Daystrom Institute

KIRK: You're bothered by your performance on the Kobayashi Maru.

SAAVIK: I failed to resolve the situation.

KIRK: There is no correct resolution. It's a test of character.

The Kobayashi Maru Test is one of the central themes of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. In the movie, it represents the inevitability of defeat, and teaches the lesson that how we face it - with dignity, with acceptance, with strength - is at least as important, if not more so, than how we deal with victory (to paraphrase Kirk early in the movie). As Picard would say in "Peak Performance": "It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life."

And yet, the Test is often misunderstood, especially in terms of what it's actually for, in an in-universe setting. In one interpretation, it plays the same role in a cadet's development as it does thematically in the movie: to show the cadet that there will come a time where a no-win scenario will present itself, and teach the cadet how to deal with it. But then it's not really a test, in that sense, but a lesson.

In another interpretation, the Test is to see how the cadet faces defeat, that is to say, their response to defeat. While I agree that this is certainly an important part of the test, it focuses solely on the aftermath of it and therefore makes the cadet's responses during the test itself irrelevant.

One other interpretation, as seen in the 2009 Star Trek movie, is that the Test is supposed to make a cadet face fear. I've argued before that it seems illogical that Spock would design such a test for the simple reason that fear is an emotion, and at this stage in his life Spock does not (consciously at least) find any value in emotional responses. But this again is not a test, but an experience, an extended hazing exercise with no discernable purpose on the face of it.

The Test may allow for all of these things, but that's not the actual purpose of it. The point is not whether you win or lose, or face defeat or face fear. The fact that it's a command-level exercise tells us that it's supposed to tell the instructors something about the cadet's command performance. It's not just whether a person is fit for command; there's a whole different battery of tests and exams along the way in Command School to find that out. It's about what kind of command they're fit for. While undoubtedly the Test brings in all that the cadet has learned during the course of their Academy training in a simulation, ultimately, it's the cadet's response to the Test during the course of the simulation - not after it, not because of it - that does that.

Do they go in guns blazing? Do they sacrifice their crew against overwhelming odds? Do they try diplomacy? Do they abandon the Kobayashi Maru to its fate? Do they keep trying to win, never giving up, beating their head against a brick wall to the point of insanity? Do they refuse to accept a no-win situation? Do they cheat?

I suspect most cadets would react like most people do - like Saavik did - resent the hell out of the Test and throw themselves into the gauntlet again and again trying to figure out how to beat it, not realizing that said more about them than the Test itself. And so did Kirk, for a time, until he realized that the game was rigged, that the instructors, under normal circumstances, would never allow a victory.

It's likely that the simulation adapts to whatever the cadet does and makes it more difficult on the fly. Try to eject the warp core? The ejectors are frozen due to battle damage. Challenge the Klingon captain to single combat? He refuses because you are undeserving of honor. Defeat the first wave somehow? They just keep coming. Try to run? They catch up. You get the idea. So the only real way to "win" is to reprogram the simulation so it can't adapt to whatever you throw at it.

In that sense, Kirk also missed the point of the no-win scenario, because he wanted to win. At the same time, he was philosophically opposed to the concept of a no-win scenario. So he cheated - changed the conditions just enough so it was possible to rescue the ship and win.

(As a side note, Kirk was a bit hard on himself when he said he'd never faced a no-win scenario: I'd argue that he faced it in "The City on the Edge of Forever" when he had to decide between Edith Keeler and the universe, and he passed that test admirably at great personal cost.)

But Kirk did not frustrate the intentions of the Test, nor did he provide a "wrong" response, because there really is no “correct” resolution. That was why Kirk was never sanctioned for it and in fact got the commendation for pulling off the feat in the first place. Kirk didn't seem to realize that the commendation wasn't a reward for beating the Test - it was for thinking laterally in general by going outside the simulation. The Test had already gotten what it wanted out of Kirk.

In Kirk's response, the instructors recognized a few things: a person who knew when to follow rules, to critically assess them so he knew when to question them and more importantly, when to break or circumvent them, throwing the book away and creating a new one. In his refusal to accept a no-win scenario, they also saw someone that would do whatever was necessary to push ahead in the face of overwhelming odds to search for a solution where seemingly there was none.

And in the wild final frontier of what was then 23rd Century space, which tested and claimed the lives and souls of so many of his peers - Decker, Tracy, et al., he was absolutely the kind of captain that was needed.

Which is not to say that it is perfect or superior to Earth and the larger Federation's comparatively egalitarian post-scarcity economy, or even particularly ethical.

However, from what we're shown, the Ferengi political structure (which is clearly part and parcel with it's commercial structure) does not, with the one HUGE exception of it's treatment of women, make use of divisive social issues to distract its work force from the disadvantages of capitalism. Unlike contemporary Western capitalism, everyone on Ferenginar from the wealthiest to the poorest appears to operate from the same transparent, if morally bankrupt, ruleset, and the powerful, importantly, don't pretend otherwise.

This is a dark but kind of brilliant aspect of the rules of acquisition - All members of society, including laborers, are taught from birth to operate from a position of mutual distrust and can operate comfortably with full knowledge that the person on the other side of the table will disregard all other concerns in order to take complete financial advantage of them, and they will do the same. This bypasses a lot of steps that would otherwise be required in terms of building trust or engaging in any kind of sales or negotiation, although there is likely a lot more onus on each individual to do the calculus on any given business transaction internally to ensure that all of their vulnerabilities are accounted for. The phrase 'trust me' must be a complete joke in all contexts.

Furthermore, because greed is not just a social value but a desirable and marketable job skill, the playing field, which is horrific from the perspective of most 24th century humans, may actually be more level than even modern capitalism. There's evidence to suggest that if even the poorest worker can successfully skim profits without leaving immediate evidence behind, this is almost blameless. Quark knows that Rom shaves the latinum, for example.

This is not a complete theory and I'm sure there are plenty of counterexamples, but mostly I just wanted to gripe that shit is so tough irl right now that even working as a Ferengi waiter seems like a dream by comparison.

This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Strange New Worlds 2x10 Hegemony.

Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the content of the latest episode, this thread is a place to dig a little deeper.

This hypothesis is predicated on the fact that the explicit intent behind Zefram Cochrane, whether or not this has been successfully communicated on screen, is that he is the inventor of warp drive as we commonly know it in Star Trek, and that prior to his invention, the existing warp-capable galactic powers were utilizing some other means of generating warp fields.

Citing Ron D. Moore after First Contact was released,

"Certainly Cochrane is credited with the invention of warp drive as we know it in Trek, so we could assume that the Vulcans were using something else – possibly a variant of the contained singularity used by the Romulans. That might have been a much more dangerous and inefficient technology which was quickly abandoned by most of the galaxy when Cochrane's system was introduced."

Now, let's look at some Vulcan ships...

The pre-Cochrane D'Vahl-type starship: This is the type of starship that rescued the survivors of the Vulcan survey ship in Carbon Creek. It is also the type of ship that patrolled above the Forge on Vulcan (as seen in the image). These are warp capable but possess what look like only rudimentary nacelles. The glowing bits look more like impulse engines to me.

The pre-Cochrane Vulcan survey ship: Similar in design to the D'Vahl, with no obvious warp nacelles despite being warp capable.

The pre-Cochrane T'plana-Hath: this ship again possesses no obvious nacelles of any kind, and has what appear to be some kind of engine bells or drive units that angle downward for landing.

The post-Cochrane Vahklas-type starship: this is the only Vulcan starship I can think of that possesses what could be argued to be more typical warp nacelles instead of an annular drive. Obviously the ring shape is hinted at, but it looks like it's only an aesthetic choice here.

When the NX-01 Enterprise encounters a Vahklas-type ship in 2151, T'Pol states that they had not been in use for "a long time."

My hypothesis is that the Vahklas-type represents the first (or one of the earliest) Vulcan attempts at adapting the Cochrane-style warp drive to their own vessels, perhaps utilizing the partial ring shape to increase efficiency over Cochrane's nacelle design, which they consider inefficient.

I think it was this continued lack of preferred efficiency that led the Vulcans to continue working on adapting Cochrane's design for their own purposes, eventually leading to the development of the annular warp drive, possibly sometime between the 2070s and 2100. Definitely prior to the dedication of the Warp Five Complex in 2119.

Presumably, the Vulcans came to the humans with their design if only to show them how their warp drive had ultimately proven inefficient and could be, at least by Vulcan standards, drastically improved upon. This led to the development, perhaps not by United Earth Starfleet or UESPA, of the USS Enterprise XCV-330, the only known human attempt at annular warp drive design.

Ultimately, the annular warp drive proves highly efficient but also highly resistant to course corrections and maneuverability. While this trade off is acceptable to the Vulcans, who do not place an emphasis on exploration, it is antithetical to the very purpose of Starfleet. The design is thus quickly abandoned as a technological dead-end, in favor of the homegrown, For Humans, By Humans nacelle design originated by Dr. Cochrane.

Vulcans, meanwhile, continue to favor the annular warp drive for their own ships, and the High Command quickly adopts it.

This leads to the development of the Suurok-class starship by at least 2136 (when Captain Vanik says he took command of the Ti'Mur in ENT S1E8 Cold Front).

The success of the Suurok-class leads to the further development of the D'kyr-type starship.

Throughout the 2100s, Vulcan starships of all types are designed with the annular warp drive, including ships as small as shuttles and transports.

Over the next century, there would be refinements and adjustments of the annular warp drive design, leading to some slightly different but still ultimately hoop-shaped implementations, as in the 23rd century T'plana-type starship and the early 24th century Apollo-class starship as exemplified by the starship T'Pau in TNG Unification I/II.

But ultimately, the ring-shaped annular drive as developed in the 22nd century remains the favorite, lasting well into the 24th century largely unchanged, although with the addition of what appear to be some slightly more traditional nacelle-like elements, as seen on the Sh'vhal-type starship on Lower Decks.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

Considering that M'Benga is demoted, it's likely he did something that is consider attrocious, but not to drum out of Starfleet entirely.

Considering the Cliffhanger, what if M'Benga developed some kind of permannent genetic engineering that changed Gorn from reproducing with Paralystic Eggs being pregnant with their own paralystic eggs?

The reasoning I say is this: with Paralystic Eggs, they are consider direct threat to well being of the various Species within Federation due to nature. However, in Kelvinverse Gorn can get pregnant; and by the time Lower Decks come about Gorn is "friendly enough" for them to do business within Federation, something may have changed - voluntary or not voluntary. I will say not voluntary.

