The coolest and most ridiculous things that shape Star Trek as we know it.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00 Star Trek lore is so expansive that it's easy to get confused or surprised at times,
00:04 even for hardcore fans.
00:06 From weird Federation lores that you may not know of, to mind-bending scientific discoveries
00:11 that are widely ignored, to cool details of Starfleet life that most people don't think
00:16 of, this list will be looking at all of Trek history and counting down 10 of the most important
00:20 aspects of Star Trek lore that people barely ever talk about.
00:24 And so, with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with Trek Culture here with 10 important Star
00:28 Trek details that are almost never mentioned.
00:31 10.
00:32 The Genetic Manipulation Ban
00:35 Anyone who isn't familiar with the history of Star Trek may be confused by the lack of
00:38 any advancements in genetic manipulation, considering the fact that we're actually very
00:43 close to making it a reality in present day.
00:45 However, if you look into the lore, especially the backstory of Karn, the stunted development
00:50 of this technology actually makes a lot of sense.
00:53 Karn, along with many other individuals, were genetically enhanced at the end of the 20th
00:57 century and turned into genius super soldiers.
01:00 This started the Eugenics War, one of the most brutal conflicts of Earth's history,
01:04 during which augmented troops took control of huge parts of the planet and nearly plunged
01:09 humanity into another Dark Age.
01:11 After this war, humanity decided that the risks of genetic engineering far outweighed
01:15 the benefits, and subsequently banned all DNA manipulation except to correct life-altering
01:21 ailments.
01:22 Genetic engineering is still practiced through a black market, which is how Dr. Bashir was
01:26 able to get his enhancements as a child, but it is highly illegal, frowned upon, and hard
01:31 to come by.
01:32 9.
01:33 Earth's Planetary Government
01:35 You may have noticed that when visiting Earth, characters are able to travel anywhere on
01:39 the planet instantly using public transporters as we saw in Star Trek Picard, without the
01:43 need for any passports or hassle at all.
01:46 Additionally, all of Earth in Star Trek seems to have the same or similar laws regarding
01:50 freedom of speech, anti-discrimination, and a universal standard of living.
01:55 The reason for this is that Earth was actually united under a one-world government sometime
02:00 during the 22nd century, largely as a result of the cultural shift towards cooperation
02:05 following first contact.
02:06 As we've seen from the Mirror Universe, a one-world government can be dangerous because,
02:11 if not properly democratic, it concentrates power in the hands of very few and can quickly
02:15 turn authoritarian.
02:16 But in the Prime Universe, the world government, known most commonly as United Earth, serves
02:21 only to enforce basic human rights and protect the planet.
02:25 Individual countries like Canada, China, and France are all allowed to keep their names
02:28 and cultural identities, but all countries simply committed to working towards mutual
02:33 prosperity.
02:34 The change was due to many factors such as the invention of limitless energy and food,
02:38 the near extinction of humanity due to war in the past, and the good example given by
02:42 the Vulcans of a successful one-world government.
02:46 8.
02:47 Starfleet Microscopic Identification Codes
02:51 The Voyager episode "Distant Origin" showed us something very interesting about Starfleet's
02:55 uniforms during the time period.
02:58 Two Voth scientists found one of Voyager's uniforms along with the skeleton of a member
03:02 of the crew and used these findings to locate Voyager in an effort to prove that the Voth
03:07 and humans shared a common ancestor and came from the same planet Earth.
03:11 Later in the episode, we learn that this theory is actually true.
03:14 The Voth were descended from dinosaurs who escaped the extinction event millions of years
03:18 ago, who went on to evolve and become one of the most powerful empires in the galaxy.
03:23 What's interesting is that when examining the uniform, the Voth scientists located what
03:28 he called a "microscopic identification code."
03:31 It's likely that this is a form of military dog tag for Starfleet officers as a way to
03:35 identify them in the event of their death.
03:37 The ID shows the name of their ship, the USS Voyager, and some numbers that are likely
03:42 a custom identification number assigned to everyone in the crew.
03:45 It's interesting that Starfleet still uses something similar to dog tags, but apparently
03:49 on a microscopic level, probably to hide the information from enemies.
