Some questions about Star Trek

[Kute]

I find it irksome that they would fire conventionally at a Borg cube. Why not load a few shuttle-craft with quantum torpedoes and set them to warp into the cube? Also, why do the Borg keep sending 1 cube during their federation assimilation attempts? I can see the first time, but when they keep getting turned away, maybe just send an additional ship? We saw in Voyager how they have a gazillion of them. Nevermind that they can go anywhere right quick with that trans-warp whatnot. How does the Federation still exist?

Also, do photon torpedoes travel at warp speed? I want to say that I think I've seen weapons fired at warp, but actually I'm not sure about that.

Why do ships have to uncloak to fire?

Why don't the Vulcans have a bigger presence? They're brighter, stronger, live longer productive lives, and have been established in space longer. Are they just not interested in all that?

Christianity seems to have died away by the 24th century or wherever Star Trek is set. Does that mean everyone we see on all the shows is going to hell?

 

[Rek]

I'm sure others can answer you better but heres my go...

Also, do photon torpedoes travel at warp speed? I want to say that I think I've seen weapons fired at warp, but actually I'm not sure about that.

No...

Why do ships have to uncloak to fire?

They don't but if their cloaking device gets hit then they can't go back to cloaking can they?

Why don't the Vulcans have a bigger presence? They're brighter, stronger, live longer productive lives, and have been established in space longer. Are they just not interested in all that?

Vulcans also have their flaws. Unlike humans, Vulcans pose a huge risk to themselves and others if they let their emotions take over. Sometimes emotions can come in handy. Plus, they do have a huge role in many Star Trek's. I think having our main casts "captain" as human is suppose to be some way to be able to connect more with their audience and have them be able to put themselves into his shoes. But theres lots of Vulcan captains and like wise for other positions.

Its also been established that when the Vulcans where in space without humans around they didn't in "their words" go "too far away from home". Meaning, the humans where more into traveling as far as they could and meeting as many lifeforms as they could even if Vulcans where in space before them. Humans also developed space-wise faster then the Vulcans did. Not to say Vulcans wern't ahead of them in space travel at first. Just that the humans took more "unlogical risks" and went further and eventually helped bring lots of aliens together, forged a relationship between planets who had been fighting for years and helped start the birth of the federation.

Christianity seems to have died away by the 24th century or wherever Star Trek is set. Does that mean everyone we see on all the shows is going to hell?

I'm not sure if it is fully gone, but the parts were it teaches you to hate and judge people based on their sexuality and faith might be gone by that time. I can't see the "peace on earth(not talking about other planets here)" that is shown in Star Trek happening if people on Earth are still killing/hurting others based on petty things like that.

Not to say all types of Christianity or Christians preach hate towards others based on minor things.

 

[A beaker full of death]

Christianity seems to have died away by the 24th century or wherever Star Trek is set. Does that mean everyone we see on all the shows is going to hell?

No, it means we eventually outgrow the idea that an omnipotent God needs to procreate.

 

[Cornholio]

a question. umm, since before your sun like, burned hot in space and stuff, and before your race was umm, born, I have awaited ... a question or something.

I find it irksome that they would fire conventionally at a Borg cube. Why not load a few shuttle-craft with quantum torpedoes and set them to warp into the cube?

hmm, interesting. a shuttle would present a bigger target for the umm, Borg to aim at, otherwise I think you'd have to ask the writers 'bout this one.

they did beam a torpedo onto a Borg ship on Voyager one time.

Also, why do the Borg keep sending 1 cube during their federation assimilation attempts? I can see the first time, but when they keep getting turned away, maybe just send an additional ship? We saw in Voyager how they have a gazillion of them. Nevermind that they can go anywhere right quick with that trans-warp whatnot.

I'm thinkin' the Borg are like, overconfident or something.

How does the Federation still exist?

that's a damn good question. I think it's Kirk's will that keeps it goin'. remember, he doesn't believe in the no win scenario.

Also, do photon torpedoes travel at warp speed? I want to say that I think I've seen weapons fired at warp, but actually I'm not sure about that.

umm, no.

Why do ships have to uncloak to fire?

fire?

fire!