The technology exist: Klingon's smooth forehead is a combination of genetic manipulation with virus, leading to the spread of the geneitic engineering beyong those in the experiment.

Now, if M'Benga did it, it actually put Starfleet in a dilemma:

• On one hand, M'Benga commited permanent genetic engineering without authorization, as well as cultural/genetic genocide. Grave crime in Federation
• On the other hand, it's Gorn, who attacked Federation space and colonies.

Thus, the demotion - if it's just the first part, he will be dishonorably discharged. But since under the table he effectively saved Federation, they decided to just demote him if he choose to stay on Enterprise, or assign to some random outpost. He chooses the former.

Hope it’s ok to bring a link to a deeper dive article here. It seems a Daystrom Institute kind of analysis, and the background on Gene Coon’s shared script credit is worth documenting. (It’s new to me.)

TL;DR: Coon unintentionally mirrored plot lines from a June 1944 Astounding Science Fiction piece by Frederic Brown when he wrote an episode to fill a gap. The similarity was caught during a legal review so that the story’s author received co-credit.

Here’s the database synopsis of Brown’s novelette:

An advanced alien entity intervenes to stop a catastrophic war between humans and Outsiders. The entity chooses a champion from each side to decide the fate of the two races by fighting to the death in an arena designed to test their intelligence and courage.

Credit to Ryan Britt for this deep dive for Inverse. I’m not sure that I would go with his assessment that TOS is the only one that gave us the reflective version given that we’ve only seen the first part of Hegemony. The SNW season finale seems to be set up as a test of Pike that yet to come to a head. Spock and Chapel’s defeat of the environment-suited Gorn on the Cayuga’s saucer seems likely to be a set-up, to be expanded upon and mirrored in the second part yet to be seen.

Could it be possible that Pike might yet have his own toe-to-toe face off with the Gorn? Actually, or metaphorically as he takes on the Gorn’s leadership?

And like both Kirk and the protagonist of the original story, might Pike keep his learned, deeper understanding of the other species somewhat secret?

That would resolve the Gorn arc in SNW while preserving Kirk’s understanding of the Gorn as monsters for Arena. It would also be consistent with the theme of the personal cost ‘keeping secrets’ that has been running through the show.

Like basically every current Star Trek fan, I love the character of Captain Pike as Anson Mount portrays him. I wonder, though, to what extent he is actually the same guy from "The Cage." If we had only that episode to work from (which the Discovery and SNW writers initially did), we would know that he is broody, that he struggles with the responsibility he bears for the lives of others, and that he is remarkably able to conjure up emotions like anger and hate on command. Does any of that fit with Pike as we know him now?

One way to answer this question would be to imagine a very literal remake of the original pilot recast with the current actors. Everyone else would basically make sense, but I think seeing the current Pike act out his scenes would be jarring and even a little upsetting.

I'm sure we can come up with in-universe explanations -- he was having a particularly bad day, he's grown as a person, etc., etc. -- but it does seem like the current-day writers are departing pretty abruptly from the ostensible basis for the character. What do you think?

Inspired by a bit of discussion over on discord, where there was an argument over whether the USS Discovery had been upgraded by the 32nd century Federation.

On the one hand, the Discovery did undergo a vast overhaul, being fitted with an upgraded power/propulsion system, detachable nacelles and the works, however, we also know at the end of Discovery Season 3, that Burnham resetting the Discovery's computers effectively put much of the ship back to the 23rd century baseline (or as much of one as it could return to). We're also shown that the Discovery still uses microtapes in its computer room.

So was the Discovery upgraded completely to 32nd century standards, or is it still a 23rd century ship underneath the 32nd century paint?

The title refers to the Gorn Hegemony, as their political entity is known (ENT: “Bound”). A hegemony is a system of government where one state is dominant - politically, culturally, economically, militarily - over other states in the same sphere of influence. This may indicate that Gorn space covers a variety of individual states or species, but with the Gorn themselves as the dominant faction, or hegemon.

This may also tie into fanon and beta canon about multiple species of Gorn, to explain the differences in appearance between the Gorn of TOS: “Arena” (and LD: “Veritas”) and the Gorn seen in ENT: “In a Mirror, Darkly” and in SNW: “All Those Who Wander”.

The use of Hegemony can be found in the 1992 novel The Disinherited and again in the 1997 novel Wrath of the Prophets - both by Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, and Robert Greenberger. It’s also been named, in various licensed material, as the Gorn Empire, the Gorn Kingdom, the Gorn Alliance… but it was only when “Bound” was broadcast that it finally settled as Hegemony.

Of course, there’s the continuity inconsistencies with the Federation’s knowledge of the Gorn when matched with TOS: “Arena”, but now given Temporal War Shenanigans, people seem to have generally given up on reconciling them without it.

Batel’s log is Stardated 2344.2 and I think this is the first time we get a good look at the USS Cayuga, which is either a Constitution-class like Enterprise or a smaller Sombra-class like the USS Peregrine (“All Those Who Wander”).

The colony of Parnassus Beta, on the edge of Federation space, has not been mentioned before. Mount Parnassus is a mountain range in Greece, and in mythology was the home of the Muses. The planet of Parnassus VII was mentioned in the TNG game A Final Unity.

Chapel is on the planet, hitching a ride on Cayuga to her fellowship. Pike makes a reference to the events of SNW: “Subspace Rhapsody”. The colonists are wary of accepting Federation membership because it may put a target on them. I think Pike’s saying he misses Batel puts more of a target on her, trope-ily speaking. We see him with the Operlian Mariner’s Keystone she gave him in SNW: “Among the Lotus Eaters”.

As the Gorn ship appears, the soundtrack swells into a very TOS-ish piece of music, complete with dissonant trumpet blares. This is kept up as we first see the wreckage of the Cayuga, with a broken saucer reminiscent of the wrecked USS Constellation in TOS: “The Doomsday Machine”.

La’An theorises the Gorn have a weapon capable of rendering their enemies blind by interfering with comms, sensors and transport. In TOS: “Arena”, they were capable of faking subspace transmissions to lure starships in and interfered with ground-to-ship communications.

Spock identifies the incoming ship as a Gorn hunter, of the type the Enterprise battled in SNW: “Memento Mori”.

The map sent by the Gorn to Starfleet uses the same Gorn alphabet we first saw in “Memento Mori”. It may actually be transcribable directly into Latin letters, as seen in La’An’s memories of her notebook in that episode, but even her attempt was incomplete.

We see Cayuga’s registry number as NCC-1557, which might indicate it’s Sombra-class (Peregrine was NCC-1549, and most Constitution ships are in the 1600 or 1700 series), but production art shows it to be Constituiton.

Pike asks Transporter Chief Jay to transport a Crate 32 to the ready room, authorization code Pike Epsilon-C-6. The contents are labeled “Gorn Protocol Box / G32 95108 / N-1036”. These include phaser harmonics adjustments, recalibrations for tricorders to be now be able to scan them, and nitrogen grenades to freeze anything in a 10 m radius.

Spock’s PADD displays the following:

GORN PROTOCOLS

affected areas and should be regularly inspected. The use of surveillance equipment to monitor the areas as well as regular patrolling can be vital. The intention should be to establish secure areas which the Gorn will find difficult to penetrate. Securing by locking or other means of controlling access to unattended spaces adjoining areas could also prove necessary.

It is important that any response to an incident is well planned and executed, and those involved should be as familiar as possible with a starship environment. Therefore, those responsible within the security forces for responding to Gorn attacks against starships, whether in open space or in port, should be trained in the general layout and features of the types of ships most likely to be encountered and starship captains in consultation with Starfleet Command should cooperate with the security forces in providing access to their ships to allow the necessary onboard education/familiarization.

…..

PHASER HARMONICS ADJUSTMENTS

TO BETTER COUNTER THEIR DEFENCES

CLOSE-RANGE

Wavelength: 3.4E -11 M

Amplitude: 10 CM

Frequency: .967 S-1

LONG-RANGE

Wavelength: 4.6E -11M

Amplitude: 15 CM

Frequency: 0.648 S-1

SCANNER RE-CALIBRATIONS

TRICORDER SCANNER CALIBRATION

Rangescanner: 121021.132.13.401.40.000.00.102.10.501.50

Detection: 2.120.03.113.21450.45.010.01.521.52.210.21

Estimated Range: 100-150 M

Estimated Day Effectiveness: 90%

Estimated Night Effectivness: 80%

The Hunter ship is at the 4th Lagrange point. Lagrange points, named after Italian scientist Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736-1813), are points of gravitational equilibrium in space between two gravitationally massive objects. There are five Lagrange points that can be defined for two bodies. L1-L3 were discovered by Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) with L4 and L5 (the ones identified by Lagrange) being the most stable and where debris will usually gather. The 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 the vessel from drifting.

The landing party are wearing tactical gear (SNW: “Lost in Translation”, “Under the Cloak of War”). Una makes reference to the zombie movie trope where you act dead so they don’t notice you. As Erica pulls off her low altitude maneuver, the only one unperturbed by it all is M’Benga, for reasons obvious to the regular viewer. Pike praises Erica, which makes me worried for her now.

The Gorn interference beacon has a very Borg-ish shade of green, but maybe that’s just me.

Well, hello there, LT j.g. Montgomery Scott of the solar research vessel Stardiver! The only survivor of his ship that was ambushed one system over, he escaped when he jury-rigged his shuttle engines to increase their capacity, because of course he did. While this is technically his first appearance on SNW, we did hear a Scottish-accented crewman assisting alt-Spock in SNW: “A Quality of Mercy”.

Scotty pronounces "Lieutenant" as "Lef-tenant", in the British military manner here (he pronounced it "Loo-tenant" in TOS). The Stardiver may be a reference to the David Brin novel Sundiver, where the titular spacecraft is designed to fly close to the sun to investigate its chromosphere.

Martin Quinn, who plays Scotty, is a Paisley boy like David Tennant and Steven Moffat, which means using his natural accent will be easier to make out, as the Paisley accent is less harsh than, say, a Glaswegian one. He’s a bit young for Scotty though, at 28. Scotty was, chronologically, 147 in TNG: “Relics”, which means he was born in 2222, making him 38-39 at this point, although timeline changes may have made him more youthful.

Scotty gives us more details: the Stardiver was in the Shangdi (named after Shàngdi, a Chinese supreme deity) system, a red super giant. The Coronal Mass Ejections thrown off by the star apparently attracted them. Sam theorizes that certain stellar activity could trigger a consumption cycle. To hide himself from them, Scotty built a Gorn transponder from a Hubble K7C Stellar Assessment Array, making his shuttle scan like a Gorn ship. I got to say though, that I get emotional every time I hear them say, “Mr. Scott,” because it sounds so right.

