Star Trek

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The title refers to points of gravitational equilibrium in space between two gravitationally massive objects, named Lagrange points after Italian scientist Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736-1813). Five Lagrange points can be defined for two bodies. Lagrange points are well known in science fiction as locations where orbital colonies like O’Neill cylinders can be anchored with minimal need for thrusters to keep them from drifting.

Tahal was the Breen Primarch that made Kellerun into a forward base in the past, as stated by Rayner in DIS: “Erigah”.

Rillak is informed that Moll’s dreadnought has exited a transwarp tunnel. Transwarp conduits were first seen being used by the Borg to achieve speeds at least twenty times more than a Galaxy-class ship’s maximum warp (TNG: “Descent”). After the Borg were decimated in VOY: “Endgame”, the conduits remained and were utilized by others (PIC: “Broken Pieces”). In the 32nd Century, Osyraa used a transwarp tunnel to chase down Discovery (DIS: “Su’Kal”). The use of transwarp networks might explain how the Breen dealt with the deactivation of dilithium during the Burn.

Discovery has a cloaking device, fitted when it was installed with 32nd Century technology (DIS: “That Hope is You, Part 2”). As per last week’s annotations, the 24th Century prohibition against the Federation using cloaking technology due to the Treaty of Algeron no longer appears to apply.

Primordial black holes are black holes that are believed to have formed very soon after the Big Bang. In Season 4, it was hypothesized that the Dark Matter Anomaly might have been a primordial wormhole, but this turned out to be incorrect (DIS: “Anomaly”).

From the viewscreen, the Progenitor technology is anchored at Lagrange Point 1, or L1, between the two bodies where their gravitational forces and centrifugal force balance out. The problem, however, is that L1, L2 and L3 are not great positions because they are still dynamically unstable, meaning objects there will still fall out of orbit without regular course and attitude corrections (every three weeks or so). Also, L4 and L5 are stable but only if the mass ratio between the two masses exceeds 24.96, which means the second black hole has to be much smaller than the first one for that to work. Not that real-world physics ever got in the way of the Rule of Cool in Star Trek, but still, if you're going to call an episode "Lagrange Point"…

Duranium alloys are commonly used in starship and starbase hulls across the galaxy. According to the Deep Space Nine Technical Manual, duranium occurs naturally in planetary crusts.

The EDF refers to the Earth Defence Force, which was the primary military arm of Earth prior to them rejoining the Federation (DIS: “People of Earth”). Despite being host to a Trill symbiont, Adira is human and was a member of the EDF at the time they took on the symbiont.

An unshielded exhaust port is, of course, the critical vulnerability of the first Death Star from Star Wars. As stated in DIS: “Labyrinths”, Breen code is in base-20, or duodeca.

Kira and Dukat also took advantage of Breen full-body suits, using them as a disguise in DS9: “Indiscretion” when they infiltrated a Breen labor camp.

The use of a transporter pattern buffer to preserve bodies was first seen in TNG: “Relics”, and subsequently used in DS9: “Our Man Bashir” and VOY: “Counterpoint”. We’ve also seen it used for medical reasons in SNW Season 1 (M’Benga’s daughter and during the Klingon War in SNW: “Under the Cloak of War”) and in DIS: “Stormy Weather”. As a security precaution, enemies can also be held in mid-transport as seen in TOS: “Day of the Dove”.

Primarch Ruhn also called the Federation “spineless, insignificant achworms” in DIS: “Erigah”.

The Pathway drive is a prototype stardrive of which little has been revealed. The prototype was installed on the Voyager-J for testing (DIS: “Kobayashi Maru”) the previous year. This is the first time that it’s been stated that the Mitchell also has one, perhaps indicating that it is out of the testing phase.

We are reminded again that Burnham’s primary training is in xenoanthropology (DIS: “The Vulcan Hello”).

“A grum of osikod” is a quotation from the Kellerun Ballad of Krul (DIS: “Mirrors”). From context it seems to mean the equivalent of “a pinch of salt”. But referencing Kellerun gives Rayner the cue to pay attention when Burnham says “flying out there all alone, out in space… I always knew my crew would come for me.”

“Failure is not an option,” is a saying famously associated with NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz during the Apollo 13 rescue mission, although he never actually said it. It was coined for the 1995 movie and became the tagline for it.

Written by: Sean Cochran & Ari Friedman

Directed by: Jonathan Frakes

Oh heavens, whatever shall we do - it seems Legacy is dead

• The episode opens on L’ak’s funeral. Because he stabbed himself in “Mirrors”, and then intentionally overdosed on the drugs meant to cure him in “Erigah”.

