What are junior officers?

[tighr]

I never liked the idea of a galactic barrier, anyway. Especially not one they can just mosey on up to. By all accounts, the edge of the galaxy should have been 30k ly away... at a minimum, maybe 15k.

 

[T'Girl]

According to TNG's "Where No One Has Gone Before" Starfleet would receive a subspace message send from their location (some 2.7m ligt years) in 51 years 10 months (Picard cut him off at this point ...

Picard didn't cut him off, he exclaimed after Data finished.

Data fully said: Which, traveling subspace, they should receive in fifty-one years, ten months, nine weeks, sixteen days.

By all accounts, the edge of the galaxy should have been 30k ly away... at a minimum, maybe c15k.

If they travel to the rim yes, but the galaxy is three dimensional and very flat. By traveling straight up, or straight down, Kirk could reach the edge of the galaxy (where the density of stars drop off rapidly) in about a thousand light years.

 

[Timo]

Picard didn't cut him off, he exclaimed after Data finished.

The thing is, as per TrekCore, the script only called for Spiner to say "51 years, 10 months" and for Stewart to cut him off at that point. Perhaps Stewart was slow to his mark and Spiner had to extend the line, resulting in this fumble. Or perhaps the director wanted Spiner to improvise a longer rant so that the character Picard would more justifiably get impatient with it.

Timo Saloniemi