Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Summary
The self - sealing stem thunderbolt is a long - running jape inStar Trek : Deep Space Nine , but nobody can figure out what it ’s used for . introduce inStar Trek : DS9season 1 , sequence 15 , " Progress " , the self - seal stem bolt would be regularly cite during the show ’s seven - time of year test . However , despite all these references , DS9has never explained what they are or how they work beyond the fact that they varnish themselves . They became such a infamous MacGuffin throughoutDS9that self - seal root word bolts have also drink down up once or twice in the modernStar Trekfranchise .
InStar Trek : Deep Space Nineseason 1 , episode 15 , " Progress " , Nog ( Aron Eisenberg ) and Jake Sisko ( Cirroc Lofton ) come into possession of a hundred gross self - sealing stem bolts . It ’s part of a elevated scheme byfuture Starfleet officeholder Nogto prove his aptitude for line . Having exchanged five thousand containers of Cardassian yamok sauce ordered in error by Rom ( Max Grodénchik ) , Nog and Jake then have to offload their ego - sealing stem bolts . They finally find a buyer for the bolt , even if nobody , including Chief Miles O’Brien ( Colm Meaney ) bang how they ’re used .
DS9’s Self-Sealing Stem Bolts Gag Explained
Peter Allan Fields save " Progress " , and therefore createdStar Trek : Deep Space Nine ’s self - sealing stem bolts . As with manyStar Trekinventions , the stem bolts are pure technobabble , and have no software in either genuine world , or fictional science . Fields admitted that he had n’t the thin estimate what they were used for , or how they worked . He strictly want a sci - fi name for an apparently useless and bothersome cargo for Nog and Jake to inherit . Peter Allan Fields leftStar Trek : Deep Space Nineafter time of year 2 , returning to write " For the Uniform " and submit the account for one ofCaptain Sisko ’s bestDS9episodes"In the Pale Moonlight . "
As a nod to the sidetrack Fields , Ira Steven Behr later revealed that theStar Trek : Deep Space Ninewriters ' elbow room kept using the self - sealing stem bolt in testimonial to the writer . Brilliantly , DS9 ’s ego - varnish shank bolt on the Q.T. meet a small office in Chief O’Brien ’s fictitious character arc . In " Progress , " he admits to Jake and Nog that he ’s seldom seen one in action and does n’t have a clue how they ’re used . firm - forward toDS9 ’s finale , when discussing his unexampled teaching office at Starfleet Academy , Chief O’Brien proudly tell that he fuck " a warp ground substance magnetic field condenser and a ego - sealing stem bolt of lightning . "
Star Trek Still Uses DS9’s Self-Sealing Stem Bolts
Hilariously , the strange legacy of Peter Allan Fields and his self - sealing stem bolts carry on into modernStar Trek . InStar Trek : Lower Decksseason 4 , there was a ironical jape about Fields ' macrocosm . InLower Decksseason 4 , episode 6 , " Parth Ferengi ’s Heart Place " , Lt . third-year ground level Brad Boimler ( Jack Quaid ) found Lt . junior grade Beckett Mariner ( Tawny Newsome ) weathering a self - seal fore thunderbolt . Sensing that Mariner ’s mind was elsewhere , Boimler joked that she ’d " been weathering that theme dash for so long it in all likelihood ca n’t even self - seal anymore . "
amazingly , Star Trek : Deep Space Nine ’s ego - sealing fore bolts are still in employment in the thirty-second century . InStar Trek : Discoveryseason 3 , instalment 6 , " scavenger " , it ’s revealed that traders are still selling ego - sealing stem bolts , even though they ’re seen as antiques . Scavengers would loot destroyed starship for various valuable antiques to be sold elsewhere , and there was clearly a market for ego - seal base bolts . If ego - seal stalk bolts made it to the thirty-second century , then it ’s potential that Peter Allan Fields ' nonsense initiation will persist in to seem inStar Trekfor eld to amount .
