No More Warp!

[IMC Headquarters]

In "The Omega Directive", Captain Janeway gravely expresses the end of spacefaring civilizations as they know it should Omega destroy subspace, making warp drive impossible. It's one of my favorite scenes from Voyager, and one of the most thought compelling. What if warp drive were rendered useless across the quadrants? I'm sure there'd be a mass effort into developing alternative faster-than-light propulsion systems like quantum slipstream, but if all those starships from the Federation and beyond were suddenly stranded, what new cultures would develop from them? Even at full impulse it would take four years to reach the nearest star, so crews in deep space would basically all be like poor Janeway's crew plodding home at multi-generational speed. Do you think sleeper ships would come back into fashion? And if subspace were truly destroyed, how can communications work long distance? It's going to be a long, lonely road home, I'm afraid.

 

[Dukhat]

They could just reverse engineer the Dauntless's quantum slipstream drive or the Borg's transwarp conduits. Come to think of it, I'm not sure why they didn't just do that already.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

Moved to the appropriate forum.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

It's an interesting prospect, like the subspace damage that was being caused by warp drives highlighted in TNG.

What about trying to unlock and understand Iconian Gateways as an alternative? They were left purposefully vague, so the destruction of subspace might leave them still operational (if anyone can find them).

 

[F. King Daniel]

In "The Omega Directive", Captain Janeway gravely expresses the end of spacefaring civilizations as they know it should Omega destroy subspace, making warp drive impossible. It's one of my favorite scenes from Voyager, and one of the most thought compelling. What if warp drive were rendered useless across the quadrants? I'm sure there'd be a mass effort into developing alternative faster-than-light propulsion systems like quantum slipstream, but if all those starships from the Federation and beyond were suddenly stranded, what new cultures would develop from them? Even at full impulse it would take four years to reach the nearest star, so crews in deep space would basically all be like poor Janeway's crew plodding home at multi-generational speed. Do you think sleeper ships would come back into fashion? And if subspace were truly destroyed, how can communications work long distance? It's going to be a long, lonely road home, I'm afraid.

This was the concept behind the aborted 2007 Star Trek: Final Frontier animated web series. The Second Romulan War involved Omega weapons, closing off huge areas of space for hundreds of years. Eventually, the Starship Enterprise of it's day begins to explore again and see what's happening. Click for more

 

[JirinPanthosa]

At impulse relativity would also come into play.

You could tell a lot of great stories on a planet to planet basis. What about Risa? Your pleasure vacation becomes your home forever. What happens to all the people who were on Risa? Assuming this is the sort of place average people pay to go to, you can't live in the resort hotel forever. And Risa's income, their tourist industry? Suddenly they have to become self sufficient again, and absorb lots of aliens into their culture. Or Starfleet people on deep space assignments, maybe some of them are watching pre-warp civilizations. How long until they settle down and introduce themselves?

All the people from any planet, stranded on a planet that's not their home where they are a minority. They have to choose between adjusting to a whole new lifestyle as an outsider and a years long trip home. I'm sure they could find a way to get to .9999c so they can make it home in their lifetime but then years have passed by the time they get there.

 

[Lynx]

It would be a big, big mistake if writers and producers of Star Trek followed up the idea of some sort of no-warp future. It would basically kill the whole concept of the show.

I could never uinderstand why they came up with that concept about warp speed being damaging subspace in that TNG episode "Force Of Nature", one of the few TNG episodes i mostly skip while watching a season. I saw no meaning of coming up with such a thing in the first place and later on it would harly be mentioned, definitely not in "Threshold" when the Voyager crew constantly tried to reach warp 10. (Well ,that's if you don't do what I'm doing, pretending that the events in "Threshold" was Janeway having a nightmare whic is the only way to watch that episode and enjoy it.

Removing warp speed from the show would turn it into something very different and probably very boring. It would become something about an Earth fleet in junk ships fighting an invader from Alpha Centauri and nothing more. Or one of these doom-and-gloom series where a wasted humanity leaves Earth in a ship where they are put in stasis for 10 000 years before they reach a star far away when they hope there is a planet to live. In other words, the same old boring doom-and-gloom scenario which less successfull moves and series have tried before.

Personally I hope that I never have to see the day when Star Trek is tirned into something like that. But in this decade, the most boring decade ever when humanity is doing the best it can to not only detroy the world but also come up with the most boring and dreadful doom-and-gloom scenarios in the entertainment business to make money out of it, then I fear that everything is posible, even in Star Trek.

 

[IMC Headquarters]

The Prime Directive might go out the window if you're marooned on a pre-warp civilization. One might be tempted to run the place. After all, you're not going anywhere...

