There were also some Doctor Who expanded-universe tie-in novels that established that in some era of human civilization, there were subway trains going through wormholes to distant planets.
The usual SF handwave about starships is that there's some reason the jump drive has to be used in space. It won't work too far into a planetary gravity well, or it involves going to a specific point in space or a specific rest frame or both, or it involves dangerous astrophysical phenomena that are not healthy for children and other living things. Or some combination of the preceding, as in The Forever War. Of course, the out-of-universe reason for this is usually just that the author wants to still have spaceships.
no subject
The usual SF handwave about starships is that there's some reason the jump drive has to be used in space. It won't work too far into a planetary gravity well, or it involves going to a specific point in space or a specific rest frame or both, or it involves dangerous astrophysical phenomena that are not healthy for children and other living things. Or some combination of the preceding, as in The Forever War. Of course, the out-of-universe reason for this is usually just that the author wants to still have spaceships.
Matt M.