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Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I wouldn’t be surprised if most ships received this call several times. Specially exploration ships.
Except for the one at sector 001, I think they were pranked.
Edit: had to redact my comment to not waste the excellent reference someone made below.
You might think it's a long way down to the shops, but that's just peanuts compared to space.
People make fun of 40k for how outlandish some of the scale is, but I think it's the only canon that understands the massive amount of resources a galactic-wide empire would have at their disposal. Doubly so when it's willing to genocide any alien races, strip mine the planet they were on, and ignore even a pretense of caring about human rights. But even a more benign empire should have ridiculous amounts of ships and weapons and people available to it.
While not a 40k nerd by any stretch, what I've been exposed to absolutely tracks with this assessment. The writers behind it very clearly did some deep thought-exercises about the possible ramifications of such mind-boggling scale. Including what values might be normalized if you toss out the idea that mankind itself has such an inconceivably enormous headcount that extinction isn't even a consideration, no matter what happens.
It's so mind numbingly large that light, which would encircle the equator 7 times in a second, takes 8 fucking minutes to get to us from the sun. And 4 years to get to us from the nearest star.
If we shrunk down the universe so that the sun was about the size of a grain of sand, the nearest star would be 10,000 miles away and there would be nothing but emptiness between us. A few scattered atoms floating about, so rare and distant that hitting one would be less likely than winning the lottery twice in a row while being struck by lightning.
This was the thought experiment of why ships aren't constantly crossing paths in Star Trek. It's not like you and 3 people running around in a Walmart parking lot. It's you and only 3 other people driving around in the entire country.
The fact that they cross as often as they DO is insane.
In Voyager 7 finds a Star Fleet ship at something like 60,000 light years away, in an episode that would have been great if not for one unfortunate guest appearance.
Who was the unfortunate guest appearance?
Andy Dick. He was the EMH mk2. He just gives a really bad performance.
Oh I thought you were referring to the episode Equinox as the ship 7 finds.
Yes, BUT a Federation starship can travel at the equivalent of many, many times the speed of light, such that it could cross our solar system from the Sun to Pluto's orbit in half a minute without breaking a sweat.
Sure, at that speed it still takes a few days to reach the next nearest star system, but most of these incidents take place in or near the Sol system, where you would think Starfleet would have a number of ships stationed at any given moment. Even if they're hobbled, they should be able to respond to a threat to the solar system within a couple of hours at most.
Except for the one at sector 001
the borg is a joke to you? nah fuck this guy, I lost people at wolf 359 !
The borg are cold calculating killer machines, no laughing matter!
ngl I'd watch a mr bean x borg crossover.
Even if you could travel at Lightspeed, it would still take forever to get most places.
You can travel for 8+ billion years at light speed and still not hit the end.
Even if you were able to travel from one side of the galaxy to the other, you've have to travel that exact length about 25 more times just to reach the edge of the closest galaxy, Andromeda.
In fairness, for the last one, she says they're the closest ship, not necessarily the only ship.
I remember a list of things you never see on Star Trek, and one item was, "There's a nearby emergency, but another ship is available and can deal with it to everyone's satisfaction."
“There’s a nearby emergency, but another ship is available and can deal with it to everyone’s satisfaction.”
two weeks later....
"we need you to search for the other ship, it never checked in after the emergency!"
shame, could be a fun trope.
I feel like that does happen a lot, doesn't it?
Yeah we just don't see the first message
valid
There was a TNG episode where they had two federation ships watching a .... planet explode? Maybe a stream of asteroids needed to be deflected? They were all like "they can handle it, but if something unexpected happens, we would hate to be caught with our pants down." Then the other ship exploded or something.
To be completely fair, that's a non-event. It's hard to write an episode around "nothing happened."
At the same time, it's a missed opportunity for a "slice-of-life" episode - something the Japanese have down to a science at this point. These give a series breathing room, adds some worldbuilding, develops characters in a more personal way, and can be a ton of fun to watch. So, an episode where everyone screws around on shift, with PADDs just full of news about other ships saving the day would be great.
Fun fact - this is what Data's Day was actually about.
