Interesting that no one's ever had anything to say about the episode that restricts travel to warp five - although it's almost completely forgotten after this episode.

Okay so these two Federation scientist have just now discovered that warpdrive damages the fabric of space. So why didn't the Vulcans discover this flaw sooner? The movie FIRST CONTACT tells us that Vulcans had warp drive long before humans.

Who says they had it long before humans? We just know that they had it some time before humans. Still, I can see it hurting Vulcan pride that someone else made a scientific discovery before they did.

Duke: Who says they had it long before humans?

Luigi Novi: Gambit part II(TNG). It established they had it at least 2,000 years ago.

I think warp travel only hurts some sections of space not all of space.

Merry

On pages 25 & 26, Phil and David M. Blakeman, couldn't accept the premise that a fanatic will do something that they claim to be against. (i.e. Sarova creating the subspace rift that she was afraid would form.) Apparently Phil & David don't watch the news. There are people claiming to be "Pro-Life" who kill. A few years ago an alleged environmentalist threatened to kill the last surviving California Condors to make the rest of us feel guilty about their extinction. Several times I've seen picket lines where parents have forced their children to carry heavy signs in inclement weather and the parents were claiming to be against poor working conditions, or how abortion is killing children, or about getting rid of some health hazard, or child abuser. When a fanatic wants to make a point, reason never gets in the way of their decisions. So yes, I would worry about an nuclear protester causing a nuclear meltdown or an anti-gun person shooting people to prove the danger of guns.

Intriguing episode with an interesting premise but no resolution. They have made at least one reference to it since - I seem to recall Picard mentioning Starfleet authorizing them to exceed Warp Five for a particular mission - but warp drive is the most important technological advancement of Star Trek, I would say. Who comes up with the idea "Hey, let's make an episode that says we can't use high warp anymore!" Silly, silly, silly.

I can't remember seeing any mention of this on DS9 or Voyager, and for good reason. They never bothered to resolve the issue, so they just pretend it never existed. I guess that's Berman & Co. for you.

Actually, the entire reason that Voyager has those bending nacelles is that it doesn't damage the fabric of space. I read a book once on the making of "Star Trek: Voyager". Rick Berman specifically had this episode in mind when he came up with that idea. Though this was never mentioned in an episode.

I've also heard that by the time of the Enterprise-E. They were able to correct the problem without bending nacelles.

TUE

I fail to see how folding nacelles would change anything.

Admiral Simpson: Ooh! Ooh! I've got it! We'll have the nacelles fold!
Admiral Nacheyav: How will that alter the warp field so it doesn't cause the same damage to space that stationary nacelles cause?
Admiral Simpson: It just will! Do I have to explain everything?

If space is damaged by warp fields it's damaged by warp fields. Folding nacelles are just BILC.

Considering that warp fields are fictitious, who's to say that changing the angle at which a warp field is projecting (or some such technobabble like that) wouldn't change anything?

It may also explain why the blue part is on the top of the nacelle on the Ent-E when other ships have them on the side.

Sure the primary reason is BILC, but if they have an explanation for it, I'll take it.

TUE

Chris Thomas, Interesting that no one's ever had anything to say about the episode that restricts travel to warp five - although it's almost completely forgotten after this episode.

Sorry, should have addressed this sooner. Chris there was a major problem with the NextGen board back in April '99 and nearly everything was lost. Other than a few episodes and topics where some people (mainly KAM) had saved them, it's all gone prior to early May '99.

who's to say that changing the angle at which a warp field is projecting wouldn't change anything?

Welllllllllll, we've seen various configurations of 2 warp nacelles on ships through the years, I think there was even one with a nacelle above and one below.
We've seen one-nacelled ships & a three-nacelled ship.
So if the projecting angle alters the type of warp field then why wasn't this mentioned in this episode?

The only other ship I can think of that had moving nacelles was the Klingon Bird Of Prey in Star Trek III.
Hard to believe that the Klingons are more environmentally friendly than the Federation.

FUNNY QUESTION:
So---what's Starfleet gonna do now after this episode? Post "Speed Limit Warp 6" bouys in space and assign "Police Starships" at strategic areas in space to pull over Starships that are going too fast & give the Captains of those Starships speeding tickets?

Starship Cop: All right! Pull over!

James T. Kirk: Did I do something wrong, officer?

SC: Licence and registration, please.

JTK: fumbles about a bit...

SC: Do you know why I pulled you over, sir?

JTK: Because you're working with the Klingons?

SC: All right, just for that, I'm afraid you're going into the brig.

JTK: Noooo!!!! Khaaaan! KHAAAAAAAAANNN! KHAAAAAAAAANNN!!!!!

