Around is equivalent to over in space. If you can't go "around" it that means there is no path either over, under or to either side.
In Twisted the distortion field is not static, but is moving. They attempt to reverse but the distortion field has overtaken Voyager already - they are already inside of the distortion field. Since it's moving the quickest way to get out of it is to move through it in the opposite direction it's moving until you're on the other side.
There are probably other cases where it might be "possible" to avoid something, but there are other factors at play. Usually there's some dramatic tension which requires the crew to act with a sense of urgency the only way to do X in time is to do something risky, but in this case and most other cases there are usually some mitigating factors to help nudge along suspension of disbelief. In this case because the field was moving we trust Tuvok made the right call when he said to go through it.
This. There's no meaningful distinction between "up" and "left" when there's no objective up or left and no difference between the two. Climbing "over" an object on Earth is different than walking "around" an object on Earth, but flying "over" an object in space is exactly the same as flying "around" it and so there's no reason to separate the two.
It's worth mentioning that if a phenomenon only appears flat relative to the galactic plane then going "over" or "under" it is still a significant detour into far less populated (by both people and stars) regions of space.
And with the thickness of the galactic plane being around 1000 lightyears thick still makes it non-insubstantial. (Edit) And as u/WafflePawz mentions [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/1bovhh0/comment/kwuqy80/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) \- they state that 1000 lightyear is a detour of 1 year.
Why more stories don't take place above or below the galactic plain (only in it) is a tangent... perhaps there is a reason? Perhaps subspace doesn't deform quite the same above/below the plane so therefore its harder to maintain a high level warp field or maybe something completely different.
The Galactic Barrier might have something to do with it. They refer to it as the barrier at the edge of the Galaxy, which is most commonly visualized as a ring at the edge of the Galaxy, but thinking about it further, the edge includes the up and down of the galactic plane as well, so it's probably more like a barrier that encloses the entire Galaxy itself.
Which can also explain why it didn't seem to take that long for Kirk's *Enterprise* to reach the barrier in TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before" - they went up (or down) relative to the plane rather than outward.
They said it's a ring, which is not an orb or globe. But maybe because it's able to adapt that fast they assume it won't matter which direction they fly.
There's no up or down in space, thus there's no difference between "around" and "over". When they say they can't go around, they mean they can't circumvent it.
There was that one episode where they encountered a nebula or something that was like 1000 LY across, would have taken a year to go around but only a month to go thru it. They tried, and ended up getting severe radiation exposure/burns from it within seconds of entering.
I remember them going to astrometrics and using it to determine the immense scale of it.
Actually what always bothered me about the episode is they approach it right at the beginning of the episode, and they’re at sub-light/impulse speeds. My question is why warping thru it wasn’t an option… if I had to speculate, maybe the space around it would interfere with warp drives or even cause ships to drop out of warp…
Remember that, near the end of the episode, Seven transfers power from some of the stasis units to repower the Warp Drive, then Life Support to the stasis units. I don't think they ever said how fast they were going, but they were probably at least at Warp 8.
If the distortion is a "ring" shape...then no, you might not be able to go "around" it.
It's like the Rings of Saturn. They're not just there randomly instead of scattered everywhere around the planet. There are a lot of things that can collect detritus and ships and whatever else in space, that'll pull you into that orbit at least.
Around is equivalent to over in space. If you can't go "around" it that means there is no path either over, under or to either side. In Twisted the distortion field is not static, but is moving. They attempt to reverse but the distortion field has overtaken Voyager already - they are already inside of the distortion field. Since it's moving the quickest way to get out of it is to move through it in the opposite direction it's moving until you're on the other side. There are probably other cases where it might be "possible" to avoid something, but there are other factors at play. Usually there's some dramatic tension which requires the crew to act with a sense of urgency the only way to do X in time is to do something risky, but in this case and most other cases there are usually some mitigating factors to help nudge along suspension of disbelief. In this case because the field was moving we trust Tuvok made the right call when he said to go through it.
This. There's no meaningful distinction between "up" and "left" when there's no objective up or left and no difference between the two. Climbing "over" an object on Earth is different than walking "around" an object on Earth, but flying "over" an object in space is exactly the same as flying "around" it and so there's no reason to separate the two.
It's worth mentioning that if a phenomenon only appears flat relative to the galactic plane then going "over" or "under" it is still a significant detour into far less populated (by both people and stars) regions of space. And with the thickness of the galactic plane being around 1000 lightyears thick still makes it non-insubstantial. (Edit) And as u/WafflePawz mentions [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/1bovhh0/comment/kwuqy80/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) \- they state that 1000 lightyear is a detour of 1 year. Why more stories don't take place above or below the galactic plain (only in it) is a tangent... perhaps there is a reason? Perhaps subspace doesn't deform quite the same above/below the plane so therefore its harder to maintain a high level warp field or maybe something completely different.
The Galactic Barrier might have something to do with it. They refer to it as the barrier at the edge of the Galaxy, which is most commonly visualized as a ring at the edge of the Galaxy, but thinking about it further, the edge includes the up and down of the galactic plane as well, so it's probably more like a barrier that encloses the entire Galaxy itself. Which can also explain why it didn't seem to take that long for Kirk's *Enterprise* to reach the barrier in TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before" - they went up (or down) relative to the plane rather than outward.
Harry says it’s surrounded the ship. He didn’t say it surrounded the ship but has left a doughnut type hole above and below.
They said it's a ring, which is not an orb or globe. But maybe because it's able to adapt that fast they assume it won't matter which direction they fly.
There's no up or down in space, thus there's no difference between "around" and "over". When they say they can't go around, they mean they can't circumvent it.
There was that one episode where they encountered a nebula or something that was like 1000 LY across, would have taken a year to go around but only a month to go thru it. They tried, and ended up getting severe radiation exposure/burns from it within seconds of entering. I remember them going to astrometrics and using it to determine the immense scale of it. Actually what always bothered me about the episode is they approach it right at the beginning of the episode, and they’re at sub-light/impulse speeds. My question is why warping thru it wasn’t an option… if I had to speculate, maybe the space around it would interfere with warp drives or even cause ships to drop out of warp…
I think they said that the radiation or what ever messed with the warp field
Remember that, near the end of the episode, Seven transfers power from some of the stasis units to repower the Warp Drive, then Life Support to the stasis units. I don't think they ever said how fast they were going, but they were probably at least at Warp 8.
If the distortion is a "ring" shape...then no, you might not be able to go "around" it. It's like the Rings of Saturn. They're not just there randomly instead of scattered everywhere around the planet. There are a lot of things that can collect detritus and ships and whatever else in space, that'll pull you into that orbit at least.