she didn’t really knock it out of the park! A letter-writing campaign from viewers and an intervention by Patrick Stewart contributed to Gates McFadden being re-hired in time for Season 3… and then Dr Pulaski was just never mentioned again.

The nature of her departure always struck me as odd, and it feels more than a little disrespectful to both an actor and a character who, for better or worse, had been a part of the series for an entire season. When Dr Crusher disappeared at the beginning of Season 2, there was at least some effort to pay lip service to her absence – it was explained that she was on another assignment at Starfleet Medical on Earth. Dr Pulaski didn’t even get that, and to the best of my knowledge has never been so much as mentioned since.

Still frame from Star Trek: The Next Generation showing several characters on the bridge. — Dr Pulaski with Riker, Worf, and Troi on the bridge.

We can argue the toss about the benefits or drawbacks of keeping her around – and I go over that in a bit more detail in my character study which I’ve linked above, if you want to see my thoughts on that. But whether you think she was a fun addition to the crew, an annoyance, or whether you just liked Dr Crusher better… you gotta admit that it’s odd that she didn’t get so much as a log entry from Captain Picard to acknowledge her departure.

The second season of The Next Generation was my “first contact” with the Star Trek franchise. The first episode I can solidly remember watching is The Royale – which Dr Pulaski is barely in! But maybe that’s why I’ve always had an appreciation for her character. I like the dynamic that she brought to the crew as someone a bit older, a bit less personable, and who had history with some characters and seemed to be developing new relationships with others. There have been opportunities in recent years for Dr Pulaski to have returned – or at least to have been mentioned. But I doubt that will happen now!

Number 9:
Who invented the cloaking device and when did Starfleet first encounter it?
Star Trek: Enterprise

Still frame from Star Trek: Enterprise showing Enterprise and two Romulan ships. — Two 22nd Century Romulan vessels de-cloaking.

This is a point that I have a personal “head canon” explanation for that I’d love to elaborate on in a full article one day! I’ll get into that in a moment, but for now, suffice to say that this is a classic example of a “prequel problem.” In short, The Original Series first season episode Balance of Terror clearly established that the Federation had never encountered a ship that could cloak, but Enterprise and Discovery – both set prior to The Original Series but produced decades later – show Romulan and Klingon ships operating under cloak and Starfleet being fully aware of this.

This raises several questions! What are cloaking devices, how do they work, and why would Starfleet not share the details of their existence with its captains, at the very least? Kirk and his crew seemed shocked that the Romulan vessel could cloak – but the Romulans had been seen cloaking and de-cloaking more than a century earlier, as had other races like the Suliban. We can debate whether the words “cloak” or “cloaking device” were spoken in those episodes – but the technology appears to be functionally the same, so semantics won’t cut it here!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showing a Romulan vessel cloaking. — A Romulan ship engaging its cloaking device in the 23rd Century.

When Enterprise was on the air I wasn’t a regular viewer, but I remember that I did catch the episode Minefield – in which a Romulan vessel is seen de-cloaking – and that led to me creating my own “head canon” explanation for this problem. I remember seeing debates on Star Trek message boards in the early 2000s about this topic, and I felt that all the producers would need to do would be to explain, somehow, that there are different types of cloaking devices. Perhaps Starfleet felt that they’d cracked the code, but the Romulans then invented a newer and better cloak. Perhaps there was even a cloaking and un-cloaking arms race between the factions.

In short, I think Star Trek can just about get away with this one by explaining that, when Starfleet figured out how to penetrate one style or type of cloaking technology, the Romulans or Klingons would refine it, re-modulate it, or invent something new. It’s not a perfect explanation, but it plugs most of the hole that Enterprise and Discovery have dug. I still think it would be nice to see something like this made official, in-universe – and let’s be honest: it would be better if these prequel-created plot holes didn’t exist in the first place!

Number 10:
What’s up with the inconsistent uniform changes?

Still frame from Star Trek: The Next Generation showing Captain Rachel Garrett. — Captain Rachel Garrett of the Enterprise-C.

The series premiere of The Next Generation established that the Enterprise-D’s voyages took place almost 75 years after Kirk’s tenure in the captain’s chair, but the “monster maroon” uniforms from The Original Series films would often make appearances in flashbacks or episodes set in the past. Starfleet appeared to have stuck with that design for decades, albeit with a few minor tweaks. Using those uniforms for such a long time already felt odd, but then things started to take a turn!

The Next Generation switched uniforms at the beginning of Season 3 for its main characters, but the Season 1-2 uniform variant was still showing up on secondary characters and background characters well into Season 4. There was also a total mess in Generations, which seemed to depict a moment of transition from one uniform style to another – although Deep Space Nine seemed to have established that space stations might use different uniforms from starships? I’m still not sure about that!

Still frame from Star Trek: Lower Decks showing the four main characters. — Two different uniform styles seen in *Lower Decks*.

Deep Space Nine made an abrupt switch to the gray-shouldered uniforms midway through its run (to coincide with First Contact’s premiere), and that was okay, I guess. Far more of an instant transition than we’d seen in Generations or The Next Generation, but not necessarily a problem. But then the alternate reality films and post-2017 TV shows have really shaken things up! I’ve said before that I don’t like to get hung up on minor things like aesthetic choices, and I was generally accepting of Discovery’s all-blue look, even if it was supposedly set in between The Cage and The Original Series whose uniforms are well-known. But Lower Decks definitely complicated things by seeming to suggest that different “tiers” of starship would get different uniforms… for some reason.

In short, Star Trek hasn’t always been consistent or clear with the way Starfleet uniforms are used, how long they’re in use for, or which types of officer/crewman should wear what type of uniform. When watching an individual episode – or even a whole season of TV – this doesn’t really seem all that noticeable. But when you pick out different stories or take a big-picture look… these inconsistencies stick out.

So that’s it!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showing the USS Enterprise. — The USS Enterprise in *Strange New Worlds*.

We’ve nitpicked the Star Trek franchise and pulled out ten little things that have always bugged me! As I said at the beginning, none of these really spoil Star Trek for me, and I’m more than willing to overlook minor inconsistencies or small plot holes – especially in strong, otherwise entertaining stories. But when you step back and take a look at Star Trek – or any fictional world, come to that – there are always gonna be things that don’t quite make sense or that don’t seem to fit with the rest of the setting.

