where someone looks at the enterprise the wrong way and geordie has to evacuate main engineering? did they visit this bit of technobabble too often, enough to say it's a design flaw? or just an overrused trope, lazy writing and nothing more?
Enterprise D's terrifyingly volatile warp core stability?
- Thread starter Captain Triggered
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It could literally go either way. As much as I love the D, and would like to think it was just lazy writing that made her appear so fragile, she was a newer ship, and given the fate of other Galaxy-class starships, it could very well be that the Galaxy class didn't have a very sturdy warp core design.
I have to admit I found it a little amusing, especially after all the times the E-D (nearly-)suffered a catastrophic warp core failure, that in VOY "Day of Honor" they not only eject the core with a minimum of issues, but then are apparently able to simply pick it up and pop it right back into Engineering.
Leah Brahms wants to have a word with you.
With the registry number of the USS Nebula being lower than the USS Galaxy, I often wonder if the Galaxy had flaws even in the design stages.
Flaws like the neck area being structurally unsound, and I think the warp core is in that "neck" of the woods as well.
Flaws like the neck area being structurally unsound, and I think the warp core is in that "neck" of the woods as well.
Well, apart from the issue of it getting stolen. Wouldn't be a plotline on TNG as the crew could have a nearby ship tow them to a starbase for a spare to be fitted. But had the plot called for it, I'm sure it would have been as smooth as on VOY.
Many times it has become unstable because of a coolant leak that would lead to the antimatter pod losing its magnetic containment. They should have just had an easy way to do a quick eject of the antimatter pod (at a fast speed to get away from the ship fast) from the ship. No antimatter, no explosion, and they would still would have the warp core. They could then have a spare empty antimatter pod in storage and then have to get antimatter from somewhere.
I actually think it was just lazy writing. The writing staff incessantly complained about how difficult it was to write for the show, especially as it pertained to creating drama (nevermind the countless authors who have written so many wonderful Trek stories). So it stands to reason they would often fall back on something simple -- the ship's gonna blow up in 5 minutes! -- to mitigate their failures of imagination.
But when the writers were actually on their A-Game, the ship suddenly became a lot more durable. Look at Best of Both Worlds. The Borg weren't able to destroy the ship, in spite of their best efforts, recent victory over the fleet at Wolf 359 (which featured equally durable Starfleet ships that were physically intact albethey completely scuttled), and the stolen knowledge and experience of Captain Picard. The Borg even had multiple prolonged, shieldless, beam strikes directly at Engineering but the ship wouldn't go belly up. So either the beam was wicked weak (which wouldn't be consistent with the Borg), or the ship reasonably well-built. Add to that later incidents when we saw the Galaxy Class in action, like The Oddysey fighting a protracted battle against the Jem Hadar without any shield protection; she managed to hold together until rammed by a kamakazi that took out half of the stardive section before triggering an antimatter explosion.
Given that, I tend to think the Galaxy Class was at least as durable as the Constitution Refit and Miranda -- if not moreso because of the extra volume insulating core components. In The Wrath of Khan we saw both ships take incredible beatings, including direct piercing hits to the engineering section and even the outrught destruction of a warp nacelle. Yet both ships remained intact until the Genesis device exploded. And even earlier, the NX-01 suffered catastrophic damage in Azati Prime and the core didn't blow up, in spite of its relative primitiveness (is that a word?).
It's also worth noting that, in Contagion, Captain Picard was absolutely incredulous when Geordi explained that a warp core breach destroyed the Yamato. He even said, outright, what was being described was impossible. I tend to think that's probably more in line with the "reality" of Starfleet ships in the late 24th century. They've had 300 years of experience with warp drive technology and containing antimatter. I think it's entirely unlikely to believe that they screwed up something that basic -- and doubly unlikely that, if they did screw up, nobody would catch it in the 20 years the project took to complete.
But when the writers were actually on their A-Game, the ship suddenly became a lot more durable. Look at Best of Both Worlds. The Borg weren't able to destroy the ship, in spite of their best efforts, recent victory over the fleet at Wolf 359 (which featured equally durable Starfleet ships that were physically intact albethey completely scuttled), and the stolen knowledge and experience of Captain Picard. The Borg even had multiple prolonged, shieldless, beam strikes directly at Engineering but the ship wouldn't go belly up. So either the beam was wicked weak (which wouldn't be consistent with the Borg), or the ship reasonably well-built. Add to that later incidents when we saw the Galaxy Class in action, like The Oddysey fighting a protracted battle against the Jem Hadar without any shield protection; she managed to hold together until rammed by a kamakazi that took out half of the stardive section before triggering an antimatter explosion.
Given that, I tend to think the Galaxy Class was at least as durable as the Constitution Refit and Miranda -- if not moreso because of the extra volume insulating core components. In The Wrath of Khan we saw both ships take incredible beatings, including direct piercing hits to the engineering section and even the outrught destruction of a warp nacelle. Yet both ships remained intact until the Genesis device exploded. And even earlier, the NX-01 suffered catastrophic damage in Azati Prime and the core didn't blow up, in spite of its relative primitiveness (is that a word?).
