Radom questions.

[Movieguy12]

Hello, I have some random questions. Forgive me for not knowing these if they are obvious .

1. If shields were up and the ship was to ram into another ship without shields would the ship with shields just ran them but the ship itself not technically be harmed?

2. If the tractor beam pulls it can push objects away too correct? For example if a torpedo was heading towRds the deflector could it just push the torpedo back?

3.this is not technology question just curious, the quadrants are all in our galaxy correct? Has trek ever explored or beings from other galaxies ever came to ours? Jw

4.if anyone knows what are the stations on the bridge? . Just curious what all there are.

Thank you!!

 

[Albertese]

1. If shields were up and the ship was to ram into another ship without shields would the ship with shields just ran them but the ship itself not technically be harmed?

I very much doubt it. We've seen in one episode (though I forget which) that a shuttlecraft can simply fly through the shields, so I assume that the massive and wide-spread energies of an incoming starship would overwhelm the defensive shields. These things are for absorbing point areas of incoming energy, like phaser beams and even torpedo strikes, but all that solid structure will likely just poke through the shields.

2. If the tractor beam pulls it can push objects away too correct? For example if a torpedo was heading towards the deflector could it just push the torpedo back?

In TOS, tractor beams could do both, but in TNG, evidently this capability was not included as in "The Naked Now" Wesley Crusher had to figure out how to gimmick the tractor beams in order to push off of Tsilkovsky. On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be any logical reason why this capability would have gone away, so who knows?

About catching a torpedo, this I doubt. Torpedoes are moving way too fast to get a good lock on and we always seem to see tractor beams operating rather slowly. Also, Photon Torpedoes are equipped with warp sustainer engines meaning they are surrounded by a sub-space field of some sort and I assume this would make them "slippery" to a tractor beam at any rate.

3.this is not technology question just curious, the quadrants are all in our galaxy correct? Has trek ever explored or beings from other galaxies ever came to ours? Jw

Yes, all four are in our galaxy. As for outside the galaxy, TOS has done this, the Andromedans in "By Any Other Name" are from a neighboring galaxy, and Spock speculated that the Planet Killer from "The Doomsday Machine" was from outside the galaxy. Those are just off the top of my head. There may be more. TNG+ seems to have done less of this, but they did have stuff from other dimensions like Species 8472 from Fluidic Space in Voyager and those weird alien abduction guys from "Schisms" [TNG] who were from some sort of "Elsewhere". Things of that nature would seem to be technically not of our galaxy.

4.if anyone knows what are the stations on the bridge? . Just curious what all there are.

Which bridge? Google Search this one. It's not heard to find.

Thank you!!

My pleasure!

--Alex

 

[Movieguy12]

1. If shields were up and the ship was to ram into another ship without shields would the ship with shields just ran them but the ship itself not technically be harmed?

I very much doubt it. We've seen in one episode (though I forget which) that a shuttlecraft can simply fly through the shields, so I assume that the massive and wide-spread energies of an incoming starship would overwhelm the defensive shields. These things are for absorbing point areas of incoming energy, like phaser beams and even torpedo strikes, but all that solid structure will likely just poke through the shields.

2. If the tractor beam pulls it can push objects away too correct? For example if a torpedo was heading towards the deflector could it just push the torpedo back?

In TOS, tractor beams could do both, but in TNG, evidently this capability was not included as in "The Naked Now" Wesley Crusher had to figure out how to gimmick the tractor beams in order to push off of Tsilkovsky. On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be any logical reason why this capability would have gone away, so who knows?

About catching a torpedo, this I doubt. Torpedoes are moving way too fast to get a good lock on and we always seem to see tractor beams operating rather slowly. Also, Photon Torpedoes are equipped with warp sustainer engines meaning they are surrounded by a sub-space field of some sort and I assume this would make them "slippery" to a tractor beam at any rate.



