Earth to Vulcan in 30 minutes - a possible solution?

[Devon]

Which raises the question why the return trip was significantly longer.

Because they didn't return from Vulcan to Earth. If you recall the Enterprise was going to meet up with the rest of the fleet in the Laurentian system. When Kirk was dumped off & met up with Spock that probably took about 10/15 minutes in their first meeting, and then they had to walk 14 KM (approximately 8 Miles) to the nearest starbase which may have taken a few hours. So by the time they got through with Scotty and beamed back it seems that several hours had already passed and the Enterprise was still in route to its destination. So it was several hours off, thus their return trip would probably take several hours.

 

[pookha]

Didn't Enterprise (show not ship) use "subspace corridor" shortcuts to get from Earth to Qo'nos in four days? Moreover, didn't they get them from the Vulcan star charts?

yeah at least i think so..

sorry if someone else mentioned this..
getting tired so not going through whole thread.

all the way back to tos there have been theories thrown around about space corridors or warp highways were ships could either take short cuts or go faster then normal.

there are issues with distance traveled in almost every series.

that there was a space corridor between vulcan and earth that was difficult to find unless you knew were to find it helps to explain in enterprise why they wanted the vulcan starcharts.

because the vulcans being out in space longer would have charted more of them.

it may be that the corridor to vulcan is a little unstable or something and is only used for emergencies.

plus we dont know just how much time they took to travel.
we know bones and others changed uniforms.

 

[EJA]

Transwarp drive or warp highways? I think it's a bit of both. Starfleet in this universe does have a limited transwarp drive that can allow starships to travel, say, around 20 light years within a couple hours. But there is (or was) a warp highway leading directly from Earth to Vulcan that took within 30 minutes at the most at high warp.

 

[EJA]

Which raises the question why the return trip was significantly longer.

Because they didn't return from Vulcan to Earth. If you recall the Enterprise was going to meet up with the rest of the fleet in the Laurentian system.

I don't remember hearing that. You sure?

 

[JarodRussell]

Sulu says they've reached maximum warp, and in the same scene, without a time by-passing cut, Chekov makes the announcement that they arrive at Vulcan in 3 minutes.


It's a screw up. There's no such thing as "hours went by because Kirk fell in a coma and McCoy changed his uniform."

On screen, it takes the ship a bit more than 3 minutes to get from Earth to Vulcan.


The only thing you can argue about is how long does it take a starship to reach maximum warp. But I think it does that in no time.

 

[Kpnuts]

That depends on:
- When they start drilling.
- How powerful the drill was, regardless of the Red Matter to follow.

The length of time it takes to drill into a planet depends on how powerful the drill is? No shit sherlock, how long did it take you to work that one out.

The point is, it would be a little stupid if a drill that can be detroyed with a couple of phaser shots takes HOURS to drill into a planet. Not a very useful weapon then is it. Defense ships would be all over it and take it out before Nero had a chance to do anything.

And it depends on when they started drilling? Again, amazing bit of deductive reasoning that. Well done.

I didn't remember that line of dialogue, I guess I'll have to watch the movie again.

Trust me it's in there. So that disproves your point.

So how long, precisely, does it take for McCoy to change his uniform?
Does Kirk only stay knocked out after only a minute or two?

Who knows, but the point is, the trip is a relatively short one. Next time I suggest you read the whole topic before posting. Your condescending "Guys guys guys, McCoy clearly changes his uniform" post wouldn't have been necessary had you read previous posts, as it had already been said.

Which raises the question why the return trip was significantly longer.

Because they didn't return from Vulcan to Earth. If you recall the Enterprise was going to meet up with the rest of the fleet in the Laurentian system.

I don't remember hearing that. You sure?

Yes, they were on the way to the Laurentian system as per Spock's orders. Kirk got marooned. Kirk got back on the ship, took command and changed the ship's course for Earth.

 

[EJA]

All the evidence points to them having either a) transwarp drive, b) warp highways, or c) both. I personally opt for c).

Though now I'm wondering why the Narada didn't use the warp highway to get to Earth, as it seems to take them a few hours at the most if I remember correctly. Maybe the warp highway had collapsed?

 

[Jerikka Dawn]

The point is, it would be a little stupid if a drill that can be detroyed with a couple of phaser shots takes HOURS to drill into a planet. Not a very useful weapon then is it. Defense ships would be all over it and take it out before Nero had a chance to do anything.

Just for the record, drilling into a planet in an offensive manner in order to destroy said planet, under the barrage of defensive weapon systems was likely not part of the use case scenario when they designed said drill for the purpose of mining.

Any logic that would normally be applied to the performance of Nero's mining drill as if it were designed to be a weapon is misguided.

 

[Kpnuts]

All the evidence points to them having either a) transwarp drive, b) warp highways, or c) both. I personally opt for c).

Though now I'm wondering why the Narada didn't use the warp highway to get to Earth, as it seems to take them a few hours at the most if I remember correctly. Maybe the warp highway had collapsed?

"warp highways"? You think evidence points to them having both transwarp drive and this mysterious 'warp highway'?

Or, the more likely reasons... warp drive is faster, the writers didn't care and the distance was influenced by the plot.

Maybe the warp highway had collapsed?

Are you drunk?

 

[Kpnuts]

The point is, it would be a little stupid if a drill that can be detroyed with a couple of phaser shots takes HOURS to drill into a planet. Not a very useful weapon then is it. Defense ships would be all over it and take it out before Nero had a chance to do anything.

Just for the record, drilling into a planet in an offensive manner in order to destroy said planet, under the barrage of defensive weapon systems was likely not part of the use case scenario when they designed said drill for the purpose of mining.

Any logic that would normally be applied to the performance of Nero's mining drill as if it were designed to be a weapon is misguided.

True, but Nero used it as a weapon. So you would think that logically the drill doesn't take hours/days to get to planet's core while the Narada is a sitting duck.

 

[JarodRussell]

Guys, no warp highways, no transwarp drive. Orci himself said it was meant to leave it open how long the trip takes. The funny thing is that they screwed that one up, as I said before.




And a mining drill is designed to be as fast as possible. Time is money. Or latinum. Or whatever the 24th century Romulans use.

 

[Crusher Disciple]

Now you've got me wondering just how long it takes to get Mc Coy into- and out of- that uniform.

CD you kill me!

I'm always thinking about the practical.

Kirk holds the record for THAT.

And back to the fanfic.

 

[Timo]

True, but Nero used it as a weapon. So you would think that logically the drill doesn't take hours/days to get to planet's core while the Narada is a sitting duck.

I think this argument is a no-starter. The Narada isn't a sitting duck: it's a sitting dragon, invincible and capable of suppressing all resistance before lowering the potentially vulnerable drilling bit.

Now, suppressing the resistance might well take hours upon hours, since Nero would have to be sure. More probably, though, it was a quick affair, since Nero was able to vaporize Starfleet's total contribution minus one in a matter of minutes. Thus, I'd suppose the drill was lowered soon after Kirk departed Earth. But I see no reason to assume the drill would need to operate at any specific speed. It drills as fast as it drills. Perhaps it takes minutes to penetrate a crust. Perhaps it takes days. Perhaps it takes years. All the above options are equally possible from the treknological point of view. Other factors must be decisive in this case.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Nerys Myk]

Ships travel at the speed of plot.

 

[Brandonv]

Which raises the question why the return trip was significantly longer.

Because they didn't return from Vulcan to Earth. If you recall the Enterprise was going to meet up with the rest of the fleet in the Laurentian system. When Kirk was dumped off & met up with Spock that probably took about 10/15 minutes in their first meeting, and then they had to walk 14 KM (approximately 8 Miles) to the nearest starbase which may have taken a few hours. So by the time they got through with Scotty and beamed back it seems that several hours had already passed and the Enterprise was still in route to its destination. So it was several hours off, thus their return trip would probably take several hours.

I think the warp drive was also damaged during the Enterprises first encounter with the Narada. Isn't there a line at one point where someone says something about "getting the ship up to warp 5" ?

 

[KirksFlyingFist]

To come in here with a very bland perspective - I think part of the problem is that this movie was written to be a fun, action blockbuster film - and while I know they looked to the original Trek's for some influence, I doubt they were very concerned with things like traveling distances and time. If the characters needed to be somewhere for the sake of the plot, they'd be there - for the sake of the plot - and audience entertainment.

That was just my impression of this film, at least.

 

[EJA]

All the evidence points to them having either a) transwarp drive, b) warp highways, or c) both. I personally opt for c).

Though now I'm wondering why the Narada didn't use the warp highway to get to Earth, as it seems to take them a few hours at the most if I remember correctly. Maybe the warp highway had collapsed?

"warp highways"? You think evidence points to them having both transwarp drive and this mysterious 'warp highway'?

Or, the more likely reasons... warp drive is faster, the writers didn't care and the distance was influenced by the plot.

Maybe the warp highway had collapsed?

Are you drunk?

No. I am simply trying to reconcile what happens in the film with what's gone before in the previous films and series. It's called respecting continuity, for your information. It's also being creative. I am not the only person to have such ideas, as you might know had you bothered to look at the link I posted on this thread a short while ago. Do not speak to me like that again. Furthermore, I am now going to report you to the moderator. Hopefully this will teach you to be more tactful and respectful of other poster's feelings in future. I try to avoid doing things like this, but when I am personally insulted in such a crude manner, I cannot permit it.

 

[Franklin]

Ships travel at the speed of plot.

And post number 54 becomes the definitive answer.

But let me geek it up, anyway. Over at Memory Alpha, it says that Roddenberry initially established the maximum speed of the TOS Enteprise at .73 light years an hour. Of course it's not going to be able to run that fast very long. So, let's assume in an emergency it can run safely for some time at 67 percent of that, or about half light year an hour. If Vulcan is 16 light years away, that's a 32 hour trip.
While never mentioned in TOS, it has been written that a relative shift in time is supposed to take place while in warp. Less time passes on the ship than is passing outside the ship. Now whether or not 30 hours translates into just 30 minutes of ship time, who knows?

 

[Phily B]

Its a movie.

Remember Generations had big ass travel times with lots in between the action? IT SUCKED! They didn't want to make the same mistake, it probably took a few hours realistically but they didn't really want to show that. Same with Spock/Narada at the end, Spock is gonna jump out of warp near the Solar System so the Narada was probably chasing for a few minutes up to an hour.

 

[Pauln6]

The point is, it would be a little stupid if a drill that can be detroyed with a couple of phaser shots takes HOURS to drill into a planet. Not a very useful weapon then is it. Defense ships would be all over it and take it out before Nero had a chance to do anything.

Just for the record, drilling into a planet in an offensive manner in order to destroy said planet, under the barrage of defensive weapon systems was likely not part of the use case scenario when they designed said drill for the purpose of mining.

Any logic that would normally be applied to the performance of Nero's mining drill as if it were designed to be a weapon is misguided.

True, but Nero used it as a weapon. So you would think that logically the drill doesn't take hours/days to get to planet's core while the Narada is a sitting duck.

Well they knew V'ger was coming days in advance of it reaching Epsilon 9. Was nobody scanning the Narada until it reached Vulcan orbit and started drilling? Why didn't Earth or Vulcan send out a ship to intercept after it left Klingon space and open a dialogue?