60
votes
Accepted
How did Tom Paris come up with this warp to miles-per-second estimate in The 37s?
More or less he made it up. There's a couple of things to back this up
Star Trek does everything in the metric system. Of course, that would confuse Earhart, because a good portion of the world ...
- 51.8k
40
votes
How did Cochrane obtain dilithium for the first warp flight?
Cochrane didn't need dilithium to use as the power source for his warp experiment. He used a 'nuclear power core' to create the energy required.
The nuclear core in the missile: it was the same fuel ...
- 690k
22
votes
Accepted
What is the earliest usage of the “Lightspeed” animation and why is it used so heavily?
A similar and extremely famous and influential special effect is the "beyond the infinite" or "through the monolith" effect from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969). It doesn't have any ...
- 6,984
19
votes
Can TNG-era warp drive be used to travel at sublight speeds?
If Cochrane's flight in First Contact counts as TNG-era, then this includes a period of a few minutes where the warp engines are on but they haven't reached light-speed yet. I'd personally consider ...
- 1,364
19
votes
Accepted
Story ID: Oil well fire techniques used against space warp
This sounds very much like "The Permanent Implosion" a short story by Dean McLaughlin. As in the question a wormhole has been opened, which in the story is called a "congruency", ...
- 65.8k
14
votes
Why is warp 5 so special? Or is it?
Warp 5 (125 times the speed of light) was a major goal because it was considered the minimum speed at which interstellar travel was practical. Keep in mind that even at light speed it takes years to ...
- 3,291
13
votes
How did Tom Paris come up with this warp to miles-per-second estimate in The 37s?
In the Voyager episode Emanations Janeway asks Tom to pull back at least half a lightyear away at maximum warp. He pulls back to a stated 0.6 lightyears and it takes about ten seconds.
I think that ...
- 131
12
votes
Are there any societies that had warp capability and then lost it?
The Ba'ku
In Star Trek: Insurrection, we find out that the peaceful people of Ba'ku were once a very technologically advanced species who were warp-capable.
Their youngest generation (the children) ...
- 7,191
10
votes
How did Voyager reach the wreckage so fast going warp 2?
In-universe, this can be reconciled by pointing out that Warp 2 doesn't necessarily mean 8 times the speed of light. Per the TNG Technical Manual
The actual values are dependent upon interstellar ...
- 690k
10
votes
Canon inconsistency regarding Star Trek warp drive
This appears to have been an error that crept into the show's editing.
The screenplay shows that the line was supposed to just be "Aye sir" rather than "Aye sir, full impulse".
GEORDI: Twenty two ...
- 690k
10
votes
How did Cochrane obtain dilithium for the first warp flight?
It may be worth noting that Lithium crystals were what was said in dialog in the first episodes of Star Trek "Where No Man has Gone Before" for example. It was later that it was turned into ...
- 11k
10
votes
Is the warp drive used by different races the same technology?
As you say, the warp drive is certainly the most popular way of making a faster-than-light journey in the Star Trek universe. We have seen alternatives that are compared to or distinguished from the ...
- 4,762
9
votes
Why didn't the Enterprise refit's nacelles glow?
The best I've been able to find is the out-of-universe thought process of the designer, Richard Taylor.
I tried to give it a very art deco feel; for example, I added the parallel lines along the ...
- 544
9
votes
Why do some Federation ships not have deflector dishes?
According to the Klingon Bird-of-Prey Owner's Manual, deflection (per se) is essential for interstellar flight, but deflector dishes are merely one set of technology that can be used for that purpose. ...
- 690k
8
votes
Accepted
Are there any Star Wars Canon usage of 'Hyperdrive Radio' prior to Rogue One?
Legends says that the HoloNet allows near instantaneous communication through the use of Hyperwave transceivers and relays permanently located in hyperspace. Ships can make use of this network while ...
- 741
8
votes
What happens when 'spooling' an FTL drive?
