posted
So this has been nagging at me a few years now, and with little new tech to discuss until ST XI comes out, I figured it's time to ask :
How does transwarp work in relation to warp drive? My understanding has always been that all starships are considered, "aerodynamic" for space travel, which helps the ship transition to faster than light travel without loosing structural integrity.
That seemed to make sense, but then the Borg first appeared, they were using standard warp drive to no ill effect. That didn't seem to add up to me, but then they were using transwarp to get around in Voyager at much greater velocities.
I reasoned that their geometric fleet was basically creating small wormholes that covered great distances, but were traveling through them at sub light speeds, since on DS9 no one traveled to the Gamma Quadrant or back at anything faster than impulse. If that were the case, a cube or whatever could hop from point to point with minimal strain on the hull.
Canon evidence like BOBW suggests a cube has both forms of propulsion, but over the years we've had snippets of dialogue and technical write-ups that suggest that the shape of a vessel is directly influence the way a warp field envelopes a ship, thus making it go faster.
So, when a ship goes through a transwarp hole thingy, is it moving under it's own propulsion is it is ridding a wave a la Stargate?
So am I close to the mark here or is it one of those things we'll blame on a wizard?
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Registered: Jul 2006
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One plot hole in Voyager ... like that never happened ... was that apparently there was a transwarp conduit exit right at Earth, yet in BoBW and First Contact they travel there much slower.
Granted the cube in BoBW traveled from the DQ to AQ much faster than any Starfleet ship could have.
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Registered: May 1999
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(I assumed that, you know, transwarp applied to any mode of travel that dug deeper into subspace than traditional warp drive.)
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Sol System: I made a diagram once!
After first reading this thread several days ago, my first act was actually to try and hunt down your diagram and accompanying explanation, Sol. Unfortunately, my searching skills were not up to the task.
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Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Which type of Transwarp, though? FASA's TSFS version was a 'double compression' of the old warp fields, making subspace within subspace.
TNG suddenly goes into new pocket dimensions (which was NOT how warp was supposed to work). It also has 'transwarp conduits', and a few other versions all called 'transwarp'.
quote:Originally posted by Sol System: I made a diagram once!
After first reading this thread several days ago, my first act was actually to try and hunt down your diagram and accompanying explanation, Sol. Unfortunately, my searching skills were not up to the task.
posted
To be fair, they were salamanders on Voyager- TNG had Troi turn into a fish.
I had read that Transwarp used the transporters somehow to accelerate the rate the warp field traveled at- sorta beaming it forward and insane FTL speed and the ship went along with it- This would have been so fast as to allow exploration of the entire galaxy within a generation or two (with enough ships).
Also, Transwarp sounds cooler than just "warp", much like how quantum torpedos sound cooler than plauin vanilla "photon torpedos".
I personally want to se "Quantum Genesis Torpedos"- that'll turn yer sorry Borg cube into a sorry unstable planet where people occasionally age at an accelerated rate if the plot demands it. Each comes with it's own star to orbit! Act now, while supplies last.
Registered: Aug 2002
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Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
Clearly, Genesis has some horrible effect that wasn't intended - or certainly we would have heard of it being used again by now
Transwarp was supposed to be 'faster than warp 10' i.e. 'greater than infinite velocity' hence TRANS warp in Voyager, I think. But then the Voth...*sigh* And the Borg conduits which...er...and the Excelsior class....hmmm...
...it's a very powerful plot warp drive
Registered: Jul 2005
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