Timeless - Should they have done several short trips

[xnedrabourne]

I hope this question hasn't been asked too many times.

I watched Timeless again a few weeks ago and a thought keeps bugging me.

Janeway says the brief flight took 10 years off their journey. Should she have done a few more short trips and just end and restart before the phase variance became dangerous?

I'm just wondering if there is a technical explanation i just don't know about. Other than it obviously ending the show before the 7 year run.

 

[Kemaiku]

They just decided it was too dangerous to run the drive again at all.

Considering that they were able to build the Delta Flyer so easily, and that if the drive worked they'd be home in no time, I have no idea why they didn't build an unmaned shuttle like probe to fly ahead of them designed entirely to guide them on short hops.

But yes, because it would mean the end of the show, they never worked out any solution to the problem because reasons. Even though Starfleet had the Vesta class running Slipstream less than 4 years after her return. Voyager could have at least have had one to take them the rest of the way home in months even if it burnt out right after.

 

[MacLeod]

Well there was this line

Kim: T[FONT=Arial]he benamite crystals at the heart of this engine have already started to decay. It could take years to synthesise more. I don't know about the rest of you, but I didn't do all this work just to be stopped by a point four two phase variance. No offence, Captain.

Who knows what sort of strain a series of short jums might place on them.
[/FONT]

 

[Kemaiku]

The Vesta class has a similar problem, but can mantain Slipstream flight for nearly a day at a time or something. And after a cool off of a few hours, do it again, and again, for months of use.

Voyager could cover 3 days travel in 15 minutes under SS, if they could have kept the journey up for even a couple of hours a time, each jump would be a fortnight off their journey.

The crystals were just another plot point to undermine the SS drive once the writers realised they could just get them home too early.

 

[Melakon]

Which episode or film is Vesta class in?

 

[Richard Baker]

Voyager was a lot like Gilligan's Island at times- they find a way home but some complication always prevents them from taking it.

 

[tomswift2002]

Which episode or film is Vesta class in?

The Vesta's appear in the post-Endgame novels, where Voyager has also been upgraded to travel at slipstream velocities more easily.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

This is similar to the question: "If you only start evolving at warp 10, why not go warp 9.999999 instead?"

Or when the Enterprise crew saw Wesley, why didn't they just say "Hey, mind if we call in a favor from your Traveler buddy? Voyager could sure use some of that super warp drive stuff he used before."

 

[Deks]

The Slipstream V2 was actually much faster than what we read in the novels.
Voyager travelled through 10 000 Ly's in 1 minute.
Given that it was stated on-screen that phase variance issues didn't begin until 17 seconds into the flight, and the amount of time that passed since then (before Voyager was forced out of Slipstream), it would be safe to conclude that 1 minute = 10 000 LY's.

I don't see any specific technical reason as to why the crew couldn't have simply programmed the computer to shut down the Slipstream at say 15 seconds of flight and short hopped all the way back to Earth in say 1 hour (you know... spread it out for good good measure).

While yes, the Benemyte crystals are something of a plot device to make things more difficult... I would imagine even they would be able to withstand 1 hour of shorter Slipstream bursts (or at least, burn them out to the point where they would have another 3 years to reach the Federation under standard Warp drive - as much as it took to end the series).

 

[xnedrabourne]

Voyager was a lot like Gilligan's Island at times- they find a way home but some complication always prevents them from taking it.

I totally forgot about Gilligan's Island. What a blast from the past. It would be like watching False Profit every week. I'm not sure i could do that to myself again.

 

[Drone]

No. Harry wouldn't have been able to take eating that much salami in one day.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

His mother would have packed him some alka seltzer, he would have been fine.

After it was all gone Tom would have told him a story about the old days when they stuffed salami down their pants as part of a pre-warp mating ritual and Harry would have regretted his gluttony.