Saucer Separation wasn't a good idea

[Oddish]

True, but if it doesn't solve the problem it was conceived to solve (getting civilians out of a combat zone) then at least we can say it's awful in that sense.

It solved that problem just fine in "The Arsenal of Freedom". And could have done the same with the Odyssey in "The Jem'Hadar".

 

[Richard S. Ta]

It solved that problem just fine in "The Arsenal of Freedom". And could have done the same with the Odyssey in "The Jem'Hadar".

They got lucky.

 

[Oddish]

It probably could have been used a few more times over the show's run. For instance, in "The Child", they could have separated the saucer when that plasma plague was starting to spread. Seems like a textbook situation for it.

 

[somebuddyX]

They could have done it every episode like when they form the robots in Voltron or Power Rangers. They could have done it in Data's Day, when they're facing the Romulan warbirds and it just starts slinking off into the distance to avoid the fight. They could have done it The Wounded and double teamed Maxwell. They could have done it in Redemption II to bolster the fleet, or there could have been a whole fleet of battle sections flying off and a fleet of saucer sections hanging back like cheering spouses.

 

[Orphalesion]

Something else that didn't quite make sense to me is, how often would there be enough time to evacuate everyone to the saucer?

In Generations there was about 5 minutes till the warp core breached. So that gave the crew less time than that to evacuate. I think it's safe to assume that would be a typical time for the separation to be done by.

Would there really be all that much evacuation? Pretty sure the saucer section contains all the living and civilian areas, the laboratories, main sickbay etc.
The Stardrive section seems to consist mostly of engineering and engineering-related parts, the battle bridge, and probably a secondary sickbay and other redundancies (like emergency quarters) that would be used in case of a longer separation from the saucer (or a destruction thereof)

So to me it seems evacuating the Stardrive Section would mostly involve just getting the engineering teams to the saucer section, and whoever performed other tasks in the stardrive section during that time.

 

[Captrek]

Something else that didn't quite make sense to me is, how often would there be enough time to evacuate everyone to the saucer?

In Generations there was about 5 minutes till the warp core breached. So that gave the crew less time than that to evacuate. I think it's safe to assume that would be a typical time for the separation to be done by.

But if a battle had started with an ambush, that'd not give them time to separate safely. Or if they were in the middle of a battle and the ship was in danger, I can't see how there'd even be chance to get the saucer to safety.

Once the battle has started, it’s probably too late to separate. But you can separate before going into a situation in which battle is likely.

I thought “The Neutral Zone” would have been a good opportunity for that. Outposts along the NZ have been destroyed, and the Enterprise is dispatched to investigate. The likelihood of a dangerous situation is high. I thought it would have made sense to either separate the saucer, or evacuate nonessential personnel, before heading to the danger zone.

 

[dupersuper]

I thought “The Neutral Zone” would have been a good opportunity for that. Outposts along the NZ have been destroyed, and the Enterprise is dispatched to investigate. The likelihood of a dangerous situation is high. I thought it would have made sense to either separate the saucer, or evacuate nonessential personnel, before heading to the danger zone.

But nonessential personnel would include the three unfrozen 1990s civilians, and then the businessman couldn't have called the Romulans on their BS. Also, Data wouldn't have been offered a place on a tour.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Maybe the Saucer shield emitters are more powerful when detached for... reasons? Like, the saucer doesn't need to share power with all the systems onboard the fighting section or something?

I think the idea of having a section that's detachable before battle is sound. The problem comes when either:

A) The battle is unexpected (ships dropping out of warp and attacking, or cloaked ships suddenly appearing)

B) Said cloaked ships are observing and see where the Saucer section is 'dropped off'. In this case, two Warbirds (for example) could attack the battle section while a third hangs back cloaked and takes out the saucer at leisure when there's enough distance between it and its' other half.

 

[puzzledtea]

Would there really be all that much evacuation? Pretty sure the saucer section contains all the living and civilian areas, the laboratories, main sickbay etc.
The Stardrive section seems to consist mostly of engineering and engineering-related parts, the battle bridge, and probably a secondary sickbay and other redundancies (like emergency quarters) that would be used in case of a longer separation from the saucer (or a destruction thereof)

So to me it seems evacuating the Stardrive Section would mostly involve just getting the engineering teams to the saucer section, and whoever performed other tasks in the stardrive section during that time.

That's a good point. I didn't think of that, on a normal day most civilians would be in the saucer anyway. And only non essential would be moved I guess. So outside of a big emergency I guess my evacuation thought wouldn't happen so much

Once the battle has started, it’s probably too late to separate. But you can separate before going into a situation in which battle is likely.

I thought “The Neutral Zone” would have been a good opportunity for that. Outposts along the NZ have been destroyed, and the Enterprise is dispatched to investigate. The likelihood of a dangerous situation is high. I thought it would have made sense to either separate the saucer, or evacuate nonessential personnel, before heading to the danger zone.

I guess I was being a bit picky, they'd need to detect all cloaked vessels the way I put it before =P. If they can anticipate needing to that's the best they could hope for.

From a practical pov that sounds a good time for them to have separated in case the romulans were more aggressive. But politically if they saw the ship had separated expecting a battle, the enterprise might've just got one..

 

[Noname Given]

Saucer Separation to be used in an absolute dire emergency to save lives...good idea.

A Saucer that can separate /re-attach at will in a couple minutes with no real technical consequences to the ship...stupid on MANY levels.

