# Star Trek: Were any of the Enterprises Capable of Routine Intergalactic Travel?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 26, 2004, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112 "2004-04-26T16:23:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2004, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/1 "2004-04-26T16:23:17Z")
From what I’ve seen, none of the Enterprise starships of Star Trek fame were designed for intergalactic travel, although such travel may have occurred in a handful of episodes, with the help of a wormhole or some other literary plot device.
That said, since TNG Enterprise models were, IIRC, eventually capable of transwarp velocity–which I believe is essentially infinite (light) speed–could such starships have traveled to **distant** galaxies without the assist of wormholes? (Let’s not even get into the matter of navigating through uncharted galaxies while moving at infinite speed.)
IIRC, even Voyager was stuck in a remote part of the Milky Way galaxy, leaving unexplored about 400 billion galaxies throughout the cosmos.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2004, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/2 "2004-04-26T16:38:02Z")
Kirk could do anything he wanted to.
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### Author:  [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2004, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/3 "2004-04-26T16:43:13Z")
Nope. No Enterprise we’ve been introduced to has been described as capable of routine intergalactic travel.
The original NCC-1701 under Kirk’s command encountered an exotic barrier at the outer edge of the galaxy; The 1701-D under Picard was accelerated into another galaxy while the Traveller was on board.
Transwarp - they dealt with this more on Voyager, which I didn’t watch, but the Borg did use ‘Transwarp’ conduits… but I was under the impression they had to be ‘constructed’ … sort of like artificial wormholes.
That said, the Enterprise-E could strap Wesley Crusher into the Warp Core and probably break some speed records, what with his powers and all.
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### Author:  [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2004, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/4 "2004-04-26T16:46:10Z")
The fact that voyager barely could _traverse_ a galaxy meakes it seem unlikely.
I do remember a voyager ep. where they claimed to travel at infinite speed, with the side effect that you “evolve” into a lizard. It was not explained why they couldn’t use this to travel home, and then do the de-lizardifying procedure.
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### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2004, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/5 "2004-04-26T17:00:54Z")
The Warp Scale is a huge confused mess, with the writers choosing whatever speed they feel like without regards to how it would work in real life.
Still, AFAIK, only the Borg and maybe one or two alien species in _Voyager_ could routinely exceed warp speeds. (Voyager could kinda “borrow” Borg trans-warp conduits, but I don’t think it could go transwarp by itself). Even then, it isn’t instantaneous travel.
And the distance between galaxies is mindblowingly massive. The Andromeda Galaxy (the nearest to the Milky Way) is over 2 million light-years agay. Even the very fastest ships in Trekdom would take centuries to reach even the nearest galaxy.
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### Author:  [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2004, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/6 "2004-04-26T17:09:12Z")
Yeah, one of the little secrets of ST:TOS is that Warp Drive _just wasn’t fast enough_.
The tech manual states that the speed through space is the cube of the warp number. Warp 1 is (1_1_1)\*lightspeed.
So travelling at WARP NINE, MR SULU!!! means you’d be travelling at 729 times the speed of light.
So getting to the nearest star system from earth at the highest ‘dangerous’ speed would take 0.0058 of a year or 2.117 days. Simple enough.
But what about REAL distances? 100 light years? 0.137 years. That’s 50.068 days. And that’s still in the neighborhood, for all purposes. The federation supposedly took up a big chunk of a galactic ARM.
And a warp 5 (cruising speed)? It is to laugh.
Alpha Centauri: 12.5 days.
Epsilon Eridani (Vulcan, IIRC): 30.07 days.
I can’t find distances to other major ST worlds but trust me…it’s too far.
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### Author:  [@Yesterdog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yesterdog)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2004, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/7 "2004-04-26T17:10:28Z")
In the final episode of ST:TNG (All Good Things…), the “future” Enterprise was capable of warp speeds greater than 10, so yes, that one could.
Warp speeds greater than 10 do something to the space/time continue-um (sp?) and alow such a feat.
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### Author:  [@dalovindj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalovindj)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2004, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/8 "2004-04-26T17:34:18Z")
Isn’t the warp scale from TOS a different scale then the one in TNG? I think it went not exactly, but something like, warp 9 in TOS is warp .9 (or warp .09) in TNG. They changed the scale (and thus the top speed) by at least one factor of ten. Can’t remember where I heard this (and it may well be an idea that got made up during my time as a Ferengi to answer some fanboy’s non-stop pestering), but I feel like this idea has a canonical base. . .
DaLovin’ Dj
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### Author:  [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2004, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/9 "2004-04-26T17:35:32Z")
> [@Ryan K](#):
>
> In the final episode of ST:TNG (All Good Things…), the “future” Enterprise was capable of warp speeds greater than 10, so yes, that one could.
