‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Makes a Major ‘Next Generation’ Connection

Tonight’s episode of Star Trek: Discovery, “Saints of Imperfection”, includes a major reference to Star Trek: The Next Generation.

SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 2, Episode 5, “Saints of Imperfection” follow.

Star Trek fans know that Star Trek: The Next Generation takes place about a century after the events of Star Trek: The Original Series. That means The Next Generation featured technology up to 100 years more advanced than what was used by Starfleet in The Original Series. Prime examples of this were the holodeck, replicators, and the use of combadges instead of handheld communicators. Star Trek: Discovery has made use of two of those technologies in past episodes. In “Saints of Imperfection” they add a third, though this time there’s a more explicit narrative reason for it.

In “Saints of Imperfection”, Capt. Pike’s search for Spock causes the Discovery to cross paths with the secretive Section 31. To coordinate better, Section 31 sends Ash Tyler to Discovery as a liaison.

Discovery then engages in a rescue mission to try to pull Ensign Sylvia Tilly out of the mycelial network. When things start to go wrong, Tyler makes contact with a Section 31 ship camouflaged nearby.

The means by which Tyler communicates is what’s striking. Rather than reach for a communicator, Tyler taps the black Starfleet insignia badge on his chest to open a channel to the Section 31 ship. Capt. Pike exclaims, “What the hell kind of communicator is that?!”

It appears that Section 31 already has combadge technology at their disposal, not to mention ship camouflage tech. Even in the Next Gen era, when Section 31 appeared on Deep Space Nine, the organization seemed to have advanced technology. This episode suggests that technology could be a century ahead of Starfleet in general or more.

This may remind fans of another theory that was suggested back during Discovery‘s first season. Some wondered if Section 31 is responsible for the construction of the Discovery. That would explain the ship’s low registry number, NCC-1031. It would also explain why Discovery has replicators and holodecks and other technology more advanced than what was seen in The Original Series and why black badges, now known to be the insignia of Section 31, were operating on Discovery when Burnham first boarded the ship.

What do you think of a combadge showing up on Star Trek: Discovery? Let us know in the comments!

New Star Trek: Discovery episodes become available to stream Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. ET on CBS All Access.