Parasitic Starships

[Wingsley]

Has anyone ever drawn any schematics for TOS-era/23rd century deep space probes?

I was recalling the VOY ep "Friendship One", with the early Earth probot starship by the same name:

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Friendship_1

It would seem logical that if Federation starships deployed probots in deep space, the ships would have to be compact enough to store, but be large enough (or expandable enough) to carry enough fuel to accomplish their mission(s), whatever that would be.

In "By Any Other Name", Spock suggests to Rojan that a robot ship could be sent to Kelva in the Andromeda galaxy. This seems to reiterate the notion of deep space probots.

So, what do you think a 23rd-century Starfleet deep space probot would look like?

 

[Unicron]

Jackill's work includes movie-era probes and torpedo variants.

 

[Timo]

To be fair, TOS era was when naval manned helos ops from ships other than carriers for ASW/antishipping strike were just being invented.

Who cares about manned helos in a thread about robotic extensions to the mothership, though? DASH was flying back then. If something as profilic as our favorite television show had paid attention to this cute little machine, perhaps it (and the concept of remotely piloted naval systems) wouldn't have been killed in 1970.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[westwords2020]

Well, the two kind of go together. Manned helos and tiltrotors came about at the time of the DASH's demise and USN was cautious about manned parasitic a/c let alone robotic vehicles.
Nowadays, Fire Scout can autonouly land/takeff and helos are developed into remote sensing and attack platforms.
Tiltrotors hold performance in payload/range/speed/response time over helos and are making Iraq debut soon.
Though limited to transport role/special ops ingress/egress, the V-22 has inherent capacity to be configured for many more types of missions. Just like an ST runabout or a shuttle with convertible/mission kit interiors. Current example of swapout mission kits is the new LCS seaframe whose capability is defined by what type of mission module is carred for ASW, SUW, MIW, special ops support.

 

[Wingsley]

^^ This is vaguely similar to what I was talking about for the "Shipboard Fighter" thread you started in this forum.

 

[BolianAuthor]

Wingsley said:
It isn't just the notion of the studio going to the trouble of constructing new miniatures and sets/mockups for parasitic spacecraft, probots, etc. There's another take on this: take a look at my pet peeve, "That Which Survives".

Here's a story were four officers beam down to a planet with minimal clothing (just ordinary duty "fatigues"), one sidearm apiece, one (presumably short-range) communicator apiece, and a three tricorders:

http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=92&pos=12

No food, no water, no rations or survival gear of any kind, no tent, no sleeping bags, not even a jacket like the kind used in "The Cage":

http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=20&pos=85

As one fan posted on another forum of this web-site: not even a freaking knife!

There are six transporter pads and only four of them. Even if the Enterprise could not spare personnel, one would think regulations would forbid officers to beam down to an unfamiliar planet with such a minimal equipment manifest. If this planet is as mysterious as Spock's scans/probes suggest, even if no long-term expedition is required, and this beam-down is only a preliminary visit, one would logically expect it to be taken a little more seriously. Regardless of which officers or how many are in the landing party, why would ANYONE beam down without a plan in place in case the Enterprise's attention is suddenly diverted? It is, after all, a mysterious planet. After what happened on Cestus III ("Arena") and Minara II ("The Empath"), it would seem a little more effort, like maybe a fifth transporter pad delivering some kind of "mission pack" with a medi-kit, transmitter, and other basics would be common sense. It doesn't have to be an expensive or elaborate prop, or even fancy. It could look like this:

http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=38&pos=5

...or any of these...

http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=38&pos=9

Just something simple. It wouldn't even have to be opened as part of the ep.

This may not seem to specifically be in line with the kind of spacecraft or technology that's being suggested in this thread, but it does open up a new dimension to the same basic logic applied here. Starfleet is not a strictly military organization, but their mission and their operations do have military characteristics. Even without the "Star Fleet Battles" genre of gaming and fanon, I would hope this new generation of TREK fiction and fan-films will begin to show a more credible picture of Federation starships as explorers.

One can hope, anyway...

Unfortunately, it is because of the nature of Star Trek storytelling... the Star Trek universe is one where it is basically a given that the planet we'll see this week is an exact copy of Earth, environment-wise, so rather than focus on details like fatigues, camp equipment, medkits, knives, and other survival essentials, they just beam on down, and tell the story.

This is where I really love the new BSG... before they even take a Raptor party down to Kobol or New Caprica, we are SHOWN how everyone involved presents all the data on the world to Admiral Adama, and how everyone pours over the details of the world, like terrain, climate, vegetation, possible animal life, etc. Even then, when the Raptor teams are launched, they go down with full gear... medkits, weapons, rations, etc.

The same may go for Stargate shows, I dunno... I don't really watch Stargate much. But as I said, I think it's because of the Trek style of just "tell the story and move along" style of storytelling.

 

[Wingsley]

I think if there was one good thing about ENT, it is that they were *starting* to move away from that a little.

I don't think it would be necessary for TREK eps to illustrate big, long, drawn out deals where everyone is loading up tons of equipment just for a preliminary mission. In "That Which Survives", that clearly was not necessary. It was just a quick check on the planet to see if a survey party or a science vessel should be ordered.

What gets me about the ep is that there are six transporter pads, they're only using four of them, so I don't see why they could not have introduced a "mission pack" as a prop, shown it beaming down with them, and they could've used it for things like a caneteen of water, extra equipment (I think it would've been neat if Sulu-on-watch had shot Losira with a high-powered phaser rifle!) and maybe a tent or a fly for resting personnel to recline under.

It would not have been a big deal, and could've added to the story.

This was a contrast from "The Cage", where we at least see landing party members putting on jackets and holstering weapons.