Star Trek

I have been waiting on Star Trek Lower Decks Season 4 to be released on Blu Ray for months, does anyone know where I can buy it?

Amazon listed it last year and it turns out that was in error and searching lists the release as April 16th and yet I can't find it in any where.

I am in the UK

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The title comes from the David Bowie song “Changes” from the 1971 album Hunky Dory. The song also has the lyric “Time may change me, but I can’t trace Time.” Given the theme of this episode, it seems appropriate.

The latinum bars are soaked in fop’yano poison (first mention). Latinum, a Ferengi currency, is a metallic liquid which is encased in gold (considered by Ferengi to be worthless), and persists as a currency in the 32nd Century (last seen in DIS: “All In”). The dead weapons dealer is Annari, a Delta Quadrant species which first appeared in VOY: “Nightingale”.

Deuterium manifolds were mentioned in dialogue in VOY: “Course: Oblivion” and VOY: “Renaissance Man”, with deuterium being the fuel used in fusion reactors on Federation starships. A manifold distributes fluids and gas from one pipe to many and vice versa. In internal combustion engines, an intake manifold distributes the fuel-air mixture to the cylinders and an exhaust manifold distributes exhaust from multiple sources to a single pipe for venting.

Polarons are particles that can be used in weaponry (DS9: “The Jem’Hadar”) or for scanning for vessels (VOY: “State of Flux”), among other things. Polaron radiation is fatal to humanoids (DS9: “Apocalypse Rising”).

The Red Angel is indeed Michael, forming a major part of the plot for DIS Season 2. Michael and Rayner appear to have been transported to the end of Season 2, when Michael pulled Discovery along with her to the 32nd Century (between DIS: “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2” and “Far From Home”).

Michael identifies the second jump as being in drydock in San Francisco when Discovery was first being built. The original dedication plaque for the NCC-1701 says “San Francisco, Calif.”, so that tracks. The dedication plaques for Discovery, Shenzhou and Franklin also indicate they were launched from the San Francisco Fleet Yards. That being said, the assumption was always that the fleet yards were in orbit, the scene in ST 2009 showing the Enterprise being constructed on Earth notwithstanding.

The next jump is to Stardate 1051.8, the climax of Season 2 of DIS (“Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2”), the Battle near Xahea with Control, just before the time of the first jump.

Rayner identifies the culprit: a Krenim chronophage or a “time bug”, left over from the Temporal War. The Krenim were a Delta Quadrant species with the technology to manipulate time (VOY: “Year of Hell”). A chronophage is literally a “time eater”. The Temporal Cold War was a feature of ENT’s stories, which became a hot war around the time of the 31st Century (ENT: “Storm Front”), although the nature of a time war means that it was fought across different time periods. Eventually, as a result of the War, time travel was outlawed.

The time jumping into the past of the ship is very similar to the events of VOY: “Shattered”, as many have pointed out. In the VOY novel A Pocket Full of Lies by Kristen Beyer, it is revealed that the shattering of Voyager into 37 time frames was due to the detonation of a chroniton torpedo launched by the Krenim. Beyer was hired as a staff writer for DIS and was an executive producer on PIC and SNW.

Stamets’ consciousness exists outside of the normal flow of time (DIS: “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”) because of his tardigrade DNA, which he spliced into himself so he can function as the navigator required to use the Spore Drive (DIS: “Choose Your Pain”).

The fourth jump takes them to Osyraa’s hijack of Discovery in Season 3 (DIS: “Su’Kal”). The Black Alert was Tilly trying to jump away, but Stamets was interrupted before the jump could be executed by an Emerald Chain boarding party. Reno is dressed in Discovery’s 23rd Century uniforms, since this is before the crew changed to 32nd Century uniforms at the end of Season 3.

A Vesper martini is a cocktail invented by Ivar Bryce, a friend of writer Ian Fleming’s, who used it in Casino Royale, the first James Bond novel. It consists of gin, vodka and lillet.