How easily I forget. IMO, TNG could have used a few more like this.
"There's a nearby emergency, but another ship is available and can deal with it to everyone's satisfaction."
That's the very subject of a recent entry:
I kinda feel for Capt. Borg Fodder here.
You don't understand: Enterprise is the ONLY ship. There isn't any spare one.
All the other ships in Starfleet are currently under duress from aliens or some natural phenomena and their problem can only be solved by The Enterprise crew.
The Motion Picture was especially bad because that was freakin Sector 001. How did Starfleet allow Earth to have only one appropriate ready to deploy ship in the neighborhood?
I think it would have made more sense for Starfleet to insist that Kirk command the mission to engage the intruder, and then Kirk demanded that he take the Enterprise (ready or not) or else he wouldn't go. It would fit into his apparent obsession with recreating and reliving the glory days of the original five year mission.
They were less concerned about story in TMP and more about showing 5-minute clips of their models moving through space.
They were some good 5 minute clips though…
But then there's the creditless overture with a starry backdrop for 2-1/2 minutes before the titles. An odd choice.
That was not uncommon for big expensive movies back then. It was the franchise attempting to appear legitimate and grown up in its first entry into theaters. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_with_overtures
Happens AGAIN in Generations. The Enterprise B is taking an inaugural cruise out to Pluto and back, "A quick run around the block," and dialog indicates they weren't even going to do that under warp drive. So they get the call that they're the only ship in range, while well inside the Sol system.
In Star Trek V, we get the exchange "Sir with all due respect, the Enterprise is a disaster, are there other ships in range?" "Other ships, yes. But no experienced captains. We need Jim Kirk."
Let's not forget that the energy ribbon swings by very close to Earth every 37 years or something like that, yet it seems to be a complete surprise.
Also the two ships were transporting El Aurian refugees, which opens a whole new set of questions. Refugees...from the Borg?!
I still like the movie though.
You know, the nuts and bolts of Generations just don't hold up to scrutiny, the sci fi mumbo jumbo about how the ribbon/nexus works is not well crafted and does not hold up to Trekkie "umm why didn't he just fly a shuttle into the Nexus"-ing.
But tear the skin off it with a gardening trowel and you'll find a kickass theme: Heroes cannot tolerate heaven.
Both Kirk and Picard enter the Nexus with regrets, Picard over the death of his brother and having never raised a family of his own, Kirk in choosing his career over the woman he loves. Both find themselves in an environment that offers this reality directly to them in 4k HDR, but they can't accept it, and instead choose to re-enter reality to make a difference. Because heaven ain't no place for no heroes to call home.
Though, backing up a little bit, it does boil down to two men who have chosen duty over family over and over again throughout their careers choosing duty over family again, except this time the "family" choice is presented to them a bit more vividly than usual.
Q is afraid of El Aurians, Guinan in particular. If I were Borg, I would leave the job undone and flee, too.
Yeah, but did no one ask, "So, uh, who you running from?" Why would the El Aurians not tell them?
(Of course, the El Aurians may have been fleeing something else.)
Maybe they were telling everybody about Borg and no one would believe them.
Proving conclusively that the one with the whales is the best one.
I love IV. It’s less a Star Trek movie and more of a fish-out-water comedy featuring our favourite crew
The one where USS Saratoga was the only ship in the quadrant and they got dick shit done.
How did Starfleet allow Earth to have only one appropriate ready to deploy ship in the neighborhood?
Around that time Starfleet was likely overhauling most of their ships or decommissioning older ones to be replaced. There may have been dozens of ships in the system, and Utopia Planetia or San Francisco Shipyards but they were in worse shape than the refit Enterprise. And even if there were others they likely wanted a Frontline ship with one of the most revered officers onboard than, say some rando under equipped Oberth with a B-team science crew of 70, or an outdated TOS-style last in line for refit.
Why does James Doohan look like a young Pedro Pascal - or is it the other way around?
Well, Starfleet is huge, but I guess space is hugier...
Gihugic
I feel embiggened somehow
The dots on the Lite Brite behind Spock are the other ships. Their weapons will be installed next Tuesday.