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While exploring space, Starfleet has made a number of discoveries too dangerous to be made public.
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00:00In Trek, Starfleet constantly encounters dangerous new technologies, phenomena, and alien societies.
00:06Despite this, they are actually surprisingly transparent with their knowledge.
00:10Students at Starfleet Academy, for example, learn about the adventures of Kirk's Enterprise
00:14and the many earth-shattering discoveries they made with little censorship.
00:18However, Starfleet, like pretty much every other organization, has some secrets that they wish to keep hidden.
00:24Tech too potentially dangerous to be shared, crimes that Starfleet committed in the past, entire worlds forbidden to visit,
00:31and many more classified pieces of information exist, known only to the highest-ranking officers in the fleet
00:37and the CIA-inspired secret organization Section 31.
00:41Section 31 itself, since its conception, has retreated further and further into the shadows,
00:46until they were virtually forgotten by everyone by the 24th century.
00:50Clearly, Starfleet has a skill of hiding what they don't want to be known.
00:54And so, with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with TrekCulture here with 10 Classified Starfleet Secrets.
01:01Number 10. Yore
01:03When Discovery's crew travelled to the 32nd century in Star Trek Discovery's third season,
01:08the Mirror Universe version of Philippa Georgiou started having flashbacks,
01:11losing control of her mind and physically glitching at random intervals,
01:15and no one on the ship could figure out what was wrong.
01:18The Discovery crew took this information to Dr. Kovitch,
01:21who accessed and showed Dr. Culber the classified file of the alien known as Yore.
01:26Yore was a Starfleet officer and time soldier who, in 2379,
01:30travelled both to the future and to the Prime Universe from another dimension.
01:34Kovitch revealed that his journey to both a different time and a different universe,
01:37just as Georgiou had done, caused him to slowly and painfully die
01:41as his molecules drifted further away from the time and place they were meant to be.
01:45Interestingly, it's heavily implied that the universe Yore originated from was the rebooted timeline from the new Star Trek movies.
01:52Kovitch stated that his reality was created by a Romulan mining ship.
01:56Fans assumed that he was referring to the Narada, Nero's ship from the 2009 film Star Trek.
02:02Number 9. The Technology of the Genesis Device
02:06The development of the Genesis device started off with good intentions.
02:09The device created by Dr. Carol Marcus was the most sophisticated terraforming technology in the Federation.
02:15But after Khan stole it and detonated it aboard the USS Reliant,
02:19the technology's destructive capability was exposed,
02:22which made Project Genesis a huge controversy across the quadrant.
02:26All of the science behind the Genesis device was classified by Starfleet.
02:30This, mixed with the drama surrounding Khan, made many neighbours of the Federation, such as the Klingons, very nervous.
02:36Ultimately, these fears died down because the tech was soon found to be unstable and the project was scrapped.
02:41So, although almost everyone in the quadrant had heard about the Genesis device in the 23rd century,
02:46the actual science behind it was known to only a few individuals.
02:50It's likely that either Starfleet or Section 31 still keep records of the tech,
02:55and many other alien species have probably tried to recreate it,
02:58but we have so far never seen this on screen.
03:01Number 8. Dangerous Borg Files
03:04In the iconic two-part Voyager episode Scorpion, the crew entered Borg space for the first time.
03:10Prior to this moment, no Federation ship had ever gone so deep inside the Borg's home territory,
03:15so Janeway tried to prepare by reviewing every file on the Borg she could find,
03:20including classified information, likely only available to captains.
03:24It's a quick shot that's easy to miss, but near the beginning of the episode,
03:27when Janeway is doing research on the computer in her ready room,
03:30you can see that the Borg files she's reading are, in fact, classified.
03:35This might seem like a minor detail, but it actually tells us a lot.
03:38Most people in the Federation have heard of the Borg,
03:41so it's likely the classified information pertains to Borg technology,
03:45such as nanoprobes and electronic mind control,
03:48which could have been studied from salvaged Borg drones and ships.
03:51It makes sense that Starfleet would know a great deal about the tech simply from examining it,
03:55but they definitely wouldn't want the Klingons or Romulans to be able to access it.
