How would other starship classes have fared in the Delta Quadrant?
- Thread starter Infern0
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I slightly disagree. You're right that the upper limit of the Galaxy class' range would be diminished by damage to the ship and losses to the crew. However, the very fact that the ship is designed to be a deep space explorer and more self-sufficient than a class of ship that is always within a few weeks of a starbase will give it advantages over any length of time. More space, more recreational facilities, vast science facilities, good weapons and defences, a larger crew meaning more intellectual resources. A larger capacity for self repair (not explicitly said on screen, but logical, and we know they have larger, more industrial replicators on the ship). The TNG Tech Manual (not canon, yeah yeah) mentions that the Galaxy class can even make its own anti-matter in limited quantities. So the Enterprise might not be a-OK for a decade of travel through the Delta quadrant, but they'd be better off for a longer period of time than Voyager. The Sovereign class is even faster and better armed, with a smaller capability for scientific exploration but still likely to be highly advanced in that area, so I would imagine it would do well too.
Also, speaking of Voyager specifically, the crew wasn't _bad_, but it would have been better off in that situation if it had been 100% Starfleet. And if it had been Picard, Riker, Data, LaForge etc. sent to the Delta quadrant? They'd have been home in a year.
Picard was lucky. If the Traveller wasn't onboard, Data would be flying that ship toward home with the great-great-great grandchildren of the original crew...
As for Kirk, they made it appear that warp 1 was enough to transverse half of the galaxy. It's all about writing.
Having them know exactly where they were and how long it would take to get home also hurt the show. They shouldn't have known where they were until like 2 seasons into the show or something, and even then "going home" should've always just been the secondary plot of the series and not the main plot.
I never saw a problem with them knowing where they were in the galaxy. While the area hasn't been explored we, right now, can see stars light years away. Federation technology could theoretically have charted the enough stars of Delta Quadrant giving Voyager a starting point and a direction home. The Argus array was powerful enough to give detailed pictures of Utopia Planitia, a similar array could have plotted stars as far away as the Delta Quadrant.
Wouldn't a Galaxy have additional problems that Voyager only touched on. A ship with more or less 1,000 people bee enough for a major population boom. Like Janeway figured out Voyager could be come a generational ship. Voyager had a crew of about 150 over a 1/10 of a Galaxy and 2 children were born on her (admittedly 1 was born as they returned home.) I would expect a Galaxy to start having more children born. Another drain on resources. 1701-D had at least 2 children born on it in 7 years, possibly 3 (Ogawa's). Really long mission, the possibility that it'd take ~70 years to get home could get the crew looking for more physical comfort.
YARN
Fleet Captain
In the future they've apparently come up with a reliable means of birth control.
As Sisko found out, and as we should know, it has to be used regularly. Also the ship would have to be generational if they are going to prepare for a journey of ~70 years.
Where did you read that>
I think it's from the tech manual.
But for storytelling purposes, having them know how to go home takes a lot out of the potential.
EVERYTHING is about the writing. Really good writers could have had the ship know exactly where it was and even figure out how to get home whenever they wanted to in the first episode* - and still made compelling Trek. Voyager's problem was that it took no risks and frequently had episodes that seemed like almost everyone (writers, actors, everyone) was phoning it in.
*Imagine what would have happened if they had figured out a way to get home - Caretaker tech, whatever - in the first episode or season... but had known that they would have no easy way to come back to the Delta Quadrant. They practically would have HAD to go exploring, anyway, just because the opportunity couldn't be passed up.
No. Kirk wasn't the womanizer he was made out to be.
If it was just a Starfleet ship, then sure that would have been acceptable. But 1/3 the crew weren't explorers and didn't want to be out there anyways.
Having them not know how to go home and getting involved in local issues (so the show has a better driving plot than "Going home" which just isn't good enough) and THEN have them learn how to go home after they've already gotten involved with stuff, makes for more compelling storytelling.
It would also ignore canon. I know ALL the shows did that rather frequently and even violated their own canon. But the Federation did have some stars in other quadrants plotted already. That is how Dax and Sisko knew that the Wormhole opened up in the Gamma Quadrant. Some of the stars had been plotted and the runabout's computer was able to determine their position. Ignoring that the Federation had sent deep space probes, had arrays as powerful as the Argus Array, to plot stars across the Milky Way would have given the show one more reason to be attacked by its haters. It got it right, it didn't violate canon, and it started the series with the crew knowing which way to go.
Just come up with some contrivance to say otherwise: Say that they're in a region that's enveloped by a Nebula that's 10,000 LY in diameter that they can't see out of and that there are several such nebulae all over the Galaxy so they could be anywhere in relation.
No one minded in Farscape that Crichton couldn't plot his location.
No one minded in Farscape that Crichton couldn't plot his location.
Crichton was in another galaxy all together. Hardly the same thing. If Voyager was sent to another Galaxy there was no way it could have made it home. Intergalactic space would mean no where to stop for ANYTHING. They would exhaust their fuel and die out there. If they had been sent to another galaxy and the Caretaker Array destroyed, the only remaining option would be to explore until they found a place to settle down and live.
Right now, we can tell the composition of nebulae from Earth, logically, the Federation should be able to tell the composition of various nebulae much further away and with greater detail. That should give then their location.
You are right, knowing which nebula your in doesn't tell you if you're going in the right direction. However, a few probes should give you an outline of the nebula and possible a way out and towards home.
Besides staying a nebula for a few episodes to a years worth would be boring as hell.
Actually, he was still in the Milky Way.
Picard and Kirk did.
If that nebula contained various civilizations that they could have adventures in, it wouldn't.
VOY needed to be more stationary, so they could flesh out their areas and the peoples like DS9 did by never being able to leave the Bajor/Cardassia thing behind. Or get away from the Dominion.