Without going into the exact numbers provided on-screen, Parnassus Beta is clearly M-Class, with a rotation period of 28.5 hours, a revolution of 402 days and an oxygen/nitrogen ratio nearly identical to Earth, nearly the same proportion of water to land and with animal and plant life in both hemispheres. All in all, an ideal colony planet, if not for the Gorn.

Pelia needles Una that an answer like would have earned her an A-plus, referring to the C grade Pelia gave her in Starship Maintenance 307 (“Lost in Translation”).

As we found out in “All Those Who Wander”, the maturity cycle for Gorn eggs differs from host to host - for an Orion it took weeks. In humans it can take mere days.

The beam-up effect for the colonists is different, so that’s a sinking feeling confirmed later when we find out they were taken by the Gorn. Mass beam-ups of this sort were never seen in TOS, so it’s kind of cool to see in any case. Cargo transporters have the capacity, but according to the TNG Tech Manual they were not used for living matter because they were set to molecular instead of quantum resolution, like replicators.

Pelia says Scotty was one of her best students who received some of her worst grades. I wonder why…

As the Gorn attack, we see the traditional rocks of Starfleet electronics being scattered in the explosions. And as April orders the Enterprise to withdraw and Pike faces a no-win scenario, we end on another cliffhanger…

This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Strange New Worlds 2x09 Subspace Rhapsody.

Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the content of the latest episode, this thread is a place to dig a little deeper.

In musical terms, a rhapsody is a single movement musical piece, characterized by a free-flowing structure where moods and tones can vary considerably, flowing in and out of each one. It is derived from the Greek rhapsōidia, in turn derived from rhaptein (to stitch) and ōidē (song/ode): literally, a stitched together song - with ode also meaning a poem/song of praise. A rhapsody can also mean an ecstatic, enthusiastic expression of emotion. The songs in this episode were written by Kay Hanley and Tom Polce of Letters to Cleo.

The Stardate is 2398.3. This is the first time a “subspace fold” has been mentioned on screen, but it is a ship’s ability in Star Trek Online which allows a starship to be propelled 6.66 ly forward. In essence, rather like a geodesic fold (VOY: “Inside Man”), it’s a shortcut through space - or in this case, subspace.

Usually routine ship’s comms are handled by the computer, so as all resources are being devoted to Spock’s theory, Uhura has to route them manually like an old-timey phone operator.

As previously established, Jim Kirk is serving on the USS Farragut (TOS: “Obsession”), where he has just become XO. Chapel’s message is from her future fiancé Dr. Roger Korby (TOS: “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”), regarding her fellowship in archeological medicine at the Vulcan Science Academy.

Crivo is a Portuguese word meaning “sieve”, for what it’s worth. Batel mentions the Crivian Planetary Museum, Glass Islands and Smoke Lakes.

Una notices La’An’s anxiousness at Jim’s arrival. La’An had a brief encounter with the Kirk of an alternate timeline in SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”, something which the Prime Kirk is unaware of.

M’Benga calls Korby the Louis Pasteur of Archeological Medicine, a term Spock repeats in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”.

It was noted in SNW: “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach” that the speed of subspace radio is 52,000c, and requires relays as subspace radio signals degrade over distance. According to the TNG Tech Manual, in the 24th Century subspace radio has a speed of Warp 9.9997, or approximately 79,000c, but still has an upper range of 22.65 ly, necessitating relays at 20 ly intervals (or a sector’s length, given the size expressed in Geoffery Mandel’s Star Charts).

Uhura first selects Cole Porter’s 1934 song “Anything Goes”, which geeks will probably best know as the opening number to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (albeit in very badly pronounced Mandarin). The version she plays sounds to me like Eileen Rogers’ from the 1962 Anything Goes cast album.

LT Jenna Mitchell is at the Ops/Navigation position on the bridge. The bosun’s whistle signals Pike’s arrival on the bridge. Mitchell reports no other ships in the sector despite a ship apparently having just dropped off Jim.

The effect is not just limited to singing, but is making the crew do choreography as well. Having an outside force forcing characters to perform musical theatre is of course best known from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: “Once More With Feeling”, but that was from a supernatural cause.

The theme song from the titles is rearranged as a choral piece, like the title sequence was animated for the LD crossover, “Those Old Scientists”.

The bunny conversation is too specific not to be a reference to the song “I’ve Got a Theory” from “Once More With Feeling” , where a whole verse is devoted to how the explanation for the phenomenon could be bunnies. Or maybe midgets. Uhura even says later, “I have a theory.”

The idea that a subspace fissure can lead to different quantum realities was first presented in TNG: “Parallels”, where Worf passed through one that kept shifting him into different parallels. None of them were musical, sadly.

The Heisenberg compensator is a technobabble component invented for TNG by Michael Okuda and Rick Sternbach, in order to explain how the transporter would work with Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, since that states that it is impossible know the momentum and position of a given particle simultaneously, which would severely hamper the transporter’s functions. How the compensator works is purposely left vague, and the usual jokey answer is, “[It works] very well, thank you.”

Una says she’s aware of her reputation, but trying a new approach. In SNW: “Spock Amok” she learned that she and La’An were known as “Where Fun Goes to Die”, but in that episode both learned to cut loose a bit by playing “Enterprise Bingo”. We found out in ST: “Q & A” that Una had a secret passion for the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. This became a matter of public record when Spock revealed it to the Court in SNW: “Ad Astra Per Aspera”.

Christina Chong has just released her first EP, “Twin Flames”. While we’re at it, Celia Rose Gooding became famous making her Broadway debut in Jagged Little Pill, Rebecca Romijn has covered “Darling Nikki” for a Prince tribute album and Carole Kane has played Madame Morrible in Wicked.

La’An’s fear of losing control is tied to her fear about her Augmented heritage and that she could be a potential Khan. The watch she holds is from the past, which she and alt-Kirk used to track down a cold fusion reactor in 21st Century Toronto. She flashes back to the night she and alt-Kirk spent in a hotel, imagining if it turned out differently (“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”).

I think this is the first time that we’ve heard Batel’s first name, which is Marie. The map showing the subspace network shows the fissure in proximity to Cajitar (SNW: “The Broken Circle”) which is appropriately marked with both Federation and Klingon colors. We also see listed the USS Lexington (NCC-1709), Kongo (NCC-1710), Republic (NCC-1371) and Farragut (NCC-1647). The first two are Constitution-class ships - the Lexington was first listed on a chart in TOS: “Court Martial”. The USS Republic was one of Jim Kirk’s first ship assignments (also mentioned in “Court Martial”) as an Ensign.

The Kongo, named after the Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Kongō, originates from a behind the scenes list of Constitution-class (then named “Starship”-class) ships in TOS but first listed in Franz Joseph’s Starfleet Technical Manual before finally making its way on-screen in ST VI. Spock also wore a Kongo pin in SNW: “Memento Mori” for Starfleet Remembrance Day, indicating he once served on her.

Also on the map: the Persephone system (“Children of the Comet”), Eminiar (in FGC-321) (TOS: “A Taste of Armageddon”), Marjalis (SNW: “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach”), Beta Tauri (TOS: “The Galileo Seven”, not named in the episode but identified in Star Charts), Gamma Tauri and Delphi Ardu (TNG: “The Last Outpost”), Harlak (DIS: “The Wolf Inside”) and Forcas (TNG: “Parallels”).

Later we see on a wider-view chart, on the Federation side, Janus (TOS: “The Devil in the Dark”), Wurna Minor (DIS: “Despite Yourself”), Davlos (DS9: “Visionary”), Oryb-J and the J’Gal Moon (SNW: “Under the Cloak of War”), Hetemit (SNW: “Ghosts of Illyria”), Cygnet (TOS: “Tomorrow is Yesterday”), Cait (home of the Caitians from TAS). On the Klingon side, Boreth (TNG: “Birthright”), Tribble Prime (DIS: “An Obol for Charon”), and a few others I can’t make out.

When Una sings “the secrets you keep safe inside / might keep you awake and cut like a knife”, the camera focuses on M’Benga, recalling the events of “Under the Cloak of War”. Her ability to keep secrets is from years of concealing her Illyrian heritage.

Una disengages the artificial gravity in the ready room. We’ve seen in ENT: “In a Mirror, Darkly” that gravity can be varied in selected parts of the ship, as well as on Deep Space Nine in DS9: “Melora”. Shuttlebays in particular were variable gravity areas (signage in TNG).

La’An calls the Klingon ship a K’t’inga-class. This is a slight anachronism, as the K’t’inga-class, first seen in TMP and named in Roddenberry’s novelization, is supposed to be a distinct and more advanced version of the D7-class battlecruiser commonly seen in TOS. We could handwave it away as Temporal War shenanigans or being one of the first advanced models introduced or both. La’An is correct that the K’t’inga has an aft torpedo launcher (as opposed to the D7’s forward-only launcher).

Jim says he’s in the on-phase of an on-again off-again relationship and he names Carol, i.e. Carol Marcus (ST II), the mother of his son David. He says Carol is based on Starbase One and pregnant. This sort of tracks with a comic story by Howard Weinstein (“Star-Crossed”, Star Trek Vol 2, #73-#75, DC Comics), where David is conceived in 2260 when Carol and Kirk are serving together on the USS Eagle. That being said, there’s another relationship we know Jim was having around this time, with Janet Wallace (TOS: “The Deadly Years”), which would end in 2261, so maybe she’s the rebound after Carol.

The one-eyed Klingon General Garkog is played by Bruce Horak (a.k.a. the late Chief Engineer Hemmer).

Immediately after the grand finale we hear the traditional Alexander Courage arrangement of the Star Trek TOS theme. Batel says she’s being put on a priority one mission, which will probably tie into the season finale.

Spock engages in Klingon diplomacy over bloodwine, as he did in “The Broken Circle” (hopefully his hangover isn’t as bad this time). The USS Nimerfro is likely named after Scott Nimerfro, who co-wrote VOY: “Jetrel” and also was an associate producer on X-Men with Rebecca Romijn. Nimerfro passed away from cancer in 2016.

One of the biggest difficulties of most episodic dramas, including the various Star Trek series, is that putting main characters in danger is seldom believable. It's such a common syndrome that it's even a pop culture trope: plot armor. Watching the early second-season episode "Unnatural Selection," in which Dr. Pulaski is infected with a rapid-aging syndrome, I wonder if the writers are counting on the viewers not believing Dr. Pulaski has plot armor.

