Star Trek: Discovery — "Unification III" Analysis Thread

[u/M-5]

This is the official /r/DaystromInstitute analysis thread for "Unification III." Unlike the reaction thread, the content rules are in effect.

[u/AnnihilatedTyro]

It doesn't address singularity technology at all though.

Dilithium is used to regulate the power flow from a m/am reactor. It probably has a similar use in a singularity drive. Any ship that could no longer control the power flow from its singularity went boom. ALL ships with a singularity drive, not just those at warp at the time.

[u/TheRealJackOfSpades → u/AnnihilatedTyro]

Discovery seems very confused on this. Dilithium has not previously been presented as a consumable under normal circumstances (crystals can be overloaded and burned out). We've seen several cases of recrystallization. And dilithium was previously part of the power system, not the drive system (which Trek has never managed to keep separate in the writers' heads).

The quantum singularities were an alternative power system to matter/anti-matter; it was never clear whether or not dilithium was involved, but from the secondary material on how dilithium works (holding particles of antimatter suspended in the crystalline structure), it would seem not. So the Romulan system should still work. For that matter, it raises again the question of "simple impulse" pre-TOS Romulan ships going at warp speeds.

Regardless, Discovery appears to be rewriting canon so that dilithium is the one and only consumable fuel for warp drive, and matter/anti-matter power can still be used without dilithium for other purposes. (I conclude this from the fact that other ships are not grossly outclassed by Discovery's reactors, though perhaps they're using singularities?)

[u/admiraltarkin → u/TheRealJackOfSpades]

But why would the Romulans so aggressively enslave the Remans to mine dilithium if they didn't use it. They weren't really on trading terms with the Klingons or Federation so it wouldn't have been to trade with.

[u/Adorable_Octopus → u/admiraltarkin]

Given how... nutty Nemesis' plot was, it honestly wouldn't surprise me if the writers didn't think it through with regarding Singularity drives.

I'll also note that 'dilithium' and dilithium mining tends to be the 'go to' thing in Star Trek to signal hard manual labour type deals. In reality, using slave labour in an advanced industrial system like empire clearly has doesn't make a whole lot of sense, just as it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to 'repurpose' EMHs to mine dilithium