Star Trek: Discovery's Time Travel References The Voyage Home
Star Trek: Discovery season 3 features a great reference to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Hoping to avert a machine AI apocalypse, Michael Burnham and the Discovery traveled into the far future at the end of season 2. Currently airing on CBS All Access, Star Trek: Discovery season 3 finds the crew adjusting to the 32nd century, not entirely successfully, and learning about the vastly different political landscape that awaits. Although the Discovery successfully finds its way back to Earth, they receive a less-than-warm welcome, with the former home planet of the Federation now an isolated and uncooperative world that shoots first and asks questions later in order to protect its precious dilithium supplies.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Start nowOf course, Star Trek is no stranger to a time travel story, and one of the most famous is Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. This even-numbered (and, therefore, not awful) Trek movie sees Kirk's Enterprise crew travel back to 1986 Earth, where they intend to steal some whales and appease a rogue probe back in their own timeline. As Star Trek: Discovery is currently, The Voyage Home revels in the technological chasm between past and future. Just as the Discovery's machinery looks archaic compared to the tech available in the 32nd century, so too did Kirk and the gang find the trappings of the 1980s amusing.
Star Trek: Discovery season 3's "People of Earth" references this similarity when Saru's crew first makes contact with the United Earth Defense Force. Despite materializing outside of Earth's scanner range, the Discovery is soon confronted with the planet's futuristic force field and hailed by Captain Ndoye, who demands the Starfleet vessel return to whatever dusty corner of the galaxy it came from. Condescending the new arrivals, Ndoye utters the line, "a viewscreen... how quaint." This remark reveals how nanotech and holographic advancements have rendered Star Trek's classic "on screen, lieutenant" moments obsolete.
But this line also provides a loving homage to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. With the Enterprise needing a container for the whales, Scotty and McCoy blag their way into a plexiglass factory, and Scott bribes the owner with the future formula for transparent aluminium in order to get what he needs. But handing down the formula highlights a clash of cultures, as Scott fails to activate the 1980s computer system either with his voice or by speaking into the mouse. Instead, Scott is told to type in the formula using a keyboard, to which he replies "a keyboard... how quaint." Captain Ndoye's line is a direct riff on this comedic movie scene, with the Enterprise and the Discovery in similarly unfamiliar territory following their respective time jumps. On this occasion, however, it's Starfleet who are behind the times.
Star Trek: Discovery has never been afraid to reference older franchise entries. In the opening trio of season 3 episodes alone, Star Trek: Discovery has reintroduced the obscure coridanite species, reverted Earth to its pre-Federation designation, mirrored Voyager's ice crash, and returned to the days of Kirk's so-called "cowboy diplomacy." In terms of pure Star Trek Easter egg appeal, however, the reference to Scotty's computer struggles in The Voyage Home is one of the best, and plenty more time travel parallels could emerge as Star Trek: Discovery season 3 develops.
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