# What was the nature of the Enterprise's five year mission? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 19, 2018, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224 "2018-10-19T18:46:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2018, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/21 "2018-10-19T22:54:19Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > In 1966 understanding that you couldn’t go faster than light by hitting the accelerator pedal harder was way advanced. Space 1899 never figured it out, after all. In fairness, that would’ve been asking a lot of them. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2018, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/22 "2018-10-19T23:01:33Z")
Well, they had impulse drive and warp drive. So they were using a different _kind_ of drive for FTL. That’s significant. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2018, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/23 "2018-10-19T23:13:41Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > My counter-cite is that I’m an evolutionary biologist, and if asked I would not have known the exact number of years; nor thought it significant. From [this](https://geekandsundry.com/the-long-trek-to-the-stars-celebrating-50-years-of-star-trek/) site: \* > [@](#): > > _The Lieutenant_ was cancelled after a year due to its continuous controversies, but Roddenberry was already developing an idea called _Hawaii Passage_ that involved a multi-racial ship crew that explored the ocean. One of his influences for the series had been _The Voyage of the Beagle_, which referred to Charles Darwin’s five year journey around the world to discover strange, new species of animals. Roddenberry then decided to switch the concept from a sea-going ship to one in space, and _Star Trek_ was born. - Booyah, baby! ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2018, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/24 "2018-10-19T23:15:44Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Booyah, baby! Okay, but I was disputing whether you were right to _assume_ this, not whether it was _actually true_ 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2018, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/25 "2018-10-19T23:55:43Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I have to say - I’d assume not. Is it really a well known (or significant) fact that Darwin’s trip lasted 5 years? > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Yes? (See last posts on [this](https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/7776/why-was-enterprise-on-a-five-year-mission-in-tos) page.) > [@Riemann](#): > > My counter-cite is that I’m an evolutionary biologist, and if asked I would not have known the exact number of years; nor thought it significant. > … > If Colibri knows that the extended name of the book includes that phrase, I will concede your point! The “extended name” of the book doesn’t include that phrase at all. That’s just the subtitle of the 2001 edition published by Narrative Press, which of course came out 35 years after _Star Trek_, and is one the publisher evidently came up with. The subtitle wouldn’t have had any influence on Roddenberry, because he never read it. Of course, if he had read the _Voyage of the Beagle_ he would have known it lasted five years. My own copy is a reprint from the Minerva Library of Famous Books, published in 1889. The title on the cover is _Darwin’s Journal During the Voyage of HMS “Beagle” Round the World_. The title page gives the “official” title of _Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage of HMS “Beagle” Round the World Under the Command of Capt. Fitz Roy, R.N._ (They knew how to title books in those days.) The book is most commonly known as simply _The Voyage of the Beagle._ If you had asked me, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you offhand that the voyage lasted five years specifically (though I would have known it was in that ballpark). I wouldn’t say it’s particularly well known fact about the voyage. Roddenberry may well have selected five years in reference to the _Beagle’s_ voyage, but it’s not a reference anyone else, even an evolutionary biologist, would be expected to get. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/26 "2018-10-20T00:04:13Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > V. You will patrol the Ninth Quadrant, Now I have a question. How the heck do you get nine _Quadrants_? [A quadrant is a division into four parts.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_quadrant) (I believe that TNG did actually use four quadrants.) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/27 "2018-10-20T00:19:17Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Roddenberry may well have selected five years in reference to the _Beagle’s_ voyage, but it’s not a reference anyone else, even an evolutionary biologist, would be expected to get. It may not be a “household word” but it also [isn’t something deeply obscure](https://www.google.com/search?q=darwin+beagle+%22five+year%22&ei=m3PKW5ThDc6esQX-8rqYCw&start=0&sa=N), like Darwin’s uncle’s butler’s shoe size. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/28 "2018-10-20T00:22:40Z")
[Two general-audience](https://www.natgeokids.com/au/discover/science/general-science/charles-darwin-and-the-mystery-of-life/) [educational links](https://www.nsta.org/publications/interactive/galapagos/activities/adventuring.html). ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/29 "2018-10-20T00:23:30Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > …Darwin’s uncle’s butler’s shoe size. 12 1/2 EE Whether or not the 5 years is a widely known specific thing about Darwin’s trip, it’s pretty cool to know that Roddenberry had it in mind. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/30 "2018-10-20T00:36:46Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > It may not be a “household word” but it also [isn’t something deeply obscure](https://www.google.com/search?q=darwin+beagle+%22five+year%22&ei=m3PKW5ThDc6esQX-8rqYCw&start=0&sa=N), like Darwin’s uncle’s butler’s shoe size. > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > [Two general-audience](https://www.natgeokids.com/au/discover/science/general-science/charles-darwin-and-the-mystery-of-life/) [educational links](https://www.nsta.org/publications/interactive/galapagos/activities/adventuring.html). Yeah, but two evolutionary biologists didn’t know it off hand, including at least one who has read the book. The length of the voyage may well have influenced Roddenberry, but even your cite doesn’t say that’s the reason he made the Enterprise’s mission five years. ---
