List of Star Trek regions of space
Several films and episodes of the science fiction franchise Star Trek are set in distinct astrographical regions of space. Some of these fictional locations exhibit anomalous physical properties; others are defined as sensitive buffer zones under various fictional political accords.
This list describes some of the more significant settings for Star Trek films or story arcs over multiple television episodes.
Badlands[edit]
The Badlands comprise an area of space that appears (or is referenced) in episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager.[1]
Located in Star Trek's Alpha Quadrant, the Badlands are characterized by constant plasma storms and funnel clouds.[1] The Maquis use it in several episodes as a meeting or hiding place because of its treacherous navigation.[1] It is also known to harbor some planets hidden within the clouds and nebulae.
In "Caretaker", the pilot episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the titular starship pursues a Maquis ship into the Badlands before being pushed by an energy wave to the Delta Quadrant.[1]
In "Erigah", the seventh episode of Star Trek: Discovery season 5, the Badlands are determined to be the temporary location of a next clue to finding vital creation-of-life technology.[2]
The Badlands are also mentioned in the computer game Star Trek: Armada II, where the Borg build up forces in that area close to the Federation.
Bajoran wormhole[edit]
In the fictional Star Trek universe, the Bajoran wormhole is a spatial anomaly located within 160,000,000 kilometres (1.1 au) (DS9 S1Ep2: "Emissary (Part 2)") of the planet Bajor. It appears as an aperture of swirling golden-white light surrounded by blue clouds, which appears whenever a vessel approaches or exits from it and disappears again afterwards. The wormhole can only be traversed by ships traveling at impulse (sub-light speed) velocities.
The Bajoran wormhole is discovered in the first episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It is found to connect the Bajor-B'Hava'el system in the Alpha Quadrant to the Idran system in the Gamma Quadrant,[3] which are seventy thousand light-years apart. Due to the strategic importance of such a phenomenon, the Deep Space Nine space station is moved out of Bajor's orbit and repositioned 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from the wormhole, where it acts as a gateway.
Starfleet Commander Benjamin Sisko and Lieutenant Jadzia Dax are the first people to make contact with the wormhole's mysterious creators, who dwell inside it. Though these incorporeal beings are simply referred to as "wormhole aliens" by the Federation, they are revered as Prophets in the Bajoran religion, and the wormhole itself is referred to as the "Celestial Temple". It is these "Prophets" who provided the Orb-like energy artifacts (or "Tears of the Prophets") to the Bajorans, and these mystical artifacts are the basis of Bajoran religion. Via one of the Orbs, the wormhole is closed by one of the Pah Wraiths, malevolent non-corporeal beings who are enemies of the Prophets. The wormhole is later restored via an additional Orb discovered by Sisko, who is prophesied to be the Prophets' Emissary.
In the Star Trek universe, the Galactic Barrier (also referred to as the Great Barrier or Energy Barrier) is an energy field that surrounds the Milky Way Galaxy. The field completely encompasses the galactic disk, preventing a conventional starship from traveling beyond the edge of the galaxy. It is not clear whether the energy barrier is a natural or artificially created phenomenon.
Although numerous attempts to travel outside the galaxy are made, with various degrees of success, the barrier usually damages or destroys ships that try to pass through it. It also has psychoactive effects; some personnel gain powerful telekinetic and telepathic abilities when traveling near the barrier (as seen in "Where No Man Has Gone Before").
The barrier appears as a pink band of light and, upon entering it, a ship is surrounded by dazzling clouds of colorful energy. Inside the barrier, a ship's engines shut down and navigational systems become erratic.
The Galactic Barrier makes its first appearance in the original series episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before", in which the crew of the USS Enterprise must deal with those affected by the psychic powers of the field—as did the crew of the ill-fated SS Valiant, which encountered the same barrier two centuries earlier.
The barrier is encountered again in the episode "Is There in Truth No Beauty?", where the Enterprise becomes lost within the barrier and is saved by the astounding navigational skills of an alien passenger.
The barrier had also damaged an alien ship from outside the galaxy, as explained in the episode "By Any Other Name", stranding the aliens until they try to steal the Enterprise and return to their home galaxy, Andromeda.
In Star Trek: Discovery season 4, the USS Discovery must venture past the galactic barrier in the 32nd century to make contact with an alien race known as Species 10-C who are using a gravitational anomaly to mine boronite from the Milky Way galaxy, threatening the existence of anything that crosses its path. By this point in time, the energies of the galactic barrier had grown strong enough that shields were actually weakened by passing through, forcing the crew to find and hide in bubbles of stable space to enact repairs before continuing their travels. After Discovery convinced Species 10-C to stand down, the aliens used their wormhole to return Discovery to Earth, negating the need for travel back through the barrier.
In the Star Trek: Discovery series finale "Life, Itself," Discovery used its spore drive to send a Breen dreadnaught and scout ship to the galactic barrier. Commander Rayner noted that it would take a couple of decades for the ships to return, but the crews would survive.
A second barrier at the core of the Milky Way is first revealed in the motion picture Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Being the only encounter ever shown, the only known reference is the "Great Barrier". This energy barrier at the core is thought to be impenetrable like the one at the edge of the galaxy; however, it is revealed that only mankind's natural fear of the unknown is keeping mankind from entering it.
Various books try to explain the existence of the galactic barrier, although none of these are canonical:
Nekrit Expanse[edit]
The Nekrit Expanse is a vast unpopulated nebular region in the Delta Quadrant, several thousand light years across. It is impossible to chart due to its constantly changing structure. As a result of its size, the Expanse functions as a natural barrier, limiting contact between species on either side of the cloud. The USS Voyager enters the expanse in 2373.[12][13]
Spatial anomaly[edit]
In Star Trek and other science fiction, a spatial anomaly (or, often, a sub-space anomaly) is a broad term for any sort of extraordinary disruption in the space-time continuum. It may take the form of irregularities in gravity, ripples in space that can damage equipment and personnel, alterations in the laws of physics, and areas of disruption inimical to the human brain.
The Delphic Expanse was rife with such distortions generated by spheres which reconfigured space to resemble the Sphere Builders' transdimensional realm.
Other episodes featuring spatial anomalies are "Disaster", which features two quantum filaments that temporarily cripple the Enterprise, the series finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation (in which the USS Enterprise-D encounters a "multiphasic temporal convergence in the spacetime continuum", caused by "an eruption of anti-time"), and "One Small Step" (in which the USS Voyager discovers a rare "graviton ellipse").