Imagine if the admiral was Andorian, one of the captains was Tellarite, another was Vulcan, another was Betazoid, another was Bolian and then at least one human. Would that be an entertaining situation?
Full Circle style mini-fleets for exploration
- Thread starter Shamrock Holmes
- Start date
I like diversity among crews, particularly senior officers.
*Nods*
A senior Captain (titled either Commodore or Fleet Commander), like Picard*, would be the minimum for the Officer-Commanding of a TETG, but I would imagine that a one or two star flag officer would be prefered with a senior Captain as their XO, who may also be the CO of the flagship, the other Explorers would also rate senior Captains, with Cruisers commanded by junior Captains or Commanders, and Escorts and Auxiliaries being commanding by more junior officers (Frigates or major auxiliary vessels would rate more senior commanders (CMDR/LT CMDR) than runabouts, scout ships and smaller auxiliaries (LT).
*"Operation: Return" suggests that the seniority requirement may be waived if ordered by the Admirality, presumably if a more junior Captain has more specific experience of the scenario.
It did. We saw at least one runabout, and everything in the shuttlebay above a shuttle pod was warp capable up to about warp 5 I think...Scotty went off in one, and they're always flying them off to conferences and whatnot. The D has a huge shuttlebay and hangar deck. Mahoosive.
The E-D might have had access to a runabout, but they could have made much better use of it, and the other shuttlecraft wouldn't be suitable for journeys of more than a day or two at most and more likely hours.
Most estimates suggest this isn't enough to even travel between two star systems and the TNG:TM worsens this by suggesting a max speed of Warp 1.2 for the Type-6 shuttle which would be enough for intra-system travel but interstellar travel would be impossible (Earth to Alpha Centauri for instance would take over 2.5 years at that speed).
Most estimates suggest this isn't enough to even travel between two star systems and the TNG:TM worsens this by suggesting a max speed of Warp 1.2 for the Type-6 shuttle which would be enough for intra-system travel but interstellar travel would be impossible (Earth to Alpha Centauri for instance would take over 2.5 years at that speed).
People always ignore the note at the bottom of the printed warp scales saying that the actual warp velocities are variable depending on local space conditions and the printed figures should just be used for comparison purposes rather than seen as absolutes. If anything, the printed warp scales have always been far, far too slow compared to what we actually see onscreen. (Like the alleged "speed = warp factor cubed" formula from TOS -- the onscreen velocity indicated in "That Which Survives" was about a thousand times faster than that.)
True, but the "recorded values" wouldn't be provided if they weren't accurate some of the time. And even if the speed factors are sometimes greater than standard, the larger multi-compartment auxiliary vessels like runabouts, the Delta Flyer or the Argo & Sovereign Yacht attached to the E-E are still much better for inter-system travel and general medium range use IMO.
If Star Trek were a real universe and those charts actually came from it, then that would be true. But it's fiction, so you don't get the same guarantee that it actually does fit together consistently. The people who made up the warp charts were just advisors that the people writing the scripts weren't actually required to listen to. They didn't always make compatible assumptions. Case in point: TNG's writers continued to toss out nonsense about "holodeck matter" long after the TNG Technical Manual explained the holodeck in terms of shaped forcefields and optical projections.
No matter how official the behind-the-scenes materials were, they still weren't canonical. The stuff onscreen could always ignore them and go with whatever suited the story better. And faster warp factors almost always suited the story. I can't think of a single instance where the supposedly "official" warp conversions were ever actually used in an episode or film.
Yup.
However, even if you ignore the speed factor, then runabouts and larger shuttles are still better for medium distance travel as they (could have) replicators, a head/shower and even in some cases proper bunks which the standard shuttlecraft designs don't.
