Highways In The Sky.

[Myasishchev]

It's not as if the math would have to be particularly exact. What matters is travel time. And even if speed is fixed, the distance can be freely fudged, since the start- and endpoints of Trek travel are typically fictional - or at least one of them is.

If some writer chooses a worryingly short time of interstellar travel, we simply decide that the two stars were exceptionally close to each other, as long as short times don't become a bad habit. And long times are no cause for worry, since two stars of interest can be arbitrarily far away from each other. Minor variation in travel time between repeatedly mentioned points A and B can be explained away by various means, and major variation just gives us an opportunity to postulate an additional off-camera adventure that slowed down the anomalously long transit!

Timo Saloniemi

"...And that's how we freed the Artemis cult on Blobleep IV. Now let's get back to this problem with the Borg!"

I just ask for consistency and reasonableness in their fictional destinations. Like, no Kronos four days' travel away from Earth. And, frankly, DS9 being so close to Earth is a bit of a bother, to the extent that one has to just assume the Cardassian Union was around in the 23d century, on the other side of the Federation, and no one ever bothered to mention it. Although actually the thought of Cardies in TOS-era makeup, with TOS-era ships, makes me giggle--I should probably be on some kind of medication.

It'd be nice if the rebooted universe would hire Geoff Mendel, and have him make a new, ground-up star chart--a variation with the goofy parts modified--and they should stick to it religiously. But I doubt it will have so many installments that consistency will be a great imperative (it already kind of isn't, with the Delta Vega thing). So, with that foreclosed to any potential prime-u Trek writers (and Treklit writers), just... don't do speed of plot. Do speed of sense.

 

[Timo]

I just ask for consistency and reasonableness in their fictional destinations. Like, no Kronos four days' travel away from Earth

Why not? That if anything would be consistent. Our ENT heroes go there in four days, while the Klingons might respond "within the week"; our TNG heroes reach the location within at most days as well. A travel time of about a week from Klingon space across UFP space to Cardassian space also seems consistent with all of DS9.

If there's ever to be a rock-solid standard of warp travel in Trek, it better accommodate the idea that any two arbitrary star systems within the UFP are set one or two days apart unless the story calls for them to be "distant" or for the ship to be "slow". That's what the drama consistently demands... Four days from Earth to Kronos is then a pretty good separation for two arch-enemies!

...the Cardassian Union was around in the 23d century, on the other side of the Federation, and no one ever bothered to mention it.

Of course, nobody ever mentioned the Klingons, either, until somebody did. Or the Romulans. Or the Tholians. Or the Breen.

These "old adversary" species are such a common Trek plot element that I never considered "The Wounded" to be a particularly annoying case of it. And DS9 sort of flowed smoothly from there. If a map of the universe (or even the immediate neighborhood) really pre-existed, then this whole concept of trekking through those stars would become rather moot...

the thought of Cardies in TOS-era makeup

"Arena"?

Timo Saloniemi