The fifth jump takes them to 3218, 27 years in the future. Zora says that Michael and the crew died “decades ago” when the Progenitor tech fell into the wrong hands.

The Breen (DS9: “Strange Bedfellows”) are an antagonistic alien race usually hidden behind their masked suits. They were originally referred to as a Confederacy but in the 32nd Century are an Imperium. They have been mentioned previously as being in a state of infighting.

Michael refers to the first time she boarded Discovery while still serving her sentence for the mutiny she attempted on the Shenzhou in DIS: “The Vulcan Hello” that (debatably) set off the Klingon War.

The diagram that Zora flashes up is a light cone, used in physics as a way to visualize a path through spacetime, converging on the event where the past and future cones meet.

The tone of this future jump is similar to the Short Treks episode “Calypso”, where a future Discovery is seen devoid of life except for Zora, who has been alone for a thousand years. However, that version of the ship does not bear the NCC-1031-A number of the refit (as the episode was made before the Discovery’s time jump at the end of Season 2) and how “Calypso” can fit in with continuity as it stands now is a matter of debate.

Chronitons are Trek particles with temporal properties and associated with time travel. World lines are curves in spacetime describing the path an object takes through spacetime, and therefore its corresponding history. Scaravelli’s Constant is not a real thing as far as I can tell. Mark Rothko was an abstract painter known for his color field paintings.

Just as a note - the reason why Michael and Rayner are in their 32nd Century uniforms and Stamets is not is because the first two are physically jumping through time thanks to being in mid-transport when the jumps started. Stamets remembers only because his consciousness is the one that retains its memory despite the time jumps, as he did in “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Turn Mad”.

Book pronounces raktajino in its usual form, so Reno’s pronunciation of it as “raktachino” last episode must be idiosyncratic in nature.

The warp bubble does indeed insulate whatever’s within from the effects of Special Relativity - it has to, or else faster than light travel would be impossible. This is true whether or not you subscribe to the Alcubierre model for the warp drive (which I do not), the TNG Tech Manual version where the warp bubble lowers inertial mass (which I do), or some other method.

Rayner expresses concern that breaking the warp bubble would rip Discovery (and them) apart and Stamets says inertial dampeners will take care of that - which to me discounts Alcubierre once again because there are no inertial forces acting on the ship in such a model.

Airiam was Discovery’s cyborg spore drive ops officer who was taken over by Control and had to be killed (DIS: “Project Daedelus”).

Michael (and Michael) is presumably using Suus Mahna in the fight, a Vulcan martial art that T’Pol was also proficient in (ENT: “Marauders”). She finishes herself off with a Vulcan nerve pinch. Non-Vulcans have been known to use the nerve pinch, and Michael herself used it in “The Vulcan Hello” to disable Georgiou.

Written by: Sean Cochran

Directed by: Lee Rose

Just a throwback to one of the best teaser trailers ever. I get goosebumps every time I watch it.

IMO the only Star Trek trailer that comes reasonably close is the teaser trailer for the 2009 movie.

• We will learn that the episode title, “Jinaal”, is a character’s name. Trek has had several episodes where the title was simply a character’s name:

    • “Charlie X”

    • “Miri”

    • “Bem”

    • “Sarek”

    • “Ensign Ro”

    • “Aquiel”

    • “Dax”

    • “Melora”

    • “Jetrel”

    • “Shakaar”

    • “Tuvix”

    • “Alice”

    • “Rajiin”

    • “Su’kal”

    • “Vöx”

    • Tangentially, the season four VOY episode “One” does not share it’s name with the Borg drone named One; that episode was called “Drone” and was part of season five.

• We see assembled outside of Federation HQ:

    • USS Discovery A - Crossfield-class refit

    • Two Saturn-class starships

    • A Friendship-class starship

    • USS Nobel, NCC-325002 - 32nd century Constitution-class; first seen in “That Hope is You, Part 2”

    • An unnamed 32nd century Constitution-class starship

    • A Courage-class starship

    • A Mars-class starship

    • A starship of the same class as the USS Dresselhaus

    • USS Locherer, NCC-325062 - Merian-class; named for J.P. Locherer, a cinematographer credited on every episode of seasons two, three, and four of DIS, who passed away in 2022.

