What is the Burn in Star Trek? How a plot from Discovery shapes Starfleet Academy

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy explores a dark era of the franchise timeline: the 32nd century. After lying dormant for a century, the San Francisco school for aspiring space explorers welcomes a brand new class. What caused both this long gap in enrollment and the weakened status of the United Federation of Planets in general? The answer to both is the Burn, a cataclysmic event first introduced in season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery. While Starfleet Academy faculty explain the significance of the Burn to their students (and to viewers who didn’t watch Discovery) you may still have some questions about this mysterious, apocalyptic event. Lucky for you, we did the homework, and we’re sharing our answers below.

How warp drives work in Star Trek

Most starships in Star Trek are able to travel across the galaxy at faster-than-light speeds through the use of warp drives that warp spacetime. The invention of this technology is viewed as so key to a species’ development that the Vulcans only made contact with humans after they observed Earth’s warp drive test, setting a precedent for not interfering with pre-warp civilizations.

Warp drives work through a reaction between the matter and antimatter forms of deuterium stabilized by dilithium crystals. Dilithium crystals are rare, only found in significant quantities on a few planets in the galaxy, but they became especially scarce in the 30th century, pushing the Federation to search for new sources of the mineral and experiment with engine designs that wouldn’t need them at all.

The Burn

Photo: Marni Grossman/Paramount Plus

Disaster struck in 3069 when all dilithium seemingly became inert at once, causing every active warp core to fail and explode. The event, which became known as the Burn, killed millions and destroyed countless ships, including most of the Federation’s fleet. Because no one knew what had caused the Burn or if it would happen again, everyone was hesitant to rebuild. The Vulcans even seceded from the Federation because they thought the Burn was caused by one of the Federation’s experiments on a dilithium alternative.

Without warp technology to connect its planets and a strong fleet to defend it from other factions, the Federation crumbled, dropping from 350 member planets to 38 within a century. Even Earth turned its back on the organization, forcing the Federation to relocate its headquarters to a space station.

What caused the Burn?

Photo: Michael Gibson / CBS Interactive

Star Trek: Discovery began in the 24th century as a prequel to the original Star Trek, but the ship traveled 900 years into the future in season 3. Flying without fear of another Burn because their starship was powered by fungal spores, the crew of the Discovery set about trying to solve the mystery of the cataclysm. They eventually learned that it was caused by Su’Kal, a young Kelpian who was exposed to dilithium radiation in utero while his mother was exploring an area that was rich in dilithium.

That exposure created a psychic connection between Su’Kal and the mineral, which he accidentally activated when he watched his mother die, causing a chain reaction that spread throughout the galaxy. It’s a pretty baffling explanation, but it meant the Discovery crew could prevent another Burn by sending Su’Kal far away from any sources of dilithium he could activate.

That came as a big relief to the Federation, which could finally begin to rebuild. Over the course of the next two seasons of Discovery, Earth, Trill, and Ni’Var (formerly Vulcan) rejoined the organization. Starfleet Academy kicks off with a fresh class of cadets from around the galaxy coming together to build the future of the Federation, though they’ll face plenty of challenges trying to bring old allies back into the fold while under threat from new enemies.

The first two episodes of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premiere on Paramount Plus on Jan. 15. Future episodes will release Thursdays through March 12.