03:59Number 7. The Paxons
04:02In the Next Generation episode, Clues, the Enterprise D inadvertently stumbled into the home system of the Paxons,
04:08but everyone other than Data had the memory of their encounter erased.
04:12The Paxons are a highly xenophobic species.
04:15They hate outsiders so much that they conceal their homeworld with an energy field
04:19that stuns the crew of approaching alien ships, rendering them unconscious until they leave the system.
04:24The field also tricks sensors into detecting a fake wormhole, so when the crew awakens,
04:28they assume that the journey through the wormhole was the cause of their unconsciousness
04:32and spontaneous jumping across light years.
04:34Unfortunately for the Paxons, Data, as an android, was immune to the effects of the energy field.
04:39At first, Data was able to revive the crew, but in order to escape certain destruction and appease the Paxons,
04:45Picard had to allow them to erase the crew's memories.
04:48He ordered Data to never reveal the existence of the Paxons, but clues were left behind that led Picard to uncover Data's secret.
04:55The Paxons agreed to give them a second chance and once again erased their memories,
04:59this time taking special care to remove any residual clues.
05:02Data presumably kept the existence of the Paxons secret for the rest of his life.
05:07Number 6. Discovery and the Spore Drive
05:10After its sister ship, the USS Glenn, was destroyed,
05:13Discovery became Starfleet's only ship equipped with a displacement-activated Spore Hub Drive.
05:18This unique technology is the fastest and most advanced method of travel ever seen on screen.
05:23The ship can access a universe-wide network of mycelium to instantaneously move across the galaxy.
05:29The tech was highly classified and was even developed with the involvement of Section 31.
05:34Although the Klingons were aware Discovery could appear out of nowhere, they had no idea how the Spore Drive functioned.
05:41After Discovery and its crew were transported to the future following the battle with the Artificial Intelligence Control,
05:47Spock recommended to Starfleet that Discovery should be reported as destroyed
05:51and keep classified all information regarding the Spore Drive and control.
05:55Clearly, they listened to his advice as Starfleet never used Spore Drive tech again until Discovery returned in the 32nd century.
06:02When they got to the future, the Spore Drive was instrumental in protecting what remained of the Federation and solving the mystery of the Burn.
06:10Number 5. The Morphogenic Virus
06:13One of the more abhorrent acts ever committed by Section 31 was their creation and deployment of the Morphogenic Virus.
06:20Section 31, realizing that the Federation's hopes of winning the Dominion War were dwindling,
06:25intentionally infected Odo with the virus during a medical examination.
06:29The top-secret Morphogenic Virus was specially designed to kill Changelings, the leaders of the Dominion.
06:35They hoped that Odo, when linking with other Changelings, would pass it on to the whole population.
06:40Odo was never meant to develop symptoms, but when he began to, Dr Bashir did some digging and exposed the Section 31 plan.
06:47Using some fancy tech, Bashir was able to enter the mind of the Section 31 agent Luther Sloan,
06:53to extract the cure, saving the Changelings, including Odo, and improving the relationship between the Dominion and the Federation.
07:00Many in the Federation opposed giving away the cure to save their enemies, but this act of mercy was instrumental in ending the Dominion War.
07:07Number 4. The Pegasus
07:10In Star Trek Discovery's third season, the ship received a number of tech upgrades from the future.
07:15One of these upgrades was a cloaking device which surprised audiences because, for most of Starfleet's history,
07:21the organization was banned from developing any sort of cloaking technology.
07:25The ban was one of the requirements of the Treaty of Algeron, which also reinforced and redefined the Romulan Neutral Zone,
07:31and greatly improved the Federation's relationship with the Romulan Empire.
07:35The treaty brought peace to the Alpha Quadrant, but delayed the advancement of cloaking technology for centuries.
07:41Many in Starfleet were apparently rather displeased with this arrangement, as we learn in the Next Generation episode Pegasus
07:48that the organization illegally developed and tested a secret cloaking ship, the USS Pegasus.
07:53The Pegasus was equipped with a phase cloaking device, a unique type of cloaking tech that shifted the vessel out of phase with normal space,
08:01rendering it not only invincible, but also presumably indestructible.
