Whenever Star Trek introduces a new species, there's always a risk of plot holes forming. For instance, I remember when Enterprise debuted the Denobulans in 2001, and it wasn't made clear why they featured in the 22nd century and then just sort of...disappeared. There have been token efforts to fold them into the continuity at large, but their absence from shows like The Next Generation is pretty obvious. It's the risk of expanding the lore in prequels, I guess.
That being said, Strange New Worlds is also a prequel. Furthermore, the season 4 premiere, "Valles Marineris," is arguably the prequeliest prequel that Star Trek has ever prequeled. The fact that the episode introduces not one, but two new alien species native to the Sol System is a very daring move. Thankfully, because the story is set 65 million years in the past, there is more than enough time between the episode's two time periods for the development to make sense. So, who are the Dol'drm and the ...*checks notes*...Martians?!
Star Trek's Dol'drm & Sol V explained
When the Enterprise is pulled into the very distant past in "Valles Marineris," one of the first things they learn about their immediate surroundings is that there are three M-class planets. There are also too many planets overall for it to be the Sol System. Well, in theory. As it turns out, the Sol System is exactly where Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and his crew find themselves. The three M-class planets are eventually revealed to be Earth, Mars, and the Dol'drm homeworld — only ever referred to as Sol V, due to being the fifth planet from the Sun.
Star Trek Trivia: M-Class Planets are deemed the most comfortably habitable for most humanoid (& other sentient) lifeforms.
The Dol'drm are an insectoid race, believed by the Martians to be evil, monstrous invaders. A Dol'drm ship once landed on Mars and started to infect (possibly terraform?) the surrounding terrain. It was seen as an act of war, and the Martians made it their lives' work to stop the Dol'drm. It was an interplanetary conflict long, long before the formation of the Federation, or even the evolution of the Federation's various species. The episode begins to imply, via Captain Pike's suggestion, that the Dol'drm aren't necessarily the nefarious aggressors they appear to be.
Rather than actively targeting the Martians, the insectoids seem to be attempting to find an alternative to living on Sol V, and their lack of being able to bridge the interspecies communication barrier is interpreted as something more intentionally sinister. The presence of a downed Dol'drm colony ship on Earth certainly supports this theory, at least in part. Regardless, Sol V and the Dol'drm are eradicated in their entirety by the end of "Valles Marineris." As a result, there is no record of them in Star Trek's core eras.
Star Trek's Martians explained
Franchise creator Gene Roddenberry once planned for Spock to be half Martian rather than half Vulcan, but that never came to pass. That was 60 years ago, and Star Trek has since avoided introducing a sentient alien race native to the Red Planet. Instead, Mars has been portrayed largely as it is in the real world. While Star Trek has established that humans have made Mars habitable, it was a barren, dusty wasteland when they arrived. There have been no storylines that reveal the existence of a race of native Martians, long-dead or otherwise.
That's why "Valles Marineris" is such a game-changer. Although the episode's 1-hour runtime doesn't allow for a deep dive into Star Trek's version of Martian culture, we do learn about some key elements of their society. We find out about their blood feud with the Dol'drm, the surprisingly advanced Martian technology, and the extreme measures they're willing to resort to when trying to protect themselves. They don't have Warp technology, though, meaning Captain Pike technically violated the Prime Directive by communicating with them.
Star Trek reveals humanity wouldn't exist without the Dol'drm and the Martians
As it turns out, humanity also wouldn't exist without humanity. It's a wild paradox that sits at the heart of "Valles Marineris," but one that's expertly written. It takes the presence and interaction of all three species for humanity's eventual evolution to be assured. The cost is incredibly high for the other two races that call the Sol System home, though. Let's go through the sequence of events.
The Enterprise arrives 65 million years in the past. The Martians capture the disabled Starfleet vessel and come aboard to assess the threat the crew poses. Captain Pike and company learn about the war between the Martians and the Dol'drm, and offer to help the two races communicate. When the Martian leader, Commander Cassel (Saffron Burrows), finds a 23rd-century image of a barren Mars in the Enterprise's database, she becomes uninterested in exploring diplomatic options, assuming the Dol'drm to be responsible.
With stolen Starfleet technology, Cassel destroys the Dol'drm homeworld in what she believes to be preemptive revenge. Pike realizes that Sol V needs to be destroyed for the timeline to remain unaltered, and is forced to allow Cassel to carry out her plan. Sol V's destruction causes the remaining planets to shift in their orbit around the Sun. Both Mars and Earth cool, but Mars more significantly, to the point of it becoming uninhabitable. The Enterprise rides the energy wave from the detonation back to the 23rd century, arriving through the spatial anomaly that was probably created by Cassel's act of war in the first place, millions of years prior.
Meanwhile, a chunk of the destroyed Sol V is revealed to be the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth, clearing the path for humanity to evolve. The Martians leave and head out into the universe, and Dr. M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) later learns that fragments of Martian DNA can be found in countless species throughout the galaxy. So, in a way, they survived. It's even possible the dino-killing asteroid contained Dol'drm bacteria that eventually contributed to the early stages of certain lifeforms on Earth. It's a mind-bending Star Trek storyline, but one that I can't wait to experience again.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 is streaming now on Paramount+. New episodes land each Thursday.
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