Summary

• The spore drive in Star Trek: Discovery allowed for instant galaxy travel, making Discovery a unique and important ship in the Federation.
• The controversial spore drive required a living navigator and raised ethical concerns, but it was crucial in rebuilding Starfleet post-Burn.
• Star Trek: Discovery will be ditching the spore drive after Season 5, transitioning to a new propulsion system for the future.

Star Trek: Discovery introduced one of the franchise's most unique forms of propulsion in the USS Discovery's spore drive. Since its introduction in Star Trek: Discovery season 1, the displacement-activated spore hub drive, or spore drive for short, is one of the things that made Discovery a different kind of Star Trek show than any that had come before it. The spore drive allowed the USS Discovery to travel across the galaxy almost instantaneously, making it one of the United Federation of Planets' most important ships at the time. Despite its obvious benefits, the spore drive was still experimental and came with its fair share of complications.

After the USS Discovery traveled to the 32nd century, the spore drive was still unique even among the most advanced starships. As most of the galaxy's supply of dilithium had been destroyed in the Burn, Discovery proved essential in rebuilding Starfleet and broken Federation. In part because of the spore drive, Discovery often got sent on the most important and time-sensitive missions, including investigating the Dark Matter Anomaly in Star Trek: Discovery season 4 and searching for the Progenitors' technology in Star Trek: Discovery season 5. Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and her crew have become used to Discovery's spore drive, but it remains a propulsion system unlike any other.

Activating the USS Discovery's spore drive calls for a "Black Alert!"

How Star Trek: Discovery’s Spore Drive Works Compared To Warp Drive

"Black alert. Get us out of here."

Warp drive in Star Trek works by generating a subspace bubble that surrounds a starship, allowing it to travel faster than the speed of light. On April 5, 2063, scientist Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell) was the first human to break the warp bubble with his starship, the Phoenix, in Star Trek: First . The Federation adopted the Vulcan's protocol that the development of a warp drive is the indicator of an advanced society. By the 24th century, warp engines were powered by a matter/antimatter reaction channeled through dilithium crystals. With faster-than-light travel, planets that previously would have taken years to reach could now be reached in a matter of days.

Conceptualized by Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and his colleague Straal (Saad Siddiqui), the experimental spore technology allows the USS Discovery to jump through the microscopic mycelial network. The mycelial network exists as a region of subspace that spans the entire multiverse and can be accessed using the spores of a particular species of fungus. While warp engines require numerous pieces of technology, like plasma injectors and warp field coils, the spore drive requires only a large chamber and a single navigator. The fact that the spore drive requires a living navigator has raised numerous ethical questions.

After war broke out with the Klingons, Starfleet co-opted Stamets and Straal's research and placed Stamets on the USS Discovery to find a way to make the technology work.

Why Star Trek: Discovery’s Spore Drive Is Controversial

The spore drive requires a navigator to control the destination.

While the ability to travel across the galaxy instantaneously has certainly proved useful for the USS Discovery, the spore drive is not without its problems. In Star Trek: Discovery season 1, Stamets learned from his colleague that an alien tardigrade could communicate with the spores. After the crew of Discovery's sister ship, the USS Glenn, were killed in an accident during an experimental jump, their tardigrade was transferred to Discovery. The tardigrade, nicknamed "Ripper," allowed Discovery to navigate much longer jumps, but the process caused Ripper pain.

The spore drive was also controversial with Star Trek fans in real life as Star Trek: Discovery's advanced technology was impossible to reconcile with the 23rd-century canon of Star Trek: The Original Series.

Burnham and Stamets eventually released Ripper into space, after Paul found a way to connect himself to the spore drive. After injecting himself with tardigrade DNA, Stamets was able to co-exist with the mycelial network, but jumping caused him pain and neurological damage. After the end of Star Trek: Discovery's Klingon War, Stamets decommissioned the spore drive until a safer way to navigate it could be found. After Discovery traveled to the 32nd century, a new interface was installed that no longer required a cybernetic connection, but still needed a pilot.

Star Trek: Discovery Won’t Give 32nd Century Starfleet Spore Drives

The USS Discovery will remain one of a kind.

The USS Discovery's spore drive is undoubtedly a fascinating piece of technology, but it does remove some of the narrative tension of Star Trek: Discovery. When Discovery encounters enemies or needs to get somewhere in a hurry, the ship can simply jump there in an instant. While this fits with Discovery's action-oriented style of storytelling, it doesn't allow for as much exploration. On Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation, for example, the Enterprise often encountered strange phenomena while on its way to different locations, but the spore drive denies Discovery of that opportunity.

In Star Trek: Discovery season 4, Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle) and Cleveland Booker (David Ajala) steal a prototype of the next generation spore drive and attempt to destroy the Dark Matter Anomaly. Although the prototype spore drive worked, it still required a navigator, a problem Stamets continued to work on. However, by the time of Star Trek: Discovery season 5's premiere, the Federation had shuttered the spore drive program, much to Stamets' disappointment. Instead, the 32nd century Federation is pursuing a pathway drive currently being tested on the USS Voyager-J. Star Trek: Discovery has not yet revealed much about this new propulsion system, but it will likely pop up on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery stream Thursdays on Paramount+.