Warp drive

In the fictional universe of Star Trek, the warp drive is a form of faster-than-light (FTL) propulsion. It is, however, a very serious research topic in factual science. (See Alcubierre drive)

Fictional history

On Earth it was invented by Zefram Cochrane, in 2063, as depicted in ' (though information from ' suggests that warp drive may have been first used earlier, there is no direct evidence of such). According to the latest Star Trek series, Enterprise, many other civilizations had warp drive before humans, notably the Vulcans, who had more advanced warp drive technology than humans even in the 22nd century.

Related Topics:
Earth - Zefram Cochrane - 2063 - Vulcan - 22nd century

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In the Star Trek pilot episode "The Cage", warp was mentioned with the term "time warp". The episode revealed that the "time barrier" had recently been broken, but since this was given as news to a group of shipwrecked interstellar travelers, it could not refer to the breaking of the light barrier, as has been suggested. (The pilot episode featured a number of things inconsistent with the rest of the series.)

Related Topics:
Pilot episode - The Cage

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The speed of warp travel is usually given only in warp factors. It is generally assumed that warp 1 is the speed of light, and that at higher factors speed increases exponentially. Several episodes of the original series placed the Enterprise in peril by having it go at absurdly high warp factors, once as high as warp 14.6 ("That Which Survives"). However, the actual speed of any given warp factor is never explicity and canonically stated on screen. Furthermore, within each series travel times and interstellar distances are not presented with rigorous (or even loose) continuity.

Related Topics:
Exponentially - That Which Survives

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Realising that this was a problem and wanting to remove this plot element, the creators of ' decided that warp 10 should be the maximum. Backstage treknobabble suggests that the warp scale was recalibrated, with the new warp 5 being the old warp 6, and warp 10 being infinite speed and unattainable. The producers indicated that vessels could only reach warp 9.x with an infinite number of 9s. This was done to give entities such as Q and The Traveler a loophole to travel at very fast speeds. For example, it had been estimated that the Traveler had been propelling the Enterprise at warp 9.999996. The ' episode "Threshold" agreed with this, in that the characters said it was impossible — but then they achieved it anyway, with the side effect that they hyper-evolved (reversibly) into anthropomorphic newts (although many fans, production staff, and even the writer and producer of the episode Brannon Braga generally ignore the events of that episode).

Related Topics:
Treknobabble - Q - The Traveler - Threshold - Evolved - Anthropomorphic - Newt - Brannon Braga

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The term "transwarp" has been used a number of times, referring to an advanced form of warp drive most commonly used by the Borg, but also the subject of an unsuccessful Starfleet development project in '. Just as the generation of a warp field around a starship is required to enter warp speed without using infinite amounts of energy, thereby breaking the light barrier (a theoretically impossible event in our universe), so is a transwarp field required to reach very high FTL speeds (making a ship capable of crossing galactic distances in a very short time). At least the Borg (in the Star Trek: The Next Generation two-part episode "Descent" and in the Star Trek: Voyager final episode "Endgame") have discovered anomalies called "transwarp conduits" — regions in subspace that facilitate transwarp travel. Artificial conduits are linked together with transwarp hubs. Six hubs were known to exist, but one was destroyed in the Voyager episode "Endgame".

Related Topics:
Borg - Starfleet

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