We see the use of the magic defense of shields initiated on Yellow and Red Alert, but how the shield generators form the Deflector Screens?
How are Deflector Shields generated?
- Thread starter PhaserLightShow
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What do the shield generators do to establish these protective shields, exactly?
I always imagined that shield generators (or emitters) are the "grooves" imbedded within the outer hull of a ship or within the actual hull layers, and that they all project a graviton field that ultimately forms a collective bubble around a ship. How strong those shields are may be dependent on how strong a ship's warp core is and how well they are able to block solid objects and energy, IMO.
That shields would be graviton trenches around the ship is quoted in Memory Alpha without references - hiding the fact that this interpretation comes from backstage sources only, primarily from the TNG Tech Manual. In onscreen terms, we're free to invent a way for the shield generators to erect the deflecting fields (or whatever), although I'm okay with gravitons. Tractor beams may well be graviton devices, too, and those and shields interact quite interestingly. The Borg like to use tractor beams as shield-draining weapons, even (after having used two separate devices for shield-draining and grabbing, respectively, in "Q Who?").
It is also fun to speculate that the first form of protection for Earth starships, as per ENT, was gravitic already: some sort of a highly concentrated (and "polarized") variant of their deck gravity, applied close to the hull surface. More power would allow that same gravitic trench to be deployed at a distance from the ship, resulting in the later "shield" tech that complements and sometimes replaces the "armor" tech, which would be nicely in keeping with the medieval roots of such terminology.
Timo Saloniemi
It is also fun to speculate that the first form of protection for Earth starships, as per ENT, was gravitic already: some sort of a highly concentrated (and "polarized") variant of their deck gravity, applied close to the hull surface. More power would allow that same gravitic trench to be deployed at a distance from the ship, resulting in the later "shield" tech that complements and sometimes replaces the "armor" tech, which would be nicely in keeping with the medieval roots of such terminology.
Timo Saloniemi
Also, don't forget that it has been established (I think) that transporters can beam in between shield generators. If I remember TOS stats, shields are very energy hungry and in a Taste of Armageddon, I believe the phasers could not be used with them up.
TOS showed people beaming out/down from starships with ease, regardless of shields - indeed, they did this in the very first episode to introduce the rule about shields blocking beaming up. And yes, shields are no doubt power-hungry, as not only do they reduce the power available to phasers in that same episode, but for this reason or some other they can't be kept up for any significant length of time, and are only raised at the last minute and with great prevarication.
But both of these TOS features seem to be moderated by the time of TNG, where there's no explicit mention of full shields reducing available weapons power, and beaming down/out through shields doesn't happen all that much.
Timo Saloniemi
But both of these TOS features seem to be moderated by the time of TNG, where there's no explicit mention of full shields reducing available weapons power, and beaming down/out through shields doesn't happen all that much.
Timo Saloniemi
However throughout TNG a somewhat more (quasi) detailed portrayal of shield tech implies that concepts such as "frequency" and "modulation" are critical factors in the ways various energy based devices interact, in this instance with regard to shield penetration.
Both weapons and transporters seem to be perfectly capable of bypassing (rather than penetrating) shields given the correct settings whilst the converse (precisely "modulated" shields) seem to be the source of the borg's ability to appear invulnerable to conventional weapons once they adapt. Obviously friendly devices are already pre set to do this in order to allow for outgoing weapons fire, boarding parties, sensor sweeps, etc.
Of course exactly what is meant by these terms is in reality somewhat ambiguous as we don't really know exactly what underlying phenomenon is being manipulated. However, we do know that it must have at least some commonality with EM spectrum radiation given the repeated references to frequencies.
However unlike any EM radiation I'm aware of it exerts a reactive physical force when in contact with external objects (see Relics), whilst also repelling a wide variety of energy and radiation types, along with numerous esoteric particles both real and imagined. But oddly enough, not communication signals....
My own personal take is that in reality shields would have to incorporate a number of technologies working in synergy to make this possible. It seems unlikely that any one phenomenon would be so convenient as to work efficiently against such a wide and varied spectrum of threats, both natural and artificial.
