Warp Highways

Xero Cool Down · Post by **Xero Cool Down** » 2005-06-17 05:04pm

In the Daystrom Institute website GK attributes the ability of star trek ships to move thousands of light years in a few days to the use of warp highways which allow ships to actually move faster at the same warp speed. Are such things ever actually mentioned in any star trek episode or movie?? I never recall hearing about it, although it would be a convient explination.

Glimmervoid · Post by **Glimmervoid** » 2005-06-17 05:15pm

Xero Cool Down wrote:In the Daystrom Institute website GK attributes the ability of star trek ships to move thousands of light years in a few days to the use of warp highways which allow ships to actually move faster at the same warp speed. Are such things ever actually mentioned in any star trek episode or movie?? I never recall hearing about it, although it would be a convient explination.

No they are never mentioned at all. They are a fan construction to attempt to compensated for the different speeds that have been given to the different warp ratings over the years.

Gordonfrost · Post by **Gordonfrost** » 2005-06-18 09:29pm

There is a "Subspace Corridor" mentioned in enterprise.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2005-06-19 05:55pm

Gordonfrost wrote:There is a "Subspace Corridor" mentioned in enterprise.

A subspace corridor was mentioned in TNG too. afaik that has more to do with ensuring safe passage through a dangerous section of space as opposed to speedier passage.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2005-06-19 06:35pm

Gordonfrost wrote:There is a "Subspace Corridor" mentioned in enterprise.

But it was in a region of space where the very laws of physics were being altered to accomidate a race of beings from another universe.

Quadlok · Post by **Quadlok** » 2005-06-19 06:46pm

Drooling Iguana wrote:
Gordonfrost wrote:There is a "Subspace Corridor" mentioned in enterprise.
But it was in a region of space where the very laws of physics were being altered to accomidate a race of beings from another universe.

No, because they used one to get all the way to Earth.

It makes some sense for there to be some sort of network of subspace pathways in Star Trek that facilitate faster ship movement. We know that Borg transwarp works in this manner, and it seems reasonable to assume the two are somewhat similar.

Of course, the real reason for the inconsistant speeds between episodes and series is that the writers were a bunch of lazy hacks who couldn't be bothered to present a consistant show. But if we're going to try to rationalize it while maintaining suspension of disbelief, the idea of subspace superhighways is about the best we can get.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2005-06-19 07:19pm

Quadlok wrote:
No, because they used one to get all the way to Earth.

It makes some sense for there to be some sort of network of subspace pathways in Star Trek that facilitate faster ship movement. We know that Borg transwarp works in this manner, and it seems reasonable to assume the two are somewhat similar.

Or it could be as simple as a charted route with little in the way of navigation hazards. Without having to turn or adjust your course, you'd make better time. A pre established route would have various uses, trade being the big one.

Junghalli · Post by **Junghalli** » 2005-06-19 08:51pm

Knife wrote:Or it could be as simple as a charted route with little in the way of navigation hazards. Without having to turn or adjust your course, you'd make better time. A pre established route would have various uses, trade being the big one.

I don't think that would explain such things as the center of the galaxy being reachable within a day in ST:V while Voyager needed 75 years to cross the galaxy at its normal speed, or the Klingon homeworld being only 4 days from Earth. There do seem to be corridors where warp travel becomes much easier/faster for some reason.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2005-06-19 11:11pm

Junghalli wrote:
Knife wrote:Or it could be as simple as a charted route with little in the way of navigation hazards. Without having to turn or adjust your course, you'd make better time. A pre established route would have various uses, trade being the big one.
I don't think that would explain such things as the center of the galaxy being reachable within a day in ST:V while Voyager needed 75 years to cross the galaxy at its normal speed, or the Klingon homeworld being only 4 days from Earth. There do seem to be corridors where warp travel becomes much easier/faster for some reason.

Lets face it, there isn't much to 'explain' ST V. It is wildly outside almost all other trek references on speed and range.

mr friendly guy · Post by **mr friendly guy** » 2005-06-19 11:39pm

How about for ST V, Sybok under the influence of "God" told the Enterprise crew how to technobabble adjust their warp engines to reach "God" faster. This happened off screen of course.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2005-06-19 11:41pm

mr friendly guy wrote:How about for ST V, Sybok under the influence of "God" told the Enterprise crew how to technobabble adjust their warp engines to reach "God" faster. This happened off screen of course.

You could make an argument for the 'god' creature lending a hand to get them there quicker so he could have his ship.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2005-06-20 01:28am

Or you could point out that we know what the centre of the galaxy looks like, and what we saw in STV ain't it, therefore they were not going to the centre of the galaxy. Either their star-mapping is horrendous or the term "centre of the galaxy" is figurative rather than literal when Sybok says it.

