Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5, Episode 2 - “Shades of Green”
The Orions inStar Trek: Lower Decksbring backStar Trek’s most historic starships. Former Starfleet Lieutenant D’Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) returned to Orion at the end ofStar Trek: Lower Decksseason 4 and resumed her role as Mistress of the Winter Constellations. A conflict with theblue Orions of House Azureinstigated a war with House Tendi, and this was settled with thereturn of ancient Orion sailing shipssimilar to those seen inStar Trekbefore.
Warp drive isStar Trek’s dominant form of travel, even going hundreds of years into the future ofStar Trek: Discovery’s 32nd century. Every known spacefaring race, from the United Federation of Planets to the Romulans, Klingons, Cardassians, Orions, and even the Borg uses a variation of warp drive. However, many alien species began traveling to the stars hundreds or even thousands of years ago, well before the invention of warp drive. At leastthree known ancientStar Trekraces journeyed through space using solar sail ships.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Reveals Orions Use Sail Ships
House Tendi and House Azure race the Excellon Nebula
Star Trek: Lower Decksseason 5, episode 2, “Shades of Green,” revealed that Orions used ancient sailing ships hundreds of years before warp travel became the backbone of the Orion Syndicate. To settle the score between House Tendi and House Azure, the Orion Pirate Queen ordereda sailing ship race through the dangerous Excellon Nebula. The winning House would absorb the wealth of the losing house, which would be plunged into poverty.
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Although D’Erika Tendi (Ariel Winter) is a trained sailor who took sailing classes at school, D’Vana Tendi and her crew gently mutined (a"cute-iny") for fear that the pregnant D’Erika could lose her baby. Meanwhile, House Tendi facedthe glaring issue of solar sailing ships: the vessel can be crippled if the sails are damaged.Ingeniously, D’Vana used herStarfleet engineering prowessto hook onto a neighboring comet to catch House Azure’s ship. Unfortunately, D’Vana’s solution of forcing a tie so that both Houses would ‘win’ enraged the Pirate Queen, who stripped House Azure and Tendi of their wealth, although the Tendi sisters found a way to replace their family’s fortune. Still, it was a triumphant comeback forStar Trek’s solar sailing ship.
Sail Ships Were Used By DS9’s Bajorans & Strange New Worlds’ R’ongovians
DS9 introduced solar sail ships to Star Trek
Star Trek: Deep Space Nineseason 3, episode 22, “Explorers,“introduced solar sailing ships in the form of a Bajoran lightshipbuilt by Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks). Using the same materials from ancient texts, Sisko constructed his lightship in three weeks, intending to prove ancient Bajorans sailed from Bajor to Cardassia using tachyon eddys from the Denorios Belt. Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton) joined his father on their successful journey, proving the ancient Bajoran texts right.
Sisko’s lightship in 2371 was the first sailing ship seen in Star Trek’s 24th century, withStar Trek: Lower Decks' Orion sailing ships following a decade later, in 2381.
Star Trek: Strange New Worldsseason 1, episode 5, “Spock Amok,” introduced a new species, the R’ongovian Protectorate, who negotiated membership into the United Federation of Planets. After tense talks that went nowhere,Captain Christopher Pike(Anson Mount) realized the R’ongovians required empathy and recognized their concerns about joining the Federation. Satisfied by Pike’s overtures,the R’ongovians left Starbase One aboard a solar sailing ship, the first seen in the 23rd century and the first seen inStar TreksinceDeep Space Nine.
Why Didn’t Earth Use Sail Ships In Star Trek?
Humans went to space a different way
Star Trek’s history is mostly identical to real world history until major divergences happen in the form of theEugenics Wars and World War III. In terms of space exploration, NASA existed, as did the Apollo missions to the moon and subsequent events involving space travel. However,humans never attempted to use solar sail shipslike the ancient Bajorans, Orions, or the R’ongovians to journey to other worlds. Escaping Earth’s gravity required the invention of rockets and human-built spaceships relied on different means of faster propulsion than solar sails.
Star Trek: Picardseason 2 revealed a mission to Europa led by Dr. Renee Picard (Penelope Mitchell) brought back a bio-organism that helped Earth solve its climate crisis.
Once Dr. Zephram Cochrane (James Cromwell) successfully achieved humanity’s first warp flight in 2063, theVulcans immediately arrived and made First Contactwith Earth. This led to the Vulcans becoming United Earth’s guiding hand as Starfleet was created, humans began traveling the stars, and the invention of the first warp five-capable starship, the NX-01 Enterprise, allowed Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) to lead Mankind’s first deep space voyages inStar Trek: Enterprise.Humans skipped over inventing their own solar sailing ships, which are the province of the Bajorans, R’ongovians, and the Orions inStar Trek: Lower Decks.
