Inquiry for Mike Okuda please...

[Atolm]

Mr. Okuda, I am writing this in regards of some clarity on situation of certain aspects of trek production.
My question is a simple one: I am aware that in most shows the writing staff has a bible of sorts (in this particular case I am referring the[FONT=Arial] TNG writer's technical manual)[/FONT] to go by so that it serves as a guideline in which for them to use for referral when the needs arise. Now, in Trek all of its incarnations, it has been understood that most of the major races (klingon, Romulans, Breen etc...)have established territories and their respective home-worlds in certain quadrants. So how are the Races in relation to Earth setup as to where they are from? Meaning in TOS no planet was established onscreen that it was in a quadrant and the term was tossed out there rather arbitrarily. In TNG you guys did a great job setting up the aspect of Quadrants of Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gama and their relation to Earth in subsequent media (like books and background images onscreen), but in show as a spoken dialogue many inconsistencies remained prevalent, such as Q'Onos never being stated in show as in Alpha Quadrant, but was implied as such based on onscreen evidence via dialogue. similarly with the Romulan Home-worlds Post-TNG was established as Beta quadtrent, but PreTNG it was just "romulan space"(similarly with TOS races in general). So the main question i have is how did you guys establish where everyone was in relation to each other... and how much was just said "this kinda works, but it really doesn't matter", as the places where they are from were nothing more than aspects to a plot device and not to be over examined? BTW i think I am over examining this too much too...lol
Thanks for a reply if you have one.

 

[Finn]

How's the comic book store doing?

 

[T'Girl]

Meaning in TOS no planet was established onscreen that it was in a quadrant and the term was tossed out there rather arbitrarily.

In TOS the term "Quadrant" was pretty obviously a smaller unit than one quarter of the entire galaxy. Most likely referring to a more manageable sized navigational unit. If you think about it, using one quarter of the galaxy in the Star Trek universe to refer to anything is really ridiculous.

Take Picard statement that the Federation is about eight thousand light years long, combine that with the fact that the Orion arm of the Milky Way is about two and a half thousand light year wide and thick, you come up with the Federation being most likely far less than one percent of one quadrant. The galaxy is huge.

On a map of the whole galaxy, the mighty Federation is the tiniest of dots.

 

[Atolm]

How's the comic book store doing?

excuse me, the what?

Meaning in TOS no planet was established onscreen that it was in a quadrant and the term was tossed out there rather arbitrarily.

In TOS the term "Quadrant" was pretty obviously a smaller unit than one quarter of the entire galaxy. Most likely referring to a more manageable sized navigational unit. If you think about it, using one quarter of the galaxy in the Star Trek universe to refer to anything is really ridiculous.

Take Picard statement that the Federation is about eight thousand light years long, combine that with the fact that the Orion arm of the Milky Way is about two and a half thousand light year wide and thick, you come up with the Federation being most likely far less than one percent of one quadrant. The galaxy is huge.

On a map of the whole galaxy, the mighty Federation is the tiniest of dots.

I think you are missing the point, the question is how relavant is the Trek "bible" or rather the TNG writer's technical manual's guide to the relationships of the major race's territories to the actual story writing?
In my judgement its like the statement to the question of how fast is warp speed? It is as fast as the plot dictates (ie Earth to Q'onos is obvious a long, long way from each other, but in the shows its done in a matter of minutes... So its pretty obvious, that just because a map in a "Bible" says Q'nonos is "here", in the show, it does not matter in relation to actual plot).

 

[Nerys Myk]

I think you are missing the point, the question is how relavant is the Trek "bible" or rather the TNG writer's technical manual's guide to the relationships of the major race's territories to the actual story writing?
In my judgement its like the statement to the question of how fast is warp speed? It is as fast as the plot dictates (ie Earth to Q'onos is obvious a long, long way from each other, but in the shows its done in a matter of minutes... So its pretty obvious, that just because a map in a "Bible" says Q'nonos is "here", in the show, it does not matter in relation to actual plot).

Probably "not at all".

Just because this stuff exists, it doesnt mean you have to use it in your script.

 

[sojourner]

Take Picard statement that the Federation is about eight thousand light years long, combine that with the fact that the Orion arm of the Milky Way is about two and a half thousand light year wide and thick, you come up with the Federation being most likely far less than one percent of one quadrant. The galaxy is huge.

On a map of the whole galaxy, the mighty Federation is the tiniest of dots.

I don't get your math here. Besides, we have seen maps onscreen that have shown it larger than "the tiniest of dots".