When they say galaxy are they talking about the Milky Way?

[Luckyflux]

I have had this question for quite some time...is the Federation just located in the Milky Way Galaxy? Someone posted in RobScorpios thread below that the Federation had explored only 11% of the Galaxy....is it the Milky Way?

So did the Federation every go to the Andromeda Galaxy?

Do starships travel around the Milky Way Galaxy or do they travel around the Universe? From Galaxy to Galaxy...

 

[Count Zero]

They're located in the Milky Way and they're not intergalactic. Apart from the odd event here and there (I think the Enterprise was hurled to another galaxy once or twice by Q and the Traveller, but I'm not sure) the Federation hasn't explored other galaxies as they are too far away.

 

[Frodo Lives]

Starfleet ships have attempted to explore beyond the galaxy (TOS: Where No Man Has Gone Before) and we know the Enterprise-D has actually visited other galaxys (Where No One Has Gone Before) but that wasn't actually on purpose.

And the various Star Trek series are all set in the Milk Way galaxy, as that's where Earth is, and, well, it's just so Goddamn HUGE, there really isn't any reason for our heroes to venture out into others, as yet. It would also appear that while the actual top speed of warp drive appears to be simply what the plot demands, it's never been seen as fast enough to practically mount any missions outside the MW. Except maybe for an all-Vulcan crew, and even then they'd still probably have to repopulate their numbers with a generational ship.

Remember, it was supposed to take Voyager 70-or so years to cross 70,000 lightyears. The Milky Way is about 100,000 lightyears in diameter, and the nearest galaxy to us, Andromeda, is over 2,500,000 light years away!!! It's a bit of a walk.

 

[Hofner]

(Mostly related to TOS) You can think of our Milky Way galaxy as a great big bull's eye that everyone outside is always targeting for invasion or destruction or something.

Helmsman: Captain! There's a huge thingamajig invading our galaxy!! What do we do!?!

Bored Captain: Oh really? Get OUT of here! Imagine that! Tries and fails to look interested. Set phasers at maximum and fire. I'll be in my quarters taking a nap. Call me when something exciting happens.

Robert

 

[FalTorPan]

I have had this question for quite some time...is the Federation just located in the Milky Way Galaxy? Someone posted in RobScorpios thread below that the Federation had explored only 11% of the Galaxy....is it the Milky Way?

No, it's the Twix.

 

[GreenBlood]

Well now y'all got me thinkin...could a wormhole get a starship to a galaxy other than the milky way?

 

[Luckyflux]

I guess I never got the perspective, but having the Borg in our Galaxy is pretty scary.

I wonder if there is another Federation in the Andromeda Galaxy.

 

[JiNX-01]

They're located in the Milky Way and they're not intergalactic. Apart from the odd event here and there (I think the Enterprise was hurled to another galaxy once or twice by Q and the Traveller, but I'm not sure) the Federation hasn't explored other galaxies as they are too far away.

Q sent the Ent-D to the delta quadrant in the Milky Way.
IIRC, the Traveler sent them someplace in the Universe where it wasn't even a galaxy...

 

[Sci]

I have had this question for quite some time...is the Federation just located in the Milky Way Galaxy? Someone posted in RobScorpios thread below that the Federation had explored only 11% of the Galaxy....is it the Milky Way?

So did the Federation every go to the Andromeda Galaxy?

Do starships travel around the Milky Way Galaxy or do they travel around the Universe? From Galaxy to Galaxy...

Star Trek is set in our galaxy, yes; in fact, it generally divides our galaxy up into four "quadrants:" The Alpha Quadrant, the Beta Quadrant, the Gamma Quadrant, and the Delta Quadrant. The Federation is located on the border between the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, with the Romulan Star Empire and Klingon Empire on the Beta Quadrant side and the Cardassian Union, Ferengi Alliance, and Bajor on the Alpha Qaudrant side; the Bajoran Wormhole connects Bajor with the distant Gamma Quadrant, whilst the USS Voyager was lost in the Delta Quadrant. While there have been occasion incidents where starships have been transported beyond the Milky Way, it's been extremely rare and the result of extraordinary circumstances; even at high warp, it would take thousands of years for a starship to reach the Andromeda Galaxy. In theory, it would have taken Voyager over seventy years to go from one side of the Milky Way to another; only through the use of technological shortcuts was that decreased.

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

Well now y'all got me thinkin...could a wormhole get a starship to a galaxy other than the milky way?

Yes, in theory a wormhole could take you half way across the Universe but in reality creating a wormhole is next to impossible, you would have to harness the power of a blackhole and even then you might be only able to transport an atom or so.

Here's a pic of the Milky Way quadrants

Q sent the Ent-D to the delta quadrant in the Milky Way.

I imagine the Q take vacation in Andromeda every now and then

 

[Timo]

Back in TOS, it was a bit more vague: our heroes seemed capable of moving across the entire Milky Way at will, rather than having to spend 70 years in transit. But we can reinterpret most of those references to "the other side of the galaxy" as hyperbole, and pretend that Kirk moved just as slowly as Picard or Janeway.