Yes, all four are in our galaxy. As for outside the galaxy, TOS has done this, the Andromedans in "By Any Other Name" are from a neighboring galaxy, and Spock speculated that the Planet Killer from "The Doomsday Machine" was from outside the galaxy. Those are just off the top of my head. There may be more. TNG+ seems to have done less of this, but they did have stuff from other dimensions like Species 8472 from Fluidic Space in Voyager and those weird alien abduction guys from "Schisms" [TNG] who were from some sort of "Elsewhere". Things of that nature would seem to be technically not of our galaxy.

4.if anyone knows what are the stations on the bridge? . Just curious what all there are.

Which bridge? Google Search this one. It's not heard to find.

Thank you!!

My pleasure!

--Alex

Awesome! Great answers I appreciate it!

The shielding makes sense, however curious could they somehow make (idk exactly how it works so forgive me.) but could they make the energy of the shielding more together? To form something slightly more solid ish in the similar sense of a force field for the brig? If they used enough computer power or whatever and maybe sent all of it to the front shields to use as a battering ram of sorts if need be? Sorry I'm trying to word it.

 

[Albertese]

I suppose some innovative young mad scientist could put something like that together, and go around destroying ships all Nautilus-style for Captain Nemo-esque political ideals.... but I can't think of it having been done before. I would speculate that such a device would have to have a purpose-built ship surrounding it to focus that much energy in a way to make that an effective weapon. And you'd be seen coming from forever away, so I can't see the tactical advantage it would give you. Conventional weapons are more practical and let you have ships that are for missions other than smashing into other ships.

--Alex


P.S... though now that I'm thinking about it...

I suppose that if you did have a ship with that much forward shielding, and you were attacking another ship straight on so it has no angle on you except your bow, their weapons would likely be pretty ineffective against your super-shield. But if they have any friends in the area, they can shoot you from the side and you're done. But I still can't imagine this being useful for any other purpose. No one without a Captain Nemo complex would bother building such a thing. It would be too ludicrous a concept unless you are putting together a fanwanky uber-ship Teh Awesome!!!-Super-Metal murder boat, it would seem painfully implausible.

--AM

 

[Movieguy12]

I suppose some innovative young mad scientist could put something like that together, and go around destroying ships all Nautilus-style for Captain Nemo-esque political ideals.... but I can't think of it having been done before. I would speculate that such a device would have to have a purpose-built ship surrounding it to focus that much energy in a way to make that an effective weapon. And you'd be seen coming from forever away, so I can't see the tactical advantage it would give you. Conventional weapons are more practical and let you have ships that are for missions other than smashing into other ships.

--Alex


P.S... though now that I'm thinking about it...

I suppose that if you did have a ship with that much forward shielding, and you were attacking another ship straight on so it has no angle on you except your bow, their weapons would likely be pretty ineffective against your super-shield. But if they have any friends in the area, they can shoot you from the side and you're done. But I still can't imagine this being useful for any other purpose. No one without a Captain Nemo complex would bother building such a thing. It would be too ludicrous a concept unless you are putting together a fanwanky uber-ship Teh Awesome!!!-Super-Metal murder boat, it would seem painfully implausible.

--AM

Okay how about this scenario.

In a lot of Star Trek lore whether it be tv, movies or books. They always end up coming up with a solution that isn't something that's just there to do. No it's always something like, "in theory if we reroute main power to yada yada to such place and do something else it could do this." Get it? So let's say for example in nemisis when riker rammed the enemy ship at the end. But for argument sake let's say enterprise had no weapons working very damaged but still had shield capability. So data or Geordie come up with a cockamamie idea that if they reroute all non essential power and do some other crazy techi stuff that's it's possible to rearrange the energy or atom or whatever to forward shields only and make them so compact that they form a more solid barrier. Riker than uses whatever impulse speed he used and just Rams the enemy ship. It may collapse the remaining shields but it might of saved them from having the saucer section more badly damaged.

I was just thinking of how authors or movie TV writers come up with crazy techi ideas without them being debunked by anyone I guess.

 

[Ithekro]

Only thing I can think of is Captain Harlock's preference of ramming enemy ships as the pirate's way of fighting. But then his ship sometimes has a giant bowie knife looking weapon that can be deployed in front of the bow which was designed for ramming. Also I think the ships in that show were suppose to be unshielded, or just shielded against energy weapons.

