Saucer Separation wasn't a good idea

[The Knappos]

The franchise had the Enterprise become alive and it had a baby, Janeway and Paris turned into salamanders and also had babies, brainless Spock was remote controlled, Cake Troi, candle ghost love affair, Rumpelstilzchen ...

You can't blame me if I thought spare star drives were a serious suggestion, it's less weird than some canon plots.

Now imagine a giant wardrobe in orbit around Mars with them hanging up on pegs.

 

[Shikarnov]

If anything it would make more sense to have spare saucers for specific missions. A science saucer for extensive studies, a battle saucer that's armed to the teeth, a colony saucer that's specifically designed to land and be dismantled to start the colony etc.

I really love this idea. That would have been very cool, and a great way to keep refreshing and updating the ship.

The saucer calling for help and waiting is probably perfectly fine in federation space most of the time but the Enterprise was not supposed to be in federation space, it was supposed to go into unexplored space for a longterm mission so had the star drive been lost help for the saucer could have been weeks or months away.

In my head canon, it was a bureaucratic decision. I imagine a spirited discussion around some futuristic boardroom table with some aging decorated Starfleet combat veterans arguing that a warp-incapable vessel being left light-years away from Federation space is asinine and foolish and going to get people killed, and some other new-age Zoomer types calling them paranoid during a new era of peace. The Romulans were quiet. The Klingons were friends. The Cardassians were beaten down. Sit down Boomer, it's a new era. In the end, a small group of unassuming engineers found themselves casting the tiebreaking votes because Saucer Separation is friggen cool and they want to build a ship that could do it.

it slowing the episode down is an excuse because that depends on the writing, the show could have easily come back after a commercial break with Picard stating in a log that they left the saucer behind and are now going to XYZ.

Well, yes and no. Yes, slowing down the story needless is the reason it wasn't used more. But in those days, Star Trek was episodic and aired on broadcast television. Coming back after a commercial to find, essentially, a different ship would have been jarring for a viewer who hadn't been tuning in from the beginning and understood what was happening. In today's serialized binge-watching world, it's fine to do that because most people interested in a new program have access to the whole story to watch from the beginning and catch up.

Ultimately, the most disappointing thing I find is how we went from Worf's comment that the ship becomes a more formidable combat vessel once "relieved of its bulk," to "we can't do anything without the power from the saucer's impulse engines."

 

[Oddish]

Ultimately, the most disappointing thing I find is how we went from Worf's comment that the ship becomes a more formidable combat vessel once "relieved of its bulk," to "we can't do anything without the power from the saucer's impulse engines.

This. A Galaxy class with its saucer attached should be a versatile ship with many scientific and exploratory functions. With the saucer gone, it should have Defiant level lethality. And even though it was evacuated of non-essential personnel, it was just stupid for the Odyssey to have its saucer section still attached in "The Jem'Hadar".

 

[danellis]

I always thought the Battle-drive looked pretty cool when they were detached - I had visions of them being their own class of ship in their own right

dJE

 

[Shikarnov]

I always thought the Battle-drive looked pretty cool when they were detached - I had visions of them being their own class of ship in their own right

dJE

I always wondered why we didn't see them during the Dominion War battles. I understand why they'd want saucers to carry troops for ground assaults, but during space battles, it just makes the ship a bigger slower target.

 

[Orphalesion]

I always wondered why we didn't see them during the Dominion War battles. I understand why they'd want saucers to carry troops for ground assaults, but during space battles, it just makes the ship a bigger slower target.

Well, out of universe probably because they felt the star drive alone, which had been seen only very rarely, wouldn't have been recognizable enough.

In universe it didn't made much sense, since, as you point out, in the battles on DS9 we often saw the saucer sections being targeted and exploding.
But theoretically, with all the civilians and non-essentials removed, and with the bridge crew relocated to the battle bridge...could the Saucer section serve as an "expandable" additional shield for the "important" parts of the ship?
(as in the laser/torpedo that hits the saucer section won't hit the star drive section? )

 

[shapeshifter]

I had the big model, (which needs a reissue!) which could be displayed in the separated state, which I did. The saucer just always looks cool, and the cobra-head eventually grew on me.

 

[danellis]

Well, out of universe probably because they felt the star drive alone, which had been seen only very rarely, wouldn't have been recognizable enough.

