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Largely forgotten moments from Star Trek that we'd like to see a conclusion to.
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00:00Star Trek has a habit of introducing some truly compelling plotlines that sadly end
00:05up getting forgotten about in order to move the main story along. Whether it's drama between the
00:11characters that gets immediately forgotten in the next episode, or discoveries that should have
00:16really altered life in the Federation, or even characters just being completely discarded,
00:22many of the entries on this list may well be resolved in future Trek shows.
00:27Given the number of references to Trek history and the return of old characters from shows like
00:33Lower Decks and Picard, though most, it's fair to say, will probably be left in obscurity.
00:39So with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with TrekColkin's Star Trek Plot Points.
00:44Number 10 episode Threshold has a number of ridiculous, headache-inducing plot points,
00:50but perhaps the most outrageous comes at the end of the episode.
00:54Lieutenant Paris had just passed the warp 10 barrier using a new engine modification.
00:59Travelling at warp 10 is meant to be infinite velocity,
01:02a speed at which one would occupy every point in space simultaneously.
01:06However, his journey had the unfortunate side effect of mutating Paris into a half-human,
01:12half-lizard monster, apparently speeding up his evolution for some reason.
01:16Surprisingly, the scientific illiteracy of the episode isn't even the worst part.
01:21As Paris began to mutate, he kidnapped Janeway in a shuttlecraft and jumped to warp 10 again,
01:27this time mutating both him and Janeway.
01:29By the time Voyager found them on some alien planet,
01:32Paris and Janeway had turned completely into lizards and even mated.
01:36The crew found them as well as a number of baby-human-lizard hybrids
01:40and decided to take their captain and lieutenant back to reverse the process,
01:44but left the babies on the planet.
01:47Paris and Janeway's children were now left on some planet in the Delta Quadrant,
01:51to fend for themselves and were never spoken about again,
01:54apart from the appearance of a similar lizard in the background of the Lower Decks episode
01:59Much Ado About Boimler.
02:01Number 9 – Guinan's History
02:04Guinan's history remained a shrouded mystery throughout Star Trek The Next Generation
02:09and the movie Star Trek Generations in which she appeared.
02:13We only know a few bits and pieces.
02:15We know that she belongs to a long-living alien species known as the Ellorians,
02:20whose homeworld was destroyed by the Borg in the 23rd century.
02:23Guinan and her family were safe from this catastrophe due to being off-world.
02:28In fact, we see in the episode Time's Arrow that Guinan was actually living on Earth
02:32as far back as the 19th century, far before first contact, hiding from her father.
02:38We also know that Guinan has some mysterious history with Q, who tells Picard that wherever she goes,
02:44trouble always follows. Q even claims that Guinan is not her real name and calls her an imp.
02:50We can only speculate on Guinan's history with Q, but surprisingly,
02:54Q almost seems somewhat afraid of her in the episode Q Who, which does make one wonder
03:01what could make such a supreme being afraid.
03:04Number 8 – The Equinox crew adapting to life on Voyager
03:09One of the most interesting episodes of Voyager was Equinox, where the crew encounter
03:14another Starfleet vessel, the USS Equinox, that was pulled into the Delta Quadrant by
03:18the Caretaker just as they were. The Equinox was a much smaller ship than Voyager,
03:23and thus suffered more from starvation and fatigue on their journey back to Earth.
03:27In order to survive, they decided to capture and drain alien lifeforms for power,
03:32causing Janeway to step in and correct things.
03:34In the ensuing battle, the Equinox was destroyed along with its captain, Captain Ransom,
03:39and most of the rest of the Equinox crew transported to Voyager to integrate into its crew.
03:44It would have been fascinating to see this hardened, traumatised crew
03:48integrate into life on Voyager, after years of struggling to survive.
03:53Sadly though, after this episode, we don't get any sort of follow-up,
03:56and are just left to assume that they integrated perfectly.
03:59But this is unfortunate though, because their struggle to adapt to normal life,
04:03and their shame for exploiting aliens, would have been some interesting themes to drive some drama
04:09on the ship. But this all seems to have happened off-camera.
