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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00:00Star 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
00:10between the characters that gets immediately forgotten in the next episode, or discoveries
00:15that should have really altered life in the Federation, or even characters just being
00:20completely discarded, many of the entries on this list may well be resolved in future
00:25Trek shows. Given the number of references to Trek history and the return of old characters
00:32from shows like Lower Decks and Picard, though most it's fair to say will probably be left
00:38in obscurity.
00:39So, with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with Trek Culture and here are the 10 Greatest
00:44Unspoken Star Trek Plot Points.
00:4710. The fate of Paris and Janeway's alien children.
00:52The infamous Voyager episode Threshold has a number of ridiculous, headache-inducing
00:58plot points, but perhaps the most outrageous comes at the end of the episode. Lieutenant
01:04Paris had just passed the Warp 10 barrier using a new engine modification.
01:08Travelling at Warp 10 is meant to be infinite velocity, a speed at which one would occupy
01:13every point in space simultaneously. However, his journey had the unfortunate side effect
01:18of mutating Paris into a half-human, half-lizard monster, apparently speeding up his evolution
01:25for some reason. Surprisingly, the scientific illiteracy of the episode isn't even the worst
01:30part. As Paris began to mutate, he kidnapped Janeway in a shuttlecraft and jumped to Warp
01:3510 again, this time mutating both him and Janeway.
01:38By the time Voyager found them on some alien planet, Paris and Janeway had turned completely
01:43into lizards and even mated. The crew found them, as well as a number of baby human-lizard
01:49hybrids and decided to take their captain and lieutenant back to reverse the process,
01:53but left the babies on the planet. Paris and Janeway's children were now left on some
01:58planet in the Delta Quadrant to fend for themselves and were never spoken about again, apart from
02:04the appearance of a similar lizard in the background of the Lower Decks episode Much
02:08Ado About Boimler.
02:10Number 9. Guinan's history.
02:13Guinan's history remained a shrouded mystery throughout Star Trek The Next Generation and
02:19the movie Star Trek Generations in which she appeared. We only know a few bits and pieces.
02:25We know that she belongs to a long-living alien species known as the Elorians, whose
02:29homeworld was destroyed by the Borg in the 23rd century. Guinan and her family were saved
02:34from this catastrophe due to being off-world. In fact, we see in the episode Time's Arrow
02:39that Guinan was actually living on Earth as far back as the 19th century, far before first
02:45contact, hiding from her father. We also know that Guinan has some mysterious history with
02:50Q, who tells Picard that wherever she goes, trouble always follows. Q even claims that
02:56Guinan is not her real name and calls her an imp. We can only speculate on Guinan's
03:01history with Q, but surprisingly, Q almost seems somewhat afraid of her in the episode
03:07Q Who, which does make one wonder what could make such a supreme being afraid?
03:13Number 8. The Equinox Crew adapting to life on Voyager.
03:18One of the most interesting episodes of Voyager was Equinox, where the crew encounter another
03:23Starfleet vessel, the USS Equinox, that was pulled into the Delta Quadrant by the caretaker
03:28just as they were. The Equinox was a much smaller ship than Voyager and thus suffered
03:32more from starvation and fatigue on their journey back to Earth. In order to survive,
03:37they decided to capture and drain alien lifeforms for power, causing Janeway to step in and
03:42correct things. In the ensuing battle, the Equinox was destroyed along with its captain,
03:47Captain Ransom, and most of the rest of the Equinox crew transported to Voyager to integrate
03:52into its crew. It would have been fascinating to see this hardened, traumatised crew integrate
03:58into life on Voyager after years of struggling to survive. Sadly though, after this episode,
04:04we don't get any sort of follow-up and are just left to assume that they integrated perfectly.
04:07But this is unfortunate though, because their struggle to adapt to normal life and their
04:12shame for exploiting aliens would have been some interesting themes to drive some drama
04:18on the ship. But this all seems to have happened off camera.
04:22Number 7. Picard's connection to the Borg Collective.