All of this was just for fun, and I hope it was an interesting look at a handful of minor issues that have emerged over the years. When a franchise has been running on and off for close to sixty years, that kind of thing is inevitable! Although I’ve been feeling a bit burned out on Star Trek of late, it was still enjoyable to jump back into some of these stories – several of which I hadn’t seen for years – to put together this list.

Until next time – and Live Long and Prosper!

The Star Trek franchise – including all films and series discussed above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. Most Star Trek films and episodes are available to stream on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the service is available. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Star Trek: Picard Episode Review – Season 3, Episode 6: The Bounty

Tue 28.03.23Wed 29.03.23Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Picard Seasons 1-3. Spoilers are also present for the following Star Trek productions: The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Discovery.

The Bounty feels like an episode that was made for fans. More than any other episode of Picard – at least since Season 1’s Nepenthe – I felt that the writers were leaning as heavily as they could into the lore and history of the Star Trek franchise, plucking some of those nostalgic chords for no other reason than to harken back to classic episodes, films, and stories that Trekkies will remember with fondness. There were some incredibly powerful emotional moments as a result, and I will never tire of seeing close-up shots of some of the franchise’s most beautiful starships!

Despite that, however, The Bounty was an imperfect outing overall – an episode with a couple of story beats that felt incomplete or just abrupt, and that resurrected a character who I felt had been appropriately and perfectly laid to rest. Moments of nostalgia spread throughout The Bounty felt absolutely magical… for the most part. But I fear this side of things was overdone and may have tried to carry the episode just a little too far. There will be repercussions for the story as a whole as the second half of the season – and the final act of Picard – gets underway.

Let’s talk first about something that had been teased in pre-season trailers and had got a lot of Trekkies chattering excitedly: the “return” of Professor Moriarty. For me, the way this ultimately came across in The Bounty was a let-down; a textbook example of how not to over-hype a character. Moriarty, in my view, should never have appeared in trailers and marketing material for two reasons. Firstly, his cameo here was incredibly brief, with Moriarty getting only a couple of lines and one very short moment of action. Secondly, and perhaps most significantly, this isn’t actually Moriarty.

This version of Moriarty was revealed to be a projection; an illusion created from the decaying remnants of Data’s memories. And that’s totally fine in the context of the story. Had I gone into the episode not expecting to see Moriarty nor knowing he was going to be included in the season, I’d have almost certainly been surprised and impressed. But the build-up to Moriarty’s return had been a significant moment in pre-season trailers going back several months… and seen through that lens, I felt more than a little let down – as if the promised return was nothing more than a bait-and-switch.

Moriarty’s cameo in *The Bounty* was minor.

Ro Laren’s surprise return to Star Trek last week had been kept secret – and it worked phenomenally well as a result. I can’t help but feel that Daniel Davis’ return as Moriarty should have been treated the same way, as keeping Moriarty out of pre-season trailers would have made his return feel impactful rather than underwhelming. There was scope to do more with Moriarty – and having wondered for months why he might be involved and what kind of a role he could play… I just feel like this cameo was over-hyped. Partly that’s my own fault… but partly it’s Paramount’s marketing, which deliberately over-inflated Moriarty’s role in pre-season trailers.

Trying to assess this inclusion on its own merit, though, I think it would’ve been a lot of fun were it not for being basically spoiled ahead of time. Visiting a black site like Daystrom Station only to encounter a dangerous foe from the past, having to figure out what was going on and how to defeat him, while at the same time he’s unable to be harmed… it was a setup that should have been tense and exciting, while at the same time being a great deal of fun to welcome back a character that I don’t think anyone could’ve truly expected. But unfortunately it didn’t stick the landing – and that’s all because this surprise was spoiled by pre-season trailers.

Moriarty’s return had been spoiled by pre-season trailers.

Let’s get all of the disappointments out of the way up front and look at another let-down! I always like to caveat these particular kinds of criticisms by noting that Paramount doesn’t have unlimited financial resources, and that it isn’t fair to compare Star Trek to productions from the likes of Disney or HBO that have significantly more money to play with. But even with that caveat… I felt that there was a scene or sequence that was sorely missing from The Bounty.

Jack Crusher and Sidney La Forge teamed up to “borrow” a cloaking device from the titular Bounty – the Klingon Bird-of-Prey used by Captain Kirk and co. during the events of The Voyage Home. But this daring heist took place entirely off-screen… and I just feel disappointed by that.

Even with the caveat that Paramount doesn’t have unlimited money, let’s consider this story beat and see how it could’ve played out. First up, there are only two characters involved, which obviously makes it a lot more manageable from a practical point of view. Secondly, it wouldn’t necessarily have required the construction of multiple sets. Between the AR wall (which I know is in Toronto, not California where Picard is produced) and pre-existing sets, surely it must’ve been possible to recreate a small portion of a Bird-of-Prey – even if it wasn’t the bridge. Just a corridor or something where we could’ve seen Jack and Sidney beaming aboard. Alternatively, the episode could’ve seen Jack and Sidney take the USS Defiant’s cloaking device, and a small part of that ship could’ve been created.

Although some creative(ish) storytelling and writing tried to present this aspect of the story as a bit of a surprise, it was actually pretty clear what Jack hoped to do, and even though I know we don’t always need to see every moment unfold in order for a story to be entertaining… we absolutely could have in this instance. In an episode that was already leaning heavily on the crutch of nostalgia, think how much fun it could have been if we’d actually been able to visit one of the ships at the museum instead of just seeing their recreated CGI husks.

So I’m afraid to say that this aspect of The Bounty feels like it has a pretty glaring omission.

Jack formulated a plan… but his plan took place entirely off-screen.

I can’t wait any longer to talk about Data! This is a huge point, not just for Season 3 and potentially not only for Picard, either, but for Star Trek as a whole. The resurrection of seemingly-dead characters is something the franchise has done before – and done quite well, at least in some instances. Technobabble can be used to excuse and justify these things in a sci-fi setting, so from a technical standpoint there really isn’t much to say about the whole “Data, Lore, B4, and other androids are all stuck inside the same ‘golem’ body” idea that The Bounty introduced. I think it clears the bar from that point of view.

