TOS Star Trek and The Warp Drive

[Drakkenkin]

Anyone know why the people who made the TNG move changed who originally invented Warp drive?

 

Gene Roddenberry (sp?) had them out in space a long time before they had warp drive using World-Ship and basically impulse dive to get to new worlds. Heck if I remember correctly the first Romulan war was fought with fighters, missiles and impulse drives. The creator of the Warp drive was named Zephram Cochrane but he was from another planet... one of earths first contacts.... starts with an 'a'... can't remember what it is right now. Anyway, I've just had something stuck in my craw because of that.

 

Any Ideas?

[Monolith]

I know that in the novels Zephram Cochrane was originally from Alpha Centauri. I do not know if that was ever carried over in TOS. If an official screen change was made then it was probably due to the fact that Alpha Centauri has never been mentioned as being important to the Star Trek universe in any fashion. There would be a bigger movie impact from saving the Earth from being borged than from saving Alpha Centauri. As I said though, I do not know if Cochrane was stated to be from Alpha Centauri in TOS or not, so it is possible there is no continuity error.

 

It's also very clear that the current producers B&B (who might be getting the axe due to Enterprise's low ratings) have no real interest in Trek continuity. Between the 5 series there are numerous continuity errors.

[Drakkenkin]

Originally posted by Monolith

I know that in the novels Zephram Cochrane was originally from Alpha Centauri.

 

That's it! ... Alpha Centauri, thanks!

 

Originally posted by Monolith

There would be a bigger movie impact from saving the Earth from being borged than from saving Alpha Centauri.

 

Hmmm, very true. I don't think it would have sold as well to the gen. public is the USS ENT. was off to save some other, basically, unknown planet.

 

Originally posted by Monolith

It's also very clear that the current producers B&B (who might be getting the axe due to Enterprise's low ratings) have no real interest in Trek continuity. Between the 5 series there are numerous continuity errors.

 

I'll just say that I have notice this, and herd it from other people as well...

 

Thanks for the input. Any other takes?

[Fuzzy Gnome]

Zephrem Cochrane could have founded a colony at Alpha Centauri, and become known as "Zephrem Cochrane of Alpha Centauri." They never actually referred to him as "Zephrem Cochrane who was born at Alpha Centauri before he invented warp drive." It was just assumed.

As for the sublight ships, I think they went away because their history got compressed over the course of the series. When Balance of Terror aired, Star Trek could've been 1000 years in the future as far as the scripwriter knew. By the time the movies came out, anything other than "some time in the 23rd century" would've seemed to violate canon. They'd had something like 100 years (?not sure) of FTL exploration before Kirk's time, so there wasn't much time to do anything more than launch the Botany Bay before Cochrane. No extensive century-long voyages, anyway.

[Lowly Uhlan]

I should have a better answer but this is all I can give you:

 

Zephram Cochrane was first seen in the TOS episode"Metamorphisis"."Zephram Cochrane of Alpha Centauri? Inventor of the space warp?" I think were the exact words said by Kirk when they met. There was never another Canon (material represented in a movie or episode or one of a few books recognized by Paramount )reference made to him until "First Contact". I think they gave a clarification in the ST Chronology that Chocrane moved to A. Centauri later.

[Hunter]

Originally posted by Lowly Uhlan

Zephram Cochrane was first seen in the TOS episode"Metamorphisis"."Zephram Cochrane of Alpha Centauri? Inventor of the space warp?" I think were the exact words said by Kirk when they met.

 

If it's not an exact quote, it's pretty close.

 

Also note that McCoy stated that Cochrane was human. That a pretty good indicator that he was born on Earth.

[tkdguy]

Before TNG came out, the story was that the people from Alpha Centauri were also human, and they were the first people to make contact with Earth, not the Vulcans.

 

I think there were also legends of aliens who seeded planets with different humanoid types, which is why the Alpha Centaurians were also human.

 

I'm not claiming any of this as canon. Just reiterating what I read.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Yup. I remember those same things, but they were not from an episode. (What is counted as "canon" varies considerably from person to person.)

