10 Greatest Unspoken Star Trek Plot Points
Largely forgotten moments from Star Trek that we'd like to see a conclusion to.
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00:00 Star Trek has a habit of introducing some truly compelling plotlines that sadly end
00:05 up getting forgotten about in order to move the main story along. Whether it's drama
00:10 between the characters that gets immediately forgotten in the next episode, or discoveries
00:15 that should have really altered life in the Federation, or even characters just being
00:20 completely discarded. Many of the entries on this list may well be resolved in future
00:25 Trek shows. Given the number of references to Trek history and the return of old characters
00:32 from shows like Lower Decks and Picard, though most it's fair to say will probably be left
00:38 in obscurity.
00:39 So with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with Trek Culture and here are the 10 Greatest
00:44 Unspoken Star Trek Plot Points.
00:47 10. The Fate of Paris and Janeway's Alien Children
00:52 The infamous Voyager episode "Threshold" has a number of ridiculous, headache-inducing
00:58 plot points, but perhaps the most outrageous comes at the end of the episode. Lieutenant
01:04 Paris had just passed the Warp 10 barrier using a new engine modification. Traveling
01:08 at Warp 10 is meant to be infinite velocity, a speed at which one would occupy every point
01:14 in space simultaneously. However, his journey had the unfortunate side effect of mutating
01:19 Paris into a half-human, half-lizard monster, apparently speeding up his evolution for some
01:25 reason. Surprisingly, the scientific illiteracy of the episode isn't even the worst part.
01:30 As Paris began to mutate, he kidnapped Janeway in a shuttlecraft and jumped to Warp 10 again,
01:36 this time mutating both him and Janeway. By the time Voyager found them on some alien
01:41 planet, Paris and Janeway had turned completely into lizards and even mated. The crew found
01:46 them as well as a number of baby-human-lizard hybrids and decided to take their captain
01:51 and lieutenant back to reverse the process, but left the babies on the planet. Paris and
01:56 Janeway's children were now left on some planet in the Delta Quadrant to fend for themselves
02:01 and were never spoken about again, apart from the appearance of a similar lizard in the
02:06 background of the Lower Decks episode "Much Ado About Boimler".
02:10 Number 9 - Guinan's history Guinan's history remained a shrouded mystery
02:16 throughout Star Trek The Next Generation and the movie Star Trek Generations in which she
02:21 appeared. We only know a few bits and pieces. We know that she belongs to a long-living
02:26 alien species known as the Elorians, whose homeworld was destroyed by the Borg in the
02:31 23rd century. Guinan and her family were saved from this catastrophe due to being off-world.
02:37 In fact we see in the episode "Time's Arrow" that Guinan was actually living on Earth as
02:41 far back as the 19th century, far before first contact, hiding from her father. We also know
02:48 that Guinan has some mysterious history with Q, who tells Picard that wherever she goes,
02:53 trouble always follows. Q even claims that Guinan is not her real name and calls her
02:59 an imp. We can only speculate on Guinan's history
03:02 with Q, but surprisingly Q almost seems somewhat afraid of her in the episode "Q Who", which
03:08 does make one wonder what could make such a supreme being afraid?
03:13 Number 8 - The Equinox crew adapting to life on Voyager
03:18 One of the most interesting episodes of Voyager was Equinox, where the crew encounter another
03:23 Starfleet vessel, the USS Equinox, that was pulled into the Delta Quadrant by the caretaker
03:28 just as they were. The Equinox was a much smaller ship than Voyager and thus suffered
03:33 more from starvation and fatigue on their journey back to Earth. In order to survive,
03:37 they decided to capture and drain alien lifeforms for power, causing Janeway to step in and
03:43 correct things. In the ensuing battle, the Equinox was destroyed along with its captain,
03:47 Captain Ransom, and most of the rest of the Equinox crew transported to Voyager to integrate
03:52 into its crew. It would have been fascinating to see this
03:56 hardened, traumatised crew integrate into life on Voyager after years of struggling
04:01 to survive. Sadly though, after this episode we don't get any sort of follow up and are
04:05 just left to assume that they integrated perfectly. But this is unfortunate though, because their
04:10 struggle to adapt to normal life and their shame for exploiting aliens would have been
04:15 some interesting themes to drive some drama on the ship. But this all seems to have happened
04:21 off camera.