>
> Warp speeds greater than 10 do something to the space/time continue-um (sp?) and alow such a feat.
The Warp Scale was different. It couldn’t do infinite speeds. Otherwise it wouldn’t have taken them so long to get to places in that episode.
I should also point out that the NextGen WarpScale was already different from the TOS Warp Scale.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2004, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/10 "2004-04-26T20:30:16Z")
Early in the novelization of _Star Trek II: TWOK_ is an ironic reference to “new Galaxy-class ships … smaller than the _Enterprise_ but much faster. They were most efficient around warp twelve.” Three such ships are mentioned by name (one commanded by Captain Mandala Flynn), and it’s clear their purpose is _really_ long-range (including extragalactic) exploration. Mostly, though, their presence in the story is to give Kirk an extra chance to kvetch about getting older: “But if I were ten years younger, [Captain Flynn] might have had a fight on her hands for one of the Galaxies.”
Overall, though, the science of _Star Trek_ is at best peripheral to the stories, and FTL travel is just a plot device.
What cracks me up, sometimes, is the casual attitude toward space travel, including Juliana Tainer (Data’s “Mother”) who ran off with Noonien Soong _to a whole other planet_ to get married, which sounds a lot more complicated than just sneaking across the county line.
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2004, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/11 "2004-04-26T20:42:11Z")
[http://ditl.org/scitech/datwarpscales.htm](http://ditl.org/scitech/datwarpscales.htm)
Warp 9.9999 is the speed of subspace radio with satellite boosters and no starship can match its speed (about 200,000c). Even at these speeds, it’d take ten years to reach Andromeda.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2004, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/12 "2004-04-26T22:22:20Z")
In one of the many episodes of TOS where the Enterprise gets hijacked, they head off for Andromeda after modifications were made to the engines by the aliens. I don’t remember how long it was supposed to take. They converted most of the crew members into pyramids, which sure saved on casting.
While it is true the warp speeds of TOS were all screwed up, ST was the first series that actually understood that you couldn’t make it past light speed by just accelerating faster. Not that everyone learned from them - look at Space 1999.
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2004, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/13 "2004-04-26T22:41:19Z")
[By Any Other Name](http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/library/episodes/TOS/detail/68760.html)
300 years, btw.
**Aes** has the canonical answer, No.
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### Author:  [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2004, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/14 "2004-04-27T00:06:47Z")
> [@Jonathan Chance](#):
>
> And a warp 5 (cruising speed)? It is to laugh.
>
> Alpha Centauri: 12.5 days.
> Epsilon Eridani (Vulcan, IIRC): 30.07 days.
Vulcan orbits Eps Eri?
Damn, that’s practically in our own back yard.
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2004, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/15 "2004-04-27T00:12:14Z")
It’s non-canonical but yes. Read “Spock’s World” sometime. Really good book.
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### Author:  [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2004, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/16 "2004-04-27T02:51:13Z")
> [@Aesiron](#):
>
> It’s non-canonical but yes. Read “Spock’s World” sometime. Really good book.
Sorry to sound dense, but what is meant by “canonical”?
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2004, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/17 "2004-04-27T02:56:52Z")
Reality… established fact, etc.
If something is shown on an episode or movie, it is canon. Everything else is supposition except for two Voyager novels written by one of its creators and an Animated episode (Yesteryear) dealing with Spock’s early life.
Vulcan has never been said to orbit Epsilon Eridani but it’s been stated numerous times in various books, some of which are giants of the series. It’s not canon but it’s pretty much accepted anyway.
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### Author:  [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2004, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/18 "2004-04-27T13:14:40Z")
> [@Aesiron](#):
>
> Reality… established fact, etc.
>
> If something is shown on an episode or movie, it is canon. Everything else is supposition except for two Voyager novels written by one of its creators and an Animated episode (Yesteryear) dealing with Spock’s early life.
>
> Vulcan has never been said to orbit Epsilon Eridani but it’s been stated numerous times in various books, some of which are giants of the series. It’s not canon but it’s pretty much accepted anyway.
Ah, I’m familiar with your usage of “canon.” My first interpretation, however, is that you were using “canonical” as used in the field of statistics–and this is the term I do not understand. Maybe it has the same meaning…
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2004, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/19 "2004-04-27T14:06:11Z")
Possibly. I’m unaware of any meanings for it outside of religion and TV though.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2004, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-were-any-of-the-enterprises-capable-of-routine-intergalactic-travel/242112/20 "2004-04-27T15:20:23Z")
I never understood how, even if with warp-speed travel it took some time to get from one place to another, they were able to have real-time videoconferences with no lag whatsoever. I’m fairly sure that on DS9, Sisko had videoconferences with people back at Star Fleet headquarters, and that’s was supposedly a really long distance.
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