Flare Sci-fi Forums
Flare Sci-Fi Forums Post New Topic  Post A Reply
my profile | directory login | search | faq | forum home

  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» Flare Sci-Fi Forums » Star Trek » Starships & Technology » Transwarp Drive? (Page 1)

  This topic comprises 6 pages: 1  2  3  4  5  6   
Author Topic: Transwarp Drive?
jamesdwright@prodigy.net
Ex-Member


 - posted            Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Where did the Federation get the idea for a transwarp drive?
Why didn't it work for the Federation but does for the Borg?

JDW

------------------


IP: Logged
Daniel
Active Member
Member # 453

 - posted      Profile for Daniel     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Presumably, Starfleet engineers came up with the idea on their own. There is no previous reference to the transwarp drive that I know of. We know that the Excelsior was designed as the testbed starship for the transwarp drive. However despite simulation tests that must have showed it would have worked, (I extrapolate this from Captain Style's confidence in "breaking some of the Enterprise's speed records"), it didn't. No one at this point knows why, because it was never explained.

The first time in Federation history that a Starfleet craft reached transwarp speeds was in Voyager. I forget the episode, but they had discovered a new form of dilithium that could tolerate the high stresses induced by transwarp speeds. The only problem was that any human that travelled at such velocities experienced some, ahem, evolutionary problems. Namely that this aspect was highly accelerated. We can assume that this was not the reason Starfleet abandoned the Excelsior project because otherwise, Janeway probably would have known about the aftereffects of the drive and never have put Tom, or herself, through that.

Why does it work for the Borg? Because they're better? Probably because they utilize a totally different drive system. You never hear anything akin to "fire on the cube's matter/antimatter core." And we know that they use something known as a "transwarp coil," presumably something Starfleet, with its pitifully small technology base, cannot replicate. Anyone else have anything to add? I'm not a TNG person, so I missed out on a lot of the development of the Borg and their technology.


Registered: Nov 2000  |  IP: Logged
Dukhat
Hater of Stock Footage
Member # 341

 - posted      Profile for Dukhat     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
I think that TPTB made the term up in ST:III so they'd have an excuse to say why the Excelsior was so much "better" and "faster" than the Enterprise. I doubt they thought much about the technical aspects.
Later, it was generally accepted that transwarp drive didn't work properly (thanks to Scotty), and the project was abandoned.

In early TNG, the Borg's method of propulsion was unknown, but there didn't seem to be any sort of "drive" running the ship. IIRC, "Descent" was the first TNG ep to state that the Borg used transwarp corridors, although it seemed to imply that this technology was being used by Lore's Borg renegades only. By the time of Voyager, however, someone made the decision that an actual transwarp drive was the propulsion system that all Borg ships used.

So it's possible that one method of propulsion that Starfleet couldn't get to work right 70 years ago could have been perfected by the Borg fairly recently, thereby renewing Starfleet's interest in it.

------------------
Star Trek: Legacy


[This message has been edited by Dukhat (edited January 26, 2001).]


Registered: Jun 2000  |  IP: Logged
Ritten
A Terrible & Sick leek
Member # 417

 - posted      Profile for Ritten     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
When Kirk hijacked the Enterprise didn't he and Scotty have a conversation that the Excelsior wouldn't beable to catch them. Thus it was Scotty's fault that the transwarp drive tests failed.

------------------
"One's ethics are determined by what we do when no one is looking" Nugget
Star Trek: Gamma Quadrant
Star Trek: Legacy
Read them, rate them, got money, film them....


Registered: Sep 2000  |  IP: Logged
TSN
I'm... from Earth.
Member # 31

 - posted      Profile for TSN     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Well, it was Scotty's fault that the Excelsior couldn't chase after them at all. Presumably, the transwarp part was a failure in and of itself, since it disappeared after that.

------------------
My new year's resolution is the same as last year's: 1024x768.


Registered: Mar 1999  |  IP: Logged
Timo
Moderator
Member # 245

 - posted      Profile for Timo     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
It's theoretically possible that the tampering by Scotty caused the as such perfectly functional transwarp engines to melt down into slag, wasting gadzillions of taxpayer credits and man-millennia of working time, and crippling the test program. Starfleet did not have the sort of money needed to build another testbed, so they just sighed and said "well, we know it would have worked - perhaps in the next fifty years we'll gather enough money to make another attempt".

And then money disappeared from UFP economy and put SF Accounting Division into utter chaos which wasn't sorted out before Voyager's time, so the second testbed never got built.

Timo Saloniemi


Registered: Nov 1999  |  IP: Logged
Aban Rune
Former ascended being
Member # 226

 - posted      Profile for Aban Rune     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
I think we have to accept the fact that there are different forms of transwarp drive.

The transwarp they talked about in "Threshold" involved being everywhere at once. If the Borg used this kind of technology, no one would stand a chance. Instead, they use transwarp corridors. I don't know what this means, but I've always assumed that it limited their superspeed travel to specific entrance and exit points. They probably have to set up a corridor using normal speed before they can use it.