After all, she is a recent addition and she is not even listed on the main credits, instead being designated as a "guest star." More fatally still, the episode supplies fresh background about the character and especially her desire to serve with Picard -- and every viewer of a reality TV show knows that once a contestant gets backstory and calls their family on camera, they're probably going home that episode. Perhaps they even expect viewers to remember that they did really kill a main character, Tasha Yar. Maybe this will just be the season of rotating-door Chief Medical Officers, much like season one had a different Chief Engineer every time it came up.

I'm especially interested to hear from people who remember watching it when it first aired, but everyone who watches an episode is watching it for the first time. Did you think Dr. Pulaski could really die?

This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Strange New Worlds 2x08 Under the Cloak of War.

Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the content of the latest episode, this thread is a place to dig a little deeper.

In SNW: “Those Old Scientists”, the following facts are established:

• Horonium is an element that powers the time portal on Krulmuth-B

• Horonium was once used in the hulls of NX-class starships, officially because it was durable, lightweight and was just the right shade of gray

• The portal on Krulmuth-B had Nausicaan writing which said, “This is a time portal”

The name horonium, as I pointed out in my annotations, comes from the Greek hōra - the root word for horology, the art of constructing watches or clocks. This cannot be a mere coincidence. We can reasonably surmise, therefore, that whoever coined the name for it was aware of its uses in relation to temporal technology.

So the following questions raise themselves:

• Why was horonium used in the hulls of NX-class starships and not anywhere else? What made the NX-class special in that regard?

• Did the Nausicaans really build the portal on Krulmuth-B thousands of years ago?

• Why does the Nausicaan writing simply say, “This is a time portal”?

So here’s what I think: the Nausicaans didn’t build the time portal thousands of years ago. That being said, they did discover it at that time and figured out its nature - that’s why there’s a label on it saying “This is a time portal”.

If the Nausicaans had really built it, then why bother labelling it like that and with nothing else? It’s not as if they were leaving instructions, or wanting to share with other species. As we’ve seen, most Nausicaans don’t rise above the level of thuggery and as a species they seem just a step up from Pakleds in the bright bulb department. And for a species like that, a simple label is par for the course, comparable to the Pakleds naming their capital city Big Strong City.

I think that the Nausicaans of thousands of years past used the portal to jump ahead, perhaps to try and raid futuristic technology to advance their civilization. But in doing so, they attracted the attention of the powers fighting the Temporal Wars. Because of that, the discovery of an ore that could power time portals came to light.

Horonium may not just be a fuel source - its use in the hulls of NX-class vessels shows that it was part of the ship’s outer structure as well as being used in components like whatever that gas-cylinder like thing was that Spock pulled out of the floor of the Enterprise. Why use a metal that has temporal properties? Could it be that it was used as some kind of protective armor against temporal attacks, against enemies that could change the timeline?

The NX-01 was using polarized hull plating before shields were commonplace, so it’s not a stretch to say that horonium could be used as temporal shielding like Voyager in VOY: “Year of Hell”. And the horonium shielding was used in the NX-classes - on the hull and on key components - because that was the first era when Earth got caught up in the Temporal Wars.

So why did horonium run out? There are a few possibilities. One is that there wasn’t that much to begin with and all were used up in the NX-classes or other Federation ships that fought in the Temporal Wars. Another is that the Nausicaans just frittered away whatever horonium was left on Krulmuth-B in their temporal raids and just stopped because they ran out. Or it could be that the wars targeted sources of horonium so participants couldn’t use its shielding properties. Or it could be a combination of all these things.

So to tl;dr: why doesn’t horonium exist anymore? Because the Nausicaans used it, the temporal powers noticed it and then it was either all used up in ship construction or destroyed as a strategic resource.

Damn it, Nausicaans!

We already know from TOS that Mutlitronic computers are able to develop sapience, with the M-5 computer being specifically designed to "think and reason" like a person, and built around Dr Daystrom's neural engrams.

However, we also know from Voyager that the holomatrix of their Mk 1 EMH also incorporates Multitronic technology, and from DS9 that it's also used in mind-reading devices.

Assuming that the EMH is designed to more or less be a standard hologram with some medical knowledge added in, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that holograms were either sapient themselves, or were capable of developing sapience. It would only be a logical possibility if technology that allowed human-like thought and reasoning into a hologram.

If anything, it is more of a surprise that sapient holograms like the Doctor or Moriarty hadn't happened earlier.

This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Strange New Worlds 2x07 Those Old Scientists.

Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the content of the latest episode, this thread is a place to dig a little deeper.

The title comes from an Albert Einstein 1931 essay, Mein Weltbid or The World as I see It: “Töten im Krieg ist nach meiner Auffassung um nichts besser als gewöhnlicher Mord.” It is often translated as, “It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”

The Stardate is 1875.4. The Enterprise is in the Prospero system rendezvousing with the USS Kelcie Mae. Since the end of the Klingon War, the system has been under Starfleet jurisdiction and the three inhabited planets in the system have just reached a ceasefire after years of infighting. The ceasefire was negotiated by a Federation Ambassador who is a Klingon, Dak’Rah, son of Ra’Ul, a former general who defected.

Rah makes note of the bo’sun (or boatswain) whistle. Pike says it’s become a tradition on the Enterprise to welcome honored guests. The sound of the whistle was used in TOS as an incoming message alert on the ship’s intercom. The first time we see it being used to pipe someone aboard is in TOS: “The Savage Curtain” when it is used to welcome a duplicate of Abraham Lincoln. We also see an electronic whistle welcoming Admiral Kirk aboard in ST II, and it appears variously throughout the shows.

Uhura cites Rah’s achievements: the Summit of Scorpi X, the Klingon Free Trade Agreement, negotiating the Perez Accords. Ortegas counters with the Slaughter at Lembatta V, the siege at Starbase Zetta and (as we find out later), the massacre of Colony Athos. Ortegas relates a story where Rah killed his own men to cover his retreat, and that the Klingons call him the Butcher of J’Gal (where M’Benga experienced the Battle of ChaKana as stated in SNW: “The Broken Circle”).

Rah remarks that, unlike Enterprise, a Klingon Bird of Prey isn’t built to take in its surroundings. Despite fanon for the longest time assuming that the Birds of Prey were imported Romulan designs, we saw Klingon Birds of Prey in DIS (DIS: “Battle at the Binary Stars”).

Raktajino, or Klingon coffee, is well known and widely imbibed by the 24th Century, but in the 23rd Century it is still a novel beverage (DS9: “Trials and Tribble-lations”). Spock remarks that the temperature of raktajino is a “simple matter of coding”, referring to the food synthesizers which are the precursor of 24th Century food replicators.

The cup that materializes with the raktajino is a Feltman-Langer no-spill mug from the 1980s, used often as a prop on Deep Space 9 for beverages. Rah burns his hand on the mug, and is brought to sickbay, where M’Benga suffers an PTSD panic attack on seeing him.

The flashback to the Moon of J’Gal is “a few years ago”, keeping it vague. The Klingon War lasted from 2256 to 2257, which makes it about 4 to 5 years ago if the current SNW takes place around 2261.

FOB is a military acronym for Forward Operating Base, which is a base set up closer to the front lines to support military operations. In this case, it’s a mile from the front. The uniforms that Chapel and the shuttle pilot wear are tactical uniforms with flashlights on the shoulders (seen in SNW: “Lost in Translation”).

CMO CMDR Buck Martinez is played by Clint Howard, who originally appeared as a child actor playing Balok in TOS: “The Corbomite Maneuver”. He’s also been in DS9: “Past Tense, Part II”, ENT: “Acquisition” as a Ferengi and DIS: “Will You Take My Hand” as an Orion.

“Bills and bows,” which Buck shouts as the arrival of wounded being transported in is announced, is an old call to arms originating in England, dating back to the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487). The call is going out for spearmen (bills, or pole arms) and archers (bows).

M’Benga suggests loading Alvarado’s pattern into the transporter buffer to preserve him until the convoy arrives. We see him doing that for his daughter in SNW Season 1. Transport buffers as holding areas are usually only temporary and emergency measures, as the pattern degrades if the subject isn’t materialized periodically. Janeway used it to hide refugees in VOY: “Counterpoint”, and Burnham put Discovery’s crew in buffers to protect them in DIS: “Stormy Weather”. The only known example for extremely long term preservation in a transporter buffer is Montgomery Scott, who jury-rigged a system to use it as a lifeboat for 75 years until he was rescued by the Enterprise-D (TNG: “Relics”).

It is now Stardate 1875.8. M’Benga refers to the Gorn attack at Finibus III (SNW: “Memento Mori”), around Stardate 3177.3. Pike asks about Deltan parsley. Deltans were introduced in TMP in the form of LT Ilia, and we last saw them in PIC: “The Star Gazer”, on the Deltan planet Raritan IV. The herb is delicious but deadly in excessive amounts.

M’Benga’s remark about pretending long enough until it becomes the truth echoes Pelia in SNW: “Those Old Scientists” quoting Cary Grant expressing the same sentiment. Ortegas was stationed near Prospero and agrees they are pretty stubborn.

Spock asks Rah for his opinion comparing Sun Tzu’s Art of War to the Klingon manuscript mL’parmaq Qoj. parmaq is romance or love, and Qoj is to make war, so maybe it’s something like “The Love of War”? Rah says that Klingon children are introduced to it “practically from birth”. Pocket Books once published The Klingon Art of War, by Keith RA DeCandido, but there the ancient text was named the qeS’a, or “indispensable advice”.

New Angeles is on Terra Luna (the Moon), and is known for its shipyards. I thought the fact that M’Benga calls it “Terra Luna” as opposed to just Luna or the Moon might mean he wasn’t an Earth native, but later we see his service record states his planet of origin as Earth. There is a boardgame called New Angeles, where the titular city is the site of a space elevator that connects Earth to Luna and its Helium-3 deposits.

M’Benga had the reputation of having the most hand-to-hand kills confirmed before he became a doctor. The Andorian special ops officer (LT Va’Al Trask) refers to Protocol 12 - a serum that M’Benga designed, and which he injected himself and Chapel with in “The Broken Circle”. It contains adrenaline and pain inhibitors. Later on he calls M’Benga the Ghost.

Ortegas says, “tlhIngan maH. taHjaj,” which Uhura translates as “We are Klingon. May we endure”. It was uttered by T’Kuvma’s followers in DIS and rendered in subtitles as “Remain Klingon”.

