Glaring flaw

[Hypaspist]

I've jumped around seasons 1-3 and more often than not, I like the episodes. I like the random aliens. I even like the Kazon. I don't know why they are so poorly regarded.

There is one thing that makes no sense to me though, and really kind of misses the whole point of the series: I've already seen two shuttles destroyed in less than ten randomly selected episodes. Unless I'm missing an episode where they have some sort of factory or industrial replicator, I'm really at a loss here. Even if that's the case, the replicator is one of the things I've never liked in any story.
Regardless, I don't think it makes a lot of sense to be so cavalier with shuttle usage when you know that you can't get a resupply.

 

[Guy Gardener]

It's not addressed, but they do build "something" spaceworthy 4 times the size and speed of a shuttle in season 5 or 6 twice.

 

[Melakon]

There has to be some sort of industrial replicator or fabrication device on board to make spare weapons parts, phaser power packs, engine and other ship parts for repairs, etc. I think they eventually wind up losing about 15 shuttles through the series. Never really figured out exactly why the Delta Flyer was created for the show, since it's just a fancy shuttle.

 

[F. King Daniel]

In a later episode, we see them build a "super shuttle" called the Delta Flyer from scratch in a day or two. Thus they must have the resources to replace the earlier designs even if they never bother to spell it out.

Similarly, an early episode has them claim they had only 38 photon torpedoes and "no way to replace them after they're gone" - yet they shoot at least 93 throughout the series.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The term Industrial Replicator is not used correctly by some people.

Considering how Kira was talking about them...

EDDINGTON: This briefing will contain information considered extremely sensitive by Starfleet Command. Please, do not share it with anyone who doesn't have a level seven security rating. It seems that during their recent invasion of Cardassia, the Klingons inflicted far more damage than we've been led to believe. Two weeks ago, the civilian government on Cardassia Prime secretly contacted the Federation Council and made an urgent request for industrial replicators. And that request has been granted.
DAX: How many replicators are we talking about?
EDDINGTON: Twelve, all class four.
KIRA: The Federation only gave Bajor two CFI replicators.
EDDINGTON: With all due respect, Bajor is just one planet. The Klingons have destroyed the industrial base of literally dozens of Cardassian worlds. With twelve CFI replicators, they can at least start building new power plants and factories.

A Class Four Industrial Replicator is used to re/build civilizations. Hundreds, maybe thousands of cities, buildings hundreds of metres tall, as well as possibly reclaiming cursed Earth by creating billions of tons of new fresh soil.

There must be many sizes of Replicators, and hell it's even in the name there are at least four types of Industrial Replicators, unless that's about generations when they were built rather than potency and throughput.

The holodeck according to Riker in Encounter at Farpoint is simultaneously a replicator, a transporter and a hologrid.

We have to assume that that is true of any holodeck, then any transporter pad can be turned into a replcator, or is already a replicator, just like the transporter pad in engineering we saw them using in Counter point.

(They don't actually need the pad.)

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

There are many many many boring pitstops on boring planets where they do boring trades for very important items that are then used to make more shuttles and more torpedoes. The PTB knew we did not want to watch whole episodes about this so they spared us.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I always assumed it was the genie they kept in the warp core. They rub it and wish for another shuttle or dozens of torpedoes and they magically appear without any drain on the ships apparently limited resources.

 

[Guy Gardener]

But Chakotay totalled at least ten Shuttles!

You can imagine the social penalty for doing this requires both nudity and balancing something on something else while running.

Leftovers from all that pledge/cadet Hazing crap at the Academy.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Those shuttles of Chak were metaphorical.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

VOY had an infinite amount of shuttles AND torpedoes. Despite both being consprised of limited resources. Recall that each shuttle is equipped with a warp core. How hard are those to make? Don't you need a significant amount of matter and antimatter.

Same thing goes for VOY torpedoes. See attached video.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIGxMENwq1k[/yt]

 

[Guy Gardener]

Deuterium is Hydrogen after it's been stuck in a super colider. In the 24th century a super colider probably looks like a soda can.

Antimatter is about fiddling with electrons.

• a subatomic particle of matter with the opposite charge of another particle that has a charge (e.g., an electron);
• a subatomic particle of matter that is a variant of, but with very different properties of, another particle (e.g., a quark); and/or
• matter which is physically identical at a macro level to, but exists in a parallel universe from, other matter.

The first two definitions just means that you are looking for something, or making something that has an opposite charge to Deuterium, or a weird almost sort of Deuterium, which means that Antimatter is probably as plentifully found in space as deuterium.

