quote:
Originally posted by dogscoff:
OK...
Many inconsistencies / illogicalities were introduced in The Original Series, back in the days when they couldn't give a long garlic fart for things like continuity or scientific plausibility. By the time The Next Generation came around, they realised what a bunch of pedantic freaks us sciffies are, and tried their best to straighten out as many inconsistencies and scientific nonsenses as possible without trashing the existing continuity.
For example, interstellar distances, speeds and such were often way off in TOS, and words like "sector" & "quadrant" were bandied about pretty much at random. In TNG, they fixed the definitions (ie quadrant= 1/4 of the galaxy, sector = smaller area of space which may hold many star systems.)
For data storage they made up the term "kiloquad", because they knew that if they used real terminology (ie Gigabytes) then by 1996 the Enterprise-D's computer would look as advanced as a Commodore 64.
As for warp speeds, in TOS warp speeds were pretty much made up as they went along. The maximum for the TOS enterprise was about 8 or 9 I think, but in some episodes it acheived more, sometimes upwards of warp 14, by means of unexpected alien intervention and so on. Some hardy fans made up various non-linear scales to fit around the shows, but they were convoluted and not particularly robust.
Then TNG came in, and they abandoned the old "system" and introduced the scale detailed below by Mephisto, where warp 10 would involve occupying every point in the universe simultaneously. This has been faithfully adhered to ever since. (TNG, DS9, VOY, although I can't comment on the new series)
It's also worth remembering that there are other, quicker ways to get about in Trek (Trans-warp conduits, wormholes, Q's finger)
*dogscoff steps back into his Trek closet and closes the door.
What makes you think they give a garlic fart for consistency or plausibility now? Had you heard that the scripts were written 'formulaicly' with blank technobabble spaces filled as "TECH" until the 'tech consultants' turn came to work over the script and
make up technical jargon to let the story work the way the writers want it to? Paramount has never, ever cared anything for consistency or plausibility.
In many ways, Trek on tv and movies is the opposite of SciFi. Technial jargon is added as decoration on a soap opera. It's only in the novels that much real SciFi occurs.
As for warp speed scales, the old "Star Fleet Technical Reference" from the days before TNG even started up said that warp speed cubed was the multiple of light speed for that warp factor. Then for TNG they changed it to something much more complex. Some of the formulas given here might be correct or might not. I can't remember anymore.
Not that Paramount ever took it's own 'sanctioned' publications into account when writing, though. Yeah, on the old scale warp 4.5 (which seems to be their cruising maximum -- you cannot run an engine full-out for days and weeks) would be about 91 times the speed of light, so 4 days journey would be just about one light year. The Klingon homeworld has got to be further away than that, so those 'tech consultants' must have just been called in at the Last minute again to insert words here and there rather than really examine the script. Someone in the writing dept. must have decided that travel time for dramatic purposes. If the real travel time was used, week and months, then great stories about galactic events become much more difficult to cram into a 1 hour show. You do have to wonder, if other star systems were that easil accessible, why humanity would sit around and do nothing just because the Vulcans didn't think they were ready. Entire empires just DAYS away? Cripes. They must have been really intimidated by those 'parental' Vulcans...
[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 01 October 2001).]