Stuff that make you wonder but not own thread worthy

[JesterFace]

Yes, I thought that was amazing too. After all, Picard's shuttle was just disabled and destroyed because of those pockets.

The least they could have done was add a short expository line, something the likes of

Well, we really ought to get another shuttle out, but we've already passed the 40 minutes mark as it is and we still have to cram in that Data girlfriend breakup scene, so let's make a run for it.

It's a nice episode and because of the "Let's make a run for it" thing I've avoided it for some time.
Perhaps it would be time to have some headcanon and pretend they were basically out of the nebula when Picard's shuttle was destroyed so Riker could order them to just fly out.

 

[suarezguy]

Isn't Voyager actually, obviously, slower than the Enterprise-D?

In Voyager it was always 70-75 years to travel 70,000 lightyears, in "Q Who" it would be just about 2 and a half years to travel 7,000 lightyears.

And we usually do interpret/remember the Borg of "Q Who" as being pretty deep in Borg space/territory but that's actually a lot closer, quite close to Federation space and away from where Voyager showed most Borg are, that ship was far off from the rest.

 

[Oddish]

Isn't Voyager actually, obviously, slower than the Enterprise-D?

In Voyager it was always 70-75 years to travel 70,000 lightyears, in "Q Who" it would be just about 2 and a half years to travel 7,000 lightyears.

Since the Enterprise D's max sustainable speed is warp 9.2, or about 1700c, it should have been more like four years. As for Voyager, its 70-year estimate suggested a top sustainable speed of warp 8, or 1000c (despite the figure we got, W9.975, being about five times that). The general consensus I got when I pointed out this inconsistency is that Voyager needed to conserve fuel for a long journey.

 

[Orphalesion]

Of course if Starfleet can build ship that can fly to the other side of the galaxy in four years, why hasn't the Federation explored deeper into the galaxy yet?

The whole speed and distance thing is always so wonky in Star Trek.

 

[Farscape One]

I think the Federation explores in increments. They'll scan and chart a sector here and there, then send a ship that's more suited to full exploration. This way, they can still have enough ships around for their massive space. (Even Weyoun said the Federation was vast.)

There's precedence for this... in "MELORA", Dax and Pazlar are charting a sector in the Gamma Quadrant. Given that a runabout is just a souped up shuttle, it wouldn't be suited for full exploration like a starship... say a Galaxy, Nebula, Nova, or Oberth class.

Even in "THE CORBOMITE MANEUVER" (first produced episode after the second pilot), the Enterprise was charting and 'photographing' the area, implying it was mapping the area for someone else to do a deeper dive later on. And she was a Constitution class ship, which seemed to be the top of the line in her day.

 

[at Quark's]

Of course if Starfleet can build ship that can fly to the other side of the galaxy in four years, why hasn't the Federation explored deeper into the galaxy yet?

The whole speed and distance thing is always so wonky in Star Trek.

I use the following rationalization for myself. It may or may not make sense to you.

Suppose you and 10 friends get the assignment to 'explore' every settlement on this planet with 10 people or more. That is, go to each of them, spend a few hours or days in each, talk with the local chiefs about their current situation, and make a report about them and the most conspicuous features of their group culture and/or the nature in that area. In order to do so, you get a pass that allows you access to any form of transportation, including airplanes.

Suppose I come back in 10 years and ask you how far you have progressed with your task. Odds are that you haven't even finished with you own country (assuming you live in a large one), and dertainly not your continent. Does it matter much, then, that you could fly to the other side of the planet in just 24 hours, if you want to go about it in a systematic fashion?

The galaxy has about 400,000,000,000 stellar systems to explore. Even if they had a hundred thousand exploration ships (and I'm fairly certain they don't), that would still be 4 million of systems for each of those. So it's going to take centuries. And technology that could get you to the other side of the galaxy in mere minutes won't be of much help here.

Of course, none of this squares with the notion that it will cost Voyager 75 years to get back to the AQ, even if they go in a straight line and avoid any detours ...

 

[Richard S. Ta]

I guess the Federation just explore at their leisure. Maybe if resources were a worry they'd speed things up a bit, but it's not like they are under any pressure or have deadlines. The universe has been around for billions of years, it's not going anywhere soon.

