Does ST:E use TOS warp or TNG+ warp?
- Thread starter groo667
- Start date
I recall this question coming up in Star Trek Magazine, to which Larry Nemecek mentioned they went back to the old TOS scale.
Not that the NX-01 was ever likely to reach warp 13!
Not that the NX-01 was ever likely to reach warp 13!
It's assumed that the Original Series runs on a different warp scale from the 24th Century Trek shows for a couple of reasons, among them that the Original Enterprise zipped past warp ten surprisingly often while in 24th Century Trek warp ten was an impossible barrier most of the time.
The Original Series did its best to avoid saying just how fast any particular speed was (occasionally slipping up by giving exact distance and travel times, alas), but production material was used to claim that a warp speed was the cube of that warp number times the speed of light. In ``Broken Bow'', Archer describes the top speed for the Enterprise in making a round-trip circuit from Earth to Neptune and back, and the given speed fits neatly with the warp-factor-cubed-times-the-speed-of-light standard.
Unfortunately, that speed is then shot in the foot by placing the Klingon homeworld four days' travel away, which would be impossibly close to Earth. So we can say that it nominally had the warp factor formula the Original Series sort-of pretended to have, although neither actually had the ships travel that achingly slowly. (Stars are really, really, really, really, really far apart.)
According to my research and the good folks at the Trek Wikipedia Memory Alpha, the show used the old TOS scale. Even thought it was never stated, you can calculate backwards from the warp factor and travel time given for known stellar distances.
For further clarification, I would suggest looking here. As I always say, if all else fails go to Memory Alpha. Or you can save time and go there first.
And if you would like to see how the old scale and new scales calculate out or to see a graphic of the NX-01 warp scale, check here. (Please forgive the shameless plugging of my own site but I think the information would be helpful.)
For further clarification, I would suggest looking here. As I always say, if all else fails go to Memory Alpha. Or you can save time and go there first.
And if you would like to see how the old scale and new scales calculate out or to see a graphic of the NX-01 warp scale, check here. (Please forgive the shameless plugging of my own site but I think the information would be helpful.)
To be sure, at speeds of warp five or below, the two supposed scales don't actually differ enough to be told apart by vague onscreen evidence such as "four days from A to B". Warp five in theoretical "TNG" terms would be less than twice as fast as warp five in theoretical "TOS" terms, after all. And in practical terms, the two scales have never really been shown to differ in a readily measurable way, except past warp nine.
So it's really rather irrelevant which sort of speeds the ENT writers used in the stories, as the end result would in either case fall within the error limits of the TOS scale (if one wants to believe in its separate existence) or the TNG scale alike.
Timo Saloniemi
So it's really rather irrelevant which sort of speeds the ENT writers used in the stories, as the end result would in either case fall within the error limits of the TOS scale (if one wants to believe in its separate existence) or the TNG scale alike.
Timo Saloniemi
^ But fans are still going to ask the question despite the lack of usable information. Patting them on the head and sending them on their way doesn't really work. So, unless one of the producers, writers or Mike Okuda shows up to part the cyber heavens and bestow on us a concrete answer, fans will keep searching for their own answers. And for that, I don't see the harm in helping them out if I can. Once they view the evidence, they can choose for themselves which scale to use.
Agreed. Poor ship!I recall this question coming up in Star Trek Magazine, to which Larry Nemecek mentioned they went back to the old TOS scale.
Not that the NX-01 was ever likely to reach warp 13!
