Spoilers I really would like to read a novel set during the PIC Season 3 finale

[The Wormhole]

There's tons of potential for books set around the fleet museum.

They could even do a series of books, where a different ship is stolen each time

"Someone's stealing the USS Cochrane."
"Why does anyone want an Oberth class ship? Even if it is the only one of that class that's never been destroyed..."

 

[Sci]

What about someone sabotaging exhibits? Stealing parts?

Is that really a story or a vignette? Like, sabotaging an exhibit.. to me that sounds like an introductory part to a larger story set somewhere else. Same with stealing parts.

Holograms from various ship's files running amok? A murder? A hostage taking? ("Get this ship running and get me out of here or I will kill your engineering team.")

All of those stories sound like they could basically be set anywhere though.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Just a gentle reminder to thread participants to not discuss potential story ideas, please.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

It was. The saucer was largely intact, but its frame was surely damaged too much by the crash to make it practical to put it back into service. But Geordi was the director of the Fleet Museum and was able to devote years of effort to restoring the saucer and mating it with the battle hull of the USS Syracuse.

I have a friend who does exactly that kind of work at Udvar-Hazy. But the museum exhibits he works on don't have working weapon systems, nor are they loaded with ordinance. The idea that Geordi's kitbashed D would have working phaser arrays and be loaded with photon torpedoes is effing nonsense.

 

[Christopher]

But the museum exhibits he works on don't have working weapon systems, nor are they loaded with ordinance. The idea that Geordi's kitbashed D would have working phaser arrays and be loaded with photon torpedoes is effing nonsense.

I had the same thought weeks ago with regard to the Bounty. No way would they have left a functional cloaking device in place.

 

[The Wormhole]

I have a friend who does exactly that kind of work at Udvar-Hazy. But the museum exhibits he works on don't have working weapon systems, nor are they loaded with ordinance. The idea that Geordi's kitbashed D would have working phaser arrays and be loaded with photon torpedoes is effing nonsense.

Technically, there weren't torpedoes on board, when they're getting ready to depart at the end of episode 9 Geordi says there are drones loading torpedoes at that moment. Though that just raises the question, why are working torpedoes kept at the museum?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Though that just raises the question, why are working torpedoes kept at the museum?

In case of just such an emergency, when every ship must be scrambled into action.

 

[Christopher]

In case of just such an emergency, when every ship must be scrambled into action.

Riiiiight, because the Spirit of St. Louis at the Smithsonian is always ready to be armed for aerial combat at a moment's notice...

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

The Enterprise-D could hold its own regardless.

Okay, so maybe the museum also restores various armament devices as either pet projects of certain engineers, or to donate to other species as part of defense treaties/to supply outposts with defensive capabilities.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I have no problem with there being a stockpile of missiles at the museum. At the end of the day, it is a Starfleet installation that is just as vulnerable to attack as any other.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Especially if the attackers' goal is to take lives in some kind of terrorist attack.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Though that just raises the question, why are working torpedoes kept at the museum?

Sometimes the patrons need a little extra encouragement to make a “donation” at the end of the tour…

But seriously, the museum is the old Earth Spacedock, IIRC. That thing was HUGE. I can’t imagine that all of it needs to be used for museum-y things, so I guess it wouldn’t surprise me too much if Starfleet still used it as a resupply depot for that system/sector.

I know no naval museum would do such a thing today, but none of them also take up the equivalent of an entire major city, either.

 

[Christopher]

I have no problem with there being a stockpile of missiles at the museum. At the end of the day, it is a Starfleet installation that is just as vulnerable to attack as any other.

I suppose that could be, analogously to how the National Museum of the United States Air Force is located on the grounds of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. So maybe not so much the museum being a military complex as it being part of a Starfleet complex that has other functions. After all, as I realized weeks ago (edit: and as Avro commented while I was writing my post), the Spacedock structure is way too huge to be only a museum. It's got hundreds of levels, maybe thousands.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

It'd be a great place to find/replicate out-of-date parts for your derelict ship. They probably have a huge scrap reserve, and tons of replicator patterns for rare designs in their databases.

 

[Relayer1]

It'd be a great place to find/replicate out-of-date parts for your derelict ship. They probably have a huge scrap reserve, and tons of replicator patterns for rare designs in their databases.

Yup, they either made some, or beamed some in from elsewhere.

With regard to the phasers, Geordie would have been in charge of the rebuild and wanted it 100% complete. The phaser systems might have been disabled and locked down but he would have the codes. Or the missing part.

 

[Christopher]

With regard to the phasers, Geordie would have been in charge of the rebuild and wanted it 100% complete. The phaser systems might have been disabled and locked down but he would have the codes. Or the missing part.

I find it hard to believe any museum would permit one of its exhibits to have functional weapons or other dangerous systems even installed, let alone just one step away from being activated. I mean, the insurance liability would be immense. Okay, moneyless society, but they must have some kind of insurance system to create an incentive for not doing insanely irresponsible things like that.

I mean, the exhibit exists for the benefit of the general public, tourists who come aboard to look around. When are they ever going to see systems like phaser banks? Maybe one sample phaser bank would be on display in the exhibit hall next to the ship, along with a sample torpedo, sample probe, sample transporter emitter, that sort of thing. Even something like the warp core would probably just be a dummy replica with a flashing light show. Antimatter's dangerous, y'know.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I suppose that could be, analogously to how the National Museum of the United States Air Force is located on the grounds of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. So maybe not so much the museum being a military complex as it being part of a Starfleet complex that has other functions.

Or the KSC Visitor Complex: it runs bus tours into both KSC and the adjacent military facilities on Cape Canaveral.

So far, I haven't seen any "story ideas" on this thread. Certainly nothing of the magnitude of

Spoiler: An idea I hope never makes it into print, even in a fanzine

"Starfleet Security sends a new recruit from M113 after a mass rapist/murderer. Who then learns what it means to get eaten by a salt vampire."

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I find it hard to believe any museum would permit one of its exhibits to have functional weapons or other dangerous systems even installed, let alone just one step away from being activated. I mean, the insurance liability would be immense. Okay, moneyless society, but they must have some kind of insurance system to create an incentive for not doing insanely irresponsible things like that.

@KRAD suggested on Facebook that it's better to think of Geordi as a car culture type, restoring the D like she's a vintage car. But in some ways, I think that's actually worse. A vintage car isn't a WMD. A fully-functional starship is. A 1930s Bentley isn't capable of reducing a planet to magma. The Enterprise-D can. Yes, Geordi isn't the kind of person to go on a genocidal spree like that, but that doesn't mean others aren't, nor that having fully functional starships at the Fleet Museum is all but inviting terrorists and hostile powers to attempt to steal the exhibits.

 

[Relayer1]

...Even something like the warp core would probably just be a dummy replica with a flashing light show. Antimatter's dangerous, y'know.

Yup. Geordie overstepped the brief somewhat didn't he ?

Then again, maybe they take the exhibits out for a spin now and then ? I'd expect the display ships to have some sort of engineering crew.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Starfleet Academy would want recruits to be familiar with a variety of (types of) ships/tech, regardless of whether they'll ever use one after they graduate. So maybe they get to use the inventory.

What a museum means by the late 24th/early 25th century doesn't have to be a static collection of non-functioning exhibits and realistic/tactically useless simulators.

Certain items may be tour fodder, while others are training equipment, restoration projects, defensive backups, etc.