Spore drive
{{Short description|Fictional spacecraft propulsion system in Star Trek: Discovery}}
File:Paul Stamets with Agarikon.jpg holding Laricifomes officinalis.]]
File:Anthony Rapp SDCC 2017.jpg, who portrays astromycologist Paul Stamets, inspired by the real Stamets.]]
File:Mycelium RH (6).jpg, a common white mushroom, and it's mycelium, visually similar to the branching paths of the mycelial network.]]
The Spore drive—formally known as the Displacement-activated spore hub drive—is a fictional spacecraft propulsion system in the Star Trek universe that enables instantaneous travel across interstellar and interdimensional space via a biologically-based mycelial network. Introduced in the 2017 television series Star Trek: Discovery, the drive links the USS Discovery starship to a newly discovered fungal form of life which exists in multiple universes at the same time. This allows the Discovery to "jump" instantly to any point in the galaxy or parallel universes without moving through intervening space.
Unlike traditional Star Trek propulsion systems—such as impulse drives or warp drives, which move ships through space at sublight or faster-than-light speeds—the spore drive operates outside conventional physics entirely. It is portrayed in-universe as a technological leap on par with the original invention of warp travel. Due to biological constraints, ethical complications, and strategic risks, the system was classified by Starfleet and never adopted fleetwide, explaining its absence from other Star Trek television series. The concept was partly inspired by real-world mycologist Paul Stamets, whose name and work informed the fictional astromycologist featured in the show. Scientists, critics, and scholars have interpreted the drive through lenses of theoretical physics, mycology, and environmental allegory, making it one of Star Trek's most ambitious and debated inventions.
Background
Within Star Trek, a variety of spacecraft propulsion systems have been depicted. The most common are the impulse drive and the warp drive, the propulsion method most closely associated with the franchise. Other depicted faster-than-light travel methods were typically unique, such as a single traversable wormhole in Star Trek:Deep Space Nine, or exotic technologies unavailable for routine usage by characters.
The impulse drives, generally depicted as being fusion powered standard thrust engines, can propel a ship to a maximum of one quarter the speed of light at full power. The impulse system avoids issues with relativistic mechanics in Star Trek through some of its design aspects. The warp drive is Star Trek's main fictional faster-than-light method of travel. Reminiscent of the speculative Alcubierre drive, a warp drive allows a ship to achieve faster-than-light travel through direct manipulation of space around the craft. Both create a "warp bubble" that moves space around a vessel, rather than the vessel moving through space.
Star Trek: Discovery's spore drive was presented as the third major form of spacecraft propulsion, and a major in-universe scientific breakthrough, considered on par with the original development of warp travel. The spore drive is depicted as the only Star Trek propulsion system that is both reliable and instant. The science of the spore drive is based on theories of fictional astromycologist and Starfleet officer Paul Stamets. The in-universe science states that at the quantum level, biology and physics are one and the same. A space-based fungus named Prototaxites stellaviatori is discovered that exists both within normal space time and extra dimensions, which Stamets calls the "veins and muscles" of the galaxy, and is a possible progenitor of panspermia.
Depiction
Beginning ten years before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series, the spore drive and Discovery are first presented as unreliable experimental technologies, though Discovery with the assistance of Stamets and the Spore drive later help to avert various crises throughout the series. During the Star Trek: Discovery series, characters are told how the spore drive works when first experiencing it. In the Star Trek: Discovery season 2 episode "New Eden", captain Christopher Pike summarized it as:
{{cquote|If you’re telling me that this ship can skip across the universe on a highway made of mushrooms, I kind of have to go on faith.}}
When controlled by an appropriate navigator, a specially designed starship--such as the USS Discovery--could enter into the "mycelial network", which is composed entirely of P. stellaviatori, emerging instantly anywhere else, regardless of distance. The mycelial network reached any location in all universes, including Star Trek's Mirror Universe, fueled by spores of the fungus. The mycelial network appears as a web-like thread of fibers. According to mycologist Lynne Boddy, the mycelial network visually echoes real-life underground mycorrhizal networks, albeit on a galactic scale.
