Generations - Enterprise D evacuation question..

[mr.peany]

Forgive me if this has been asked before, but during the evacuation of the stardrive section just prior to the core breach, there is a scene of Crusher and fellow staff and patients evacuating the main sickbay.

From my understanding, Sickbay is located on deck 12 of the saucer section, so it begs the question as to why was there a need to evacuate in the first place?

Was this a simple goof on the writers part?

Or a creative decision to give at least another few seconds of Crusher screen time?

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Maybe its in case the decks below them get shoved up their butts?

IDK

 

[Aldo]

Maybe the main sickbay was being fumigated for roaches or something and in Generations they were using the secondary sickbay. Which happens to be located in the aft section of the ship.

 

[JoeFromEarth]

methinks they were going to a safe location. y'know, like a tornado shelter or saucer-crashing shelter or something...

 

[Bishop76]

Seeing how many goofs there were in that whole crash scene, it was probably nothing more than just another goof, or like you suggested, a way to get McFadden a bit more screen time. If there's any one constant through the TNG movies, it's that the writers clearly got lazy.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Goof in the writers' part, but I would summize:

Possible leaks and break from medical supplies could pose a health risk, so Sickbay had to be evacuated.


I haven't seen the film in probably six or seven years -- was there an on-screen reference for the transporters being knocked out? If not, why didn't they emergency transport the people inhabiting the stardrive section? We already know there are large mass transporters, and even in the Enterprise B day, in a short amount of time, with temporal fluctuations, Scotty was able to get a lot of people. After all, not all of the stardrive has living quarters, and a large portion live in the suacer, so I would think you could empty out the stardrive section rather quickly.

 

[JB2005]

^Kinda flies in the face of design logic...hell even in ENT sickbay was the most heavily protected area of the ship.

ENGINEER ONE: So, we put the sickbay in the middle of the middle of the saucer, then if it crashes, people can congregate there, that way they'll have immediate access to medical care.

ENGINEER TWO (Who looks suspiciously like Rick Berman...just saying...): We could do that...or we could put it in a BADLY positioned area

ENGINEER ONE: ...why?

ENGINEER TWO: Because Gates Mc...Dr Crusher has little to do in the movies, if they ever have to evacuate then she should at least play a role! Otherwise she'll just bitch and moan more...

ENGINEER ONE: What movies?

ENGINEER TWO: Exactly! Now get started, oh and while you're at it, put a glass window on the bridge, have a small child drop a teddy bear for no reason and tell Picard to casually disregard a priceless artifact!

ENGINEER ONE: ...

ENGINEER TWO: Oh yeah, and is the device that allows the shields to be remodulated installed yet?

ENGINEER ONE: It won't arrive until Tuesday.

ENGINEER TWO: Launch monday!

 

[tharpdevenport]

We've seen repeatedly they keep chemical in tubes about the place, and cultures, too. Any one of these may not be safe on skin contact or airborn. And how knows what dangerous substances might be create when some of them mix.

We are talking about a ship that, when initeral dampners go offline, has no seatbelts.

 

[JB2005]

^ But we've also seen in VOY how they have lockable cupboards in sickbay...

 

[tharpdevenport]

Intrepid design was designed long after Galaxy ... upgrades!

Still no seatbelts though.

 

[JB2005]

ENGINEER TWO: If we fit seatbelts, people are going to spend their entire days sat down strapped in...we can't have that...

It's why NASA didn't put seatbelts into the Space Shuttle, I mean sure they would stop people getting hurt, but who wants to watch people strapped into a space ship when there's turbulance? You miss out on all the drama!

 

[Warp Coil]

When the decision was made to separate the ship, no one knew that the resulting explosion would push the saucer into the atmosphere of Veridian III, or that the helm would suddenly become non-responsive, and that they would have to implement a crash landing on the planet surface. Main sickbay is on deck 12 of the saucer (the underside) so it would make sense to evacuate the lower decks if they knew that they were going to land. But they didn't, so...

The logical explanation is that Crusher was helping to evacuate the secondary sickbay unit in the stardrive section. The saucer and stardrive sections are capable of functioning completely independently of one another. They've each got their own bridges, shuttlebays, thrusters, impulse engines, computer cores, etc. So naturally they'd each have to have a sickbay.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

I've had enough of your logic, damn you!

 

[arch101]

It was purely for drama. Nothing communicates urgency like evacuating a hospital. In reality, it makes no sense.

 

[RedShirt]

The logical explanation is that Crusher was helping to evacuate the secondary sickbay unit in the stardrive section. The saucer and stardrive sections are capable of functioning completely independently of one another. They've each got their own bridges, shuttlebays, thrusters, impulse engines, computer cores, etc. So naturally they'd each have to have a sickbay.

That's the way I always rationalized it.
Now the question shifts to why the hell were there a bunch of kids in engineering during a battle? Possible life insurance scam?

 

[tharpdevenport]

There is a complete set of blue prints for the Enterprise D -- does it indeed have a Sickbay, or medical adjunct in the stardrive section?


SIDE BAR, BUT...
I don't know why this never occured to me before, but since the Enterprise can be used to emergency evacuated hundreds & hun dreds of people, and bring them to safety elsewhere, wouldn't it stand that there most be at least a couple of public restrooms full of toilets for temporarily housed refugees?

 

[AriesIV]

My guess is during an evacuation alert you go to a designated shelter. A core-breach scenario could play out with a severe blast of radiation to the underside of the saucer so anyone below a certain point would be evacuated to (say) Deck Six.



Here is how I would have set up the entire "end of the D."

First the battle. I would have had Riker order LaForge to change the shield settings. LaForge does so and the Cleavage Sisters use their "eye spy" to plan another shot... and another shot... For whatever reason LaForge has someone else adjust the shields and the Klingons lose the advantage... and the Enterprise hands them a cup of WhupAss. Pure utter random luck.

After the battle... LaForge and a couple of Techs are trying to stabilize the core. A couple of throwaway lines (even background dialog) can establish A) they cannot eject the core for whatever reason (structural damage? Core is too unstable?) and B) the core needs to be shut down RIGHT NOW or something might happen.

LaForge calls the bridge to tell them he's taking the core offline and as he does the technobabble hits the rotary air distribution inducer. He then tells the bridge HE IS CUTTING THEM LOOSE because the core is too unstable and he jettisons the saucer by remote.

Now we have several scenes of everyone evacuating from the Stardrive by shuttle and escape pod and transporter. LaForge and the last handful jump aboard the last shuttle and head to the saucer as the core goes critical... and the Saucer comes to their rescue beaming them off the shuttle.

However! Several large pieces of the exploding Stardrive hit the Saucer causing massive damage. The saucer is caught in the gravity well and is in a rapidly decaying orbit so Riker orders them to prepare for emergency landing. The rest plays out as in Generations with a highly chaotic almost distortions landing with Troi at the helm and Data saving the day by rerouting the technobabble through the ass-defrying modulator.

 

[arch101]

^^^God, you should write for TV!

 

[AriesIV]

^^^God, you should write for TV!

Naaah. Too easy.

 

[Jerikka Dawn]

There is a complete set of blue prints for the Enterprise D -- does it indeed have a Sickbay, or medical adjunct in the stardrive section?

Not sure about blueprints, but the stardrive section had a sickbay or medical facility at least during The Arsenal of Freedom which reported to Ensign T'su that Doctor Crusher was going to be alright.

Like RedShirt, I always wondered why there were so many kids in the stardrive section during Generations.