Uhura says Rah’s perspective bears a resemblance to Aenar existentialism. The Aenar, an offshoot of the Andorian race, was of course, Hemmer’s species, and likely Uhura learned it from or because of him.

Mok’bara is a Klingon martial art which Worf practiced and taught a class in on the Enterprise-D (TNG: “Clues”). M’Benga and La’An have been practicing full-contact Mok’bara in their sparring sessions (SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”). M’Benga calls it “Klingon Judo”, although some of the exercises Worf performed were more akin to Chinese tai chi.

M’Benga’s personnel file (as much as I can make out) states the following: Serial # JT-014 SP96J, DOB 12/29/2223, Nakuru, Kenya Earth. Parents Wangera and G’Chinga M’Benga. Brother Nicolas M’Benga, sisters Nyawpa Ochambo and Skuchani(?) M’Benga.

Una charts a course through the Chantico Nebula to get to Starbase 12 faster. Chantico is an Aztec household deity. From the map, Prospero is near Korvat (DS9: “Blood Oath”), on the edge of the Klingon Neutral Zone if not actually in it. The course makes Enterprise skirt by the Hromi Cluster (TNG: “The Vengeance Factor”), and I assume the Chantico Nebula is geographically part of that cluster.

On M’Benga’s service record entry on the Moon of J’Gal, he is indicated as being assigned to a Mobile Combat Surgical Unit (a MASH unit, in essence). Trask is listed as the Commanding Officer of the unit, with Medical Officers CMO D. Marten [sic], Doctor M’Benga and Head Nurse Chapel.

Starfleet Casualties:

208,834

Civilian Casualties:

1,028

Civilians Evacuated:

36,945

Coordinates:

3367.7041

Rotation Period:

1.88005 days

Escape Velocity:

2.624 km/sec

Defence:

Blast Shields

Rotation Period:

1.88005 days

SUMMARY:

The Battle of J’Gal:

The Oryb J Planetary system was in disputed territory prior to the Klingon War, due to the active Federation Colony Athos, a Mobile Starfleet Base and Mobile Armament Starfleet Hospital were stationed on the Moon of J’Gal.

(Rotation period is repeated on the file)

Aside from the DNA from the four Klingons on the blade, the scan also shows two sets of fingerprints, from Rah and M’Benga.

M’Benga’s last log is Stardated 1877.5, noting that Biobed 2 is working again, at least for now. He notes that some things, once broken, can never be repaired, only managed.

@daystrominstitute@startrek.website What can we know (or at least guess) about Tellarite culture and behavior from Jankom Pog?

This is going to be pretty open-ended, but I'm curious: given that Jankom is the only Tellarite main cast member of any Star Trek series, what might his personality, behavior, relationships (etc.) tell us about Tellarites as a whole, or their relationships with other species within or outside the Federation? Obviously, it's not easy to know much from Jankom in particular (given that he's a kid and grew up among pre-Federation Tellarites), but thematically, I think it would be nice if one could draw some lines (even if it's wild speculation) between his his role in the team, and the fact that the Tellarites we see in ENT not only help found the Federation, but never leave it, even after the Burn (IMO, one of the most fascinating bits of worldbuilding that's ever been dropped in an off-screen monologue).

Like most of us, I am greatly enjoying Strange New Worlds. One of the small benefits of the series, in my mind, is that it has finally broken one of the strangest of fan habits -- the insistence on literalism for TOS visuals, especially on things like ship designs and controls. Is there anyone still holding out for a "refit" of the beautiful SNW Enterprise so that it "really" looks like a set from the late 1960s? The updated look is a big part of what makes the TOS world seem relevant and alive for contemporary viewers, instead of just a nostalgia trip (as it was in the tribute episodes that showed TOS sets within a TNG/DS9 context).

Given that they have made the biggest remaining move of recasting Kirk, the idea of continuing past SNW into Kirk's Five-Year Mission seems unavoidable. Given that Paramount seems to be contracting their streaming footprint, it is admittedly unlikely that anything like this would ever get made. But something like the Kelvin Timeline tie-in comics where they redo TOS stories and intersperse them with new ones could actually be a good format -- reintroducing new viewers to classic stories while retrospectively granting more cohesion to TOS.

Obviously there would be drawbacks to redoing the old episodes. Fans would howl at any changes to the scripts, and of course there would be questions about whether any of this was worth anyone's time or talents. And maybe it wouldn't be! But redoing the most stone-cold classics of TOS in a more modern style could literally be the only way some new fans would engage with those stories. Young people are very intolerant of entertainment that seems old or outdated. Looking back at my childhood, I never liked TOS in large part simply because it looked too old and the acting style felt weird. If we really think that these stories are classics that deserve to endure for the long haul, a remake could be a way to inject new life into them.

What do you think? [UPDATE: You all have convinced me this is a bad idea. I will keep that in mind if I ever become head of Paramount.]

The title comes from LD’s 1st Season finale, “No Small Parts”, when CMDR Jack Ransom, XO of the USS Cerritos, refers to the TOS era as “Those Old Scientists”.

We start on Stardate 58460.1 in an animated segment. This places it in 2381, and sometime between LD 3x06: “Hear All, Trust Nothing” (58456.2) and LD 3x09: “Trusted Sources” (58496.1). 3x07 and 3x08 don’t have stardate references. The ship is doing a check on the Krulmuth-B portal, which has been dormant for 120 years - and if you do the calculations you can see where this is going.

Boimler says the portal was discovered by Pike and the “second” Enterprise and refers to Una as “Numero Una” to Mariner’s annoyance. Rutherford talks about teleron radiation. I’m assuming it’s not a CC typo and it’s distinct from “thalaron radiation” (Nemesis).

Tendi’s great-grandmother was on an Orion science vessel, and she claims the Orions were the ones who actually discovered the portal (which looks vaguely Stargate-like). Rutherford is wearing a holographic imager around his neck (last seen in LD: “Veritas” and of the type first seen in VOY: “Latent Image”).

Rutherford picks up traces of horonium. Hōra is the Greek word for “time”, from which we get the word horology, the art of making clocks. Boimler says Starfleet used horonium in NX-class ships, because it was lightweight, durable and was the right shade of grey (Mariner refers to the Starfleet History Museum - it’s not clear if this is the same as the Fleet Museum from PIC).

Boimler screams “Remember me!” as he gets sucked into the portal, in the way that Beverly Crusher is also almost sucked into one in TNG: “Remember Me”. The phrase is originally from Shakespeare, specifically Hamlet Act I, sc v when the Ghost says: “Adieu, adieu, adieu. Remember me,” as he exits. The line is repeated by Hamlet later in the scene.

The title sequence for this episode is animated in the LD style, with the space beast from the LD titles now suckling on the back of the Enterprise. Now I want an animated model of the Enterprise to match my Titan. At the end when the title card comes up we see the outline of the cosmic koala next to the planet (LD: “Moist Vessel”).

Pike’s log is stardated 2291.6. Enterprise is delivering a shipment of grain to a colony on Setlik II. In the future (c. 2347), the Setlik III colony would be the site of an infamous massacre during the Cardassian wars with the Federation (TNG: “The Wounded”).

Una reports that Boimler’s delta is also a communicator, confirming once and for all that SNW’s deltas are not. Boimler has purple hair, like he does when animated. On awakening he calls out, “Computer end program,” thinking he’s on a holodeck. He refers to the ship’s S/COMS operating system as opposed to LCARS in his era.

La’An is uniquely qualified to lecture on temporal protocols as she’s gone through the same experience (SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”). She talks about not making any attachments owing to the trauma she underwent when the alternate Jim Kirk died in her arms in the past. Boimler accidentally lets slip Worf’s name.

Boimler waits in Pike’s office, as evidenced by the presence of the saddle and he calls out “Riker” as he mounts it with the Riker Maneuver (the popular explanation for the move is that Frakes suffered a back injury but although that injury did result in him doing the “Riker lean”, Frakes said in an interview that the chair maneuver was that he felt it was a cocky move suited to Riker, and no one stopped him so it stuck).

Boimler asks if M’Benga is holding a classic TS-122 tricorder and M’Benga says it’s a TS-120. In the 24th Century, tricorders are of the TR series. Boimler theorizes that radioisotopes from the holographic imager set the portal off. Boimler is startled when Spock laughs.

The ship is an Orion scout ship, technically first appearing in TOS: “Journey to Babel” as just a glowing blob, but redesigned as a more detailed CGI model for the remastered episode by Michael Okuda. A slight continuity contradiction arises: in “Babel” Spock doesn’t recognize the configuration of the scout ship when they encounter it then.

Boimler says “NCC-1701 dash nothing,” referring to the future ships’ names in homage to the original and of course puzzling Una and La’An. He identifies Ortegas as a war hero, referring to her service in the Klingon War. Captain Harr Caras commands the Orion science vessel D’Var.

I can’t feel that sorry for Boims having his chops busted, because I’d just love being paid attention to like that by Jess Bush and Melissa Navia. He says this is the “golden age of exploration”, echoing Pike’s words from the previous episode. He lets slip that Pike’s birthday is on Friday (on movie night) and is a holiday in the 24th Century.

Chapel is rather devastated to learn that she’s not mentioned in books on Spock in the future. Boimler refers to Spock’s pet sehlat (TAS: “Yesteryear”). Ortegas calls Boimler “Future Boy”, a nickname Doc Brown applied to Marty McFly in Back to the Future.

Turns out the grain Pike is carrying is trititicale. Its variant, quadrotriticale, would be central to the Federation’s efforts on Sherman’s Planet in TOS: “The Trouble with Tribbles”. Presumably it’s a three-lobed version as opposed to the four-lobed quadrotriticale. Triticale is a real life grain that writer David Gerrold based quadrotriticale on in “Tribbles”.

Mariner uses up the last of the horonium in the portal, and Una says there’s hasn’t been a supply for a hundred years. Mariner says for all she knew Boimler could have been “stuck in a dystopian San Francisco in the middle of a riot”, referring to the Bell Riots of DS9: “Past Tense”. She finds young Spock hot, much like Jazdia Dax did to his slightly older counterpart in DS9: “Trials and Tribble-lations”.

Boimler does the “Section 31 speed walk” when walking away from Mariner down the corridors (LD: “Envoys”), which he claimed conserved energy. Una wonders if Boimler’s poster is a “pin-up” poster, of which there are very many of Rebecca Romijn.

Uhura says she’s 22 (the same age as Celia Rose Golding), which immediately makes this old chronologist’s mind start doing calculations. The official Star Trek website places her birth year as 2239, which would make the present year 2261, which sort of tracks (my estimate is between 2260-61).