To navigate a spore drive requires "seeing" the connections of the network in ways even future computers cannot handle. Initially, Starfleet is unable to safely use the spore drive for long-range travel, being limited to short jumps. The sister ship of the Discovery, the USS Glenn, is destroyed when first attempting a longer jump due to unproven navigation. Later, Discovery encounters an alien creature visually similar to a large Earth tardigrade, with a natural ability to navigate the mycelial network. Stamets integrates the creature's DNA into himself—similarly to horizontal gene transfer—and gains the same ability, allowing him to safely jump Discovery to any point in the galaxy. Spore jumps were signified by the ship's commander calling for a "black alert", similar to Star Trek's "red alert". Discovery's saucer body spins during the spore drive activation, as "rings surrounding the ship’s saucer ... begin to rotate as the ship 'spore jumps'."
Within the Star Trek franchise, after the events of season 2, the Discovery is removed from its then-current year of 2259, time traveling forward irrevocably to the year 3188 for seasons 3-5 and the rest of the Star Trek: Discovery series. In the final scenes set in the 23rd century, the Discovery and spore drive projects are left heavily classified, with only a handful of living people alive with knowledge of the ship's true fate until Discovery's arrival in the 32nd century. The in-universe history recorded Discovery lost with all hands as the Glenn was, explaining why the convenience of the spore drive was not a factor in Star Trek stories outside of Star Trek: Discovery. By the end of Star Trek: Discovery in the far future, the United Federation of Planets learns members of a sentient alien species are able to navigate the spore drive, allowing Stamets to at last retire with Discovery remaining in service. Starfleet is ultimately unable to replicate Discovery's technology outside of her unique circumstances, leaving it the only known spore drive starship as of the 42nd century, two millennium after she first jumped.
Design and production
File:Black Alert sequence from Star Trek Discovery S02E02.webm's unused designs for Planet of the Titans. The lighting, set transitions, and visual effects are discussed in the design and production section.]]
The spore drive was first introduced in Star Trek: Discovery's fourth episode of the first season, "The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry", in 2017.
Aaron Harberts, Star Trek: Discovery's then-showrunner, discussed the origins of the spore drive with Reactor Magazine in 2018. Real-world mycologist Paul Stamets and his sixth book Mycelium Running were cited as a particular influence, which examined concepts of fungus-based bioremediation, called mycoremediation. Harberts acknowledged that the writers would need to address why such a powerful propulsion system disappears from later canon, noting that the entire program might be "classified" by Starfleet—which is exactly what happened.
During early pre-production, co-creator Bryan Fuller asked the art team to make the ship itself "explain" its exotic propulsion. Production designers Mark Worthington and Todd Cherniawsky therefore revived Ralph McQuarrie's never-used double-disc Enterprise concept from Planet of the Titans:
{{cquote|We have two discs, an outer ring and the inner saucer section... it became the visual expression of the new drive system. That saucer pivots whenever the drive system is engaged.}}
Bringing the “jump” to life required a hybrid of practical and digital effects. On set, more than 500 individually-wired LEDs and a DMX network allowed the production team to trigger the teal-and-black lighting cue that signals "black alert." Computer-generated imagery animators later added the ring-spin and flash in post-production. Graphics lead Tim Peel noted that up to twenty layers of practical screens run simultaneously on the bridge so that actors are "really inside the effect," reducing the amount of compositing needed during each jump sequence. Set designer Matt Morgan added that the underslung bridge and surrounding ring forced builders to raise the entire room twelve feet above the stage floor, allowing cameras to track the saucer’s rotation.
Sciences
File:Cladosporium sphaerospermum colony.jpg, a radiotrophic fungus first described in 1886.]]
Writing in Reactor, Jonathan Alexandratos explores overlaps between the works of both the real-life and fictional Stamets, particularly how mycoremediation concepts are integral to the story mechanics of the mycelial network and factor into the story in several season 2 episodes of Star Trek: Discovery. Alexandratos also raises the concept of using the mycelium to terraform a planet, which Doug Bonderud similarly highlights in an article for aerospace manufacturer Northrop Grumman. He further discusses the implications of the network drawing life into itself, spreading it elsewhere, and its potential to heal or repair harm. The last is seen in similar real-life sciences, such as radiotrophic fungus in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster.