As for naturally occurring "warp highways", one would have to ask why the fuck Voyager never bothered to look for one. That pretty much shoots this theory dead right there.

Drunk Monkey · Post by **Drunk Monkey** » 2005-06-20 03:35am

Or we could just say that what Sybok meant was the center of the alpha quadrant, considering that most federation citizens never leave the alpha It’s not that of a stretch.

Morilore · Post by **Morilore** » 2005-06-20 07:11am

Darth Wong wrote:As for naturally occurring "warp highways", one would have to ask why the fuck Voyager never bothered to look for one. That pretty much shoots this theory dead right there.

Or warp travel in ST could be like warp travel in WH40k, with warpspace reconfiguring itself constantly so that no trip takes the same amount of time twice. The more extreme variations would be the most unstable, hence "warp highways" that allow travel of more than 5-10x normal speed would disappear quickly.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2005-06-20 10:28am

Morilore wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:As for naturally occurring "warp highways", one would have to ask why the fuck Voyager never bothered to look for one. That pretty much shoots this theory dead right there.
Or warp travel in ST could be like warp travel in WH40k, with warpspace reconfiguring itself constantly so that no trip takes the same amount of time twice. The more extreme variations would be the most unstable, hence "warp highways" that allow travel of more than 5-10x normal speed would disappear quickly.

That would still not explain why Voyager never looked for any of these shortcuts, or why Sybok expected to be able to use one. The simplest explanation is also the one which fits with astrophysics: that object in ST5 was not the centre of the galaxy.

Gordonfrost · Post by **Gordonfrost** » 2005-06-20 11:25am

That would still not explain why Voyager never looked for any of these shortcuts, or why Sybok expected to be able to use one. The simplest explanation is also the one which fits with astrophysics: that object in ST5 was not the centre of the galaxy.

In one Voyager episode somebody (maybe Q) gives 7 of 9 a better route for getting back to Earth. Unless the crew of voyager hadn't figured out that a straight line was the quickest way back home there must be some way of going faster in certain regions of space.

Gustav32Vasa · Post by **Gustav32Vasa** » 2005-06-20 11:45am

Gordonfrost wrote:
That would still not explain why Voyager never looked for any of these shortcuts, or why Sybok expected to be able to use one. The simplest explanation is also the one which fits with astrophysics: that object in ST5 was not the centre of the galaxy.
In one Voyager episode somebody (maybe Q) gives 7 of 9 a better route for getting back to Earth. Unless the crew of voyager hadn't figured out that a straight line was the quickest way back home there must be some way of going faster in certain regions of space.

Or He gave them locations of wormholes.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2005-06-20 11:46am

Gordonfrost wrote:In one Voyager episode somebody (maybe Q) gives 7 of 9 a better route for getting back to Earth. Unless the crew of voyager hadn't figured out that a straight line was the quickest way back home there must be some way of going faster in certain regions of space.

I call bullshit. There are many meanings of "better". "Better" could mean avoiding hostile species, encountering friendly ones, resupply depots, etc.

We do know that there is subspace turbulence. Maybe a "better" route involves avoiding this turbulence. However I remember this reference to subspace turbulence from Archer's time, when he was trying to trick Degra. I don't remember subspace turbulence ever in TNG+.

Brian

Noble Ire · Post by **Noble Ire** » 2005-06-20 12:51pm

Perhaps there just werent any of these highways in the Gamma quadrant, and there were in the alpha quadrant. Considering the massive amount of weird anomoilies and disturbances, it would seem possible that space there is too unstable for any sort of highway to form.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2005-06-20 01:25pm

Pure Sabacc wrote:Perhaps there just werent any of these highways in the Gamma quadrant, and there were in the alpha quadrant. Considering the massive amount of weird anomoilies and disturbances, it would seem possible that space there is too unstable for any sort of highway to form.

Given that they're never mentioned -at all- during any of the series, it's far more probable to simply assume that they don't exist.

Morilore · Post by **Morilore** » 2005-06-20 05:31pm

That would still not explain why Voyager never looked for any of these shortcuts, or why Sybok expected to be able to use one. The simplest explanation is also the one which fits with astrophysics: that object in ST5 was not the centre of the galaxy.

Yeah, you're right about that. I think unstable warp space could nicely explain "plot-speed drive" though.

ali-sama · Post by **ali-sama** » 2005-06-20 05:48pm

the bird of prey managed to follow them there.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2005-06-20 06:35pm

ali-sama wrote:the bird of prey managed to follow them there.

You mean the BoP in ST5? They didn't have to follow anyone. They were listening in on Enterprises' communications and heard the coordinates they were headed to.

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