But I can’t forgive it as a narrative point.

One of the few highlights of the two-part Season 1 finale was how poignant and beautiful the scenes between Picard and Data were. Eighteen years after Data’s death in Nemesis hadn’t really been given a sufficiently emotional payoff, Et in Arcadia Ego righted that wrong, and Data was finally laid to rest as Picard entered the digital afterlife. Those scenes did so much to elevate what was an otherwise disappointing finale – but more than that, they felt final and conclusive; a definitive but also appropriate end for a character we first met way back in 1987.

Data’s resurrection is a difficult storyline to get behind.

By allowing Data to permanently die, Picard helped him achieve his lifelong goal of becoming more human – because what could possibly be more human, for an artificial life-form who doesn’t age, than dying? This was one of the most impactful moments in all of Season 1 for me, and seeing Data come to the definitive end of his life, even as Picard was being reborn in a new body, went a long way to making the journey feel worthwhile.

The Bounty has now undermined and even overwritten that powerful emotional moment – and I fear that it has no reason for doing so other than the selfish desire of some of the show’s producers to play with the character of Data once more. I feel like I’m watching children playing with action figures; sure, Data was “dead,” but that doesn’t matter now. Pretend it didn’t happen, pick up the doll, and start playing a new game.

He even kind of resembles an action figure in a box…

One of my biggest concerns going into Season 3 – and really going back a whole year to the announcement of these actors returning – is that the story would end up feeling not only tacked-on and unnecessary, but like a childish mess. Bringing back these characters has to serve a purpose, but it also has to make narrative sense within a long-established world. More than that, it has to feel like it’s being done for more than just nakedly commercialised nostalgia – and the resurrection of Data, who had been permanently killed off twice, has crossed that line for me.

As we saw in both Seasons 1 and 2, there are ways to include Brent Spiner – if that had been deemed necessary – without resurrecting the character of Data. Pre-season trailers seemed to indicate that Spiner would be playing Lore, and while I wasn’t wild about that as I’ve never been a huge Lore fan, it seemed like a passable compromise if the show’s producers wanted to get as close as possible to a TNG reunion.

I have no doubt that there will be some kind of narrative payoff to Data being “back,” and I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that it will be something I find at least bearable. But based on what we got in The Bounty, I’m sceptical. This resurrection feels like it serves two purposes: the desire of the showrunner and writers to play with their favourite action figures, and the commercial wishes of Paramount as it hopes to offset some of its huge losses by nakedly playing the nostalgia card. Neither excuse, quite frankly, is good enough – and neither comes close to justifying a pretty clunky technobabble explanation for resurrecting this long-dead character.

I keep thinking back to The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock as a point of comparison, because I think that may be another factor in Data’s resurrection here; it’s intended to mirror Spock’s. But in that story, Spock’s resurrection had been teed up at the end of The Wrath of Khan in a scene that showed Spock’s coffin lying, undamaged, on the surface of the Genesis Planet. Not only that, but these two stories were told one after the other. Data’s death happened back in 2002 – and his supposedly final end came more than a full season ago. While there are echoes of the Spock story here… that one feels a lot stronger, and seems to have been written with more of a sense of purpose. Data’s story, in contrast, feels muddled and disjointed; the consequence of different writers and writing teams having fundamentally contradictory ideas for where to take the character – and how and even whether to end his life.

A glimpse behind-the-scenes during *The Bounty’*s production.

Star Trek can successfully pull off a death-and-rebirth narrative, so I don’t think that is a problem in and of itself. We got one such example involving Jean-Luc Picard in the Season 1 finale of Picard – and another even more recently with Book at the end of Discovery’s fourth season. But here, with Data, having seen him so beautifully and sensitively laid to rest in Season 1, and with his death in Nemesis having come more than twenty years ago… it doesn’t work, at least not for me.

Rather than feeling like Spock’s rebirth, or even Picard’s in Season 1, Data’s resurrection reminds me a lot more of Elnor’s, which came at the very end of Season 2. Elnor was, like Data, definitively dead. And like Data, his death had a significant emotional impact. Raffi’s entire Season 2 storyline saw her grieving and coming to terms with his death – and that storyline was, for much of the season, one of the few that seemed to be working. Elnor’s last-second resurrection undid all of that, damaged the overall narrative of the season, felt unearned, unnecessary, and just plain stupid. And many of those same points – particularly those about undermining an emotional storyline and feeling ultimately unnecessary – are present here as well.

As much fun as it could be to have Data back and to get reunions with Geordi, Picard, and the rest of the crew, I’m struggling with this storyline.

Though it may have been intended to echo Spock’s rebirth from *The Search for Spock*… Data’s resurrection didn’t work anywhere near as well.

Data did tell us something very interesting, though: the “real” theft from Daystrom Station that the rogue changelings wanted to cover up was that of Jean-Luc Picard’s corpse. Precisely why Section 31 wanted to keep Picard’s body, and what they might’ve done with it for the past couple of years, wasn’t made clear… and that’s already kind of odd, when you think about it. Could there be a reason why Picard’s and Kirk’s bodies were both kept at Daystrom Station? Perhaps something connected to the Nexus or the events of Generations?

One thing that we learned from The Bounty that Picard and Jack have in common is a diagnosis of Irumodic syndrome. Given that the rogue changelings are also chasing after him, perhaps that has something to do with it – but we’ll save the speculation for my next theory post. Suffice to say it was an interesting development, and one that brings the conspiracy several steps closer to Picard himself.

Apparently the rogue changelings have absconded with Picard’s corpse.

But all of that came at the end of the episode, and there were plenty of fun or at least interesting moments before we reached those revelations. As I said, The Bounty really feels like an episode that was made for fans – or at least that had moments of pure fan-service that I absolutely lapped up.

Visiting the Fleet Museum was an opportunity to show off some beautiful CGI recreations of some of Star Trek’s most well-known ships. The USS Defiant, the Enterprise-A, and of course the titular Bounty were all present. Seven of Nine and Jack taking a closer look at the USS Voyager was an especially sweet moment, and several familiar musical stings accompanied these ships as they were shown on screen. I adore much of the music of Star Trek – especially the films from the ’80s and the shows of the ’90s – so hearing these short clips was enough, as Scotty once said, to bring a tear to my eye.