Fire!!

FIRE!!!

umm, what was the question?

oh yeah, why do ships have to uncloak?

I think that's like, an energy thing. cloaks use up all a ships available energy, so there's nothing left to power the weapons.

Why don't the Vulcans have a bigger presence? They're brighter, stronger, live longer productive lives, and have been established in space longer. Are they just not interested in all that?

umm, you are correct and stuff. they're not interested.

Christianity seems to have died away by the 24th century or wherever Star Trek is set. Does that mean everyone we see on all the shows is going to hell?

no, it ain't dead. see 'Bread and Circuses'.

 

[T'Girl]

why do the Borg keep sending 1 cube during their federation assimilation attempts?
Given that the Federation is on the far side of the galaxy from them and there are people a lot closer to assimulate, it might just be that the Federation just isn't that important to them. We're more like a minor project that gets dusted off every once in a while.

Also, do photon torpedoes travel at warp speed?
To do what we've seen them do, yes.

Why do ships have to uncloak to fire?
My (current) theory is that the cloak is like an inside out shield, normal shields keep most energy out, the cloak keep most energy in.

Why don't the Vulcans have a bigger presence? They're brighter
Maybe not so much. There is a difference between being intelligent and being smart. They might not be the asset to Starfleet that you'd think they'd be.

Christianity seems to have died away by the 24th century
I walked pass the fenced off site of a old store years ago, the building was gone, but the slab was still there. Out of a crack in the concrete there as growing a small rose bush. I doubt that Christianity is dead, or religion in general for that matter. There are enough references over the course of the various series's to show that faiths (in some form) still exists.

 

[JoeFromEarth]

Why do ships have to uncloak to fire?

I always figured is was because of the enormous power to keep the cloak on. There just isn't enough energy to be cloaked and fire your weapons at the same time. Also, when cloaked, the ship is vulnerable because the ship's shields are down (same power problem) so you don't want to let people know where you are when you're cloaked. 'Cause, y'know, shoot where you got shot at.

Oh, and plot device and all that.

 

[Paradon]

The reason that a ship has to uncloak before firing is because a cloaking deivce that is used by the Romulans and Klingons drains the ships energy in order generate the cloaking shield.

 

[Pauln6]

Photon torpedoes do travel at warp speeds but only for a short period of time because they can't sustain a warp field. The whole point of them is that they can be used at warp. However, if a ship wasn't at warp the torpedo could not generate its own warp speed.

 

[Paradon]

They only send one ship at a time first to investigate what the alien culutre has to offer and decide whether they want to assimilate them or not. If they see something they want like technologies they will assimilate them. They will try to do it with as little resources as possible like we see in Voyager final episode. They decided to build a transwarp conduit directly to sector 001 then from there spread out and possibly assimilate the entire Alpha Quadrant. Sending a ship from the Delta Quadrant to the Alpha Quadrant would waste enormous amount of energy, so they built a transwarp conduit. So if they were to do something like that, it has to worth the effort and time, making sure they gain a lot from it. From earth they could lauch a major assault on the rest of the quadrant.

 

[captcalhoun]

weapons have been used at warp. "Message in a Bottle" is a particularly annoying example as it shows phasers being fired at warp.

if you want a mass Borg invasion, read the Destiny trilogy of novels.

 

[Cheapjack]

why do the Borg keep sending 1 cube during their federation assimilation attempts?
Given that the Federation is on the far side of the galaxy from them and there are people a lot closer to assimulate, it might just be that the Federation just isn't that important to them. We're more like a minor project that gets dusted off every once in a while.

Also, do photon torpedoes travel at warp speed?
To do what we've seen them do, yes.

Why do ships have to uncloak to fire?
My (current) theory is that the cloak is like an inside out shield, normal shields keep most energy out, the cloak keep most energy in.

Why don't the Vulcans have a bigger presence? They're brighter
Maybe not so much. There is a difference between being intelligent and being smart. They might not be the asset to Starfleet that you'd think they'd be.

