A friend of mine and I were discussing the new "STAR TREK INTO THE DARKNESS" movie and we started talking about how both Kirk's ship, Enterprise NCC-1701 (it was mention in episode 209, "The Apple" from TOS {"Kirk ordered Scotty to separate with saucer section and get off there if you have too"} and Picard's Enterprise NCC-1701-E could separate during an emergency if needed. So he asked me can Voyager do the same? Please advise??....We all know that USS Voyager can land on a planet, but it was never mention about separation from the primary hull.
I'm inclined to think no, simply because there are no separate impulse engines on the saucer part of Voyager along with the fact we never saw it when it could have proven useful.
Saucer separation was never mentioned in the show, nor in any of the writeups. There's nothing to say that it CAN'T do so, however if it could it would more likely be a case of separating but being unable to re-attach. This was supposedly the case with other starships, as the Galaxy class was meant to be the first ship capable of separation, independent flight of both sections, and docking again without external assistance. Mark
I thought the main reason that we didn't see in the TOS episode "The Apple" was do to high cost involve, and it really wasn't required for the story anyway.
'Saucer' is a poor term given the dimensions of the Interpid class hull. Any suggestions? 'Oblong trapezoid' doesn't roll well off the tongue.
Trowel or shovel? I could totally see a giant space baby using voyager as a spade at the sea side digging a moat around a sand castle. You'd think that if the saucer could flip of that it would have flipped off in Timeless when she struck that ice planet.
I don't think I've ever seen it stated the ship could separate. I don't think the original studio miniature could, and don't remember any mention of it with the cgi versions.
Well the saucer separation was primarily advertised so that the civilians could run away when the Enterprise had to go into battle. As the years went on, Picard began to think, fuck it, if the civilians and children didn't want to be on my ship, they wouldn't be on my ship. Was the Enterprise more or less powerful without the Saucer? Less surface area meant the shields would be much stronger if the powersupply remained constant. Less mass meant it was faster. Smaller target. The saucer section just seems like a burden in times of war.
TNG probably dropped the saucer separation for 1) cost of editing in the same damn clip every time, and 2) not wasting 30 seconds showing the separate/dock sequences.
Rick Sternbach put RCS thrusters on the bridge superstructure to imply that the whole thing could be detached like some giant lifepod, but that's about it.
Voyager separates in The Eternal Tide - but that's after a substantial refit in Full Circle, equipping the ship with a slipstream dive and all the latest novelverse gizmos. As for series-Voyager, there IS a battle bridge on the MSD diagram, but the writers never paid any heed to it (it has two warp cores, two computer cores and two navigational deflectors, but episodes of the show make it explicitly clear there is only one of each) See huge, detailed MSD diagram here.
saucer separation is dumb. its silly and leaves you with two awkward bits of ship that look rubbish on their own. i can see where it might work as an emergency thing on a constitution class, but on newer ships where the primary and secondary hulls are basically one big continuous structure it would look especially aesthetically unappealing
Janeway might not have asked and B'Elanna must have assumed she knew. If there was a "usuable" aeroshuttle, they wouldn't have had to invent the Deta Flier. It could be a really large escape pod who's gears and engines the primary ship needs to operate, in so that it's not to be used until it's time for all hands to abandon the ship anyway.
I would think not seeing as it can eject the warp core and is small enough to probably evacuate the ship using the escape pods.
Well the 2nd computer core, could be a back-up core with enough funcationality to get the ship to the nearest starbase.