Shoulda separated the saucer?

[DonIago]

I like to think that Apollo’s species resolved their interpersonal conflicts with giant-green-hand boxing matches.

EDIT: Regarding saucer separation, I thought it was very strange that the officers transferring to the Battle Bridge wouldn’t immediately site-to-site transport there, instead of wasting precious seconds or minutes going there by turbolift.

It was a dedicated "right to the BB" turbolift, so I don't see why it wouldn't be pretty fast.

 

[DonIago]

Just as a slight aside, was it ever discussed as to what would happen if two different Galaxy-class sections were joined up? Let's say that the saucer in Generations did not crash land - could the star drive of say, the Venture, show up, connect, and then head back to a starbase? I know that Geordi was able to retool another Galaxy's stardrive in PIC, but he had plenty of time to do all the necessary work. Could it be done on the fly, so to speak?

I would guess physically there would be no issue, but there might need to be a more-than-usual amount of systems handshaking afterward.

 

[FredH]

It was a dedicated "right to the BB" turbolift, so I don't see why it wouldn't be pretty fast.

Sure, but not as fast as a transporter. If battle is about to commence or already has, that’s going to matter. (Likewise, their onscreen procedure for evacuating civilians to the saucer is terrifyingly slow; they probably shouldn’t usually be stationed in the stardrive section in the first place.)

 

[David cgc]

Just as a slight aside, was it ever discussed as to what would happen if two different Galaxy-class sections were joined up? Let's say that the saucer in Generations did not crash land - could the star drive of say, the Venture, show up, connect, and then head back to a starbase? I know that Geordi was able to retool another Galaxy's stardrive in PIC, but he had plenty of time to do all the necessary work. Could it be done on the fly, so to speak?

I think it would depend on how ships are constructed in general, and how Galaxy (and other severable-and-reconnectable starships) are constructed specifically.

If there's a lot of modifications and deviations from the spec during construction, either based on stuff learned from earlier ships or just based on what's going on during the assembly process, that counts against it, but it also matters if the stardrive and saucer are constructed separately and then connected, or if they're built as one unit. We've seen both cases (in "Booby Trap" and "Relativity," Galaxies are being built in one piece, but one seemed to be in sections in "Parallels"), but even if the stardrive and saucer are built in the joined position, that doesn't necessarily mean they're not being constructed independently, with precisely matching all the connections and umbilicals being a high priority rather than just building across the separation line and the specific places were turbolifts, corridors, and conduits bridge the gap being more ad-hoc since the couplings will be added later wherever they need to be.

The other issue would be wear-and-tear. It's possible that over years of hard maneuvering and battle damage, the separations surfaces of the saucer and battle sections might've bent or warped into each other, so you might get some grinding and friction even if the ships of the same class were supposed to be compatible with each other on paper.

 

[DonIago]

Sure, but not as fast as a transporter. If battle is about to commence or already has, that’s going to matter. (Likewise, their onscreen procedure for evacuating civilians to the saucer is terrifyingly slow; they probably shouldn’t usually be stationed in the stardrive section in the first place.)

I don't think we ever saw a situation where it did matter though. Perhaps they would have done that if it had been time-critical?

As for the transporters in general, I always assumed they were also being used in any evacuation efforts, but having people waiting in a large line isn't more efficient than working their way through the corridors and Jeffries Tubes either. I don't feel as though we need to see them to make that assumption.

 

[FredH]

I don't think we ever saw a situation where it did matter though. Perhaps they would have done that if it had been time-critical?

As for the transporters in general, I always assumed they were also being used in any evacuation efforts, but having people waiting in a large line isn't more efficient than working their way through the corridors and Jeffries Tubes either. I don't feel as though we need to see them to make that assumption.

See, I’d say we saw several situations where it should have mattered given what was going on, but they didn’t get blown up during the transition time because the writers said so.