 

[B.J.]

2. If the tractor beam pulls it can push objects away too correct? For example if a torpedo was heading towards the deflector could it just push the torpedo back?

In TOS, tractor beams could do both, but in TNG, evidently this capability was not included as in "The Naked Now" Wesley Crusher had to figure out how to gimmick the tractor beams in order to push off of Tsilkovsky. On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be any logical reason why this capability would have gone away, so who knows?

About catching a torpedo, this I doubt. Torpedoes are moving way too fast to get a good lock on and we always seem to see tractor beams operating rather slowly. Also, Photon Torpedoes are equipped with warp sustainer engines meaning they are surrounded by a sub-space field of some sort and I assume this would make them "slippery" to a tractor beam at any rate.

TNG's "The Battle" would seem to contradict this, since they were able to stop the Stargazer, which had gone to warp, with a tractor beam.

 

[Timo]

Lassoing an object that is at warp is possible but supposedly difficult. When a runabout tried to do that to another in DS9 "Paradise", it was a challenge, but it worked. When the big E-D did this to the mediumweight Stargazer, it seemed to be no contest. When Roga Danar tried to escape our E-D heroes, it was not trivial to catch his small escape pod (which also bounced off the shields, relating to another of the original questions), and nobody has managed to tractor a speeding torpedo or missile even when tractoring shuttlecraft is trivial.

There are many competing factors at play there: the respective speeds of the two parties, the speed differential, a difference in power, size of target... There's just no telling. But certainly nothing relating to tractor beams appears flat out impossible: they can pick up objects from a planetary surface (say, DS9 "The Ship") or hold victims absolutely still with no means of resisting, or disrupt their efforts of firing beam weapons (DS9 "Way of the Warrior")...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[scotpens]

. . . If the tractor beam pulls it can push objects away too correct? For example if a torpedo was heading towRds the deflector could it just push the torpedo back?

Well, technically speaking, a tractor beam pulls things. The opposite is a repulsor beam. (Yeah -- picky, picky, picky.)

Has trek ever explored or beings from other galaxies ever came to ours?

In TOS, Sylvia and Korob in "Catspaw" and the Kelvans in "By Any Other Name" were definitely established as being from outside our galaxy. It was also highly probable that the flying parasites in "Operation: Annihilate!" were of extragalactic origin.

 

[Richard Baker]

2. If the tractor beam pulls it can push objects away too correct? For example if a torpedo was heading towards the deflector could it just push the torpedo back?

In TOS, tractor beams could do both, but in TNG, evidently this capability was not included as in "The Naked Now" Wesley Crusher had to figure out how to gimmick the tractor beams in order to push off of Tsilkovsky. On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be any logical reason why this capability would have gone away, so who knows?

About catching a torpedo, this I doubt. Torpedoes are moving way too fast to get a good lock on and we always seem to see tractor beams operating rather slowly. Also, Photon Torpedoes are equipped with warp sustainer engines meaning they are surrounded by a sub-space field of some sort and I assume this would make them "slippery" to a tractor beam at any rate.

TNG's "The Battle" would seem to contradict this, since they were able to stop the Stargazer, which had gone to warp, with a tractor beam.

IIRC the Stargazer just did a micro-warp-jump to give the illusion of two ships for the Picard Maneuver. When the Enterprise locked the ship in the tractor beam it had already completed its jump and was stationary, preparing to fire.

 

[Movieguy12]

What if a torpedo was heading toward the deflector area, the crew did something and made the deflector dish send some sort of wave that shot the torpedo back hitting the enemy ship?

 

[Unicron]

About catching a torpedo, this I doubt. Torpedoes are moving way too fast to get a good lock on and we always seem to see tractor beams operating rather slowly. Also, Photon Torpedoes are equipped with warp sustainer engines meaning they are surrounded by a sub-space field of some sort and I assume this would make them "slippery" to a tractor beam at any rate.

