What if Voyager didn't have its aeroshuttle?

[MacLeod]

Well as we all know that type of thing gets installed on a Tuesday.

But too feature it would cost money, a new CGI model of Voyager would have to be created or an existing one modified. a New CGI model of the Aeroshuttle would have to be created. Which all cost money.

The writers no doubt simply forgot it was there.

As for why the plug might have hull markings etc, perhaps to disguise the fact that it isn't there.

[Rarewolf]

The Wormhole wrote:

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In the case of the Captain's Yacht on the Enteprise D, there never was a need to explain why it wasn't seen. With the aeroshuttle they kind of do need to explain why they spent an entire episode decoted to building their own scout ship, and even went to the trouble of building another one when it was destroyed when a perfectly good scout ship should have been sitting lodged in the hull. So, "it wasn't there" is as good as anything.

Ah, but if they left home without it, then why didn't they build a new aeroshuttle, rather than build a delta flyer? Free up space & resources in the solo shuttlebay. Not that space was ever an issue in there.

[R. Star]

That's where the Photonic Cannon would've been located.

[MacLeod]

Rarewolf wrote:

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Ah, but if they left home without it, then why didn't they build a new aeroshuttle, rather than build a delta flyer? Free up space & resources in the solo shuttlebay. Not that space was ever an issue in there.

But I though space wasn't an issue, given the TARDIS like properties of Voyager's shuttlebay.

[ngc7293]

Since there was no one on the show saying anything about the captain's yacht/aero shuttle, there is no canon information saying it isn't there in the first place. I am reading on here about people saying 'back stage' or 'someone from the show said it' but technically that isn't canon for Trek so as far as Voyager is concerned, that little old shuttle was there at DS9 at the beginning of the show and all the writers forgot about it for the entire show run.

[Timo]

Inaugural mission or not, Voyager was headed into danger in the Badlands and probable confrontation with the Maquis

An excellent reason to leave unnecessary dead weight behind...

In the case of the Captain's Yacht on the Enteprise D, there never was a need to explain why it wasn't seen.

Well, there sort of was. Several times, Picard was going places to represent the Federation or to enjoy himself - both potential uses for a craft called "captain's yacht". Yet Picard chose to use a standard shuttle, which is not particularly luxurious and thus would ill serve a diplomatic mission or a holiday cruise.

We might always say there was a detachable craft there at the bottom of the saucer, but it wasn't Captain's Yacht. Rather, it was a craft dedicated to some completely different mission which our heroes never had to perform. Say, a laboratory to be left behind on a planet, or an assault barge for delivering hundreds of troops at a time. Or even a diplomatic representation facility - but not a "yacht" capable of flying around, but merely a deployable embassy that could be lowered to the surface of a planet.

With the aeroshuttle they kind of do need to explain why they spent an entire episode decoted to building their own scout ship

Not unless we have some reason to think that this aeroshuttle would have been a "scout ship" comparable to the eventual Delta Flyer. Since we canonically know nothing of the craft, we can't tell if it would have been slower or faster than a shuttle; more or less heavily armed; more or less capable of carrying cargo or personnel...

Timo Saloniemi

[The Wormhole]

Rarewolf wrote:

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Ah, but if they left home without it, then why didn't they build a new aeroshuttle, rather than build a delta flyer? Free up space & resources in the solo shuttlebay. Not that space was ever an issue in there.

Good point. Really, the aeroshuttle is one of Voyager's missed opportunities.

Timo wrote:

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Not unless we have some reason to think that this aeroshuttle would have been a "scout ship" comparable to the eventual Delta Flyer. Since we canonically know nothing of the craft, we can't tell if it would have been slower or faster than a shuttle; more or less heavily armed; more or less capable of carrying cargo or personnel...

The aeroshuttle's design is basically a modified runabout. It presumably has all the capabilities of a runabout, which were comparable to the Delta Flyer's.

[Timo]

Well, the interior design of the E-D Captain's Yacht appears to have been intended to be that of an E-D standard cabin set... Now that doesn't tell us anything about the capabilities of the Yacht!

Also, the aeroshuttle design is purely conjectural; the outline we see resembles Starfleet's fightercraft more than its runabout. We never get a glimpse that would allow us to associate the shape with the runabout set.

In any case, the only relevant design criterion of the Delta Flyer at the time of its construction was the ability to survive great external fluid pressure. Standard shuttles apparently couldn't do it, nor could the Voyager herself, so there's no real reason to think that a random craft sized between those two would be a suitable substitute for the building of the Delta Flyer.

Timo Saloniemi

[RoJoHen]

Timo wrote:

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...Nowadays, and thanks to the reworking done in connection with the blu-ray transfer. Originally, the very first episode already cast serious doubt on there being a yacht there, as an energy transfer beam (according to dialogue, a phaser rigged funny) was fired from the general area.

Timo Saloniemi

In the early days of TNG, that ship had torpedoes and phasers and random "beams" coming out of all sorts of wrong places.

[Rarewolf]

The Wormhole wrote:

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Good point. Really, the aeroshuttle is one of Voyager's missed opportunities.

I suppose you could imagine it had systems that being cut off from home they couldn't afford to risk loosing sending out on away missions (especially the frequency they lost shuttles!)

Perhaps an ancillary computer core, independent life-support systems or a secondary warp core, that could all be used as backups, if they had problems with the primary systems. So a should be disposable system that took on a more important role in the Delta Quadrant.