Are there any scientific rules that Star Trek writers never break?

It's really more a question of following rules of astro-physics. If we're dealing with planetary bodies, if we're dealing with nebula, if we're dealing with certain types of stars, certain types of supernova, we have people that help us with that, so that it's vaguely accurate. We have rules when we're dealing with transporters, with phasers versus photon torpedoes, with � I'm trying to think of other examples that would fit into that category - things like sub-space. Sub-space is a way of getting communicating faster than the speed of light, and there are certain rules about sub-space.

In our new series, Enterprise, we are putting even more restrictions on sub-space, because the series takes place two hundred years earlier than most recent Star Trek shows. But there are many elements, when you're dealing with being in outer space and traversing the stars, that become science oriented; things like artificial gravity. If we didn't have artificial gravity, we'd have a lot of trouble getting around our ships. We have universal translators: if we didn't have universal translators, we'd be doing these television series with subtitles, which would be very difficult. So, there are rules and regulations in terms of all of these areas.