**Author:** ![dzeiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@dzeiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzeiger)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/31 "2018-10-20T00:41:42Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Now I have a question. How the heck do you get nine _Quadrants_? [A quadrant is a division into four parts.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_quadrant) (I believe that TNG did actually use four quadrants.) As a fanwank, start with 4. But as political/military boundaries, they become unwieldy as the Federation expands in space. So we start cutting them off and make new administrative areas around the edge–but those areas have been called “quadrants” since the birth of the Federation, and it’s easier to keep it that way, even if it’s no longer meeting a strict dictionary definition. The Ninth Quadrant, then, would presumably be on the edge of Federation-claimed space, which would make sense for the Enterprise. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/32 "2018-10-20T01:14:03Z")
I always assumed five years was the time it would take for Earth to self-destruct. Hopefully, that is. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/33 "2018-10-20T01:31:37Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Now I have a question. How the heck do you get nine _Quadrants_? [A quadrant is a division into four parts.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_quadrant) (I believe that TNG did actually use four quadrants.) In _ **Voyager** _, too. The Galaxy was divided into four quadrants: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, the first four letters of the Greek alphabet. The word obviously had some other meaning in _ **TOS** _. In “Mark of Gideon,” Kirk looks at the viewscreen and says “I’m not familiar with this quadrant.” So I’d assume it did indeed denote some smaller territorial division within the Galaxy. Recall that in _ **TNG** _’s “Conspiracy,” the map at SFHQ shows Federation space divided into cubes, so that may have something to with it (even though a cube has six sides, if you count the top and bottom). ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/34 "2018-10-20T01:36:19Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I’d more categorize what the Enterprise did as “troubleshooting”. When you have an undefined problem, send in Kirk. Planet killing weapons, wayward asteroids, giant space amoebas, loss of contact with planets, missing ships, spacial anomalies, non-corporeal killers. They live for that shit! I’ve long maintained that Starfleet is not composed of the best and the brightest, but instead the ADHD afflicted and uncontrollable wreckers that were transported off Earth and its civilized colonies and off into deep space where they could get into trouble without bothering the adults. To that end, conflicts are concocted by the ship’s computer (which is actually fully autonomous and capable of running operations all on its own without any ‘help’ from the crew) in order to occupy their attention. This includes creating simulated enemies, performing ‘analysis’ to ambiguous and often nonsensical commands, and > [@Colibri](#): > > Now I have a question. How the heck do you get nine _Quadrants_? [A quadrant is a division into four parts.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_quadrant) (I believe that TNG did actually use four quadrants.) In astronomy, the four quadrants of the sky are also broken into north and south. So that gives you eight. I don’t know where the ninth one comes from. Maybe it is imaginary. 😉 Stranger ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/35 "2018-10-20T01:46:15Z")
It was a five year deep space mission. The crew would want to return home and reconnect with family. The ship gets repaired and resupplied. Perhaps, updated with newer technology. It’s similar to long military postings today. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/36 "2018-10-20T01:49:38Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > In 1966 understanding that you couldn’t go faster than light by hitting the accelerator pedal harder was way advanced. Space 1899 never figured it out, after all. > > Anyhow, it is clear that the speed of the Enterprise is whatever is required by the script. Surely you mean _ **1999** _? :dubious: My favorite warp discrepancy came in “The Changeling”: NOMAD’s energy bolts take seconds to reach the \*Enterprise \*at Warp 15, but the ship’s photon torpedoes travel the same distance almost instantaneously. And in “Elaan of Troyius,” how can they fire the torpedoes while the ship is pivoting at Warp 2? Do the torps have their own warp drives, or do they stay inside the ship’s FTL bubble until they hit their target? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/37 "2018-10-20T01:51:26Z")
It was for Kirk to spread his space seed in the waiting wombs of wanton alien women and cogenitors. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/38 "2018-10-20T01:53:23Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > I would have assumed that in five years they’d return for crew rotation and a possible reassignment of mission. It’s just the tour of duty length. This is what I always thought. I figured it was kind of like a nuclear sub on a long duration voyage. I also assumed it would be 5 years subjective to the crew, since I always assumed that ‘warp speed’ entailed somehow going super luminal, so time would pass differently for the crew than for those not on the ship. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/39 "2018-10-20T01:53:51Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Surely you mean _ **1999** _? :dubious: Or perhaps he means [_Space: 1889_](http://space1889.org) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224/40 "2018-10-20T01:53:54Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > In astronomy, the four quadrants of the sky are also broken into north and south. So that gives you eight. I was the Astronomy TA at Macalester for two years. Please elaborate. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-nature-of-the-enterprises-five-year-mission/823224.md?page=3)