 

[publiusr]

This was the concept behind the aborted 2007 Star Trek: Final Frontier animated web series. The Second Romulan War involved Omega weapons, closing off huge areas of space for hundreds of years. Eventually, the Starship Enterprise of it's day begins to explore again and see what's happening. Click for more

That would be a great back up plan if whatever the barrier was meant to keep out came back....

 

[at Quark's]

To extremely slowly go where others zipped through effortlessly before ?

Honestly, I think it is a good idea as a premise for a single episode, but not as a given for an entire Trek series. Essentially it wouldn't be Star Trek anymore (though it still could be fine sci-fi, just of a very different genre and concept. In itself, a show depicting a Federation struggling to maintain some cohesion while all members are "stuck like flies in amber", so to speak, could be interesting).

In my eyes, it's no coincidence it was never followed up upon, like the warp 5 speed limit that was quickly conveniently circumvented or forgotten about altogether.

 

[MacLeod]

In "The Omega Directive", Captain Janeway gravely expresses the end of spacefaring civilizations as they know it should Omega destroy subspace, making warp drive impossible. It's one of my favorite scenes from Voyager, and one of the most thought compelling. What if warp drive were rendered useless across the quadrants? I'm sure there'd be a mass effort into developing alternative faster-than-light propulsion systems like quantum slipstream, but if all those starships from the Federation and beyond were suddenly stranded, what new cultures would develop from them? Even at full impulse it would take four years to reach the nearest star, so crews in deep space would basically all be like poor Janeway's crew plodding home at multi-generational speed. Do you think sleeper ships would come back into fashion? And if subspace were truly destroyed, how can communications work long distance? It's going to be a long, lonely road home, I'm afraid.

More like 8+ years, I believe the fastest impulse stated on screen is Warp .5 i.e. half the speed of light.

I guess Starfleet could dust off the DASH (Displacement Activated Spore Hub) Drive. (unless S2 of DSC gives us a reason why they can't use it)

 

[JirinPanthosa]

It would be a big, big mistake if writers and producers of Star Trek followed up the idea of some sort of no-warp future. It would basically kill the whole concept of the show.

I could never uinderstand why they came up with that concept about warp speed being damaging subspace in that TNG episode "Force Of Nature", one of the few TNG episodes i mostly skip while watching a season. I saw no meaning of coming up with such a thing in the first place and later on it would harly be mentioned, definitely not in "Threshold" when the Voyager crew constantly tried to reach warp 10. (Well ,that's if you don't do what I'm doing, pretending that the events in "Threshold" was Janeway having a nightmare whic is the only way to watch that episode and enjoy it.

Removing warp speed from the show would turn it into something very different and probably very boring. It would become something about an Earth fleet in junk ships fighting an invader from Alpha Centauri and nothing more. Or one of these doom-and-gloom series where a wasted humanity leaves Earth in a ship where they are put in stasis for 10 000 years before they reach a star far away when they hope there is a planet to live. In other words, the same old boring doom-and-gloom scenario which less successfull moves and series have tried before.

Personally I hope that I never have to see the day when Star Trek is tirned into something like that. But in this decade, the most boring decade ever when humanity is doing the best it can to not only detroy the world but also come up with the most boring and dreadful doom-and-gloom scenarios in the entertainment business to make money out of it, then I fear that everything is posible, even in Star Trek.

But building an episode or novel on the idea could work really well. Just have it get fixed at the end.

 

[MacLeod]

But building an episode or novel on the idea could work really well. Just have it get fixed at the end.

Fortunately Starfleet Engineers long ago created a reset device which is activated by a big red reset button which they installed on most Starfleet ships and facilities.

 

[matthunter]

They could just reverse engineer the Dauntless's quantum slipstream drive or the Borg's transwarp conduits. Come to think of it, I'm not sure why they didn't just do that already.

They did. Voyager tried her own slipstream drive in Timeless - it was so difficult to compensate for issues in maintaining the slipstream that the ship crashed and everyone died, except Chakotay and Kim who where ahead of them on the Delta Flyer acting as a pathfinder.

If you mean the Federation post-VOY, well the novels DO have newer ships equipped with slipstream, and Star Trek Online has limited use (30 seconds) slipstream once you hit Admiral that effectively boosts you to warp 25-30 depending on your engine specs. Plus in STO the Federation and other Alpha Quad powers have a limited transwarp conduit network.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

For an episode the perfect planet for this would be Risa.

A few characters are on vacation on Risa. Then an accident happens, warp is impossible!

The characters struggle to find ways out, consider the relativistic option where they get home but miss decades of history. Risa struggles to re-learn how to produce their own goods and be self sufficient and characters eventually give in and settle into their new lives.

Then of course it gets fixed and they go home.

It’d be similar to the Stargate episode 100 Days only different because the planet has to adjust as much as they do.