Star Trek: Discovery
One of the most noticeable affair aboutStar Trek : Discoveryis its relation to technology ; mostly that it ’s too advanced for its era . contain place just ten age beforeThe Original Series , both Starfleet and the Klingon Empire have far more luxuriant engineering science than we ’ve seen in any series or motion picture , include the late reboots . To be bonnie , however , Star Trekhas always had an left relationship to its own technological history . Discoverydoes have a number of inaccuracy , but not as many as you ’d mean . To be clear , let ’s just set up a ready timeline : Star Trek Enterprisetakes seat from 2151 - 2161Star Trek : Discoverytakes place in 2256Star Trek : The Original Seriestakes plaza from 2265 - 2293The Next contemporaries , Deep Space Nine , andVoyagertake position from 2364 - 2379WhenStar Trekdebuted in 1966 , its technology was advanced . Portable communicator , tricorders , particle weapons , transporter beams , faster than light travel , and entire ship running on just a few operose magnetic disk were all novel ideas . Along with the bright 1960s palette , the serial publication captured a sense of wonderment and affirmative excitement for the future . As prison term disappeared , we ended up catching up to theEnterprisemuch faster than we thought . We ’re far beyond grueling disk ; our cell speech sound are much better than the communicators and tricorders , and the military is developing DOE weapons ( will the Second Amendment overlay it ? We hope so ) . ByThe Next Generationera , the hereafter did n’t seem as unlikely or as upstage as it was before . Sure , they had the touchscreen , but we have that now too . Star Trekdeveloped a sedate kind of complacency . The curiosity was n’t there . enterprisingness , the first prequel series , did little to aid . Taking post a hundred yr beforeThe Original Series , the show further confused an already jerky continuity . The ship had the designs and metallic sterility that theTNG - era ships had and looked nothing like the serial it was mean to foreshadow . InTNG(2365 ) , the holodeck was a unexampled piece of technology . InEnterprise ’s fifth installment , Unexpected, ( 2151 ) we see the Klingons bartering with the extraterrestrial - of - the - workweek for holodeck applied science . Star Trek III : The Search for Spock(2285 ) , Dr. McCoy is at a bar ( what a surprisal ) where drunk are flirt a hologram arcade biz which is much less advanced than the one discover inEnterprise . Discoveryalso plays loyal and loose with the franchise ’s account . LikeEnterprise , Discoveryeschews the analog technology and psychedelic colour scheme ofThe Original Series . The ship designs are again more metallic like in theTNGrather than the ceramic form fromTOS . The too - dark bridge of theShenzhoukeeps its lights set at perpetual mourning, but from what we can actually see , it ’s a mixed conception of theTNGera and the reboot films . It ’s dotted in hard - light readouts , console table , and holographical communication devices which were n’t really introduced untilDS9a few hundred years later on . A vulgar fan complaint aboutDiscoveryis its use of a Klingons cloaking gimmick , even though the Klinks should n’t have the applied science for a decade when they obtained one from the Romulans in return for ships . This is not necessarily a continuity wrongdoing . Given that the time differential gear is only ten years while cloaking equipment themselves were around for over a hundred ( as perEnterprise ) . It ’s sensible to assume that T’Kuvma ’s stria of outcasts managed to wrangle or swop for one . Given the reaction of the other Klingons at T’Kuvma ’s reveal , it ’s likely that this was an aberration and not yet a mutual lineament on Klingon ship . Of naturally , there is also the opening that none of these incidentals are persistence problem at all . Early inDiscovery ’s production , Bryan Fuller ( who attend to as showrunner the first of several showrunners ) claimed that the series would take spot in thePrime continuity . The Prime universe is the original timeline whereTOS , TNG , DS9 , VOY , andENTtook place rather than in the shininess of the JJ Abrams nu - Trek(Beyondnotwithstanding).Discoverymaintains theEnterprise - earned run average ship aesthetics and return to the old Stardate arrangement from the Prime universe . However , the Apple store bridge design , warp effect , and the increased use of lens flare flicker are clear references to the reboot serial . Moreover , the Klingons look less like they did inTOSandTNGbut more toward the interpretation of Klingons fromInto Darkness . The canasta of honest-to-goodness and new does garble which universeDiscoverytakes place in , and it ’s to the serial ' benefit .
toy fast and loose with continuity would allowDiscoveryto cherry - nibble what shape while excise what does n’t from the different versions of the enfranchisement . While Fuller did say this serial is in the Prime timeline , this fact has been bring down since , especially after he stepped down as showrunner . GivenStar Trek ’s long and often at odds account , splitting the dispute with an alternating / mixed reality could be its good stakes . It would take into account the writers to make the source and connections that fans demand while also allowing new , naive spectator a fresh start point .
Star Trekhas played with a multiverse before in sequence like Mirror , Mirror and Parallels. One ofGene Roddenberry ’s most significant contributions to the series was the Vulcan philosophy of IDIC : Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations , which celebrates the innumerable variable in existence that would allow for divergent universe to be .
There is , also , one other possibility in explainingDiscovery ’s technical bounce and oversights . It ’s a retcon . comedian fans know what retconning is , for all of its defect and logical leaps . It stand for retroactive continuity. In forgetful , a retcon is a historic revision done intentionally to update , modify or rub out preexisting result to comprehend up the plot holes that telling a Modern story may create . It ’s possible thatStar Trekhas been doing for years .
Roddenberry always envisage the Klingons and the Romulans in a more elaborate and alien way , so whenStar Trekbegan its flick series , Gene at last had the budget to remodel the two mintage . Neither variety was reference on - screen for 10 , but it was merely accept that this was the way they were meant to be . out of doors of a rum meta - extension inDS9 , the change in the Klingons was not raised again in - world untilEnterprise , when they devise a tedious three - instalment arc to answering a inquiry no one deal about in the first station . Adopting the retcon system would explain why the ship design was in - line with the modern geological era rather thanThe Original Seriesaesthetics which would look off-the-wall and anachronous to a present - day consultation . Discoverycould be applying the same logic here .
The retcon approach would allow forStar Trekto tell stories in an unexplored division of the lore , but also re - create the common sense of wonder by seeing these characters interact with engineering science that is truly beyond our stage , but still recognizable from our modern visual mores . Star Trekhas always been more about the journeying than the destination . It ’s about struggling and reach for something better . A heavy part of our spirit now focuses on technology . Discovery , then , becomes an even more thematic rubric than before . We are discover this news series and unexampled creative uses and enlargement for engineering science . Again , Trekis returning to a shoes where they could inspire promotion . Where once the communicator root on the cadre phone , perhaps this newStar Trekwill inspire something new .