When separating the ship might have solved everything?

[Timo]

They were sorely short on ships in Redemption to span their tachyon detection grid. Had the ent-D separated, they would have had at least one more ship , though perhaps there was a good reason not to do so (i.e. the need to fight, or to pursue at high warp, or perhaps the saucer section couldn't even generate /maintain the tachyon grid)

Here it's remarkable that high warp performance was for some reason vital for simply maintaining the grid. That is, the heroes specifically fake a warp drive malfunction on one of the ships to create the opening into which they could lure the Romulans. This ship is to "fall back" for being unable to play her role in maintaining the grid, which in turn means the ship pretends to still remain capable of moderate warp, or else falling back could not physically happen, not there in the middle of nowhere.

So the saucer would need not just a working and sustainable warp drive, but one with performance comparable to a fully functioning starship rather than a slightly damaged one.

(That the saucer has a working and sustainable warp drive is not in much question, considering "Encounter at Farpoint". That this saucer drive furthermore is capable of accelerating to warp all on its own after separation is in turn established in "Arsenal of Freedom" where, if this capacity were absent, LaForge ought to be hanged, drawn and quartered before being shot while keelhauled when he first separates at sublight, then tells the saucer to fly to another star system...)

Separating would help basically whenever the heroes need to divide their assets, sometimes even if we assumed the saucer for some reason were unable to go to warp that particular day. Yet in most cases it would be overkill. Why not simply leave a shuttle or ten to support the away team while the whole ship warps away to another assignment? That alone would make a world of difference in situations like "Final Mission", where nothing initially suggests half a starship would be needed, yet OTOH it would cost nothing much to apply a contingent of shuttles as backup (even if Picard agrees to fly on Dirgo's shuttle and the Starfleet teams agree to maintain their distance until needed).

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tenacity]

On that note: Spock says the "entire bridge is damaged and uninhabitable," presumably meaning the saucer

I took that to mean just what Spock said, the bridge was damaged (open to space?).

The saucer in general was still inhabitable.

he first separates at sublight, then tells the saucer to fly to another star system

Would make sense if the Enterprise-D saucer had it's own warp drive.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Why not simply leave a shuttle or ten to support the away team while the whole ship warps away to another assignment?

Or just a runabout, either a Danube-class in the back-half of the series or it's unnamed predecessor -- the main innovation being the swappable mid-section IIRC -- in the first half.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

It's not clear if Voyager could separate, but if it could.

In the pilot, Janeway could have left the "saucer section" with the Caretaker array, to investigate it and maybe (maybe not) figure a way to use it to return home. Then taking the stardrive section to the Ocampa planet.

Later use the stardrive section to keep the Kazon away from the array, continue the investigation, destroying the array if necassary.

They definitely could've left the Aeroshuttle for such a research mission.

 

[Tenacity]

Would the Aeroshuttle have the facilities of the saucer? Personel, accommodations, science labs, unanticipated equipment needs, blah, blah.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Given the use of the Danube-class cockpit for the test footage and a similar estimated length, my assumption would be that the Aeroshuttle (~27m in length) is similar in capabilities to the Danube-class (23m) and superior to the Delta Flyer (15m).

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

The Aeroshuttle would be able to carry a small crew for a few days/weeks (it would have similar capabilities as a Danube-Class runabout in that respect), whilst it could be worked into the design to be essentially a flying laboratory or research platform, whilst it would have the same emergency equipment and redundancies as any shuttlecraft. Since we never see it, then it could be made to fill whatever role is needed.

Though they could've left the Val Jean at the Array to study it further, since they had two ships are their disposal.

 

[Tenacity]

Except there was no "they" at the time, Janeway and Chakotay wanted to keep an eye on each other at that point.

 

[Timo]

Indeed, the heroes weren't lacking in material resources there much - what they lacked was time (they asked Caretaker too late for their return; they couldn't figure out by themselves how to make the Array send them back before the Kazon overran the place; etc.).

Separating the hero ship there would just have created two ships of half the strength to fight the Kazon with, and the plot was predicated on the Kazon being an overwhelming threat so even two ships of full strength shouldn't have helped.

Agreed about the Aeroshuttle potentially being a step up from the Flyer, but only up to the Runabout ladder. And I wonder about the reputed but never-mentioned and never-shown E-D Captain's Yacht. Would leaving that behind at X to assist the away team have made enough of a difference in TNG plots, or would the stardrive section always have been the only asset powerful enough to be of any help? I mean, a single shuttle would have sufficed in "Final Mission" if it didn't lose sensor contact with Dirgo's craft - but mere shuttles probably wouldn't have helped the surface team fight the EP probes in "Arsenal of Freedom". Would the Yacht have offered something more there? Probert's art credits it with phaser strips and apparent warp engines, but the Okuda/Sternbach writing does not.

The E-E Yacht never fought the Son'a, despite basically doubling as the ship's quantum torpedo turret... It appeared to only be good for ferrying. Although clearly at respectable warp speed, considering the prominent engines.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Takeru]

Would make sense if the Enterprise-D saucer had it's own warp drive.

It does have its own warp drive, it must have travelled at warp to reach Farpoint in time.

 

[Mres_was_framed!]

I took that to mean just what Spock said, the bridge was damaged (open to space?).

