What Happened to the Warp Speed Limit?

The warp speed limit was created in the wake of the Star Trek TNG episode "Force of Nature" and reduced all non critical travel to a factor of warp 5. But this limit was soon discarded from the shows going on without being addressed so let's take a look at the tale as technology unfolded in the shows using beta apocrypha to add details.

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This Video is for critical purposes with commentary.

[jimorr]

It was a plot device that was not well thought through and proved to be inconvenient so they solved it and ignored it

[chaff]

They "solved" it the same way they solved gravity on ships... *hand wave with a line about a new technology*

[Gunnar]

It was said that the warp speed limit could be ignored in emergency situations. It only seems like it was an abandoned idea because the few starships we follow in the shows are usually in these crisis/emergency situations during the episode and ignore the limit.
This is far from normal though. The VAST amount of warp capable ships (civilian, merchant, commercial, Starfleet vessels on uneventful routine missions, etc.) are probably all staying under this new limit when traveling around the galaxy.

You also have to take into account that several weeks typically go by between episodes (in the case of the TNG episode _Pen Pals, _ it was stated the Enterprise was on a mostly uneventful survey mission for over *6 weeks* before the episode ended and they moved on.) So, the Enterprise-D _is_ flying around under this speed limit more often than not while doing routine stuff like charting stars, delivering supplies, transporting diplomats.
Usually only when something exciting and interesting happens is when we get an episode. That’s one of the few instances where you would see them really put the warp pedal to the metal.

[KevinTheID]

I guess I interpreted that episode differently than was intended. I took it is as all ships were restricted to Warp 5 in that specific corridor rather than fleetwide anywhere in the galaxy.

[Prime]

I don't see it being a problem in Voyager. They had already stated that prolonged use of warp is the same area is what causes the problem. Voyager was only going one way, one time. So it was really a non issue.

[Sephiroth]

Honestly, if this subspace damage was the cause of The Burn, it would've been much better- like, the changes worked, but over time, they started to ignore it or figure it was something that didn't accumulate, until it hit a breaking point and then boom.

[trekkiec]

Fun thing though and it's probably not intentional - but Warp 5 on the TNG scale is near the top cruising speed of the TOS Enterprise on the old scale.

Which also really might mean this is a very new issue.

Also implies the Excelsior's experimental drive is to blame given the timeline and the accepted rationale for the scale change.

[MisterPuck]

I imagine the Romulans sent a cloaked ship to the same system where the Federation discovered the problem, prepared to come to their own conclusions and call Starfleet on its bullshit. Then their research showed the same results, so instead they went home and quietly started designing a new ship class.

[zeberto]

Essentially the warp 5 limit was a plot device to modernise our concept of futuristic space ship design and get rid of the 1960s / 80s style of Starfleet ships. With that job done its no longer needed.

[Noahloveless]

Voyager traveling at top speeds vs the Federation traveling in their own space makes sense. As the Federation make frequent trips all throughout their own space. The Voyager is traveling in a relatively straight line that they wouldn't ever plan to return to in their or several other lifetimes.

[ArtificialQT]

The Romulan Star Empire is untrustworthy and duplicitous, but its not stupid.

Even if the official oublic stance of the state was to scoff at the idea of limiting warp travel speed, they would no doubt take note of the real damage it was doing to subspace and start working on solutions as well. If only to ensure they aren’t the only major power who suffers and falls behind due to subspace damage.

[jedstanaland]

In one of the books the federation started setting up warp dissipation systems that reduced all speeds within a certain area to below warp five. This wasn't perfect and only setup in extremely high trafficked areas. The next part is that they created a specific and special probe that they could launch to reinforce space along its path. There was also an improvement to warp drives after a certain point that steadily reinforce space/subspace as it travels. At one point they basically have been able to essentially go to a location that was at risk for some reason and simply leave the ship there for a few hours and repair all damage.

[ManuelRodriguez-drcn]

IDEA: start using the word cosmodinamic when discusing the narrow design of the ships...
I mean, it sounds like something they would have used in the show

[SullenSecret]

Until I saw this video, I'd assumed that it was just an eco-friendly episode that makes us think about being nice to Earth. Good video.

[davidedens]

the term is "a lower subspace drag coefficient". Subspace is treated like a fluid in how it moves around he ship therefore you can express this the same way you would talk about water moving around the hull of a warship.

[James-rndx]

It's worth noting that the older ships seem to have gotten newer engines right before the Dominion war. Remember the Excelsior and Maranda class ships all of a sudden had engines that glowed all the time like the newer class's in Starfleet.

[vnep]

This concept could have been used as a plot point later on. Say the Enterprise is searching for a ship whose warp trail is difficult to track due to going through a heavily traversed area. Then Geordi solves the problem by looking for a specific type of subspace damage after learning that it's using an obsolete warp drive.

Or our heroes have escaped some situation using such a drive and have to play cat and mouse while trying to mitigate the signal they'd give off while traveling at the necessary speeds to get away from danger.

[Paleorunner]

I thought it was a stupid idea. My thought is since the corridor was ruined ships started going around the area and people started to forget and after a year or two Starfleet quietly lifted the restriction and just kept going as it had before.

[mb]

I like that you suggested that the Intrepid-class was retrofitted with the movable nacelles because of the warp limit/subspace damage. I always found it odd that in “Force of Nature”, Geordi mentions a USS Intrepid which, given this is only a year before Voyager’s launch, must be the Intrepid-class prototype. Therefore, suggestions that the Intrepid-class was build because of the events of “Force of Nature” is wrong, as the class ship already existed and was flying around, and no doubt Voyager and possibly Bellerophon would already have been under construction at the time.

[vhhawk]

This question has been living in my head for the past decades. Thanks for the video. Trek show canon alone is too big for me to keep track of, much less the non-show canon, and the apocrypha on top of that.