04:12Number 7. Picard's connection to the Borg Collective
04:16After being assimilated by the Borg in the Next Generation episode,
04:20The Best of Both Worlds, Captain Picard was forever changed,
04:24even after having the cybernetic parts removed and his body healed.
04:28As we see multiple times in Star Trek VIII First Contact,
04:31Picard was sometimes able to hear faint whisperings of the Collective when he was near them.
04:36This was how he was able to target the correct spot on the Borg Cube to destroy it.
04:41The fear of intruding Borg voices was a terrifying reality that Picard had to live with every day.
04:46Picard barely got any time to cope with his trauma at the hands of the Borg,
04:49and shortly after rejoined the Enterprise-D with most of his recovery happening off-camera.
04:54In Star Trek Picard, we finally get to witness Jean-Luc moving past his fear of the Borg a bit,
05:00but it will surely always haunt him. Still, the idea that at any time
05:04Picard could be telepathically invaded by Borg voices is horrifying.
05:09But it is probably safe to assume that the Borg technology in his brain was completely removed
05:15after the events of the Star Trek Picard season 1 finale.
05:18Number 6. The Fight for Freedom for Sentient Artificial Intelligence
05:23The iconic Next Generation episode, The Measure of a Man, portrays a legal battle where Data must prove
05:30that he, as a machine, is sentient and not merely the property of Starfleet.
05:35The writing in this episode is incredible, and both sides make some interesting points,
05:40but in the end, Data is victorious and given the right to free choice. Sadly, this was only done on
05:46an individual basis with Data specifically in mind. In the Voyager episode Author Author,
05:51we see that discrimination against sentient artificial lifeforms is still very much prevalent
05:56when a holonovel publisher attempts to steal the holographic Doctor's story that he programmed and
06:02wrote on the grounds that it was not created by a person and thus no one can own it. Though the
06:07Doctor eventually wins his case, just as with Data, the same cannot be said for all the EMH Mark 1s,
06:14the same model as the Doctor, who were discontinued from their starships and forced to work in the
06:18minds, as we see in the end of the previously mentioned episode. One has to wonder how many
06:24AI lifeforms are being taken advantage of throughout the Federation.
06:28Number 5. Tuvok and Chakotay's Conflict
06:32One largely forgotten storyline from Voyager is Tuvok's betrayal of Chakotay.
06:37Prior to being lost in the Delta Quadrant with the Voyager crew, Chakotay, Bellana and the other former
06:42Marquis were serving aboard the Valjean, a Marquis raider that Voyager was pursuing for crimes against
06:48the Federation and the Cardassians. Many forget that Tuvok was aboard the Valjean for quite some
06:53time on an undercover infiltration mission to gather intelligence about the Marquis and eventually
06:58turn the Valjean crew over to Federation authorities. When Chakotay learned of this deception
07:03in the pilot episode Caretaker, he was initially frustrated, but quickly regained his composure when
07:09he learned how serious their situation was. The conflict of these two resolving their issues
07:14would have been interesting to see, but after the pilot Chakotay seems to have moved on entirely,
07:20perhaps content with the position that Janeway gave him as First Officer, a position that Tuvok
07:25expressed initial distaste for in the episode Twisted. Chakotay seems satisfied with the fact
07:31that he was given the role over Tuvok, despite him being the obvious next in line. Still, it would have
07:36been nice to see these two resolve their past more on screen. Number 4, the discovery of a Dyson Sphere.
07:43In the next generation episode Relics, the crew of the Enterprise-D encounters something truly
07:49breathtaking. An abandoned or seemingly abandoned Dyson Sphere. A Dyson Sphere is a theoretical
07:55megastructure sphere that would surround an entire star. The inside of the sphere would be liveable land
08:01just far enough away from the star to get perfect sunlight at all times, possibly allowing it to
08:06harness the entire energy output of the star. Starfleet, the Klingons, the Vulcans and even the
08:12Borg have never been able to create megastructures this massive. Whoever created the sphere was likely
08:18more powerful than any known empire in the galaxy, rivaled perhaps only by the queue. It's a shame that
08:24we never get to see any further research done on the Dyson Sphere. I mean, it's likely that Starfleet
08:29classified its existence so that they could keep its insanely powerful technologies for themselves,
08:34but audiences were left wondering, who created it? How many planets were consumed just for the
08:40materials and are there any other massive structures hidden throughout the galaxy?
