Star Trek: Why are the space maps always 2D?

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS

February 7, 2024 at 4:52 p.m

In the “Star Trek” universe, boundaries on space maps are always drawn two-dimensionally, but space is actually three-dimensional? Why is that?

• In “Star Trek” the space maps look like nautical charts. The third dimension is missing in border markings.
• The reason why areas like the Klingon Empire are often only entered like on an earthly map is simple.
• When “Star Trek” was released, space travel was not yet very advanced and so it was based on submarine films and nautical charts.

In the Star Trek universe, the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Empire and Federation territory exist. Similar to countries on Earth, space is also divided into different areas. There are maps that mark these areas, but a two-dimensional map with the boundaries of countries on Earth makes sense, whereas such two-dimensionality makes little sense in the Star Trek universe.

When the Gorn Hegemony is drawn on the map in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, it resembles an Earth map. But if you were to rotate the map in space, what directions would the areas in the other dimensions expand, and why is this so rarely taken into account in “Star Trek”?

“Star Trek” goes back to old submarine films

Particularly in episodes like “Spock Under Suspicion” from the original Star Trek series, you can see that it has a massive influence from 1950s submarine films. When the series was developed in the mid-1960s, the first man had not yet landed on the moon and little was known about space travel.

Accordingly, the ship’s equipment was designed similarly to that of the navy. There are zoom options at the lookout, a monitor and a radar similar to sonar. The maps shown look like the nautical charts that both the filmmakers and viewers knew at the time.

As space travel eventually evolved and Star Trek modernized in the decades that followed, there was a fine line between adapting to actual scientific progress and sticking to the logic already established in the existing Star Trek series .

Quite a few fans are bothered when things are suddenly possible in modern films and series that did not previously exist in the “Star Trek” universe. This creates a discrepancy between the internal logic and the constantly modernizing external logic of the real world, which influences the series and films.

“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” Season 3 is currently being worked on. A launch date for Paramount+ has not yet been set. We list all new “Star Trek” releases for you!