Daystrom Institute
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Serious, in-depth discussion about Star Trek from both in-universe and real world perspectives.
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Episode Guides
The /r/DaystromInstitute wiki held a number of popular Star Trek watch guides. We have rehosted them here:
- Kraetos’ guide to Star Trek (the original series)
- Algernon_Asimov’s guide to Star Trek: The Animated Series
- Algernon_Asimov’s guide to Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Algernon_Asimov’s guide to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Darth_Rasputin32898’s guide to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- OpticalData’s guide to Star Trek: Voyager
- petrus4’s guide to Star Trek: Voyager
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I can't recall a single time it's been referenced on-screen, but the TNG Technical Manual says they primarily get their antimatter from good, old-fashioned tankers that deliver antideuterium from generation facilities orbiting stars throughout the Federation.
On-board antimatter generation is possible, but is extremely inefficient, consuming 10 units of deuterium to produce one unit of antimatter, and is generally a last-resort option.
I like this stuff a lot - I think it makes the universe seem a bit grittier and less "magical" - and it's a shame we never really get to see it.
There was a time, mostly in the early seasons, where most episodes end with Picard ordering the ship to a Starbase.
Effectively, "Wow. That was busy. Time to fill er up after all that"
One of the things Gene was adamant about was not letting TNG lean on stories about running out of fuel. It had been done so many times in TOS. He wanted the 80-year gap to “solve” that issue.
This is also why the Enterprise-D can regenerate its dilithium. No more “OMG, we don’t have enough dilithium to go to warp!” moments. Which is why you have that moment in Relics when Scotty thinks the crystals are about to fracture and Geordi has to explain to him that they get regenerated inside the chamber.
So it does happen, the Enterprise regularly pulls into a station to get more anti-matter and deuterium, we just never see it because the show is suppose to be about more interesting things.
Like ghost candles.
I've only glanced at the technical manual, but I must've missed the part about the tankers. Makes sense and isn't far off from my assumption about generating it at starbases and refueling ships when they're docked.
That part I do recall. Which is why I was thinking that, in Voyager's case with it being a more advanced ship, that the efficiency might have possibly improved to the point it was viable as a primary source. Or maybe "stranded 75,000 light years from home" counts as a last resort and why they seem to ration their deuterium supply.
Agreed. Deuterium can be collected from just about anywhere in space (nebulae being the most useful), dilithium is mined, but antimatter is just "there" as far as on-screen explanations go.