Ethan Siegel, an astrophysicist writing for Forbes, examined the theoretical plausibility of the spore drive using concepts from modern physics. He proposed that the drive's effect could be explained by invoking a fourth spatial dimension—allowing a ship to leave three-dimensional space, travel a short distance in this higher dimension, and reenter elsewhere nearly instantaneously. He framed this mechanism as analogous to treating "subspace" in the franchise as a hidden extra dimension, thus giving the spore network a semi-credible scientific analog. However, Siegel was also critical of the series’ decision to base such advanced mechanics on a biological mechanism, noting it would have been more plausible had it involved exotic particles or energy fields.
Evelyn Koch of the University of Marburg analyzes the spore drive narrative in Star Trek: Discovery as presenting the tardigrade's forced role as a navigator as an ethically troubling form of symbiosis, the effects of Stamets’s DNA modification as leading to a partial upload of his consciousness into the network, and the mycelial network itself as a morally unclassifiable, alien intelligence that resists human-centered interpretation.
Steven Salzberg, a computational biologist, was dismissive of the spore drive concept, calling it "laughably ridiculous" compared to the merely "physically implausible" warp drive. Salzberg was also critical of the plotline where Stamets obtained mycelial network navigation abilities from space tardigrade DNA via horizontal gene transfer. The likely origin of the tardigrade DNA story, Salzberg theorized, was a controversial 2015 scientific publication that claimed real tardigrades could absorb foreign DNA into themselves, which was disproven afterward in the same journal. The tardigrade DNA in question was reported to be only contaminated specimens.
Cornell University media scholar Karen Pinkus argues that the spore drive embodies a fantasy of ecological redemption, free from the compromises of real-world energy transitions. She notes that, unlike current biofuels, the spores in Discovery "don't emit any byproducts, harmful or otherwise" and "are not used up in combustion," describing the system as "a nice immersive fantasy" offering escapism from "unbearable realities today." Pinkus critiques the spore drive as a speculative fuel fantasy that risks reinforcing complacency in the face of climate crisis. She warns that it may serve as "a narrative of progress" allowing viewers to "defer now, in the present, any radical shifts in how we produce and consume energy," echoing what she calls "the tyranny of common sense" surrounding future fuels.
Reception
The University of Warwick's Elizabeth Stanway situates Star Trek: Discovery within a science fiction tradition of depicting collective, sentient ecosystems. She discusses the mycelial-based entities in Sheri S. Tepper's Raising the Stones (1990), which develop "as a mycelial network which feeds (initially) on a dead human being," eventually guiding inhabitants on "some instinctual, subconscious level." Stanway notes fears within the story of "the corruption of free will and the threat to their self-determination." Stanway notes that similar ideas of a planetary biological network appear in Avatar (2009) and its sequel, where characters interact with the biosphere via symbiotic neural connections to the goddess-like entity Eywa.
Bettina Wurche in a ScienceBlogs piece about Star Trek: Discovery and mycology highlighted a comparison between the concept of the Discovery navigator with Frank Herbert's Dune series, where a far-future Spacing Guild is able to "fold space" to achieve interstellar travel by use of the spice melange. Herbert notes in 1965's Dune that a pre-spice mass derives from a "fungusoid wild growth".
Alexandratos in Reactor also frames the mycelial network as a "narrative agent" that is not only alive, but capable of both ecological destruction and resurrection, paralleling themes of sentient omniscience. He notes the narrative risk of Stamets becoming "too powerful" through his bond with the network, raising questions about power, agency, and narrative control.