 

[at Quark's]

Whatever they run on, they undoubtedly require immense amounts of power. Same with the engines. It doesn't make sense to have seperate power sources.

Why not? They'd already need a separate power source for the Holodecks, after all, according to VOY at least (That, or the holodeck 'energy matrix' has been thoroughly reworked between the Galaxy and the Intrepid class, to the extent that it became incompatible with the other power systems in the latter only)

 

[Arpy]

Saucer separation wasn’t the problem so much as shooting twice as many ship shots now with the stardrive in battle. Plus more with the saucer making it’s way back alone or parking on a planet somewhere. Plus the battle bridge was nowhere near as cool looking as the main bridge. And maybe shots of emergency separation during a battle with both hulls firing at multiple attacking ships before the saucer high-tails it outta there. Yes, I buy the saucer having a little mini warp engine embedded somewhere. I mean, where’s the nacelle on a Cardassian ship, or a Bird of Prey, or a Borg ship…it’s fine.

You didn’t really have to spend any time at all separating the ship week after week either. The moment Picard or Riker says red alert, you cut to the stardrive then warping to the confrontation site. I never bought that it took too long or the rest of it. This is TV. They do a lot of cutting.

But yeah, some pretty amazing stories could have been told with the two hulls too. What if the stardrive loses the saucer after a battle and the mystery is where did it go? Maybe the saucer has to solve the mystery of the missing stardrive in another episode. Or another in which two saucers show up but which is the real one — who are the aliens masquerading as the crew we know? Etc etc

 

[Skipper]

Real life question: why couldn't the smaller model separate? From the various articles I have read it seems that they did not use separation in later episodes because it did not have this ability.

 

[PhotoBoy]

As well as no warp engines, the saucer doesn't have any obvious deflector dish either which it would need to avoid being damaged by space debris (unless there was something green and deflector shaped hidden in plain sight at the front of the ship all along...)

 

[shapeshifter]

It probably could have been used a few more times over the show's run. For instance, in "The Child", they could have separated the saucer when that plasma plague was starting to spread. Seems like a textbook situation for it.

They could have done it every episode like when they form the robots in Voltron or Power Rangers. They could have done it in Data's Day, when they're facing the Romulan warbirds and it just starts slinking off into the distance to avoid the fight. They could have done it The Wounded and double teamed Maxwell. They could have done it in Redemption II to bolster the fleet, or there could have been a whole fleet of battle sections flying off and a fleet of saucer sections hanging back like cheering spouses.

These all highlight a reason why Trek Tech, or an ability to do a certain task to solve problems, is often overlooked, it's terribly boring story telling to use the same solution over and over and over again.

Thank goodness the writers are pushed to come up with novel ideas, even if it ignores Teh Canon.

 

[Arpy]

As well as no warp engines, the saucer doesn't have any obvious deflector dish either which it would need to avoid being damaged by space debris (unless there was something green and deflector shaped hidden in plain sight at the front of the ship all along...)

There’s some collection of windows in the front that some fans think could be the saucer’s deflector dish. Again, where the dish on the Reliant? Or, for that matter, the impulse engines on the D’Deridex Warbird?

 

[The Knappos]

I'm not going to wade in on all the other flaws without ample thinking time; but, a saucer stranded at sub-light would still have subspace comms capabilities to call in help.

Maybe there's a bank of spare star drives at Utopia Planetia for just such contingencies.

 

[Takeru]

I'm not going to wade in on all the other flaws without ample thinking time; but, a saucer stranded at sub-light would still have subspace comms capabilities to call in help.

Maybe there's a bank of spare star drives at Utopia Planetia for just such contingencies.

Somehow I don't think they keep spare star drives somewhere just for saucer pickup, that would be a huge waste of resources. If they have additional top of the line ships it would make more sense to use them instead of a bunch of ancient Mirandas. Even without a saucer a galaxy glass star drive could do a lot.
If anything it would make more sense to have spare saucers for specific missions. A science saucer for extensive studies, a battle saucer that's armed to the teeth, a colony saucer that's specifically designed to land and be dismantled to start the colony etc.

The saucer calling for help and waiting is probably perfectly fine in federation space most of the time but the Enterprise was not supposed to be in federation space, it was supposed to go into unexplored space for a longterm mission so had the star drive been lost help for the saucer could have been weeks or months away.
It's a weird choice to leave the civilians and parts of the crew potentially stranded in a non warp capable in unknown space. And keep in mind that separation wasn't supposed to only be used in extreme emergencies as a last resort, it was supposed to be standard maneuver in potentially dangerous situations. So why not give the not fighting half of the ship the best chance to get to safety by retreating at warp speed?

The star drive without the saucer was also kinda ugly which I assume is one of the reasons it didn't happen that often, it slowing the episode down is an excuse because that depends on the writing, the show could have easily come back after a commercial break with Picard stating in a log that they left the saucer behind and are now going to XYZ. And stock footage of the separated halfs could have been shot over a few days and would have been enough for most occasions.
So I really think

 

[The Knappos]

I’m sorry, I forgot to emergency separate my tongue from my cheek there…

 

[Takeru]

I’m sorry, I forgot to emergency separate my tongue from my cheek there…

The franchise had the Enterprise become alive and it had a baby, Janeway and Paris turned into salamanders and also had babies, brainless Spock was remote controlled, Cake Troi, candle ghost love affair, Rumpelstilzchen ...

You can't blame me if I thought spare star drives were a serious suggestion, it's less weird than some canon plots.