 

In particular:

 

The Bonnaventure was Earth's first successful interstellar ship; it was a slow-than-light vessel and it's target system was the Centauri system. When it arrived, it discovered a thriving human civilization. One of those people, Zephram Cochrane, had built what he hoped would be an operational faster-than-light drive, but had not yet persuaded the government to finance building a ship for the engine.

 

Earth was very surprised when the Bonnaventure returned a number of years ahead of schedule...because Cochrane had persuaded the crew to allow him to install his 'warp' drive on their ship, and come back with them to Earth on the test flight.

 

The people of Alpha Centauri were supposedly descended from an uprooted Greek populace from around the 3rd century B.C. This uprooting and replanting had been done by one of those "Progenitor"-style races (exact name escapes me at the moment) who were altruistically making sure that evolved sentient species would not be wiped out by a single catastrophe or natural disaster. They were also supposedly the ones responsible for planting a group of primitive Vulcans on what later became know as the planet Romulus.

[TheImperialKhan]

Think that you're just a bit confused here, which is quite understandable when you consider how many variations of this story there are. UNSS Icarus was the sublight vessel that made the trip to Alpha Centauri and she then transmitted Cochrane's Warp Principle to Earth which then set up a crash program to make it happen so that less than ten years later the Bonaventure was commissioned as Earth's first Warp Drive vessel.

 

This all comes from Stan and Fred Goldstein's Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology that came out at about the same time as ST:TMP It was used as the basis for the history that FASA came up with for ST:TRPG a few years later. It was more than a little inaccurate in '79 and it's pretty much useless nowadays.

 

Everybody has their own ideas about what constitutes ST canon, most of it having only a passing resemblance to Paramount's verison. I'm no different I guess, so just for the hell of it here's my verision of Zefram Cochrane. If you like it that's great and if you hate it that's OK too. It's anything but canon, just my ideas of how I'd do it.

 

Enjoy

 

Cochrane, Zefram

(2025 - 2112)

 

Zefram Cochrane was born on May 14th 2025 in Boston Massachusetts; the third of four children born to Dr John Cochrane, a senior computronics engineer at Avery Astronautics and Marina Farsa, a director of the Cambridge planning board. When Cochrane was five his father was transferred to Avery's Goddard City operation and the youngster got his first taste of outer space. Thanks to this the Cochrane family was spared in the Atomic Horror.

 

By the time he was 13 Cochrane had completed high school at the top of his class and had been accepted into the Lunar Annex of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Born with a mind that soaked up information like a sponge Cochrane carried a quadruple major and still flashed through the curriculum at incredible speed. He seemed to be able to absorb even the most complex study tape in only a single viewing. In 2044 Cochrane graduated Summa Cum Laude with his doctorate in Aerospace Engineering in addition to three Masters degrees in Astrophysics, Nuclear Physics and Advanced Mathematics. He was offered and accepted a commission in the Colonial Space Force and was assigned as a research engineer at Farside Moonbase with the rank of Major.

 

Cochrane was a member of the design team of the Venus Flyer and upon its completion in 2046 was posted to the Miranda Research Station. While at Miranda Cochrane worked on a variety of different projects but it was his private research that got him noticed. Cochrane had read that in the year before he was lost Gideon Stark had been conducting experiments that he had hoped would lead to a faster-than-light propulsion system, as the experiments were unclassified Cochrane was able to get a hold of them. He opted to continue the work that Stark had begun some fifty years earlier and when he felt he had a solid enough base Cochrane went to Lieutenant General Yuri Cherenkov, Chief of the CSF's Engineering Division. Two weeks later Cochrane was promoted to Colonel, transferred to the Titan Space Force Base and assigned as Chief of Project: FTL, a top secret project to develop translight speed spacecraft.

 

Cochrane's experiments showed that through the selective use of Magnatomic fields the local Space/Time Matrix could be distorted or warped to enable a space vessel to travel faster than light. One of the main hurdles to be overcome was power, as the Continuum Distortion Drive would require much more energy than conventional laser fusion powerplants could deliver. Fortunately another research team had developed the Orion I plasma fusion plant that produced more than three times the energy of the simpler laser fusion plants. This coupled with the unique properties of the newly discovered mineral of Dilithium solved the energy problem. And just in time, for the mysterious, cat-like Kzinti had attacked the Sol system, the Man-Kzin War had begun.

