What is 'The Burn' in 'Star Trek: Starfleet Academy'?

It all comes down to a substance called dilithium. Dilithium is the mineral in the Star Trek universe that is a necessary component for warp drive. In the year 3064, the Kelpien ship Khi’eth was investigating a world that was a kind of dilithium nursery. The Kelpiens were the same species as Discovery crew member Saru. During the mission, the Khi’eth crashed on a planet called Theta Zeta. This was a world composed of dilithium, sitting at the center of a nebula. One of the Khi’eth’s crew members, Doctor Issa, was pregnant, and later gave birth to a child named Su’Kal. Su’Kal’s cells acclimatized in utero to the dilithium, developing an innate connection to it. Aware that she was dying from radiation poisoning, Issa created a holoprogram to raise young Su’Kal after she died.

In the year 3069, Su’Kal suddenly disengaged from the program. He then became aware of the real world long enough to see his own mother die. The resulting emotional outburst that particular trauma created resulted in a subspace shockwave, causing dilithium everywhere to become inert. Without dilithium, starship warp cores could no longer contain the matter/antimatter energies, and they all exploded at once. All vessels with an active warp core lost their antimatter containment. As a result, millions died across the galaxy as starships burned everywhere across space.

After this incident, the remaining starships got across the galaxy by relying on rare, salvaged dilithium, or by using risky, alternative methods for faster-than-light travel. For decades, no one in the galaxy knew what caused the catastrophic event, now given the name “the Burn.” The Vulcans believed their own experiments at creating something to replace warp drive were behind it, but they were wrong. With interplanetary travel now costly and rare, most of the major member worlds seceded from the Federation, including founding planets like Earth and Vulcan.

In the aftermath of The Burn, the Federation was reduced to a mere 38 member worlds. And Starfleet Headquarters was now a hub in space, instead of on a member planet. A handful of true believers held together the very concept of the Federation. When the starship Discovery arrived from the 23rd century via time travel, they were able to unlock the mystery of the Burn at last. And eventually, they found Su’Kal. The large amount of dilithium discovered throughout Theta Zeta’s planetary structure allowed the galaxy to finally recover after more than a century.

With the mystery of the Burn now solved, and dilithium now plentiful again, the United Federation of Planets began to slowly get back to its former glory. First Earth rejoined, then Vulcan, and later other former members. With Starfleet officially back in business with the Burn behind them, it became time to reopen Starfleet Academy, and usher in a new age of exploration. But for many cadets at the Academy, the memory of the Burn still lingers on. This major catastrophe changed the galaxy, and no one will soon forget its effects.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is now streaming on Paramount+.