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posted
Oh, didn't you know, Paramount came out with thousands of little paper slips of facts about Star Trek, all nicely stuffed into a box called an 'Ass'.
These numbers look like they were pulled out of his ass.
------------------ "...screw logic, let's go for a theory with no evidence!" - Omega.
posted
Well, many's the time I've had the runabouts the night after eating a curry. . . since we're talking about things coming out people's asses. . . does that count?
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posted
DarkStar, you need to visit you own threads every once in a while!! Discuss with us, argue with us, just do something! Just flying away like that makes it difficult to get something going here...
------------------ Here lies a toppled god, His fall was not a small one. We did but build his pedestal, A narrow and a tall one.
-Tleilaxu Epigram
[This message has been edited by Nimrod (edited January 21, 2001).]
posted
Not really. In "The Jem'Haddar", Jake Sisko and Nog wrecked the Runabout's autopilot and asked it to set a course for home at Warp 8. The Runabout, being broken, didn't comply - but there's nothing saying that the Runabout could or couldn't do that speed. I believe that it's the only episode that actually hinted at the Runabout's top speed.
Mark
------------------ "Why build one, when you can build two at twice the price?"
posted
I'm all for accepting gradual speed upgrades during the run of DS9. We did learn that the Danube-class runabouts were a new invention when Sisko got his first three - I think this was stated in "Paradise" or something. Some tune-up and easing of factory limitations would only be expected during the early years of operations.
And the top speed of w4.75 given in the writers' guide makes sense for the early run of the show. In "Dax", it was made rather clear that ships with w5 or higher speed could outrun a runabout. Add to that the established top speed of a type 8 shuttle (w4, VOY "Resolutions") and the suggested speeds of some other, older shuttles (w2.2 or so, TNG Tech Manual) and you are in a plausible ballpark for small craft propulsion performance.
Anything near warp 7 or 8 is a bit hard to swallow, though, since the runabouts aren't designed to be as fast as starships (from the dramatic point of view, which overrides any technical arguments). We never really saw a runabout chasing a bigger ship that was *unable* to shake its tail by speeding up - at most we saw chases where the bigger ship was shrugging off the runabout attack and taking its time to fire back. And I agree that even if Jake Sisko shouts in panic "Gimme warp eight!", it doesn't mean the craft could actually comply.
In general, the less "magical" performance upgrades we have within a short period of time on ANY field of treknology, the better. Oh, I might be forced to accept the proliferation of torpedoes for shuttle-sized craft within the Voyager timeframe, but tripling or quadrupling of top speed? No thanks.
As for travel time calculations, most DS9 episodes were mercifully ambiguous on the times and distances. Some, like "Whispers", had explicit travel time info, but it would usually have required an increase of top speed to w9.999999, not merely to warp 7 or 8.
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