It's also worth noting that, in Contagion, Captain Picard was absolutely incredulous when Geordi explained that a warp core breach destroyed the Yamato. He even said, outright, what was being described was impossible. I tend to think that's probably more in line with the "reality" of Starfleet ships in the late 24th century. They've had 300 years of experience with warp drive technology and containing antimatter. I think it's entirely unlikely to believe that they screwed up something that basic -- and doubly unlikely that, if they did screw up, nobody would catch it in the 20 years the project took to complete.
On the Galaxy Class, it's situated in the middle of the lower half of the stardrive section, just below the back of the neck.
A side question: in the possible future of "All good things...", the "Enterprise-D" were fitted with third spinal nacelle. As far as I knew, the triple-nacelle arrangement was considered "classic" for Federation dreadnoughts. But, according to canon, the nacelles could only work in pair. So, the only logical assumption that it's reserve nacelle, that ship could switch on in case any of usual pair would be damaged in combat?
Make sense for combat ships, actually.
Make sense for combat ships, actually.
Oh OK. I was looking at a cutaway that made it look a little farther forward.
I don't recall this was ever established as canon, though I may be wrong. What's the source?
My bad: it was not established in canon, it was established by Rodenberry.
http://www.trekplace.com/ap2005int01.html
Probert: Gene specified to me, in fact, that starship warp engines operate in pairs... only in pairs because they're codependent.
The thing about the warp core for me is that you can waltz into engineering and with a tiny hand phaser you can blow up the entire ship. It wouldn't take even a half baked villain to do this.
For a such a crucial piece of kit, it's staggeringly badly protected.
For a such a crucial piece of kit, it's staggeringly badly protected.
Even if it was canon, the middle engine could be a distinct pair of coils within a single nacelle.
Probably - or, as I mentioned before, the third nacelle might be a spare. Nacelles are quite easy to target, and if one destroyed, the warp drive is usually disabled, Three-nacelle design allow to immediately switch to the spare nacelle, thus providing extended durability.
Writers and the creative team just being lazy.
When it was time to destroy the ENT-D, she went down like a punk. Destroyed fighting a 20 year old BOP, no attempt to rotate shield modulation and Geordi was unable to shutdown and eject the warp core.
Count the times Geordi and Torres on VOY had near saves of shutting down or ejecting the core on their respective shows.
In Yesterday's Enterprise, it took 3 ships to destroy the D. The D had also fought off 2 Borg cubes under extreme duress. However, the crew of the D never forgot to rotate shield modulation or phaser harmonics against their adversaries in the show.
The creative minds behind the D's destruction in GEN (Berman, Braga and Moore) were all credited for writing Equinox on VOY. This time however, when someone (the Equinox EMH) was tranmitting the shield frequency to an enemy ship, the VOY crew managed rotate frequency and keep themselves from being destroyed. Despite the sabotage.
Lazy writing.
When it was time to destroy the ENT-D, she went down like a punk. Destroyed fighting a 20 year old BOP, no attempt to rotate shield modulation and Geordi was unable to shutdown and eject the warp core.
Count the times Geordi and Torres on VOY had near saves of shutting down or ejecting the core on their respective shows.
In Yesterday's Enterprise, it took 3 ships to destroy the D. The D had also fought off 2 Borg cubes under extreme duress. However, the crew of the D never forgot to rotate shield modulation or phaser harmonics against their adversaries in the show.
The creative minds behind the D's destruction in GEN (Berman, Braga and Moore) were all credited for writing Equinox on VOY. This time however, when someone (the Equinox EMH) was tranmitting the shield frequency to an enemy ship, the VOY crew managed rotate frequency and keep themselves from being destroyed. Despite the sabotage.
Lazy writing.
But if the placement of the "normal" 2 nacelles is warp dynamic somehow, wouldn't using the middle one nacelle a single other one create an imbalanced warp field?
It also doesn't explain the single nacelle Kelvin.
Er, why? As long as we have ANY TWO nacelles intact, we have warp.
We have three nacelles. In any given time, only two of them working in pair. If the enemy disabled one of working nacelles - we just link the other with spare one, and we have a pair nacelles again.
Bingo.
In-universe, whoever Starfleet hires to design starships in the Kelvin Timeline are the guys to go to. The USS Vengeance crashed into San Francisco and her core didn't breach.
Modern fighter aircraft are designed to be inherently unstable, to make them more dynamic in combat.
I'm sure they said the same thing about the Death Star.
Similarly, the Doomsday Machine battered the living fuck out of the Constellation and her reactors and antimatter supply didn't release.
I've felt for years that the TOS Enterprise was more resilient than the TNG Enterprise, even though that should be reversed.
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