Christianity seems to have died away by the 24th century
I walked pass the fenced off site of a old store years ago, the building was gone, but the slab was still there. Out of a crack in the concrete there as growing a small rose bush. I doubt that Christianity is dead, or religion in general for that matter. There are enough references over the course of the various series's to show that faiths (in some form) still exists.

 

[Paradon]

I think religeons probably are still around if people in the 24th century haven't lose all hope. IMO religeons and mythologies, whether it's about vampires and werewolves or the Almighty, has to do with how humans percieve the world. Vampires and werewolves probably represents the dark side of humans and God probably the light, the good and justice.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I find it irksome that they would fire conventionally at a Borg cube. Why not load a few shuttle-craft with quantum torpedoes and set them to warp into the cube?

It would be a one-time only trick, IMO. After that, the Borg would adapt to the tactic and destroy any shuttlecraft coming anywhere near a cube ship.

Also, why do the Borg keep sending 1 cube during their federation assimilation attempts? I can see the first time, but when they keep getting turned away, maybe just send an additional ship? We saw in Voyager how they have a gazillion of them. Nevermind that they can go anywhere right quick with that trans-warp whatnot. How does the Federation still exist?

I think the Borg aren't so much interested in the Federation as they are in assimilating Earth, and more specifically, the Human race. I think the Borg would send multiple cubes if they ever felt Humans were a threat to them--which they apparently don't. At this point, Humans are just one of many relatively interesting species across the Galaxy for the Borg to assimilate and may not even be that much of real priority to do so.

Also, do photon torpedoes travel at warp speed? I want to say that I think I've seen weapons fired at warp, but actually I'm not sure about that.

Personally, I think photon torpedoes are ideal weapons at warp speed and may have a longer range than phasers at warp, but as already mentioned, photorps can only travel at warp speed if the ship they're fired from is already at warp speed.

Why do ships have to uncloak to fire?

I favor the extensive energy drain that others have already mentioned. Star Trek VI demonstrated that ships can fire while cloaked, but the drawback is probably the cloak isn't as effective and the ships are easier to detect, making it ultimately pointless, IMO.

Why don't the Vulcans have a bigger presence? They're brighter, stronger, live longer productive lives, and have been established in space longer. Are they just not interested in all that?

Vulcans aren't as impatient or as ambitious as Humans. They moved along at their own pace, which might have been a snail's pace to Humans, but was a perfectly logical pace for them.

In comparision, they felt that that it was Humans that were biting off far more than they can chew...

Christianity seems to have died away by the 24th century or wherever Star Trek is set. Does that mean everyone we see on all the shows is going to hell?

No and no. I think what has changed, however, is the need for everyone to wear their religion on their sleeves. Everyone still has their personal beliefs and faiths, IMO, but they also acknowledge that others have very different ones. I think religion is much more a private thing in Star Trek. People still go and worship and observe all the traditions and what have not, but the need to display their faiths in public has probably diminished. In the time of the Federation, you're not dealing with just Earth reglions, but the religons of more than a hundred other worlds as well. Under the Federation Charter, they're probably all considered just as valid as Christianity...

 

[Forbin]

Photon torpedos are indeed warp-speed weapons. I believe the tech manual states they have a warp sustainer that uses the ship's warp field to generate their own for the short time they need it before they go boom.

The need to decloak to fire comes from Balance of Terror, where the prototype cloaking field and the prototype plasma weapon each needed the ship's full available power to work. They HAD to drop the cloak to generate the plasma burst. There's no reason in the world later writers couldn't have ignored that limitation, postulating a ship with more available power, or a more energy-efficient cloak. But I guess writers just took that limitation as gospel, and continued it needlessly.

 

[The Wormhole]

I find it irksome that they would fire conventionally at a Borg cube. Why not load a few shuttle-craft with quantum torpedoes and set them to warp into the cube? Also, why do the Borg keep sending 1 cube during their federation assimilation attempts? I can see the first time, but when they keep getting turned away, maybe just send an additional ship? We saw in Voyager how they have a gazillion of them. Nevermind that they can go anywhere right quick with that trans-warp whatnot. How does the Federation still exist?

For that matter, you have to wonder why some of the starships at Wolf 359, getting desperate simply didn't ram the cube themselves at warp speed.

