Or for Spock. They both struggled with Moon-sized objects, though (although Spock's "Paradise Syndrome" misadventure would much better fit the observed facts if he struggled with Moon-like inertia or kinetic energy instead, that is, a smaller body at higher speed), while the generic Trek defense against very high speed, moderate rest mass attacks such as speeding spacecraft works much better.
This may also be how tractor beams do their magic, depriving the projectile of its kinetic energy without transmitting any of the momentum into the beam emitter. Perhaps the limiting factor is the ability to extend the inertia-depriving field across the volume of the target? Tractor beams would spread out to envelop entire attackers of starship size; would use their "secondary" mode of grabbing and pulling on larger targets, being unable to negate the entire mass; and would fail against targets where the part grabbed was below a threshold percentage of the volume. Extending the subspace field would then be key to managing the larger targets.
Good point. Then again, shields seem to be pretty much the same as tractor beams, pseudophysically - they even get used interchangeably every now and then, a tuned tractor beam serving as a shield in "Way of the Warrior", say. And shields are just CIWS with built-in 100% accuracy without any need for targeting.
This I gather ties into all of the above. Shields for some reason are always raised at the very last moment, suggesting that there are endurance problems with the tech. And atmospheric heat is an issue that seems to distress the ships involved only after at least half a minute of fiery VFX (although dialogue generally refers to longer exposures). If an antimatter explosion lasted for ten seconds instead of half a microsecond, shields might be unable to cope.
How to stretch a kinetic attack across a longer time period? A hailstorm of ball bearings or needles might be the way to go, much like a single solid mountain is but a shallow speed bump for a starship but a cloud of rocks is a genuine traffic hazard that makes the heroes slow down.
Yup. And I gather a planetary "Space Central" (such as quoted for Vulcan) is there for verbal-manual backup in sorting out the traffic, but relies heavily on automation in the more congested star systems.
Yup again - and the fact takes Kirk by surprise:
Note that Kirk still thinks the Zetarians are a mindless force of nature; it is odd indeed that MA would be left vulnerable to natural phenomena for political reasons. Sort of like omitting not just the coastal defense guns but also the breakwater because it's "an open port".
Note also the use of "planet" here for what Sulu more correctly called a "planetoid". Spock is rarely the one to forgo distinctions even when there's no difference... Perhaps this puts "planets" like Elba II in context, too?
The odd thing about the damage is how localized it is. Golden Gate is cut, not evenly melted. The shore facilities are pockmarked, not gradually more damaged as we move towards a putative ground zero in the San Francisco Bay (where the shifting waters could hide the center of the damage). Looks like a "kinetic" attack, with some debris piercing the shields and falling from the skies - but it's very odd, then, that the Breen could not make that happen to their advantage, with the debris carrying antimatter warheads.
...Perhaps all the craters came from a starship or some lesser defense vessel maneuvering inside the shield bubble and crashing?
As for the visual evidence from the above episodes, we might well argue that the ring of "destruction" spreading out from a torpedo impact at seeming hypersonic speeds is relatively harmless and confined to the upper atmosphere, and the continental-level destruction in "The Die is Cast" is more due to the sustained and largely unseen barrage, also involving the death rays.
Well, we saw lots of the usual sparkling when Krall's drones splattered against the surface (shields?) of Yorktown. Not much when they did the same against the flanks of the Enterprise - but there, the gasoline explosions would have covered most things, including skintight shield sparkles or the sudden emergence of hordes of elephants.
Shields were suggested to have been significant when Pike's ship dropped out of warp straight into Nero's debris field, since Pike didn't die but all the other, unshielded ships were lost. But probably not: what seems to be decisive is that Sulu is alert and never bumps into anything. Except for that corner of the giant Mayflower saucer, and there the shields don't seem to help at all.
Well, the heroes think the missiles ignore the shields. But perhaps 24th century projectiles just are so much stronger than otherwise identical and identically conservative 23rd century ones?
The attackers probably expected defenses, though, which is why their initial estimate for the time needed for completely melting the surface was so pessimistic, as opposed to what actually happened when they opened fire.
Whether the expectation was due to every respectable planet in Alpha and Beta having shields as a matter of course, or due to the attackers calculating that the hubworld of the evil empire must enjoy special protection... No way of telling from this evidence alone. But we don't really learn of unshielded planets in DS9, only of outposts that have point shields rather than planetwide ones, probably for pragmatic-tactical reasons.
Timo Saloniemi
