How Fast Are Star Trek Ships? Racing Them Against Light

Another change in Picard’s era involved the warp scale itself: to account for faster warp drives (the Enterprise-D could now travel from Earth to Alpha Centauri in 37 hours), the warp scale was reconfigured, which resulted in warp 10 being the new maximum speed.

In Star Trek, warp 10 is meant to be infinite speed and impossible for ships to reach, though in “Threshold,” Tom Paris once reached that speed using a tricked-out shuttle powered by a transwarp drive and exotic new dilithium crystals; however, the Voyager crew never tried this again because it caused a “hyperevolution” effect that transformed Paris and Captain Janeway into lizards (no, really).

As you can tell, many of the specifics of warp travel in Star Trek are so weird that only Scotty can figure them out, and we’re pretty sure having to keep the warp core running is why he took up drinking. Still, we hope this guide has helped you learn more about just how fast all of the ships in Star Trek are and what keeps them flying. If nothing else, you now know the cardinal rule that Captain Janeway and the Voyager crew learned about traveling faster than the speed of light: never go full lizard.