• The…bridge(?) of the Breen dreadnought appears to have the floating wickets seen in this season’s credit sequence.

• We’ve seen Efrosians before in “Star Trek: The Voyage Home”, and “Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country”, but Hy’Rell is the first Efrosian woman we’ve been introduced to. She has more forehead ridges than the two previous Efrosians, though it's not clear if that's a redesign, or intended to be an example of sexual dimorphism.

• Burnham is very curt with Hy’Rell, cutting the archivist off multiple times as she explains the history of the Eternal Gallery and Archive. As all the lues leading to the Progenitor technology have thus far involved a lesson of some sort, no doubt the lesson being set up here is one about patience, and surely not just a bunch of faffing about before ultimately deciding the real lesson is the importance of self reflection.

• Cherenkov radiation was previously mentioned in “Choose to Live”.

    • In “Choose to Live”, Cherenkov radiation was said result from Tachyons interacting with an atmosphere, while here Tilly claims it is a byproduct of plasma activity.

    • In both cases, the Cherenkov radiation produced a blue glow.

• When Rhys claims the USS Discovery A won’t be able to cloak while in the pocket of the Badlands the Eternal Gallery occupies, Burnham claims that will also be true for the Breen, implying that the Breen’s cloaking device functions similarly to the Federation iteration of the technology.

• Hy’Rell is interested in having Book provide some information about one of the few remaining Kwejian artifacts stored at the Eternal Gallery. Kwejian was destroyed in “Kobayashi Maru”.

• Hy’Rell has the Eternal Gallery lower its shields so Burnham and Book can transport over. We’ve seen that in the 32nd century, transporters are not limited by shields, such as in the episodes “People of Earth” and “There is a Tide…”. Apparently the Eternal Gallery’s shields still block transporters.

    • The artifact is cutting from the a World Root, a system of tree roots that extended around the entirety of Kwejian before it’s destruction, first mentioned in “Kobayashi Maru”.

    • Hy’Rell only says the cutting came in to the possession of the Eternal Gallery, ”long ago,” without being any more specific. Kwejian was a pre-warp society when it was destroyed, though clearly some Kwejian, like Book, made it off world.

• The interior of the Eternal Gallery and Archive was filmed at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto.

    • The Eternal Gallery’s collection we see appears to be mostly hardbound, paper books. No doubt all the various alien methods of recording information are kept in other wings.

• Hy’Rell claims that the Eternal Gallery has an oubliette. In “Star Trek Nemesis” Riker the Reman Viceroy into a bottomless pit on the lowest deck of the USS Enterprise E.

• The script used in the book, “Labyrinths of the Mind” is the same as what was on the library card that led the Discovery A to the Eternal Gallery, confirming that is the Betazoid language, meaning the first time it was seen was in “Erigah”.

• Burnham’s consciousness is transported into an artificial reality.

    • Captain Picard experienced the end of the planet Kataan from the perspective of a member of that species in “The Inner Light”.

       • Doctor Culber says of the device affecting Burnham, ”It looks like some kind of nucleonic emitter,” and that he doesn’t want to risk severing the beam as it could be fatal. In “The Inner Light” it was a nucleonic beam from the Kataan probe which subjected Picard to his experience.

    • Captain Sisko, Jadzia Dax, Kira, and Doctor Bashir were transported into a Wadi game, Chula, in “Move Along Home”.

    • Rutherford was also trapped inside a Chula game in “In the Cradle of Vexilon”.

    • Harry Kim’s mind was trapped inside a shared consciousness ruled over by an evil clown in “The Thaw”.

• ”Jinaal would have let an itronok eat us,” Burnham recounts the test from “Jinaal”.

• The books accessed by Doctor Derex when she was an archivist include

    • “Comprehensive List of Talaxian Hairstyles”; a multi-volume set

    • “Huypirian Folk Tales”; several Huypirians have been seen severing as personal valets to various Nagi of the Ferengi Alliance

    • “Euclidean Geometry”; this is the first mention of a species called the Euclideans.

• ”Hysperians really know how to party, by the way.” Hesperia is a human colony of, as Rutherford puts it, “ren faire types.”

• ”Someone once told me never turn my back on a Breen.” Rayner shared the Romulan saying first spoken in “In Purgatory’s Shadow” in the previous episode, “Erigah”.

    • The Breen also have a saying; “Never turn your back on the wife of the Scion.”

'Star Trek' Franchise Reboot: Simon Kinberg Eyed for Paramount Movie

So now this just sounds like a Trek prequel, not specifically a Kelvin prequel.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/star-trek-movie-franchise-reboot-paramount-1235904930/

#StarTrek @startrek

The 2024 Eisner awards for the comics industry announced the nominees a couple days ago, and the Day of Blood tie-in issue, Shaxs' Best Day by Ryan North and Derek Charm is among the nominees for Best Single Issue/One-shot.

The colourist for the current ongoing Star Trek comic, Lee Loughridge, was also nominated for Best Colouring.

Modiphius' Star Trek Adventures TTRPG is getting a second edition this year, and the last of the sourcebooks for first first edition has been published, so I thought I would go through the entire collection and share some of my favourite art from the game.

STA Core Rulebook

Klingon Empire Core Rulebook

Rules Digest

Utopia Planitia Sourcebook

Command Division Supplement

Operations Division Supplement

Science Division Supplement

Division supplements cover triptych

Beta Quadrant Sourcebook

Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook

Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook

Delta Quadrant Sourcebook

These are the Voyages Mission Compendium

Strange New Worlds Mission Compendium

Shackleton Expanse Campaign Guide

Keyhole to Eternity Campaign

Discovery (2256-2258) Campaign Guide

Lower Decks Campaign Guide

Federation-Klingon War Tactical Campaign

Two episodes to go. I'm gutted this is going to be the end, just as the show truly found its stride and grew the beard. Feels a lot like the end of Enterprise. Every season has been better than the last, and the earlier episodes were pretty good. I recently started rewatching S1 after getting an IRL friend into it and he's absolutely loving it. DISCO gave us something unique and different, and if you ask me, Trek is a big enough tent to try new things sometimes, even if they don't always work out the way they hoped.

If Michelle Paradise ever reads this - you've done incredible work and I'm sorry so many of the fans are haters. Looking forward to what comes next.

Edit: We have 10 winners!! Congrats to @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]

Please contact me via DM to get your Captain's Edition on Steam!

🚀 Dramatic Labs is excited to offer a special Captain's Edition on Steam, alongside the standard version of the game. It includes a digital art book with over 100 pages of concept art and developer notes (in English and German). Plus, you'll get the original soundtrack featuring ten epic pieces of music, specially remastered by composer Jared Emerson-Johnson and performed by a live orchestra.

💰Prepare for a discount worthy of the Ferengi Commerce Guild! Both the standard and Captain's Editions will be available on Steam with a launch week discount of 20%, valid until May 30th. That means you can snag the standard edition for US$19.99 and the Captain's Edition for US$23.99 (or your regional equivalent).

❤️We've heard your requests loud and clear! We're beaming a new PC feature your way - a brand-new virtual tour of the USS Resolute accessed via the game menu! Explore iconic locations including the bridge, sickbay, and the brig - all meticulously designed to bring our Centaur-class refit to life.

🔥To celebrate all this, we are giving away a total of 10 Steam Keys with the 'Captains Edition' to all participants here at startrek.website! To enter, we just want to hear from you in the comments what you're most looking forward to in Star Trek: Resurgence.

🍀Good luck! The giveaway will run until May 23, 2024 23:59 CEST. After that I will contact the winners.

😉P.S. You are also welcome to chat with us on Discord: https://discord.gg/X5Pk28F9jR

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The title refers to Labyrinths of the Mind, a book written by Dr Marina Derex, a Betazoid and one of the group that hid the Progenitor technology 800 years prior. A labyrinth is also a term for a maze, the original designed by the inventor Daedelus of Greek myth to house the Minotaur.

As mentioned in DIS: “Erigah”, L’ak was the Scion, a direct descendant of the Breen emperor, and held the genetic code of the Yod-Thot, “they who rule”, without whom his uncle, Primarch Ruhn, could not claim the throne. In DIS: “Jinaal”, Stamets discovered the the Progenitor techonlogy could potentially bring someone back to life.

Discovery jumps to just outside the Badlands, first appearing in DS9: “The Maquis” as an area of violent plasma storms in proximity to Bajor and Cardassia.

The shape of Hy’Rell’s head bumps resemble those of Xindi-Primates, first appearing in ENT: “The Xindi”, one of six intelligent Xindi species that were native toCerenkov The other possibility, taking into account her long white hair and blue eyes, is that she’s an Efrosian (ST VI).

Cerenkov radiation is created when particles exceed the speed of light in a given medium, creating a shockwave with a characteristic blue glow. In real life, it is most often seen around nuclear reactors submerged in water (the speed of light in water is 75% of that in vacuum, allowing emissions from the reactor to exceed that).

Discovery was given the ability to cloak when it was refitted (DIS: “That Hope is You, Part 2”). During the 24th Century, the Treaty of Algeron forbade the Federation from using or developing cloaking devices (TNG: "The Pegasus"), with a notable exception being the Defiant during the Dominion War (DS9: “The Search”). Apparently that prohibition no longer applies in the 32nd Century.

