Daystrom Institute

Darwin Station was an explicitly Federation genetic research facility which was creating human children with telepathic and telekinetic powers, rapid physical maturation, and immensely powerful active immune systems (the last of which unwittingly killed the crew of a transport ship). This seems like precisely the sort of genetic engineering which has been banned in the Federation since it's conception, in regulations which are repeatedly referenced in TNG, DS9, and VOY. And yet, nobody even hints at there being an ethical, legal, or regulatory issue with what these researchers are doing. Dr. Pulaski even says of one augment child, without any apparent concern, "We could be looking at the future of humanity."

One would think that if one has a broad reaching policy against genetic augmentation principally motivated by the genetic wars, and by subsequent reinforcement of the idea that arbitrarily enhanced people are likely to be dangerously unstable, this sort of genetic program is exactly what that policy exists to prevent. And yet, there is it.

So, what happened here? Was this the product of a brief lull in Federation policy regarding genetic augmentation? A Federation research team going way off the rails, meeting an Enterprise crew feeling unusually liassez-faire about Federation law? Or something else?

Here’s a bigger bugbear (than the Vulcan question): how does it all work in Ferengi society?

I’ll split order my post by my pre-Rom and post-Rom thoughts.

Pre-Rom:

• Gay (not Lesbian) Ferengi are probably a normal thing.
• Based on DS9 “Profits and Lace” and Nilva’s reaction to the transitioned Quark, it might be possible that male to female transition, while considered very weird, would be considered fine if you make a sufficiently good female by Ferengi standards, if you know what I mean.
• Conversely, female to male transition probably wouldn’t be accepted, based on the reaction to Pel, although Pel didn’t necessarily actually change her gender identity or get her lobes surgically enlarged. It may be possible that some trans Ferengi existed and simply hid that they weren’t cis, although it’d be more difficult considering the mobility limitations on females. There were probably surgeons on the planet who were like “If you’ve got the Latinum, I’ll totally do it.”
• Overall, I think the sentiment would be, “If you’ve got the lobes and you’ve got the Latinum, I don’t care what you do.”
• For instance, if a non-binary Ferengi made lots of profit, they might not be totally respected, but at least not bothered as much.

Post-Rom:

• Lesbian Ferengi are probably legal but still frowned upon.
• Transitioning either way is probably easier, considering the shift in gender roles as seen by 2381 in Lower Decks.
• Generally, with the Federation membership bid, probably a lot more open but still rife with social issues.

Questions:

• Do Ferengi experience dysphoria when their ears are the wrong size? (Very possibly yes, considering the dysphoria humans can experience from other secondary sex characteristics.)

I've often pondered about how Vulcans view gender and sexuality.

I think pre-Surak/logic, they may have demonstrated homophobia and transphobia, but modern Vulcan Society would probably be chill with it under the reasoning that discrimination would reduce a person's efficacy as a functional member of Vulcan Society. For instance, given a choice between allowing a person to contribute verses driving them to the brink of suicide, Vulcans would probably tend to lean towards the first option.

There could very well still be stigma (Vulcans are far from a perfect society; some may have views that it is illogical to have a romantic relationship without a child), but it's dampened by the logic from the previous paragraph.

There's also the Pon Farr to keep in mind. Not only would it be hard to fight a person in the Ponn Farr, but also you'd literally be killing them by trying to prevent expression of their orientation.

I can’t think of a single VOY episode with mind-melds that didn’t have a character treating it as a super taboo or dangerous telepathic ability.

Is there a reason The Alamo was a heavily discussed historical event during Deep Space Nine’s seventh season? Was there an anniversary of the event? Did it come into popular consciousness in the 90s? Was someone on the writing staff related to Davy Crockett?

I am aware that ENT retcons the change in Klingon physiology as augments Klingons. Is there an accepted theory as to why legacy characters who return after TOS, are shown to have changes? Do people simply retroactively apply the events of “The Augments”?

As said in LD 2x07 Where Pleasant Fountains Lie, Billups is from Hysperia and there is still the technicality that can force him on the throne.

This kind of condition makes me wonder what Hysperia's political status with the Federation is. What stops Billups from e.g claiming asylum with the Federation, especially considering the Hysperians are not a powerful force?