See also
- Mycorestoration – fungal-based environmental restoration
- Mycorrhizal bioremediation – using symbiotic fungi to detoxify ecosystems
- Technology in Star Trek#Subspace – Star Trek's core faster-than-light communication and travel medium
References
{{Reflist|refs=
{{cite book | last1=Sternbach | first1=Rick | authorlink1=Rick Sternbach | last2=Okuda | first2=Michael | authorlink2=Michael Okuda | title=Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual | title-link=Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual | publisher=Pocket Books | location=New York | year=1991 | isbn=0-671-70427-3 | oclc=24648561}}
{{cite book | last1=Zimmerman | first1=Herman | authorlink1=Herman Zimmerman | last2=Sternbach | first2=Rick | authorlink2=Rick Sternbach | last3=Drexler | first3=Doug | authorlink3=Doug Drexler | title=Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual | title-link=Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual | publisher=Pocket Books | location=New York | year=1998 | isbn=9780671015633}}
{{cite episode | title=New Eden | series=Star Trek: Discovery | series-link=Star Trek: Discovery | season=2 | number=2 | network=CBS All Access | airdate=2019-01-24 | quote=If you’re telling me that this ship can skip across the universe on a highway made of mushrooms, I kind of have to go on faith.}}
{{cite conference|last1=Koch|first1=Evelyn|title=Weird Fungi in Space – The Mycelium Network as the Other in Star Trek: Discovery|book-title=Fantastic Beasts, Monstrous Cyborgs, Aliens and Other Spectres: Alterity in Fantasy and Science Fiction|publisher=Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg|location=Freiburg, Germany|date=19–20 October 2018|url=https://www.academia.edu/38394751|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250525230116/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331224496_Weird_Fungi_in_Space_-_The_Mycelium_Network_as_the_Other_in_Star_Trek_Discovery|archive-date=2025-05-25|url-status=live|quote=a semi-fictitious fungal species called prototaxites stellaviatori which by means of their invisible mycelium network enable spaceships to jump through the universe and even to parallel universes, a method referred to as ‘organic propulsion system’ in the series.}}
{{Cite web|date=2018-06-11|title=Are Parallel Universes Real? Star Trek Technology and the Science of Spore Drives|last1=Bonderud|first1=Doug |url=https://now.northropgrumman.com/are-parallel-universes-real-star-trek-technology-and-the-science-of-spore-drives|url-status=live|website=Northrop Grumman|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180616042840/https://now.northropgrumman.com/are-parallel-universes-real-star-trek-technology-and-the-science-of-spore-drives|archive-date=2018-06-16}}
{{Cite web|date=2024-12-15|title=Nature's Science Fictional Internet| last1=Stanway|first1=Elizabeth|url=https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/research/astro/people/stanway/sciencefiction/cosmicstories/natures_sf_internet|url-status=live|website=University of Warwick|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241114000835/https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/research/astro/people/stanway/sciencefiction/cosmicstories/natures_sf_internet|archive-date=2024-11-14}}
{{Cite web|date=2017-10-02|title=The Suspect Science Of Star Trek: Discovery, 'Context Is For Kings,' Season 1, Episode 3| last1=Siegel|first1=Ethan|authorlink1=Ethan Siegel|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/10/02/the-suspect-science-of-star-trek-discovery-context-is-for-kings-season-1-episode-3/|url-status=live|website=Forbes|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219200338/https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/10/02/the-suspect-science-of-star-trek-discovery-context-is-for-kings-season-1-episode-3/|archive-date=2018-02-19}}
{{Cite web|date=2019-01-15|title=A Fifth Dimension Could Make Star Trek Discovery's Spore Drive Physically Possible| last1=Siegel|first1=Ethan|authorlink1=Ethan Siegel|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2019/01/15/a-fifth-dimension-could-make-star-trek-discoverys-spore-drive-physically-possible/|url-status=live|website=Forbes|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240728175650/https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2019/01/15/a-fifth-dimension-could-make-star-trek-discoverys-spore-drive-physically-possible/|archive-date=2024-07-28}}
{{Cite web|date=2017-10-30|title=New 'Star Trek' Series Makes Massive Science Blunder| last1=Salzberg|first1=Steven|authorlink1=Steven Salzberg|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2017/10/30/new-star-trek-series-makes-massive-science-blunder/|url-status=live|website=Forbes|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240130081200/https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2017/10/30/new-star-trek-series-makes-massive-science-blunder/|archive-date=2024-01-30}}
