If only there was proof that one series used it more than others... In TOS it was basically inherent. In TNG, also, but not as much as one might assume. Much less in Voyager, much less in DS9, and practically gone in Enterprise.
Voyager did have two shuttles from the start. But then they were destroyed and Janeway had to do something about it: Stardate 48942.07 (Friday 10 December 2371) The latest events have put us in a difficult situation since we have wasted a lot of torpedoes and damaged a shuttle. Therefore I have asked Commander Chakotay, Liutenant Tuvok and Lieutenant Torres to come to my ready room to discuss an idea I have. "You all know what has happened" said Janeway. "After the recent adventure with the Furies (Voyager book "The Final Fury" which took place between the episodes "Elogium" and "Twisted"), we have lost a shuttle. We have also wasted too many torpedoes. If we keep on wasting our torpedoes in the same way, we will be out of them soon. Considering our long journey and the risk of running into hostile aliens, we need both shuttles and torpedoes. Therefore I want to discuss this idea I have." "What woud that be?" Chakotay asked. "I suggest that we set up a special workforce on the ship" Janeway said. "The Shuttle and Torpedo Building Team". "Some really skilled people who can have as their priority to build shuttles and torpedoes when it's necessary. If we do so, we will have a chance to avoid being without those in a critical situation." "That sounds like a good idea", Chakotay said. "Indeed. And a very logical idea too considering our need for such items" Tuvok said. "Exactly my thoughts too", said Janeway. "B'Elanna, do you have any people to spare?" "Well, I think that Dalby, Henley, Gerron and Chell would be perfect for the job. And I would also like to have Lt. Carey in charge of the team. He's the right person for that. If necessary, I can give a helping hand too in a crisis. But I must point out that I need these people in Engineering too and that they would only work with shuttles and torpedoes when necessary." "I agree", Janeway said. "I would also suggest that we find some other people too among the crew who can assist with shuttle and torpedo building when necessary". Janeway touched her combadge: "Mr Carey, can you come to my ready room immediately!" And so The Shuttle and Torpedo Building Team was born. From the beginning, it was Lt.Carey, Dalby, Henley, Gerron and Chell. Later on Rollins, Vorik, Samantha Wildman and The Borg baby were added to the team. In fact, those people are the true heroes on Voyager. Without their hard work, Voyager's mission would have been almost impossible.
A little-known result of contact with the Kelvans (the aliens from the Andromeda Galaxy in the TOS episode "By Any Other Name") is that a way was found to convert inanimate objects to dodecahedrons and restore them at a push of a button. Voyager was equipped with a couple of crates of these, so whenever they lost a shuttle, all they needed to do was go to the storage closet, take out a dodecahedron, set it in the appropriate area of the shuttle bay, push a button, and ZAP! there was a brand-new shuttle, ready for use. Sadly, this technology did not work for coffee or normal food.
Kirk's Enterprise had 4 shuttles. Voyager was similar in size(length) with a much greater internal volume. Kelvin Kirk's Enterprise, which was designed to be roughly the same size as the old Enterprise, had 24 shuttles. If Voyager had that many, they never had to build a single one, and had many left over.
Here's a scientific examination if anyone cares http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/inconsistencies-voy.htm
I would presume they replicated a bunch before making the Delta Flyer, which would explain even more their limited energy and resources in a loose sort of nonsensical way... A partial segue, but the shuttle count must be higher than the torpedo count:
Another thing I came to think of is that they never had any backup program of The Doctor (Or was there just one only single backup that got lost in history on an alien planet?), In Information Technology, having at least one backup is crucial and a medical program would be an extremely important case of that.
But if you can create one back-up copy then surely you can create as many back-up copies as you need. "Living Witness" ws one of VOY's better episodes despite is massive plot hole about not being able to back-up the EMH.
A backup program was impossible because the plot demanded that the Doctor can't just be copied to somewhere else and that he couldn't just risk his life without consequence on away missions. For one episode, it was possible because the plot required it to work. Star Trek is generally no stranger to the "whatever the plot requires" approach, but I do have a feeling VOY is even more indifferent about it.
The problem VOY has that other shows didn't have to an extent. Lose a shuttle get a new one at the next starbase.
Well I was thinking about the Delta Flyer. Perhaps they built the shuttles too. But again, where did they get the material? "There is coffee in that nebula, but are there shuttles??"...
They can replicate just about anything. Ships have large tanks of all the different elements needed for matter resequencing. As they're building the flyer, there's a little quibble about what alloy to use for the hull plates(or something), they then input designs, "recipes," and fabricate those parts. The holodeck replicates certain items. It's not all photons and forcefields. Could a holodeck build a fully simulated shuttle? An alternative is that there are storage containers(like a con-ex shipping crate) either 5, or 10 feet deep, where spare shuttles are stored, broken down and packaged, unless needed. Almost all of the shuttles seen on the show are very small, 2 man shuttles. They could have 8 operating shuttles and ten more in reserve, in shipping containers, and when a shuttle is lost, or unrepairable, a reserve is taken out and constructed to maintain a readiness of 8. Starfleet construction appears to be very modular. Bulkheads pop on and off. Outer hull plating is made of manageably sized detachable sections. I'm sure present day naval vessels are capable of a wide variety of repairs, construction, welding, tooling, casting, maybe even fabricating, while out at sea. Voyager likely has a ship's store or workshop, with a replicator not for food, but larger, for repairs. Or they might have a replicator system that works similar to a 3d printer.
If they had such a system surely they could use it to say replace tthe photon torpedeos as we are told they have no way of replacing them we can deduce that the ship doesn't have such a facility.
Naah. It's dramatically beneficial to assume that some stuff can be replicated onboard or otherwise produced from scratch (or from easily gathered raw materials), while other stuff requires much more effort (a bigger and better replicator, say). It's also logically consistent with the vague rules of treknology: replicators can do anything and everything, but they aren't always given the resources (time, computing power) to do their best. The Voyager no doubt had plenty of systems aboard. It's just that the Caretaker destroyed many of those, and the Kazon weren't exactly helping with the repairs. So for the first two seasons, the ship was short on resources, a prominent one being replication power. And it is during those two years that the torpedo shortage was an issue; it completely disappears afterwards. The simple assumption would be that a doodad absolutely crucial to producing torpedo components was only repaired once the ship reached a friendly port. For all we know, it was a replicator: not the food sort, as those were working (if just barely), but the industrial sort. The two things explicitly exist separately in the Trek universe, after all, courtesy of DS9. (We further learn from DS9 that torpedoes cannot be created with mere food replicators, because the Maquis had such replicators aplenty, but were framed for the theft of photon torpedo warheads in "Tribunal" nevertheless. But somebody, somewhere, creates torpedo warheads for Starfleet, and it's not unreasonable to assume that when one pools the resources of a big official starship and the noggin contents of Maquis wizard Torres, one can indeed churn out torpedo warheads in situ.) Shuttles might well have components the shipboard resources could not produce in the first two years. Or then components the ship could never hope to produce (although purchasing ought to be an option). But bolting together more shuttles from spares ought to be a breeze: they are just stupid boxes with warp engines attached, after all. Perhaps pre-cast spare warp coils are stacked like so many tyres in some corner of the shuttlebay workshop, while the rest of the stuff can be replicated at will after the initial Time of Scarcity? Timo Saloniemi