How long does it take to get a shuttle ready?

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I usually forgive flaws in 24th century shows when comparing them to Enterprise (even though I like Enterprise more than most) because those 24th Century shoes were produced before Enterprise without the production flexibility (i.e. CGI scenes) but occasionally I still wonder about things. In Enterprise, a shuttle can be dispatches as soon as the order is given. Minutes later, if that. In the episode "Darmok," from TNG, however, Riker orders Worf to take a shuttle down. This was while its still day time on the planet, but then we cut away, and even see night scenes as Picard is making camp. It's only after the commercial that the shuttle was launched.

Why did it take so long?

Thanks!

 

[Nerys Myk]

With only two shuttle pods as their primary way to get down to a planet, I'd imagine the pods were always ready to go on the NX-01.

 

[Timo]

In the episode "Darmok," from TNG, however, Riker orders Worf to take a shuttle down. This was while its still day time on the planet, but then we cut away, and even see night scenes as Picard is making camp. It's only after the commercial that the shuttle was launched. Why did it take so long?

To nitpick, we don't know what time of day it is in the planet when Riker gives the order. We might claim that our starshipside heroes only hailed the Tamarians after night had fallen on the planet, and then dispatched the shuttle without any delay - which would mean having to explain why the Tamarians weren't hailed immediately after Picard was kidnapped.

In several episodes of TOS, TNG and VOY, it appears that at least one shuttle is kept on a relatively "hot" standby, as indicated by the fact that a single person can steal one and fly away. In TAS, it even seems that sometimes up to half a dozen shuttles are kept at such readiness so that a theft can take place! Overall lack of preparedness thus sounds like a poor explanation for the delay in "Darmok".

Furthermore, it's unlikely that basic flight preparations (say, fueling the craft) would take the hour or so that it would take at a minimum to get from bright daylight to deep darkness, depending on latitude and speed of rotation on a plausible Class M world. Although here we may note that the surface location is surrounded by mountains, and darkness might fall fairly quickly, at high sun angles.

Two other types of "preparation" might be speculated on. Perhaps Riker wanted to install special communications gear to defeat Tamarian jamming, and LaForge had to build that from scratch because the type of jamming was so exotic... And/or perhaps Riker saw that there was no immediate need to intervene, what with the two captains apparently peacefully coexisting, and wanted to see what the Talarians would do next - and only when they did nothing did he risk sending down the shuttle.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[MacLeod]

It's likely that at least one shuttle is held at flight ready. But a ship as large as a Galaxy Class has numerous types of shuttles. So the specific type of shuttle they wanted to use might not have been flight ready.

As Timo said they might have wanted to install specific gear into the shuttle.

But as with the speed of ships, a shuttle is ready as fast or slow as the plot needs it to be.

 

[Timo]

It's just that the preparing of a shuttle has never taken significant plot time. Even in "Immunity Syndrome", where they install major new hardware on a shuttle while the mothership is suffering from power shortages and personnel fatigue and other handicaps, the delay is at the very most thirty minutes (because Scotty gives a helpful countdown on mothership power levels in the background, quoting 1h15min of power remaining before launch order and 45min after shuttle "loss"), and probably much less.

In this particular case of bad editing, we may thus invent exceptional reasons for the delay the shuttle launch - or we may surrender to the idea that the scenes taking place on the planet were not simultaneous with the scenes taking place in space. That is, the shuttle mission was but a "flashback" from the point of view of Picard and Dathon's chat by the fireside.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Jimi_James]

Like many things in Trek, it takes 47 minutes to prepare a shuttle craft for departure, which translates into however long the story needs it to take.

 

[T'Girl]

I figure that shuttles are less fighters and transports on a aircraft carrier, and more minivans and pickup trucks down in the motor pool. As we (almost) saw with Matt Decker, you get in, start it and leave.

 

[The Wormhole]

Of course, there is also some sort of pre-flight checklist that shuttle pilots are supposed to go through. I remember a Voyager episode where Tom Paris began going through one and Janeway told him to skip it. Something tells me, this checklist is skipped more often than it's used.

 

[Timo]

...Although it's funny that Tom Paris out of all people would have to be specifically told to do so!

We could always speculate that Riker specifically wanted the shuttle mission to take place during local night, according to some Starfleet special ops doctrine we are not completely aware of. That is, he immediately hailed the Talarians, but then put the shuttle mission on hold until the conditions were favorable for the type of mission he was going to attempt. Perhaps he refused to believe that he would be facing just one Child of Tama armed with a dagger, and wanted to use the cover of darkness to his advantage.

Another possibility is that he saw the futility of trying to fly the shuttle all the way down, and in fact only wanted to grab Picard with a shuttle-mounted transporter - and at that stage, shuttle transporters were rare things, requiring extensive and time-consuming preparation. But the dialogue sort of suggests that landing was a major concern for the mission...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[F. King Daniel]

Most of the time in Trek, shuttles sit there like cars in a driveway. And taking them out is the equivalent of that.

The only time it seemed like there was more to it that I recall was the last movie, where we very briefly see a technician (in a unique uniform) working on the shuttle as Pike and the away team board it, then Pike gets launch instructions from "Shuttle command" as he's taking off.

 

[Knight Templar]

There could be a number of reasons the time would vary.

On U.S. aircraft carriers, when sailing in certain areas, combat aircraft are fueled, armed, ready to go on the catapults and take just seconds to launch. In others, lots of them are in the hangar or parked and required a while to prepare.

From a storytelling standpoint, "getting a shuttle ready" is for the same reasons that there is not a transporter right next to the bridge. You need story space where characters can "walk and talk" to provide expository dialogue that advances the story.

 

[Timo]

Yet the issue remains that "getting the shuttle ready" has never actually consumed plot time. Certainly no more than it takes to walk from the bridge (ready room, sickbay, whatever) to the shuttlebay.

It's not as if it consumes plot time in "Darmok", either - but the mishandled editing makes it look as if there is a delay where previously we could observe none.

Timo Saloniemi