Mariner quotes Starfleet labor codes: section 48-Alpha-7: “Officers must take meal breaks at regular intervals”. She claims that she knows those that help her slack off. She makes Orion Hurricanes for Uhura and Ortegas, although they don’t have Orion delaq, which she says will mess them up. Uhura’s PADD shows her comparing the inscriptions on the portal to Bajoran and Cardassian script.

Ortegas refers to Starbase Earhart, probably best remembered as housing the Bonestell Entertainment Facility where Jean-Luc Picard was stabbed by Nausicaans in 2337 (TNG: “Tapestry”). It also had a dom-jot table. Mariner and Tendi visited it in LD: “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”. Mariner says Nausicaans are terrible at dom-jot, a billiard-type game, but still love to bet on it. Ortegas’ recognition of the letters leads Uhura to discover the language is a thousands-years old ancient Nausicaan dialect.

Boimler seeks solace in Engineering. Pelia says there is nothing quite so soothing as a properly calibrated warp core, which Boimler would agree with as he’s often said in LD that warp cores are cool. Pelia’s quote is from Cary Grant, which implies she knew him.

Mariner chides Boimler for shouting “Holy Q” because they hadn’t met him yet in the 23rd Century but qualifies it with “they had kind of a Trelane thing going on.” Fanon often states that Trelane (TOS: “The Squire of Gothos”) and Q are related because their MO is remarkably similar. This link was made explicit in the novels (Q-Squared). Mariner has met Q before (LD: “Veritas”).

Boimler remarks how slow and quietly everyone talks in this era, in stark contrast to the high-speed and intense dialogue they use on the half-hour animated Lower Decks.

Boimler once dressed up as Pike for Halloween, and had to contour his chin to fit. Pike confesses he and his father never got along, and that was never resolved. This year is the first year he’s older than his father when he died. He planned to fish on Setlik II’s ice moon with a bottle of whiskey and have an imaginary talk with his father.

Pike refers to Archer’s Enterprise, the NX-01, which reminds Boimler that horonium was used in its construction (a little over a hundred years ago). Boimler talks about the NX-01’s grapplers (which La’An loves), the precursor to a ship’s tractor beam. Grapplers were also seen in SNW: “Life Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach”.

Starfleet tradition is that every time a new ship is commissioned, construction starts with an old piece of the last ship that bore the name (which explains why Boimler called this the “second” Enterprise). Which means there’s a piece of horonium on the ship.

The piece in question appears to be a gas cylinder. Ortegas says she’s a fan of Travis Mayweather, first pilot of the NX-01, and her middle school gym was named after him. Uhura mentions Hoshi Sato, who spoke 86 languages - Uhura wrote 3 papers on her at the Academy. I’m happy to see the NX-01 crew get the love they never quite got when the series was around.

Mariner tells Una that Boimler’s pin-up of her is a recruitment poster and inspired Boimler to join Starfleet. Una is moved that they put “ad astra per aspera” on the poster, the Starfleet motto she quoted during her trial (SNW: “Ad Astra Per Aspera”).

Captain Caras recognizes Tendi’s title “Mistress of the Winter Constellations” (“We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”) and says that he has an Astrea Tendi on his ship. Pike’s offer to give the Orion scientists credit also explains why Tendi tells Boimler that Orions discovered the portal. I wish we could have seen Nöel Wells in live action, though.

Ransom calls “Numero Una” the hottest first officer in Starfleet history. Ransom is voiced by Jerry O’Connell, who is married to Rebecca Romijn. Mariner says Ransom sleeps face down “like a baby”.

We are rewarded with an animated SNW epilogue, which is explained by them hallucinating after imbibing Orion Hurricanes with real delaq.

In season three of "Star Trek: Discovery," Captain Saru makes a somewhat surprising decision and appoints Ensign Sylvia Tilly as his acting first officer. This was a source of considerable debate at the time, particularly in light of the mission to the Verubin Nebula at the end of the season.

Now that quite a bit of time has passed, I wanted to revisit the events of that mission and evaluate the decisions Tilly made while in command of Discovery. I've broken each significant decision or order down according to the following criteria: the circumstances under which the decision was made, what the decision was, and what the general outcome. I've tried to reserve my personal judgment until the end.

Episode: "Su'Kal"

Circumstances: The USS Discovery discovers the source of the Burn - a planet in the Verubin Nebula featuring a massive dilithium deposit, as well as a crashed ship with a Kelpien life sign aboard. The Verubin Nebula is difficult to navigate, and contains deadly radiation and harmful electromagnetic fields.

Command Decision: Captain Saru chooses to lead the away team, leaving Ensign Tilly in command of Discovery.

Outcome: Admiral Vance expresses misgivings, but allows this plan to proceed. He also reveals that the Emerald Chain appears to be attacking Kaminar in order to lure Discovery there to obtain the spore drive.

Circumstances: Discovery jumps into a stable pocket of space within the nebula, which affects the ship's shields - a three-hour repair job, according to Tilly. The away team beams to the planet.

Command Decision: Tilly assumes command and jumps Discovery out of the nebula.

Outcome: Discovery is able to avoid further damage and commence repairs to the shields while the away team is on the surface. Innoculated against the radiation, the away team is able to spend a maximum of four hours on the planet.

Circumstances: While the shields are being repaired, Commander Burnham reports that the away team has found something and growling. Communication with the away team is then lost.

Command Decision: Tilly orders Commander Stamets to prioritize the shield repairs, diverting power from other systems as needed, so they can retrieve the away team.

Outcome: The shield repairs are accelerated. Shortly after this order, an unidentified Federation ship is detected on long-range sensors. Ten minutes out, it does not respond to hails, but sends correct response codes.

Circumstances: With the unidentified ship now two minutes out, the crew discusses how the vessel's presence in the region doesn't really make sense.

Command Decision: Tilly orders Owosekun to scan the area around the ship.

Outcome: The crew discovers that the approaching ship is, in fact, the Viridian, as no one else has the motivation and the means to travel such a distance.

Circumstances: The Viridian arrives at Discovery's location.

Command Decision: Tilly orders red alert. Rejecting the possibility of retreating via transwarp tunnel or spore drive, as it would leave the away team vulnerable, Tilly orders Discovery to cloak.

Outcome: This successfully hides Discovery from the Viridian, though it also deprives them of the ability to use the spore drive. The Viridian cloaks as well.

Circumstances: The crew ascertains that Osyraa must be able to track Discovery's jumps, and that she must require the ship, as she didn't open fire immediately upon arrival. Stamets reports that Discovery cannot jump for another 30 minutes. Osyraa hails Discovery.

Command Decision: Tilly orders Stamets to find a way to repair the shields in the next ten minutes. On a comm channel, Osyraa claims to want Discovery and her crew for "leverage."

Outcome: Repairs to the shields continue to be prioritized as the situation escalates.

Circumstances: Unbeknownst to either ship, Su'Kal creates a spatial disturbance, destabilizing Discovery's dilithium. Discovery's engineering team is able to contain the effects, but both Discovery and Viridian lose their cloaks.

Command Decision: Tilly orders weapons ready.

Outcome: The situation with the Viridian continues to escalate.

Circumstances: Discovery's shields have been repaired to 54% as the standoff with the Viridian continues.

Command Decision: Tilly orders Stamets to prepare to jump Discovery to safety, rather than allow it to fall into Osyraa's hands. Booker volunteers to remain behind in his own ship to retrieve the away team.

Outcome: Over the protests of Stamets, this plan is put into action.

Circumstances: Osyraa hails Discovery again. Osyraa notes that Discovery has not yet jumped away, and deduces that Captain Saru must be in the nebula. She also claims that the structural weakness in Viridian that Discovery exploited in "The Sanctuary" has been repaired. Booker leaves the shuttlebay in his ship.

Command Decision: Tilly orders the spore jump.

Outcome: Emerald Chain soldiers beam into the engineering lab and attack Stamets before he is able to follow this order. Viridian ensnares Discovery with some kind of tendrils, and Emerald Chain soldiers begin capture the ship. Ultimately, they are able to take the bridge and remove Tilly from command, jumping away just as Booker and Burnham emerge from the nebula in Booker's ship.

Continued in the comments...

Up until the "modern era" of Trek, my understanding of canon is that the Eugenics War happened in the 1990s and was immediately followed by WW3. It seems like that has changed.

Picard season 2 took place in the 2020s, and there was no evidence of widespread devastation that would have taken place in a major war, although it could be argued that it wasn't shown to us on-screen. At the end of the series, we see a folder labeled "Project Kahn," hinting that either Kahn has yet to be born or that the season's "bad guy" is planning to continue Kahn's legacy.

In Strange New Worlds Season 2, Episode 3, the focus is on Kahn and how he affects the timeline. We see Kahn as a child, meaning the Eugenics War has yet to take place, even though the episode takes place in what is obviously 2020s or 2030s Toronto. Even more telling is that the Romulan spy says "This should have happened in 1993." Might have been 1992; still, early 1990s.

This leaves me with a few questions. If the Federation time-cops are so set on preserving the timeline, why did they allow the timeline to be altered to such a degree that the Eugenics War, a major event in Humanity's history, happened at least 30 years after it was supposed to. In addition, what event actually altered the timeline so that Kahn was born/created decades later than he should have been? As far as I remember, we haven't seen anything to show why this happened.

Since we now know from SNW that the Eugenics War happened some time after the 2020s, how does that fit into the timeline for Zefram Cochrane's first warp flight? Assuming the Eugenics War is still followed by WW3, that only leaves a max of 49 years between the start of 2 major conflicts and first contact with the Vulcans. In "First Contact," Cochrane and company assumed the Borg attack was from a hostile force on Earth. Perhaps WW3 was still in progress, and the events of 2069 were what ended the war?

On a side note, the destruction of a single ship spawned the Kelvin timeline. Since SNW shows us that events in Earth's history no longer match up with the timeline established in TOS, TNG, VOY, and DS9, does this mean that SNW (and possibly PIC) are also in a non-prime timeline?

Uhura’s log is stardated 2394.8. Bannon’s Nebula (named after Melissa “Erica Ortegas” Navia’s late partner Brian Bannon) is on the edge of explored space, and is a stellar nursery full of deuterium. An outpost is being built to collect and refine it. Deuterium is used as fuel for the fusion reactors that power a starship’s impulse drives. It is also used in warp cores where deuterium and anti deuterium streams meet in a matter/antimatter reaction, the resulting energy being tuned by dilithium crystals into electroplasma which is used for ship’s systems and warp drive.