 

As funding for the project increased sharply Cochrane installed his prototype Space-Warp engine on the U.E.S. Bonaventure, a defense cruiser that was to be the test vessel. As the time for the test flight drew near tension mounted, Cochrane himself served as Warp Pilot and the test was flawless as Bonaventure reached a maximum warp of 1.6. Cochrane supervised the installation of the Starjet I engines on 7 more Vigilant class Defense Cruisers, these ships now became known as the Stark class Heavy Cruisers, Earth's First Generation of Starships. On November 9th 2051 the First Warp Squadron under the command of the newly promoted Flag Colonel Zefram Cochrane engaged superior Kzinti forces in the Battle of Triton. Although not a combat officer Cochrane's knowledge of warp drives special strengths and weaknesses more than made up for what he lacked in tactical skill. Cochrane's eight starships engaged forty Kzin vessels and wrecked complete havoc among them; he would approach at warp speed, drop to sub-light, fire and then veer of while accelerating back into warp. Although outnumber 5 to 1 no Colonial Starships were lost or even heavily damaged while only two Kzinti vessels escaped into the vastness of space never to be seen again. It was a tremendous victory.

 

With the end of the Man-Kzin War peace once more reigned on the Colonial settlements of the Sol system. Upon completion of his second four-year tour of duty Cochrane resigned from the CSF to accept a fellowship at the Mars Annex of Columbia University. In 2055 he received his second doctorate, this one in Colonial Management and Administration. It was while he was at Mars that Cochrane met Ellen Sloane a graduate student in the university's Ecology program, on July 20th 2055 they were married. Shortly thereafter the U.E.S. Bonaventure returned with the astounding news that there were habitable planets in the Alpha Centauri star system. Zefram and Ellen applied for slots when it was announced that a colony was to be founded on Alpha III, they were quickly accepted. One of the first things done was to elect a provisional government to guide the colonies early years. On October 17th 2055 Zefram Cochrane was chosen as the Governor of Alpha III. Fifteen months later the Colony's twenty converted spaceliners and transports warped out into the interstellar void. After a journey of 311 days the colony grounded in a beautiful valley at the side of a lake on Alpha, the colonists all knelt and in a myriad of different languages and faiths gave thanks for their blessings.

 

The job of founding a colony was hard and long; fifteen-hour workdays were the norm for the first two years. Five more fleets brought another 20,000 colonists and 2.4 million tons of material and equipment. By 2062 colonists were arriving at the rate of more than 10,000 a year, mostly families that had endured the Post Atomic Horror and wanted a fresh start away from old and painful memories. On the Colony's tenth anniversary in 2067 the population number some 100,000 colonists and the provisional government was disbanded in favor of the Parliament of Alpha III. In view of his exemplary performance as Governor Zefram Cochrane was elected Prime Minister. Cochrane held this post for a single 5-year term before voluntarily stepping down to continue his early research in 2072.

 

By 2074 Cochrane's experiments had resulted in Warp Communications. Following its introduction Cochrane turned his energies to the funding, construction and accreditation of a center for higher education on Alpha III. Completed in 2081 the Alphan Institute of Technology (renamed the Cochrane Institute in 2115) quickly gained a reputation as one of the finest Schools in known space. This was due in no small part to having Dr Cochrane as Professor Emeritus of Warp Engineering. In 2087 Cochrane was contacted by Admiral Vance Morganthall of the Solar Union Space Fleet and requested to serve as a senior consultant for the Series Three Project. He contributed such valuable assistance that the new Star Cruisers were designated the Cochrane class in his honor. When Zefram objected to this Morganthall reminded him that Cochrane hadn't listened when William Stark had objected to the naming of the Stark class Cruisers, leaving Cochrane with no choice but to accept the name pretentious though he thought is was. With the completion of the project Cochrane returned to Alpha III in 2091.

 

The next major event in Cochrane's life took place in 2095. By this time the Centauri Colonies had grown to over four million people on Alpha III, Alpha II and Proxima IX; too many to remain an Earth colony. Therefore the connection between Centauri and the Solar Union's Office of Colonial Affairs was dissolved. On June 8th 2095 the Alpha Centauri Concordium of Planets was founded. Approached by many friends and colleagues Cochrane agreed to run for president. In spite of his advancing years, Cochrane who was over 70 by this point, won easily. He remained President for two terms before retiring in 2105, his wife had passed away and Zefram didn't have the heart for a campaign without her. He was briefly lured out of retirement in 2110 for the first Babel Conference, but soon returned to Alpha III.

 

In 2112 Cochrane purchased a surplus Verne class Star Scout and left Alpha III. His flight plan listed Earth as his destination but Cochrane never arrived. A subsequent search and rescue operation found no trace of him or his vessel. Zefram Cochrane's final fate remains a mystery to this day.

 

 

Date of Birth: 14 May 2025

 

Parents: John Cochrane, Marina (Farsa) Cochrane

 

Siblings: Anthony Cochrane, Victoria Cochrane, (Zefram), Alicia Cochrane

 

Wife: Ellen Sloane (2055-2103)

 

Children: Peter Cochrane b. 2060 (m. Ellen Sloane)

 

Height: 184 cm. Weight: 83 kg. Hair: Brown Eyes: Hazel

 

Education: Goddard City Primary and Secondary Schools, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lunar Annex, Colonial Space Force Basic Officer Course, Columbia University Mars Annex.

 

MIT GPA: 3.9; BOC GPA: 3.8; Columbia GPA: 3.9

 

Primary Languages: Standard English; also Latin, Greek and Japanese

 

Commendations and Awards of Valor: Nobel Prize - Engineering 2050, Nobel Prize - Physics 2074, 12 Commendation Ribbons, 2 Martian Colonies Awards of Merit, Colonial Medal of Honor

[Dr. Anomaly]

Originally posted by TheImperialKhan

Think that you're just a bit confused here, which is quite understandable when you consider how many variations of this story there are. UNSS Icarus was the sublight vessel that made the trip to Alpha Centauri and she then transmitted Cochrane's Warp Principle to Earth which then set up a crash program to make it happen so that less than ten years later the Bonaventure was commissioned as Earth's first Warp Drive vessel.

You're right; I was going purely off of memory, and it's been a looooooong time since I read the relavent materials. Thanks for setting me straight!

[tkdguy]

Interesting biography of Cochrane. Personally, I don't bother with what's canon accrding to Paramount, since it keeps rewriting Star Trek history with every series it produces. Kinda like Davis/Panzer rewriting Highlander history all the time.

[TheImperialKhan]

Originally posted by Dr. Anomaly

You're right; I was going purely off of memory, and it's been a looooooong time since I read the relavent materials. Thanks for setting me straight!

 

No problem. It helps that the referance materials are handy.

 

And tkdguy I wish that Bermaga just changed the history. It's more like they ignore it. Here's the link if you want to read more in my personal ST canon.:

 

http://www.geocities.com/blademaster01757/FTTN-start.html

 

It includes several other bios, a complete history up to the launching of Enterprise - D, Discussions of Warp Drive and so forth that make Cochrane's bio more understandable.

 

As for Davis/Panzer...well they kinda had to change some things arround. And I at least give them credit for realizing that the alien idea from the second movie was a really bad idea and ignoring it in the future (B&B would be still be ramming it down our throats and telling us that we should be having "Spasms of Ectasy" over it ). Certainly they had to change things for the series as it would have been kinda anti-climactic to have all the immortals already dead and Connor as the sole survivor already. I kinda look at it the same way I look at STV: TFF ~ it was all a very wierd dream.

 

Within itself the series has been fairly consistant and certainly in keeping with the spirit of the first movie if not to the letter. Besides Duncan is a much more likable hero than Connor.

[tkdguy]

Duncan's stuff was fairly consistent within the series. It's when they put him in Endgame when things get screwy. I heard D/P said Duncan's universe was different from Connor's. My complaint is that they change the history to ring in new fans, but they usually just make the old ones unhappy.

 

Anyway, thanks for the link to your Star Trek universe. Shameless plug: My stuff on Highlander is on the Other Genres forum.

[TheImperialKhan]

I know, I already saved it to my HD. You did a great job and I didn't want to risk losing it.

 

As it happens I had previously created Highlander-style immortals for a Champions campaign that I was playing in using 4th Ed. I decided that immortals run in the clan MacLeod so I created three more : Stuart born in the 13th century, Logan from the 18th century and the young Ian from the 20th century. I created a martial art for them known as The Way of Steel which is a meld of various swordfighting styles and includes a beheading stroke. I'm planning to recreate them for 5th Ed using your rules but just haven't had the time.

[Arthur]

The main problem is that ST:TOS never even really tried to be internally consistent. It's strictly amusing watching all this; it's like the Biblical Fundamentalist inerrantists defending biblical contradictions.

 

I have been a hardcore Trekkie since Sep 8, 1966. I was ten years old, already a SciFi fanatic, and Star Trek just sucked me into its world like a Hoover. I spent far too much time and effort memorizing Star Trek trivia when I should've been studying something useful.

 

However, during its 1966-1969 run, it was a FLOP. It stayed on an extra season only because of a million letters of protest.

 

Also, they were working fifteen hours a day just to make the show. Nobody had time to be a "future historian".

 

The new show Enterprise doesn't grab me (a lot of the reason is that I spent the last year or so with no access to UPN). However, its first-season storyline about the "temporal war" was an inspired way of reconciling the changes over the years. However, it saddens me in a peculiar way: does that mean that the original voyages of the Starship Enterprise are no longer part of that universe?

[tkdguy]

I've always wondered if the people who hate Star Trek wear the Starfleet logo upside down.

 

Seriously though, The original series is still my favorite among them all. I don't watch Enterprise that much, but I still prefer it to Voyager. Two straight seasons of poor writing turned me off completely.

 

BTW, I'd like to see the writeup of The Way of Steel.

[TheImperialKhan]

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you on this.

 

I have yet to update The Way of Steel to 5th Ed. but basically the manuevers are as follows:

 

Defensive Strike 5 pts (Thrust)

Martial Strike 4 pts (Slash)

Martial Block 4 pts (Parry)

Offensive Strike 5 pts (Lunge)

Martial Disarm 4 pts (Disarm)

Sacrafice Strike 5 pts (Beheading Stroke)

 

The Art could be used with any weapon that possessed a steel cutting edge and that the character had purchased familiarity with. It was advised that the character had KS: Swordfighting and multiple weapon familiarities as this was supposed to represent a melding of multiple styles.

[tkdguy]

The Way of Steel writeup sounds great.

[tkdguy]

I'm sorry, but I just remembered a joke from Mad Magazine that I read years ago (I remember the darnedest things), and I really need to share.

 

Q: Why do Vulcans have pointed ears?

A: So they can count to twelve!

[TheImperialKhan]

"Drat another Vulcan joke. If only they knew how a Vulcan really feels!"

 

Mr. Shlock now breaks into song lamenting his existance set to an old Glen Campbell tune.

 

From Keep on Trekkin' the Mad Star Trek Musical.

 

Needless to say I remember that one too.

[tkdguy]

How I wish I could remember all the lyrics from "I'll never fly through space again" (spoof of Bert Bacharrach's "I'll never fall in love again") sung by Scotty, Uhura, Chekov and Sulu.

[TheImperialKhan]

which parts don't you remember? I can give you the lyrics for Sulu, Chekov and Chapel but I don't recall Scotty or Uhura's.

 

I kinda liked "Send in the crew" that was at the beginning, sung to "Send in the clowns" of course.

[tkdguy]

I only remember four singers. I thought it was Scotty, Uhura, Chekov, and Sulu. Maybe it was Chapel singing the part about their food tasting like dried alfalfa. It was so long ago.

 

I do remember Chekov's and Sulu's lines.

[Lord Mhoram]

I don't remember the lyrics but I remember Bone's song to the tune of Sound of Silence.

 

All I remember was the first line

"I am a doctor out in space..."

[tkdguy]

Originally posted by Lord Mhoram

I don't remember the lyrics but I remember Bone's song to the tune of Sound of Silence.

 

All I remember was the first line

"I am a doctor out in space..."

 

Each stanza always ended with the line "This is my kind of sickness!" I think that was the song's title.