Star Trek: Discovery Finally Reveals What Happened After TNG’s “The Chase”

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 3 - "Jinaal"

Summary Discovery season 5 continues the chase for Progenitors' technology, introduced in TNG's "The Chase".

Janaal reveals how Federation handled Progenitor discovery, keeping technology hidden for peace.

The Federation's past missteps led to hesitation in trusting Starfleet with powerful technology.

Star Trek: The Next Generation's "The Chase" introduced some big ideas to the Star Trek universe that Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is finally following up on. Discovery season 5 involves a literal chase in Star Trek's 32nd century, as Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the crew of the USS Discovery race to find the Progenitors' treasure before the villainous Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis). Although unnamed at the time, the Progenitors were first introduced in TNG season 6, episode 20, "The Chase," when Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) helped uncover a message left by one of the ancient humanoids.

In Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 3, "Jinaal," written by Kyle Jarrow and Lauren Wilkinson and directed by Andi Armaganian, Captain Burnham and her crew continue to gather the puzzle pieces that will presumably lead them to the Progenitors' technology. This journey takes the USS Discovery to the planet Trill, where Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz) acts as a host for the consciousness of an 800-year-old Trill named Jinaal Bix. Jinaal reveals more information about what happened after Picard received the Progenitors' message in the 24th century. While "The Chase" explained why many Star Trek aliens are humanoid, the implications of Picard's discovery were never fully explored.

The Federation didn't ignore Captain Picard's discovery.

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When Captain Picard unlocked the Progenetors' message in Star Trek: The Next Generation's "The Chase," the Cardassians, Klingons, and Romulans also had representatives present. In the message, the ancient humanoid (Salome Jens) revealed that Progenitor "scientists seeded the primordial oceans of many worlds," meaning all humanoid life originated from a single ancestor. The Progenitors hoped this information would bring peace among humanoid species, but the Cardassians and Klingons reacted negatively to the message. Nevertheless, the United Federation of Planets and many other species would undoubtedly be interested in these Progenitors and the technology that allowed them to create all humanoid life.

The Federation President during Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was Jaresh-Inyo (Herschel Sparber), and he may have been who oversaw finding the Progenitors' technology.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is finally addressing this mystery, and Janaal reveals more about how the Federation responded to the discovery of the Progenitors. The Federation President secretly assembled a team of six scientists from different Federation and non-Federation worlds, including Janaal and the Romulan Dr. Vellek (Michael Copeman), to research the Progenitors and the message Picard found. This team eventually found a technology "beyond anything [they had] ever seen," but one of the scientists was horribly killed when he tried to activate it. The scientists then made a pact that they would do everything in their power to keep the Progenitors' technology hidden until some future date when the galaxy was at peace.

Janaal does not reveal the names of the other scientists, and he says that they removed their names from "every database [they] could access." This explains why these characters and their mission have never been mentioned in Star Trek before.

How “The Chase” Tied Into DS9’s Dominion War & Star Trek: Insurrection

Why didn't Jinaal give the Progenitor technology to the Federation?

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After Jinaal reveals how he and his fellow scientists hid the Progenitor technology, Captain Burnham asks why they didn't give it to the Federation. Jinaal responds that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Dominion War was raging at the time, so "everyone saw an enemy in everyone else." Despite the trust Michael places in the Federation and Starfleet, these organizations have not always been above reproach. During the Dominion War, there were fears that Changelings could infiltrate the Federation even at the highest levels, but it wasn't just Changelings that posed a threat. In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 4, episode 11, "Homefront," and episode 12, "Paradise Lost," for example, Admiral Leyton (Robert Foxworth) staged a coup against Federation President Jaresh-Inyo.

Starfleet could not be trusted with technology as powerful as the Progenitors'.

Leyton's plan to initiate a military takeover of Earth ultimately failed, but it proved that Starfleet could not be trusted with technology as powerful as the Progenitors'. In Star Trek: Insurrection, another Starfleet flag officer, Admiral Dougherty (Anthony Zerbe), attempted to forcibly move the peaceful Ba'ku people in order to access the healing properties of the area of space known as the Briar Patch. The Federation of the 32nd century in Star Trek: Discovery seems better prepared to safeguard the Progenitors' technology, but the high-stakes treasure hunt still has everyone on edge.

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