Warp drive obsolete?

[cwl]

we know that by the time Voyager returns to earth that they had quite a bit of experience with borg Transwarp drive and Quantum Slipstream technology.

they had adpated voyager to use a transwarp coil before it burned out AND they had designed a QS drive to work on Voyager for a short period of time.

This strongly suggests that with these findings Starfleet would be able to build a faster than Warp system of propulsion relatively quickly. so if possible would this make conventional warp obsolete?

would warp drive continue to be used or replaced wholesale by a faster system?

would the faster system be limited to certain ships or widely used?

imagine the implications for the balance of power in the alpha/beta quadrant.

 

[captcalhoun]

the novels are using quantum slipstream drive, but there are a number of factors against it becoming widespread:

1. benamite supplies are limited.

2. ships that can use QS need a narrow profile. classes like the Intrepid can form better QS tunnels than a wider ship like a Galaxy class or Nebula.

3. QS is fine for making long straight journeys, but crap for shorter hops and complex courses. better to use warp.

Voyager is currently leading a 9-ship fleet back to the Delta Quadrant and they're using QS drive equipped ships. Voyager was refit with it, 2 are specially built QS ships and the others are modified with QS.

dunno about transwarp coils or coaxial warp drive...

 

[Deimos Anomaly]

If QS proliferated throughout the galaxy it would be bad for the UFP, IKE, RSE etc... the Dominion would be able to re-invade, travelling direct from the GQ with no need of the Bajoran wormhole.

The only hope would be that with the entire galaxy now within reach they would overstretch and collapse trying to take it all.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Spock's Jellyfish, launched in 2387, was the Federation's "fastest ship" and it still used warp drive (albiet a very cool spinny twirly version which the "Art of the Movie" book says is based on "new principles")

 

[Timo]

To nitpick, Spock only says "We outfitted our fastest ship".

That may mean the fastest ship in the Federation, the fastest ship on Vulcan, the fastest ship possessed by the Vulcan Science Academy, or the fastest ship found in the Spock family's space garage.

I strongly suspect the second-to-last option. Spock was ostracized by the Vulcan political elite, but probably had personal and professional friends in the science and diplomatic circles. And the former would probably have had some interesting if smallish spacecraft available.

Proper availability would appear to be an issue: Spock seemed to leave Vulcan for Romulus on a short notice, on a timetable that took even himself by surprise...

In any case, we certainly don't get the impression that the Jellyfish would be particularly fast. This little ship never really escapes her lumbering Romulan pursuer, after all. And she even fails to make the most important rendezvous in her career, that with the supernova. Probably "fastest" thus meant "miserably slow, but the best we could do".

Timo Saloniemi

 

[USS Excelsior]

Maybe that's not all. They should have armour technology and transphasic torpedos too.

 

[Deckerd]

In a way Voyager took the whole franchise up an imaginative cul de sac, since there wasn't really any going back to plain old vanilla warp. Maybe it's one of the reasons all the subsequent work has been set further back in the timeline.

 

[sojourner]

^What do you mean by subsequent work? just the movies/tv? The books definitely extend beyond VY.

 

[Deckerd]

Books don't count, sorry.

 

[Xerxes1979]

Quantum drive sucks compared to Cytherian drive. Those modifications are still on file and they work on standard starships without need of exotic materials.

Picard needs to head back to Iconia for archeological research into portal technology. The imploding Romulan empire is not going to stop him.

 

[captcalhoun]

Maybe that's not all. They should have armour technology and transphasic torpedos too.

the armour tech''s ridiculously impractical, it covers all the hull and would heat the ship up and roast everyone.

the transphasic torpedoes and the armour were classified as future tech in the novels, but transphasics were declassified for emrgency use during the Borg Invasion, Starfleet even shared them with the Klingons.

the Borg adapted to them after a while.

 

[sojourner]

Books don't count, sorry.

If we are talking about non Trek '09 continuity, it's all we've got left going forward.

 

[ChristopherPike]

If we are talking about non Trek '09 continuity, it's all we've got left going forward.

 

[T'Girl]

Books don't count, sorry.

If we are talking about non Trek '09 continuity, it's all we've got left going forward.

Fan fiction, published books, home videos, Trekkies play acting in the park ... Sojourner, all are lumped together as "non-canon." None of them count.

 

[Vanyel]

It may make Warp drive obsolete, but not the warp scale. So there'd be nothing stopping a ship from going into QS and measuring speed in in a newly refined warp scale where QS warp 2 = TNG standard warp 7. So if a Captain wants to get somewhere at TNG standard warp 9.5 speed, he'd order speed, warp 4. I'd like to think of it as using knots vs mph. A ship traveling at 10 knots is traveling at 11.5 mph.

 

[Mr Silver]

I don't think that the Quantum Slipstream Drive was a viable solution. Benamite is a limited element and it's still a technology with a high risk of failure attached to it. If anything I think the technology was reverse engineered and used to enhance the previously existing warp drive. Perhaps allowing higher speeds for longer periods?

The Armour was probably rendered redundant, otherwise the Enterprise E would be using it in NEM. I reckon they developed a superior shield technology that was even better than the Armour and much more efficient with a lower risk of failure. As for the transphasic torpedos no one knows exactly but it could be that they were designed for use against the Borg and were useless or comparable to regular torpedos against other ships.

 

[cwl]

the weakness of the armour might have been found, weapons adapted to render it obsolete. shields could have been modified against transphasic torpedos or other countermeasures.

 

[DodgerFan]

Spock's Jellyfish, launched in 2387, was the Federation's "fastest ship" and it still used warp drive (albiet a very cool spinny twirly version which the "Art of the Movie" book says is based on "new principles")

The movie was pretty enjoyable, but I just don't take it as canon in relation to any universe.

 

[F. King Daniel]

That's nice, but those in charge of the movie franchise, the games, the comics and the novels all do.

 

[DodgerFan]

That's nice, but those in charge of the movie franchise, the games, the comics and the novels all do.

So novels are going to have Romulus asplode and acknowledge that?