This sequence was a perfect “made for the fans” moment. It was a total nostalgia overload, but one that made sense in the context of the story and that was just the right length. Given what we’ve just been talking about, there must’ve been a temptation to drag this out and perhaps go overboard with the nostalgia plays, talking about each ship in more detail. But here, less was more – and the sequence, which only lasted about three minutes, came across beautifully as a result.

Since reappearing as the Titan’s second-in-command, I hadn’t really been blown away by Seven of Nine’s inclusion in the story of Season 3 so far. She served a narrative function on a couple of occasions – by rerouting the Titan against Captain Shaw’s orders and by identifying the first changeling infiltrator by using her real name – but she hadn’t had that much to say, nor many scenes in which she took centre-stage. Pairing her up with Jack on this occasion was fun – and we got to see how two individuals who are very different from one another, yet have a connection as Starfleet “outsiders,” were able to find some common ground.

Seven became emotional when thinking back to her time aboard the USS Voyager.

Seven’s line to Jack about the USS Voyager having been her home was incredibly touching, and it’s great to see Picard embracing the legacy of Voyager in such an overt way. I’ve said this before going all the way back to Season 1, but Seven’s transformation has been wonderful to see and more than a little cathartic. Seeing her in uniform, geeking out about starship designs with Jack, was another example of this.

Sticking with Jack, I spoke last week about how his hallucinatory experiences were something that hit close to home for me, and I don’t really want to get into all of that again; it isn’t an easy thing to think about or talk too much about! But suffice to say that I’m convinced that there must be more to what’s going on with Jack than simply “Irumodic syndrome” – though the connection between Jack’s hallucinations and the genetic disease that affected Picard was handled well in the story.

Jack’s glowing red eyes from a couple of episodes ago would seem to serve as the best argument for there being more to this story than an illness, as would Jack’s out-of-nowhere combat prowess last week. And that’s before we account for the changelings’ desire to capture him… for some reason. We’ll go into specific ideas about where Jack’s story could go in my next theory update, but for now I think it’s enough to say that there’s more going on here than we’re aware of at this juncture.

I actually really liked Jack in The Bounty. His conversations with both Picard and Seven were great, but for me his standout scenes actually came with Sidney La Forge, who was also excellent in this episode. Like their parents before them, they make a great team – and who knows, maybe romance could be in their future!

Sticking with the La Forge family, I think we’ll briefly talk about Geordi’s other daughter. And “briefly” is all we’ll need, because unfortunately Alandra La Forge didn’t get much to say or do in this episode. There’s potential in the “sibling rivalry” idea that Sidney and Alandra seemed, at first, to embody – but if that’s going to be basically dumped now that the girls are both firmly on the same team… without wanting to be unkind, I just don’t see where Alandra is going to fit.

Sidney La Forge got a genuinely great storyline this week as she confronted her father for both his unwillingness to help with the mission at hand and, by extension, for favouring her sister as she was more inclined toward engineering. Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut, who plays Sidney, absolutely excelled in the scene with the far more experienced LeVar Burton, and genuinely sold me on this family argument. Most of us can relate, in some way I daresay, to having this kind of conversation with a parent or relative, and I was beyond impressed with the performance that she gave.

For the first time in the season so far, Sidney got a lot to do.

As for Geordi himself, I can see some fans potentially taking umbrage with the idea that he’d be unwilling to help Picard, or that he’d be so fearful of repercussions that he’d put his family first. It isn’t necessarily a fun story for Geordi, nor is it one that presents him in the best or most heroic, selfless way. But what I’d say in defence of this story is that it’s very human, and is again something that feels incredibly relatable.

One of the themes of Season 3 that we’ve seen through Picard’s conversations with Dr Crusher and Captain Shaw in particular is the idea that Picard himself is a kind of maelstrom; a figure around whom danger, disaster, war, and even death have a tendency to swirl and coalesce. Geordi’s initial reluctance to throw himself and his family into another Picard adventure is a continuation of this theme – and it fits not only with what’s been established before, but with what we’ve seen of Picard over the course of some thirty-five years.

Geordi was initially reluctant to join Picard’s mission.

Because past iterations of Star Trek were primarily episodic affairs, the franchise hasn’t always been able to take a look at some of the longer-term consequences of the adventures and misadventures that some of its key characters have had. There have been attempts to do so: episodes like Family in The Next Generation, for example, or Worf’s scenes with Ezri Dax in Deep Space Nine’s seventh season. But until Discovery and Picard came along, these were limited to a few episodes or character arcs, and didn’t get to go into as much detail.

Parts of Picard haven’t gotten this quite right, particularly in the show’s lacklustre second season. But here, the idea that even some of Picard’s closest friends would struggle to rejoin his cause because of the danger they know it’ll put them in feels surprisingly natural. Having worked with Jean-Luc Picard for fifteen years or more, Geordi saw first-hand the danger many of Picard’s missions posed, and wanting to keep his children away from that is a perfectly valid and understandable reaction – even if we may not like or agree with it on the surface!

Geordi felt that teaming up with Picard would endanger his family.

There was a danger that this part of the story could’ve felt like an artificial speedbump; a delay to slow down the Titan’s progress so other storylines could unfold at Daystrom Station or with the heist at the Fleet Museum. And part of me wants to call it that – to say that Geordi’s rather abrupt turnaround after an entire episode of dragging his feet makes the whole thing redundant. But actually, having had some time to think about it, the positives outweigh the negatives and Geordi’s storyline not only made narrative sense, but played into key themes that have been running for the duration of the season so far.

It isn’t always fun to see an heroic character behaving in a more rational, self-preserving, and more human way. And I get that – Geordi doesn’t feel like the selfless hero for much of The Bounty. But if every main character was totally virtuous, selfless, and pure of heart… well, that would make for a pretty bland and one-dimensional story, wouldn’t it? Geordi has family considerations here, and the idea of wanting to keep one’s children safe – even if that means risking some big, nefarious scheme being able to unfold… it’s relatable and understandable.

Geordi was very relatable in *The Bounty*.