    • There is a shuttle type that I don’t believe we’ve seen before flying between ships as well.

• The Emerald Chain was the primary antagonist of DIS season three.

• ”Have you tried Vulcan meditation yet? Helped you as a kid.” Culber is reminding anyone in the audience who may have forgotten that despite being human, Burnham was raised on Vulcan, as established in the series premiere, “The Vulcan Hello”.

    • When Burnham does attempt Vulcan meditation, she holds her palms together, fingers apart in the position of the Vulcan salute. Spock held his hands the same way while meditating in “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan”.

• Tilly claims that Trill is, ”A very big planet,” citing its surface area of 500 million km²; Earth has a surface area of 510.1 million km².

• Adira says of the Bix symbiont, ”It would be unusual for one to live 800 years, but not completely unheard of.” Adira is host to the Tal symbiont, one of whose former hosts appeared to be a Starfleet captain, shown in “Forget Me Not” wearing the uniform introduced after 2382, and phased out by 2401, some 790 years before this episode.

• Rayner has taken a demotion to commander from the previous episode, where he was still a captain. At least until Admiral Vance asked him to voluntarily retire.

• Lieutenant Arav has been aboard the Discovery since the season one episode, “Context Is for Kings”, but this is the first time the character has been named.

• It’s Jett Reno! From Star Trek! Jett is played by Tig Notaro.

• Jett keeps her collar open, and the closure is bisected in half, but when we see Culber with his collar open, the closure remains a single piece.

    • The uniform the Ferengi bartender wears does not have a collar at all.

• Raktajino is a Klingon coffee, first mentioned in “Dax”

• Guardian Xi was introduced in “Forget Me Not”. He has been portrayed by Andreas Apergis.

• The Caves of Mak’ala were introduced in “Equilibrium”.

    • Some of the stalagmites in the cave bear a striking resemblance to the rock Kirk used as a weapon in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”

• Hey, it’s Gray! From Star Trek! Gray is played by Ian Alexander.

• The Zhian’tara is a Trill ritual where the mind of a former Trill host is transferred into the body of another person so they may communicate directly with the current host, as seen in “Facets”.

• The favinit is a plant native to Vulcan. Tuvok showed Janeway a a hybrid he made using a favinit and an orchid in “Alliances”.

• The Vulcan purists are an isolationist faction on Ni’Var introduced in “Unification III”

• A cabrodine explosive was used to destroy Keiko O’Brien’s school aboard Deep Space 9 in “In the Hands of the Prophets”.

• Jinaal mentions the Dominion war, which puts the timeframe in which he and the other scientists decided to hide the Progenitor’s technology sometime from 2373 to 2375.

• ”Something about the curves of a 23rd century Constitution-class just gets me.” Rhys’ sentiment echoes across centuries, in “The Bounty” Jack Crusher claimed, *“I’m definitely a Constitution-class man.”

• The Dakalan bore worm was a concern for the crew of the NX-01 in “Rogue Planet”.

• Tongo is a Ferengi game introduced in “Rules of Acquisition”.

• We learn Nilsson has been reassigned to the USS Voyager J. Nilsson was introduced in season two played by Sara Mitich, who also played Airiam in season one.

• Nilsson apparently gave Christopher her pet tribble. In season one, Lorca had a tribble in his ready room, and in season four, there was an unattended tribble in the corridors of Discovery in “Kobayashi Maru”.

• ”Last time I did this, they have me chips.” Reno is presumably referring to her interrogation upon the Discovery locating Federation HQ in “Die Trying”.

• ”We literally used to be connected.” After his death, seen in “Forget Me Not”, Gray lived on as part of the Tal symbiont in Adira until his consciousness was transferred into a synth golem body in “Choose to Live”.

