Deflector shield goof

[Tyralak]

One of the few glaring flaws in this movie was the arrival at Vulcan. Before dropping out of Warp, Captain Pike orders shields up. When they emerge in the debris field, we're told "Deflector shields are holding." Seconds later, however we see the Enterprise fly below a destroyed saucer section in an attempt to avoid it. We see the saucer section scrape against a nacelle, taking some tiles with it. How in the hell is there that kind of hull damage if the deflector shields are up?

 

[Captain Rob]

Deflector shields aren't going to stop such a massive object from hitting the ship. We've seen this several times in the series and the movies. Just watch the final battle scene in NEM when the Enterprise gets hit by a blown off nacelle from one of the Romulan ships. Would like to have seen a deflector effect though as the other ship scrapes the top of Enterprise's nacelle in STXI. Oops.

Orci and Kurtzman should have a small group of fans (like myself and others here) proofread their script for STXII.

 

[T'Girl]

The deflectors reduce the effects of energy fire and in Vulcan orbit probably did deflect a lot of flying shrapnel. As above the chunk of debris was just to big.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Star Trek XI went back to the STVI-style "invisible" shields. I vaguely recall an interview where JJ said that missiles and debris hitting an energy bubble just wasn't visually exciting enough (I think he's got a point), and since there's a precedent in canon for shields that don't work that way he went for it.

There was an interview with the writers where they postulated that the shields in STXI may function as a means to strengthen the hull, similar to Enterprise's polarized hull plating, rather than generate an energy bubble.

 

[btflash]

One of the few glaring flaws in this movie was the arrival at Vulcan. Before dropping out of Warp, Captain Pike orders shields up. When they emerge in the debris field, we're told "Deflector shields are holding." Seconds later, however we see the Enterprise fly below a destroyed saucer section in an attempt to avoid it. We see the saucer section scrape against a nacelle, taking some tiles with it. How in the hell is there that kind of hull damage if the deflector shields are up?

this kind of gaff is nothing new in trek. remember in star trek 6 the shields were up yet the bird of preys torpedos were blowing right through the hull!

 

[Jeyl]

this kind of gaff is nothing new in trek. remember in star trek 6 the shields were up yet the bird of preys torpedos were blowing right through the hull!

At least when the Enterprise A took a shot, you could see evidence of the shields sparkling around the damaged area where the torpedo hit the hull.

And if you look at the NuEnterprise when it's going through a debris field, you can actually see a small piece of 'slow moving' debris hit the hull and leave a big mark on it. It's the second exterior shot of the Enterprise after arriving at Vulcan. This is what I would expect from a Star Trek ship with it's shields DOWN, not up. If the shields can't stop a slwo piece of debris from leaving a mark on the hull, what the heck good is it going to do against an explosive projectile weapon? And wouldn't these "hull enforcers" down play the "can't transport through shields" since it's just the hull getting stronger?

 

[F. King Daniel]

^It wasn't "shields sparking" it was the same electrical discharges as seen in STIII when shields were "non responsive"

 

[Jeyl]

^It wasn't "shields sparking" it was the same electrical discharges as seen in STIII when shields were "non responsive"

No way. That was more of a 'magnetic pulse' that hit the Enterprise in STIII because it didn't make an explosion on impact. It looked and sounded more like an electrical discharge, which makes sense considering the Enterprise had to revert to emergency power. Also note that it didn't leave a single dent on the hull where as in STII, STV and STVI, those torpedoes left a big black mark.

 

[F. King Daniel]

^It wasn't "shields sparking" it was the same electrical discharges as seen in STIII when shields were "non responsive"

No way. That was more of a 'magnetic pulse' that hit the Enterprise in STIII because it didn't leave a single mark.

It sure as hell "left a mark" on the USS Grissom. This sounds like you're excusing an inconsistancy in old Trek while using the same thing as "proof" that new Trek is "wrong"

Face it: Effects have changed for shields before. This one is no more "wrong" than any of the previous ones.