Although we’ve had some wonderful adventures and powerful emotional moments with all of these characters over the years, here in Picard is where we’re seeing them at the most human and relatable that they’ve ever been – and Geordi encapsulated that feeling for me in The Bounty. I’d defend his characterisation here as not straying from his presentation in The Next Generation – but rather being an evolution of it, showing how conflicted he feels between the fear he has for his family’s safety and his loyalty to Picard and desire to help.

It almost goes without saying that LeVar Burton nailed this complex presentation. It was always going to be wonderful to welcome him back to Star Trek after such a long absence – but to see such a masterful and nuanced performance from the veteran actor was truly astonishing. The character of Geordi La Forge was cast perfectly in 1987 – and as one of the stars of Roots, LeVar Burton was one of the best-known actors in the cast as The Next Generation entered production on its first season. Geordi got some great spotlight episodes across The Next Generation’s run – The Enemy, I Borg, The Next Phase, and Relics all being examples that jump to mind. But here, in The Bounty, we really got to see what LeVar Burton can do with this wonderful character. And it was riveting.

LeVar Burton gave an outstanding performance and was a joy to watch.

Geordi’s inclusion in the story was also an opportunity for the rather superfluous Captain Shaw to have a fun and light-hearted scene. Having set up Shaw as a former engineer a couple of episodes back, that backstory got a truly cute payoff in The Bounty as the Titan’s captain found himself tongue-tied and starstruck when coming face to face with one of his engineering heroes. I felt echoes of Lower Decks’ protagonist Boimler in the way Shaw reacted to Geordi – and it was a nice change of pace for a character who’s been standoffish.

However, I maintain that the story of Season 3 is not well-served by having so many senior officers concentrated aboard the Titan. Riker’s (surely temporary) absence may have alleviated that for now, but the Titan is still blessed with an Admiral, at least one Captain, and now a Commodore as well. Captain Shaw repeatedly draws the short straw – understandably, perhaps. But as we saw yet again this week, big decisions aboard his ship are taken without much input from him.

Here’s a question to ponder: are there too many changelings in the plot?

That might sound silly given that the rogue changelings are our main adversaries, but hear me out. Changelings are, if you think about it, kind of overpowered from a narrative standpoint – and their new ability to mimic humanoids in far more detail than ever before has only increased their relative power. We’re at a point in the story where it’s difficult to know who is and isn’t a changeling – and that could make for an exciting and tense mystery… or a frustrating experience!

Past stories involving changeling infiltrators were more cautious, and I mentioned last time that the Deep Space Nine duology Homefront and Paradise Lost made sure to include the detail that there were only four active changeling infiltrators. If, as Ro Laren told us, Starfleet is compromised and there may be multiple changelings aboard many ships in the fleet, it risks making the story hard to follow, and throwing an uncomfortable cloud of suspicion over practically every character arc and plot point. I don’t think we’re at a stage yet where it’s a huge problem… but it could make the story difficult to follow and needs to be handled with a degree of care.

We aren’t always going to be able to know who is and isn’t a changeling in a story like this one…

That only leaves us with the away mission to Daystrom Station. It was fantastic to see Riker and Worf teaming up for an away mission once again! Worf was often one of Riker’s go-to officers when putting together an away team during their adventures aboard the Enterprise-D, so it felt incredibly appropriate and fitting for them to work together again on this occasion.

Raffi was an interesting inclusion here, and after she and Worf had worked over the past few episodes to uncover the Daystrom connection, it made sense for her to join the mission along with them. But after they accessed the chamber where Data was being held, Raffi kind of felt like a bit of an unnecessary addition. She didn’t have the connection to Data, nor the history with him that Riker and Worf had, to give her much to say, and the few lines she got at this point felt more like exposition than anything else.

Raffi’s reunion with Seven of Nine was also cut short, and I hope it’s something we’ll see more of before the season ends. As disappointing as Season 2 was, and in spite of the problems Raffi’s storyline ran into in the final episode, the developing relationship between Seven and Raffi was one of the season’s stronger storylines. It humanises both characters, gives each of them something to fight for and reach for, and if there is to be any kind of “Captain Seven” show in Star Trek’s future, this relationship, one way or another, will be part of it. With both characters aboard the Titan, I hope there’ll be time in the remaining episodes to reunite Seven and Raffi for a scene or two.

There are already breakdowns and lists of all of the miscellaneous objects and items that were being stored at Daystrom Station that fans have compiled, so I won’t just list all of them here! But some of these little easter eggs were great fun, and in an episode that was all about callbacks to past iterations of Star Trek, this kind of storage facility was a great way to include many smaller references. I doubt very much that any of the stored items at Daystrom Station will prove to be important to the plot, but it was a cute way for Picard to pay homage to characters and stories from across the franchise’s 850+ episodes and films.

Captain Kirk’s body is apparently stored at Daystrom Station too.

The away mission to Daystrom Station felt tense and exciting – but the sets used for the station were, once again, seriously under-lit and far too dark. This has been a problem that’s been running all season long, but the especially dark corridors of Daystrom Station were perhaps the worst example so far. It wasn’t easy to follow all of the action as Worf, Raffi, and Riker were sneaking around and battling their way into and out of the station’s central chamber.

The fight sequences themselves, despite the aforementioned lighting problem, were decent, though. I genuinely felt that Riker was in danger as he raced off to buy time for the others to escape – and that’s really the first time so far this season that Picard has managed to give me that feeling. After Ro’s death the stakes have been raised significantly, and as I said before the season aired, it’s possible that not all of our heroes will make it to the end in one piece! Riker escaped… this time. But it was touch-and-go for a minute there in an incredibly tense and well-performed fight sequence.

I confess that Vadic being a changeling is still something I’m getting to grips with. I said last time that I interpreted her scene with Floaty McFloatface as Vadic being a humanoid who had some kind of symbiotic relationship with a changeling… but it seems, instead, that she’s somehow two changelings in one body? The mechanics of it bug me, at least from an in-universe perspective. We know that changelings can communicate by linking, and we’ve seen in Picard that they also seem to have developed a clicking language of their own – so why does Vadic physically cut Floaty McFloatface off of herself and have a chat with them in English? Obviously the answer is “to make it a more interesting story.” But that isn’t always a satisfying explanation!

But still, we got absolute, indisputable proof this week that Vadic is a changeling. I’m excited to see her finally being able to interact with someone other than her silent crew and Floaty McFloatface, and there’s definitely potential in her interrogations of Riker and Troi – assuming it is the real Troi! I’m a tad disappointed, however, that Vadic now doesn’t seem to have any personal connection to Picard. Something may yet be revealed in that regard, but if she’s a changeling it would seem to rule it out.

Vadic is clearly based on characters like Khan, and that kind of villain can be truly delicious to watch. But so far, Vadic hasn’t managed to capture much of that feeling for me. Her over-the-top performance actually feels out of place right now, and while I still want to see her defeated and her plan stopped, on a personal level I think there’s a disconnect between Vadic and the audience. Six episodes in and we’ve only had a few short moments with her, we’ve already seen her defeated once, and her over-the-top characterisation feels more like it’s treading water than going anywhere.

But now that she’s captured and assaulted Riker, perhaps we’ll finally start to get some of that burning, passionate dislike that Vadic hasn’t managed to garner so far. I certainly hope so! A villain so maniacal should be able to drum up that sort of a reaction – and now that she’s captured not just one but perhaps two of our heroes… there’s the potential, at least, for an improvement on the villainous side of the season.

So I think I’ve touched on all of the points I had in my notes for this outing. The Bounty was a beautiful, nostalgic romp through Star Trek’s past in more ways than one… but an episode that didn’t stick the landing on a couple of key points. It can be difficult to fairly judge these mid-season episodes, though, until we know how character arcs and storylines that have been set up will ultimately be paid off – something I’m especially aware of in Picard, given the way Seasons 1 and 2 both ended. So perhaps we’ll be able to look back at some elements of The Bounty a little more kindly in retrospect.

With Troi, Geordi, and the Data-Lore-Soong-B4 golem now in the picture, the cast is complete and the reunion has finally happened. Was the tail end of the sixth part of a ten-episode season the right moment… or should most of the rest of the characters have gotten back together sooner? I guess that’s another point where only time will tell!

There are four episodes left for this story to come to an explosive and exciting conclusion – and it feels as if most of the pieces are now in play. In spite of The Bounty’s shortcomings, I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

A few scattered final thoughts:

For such an important facility, it’s kind of silly that Daystrom Station isn’t fully staffed and well-guarded – especially considering it’s already been attacked and robbed once.
What could Section 31 possibly want with Kirk’s dead body? And what is “Project Phoenix?”
This is the first mention of Section 31 in Picard – could that be a hint at a resurrection of the Section 31 series that’s been languishing in development hell?
I’d have given anything to see Picard and the crew beam aboard the Enterprise-A…
Geordi was very concerned about his kids… but was perfectly fine with ditching his wife!
Including a sequence from Encounter at Farpoint – and finding a way to make it relevant to the story – was incredibly sweet.

Star Trek: Picard Seasons 1-3 are available to stream now on Paramount+ in the United States and other countries and territories where the service is available, and on Amazon Prime Video in the UK and around the world. The Star Trek franchise – including Picard and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

What If…? Star Trek Edition!

Mon 18.10.21Sun 30.03.25Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for the following Star Trek productions: The Search for Spock, The Next Generation Season 3, Nemesis, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Star Trek 2009.

Over on Disney+, Marvel has recently put out a series of animated short films with a very interesting premise. These shorts asked what might’ve happened in the Marvel universe if circumstances had changed, characters had taken different actions, or things had ended differently.

Alternate history has always been a subject that fascinated me! So with that in mind, we’re going to consider a few “what ifs” from the Star Trek franchise – from an in-universe point of view, naturally! There are more than 800 Star Trek stories at time of writing, meaning that there are literally hundreds of potential scenarios where a different decision or different outcome could have radically changed the Star Trek galaxy.

Inspired by Marvel’s *What If…?* series, we’re going to put a Star Trek spin on this concept!

As always, please keep in mind that all of this is one person’s subjective opinion! I’m indulging in fan-fiction and pure speculation based on my own thoughts about how some of these scenarios might’ve unfolded. If you hate all of my ideas, or something you like wasn’t included, that’s okay! Within the Star Trek fandom there’s enough room for different opinions.

With that out of the way, let’s consider some Star Trek “what ifs!”

Number 1: What if… Captain Picard couldn’t be saved after being assimilated?

This isn’t going to go the way you might be expecting! In this scenario, the events of The Best of Both Worlds play out as we saw on screen: Picard is captured, the Borg defeat the Federation at Wolf-359, Riker and the Enterprise race to confront them over Earth, and Captain Picard is able to communicate to Data how to defeat them. The Borg cube explodes, and the Federation lives to fight another day! But unfortunately Captain Picard then dies – severing his connection to the Collective and/or removing his Borg implants was too much for his body and mind to take, and he doesn’t survive beyond the end of The Best of Both Worlds, Part II.

As Starfleet and the crew of the Enterprise-D mourn the loss of Captain Picard, Captain Edward Jellico is assigned to the ship as his replacement, and many of the events later in The Next Generation proceed unaltered. As Q would tell Picard in the episode Tapestry, even without him in command the Enterprise-D and Starfleet would be fine.

The Federation, armed with new knowledge of the Borg, developed new ships like the Defiant-class and Sovereign-class, and were even able to defend against a second Borg incursion a few years later – albeit at great cost. But the loss of Captain Picard would have a huge impact later, in the year 2379. A coup on Romulus brings a human clone to power – Shinzon. Shinzon’s plot to destroy the Federation was only stopped because of his personal connection to Picard, a connection that fascinated him and that he hoped could save his life.

Without that obstacle in the way, Shinzon sees no reason to wait or to play nice with the Federation before implementing his plan. He takes his flagship, the Reman warbird Scimitar, and heads straight for Earth before the Federation even has time to respond diplomatically to the change in government on Romulus. Under cloak, the Scimitar deploys its thalaron radiation weapon – massacring all life on planet Earth and crippling the Federation government and Starfleet command.

Without Captain Picard to pose a distraction, Shinzon was able to launch his attack on Earth.

With war now assured between the Romulans and Federation, Romulan commanders who had been sceptical of Shinzon rally to the cause. All-out war breaks out between the Romulan Empire and the residual Federation, but without a government or command structure to provide a coordinated response, and seriously demoralised from the attack on Earth, things don’t go well for Starfleet. The Scimitar proves to be an unstoppable force all on its own, and its thalaron radiation weapon is able to devastate multiple other planets: Betazed, Andoria, Alpha Centauri, Mars, and others. The Federation is forced to sue for peace on very unfavourable terms.

However, Shinzon wouldn’t live to see the Romulan victory. Without the original Picard, there was no way to save his life from the DNA degradation that he was suffering from, and shortly after the Federation’s defeat Shinzon dies. His Reman viceroy would succeed him as the new leader of the Romulan Empire, an empire which now incorporated large swathes of what had once been Federation space. Whether the Romulans could hold all of this territory, and whether their empire would accept a Reman leader, are now open questions…

Number 2: What if… Spock wasn’t resurrected on the Genesis Planet?

Spock’s empty coffin on the Genesis Planet.

This scenario sees the events of The Wrath of Khan unfold exactly as we saw on screen. Khan stages an attack on the Enterprise, steals the Genesis device, and is defeated at the Battle in the Mutara Nebula. Spock sacrifices his life repairing the Enterprise’s warp drive, allowing the ship to outrun the blast of the Genesis device. But in our alternate world, Captain Kirk doesn’t give Spock a Starfleet funeral. Instead Spock’s remains are returned to Vulcan, in line with his and his family’s wishes. There is no chance for a resurrection because Spock never came into contact with the Genesis Planet.

Spock would indeed prove instrumental in several key events later in his life that now can’t happen. But we’re going to focus on the Kelvin timeline today. Spock’s actions in the Kelvin timeline saved Earth from Nero’s attack – but without his presence there’s no one to stop the crazed Romulan commander.

Assuming that Nero arrived in the Kelvin timeline thanks to Red Matter (presumably deployed by someone else from the Federation as part of a plan to save Romulus), he has no reason to wait for Spock before enacting his revenge plan. After destroying the USS Kelvin (killing the infant Kirk in the process), Nero races to Vulcan and destroys the planet in the year 2233 – decades earlier than he would during the events of Star Trek 2009. Before the Federation even has time to realise what’s happening, and with Vulcan still collapsing, Nero heads to Earth and deploys his weapon for the second time – destroying the planet.

Nero then moves on quickly, targeting Tellar Prime and other Federation member worlds and colonies. The devastating losses mean it takes Starfleet a while to reorganise, but eventually the remaining fleet comes together to make a last stand over Andoria – the last remaining Federation member world. The battle against Nero’s powerful flagship is long and incredibly difficult, but Starfleet eventually prevails through sheer numerical advantage – despite suffering huge losses.

Nero’s defeat wouldn’t mark the end of the rump Federation’s problems, though. With many planets and colonies destroyed, more than half the fleet lost, and millions of people turned into refugees, the Federation is an easy target. First the Klingons come, seizing planets and systems near their borders. Then the Gorn, the Tholians, and the Romulans also join in, picking off star systems that the Federation could no longer manage to defend. Federation space shrinks to a small area in the vicinity of Andoria.

The Andorians were not happy with the large numbers of refugees who sought them out, though. Plans were put in place to resettle humans, Vulcans, Tellarites, and others on new colony worlds, even though doing so would leave them vulnerable. After being kicked out by the Andorians, the remaining Federation members maintained their alliance more out of fear and necessity than anything else. How long these small populations can survive in a hostile galaxy is unknown…

Number 3: What if… the USS Voyager went the other way?

The events of Voyager’s premiere episode, Caretaker, play out much the same as they did on screen in this scenario. But after that, things take a very different turn – literally! The Maquis raider Val Jean, under Chakotay’s command, is transported to the Delta Quadrant by an entity known as the Caretaker. The USS Voyager is likewise transported by the Caretaker’s Array, and after the death of the Caretaker and a short battle with the Kazon, Captain Janeway orders the destruction of the Array. Voyager must find a way home.

Instead of taking the most direct route to Earth, Captain Janeway and the crew of Voyager consider an alternative idea – heading for the Gamma Quadrant, and the far side of the Bajoran Wormhole. From there it would only be a short journey back to Earth! The crew debate the ideas for a while, and there isn’t a clear consensus. No starship has ever undertaken such a long journey before, so there really aren’t ground rules for route planning when it comes to long-distance interstellar travel.

A non-canon map of the Star Trek galaxy.
*Image Credit: Star Trek Star Charts (2002) via Memory Beta*

Using the map above (which is non-canon) as a guide, the crew quickly figure out that both a direct route home via the Delta and Beta Quadrants or an indirect route via the Gamma Quadrant and Bajoran Wormhole are roughly the same length and would take roughly the same amount of time.

The two crews can’t agree at first. Chakotay and the Maquis, keen to avoid going anywhere near Cardassian space and fearing being turned over to Cardassian authorities upon their return, firmly advocate for the Delta Quadrant route. Neelix claims to be familiar with space in both directions and along both routes, but ultimately the decision falls to Captain Janeway.

The choice of route ultimately falls to Captain Janeway under the “my ship, my decision” principle.

Somewhat ironically when considering her actions in Endgame, Janeway chooses the Gamma Quadrant route. Why? She’s fearful of the Borg, naturally. Whatever dangers and obstacles may await Voyager in the Gamma Quadrant, she tells her crew, Starfleet has known for years that the Borg’s home territory is the Delta Quadrant. Taking that path seems positively suicidal in comparison, so Voyager will instead head for the Gamma Quadrant terminus of the Bajoran wormhole.

Voyager’s superior technology makes battling the Kazon sects in the area around the Caretaker’s Array relatively easy, but they have to be careful to avoid space claimed by the Haakonian Order – the conquerors of Neelix’s people, the Talaxians. After they leave their starting region, though, the truth is that we simply don’t know very much at all in canon about this area of space. Would Voyager find a faster way home through some technological means or natural phenomenon? Or would the ship and crew have to undertake a slow, decades-long journey to reach the wormhole? Would they even survive at all, or instead fall victim to some villainous faction or dangerous anomaly present in this unexplored region?