04:26After being assimilated by the Borg in The Next Generation episode The Best of Both Worlds,
04:31Captain Picard was forever changed, even after having the cybernetic parts removed and his
04:36body healed. As we see multiple times in Star Trek VIII First Contact, Picard was sometimes
04:41able to hear faint whisperings of the Collective when he was near them. This was how he was
04:46able to target the correct spot on the Borg Cube to destroy it. The fear of intruding
04:51Borg voices was a terrifying reality that Picard had to live with every day. Picard
04:55barely got any time to cope with his trauma at the hands of the Borg, and shortly after
04:59rejoined the Enterprise-D with most of his recovery happening off camera. In Star Trek
05:04Picard, we finally get to witness Jean-Luc moving past his fear of the Borg a bit, but
05:09it will surely always haunt him. Still, the idea that at any time Picard could be telepathically
05:15invaded by Borg voices is horrifying. But it is probably safe to assume that the Borg
05:21technology in his brain was completely removed after the events of the Star Trek Picard Season
05:261 finale.
05:28Number 6. The fight for freedom for sentient artificial intelligence.
05:32The iconic Next Generation episode, The Measure of a Man, portrays a legal battle where Data
05:38must prove that he, as a machine, is sentient and not merely the property of Starfleet.
05:44The writing in this episode is incredible, and both sides make some interesting points,
05:50but in the end Data is victorious and given the right to free choice. Sadly this was only
05:55done on an individual basis, with Data specifically in mind. In the Voyager episode Author, Author,
06:00we see that discrimination against sentient artificial lifeforms is still very much prevalent
06:06when a holonovel publisher attempts to steal the holographic Doctor's story that he programmed
06:10and wrote on the grounds that it was not created by a person and thus no one can own it. Though
06:16the Doctor eventually wins his case, just as with Data, the same cannot be said for
06:20all the EMH Mark Ones, the same model as the Doctor, who were discontinued from their starships
06:26and forced to work in the mines, as we see in the end of the previously mentioned episode.
06:31One has to wonder how many AI lifeforms are being taken advantage of throughout the Federation.
06:38Number 5. Tuvok and Chakotay's conflict.
06:41One largely forgotten storyline from Voyager is Tuvok's betrayal of Chakotay.
06:46Prior to being lost in the Delta Quadrant with the Voyager crew, Chakotay, B'Elanna
06:51and the other former Marquis were serving aboard the Valjean, a Marquis raider that
06:55Voyager was pursuing for crimes against the Federation and the Cardassians. Many forget
07:00that Tuvok was aboard the Valjean for quite some time on an undercover infiltration mission
07:05to gather intelligence about the Marquis and eventually turn the Valjean crew over to Federation
07:10authorities. When Chakotay learned of this deception in the pilot episode Caretaker,
07:15he was initially frustrated, but quickly regained his composure when he learned how serious
07:19their situation was. The conflict of these two resolving their issues would have been
07:24interesting to see, but after the pilot, Chakotay seems to have moved on entirely, perhaps content
07:30with the position that Janeway gave him as First Officer, a position that Tuvok expressed
07:35initial distaste for in the episode Twisted. Chakotay seems satisfied with the fact that
07:40he was given the role over Tuvok, despite him being the obvious next in line. Still,
07:45it would have been nice to see these two resolve their past more on screen.
07:49Number 4. The discovery of a Dyson Sphere. In the Next Generation episode Relics, the
07:54crew of the Enterprise-D encounter something truly breathtaking, an abandoned or seemingly
08:00abandoned Dyson Sphere. A Dyson Sphere is a theoretical megastructure sphere that would
08:06surround an entire star. The inside of the sphere would be livable land just far enough
08:10away from the star to get perfect sunlight at all times, possibly allowing it to harness
08:16the entire energy output of the star. Starfleet, the Klingons, the Vulcans and even the Borg
08:21have never been able to create megastructures this massive. Whoever created the sphere was
08:26likely more powerful than any known empire in the galaxy, rivaled perhaps only by the
08:32It's a shame that we never get to see any further research done on the Dyson Sphere.
08:36I mean, it's likely that Starfleet classified its existence so that they could keep its
08:40insanely powerful technologies for themselves, but audiences were left wondering who created
08:47it, how many planets were consumed just for the materials and are there any other massive
08:52structures hidden throughout the galaxy?
