Threshold

[Guy Gardener]

A mutated human consciousness can navigate by instinct.

You put the EMH as pilot in that ship and he's fucked and lost.

Federation tech has no instrumentality that will work in transspace, and their first job on this project is to stop the mutation that allows for instinctual navigation.

The transwarp conduits may be Faraday cages that stop each individual Borg's subconscious (if any might surface) from cause those specific Borg exiting transspace arbitrarily at whim to anywhere in the universe. What happens when you have multiple consiousness trying to direct the ship/shuttle? Does that mean that the pilot has to have the strongest conciousness? How can you maintain regulation, quality control and consistency?

TORRES: I guess I'll go find them myself. Fill him in.
KIM: Neelix, it would take too long to
NEELIX: What are you saying? I'm not smart enough? I'll have you know I did two years as an engineer's assistant aboard a Trabalian freighter. I'm well-versed in warp theory.
PARIS: Okay, okay. We'll tell you. We're trying to break the maximum warp barrier.
KIM: Nothing in the universe can go warp ten. It's a theoretical impossibility. In principle, if you were ever to reach warp ten, you'd be travelling at infinite velocity.
NEELIX: Infinite velocity. Got it. So that means very fast.
PARIS: It means that you would occupy every point in the universe simultaneously. In theory, you could go any place in the wink of an eye. Time and distance would have no meaning.
(See Douglas Adams for further details.)
KIM: If Voyager achieved warp ten, we could be home in as long as it takes to push a button.
NEELIX: Wow! And you're working on this?

How you exceed infinite speed is simple, instead of going so fast you're travelling at infinite space and achieve completely different physical properties, you punch a whole in the universe through to where those properties are normal and you just "are" travelling at infinite speed. Transwarp space.

That's how the Borg do it.

In Threshold, they actually accellerated till they got to warp ten which was only possible becuase they discovered a new type of Dylithium which rewrote the rule books.

Meanwhile the Voth do not use conduits, and they don't seem to need to have a massive run up to get to warp ten.

 

[Hober Mallow]

I was watching Threshold the other night.

There was your mistake.

 

[MacLeod]

True, but when did the mutation kick in was it at warp 10 or slightly slower, if it was at warp 10 just accelerate to Warp 9.9^infinity and you could still be home in time for tea.

 

[Tyberius]

I was watching Threshold the other night.

There was your mistake.

See, now I don't think it was. Granted, it was the next one in the Netflix queue, but besides the newt puppetry it wasn't all that bad.

Sure, the evolution was weird but it could have been explained a bit better with some more technobabble.

Paris got some meaty scenes. However, the redemption bit would have played better had Threshold been after the next few episodes where he is late to bridge shifts all the time.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Sure, the evolution was weird but it could have been explained a bit better with some more technobabble.

Evolution can't and doesn't work that way, no matter they try to explain it.

 

[Tyberius]

Sure, the evolution was weird but it could have been explained a bit better with some more technobabble.

Evolution can't and doesn't work that way, no matter they try to explain it.

Agreed, so our job must be to make it work. Because transporter technology, ftl travel, etc. does not work that way and we accept the conceit.

 

[MacLeod]

Given that we don't actually have FTL travel or transporter tech we can't say how it will or won't work. We do however have an understanding of evolution.

 

[Tyberius]

Given that we don't actually have FTL travel or transporter tech we can't say how it will or won't work. We do however have an understanding of evolution.

Most recently, scientists have discovered that radiation can cause cells to revert to stem cells. Stem cells can take whatever form is needed by the body. Who is to say that going at infinite velocity and exposing a human to all of the radiation in the universe might not have some adverse effects?

 

[Stoo]

Still kind of hilarious that the adverse effect comes in the form of transformation into a giant newt.

(I thought that Stem Cell breakthrough used acid?)

 

[dub]

So this is the Winter 2014 Threshold thread? Can't wait to read the Spring 2014 Threshold thread.

 

[Dale Sams]

That infinite velocity stuff doesn't even make sense. They need a new scale then. If Warp 10 ISNT the speed of light times 10 to the fourth power...then they are in dire need of a new scale

 

[MacLeod]

Well the episode certainly made an impression.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Well the episode certainly made an impression.

So did "Spock's Brain"!

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Both over maligned by folk who don't want pulp in their Trek.

PULP ADDS FIBER PEOPLE

 

[dub]

in this case, the kind of fiber that makes you blow chunks

 

[MacLeod]

Well we tend to remember the best and worst things. Average just fades into a sea of average.

 

[C.E. Evans]

That infinite velocity stuff doesn't even make sense. They need a new scale then. If Warp 10 ISNT the speed of light times 10 to the fourth power...then they are in dire need of a new scale

IIRC, the original intent was to simplify the warp scale by making Warp 10 an absolute value that was impossible for anyone to reach--not even the Q could go that fast (although they'd get awfully close in the Warp 9.9999999+ range). But "Threshold" made something of a mess of that original rule.

Under "Eu(gene)'s Limit," anything between Warp 9.1 to Warp 9.9 would have been more than fast enough for our heroes to get where they needed in an emergency (i.e., bat outta hell speed), but there was too much of a temptation by writers to go even faster and we got "Threshold" as a result.

 

[Dale Sams]

You know, if you read the synopsis, it doesn't sound HORRIBLE (imho)...it's certainly chock-full of sci-fi.

But they certainly should have done something to show that they really didn't reach Warp 10. So Paris turned into a salamander? Big deal. Keep trying. Or have EVERYONE go to Earth and get the anti-proton treatment. Or just use the tech to explore the universe by remote. It opens up a bigger can of worms than being able to beam to Qo'Nos that's for sure.

 

[USS Excelsior]

It was a crappily thought out episode. Individuals don't evolve, a species does, and that evolution is open ended to what environment they're subjected to.

 

[Hober Mallow]

I'm not sure why it was always so difficult for Trek writers to grasp even the basics of evolution. It wasn't just VOY, either; TNG embarrassed itself with "Genesis," and ENT did the same with "Dear Doctor."