• ”It’s really pissed off.” “We didn’t need empathy powers to tell us that.” The coffin turning over that the episode briefly cuts to appears to be that of Deanna Troi, ship’s counselor aboard the USS Enterprise D, and the USS Titan.

• Slug-o-Cola is a Ferengi beverage, introduced in “Profit and Lace”. The bottle the bartender pours for Tilly features the 32nd century Ferengi Alliance emblem from “...But to Connect”.

• This is the first time we’ve heard the name Red’s used for the Discovery A’s piano lounge.

• The Tzenkethi have never been seen on screen, only mentioned in dialogue. First in “The Adversary” where we learn they had a conflict with the Federation that Captain Sisko fought in.

    • Beta canon sources are remarkably inconsistent about the depiction of the Tzenkethi, though Robert Hewitt Wolfe, co-writer of “The Adversary”, envisioned them as ”heavily-armoured lizard things.”

      • In the “Infinite Bureaucracy” from the “Strange New Worlds VII” anthology of short stories, they are described as being catlike, similar to the Kzinti.

      • In the Typhon Pact novels the Tzenkethi are tall, attractive humanoids with a wide range of pigmentation, who have fluid filled sacs instead of bones.

      • “Star Trek Online” shows Tzenkethi characters as being stocky, four armed salamander like beings.

      • The recent IDW “Star Trek” ongoing series had the Tzenkethi very recently appear to be large, bipedal dinosaurs.

    • I mention all this only to express the hope that if we actually get an on screen Tzenkethi in the upcoming episode, it does not resemble any of the previous depictions. Or the dinoaurs.

At one point Dunn was considered by Gene Roddenberry for the part of Spock in The Cage. He was also originally considered for the role of Balok in The Corbomite Maneuver, but that part eventually went to Clint Howard. (source: These Are the Voyages)

Me, I really enjoyed Michael's work on this ep, as well as on Wild, Wild West, in which he evidently appeared ten times across four seasons!

In his lone appearance on Star Trek, he played Alexander to perfection, a chronically-abused 'runt-of-the-litter' who famously turns the tables on his abusers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Dunn_(actor)

Sadly, he seems to have lived in constant pain across his life due to physical problems, ones which ultimately killed him at 38yo. This dude was an absolute boss as I reckon it.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Will End With Its Fifth, Final Season

Well hell.

https://gizmodo.com/star-trek-lower-decks-canceled-season-5-paramount-1851407280

#StarTrek #StarTrekLowerDecks @startrek

"Star Trek: Scotty played by Scottish actor for first time"

Nice interview, very very light spoiler stuff if you're trying to go into next season stone cold unknowing.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c72kn4gzq8no

#StarTrek #StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds @startrek

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Trill has a surface area of 500 million km^2, which is similar to Earth (501 million km^2). Other data include an orbital distance of 1.215 AU, a year of 483 sols, a surface temperature of 297 Kelvin (23.85 C) and 1 satellite.

Trill spots are as unique to the individual as human fingerprints or Saurian dorsal ridges, and Zora links them to one Jinaal Bix, who lived 800 years before. Adira says it is unusual, but not unheard of, for a symbiont to live to 800 years.

Rayner has assumed the rank of Commander as the new XO. It’s not clear if this was a condition of his staying on in Starfleet or if it is a situation like that of Will Decker in TMP, where he was Captain rank but was temporarily reduced in grade for the purpose of the mission once Kirk assumed command. On the other hand, by the time of the Enterprise-A, this ship had at least two or three Captains on board (Kirk, Spock and there’s some debate about Scotty), and Spock was referred to as Captain, not Commander.

Reno pronounces raktajinos as “raktachinos”- which is actually not entirely wrong. Raktajino is actually a portmanteau word from both Klingon and Italian. Technically, Klingon coffee is qa’vIn, derived from “caffeine” (coffee is not native to the Empire, and was probably first taken as plunder from human vessels or colonies). Adding liquor (HIq) to it produces a beverage known as ra’taj, which also gained popularity outside the Empire. The “export” version is non-alcoholic but contains a nutlike flavoring, being called in Federation Standard raktaj. Then a variant of raktaj with cream became popular, which became combined with “cappuccino” to become raktajino. So while the preferred pronunciation is jino, with a soft “j”, saying it as chino actually pays homage to the second word that makes up the portmanteau (Klingon for the Galactic Traveler by Marc Okrand).

