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Yes, they've been getting better. At a far slower rate than technology is currently.

Over the last century or two we've had a burst of technological revolution. I say this could continue over the next 50 years or so before things slow down again.

Here's an example: Ships have been around for centurys, and until the mid 18th century I belive, they were made of wood, and powered by wind. Only over the past 200 years or so have we been making ships out of metal and using propellers to move them. And now it's just a matter of making the most efficient engine, until something else revolutionary comes around

I have to wonder - if Warp technology becomes available, will something approximating Starfleet actually happen?

kostmayer wrote:I have to wonder - if Warp technology becomes available, will something approximating Starfleet actually happen?

Doubtful, more like along the Alien lines. Where rich nations and companies have colonies. Who besides a few First World nations has the monaey and resources to build a starship? The only comparable thing was the Apollo program and the ISS, one was funded and developed by a single nation and the later is a boondoogle because it is an international operation.

Edit: I can picture the US, UK, China and Russia having colonies scattered all over the place while countries like Canada hitch a ride or settle on Jupiters moons. Zimbabwe gets an asteroid which they promptly blow up through sheer incompetance.

Yeah Earth couldn't handle a joint Starfleet like venture. It would be every man for himself.

Why you gotta bust on Zimbabwe? They'd just hitch along with whatever Moscow was doing anyway.

weapons that could destroy Borg cubes in a single shot

We have no way of knowing if the weapons were able to destroy the furture Borg in one shot.

A Romulan Warbird has a maximum speed of about 4400 c ("The Enemy").
A GCS is faster than a Warbird ("Tin Man")
Voyager has a top speed of about 3000 c ("Scorpion Pt 2").

Umm... 4400c is faster than 3000c. But Voyager has (or should have, 9.975 should be greater than whatever a warbird can do) a faster top speed than a Warbird. Please explain

stitch626 wrote:

A Romulan Warbird has a maximum speed of about 4400 c ("The Enemy").
A GCS is faster than a Warbird ("Tin Man")
Voyager has a top speed of about 3000 c ("Scorpion Pt 2").

Umm... 4400c is faster than 3000c. But Voyager has (or should have, 9.975 should be greater than whatever a warbird can do) a faster top speed than a Warbird. Please explain

The E-D is faster than a warbird, and it maxes out at about 9.8

The first calc comes from a Warbird crossing the Neutral Zone, so they'd probably be pushing as fast as possible.

The last one comes from Chakotay describing a 40ly journey as five days at maximum warp.

It doesn't make sense, but it's canon, so we've got some hoops to jump through - the scriptwriters would have been better off describing that particular trip of Voyager's as 80 ly, but they didn't.

Firstly you should really use tech manual figures as the show contradicts its self to much to choose any one figure.

Secondly Voyager is not a prime example of a starship. It had been damaged quite a bit and never had great repairs done. Its top speed would probably be down quite a bit.

Teaos wrote:Firstly you should really use tech manual figures as the show contradicts its self to much to choose any one figure.

Wrong - the tech manuals are non-canon, and therefore do not represent the "reality" of Trek. The examples I've given are proven abilities, demonstrated in the show. If you want to ignore them then there's no point in any debate.

Secondly Voyager is not a prime example of a starship. It had been damaged quite a bit and never had great repairs done. Its top speed would probably be down quite a bit.

Voyager, despite the extent of the damage she suffered, always appeared to be in pristine condition a week later. The best (or worst) example of this is Deadlock - the bridge (along with most of the ship) was completely trashed, and rendered uninhabitable, but by the next episode it looked as though Voyager had just come out of a shipyard.

It looked fine. I could look fine and have a cancer the size of a grapefruit inside me.

Wrong - the tech manuals are non-canon, and therefore do not represent the "reality" of Trek. The examples I've given are proven abilities, demonstrated in the show. If you want to ignore them then there's no point in any debate.

True but you are chhosing two examples to fit your arguement. It is well knowing speeds arent consistant and I don't have the memory to recall which episodes state which numbers.

the scriptwriters would have been better off describing that particular trip of Voyager's as 80 ly, but they didn't.

But they said 70 so that is canon.

The last one comes from Chakotay describing a 40ly journey as five days at maximum warp.

Its that the fastest it coud go or is that the higest sustanible speed over 5 days.

Teaos wrote:It looked fine. I could look fine and have a cancer the size of a grapefruit inside me.

Poor comparison - if you looked fine despite having both legs smashed a few weeks before you'd have a point.

True but you are chhosing two examples to fit your arguement. It is well knowing speeds arent consistant and I don't have the memory to recall which episodes state which numbers.

We have two examples of Voyager's speed that I can recall - the 1000c long-term cruise derived by the 75 year trip home and the 3000 c high-speed dash derived from "Scoorpion".

For the E-D we have a sustainable long-term cruise speed of 2700 c from "Q Who?", and a short-term dash of 4400+ c from the Warbird in "The Enemy". We also have another figure for high speed from "Where No One Has Gone Before" - an upper limit of 9000 c for a GCS.

But they said 70 so that is canon.

No, they said 40.

Poor comparison - if you looked fine despite having both legs smashed a few weeks before you'd have a point.

They can knock out the dents and slap some new paint on. But the inside can still not be great. We know nacells aren't easy to make so it would make sense that they can make the covers easy but only try to fix the insides.

Teaos wrote: They can knock out the dents and slap some new paint on. But the inside can still not be great. We know nacells aren't easy to make so it would make sense that they can make the covers easy but only try to fix the insides.

How? Do they have the ten man engineering department crawling around on the hull with hammers? And why would you spend valuable time and resources fixing the appearance of the ship and not the actual systems?

Because the shell is part of the protection. The cleaning part... well I doubt that takes much time to cover up a phaser burn

They would just be unable to fix things to top quality condition. If they could everyone can and ships would have no need to go to star bases for refits.