Star Trek: Why shouldn't a starship go to warp inside a solar system?

Question

In the DS9 episode, "By Inferno's Light", Jadzia said that going to warp inside a solar system is a bad idea, however Kira did it anyway to stop Changeling Bashir from destroying Bajor and everything else around it.

In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, the Klingon Bird of Prey that Kirk and crew were on appeared to go into warp not only in the solar system, but inside the atmosphere of Earth altogether when they received the whale beacon signals near the end of the movie.

So which is right? And why is it a bad procedure to perform anyway?

Answer 1

Captain Janeway would never let me do it!

Answer 2

In my Star Trek universe there are a number of things that I think shouldn't exist;

1) Time Travel
2) V'ger/ Whale Probe
3) Q
4) Borg
5) Mirror Universe
6) Explosions in space

The above are just nuts idea's/ plots but anyway they shouldn't warp inside a solar on the grounds of Gravity, doesn't mean they can't however it is a bad idea because the ship will be effecting the pull within the solar system. The energy/ distortion fields created/ generated would simply knock/ move things out of alignment. And you wouldn't want that to happen in the Sol System to the huge number of i.e. asteroids within it.

Answer 3

Well, they did it in the old series and nothing bad came about. Watch "Tomorrow is Yesterday" and you get the idea - whether you want to beieve this or not, the trick they used was to boost their speed forward in time by using the slingshot effect of the sun [in addition to their matter/antimatter warp drive]. It only took a matter of seconds before they were beyond Pluto. To settle into a specific time, they just reversed the engines.

By the way, Scotty gets a lot of bad press. Part of the appeal of the old series is that in a way, the cast was a bunch of swashbucklers hopping through space. Call it hokey, but Roddenberry was a genius, as were Fontana and his other writers. They inspired man to think about space during a time when the idea was exciting [the Right Stuff was coming to fruition, etc.]. At the end of the episode I mentioned above, I think it is a great dramatic moment when the following dialogue takes place:

Kirk: "Now, Mr. Sulu." Sulu begins reversing engines. Great music by the way.

Sulu: "The engines!"

Scotty: "Engineer to Bridge...the engines are in full reverse....they're buckling..."

Picard and his crew were boring in comparison. The new Enterprise and its crew escaped predicaments using high-tech special effects. There was no "sense of adventure."

Answer 4

Ye canna doit, Captain! She's goin ta blow!

Ever see the episode with Scotty and LaForge? At my office, we learned well from Scotty. When a project comes down the pipeline, we tack an extra three days onto the completion time, then look like heroes when we deliver ahead of schedule. This is referred to as, "Pulling a Scotty," or, "Scotty-ing the boss."
Client 'X' wants Purchase Order 'Z' by Friday? No problem. Scotty him.

The point being that Star Trek writers, just like good office managers, are really good at establishing 'the impossible' very early on, so they can really deliver when it is most dramatically important.

...And, canonically speaking, Archer did the warp-in-system thing first. Boo-ya!

Answer 5

If you take an object such as a truck traveling at speed generally particles are sucked towards it due to the amount of energy used and the resistance of the air around it which is channeled to form a type of suction. As space has no particles and is classed as a vacuum there shouldn't be any adverse effect in theory but if you did it within the earths atmosphere the effect would cause a major suction effect and destroy anything around it. Why they say in Star trek that it is dangerous within the confines of a vacuum is beyond me but then again the people who create Star Trek seem to think that explosions make a sound in space which is blatantly wrong.

Answer 6

Actually some physicists have came up with an idea about using
a Fusion-Reactor (witch were promised will be put into use someday) that high-energy will distort space-time around the ship like a warp-bubble and the bubble will carry the ship faster than light speed, the only problem is slowing down.

Answer 7

Well, have you ever heard of meteors??? Little bits of rock with ice formed into nice little chunks that are scattered all across the solar system...

At warp speed, these little devils would hole your space craft from one side, completely through to the other side before you even knew you had suffered a major collision. Schrapnel from the comet strike would probably kill everyone within a radius of 150 feet. Depressurization of the space craft would occur in just moments thereafter. Occupants would have time to think "Amazing Grace" but not time to say or sing the words.

Answer 8

Because modern star trek episodes that aren't TOS are just total crap.
They abandon the established canon of the 60's episodes in favor of stupid plots.
In TOS they regularly went to warp inside solar systems ( you DO calculate planet positions before ya leave!).

Other examples: The klingons have no devil, ignored in STTNG.
The Q entity was just a sad ripoff of "Trelane".

Answer 9

Just part of the story, it's makes for a better story line when they say it's a dangerous procedure; Scotty was always yelling that his engines were about to explode! Trek has some of the best writers, especially TNG.....Live Long and Prosper.

Answer 10

going at warp speed inside a solar system is kinda like going over the speed limit. it's not safe to do it, but you'll be ok if you're a super badass spaceship captain. and we all know that Star Trek ships and crews were super cool.
so it can be done, but it's not recommended if you don't know what you're doing

Answer 11

Theroretically warp speed inside a solar system is bad because of the chances of hitting a planet or moon.But I would say that if you figured out warp speed you could figure out how not to hit anything while doing it!