On the flip side, Khel'yr rode a class 8 probe in "Emissary" (a modification of a torpedo) and the Enterprise was able to hit it with a tractor beam at warp speed. The dialogue clearly implies some sort of interface with the probe's computer though, since it was clearly an emergency form of transport, so I'm not sure if this would be the same as trying to intercept a torpedo moving much faster as an attack. It's also clearly stated that trying such a lock with a tractor beam is a gamble, since the transporters alone can't achieve a lock on an object traveling at warp.

 

[Albertese]

All interesting points. I guess a warp field doesn't make such a difference to tractor beams as I thought. But there has got to be some reason why photon torpedoes are not caught by tractor beams as the OP asks about. Elsewise this is probably a tactic that we'd see. But I can't think of any occassion that we have...

--Alex

 

[Movieguy12]

All interesting points. I guess a warp field doesn't make such a difference to tractor beams as I thought. But there has got to be some reason why photon torpedoes are not caught by tractor beams as the OP asks about. Elsewise this is probably a tactic that we'd see. But I can't think of any occassion that we have...

--Alex

I'm just trying to come up with some random way for my ship in a little story I'm playing with to survive. I've always found it interesting how authors are able to come up with out of the blue solutions that work.

So my scenerio is the ship is being pumbled, weapons are gone. Maybe the ship angles it's shelf then in a position that when the enemy ship fires a torpedo it somehow catches it and sends it right back and maybe damaging the enemy ship.

Or the ship sends all power to forward shields but somehow makes the energy more solid creating a ramming sorts. And can cause damage to have a better fighting chance. I wanted the ship to be crippled so they can capture it and salvage tech from it vs destroying it.

 

[T'Girl]

Maybe hacking into the enemy torpedoes guidance system would allow your ship to re-target it to attack the enemy ship?

Just a thought.

If not, there's alway the Hunt for Red October method.

 

[Movieguy12]

Maybe hacking into the enemy torpedoes guidance system would allow your ship to re-target it to attack the enemy ship?

Just a thought.

If not, there's alway the Hunt for Red October method.

Interesting suggestion, what if it's a species that's never been encountered and has stronger weapons?

 

[Albertese]

Interesting suggestion, what if it's a species that's never been encountered and has stronger weapons?

Heh. Worked on Independence Day. Why not?

Really, all this technical continuity can be a bit soggy for the needs of a plot. (Case in point: Enterprise somehow not being able to push away with the tractor beams in "The Naked Now" without Wesley's intervention.)

OTOH it's nice when a writer at least trys to get it right, so kudos to you for bothering to ask.

I guess my question for you is does this need to be a repeatable exploit the crew learns about and can use against said enemy at a critical point in a future battle or is just going to get these guys out of the frying pan in this chapter? In other words, what is the plot purpose of this encounter?

If repeatable, perhaps we discover that the new guy's torpedoes are weirdly vulnerable to gravitons and that by altering the frequency of the tractor beam in a specific way, they can be deflected or even redirected -- with some difficulty. This could be a way to give your guys a leg up, but don't make it too easy or else you'll Nerf your baddies too much. And you also have to face the question of why didn't anyone else think of this before?

If it's just a "thank God we got away" moment, maybe it's something in the local environment that the bad guys didn't think/know about which made it possible for the hero ship to run away by the skin of its teeth. Perhaps they are in a volume of space with an unusual way of reflecting energy back to its source? (Something like this was done in the episode "Hero Worship" [TNG].) Maybe they are in some sort of nebula or too near a star's atmosphere or any place where an unusual effect is able to turn the destructive energies of the bad guys against them. A warning though, this can't be how you end the story, by the hero's dumb luck. Although, if they accidentally discover this effect early in the story and then remember it and lure the bigger bad guy to it in the end as a clever trap, then you can do that.

Personally, I love writing, and coming up with interesting solutions to problems like these is at least one third of the fun.

Good luck with it and enjoy!

--Alex

 

[SWHouston]

or is just going to get these guys out of the frying pan in this chapter?

This has been the case as I remember it. Fed Ships and any incentive to enhance anything about them, has been limited to just increasing power for some instance. Of all the technology that has been seen, SF has ignored it, and any application to better their defenses. I was astonished (pleasantly) when I herd Riker call for Warp 13, and blew a hole through the Klingon Ship. It's the only time I've seen anything beyond the usual "stick in the mud" approach.

 

[Movieguy12]

Interesting suggestion, what if it's a species that's never been encountered and has stronger weapons?

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Heh. Worked on Independence Day. Why not?

Really, all this technical continuity can be a bit soggy for the needs of a plot. (Case in point: Enterprise somehow not being able to push away with the tractor beams in "The Naked Now" without Wesley's intervention.)

OTOH it's nice when a writer at least trys to get it right, so kudos to you for bothering to ask.

I guess my question for you is does this need to be a repeatable exploit the crew learns about and can use against said enemy at a critical point in a future battle or is just going to get these guys out of the frying pan in this chapter? In other words, what is the plot purpose of this encounter?

If repeatable, perhaps we discover that the new guy's torpedoes are weirdly vulnerable to gravitons and that by altering the frequency of the tractor beam in a specific way, they can be deflected or even redirected -- with some difficulty. This could be a way to give your guys a leg up, but don't make it too easy or else you'll Nerf your baddies too much. And you also have to face the question of why didn't anyone else think of this before?

If it's just a "thank God we got away" moment, maybe it's something in the local environment that the bad guys didn't think/know about which made it possible for the hero ship to run away by the skin of its teeth. Perhaps they are in a volume of space with an unusual way of reflecting energy back to its source? (Something like this was done in the episode "Hero Worship" [TNG].) Maybe they are in some sort of nebula or too near a star's atmosphere or any place where an unusual effect is able to turn the destructive energies of the bad guys against them. A warning though, this can't be how you end the story, by the hero's dumb luck. Although, if they accidentally discover this effect early in the story and then remember it and lure the bigger bad guy to it in the end as a clever trap, then you can do that.

Personally, I love writing, and coming up with interesting solutions to problems like these is at least one third of the fun.

Good luck with it and enjoy!

--Alex

Okay sorry it's been a while I work entirely too much .

So basically my story will involve (haven't fully decided yet.) either entering a new galaxy or a new part of the Galaxy. If I'm correct the only part of the Galaxy really not touched is gamma or Cappa whatever it's called?

So my story is basically about a plague or virus that is unleashed upon our galaxy. It'll eat every organic thing it touches. When the leaders of the federation are at a meeting to discuss it Q pops up. He warns that the fed has gotten lazy and too comfortable. If we thought the Borg were the worse things out in the universe and didn't learn our lesson from dealing with them then he'd show us a new threat. So he says there is a cure for this plague but will have to be found and earned. Yada yada yada enter my sto crew and a few other ships. A opens a worm hole to either another galaxy or another part of our galaxy.

I've always liked the time dialation so what could take years for the crew might only seem like hours,days or weeks for the rest of the Galaxy.

As far as enemies. I havent decided if they'll be pitted against formidable tech enemies often or if that was a one time thing to just help them learn and kinda adapt and gain some neutral ground.

 

[JES]

Actually, there is one instance in sci-fi that I know of where the shield can be used as a battering ram, and that is in Zoids. Specifically the Shield Liger.

So assuming that the shields are at full strength, I don't see why power can be redistributed to forward shields.
But I doubt the tactic would really be plausible, because in Zoids, most other Zoids don't even have energy shields, but that is a standard feature in Star Trek.
The only way I can think of were such a strategy might work is if the enemy doesn't have any shield technology, or their shields are out, which I find an unlikely circumstance where the Starfleet vessel has her back to the wall. If she was in the same condition as the Enterprise from the damage sustained from the Scimitar or worse, ramming an enemy ship would probably cause more damage to the Starfleet vessel then the enemy, and ramming her at full impulse or Warp might heavily damage or destroy the enemy ship, but it'd also likely end up destroying the besieged Starfleet vessel as well.
And even then, since the shields aren't meant for ramming, so they might not hold completely, but just reduce damage from ramming, and there is also the risk of damaging or burning out the shield systems from the strain, or from the impact itself.

Ramming another ship would likely also put a strain on structural integrity, and if that fails, the ship could fall apart (depending on how dependent the ship's design is dependent on structural integrity fields to hold her together).