08:05After an accident, the Pegasus was thought to be destroyed, but it was actually drifting through space in its cloaked state,
08:10before materializing later inside a solid asteroid.
08:14In the episode, the Enterprise D crew was ordered to retrieve or destroy the wreckage before the Romulans found it,
08:20but when Picard learned the truth of the phase cloaking device, he made the information public.
08:24Number 3. The Mirror Universe Visitors from Discovery
08:28At the end of the first season of Star Trek Discovery, the ship and its crew were transported to the Mirror Universe,
08:34the edgy, authoritarian reality, first appearing in the original series episode Mirror Mirror.
08:40Eventually, Captain Gabriel Lorca was revealed to be a Mirror Universe imposter
08:44trying to use Discovery to get revenge on the Empress of the Terran Empire,
08:48the Mirror counterpart of Michael Burnham's deceased former Captain Philippa Georgiou.
08:52In the end, Lorca was killed and Georgiou was brought back to the Prime Universe against her will,
08:57where she assisted Discovery in ending the Klingon War, then later started working for Section 31.
09:02Despite Discovery's first season taking place before the original series,
09:06when Kirk's Enterprise encountered the Mirror Universe in Mirror Mirror, they had never heard about it before.
09:11This is because Discovery's interactions with the Mirror Universe were classified on a need-to-know basis.
09:16Only high-ranking officers like Captain Pike were briefed on the Mirror Universe, Lorca's origins, and the true identity of the new Georgiou.
09:24When interacting with average people, Georgiou played the role of her Prime counterpart, stating that she somehow survived her supposed death.
09:31Number 2. The Secret of Talos IV.
09:34The true nature of Talos IV was a secret so guarded by Starfleet that revealing it was, during the original series,
09:40the only crime with the death penalty.
09:42Talos IV was the planet visited by Captain Pike and the old Enterprise crew in the original series pilot episode The Cage.
09:48The world was home to the Talosians, whose technological illusions were so powerful that they could allow extremely injured or dying people to live comfortably again.
09:58Spock commandeered the Enterprise in the two-parter episode The Menagerie in order to free his former Captain Pike from his wheelchair.
10:05The law forbidding travel to Talos IV was known as General Order VII, and as mentioned earlier, had a punishment of death.
10:11But Spock was able to protect his crew by seizing control of the ship single-handedly, risking only his own life.
10:18In the end, Starfleet made an exception to General Order VII and allowed Spock to go unpunished, but the law likely remained in place afterwards at least for a few decades.
10:27Starfleet feared what would happen to both the Federation and the Talosians if the public were to learn of the incredible powers found on Talos IV.
10:35Number 1. The Omega Directive
10:38In the late 23rd century, a Federation scientist named Keterat made a very dangerous discovery, the Omega Molecule.
10:45Keterat created an Omega Molecule using Boronite ore, but lacking proper containment, the Molecule became unstable and exploded, killing everyone aboard their secret research base and devastating the Lantaru sector.
10:57The worst effect of the explosion was the destruction of subspace, which rendered warp travel and subspace communications impossible across light-years of space.
11:05Starfleet determined that Omega was too dangerous to be allowed to exist, as a few mere particles were thought to be enough to destroy subspace across an entire quadrant.
11:14All information regarding them was classified, and only Starfleet captains and flag officers were briefed on its existence for the sole purpose of destroying it at any cost, should any molecules be detected.
11:24Voyager encountered a large number of Omega Molecules in the episode The Omega Directive.
11:29Alone in the Delta Quadrant, Janeway was forced to inform the crew about Omega and, with the help of Seven of Nine, successfully destroyed the molecules, damaging only a small area of space.
11:39And that concludes our list. If you can think of any that we missed, then do let us know in the comments below.
11:44And while you're there, don't forget to like, and subscribe, and tap that notification bell.
11:48Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, at TrekCulture.
11:51And I can be found across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
11:55I've been Ellie with TrekCulture, I hope you have a wonderful day, and remember to boldly go where no one has gone before.
12:023
12:03And also,ark.
12:053
12:06Yep, that's fantastic.
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