Cop: "Here. Take your ticket."
Tom Paris: "Holy Geez--! This ticket is 10,000,000,000 Federation Credits!!!"
Cop: "That's right, son. You were going several thousand times the speed of light past that speed limit. That racks up creds. Yer lucky yer daddy's an admiral, or it mighta been more...."

Didn't we actually see that one? Followed, of course by:

Tom Paris: Can I take traffic school?

I used something similar for a funny heading and rewrote it here.

Something new to look forward to: self-righteous idiot going warp 5 in the fast lane and traffic backed up for parsecs.

I must say, Sarova doesn't come off as much of a genius. She and her brother appear one day out of the blue with a theory only they understand, and expect the Federation to alter a major policy on just their word. When Picard suggests they present their theory to the scientific establishment and let them assess it, she has a fit. While this is an emotional issue for her, she is a Federation scientist and should know how they operate. Why didn't she submit a paper on the topic years ago, and let her colleagues study the problem?

I am amazed the Federation expects its neighbors to buy into its claim about warp drives, since all of them have a tense, if not adversarial, relationship with them. Large or small, they are likely to see this as a ploy.

After viewing this episode, I decided that warp 5 was still too fast! We're getting back to the Alpha Quadrant on impulse alone, you hear me?!

FUNNY QUESTION:
So---what's Starfleet gonna do now after this episode? Post "Speed Limit Warp 6" bouys in space and assign "Police Starships" at strategic areas in space to pull over Starships that are going too fast & give the Captains of those Starships speeding tickets?

coughcoughTIMESPEEDERcough...

Lee Arenberg (Daimon Prak) has since had a beefy recurring role as Pintel (the short, loudmouthed pirate) in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series.

I despise issue shows, especially Star Trek issue shows, because they are never done well. Like Phil said in the NextGen guide, by detonating the ship, Sarova did exactly what they were trying to prevent, by endangering her planet. LaForge shifted way too fast into "I should have paid more attention" mode for someone who had previously been characterized as one of the most competent and experienced engineers in Starfleet. While there may be a difference between theoretical engineers (i.e. scientists who would know more about the workings of the tech) and field engineers (i.e. chief engineers, who build and maintain things), LaForge always seemed to be a little of both. I have my doubts that a rational scientist would automatically assume that the elements of this one, isolated incident would be applicable everywhere.

Anyway, the point of my rant is that the producers apparently didn't think that their audience is smart enough to come to their own conclusions about these issues. Whenever they did one of these types of episodes, I felt like they were insulting my intelligence.

The above is in no way intended as an insult towards any Trek writers, producers, etc.

This episode marks the first time Spot is referred to as "She" when Spot was referred to as "he" in "Phantasms"...just a few episodes ago.

Why isn't Deanna Troi seen counseling Dr. Rabal after the death of his sister?

This whole premise of a warp speed limit was a bad idea, from start to finish. I can see why it was quietly forgotten (neither Deep Space Nine or Voyager made any mention of it).

I think Phil got it right in his DS9 book, when he points out that Sisko exceeds Warp Five in The Search. He lists several reasons, but the one most likely is:

The creators would just as soon forget that they brought up this silly warp speed limit in the first place!

I couldn't agree more.

"The only other ship I can think of that had moving nacelles was the Klingon Bird Of Prey in Star Trek III.
Hard to believe that the Klingons are more environmentally friendly than the Federation."

The warp drives of a Bird of Prey are contained in the main body of the ship - More accurately the warp coils are under the radiator style bulges in the aft part of the ship. The movement/position of the wings has nothing to do with the warp drive - Birds of Prey have been seen at warp with the wings up or down. The only in universe explanation as to why Klingons built ships with moving wings I can think of is that it must give the wing mounted disrupter's a better range of fire against targets.

That said Klingons may have a good reason to make their warp drives as efficient as possible. They after all use cloaking devices. Its not beyond belief that Klingon and Romulan ships are designed to have very efficient warp drives to make them harder to detect while cloaked at warp. It would be ironic if this also meant they were less damaging to the fabric of space.

The only in universe explanation as to why Klingons built ships with moving wings I can think of is that it must give the wing mounted disrupter's a better range of fire against targets.

Another reason for the wings to move could be for use in an atmosphere. ST III & STIV both show that Klingon Brids of Prey can operate in an atmosphere and even land on a planet.

>>The only in universe explanation as to why Klingons built ships with moving wings I can think of is that it must give the wing mounted disrupter's a better range of fire against targets.

Another reason for the wings to move could be for use in an atmosphere. ST III & STIV both show that Klingon Brids of Prey can operate in an atmosphere and even land on a planet.

Voyager is also has that ability, as was seen on several shows. It would seem that the ability to safely fly inside an atmosphere has to do with the size of the ship rather than its design - All the ships we've seen flying in an atmosphere are small ships, NX 01, Bird of Prey and Voyager are all small ships.

