10 Most Annoying Unanswered Questions In Star Trek

Star Trek: Picard's second season closed with the episode Farewell. We saw the supposed death of Q, the return of our friends to their normal time periods, and Agnes Juratti's ascension to the Borg Throne. Behind all of this was a new Borg ship, perched at the mouth of a brand-new transwarp corridor.

This corridor created a discharge that, were it not for the combined Borg and Starfleet shields, could have caused significant damage to the Alpha Quadrant. Our resolution of the threat was not a resolution of the mystery and the season ended without an answer. One would assume that the third and final season would pick up on this. One would be mistaken.

There is hardly a mention of the corridor again, save for Shaw's reference to 'that weird shit on the Stargazer.' Though there were originally plans to link this corridor with the Borg Queen, they never came together. As it stands, Picard presents two entirely separate Borg Collective stories (three, if one counts the ex-Bs on the Artefact) with various answers, though this corridor remains a mystery to be unravelled. It just won't be done in Star Trek: Picard.

Turkana IV was the colony from which Tasha and Ishara Yar hail, described as a 'failed' Earth colony. In Section 31, Jamie Lee Curtis's Control assigns the team a visit to this colony in 2323, the decade before Tasha (the elder sister) was born. Until the TV movie's release, very little was known about this planet or its people.

The government began to break down in the 2330s - less than a decade after Alok Sahar, Philipa Georgiou, Quasi, and Lieutenant Commander Rachel Garrett paid their visit. Although not spoken aloud, are the audience to infer that it was a team from Section 31 that destabilised the planet? And if that was the case, was a Starfleet officer directly involved?

Tasha Yar hasn't appeared, outside of some holorecordings, since All Good Things and Ishara Yar only appeared in Legacy. Although that latter episode included a trip to the planet itself, it remains an oft-discussed but little-seen world. Have these humans been completely abandoned by the Federation? Was this done at the behest of Section 31? What, if anything, did they do to deserve it? 

Turkana IV is a tantalising mystery wrapped in a frustrating lack of answers.

Terry Matalas knew exactly what he was doing when he included this little gem in Star Trek: Picard's third season episode The Bounty. As Worf, Raffi, and Riker make their way through Daystrom Station, they happen to pass a unit containing the body of James T. Kirk. While that could have been Cetacean Observation enough, the fine print reads: Project Phoenix.

When pressed on why this was included, Matalas was blunt, claiming Kirk's death in Generations wasn't handled in a satisfying way, though pressed that including Kirk's body was not a sign that Kirk himself would return in Picard (which indeed he didn't).

As it stands, this is a dangling thread left open. Why retrieve Kirk's body? Why store it on Daystrom? Why even tease the thought of a revivification? As there are currently no plans for Star Trek: Legacy (that we are aware of) this seems like a throwaway gag that blasted the hivemind thoughts into overdrive. Why, for canon's sake, is any of this a thing?

Then again, if OTOY's 765874 Unification is, in fact, canon, Kirk may very well be up and walking. Consider that hornet's nest well and truly kicked. 

One of the cooler, if a little confusing, things introduced in Star Trek: Picard was the portal weapon, stolen from Daystrom Station, by Vadic and her crew of Changelings. It is used to great effect against the USS Titan-A, forcing the ship to fly in loops and even to fire on itself, almost crippling the Starfleet vessel.

While the visuals of the scenes are definitely engaging, one is left wondering - what was the point of this new piece of technology? It seemed like the perfect invention for a gang of terrorists, either by using it in space or on a planet's surface. While something like this seems perfect for Romulan or even Orion fleets, why was Starfleet developing it?

The logical answer here is that it was never intended to be a weapon. Vadic must have stolen it earlier than any planned release, so the range that she was able to employ was much smaller. If this is the case, was this an experiment in wormhole technology? It seems fairly stable, if a little short-range. Was this an attempt to fix those mistakes of the past and usher in a new era of modern propulsion? 

The return of the Enterprise-D in Vōx was the correct decision for Star Trek: Picard and The Next Generation crew. In doing this, the show had to address the absence of the Enterprise-E, introduced in First Contact to replace its destroyed predecessor. Rather than identify the location, the show opted for a gag, while Worf asserted that its fate 'was not his fault.'

That's all well and good but where is it? It was at least present at the battle with the Living Construct in 2383 and while it sustained significant damage, the ship was not declared lost. The jovial discussion about the ship's fate also suggests that an attack this devastating was hardly the Enterprise-E's final mission.

So, where is it? The question was left open in Star Trek: Picard, but with it being an Enterprise, having a definite answer seems a prerequisite. The Enterprise-B was given something of an ending via the literary universe and so it seems may be the case with the E now too. 

Broken Bow introduced the Temporal Cold War, a great series of conflicts that were fought through time. Over the course of Star Trek: Enterprise's run, the audience was teased with more information, as well as future guys and space vampires, but the fighting was never shown on screen.

