Aft torpedo tubes

[Wingsley]

"Balance of Terror" showed us the weapons control room, with the weapons crew reporting that forward, midship and aft weapons were all ready. From this, we can logically extrapolate that the Enterprise had forward, midship and aft phasers and torpedo tubes. Further, a repeated clip of background intercom dialogue used on the Bridge during numerous TOS episodes did include a report from "Aft Phaser", implying these was at least one aft phaser bank and/or control officer reporting in.

 

[Gagarin]

"Balance of Terror" showed us the weapons control room, with the weapons crew reporting that forward, midship and aft weapons were all ready. From this, we can logically extrapolate that the Enterprise had forward, midship and aft phasers and torpedo tubes. Further, a repeated clip of background intercom dialogue used on the Bridge during numerous TOS episodes did include a report from "Aft Phaser", implying these was at least one aft phaser bank and/or control officer reporting in.

Indeed. At least 1 aft weapon, a phaser, would be good.

Speaking of background audio, it seems Constitution-class ships, or at least the Enterprise, had a tendency to drop gravity generation to .80 when under stress. This isn't that bad of a design flaw. I'd rather have that than the Galaxy class's never-working core-ejector and the psychopathic holodeck!

 

[Timo]

Enterprise would have to have been in a position some two hundred meters away from the Tamarian ship in order to necessitate that kind of angle.

That's just it, though - it looks exactly like that!

Whether it's Starfleet protocol to creep up that close, as a "goodwill" gesture, or whether it's Tamarian arrogance, the result is seen and then its consequences are felt. Why call it an "error" when this would go doubly against the evidence of our eyes?

Whenever the E-D confronts other, smaller ships, those are witnessed essentially touching the saucer or trying to get beneath it. That's just SOP for Star Trek encounters, for reason X.

"Balance of Terror" showed us the weapons control room, with the weapons crew reporting that forward, midship and aft weapons were all ready. From this, we can logically extrapolate that the Enterprise had forward, midship and aft phasers and torpedo tubes.

Not necessarily both phasers and torps in all the directions, though. Fwd and aft torps would be plenty already.

The TMP ship has phaser positions one could easily identify as "fwd", "aft" and "amidship" - the saucer, shuttlebay and underbelly ones. The TOS ship may have featured all those already.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Enterprise would have to have been in a position some two hundred meters away from the Tamarian ship in order to necessitate that kind of angle.

That's just it, though - it looks exactly like that!

Whether it's Starfleet protocol to creep up that close, as a "goodwill" gesture, or whether it's Tamarian arrogance, the result is seen and then its consequences are felt. Why call it an "error" when this would go doubly against the evidence of our eyes?

Because in other shots, they weren't that close. Furthermore there's no dialog or implication for them needing or attempting to build a whole new weapon system to mount in a torpedo tube just for that one shot.

Whenever the E-D confronts other, smaller ships, those are witnessed essentially touching the saucer or trying to get beneath it. That's just SOP for Star Trek encounters, for reason X.

That's a bit of a new twist... are you now saying we should take all visuals literally and then disregard conflicting dialog? I.E. the Pagh's "forty thousand kilometers" actually being about 2000 meters from the edge of the saucer?

 

[Timo]

Because in other shots, they weren't that close.

In which shots? We have the ships nose-to-nose (or more like saucer-to-starboard-nacelle) in the same angle, seen from below the Tamarians, in basically all the establishing shots.

Furthermore there's no dialog or implication for them needing or attempting to build a whole new weapon system to mount in a torpedo tube just for that one shot.

Of course not, silly! It was a secret plot!

(The angle here is not to create a sensible scenario, but to create a scenario that explains away a thoroughly senseless VFX error. Saying that LaForge did a bit more than he said he did doesn't sound like too major a twist...)

Also, as a rule, I always take visuals at face value unless they are very specifically and pressingly contradicted. Star Trek is principally a visual story, and if we ignore the visuals, we ignore Star Trek.

The Pagh in "A Matter of Honor" was supposed to decloak to attack the E-D at 40,000 klicks, yes - but we don't see her until after this attack plan has been well and truly abandoned. So I accept that she's indeed only a couple of ship's lengths away, as is consistent and standard for friendly or brazen rendezvouses between two starships.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Also, as a rule, I always take visuals at face value unless they are very specifically and pressingly contradicted. Star Trek is principally a visual story, and if we ignore the visuals, we ignore Star Trek.

Well then, you should be the first to point out that the photon torpedo launcher also contains a powerful phaser bank, since the beam coming from the launcher is canon.

 

[Timo]

That's what the above threadlet is all about, right?

What the plot dictates is that the torpedo tube contain a special phaser bank, in a situation where ordinary ones weren't good enough. Which might be taken as an indication that it's there only in special situations.

Seriously, forks. ENT "Silent Enemy" already makes it canon that phasers can be built relatively quickly by a relatively inexperienced crew... I trust the E-D would possess the means to slap together a phaser segment or three in an hour, to repair battle damage, and that this ability could be put to other uses as well.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Crazy Eddie]

That's what the above threadlet is all about, right?

What the plot dictates is that the torpedo tube contain a special phaser bank, in a situation where ordinary ones weren't good enough.

Yeah, but THE PLOT doesn't dictate that. The insistence of trek fans to adhere to some bizzare rule that anything you see on screen is "canon" dictates that. Mainly this is because the writers and the effects people are two COMPLETELY different departments.

 

[T'Girl]

^ Continuity and canon are two seperate things. And trek fans opinions don't enter into it, if it appears on screen (or the sound tract) it is canon.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

^ Continuity and canon are two seperate things. And trek fans opinions don't enter into it, if it appears on screen (or the sound tract) it is canon.

True enough... hence the reason canon contains more than a few major discontinuities.