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Comment on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | Season 4 Clip | Paramount+ (NYCC 2025)

bobo1900@startrek.website ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

Didn’t know about that formula. Is it used behind the scene but never mentioned, or just used retroactively to explain the difference between the different series?

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khaosworks@startrek.website ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
It was in the TOS Writer’s Guide as far back as April 17, 1967, where it was stated (page 8):

Hyper-light speeds or space warp speeds (the latter is the terminology we prefer) are measured in WARP FACTORS. Warp factor one is the speed of light — 186,000 miles per second (or somewhat over six hundred million miles per hour.) Note: warp factors two, three and four are so on are based on a geometrical formula of light velocity. Warp factor two is actually eight times the speed of light; warp factor three is twenty-four times the speed of light; warp factor four is sixty-four times the speed of light, and so on.

It was subsequently mentioned in the behind-the-scenes book The Making of Star Trek in 1968 and Franz Joseph’s Star Fleet Technical Manual. The TOS scale was finally made canonical when it appeared in on a viewscreen in ENT: “First Flight”.

The TNG scale was established in the series’ Writer’s Guide in 1987 establishing Warp 10 as the absolute limit (and infinite speed), so the scale had to be adjusted accordingly.

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