I have three theories:

• Hysperia is a Federation colony, so they are able to apply their throne law on Billups and Billups is unable to claim asylum with a political entity he was already born into.
• Hysperia is not a Federation member, but has a scare resource (like dilithium) that makes Starfleet want to maintain good relations with Hysperia.
• Alternatively, it could be some sort of weird prime directive thing.

In LD 1x08 Veritas, Rutherford is rotating some "EPS Capacitors" (These seem to have little mention outside this episode) to prevent them from overheating.

Before I ask my questions, I first want to establish what makes sense to me here. Although not previously mentioned, like electrical capacitors, EPS Capacitors probably help to "smooth out" plasma flow. As these are high-power systems, I am sure there is risk of overheating in these capacitors that is not as present in current electrical capacitors, which usually don't have a rotating mechanism.

Now, for the questions:

• Why do the capacitors rotate, and what does this do to prevent overheating?
• Why do they have to do this in the 24th century in a post-scarcity society?

For the first: My first theory is these are variable capacitors. Assuming the mechanics work similarly to electrical capacitors, Rutherford could be changing the capacitance of each capacitor to rotate the load. This doesn't feel completely right, though (for instance, how to keep the array within specification).

A better theory is that although its function is analogous to an electrical capacitor, the physical mechanics used behind it are different, and somehow wear in the internal materials is uneven unless rotated, somewhat like tires.

For the second: We practically mastered rotating crap with electricity in THE 20TH CENTURY and have only gotten better since. I don't understand why Starfleet couldn't just give each capacitor a servo motor running off an EPS tap that does the randomization automatically, or at the very least mount them all on a belt. Heck, if heat is the problem, why not a liquid cooling loop? The worst that can happen is an ensign has to go get a mop.

It could be possible that maybe it was kept there as a task to bully ensigns/make officers feel useful, but I feel that kind of thinking wouldn't necessarily exist at the Cali class drawing board. It could be possible that somehow the magnets in the motor interfere with the EPS containment field, but I feel like that would mean a lot more crap would have to be banned on board if the EPS conduits were that vulnerable.

Ultimately, I really can't make full sense of this second point, and would love insights on this and my first question.

In LD 4x06 Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place, Ransom mentions that there are no married officers on board. However, way back in LD 1x02 Envoys, when trying command in the simulation, Rutherford accidentally kills all the ship’s children via destruction of the pre-K and Kindergarten decks. I am thus wondering, are there actually any children on the Cerritos? I do have several theories (some of which could co-exist together), none of which I am certain of:

For No:

• Due to their longer-term mission, Starfleet legally requires schools on the California class in case officers with kids transfer on. These sit empty on the Cerritos.
• Perhaps during Envoys there were some kids, but they transferred off the ship before the Ferenginar visit.
• Alternatively, the training simulation (which seems to represent the Cerritos due to the bridge, LCARS colors, and addition of officers like Ensign Casey) drew upon a generic ops division Cali class configuration for the rest of the ship, thus falsely assuming there were children.

For Yes:

• Birth out of wedlock is common in some Federation cultures, including United Earth.
• It could be possible there are married officers that serve on different ships, with the kid(s) of that couple living on the Cerritos.
• There could be married couples on the Cerritos, but only ONE is an officer (a la O’Brien and Keiko); for instance, Lt. Holly has a husband who is a botanist. The Cerritos cannot allow her husband to do travel guide duty and must assign someone else.
• Similarly, maybe non-commissioned couples exist on the Cerritos, but an officer is required to do the duty.
• Maybe Ransom wasn’t totally literal. Officer couples may just be very rare aboard the Cerritos, and the only ones that are aboard include officers doing a duty so vital they can’t do travel guide duty. Ransom didn’t feel the need to fully explain this and went with the simple version when giving the job to the Beta shifters.

Update (8/23/2024): I was rewatching Lower Decks 2x10 First Contact and the mentions of Captain Freeman probably thinking the Captain Freeman Day decorations were for children implies that at least during season 2, there were children on the ship. I feel that the Archimedes incidents could be impetus for the ship being declared too uncomfortable for a family. I'll see in my rewatch if I come across any other implied children on the Cerritos in later seasons.

