Chekov's Checklist for Weapons & Defense

[Maurice]

Recently dug out the book "Chekov's Enterprise", Walter Koenig's account of making ST:TMP, to look up something about the Rec Deck scene, but while flipping through the book I saw something that I thought might be of interest to the guys into the show's tech.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 8

<SNIP>

8:00 a.m. I am handed a new page of dialogue on the set. It is a checklist the Chekov must check off (I've waited ten years top say that) as the ship leaves dry dock. The other actors receive similar sheets. Mine is as follows:

CHEKOV ................................ COMPUTER VOICE
Targeting Scanners ................. Check
Intruder Alert Scanners ............ Functioning
Phaser Power Accumulators .......... Standby
Phaser Manual Overrides ............ Automatic mode
Phaser Targeting ................... Standby
Photon Torpedo Load Status ......... Full
Photon Torpedo Targeting ........... Standby
Photon Torpedo Manual Overrides .... Automatic mode
All Deflector Screen Power Levels .. Optimum
Deflector Screen Placements ........ Automatic mode
Forcefield Power Levels ............ Optimum
​

Walter Koenig, Chekov's Enterprise, p.35-36

Interesting trivia...but note the item "Deflector Screen Placements", which sounds like the deflector screens can be placed in different locations or distances.

Also note that the Photon Torpedo load status is "full" while the ship is still in dock. Would this be the case if the torpedoes were intended to be pure energy in TMP? Make of that what you will.

 

[Timo]

Lovely stuff, this!

Interesting trivia...but note the item "Deflector Screen Placements", which sounds like the deflector screens can be placed in different locations or distances.

I believe that's what Gene wanted ever since Phase II: that the ship would have a dual protection system, consisting of an all-around forcefield and a series of "shields" that are very literal analogies to the shields held by knights. These shields would be called "deflector screens", and there would even be a ban on the use of the word "screen" for any other purposes: the main viewing device would now be called a "viewer".

Only about half of that terminology ever caught on and persisted through TNG. And the idea of a standoff "deflector screen" never was properly visualized in TMP (we only see the "inside view" which could just as well depict an attack against a skintight forcefield), and was replaced by a bubble deflector in TNG.

Also note that the Photon Torpedo load status is "full" while the ship is still in dock. Would this be the case if the torpedoes were intended to be pure energy in TMP? Make of that what you will.

I'll certainly use it to better fortify behind my longheld beliefs. Open minds? Hippie nonsense!

However, one could argue that even pure energy weapons could be based on the use of physical "charges" of some sort, one of which needs to be "detonated" to launch one pure energy round towards the enemy. Sort of like how Star Wars blasters spit out cartridges whenever they fire energy bolts... One could then have a full load of those charges in one's torpedo bays, ready to create pure energy bolts in the torpedo tubes. Or something.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mysterion]

^^^^^
Todd Guenther's Ships of the Star Fleet mentions something called a "Close In Deflector Shield System (CIDSS)", IIRC. I think he must have been thinking along the same lines.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Tells me two things (which I've always taken as a given).

1. Shields and deflectors are separate systems. "Shields" are a set of forcefields produced just over the hull like an extra layer of armor. Deflectors are a larger "bubble" shield around the ship, a more active defense field that can reach out farther and push incoming threats away. I've always felt this is because the two systems do different things: Shields, to repel energy beams and microscopic particles and deflectors as a more active defense system to cushion impacts with things like torpedoes and missiles and so on.

2. Both shields and deflectors have an optimum power level and only loose "effectiveness" when they are subjected to extreme load. Either due to overheat of field generator elements or a decrease of electrical current because of the high load; either way, shield/deflector power should return to full strength after a relatively short period of time, which means the only way to get through them is to keep hitting the ship with massed firepower until the shields and deflectors are overloaded.

At least that's how it works when I tinker with fanfics. [/shameless self plug]

 

[Timo]

The semantic distinction doesn't seem to hold through all of Trek, though. Perhaps the two shielding technologies were distinct once, but no longer necessarily are in all 24th century applications, which is why our heroes nowadays use the jargon more loosely?

FWIW, here's a window into Roddenberry's thinking when Trek was being redone either "In Thy Image" or as a new TV show - in Paramount chronology, this is from the time of transition from spinoff TV to a possible movie, from October 13, 1977. Memo quoted from the Reeves-Stevens book Star Trek Phase II - The Lost Series, p.50.

Subject: Forcefield terminology

FORCEFIELD SCREEN -- a defensive or protective field which envelops or surrounds a vessel, person or object. A FS can also be called simply a forcefield, still means the same thing. We never use the term forcefield shield as shield refers to a single plane of forcefield protection as opposed to protection which envelops or surrounds it. [..] The vessel's forcefields or forcefield screen(s) referred to as "up or down" and generally extend a full 360 degrees around the vessel. When necessary, a section of the forcefield can be opened up to admit an object, a beam, allow a subspace message to go out or persons to be beamed in or out by the ship's transporters. This is only necessary when the FS are up full. You can transport through or communicate through the weak or moderate FS. FS are usually thge responsibility of the ship's helmsman.

DEFLECTORS OR DEFLECTOR SHIELDS -- another kind of vessel protection which are the responsibility of the weapons and armament officer or bridge position. Unlike a forcefield, a deflector shield does not surround the vessel. It is a single plane of protection as the term shield would indicate. DS can be many and thrown up in many directions and they generally supplement the FS. If the FS is out of operation, the DS supplant them. The DS are the most powerful forcefields we have but the disadvantage of their being utilized in a single plane is that a clever enemy can get around them.

DEFLECTOR BEAM -- this is solely a navigational device. It is never referred to simply as a "deflector". It is the navigational beam which extends billions of miles of the travels of the starship, deflecting small space particles from the path of the starship or warning the starship of larger objects in the path in time for a very small directional change to be made.

Interesting ideas there, but apparently they never made it even to the Phase II writers' guide, let alone all the way to ST:TMP or TNG.

I wonder... Would it be consistent with TOS to claim that one has always been able to beam through weak shields - or that strong shields have always hampered communications?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Crazy Eddie]

The semantic distinction doesn't seem to hold through all of Trek, though.

It was MEANT to originally. Even in TNG we have Worf saying in "The Arsenal of Freedom,"

Shields just came on. Deflectors also up.

The same is implied in Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise without going into too much detail on what "deflectors" actually are.

I invariably assume that "deflectors" are actually part of the warp drive system and operate on a similar principle as the warp engines: a subspace field configured to repel incoming objects away from the ship at extremely high velocities. It would probably be produced by devices inside the nacelles too, allowing a starship to channel full warp power directly into the deflectors. The idea of angling a sheet of deflector energy could be consistent with this, I suppose.

 

[Irishman]

That's an awesome find!