One might imagine that "shields" might in fact be a combination of standard forcefield tech, magnetic field generators, gravitic devices of some kind, subspace widgets and so forth, with "frequencies", "wavelengths" and "modulations" potentially having different meanings dependent on which aspect of a shields function was being discussed and what was potentially attempting to bypass it.
This is supported (sort of) in canon when shields are upgraded at various points to be able to cope with threats they had previously been susceptible to, meta phasic shielding for intense stellar radiation, randomly fluctuating shields to assist against the borg, whatever SF did to counter dominion polaron weaponry, etc etc. It seems that rather than simply becoming more powerful the shields are sometimes granted new features altogether.
In this model "shields" is a convenient catch all term to refer to a number of functionally related devices, much as "sensors" clearly refers to a variety of sensory technologies.
Both weapons and transporters seem to be perfectly capable of bypassing (rather than penetrating) shields given the correct settings whilst the converse (precisely "modulated" shields) seem to be the source of the borg's ability to appear invulnerable to conventional weapons once they adapt. Obviously friendly devices are already pre set to do this in order to allow for outgoing weapons fire, boarding parties, sensor sweeps, etc.
Of course exactly what is meant by these terms is in reality somewhat ambiguous as we don't really know exactly what underlying phenomenon is being manipulated. However, we do know that it must have at least some commonality with EM spectrum radiation given the repeated references to frequencies.
However unlike any EM radiation I'm aware of it exerts a reactive physical force when in contact with external objects (see Relics), whilst also repelling a wide variety of energy and radiation types, along with numerous esoteric particles both real and imagined. But oddly enough, not communication signals....
My own personal take is that in reality shields would have to incorporate a number of technologies working in synergy to make this possible. It seems unlikely that any one phenomenon would be so convenient as to work efficiently against such a wide and varied spectrum of threats, both natural and artificial.
One might imagine that "shields" might in fact be a combination of standard forcefield tech, magnetic field generators, gravitic devices of some kind, subspace widgets and so forth, with "frequencies", "wavelengths" and "modulations" potentially having different meanings dependent on which aspect of a shields function was being discussed and what was potentially attempting to bypass it.
This is supported (sort of) in canon when shields are upgraded at various points to be able to cope with threats they had previously been susceptible to, meta phasic shielding for intense stellar radiation, randomly fluctuating shields to assist against the borg, whatever SF did to counter dominion polaron weaponry, etc etc. It seems that rather than simply becoming more powerful the shields are sometimes granted new features altogether.
In this model "shields" is a convenient catch all term to refer to a number of functionally related devices, much as "sensors" clearly refers to a variety of sensory technologies.
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I have a theory regarding shields. You make an EM field to disperse phaser blasts and other energy and a magnetic field to push objects or hold them in place (such as Photon Torpedoes where they are held in place and detonate).
You see, there are two kinds of shields the way I see it: the TOS contour deflector screens (that project very thick/resilient metal armor around the ship via some kind of replicator technology) and the TNG sphere-like energy deflectors (that operate with the idea from the previous paragraph). It is possible that the Main Navigational Deflector Dish only uses the magnetic field and maybe a lower level EM field.
@PhaserLightShow
You see, there are two kinds of shields the way I see it: the TOS contour deflector screens (that project very thick/resilient metal armor around the ship via some kind of replicator technology) and the TNG sphere-like energy deflectors (that operate with the idea from the previous paragraph). It is possible that the Main Navigational Deflector Dish only uses the magnetic field and maybe a lower level EM field.
@PhaserLightShow
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Polarized Hull Plating operates by strengthening the molecular bond between hull plates.
@PhaserLightShow
So, it just makes the hull armour stronger, right?
So, when Reed is saying stuff like "hull plating is down to 20%" he's actually referring to how much of the polarising effect is left (after which holes start being blasted in the hull).
I guess that could make sense...
So, when Reed is saying stuff like "hull plating is down to 20%" he's actually referring to how much of the polarising effect is left (after which holes start being blasted in the hull).
I guess that could make sense...
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