During LD 3x10, as much as I enjoy the comaraderie (and Boimler voice-cracking through the ship names), I was little confused as to how the entire class could have made it to the Cerritos so fast. Wouldn't they be relatively evenly spread across the safer part of Federation space, with some in the middle of missions?

After some thought, my theory is that the class decommissioning was more immediate than I first thought; Starfleet had ordered every ship of the class to a central location for crew reassignment not too far from Douglass station, so they were already gathered nearby (having travelled from whatever corners of Federation space the class may have operated in) and been waiting a few days or so when Mariner informed them of the situation.

I've often wondered how with the advanced medical science of the Federation how they can, for instance, revive practically dead people, but not create a communication device for Pike (or any of a number of people in the background of Lower Decks) more advanced than a blinking light.

One theory I had recently is that somehow, Pike (and people with similar conditions) received most of the brain damage in Broca's Area, leaving them able to understand speach through Wernicke's Area but unable to produce speech. The chair thus might be a replacement for Broca's Area, but primitive in comparison to the original, biological one. (And further, perhaps the Talosians are able to simulate a human Broca's Area when Pike is left in the illusion on Talos.)

Could any of the main characters of Prodigy have been affected by the Borg assimilation in Picard S3?

Season 1 of Prodigy takes place in 2383. This means the main characters would be about 18 years older at the time of Season 3 of Picard.

When the Borg assimilate the younger members of Starfleet, using "recievers" added to their genetic code through the transporter system, it's said to only affect individuals prior to a certain point in their brain development - around 25 for humans.

The characters' ages in 2383 are:

• Dal: 17
• Gwyn: 17
• Jankom: 16
• Rok: 8

No age is listed on Memory Alpha for Zero, but they're also Medusan, have already broken free from the Borg once, and I don't know if Medusans even have genetic material that the transporter could detect. (Also, Murf's age is explicitly said to be unknown.)

In 2401, Rok would be about 26 (not including the time spent in the slowdown in "Time Amok"). For her to be affected by the Borg assimilation, I think we'd have to make a few assumptions:

1. She's still in Starfleet
2. Either her brain development takes slightly longer than in humans, or the estimates are off and she's a bit younger than 26
3. The algorithms in Starfleet transporters that recognize common species DNA (which is what the Borg code hijacked to install the receiver) specifically recognizes Brikar like it does for other, more commonly seen species

Number 1 seems likely. Number 3 seems plausible - Rok wore an appropriately-sized environmental suit in (I believe) "Crossroads", although that was likely created by a replicator - perhaps the vehicle replicator, if the ordinary ones weren't large enough.

To me, number 2 seems the most unlikely; Prodigy a show aimed (in part) at teenagers, and - in the absence of any reference to these species differences in the show - it seems logical to me to assume these characters are intended to be at similar state in development as humans of the same age. And the estimate for Rok's age seems to put her just over the age where she would be affected. Part of me wonders if the writers for "Võx" were thinking about this.

Anything I missed (at least prior to Prodigy season 2)? Or any other characters we've seen who might be young enough to be assimilated in 2401?

@daystrominstitute@startrek.website

I was rewatching LD 4x07 “A Few Badgeys More” when Badgey’s ramble about seeing past, present, and future as he ascended gave me a question: if Badgey has become a non-linear, omnipotent being, what is the impact on the timeline? My thought is that delta insignia seen in Starfleet and past human organizations may actually be part of a bootstrap paradox; the delta insignia inspires Badgey, and then eventually, Badgey, after becoming non-linear and being part of all time and space, causes the the delta insignia that inspired his form in the first place.

The title was first used in the context of the Progenitors in TNG: “The Chase” when Picard remarked, “[The puzzle] is 4 billion years old. A computer program from a highly advanced civilisation, and it's hidden in the very fabric of life itself.“ In DIS: “Red Directive” the phrase was used in conjunction with saying the Progenitor technology was “used to design life itself.”

Burnham activates her holographic tricorder function from her tricom badge, first introduced in DIS: “Scavengers” as the 32nd Century combination tricorder, communicator and personal transporter. She also materializes a 32nd Century phaser pistol, which can be summoned at will thanks to it being composed of programmable matter.

