Shields?

[Tom Servo]

So one thing I have noticed in all the VFX shots from the new film...is the lack of shields on any of the ships? Has this been mentioned in any of the interviews anywhere? It seems to me they have been replaced with some sort of CWIS on the Kelvin and the Enterprise. Anyone know anything more? I don't mind the change at all, its just something I noticed.

 

[Rii]

Captain Robau doesn't need shields.

 

[SalvorHardin]

I believe they will use the skin shield type

TrekMovie: Here is a nerdy Trek question. In the history of Trek shields have been shown both as a bubble around the ship and as a skin clinging to the hull. It is hard to see from this image if there are any shield effects, but in the new Star Trek which approach is used?

Kurtzman: We have always thought of them as more like skin, less like bubble.
Orci: The bubble represents energy fields — signature, but not necessarily the physical shape of the shield.

 

[Timofnine]

I believe that they will be shaped like this:

...and will be knocked down to at least 20% by the mid point of the film.

 

[Rii]

^ When he's not shoveling more coal into the furnace, Scotty will be working at the forge with a hammer and tongs to strength and reshape the shields.

 

[Jon1701]

There were no "Shield bubbles" in TOS. Or in the movies for that matter.

 

[Augustus]

Yeah it was more of a TNG thing

 

[trekkerguy]

Yeah I always found the shield "bubbles" to be kind of dumb.

I liked that in Nemesis they were held much closer to the hull.
They may be taking it even further in this film and I welcome it.

 

[Brent]

I've always kinda liked skin shields. But I've often thought, why not have 2 layers of shields. You have your skin tight shield as a backup incease your bubble shield fails.

 

[trekkerguy]

I've always kinda liked skin shields. But I've often thought, why not have 2 layers of shields. You have your skin tight shield as a backup incease your bubble shield fails.

And so how do you project one through the other without interference?

One set of shields makes sense. Anything else is just overkill and wouldn't really work.

 

[Augustus]

Well however they do the shields, I hope that the battles are not (as I have brought up before) really just a countdown of how strong the shields are.

Shields are down to 60%, let's rock back and forth and now they are down to 35%

OH NO!!!!

 

[trekkerguy]

Yeah honestly I'd like to see it play out almost as if there were no shields.

 

[Rii]

I prefer bubble shields, they can be more interesting visually and it's not overly difficult to preserve the more visceral feel of hull impacts at the same time. It just... hasn't yet been done.

For example, one could conceptualise the shields as a very rapidly regenerating bubble system with a low overload threshold, such that a certain amount of incoming fire in a given salvo impacts the shields (creating ripple effects and geometric deformities, like dropping a rock into water) whilst the remainder strikes the hull with attendant explosions and such.

 

[trekkerguy]

The "bubble" shields just looks really campy to me.

Skinned shields make the most sense when it comes to power,
the technology when you think about, it just seems alot more
realistic that the field wouldn't be projected out into space.

Like I said though, I would actually prefer to see no shields but
skinned shields would be the best alternative IMO.

 

[Stag]

The problem wit skin tight shields is that if you move in the wrong direction, they tend to split along the ...ahem... ventral seam

 

[Rii]

The "bubble" shields just looks really campy to me.

I agree that for the most part they have looked campy in the past, but they don't have to be. The best "bubble" shot we've seen comes from First Contact as the Borg Cube strikes at the Enterprise immediately after it enters the system.

Skinned shields make the most sense when it comes to power,
the technology when you think about, it just seems alot more
realistic that the field wouldn't be projected out into space.

That would depend upon how the shields are generated, which is pure conjectural wankery. It's entirely possible that the technology would tend towards a toroidal or spherical field and would require significant wrangling to employ as anything else with no real incentive to do so. Also if the shields are conceived as slowly radiating the energy they absorb back into space, the larger surface area granted by a projected shield would be beneficial.

 

[Stag]

Bubble screens also remind me of SW:TPM and the droid army

 

[trekkerguy]

That would depend upon how the shields are generated...

After I read the TNG Technical Manual the "bubble" shields made absoloutely
no sense to me. When Nemesis came out the shields finaly seemed to match
the system that was described.

But that's just my opinion.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

my favorite bubble shield shot was in Q who. The borg target the shields only, and the shot was pretty effective at showing that

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

The most believable concept would be the one lifted from nature of course.
Could you imagine how awesome spacebattles could look if shields worked like this?
http://solar.physics.montana.edu/hurlbutt/Sun.gif