Shuttlecraft

[therritn]

Hi,

Is a shuttlecraft carried aboard starships around the TOS era warp capable? My friends and I have differing (but friendly) disagreements about this. I say that they aren't.

 

[Timo]

Well, on screen

-nobody said they are, but
-nobody said they aren't, either;

-there were no plots that forbade them from being warp-capable, but
-there were several plots that required them to be warp-capable ("The Galileo Seven" and "The Menagerie" the most prominently, but "Metamorphosis" and "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" as well).

So I'd give this one to your friend.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[nx1701g]

^ Like Timo said nothing has specifically stated in canon that they were or weren't. I think that its more along the lines that they had limited warp drive because Commodore Mendez and Captain Kirk went after the Enterprise in one as it warped away.

Several books say they aren't warp capable, but they're not canon.

 

[captcalhoun]

there's more evidence to suggest that they are, than there is to suggest they aren't.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

They do have a limited fuel, though.

 

[Timo]

...Yet at least twice, people risked a true interstellar journey in one, apparently believing that there'd be enough fuel for such a trip. In "The Galileo Seven", there were four star systems that the damaged shuttle could have reached, implying interstellar reach; in "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", a desperate fugitive tried to escape from star to star in one.

Perhaps it's not recommended to do such long trips in a shuttle, exactly because there ain't enough fuel for the trip plus unpredictable detours. But it's still technologically possible. It might take weeks or months (even though in "The Galileo Seven" the nearest of the four system was apparently mere hours away), but eventually one would get there.

Timo Saloniemi