"Spooling up" is a term commonly applied to engines and other mechanical devices to describe the time it takes to reach operating speed. The usage of this term in Battlestar Galactica seems like it ...
- 185
8
votes
Can warp drive be used to travel at sublight speeds?
Yes, and it's been done
First, a look at the warp scale:
Notice that the plotting doesn't begin at warp one, but rather at 0. This would at least in theory strongly imply the existence of warp ...
- 15.8k
8
votes
Accepted
What is the maximum length (distance/time) of a single warp journey?
As you've rightly stated, the primary limitation on a ship's capacity to travel a straight-line distance from Earth to infinity (and beyond) is the amount of deuterium and anti-matter fuel it carries. ...
- 690k
8
votes
Accepted
What's the fastest sensor-bearing object the Enterprise-D carries?
The Enterprise carries a complement of spatial probes including Class 8 probes which are capable of sustained warp flight at warp 9. Note that this object doesn't contain a warp engine, but rather a ...
- 690k
8
votes
Accepted
Why do (Federation) starships need Bussard collectors in front of their warp nacelles?
tl;dr: The Bussard collectors are there for emergency situations, and it's complicated.
Welcome to the magical and slightly convoluted world of starship propulsion technology!
Regular use of the warp ...
- 10.1k
7
votes
What happens when 'spooling' an FTL drive?
The only use of "spool" in relation to FTL drives that I can think of in in Battlestar Galactica. The Galactica Wikia entry for FTL describes a "spooling up" followed by a "jump" (an instantaneous ...
- 21.1k
6
votes
Can TNG-era warp drive be used to travel at sublight speeds?
To be fair this isn't a physics question but a search for examples. As the OP acknowledges the motion picture.
I'll argue that the term millicochrane is probably the closest you'll get in a Berman ...
- 11k
6
votes
Accepted
What are the warp nacelle fins for
The "warp fins," as some people call them, seem to be intercoolers. They serve as a cooling system for the warp engines. You can see a pair of fins at the end of each nacelle on the TOS ...
- 3,948
5
votes
Accepted
Are there any societies that had warp capability and then lost it?
According to "The Last Outpost" in the first season of TNG 600,000 years ago the Tkon Empire had a population of trillions and could move stars. The empire ended when the central star became a ...
- 41.7k
5
votes
Are there any Star Wars Canon usage of 'Hyperdrive Radio' prior to Rogue One?
Yes
In the 2009 Season Two episode of The Clone Wars Brain Invaders, Ahsoka and Anakin are on separate ships traveling through hyperspace, and contact each other throughout the episode via comlinks, ...
- 26.7k
5
votes
Accepted
Could a shuttlecraft warp engine be used on a starship?
No (probably).
While in theory a shuttle's warp core (or rather multiple shuttle's warp cores) could be used to create power to help run the Enterprise-D's warp engines, in practice the sheer scale of ...
- 690k
5
votes
Failed warp core ejections
Assuming each time the core breached there was at least some attempt to dump it, the Enterprise-D failed to eject their core 8 times on screen.
TNG: True Q (Unable to eject before it exploded)
TNG: ...
- 690k
5
votes
Can the warp drive be run in reverse?
I know you are primarily interested in TNG-era, but in TOS's Balance of Terror, Kirk's Enterprise (NCC-1701) travels at warp in reverse:
(The Romulan ship has become visible)
KIRK: Full astern! ...
- 8,201
5
votes
Why do some Federation ships not have deflector dishes?
I think what's confusing is that the Federation places theirs prominently on the front of the ship for their larger vessels. What's interesting is most of the other alien craft we see do not have a ...
- 51.8k
5
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to stand still or fly backwards / sidewards in Warp?
In the TOS episode "Balance of Terror" there is a scene where the Romulan ship fires its plasma superweapon at the Enterprise while the phasers ae out of order.
SULU: Captain, are they ...
- 41.7k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible