Distance as gimmick: The pros & cons of DSC/ST/sci-fi expansionism

[Mage]

Never understood this obsession some people have with Star Trek needing to adhere to the concepts of current science.

So effing what if we figured out how lightyears and lightspeed work? If a show is a set in timeframe that humanity probably won't even make in real life, I don't really care if they have a mushroomdrive that can take them to distant places. Is it a good story, that is well acted? Good enough for me.

Ofcourse, your milage may vary. And if the idea of Discovery going into all corners of our galaxy, something that shouldn't be a thing because of TNG/DS9/VOY/ENT but the mother of all Star Trek, TOS, did all the time is a problem for you, that's cool too.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I like the concept of the Spore drive, and a one-off ship which can theoretically go anywhere and anywhen in the multiverse. It's a shame they're not pushing it to the limit and jumping to the crazy exploded galaxy or the bubbles-and-clouds-imaginationland universe from "Where No One Has Gone Before"; or exploring time periods like the classic Enterprise did; or going crazy and exploring random corners of the multiverse where the dominant species in the Alpha Quadrant are mile-high giraffes who speak French.

 

[eschaton]

I like the concept of the Spore drive, and a one-off ship which can theoretically go anywhere and anywhen in the multiverse. It's a shame they're not pushing it to the limit and jumping to the crazy exploded galaxy or the bubbles-and-clouds-imaginationland universe from "Where No One Has Gone Before"; or exploring time periods like the classic Enterprise did; or going crazy and exploring random corners of the multiverse where the dominant species in the Alpha Quadrant are mile-high giraffes who speak French.

Unfortunately I think modern serialized storytelling means that would never be used to full potential. Look at how they spent four episodes on the MU last season. There would be a demand by the showrunners to tie everything in a season to something deeper than "crew tries to get home, and characters develop."

 

[Longinus]

I still think that it was a colossally stupid move to introduce this insanely fast drive in a TOS era show. If such technology was pivotal to their concept, then they should have just made a post-Voyager show. Federation's first starship with a stable quantum slipstrean drive would have made way more sense, and more importantly they would not have been limited what they can actually do with this concept by the established setting history.

 

[Lakenheath 72]

According to Where No One Has Gone Before, 11% of the galaxy had been explored by Humans between circa 2064 and 2364. This percentage increased to 19% within a year, suggesting a major exploration push by the Federation. ("The Dauphin")

The Beta Quadrant has been with Star Trek since the beginning; however, most of the action seems to take place in the Alpha Quadrant.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I still think that it was a colossally stupid move to introduce this insanely fast drive in a TOS era show.

TOS: Where No Man Has Gone Before - Enterprise flies to the edge of the galaxy without modifications (chasing an earlier ship that had already gone there).
TOS: By Any Other Name - Enterprise flies outside galaxy with modifications by the Kelvans.
STV: The Final Frontier - Enterprise flies to the center of the galaxy with modifications by Sybok.

Only the Kelvan one features modifications by a person or species outside the Federation's access or knowledge base, and even then it was still just using the Enterprise's existing tech.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

(chasing an earlier ship that had already gone there)

The Valiant had impulse drive only, but had been swept to the edge of the galaxy by a magnetic space storm that it was unable to resist.

Some additional data points:

Canonically, there's the chestnut in "That Which Survives," when the Enterprise expects to be able to to travel 1,000 light-years in less than 12 hours under maximum speed. Her engines start going out of control, because of the alien transporter, and she exceeded warp 14 before almost blowing up.

To the list of modifications to the Enterprise, there's also "The Changeling" in which Nomad "repaired" the engines to go past warp 11.

For those who accept TAS: The Enterprise went on a special mission to study the center of the galaxy in "The Magicks of Megas-Tu."

 

[Timo]

The reason "New Eden" chose a faraway destination for our heroes was not "expanding" - it was because distance is the one thing that creates an excuse for the hero ship to tackle this issue. If not for the distance, some other set of heroes would be doing this, in a ship better equipped, with people more experienced. But only the Spore Drive can get Starfleet to Terralysium, and only the Spore Drive will keep on providing a response time that allows for the intercepting of future Red Things.

Moreover, there's a pretty obvious direct connection between the Red Things and the Discovery here. The ones first appeared exactly when the other did! And not, say, geological ages apart. They seem tailored for the hero ship and the hero ship only. We don't know who is doing the tailoring (might be Spock for all we know), but a close connection to mankind's first-ever abusing of the spore network is implicit here. And distance is a key ingredient there.

TOS is a great time to have this supership that can defy distances, because the contrast to the rest of the Starfleet is maximized there. And we need the contrast to make the heroes special. Heaven knows it was difficult to pretend that Starship X was somehow more interesting than Starship Y in the previous spinoffs, when they all zoomed around at warp, went pew-pew with phasers and photon torpedoes and shields, transported people to adventures, and sought out new life and civilizations.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[cultcross]

In general, I don't put much stock in the 'new stories' generated by a setting in a new made up part of space instead of the old made up part of space, because, well, it's made up. You can set as many stories in the bit of space they're already in as you want, moving it to the Andromeda galaxy or whatever doesn't automatically generate new stories; it will likely be just more forehead aliens with problems analogous to twentieth century earth. See: Atalantis, Voyager. The only reason it's worth doing is if you want to introduce some new element which it isn't realistic hadn't been mentioned before, like the Dominion. Then you're doing 'travelers from a far off land' but in space.

 

[Tuskin38]

I still think that it was a colossally stupid move to introduce this insanely fast drive in a TOS era show.

Not if they can't use it anymore after the series ends

 

[Longinus]

Not if they can't use it anymore after the series ends

It's still awkward to have this early this tech that blows out of the water anything that anyone has in the later era. And setting it this era means they need to can it sooner or later. In a later era they could freely build upon the concept.