Kirk's first adventure at the edge of Milky Way seemed to be some sort of a proof-of-concept mission to find out whether one can even leave our galaxy, not a serious attempt to explore what lies beyond. Many a thing in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" points to a short-term mission whose purpose was to deliberately steer into the barrier at the edge and see if one can get to the other side. It seems unlikely Starfleet back then ever seriously pondered sending a ship to a location outside the Milky Way, such as Andromeda or one of the neighboring non-spiral galaxylets.

Yet TOS also has an interesting bit about other galaxies in "The Alternative Factor": the spacetime tremors caused by the two Lazari are reported as having been observed at distant locations...

Admiral of the Week: "You're aware of the effect an hour ago."
Kirk: "Yes, Sir."
Admiral: "You may not be aware of its scope. It occurred in every quadrant of the galaxy and far beyond."

So it seems Starfleet is in chatting terms with observers "far beyond" Milky Way, or otherwise capable of seeing what happens out there. That sort of reach has not been suggested in any other episode, but it does open interesting possibilities.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Deckerd]

I think scriptwriters occasionally make bloopers, myself; the one Timo gives is an example. Even if it had occurred 'far beyond', how would a message get back before everyone had died of old age (even with that fabulously convienient subspace thingy)?

 

[Timo]

Theoretically, we might say that the weird space hiccup is something that can be observed easily even with primitive instruments - the massive disturbance itself takes care of being everywhere very fast, perhaps sending back "reflected waves" from distant locations. The blast could in fact have been an immense opportunity for Federation science, like earthquakes are for those geologists who want to know what lies deep, deep down.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Deks]

But we know the writers messed things up by stating that TOS humans had the ability to travel throughout the Milky Way galaxy in days.

You know ... it would have been interesting if the writers kept that premise and the TW project we saw in the movies with the Excelsior could have pave the way for opening up other galaxies for exploration ... or at the very least getting to research our galaxy better in TNG.

 

[Kolrad]

Q sent the Ent-D to the delta quadrant in the Milky Way.

To be picky (and what's being a Star Trek fan all about, if not that?), the Enterprise wasn't sent to the Delta Quadrant when it encountered the Borg in "Q Who." That episode was written before the writers came up with the four-quadrant system. They give the number of light years the Enterprise is from Federation space at one point in the episode, and it's not nearly enough to put them in the Delta Quadrant.

Some people explain this by saying that Q didn't necessarily send the Enterprise into Borg space; he just put them in a place where they'd encounter a Borg vessel scouting elsewhere in the Alpha Quadrant.

I think the first episode to establish the Borg as being from the Delta Quadrant is "Descent," and there the only indication is a screen graphic that's glimpsed for a second. The first thing to establish it in dialogue was the movie First Contact. I think it's pretty clear they were trying to set up the Borg as a foe for Voyager at that point.

I actually always liked the idea that the Borg were from another part of the Alpha Quadrant better, since it makes the galaxy a much bigger place. Once they started filling up quadrants (Gamma = Dominion, Delta = Borg), the galaxy seemed a lot smaller. Plus, we would have been spared all of those episodes where Voyager defeats the Borg singlehandedly.

 

[mopicboy2]

I Someone posted in RobScorpios thread below that the Federation had explored only 11% of the Galaxy....is it the Milky Way?

Well duh...

 

[Luckyflux]

^ Well said Ensign, did you think of that one all by yourself?

 

[Timo]

I think the first episode to establish the Borg as being from the Delta Quadrant is "Descent," and there the only indication is a screen graphic that's glimpsed for a second.

Actually, one would think that this would be the best proof imaginable that the Borg are from anywhere but the Delta Quadrant. After all, the Borg in "Descent" were fugitives, with a hyperfast intragalactic drive at their possession. Surely they would decide to flee to a location that was as far away from the Borg heartland as possible?

Anyway, VOY seems to make clear that the Borg are everywhere in the Milky Way, and quite possibly extend their reach beyond it as well. There is no specific "Borg territory" as such, even though there are vast areas carefully controlled by the Borg in Delta at least, and equally vast areas where the Borg don't exert direct control in both Delta and the other quadrants. The whole Milky Way seems to be the Collective's oyster, which is a fun concept, too. It's nice to have interaction between players who are strictly local and players who exist everywhere...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Steve Roby]

Never mind.

 

[Kemaiku]

Scorpion and The Gift implied there was an encompassed region of space spanning a large part of the Delta Quadrant that was essentially Borg home space. The various areas they travel to via Transwarp and the region around the other 5 Hubs are Borg, in the other three quadrants, but they don't have anywhere near as much presence outside of the Delta quadrant.

When Janeway bargained for safe passage through Borg space, the Borg did not correct her implication that it was their main territory or that it had definable borders, in TNG/films the Queen and Collective liked to correct little verbal errors such as those.

They probably even knew about the Dominion, but decided that contesting their area of space was a waste of resources and allowed them to grow and simply deemed the Gamma quadrant an ineffective use of their abilities to inhabit. Beta seems to have been ignored by every major power in the Galaxy other than the expansion of the Romulan and Klingon Empires and until recently the Federation had not yet consolidated the resources and populations of the Alpha quadrant into such a neat organised system the Borg could more easily assimilate.

So I see no reason to assume the Borg could not just have maintained their own region in one area of the Galaxy for efficiency rather than being spread too thin.