Just finished the novel "Resistance" and was taken aback by Worf's decision to seperate a Sovereign class starship into a stardrive and a saucer section. Aside from it never being mentioned on screen or in a previous novel (at least to my knowledge...) I have a hard time visualizing a seperated Sovereign class Starship. What do you guys think about that and if J.M. Dillard reads these boards, why did you include this scene at all?
A lot of things that can happen in the novels weren't mentioned on screen (and the E-E was only on screen for about 5 and a half hours--not nearly enough time for every technical detail to be randomly inserted into dialogue). The original Enterprise had emergency saucer sep (depending on how you interpret Kirk's line in "The Apple"), and saucer sep was standard in Galaxy-class vessels, so there's no reason why Starfleet wouldn't integrate that feature into other ships (for emergencies or standard procedure).
While it was never shown onscreen, Ent-E designer John Eaves did do a concept sketch of how a Sovereign-class starship could separate, and there is a separation line on the ship. Scroll down to the last paragraph here for discussion: http://www.starshipdatalink.net/art/1701-e.html
The cloaking device is what irritated me. Was it ever mentioned anywhere else that all starfleet vessels had cloaking device schematics encrypted in their computers, or did Dillard just pull that out of her ass?
Thanks for the answers so far. It was just one thing I'd like to ask. The Cloaking Device on a UFP Starship wasn't to my liking either. And hadn't the Borg encountered Romulan and Klingon starships anyhow, so wouldn't they have adapted to ships hiding in this manner as well?
I thought it was awesome. The ship should be able to separate, especially if these ships are going to have families on them... and too bad for the Romulans. I'd make my own cloaking devices, make them better than the Romulans' and I'd have explored that "phasing" application... and I'd dare them to stop me... since the Federation had the schematics, I don't find it hard to believe that some ships might have it, classified.
Why wouldn't they? And why is it a bad thing for a writer to introduce a new concept? Isn't that our job?
Because it violates the agreement they have with the Romulans. And because it is top secret information and you'd think having it aboard every starship would pose a security risk. It's not. I was just genuinely curious as to whether it had ever been mentioned before. When I said "pull it out of her ass" I didn't really mean it in a bad way. I was just wondering if she came up with the idea. NO! you're job is to read the collective mind of the fans and write exactly what we want to read, but cannot write ourselves because we don't have the talent! just kidding.
First off, any good Starfleet engineer could probably construct a working cloak if he or she wanted to. Starfleet's known about the technology for over a century, after all. Besides, all technology is based on the same universal physical principles, so it wouldn't be that hard to figure out. The treaty forbids the Federation from using cloaking devices. Knowing how they work is another matter altogether. I mean, you can find out how to build a nuclear bomb by going to the library or searching the Internet. It's not the knowledge that's forbidden by treaty, since you can't suppress knowledge. It's the actual development of the technology that the international agreements are intended to prevent. The same is probably true with cloaking tech. Anyway, the UFP and the Romulans became allies in the Dominion War, so it's possible the treaty was relaxed. How can that expression not be meant in a bad way?
Your two posts made me laugh, Semah. I put it down about half way through, too... this book didn't work well for me, either.
Umh, no. Like I told someone else in the Full Circle magazine thread, we're not going to be sniping Lynx in other threads just because he holds opinions very vastly different from our own, and you may be frustrated with his methods of communicating them.