08:45Number 3, the fate of the many humans brought from the past.
08:50Throughout the history of Star Trek, a large number of humans have been brought from the past to the 23rd and
08:5524th centuries. Of course, there was the infamous Khan, but less well known were the cryogenically
09:01frozen crew from the next generation episode The Neutral Zone. They were all frozen in the late 20th
09:07century because they had incurable diseases that they hoped could be cured in the future when they
09:12woke. Luckily for the three survivors, they were right. The three visitors from the past were all
09:17wealthy individuals who were very shocked to learn about how much Earth has changed since the 1900s.
09:23Unfortunately, at the end of the episode, the three of them left the Enterprise and we never saw them
09:28again. But it would have been nice to see how well they adjusted to life in the 24th century.
09:33The same goes for Gillian Taylor, the marine biologist who was brought to the 23rd century
09:38in Star Trek IV, the voyage home. She hopped aboard a science vessel to catch up with all the information
09:43she'd missed in the past few centuries and immediately got to work helping Starfleet with its new whale operations.
09:49But again, we never get to see much of her reaction to Starfleet or the future in general.
09:55Number 2. Lieutenant O'Connor's Ascension
09:58In the Lower Decks episode Moist Vessel, Lieutenant O'Connor invites a few crewmates over to watch the
10:03conclusion of his spiritual ascension. According to O'Connor, through years of meditation and ritual,
10:10one can become a higher form of life and transcend the limitations of humanity. Tendi accidentally destroyed
10:16his sand mandala that was supposedly meant to lead to his ascension, causing him to spiral into
10:22depression before finally admitting to Tendi that his ascension was all fake, merely a way to make
10:28O'Connor stand out and seem interesting. Crazily though, this admission, coupled with the pride of
10:33saving Tendi from a ship-wide disaster, was a- and he began to ascend right before Tendi's eyes.
10:39Unfortunately for O'Connor, this wasn't a very pleasant experience. His skin was burning as he floated
10:45into the air and began glowing from his eyes, transforming into a being of pure energy. He
10:50cried out in pain, overwhelmed from the terror he felt from witnessing all of creation at once. Then,
10:57right as he was about to reveal the meaning of life, he disappeared. Despite spiritual ascension
11:02now being a proven fact, we never get to see the end result of it. Is O'Connor still out there,
11:08somewhere in the cosmos, watching over the crew? And what are the origins of this mysterious
11:13spirituality? And how did O'Connor come to learn of it? Number one, the switch to cleaner warp travel.
11:20In a parody of the harmful effects of fossil fuels, the Next Generation episode Force of Nature
11:27introduced us to a Hikaran scientist who proved definitively that warp travel was slowly damaging
11:33the fabric of space, and that if nothing was done, warp travel would soon become impossible. Although
11:38initially in the episode, the Federation imposed strict speed limits in their space to no higher
11:43than warp 5 and less in emergency, Starfleet seems to have somehow engineered a solution to the problem
11:50since then. Considering that these laws were never enforced on screen, and we routinely saw Starfleet
11:55ships exceed warp 5 whenever they pleased in Deep Space Nine. Many fans theorise that Voyager's folding
12:01nacelles were made to be a more eco-friendly form of warp travel. But this was never confirmed in canon,
12:07only suggested in an unreleased Star Trek Voyager technical guide. Because this guide was never
12:12published, it cannot be included in canon. And Voyager seems to be the only ship equipped with this
12:18ability. But then we are left wondering what Starfleet did since Force of Nature to seemingly fix the
12:23problem. Did they merely just cover it up? Either way, these would make for some interesting plot lines.
12:31And that concludes our list. If you can think of any other examples, then do let us know in the comments
12:36below. And don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell. Also head over to
12:41Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias just by searching
12:45Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with Trek Culture, I hope you have a wonderful day, and remember
12:51to boldly go where no one has gone before.
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