Tech update in Star Trek

[Lighthammer]

Warp drive is just another name for a FTL drive. The full intricacies of how it works have remained vague onscreen, although later Trek shows have often mentioned "subspace fields" or "warp fields," but otherwise it's just a device to get our heroes where they need to go.

Star Trek (at least TNG and later) very clearly defined the theory behind the technology. We've seen a ton of on screen footage and images demonstrating it, but the nitty gritty is also outlined in pretty much every official tech manual.

Someone actually put together a very good Youtube video explaining a while back:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fPmCKt48Zw

 

[Lighthammer]

You can off set this by the idea of space folding:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxl6TOLxvuI

Clearly two different technologies.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Warp drive is just another name for a FTL drive. The full intricacies of how it works have remained vague onscreen, although later Trek shows have often mentioned "subspace fields" or "warp fields," but otherwise it's just a device to get our heroes where they need to go.

Star Trek (at least TNG and later) very clearly defined the theory behind the technology. We've seen a ton of on screen footage and images demonstrating it, but the nitty gritty is also outlined in pretty much every official tech manual.

But not so much onscreen, though, which is what I said earlier. Sure, some technobabble terms are bandied about in dialogue, but Trek has--and perhaps correctly so--avoided going into full-length dissertations about it onscreen in lieu of just getting on with whatever story was at hand.

 

[Lighthammer]

Star Trek (more so in TNG) actually made a point to consult some of the biggest minds in theoretical physics to get their facts straight and tried to act, in part, as a side board for education. Heck, some stations actually ran TNG back in the late 80s as an E/I show (No, I wouldn't call it that necessarily, but some of the things that got counted *IS* ridiculous).

TNG sure didn't go into the detail the various tech manuals did, but you betcha it was generally the basis for what they squeezed into the show. Given, some writers were much better at using it, some writers just threw out terms that sounded cool and some used it as a crutch even when it didn't make sense.

I guess what I am saying is SOME OF THE TIME, they tried to make it accurate based on what was the current days understanding. How often is "some of the time" --- I'd need to do a ton of research to give you an answer =(.