Have the Galaxy Class got a fatal design flaw?

Discussion in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' started by Lance, Aug 17, 2013.

  1. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Consider fully half of that takes nanoseconds to occur that's not much of a timelag.
     
  2. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    "Fully half"? The brain>mouth (or alternately the mouth>ears) thing includes the phrasing of the order, which takes aeons, and the brain>hands (or alternately the ears>brain) part includes figuring out what the order actually meant - plus, usually, wasting time with something like "Sure deal, boss!" that detracts from the handiwork. I'd say the nanoseconds part is more like one-third of the needlessly long chain at most.

    Then again, it doesn't appear to matter. Whenever the skipper says "On my mark", things that realistically ought to call for split-second accuracy are nevertheless achieved. Perhaps the helmsman anticipates and ignores the "mark" altogether, relying instead on a computerized timer he sets according to the skipper's actual intentions?

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  3. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    I don't know about you but I don't take much longer than a second or two to formulate things I'm going to say to people. If it takes longer than that you may have a severe brain injury/disability.
     
  4. Lt. Uhura-Brown

    Lt. Uhura-Brown Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    When you compare how long it takes between thinking about pressing a button and pressing it, verbally telling someone else to press the button for you takes aeons in comparison between your thought and their hands.
     
  5. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Yet actually saying them (which is either the brain>mouth or the mouth>ears part) does take several seconds, unless it's a simple "Fire!". And it's not as if Kirk or Picard chooses to use the shortest possible phrasing, either. Which both extends the output time, and makes it more difficult for the listener to decipher the input.

    That's hardly the most damning fault in the practice, though. The worst time-hog is the skipper's need to micromanage the use of weapons. In most situations, he or she has a dedicated weapons officer available to control the weapons systems, and he or she in turn supposedly has underlings next to the actual weapons. The skipper's role thus should really be just "take down all of them" or "take out their propulsion", not "prepare forward photon torpedoes - target their engines - on my mark, fire - fire!".

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  6. jazzstick

    jazzstick Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    I was always dissapointed with lack of lactation rooms, ball pits and bidets...
     
  7. Richard Baker

    Richard Baker Commodore Commodore

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    Obviously the command delay was a problem, hence admiral Janeway's Synaptic Interface in 'Endgame'.
    Warp Core ejection seems to be a problem in most Starfleet vessels- IIRC it has only worked twice- in Voyager (once) and Star Trek: Insurrection.
     
  8. ATimson

    ATimson Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Also in Star Trek (2009).
     
  9. Richard Baker

    Richard Baker Commodore Commodore

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    I was limiting things to the prime universe since the tech tree in the new movies is totally different- same names but different approaches in execution
     
  10. lennier1

    lennier1 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well, that last one made up for it in numbers.
     
  11. Praetor

    Praetor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I think it's interesting to note that in the case of both Yamato and Odyssey, both were more or less destroyed for shock value, not unlike the Constellation on TOS. Heck, if you wanted to you could contrive the notion that the Constitution class was cursed. But I don't see there being any reason to think the Galaxy class had a fatal flaw.
     
  12. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

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    Well in the case of the Odyssey, It was rammed I wonder how many hips would surive being rammed. And it was perhaps only the debris stricking the nacelle that cause the ship to explode. Otherwise perhaps it might have survived.
     
  13. Garrovick

    Garrovick Commander Red Shirt

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    The Enterprise-D had 2 fatal flaws:

    1. The ship status displays in Main Engineering advertised the shield frequency for all to see.

    2. Apparently, in combat, if the ship takes a couple of hits to the Engineering section, her phaser power is reduced to the point where they have absolutely no impact at all against the shields of a 20-year old Bird of Prey.
     
  14. Hartzilla2007

    Hartzilla2007 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I don't really think thats comparable seeing as the Constellation after going up against a almost indestructible Doomsday Machine that could likely out class a Borg Cube and was mostly intact where as the Odyssey got owned by small ships that the Defiant usually blew up in one shot.

    The Yamato's destruction on the other hand was reasonable since it was taken out by some uber computer virus.

    The loses of Connies though were from a variety of reasons such as 1) destruction while fighting something probably more powerful than the Borg (Constellation), being eaten by a Space Amoeba (Intrepid), surprise full power attack during a wargame at the hands of an out of control A.I. (Excalibur), possible loss after a virus killed all of the crew save the captain (Exeter), falling into a a weird space anomaly and getting lost in another dimension as a result (Defiant), and fianlly self-destruct after previous battle damage, reliance on automation due to a lack of crew, and a lucky shot crippled the ship (Enterprise)

    Not really something that any other ship class could avoid.

    The Galaxies on the other hand were variations of the same thing.

    Computer virus triggered warp core breach (Yamato), collision triggered warp core breach (Odyssey and time looped Enterprise), fixing the space-time continuum triggered warp core breach times 3 (alternate pilot Enterprise, Enterprise, alternate future Enterprise), combat damage triggered warp core breach (Enterprise, crappy Borg took over the alpha quadrant alternate Enterprise, and alternate present Enterprise).

    So yeah it does look like their is something fishy with the warp core on a Galaxy-class starship.
     
  15. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

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    Not really, just that the warp core (and associated systems) can onlt take so much damage.
     
  16. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    We don't really know what kills starships in general. Kirk's ship was never really threatened by conventional destruction, save for "That Which Survives" where something very much akin to a warp core breach was fast approaching until Scotty saved the day. The ship was threatened by other, more interesting fates, such as being miniaturized, crushed by divine hand, erased from history, or sucked into a planet in the throes of temporal weirdness.

    Janeway's ship was seldom destroyed, and it took nothing less than a year of hell to achieve that much. Sisko's ship was destroyed by a superweapon. Archer's ship wasn't destroyed. With that little evidence, it's quite difficult to assess whether certain types of starship might have weaknesses or flaws.

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  17. R. Star

    R. Star Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Security was no better on Voyager(where the EMH could access -and- change the frequency from Sickbay) or the Defiant. The Federation is a very trusting place. Not to mention if you're a hostile boarder and have manged to board the ship... chances are you've already bypassed the shields in some way anyhow.

    The flaw was they fired one time... that's it. Then they turned around where most of the weapons were facing away from the ship and their engines and other vulnerable parts(which ended up causing the problem that blew them up) were facing towards them. The flaw was in the big chair of the bridge there. William T. Riker.
     
  18. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Umm, the ship was constantly firing at the Klingons as far as the soundscape on the bridge was concerned: the phasers were going "ping ping" again and again.

    Not really - the main phasers face in every direction, and there's a stern torpedo tube to cover for the bow tube. If anything, there were more phaser strips available to Riker when mooning the Klingons: the ones at the stern cannot fire forward, while none of the ones facing forward are incapable of firing aft. Perhaps Starfleet wisely designs its ships with firepower concentrated to protect a retreat?

    ...Were probably upgraded by the tech wizard Soran. After all, he did promise to do something about the Klingon ship being a hopeless underdog - and the Klingons themselves were mightily surprised by the fact that their shields held.

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  19. Maestro

    Maestro Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Yes, it did. Its fatal design flaw was the writers.
     
  20. Praetor

    Praetor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I'll go along with that one. :rommie: