And that was even retconned in Enterprise where the Romulans and the Coalition of Planets (pre-Federation, that was even a retcon) both had warp drive.
There is one TOS episode where Kirk is far enough away from Star Fleet that he must act before he receives permission.
There were a few episodes where they talked about sending a message to starfleet, but by the time starfleet would respond the crisis would be over. So - every now and then - the delay in subspace was needed.
I fan wanked that by subspace requiring repeater beacons, which were not available in all areas.
And then had Captain Riker go to Warp 13 in All Good Things.
And then there is the idiotic concept of solar sailing on that DS9 episode…
Well now in game theory there arise “surreal numbers” like ω, ω·ω, ω[sup]ω[/sup], etc., or you might ponder topological models such as the Alexandroff long line, but anyway in real life the speed of light is already “infinitely fast”, and in Star Trek they go faster than warp 10 practically all the time 
(just last week they used some Borg tech to shave some time off their hyperspace trip)
Riker was always a loose cannon who didn’t obey Star Fleet regulations.
The DS9 solar sail I had managed not to think about. Thanks a lot!
I didn’t realize that there was an emoji for Troi’s Starfleet uniform!
Here is some info.
The rest of the time he did it just for the hell of it 
That was the whole point of the ship’s five-year mission: To get it far enough away from Earth so Kirk would have to make important decisions on his own.
Which he did most of the time, except when the plot required otherwise. On those occasions, he was always able to communicate with Star Fleet with absolutely no time lag.
There did mention some sort of warp momentum that could be maintained.
Yes, it wouldn’t be so much of a lifeboat, but the stardrive section would drop off the saucer and go into attack mode. So it would typically be leaving the saucer in a safe place.
Absolute rubbish. The ship’s main armament is on the saucer section, making the whole idea of a “battle configuration” ludicrous.
You know what I’d do if I were a hostile? I’d either ignore the rest of the ship altogether or just blast it out of space, and then take off after the saucer, which has absolutely no chance of getting away on impulse power. Then I’d take everyone on board as captives to sell in the Galaxy’s many slave markets before blowing it to smithereens (or just plain kill everyone and be done with it).
I’d like to see a scene where Riker or Geordie or Worf is on the “battle bridge” and saying in total bewilderment “Hey … they’re not going to fight; they’re taking off after the saucer! Can they **DO **that?!?” :dubious: :eek:
After bringing children on board the Federation’s flagship, this was by far the dumbest idea that ever found its way into the series.
Never heard that before, that’s hilarious and so true.
I was a huge fan growing up and I recently started rewatching the TOS episodes on Netflix, after not having seen them for 30 years. Big mistake. I’m almost through Season 1. It’s great for nostalgia, but very painful to watch as an adult. Better to have remembered them as they existed in my memory, not as they really were.
On warp speed: as a fan and book reader, I was always under the impression the speed was an exponential curve. I now understand someone just clearly ret-conned that after someone else pointed out the massive inconsistencies between TOS episodes.
Great example - in the S1 episode “Tomorrow is Yesterday”, (where they end up back at Earth in the 1960’s after encountering a “black star”), they need to slingshot around our Sun to get back to their own time. Between their warp drive and the sun’s pull Sulu says they’re going Warp 8 on the way to the sun and then after the slingshot and back toward earth, he says they’re “off the charts”. WTF? That whole trip should not even be an eye blink.
Not to mention that time starts to go backward after Warp 8!!! Seriously - you just f-ing discovered time travel too?!?!?
They discovered that in S1 E4 “The Naked Time.” Time started running backward when they mixed matter and anti-matter cold.
*In re *the Sun: you’re assuming they flew in a straight line. Obviously, they had to spiral in toward the Sun for it to take as long as it did. *Messenger *did the same thing as it headed for Mercury.
The Star Trek universe as re-imagined by Iain Banks. I’m hoping to see Vulcans retooled as blood-thirsty cannibals and Tribbles as the dominant intellectual life form of the Federation. That’ll probably be in the next season of Discovery, actually.
There is really no point in looking for continuity or even basic logic in Star Trek. This is, after all, a series in which the characters routinely submit to being energetically decomposed to component atoms and replaced by a simulacrum at the other end, often being projected onto the surface of a planet whose atmospheric composition, radiation environment, and other essential aspects of environmental safety have not been quantitatively assessed. And it is clear that “Computer” is capable of running the entire ship and performing all major exploratory and analysis functions essentially independent of the crew who appear to be on the ship simply to give “Computer” some drama for entertainment.
As for the warp drive and speeds, I’ll just note that some episode of ST:TNG introduced the concept that operating the warp drive at speeds above a certain threshold was causing serious, irreparable damage to the fabric of spacetime, which was subsequently forgotten faster than Murphy Brown’s infant child once it posed some issue with plotting.
Douglas Adams at least based his novels on consistent physics, even if it was absurdist made-up physics about Infinite Improbability Drives and the strange mathematics of bistro waiters. None of this mucking about with warp drives and subspace.
Stranger
Holy shit, it really did take the collapse of civilization to get you posting again.
Don’t disturb him - he’s wrapping up all his books and burying them in the front yard.
@ terentii
Yes, there’s lots of that “holy shit” stuff now that I rewatch, but I never thought to question originally. I just happened to watch “Tomorrow is Yesterday” a few days ago.
As far as the direct line vs spiral route - given they’re going “off the charts” on the way back to earth, based on Jonathan Chance’s post (which I have no reason to question), that would make the straight line trip back max .6 seconds [7 minutes at SOL = 420 seconds, 420 / 729 times SOL) = .6]. So the +30 seconds of screen time it took them would be a very large spiral route!
[As a side note: I’ve never understood why in some episodes the ships phasers fire like a laser beam, but in others they are like photon torpedoes? Was there ever a ret-conn explanation for that?]