Maximum speed of the NuEnterprise

[Timo]

The thing about the STXI trip is that "plot speed" there works on a couple of contradictory premises.

The dialogue suggests that the trip might have taken mere minutes. However, the series of events that take place during the trip suggests that several hours would be much preferable:

1) Kirk spends time sedated, then running around the huge, unfamiliar ship
2) McCoy changes clothes
3) People generally settle down
4) A fleet of ships reaches Vulcan and gets reduced to toothpicks

and perhaps most importantly

5) The reverse trip, chasing Nero, takes a significant amount of screen time!

What do we have on the other side of the balance, to suggest mere minutes?

1) Sulu says the ship has reached maximum speed, in the same scene that ends with them saying they'll reach Vulcan in a couple of minutes
2) Chekov only gives his informative briefing those precious few minutes before arrival, too

Now, these can probably be explained away: the new and untested ship might easily spend hours struggling up to full speed, until which time the crew would be too busy to worry about the upcoming mission's specifics. Clearly, neither Pike nor Chekov was in any real hurry to deliver the announcement even when there were only minutes until arrival at Vulcan - so we need not argue Pike would have asked Chekov to deliver the message immediately after leaving Earth.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Nero's Shadow]

As pike told sulu punch it !!! and he did taken the big E to max warp in my opinion but next time don,t leave the parking brake on !!! LOL

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Same as it's been since the beginning of TOS: Plot Speed.

Lol - it was annoying then and it's annoying now!

The difference is that modern writers now have easier access to more resources to ensure internal consistency. They should also have enough experience to know that educated audience members and especially nerds will spot glaring mistakes (and tiny mistakes).

There can be no mistakes, because there is no real standard against which to judge mistakes. The speed of ships in Star Trek has always been adjusted based on how quickly the story called for the ship to get somewhere.

 

[Pauln6]

Same as it's been since the beginning of TOS: Plot Speed.

Lol - it was annoying then and it's annoying now!

The difference is that modern writers now have easier access to more resources to ensure internal consistency. They should also have enough experience to know that educated audience members and especially nerds will spot glaring mistakes (and tiny mistakes).

There can be no mistakes, because there is no real standard against which to judge mistakes. The speed of ships in Star Trek has always been adjusted based on how quickly the story called for the ship to get somewhere.

A variable speed does contradict the 'official' tech manuals even though they've never been given approval on screen. So in that respect it is a mistake even though it is a mistake that has been spotted in every incarnation of Trek. I wouldn't be averse to a variable speed dependent on dark matter in any region of space but that is even more of a pandora's box because we'd end up with variables of the variable speed for the same journeys in different stories

 

[Nerys Myk]

Tech manuals, "official" and otherwise are a lot like computers, when a show is in active production they tend to wind up obsolete before you get it out of the box.

 

[USS KG5]

I wouldn't be averse to a variable speed dependent on dark matter in any region of space but that is even more of a pandora's box because we'd end up with variables of the variable speed for the same journeys in different stories

Isn't this one of the occasions when "its a TV show" really is the only good answer?

 

[Pauln6]

I wouldn't be averse to a variable speed dependent on dark matter in any region of space but that is even more of a pandora's box because we'd end up with variables of the variable speed for the same journeys in different stories

Isn't this one of the occasions when "its a TV show" really is the only good answer?

Yep - it's no different to 24 I guess, where all the action happens within 10 minutes of CTU whether by car, helicopter, or plane. It would be a dull story if Jack said, "I'm en route, I'll be there in two hours" and all his scenes for the next two episodes involved him having his passport checked and declining peanuts on his flight.

And they are always setting up a secure perimeter which turns out to be as secure as a chocolate fireguard - what's with that?

 

[USS KG5]

And they are always setting up a secure perimeter which turns out to be as secure as a chocolate fireguard - what's with that?

Sadly the "incompetence" factor is not unique to 24, even genuinely great films like TWOK over-rely on the main character being very stupid.

 

[Search4]

The thing about the STXI trip is that "plot speed" there works on a couple of contradictory premises.

The dialogue suggests that the trip might have taken mere minutes. However, the series of events that take place during the trip suggests that several hours would be much preferable:

1) Kirk spends time sedated, then running around the huge, unfamiliar ship
2) McCoy changes clothes
3) People generally settle down
4) A fleet of ships reaches Vulcan and gets reduced to toothpicks

and perhaps most importantly

5) The reverse trip, chasing Nero, takes a significant amount of screen time!

What do we have on the other side of the balance, to suggest mere minutes?

1) Sulu says the ship has reached maximum speed, in the same scene that ends with them saying they'll reach Vulcan in a couple of minutes
2) Chekov only gives his informative briefing those precious few minutes before arrival, too

Now, these can probably be explained away: the new and untested ship might easily spend hours struggling up to full speed, until which time the crew would be too busy to worry about the upcoming mission's specifics. Clearly, neither Pike nor Chekov was in any real hurry to deliver the announcement even when there were only minutes until arrival at Vulcan - so we need not argue Pike would have asked Chekov to deliver the message immediately after leaving Earth.

Timo Saloniemi

Just to add: Kirk also changes clothes (I believe McCoy says "let's get you changed") before he is sedated. He comes aboard in the academy uniform and then is in the... well the black top... and then these events occur. So given he did not have a berth on the ship - didn't have luggage (no one had luggage actually), it could have taken significant time to get to this stage.

Sulu's "maximum warp" could be 6 hours into the flight for that matter.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

A variable speed does contradict the 'official' tech manuals even though they've never been given approval on screen.

Emphasis mine - that clause is the operative one.

 

[Pauln6]

A variable speed does contradict the 'official' tech manuals even though they've never been given approval on screen.

Emphasis mine - that clause is the operative one.

The fine detail of most Trek Tech has never been given express approval on screen but even screen approval isn't absolute. Writers cock up all the time and I'd argue that having the information written down in a tech manual should make it easier to follow the rules rather than having to wade through hours of footage.

I think I'd agree that warp speeds need to be faster or patrolling the Federation becomes almost an impossibility. But inconsistency in transit . Speed of plot sucks.

 

[BenRoethig]

If I remember the published specs, the AU connies have a slower max speed than the TOS connies in line with the much larger mass.

 

[publiusr]

AU connies? I don't follow--I'm sorry.

Now there have been suggested certain space lanes that might enhance warp travel. Cosmic superstrings moved between some systems serving as the median--with standard warp factors elsewhere?

 

[Set Harth]

Now there have been suggested certain space lanes that might enhance warp travel.

Why not? The more Star Wars connections, the merrier.

 

[publiusr]

There are certain space lanes for real that allow travel for interplanetary trips with min energy, so it is a universal concept. Then too, when I heard about the Falcon only going .5 past light speed--that makes it slower than some warp shuttles. But I concede hyperspace to you.

 

[I-Am-Zim]

AU connies? I don't follow--I'm sorry.

AU = Alternate Universe (Abramsverse)

 

[RobertVA]

Kirk might not have been so unfamiliar with the Enterprise's internal arrangement. With a major new ship about to be commissioned the academy curriculum probably included familiarity courses and simulations.

 

[I-Am-Zim]

Now there have been suggested certain space lanes that might enhance warp travel.

Why not? The more Star Wars connections, the merrier.

 

[Set Harth]

NERO: Strike me down with all of your photons and phasers, and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!

 

[SonicRanger]

In "That Which Survives" the Enterprise travelled 900 light years in about a day, probably less.

At that speed, the Enterprise could travel the 5 light-years to Vulcan in... oh, let's be generous and say 8 minutes.

Please have some knowledge of TOS before saying the new film is inconsistent with it.