Saucer Separation

[Mytran]

It's also worth mentioning that the Prometheus Saucer's nacelles are dinky tiny! As such they may only be useful sustaining an existing warp speed, rather than initialising a jump to begin with (power curve spikes and all that). As such, this doesn't preclude the presence of internal FTL equipment in the E-D saucer, capable of ferrying the craft to safety across interstellar distances (IMO)

 

[Robert Comsol]

Also, there's no point in arguing that the E-D saucer cannot do warp when warp is evident in "Farpoint".

DATA: Message from the saucer module, sir. It will arrive here in fifty one minutes.

I find it hard not to concur.

What the argument should be about is why things are so different from episode to episode (an artifact of the writers not really caring that much).

LAFORGE: Yes, and I want you to take the saucer section and proceed immediately to Starbase 103.

Shouldn't it be more like "different from season to season"?

Looks to me like Season One (perhaps with Andrew Probert still aboard?) suggested saucer section warp capability that somehow got forgotten later because it was never precisely spelled out.

So far, the only time the saucer could not do warp on its own was in "Brothers", and we cannot ignore the fact that it was the aim of our combined force of heroes to prevent the saucer from doing warp there.

Probably another good example why to take retcon canon with grains of salt because it doesn't always benefit continuity?

Maybe the saucer section emergency warp system wasn't that reliable when used too often - could help to explain why we didn't see that many saucer-stardrive separations in later episodes.

As for the "arboretum" theory, why would the poor plants need to be exposed to intense blue glare? We never see intense blue glare associated with the various arboretum interiors, whereas it's often a feature of warp drive components.

I'm not a botanist to answer that question (ask Sulu), but the arboretum of the TMP Enterprise also featured a blue glare.

Bob

 

[DonIago]

Maybe there's a lot of Andorian plants.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I always assumed anyway that the blue glare was to simulate sky for the benefit of the people recreating in the TMP arboretum, more so than the plants.

 

[Mytran]

But the sky on planet Earth doesn't glow blue that intensely, otherwise we'd all walk around looking like Andorians! The windows of an Arboretum should emit the same type of "daylight" coloured light as most other windows on the ship, I would have thought.

 

[Shat Happens]

the arboretum of the TMP Enterprise also featured a blue glare.

Man, I so love that shot.

Also, I used to think that was the engine room, because the warp mixer glows blue too. I rationalized the inside scenes by the windows having shutters.

I ALSO thought the engine room should be in the centerline of the hull and connected to the (I didnt know what it was then) deflector.

That's where all those blue lights took me.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

But the sky on planet Earth doesn't glow blue that intensely, otherwise we'd all walk around looking like Andorians! The windows of an Arboretum should emit the same type of "daylight" coloured light as most other windows on the ship, I would have thought.

AFAIK, we never saw what the crew looked like in the TMP arboretum.

 

[mos6507]

Another possibility. BTW, in Force of Nature (an episode most would rather forget) the Enterprise coasts at warp-speed in order to get out of the rift, but the warp drive was, for the most part, powered down. So it's possible that the saucer section, after separation, as long as it could maintain some sort of minimal warp-bubble, could coast for a while before dropping out of warp, but maybe not perform any course-correction.

 

[DonIago]

^This actually was brought up earlier, and personally I think it's the best compromise of the competing theories, considering that ultimately there's no answer that unifies all of the information available. At least not beyond "Whether the saucer has or does not have warp capability is dependent on whether the plot calls for it."

 

[Takeru]

But the sky on planet Earth doesn't glow blue that intensely, otherwise we'd all walk around looking like Andorians! The windows of an Arboretum should emit the same type of "daylight" coloured light as most other windows on the ship, I would have thought.

Why would an arboretum even have gigantic ceiling windows? Wouldn't a holographic ceiling to simulate a sky that also emits plant appropriate lighting make more sense?

The blue lights are the saucer warp drive, it's the most logocal explanation.

 

[Robert Comsol]

Why would an arboretum even have gigantic ceiling windows? Wouldn't a holographic ceiling to simulate a sky that also emits plant appropriate lighting make more sense?

In this case you might as well ask why to have an arboretum at all, because any holodeck could just substitute the whole thing.

I'd believe that people in the 24th Century would still cherish the "real things", so if you wanted to walk between actual plants the sky should also have some kind of authenticity, even if the stars above were not the stars of home.

The advantage of an arboretum, IMHO, is that you can meet fellow crew members there any time of the day without the need to make a holodeck reservation.

The blue lights are the saucer warp drive, it's the most logocal explanation.

If there were no other candidates for a warp drive location in the saucer section, I would agree.

Bob

 

[SPCTRE]

I think it's also worth questioning whether any low-level warp field that might exist under impulse power, presumably for the purpose of mass reduction

 

[DonIago]

The blue lights are the saucer warp drive, it's the most logocal explanation.

It's "logocal" to assume that the lights represent a Federation warp drive that's radically different in design (not to mention placement) from any we've seen before?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I think it's also worth questioning whether any low-level warp field that might exist under impulse power, presumably for the purpose of mass reduction

Yup.

 

[SPCTRE]