------------------
"A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx

Aban's Illustration www.alanfore.com



Registered: Oct 1999  |  IP: Logged
Michael Dracon
aka: NightWing or Altair
Member # 4

 - posted      Profile for Michael Dracon     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Actually no, Paris engaged the transwarp drive at warp 9.something way before he got to warp 10, which is a barrier _beyond_ the transwarp range. That why so many people hate Threshold, because they could have used the transwarp drive and go warp 9.99999 (or whatever) and be home in minutes...

------------------
"That's your plan? Wile E. Coyote would come up with a better plan than that!"
- Crighton, Farscape.

[This message has been edited by Altair (edited January 26, 2001).]


Registered: Mar 1999  |  IP: Logged
Aban Rune
Former ascended being
Member # 226

 - posted      Profile for Aban Rune     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Nope. Paris kept increasing speed until he got to warp 10 which they equated with transwarp. THAT'S why I hate the episode. Because if the shuttle could make it to Warp 10, it could go 9.99999999999999999999999999999 and ferry people back and forth in a few hours.

------------------
"A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx

Aban's Illustration www.alanfore.com



Registered: Oct 1999  |  IP: Logged
Shik
There's a million things I haven't done, but just you wait
Member # 343

 - posted      Profile for Shik     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
[ahem]...

"HERE y'go, Doctor...from one surgeon to another. I took them out of her main transwarp computer."

Oddly enough, they looked like spark plugs.

Do you REALLY think that Excelsior's ONLY test of the drive was its abortive chase of Enterprise? C'mon.

There was actually something quite interesting as to why transwarp failed from FASA...well, not failed--they embraced it originally, as did many of us. But it had something to do with nacelle size, integers, & all that shit. Star Station Aurora had a wonderful explanation of why it failed as well; I'll dig out my plans.

------------------
"You just push off....and the falling sort of happens on its own." ---Dave Titus


Registered: Jun 2000  |  IP: Logged
Ritten
A Terrible & Sick leek
Member # 417

 - posted      Profile for Ritten     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
No, but Scotty may have done something that had long lasting effects on the TWD.

------------------
"One's ethics are determined by what we do when no one is looking" Nugget
Star Trek: Gamma Quadrant
Star Trek: Legacy
Read them, rate them, got money, film them....


Registered: Sep 2000  |  IP: Logged
Fabrux
Epic Member
Member # 71

 - posted      Profile for Fabrux     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Well, I've read somewhere that the transwarp experiment was a success, if not a major one as expected. It worked, but only marginally increased performance rather than exponentially increase it as expected.

------------------
Chickety china, the chinese chicken, you have?


Registered: Mar 1999  |  IP: Logged
PsyLiam
Hungry for you
Member # 73

 - posted      Profile for PsyLiam     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Of corse, Mr Scott's Guide to the Enterprise claims that the Enterprise-A has transwarp drive.

*cough*

Going by what First said though, even if it was just a marginal speed increase, why'd they stop calling it "transwarp"? Can it only be called transwarp if it's, to use a technical term, "pretty bloody fast"?

------------------
"And Mojo was hurt and I would have kissed his little boo boo but then I realized he was a BAD monkey so I KICKED HIM IN HIS FACE!"
-Bubbles


Registered: Mar 1999  |  IP: Logged
Dat
Huh?
Member # 302

 - posted      Profile for Dat     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Where's First? He hasn't said anything here.

Oh, you mean Fabrux!

------------------
[Bart's looking for his dog.]
Groundskeeper Willy: Yeah, I bought your mutt - and I 'ate 'im! [Bart gasps.] I 'ate 'is little face, I 'ate 'is guts, and I 'ate the way 'e's always barkin'! So I gave 'im to the church.
Bart: Ohhh, I see... you HATE him, so you gave him to the church.
Groundskeeper Willy: Aye. I also 'ate the mess he left on me rug. [Bart stares.] Ya heard me!


Registered: Feb 2000  |  IP: Logged
Sol System
two dollar pistol
Member # 30

 - posted      Profile for Sol System     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
My pet theory is that transwarp refers to a certain level of subspace beyond what's used for normal warp drive. So anything that utilizes that level could be called transwarp.

------------------
I will shout until they know what I mean.
--
Neutral Milk Hotel
****
Read three (three!) chapters of "Dirk Tungsten in...The Disappearing Planet"! Then, go insane!



Registered: Mar 1999  |  IP: Logged
  This topic comprises 6 pages: 1  2  3  4  5  6   

Quick Reply
Message:

HTML is enabled.
UBB Code™ is enabled.

Instant Graemlins
   


Post New Topic  Post A Reply Close Topic   Feature Topic   Move Topic   Delete Topic next oldest topic   next newest topic
 - Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:


© 1999-2008 Solareclipse Network.

Powered by UBB.classic™ 6.7.3