Rumours, news and general speculation

[Graham Kennedy]

I have a suspicion that the "out" the writers have laid themselves is Section 31. Every time Discovery does something that makes no sense compared to TOS, the excuse is going to be "Well it's a Section 31 ship, so the Enterprise crew didn't know about it because it was all secret."

[T'Pau]

The interesting thing is the Tribble. At first it seems like a cheap callback. But then again, this particular captain is making weapons to beat the Klingons. Tribbles have a reaction specific to Klingons, no matter what they look like. Captain Lorca is keeping a Tribble as a Klingon detector.

Should we believe that Lorca is aware that Tribbles are born pregnant, and will actively reproduce if fed?
Could the 'detector' angle be using Tribbles or their blood, as part of the possible magic mushroom weapon?
Might the big oogity boogity human twister making monster, be an overgrown Tribble-mushroom hybrid?

Far fetched ideas, I agree. But STD is far fetching themselves from the word 'action'.

[Nutso]

I have a suspicion that the "out" the writers have laid themselves is Section 31. Every time Discovery does something that makes no sense compared to TOS, the excuse is going to be "Well it's a Section 31 ship, so the Enterprise crew didn't know about it because it was all secret."

That is the out in my head. Lorca has a Gorn skeleton in his "game room," before Kirk ever meets a Gorn.

[DarkMoineau]

The interesting thing is the Tribble. At first it seems like a cheap callback. But then again, this particular captain is making weapons to beat the Klingons. Tribbles have a reaction specific to Klingons, no matter what they look like. Captain Lorca is keeping a Tribble as a Klingon detector.

Should we believe that Lorca is aware that Tribbles are born pregnant, and will actively reproduce if fed?
Could the 'detector' angle be using Tribbles or their blood, as part of the possible magic mushroom weapon?
Might the big oogity boogity human twister making monster, be an overgrown Tribble-mushroom hybrid?

Far fetched ideas, I agree. But STD is far fetching themselves from the word 'action'.

Well Phlox already had Tribbles on NX-01 a century before the Discovery and NCC-1701 leaved the shipyard.... So based on that, it's hard to know what is well known and what is not about tribbles in 23rd Century.

[Nutso]

The interesting thing is the Tribble. At first it seems like a cheap callback. But then again, this particular captain is making weapons to beat the Klingons. Tribbles have a reaction specific to Klingons, no matter what they look like. Captain Lorca is keeping a Tribble as a Klingon detector.

Should we believe that Lorca is aware that Tribbles are born pregnant, and will actively reproduce if fed?
Could the 'detector' angle be using Tribbles or their blood, as part of the possible magic mushroom weapon?
Might the big oogity boogity human twister making monster, be an overgrown Tribble-mushroom hybrid?

Far fetched ideas, I agree. But STD is far fetching themselves from the word 'action'.

I imagine Lorca knows nothing about Tribbles beyond he heard Klingons hate them. Maybe we get an episode where Lorca captures a Klingon, and uses the Tribble to torture the Klingon.

The monster thing could be the thing from Threshold. Since the spores cause things to move instantaneously, maybe humans turn into that thing, like in Threshold how humans became amphibians because they moved faster than anyone has before.

[Reliant121]

I was prepared to give this the benefit of a doubt but Ep 3 is a clusterfuck of global proportions. Spore transport, a captain on the edge of psychosis, blowing a starship to kingdom come despite apparently being safe enough to walk around at will.

[F.Ultra]

I was prepared to give this the benefit of a doubt but Ep 3 is a clusterfuck of global proportions. Spore transport, a captain on the edge of psychosis, blowing a starship to kingdom come despite apparently being safe enough to walk around at will.

To be fair that starship was performing black ops in Klingon territory so blowing it up was the only possibility.

[DarkMoineau]

I was prepared to give this the benefit of a doubt but Ep 3 is a clusterfuck of global proportions. Spore transport, a captain on the edge of psychosis, blowing a starship to kingdom come despite apparently being safe enough to walk around at will.

To be fair that starship was performing black ops in Klingon territory so blowing it up was the only possibility.

For me it was more about being next to the frontline....

But If I had to test a prototype during a war against the Klingon, I would test it in the heart of the Federation or near Cardassian border, as far as possible from the Klingon ^^

[F.Ultra]

I was prepared to give this the benefit of a doubt but Ep 3 is a clusterfuck of global proportions. Spore transport, a captain on the edge of psychosis, blowing a starship to kingdom come despite apparently being safe enough to walk around at will.

To be fair that starship was performing black ops in Klingon territory so blowing it up was the only possibility.

For me it was more about being next to the frontline....

But If I had to test a prototype during a war against the Klingon, I would test it in the heart of the Federation or near Cardassian border, as far as possible from the Klingon ^^

Wasn't there some 'explanation' that the Spore Warp experiment brought the USS Glenn into Klingon territory when it failed?

[Reliant121]

I'll have to rewatch but I don't remember there being any dialogue...at all confirming this to be Black Ops related etc.

[F.Ultra]

I'll have to rewatch but I don't remember there being any dialogue...at all confirming this to be Black Ops related etc.

USS Glenn was performing the same experiments that USS Discovery is performing. Experiments that by all definitions are black ops / clandestine.

[Reliant121]

I'll have to rewatch but I don't remember there being any dialogue...at all confirming this to be Black Ops related etc.

USS Glenn was performing the same experiments that USS Discovery is performing. Experiments that by all definitions are black ops / clandestine.

Seems rather a leap to suggest propulsion technology must, since it is experimental, be a black ops mission (as the creature the Glenn created was an unfortunate happenstance, no? I'm not saying there absolutely isn't a black ops motivation behind the experiments being conducted just that it's an inference you've run with. Myself, I'm not convinced that it was officially a secret operation more that that may be the ulterior motivation of Lorca and whoever seems to be working along side him.

A minor difference, I appreciate, but important.

[F.Ultra]

I'll have to rewatch but I don't remember there being any dialogue...at all confirming this to be Black Ops related etc.

USS Glenn was performing the same experiments that USS Discovery is performing. Experiments that by all definitions are black ops / clandestine.

Seems rather a leap to suggest propulsion technology must, since it is experimental, be a black ops mission (as the creature the Glenn created was an unfortunate happenstance, no? I'm not saying there absolutely isn't a black ops motivation behind the experiments being conducted just that it's an inference you've run with. Myself, I'm not convinced that it was officially a secret operation more that that may be the ulterior motivation of Lorca and whoever seems to be working along side him.

A minor difference, I appreciate, but important.

Ignoring of course all the secrecy, black deltas and the very captain stating that they are on a secret mission to come up with a way to win the war?

[Nutso]

Discovery is a "Crossfield Class" vessel.



Credit to this redditor

Edited to fix link - GK

[Reliant121]

Ignoring of course all the secrecy, black deltas and the very captain stating that they are on a secret mission to come up with a way to win the war?

Secrecy and black deltas infer black ops, they don't explicitly state it. My original point was I don't remember it being explicitly stated; still don't, in fact. I've had a quick scan through some scripts and can't find it either.

Personally, I'd be more inclined to think the propulsion experiment is precisely that, a new way of navigating around the cosmos that makes warp drive utterly redundant. For a people hell bent on exploration that makes rather a tempting prospect. However Lorca, not starfleet itself, sees it as something that can be weaponised.

Ultimately it's all conjecture and I am more than happy to be proven wrong