But theoretically, with all the civilians and non-essentials removed, and with the bridge crew relocated to the battle bridge...could the Saucer section serve as an "expandable" additional shield for the "important" parts of the ship?
(as in the laser/torpedo that hits the saucer section won't hit the star drive section? )

I suspect not. Damage to ships in the StarTrek universe seems to go into cascade mode pretty quickly: if you can actually hit any part of a ship, you seem to be pretty much guaranteed to destroy the entire ship.

You'll very rare hear orders along the line of "target their weapons," but that nearly always goes wrong and ends up destroying th target anyway...


dJE

 

[Shikarnov]

I suspect not. Damage to ships in the StarTrek universe seems to go into cascade mode pretty quickly: if you can actually hit any part of a ship, you seem to be pretty much guaranteed to destroy the entire ship.

You'll very rare hear orders along the line of "target their weapons," but that nearly always goes wrong and ends up destroying th target anyway...

dJE

"A lucky shot, sir."

 

[JesterFace]

Sometimes I like to pretend Enterprise doesn't have saucer separation capability at all, some problems would be too easy to solve with it.

Then I remember TBOBW part 2 where saucer separation is used....

 

[Takeru]

Sometimes I like to pretend Enterprise doesn't have saucer separation capability at all, some problems would be too easy to solve with it.

Like Final Mission, just leave the saucer to deal with the space garbage and take the star drive to save Picard and Wesley.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Like Final Mission, just leave the saucer to deal with the space garbage and take the star drive to save Picard and Wesley.

Given that the combined vessel was only barely able to "deal with the space garbage" with seconds to spare, I would suggest that that would a death sentence for most of the crew and potential very dangerous to the Gamelans.

I do wonder if the Enterprise had any runabouts on board yet though?

 

[Takeru]

Given that the combined vessel was only barely able to "deal with the space garbage" with seconds to spare, I would suggest that that would a death sentence for most of the crew and potential very dangerous to the Gamelans.

They towed it away at a snail's pace, I really don't think they needed the star drive for that. Alternatively if they needed the star drive they should have separated anyway to keep the civilians and unnecessary crew out of danger.

 

[Arpy]

The Dominion War scenes might have been interesting if you had stardrives zipping around blowing shit up and saucers in the rear acting as troop transports for planetary occupations. Hell of a blow it would have been if a lone Jem’Hadar ship managed to kamikaze into a rear saucer to take out 10,000 troops.

 

[publiusr]

Some saucers may simply have been reactor shells with fuel to pump even more power and black hits to the star drive below

 

[SoM]

Real life question: why couldn't the smaller model separate? From the various articles I have read it seems that they did not use separation in later episodes because it did not have this ability.

Probably because the whole idea was essentially abandoned after TNG S1. Hell, when they belatedly decided to do it for BOBW, the original Battle Bridge set (which had been the TMP bridge) had been redressed and chopped up so much it was no longer usable, and they had to make an all-new set (which bore little resemblance to the original).

 

[Farscape One]

Like Final Mission, just leave the saucer to deal with the space garbage and take the star drive to save Picard and Wesley.

That wouldn't have worked for two reasons.

First, if it was just the saucer section, the bulk of the crew would be much closer to the garbage scow and the radiation because it had to be closer to tow it. At least with the ship whole, they can evacuate the decks closest to the scow and put the crew at the front of the ship.

Second, and more importantly... I don't think we've ever seen a tractor beam come from the saucer section. (The only time I can think of is "The Emissary" when it locks onto the probe, but it's so close to the stardrive section that it's hard for me to tell.)

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Second, and more importantly... I don't think we've ever seen a tractor beam come from the saucer section. (The only time I can think of is "The Emissary" when it locks onto the probe, but it's so close to the stardrive section that it's hard for me to tell.)

That beam does appear to be coming from the saucer section, however the probe is very close to the ship in that shot (likely within the shield perimeter) and a) it appears to be a VFX error as it doesn't come from a visible emitter as is otherwise the case, b) if correct is likely to be the "landing beam" for either the Main Shuttlebay or the starboard bay and therefore not suitable for extended "opposed" towing.

 

[Farscape One]

Then the saucer section basically has no tractor beam. I figured that.

 

[Skipper]

What does the TNG technical manual say about it?