The design of the refinery is likely a Bussard ramscoop, utilizing a magnetic field to funnel the deuterium atoms into a collector. Starships have their own Bussard collectors (the glowing caps on the nacelles) so they can refuel if necessary and we see Enterprise doing just that.

Pike has been temporarily promoted to Fleet Captain (with a black disc backing his delta) because he’s been given command of the refinery and the USS Farragut for this mission. The Farragut is where LT James T. Kirk is serving as we saw in the alternate timeline of SNW: “A Quality of Mercy”. This is a few years after CPT Garrovick, his CO, was killed by a dikironium cloud vampire (TOS: “Obsession”).

Spock notes that outpost is also in proximity to Gorn space, so the hope is that this will counter their expansion. Uhura listens to Hemmer’s recorded instructions on maintaining the subspace antenna. Hemmer apparently died last season (SNW: “All Those Who Wander”), having been infected with Gorn eggs.

Pelia asks what Uhura is doing inside “her nacelle”, and we see behind her the cylindrical row of warp coils stretching off in the distance. We’ve seen the inside of a Galaxy-class nacelle in TNG: “Eye of the Beholder”. The communications array antenna runs through the nacelles. Hemmer was one of Pelia’s students.

M’Benga says that deuterium poisoning can cause hallucinations, headaches, blurred vision and nausea. Exhaustion can exacerbate the condition.

Uhura now has her own quarters. She was sharing a room with some other Lower Deckers in SNW: “Ghosts of Illyria”, where we also found out that she needs pitch blackness to sleep.

Jim Kirk is about to become XO of the Farragut, which will make him the youngest first officer ever (at age 26-27). George Kirk, Sr. held the previous record as XO of the USS Kelvin (ST 2009).

Spock notes that Starfleet has protocols about fraternization, which would be familiar HR policy today. We’ve seen relationships between Starfleet officers before, but this is the first time we’ve heard that there are formal procedures surrounding it.

An Andorian bartender serves Uhura Saurian brandy in its distinctive curved bottle. Jim comments on Spock’s 3D Chess game, foreshadowing the days when he would routinely beat Spock at it. Sam has apparently told Uhura about Jim’s proclivities around women. As a side note, Jim is older than Uhura here, but in the Kelvin Timeline they were of the same graduating class.

This is the first time we’ve seen a dermal regenerator (or at least had it referred to as such) in the 23rd Century. Dermal regenerators have appeared several times from TNG on.

In Uhura’s hallucination, the main viewer shatters and people are blown out into vacuum. In the original TOS Constitution-class design this would not have happened because the main viewer is not a porthole. Having a starship’s main viewer be an actual window started with ST 2009 and was seen in the Prime Universe in DIS: “The Vulcan Hello”.

Jim meets Pike for the first time (from his POV, seeing as Pike met an alternate Kirk in “A Quality of Mercy”). This also clarifies when exactly Jim met Pike. Previously it was assumed that Jim only met him when taking over the Enterprise due to this dialogue from TOS: “The Menagerie, Part I”:

MENDEZ: You ever met Chris Pike?

KIRK: When he was promoted to Fleet Captain.


MENDEZ: About your age. Big, handsome man, vital, active.

KIRK: I took over the Enterprise from him.

Now we know these were two separate occasions and removes a writing obstacle from having the “real” Kirk appear in SNW.

Sickbay is on Deck 4 here. In the original Franz Joseph deck plans it was on Deck 7 (with additional facilities on Deck 16) while Deck 4 housed junior officer’s quarters.

La’An addresses Jim as “James”. The only occasion they’ve met in this timeline was over a subspace communication, whereas La’An had a brief encounter with the Jim Kirk of an altered timeline in SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”, where he died.

Uhura removes an access panel to “Engineering Circuit Bay D-24” which opens onto a Jeffries Tube that leads to the port nacelle. In TOS, Jeffries Tubes were usually seen already exposed.

Uhura was born in Kenya (SNW: “Children of the Comet”), used to have a cat named Kamili (meaning “perfect” in Swahili) and her first memory is of watching her father play the piano.

Pike says Starfleet gave him permission to decrypt the deceased Ramon’s medical files and personal logs. In SNW: “Ad Astra Per Aspera”, we found out that Regulation 25, Section B prohibits unsealing personal logs unless by order of Starfleet Command.

La’An correctly assesses Jim as someone who can’t walk by a stranger in need. In TOS: “The City on the Edge of Forever”, Kirk tells Edith Keeler that a 21st Century novelist will recommend the words “Let me help,” over “I love you.”

Kirk’s status as a Starfleet brat who barely saw his father growing up is consistent with some beta canon depictions of Kirk’s childhood, specifically novels like Best Destiny by Diane Carey and Desperate Measures by Dayton Ward.

La’An, of course, was rescued as a child by then-Ensign Una Chin-Riley, who subsequently sponsored her admission to Starfleet (SNW: “Strange New Worlds”).

Una calls Pelia a “space hippie”. We met actual space hippies in TOS: “The Way to Eden”.

Uhura tells Kirk that she lost her parents and brother in a shuttle accident. This was first mentioned in “Children of the Comet”.

Jim says that their job as Starfleet officers puts them up against death and they have to face it. Years later, he would confess to his son David that he’s never faced death - merely cheated his way around it and congratulated himself for his ingenuity (ST II). He was wrong, of course.

Uhura is on the receiving end of a Jim Kirk pep talk for the first time, but not the last. We see here the foundations of her loyalty to him and her looking to him for reassurance in future.

Uhura notes that the Universal Translator hooks on to commonalities in the way different species handle ideas and language. The theory behind the UT was first stated in TOS: “Metamorphosis”:

KIRK: There are certain universal ideas and concepts common to all intelligent life. This device instantaneously compares the frequency of brainwave patterns, selects those ideas and concepts it recognises, and then provides the necessary grammar. 
 Guess we now know from whom Jim picked this up.

The idea that aliens in the environment could be inadvertently harmed by human operations has been used before, in TNG: “Home Soil”. In VOY: “Equinox”, the titular ship tortured and killed alien life forms to harvest their energy.

Admiral Nagawa’s name sounds similar to Admiral Nogura, first mentioned in TMP and having a long storied role in the novels of the TOS period.

Pelia gave Una a C in the Starship Maintenance 307 course because her paper was "sloppy".

Sam refers to the Enterprise as the flag ship, which I think is the first time it’s been established as such. And in another historic first which should somehow feel more historic, really, Spock officially meets Jim for the first time.

小嘛小兒郎, 背著那書包上學堂 (Little, Little boy, carrying that bag to school)
不怕太陽曬, 也不怕那風雨狂 (fear not of burning sun, nor fear that crazy storm)
只怕先生罵我懶嗎, (but fear the teacher scold me lazy)
沒有學問 – 無臉見爹娘 (Being unlearned – no “lian”/face to face parents)
小嘛小兒郎, 背著那書包上學堂, (Little, Little boy, carrying that bag to school)
不是為做官, 也不是為面子光, (Not to be an official, or for one’s own “mianzi”/face)
只為做人要爭氣呀, (Just that a person must be determined not to fall short)
不受人欺負，也不做牛和羊 (Not to be bullied, nor to work like a draft animal)
(Classical children song “Du Shu Lang”/”Little School Boy”, Paula Tsui version)

富貴不歸故鄉，如衣繡夜行，誰知之者! When one who made his wealth doesn’t return home, he may as well wear glamorous clothing in the middle of the night, who would notice that!
人言楚人沐猴而冠耳，果然 I heard the Lord of Chu is like an anxious monkey wearing a crown, and I was right.
– <Shi’ji, Record of Xiang’yu>

Introduction

One of the common argument and complaint regarding Klingon honor is that, from the perspective of Human concept of honor, they are NOT honorable. Instead, they use cloaking, ambushes, to achieve victory above all. Instead of escape, they will rather suicide; they will do honor killings. They will attack and even murder the defenseless. In politics, Klingon’s politics is dirty to a fault.

Now, many already realized that perhaps we are too human centric. Some believe that Klingon are focus on duty, and that they refuse to accept failures. Another, which I think is approaching my proposal ( https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/gswny9/klingon_honor_is_nothing_of_the_sort_it_is/) , is that it’s likely related to reputation. Others attempt to square the stated that for them, To fail is to forfeit duty, thus dishonor.

However, what if I tell you that some group of humans may still utilize “Honor” that is extremely similar to that of Klingon? On a meta level, most know that Klingon was made into "Samurai in Space", thus also borrow some aspect from the alleged Samurai culture, include the honor suppose to be practice by Samurais. However, if you actually know about it, it is not honor. In fact, it is far closer to the concept known as “faces” in Chinese.

In short, the meta mistranslation of "faces" into "honor" yields the seemingly contradictory nature of Klingon honor

What is Face

「面子」，是我們在談話裡常常聽到的，因為好像一聽就懂，所以細想的人大約不很多。-- 魯迅, 說「面子」, 1934 (“Faces” is something we often hear in conversation; since it seems like something we instantly got when we heard the word, only small amount of people actually think about it in detail – Lu’Xun, About “Faces”, 1934)

Now I am not saying I know Faces – I am a not born in Mainland, and thus is already influenced by some western concept; and some authors seperate lian(臉) and mianzi 面子, which we don’t in where I lived (for both faces and “Faces”); but even at that place, “face” still affect whether a woman in 1970s will cancel a marriage, despite knowing her future spouse is bad. Nor do I say honor/glory doesn’t exist in Chinese – it does, as 榮譽, for example. However, to my understanding, it is always in terms of the Face. And even if I try to translate Face to dignity or reputation, I fear I will fall into pitfall that gave us “face as honor”.

So let’s look at a Chinese dictionary: Specifically, that of Taiwan Ministry of Education (dict.revised.moe.edu.tw), which also shows they treat “Lian” and “Mianzi” the same. Thus, for our discussion, we will only talk about 面子/Faces.

• 面子. Intepretation: 體面 (身分、體統、格局、規模 - )、名譽 (the name, reputation)、情面（情分與面子。多指私人關係) (feelings and relationships in private matters) Antonym: 實質 (substance of a person)

Okay, that seems simple. But the Revised dictionary also threw in various terms by adding suffix characters and prefix characters. Maybe that tell us more?