As for why the Borg only send one cube, one cube is all they really need. One cube got through all the Federation's defenses and was only stopped by Locutus putting them to sleep. One cube got through all the defenses again and was only stopped because Picard knew their weak spot.

If anything, I always thought it was overkill whenever we saw fleets of a hundred squillion cubes in Voyager. But necessary, I guess given the show was demonstrating how easy it is to destroy a Borg ship.

Also, do photon torpedoes travel at warp speed? I want to say that I think I've seen weapons fired at warp, but actually I'm not sure about that.

Photon torpedoes have been fired at warp plenty of times throughout all the various Treks.

Why do ships have to uncloak to fire?

Energy requirement.

Why don't the Vulcans have a bigger presence? They're brighter, stronger, live longer productive lives, and have been established in space longer. Are they just not interested in all that?

1) They're not interested.
2) Trek is about humanity, therefore humans are the undisputed Lords of the Federation.

Christianity seems to have died away by the 24th century or wherever Star Trek is set. Does that mean everyone we see on all the shows is going to hell?

Only if they believe in hell.

 

[Myasishchev]

Why do ships have to uncloak to fire?
My (current) theory is that the cloak is like an inside out shield, normal shields keep most energy out, the cloak keep most energy in.

I like this one. If it's just an energy requirement, it could probably be overcome, so it's preferable to think there are some severe risks one takes when one develops a cloak designed to synchronize with weapons fire. And I can see cloak or shields being mutually exclusive propositions.

Plus, weapons fire would sort of defeat the purpose of being cloaked in the first place, since you might be invisible but your fire, by definition, is not.

 

[T'Girl]

For that matter, you have to wonder why some of the starships at Wolf 359, getting desperate simply didn't ram the cube themselves at warp speed.

That actual could have happened, Borg cubes have shown themselves to be extremely resilient. Yet when the Enterprise arrived some time after the conclusion of the battle the cube was still sitting there. 40 plus ships engaged the Borg, a unknown number remained after the fight. If a Starship plunged into the Borg cube it's conceivable that the cube might have survived, but surely it would have been heavily damaged.

We've mobilized a fleet of forty Starships at Wolf three five nine, and that's just for starters. The Klingons are sending warships.

Christianity seems to have died away by the 24th century or wherever Star Trek is set. Does that mean everyone we see on all the shows is going to hell?

Only if the believe in hell.

I think it's pretty obvious that Dukat went to Hell in WYLB, but the argument could be made that Dukat spiritually went to Hell several episodes prior to he's on screen demise.

.

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

I've also wondered what would happen if one were to ram a Cube at warp speed. I'm sure it would do a lot of damage, but whether or not it destroyed the cube would depend on how large the ship was, I suppose.

I think Vulcans are less interested in space travel than humans and other species for a few reasons.

1)They're a trifle arrogant, although they'd see it as being self-sufficient. They don't really think they can learn much from other species, since most other species are essentially immature, emotional children to them.

2)They aren't naturally as curious or inquisitive or imaginative as humans, and most don't feel the awe of being in space that Humans tend to.

3)If they were to allow themselves to express the curiosity they do feel, it could lead to a loss of control over their other emotions. Some may risk it, but others may not want to.

4)They believe scientific progress and a greater understanding of the nature of the universe can be found closer to home, without having to venture into space.

That being said, many Vulcans are interested in space travel, just not as many on average as humans.

Photon torpedoes can definitely be fired at warp, but they don't always travel at warp...otherwise if they were fired while the ship wasn't at warp they'd travel a lot faster. Hmm...modifying a torpedo to travel long distances at warp would create a devastating long range weapon.

 

[Shatnertage]

I think the "de-cloak to fire thing" is just a way to make level the playing field, which is important if we want the Feds to win. If the Romulans could attack without dropping their cloak, there'd be no way for the Feds to win...unless they used some kind of technobabble solution. As a viewer, I'm happy with the limitation on the Romulans.

 

[Vanyel]

I always though the Vulcans looked more to being the diplomats and scientists rather than the explorers and warriors of the Federation.