Speed of plot

[Mach5]

Let's put together some examples of the "speed of plot" phenomenon, what do you say?

Obviously, ST V comes to mind as a perfect example, so does ST XI (Earth to Vulcan in a matter of hours).

There were also some examples of this in Voyager, like in "Scorpion part1" where Seven demands that Voyager takes her to the nearest Borg vessel which is forty light years away, and Chakotay replies that "even at maximum warp, that's a five day journey." This would mean that at max. warp, Voyager's journey home would take 24 years, not 75 as established in "Caretaker."

Then of course there's ENT's pilot "Broken Bow" in which it is stated that the Klingon home world Qo'noS is four days away from Earth at warp 4.5, which would put it right at Sol system's doorstep... Enterprise also makes a 15 light year detour to Rygel (distance mentioned on-screen) like it was nothing...

What other funny examples can you think of?

 

[Start Wreck]

That Voyager one sounds fine to me. It would take 24 years to get home at maximum warp, theoretically, but they wouldn't be able to do that without burning out the engines. 75 years is at a sustainable cruising speed.

I watched TNG's Conspiracy recently, in which the Enterprise claims to have been patrolling the "outer rim", only to return to Earth in what appears to be a matter of hours -- although the times are not specified.

 

[Mach5]

That Voyager one sounds fine to me. It would take 24 years to get home at maximum warp, theoretically, but they wouldn't be able to do that without burning out the engines. 75 years is at a sustainable cruising speed.

Hm, 24 is less then one third of 75, that's just too much of a difference.

Also, in Charetaker, Janeway said: "Even at maximum speeds, it would take seventy five years to reach the Federation."

I watched TNG's Conspiracy recently, in which the Enterprise claims to have been patrolling the "outer rim", only to return to Earth in what appears to be a matter of hours -- although the times are not specified.

Didn't Picard say (in "First Contact") that Federation spreads across 8000 ly? That would put the outer rim years away from Earth.

 

[Admiral Shran]

In the early stages of DS9 it was always stated that the trip from the station to Bajor was hours long. However, as time went on, people were moving back and forth from the station to the planet, and vice versa, almost instantly.

 

[Michael]

In the early stages of DS9 it was always stated that the trip from the station to Bajor was hours long. However, as time went on, people were moving back and forth from the station to the planet, and vice versa, almost instantly.

That's not how I remember it. I thought the traveling time from Deep Space Nine to Bajor was portrayed pretty much consistently. Can you cite episodes where this is not the case?

 

[Gagarin]

That Voyager one sounds fine to me. It would take 24 years to get home at maximum warp, theoretically, but they wouldn't be able to do that without burning out the engines. 75 years is at a sustainable cruising speed.

Hm, 24 is less then one third of 75, that's just too much of a difference.

Although I hate to stand up to Voyager, isn't the warp speed scale logarithmic (sp?). Warp 9 and warp 9.5 and 9.9 are not speeds that are evenly spaced out. They could be a factor of 10 or 100 of difference between the two.

 

[Marten]

True, it's logaritmich, but it makes things harder to justify justa s many times as it makes it easier.

 

[C.E. Evans]

IMO, warp factors are one of the earliest forms of technobabble. They're meant just to sound "futuristically" (yeh, I made that up) without too much thought into what they're actually supposed to be. All we're supposed to know is that a ship goes faster with each subsequent warp factor, and that's about it.

 

[SFRabid]

In early TOS they were moving pretty fast. Even going to the edge of the galaxy.

 

[Caliburn24]

If I remember right, one of the Okuda tech manuals stated that warp factors absolute speed changed over time. Warp 5 during Archer's time was slower than Warp 5 during Kirk's time, which in turn was slower than Warp 5 in Picard's time.

I thought that was kind of a neat way to explain the inconsistencies in travel time in the series.

 

[Mach5]

If I remember right, one of the Okuda tech manuals stated that warp factors absolute speed changed over time. Warp 5 during Archer's time was slower than Warp 5 during Kirk's time, which in turn was slower than Warp 5 in Picard's time.

I thought that was kind of a neat way to explain the inconsistencies in travel time in the series.

That makes the idea of getting to Qo'noS at warp 4 in only four days even more absurd...

 

[Nerys Myk]

V'ger was going to arrive at Earth in less than three Days and it was traveling at Warp 7from Klingon space.

 

[Forbin]

There was a TNG 2-parter (Was it Reunification?) where the Enterprise travelled between Earth, Kronos and Romulus as if it was a scoot to the local deli and back.

 

[Admiral Shran]

In the early stages of DS9 it was always stated that the trip from the station to Bajor was hours long. However, as time went on, people were moving back and forth from the station to the planet, and vice versa, almost instantly.

That's not how I remember it. I thought the traveling time from Deep Space Nine to Bajor was portrayed pretty much consistently. Can you cite episodes where this is not the case?

Well, the most obvious one I can think of is in What You Leave Behind. Sisko is dancing in Vic's Lounge while Dukat and Winn are releasing the Pah-Wraiths. As soon as they are released, Sisko senses it. Then, in the next scene, without any hint of a time delay, he's in the fire caves with Dukat and Winn.

Not only would he have had to travel from the station to the planet, he would also have had to walk the same distance Dukat and Winn did to get to that point in the caves. Yet it all plays out instantaneously.

I suppose one could argue that the two storylines we're seeing aren't happening at the same time, that there's a built in time delay. However, there's no indication of that in the episode itself.

 

[UssGlenn]

getting from the station to the planet would take minutes if he used the warp engines, usually travel within the solar system would be by impulse, but this was an emergency.

 

[Gagarin]

There was a TNG 2-parter (Was it Reunification?) where the Enterprise travelled between Earth, Kronos and Romulus as if it was a scoot to the local deli and back.

I think you're right.
That was kind of lame.

Though I'm not sure "1 month has gone by and we're now just reaching Kronos..." would be very dramatic. But since they use commercial break, establishing shot, and stardates they could have gotten away from it, just have Riker say "that's 3 weeks away" instead of "that's 3 days away" before the commercial. Ah well.

Anytime the Klingons and Romulans got involved the universe seemed to get really small. Maybe that's why the original idea was to not have them.

 

[SFRabid]

Also, travel time changed when they moved the space station closer to the worm hole.