• 賣面子 (sell Faces): 故意予人好處，使人感激自己 (Purposely give others benefit, so others will feel grateful of the giver of benefit)
• 留面子 (leave faces, but can also mean “protect faces): 顧及情面，不使人難堪 (care about the situation/feelings, not to embarrass others)
• 夠面子 (have enough face): 夠威風體面。指影響力大，所說的話別人願意聽從 (have a strong face; or more precisely speaking, have huge influence, whatever they say can cause others to follow)
• 顧面子 (care face): 愛護自己的聲名或榮譽 (Love and care their own reputation). The example usage is “為了顧面子，他不惜犧牲一切。” (In order to “care faces”, he will sacrifice everything). If you read it in Chinese, it has negative connotation.

While some words can be translate as honor and glory, it works just as well as prestige, dignity, reputation. Regardless, it’s based on appearance. Or simply put: Face is related to but is not honor, glory, dignity; to translate it as simply is wrong. Based on my observation, in western concept, there is an implication of those words being related to the substance/character of the person. In Chinese at least, the implication of substance is not as strong, and for the most part can be seen just focus on the appearance; something that can be quantify by points, by money, by profit, by amount of supporters, etc. Prestige and reputation seems better suited, at least with 2020s vocab.

I started this article with a song that is taught to children. Written in 1945, when I first heard it as a kid, the message I got is why it’s important to study. But when I was thinking of how maybe Klingon’s Honor is actually “Faces”, I can’t help but to recall the song – and realize that the parallel message of the song is about the importance of faces – as the fourth line indicate, one who is unlearned has no “face” to face their parents. Then at the second half, while they claim it’s not actually about faces (sixth line), the seventh line explain why one must be learned: there’s the version as stated above, which stated one must be 爭氣. I translate it as “falling short”, but it can just be valid as “ambitious”, “fighting for prestige”, or even “showing weakness”. An earlier record even use “A poor person must turn [their life] around“（只爲窮人要翻身), which has similar meaning in that context. Factor in the last line of not being bullied, I can’t help but to recall another Chinese idiom: 成者為首，不成者為尾， “Those that succeed are those at the top; those that are not successful are at the bottom.” That evolve to 成者為王，敗者為寇 (Those who succeed are kings, those who failed are criminals)

Therefore, it can be seen that being “on top” is synonym to victory, and that’s when one will have “faces”. Or reword it: “Nothing is more than being face-full than being on top and having victory”. And this is my personal understanding of “Face”: “be the winner”.

Perhaps, then Klingon Honor is indeed as Worf stated “Nothing is more honorable than victory” – it only sound contradictory is one translate the Klingon’s concept to “honor”, instead of eastern concept of “faces”

A True Worthy Face

The only problem is that there are ways to think of “Victory” – and thus “Faces” even within Chinese history, and is in fact best examplified by Chu-Han Contention. Now do keep in mind that many of the description of that era is written by official of Han dynasty, so as historical documents they are questionable; but as morality stories they may not be entirely wrong. Xiang’Yu of Chu exemplify the appearance victory, and thus he focused upon an on-the-surface Face. Liu’Bang of Han, meanwhile examplify the true victory and thus Faces. This can be seen during the Feast of Hongmen, which shows Xiang’Yu do a lot of posturing, while Liu’Bang just take it humbly and not part take the various rituals. Yet in the end Liu’Bang became the Han Emperor.

And notice the Taiwanese MoE Dictionary actually treat the “substance of a person” as antonym to Face. In short, the Ministry of Education implies there are no merit to Face. It doesn’t sounds something honorable, because a proper honor helps build up society.

Klingon Honor is very, very close to Faces if not exactly the same.

Knowing what “face” is to the best of our ability, if we look at things that Klingon see as honorable (but dishonorable to us) from the lens of “faces”, then it will make perfect sense.

In Memory Alpha, a sentence used to talk about the ambiguity of Klingon’s Honor has some examples: “Worf indicated that it was necessary to challenge Gowron's leadership (because he was presumably acting in a dishonorable way), while General Martok was convinced that it was dishonorable to challenge the leader of the Klingon Empire in the middle of a war.”

But what if I change it from the PoV of Face when applicable?
“...General Martok was convinced it was face-losing to challenge the leader of the Klingon Empire in the middle of a war.” The “face losing” is not just for Martok; but also for Gowron, and even the entire empire. And it was the fact that there is a fight, and expose the issue of Gowron from implicit to explicit.

The above will make sense even in modern Chinese (and possibly Taiwanese) offices; even if you recognize your superior is making some stupid decision, even if everyone knows, you just don’t bring it up in the open if at all. My understanding is that it is even worse in Korea, which leads to some fatal issues such as Korean Air Flight 801. While officially it was “poor communication”, it is likely that the NTSB knows that the Korean culture (even more Face-concerning) affect why the crew didn’t challenge the captain, but choose not to wade into offending someone’s else culture. Ironically, this is an act that factor into face.

Another example:
When Doctor Antaak worked with Phlox to cure the Augment DNA, Antaak decided to deceive his superior and claim they actually stabilized Augment DNA and create Klingon Augments. He then claim that it will give him an honorable death for the mere fact of saving millions.

And translate it through face… well, Antaak is protecting his own face. In terms of “Face” based culture, he is someone that got a miracle. Only if discovered and failure to twist the words properly would he loses any face.

Lu’Xun, in his “About Faces”, talk of a story/myth of how, During Qing Dynasty, the westerners occasionally goes to the Mandarin’s office to ask for benefits with some threats, and the Mandarins just affirm it – but the Mandarins always sent them away through the side door instead of the main gate, as this will indicate the western does not have face, thus the Mandarin/China have face and thus have is in a superior benefit.

Who actually sees the westerner goes in and threaten the Qing Officials? Maybe they are just come in half-bowed and begged for benefit! It’s all about appearance and twisting of words – hence, even Lu’Xun say it may not be entirely true, and it’s precisely such unknown truth that provided him a good example of illustrating face.

Western Honor Fights Corruption; Faces don’t care or even help Corruption

Eastern Relationships, for the most part, is more toward internal. Between superior and underlings; between husband and wife; between the parents and children (三綱、五倫). Nowhere does it talk about outside of your state, except as the last step – to illuminate (ie: Conquer) everything “tian’xia” – the entire world. “Faces” is developed based on this. So just in that light alone, “Faces” doesn’t matter if you are facing a foreigner, even if they are not outright enemy.

So in that light, if one consider cloaking as an example of Kilingon false honor, It definitely does not make them lose face – it’s against an enemy. Heck, it is definitely face worthy, because they managed to trick the enemy.

Now being a someone not from Mainland that now lives in an English-speaking nation, it’s very difficult for me to even tie cheating to “Faces” in a positive way. The only way I can even square both together is that cheating, tricky, and scheming is only face-losing if caught. If not caught, it showed someone has intelligence, and thus actually increase faces. In Chinese mythology, humanity gets to build houses on Earth instead of living in caves because someone managed to trick a Tai’Shui deity. During the Three Kingdoms era, many generals and leaders, from Cao Cao and Kongming, is known to use schemes and tricks and smoke and mirrors, not just toward their enemy, but toward subjects that think of themselves too much.

A classic Chinese example of how failure to understand Face is the story of Kong Rong - a descendent of Confucius and example of “good kid” in Three Character Classic. He was known as someone who serve justice, and thus always fought against Cao Cao when he is an adult. In the end, Cao Cao place him under various false charges and executed his immediate family. The story was taught to show the importance of ensuring your superior’s faces.

In fact, if you think about it, Protecting “Faces” can even require “dishonorable” actions, and thus, acts that is “face worthy” helps corruption. Cao Cao’s face-loving act likely only left people who schemes just as well, and his descendant ended up losing the Wei throne to Sima Zhao. Sounds like a certain empire, doesn’t it?

And in case people were wondering about the numerous game cheaters from Mainland (for our purpose of discussing face, Klingon Honor, and cloaking): I shrugged.

Eastern Faces/Honor vs Western Honor

I consider the issue regarding the so-called contradictory nature of “Klingon Honor” comes from anchoring it around western concept of “honor”.

In my point of view, western concept of honor ties to not just the substance/character of the person, but also “Justice” (whether that is properly executed is a different manner). However, I dare say that eastern concept of Faces is based upon appearance for the most part. It may related to justice depend on situation, but can be easily seperated from Justice, unless Justice determine whether they are viewed as “correct”… which for the most part, comes from Strength.

Book of Rites, one of the Confucian canons, actually recorded “Pitch Pot”, a game. Analysis indicated that it was more about the ritual of gifter-gifting-gifts while receiver-refuse-gift, doing it back and forth three times, to show that neither the gifter nor the receiver are stingy. That being said, from my own point of view, just feel like falsehood for the sake of performance – yet it is consider good back then.

So if we take the assumption that Klingon’s Honor share way more similarity to Faces than Western Honor, Klingon “Honorable” action – or properly saying, “face saving” “face loving” “face earning” make sense and has no contradictory.

Now recall I mentioned earlier that “Face” is commonly tied with “successful”. Now recall that while Qapla is used as a greeting, its literal meaning is “success” – another aspect tied to the Traditional Chinese Face-focused culture.

In fact, I recall in Star Trek Klingon, when Gowron need to pay for a song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2F1X3Guiv8), the proper action is throw a chair, which allows Gowron pay for the damaged chair (and the song). If we think of it in terms of “faces”, it will actually make sense (the general concept, I mean - I will acertain no Chinese will throw a chair just to pay for something)

The only difference is that Klingon is said to be Samurai in space, but I wonder: while we Chinese definitely focus on “face” more than modern Japanese, I will say, with no evidence, that Traditional Japanese (especially pre Meiji) are just as focused on “faces”. Japanese have the term “Read the Atmosphere” (ie: Kuukiyomi; available as a game!). It’s about how everyone should do properly, in silence, without explicit wording. I can’t help but notice that it is not similar to the aspect of dealing with “Face” in Chinese.

TL;DR:

If you understand Faces/Mianzi, you understand Klingon Honor. In that regard, you will find Klingon’s mindset on “Face” has no ambiguity, no contradiction. But even Lu Xun, a famous early 20th century author, stated simply: “但「面子」究竟是怎麼一回事呢？不想還好，一想可就覺得糊塗。” (But what is “Faces”? It’s best not to think about it; once you think about it, it gets more confusing)

Further reading on faces:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_(sociological_concept)
• Lu Xun 說「面子」: https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/說「面子」
• https://www.china-mike.com/chinese-culture/cult-of-face/
• https://www.teachingnomad.com/blog/china/what-does-saving-face-mean/
• https://china-journal.org/2017/02/25/the-concept-of-face-in-chinese-culture-and-the-difference-between-mianzi-and-lian/ Especially interesting in that many examples are from Taiwanese.