Kwejian, Book’s world, was destroyed in DIS: “Kobayashi Maru”, making him one of the last of his species.

The scenes in the Eternal Archive were filmed at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library in Toronto, Canada.

An oubliette is a specific type of dungeon, of which the only access is a trap door installed in the ceiling of the dungeon, and usually extremely narrow, such that the prisoner was unable to sit down.

The Tuli tree was native to Kwejian and had a distinctive smell to its sap. The decor of Book’s ship was made to simulate Tuli wood (DIS: “Stormy Weather”). Inside the box are cuttings from the World Root, a tree root system that reached all the way around the planet (DIS: “Kobayashi Maru”) and was sacred to the Kwejian.

Culber identifies the device affecting Burnham as a nucleonic emitter. Nucleonic particles appear in a number of places in Star Trek lore, but most appropriately in TNG: “The Inner Light”, where a nucleonic beam from a Kataan probe was responsible for sending Picard into a mindscape where he lived out a simulated lifetime in a similar manner to what Burnham is experiencing. In that episode, an attempt to disrupt the beam nearly killed Picard, which is the risk Culber is alluding to.

The old school card index drawers Burnham looks at makes me nostalgic for the days when I was a student librarian (yes, I’m old). The mindscape Archives’ category number for history is 002818/5 - in our Dewey Decimal System, history (and geography) is 900.

Book says “Those who learn history aren’t doomed to repeat it.” The usual phrasing of that adage is “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” The philosopher George Satayana is credited with the original “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Burnham refers to the itronok, a predatory species they encounted on Trill while searching for the clue there (DIS: “Jinaal”).

Trémaux’s algorithm is a maze-solving method devised by Charles Pierre Trémaux, which involves drawing lines on the floor marking a path. A version of it - called a depth first search - is used to search tree or graph data structures.

Derex’s reading list references Talaxians, Neelix’s species from VOY and Hupyrians, the species of the Ferengi Grand Nagus’ servants (DS9: “The Nagus”, et al.). Euclid was a Greek mathematician who devised an axiomatic system for geometry.

Rhys intends to use the plasma storms for cover, which is exactly what made the Badlands effective as a hiding place for the Bajoran Resistance and the Maquis back in their day.

Matching weapons to shield frequencies to get past them is a tried and true method, demonstrated most dramatically when the Enterprise-D was destroyed in ST: Generations. Duodeca is a base-20 system.

Hysperia is a planet where the inhabitants have a culture based on a medieval fantasy motif (LD: “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie”). In the 24th Century, Chief Engineer Billups of the USS Cerritos was a native of Hysperia and the ostensible Crown Prince, although he abdicated that position.

Commander Jemison shares a last name with former astronaut Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, who appeared in TNG: “Second Chances” as LT jg Palmer.

A tergun is a sacred Breen oath. Ruhn’s remark that the Federation to save the few would risk the many is reminiscent of Kirk’s inversion in ST III of Spock’s adage about the needs of the many and the few from ST II: “The needs of the one outweighed the needs of the many.”

“Never turn your back on a Breen” is a Romulan saying (DS9: “By Inferno’s Light”), cited by Rayner in DIS: “Erigah”.

Written by: Lauren Wilkinson & Eric J. Robbins

Directed by: Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour

• The episode’s title, “Erigah”, refers a form of Breen “blood bounty” first mentioned a couple episodes ago in “Mirrors”.

• The opening shot is of the USS Locherer, first seen in “Jinaal”, and the Terran warp pod that Moll and L’ak escaped with in “Mirrors”.

• It’s Nhan! From Star Trek! Nhan was introduced in “Brother” and is played by Rachael Ancheril.

• ”Last time I saw you, also a personal situation, you fired on Discovery with photon torpedoes, and set off an isolytic weapon.” Nhan is referring to the season four episode, “Rubicon”.

• ”You did this to him!” Moll stabbed himself while in a fight with Burnham in “Mirrors”.

• ”Fierce as a sa-te kru.” This is the first mention of a sa-te kru on screen, but the cat like predator from Vulcan/Ni’Var originated in a six page comic called “When Worlds Collide: Spock Confronts the Ultimate Challenge” written by Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci, and drawn by Paul Pope that was published in a 2009 issue of “Wired”.

• Throughout the course of the episode, outside of Federation HQ, in addition to the USS Discovery A we see:

    • Two Mars-class starships

    • USS Excalibur - 32nd century Constitution-class

    • USS Credence - Introduced in “Choose to Live”

    • USS LaMar - A ship of the same class as the USS Dresslehaus

    • USS Lochlerer - Merian-class

• The fourth piece of the Progenitor technology researchers’ map piece is now included in the opening credits sequence.