 

[Jeyl]

It sure as hell "left a mark" on the USS Grissom.

But how are you so certain that what they fired was the exact type of weapon they used against the Enterprise? I don't think it was because no torpedo ever acted like that in Star Trek where it didn't leave a mark on a ship that didn't have shields. And again, the klingons have more weapons at their disposal than just Torpedoes and disruptors, such as magnetic pulses that they have used before.

This sounds like you're excusing an inconsistancy in old Trek while using the same thing as "proof" that new Trek is "wrong"

It's not wrong. It's just weak. If it was just the hull that was being strengthened, it should be called what Star Trek has always called that type of protection, ARMOR.

I like the energy bubble shields. It totally fit the "Deflector Shields" wording because they were shields that deflected objects from hitting the ship, and when those shields went down, than you know you're in trouble.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I'd always thought "shields" were the energy bubble preventing energy type weapons from getting through and "deflectors" were used at warp to keep any physical matter from vaporizing the ship.

I don't know where I got that from really.

 

[Jeyl]

I'm also not a big fan of "hull strengtheners" because the Enterprise, especially this one, has a lot of exposure in key places. It's exterior ship components like the deflector dish, the ram scoops, the phaser arrays, the torpedo tubes, and shuttle bay, and lest we forget, the bridge has a freaking window on the front.

With your unrealistic shield bubble, everything is protected. But since we can't have that, I guess we can't have that "Can't beam through shields" plot device either.

 

[OneBuckFilms]

I believe the Shields or Deflector Shields are essentially a force-field bubble that prevents weapons impacts, aka energy or particle-beam based weapons (phasers, photon torpedos).

When travelling at Warp, the Navigational Deflector takes care of objects from a distance by moving them away from the ship's path.

Large objects obviously cannot be deflected the way a particle beam can, and we have seen this throughout the rest of Trek.

The "hull strengtheners" capability sounds very much like a Structural Integrity Field, which increases the ship's rigidity.

In TOS, we never saw a shield bubble around the ship, nor did we see much to indicate a barrier.

RE: Beaming through shields.

If we assume that a ship's Shields is more based on small weapons and energy beams, it is reasonable to assume that the ship's shields might produce interference that would essentially scramble a transporter beam.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Didn't TOS have "numbered" shields, kinda like Star Fleet Battles?

 

[OneBuckFilms]

Didn't TOS have "numbered" shields, kinda like Star Fleet Battles?

Yep. Always that "Number 4 Shield" having issues first.

It could mean the shield emitters being numbered, with number 4 being the most troublesome.

 

[Jeyl]

In TOS, we never saw a shield bubble around the ship, nor did we see much to indicate a barrier.

*Clears Throat*
LINK

 

[M'Sharak]

^ That's from TOS-R, effects vintage 2007, and still shows no shield bubble of the sort seen in TNG and later Trek.

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Magnetic_pulse_weapon

Here's what it looked like, back then.

Edit:

Side-by-side comparisons

(The embedded video is kind of clunky - it buffers much more quickly if you go to the LiveVideo page.)

 

[Jeyl]

^ That's from TOS-R, effects vintage 2007, and still shows no shield bubble of the sort seen in TNG and later Trek.

Well, I'm sure if the Enterprise was being fired at from all directions, you would certainly see a bubble shaped shield protecting her. What matters is that the shields depicted here protect the ship from projectiles from ever hitting the actual hull. And if I might add, while it may not appear to be a huge bubble that appears all over the ship when it gets hit once, it does reflect the type of shielding that the Ent-E had in Nemesis.

And what about the Motion Picture when the Enterprise was hit by V'Ger's plasma weapon? I highly doubt that making the hull stronger was what prevented the ship from being reduced to data patterns.

 

[F. King Daniel]

The fact remains that JJ's right: Things actually hitting the ship, and enemy shots blowing up entire decks is far more exciting to watch than shots bouncing off a bubble while someone reads out lower and lower percentages.

 

[tau136]

Starship shields have an inbuilt plot device rendering them pervious to other starship fragments.