Star Trek Enterprise Shuttles and Shore Leave

[Patrickivan]

So I was perusing the Drex Files and came across the image of a shuttle departing the NX Enterprise (incidentally not the best thought out design, though it's in good company in that regard), and the caption about shore leave made me think of just that. Shore leave during ST:E...

Since transporters were in their infancy with regards to use on humans, and the NX wasn't exactly outfitted for mass transportation anyway. How in the hell were people supposed to effectively depart the ship en-mass in a non emergency?

Two little shuttle craft that could barely pack in 6 people isn't exactly shore leave practical. Hell, just getting into the shuttles isn't practical.

Maybe it was never a big consideration because it was never planned for lots of people to leave the ship outside of a proper facility like a starbase. I don't know.

But the idea of there being only two really small shuttles on this ship seems like a bad concept where transporters weren't a real option.

My thought would be that the NX should have had two larger shuttles. My first thought was more like a drop ship that nestled into the hull like the later Captain's gig (is it called?). But then there are maintenance issues. They'd be harder to take care of if they had to partially be worked on in zero-g. And there's not much room to play with in the ship for a larger shuttle bay. I just don't know.

If you agree and were to change the shuttle/s and bay on the NX class, what would you do? How would you alter the ship?

 

[B.J.]

Maybe it was never a big consideration because it was never planned for lots of people to leave the ship outside of a proper facility like a starbase.

^This is what I think. Even in a situation where you have shore leave, a large percentage of the crew is still going to be on the ship to keep it running. I'd imagine that they'd rotate who got to leave, so everyone's not all gone at once.

But, as to your question:

If you agree and were to change the shuttle/s and bay on the NX class, what would you do? How would you alter the ship?

If it were up to me to get a larger shuttle to fit, I'd just convert the two side-by-side drop doors into one large door. The overhead clearance should be more than enough for a larger shuttle, after mods to the docking adapter of course.

 

[Bill Morris]

Don't pleasure planets offer shuttle service?

 

[Patrickivan]

Don't pleasure planets offer shuttle service?

Their hummers don't reach orbit.

 

[Birdog]

I look at it this way:

The NX class has a crew of 80. The shuttlepods can carry six each or 12 total for a two ship drop. That's 15% of your crew right there. If they run a three section watch day then only 26 people(33% of 80) are on duty at one time. So for R&R you'd drop about a third of each watch which is two to three trips with the pods and be down to 16-17 people on duty at a time to man the ship. You really wouldn't want to drop more than that unless you were tied up to a space station of some kind.

 

[Crewman47]

We have seen another shuttlebay on the NX, labeled bay 3 and 4, so there is room for at least another two shuttles.

 

[Timo]

...But the ship also takes aboard visitor craft at times, and there doesn't seem to be room for hiding the two regular shuttlepods. So it would appear that there is room for just one additional shuttle there at most.

"There" being the keyword, as the ship apparently has other cavities for storing outsize objects, including the two big shafts to port and starboard of the bridge (one of which loses a hatch in "Shuttlepod One" and makes Trip think the ship has exploded). Doug Drexler argues there would be further shuttles or their components stored there, just not assembled (much like many ships of old kept part of their boats disassembled due to shortage of space).

How in the hell were people supposed to effectively depart the ship en-mass in a non emergency?

Walk out through the door, probably. The ship apparently has a gangway hatch to the side of the saucer, just like Kirk's movie ship did.

The big question is, can the crew depart en masse in an emergency? Is there any reason to do so? If there is an emergency amounting to ship loss, is departure sensible, or would it be better to just stay and die quickly and painlessly when chances of survival outside the ship are zero anyway and will only prolong the death?

The Mirror Universe version of the ship had lifeboats. Do we know if the regular version did? The Terran Empire was apparently more far-flung than the regular dominion of Earth, and might have offered better survival odds in deep space.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[spiff628]

Remember in the episode "In a Mirror Darkly" the NX-01 did have lifepods. Captain Forrest ordered everyone to them when the mirror NX-01 was being destroyed and the boarding crew was hijacking the Defiant NCC-1764 from the Mirror Tholians.

 

[Timo]

Yup - but as said, the Terran Empire may have been a more friendly environment for lifeboat use, as it actually had holdings other than Earth itself. In the regular universe, people ejecting from Earth's first long range exploration starship might not find any safe haven unless they ejected inside the Sol system; in that case, it might not be worth the hassle to install any lifeboats.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Crazy Eddie]

...But the ship also takes aboard visitor craft at times, and there doesn't seem to be room for hiding the two regular shuttlepods.

According to some sources, at least two fully assembled extra pods are stored in the cargo bays. Seems like they could be stowed/unstowed in anticipation of visitors or the need for additional capacity (after all, Enterprise was able to replace some of its lost shuttlepods in-season without returning to Earth).

 

[Timo]

Sounds sensible in theory, although in practice the ship might not be carrying the intended spare shuttles if she weren't even carrying the full intended main armament...

How many shuttles did the ship lose again?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Well she had a full complement of spatial torpedoes, plus the plasma cannons that were her standard armament. The phase cannons were just prototypes, and the ship was only designed to carry three of them.

 

[Timo]

Older designs were amply equipped with that sort of firepower by the time of "The Expanse", though. It was Starfleet's intent to give the armament to the Enterprise as well, according to "Silent Enemy", and the haste of the departure was more or less quoted as the reason this did not happen as planned.

It's difficult to say in this context whether Starfleet ever considered the plasma guns and the torpedoes sufficient armament. The phase guns of "Silent Enemy" may have been prototypes, but that doesn't mean other ships weren't already mounting production models of earlier phase gun types. The Prince of Wales lost her gun duel to the Bismarck because of carrying "prototype" guns, too, without this in any way implying that guns were a new feature in naval battles...

What is known is that even the torpedo armament wasn't really in working order yet, as "Fight or Flight" painfully demonstrated. If such seemingly vital capabilities were essentially left ashore in "Broken Bow", then spare shuttles might also well have been victims.

Which episodes did feature shuttle losses? I haven't seen much ENT, so it's probably no wonder I don't recall any S1 or S2 incidents. S3 would of course be a somewhat different matter, as the ship had a chance to restock at Earth first, but no chance to replenish later; in S1 and S2, we could argue Vulcans or other Earth allies sometimes delivered refreshments to Archer, or that Archer visited Earth's (seldom mentioned and never seen) colonial holdings for spares.

Timo Saloniemi