 

[Oddish]

Yes, the galaxy has gobs of stars in it... but the vast majority of them could probably be ignored. Red dwarfs tend to tidally lock any planets in their habitable zone. Giants won't last long enough for life to evolve. And even stars that can sustain life might not have class M planets at all.

 

[Farscape One]

But you never know what could be inside those star systems. Shortcuts to another dimension, wormholes to a distant quadrant, socks that have gone missing over the years in the dryer...

 

[suarezguy]

What if Picard had been furious at Data over his insubordination in "The Quality of Life" and decided to demote him for it?

 

[Oddish]

What if Picard had been furious at Data over his insubordination in "The Quality of Life" and decided to demote him for it?

It would explain why Troi got promoted and Data didn't.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

If there wasn't some kind of orderly method to scanning star systems and space, then you'd go crazy trying to see everything at once. Plus, you'd be less likely to be on hand when some emergency came up, and less likely to spot a small anomaly/problem (small compared to the universe), glossing over it in favor of everything else.

I imagine one space medicine condition would be suffering from anxiety over how much there is in space and so little time/so slow space travel and scanning in comparison.

 

[at Quark's]

I imagine one space medicine condition would be suffering from anxiety over how much there is in space and so little time/so slow space travel and scanning in comparison.

Fomoss? (Fear Of Missing Out Star Systems)

 

[urrutiap]

while other people in the Star Trek universe treat Barclay like crap, Barclay ends up coming up with stuff that ends up true such as the creatures things that he saw when going through the transporter process

in fact, those little robot things that were being forced to do a job that human shoudl have done, Data or geordi were right that those little helper machines had a life of their own and were sentient

 

[urrutiap]

while other people in the Star Trek universe treat Barclay like crap, Barclay ends up coming up with stuff that ends up true such as the creatures things that he saw when going through the transporter process

in fact, those little robot things that were being forced to do a job that human

 

[at Quark's]

^I suppose in a way, Barclay is not unlike Courage the cowardly dog. Spots all kinds of danger the others laugh away but more often than not there's an actual issue.

 

[suarezguy]

What if Michelle Forbes had agreed to continue as a recurring character in Season 6 and 7, as often or more often than in Season 5? Or she had outright joined the main cast in Season 7?

 

[Oddish]

What if Michelle Forbes had agreed to continue as a recurring character in Season 6 and 7, as often or more often than in Season 5? Or she had outright joined the main cast in Season 7?

Or joined one of the other two series. Not DS9, as the loss of Major Kira is not something I would wish to contemplate, but maybe Voyager? There are a couple of underutilized characters she could have replaced early on.

 

[ReddishAlert]

Or joined one of the other two series. Not DS9, as the loss of Major Kira is not something I would wish to contemplate, but maybe Voyager? There are a couple of underutilized characters she could have replaced early on.

I’m actually one of the few people who like Chakotay, HOWEVER, Kate Mulgrew and Michelle Forbes as her ex-Marquis first officer could have been an amazing dynamic. Of course the writers would have to remember she was Marquis past the third episode…

 

[Imaus]

Yes, the galaxy has gobs of stars in it... but the vast majority of them could probably be ignored. Red dwarfs tend to tidally lock any planets in their habitable zone. Giants won't last long enough for life to evolve. And even stars that can sustain life might not have class M planets at all.

But starfleet isn't doing this solely for the colonial service.

Red Stars are great for longer-lived technological civilizations to set up energy farms on to live on or be way stations thereof. Cloudy worlds could have entire civilizations under their cloud blankets. What is dead now may had been the colony world, battlefield, or capital of a civilization ten billion years ago. A bored artist with a phaser-or-disruptor ship could had etched out art on a rogue planet chain millions of years ago. The galaxy is vast and nearly endless, and with Star Trek's verse having humanoid life everywhere and cheap energy on the fly, the possibilities are endless.

Undoubtedly the politics and economics of the federation and Starfleet mean that sure, G class stars and M class worlds would get priority, and there's probably entire regions within the Federation that got no more than cursory probe or telescope look much less visit from even a third generation low career opportunity survey ship, but the possibility is there.