List of Star Trek Regions of Space - Galactic Barrier and Great Barrier

Galactic Barrier and Great Barrier

In the Star Trek universe, the Galactic Barrier, also referred to as the Great Barrier or Energy Barrier, was an energy field that surrounds the Milky Way Galaxy. The field completely encompassed the galactic disk and prevented conventional starship travel beyond the edge of the galaxy. It was not clear whether the energy barrier was a natural or artificially created phenomenon.

Although numerous attempts to travel outside the galaxy were made, with various degrees of success, the barrier usually damaged or destroyed ships that tried to pass through it. It also had psychoactive effects, as some personnel gained powerful telekinetic and telepathic abilities if traveling near the barrier (in second pilot episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before").

The barrier appeared as a pink band of light and, upon entering it, a ship was surrounded by dancing clouds of colorful energy. Inside the barrier, a ship's power and engines shut down and navigational systems became erratic.

The Galactic Barrier made its first appearance in the original series episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before", in which the crew of the USS Enterprise had to deal with those affected by the psychic powers of the field - as did the crew of the ill-fated SS Valiant which had encountered the same barrier, two centuries earlier.

It was encountered again in the episode "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" where the Enterprise became lost within the barrier and was saved by the astounding navigational skills of an alien passenger.

The barrier had also damaged an alien ship from outside the galaxy in the episode "By Any Other Name", stranding the aliens in our galaxy until they tried to steal the Enterprise and return to their home galaxy.

A second barrier at the core of the Milky Way was first revealed in the motion picture Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Being the only encounter ever shown, the only known reference is the "Great Barrier". This energy barrier at the core was thought to be impenetrable like the one at the edge of the galaxy; however, it was revealed that only mankind's natural fear of the unknown was keeping them from entering it.

Non-canonical explanations

Various books have tried to explain the existence of the galactic barrier, although none of these are canonical:

• The Star Trek: The Q Continuum series of novels explained the two barriers, stating that they were created by the Continuum 600,000 years ago to keep one omnipotent being (known as The One) sealed away at the center of the Galaxy, and to keep another (known as '0', whose powers can rival even the Q) locked out of our galaxy forever due to both aliens' rampages and destruction of species.

• In William Shatner's novel Captain's Glory, Picard mentioned the events of the Q Continuum trilogy, but stated that the barrier was built by the proto-humanoids shown in "The Chase" 4 billion years ago to protect their "children" (the races they seeded across the galaxy) from a dark matter entity known as the Totality.

• The novel Q-Squared reveals the Galactic Barrier to be Q himself, in a time-tossed and temporally discorporated state.

External links

• Galactic barrier at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Great Barrier at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)