warp geometry

[David cgc]

It could even add to the sense of drama, in that here is a problem so serious it requires going past the speed limit.

That's exactly the issue. The Enterprise is always going to be involved in emergencies and critical situations. You'll have them look like a bunch of idiots if they ever arrive too late to help and they were going at a fraction of their possible speed, and the Enterprise arriving too late to help, or being in danger of not arriving in time, happens all the time. So you can't abide by the speed limit in essentially any episode that requires a "ticking clock" element without introducing a plot hole (or inviting a Prime Directive-style debate about how many people have to be in danger of suffocating on a damaged transport before their lives count more than the right of future generations to have pristine subspace, which might be interesting once, but certainly not for twenty-some episodes a season).

So if that's the case, and you keep lampshading that they've gotten a waiver to go at warp 9 because it's a real emergency, then you make the whole thing into another Worf Effect. If every episode requires exceeding the limit, exceeding the limit stops seeming like a big deal, and becomes just a bunch of narrative cruft that you've saddled yourself with constantly bringing up.

 

[Praetor]

I tend to agree. I think it was more likely something they thought would work and then just didn't. That, or as you say the episode was a clunker and so they decided it was best left forgotten.

 

[soornge]

i notice often in many boards that impulse drive and warp drive are used as part of the same thing : impulse drive is an entirely different propulsion than warm : as far as i i know ie deflectors is that the main purpose of the deflector array is to aid in warp drive

 

[Richard Baker]

Yeah, the Warp 5 speed limit was still in play during "All Good Things..." which took place only a few months before the Voyager disappeared. The behind-the-scenes rationale given for the Voyager's pivoting warp nacelles was that the Intrepid-class was a new "environmentally-friendly" design that could achieve higher warp factors without damaging the fabric of space like earlier designs did.

It has been those extra housings on the rear of the Warp Nacelles on the Galaxy class ships we saw later were a retrofit to make the warp field 'greener' as well
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net...elsiors.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120503024930

 

[Mytran]

i notice often in many boards that impulse drive and warp drive are used as part of the same thing : impulse drive is an entirely different propulsion than warm : as far as i i know ie deflectors is that the main purpose of the deflector array is to aid in warp drive

Impulse Engines are very vaguely defined in Star Trek - even the behind the scenes material is often incompatible with what's depicted onscreen.

 

[Ithekro]

The navigation deflector is to stop objects from hitting the ship at any speed, since at even sublight speeds, an object the size of a marble could rip a hole in a spaceship. Full impulse being generally considered to be about a quarter of the speed of light, would make anything bigger than a marble (and likely smaller things) deadly to life on a starship...so they have a deflector for that. Ships that got on exploration duty seem to have larger deflector arrays than ships that tend to stay within known space. Perhaps they don't need as large, or even obvious arrays in those regions, as things are mapped out better.

 

[soornge]

right but it plays a critical role in the shapingnof the warp field

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

It also implies hull shape doesn't influence warp field geometry, but that hull shape only matters in regard to avoiding hull stresses.

The Borg are able to outrun the Enterprise D while having the shape of a cube, I'm willing to bet that Hull Shape doesn't matter nearly as much as the Warp Field's Geometry itself.