Why Do Federation Ships Go Around With Shields Down Most of the Time?

[Six of Twelve]

It seems a rather naive and gullible thing to do, as many times as they've been caught with their pants down, so to speak, because of this policy.

I've heard it said they don't do this because they don't want to "appear aggressive", but I just don't buy that. It seems more like just common sense to me, and it's a defensive posture, not an offensive one.

The only reasonable explanation I could come up with is that it might be too much of a drain on the ship's power resources to keep them raised all the time.

 

[Ithekro]

To some cultures, seeing someone in a defensive posture would be a sign they intend to attack. Be like a knight walking into town with his shield ready in front of him at all times. His other hand might not be on his sword, but that's not going to make the locals less nervous.

Also his arm will get tired.

 

[Vger23]

Starships don't have unlimited power resources.

 

[Greg Cox]

Starships don't have unlimited power resources.

That's always been my assumption. You can't be on "Red Alert! Shields on Maximum!" 24/7.

 

[FormerLurker]

To some cultures, seeing someone in a defensive posture would be a sign they intend to attack. Be like a knight walking into town with his shield ready in front of him at all times. His other hand might not be on his sword, but that's not going to make the locals less nervous.

Also his arm will get tired.

This reminds me of the origin for the term swashbuckler. "To Swash" means to hang or dangle. A buckler is a small hand shield. A swashbuckler was a mercenary knight who would hang his buckler from the pommel of his longsword as he walked around, so it would ping and rattle to advertise to potential employers that his services were available.

 

[Griffeytrek]

while not explicitly said, you can quickly figure out a number of reasons they only raise the shields when expecting combat.

1. Energy Drain. Even on a Starship Energy is not infinite, and the combat shields probably use more energy than anything other than the warp drive.

2. Sensors - The Shields are a big electromagnetic bubble around the ship. This likely blinds a substantial portion of the ships sensors and greatly reduces the range of what it doesn't outright block. When exploring space what is better? Range of detection? Or protective shields? You don't raise the shields until you know where the enemy is clearly. Otherwise you will never see him coming anyway, and are just as likely to plow into a large rock.

3. Advertising your presence - As we said, Shields are a very high energy item. So in addition to blinding your long range sensors, they likely also light you up like a bonfire to everybody else's. This sort of thing is what is generally considered to be "tactically idiotic".

4. Increasing risk of Cancer and horrific mutations in the crew - Once again pouring out tons of electromagnetic energy into a confined space with your crew. One would think that Captain's that run with constant shields likely have a high rate of sterility hair loss and such in their crew. I mean just look at some of the Picard Academy flashbacks, before he encountered such a Captain. See what overuse of Shields can cause?

 

[Timo]

It's important to note that the conquest-minded villains don't appear to keep their shields up, either. Nor do they have their weapons at the ready, or automatically targeted at the nearest potential victim. Rather, on those rare occasions where we see the villains' side of the action, they issue the very same prepare-for-battle commands the heroes do.

What is the longest time anybody has kept combat shields up? Minutes? Any examples of hours? (The metaphasic shields could do something like that against solar radiation, but perhaps that very thing, rather than the ability to fight suns, was the big innovation?)

I'd like to undersign all four of the above points, and then add that the shield machinery itself may rapidly degrade when in use. OTOH, none of these points has ever been made explicit in the shows - it's just implicit that something like this must be at work.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[MacLeod]

It's important to note that the conquest-minded villains don't appear to keep their shields up, either. Nor do they have their weapons at the ready, or automatically targeted at the nearest potential victim. Rather, on those rare occasions where we see the villains' side of the action, they issue the very same prepare-for-battle commands the heroes do.

What is the longest time anybody has kept combat shields up? Minutes? Any examples of hours? (The metaphasic shields could do something like that against solar radiation, but perhaps that very thing, rather than the ability to fight suns, was the big innovation?)

I'd like to undersign all four of the above points, and then add that the shield machinery itself may rapidly degrade when in use. OTOH, none of these points has ever been made explicit in the shows - it's just implicit that something like this must be at work.

Timo Saloniemi

Whilst perhaps not stated on screen directly the Battle with the Borg in FC it lasted from the Typhon sector to Sector 001. It's possible that shields were up for a good portion of that, Though with the Borg it is possible they adapted to their weapons to the shields.

But we had the Defiant's helmsman report they had lost main power and shields were down, so the shield failure must have been recent for him to report that, and the Borg's weapons didn't pentrate the Enterprise's shields. So perhaps they hadn't adapted as why would the ENterprise shields be massively different from the other ships. Conjecture I know.

 

[Timo]

Conversely, one could assume that ships in that running battle would be dropping in and out of the fight, perhaps exactly because they couldn't keep up the shields all the time.

One example of combat shields being maintained for a noticeable length of time does come to mind: in "A Taste of Armageddon", Scotty raises shields just in time to prevent disaster, and then finds himself in a situation where he cannot drop them - but makes no preparations we'd know of, apparently unconcerned with the fact that the clock is ticking. We don't learn exactly how long the shields stay up before Spock orders Scotty to withdraw to a safe distance, but it's probably at least fifteen minutes to allow for all the diplomatic and physical action.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Retu]

What is the longest time anybody has kept combat shields up? Minutes? Any examples of hours? (The metaphasic shields could do something like that against solar radiation, but perhaps that very thing, rather than the ability to fight suns, was the big innovation?)

