Page 1 of 6

Speed Limit

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 12:41 am
by Mark
What ever happened with that retarted warp 5 speed limit Starfleet was supposed to be imposing? I've heard in mentioned that it brought about the next generation of warp nacelles, but I've never heard that Galaxy class ships and older still followed that "Speed Limit".

Did I miss something?

Re: Speed Limit

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 12:42 am
by Aaron
Mark wrote:What ever happened with that retarted warp 5 speed limit Starfleet was supposed to be imposing? I've heard in mentioned that it brought about the next generation of warp nacelles, but I've never heard that Galaxy class ships and older still followed that "Speed Limit".

Did I miss something?
I believe there was a single mention in a later TNG episode giving Picard permission to exceed the limit, I don't recall it being mentioned after that.

Re: Speed Limit

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 12:45 am
by Graham Kennedy
It was quietly dropped as a bad idea.

When Voyager came out, rumours ran rampant that the tilting nacelles were part of a new innovation in warp drive which avoided the damage to subspace that they caused. Even Rick Sternbach, who designed Voyager, made this claim - while freely admitting that the real reason for it was that "the producers wanted something a bit different about the ship".

In-universe, one can only presume that they did find some solution to the problem, perhaps with tilting nacelles for Voyager initially, but then with standard nacelles as they improved it or something.

Re: Speed Limit

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 12:52 am
by Mark
I agree. I was a VERY bad idea. Of course, it could have been used to give some comic relief. Could you see Enterprise getting "pulled over" by a police craft, and given a "ticket". They could have made the dialog with Data and Worf HILARIOUS.

Re: Speed Limit

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 12:54 am
by Aaron
Mark wrote:I agree. I was a VERY bad idea. Of course, it could have been used to give some comic relief. Could you see Enterprise getting "pulled over" by a police craft, and given a "ticket". They could have made the dialog with Data and Worf HILARIOUS.
I thought it had potential, show the problems that would result as the Federation slowly broke down due to shipping restrictions. Have them increase frieghter production and runs to cope, parts now in short supply etc.

Re: Speed Limit

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:53 am
by Captain Picard's Hair
Was this meant to be a universal limit? The impression I got was that this "corridor" was especially susceptible to warp-related damage a/o had been particularly heavily traveled, hence the need to limit speeds though the region.

Re: Speed Limit

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 5:30 am
by Mikey
I would have rather seen a 1.5 minute vignette after an ep with the entire production team saying, "Listen, we're dropping this, because even we figured out how stupid it was."

Re: Speed Limit

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 8:03 am
by kostmayer
I think it was a universal limit, that corridor just suffered more damage the most parts of space - due to the high traffic - so the problem became apparent there sooner.

Re: Speed Limit

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:01 pm
by Teaos
Well considering how crippling the speed limit was I imagin they tried to find a way around it pretty damn quickly and by the looks of it they did.

Re: Speed Limit

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:11 pm
by Mikey
Teaos wrote:Well considering how crippling the speed limit was I imagin they tried to find a way around it pretty damn quickly and by the looks of it they did.
Yep the way around it was to ignore it.

Re: Speed Limit

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:42 pm
by Sionnach Glic
That seems like what happened. Starfleet simply decided "screw that" and went back to business as normal.

Re: Speed Limit

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 3:02 pm
by Teaos
Its like global warming, if we ignore it, it will go away.

Re: Speed Limit

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 3:08 pm
by Sionnach Glic
Exactly.

Re: Speed Limit

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 4:52 pm
by SteveK
I suppose it depends on how many times an area needs to be travelled over in order to damage subspace and how large the radius of damage is from the ship, and if subspace can "fix" itself if given time. If the radius of damage is small and subspace can repair itself then I suppose a travel scheme could be worked up that would have no 2 ships per decade (for example) travel the same exact route. Consider the vastness of space--while typically most ships would travel on the shortest distance--it wouldn't cause a significant delay to adjust the route of each ship a thousand meters or so.

Re: Speed Limit

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 9:56 pm
by Mark
I read that global warming doesn't really exist, and is a myth. It was on a magazine, therefore MUST be true. :mrgreen: