MovieChat Forums > Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) Discussion > 17% of the galaxy

17% of the galaxy

posted 8 years ago by elaphe-1
4 replies | jump to latest

That is the amount that is stated to have been explored. What percent do you suppose it was in the TOS days?

[–] WyldeGoose 8 years ago

It depends on what they mean by "explored." If it means just looking at stars and such through telescopes, the figure might be more. If it means physically going to these places, and studying them in depth, 17% comes off more impressive. In fact, it comes off as unbelievable. Because that means they have explored roughly 17 Billion stars!!! I'm calling bulls#it on that.

[–] avortac4 (3746) 4 years ago

"It depends on what they mean by "explored." If it means just looking at stars and such through telescopes, the figure might be more."

Um.. if that's what 'explored' means, then it's ALREADY more right now on Terra.

Looking at a star from light years away is not really EXPLORING that star and its planet systems, now is it?

We already know a lot about this galaxy and its stars, and we know of other galaxies, and look at Hubble Deep Space photos to realize just how many there are (if it could zoom deeper, we'd see there are even more).

So based on YOUR theory of 'exploration', we have explored a million galaxies or more.

It's pretty pathetic that an advanced space vessel like the Enterprise, that can surpass the speed of light by assumedly enormous magnitude, has to be limited to one galaxy. It's like confining a modern lawyer to only operate inside one specific, small sandbox instead of being able to travel between the metropolies of the world and making evil deals in Tōkyō Sky Tree as well as in the expensive New York hotels.

[–] Drunkdustmonkey 8 years ago

The United Earth Space Probe Agency launched the first warp capable probe (Friendship 1) in 2067, which means deep space exploration had been going on for 198 years when "Where No Man Has Gone Before" took place. With that in mind my guess would be somewhere around 10%.

"Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." -- J. Robert Oppenheimer

[–] MAGolding (1231) 7 years ago

Actually there was manned star travel at least 200 years before the date of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" - whenever that was.

MITCHELL: My love has wings. Slender, feathered things with grace in upswept curve and tapered tip. The Nightingale Woman, written by Phineas Tarbolde on the Canopius planet back in 1996. It's funny you picked that one, Doctor.
DEHNER: Why?
MITCHELL: That's one of the most passionate love sonnets of the past couple of centuries. How do you feel, Doctor?

If the Canopius planet was a planet in another solar system, and if Phineas Tarbolde was an Earth man, then Earth probably had faster-than-light interstellar travel by the year 1996.

Since "couple" means "two" the date of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" must be before 2196, and probably also after 2096.

Captain's log, Star date 1312.4. The impossible has happened. From directly ahead, we're picking up a recorded distress signal, the call letters of a vessel which has been missing for over two centuries. Did another Earth ship once probe out of the galaxy as we intend to do? What happened to it out there? Is this some warning they've left behind?

So the Valiant left Earth over two centuries ago and lost contact with Earth over two centuries ago - it could not have been "missing" if it was still in contact with Earth.

KIRK: This is the Captain speaking. The object we encountered is a ship's disaster recorder, apparently ejected from the S.S. Valiant two hundred years ago.

Exactly 200 years before "Where No Man Has Gone Before" would be sometime between 1896 and 1996, and the Valiant left Earth earlier - in the calendar used by Mitchell, at least.

Thus the official Star Trek chronology should admit that either Earth had faster than light star travel by 1996 AD or else that different calendars are used in Star Trek.