08:54Number 3. The fates of the many humans brought from the past. Throughout the history of Star
09:00Trek a large number of humans have been brought from the past to the 23rd and 24th centuries.
09:06Of course there was the infamous Khan, but less well known were the cryogenically frozen
09:11crew from the Next Generation episode The Neutral Zone. They were all frozen in the
09:15late 20th century because they had incurable diseases that they hoped could be cured in
09:20the future when they woke. Luckily for the three survivors, they were right. The three
09:25visitors from the past were all wealthy individuals who were very shocked to learn about how much
09:30Earth has changed since the 1900s.
09:33Unfortunately, at the end of the episode, the three of them left the Enterprise and
09:36we never saw them again, but it would have been nice to see how well they adjusted to
09:41life in the 24th century. The same goes for Gillian Taylor, the marine biologist who was
09:46brought to the 23rd century in Star Trek IV The Voyage Home. She hopped aboard a science
09:51vessel to catch up with all the information she'd missed in the past few centuries and
09:55immediately got to work helping Starfleet with its new whale operations.
09:59But again, we never get to see much of her reaction to Starfleet or the future in general.
10:04Number 2. Lieutenant O'Connor's ascension. In the Lower Decks episode Moist Vessel, Lieutenant
10:10O'Connor invites a few crewmates over to watch the conclusion of his spiritual ascension.
10:15According to O'Connor, through years of meditation and ritual, one can become a higher form of
10:20life and transcend the limitations of humanity. Tendi accidentally destroyed his sand mandala
10:27that was supposedly meant to lead to his ascension, causing him to spiral into depression
10:32before finally admitting to Tendi that his ascension was all fake, merely a way to make
10:37O'Connor stand out and seem interesting. Crazily though, this admission, coupled with
10:41the pride of saving Tendi from a ship-wide disaster, was apparently enough to conclude
10:46the rituals O'Connor was working on, and he began to ascend right before Tendi's eyes.
10:51Unfortunately for O'Connor, this wasn't a very pleasant experience. His skin was burning
10:56as he floated into the air and began glowing from his eyes, transforming into a being of
11:01pure energy. He cried out in pain, overwhelmed from the terror he felt from witnessing all
11:07of creation at once. Then, right as he was about to reveal the meaning of life, he disappeared.
11:12Despite spiritual ascension now being a proven fact, we never get to see the end result of
11:18it. Is O'Connor still out there, somewhere in the cosmos, watching over the crew? And
11:24what are the origins of this mysterious spirituality, and how did O'Connor come to learn of it?
11:29Number 1. The switch to cleaner warp travel. In a parody of the harmful effects of fossil
11:35fuels, the Next Generation episode, Force of Nature, introduced us to a Hakaren scientist
11:41who proved definitively that warp travel was slowly damaging the fabric of space, and that
11:47if nothing was done, warp travel would soon become impossible. Although initially, in
11:51the episode, the Federation imposed strict speed limits in their space, to no higher
11:55than warp 5 unless in emergency, Starfleet seems to have somehow engineered a solution
12:01to the problem since then. Considering that these laws were never enforced on screen,
12:05and we routinely saw Starfleet ships exceed warp 5 whenever they pleased in Deep Space
12:10Nine. Many fans theorized that Voyager's folding
12:13nacelles were made to be a more eco-friendly form of warp travel, but this was never confirmed
12:18in canon, only suggested in an unreleased Star Trek Voyager technical guide. Because
12:23this guide was never published, it cannot be included in canon. And Voyager seems to
12:28be the only ship equipped with this ability. But then we are left wondering what Starfleet
12:33did since Force of Nature to seemingly fix the problem? Did they merely just cover it
12:38up? Either way, these would make for some interesting plot lines.
12:42And that concludes our list. If you can think of any other examples, then do let us know
12:47in the comments below. And don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification
12:51bell. Also head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various
12:55social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with Trek Culture, I hope
13:00you have a wonderful day and remember to boldly go where no one has gone before.