Jumping ahead, fittingly, to Star Trek: Discovery's third season and beyond, it was revealed that the Temporal Cold War gave way to the Temporal Wars themselves, culminating in the Temporal Accords - banning time travel forever. While that made the USS Discovery's existence in the 32nd Century a bit of a problem, it was a frustrating way to summarise the topic.

We know Agent Daniels was involved. We know the Guardian of Forever (more on that later) was involved. We know the Na'khul were involved. We know the Suliban were involved. We know the Sphere Builders were involved. After that, it becomes murky. How, too, does one fight across time? Would every battle undo any previous combat? How can anyone actually win a Temporal War? 

It remains one of the most interesting, and least defined, conflicts in Star Trek's long history.

This is an entry of two halves. For the first, we are presented with Robin Curtis's cameo in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Saavik remains behind on Vulcan when Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the crew of the HMS Bounty depart for Earth. Why did she remain? She possibly felt no need to travel back with them as she bore no responsibility for their actions - a coldly logical decision, at least.

This seems at odds with how The Wrath Of Khan and The Search For Spock established Saavik's character. She seemed to at least assume the role that Rand or even Ilia seemed poised to fill before her. Suddenly, she leaves, and nothing more is said.

If, however, we open the floor to expanded canon, we do have an answer to this. She was pregnant with Spock's child, conceived on Genesis, as she guided him through Pon Farr. This was included in the shooting script but never made it to screen - until 2024. In OTOY's 765874 Unification, Saavik is present, as is Sorak - Spock's son. As it stands, this answer is like Project Phoenix - canon if you want it to be, yet just fringe enough to be ignored if you prefer.

What we would like is something more concrete. Saavik was an essential part of the Enterprise crew - why was she suddenly left behind?

Between the first and second seasons of Star Trek: Discovery, CBS introduced the Short Treks. These bitesize episodes offered glimpses into plot threads from Discovery, the upcoming Strange New Worlds, and Picard. Along the way, they delivered one of the strongest stories in years - Calypso.

Zora, the name the USS Discovery's AI mind adopted for itself, explains to Kraft that she has been alone for 1000 years. This was seemingly forgotten when, in Discovery's third season, the ship jumped into the 32nd Century - and underwent a refit to become the Discovery-A. 

The final moments of Life, Itself de-fit the ship to become the original Discovery again. While it seems the loop is closed and the events of Calypso can now take place, there remains the question - why? There is no reason given for any of it. Though this is clearly the result of the series' truncated journey, the promise of Calypso only serves to frustrate the ending of Life, Itself. 

We are certainly glad it was addressed, though one cannot claim to be happy with Zora, sitting out there alone for another thousand years, with no rhyme or reason as to why. 

The Guardian Of Forever remains a mystery, though Terra Firma did go a little bit further towards granting us clarity. First introduced in The City On The Edge Of Forever, it returned in Yesteryear and was originally pitched to return in what would become Yesterday's Enterprise. As Carl, the interactive and humanoid interface, it made its final (to-date) appearance in Terra Firma Part 2.

Carl tells the audience that he moved himself to Dannus V to avoid the abuse of his power by combatants in the Temporal Wars. However, this same conversation includes another revelation - at least in this guise, he can send people across dimensions, as well as through time. This was alluded to by Spock centuries prior, but only then fully realised.

What, then, is he? He claims that he is 'his own beginning and his own end,' but also claims that he was created to show history in a certain way. Has this changed over the centuries? Spock surmised he was at least '10,000 centuries old,' which seems a far longer time to hone a craft than the scant millennium between his first and most recent appearance. 

The Guardian was a fantastic invention by Harlan Ellison - we'd just like to know a lot more about it. 

As of 2025, Star Trek: Voyager received a sort-of sequel with Prodigy, Lower Decks touched on many outstanding threads, Picard offered up a sequel to The Next Generation, and even Enterprise got a touching tribute in Discovery. Despite the valiant efforts of Hear All, Trust Nothing, Deep Space Nine retains one of the biggest dangling threads in Star Trek history.

If the Celestial Temple exists outside of time and space, why hasn't Ben Sisko returned to his family? 

The closing moments of What You Leave Behind make it clear that Sisko can return any time that he wants. While Jake Sisko is a grown man by that point, Kassidy Yates is pregnant with Ben's infant son. In the more than twenty years since, why hasn't Ben come home?

Lower Decks suggests that Sisko is still with the Prophets by 2382, while Colonel Kira remains in command of Deep Space Nine. Has anyone attempted to contact Ben? Has anyone hopped on an Orb call and asked him when he's coming home? Is he even coming home? 

Though the comics have depicted his return, we the audience have yet to see this particular question answered on-screen. It's especially frustrating when it seems like an obvious way to kick-start a revival of the show. The documentary What We Left Behind even posits a potential eighth season beginning with the Sisko back on the Station.

Come on, Star Trek! Give the people what they want - you know how obsessed with Legacy we are.