Star Trek: Discovery is building toward a potential battle against Unknown Species 10-C. Do Kovich and Bryce hold the answers to winning?
Kovich and Bryce are working on something special in Star Trek: Discovery season 4 – will they strike upon the key to victory against Unknown Species 10-C? The Federation faces a great and enigmatic threat in Star Trek: Discovery season 4. A hugely advanced race designated Unknown Species 10-C has been using a Dark Matter Anomaly (DMA for the sake of brevity) to harvest boronite, churning up entire planets in the process. The Federation would quite like 10-C to stop, but when Ruon Tarka destroyed the DMA, the fearsome civilization on the other end of the wormhole simply replaced it with all the inconvenience of changing a light bulb.
Sonequa Martin-Green’s Michael Burnham must now lead her crew (and a group of Federation delegates) on a diplomatic mission to request Species 10-C cease their destructive boronite mining. Given how easily 10-C replaced one DMA with another, the civilization evidently has enough firepower to destroy the Federation, should it choose. And given how the second DMA was even more powerful than the first, Species 10-C aren’t giving off “diplomacy” vibes in Star Trek: Discovery. A battle looks inevitable, but the Federation may have a secret weapon up its sleeve – the unlikely duo of Kovich and Bryce.
David Cronenberg’s Kovich – a Starfleet scientist – and Ronnie Rowe Jr.’s Bryce – Discovery’s communications officer – are currently working on a method of communicating through the Galactic Barrier that separates the Milky Way from Unknown Species 10-C, and Star Trek: Discovery establishes this sub-plot with a conspicuous amount of care. In the opening scene of Star Trek: Discovery season 4’s “The Galactic Barrier” episode Kovich reveals he won’t be present on the 10-C diplomacy mission because he has “other urgent matters” to attend to. Asked what could possibly be more urgent than stopping an unidentified alien species destroying planets, Kovich plays coy. Later in the episode, Star Trek: Discovery reveals that Bryce will be staying behind at Starfleet HQ to help Kovich, and they’ll be developing a method of extragalactic communication.
While the subplot might be little more than an excuse for David Cronenberg and Ronnie Rowe Jr. to sit out Discovery’s mission, maybe extragalactic communication is the key to defeating Unknown Species 10-C, and that’s why Kovich sounded so blasé when questioned about his mysterious “urgent matters.” But how could a glorified intergalactic megaphone possibly bring down one of the most advanced civilizations Star Trek has ever seen? Kovich, being the smart cookie he is, might’ve deduced that Unknown Species 10-C began mining the Milky Way for boronite because they were somehow prevented from doing so within their own galaxy. Does this indicate that a civilization beyond the Galactic Barrier actually discovered how to defend against Unknown Species 10-C? So advanced are these unseen antagonists, and so destructive is their DMA, the Federation cannot be the first sentient life forms 10-C has threatened.
If Kovich is working on the theory that Unknown Species 10-C moved onto our universe because their own galaxy developed an effective deterrent against the DMA, that explains why extragalactic communication could prove so vital. While Bryce figures out the “how,” Kovich can prepare requests of assistance from other unknown species beyond the Galactic Barrier- those who faced the 10-C before and won. It’s obvious why Kovich wouldn’t share this plan with Starfleet too – taking responsibility for First Contact with multiple new species into his own hands would, very probably, be frowned upon.
Working together with new friends to defeat the common enemy of Unknown Species 10-C would neatly align with the principles of diplomacy, cooperation and understanding at the heart Star Trek: Discovery… without making season 4’s villains a total disappointment. If the 10-C just apologized for the misunderstanding and blamed everything on an IT error, Star Trek: Discovery‘s audience might feel a touch underwhelmed. On the other hand, all-out war feels hypocritical against the moral message season 4 is sending. Kovich’s extragalactic communication operation offers Star Trek: Discovery the best of both worlds – varying species working together in harmony… but working together to defeat a genuinely fearsome enemy in Unknown Species 10-C.
Star Trek: Discovery continues Thursdays on Paramount+.
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