Guardian Xi was last seen at Federation HQ in DIS: “…But to Connect”, when Gray Tal decided to join the Guardians. The Caves of Mak’ala house the breeding pools of the symbionts, and we last visited them in DIS: “Forget Me Not”. The milky liquid in the pools acts as a medium for electrical impulses that allow the symbionts to communicate with each other.

The zhian’tara ritual was first seen in DS9: “Facets”, where the memories of a previous host are temporarily incorporated into a volunteer to allow face-to-face communication with the current host. Done under the supervision of a Guardian, a variation of this was used to transfer Grey’s consciousness and memories into a synth body (DIS: “Choose to Live”).

The favinit is a Vulcan plant, first mentioned in VOY: “Alliances”, where Tuvok created a hybrid of it and a South American orchid.

The year is finally stated as 3191, although that does not match with the Stardate given last week, which by TNG reckoning only makes it 3189. More evidence that stardates work differently now, and I do wish the production team would stop being coy and let us know how.

So, just to get our chronological bearings, Michael leaves 2258 at the end of Season 2, lands in 3188 at the start of Season 3, spends a year with Book before Discovery lands in 3189, and the rest of Season 3 takes place. A few months pass between Season 3 and 4, taking us into 3190, and at least six months between Season 4 and 5, bringing us to 3191.

The Vulcan Purists were first mentioned in DIS: “Unification III”, where we met their representative V’Kir. In DIS: “All is Possible”, the Purists tried to force an opt-out clause in the agreement for Ni’Var rejoining the Federation, but a compromise was brokered by Saru and Burnham for an independent review committee instead.

Cabrodine, an explosive material, was first mentioned in DS9: “In the Hands of the Prophets”, where the station schoolhouse was destroyed by a cabrodine-infernite bomb.

Jinaal says that the Dominion War was raging when the Progenitor technology was found, so it’s not a literal 800 years (which would make it 2391). The Dominion War officially lasted from 2373-2375.

Dalaka was a rogue planet, one that had broken out of orbit and was traveling through interstellar space untethered to a star system, first encountered in 2151 by the NX-01 Enterprise in ENT: “Rogue Planet”. Bore worms were said to enter a person’s ear to lay their eggs there.

Tongo was a Ferengi game played in Quark’s on DS9 in the 24th Century, so at some point either the game migrated to Bajor or Asha spent some time with Ferengi who played. She says her nicknames were “Full Monopoly” and “Bluff Master”. Two of the winning hands in Tongo are “Full Consortium” and “Total Monopoly” (DS9: “Change of Heart”).

Nilsson was played by Sara Mitich, the original actress for Airiam in Season 1, who then changed roles for Seasons 2-4. This dialogue establishes that she left to join the Voyager-J, the platform for testing the pathway drive, and that the tribble seen in Discovery’s corridors is a pet.

Sehlats are large bear-like beasts native to Vulcan (TOS: “Journey to Babel”), and domesticated varieties were treated as pets. Spock had a pet sehlat named I-Chaya in his youth, who died defending him from a le-matya (TAS: “Yesteryear”).

The bar on Discovery is given a name, “Red’s”.

The Tzenkethi were in conflict with the Federation sometime in the mid-24th Century (DS9: “Paradise Lost”), but although mentioned in that episode and extensively in DS9: “The Adversary”, we have never seen one on screen. Different versions have appeared in both Star Trek Online, the Litverse novels and in the current Star Trek comic by IDW.

At the end, we see a disguised Moll plant some kind of device on Adira’s sleeve.

Written by: Kyle Jarrow & Lauren Wilkinson

Directed by: Andi Armaganian

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