When the hell have we ever seen this? All the photon torpedo blasts I can recall looked less powerful than the Narada's missiles.
The Narada
- Thread starter EJA
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When the hell have we ever seen this? All the photon torpedo blasts I can recall looked less powerful than the Narada's missiles.
In Star Trek XI alone we see single photon torpedoes cracking Klingon battlecruisers to splinters, and the brilliant blue-white flashes as several detonate within the Narada's arms.
Go back to the original series and its the same story. Same with Next Gen: in on particular episode - skin of Evil - a photon torpedo detonated on a planet's surface produced a fireball at least a hundred miles wide, seen from space. In Voyager we've seen them blasting huge asteroids to tiny debris. In Enterprise "photonic torpedoes" were said to be capable of putting a "three kilometer crater into an asteroid". Take your pick.
Photon torpedoes are antimatter weapons. Even a tiny amount of antimatter would produce a spectacular fireworks show. Any appreciable amount - a kilogram or more - would create an explosion topping anything mankind has yet produced.
What exactly made the Narada's torpedoes look "powerful" to you? Was it the nifty cluster bomb effect, the wimpy explosions that looked as though they could be produced by modern artillery shells, or the surprisingly small holes and scorch marks they left of the hulls of the Kelvin and the Enterprise?
I think it was the shaky cam and the frankly-impressive theater sound system
Anyway, I think we would have to take into account that torpedo yields themselves have been pretty inconsistent. We have good examples of torpedoes churning out giganto-huge explosions, but on the other hand, we've seen plenty of torpedoes in DS9, VOY, TWOK, TUC, and FC that look comparable to the Narada's explosions, in that they were pretty small and far from thermonuclear. Even quantum torpedoes, for some reason, don't produce the same yield as the TOS photon torpedoes.
So maybe the power isn't in the explosion, but perhaps focused (concentrated) into a smaller area? It could explain why torpedoes could be used in an atmosphere without igniting the planet. *shrug*
And let's not forget Star trek V, where a torpedo knocks over a couple of rocks. When they're, y'know, trying to kill God.
There's really no way to contain or focus an explosion like that - you kind of want it to explode. Especially in space where you might miss your target by a kilometer or two, but still want that shot to be effective.
Well, we know photons have a variable yield, and Kirk did say "Listen carefully". Perhaps that particular torpedo had no reactants in it, and was set for a simple kinetic energy strike. After all, Kirk and co. wanted to live.
And that would make sense because.......the ship is in space.....
The more I think about this movie the less I like it. Pools of liquid inside a starship, beaming people halfway across the solar system, Nero lurking around the galaxy for 20+ years waiting for Spock Prime to arrive, and Kirk's experience as a starfleet officer wiped out just to name a few problems with this movie.
And don't get me started on the Narada. I agree with a earlier post that it would have been more interesting if the Jellyfish was Nero's ship and it wiped out entire fleets with it's late 24th/early 25th century technology.
What do you need a drilling rig for when the Enterprise-D used it's phasers to drill into a planets crust. You don't need that big of a hole to drop that small container of red matter into.
And don't get me started on the Narada. I agree with a earlier post that it would have been more interesting if the Jellyfish was Nero's ship and it wiped out entire fleets with it's late 24th/early 25th century technology.
What do you need a drilling rig for when the Enterprise-D used it's phasers to drill into a planets crust. You don't need that big of a hole to drop that small container of red matter into.
I suppose part of my reasoning stems from what I know about quantum torpedoes, and even then that info isn't exactly clear-cut-canon, too: that quantum torpedoes contain and focus their explosive yield through 11-dimensional vacuums. Then again, that's me conjecturing through the DS9 tech manual, which itself isn't exactly trustworthy. In regards to photons, if there's a similar but clearly less-advanced method, it could explain why torpedo yields tend to mimic the Narada's missiles than the TOS super-gigante explosions.
But if anyone has an idea why torpedo yields tend to vary so often, especially against super-deadly enemies, I'd love to hear it
As for having torpedoes detonate at a certain range and at maximum yield (like Voyager's Type 10 warheads against 8472), we've certainly seen that on screen, but for some reason that function isn't used very often. They'd be great as anti-fighter ordinance for sure.
I wanted to see her sister ships; The Pinata and the Santeria.
You mean it wouldn't make sense.
Ballast in a sailing ship serves two purposes:
1) It creates a low center of gravity, keeping the ship upright in the water and making it more resistant to rollover.
2) It causes a ship sailing empty (without cargo) to ride low enough in the water that it can be steered effectively.
Take the water (and thus an orientation dictated by gravity) away and the need for ballast goes away, as well.
I wonder if the liquid was just Robau sneaking into the room, waiting for the right moment to reform his body and attack.
I thought the Borg tech explanation from the comic fit nicely with the look of the Narada, especially the interior spaces. It felt like Romulan meets Borg to me, right down to the cheesy green plasma arcs at their workstations.
The water I took to just be a the consequence of some crappy HVAC maintenance. Romulans like it warm, maybe with all those big interior spaces the humidity gets a little out of control.
As for the power of the weapons, weaponry in Trek has never been depicted in a realistic or consistent fashion. Photon torpedoes especially, act like strategic weapons when blowing up something planetside (unless a god is present) then transform into glorified BBs when facing an intimidating enemy vessel.
Having said all that, I think the Narada's missiles were handled pretty consistently. The act more or less like futuristic sabot warheads, designed mainly to punch holes in the defenses of the enemy. The Kelvin, after all, gets peppered with the things, and it's shields go down almost immediately, but still hangs in there for quite a while after and uses point defense to good effect. That doesn't suggest planet busting explosive payloads.
The water I took to just be a the consequence of some crappy HVAC maintenance. Romulans like it warm, maybe with all those big interior spaces the humidity gets a little out of control.
As for the power of the weapons, weaponry in Trek has never been depicted in a realistic or consistent fashion. Photon torpedoes especially, act like strategic weapons when blowing up something planetside (unless a god is present) then transform into glorified BBs when facing an intimidating enemy vessel.
Having said all that, I think the Narada's missiles were handled pretty consistently. The act more or less like futuristic sabot warheads, designed mainly to punch holes in the defenses of the enemy. The Kelvin, after all, gets peppered with the things, and it's shields go down almost immediately, but still hangs in there for quite a while after and uses point defense to good effect. That doesn't suggest planet busting explosive payloads.
Romulan males always miss the bowl.
So glad you are confident of the requirements of 24th century mining spacecraft that haven't even been invented yet.
It's ballast, or coolant. The Enterprise had water pipes, too. Who knows what they use it for!
I recall huge criticism that Troi had a bathtub in TNG and "Insurrection" - 'cos gosh, you can't have huge tubs of water on a starship traveling at warp speed.
And his comment would make sense...because it was sarcasm.
As far as the pools of water, you might be onto something. The Narada presumably sat around for 25 years, with the Klingons for some reason unable to strip it down and learn its secrets. I imagine it might've gotten very cold in there, and all that water might simply be condensation.
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