Ello, Ric here again. So with Star Trek Discovery flinging the crew into the far, far future,
the year 3187, I thought it prudent to look at what setup that time period has been given
by prior shows. Now, as time travel is heavily involved, none of these events are firmly
established as Trek’s approach to the future has been to play it as what-if scenarios until
they actually have a show set in that time period. That and for story purposes they both
use altered history and parallel timelines. Nonetheless, without going into rampant speculation
on what exactly the “Burn” is, I’m liking the Omega idea personally, or the other points
from the trailer, let’s take a look at what little primary canon and memory beta content
places in the leadup to the 32nd century. In 2554, is early in the Temporal Cold War,
a war that honestly wasn’t very cold. Although with temporal mechanics it’s all relevant
isn’t it? Is it still a cold war when the focused upon weapon can erase you from existence.
By comparison an all-out phaser skirmish seems tame. Anyway, this was the battle of Procyon
V, a key Federation victory. The temporal cold war is a difficult one to track as it
was basically several agencies from a multitude of political entities all trying to deploy
time travel to alter history to better suit themselves while the temporal agencies of
Starfleet firmly tried to prevent that. Many other powers had also agreed it was best
to leave time alone, for fear of unintentional repercussions or reprisal, but not everyone
got the message. One such species were the sphere builders, whose machinations led the
Xindi astray and created the expanse region of the Alpha Quadrant. The conflicts would
continue for centuries to come, but it was from the 26th century the sphere builders
were supplying their Xindi front in 2153. There’s also the uncreated Final Frontier
animated show that never came to be which was to depict the Federation in a much darker
tone due to an Omega molecule attack where had Starfleet become more isolationist, although
as mentioned, this is all unused material that was from a scrapped project.
Around the mid-27th century, the Microbrains of Velara III re-established contact with
the UFP. Also in this time, a scientist named Kal Dano creates a very powerful weapon that
can halt all nuclear fusion within a star. This time traveller jumps back to risa in
order to hide it where it is recovered by captain Picard.
There are also records of a USS Wells timeship in use by the Federation, so according to
the live show (that was a thing), there was still a Starfleet at this time.
It was during the 28th century that we see the re-emergence of the effects of the temporal
war. The Suliban Cabal’s shadowy benefactor was operating from this time, although he
only had the technology to project back in time, not full on time travel. Which seems
really inferior when compared to other powers of the era, like Starfleet or the Sphere Builders
from even centuries before. We also have records that the Temporal Accords were still in place
by 2769, as Federation scientists were studying ancient Egypt incognito and following all
the correct procedures, under observation by Daniel’s organisation. More on him coming
up. This was under the umbrella of the Galactic Union, an alliance of the UFP, Klingons, Romulans
and many, many other species. However, aside from this time travel war,
we have recent Trek introducing its fixation with AI and apparently a malevolent being,
probably the Control AI existed at this time, converting one of Discovery’s probes and
firing it back. This timeline might well now be aborted, as Control’s efforts in 2257
have been thwarted. I’m rhyming a lot in this aren’t I? It’s not intentional.
During the 29th century, we still have the Federation and Starfleet in operation, but
one that is much more comfortable with time travel. It’s form here that the USS Relativity
and Aeon were seen originating from, the latter of which fell back to Earth in 1967 and sparked
a boom in technology that went on to be recorded as human history and too ingrained in the
timeline of the galaxy to be, quote: fixed. However, the 29th century Timefleet was alerted
to this by the Aeon emerging in 2873 and blowing up the Sol system from 1996. So that part
was fixed. But again, the temporal cold war rears its
head and we have the emergence of another faction species, the Na’khul. This was their
native timezone, before jumping back to World War 2 era Earth.
30th century, sees not too much going on, which I guess is a good thing.
The 31st century is where agent Daniels is born. We visit this era once when Daniels
accidentally screws up by bringing Captain Archer to 3052 creating a completely altered
history from 2152 onwards, but then fixed. As the ruins we see are a complete mess, all
we have to go on from the canon depiction of this time is Daniels and his equipment.
So it seems that, although fashion senses were lost, the ability to time travel without
a ship was commonplace, as well as casual temporal observation. Sufficed to say, this
was the most advanced state we’ve ever seen mankind reach in Star Trek.
In 3074, we have the Voyager episode “living witness” where the ship’s backup EMH is
reactivated by the Kyrians and Vaskans in the Delta Quadrant who have a whole museum
dedicated to the impact the USS Voyager had on the Delta Quadrant. We are unlikely to
be visiting this far away from the established Milky Way, so I doubt we’ll see anything
like this. As for the 32nd century, well, all we know
is that Daniels agency was collecting information from this time period. Burnham’s mother’s
Red Angel Daedalus suit bungeed her between this time and others of her choosing, but
she was never able to return to her home era. In her time period, things had been wrecked
by Control however, so with Discovery seemingly preventing or at least delaying that issue,
this element of the future may now be wiped form reality. Again, depends on what sort
of time travel the writers want to utilise. So aside from what has been revealed in the
trailer, the only really core issue that it would be hard to hand wave away would be the
existence of the Temporal Cold War. So whatever happened, must have occurred post Daniels,
post-Time Agency, and be something they either didn’t foresee, or knowingly didn’t interfere
with. As Trek Central pointed out, one of the main characters native to this era, Booker,
was born into a “post burn galaxy”, so it had to have occurred before he was born.
We also know that Starfleet and the Federation is still around, but very much diminished
and trying to survive after this event, but it was stressed that the issues the UFP is
facing were not from within this time. So there we go, a quick breakdown of the admittedly
fluid timeline leading up to the 32nd century where Discovery season three is basing itself.
Can you think of anything else that that may resurface to face the crew of the Discovery?
Personally, and I’m just spit-balling here, Trill symbionts in memory beta can live well
into their thousands… so thanks for watching this recap and I’ll see you in the future,
so long and goodbye!