Which Colour of Warp Core?

[Bry_Sinclair]

I'm just curious what people thought about the changing colour of the warp core. If anyone had a preference or any head canon for the change or is it something that should be retconned?

So who likes the original purple core from "Caretaker" to "Parturition" and who likes the blue core from "Persistence of Vision" to "Endgame"?

 

[F. King Daniel]

I never noticed the colour change

I did like the crazy Disco warp core from "Q2", and the green one from ... some episode where Seven was hallucinating?

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Well, the inside is filled with plasma of deuterium and anti deuterium.
I have no idea what it‘s spectral wavelength is supposed to be.
But if the light comes from the gas being excited to a highe renergy state and re-emitting photons according to it‘s spectrum color, that should be it.

deuterium is a version of hydrogen, right?
Hydrogen is usually red.
So, going by that it should glow red (they got it right for the Bussard collectors picking up the gas from space).

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I looked it up.
Deuterium has an emission spike in the red, but it‘s main spectrum is in the ultraviolet.
So, for the two options in the poll, purple would fit better?

min any case, with UV light as the main emission, hopefully Geordie and B‘Elanna run a clean main engineering. No dirty secrets in this part of the ship.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

DISCLAIMER: Not a physicist. Not even playing one on TV. So I may be completely wrong.
Doesn't the annihilation of a matter-antimatter reaction just release all the energy of the atoms and anti-atoms involved? Wouldn't it be across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, therefore (at least in the human visible range) white light?

That was my first thought, but the main tube of the core is the influx part which is the glowy bit. Then we have the intermix chamber which is not visible I think (at least in TNG, not sure about Voyager).
And then we have the outflow tubes going to the nacelles, but those contain some sort of plasma again transporting the released energy from the intermix chamber.
I don’t think we know what kind of gas is used there and what color would be scientifically accurate.

 

[Gepard]

The purple with spikes of pink and yellow was much more visually interesting than the blue with lighter blue. I preferred the purple.

 

[Oddish]

Why can't they make a hot pink warp core? Or chartreuse?

 

[at Quark's]

Seems all species have their own warp core colors (Color Coded for your Convenience).

Imagine the Borg assimilating a species that has a 150% more efficient warp core /AM technology - only drawback being that it generates all kinds of pretty, iridiscent rainbow-y colours. Perhaps they wouldn't incorporate it in their cubes, as it would ruin their entire forboding dark grey- green lighting theme.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

The purple with spikes of pink and yellow was much more visually interesting than the blue with lighter blue. I preferred the purple.

Agreed, the purple was more eye catching. Admittedly, that’s probably the reason it got changed by the production side, so that it wasn’t pulling the audience’s attention away, but still, it had a neater look to it that I liked better.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Agreed, the purple was more eye catching. Admittedly, that’s probably the reason it got changed by the production side, so that it wasn’t pulling the audience’s attention away, but still, it had a neater look to it that I liked better.

Imagine if Chakotay had been the Chief Engineer, constantly upstaged by an inanimate carbon rob...eh...the warp core

 

[Oddish]

Imagine if Geneviève Bujold had lasted longer before her departure, and Chakotay had wound up as captain because Janeway's actress was already established.

Really though, Beltran's a good enough actor when allowed to be.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

I thought it was always purple... huh. So, looking at the blue I prefer the purple.

I wonder why they changed it?

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I thought it was always purple... huh. So, looking at the blue I prefer the purple.

I wonder why they changed it?

It is a mystery as the purple was far better.

 

[Challenger2090]

I liked the purple...it was something different, made Voyager stand out a little more from TNG and DS9 I think,

 

[STEPhon IT]

Imagine if Geneviève Bujold had lasted longer before her departure, and Chakotay had wound up as captain because Janeway's actress was already established.

Really though, Beltran's a good enough actor when allowed to be.

I really enjoyed Bujold's performance, it showed she was only one who actually understood the premise of the series, which could've been interesting, but the series was too invested in making Mulgrew the Ultimate Captain of the universe. So we had Voyager battling ships three times her size and making more enemies than gaining allies. I never felt the kinds of dangers I had experiencing the 1st three seasons of DS9 where the crew couldn't just call up the Enterprise for help if sh*t hits the fan; the crew had to be quite clever to get out of controversial situations and the outcomes were sketchy at best.

After the 2nd episode of VOY, I knew the showrunners were not remotely interested in that premise because the Maquis fell right in and made zero noise after Caretaker and were like obedient sheep. Yes, we had Seska who was the stereotypical villain who was more in the mold of Damar and the boring 1 dimensional Cardassian than the Garaks, Dukats (s1-3), Macets, Jasads, and the Eveks of the Star Trek Universe, but the Maquis characters should've been like DS9's and even some Starfleet personnel should've had their differences to their Super-Captain. The heart of the series should've been about the ethics and differences the crew may have when they're not under the shadows of Starfleet. You can't play by those rules anymore and the crew have to be smart travelling through unpredictable and more than likely dangerous terrains. Not blasting away every week as if Voyager was in the confines of the Alpha Quadrant.

It's sad to say but Chakotay was never developed to be Captain of anything, but a simp who gets upstaged by the incredible Captain every week. It's impossible to see what the series might have been when the direction was clear to stay away from its own premise. Bujold's Janeway was not an ultimate badass like Mulgrew's ridiculous character was throughout and I would believe Chakotay, if done right, would have been a somewhat an Obi-Wan Kenobi type for her and maybe in later seasons she grew and earn the prestige in becoming a great Captain. It seemed Bujold understood what she gave the showrunners was not what they wanted and it was not to honor that great premise which was never fulfilled. To be TNG 2.0 you have to forget about energy preservations or conserving armament in order to have those holodeck episodes, fighting superships, hauling in TNG rejects from time to time.

 

[Oddish]

I do agree with you to an extent about Janeway's apparent infallibility; I've even written a joke topic about it. https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/who-needs-chuck-norris-when-youve-got-kathryn-janeway.307281/ She would have been a better character had they not tried to make her a Mary Sue-esque combination of Kirk, Picard, Albert Einstein, John Rambo, and your favorite cool aunt's best aspects. But Bujold seemed like she was sleepwalking. She might have grown into the role over time, but overall I think Mulgrew was way better. The problem with Janeway was not as she was played, it was as she was written.

 

[Saul]

Always looked blue to me....

https://www.indy100.com/offbeat/retro-caravan-colour-debate-tiktok-b1826843

 

[nedski]

It would have been interesting to add some bubbles to the warp core....
It can remain purple, just adding some bubbles..... even if it had no scientific explanation

 

[Qonundrum]

All of them!

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Qonundrum]

In seriousness, the early days with the purple hue stood out better than the blue they retooled it to.

And then came Q2, since U2 was unavailable...