Discovery – Ep 7, line goof: "4th dimensional beings." [spoilers]

Commander Sinclair

I know I'm being nit-picky here, but Star Trek has always been pretty thorough in it's science research to get things as accurate as possible. This one doesn't even delve into theoretical physics, so I'm not sure who made such an obvious blunder!

When Michael Burnam says "he must have gotten the tech from 4th dimensional beings", she should have said 5th or 6th dimensional, as all Sentient species in the Federation are "4th dimensional beings."

All sentient beings that can perceive the passage of time, are "4th dimensional beings."

Also, the device that these 6th dimensional beings (yeah, I went there), developed that can permeate normal space-time as it did for Mudd, would have been flagged by the Federation as off limits, or illegal, even in this era.

I would surmise that either that race lives outside our space-time continuum, or they trapped themselves in their own "groundhog day" time bubble, and have never been heard from again, which is why no one has ever heard of them.

Just my frustrated science brain needing to vent. Bash me and my hypothesis at will. It's all good.

Lady Gaghgagh

Even if the technology is illegal, I can't imagine legality would be the roadblock for Mudd to go "oh no, I can't, it is illegal, guess I must give up my attempt".

Commander Sinclair

Of course, I only meant to reference Mudd in that part of the statement as his use of it. He absolutely wouldn't care about legalities if it served him!

Kaitee

Fair enough it's almost certainly just a flub on the writers' part, but speculating after the fact - maybe "4th dimensional being" is more a layman's term, for things that have a spatial-type relationship with time, rather than just plodding along at a steady rate like we do? Like, it's not technically accurate, but everyone knows what it means and they can get on with solving the problem, so it passes into common use, to the annoyance of any Vulcans around who wish humans would stop being so imprecise.

(It's not dissimilar to the use of "two dimensional lifeforms" in 'The Loss' - the ones that dragged the ship around and messed with Deanna's head - since they apparently move through time like we do, so they've got a third dimension, just not a third spatial dimension. But Data says "two dimensional", everyone understands "oh right, flat things", the term serves its purpose.)

Commander Sinclair

Yes, I will agree the fact the writers have to "dumb it down" for the sake of the majority of viewers be able to understand. Part of that concept that bothers me is that most of us want intelligent entertainment, which is few and far between these days, so developers and writers of the really good shows still have to appeal to a broader audience.

Part of this also got me thinking which beings on Star Trek are 5th and/or pan-dimensional. Kaitee's observation of Data's line in "The Loss" is spot on, but what if the 2-dimensional beings actually did NOT move through time the way we do or at least have no awareness of the passage of time as we do, since they apparently do not move through space as we do? That episode has a lot of "what ifs" that cannot be easily answered.

We also see evidence of 5th+-dimensional beings in several other ST references. Q is the most obvious, also Trelaine (which I think is a child Q, like Amanda Rogers) The Organians, Thasians, and especially the Guardian of Forever all fall in this category. (I know there are more I can't think of off the top of my head.) All speculation of course, as the stories of those races were never further developed, except in occasional ST novels.

And of course, several people in the science community look to our own real future evolution as becoming similar beings to the Organians, beings of pure energy. Or what if we are all just Borg living in the Matrix?