Traveling At the Speed of Plot: Difference between revisions

** The first part of the battle (when the Enterprise was at the Romulan neutral zone) was at the Typhon sector and the Enterprise arrived in time to intercept the cube as it reached Earth. We don't know how far from Earth the Typhon sector is though.

*** If the Typhon sector is where the Typhon Expanse is located, then it must be fairly distant, since that expanse was uncharted as of TNG: "Cause and Effect." According to the book ''Star Trek Star Charts'', the Typhon Expanse is a little bit ''beyond'' Romulan space relative to the Federation -- so at the time the battle began, the ''Enterprise'' might actually have been ''closer'' to Earth than the Borg were. That must have been one very long running battle.

* Used in J.J. Abrams' ''[[Star Trek (film)|Star Trek]]'', when the U.S.S. Enterprise - which is over [[Bigger Is Better|three times bigger]] than the original - seemingly takes only 3 minutes to go from {{spoiler|Earth to Vulcan}}. However, the sequence actually takes significantly longer than it appears to, since Kirk wakes up from being knocked out by a sedative after mere moments of screen time, in which McCoy has had time to change his uniform. [[Word of God]] is that the editing deliberately glossed over the passage of time to create the illusion of a real-time immersive experience.

* ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]:[[The Curse of the Black Pearl]]'': The Black Pearl is the fastest ship in the Caribbean, and the ghost pirates are suffering from a horrible curse. So after they abduct Elizabeth Swan, mistaking her for the one they need to break the curse, they would presumably head straight back to Isla de Muerta to do just that. Meanwhile, Will Turner wakes up the next day and, after an unsuccessful conversation with Norrington, breaks Jack Sparrow out of prison. The two steal a ship and sail for Tortuga where they recruit a crew. Then they proceed to Isla de Muerta. Will and Jacks' path is much longer than the ghost pirates, yet they arrive before the ceremony to lift the curse begins. Perhaps the ghost pirates aren't in quite the hurry we would expect.

* Lampshaded by [[Kurt Vonnegut]] in ''[[Breakfast of Champions]]'':

{{quote|Kilgore Trout probably couldn't have made his trip from New York City in the time I allotted, but it's too late to bugger around with that. Let it stand, let it stand!}}

** A CTU assault on enemy forces can take any length of time to co-ordinate as long as it's ready when the episode has ten minutes to go.

* ''[[NCIS]]'' does this all the time with the elevator. Rides in this thing last long enough to hold surprisingly lengthy conversations. Since the building they're in is no more than a handful of stories tall and the conversations can last up to a minute, it can on occasion stretch suspension of disbelief to the breaking point.

* Most episodes of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' take place approximately over one day. However, they fail to explain how characters can continually take part in plot revelations in New York, Texas, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas constantly. Even the one character who can [[Teleporters and Transporters|teleport]] is shown driving from one end of the country to the other with distressing frequency.

* Happens constantly in all versions of ''[[Star Trek]]'', driving hard-core fans nuts because the mechanical capabilities of the warp drive, impulse drive, and the shuttles vary violently from episode to episode. When the first ''Star Trek'' role-playing game came out, this characteristic was written into the rules. Unlike most science fiction [[RPG|RPGs]], no maps with star systems, distances, and travel times was provided. The instructions specified that all this information should be made up according to the requirements of whatever adventure was being run.

* Another insane example comes from Season 3 of ''[[Lois and Clark]]''. In episode 2, Superman is seen flying from Metropolis to places around the world like Japan and Switzerland to get stuff for Lois, arriving back with the goods in less time than it takes to tell -- less than 5 seconds per return trip at the most; a few episodes later, he has ''15'' seconds to get to Eastern Europe to intercept a nuclear missile, but somehow he can't get there in time. Instead, he ''tunnels directly through the Earth'' because it's quicker...? Made for a good scene when he saves the day, but forget about it making sense.

* ''[[Jack of All Trades (TV series)|Jack of All Trades]]'' routinely depicted people (including heads of state like [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] and George III!) making quick journeys from Europe or America to the South Pacific island of Pulau Pulau that would, in Age of Sail reality, likely take 6 months at the ''very'' least. (Of course, this is a show where [[Rule of Funny]] trumps pretty much everything else, and [[Bellisario's Maxim]] is very much in effect.)

** They make it in about twenty-five seconds. That's four miles a second (or Rex messed up the distance). And that's using a ''jetpack.'' Rex might be made of Iron, but Six...well, he still seems to be, even if he is supposedly a normal human.

*** Complicated by the earlier episode Payback, where Rex was using the jetpack to try to catch Van Kliess, who was flying away on his whale-blimp EVO. Rex pushes himself to keep up, while VK is only about a mile head of him at most and not moving much faster than the average car, so we know it's this trope.

{{reflist}}