The Missing Milkyway

[YARN]

If you live in an area without too much light pollution and/or smog, there is a majestic sight to behold, the backbone of night, the Milky Way, the image we have of the cluster of stars in our own galaxy.

Star Trek spans the Milky Way Galaxy, from Alpha Quadrant to the Deltra Quadrant, but where is the Milky Way?

Do any trek films or shows ever show anything other than pea-soup nebulas and random starfields blurring by at warp?

Shouldn't we see the Milky Way in some of these exterior shots?

 

[EmperorTiberius]

I dont' think you can see it with your eye

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I dont' think you can see it with your eye

Somebody lives in a city.

 

[Timewalker]

I dont' think you can see it with your eye

You can if your eyes are open and you're in a place with little (preferably zero) light pollution.

 

[BigJake]

I do believe I spy an excuse to link to this here video of space as seen from space. Yay!

(And yes, the Milky Way is clearly visible in at least one shot.)

 

[YARN]

I do believe I spy an excuse to link to this here video of space as seen from space. Yay!

(And yes, the Milky Way is clearly visible in at least one shot.)

Views of the Milky Way from the ground.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KySThq5CxLI

 

[Christopher]

I was always bothered by Voyager's failure to reflect galactic geography. After their big 20,000-light-year transwarp hop in "Dark Frontier," they should've been skirting the Central Bulge of the galaxy, if not actually in it. So the stars and nebulae should've been packed far more densely, producing a far more bright and stunning sky, particularly in the coreward direction. And it should've been like that for the last two and a third seasons of the series. Talk about your missed visual opportunities.

 

[Clark Terrell]

I was always bothered by Voyager's failure to reflect galactic geography. After their big 20,000-light-year transwarp hop in "Dark Frontier," they should've been skirting the Central Bulge of the galaxy, if not actually in it. So the stars and nebulae should've been packed far more densely, producing a far more bright and stunning sky, particularly in the coreward direction. And it should've been like that for the last two and a third seasons of the series. Talk about your missed visual opportunities.

I thought the same thing. Their course took them extremely close to if not through the core. How or why this wasn't shown is beyond me.

 

[sojourner]

How or why this wasn't shown is beyond me.

So they could reuse stock footage from earlier seasons.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Yeah, you can't see the Milky Way if you spend all your time in cities. I was actually surprised one point when I was on vacation on a beach with very little light pollution just staring upward and I saw a huge obvious stripe across the sky.

Yeah, the Voyager directors were more concerned with what the audience thinks space is supposed to look like than they were with what space should actually look like. Then again you don't see it in any of the other Treks either, can't hold Voyager individually responsible for this.

 

[Christopher]

^Yeah, but it's on Voyager where it should've made the most difference. They made all this fuss about the ship's progress through the galaxy, but made no attempt to depict any difference between the galactic regions they traveled through.

 

[Clark Terrell]

^Yeah, but it's on Voyager where it should've made the most difference. They made all this fuss about the ship's progress through the galaxy, but made no attempt to depict any difference between the galactic regions they traveled through.

Exactly. Voyager is the only series in which we see a ship traveling from one end of the galaxy to the other. The producers should have taken that into account when deciding on scenes and backdrops to be used in each episode, particularly after they reached the near-center of the galaxy.

 

[sojourner]

Come on. You're talking about a show where the ship was magically repaired each week.

 

[Clark Terrell]

Come on. You're talking about a show where the ship was magically repaired each week.

So producers deliberately overlook other details just because the ships manages to stay in one piece? Give me a break.

 

[Sindatur]

^Yeah, but it's on Voyager where it should've made the most difference. They made all this fuss about the ship's progress through the galaxy, but made no attempt to depict any difference between the galactic regions they traveled through.

Exactly. Voyager is the only series in which we see a ship traveling from one end of the galaxy to the other. The producers should have taken that into account when deciding on scenes and backdrops to be used in each episode, particularly after they reached the near-center of the galaxy.

DS9 actually covers the same distance, doesn't it? The Dominion hangs out in the Gamma Quadrant, at a similar spot that Voyager started their trip back home in the Delta Quadrant (IE: If the Alpha and Beta Quadrants were considered South on a map, it seems The Dominion are about as far North as Voyager started, just in opposite Quadrants)

 

[Amaris]

Yeah, you can't see the Milky Way if you spend all your time in cities. I was actually surprised one point when I was on vacation on a beach with very little light pollution just staring upward and I saw a huge obvious stripe across the sky.

Yeah, the Voyager directors were more concerned with what the audience thinks space is supposed to look like than they were with what space should actually look like. Then again you don't see it in any of the other Treks either, can't hold Voyager individually responsible for this.

We should sick Neil deGrasse Tyson on whomever makes the next TV series.

 

[Christopher]

DS9 actually covers the same distance, doesn't it?

No, it just skips over it. Both the Federation and the Dominion are in the central or outer parts of the stellar disk, so there wouldn't be that much difference in the population density of stars and nebulae. Actually they should be sparser in the outer part of the disk where Dominion space is located, as well as where Voyager spent its first three seasons, but it wouldn't be that great a difference. VGR was the only series that moved through multiple different regions of the galaxy on an ongoing basis, and the only one to spend a significant amount of time in the inner reaches of the galaxy where the stellar disk should've been much more densely packed.

 

[PhoenixClass]

Come on. You're talking about a show where the ship was magically repaired each week.

So producers deliberately overlook other details just because the ships manages to stay in one piece? Give me a break.

I think sojourner's saying that if the producers were not detailed-oriented enough to portray wear and tear on the ship, they were not detail-oriented enough to consider differences in the galactic environment.

 

[Clark Terrell]

I think sojourner's saying that if the producers were not detailed-oriented enough to portray wear and tear on the ship, they were not detail-oriented enough to consider differences in the galactic environment.

I know what he meant, and I don't think it's right that the producers didn't pay enough attention to detail as the series progressed, nor do I think it's okay that they may have intentionally overlooked some details to save money.

 

[PhoenixClass]

I think sojourner's saying that if the producers were not detailed-oriented enough to portray wear and tear on the ship, they were not detail-oriented enough to consider differences in the galactic environment.

I know what he meant, and I don't think it's right that the producers didn't pay enough attention to detail as the series progressed, nor do I think it's okay that they may have intentionally overlooked some details to save money.

Well, I would guess that everyone here would agree with you.