Discuss The Orville
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Time and Distance
posted by KnixonSTAFFMOD on October 9, 2017 at 2:27 AM
One thing original Star Trek - and the follow-up series too, mostly, except maybe for Voyager - seemed to do better than The Orville is deal with some of the time, distance, and... coincidence?... issues. They were going to a planet because they had orders to make contact. They were looking for someone or something already, or they received a distress signal... whatever.
The Orville seems to have a conceit, as shown in a couple episodes so far, that while just wandering around in open space at sub-light speed, they're going to happen upon various amazing things. But "the reality" is that space is HUUUUUGGEEE, and unless they're using "quantum drive" basically all the time, it would take decades or centuries to get ANYWHERE. So the chances of them just cruising around at sub-light speed, at least in between star systems, are pretty low. It would just be wasting time. Not like an inchworm crossing a freeway, more like an inchworm trying to circumnavigate the world. And even if they were capable of cruising at some respectable percentage of lightspeed, they still would miss just about anything they might have passed by, it would still take years to get anywhere, and time dilation would be a bitch.
A specific case with another issue too is episode 4, "If The Stars Should Appear." Near the end, Captain Mercer tells the "alien leader" that they'll be able to drive their ship themselves soon, and go anywhere they want. Sure, at sub-light speed. If I were them, the first thing I'd ask the Union tech ships when they arrive, is "how about a lift?" They're supposed to be just 6 months from "colliding with" star J2837, and they better hope that there's a nice planet there or something. Because it would take them decades or more likely centuries to get anywhere else. Meanwhile those snazzy Union ships can get from solar system to solar system in hours. (Which is actually much faster than original Star Trek. For example, in Enterprise they gave speed numbers that would mean it would take them a couple weeks just to get from Earth to Proxima Centauri, which is the closest system. Yet they were supposed to be able to reach the Klingon homeworld in just a couple days.. oh well.)
Reply by Knixon
on October 20, 2017 at 2:31 AM
The bioship was still moving because of momentum, not because their engines still worked.
And the Enterprise series dealt with non-interference some too, perhaps in more basic and identifiable ways. For example, Archer often complained about how the Vulcans had kept humans back by not sharing more advanced technology, but when a non-warp civilization suffering from a kind of "plague" asked for help from Archer, he had to admit that maybe the Vulcans had a point. He acknowledged among other things the non-warp people had no experience with handling antimatter or how dangerous it was. So just handing them warp technology could end up doing more damage, more quickly, than the "plague."
Reply by Knixon
on October 20, 2017 at 2:33 AM
What part of the speed question? My previous post addressed the most important issue, which is that to accelerate to even a respectable fraction of the speed of light requires in essence an infinite amount of fuel. At which point, even if you could do it, then you'd have nothing left to DEcelerate with.
Reply by irkillroy
on October 20, 2017 at 5:43 AM
Did you look at my link an quantum drive tech??
Reply by Knixon
on October 20, 2017 at 6:06 AM
Yes, but that isn't the type of quantum drive the Union ships have. And even if the alien bioship had it, if it stopped working the ship wouldn't stop moving. In the article they were referring to getting to Proxima Centauri in 30 years. Even if it works in space etc - and supposed "reactionless propulsion" theories have been around for decades that never pan out - that's 4.25 light-years in 30 years. an average speed of less than 15% of the speed of light. And those are also the kinds of things where you spend half the time accelerating and half decelerating. Rather wasteful if you can find some kind of FTL alternative. And remember, Proxima is the CLOSEST, at 30 years. Everything else is much, much farther.
Reply by irkillroy
on October 20, 2017 at 6:18 AM
Then you missed my other point in that it's THAT idea of propulsion developed a few hundred years, not sure why you're stuck in the now with the show being in the future. I also never said the ship would stop moving... not sure where you came up with that assumption. I think you're getting away from the show and trying to sound smart for no objective reason.
Reply by Knixon
on October 20, 2017 at 6:34 AM
I may have conflated a couple different posts if it wasn't clear what you were referring to. As I said though, something like that still wouldn't really be a good solution for interstellar travel, although it could well end up being the ONLY one if there truly is no way to do "warp" or something. On the other hand, there have been many stories about people who took off on a great adventure like the people in the Orville episode on the bioship, and when they got where they found that their people had beaten them to it after discovering some kind of FTL after they left. Which is also kinda what happened in that episode, it was just the Earth/Union people who beat them with FTL. In some ways it might be more or less inevitable, because there will probably be some people who will want to start on trips like that rather than wait in hope of some kind of FTL being discovered. Which means that if some kind of FTL is ever discovered, those who left previously will mostly get beaten to their destinations.