The wings on a Bird of Prey are, in any case, not aerodynamic. They have flat edges with no curving along the wings at any point to provide lift. Something I know well after painting all the panels on the underside of the wings when I had a model of a Bird of Prey.

Note to all: Quadrant 47 is a speed trap. WATCH OUT!

Cybermortis - All the ships we've seen flying in an atmosphere are small ships
Well there was the Enterprise in Tomorrow Is Yesterday, although they didn't intentionally enter the atmosphere there.

This episode, I did actually like it somewhat. I liked the two alien characters because at least they weren't annoying like the Ferengi and I actually sympathized with their situation. And it was established that their world was apparently in a part of space that was isolated from the rest of the Federation because of the close proximity to the damaged space that had been caused by using warp fields. That might have proven to eventually be a real problem for their world if nobody could reach their planet for whatever reason because of the damaged space that was rendering warp drive unusable.

Haing said that, however, I agree with many of the above posters and their jokes about how TPTB were probably quick to regret having ever introduced the "Warp Five Speed Limit" idea in the first place. It also reminds me of "INH" from the Guild Glossary that I already talked about on the "Arsenal Of Freedom" page, it seemed to me that this was another example of that. At least they made an effort to "ret-con" the bad idea in a way, because VGR debuted, the ship's warp drive systems had configured to not damage subspace while in use. Apparently all other Federation starships had had the same upgrades and modifications done to them. At least they were aware of the problem that was created as a result of this episode and proceeded to not ever reference it again.

I also wonder which writer it was that came up with the idea for this ep in the first place, there are no credits at the top of the page. I suppose Memory Alpha could provide the answer, if I really wanted to look it up.

I also wonder what became of the Hekarans after the events of this episode. Did the damaged space stay damaged? Was the planet's population unable to travel anywhere in the quadrant and therefore stayed home instead? LaForge did say that not using warp drive in their region of space would make them isolated from the rest of the Federation. Would that prove to be a good or bad thing? I dont know!

I agree with many of the above posters and their jokes about how TPTB were probably quick to regret having ever introduced the "Warp Five Speed Limit" idea in the first place

Which is why it was quietly dropped. As I said, neither DS9 nor VOY made any references to it at all.

The problem with TNG's last season was, because of everything else going on, getting ready to shoot Generations, the preparation for Voyager, and the second season of DS9, TNG was moved to the bottom of the priority list. No one was paying that much attention to a show that was, for all intents and purposes, over. That is why clunkers like this got made in S7.

Truth be told, I never understood the later Trek shows obsession with subspace rubbish. In Classic Trek, it was just a means to communicate. They should have left it at that.

BILC?

An acronym for "Because It Looks Cool".

Chris Thomas on Sunday, August 26, 2001 - 2:01 pm: Interesting that no one's ever had anything to say about the episode that restricts travel to warp five - although it's almost completely forgotten after this episode.

Admiral Blackwell gave Picard permission to exceed Warp 5 for the duration of his assignment to locate the remains of the USS Pegasus, just before she asked about Captain Picard Day.

Chris Diehl on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 7:16 pm: I must say, Sarova doesn't come off as much of a genius. She and her brother appear one day out of the blue with a theory only they understand, and expect the Federation to alter a major policy on just their word. When Picard suggests they present their theory to the scientific establishment and let them assess it, she has a fit. While this is an emotional issue for her, she is a Federation scientist and should know how they operate. Why didn't she submit a paper on the topic years ago, and let her colleagues study the problem? According to her Memory Alpha entry, she did, but the report was dismissed for lacking conclusive evidence.

I am amazed the Federation expects its neighbors to buy into its claim about warp drives, since all of them have a tense, if not adversarial, relationship with them. Large or small, they are likely to see this as a ploy. They probably sent copies of all the evidence, and possibly an invitation to visit the area to see the effects for themselves.

John A. Lang (Johnalang) on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 3:07 pm: Why isn't Deanna Troi seen counseling Dr. Rabal after the death of his sister? He may have refused the offer.

This was a rubbish episode. If this was the best script they had that week, I'd hate to see the worst.


I am amazed the Federation expects its neighbors to buy into its claim about warp drives, since all of them have a tense, if not adversarial, relationship with them. Large or small, they are likely to see this as a ploy.

Yeah, the Romulans and the Cardassians would most likely go "Yeah, right." Yes, the Federation could send them the info, but it might not be believed.

Anyway, this whole episode was pointless, as was that warp speed limit. You knew it wasn't going to last, and it didn't, as neither Deep Space Nine or Voyager acknowledged it.

Perhaps it was a good thing that TNG ended when it did, they were clearly running out of ideas.

Weren't Voyagers nacelles the way they were because of a change in design to keep their engines from damaging subspace?

Allegedly, but it wasn't mentioned onscreen.

Rubbish 90's idealism at work here.