04:22 Number 7. Picard's connection to the Borg Collective
04:26 After being assimilated by the Borg in The Next Generation episode "The Best of Both
04:30 Worlds", Captain Picard was forever changed, even after having the cybernetic parts removed
04:35 and his body healed. As we see multiple times in Star Trek VIII First Contact, Picard was
04:41 sometimes able to hear faint whisperings of the Collective when he was near them. This
04:46 was how he was able to target the correct spot on the Borg Cube to destroy it. The fear
04:50 of intruding Borg voices was a terrifying reality that Picard had to live with every
04:54 day. Picard barely got any time to cope with his trauma at the hands of the Borg and shortly
04:59 after rejoined the Enterprise-D with most of his recovery happening off camera. In Star
05:04 Trek Picard, we finally get to witness Jean-Luc moving past his fear of the Borg a bit, but
05:09 it will surely always haunt him. Still, the idea that at any time Picard could be telepathically
05:15 invaded by Borg voices is horrifying. But it is probably safe to assume that the Borg
05:21 technology in his brain was completely removed after the events of the Star Trek Picard Season
05:26 1 finale.
05:28 6. The fight for freedom for sentient artificial intelligence
05:32 The iconic Next Generation episode "The Measure of a Man" portrays a legal battle where Data
05:38 must prove that he as a machine is sentient and not merely the property of Starfleet.
05:44 The writing in this episode is incredible and both sides make some interesting points,
05:49 but in the end Data is victorious and given the right to free choice. Sadly this was only
05:55 done on an individual basis with Data specifically in mind. In the Voyager episode "Author,
06:00 Author" we see that discrimination against sentient artificial lifeforms is still very
06:04 much prevalent when a holonovel publisher attempts to steal the holographic Doctor's
06:09 story that he programmed and wrote on the grounds that it was not created by a person
06:14 and thus no one can own it. Though the Doctor eventually wins his case, just as with Data,
06:19 the same cannot be said for all the EMH Mark 1s, the same model as the Doctor, who were
06:24 discontinued from their starships and forced to work in the mines, as we see in the end
06:29 of the previously mentioned episode. One has to wonder how many AI lifeforms are being
06:34 taken advantage of throughout the Federation.
06:37 5. Tuvok and Chakotay's conflict
06:41 One largely forgotten storyline from Voyager is Tuvok's betrayal of Chakotay. Prior to
06:47 being lost in the Delta Quadrant with the Voyager crew, Chakotay, B'Elanna and the
06:51 other former Marquis were serving aboard the Valjean, a Marquis raider that Voyager was
06:55 pursuing for crimes against the Federation and the Cardassians. Many forget that Tuvok
07:00 was aboard the Valjean for quite some time on an undercover infiltration mission to gather
07:05 intelligence about the Marquis and eventually turn the Valjean crew over to Federation authorities.
07:11 When Chakotay learned of this deception in the pilot episode "Caretaker", he was
07:15 initially frustrated but quickly regained his composure when he learned how serious
07:19 their situation was. The conflict of these two resolving their issues would have been
07:24 interesting to see, but after the pilot, Chakotay seems to have moved on entirely, perhaps content
07:30 with the position that Janeway gave him as First Officer, a position that Tuvok expressed
07:35 initial distaste for in the episode "Twisted". Chakotay seems satisfied with the fact that
07:40 he was given the role over Tuvok, despite him being the obvious next in line. Still,
07:45 it would have been nice to see these two resolve their past more on screen.
07:49 Number 4. The discovery of a Dyson Sphere. In the Next Generation episode "Relics",
07:54 the crew of the Enterprise-D encounter something truly breathtaking, an abandoned or seemingly
08:00 abandoned Dyson Sphere. A Dyson Sphere is a theoretical megastructure sphere that would
08:06 surround an entire star. The inside of the sphere would be livable land just far enough
08:10 away from the star to get perfect sunlight at all times, possibly allowing it to harness
08:16 the entire energy output of the star. Starfleet, the Klingons, the Vulcans and even the Borg
08:21 have never been able to create megastructures this massive. Whoever created the sphere was
08:26 likely more powerful than any known empire in the galaxy, rivaled perhaps only by the
08:32 Q. It's a shame that we never get to see any further research done on the Dyson Sphere.