Timo Saloniemi

In "The Immunity Syndrome" they kept deflector shields up for about two hours despite the Space Amoeba's energy drain and maintaining almost constant thrust against the pull. Kirk orders the shields to full power right before they enter the zone of darkness.

 

[JWPlatt]

Why Do Federation Ships Go Around With Shields Down Most of the Time?

I am shocked, shocked! that no one yet has pointed out that if Federation ships went around with shields up all the time, we couldn't have ships crippled at important points of a story, there would be fewer plot complications, and the enemy would be vanquished on page three. Cheaper production, but reduced sales. Greg Cox needs those shields down! Oooo, I see a Heinleinesque fourth wall opportunity here for the author to become part of his own story.

 

[Kahless the Unforgettable]

What is the longest time anybody has kept combat shields up? Minutes? Any examples of hours? (The metaphasic shields could do something like that against solar radiation, but perhaps that very thing, rather than the ability to fight suns, was the big innovation?)

A better question, and one that would better prove the point you're trying to make, is "have they ever complained or worried about having the shields up for any length of time when it wasn't because they were actively being attacked, but solely because it was drawing too much power from the warp core or something along those lines?" Well, maybe if you asked it better, anyway.

I personally can't think of a single instance where that was the case. Even in the handful of times where they've kept them up for a prolonged period of time, not once has anyone complained about it being a drain on resources or causing some secondary or even tertiary damage to the ship or crew. Certainly not just for having the shields up.

 

[Greg Cox]

Greg Cox needs those shields down! Oooo, I see a Heinleinesque fourth wall opportunity here for the author to become part of his own story.

I actually deal with this all the time. Should they raise the shields at this point? Should the shields be raised already? Do they need to lower the shields to beam the alien diplomats aboard?

And, yes, STAR TREK precedent (and good storytelling) dictates that the shields are not routinely in operation at all times, but require a deliberate choice and judgment call on the part of the captain.

It's far too easy, and not at all dramatic, if the default is just to keep the shields up all the time, like the artificial gravity or whatever:

"The Klingons are arming their weapons, captain!"

"Raise shields, Mister Chekov!"

"Er, the shields are always on, captain, remember?"

"Right. Never mind then."

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Probably for the same reason that people don't generally walk around with their guns openly displayed on their person.

I mean, I see somebody showing their gun at me, I will assume they intend to USE it.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Just how many defensive 'fields' are there anyway? You have your shields on for battle, off for being friendly. Star Trek II TWOK seemed to differentiate between Shields and a Deflector Grid, with the impression that the Deflector Grid which came on for a Yellow Alert was kind of Shields-lite. That's not to be confused with the Navigational Deflector, which is always on when the ship is in motion, to stop rocks and space dust from hitting the ship at near light and FTL speeds and causing big damage. Then there is the Structural Integrity Field, which rigidifies the ship's superstructure, so that it doesn't concertina up when accelerating, and I assume the added rigidity would offer some added protection from physical trauma as well. And Inertial Dampers to stop people being turned into goo everytime they accelerate.

 

[Six of Twelve]

I actually deal with this all the time. Should they raise the shields at this point? Should the shields be raised already? Do they need to lower the shields to beam the alien diplomats aboard?

And, yes, STAR TREK precedent (and good storytelling) dictates that the shields are not routinely in operation at all times, but require a deliberate choice and judgment call on the part of the captain.

It's far too easy, and not at all dramatic, if the default is just to keep the shields up all the time, like the artificial gravity or whatever.

Well, if not up "all the time", then perhaps when traveling through dangerous areas, such as near or in the neutral zone, near Borg transwarp conduits, and similar situations where the risk for combat is elevated, instead of waiting until after the belligerent ship has taken its first pot shot at you. They shouldn't be allowed one freebie before raising shields.

It's like how Captain Smith of the Titanic should have slowed down in the ice field, especially considering he'd been amply warned of what was ahead by other ships. He didn't even have the watertight bulkhead doors raised as a precaution. Of course that wouldn't have changed the ship's fate, because of a faulty design, but it might have slowed the ingress of water long enough for the rescue ship to arrive.

 

[Spot261]

I actually deal with this all the time. Should they raise the shields at this point? Should the shields be raised already? Do they need to lower the shields to beam the alien diplomats aboard?

I assume when writing fiction and not, for instance during a really interesting day job?

not once has anyone complained about it being a drain on resources or causing some secondary or even tertiary damage to the ship or crew

I'm inclined to think they might have, although that's a lot of canon trek to trawl through just to disprove a negative. On the other hand given the shields are a massively important systems which by definition are there to counter massively powerful weaponry and save the massively valuable ship and crew inside them. It seems very unlikely they would be anything less than massively powerful themselves ad therefore a huge drain on energy.

If I were sat inside a ship with a determined enemy unleashing rapid fire torpedoes and disruptors, each one hitting harder than current day tactical nukes, in my general direction I probably wouldn't complain too much about the battery drain either. In fact I would be pretty upset if the shields wee anything less than the very top end power output tech available.

I other words not the sort of thing you just leave running to drain power and accumulate wear and tear so they failed when you actually needed them.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Why doesn't everyone in the world wear bulletproof vests all the time?

Why don't motorcyclists wear their helmets even when they're not riding?

Why does the Pope ever leave the Popemobile?

Why do astronauts ever remove their suits?

 

[Spot261]

Or, why doesn't the Pope wear a bulletproof space suit and motorbike helmet whilst living in the Pope mobile?

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Does a Pope raise shields in the woods?