The saucer in general was still inhabitable.

I would agree that that makes more sense, were it not for Spock's use of the word "entire" The Bridge is a single room, which if uninhabitable would unusable throughout, rendering the word "entire" redundant or confusing. The only way I could see that this line makes any sense is if "entire bridge," means some larger thing than that one main control room.

In any case, my point from bringing this up is that it seems that the Constellation could not/should not have been separated even though its warp engines were "hopeless" according to Scotty. It seems like if the saucer was habitable they could have separated the ship leaving the ruined warp drive and had a "lighter" ship to use. That logic seems a bit odd but that is more or less what Kirk suggests in "The Apple," to help the ship escape.

Since we never see it, then it could be made to fill whatever role is needed.

In order for Voyager's show concept to work, having an ignored aeorshuttle for the entire series is a problem as it would undermine many plots. Fortunately since it was never mentioned it is not fully canon. Perhaps the areoshuttle was either never present and only a cover was in place or it was rebuilt into the Delta Flyer.

 

[darrenjl]

The aeroshttle was being in installed on Tuesday.

 

[Tenacity]

if they had separated and then needed a space dock to reconnect

Scotty's a miracle worker, he'd of figured it out.

 

[at Quark's]

Scotty's a miracle worker, he'd of figured it out.

That could have been a nice episode.

"Cap'n, I cannae change the law of physics and simply slap the old lady together again! I'd need a drydock and a team of specialists for that and a week at least!"
"You've got three hours, Scotty. Kirk out."
<In a last ditch effort, Scotty invents the famed self-sealing stembolts>

 

[Paul755]

I watched some season 1 on BBCA last week, 11001001 seems like another episode where separating would have made sense. Either by Data’s orders when they thought it was going to blow up or by Picards orders when they were on the way to Bynaus. Separating the ship from main engineering would have made more sense than self destructing.

Given that the stardrive section is the more powerful and would pose the greatest threat, Picard would command it and the Borg would know that--they've assimilated Starfleet personnel before and would know that he would be leading the charge.

but the point in splitting up is the Borg wouldn’t know for sure which part of the ship Picard is on. Do they try to flush the saucer out or go after the stardrive. It’s reasonable to assume and very likely that he would be on the battle bridge. But you just don’t know.

 

[at Quark's]

but the point in splitting up is the Borg wouldn’t know for sure which part of the ship Picard is on. Do they try to flush the saucer out or go after the stardrive. It’s reasonable to assume and very likely that he would be on the battle bridge. But you just don’t know.

The Borg can split up as well. Send the cube after the starboard section, send one or more of their auxiliary vessels (for example (one of) those spheroids we saw in FC) after the saucer section. Given that the saucer sections armament and defense capabilities seem auxiliary at best (a few phasers, I think? ) they would still have their hands full on those Borg spheroids.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

but the point in splitting up is the Borg wouldn’t know for sure which part of the ship Picard is on. Do they try to flush the saucer out or go after the stardrive. It’s reasonable to assume and very likely that he would be on the battle bridge. But you just don’t know.

The Borg have assimilated Starfleet personnel before their first incursion, so they will know protocols and procedures, plus they also accessed the database of the E-D during their first encounter so will know who Picard is, so they would know that he would be on the stardrive section to lead them away from the majority of the crew left on the saucer.

 

[Mres_was_framed!]

I watched some season 1 on BBCA last week, 11001001 seems like another episode where separating would have made sense. Either by Data’s orders when they thought it was going to blow up or by Picards orders when they were on the way to Bynaus. Separating the ship from main engineering would have made more sense than self destructing.



but the point in splitting up is the Borg wouldn’t know for sure which part of the ship Picard is on. Do they try to flush the saucer out or go after the stardrive. It’s reasonable to assume and very likely that he would be on the battle bridge. But you just don’t know.

Separating would make sense if the case of your Season 1 example, but I felt that chosing not to separate also makes sense during that episode because we don't don't know if both computer cores (or is it all three?) are "infected," with the alien instructions.

 

[DonIago]

Separating the saucer before the warp core exploded would have made a lot of sense, and could have been easily addressed by a line to the effect that there wasn't time to do so remotely (the ship did need to clear Spacedock as well).

Not sure why Picard and Riker would have tried to separate on the way to Bynaus though? They'd set the self-destruct but otherwise the ship didn't seem to be in any situation where separating would be helpful? I guess it might have given them control of the stardrive, assuming the Bynars hadn't disabled saucer separation, but...they needed to find out what was going on on the bridge in any case.

 

[Paul755]

Separating the saucer before the warp core exploded would have made a lot of sense, and could have been easily addressed by a line to the effect that there wasn't time to do so remotely (the ship did need to clear Spacedock as well).

Not sure why Picard and Riker would have tried to separate on the way to Bynaus though? They'd set the self-destruct but otherwise the ship didn't seem to be in any situation where separating would be helpful? I guess it might have given them control of the stardrive, assuming the Bynars hadn't disabled saucer separation, but...they needed to find out what was going on on the bridge in any case.

They knew the ship had been hijacked and Picard said they can’t let it fall into enemy hands. So if they separate the ship with them in main engineering they could circle back for the saucer section once it decelerated. It’s the same thing they tried to do in “Brothers” before Data locked them out.