What episodes of Star Trek claimed that Warp 10 is infinity? And more to the point, were any of those episodes any good? I'm asking because I'm not fan of the notion, and I want to know if I can happily ignore it without facing any contradictions of thought. If there is a good episode about Warp 10 being infinity, I'll be forced to ignore it with a contradiction of thought, and slightly less happily.
Warp 10 = Infinity
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Threshold did, don't know of any others
Pretty sure it was only Threshold. Also, "Where No One has Gone Before" had the ENT-D going past Warp 10 with Picard just shrugging and going "Reverse course."
In regards to this you pretty much can, since if iirc Threshold was de-canonized
Threshold is the only episode to claim it, but the TNG technical manual did before Threshold did.
Threshold wasn’t de-canonized.
^ It's disliked by many fans, but since it did appear on screen it is canon, people not liking it doesn't make it blink out of existence (believe me I wish such a thing was true).
I am a Threshold defender and maybe it deserves some of the hate for it's dumb science, mistakes about evolution and the concept of infinite speed, but I've always loved the acting by Robbie McNeill and the insight into Tom's character, especially when he's talking about his sad childhood.
It's referenced directly in Lower Decks S01E07, which makes it as canon as anything.
I think "Threshold" is a bizarre episode and makes little sense, but I enjoyed it for the body horror schlock.
There's also "Time Squared", where Picard and Riker banter about time travel techniques, and Riker says that going faster than warp 10 should do it. Pretty obvious, that: if you travel infinitely fast, you arrive at B zero time units after you left A. If you travel faster, you arrive before you left.
Timo Saloniemi
Timo Saloniemi
I think that the fans have veto power over canon, but it takes like 95% agreement. Given how consistently between the years of 2364 and 2378 after the fifth episode going super fast meant going closer and closer to 10 without ever reaching it I have no problem with warp 10 being infinity. Just the stupid lizard thing.
I think in All Good Things, the Ent went warp 12 or something, but we can explain that by saying as speeds got higher and higher, they recalibrated the scale cause saying all the 9s got tiresome.
I think in All Good Things, the Ent went warp 12 or something, but we can explain that by saying as speeds got higher and higher, they recalibrated the scale cause saying all the 9s got tiresome.
Threshold never really bothered me. As @somebuddyx says it gives a nice insight to Paris and I enjoy the excitement and imagination of the kids (aka Paris, Torres and Kim) when faced with an amazing breakthrough, whilst the idea of one potential evolutionary path being we'll lose the humanoid form is definitely an interesting concept. Though it does have its silly moments, such as Paris and Janeway having kids so quickly whilst there's no real reason why they couldn't use it to get home (given the EMH did 'cure' them).
There cannot be such thing as warp 10 = infinite speed.
However, it’s plausible that warp 10 has an energy requirement of infinite energy.
if we set the relation between warp factor to infinity = 10, then warp 9.999 should already be damn close to the point of being indistinguishable from infinite speed.
If that were not the case the warp scale graph would look incredibly weird.
Assuming that warp 10 requires infinite energy but is a finite speed jives much better with previous mentions of the topic.
However, it’s plausible that warp 10 has an energy requirement of infinite energy.
if we set the relation between warp factor to infinity = 10, then warp 9.999 should already be damn close to the point of being indistinguishable from infinite speed.
If that were not the case the warp scale graph would look incredibly weird.
Assuming that warp 10 requires infinite energy but is a finite speed jives much better with previous mentions of the topic.
Well, there was an episode of Voyager where they went Warp 10, but I'm not sure I'd call it a good episode.
That's what I think as well. Since most modern ships could cruise at, say, warp 9.985 (6000c), they just added a few numbers to the warp scale, and didn't bother with an "infinite speed" rating.
Supposedly, warp factors are there for a reason. That is, Nature is built so that nine warp factors exist between zero speed and infinite speed, these being some sort of natural notches in the curve that depicts translating of power to speed. And that curve is the same for every engine and every ship, so that warp 5 on USS Tortoise is the exact same as warp 5 on USS Hare. And on IKS Tortured Heir.
Since our heroes travel at all those nine warp factors, it follows that they are clustered close to zero rather than close to infinity, and indeed infinitely close to zero, since this is how infinity works. And "warp 10" would appear to be fiction to describe the unattainable, rather than a real warp factor. But once our heroes stop being ignorant cavemen and develop some slightly faster warp engines, they can explore more of the warp curve. And it's almost inevitable that in addition to the nine easily found notches close to zero, there are more higher up, rather than bland smoothness, because while nature doesn't abhor all vacuums and seldom hates any blenders, it positively loathes simplicity.
So eventually somebody will find warp 10, warp 11, warp 12, warp 13 and so on, probably representing another nice cluster (and perhaps finally offering hints of how Nature works, and where the next cluster can be found once us mere mortals again make our engines a hundred times faster than before). And infinity will have to be described differently, although if the highest notch in the newest cluster is warp 47, perhaps they'll still call infinity "warp 48".
Timo Saloniemi
Since our heroes travel at all those nine warp factors, it follows that they are clustered close to zero rather than close to infinity, and indeed infinitely close to zero, since this is how infinity works. And "warp 10" would appear to be fiction to describe the unattainable, rather than a real warp factor. But once our heroes stop being ignorant cavemen and develop some slightly faster warp engines, they can explore more of the warp curve. And it's almost inevitable that in addition to the nine easily found notches close to zero, there are more higher up, rather than bland smoothness, because while nature doesn't abhor all vacuums and seldom hates any blenders, it positively loathes simplicity.
So eventually somebody will find warp 10, warp 11, warp 12, warp 13 and so on, probably representing another nice cluster (and perhaps finally offering hints of how Nature works, and where the next cluster can be found once us mere mortals again make our engines a hundred times faster than before). And infinity will have to be described differently, although if the highest notch in the newest cluster is warp 47, perhaps they'll still call infinity "warp 48".
Timo Saloniemi
Whoops my bad, I remembered reading somewhere(memory alpha iirc) that it wasn’t considered canon
I think they say on the DVD commentary or somewhere that they prefer to forget about it, but that's a far cry from it being de-canonised. That's just fan wish fulfilment.
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