Shoulda separated the saucer?

[Atomic_Monkey]

If the whole shop is meant to function together, perfectly, then why?

That's a good point and something I always struggled with.

The probability of actually encountering something so new, and dangerous that any Federation ship would be destroyed with out warning, is nil, at best.

After three hundred years of star flight, and it meets things that can overwhelm it? Not realistic.

I'm not sure I follow? Are you saying that by the 24th century human technology will be so advanced, and/or humans are so familiar with space travel, that it's improbable a Federation starship could come across anything that could overwhelm it?

If so, I'm not sure I agree. Even though humans would have been traveling the stars for 300 years, they only managed to explore a sliver of the galaxy. There's still so much unknown out there.

This is particularly true for a starship whose mission is deep space exploration and seeking out unknown alien civilizations. The whole point is for them to come across crazy stuff no one had yet encountered. That could easily include aliens who've been traveling the stars for 3,000 years with significantly more advanced technology than Starfleet.

See the Borg as an example.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Yeah, I think the Federation should generally have very good technology relative to how long they've been in space, because they're a very tech-orientated society with dozens of advanced member worlds including the Vulcans and Andorians. But after 300 years of space flight, they're going to encounter lots of other species who have also had 300 years of space flight, or a lot more.

 

[Uxi]

Main one that I always think is that the Odyssey should have left its saucer at DS9.

Yamato should have done a saucer separation.

Season 3:

Definitely left the saucer at the planet while the stardrive went to talk to Tomalak in The Enemy to diffuse the situation.

Tin Man could have shed that bulk since speed was of the essence

The Loss, should have separate the saucer to take away the families and non essential personnel while being pulled towards the cosmic string

Galaxy's child when they can't get "Junior" off and things are looking dire.

Season 4:

Redemption II could have made sense to have the saucer be part of the fleet putting up the detection net even if slower or stationary or left behind at the starbase since hostilities were more than possible

When they decide to intercept the Crystalline entity to get the families to safety

New Ground for speed and families safety before going through the wave to disrupt it

Season 5:

Chain of command, think they're going into combat with Cardassians

Season 7:

Pegasus and Emergence

I've always been conflicted about the saucer separation. Generally, it makes sense if you have civilians on board. However, I think the star drive looks weird without the saucer.

Just because we weren't used to seeing it. If we had all seen really good battle scenes of the stardrive section alone, it would be remembered better. It makes sense that losing all that mass would have increased potential for acceleration and maneuverability.

Another thing TNG showed early and quickly ditched was how quickly they could come to full stop after the order. It's consciously and deliberately longer in the 1st season but gone well before Q Who.

A bit off topic, but related: When Riker rammed the Enterprise E into the Scimitar in Nemesis, he surely killed any crew in the forward part of the saucer. I suppose there wasn't time to warn and evacuate them, but if that happened in real life it's the type of thing that would haunt you.

The entire scenario is a bit silly since a quantum torpedo should be more effective energy transfer than ramming. If Scimitar's shields would stop the torpedo, why wouldn't they stop the Enterprise?

 

[Uxi]

This is particularly true for a starship whose mission is deep space exploration and seeking out unknown alien civilizations. The whole point is for them to come across crazy stuff no one had yet encountered. That could easily include aliens who've been traveling the stars for 3,000 years with significantly more advanced technology than Starfleet.

See the Borg as an example.

Babylon 5 did that way better with older more advanced races. Humans, Narn, and Centauri were on one level, Minbari a step above, Vorlons and Shadows a dozen steps up from them, etc.

Starfleet figured out the Borg way too easily and then completely changed their nature. They were quite different in Q Who and there was a great sense of menace in Best of Both Worlds that quickly disappeared even in TNG, let alone Voyager where they were basically techno-Klingons.

 

[Captrek]

Main one that I always think is that the Odyssey should have left its saucer at DS9.

Yamato should have done a saucer separation.

Season 3:

Definitely left the saucer at the planet while the stardrive went to talk to Tomalak in The Enemy to diffuse the situation.

Tin Man could have shed that bulk since speed was of the essence

The Loss, should have separate the saucer to take away the families and non essential personnel while being pulled towards the cosmic string

Galaxy's child when they can't get "Junior" off and things are looking dire.

Season 4:

Redemption II could have made sense to have the saucer be part of the fleet putting up the detection net even if slower or stationary or left behind at the starbase since hostilities were more than possible

When they decide to intercept the Crystalline entity to get the families to safety

New Ground for speed and families safety before going through the wave to disrupt it

Season 5:

Chain of command, think they're going into combat with Cardassians

Season 7:

Pegasus and Emergence

This is the kind of response I was hoping for when I started the thread! Thank you!

 

[26138]

Not TNG, but I do think it would have made more sense if the USS Odyssey on DS9 had left its saucer behind at the station and the secondary hull went into the Gamma Quadrant. As it is, there is a line in the episode saying all non-essential personnel are being off-loaded (the basic purpose of saucer separation) and they used a set for the bridge which was significantly smaller than what you'd think a Galaxy class ship should have, which wouldn't be as glaring if that were indeed the battle bridge.

I think the "a ship that looks just like the Ent-D blew up" reaction wouldn't have been as strong.

 

[Crazyewok]

The fact that there are civilians on a military ship in the first place is terrible. Clearly the Federation likes the idea of human shields.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

The fact that there are civilians on a military ship in the first place is terrible. Clearly the Federation likes the idea of human shields.

The plan was to drop them off whenever it does military operations.

 

[DonIago]

If the show had held to its original premise and the E-D had been in deep space largely on its own for a long period of time, I'd argue it might also be terrible to go months or years without seeing your family.

 

[matthunter]

After three hundred years of star flight, and it meets things that can overwhelm it? Not realistic.

And yet encountered worryingly often IN THE SHOW.

Gomtuu wrecked a Romulan warbird explicitly as/more powerful than the E-D when it was just told "protect yourself".

The Borg.

That effect in Hero Worship where having powerful shields was actually about to destroy the ship.

Someone is thinking like Picard in Q Who. Start, not end.