Hi, all, Ric here and be warned! Spoilers ahead for Discovery series 4 among this. With the USS
Discovery joining the relatively few Federation starships that have journeyed beyond the edges of
the Milky Way galaxy, I thought it a about time we actually looked at what experiences the Federation
has had with extra-galactic entities and the like. I have previously covered the Andromeda
galaxy and its depiction in Star Trek as well as a separate video on the Galactic Barrier,
but I’ll be touching on those two subjects again here. But, if you want more, it’s already there
is what I’m saying. I will not be covering species that exist in alternate realities, other universes
or realms such as species 8472, but the ones that originate a measureable
distance in normal space time, beyond the confines of the Star Trek Milky Way.
The list of vessels that have left the milky way includes the USS Enterprise NCC-1701, which was
taken into the Galactic Barrier in 2265, where it messed with the minds and psionic potential
of several crewmembers. Then they passed through it altogether in 2268 when the ship was altered by
the advanced Kelvans at extremely high velocity. Another Enterprise, this time the Galaxy class
1701-D has also exited the Milky way thanks to engine alterations from a being known as the
Traveller. The exact nature of this modifications was unknown, but it hinted at a strange
relationship between subspace, normal space and thought. The Enterprise in this instance was at
first catapulted to the galaxy M-33 at regular warp speeds, a 300 year journey. Subsequent
events led them to travel even further, beyond the observable universe to the very edge of creation.
Again, weird stuff begins to happen as they drift closer to a realm that is yet unmade by
natural laws, thoughts manifest in reality and there are no recognizable features of what we
would consider the “universe”. Then they go home again and never think about it again,
but I did in my “what is subspace?” video. I’m referencing a lot of my own work today,
sorry. But I’ve been doing this a while and covered elements of this here and there before.
In apocrypha, the USS Titan journeyed to the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy orbiting the
Milky Way through a subspace rift, and likewise the USS Excelsior did in 2298. So with Star Trek
seldom venturing outside of the Galaxy, most of the contact with external life and entities
has been when such things entered the milky way from the space in-between,
or occasionally another galaxy altogether. To begin with, prior to 2364, the USS Greyhound
stumbled across a strange probe that was just sort of doing its own thing
and determined that it had come from beyond the edge of the galaxy. They studied it from afar,
but ultimately allowed it to continue on its course, however it is unknown if this probe
was still in contact with its creators or was just a remnant now drifting after thousands of years.
A less benign artificial creation however made itself known in in 2267 when the “doomsday weapon”
or “planet killer” destroyed several ships and was capable of breaking down entire planets
with an anti-proton beam. The origin of such a destructive machine, one whose
shell was solid neutronium was hypothesised to have been external to the known galaxy,
however, in apocrypha a young Captain Picard pokes holes in that theory. He states that as the planet
killer was built to break down planets and burn them for fuel, then it could not have come from
too far away as there are few planets in the void between galaxies. Without power,
it would not have been able to make it through the galactic barrier, although its neutronium
shell might have allowed it to survive, it would have simply been caught up in its currents and
negative energy fields and come to a standstill. If it did originate from outside of the galaxy,
it would likely have originated from one of our satellite galaxies and stored up energy before
attempting the crossing. Which is frightening, because it suggests that it was not a runaway
weapon gone haywire, but one that was fuelled and deployed at the Milky Way with intent.
Many of the other extra galactic visitors are from the original series, such as the Kelvans.
These beings were fleeing the Andromeda galaxy’s own galactic disaster and fled to the Milky Way,
but ran afoul of the galactic barrier. No such barrier exists around other galaxies they have
encountered so they didn’t know what to expect, despite being far more advanced
than Starfleet. They were a multi-tentacle giant species, with shapeshifting abilities
and wanted to return to their Kelvan Empire to bring more of their people to the Milky Way.
This would all have been fine, if they were not a species of conquerors who
wished to subjugate all other life. Of similar appearance and ability,
we have the Nacene, the caretakers of the Ocampa as they are known. Two were encountered in Star
Trek and originally they were simply explorers too from beyond our galaxy. However, their arrival
from the Delta Quadrant end accidently stripped the Ocampan homeworld of its natural protections
and made its surface an arid desert. Not uncompassionate by nature, they took it
upon themselves to attempt to save the Ocampa and watch over them as best they could, putting their
exploration on hold indefinitely. These creatures are capable of surviving in subspace and in fact
crossing into it at will, which probably explains how they circumvented the galactic barrier.
Then there is the Douwd. These are non-corporeal energy beings that again, originate from some
undisclosed location beyond the edge of the Milky Way. Their powers are incredible, with creation
abilities somewhere between the levels of the Metrons to the Q. They could not however, generate
life and the only one encountered was living in disguise as a human known as Kevin Uxbridge. This
being ultimately destroyed an entire populous by mistake; the entire 50 billion lives of an
alien species called the Husnock were taken when, in an outburst of anger at the alien aggressors,
“Uxbridge” unmade them in revenge for their attack on Rana 4. This entity was allowed to persist
on the planet, amid his genuine regrets and attempted to warn away any visitors to the system.
Additionally, we have an unknown species, known only as the “Makers”, who constructed
robot servants and established outposts on several worlds in numerous galaxies,
including Andromeda and ours. These mysterious builders were eventually wiped out by a supernova
in a similar fate to the T’Kon Empire. In fact, there is a strong case that they may have been
the same species, but that is speculation, so I’d rather not label the T’Kon as extra-galactic. Yet.
Finally, I’m going to mention the Ornithoid, or Old Ones as they were ominously referred to.
As with many others on this list, the encountered Ornithoids were scouts,
or explorers, settling on Pyris 7 who adopted humanoid forms. Their natural forms were tiny,
fragile creatures on two legs with very delicate limbs and tentacle-like faces with antennae.
They had some minor psionic ability, but made up for it with technology to amplify their powers.
A standard M-class environment however was incompatible with their existence,
so they relied completely on this technology to interact and learn of life in the Milky Way.
Unfortunately, both perished when their equipment was… deactivated.
In apocryphal material, the Gorn are also theorised to have originated from beyond
the galaxy, arriving through a subspace rift from another part of the universe,
but considering they have an established home planet and history, if they did arrive this way,
it very long ago, in an era now lost to them. Equally, while the remnants of the Iconian Empire,
now confirmed to exist in Star Trek lore did dwell in the Andromeda galaxy,
that was not their origin, just where they fled to after Iconia fell.
It was also speculated that the Space Amoeba that destroyed the USS Intrepid originated outside the
galaxy, but the only indication I could find that suggest that might be true was that it did
generate its own field of Negative Energy, the same sort of energy that permeates the galactic
barrier, which means that it may have been able to quite comfortably drift across, unaffected.
So as we can see in Star Trek, most of the extra galactic species, or evidence of them encountered
in Star Trek tend to be incredibly powerful and this is by necessity. With the near barren
dark space in-between galaxies coupled with the turbulence of the Trek only Galactic barrier,
which seems unique to the Milky Way, there is little in the way of pit-stops nor refuge for
travellers. Such an undertaking to another galaxy is arduous and requires a hyper advanced level
of travel, one that even by the 32nd century, the Federation has yet to achieve. So it is that many
of the external entities have a level of power that dwarfs anything else seen in Star Trek, and
is often a very different form of life, frequently with some form of psychic or psionic ability.
Thanks for watching this video on the extra-galactic life of Star Trek.
I’ve been Ric and until the next video, thanks again and goodbye!