The third definition of antimatter is magic science bullshit.

 

[Hypaspist]

alrite I'm a biology guy so anything that blurs the line like that is just going to fall into either the plausible or plot hole category. Honestly I've never liked replicators because they were always a bridge too far for me, even though I've never been that bothered by the transporter. I always justified it that they weren't just converting useless matter into food or whatever, but that they required some sort of source materiel that could be converted into a variety of nutrients.

The idea of industrial or heavy replicators (or whatever) kind of make everything pointless. It's pretty well established that they need resources to build things to begin with. Also, despite the Federation's semi socialist private economy, it is clear that all of the powers in the series have some sort of macro economy they rely on to build their ships. If I'm missing something from an episode where they explained it, my bad.

The endless photon torpedoes don't really bother me because those would be easy to manufacture. After all (according to the original tech manual), they are basically just shells that contain pure energy. As long as the ship's power source is functioning, all they need to do is construct the torpedo casing out of anything they can find.

In short, I assume it was just something the writers never really considered because they were in a TNG mindset. For convenience, we can assume that the resupply and trading missions were all mundane and not worthy of episodes of their own.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The producers were assholes who didn't care.

You are right to hate them.

This helps...

SISKO: Dinner.
EDDINGTON: What about these?
SISKO: What about them?
EDDINGTON: It makes it a little difficult to eat.
SISKO: You'll manage.
EDDINGTON: Replicator entree number one oh three. Curried chicken and rice with a side order of carrots. Or at least that's what they want us to believe. But you and I both know what we're really eating. Replicated protein molecules and textured carbohydrates.
SISKO: It's not that bad.
EDDINGTON: It may look like chicken, but it still tastes like replicated protein molecules to me.
SISKO: If you don't want it, don't eat it.

On Enterprise they used "protein resequences" which was a precursor to the "Food Synthesizers" they used in TOS.

Another quote form Enterprise on the matter of recycling, well it's really a maxim: "Boots from Poop."

 

[Jeri]

Between Tom, the pilot, and B'Elanna, the engineer, they had the desire and the know-how; Janeway got them the coffee (i.e., supplies). Just a can-do kind of ship.

 

[Guy Gardener]

All she had to do was sell the Kazon a replicator in the pilot and everything would have been fine.

Oh.

And shot Neelix.

 

[Nebusj]

Deuterium is Hydrogen after it's been stuck in a super colider. In the 24th century a super colider probably looks like a soda can.

Antimatter is about fiddling with electrons.

Well, there's no guessing what the Star Trek writers think deuterium, or antimatter, is (beyond 'magic science words'), but real-world deuterium is just an ordinary, naturally-occuring isotope of hydrogen, one which has a single proton and a single neutron in the nucleus. Approximately one in every six thousand atoms of hydrogen is naturally deuterium.

Deuterium is presently thought to be useful because it ought to be easier to make fuse than regular hydrogen, which has a single proton and no neutron and is about half the mass of deuterium.

Antimatter hasn't got anything particular to do with electrons, except that the antimatter equivalent of electrons, dubbed positrons for historic reasons, were the first bits of antimatter discovered and are the easiest to find, and put to practical use.

Superficially antimatter sounds like it should be a good power store, since in theory all the energy contained in the mass of the particles could be released, although there's rather enormous piles of practical difficulties to overcome for that, and there's making the stuff to be done. (There's no evidence of dense regions of naturally-occurring antimatter, but it can be made if you … put a lot of energy into it.)

 

[Ithekro]

Wouldn't you only get a glaring flaw if Abbrams was directing. Or is that just lense flare?

 

[dub]

Warp particles!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I don't see the big deal. With enough of the crew working on it, they can probably build a shuttle from scratch in a day, maybe two. And this is without industrial replicators.

The only reason the Delta Flyer took as long as it did was that it was an all-new design. With a proven model like any of the standard shuttlecraft, they could have a new one out there lickety-split.

 

[Melakon]

All she had to do was sell the Kazon a replicator in the pilot and everything would have been fine.

Oh.

And shot Neelix.

Janeway tells the Kazon they can't give them replicator technology because it's dependent on ship's power.

But if there are portable replicators for use in the field, a basic consumer version of a Starfleet field item perhaps, how are those things powered? Couldn't the ship's replicators create one and give them that? Perhaps it would be limited by the level of quantum resolution and unable to make highly sophisticated technological items.