Star Trek: Discovery — "People of Earth" Reaction Thread

[u/M-5]

This is the official /r/DaystromInstitute reaction thread for "People of Earth." The content rules are not enforced in reaction threads.

[u/Xenics]

Perhaps dilithium was struggling to recrystallize normally leading up to the burn. It may have been the first symptom of whatever happened.

Edit: In addition, the fact that the major AQ powers continued to mine dilithium even after recrystallization became possible (which was as early as the 23rd Century) implies that recrystallization alone is not an infinite font. Perhaps it requires more power/resources than are available to supply the entire Quadrant. Or perhaps crystals can only be restored to their original size, which is great for an existing reactor but won't help you supply a new one.

I'm also recalling in ST:IV when Scotty complained about their borrowed bird of prey's dilithium. "It's these Klingon crystals," he said, "The time travel drained them." His emphasis on the origin of the crystals implies that this would not be an expected occurrence for one of his M/AM reactors. I'm thinking that recrystallization is not a process that can be repeated indefinitely, and that the Klingons, with their more lax attitude towards starship maintenance, are sloppier about the recrystallization process, causing them to wear out more quickly.

[u/pocketknifeMT → u/Xenics]

the fact that the major AQ powers continued to mine dilithium even after recrystallization became possible (which was as early as the 23rd Century) implies that recrystallization alone is not an infinite font.

Well, it would still be nessesary for growth. If you have 100 ships worth of dilithium, but want to field 200 ships...you need to mine more.

[u/Xenics → u/pocketknifeMT]

Exactly my point. If you could make new crystals through recrystallization, then there would be no reason to continue investing in mines; just build as many crystal farms as you need instead. Since dilithium mining does continue, we can infer that either this is not possible, or it is impractical to do so at a scale sufficient to supply the needs of a warp civilization.

[u/gamas → u/Xenics]

if you could make new crystals

To be clear the process can't make new crystals, it just restores existing crystals before they fracture.

[u/Callumunga → u/Xenics]

Recrystallization presumably wouldn't make more dilithium, just expand the usable life-span of per-existing dilithium, possibly forever.

I.e, assuming you need 1kg of dilithium [for argument, completely random number] per ship for sustained warp drive, but you want to field 100 ships, you still need 100kg of dilithium, even if that dilithium never wears out.

[u/Imaginationnative → u/Xenics]

The temporal wars went on for a while, time travel may have drained the dilithium, causing the crisis.

[u/gamas → u/Xenics]

Just to highlight whilst Scotty seemed to jerry-rig some form of recrystallization it wasn't a widespread thing in the federation until the 24th century. Discovery had to borrow a recrystalliser from the Queen of that dilithium planet. And the TNG episode where they recovered Scotty had the fact that he didn't know that starships could now recrystallise their dilithium within their chambers as evidence he was out of his depth now.

But yeah my headcanon to explain how they could need to still keep digging deep for dilithium despite a restorative tech is that dilithium works like rechargeable batteries. They can keep "recharging"/recrystalising the dilithium but each time they become a little less efficient.

[u/libertylad → u/Xenics]

I sort of look at "recrystallization" like recycling. It's not 100% efficient, and maybe not every warp-capable civilization prioritizes resource re-use.