{{Cite web|date=2023-01-26|title=Discovery's Spore Drive Is Better Than Star Trek's Traditional Warp| last1=Orquiola| first1=John|url=https://screenrant.com/star-trek-discovery-spore-drive-better-warp|url-status=live|website=Screen Rant|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230629002329/https://screenrant.com/star-trek-discovery-spore-drive-better-warp/|archive-date=2023-06-29}}
{{Cite web|date=2023-01-26|title=Why Starfleet Didn't Remake Discovery's Spore Drive In Star Trek: The Original Series & TNG| last1=Orquiola| first1=John|url=https://screenrant.com/star-trek-starfleet-not-remake-spore-drive-discovery|url-status=live|website=Screen Rant|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241124034805/https://screenrant.com/star-trek-starfleet-not-remake-spore-drive-discovery|archive-date=2024-11-24}}
{{Cite web|date=2024-04-21|title=Stamets Has Tardigrade DNA? Star Trek: Discovery's Spore Drive Navigator Explained| last1=Watson| first1=Jen|url=https://screenrant.com/star-trek-discovery-stamets-tardigrade-dna-spore-drive-explained|url-status=live|website=Screen Rant|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240421211302/https://screenrant.com/star-trek-discovery-stamets-tardigrade-dna-spore-drive-explained/|archive-date=2024-04-21}}
{{Cite web|date=2024-04-21|title=Star Trek: Discovery's Ending Finally Makes "Calypso" Matter After 6 Years| last1=Watson| first1=Jen|url=https://screenrant.com/star-trek-discovery-ending-makes-calypso-matter/|url-status=live|website=Screen Rant|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240602202627/https://screenrant.com/star-trek-discovery-ending-makes-calypso-matter/|archive-date=2024-06-02}}
{{Cite web|date=2024-06-05|title=Star Trek: Discovery Ends With 1 Last Spore Drive Mystery| last1=Watson| first1=Jen|url=https://screenrant.com/star-trek-discovery-ending-spore-drive-navigator-mystery/|url-status=live|website=Screen Rant|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240606010932/https://screenrant.com/star-trek-discovery-ending-spore-drive-navigator-mystery/|archive-date=2024-06-06}}
{{Cite web|date=2017-11-18|title="Star Trek: Discovery" and the Dream of Future Fuels|last1=Pinkus|first1=Karen |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/star-trek-discovery-and-the-dream-of-future-fuels|access-date=2025-05-25|url-status=live|website=Los Angeles Review of Books|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250526014102/https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/star-trek-discovery-and-the-dream-of-future-fuels/|archive-date=2025-05-26}}
{{Cite web|date=2018-02-21|title=Mycelium Running: The Book That May Reveal Where Star Trek: Discovery Goes Next Season|last1=Alexandratos|first1=Jonathan |url=https://reactormag.com/mycelium-running-star-trek-discovery|access-date=2025-05-25|url-status=live|website=Reactor Magazine|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240322135557/https://reactormag.com/mycelium-running-star-trek-discovery/|archive-date=2024-03-22}}
{{Cite web|date=2018-01-03|title=Astromykologie: Der Pilz-Godzilla aus der Eifel und der Sporen-Antrieb der USS "Discovery"|last1=Wurche|first1=Bettina |url=https://scienceblogs.de/meertext/2018/01/03/astromykologie-der-pilz-godzilla-aus-der-eifel-und-der-sporen-antrieb-der-uss-discovery/?all=1|access-date=2025-05-25|url-status=live|website=ScienceBlogs.de – Meertext|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190425104709/https://scienceblogs.de/meertext/2018/01/03/astromykologie-der-pilz-godzilla-aus-der-eifel-und-der-sporen-antrieb-der-uss-discovery/?all=1|archive-date=2019-04-25| language=de| trans-title=Astromycology: The Mushroom Godzilla from the Eifel and the Spore Drive of the USS “Discovery”}}
{{Cite web|last1=Burt|first1=Kayti|date=2020-10-29|title=Star Trek: Discovery Timeline Breakdown|url=https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/star-trek-discovery-timeline-breakdown/|url-status=live|website=Den of Geek|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200609075038/https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/star-trek-discovery-timeline-breakdown/|archive-date=2020-06-09}}
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External links
- [https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Displacement-activated_spore_hub_drive Displacement-activated spore hub drive] at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
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