What kind of space was the edge of the universe in "Where No One Has Gone Before"?

[Unimatrix Q]

The galactic barrier doesn't make much sense, as the galaxy doesn't really have some demarcation point as to where it suddenly ends, anymore then our solar system does. Also with later history of trek the Valiant getting that far doesn't make a lot of sense either, unless you employee some kind of wormhole or accidental transwarp conduit. But its canon. it has to be there.

The barrier didn't seem to be a problem for the Kelvans. IF the barrier doesn't permit electromagnetic signals from getting through why can we see other galaxies from Earth? If the barrier is visible, why didn't astronomers notice it before WNMHGB. One of the few answers would be, the barrier is new, and no one has time to see it yet (of course in Star Trek, things like supernovas effect other worlds apparently at superluminal velocities, and you can watch Vulcan be gobbled up by a red matter black hole in real time from, speaking of WNMHGB, Delta Vega.

It makes no more sense to me than the spore drive. An actual multiversal spanning fungus makes more sense then either of the above, though I don't understand how that is suppose to allow instantaneous travel. But it's no more more insane than genesis device or transporters or warp 10 salamanders.

Yeah, there are a lot of things in the whole franchise that don't make any sense.

But this isn't about the TOS episode but the one from TNG with the Traveler.

 

[XCV330]

Yeah, there are a lot of concepts in the whole franchise that don't make any sense.

But this isn't about the TOS episode but the one from TNG with the Traveler.

my apologies

 

[Unimatrix Q]

my apologies

No need to apologize. That was a really good post

 

[Christopher]

The galactic barrier doesn't make much sense, as the galaxy doesn't really have some demarcation point as to where it suddenly ends, anymore then our solar system does.

I liked Diane Duane's explanation in The Wounded Sky -- that it wasn't an actual barrier surrounding the whole galaxy, but just a hypernova wavefront that happened to align with the rough "edge" of the galactic stellar disk in that particular area. So it was an ephemeral phenomenon on a cosmic scale, rather than some kind of complete shrink wrap.

After all, the Kelvans were the only extragalactic aliens who seemed to have a problem getting into our galaxy. It wasn't a problem for Sylvia and Korob, the builders of Mudd's androids, the Doomsday Machine, the space amoeba, the "One of Our Planets is Missing" cloud creature, etc. Which argues against the interpretation that the barrier surrounds the entire galaxy, and in favor of it being a local phenomenon at just that particular area near Federation space where the Enterprise and the Kelvans attempted to cross.

Also with later history of trek the Valiant getting that far doesn't make a lot of sense either, unless you employee some kind of wormhole or accidental transwarp conduit.

There was a line about it being swept out by some sort of space storm, which we pretty much have to take as some kind of space warp.

But its canon. it has to be there.

Not really. The word "canon" just means a complete body of works, but that complete body is still fictional and thus subject to revision. Large canons ignore or reinterpret pieces of themselves all the time. There are a number of things in Trek canon that are ignored by later canon, like "The Alternative Factor"'s nonsensical claim that a matter-antimatter reaction would destroy the universe, or ST V's pretense that you could travel to the center of the galaxy in 20 minutes (which would've invalidated the entire premise of Voyager), or "Threshold"'s portrayal of transwarp. Canon means the whole, not any single piece of it. A canon is like a living body. It grows and changes, its individual parts get altered or discarded, but the whole retains its identity.

The barrier didn't seem to be a problem for the Kelvans.

On the contrary -- the whole reason they needed to hijack the Enterprise was because the barrier destroyed their ship and stranded them.

IF the barrier doesn't permit electromagnetic signals from getting through why can we see other galaxies from Earth?

I don't think it was said that it blocked signals, just that the barrier itself didn't register on sensors.

 

[Vger23]

Regarding the comments made about the DSC spore drive...I think there are a lot of things we do today from a tech standpoint that would have been dismissed outright as ridiculous fantasy 300 years ago.

So I’m good with it.