Window-like gateways allowing instantaneous travel to other worlds was a hallmark of another ancient civilization, the Iconians (TNG: “Contagion”), who used them to control a vast empire which was destroyed over 200,000 years prior, although there were still survivors existing into the 32nd Century (DIS: “The Examples”). Their gateways also survived, with one being the focus of conflict in DS9: “To the Death”.

Tahal’s fleet will arrive in 60 minutes. Primarch Tahal is one of the five remaining Primarchs of the Bree Imperium, and in the past conquered Kellerun, Rayner’s planet. Rayner was the only survivor of his family.

Burnham has indeed seen the future - in DIS: “Face the Strange” she and Rayner were jumped 30 years ahead to see a lifeless Discovery and a Federation HQ devastated by the Breen thanks to them using Progenitor tech.

Rayner refers to the avalanche caused by Moll and L’ak on Q’Mau in order to facilitate their escape (DIS: “Red Directive”).

Culber gives Book a shot to counter radiation sickness. In TOS: “The Deadly Years”, the drug of choice to do that was hyronalin, was which also used during the TNG era in several episodes. Culber has had an existential crisis ever since he became host to the memories and personality of Jinaal on Trill (DIS: “Jinaal”).

Moll put L’ak in her personal pattern buffer in DIS: “Lagrange Point” to keep him safe.

Using plasma to take out multiple hostiles was a tactic used by Worf’s brother Kurn, who went to warp near the surface of a star, setting off a flare which destroyed his pursuers (TNG: “Redemption II”). In TNG: “Descent, Part II”, the Enterprise-D under Beverly Crusher’s command fired a particle beam into a star to make it erupt and destroy a Borg ship.

Culber tells Book to adjust the tractor beam to subspace resonance frequency 5.1732, then uses the classic “I’m a doctor, not a…” trope associated most with McCoy from TOS (my personal favorite is from TOS: “The Devil in the Dark”, where he complains about treating the silicon-based Horta with, “I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer!”).

Ferengi rummy is presumably a card game. Rummy is the name given to a group of Earth card games, with the most common variant being Gin Rummy. It is claimed that the name comes from using rum as betting stakes.

The Progenitor that greets Burnham is in an updated version of the original Progenitor makeup from TNG: “The Chase” (played then by Salome Jens, who went on to play the female Founder in DS9).

The Galactic Barrier is an energy field that surrounds the Milky Way, penetrated by the USS Enterprise in TOS: “Where No Man Has Gone Before” and then again in TOS: “By Any Other Name”. The Barrier also featured in DIS Season 4, with Species 10-C living beyond it in extragalactic space. The origins of the Barrier have never been explained on screen, although beta canon has offered some possibilities, one of which was the Progenitors (William Shatner and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens’ Captain’s Glory).

The Progenitors were not the creators of the technology but think that it was made by their creators. So, basically, it’s Progenitors all the way down. And while they effectively could recreate a live body from a dead one, it would basically be a clone without any of the previous body’s memories or personality.

The Betazoid scientist Dr Marina Derex was one of those that discovered the Progenitor tech 800 years prior. Her clue was in the manuscript of her book, Labyrinths of the Mind (DIS: “Labyrinths”).

This is the first time Discovery has shown the ability to separate its saucer from its secondary hull. Saucer separation was mentioned as being possible in TOS behind the scenes documents but it was not until TNG: “Encounter at Farpoint” that separation (and rejoining) became a fact on screen.

“Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations” is a tenet of Vulcan philosophy, first mentioned in TOS: “Is There in Truth No Beauty?”, also known as IDIC. In-universe, it dates back to at least Surak’s time, c.300 CE (ENT: “The Forge”).

When Kovich tells her that all information regarding the Progenitor tech will be classified, Burnham quips she knows how those things work. When Discovery jumped to the 32nd Century at the end of Season 2 to prevent misuse of the Sphere Data, all knowledge of the spore drive was classified and scrubbed from 23rd century records, and even as far as the 32nd century was concerned the original Discovery was destroyed back then.

The device Burnham holds gives her access to the Infinity Room, a highly secure conference space, first seen in DIS: “Red Directive”.

Kovich cryptically says he’s “lived many years and many lives”. Given the scope of the Star Trek universe, this could very well be more than metaphorical. On the shelf behind him we see a bottle of Château Picard, Geordi LaForge’s VISOR and Benjamin Sisko’s baseball.

Agent Daniels first appeared in ENT: “Cold Front” as Crewman Daniels of the NX-01 Enterprise (which technically didn’t have a USS prefix until its refit). He was revealed to be a Time Agent, a temporal operative from the 31st Century fighting in the Temporal Cold War. He last appeared in ENT: “Storm Front, Part II”, informing Archer that due to his actions, the Temporal War was coming to an end.

Talaxians, of course, are Neelix’s race (VOY), last referenced in a reading list that included A Comprehensive Guide to Talaxian Hair Styles. The Eternal Archive also gave Book a cutting from the World Root, a tree system that extended across his now-destroyed planet Kwejian (DIS: “Labyrinths”). He planted it on Sanctuary Four, a planet used as a wildlife sanctuary for trance worms, one of which, nicknamed Molly was delivered there by Book in DIS: “That Hope is You, Part 1”.

The box on the table across from Admiral Burnham’s bed is the one made of Tulí wood, that contained the World Root cuttings, given to Book by the Eternal Archive. The color of the vegetation outside the window identifies the planet as Sanctuary Four.

Crepuscula was the very first planet we saw in the series, back in the first scene of DIS: “The Vulcan Hello”. Burnham and Philippa Georgiou performed a covert mission to restore the Crepusulans’ water supply, as the species was subject to General Order 1.

The age of Burnham’s son (and his Captain’s rank) implies that at least thirty-odd years have passed since Saru’s wedding.

Technically speaking, one “aye” means “I understand,” in response to information while “aye aye” means “I understand and will comply,” in response to an order.

Burnham’s shuttle bears the designation “UFP 47”, with 47 being a number which appears frequently in Star Trek, an in-joke started by TNG writer Joe Menosky, who was part of the 47 Society at California’s Pomona College. In the lake we see trance worms swimming. The warp streaks as the shuttle travels are consistent with what we saw of the pathway drive.

Burnham and Book’s son is named Leto, after Book’s nephew who died when Kwejian was destroyed (DIS: “Kobayashi Maru”).

The ending finally brings continuity in line with ST: “Calypso”, where Craft came across a deserted Discovery, empty save for Zora, adrift for a thousand years in deep space. For the longest time we were wondering how it would work since the starship was shown without its “A” suffix, which she obtained when refitted in the 32nd Century to hide her origins in the 23rd Century. The removal of the “A” by DOTs as Burnham’s shuttle flies in, the reattchment of the ship's nacelles and Burnham's use of the term “Red Directive” implies that this is due to Kovich/Daniels’ instructions, and the restoration of the original ship is to bring it in line with history due to timey-wimey reasons.

Garak asserts to Bashir that the Repetitive Epic is the finest form of Cardassian literature. I was wondering, is there any real-life literature that could be considered a "repetitive epic" in the same vein as "The Neverending Sacrifice?"

It has occurred to me that Vulcan must have some form of sex industry to handle those going through Pon Farr who aren't currently married or otherwise involved. Otherwise, they'd have constant issues with violence from those suffering the "blood fever" whose spouse was far away, or had died, or for some other reason had no one to mate with.

Given Vulcan attitudes towards sex, it's probably kept out of sight, and is only "officially" available to those experiencing their "Seven Year Itch," but it has to exist, right?

I like coffee. I like Star Trek.

I've had a mild interest in the raktajino, a Klingon coffee drink commonly consumed in DS9. I've looked up a few fan theories and fan recipes. I haven't seen any references to a canonical recipe, so I get that there's a bit of fun and personal preference involved.

The only thing I don't understand is why raktajino is commonly claimed to be made with liquor. On the one hand, I understand why Klingons might want a stiff additive to their caffeine. However, the context in which characters on DS9 drink it does not suggest the presence of intoxicants. I recall at least a few occasions in which bridge officers, while on duty, drink a raktajino. Surely even synthol is not OK when you're on shift for Starfleet.

So in this episode they go into a cave, and can read some sort of energy field, as well as Troi having a sense that there are lifeforms present. Geordie explains that the people must be displaced in time, but only by a few milliseconds. If that's true, how is there not overlap? Say the people are a few milliseconds ahead of the enterprise when they arrive, shouldn't they appear a few milliseconds later, as they still would have had to be 'present' during that time? I don't understand how they would be consistently invisible if time is a dimension like space that can be traveled through. Some past (or future) version of them would be present regardless of the desynchronization would they not?

Please if anyone could help me understand or shed some light on this I'd appreciate it.

I have an issue in general with scifi totally ignoring the existence of bicycles, but star trek is particularly fun to think about since in so many situations beaming down in an away team with electric mountain bicycles would be incredibly useful in a basic utilitarian sense. Like shuttles, bicycles could be treated as disposable if needed, you can always replicate more right?

You also don't need to build up any infrastructure on a planet for bicycles to function as transit system for huge amounts of people. A starship could arrive into a humanitarian aid situation, quickly adjust a bicycle blueprint for whatever bipedal humanoid lived on the planet, replicate a metric sh*&ton of alien bicycles and beam them down to the planet on mass. It wouldn't require longterm maintenance, lengthy training of local aliens on how to use, or return visits to resupply complex parts. A starship could drop bicycles, spare parts and maintenance gear and then leave and the citizens of that planet would be able to benefit from that for... decades? Even more? I am sure the instruction manuals would get super long with all the alien languages though....

Even if bicycles weren't being used as tools or transportation in a far future like star trek, there is no reason humans would stop wanting to bicycle recreationally or for exercise. Also you could go on crazy mountain biking rides on the holodeck right? I can't see how people wouldn't be doing that all the time along with skiing, surfing and other sports that are scary but exhilarating. Further, I think it is likely most bipedal aliens would have discovered bicycles at some point along the development into advanced technological civilizations. It would be really weird if only humans discovered them.

TNG in particular is egregious for not having bicycles since the NCC-1701 is so cavernous that unless you always used the turbolifts you probably are going to need a bicycle to get anywhere quickly...

What do yall think? Should star trek have more bicycles?

I want to live!

- EvilKirk's last words

Whatever else you want to say about EvilKirk, it's pretty clear that he didn't want to be merged back into the single Kirk. Despite this, there is no shortage of reasons why it was a good idea to merge the Kirks: the Enterprise needed its CO back, GoodKirk wanted to do it, and it seems possible that the strain of remaining split would have eventually killed EvilKirk anyways. However, the fact remains that EvilKirk did not consent to the procedure which ended his existence.

Clearly the circumstances here are quite different and there's basically no argument to be made that allowing EvilKirk to continue to exist would benefit any involved party, EvilKirk included. But for the purposes of this comparison, the only fact that really matters is that EvilKirk was just as passionate about his desire to continue existing as Tuvix was.

Yet—and it's obvious where I'm going with this—"Spock murdered EvilKirk" is not a meme.

So what gives? Did Spock murder EvilKirk or not? If yes, why does he get a pass while Janeway is condemned?

The Galaxy class starship was designed with the ability to separate the saucer from the stardrive section, so that the "floating city" part of the ship could be left somewhere safe while the rest of the ship galavants off to do something risky. We see this happen precisely once, in the season one episode Arsenal of Freedom. We also see saucer separation deployed for a handful of tactical and or emergency uses (such as against the Borg in The Best of Both Worlds, or to escape the breaching warp core in Generations).

So, this seems like a useful ability to have, and the Enterprise is constantly being sent into dangerous situations. Why not use this ability more frequently?

In DS9 Quark makes a throwaway line about the Great Monetary Collapse that happened during his early lifetime. He describes it as a period caused by "rampant inflation and currency devaluation."

This description might seem puzzling at first, because the Ferengi have always been shown to use hard currency. Hard currencies are generally deflationary currencies, with a fixed or at least limited supply and a growing (and hoarding) population. The only way a currency can rapidly inflate is to increase the supply of the currency, or alternately for there to be a shortage of things to buy.

In short, inflation requires too much money chasing too few goods.

I hypothesize here that the Ferengi experienced an economic collapse caused by replicator technology, specifically the point at which replicators became able to create gold. The Ferengi experienced this shock more severely than most other cultures, not only because they use hard currency, but also because they revere it.

What happens to an economy when replicators show up? The answer is not inflation. A replicator makes goods for cheap. If you can conjure up your Raktajino out of thin air and energy, the price of a Raktajino is going to plummet to the cost of that energy. As long as you are not on board a ship which needs to ration energy, cheap becomes functionally free.

This is the apparent engine behind the Federation's economy. In Federation space, everyone gets a protein resequencer, and there is no more hunger. Then later, everyone gets a more replicator, and clothing is free too. Every year a new advancement, and every advancement brings a new thing that the citizens can conjure up.

But the Ferengi do not think like that. If your religion is based on making a profit, you do not give away the source of free goods. The Ferengi likely had a small number of early entrepreneurs with a monopoly on replicators, setting their prices to what the market would bear.

Even under this system, the prices must fall. As long as the Ferengi compete, seek profits, and can produce goods indistinguishable from one another, prices must fall. Cartels can form to prop prices up, but a cartel only lasts until someone new gets a replicator. Sooner or later, everyone will get a replicator, and the Ferengi will have to find other ways to make a profit.

The shock of cheap goods can collapse economic sectors. Yet progress marches on. Where the Ferengi ran into problems wasn’t the production of goods, but of their reverence for hard currency.

The Ferengi relationship with currency is not like other cultures. At the start of TNG: The Outpost Ferengi did value gold, to a point of finding it offensive that the Federation officers would wear it brazenly.

Now Ferengi are not unique in finding value in gold. Everyone used to value gold. During TOS: Devil In The Dark, they were willing to risk the lives of workers despite deaths just to get access to the gold and platinum, and when they finally made peace with the Horta they were quite happy. Archer uses gold bars to negotiate with the Ferengi, who accept this even after it is made clear they are gold, not gold-pressed latinum.

But by the events of DS9: Who Mourns for Morn, a distraught Quark makes clear, gold is absolutely worthless. This is a radical change, but the evidence suggests it is not merely a continuity change.

We must then ask, when did gold become worthless? Quark does seem to value it only a few seasons earlier, in DS9: Little Green Men, but this happened when Quark was far in the past, and knew he was in the past.

The best example I can find of worthlessness comes from TNG: The Price. While some details are lost on-screen, the original script has some stage direction which I think is instructive.

[Goss] turns the sack upside down and a pile of gold bars spills out across the tabletop.

GOSS: I'll match anyone's best offer... and add the gold on top of it.

He holds out his hands in a fait accomplit motion. Sits back in his chair, with a confident grin. Bhavani reacts, nonplussed. Picard EXITS...

So from the script it's clear, Goss thought gold was useful, and no one else in the room did.

We can then assume that at this point in time (2366) the Ferengi (or some subset of them) were behind in replicator technology, and it resulted in Goss making a fool of himself, bargaining with someone he valued, and no one else did.

This is a society on the brink of collapse. In fact the collapse may already be happening behind the scenes.

Why didn’t the Ferengi see this coming? I believe the Ferengi religion left them blind to the danger. Ferengi do not merely value gold as a good. In fact, they do not merely value it as a currency. The existence of the Blessed Exchequer paints an interesting picture of the Ferengi relationship with their currency. Every Ferengi believes that their afterlife is determined by their ability to make a profit. Thus, every gold bar held by a Ferengi is their spiritual salvation.

The destructiveness of a currency collapse cannot be understated. Quark comparing it to war trauma is played for laughs, but it was not funny to him. If he has any belief in the afterlife, it was was an existential threat to him.

Replicators didn't just crash the economy of the Ferengi. It threatened to damn their very souls.

In fact I would speculate there is a reason why the Ferengi use gold trappings around latinum. The shape, the weight, the feel of currency matters to them. Visiting the Nagus requires the paying of respects, literally. Pressing latinum into a metal was convenient. Pressing latinum into gold was an important symbolic transition.

Leaning into some apocryphal sources now, a little beautiful tidbit emerges. In DS9: Ferengi Love Songs we learn that the Grant Negus who preceded Zek, called Smeet, presided over one of the largest market slides in recent Ferengi history, and was assassinated in office. Thus he likely saw the effects of free gold. According to the Legends of the Ferengi, Smeet was credited with writing the 89th, 202nd, and 218th Ferengi Rules of Acquisition. The 218th rule, according the the DS9 Comic Baby on Board reads as follows:

Sometimes what you get free costs entirely too much.

In the finale of Picard Season 3, the Titan, armed with a 100 year old cloaking device, manages to successfully evade detection by the Borg controlled fleet. This raises some questions. How on earth is it that the Titan was able to accomplish this with a seemingly obsolete cloaking device?

I postulate two things, the first is that what we call the cloaking device is merely one component in a whole system of invisibility, and the second is that StarFleet was certainly obeying the letter of the treaty (Pegasus and Section 31 aside) by not developing cloaking technology, but was, in reality, building ships ready to accept cloaking devices at a moment's notice.

What do we know about cloaking devices, and how are they defeated? The cloaking device ties into the ship’s deflector shield control (as per TOS: The Enterprise Incident) and it obtains invisibility in part by bending light around the ship (as per comparison to the Aldean planetary shield in TNG: The Bough Breaks and description from DISL Into the Forest I Go)

However, using the deflector shield to remain unobserved does not necessarily require a cloaking device. As per the opening of TOS: Assignment: Earth, the Enterprise was able to use its defector shield to remain unobserved to 20th century technology.

And there are countless examples of a cloaking device being imperfect. The most famous example is likely Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, where a torpedo set to target ionized gas is able to trace down the location of a Bird of Prey, summarized as “The thing has to have a tailpipe.”

But that is not the only example. Detecting energy distortions, subspace radiation, high speed warp signatures from neutrino radiation, and looking for tetryon particles all worked as forms of passive detection. (I will not cover active detection mechanisms such as the tachyon net, as the Borg fleet never deployed them.)

To add to all this, the clocking device is very small. A device about the size and weight of a man can make a ship invisible.

Here I switch to speculation.

First, I suggest that the cloaking device is primarily a computer. It is not the thing which makes the ship invisible - you could plug it into a building and it would not work, unless it has its own projectors. It must be plugged into a ship with a deflector array, to enhance and perfect its ability to make the ship invisible.

Second, the quality of the ship is more important than the quality of the cloaking device. A cloaking device “merely” needs to look at all incoming radiation of all types, and calculate how to move it around the ship for total silence. But it cannot protect against a ship which emits radiation, leaks gas, etc. Thus, a ship designed with high quality shields and high quality emission control will be more stealthy.

Side speculation: The design decision to not use an antimatter core in the first Bird of Prey we see during TOS: Balance of Terror (their power is simple impulse only implies fusion) and the later TNG-era decision to use a forced singularity despite the downsides, may be rooted in the notion that the Romulans felt that emissions from antimatter annihilation were a liability. Selling the Klingons the cloak and not telling them about this problem seems entirely on brand for the Romulan Star Empire.

There is something of an exception here, the phased cloak. A ship out of phase would, presumably, emit radiation which is also out of phase. (Extrapolated from TNG: The Next Phase where Ro shoots Riker in the head and he does not notice.) The phased cloak represented an attempt to fix emission control on a completely new level. But the phased cloak had problems, and is is seemingly a dead end for the ability to fire while cloaked. Plus, research was a treaty violation.

So now we return to the Titan. We know that plugging a 100 year old cloaking device into the Titan produced an invisibility effect which worked admirably. StarFleet may have seemingly kept their commitment to not build ships with cloaking devices, but this was always a hand wave agreement. StarFleet was ready for the day when they needed invisible ships, and having ships ready to accept cloaking devices was seemingly an unspoken but very intentional design consideration.

When the Titan needed to be invisible, she was missing only one piece of the puzzle.

In "Take Me Out to the Holosuite", captains Sisko and Solok form teams of their own crewmen and play a baseball game in one of Quark's holosuites. Unlike most Holosuite programs, the real people involved are extremely spread out, with Rom (in the stands behind home plate) and Dax (climbing the center field fence) at least 450 feet apart at one point, with the dugouts roughly 200 feet apart along the opposite axis. We see the interior of various holosuites in prior episodes and they are nowhere near that large. Does Quark really have close to 100,000 square feet worth of holosuites, or does the holodeck have some special tricks to deal with this sort of situation?