Just how impressive is the Federation’s technology in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds? Science-fiction has always pushed the boundaries of technology, and legend has it that Star Trek has inspired real-world change: mobile phones are often linked to the communicators we saw Kirk et al using in the original series. Other technology, though, is far beyond anything we can pull off in the real world. We’re nowhere near to unraveling faster-than-light travel, while even modern AI is unlikely to ever be anything like Commander Data.
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Transporters, for example, were created for the most amusing reason of all; to get around budget constraints, so Star Trek wouldn’t need to film expensive shots where shuttles landed on planets. We’re nowhere near to developing transporters, while Strange New Worlds Season 4 episode titles tease yet more transporter accidents – suggesting the Federation hasn’t quite cracked it. And yet, incredibly, I think the Strange New Worlds Season 4 just gave us the most incredible example of advanced tech to date.
The Enterprise Buoy Still Works For 65 Million Years
The Strange New Worlds premiere is a tremendous time travel adventure, with the USS Enterprise sent to investigate a category ten interstellar squall (described as “space-time gone wild”). The tear in space-time is situated in a distant, uninhabited part of space, meaning this is a pretty routine (albeit beautiful) observational mission. It takes a twist, of course, when the Enterprise detects a Mayday coming from a ship apparently stranded inside the squall. The Enterprise dives in, only for the storm to expand and drag it through time and space. It emerges 65 million years in the past.
And here’s the catch; initially confused and unaware of the time travel, with all their equipment malfunctioning, the Enterprise drops a buoy to transmit a Mayday. You’ve probably already guessed where this is going; this buoy is the source of the signal the Enterprise detected inside the squall. It’s a paradox, and a particularly delightful one, with Star Trek finally moving on from the Guardian of Forever approach; the Enterprise’s time travel exploit is literally baked into the timeline. In fact, Pike et al turn out to be accidentally responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs and the evolution of humanity.
I’ve always had a thing for temporal mechanics and time travel stories. Strange New Worlds Season 4 kicks off with one of the best in the franchise’s history, and I couldn’t be happier with it. And yet, for all that’s the case, one thing stood out to me beyond everything else; the incredible batteries that must drive Federation technology. In this case, the Enterprise’s buoy was literally still transmitting 65 million years after it had been dropped. Now that’s an impressive battery life, and a sign of just how advanced Star Trek‘s science really is.
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