• ”Let’s not forget what happened last time Breen entered Federation space.” The last time we know for certain that the Breen entered Federation space was in “The Changing Face of Evil” when they attacked Starfleet HQ on Earth during the Dominion War, some 834 years ago. It is entirely possible that Rayner is referring to a more recent event that we the audience are unaware of.

    • Later, Tilly claims, ”The last time the Breen paid a visit to the Federation, they destroyed an entire city.” That might be a reference to the attack on San Francisco in “The Changing Face of Evil”, though it would be an exaggeration of the scale of the destruction. And again, 834 years have since passed.

• Rayner evokes the Romulan saying, ”Never turn your back on a Breen.” While in a Dominion prison station in “By Inferno’s Light” a Romulan fellow prisoner told Doctor Bashir that was a saying among her people.

• The Betazoid emblem on the clue that we will learn is a library card, was originally designed by a Trek fan named David Bilic for the “Birth of the Federation 2” mod. It was first seen on screen in “The Star Gazer”.

• The USS Mitchell was first seen in “Rubicon”.

• ”What’s worse than death?”
”This conversation, for starters.”
In “Magic to make the Sanest Man Go Mad”, Harry Mudd claimed that the weaponized dark matter beads that Captain Lorca had were rumoured to be the most painful way to die; now they need to be downgraded to number two.

• Jett Reno apparently makes a cocktail called the Seven of Limes, presumably named for the notable captain of the USS Enterprise G.

• Unlike the 24th century Breen Interceptors, the Breen Dreadnought appears to be more or less symmetrical.

    • It is stated that this Dreadnought is the one Burnham and Rayner saw outside the destroyed Federation HQ in a possible future in “Face the Strange”, though I will be honest, it was too dark for me to make out on the screen at the time.

• Burnham learned that Kellerun was used as a Breen outpost. Apparently that didn’t come up when she did the research in to Kellerun culture she mentioned in “Mirrors”.

    • Does this indicate that Kellerun is not part of the Federation, or is the attack on Kellerun the previous entry into Federation space that Rayner mentioned earlier in the episode?

• Reno claims she had ”tons of contacts in the book trade” 800 years earlier. Discovery and its crew jumped to the 32nd century 933 years earlier. I think it’s safe to assume that Reno was rounding off, however, 133 years is still a pretty big gap. This can only mean that at some point before the jump to the 32nd century, Reno also found herself in the 24th century smuggling books. I eagerly await that spin-off.

• President T’Rina bluffs Primarch Ruhn by claiming the Federation has received an offer from another Breen Primarch for Moll and L’ak. As we all know, Vulcans cannot lie.

    • Vulcans lie all the time.

• ”This bluff wouldn’t fool a hatchling.” Ruhn’s remarks imply that Breen are oviparous.

• Rayner states that Primarch Tahal named her ship the Tau Ceti ”After a lethal viper with a slow acting venom.” It’s unclear if this viper is native to the Tau Ceti system, which can be seen on star charts going back to “Conspiracy”.

• Book is able to get a psychometric reading off the library card to to figure out where the Archive is. This is the second time Book’s extrasensory abilities have been the key to solving one of the clues, the first being in “Jinaal”.

    • The reading from the library card indicates the archive is in the Badlands, a volatile region of space, conceived of for the premiere of VOY, “The Caretaker”, and first seen in the DS9 episode, “The Maquis, Part 1”.

• ”Sell me a goat farm on Bopak III while you’re at it.” Bopak III is the world where the Jem’Hadar first, Goran’Ager enlisted Doctor Bashir to try and use the locally available materials to cure his men of addiction to ketracel white in “Hippocratic Oath”.

• After stabbing himself and intentionally overdosing on medication meant to save him, L’ak dies as he lived. Stupidly.

    • In an interview with TrekMovie, series editor Carlos Cisco said that while Breen are less vulnerable in their solid form -- still susceptible to self inflicted stab wounds though -- the act of maintaining it requires so much energy they are slower, more sluggish, and less intelligent while doing so. This is the form that L'ak chooses to remain in.

• Rayner advocates for firing on the Breen before they can make the first move. in “The Vulcan Hello” Burnham so strongly believed that the USS Shenzhou should fire the first shot against the Klingons that she was willing to foment a mutiny to do so, a fact that she later points out to him.

It's been a while since I've watched the entire show. Unfortunstely, I'm already involved in some other binge watching of a show, so, I'd like to hear about your favourite episodes of TAS so I can toss them in between.