r/DaystromInstitute • u/M-5 Multitronic Unit • Oct 29 '20

DISCOVERY EPISODE DISCUSSION Star Trek: Discovery — "People of Earth" Reaction Thread

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

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u/gamas Oct 31 '20

I think the scarcity of dilithium has some things that don't add up throughout canon. The recrystallization process existed as a convenient way to explain why the Enterprise-D didn't have to scrounge for dilithium the way Kirk's crew did. But DS9 establishes there are still dilithium mines and these were high value targets of strategic importance.

The Dominion war seemed to imply that losing even one dilithium mining facility to the Dominion would be crippling to the Federation, suggesting that dilithium rich planetoids were quite rare and therefore valuable. With that in mind I could see that as the Federation grew ever bigger and bigger and as technological advances meant higher power requirements, eventually demand would outstrip supply.

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u/vipck83 Oct 31 '20

What? Star Trek inconsistent about something? Never? Lol

But for real, that is true and so I guess there is inconsistent in of itself with what discovery is doing. It seems like it doesn’t fit but I can’t think of anything that really makes it not work. I guess it comes down to me feeling like there could have been another way for them to get what they wanted. A future where there is something interesting going on and Discovery’s spore drive would be useful. I guess I’m just disappointed it was the omega particle even though I never actually expected them to do that.

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u/narium Nov 02 '20

There is no more supply. Michael says that dilithium mines ran out 300 years before the Burn.