03:53 Number 7.
03:54 The disappearance of movies and television
03:58 TV shows and movies remained on top of the entertainment market into the 21st century,
04:03 and even during Star Trek Enterprise, movies were popular.
04:06 The crew had a movie night, but at some point after Enterprise and before The Next Generation,
04:11 TV and film fell out of fashion.
04:13 The most likely explanation for this is the invention of the holodeck.
04:17 With holodeck technology, you don't merely watch the story unfold, you are actually part
04:21 of it, playing a character that you usually have to research beforehand.
04:25 This was a logical evolution of entertainment, comparable to when television replaced books
04:29 as the most common media format.
04:31 We saw in Voyager that some history buffs like Tom Paris liked to make or collect vintage
04:36 TV sets to watch old movies on, but at this point it was mainly a novelty reserved for
04:41 people with a passion for historical storytelling, much like modern people who like to collect
04:46 vinyl records.
04:47 Number 6.
04:48 Longer human lifespans
04:50 It comes as no surprise that due to centuries of medical advances, the human lifespan has
04:55 drastically increased by the 22nd century and beyond.
04:59 This came in large part due to the eradication of common causes of death like cancer and
05:03 starvation.
05:04 During the time of Star Trek Enterprise, the 22nd century, humans could expect to live
05:09 around 100 years on average, compared to around 73 years in modern times, according to the
05:14 United Nations.
05:15 In the next generation, the 24th century, this expectancy rose to around 120 years,
05:21 with some individuals even reaching beyond 130, such as Leonard McCoy, who visited the
05:26 Enterprise-D in Encounter at Farpoint at 137 years old.
05:31 Some humans were able to live much longer through the use of illegal genetic manipulation,
05:35 cryostasis, or other methods, but apart from these exceptions, McCoy is the oldest person
05:40 we've seen on screen so far.
05:43 Number 5.
05:44 Borg assimilation of Starfleet secrets
05:48 As most fans know, the Borg can never invent or learn; they only evolve by stealing information
05:52 and technology from other cultures through assimilation.
05:55 When someone becomes a Borg drone, their entire mind and all their memories get shared with
05:59 the Collective.
06:00 It should come as no surprise, then, that after all of the Starfleet officers and starships
06:05 assimilated by the Borg, the Collective has access to a lot of Starfleet's greatest secrets.
06:10 For example, the Borg assimilated Captain Picard in the next generation episode "The
06:14 Best of Both Worlds."
06:15 This means that they would know all of his security codes, every top-secret mission he
06:19 has ever been part of, and basically every secret shared with Starfleet captains, such
06:24 as the Federation's policy on Omega molecules.
06:27 In the Star Trek Picard episode "Penance," we learned that the Borg, or at least the
06:30 Borg from the altered timeline, are aware of Q.
06:33 It's not confirmed, but they could have learned about the continuum from Picard, as he was
06:38 assimilated long after first encountering Q.
06:40 Number 4.
06:42 Starfleet's death penalty
06:44 Starfleet and the Federation have reputations for being very humane with prisoners.
06:48 They do not practice torture and usually prefer to rehabilitate violent people through therapy
06:53 rather than locking them up.
06:55 Despite this, there remains one crime we know of that was once punishable by death in the
06:59 Federation.
07:01 After Captain Pike's visit to Talos IV in the original series pilot episode "The Cage,"
07:06 Starfleet deemed the powers of the Talosians too powerful to be public knowledge and classified
07:10 them under General Order 7, which simply stated,
07:13 "No vessel under any condition, emergency or otherwise, is to visit Talos IV."
07:19 The punishment was death.
07:21 Starfleet feared what people would do to the Talosians to harness their ability to make
07:25 dreams reality, and also what the Talosians would do to them in return.
07:29 Because of this, they thought a highly severe penalty of death would be a good deterrent.
07:33 However, the only time Starfleet found someone to be in violation of General Order 7, Spock,
07:38 in the episode "The Menagerie," they decided to let him off.
