One thing about Star Trek that is pretty annoying!!

[dave2770]

Its the fact that in TOS, Kirk goes all the way to the edge of the galaxy like twice. A trip that long would take at least more than 30 years, but he made round trips there like it was nothing.

Also, in TNG episode First Contact, Picard says that he is from a planet that is 2,000 light years away. That would mean it took him more than 2 years to get to their planet, and coming back would take another 2 years. I dont see how they would like to be out on a mission this long, not to mention they are back near Earth in the next episode and whatnot.

 

[Eyes]

1. You ever heard of 3 dimensions?

2. The speed of warp, as in 1000 ly = 1 year was set down by Voyager, and I think generally refers to them going at a stable speed, which is about warp 6. The E-D could go faster, as it was generally just wandering around the Federation all the time, and didn't need to be always on the move, just short sprints at maximum warp.

 

[Biggshow]

Exactly. It was also established in TNG that warp factors are a logarithmic calculation. Mathematicians may be able to explain this further but it means that each succeeding warp factor is several degrees faster than the previous warp factor. Janeway could have ordered the ship to travel faster but that may not have been sustainable and they might have blown the warp core out hundreds of light years from the nearest star system.

In TOS, the warp factor was apparently calculated by the cube of whatever the warp factor was. For instance, Warp 3 was c (the speed of light) x 3 to the third power, or 27 times the speed of light. So, yeah, even if the Enterprise could maintain warp 10 (or 1,000 times the speed of light), it would still have taken them 30 years (if we stipulate, as the OP apparently has, that the "edge" of the galaxy is 30,000 ly away.

However, a couple of things to consider about the above. The above warp calculations were based on James Doohan's speculations about how warp factors might work and are never mentioned in text (so not...that "c" word) so it may be that warp, even in TOS might also be a more logarithmic scale and thus at warp 6 or 7 might be travelling considerably faster than Mr. Doohan's version. Also, the galactic barrier may not be at the actual "edge" of the Milky Way. It may be closer.

Finally, when the Scalosians took over the ship, they had it travelling at crazy-assed speeds like Warp 15 or something which, in TNG terms, would basically mean some kind of transwarp capability. Which probably also means the crew should have been turning into salamanders at some point.

I think the exclusion of that side effect should be the OP's real beef.

 

[C.E. Evans]

To be fair, both the TOS and TNG warp scales were established in offscreen publications, IIRC, and onscreen material has never really established a difference between the two to begin with. Most Trek episodes and movies have happily adhered to "plot factors" to make the ship go as fast or as slow as the story demanded.

It could be said, though, that movies and films from TNG onwards decided to ignore how fast ships could go in TOS...