Number 4: What if… the USS Discovery didn’t go into the far future?

Michael Burnham and the USS Discovery at the mouth of the time-wormhole.

I already have a theory discussing in detail why I think the USS Discovery didn’t need to go into the far future based on the outcome of the battle in Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2 – and you can find that one by clicking or tapping here. For the sake of this scenario, though, all we’re going to say is that somehow Captain Pike, Burnham, and Saru figured out a way to defeat the Control AI without sending the USS Discovery into the 32nd Century.

Obviously some changes wouldn’t appear until the 32nd Century. Without the USS Discovery and Michael Burnham, no one is able to discover the source of the Burn or the huge cache of dilithium in the Verubin nebula. Without the USS Discovery and its Spore Drive to fight over, the Emerald Chain doesn’t stage a bold attack on Starfleet HQ. Su’Kal would almost certainly die alone when the KSF Khi’eth is destroyed – whether that event would trigger a second Burn is unclear.

But more substantial changes could have taken place in the Star Trek galaxy centuries earlier. With the Spore Drive still in existence in the 23rd Century, it stands to reason that Starfleet would have continued to explore the technology – it works, after all, so if a new way of navigating the mycelial network could be discovered, the Spore Drive would be an absolute game-changer for the Federation.

At some point, Starfleet scientists would hit upon the idea of using empaths to connect to the mycelial network in place of augmenting human DNA. After promising test flights using Betazoid and even Vulcan navigators, in the late 23rd Century Starfleet is able to begin a wider rollout of the Spore Drive. At first a handful of ships are kitted out as rapid-response vessels, able to jump across Federation space at a moment’s notice to assist with emergency situations.

Starfleet is able to kit out a whole fleet of Spore Drive-enabled starships.

The Spore Drive would soon attract the attention of other factions, however. Unwilling to allow the Federation a massive tactical advantage, particularly in the aftermath of the Federation-Klingon war, the Klingon Empire begins development on their own Spore Drive programme. The Romulans follow suit, and by the early part of the 24th Century the Spore Drive has become a mainstay of interstellar travel in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants.

No longer limited by geography or travel time, Starfleet is able to jump to interesting-looking phenomena across the galaxy with ease, initiating dozens of first contacts decades ahead of schedule. On one unfortunate occasion, however, a Spore Drive ship jumps to the Delta Quadrant… right into the heart of Borg space. The Borg quickly assimilate the vessel, taking the Spore Drive technology for themselves and putting a target on the Federation’s back. Due to the distances involved, Starfleet remains unaware of what happened, merely recording the USS Discovery-C as “missing in action…”

Number 5: What if… Benjamin Sisko wasn’t the Emissary of the Prophets?

Ignore for a moment the revelation from Image in the Sand about Benjamin Sisko’s Prophet-induced conception! For this scenario, we’re considering that there were two occupants of the Runabout which first discovered the Bajoran Wormhole: Sisko and Jadzia Dax. Though the Prophets would choose Sisko as their Emissary, they could just as easily have chosen Dax instead.

Jadzia Dax returns from the wormhole having been anointed by the Prophets as their Emissary, and receives much respect and adoration from the Bajorans. Meanwhile, Sisko makes good on his threat and quits Starfleet, returning to Earth. Jadzia is promoted to the rank of commander and given “temporary” command of DS9, due in no small part to the way the Bajorans feel about her.

Jadzia Dax assumes command of Deep Space Nine.

First contact with the Dominion occurs, and shortly afterwards the Dominion and Cardassians form an alliance – the work of Dukat, formerly the commander of Bajoran occupying forces on Bajor. The Dominion Cold War begins. Behind the scenes, Dukat is researching the Pah-wraiths, the ancient noncorporeal enemies of the Prophets. In disguise he travels to Deep Space Nine with a lone Pah-wraith, and in the course of unleashing the entity into the wormhole, kills Jadzia.

With no Emissary on the outside to come to their aid, the Prophets are fighting a losing battle against the Pah-wraiths while the Dominion War rages. The loss of Dax, though distressing to the crew of DS9 and her husband Worf, doesn’t appear to matter to the Federation war effort… not at first. In fact, the wormhole’s closure appears to provide the Federation alliance a reprieve, as the threat of Dominion reinforcements is reduced.

However, without the Orb of the Emissary re-opening the wormhole and expelling the Pah-wraiths, things go badly for the Prophets. When Dukat is able to implement the next phase of his plan and release the rest of the Pah-wraiths from the Fire Caves, there’s no one to stop him. The Pah-wraiths seize control of the wormhole, and as a thank you to Dukat they destroy the Federation minefield, allowing a massive fleet of Dominion reinforcements through the wormhole. The Dominion conquer DS9 and Bajor with ease.

With no way to stop Dominion reinforcements pouring in through the wormhole, the Federation alliance moves into attrition mode, trying to hold the existing front line for as long as possible against repeated Dominion attacks. Though the Pah-wraiths don’t actively take part in the fighting, their involvement allowed Dukat and the Dominion to swing the balance of the war back in their favour. By controlling Deep Space Nine and the wormhole, the Cardassian-Dominion alliance has the Quadrant’s most significant asset. It seems like only a matter of time until the Federation will have to sue for peace, if the Dominion would even accept…

So that’s it! Five Star Trek “what ifs!”

There are many more “what if” scenarios in the Star Trek universe!

I can already think of more, so watch this space. I might return to this concept in future. I hope this was a bit of fun, and a chance to consider some alternative outcomes to some of the events we’ve seen across Star Trek’s history. I tried to pick a few different ideas from different productions – otherwise this could’ve been “five Captain Picard what ifs!”

As always, this was really just an excuse to spend a little more time in the Star Trek galaxy. It’s totally fine if you disagree with any of the storylines I’ve suggested today, or if you think this whole concept was a silly idea! None of this will ever make it to screen, and it was more of a thought experiment and creative writing project than anything else. I had fun putting this together – and I hope you enjoyed reading it.

What If…? and the logo for the series are the copyright of Marvel and The Walt Disney Company. The Star Trek franchise – including all films and series mentioned above – is the copyright of ViacomCBS. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.