Possible. I don't know.
So, was Cochrane's warp drive concept something special, or wasn't it ?
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If the colony ships that resulted in the Romulan Empire were just a fraction of the (perhaps) thousands of colonization efforts made by the Vulcans, and left Vulcan thousands of years ago, nothing would be strange in the least about not retaining accurate records of them.
Just look at the trashy record keeping of Captain Archer.
That bastard didn't even use Stardates! How are we supposed to make any sense out of his log entries?
Archer's record keeping was fine. You can't force every species you meet to give you every piece of information you might desire. Especially if they don't want to.
No it's not strange that records can be lost over great lengths of time. My point was the Vulcans have a much longer history in space than humans.
Space. Not necessarily warp drive.
Colonies. Usually that means some sort of contact, even if it's years to get a message. FLT makes more sense than sublight.
It undoubtedly was. DS9's Little Green Men (which aired a year prior to DS9's release) carries the implication Vulcans were one of the first races to develop warp drive. Granted it also carries the implication Vulcans didn't have warp capability in the 1940s, but I'm certain Moore and Braga operated under the belief Vulcans could have developed warp drive within the next 116 years after LGM.
As I understand it, "The Andorian Incident" (ENT) is the proof that Vulcan had warp drive for a really long time, before the Romulans left the planet (meaning that the Romulans had warp drive from the get go); the reasoning goes that P'Jem (which was founded in the 9th century) was too far away to reach without warp drive.
It is worth noting that the Vulcan's are not the oldest spacefarers still in existence, as the Vedala from "The Jihad" (TAS), although the age of their civilization was never specified, although their reputation fits that they're one of the longer-holders of it.
As far as Quark's comments go, the most popular theory I've seen is that he mis-remembered his history lessons.
The Vulcan ship in FC had the ability to detect Cochrane warp flight in the inner solar system from their position in the outer solar system. This implies that the Vulcan ship had knowledge of warp flight, and perhaps the ability to do so themselves.
All very true. I just used Little Green Men as proof from something prior to FC's release indicating that Vulcans did indeed have warp drive in FC.
In "Carbon Creek" (set in 1957) Stron is a warp field engineer, so they definitely had warp by that point.
And as for "Little Green Men," although the intention was whatever it was at the time, in @Timo style I'll point out that it's worth noting Odo's response to Quark's suggestion...
Quark: Forget this timeline. The one we're going to create will be better. Once we get things in order here, we'll contact the Ferengi homeworld and sell them our ship. The Ferengi will have warp drive technology centuries before humans or Klingons or even the Vulcans. We'll establish an economic empire beyond even Grand Nagus Zek's wildest dreams. And I'll control it all.
Odo: You do have a vivid imagination.
And as for "Little Green Men," although the intention was whatever it was at the time, in @Timo style I'll point out that it's worth noting Odo's response to Quark's suggestion...
Quark: Forget this timeline. The one we're going to create will be better. Once we get things in order here, we'll contact the Ferengi homeworld and sell them our ship. The Ferengi will have warp drive technology centuries before humans or Klingons or even the Vulcans. We'll establish an economic empire beyond even Grand Nagus Zek's wildest dreams. And I'll control it all.
Odo: You do have a vivid imagination.
Maybe he meant "centuries ahead of."
Maybe..there was some other FTL technology that did not warp space, and maybe it was clunky and large and expensive and unreliable and inefficient and dangerous. Cochrane's warp drive may have been the elegant solution to all of the problems that the previous FTL method had, hence his method gets all the recognition, perhaps unfairly.
The CRT was a viable technology to build a video display with, but our current day flat-panels are a vast improvement. There were vacuum-tube based computers in existence in the 1940's, but the later designs built with transistors and (later on) integrated circuits were better, cheaper, faster, more reliable, etc.
Who gets the credit, Turing and Von Neumann? Or Jobs and Gates?
The CRT was a viable technology to build a video display with, but our current day flat-panels are a vast improvement. There were vacuum-tube based computers in existence in the 1940's, but the later designs built with transistors and (later on) integrated circuits were better, cheaper, faster, more reliable, etc.
Who gets the credit, Turing and Von Neumann? Or Jobs and Gates?
DING!
I'd definitely think that humans and Vulcans were using different types of warp drives, since the Vulcans were using ringships in that era. Evidently Cochrane-style nacelles were the future of warp drive.
But you wouldn't say the inventor of the flat-screen was the inventor of television.
And Cochrane was never said to be the inventor or discoverer of all FTL travel, either, but specifically warp drive. That was @Push The Button's point.
Multiple cultures have developed warp capability independently at different points in their respective histories, though, so each would have their own "first" discoverer/inventor. Cochrane was the first, for humans. But he would not be the only one in the galaxy.
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It just occurred to me that in The Time Trap Spock says that the Klingons DON'T use warp drive.
"Their S2 graf unit, which is roughly the equivalent of our warp drive."
Also, ZC is "the discoverer of the space warp". Not necessarily the drive. (Although First Contact put paid to that loophole.
"Their S2 graf unit, which is roughly the equivalent of our warp drive."
Also, ZC is "the discoverer of the space warp". Not necessarily the drive. (Although First Contact put paid to that loophole.
In ENT, did anyone on screen ever come right out and say that Vulcan ships have "warp drive," using that exact term?
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