Nine years ago, Star Trek: Discovery introduced viewers to a starship unlike any other. The USS Discovery was powered by a spore drive, created by Commander Paul Stamets and his colleague Straal. The spore drive allows the Discovery to travel through the microscopic mycelial network, allowing instantaneous travel across the galaxy. Incredibly, Discovery Season 1 even confirmed the spore drive is the key to travel across the entire multiverse. Unfortunately, spore drive technology directly contradicted shows later in the Star Trek timeline.
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This simple fact meant viewers always knew the spore drive was likely to fail in the end, simply because it’s never been seen again. Had Federation starships begun to develop spore drive technology, the USS Voyager would have been able to return from the Delta Quadrant in a matter of moments rather than a seven-year voyage. Fortunately, Star Trek came up with a solution… one that, we now know, has created yet more problems.
Discovery’s Time Travel Story Appeared to Solve the Problem
The end of Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 came up with a smart solution to the problem. The USS Discovery traveled forward in time to the 32nd century, well beyond all the other shows and movies. As far as the Federation knew, spore drive technology had proved to be a dead end, and the whole idea was written off. It became something of a “road not traveled” for the Federation, because in reality it was of course the most efficient form of transportation in the galaxy’s history.
Emerging in the distant future also meant the reintroduction of spore drive technology didn’t cause any obvious problems. It didn’t take long for the Discovery crew to learn they’d appeared in a time when the Federation was weaker than ever before, due to a cosmic event known as “the Burn” which triggered the spontaneous detonation of almost all dilithium in the galaxy (dilithium being the key to warp travel). The spore drive offered the Federation a new alternative, although their scientists soon experimented with other alternatives such as the “pathway drive.”
Starfleet Academy Just Revealed Another Problem With the Spore Drive
The latest Star Trek TV series, Starfleet Academy, is set in the late 32nd century as well. The pilot episode sees the Academy ship, the USS Athena, get into serious trouble with pirates; they send out an SOS, only to be told starships are too far away and the Discovery is currently undergoing a refit. That single sentence inadvertently admitted to another problem with both the spore drive and its successor, the pathway drive. Simply put, if travel across the galaxy is instantaneous, then backup is only ever a moment away.
Star Trek: Discovery never confronted this problem, because it focused on the only ship with a functioning spore drive. But now the franchise has moved on to a new series set on a different vessel, every episode must explain why the Discovery doesn’t just come to help out. That’s particularly true given this is literally the Academy ship, carrying the future of the Federation with it. If the USS Athena is in trouble, then backing it up should really be the Discovery’s first priority.
The problem gets even worse as other ships develop spore drives and pathway drives. In narrative terms, the advent of this kind of technology means any starship in trouble should be able to call unlimited backup in mere moments. It doesn’t matter whether said backup is literally on the other side of the galaxy; it can be there with the flick of a switch. To face one Federation starship is to face them all, and there’s now no real reason a Federation vessel should ever be in any sustained danger.
It is, of course, absolutely impossible to tell any real story with dramatic tension when unlimited backup is so close to hand. That means Starfleet Academy, and any further shows, must really start thinking of a way out of this problem; whether by admitting there are more complications with spore and pathway drives than we knew, or constantly finding ways to cut off communication during the latest crisis. It’s not sustainable in the long run, so the showrunners really need to figure out a better way.
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Image Courtesy of Netflix