08:36 I mean, it's likely that Starfleet classified its existence so that they could keep its
08:40 insanely powerful technologies for themselves, but audiences were left wondering who created
08:47 it, how many planets were consumed just for the materials and are there any other massive
08:52 structures hidden throughout the galaxy?
08:54 Number 3. The fates of the many humans brought from the past. Throughout the history of Star
09:00 Trek, a large number of humans have been brought from the past to the 23rd and 24th centuries.
09:06 Of course there was the infamous Khan, but less well known were the cryogenically frozen
09:11 crew from the Next Generation episode "The Neutral Zone". They were all frozen in the
09:15 late 20th century because they had incurable diseases that they hoped could be cured in
09:20 the future when they woke. Luckily for the three survivors, they were right. The three
09:25 visitors from the past were all wealthy individuals who were very shocked to learn about how much
09:30 Earth has changed since the 1900s.
09:33 Unfortunately, at the end of the episode, the three of them left the Enterprise and
09:36 we never saw them again. But it would have been nice to see how well they adjusted to
09:41 life in the 24th century. The same goes for Gillian Taylor, the marine biologist who was
09:46 brought to the 23rd century in Star Trek IV "The Voyage Home". She hopped aboard a science
09:51 vessel to catch up with all the information she'd missed in the past few centuries and
09:55 immediately got to work helping Starfleet with its new whale operations.
09:59 But again, we never get to see much of her reaction to Starfleet or the future in general.
10:04 Number 2. Lieutenant O'Connor's ascension.
10:07 In the Lower Decks episode "Moist Vessel", Lieutenant O'Connor invites a few crewmates
10:12 over to watch the conclusion of his spiritual ascension. According to O'Connor, through
10:16 years of meditation and ritual, one can become a higher form of life and transcend the limitations
10:23 of humanity.
10:24 Tendi accidentally destroyed his sand mandala that was supposedly meant to lead to his ascension,
10:30 causing him to spiral into depression before finally admitting to Tendi that his ascension
10:34 was all fake, merely a way to make O'Connor stand out and seem interesting.
10:39 Crazily though, this admission, coupled with the pride of saving Tendi from a ship-wide
10:43 disaster, was apparently enough to conclude the rituals O'Connor was working on, and he
10:48 began to ascend right before Tendi's eyes.
10:51 Unfortunately for O'Connor, this wasn't a very pleasant experience. His skin was burning
10:56 as he floated into the air and began glowing from his eyes, transforming into a being of
11:01 pure energy. He cried out in pain, overwhelmed from the terror he felt from witnessing all
11:07 of creation at once. Then, right as he was about to reveal the meaning of life, he disappeared.
11:13 Despite spiritual ascension now being a proven fact, we never get to see the end result of
11:18 it. Is O'Connor still out there, somewhere in the cosmos, watching over the crew? And
11:23 what are the origins of this mysterious spirituality, and how did O'Connor come to learn of it?
11:29 Number 1. The switch to cleaner warp travel. In a parody of the harmful effects of fossil
11:35 fuels, the Next Generation episode "Force of Nature" introduced us to a Hikaran scientist
11:41 who proved definitively that warp travel was slowly damaging the fabric of space, and that
11:47 if nothing was done, warp travel would soon become impossible. Although initially in the
11:51 episode the Federation imposed strict speed limits in their space to no higher than warp
11:56 5 and less in emergency, Starfleet seems to have somehow engineered a solution to the
12:01 problem since then. Considering that these laws were never enforced on screen, and we
12:05 routinely saw Starfleet ships exceed warp 5 whenever they pleased in Deep Space Nine,
12:11 many fans theorised that Voyager's folding nacelles were made to be a more eco-friendly
12:15 form of warp travel, but this was never confirmed in canon, only suggested in an unreleased
12:21 Star Trek Voyager technical guide. Because this guide was never published, it cannot
12:26 be included in canon. And Voyager seems to be the only ship equipped with this ability.
12:31 But then we are left wondering what Starfleet did since Force of Nature to seemingly fix
12:35 the problem? Did they merely just cover it up? Either way, these would make for some
12:41 interesting plotlines. And that concludes our list. If you can think
12:45 of any other examples, then do let us know in the comments below. And don't forget to
12:49 like and subscribe and tap that notification bell. Also head over to Twitter and follow
12:53 us there, and I can be found across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
12:58 I've been Ellie with Trek Culture, I hope you have a wonderful day and remember to boldly
13:03 go where no one has gone before.