All ships of peace have torpedoes!
The Pasteur's final appearance is an odd mix of 22nd and 24th century features, especially the elongated windows.
The
original blueprint for the model (which is also included in this release) shows much fewer and more TOS-like windows.
Engine upgrades over the years I can accept, but who on earth would sanction perforating an antique hull will all those hulls, just to give the occupants a better view? Fortunately this doesn't seem to be the case, as the registry is NCC-58925, placing its construction well within the 24th century. The question is then; why would starship designers return to a spherical rather than a saucer as the primary module?
Lots of questions, but regardless I am really happy that these images have been released, it is a great model. Thanks to all involved!
You're assuming a saucer is better than a sphere in every way. The Pasteur shows a sphere must have worthwhile advantages, and likely tradeoffs in comparison to a saucer, or any other bow configuration.
Spheres have the highest internal volume for the lowest surface area, and are nominally saucer like in top-down profile.
Well, torpedos must by nature be effective, otherwise Starfleet would not have continued equiping every standard starship with them for almost two hundred years.
Yet we have no evidence that every ship (or even every combat ship) has those. Many lack both anything that might look like a torpedo launcher,
and visuals or dialogue mentions of their use, either in combat or for other applications.
So we don't know the role of the torpedoes, but we have reason to think it's a limited one, even in terms of combat...
One designer decided phasers would not work during warp, and envisioned torpedoes as warp capable
chase guns, thus the fore and aft locations of launchers. Or, perhaps one thought of them more like the guns of a fighter. However, there are a bunch of episodes with at-warp phaser fire. Additionally, there are plenty of episodes with torpedoes capable of turning quite capably.
The notable capabilities of torpedoes are range, penetration of surfaces, and precision fire. In Voyager several torpedoes are fired aft while at warp, to a chasing weapon. Several billion kilometers are mentioned. A phaser has never fired, nor mentioned to have been fired, at such a distance. Torpedoes should also be capable of flying ballistically in orbits, which would allow them to fire around planets or across systems.
In TNG torpedoes, or their casings, have been used to deliver packages below planetary surfaces or into suns.
In the movie, when facing "god," a low yield torpedo is used with great precision.
There is some indication in DS9 that torpedoes are stronger than phasers per shot. Comparing how many shots it takes to kill various vessels in DS9, torpedoes tend to be four times more powerful than the individual phaser pulses of the Defiant. I think the quantum torpedoes come out anywhere from equal to 8 times more powerful. Even if they were equal in power to a starship's phasers, that would still mean they should be more powerful than a fighter's phasers; the Peregrine/Federation Fighters, and Data's Scout from Insurrection both fired torpedoes.
The Bussard collectors on the Scout are actually meant to be torpedo tube muzzles, but the model doesn't follow the concept art for some reason.
Over all, torpedoes are versatile, offer non-line-of-sight attack options, exotic package delivery, and enhanced range. Phasers have unlimited ammunition, so long as the ship has fuel, and great precision in their own right.
