Why doesn't the Starship Enterprise go everywhere at top speed?

by Dan Holliday . . . knows more about Star Trek than you do!

We have three answers to that.

But before that, we have to understand that warp factors in the TNG timeline are parabolic arcs (and, frankly, really inconsistent ones at that). Warp 1 is light speed. Warp 2 is like 5c. Warp 5 is like 125c. Warp 9 is like 1,200c. Warp 9.5 is like 1,800c.

Still not fast enough to get where they want to in the times allotted. The ships cannot safely cruise beyond warp 8.5 for very long, and let's put 8.5 about 950c. Such a trip, at that speed, would make a trip to Alpha Centuari (4.4 LY away) 1.7 days away. Not bad. But a trip like that in ST takes a few hours (plot hole). Vulcan has been hinted at to be somewhere around Epsilon Indi (11.4 LY away), which is 4.5 days away at maximum velocity. Earth to Vulcan doesn't take that long in the show.

Romulus is something like 50 LY from Earth. That's something like three weeks away. Still not bad, but such a trip is outside the scope of the show's timelines. What about the "fact" that the Federation is spread across "8000 light years" as Picard said to Lilly in "First Contact"? Well that's 8.4 years to cross. Completely unreasonable.

The space involved is unreasonable and never quite worked out. We're not supposed to think about it. But I do and it bugs me.

• Top speed for the Enterprise D/E is something like Warp 9.6. She pushed her engines beyond those limits to warp 9.8 a few times and it causes issues. Like redlining a combustion engine, it's not good to push an engine beyond its limits. So let's say, warp 8. That means there's no reason not to go EVERYWHERE at least at Warp Factor 8.

• BUT, there's the whole "we're ripping the fabric of space" thing that made fast warp drives a no-no. But that was fixed by Voyagers vector thrusting-hoozie-whatsit and by the Enterprise E's new sleeker, more fuel efficient, EnergyStar compliant warp system. So that reason's out.

• We know from the cool episode, "Starship Mine" that the ships have to go get their Baryon particles removed at places like the Remmler Array from traveling at high warp. Apparently these particles exist EXCLUSIVELY to push the plot device forward from time to time and to provide experts with a reason to over-charge Star Fleet for their services (much like my f*cking prostate exists merely to put my urologist's three daughters through private schooling). So, there's that, but it's not a pressing need, so this is out.

In the end, like so much in Star Trek, we're not supposed to think about these things and just accept them tongue-in-cheekly and move on and enjoy the show.

But I don't. I ruminate over Trek and all its sundry plot holes.

--Quora.com