What if the 7k aren't human...

[u/isworeiwouldntdothis]

...but Lanthanites, and Pelia's hiding it? It would explain why she kept using the word "us", how they somehow made it off planet less than 10 years after WWIII but before Cochrane's flight and how no one remembered hearing about them at all in a history class at the Academy. They seem to be natural junkers, just like Pelia. They had consumed Fed tech before but never tried to make contact? Sounds like they yeeted off planet and she stayed behind. PS I love that none of this is Prime, btw, because the changes are great but would drive me batshit if they tried to shoehorn all this into the main timeline.

[u/Canavansbackyard]

You are really overthinking this.

[u/WoodyManic]

But it is Prime. And it doesn't require shoehorning. We know there were vessels sent off into space during that era. TNG already established NASA sent out the Charybdis. There's also the Nomad and Friendship probes. And the DY-class ships that carried off the Augments. There's also the XCV-330 Enterprise somewhere in there. What's one more vessel, eh?

[u/JohnSmallBerries → u/WoodyManic]

We know there were vessels sent off into space during that era. [...] the DY-class ships that carried off the Augments.

Exactly. Like the S.S. Botany Bay, launched in 1996 with the adult Khan Noonien Singh aboard, 27 years before La'an encountered him as a boy during her jaunt back to 2023.

(Not to mention a Romulan who explicitly stated that they'd been fucking with the timeline for decades, which makes it really hard to reconcile as the TOS "Prime".)

[u/WoodyManic → u/JohnSmallBerries]

The important thing is, though, as much has we might dislike it, it is the Prime universe because the creators say it is. And the Temporal fuckery originating from the Temporal Wars and the Romulans has altered the Prime timeline. It's a decent enough mechanic for explaining why the Eugenics War and WW3 haven't happened in real life yet.

Although, to be honest, I wish they wouldn't bother. It's a sci fi action adventure show. It doesn't need to be historically accurate. It's not a documentary. They didn't need to explain it at all. But certain anally retentive members of the fandom are sticklers for the idea that it all has to line up with real-life (and its own internal history), but it just isn't necessary.

Would you like Trek any less if it wasn't, per se, our future? 'Cause I wouldn't give a shit.

[u/JohnSmallBerries → u/WoodyManic]

And the Temporal fuckery originating from the Temporal Wars and the Romulans has altered the Prime timeline.

Right... but if they've altered the timeline, it's no longer the Prime one. (They established the "different choices spawn a different quantum reality" thing back in TNG.)

"It is because the creators say it is" doesn't account for the glaringly obvious discrepancies like Khan's age. And it sounds a little culty, to be honest.

[u/WoodyManic → u/JohnSmallBerries]

But, we've seen somewhat similar things happen. While not exactly the same, look at DS9's Accession. Kira can remember that Akorem's unfinished magnum opus was, well, unfinished. But, due to temporal shenanigans, she also knows that it isn't. Anymore.

Culty? It's not culty in the slightest. It's just the reality. If they say that's what it is, that's what is it. We, as fans, can't do anything about it. It's just the nature of the beast, isn't it?

[u/thundersnow528]

Not Prime? Where you getting that bit of incorrect information? Of course it's Prime.

But interesting idea that they are all Pelia's people.

[u/gbroon]

Why would they necessarily feature in history class? A lot of times some events just get overshadowed by bigger ones.

[u/lexxstrum]

With the ending, I have...questions. First, the timing seems off: they were worried about Earth's global environmental crisis AFTER WW3? Their motivation should have been they were convinced the Earth was doomed after WW3, and they left to colonize space. The sad thing is, those people would have been exactly what a dying world needed, to say nothing of the resources to get them to space.

How many people went up? And there were 7k now? Unless they had been taking some humans from here and there as breeding stock, which undercuts the "he didn't kill me because we're both humans" thing, (Maybe he just liked Pike's hair?) these people should have been generations of inbred at this point.

So, what type of engine did they have? Couldn't have been warp originally because that means Cochrane didn't invent it. But somehow, they got out PAST the edges of 23rd century known space and dip into it. Also, did they pull a Star Trek: Beyond here, and luck into some super advanced tech that allowed them to do things like capture klingons and crack planets?

[u/Creepy-Cat6612 → u/lexxstrum]

Uhura said the ship disappeared so the same thing that happened to Voyager could have happened to them.

[u/BCSully]

You're getting a lot of pushback, but I think it's a clever idea. I doubt it's what's happening because, wouldn't the ships sensors be able to tell human life-signs from Lanthanite?

If they said, back when Pelia was introduced as a Lanthanite, that the species is identical to humans in every way except longevity, then your theory not only holds water but I'm inclined to think that's exactly what's going on. The hoarding mentality is what really nails it for me. Other clues:

• It's the first time we see Pelia's quarters, and they're kind of featured in the episode. Really draws a circle around her pack-ratting nature
• the way Pike immediately said "descendents of the original crew" is a convenient assumption. The obvious one, for sure, but the way the line is written is curious. You'd expect him to say something like "these must be the descendents..." but he didn't. He just jumped to the conclusion which makes the line feel like a deliberate obfuscation, and a twist is inevitable.

Lastly, it's not really a clue, but it is a completely plausible explanation to say that Lanthanites are so like humans, and the ship's sensors were so damaged in the fight that they couldn't detect a difference and so read the 7000 as human.

I'm talking myself into this. I think you're really on to something here.

[u/sbvrsvpostpnk]

That's a stretch bud

[u/isworeiwouldntdothis]

I didn't realize the fandom had become this...spirited. I shouldn't have shared, I apologize.

[u/Scrat-Slartibartfast]

Pelia does not know everything that happened on earth or with others from her kind. She knows it because it was in the news at this time.

But I am not sure about the 7000. There where 15 or so on the picture before the start, if the have children and double there population every 20 years, then there should only be around 500 to 1000 on the ship.

EDIT:

I got the Numbers wrong. Sorry.

The ship is around 200 Years in Space, so if the double every 20 to 25 Years they can have a crew of 7000.

[u/MaddyMagpies]

Do you remember Franklin's Lost Expeditions? If you don't, then they won't.