07:41 Presumably, this law was done away with after "The Menagerie," as Picard stated in the Next
07:45 Generation episode "Justice" that Starfleet has no death penalty.
07:50 Number 3.
07:51 Exceptions to the Prime Directive
07:53 The Prime Directive, also known as General Order 1, was created by Starfleet sometime
07:58 before the original series.
08:00 It simply states that Starfleet personnel must do everything they can, even sacrificing
08:04 their own lives, to prevent unnecessary interference in the development of alien societies, even
08:10 if their interference could greatly help these people.
08:12 This directive is perhaps the most important rule in Starfleet, especially when applied
08:17 to pre-warp civilizations, who Starfleet are banned from revealing themselves to.
08:22 If a less technologically advanced species suddenly gained access to all of the science
08:26 and advanced weapons of the Federation, the results could be catastrophic.
08:30 There were exceptions to the Prime Directive, however.
08:33 Starfleet ships were allowed to save pre-warp societies from certain destruction by asteroids
08:37 or alien invaders, but never interfered with their development or made their presence known
08:42 only prevented apocalyptic events.
08:44 Another example is the beginning of Star Trek Into Darkness, when the crew prevents a massive
08:48 volcano from going off and killing a pre-warp society.
08:52 Number 2.
08:53 In Extrasensory Perception
08:56 Star Trek is known for its realism, but there is often a fair amount of pseudoscience mixed
09:00 in to keep things interesting.
09:02 In the original series episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before," we learned that Extrasensory
09:06 Perception, ESP, is real, and that Starfleet even had tests to determine someone's level
09:12 of ESP power.
09:14 Extrasensory Perception basically describes someone's ability to sense things beyond the
09:18 standard five human senses — touch, sight, sound, taste, and smell.
09:22 These abilities can include telekinesis, telepathy, and precognition.
09:26 ESP is almost always very weak in humans, though there were ways to unlock the power.
09:31 In "Where No Man Has Gone Before," when the Enterprise traveled beyond the edge of the
09:35 galaxy, an energy field activated the mental powers of Gary Mitchell and Elizabeth Denner,
09:40 who slowly began turning into godlike beings, using their ESP powers to bend reality to
09:45 their whims, before eventually being defeated by Kirk.
09:49 So while human ESP is typically nothing than impressive — much less powerful than a Vulcan
09:54 or Betazoid — it is interesting to know that these powers are present, and that Starfleet
09:58 actively screens all officers to determine their ESP levels.
10:02 Denner even claimed that some humans were able to sense future events, accurately guess
10:06 the backs of playing cards, and even see through walls on occasion.
10:10 1.
10:11 The Warp 10 Barrier
10:14 In the 24th century, warp speed was segmented into different warp factors from 1 to 10.
10:19 Warp factor 1 is light speed, and 10 is infinite velocity, meaning that the vessel would be
10:24 traveling so fast that it would occupy every point in space simultaneously.
10:28 Warp factor 10 was only achieved once, in the Voyager episode "Threshold."
10:32 The technology was deemed too dangerous to use because it had interesting effects on
10:35 human evolution, and turned Tom Paris into a horrifying lizard.
10:39 But most fans like to pretend that Threshold never happened.
10:42 The speeds of warp factors increase exponentially, meaning that warp 2 is vastly faster than
10:47 warp 1, and so on.
10:49 Starfleet ships in the 24th century can reach above warp 9.9, and Voyager can even get up
10:55 to 9.975, which may seem close to 10, but it is actually incomprehensibly slower.
11:01 In the 23rd century, during the original series, Starfleet used a different scale for calculating
11:06 warp speed, which is why, in many episodes, the Changeling, for example, the Enterprise
11:10 traveled at warp 10, 11, or higher.
11:13 And that concludes our list.
11:15 If you can think of anything that we missed, then do let us know in the comments below.
11:18 And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe, and tap that notification bell.
11:23 Also head over to Twitter and follow us there @TrekCulture, and I can be found across various
11:27 social medias just by searching "Ellie Littlechild."
11:30 I've been Ellie with Trek Culture, I hope you have a wonderful day, and remember to
11:34 boldly go where no one has gone before.