the bubble shields

[RobertScorpio]

I haven't seen all the of the remastered FX for TOS, but did they ever show the Enterprise being fired upon and the 'bubble' shield effect we see in later episodes? Did ENTERPRISE have the effect too?

There are scenes in the old TOS FX (notably when the Romulans attack during the episode where kirk/others age real fast) where it seems as if these tiny torpedo things are actually hitting the ship even though the shields are up...

Anyway, do the new effects show an energy shield now when weapons hit the shields?? And does archer's ENTERPRISE have the bubble too?

rob

 

[Michael]

Haven't watched a single episode of remastered Trek, but I know that Archer's Enterprise doesn't have shields. At least not in the traditional sense of Star Trek shields. They have a polarized hull plating. (Which in story terms works – or fails to work – just like the later shields.) So, no "bubble shields" there ...

 

[RobertScorpio]

Haven't watched a single episode of remastered Trek, but I know that Archer's Enterprise doesn't have shields. At least not in the traditional sense of Star Trek shields. They have a polarized hull plating. (Which in story terms works – or fails to work – just like the later shields.) So, no "bubble shields" there ...

Thanks...I totally forgot about Enterprise's polorized hull.

Great avatar too!

Rob

 

[Michael]

Great avatar too!

Thank you!

 

[Jeyl]

The remastering of the TOS episode "Errand of Mercy" does have some instances of a 'shield bubble' use, though very mild. They're at 0:07 and 0:36.

LINK

 

[RobertScorpio]

The remastering of the TOS episode "Errand of Mercy" does have some instances of a 'shield bubble' use, though very mild. They're at 0:07 and 0:36.

LINK

Cool...thanks for the link...

Rob

 

[Navigator_NCC2120]

There are scenes in the old TOS FX (notably when the Romulans attack during the episode where kirk/others age real fast) where it seems as if these tiny torpedo things are actually hitting the ship even though the shields are up...

rob

There was at least one episode of TAS, "More Tribbles, More Troubles", where we see a glow outlining the Enterprise to indicate shields are up when the Klingons open fire on her. So that's probably what the old TOS FX would have shown if they had the time and money for it back then.


Here are 2 pictures of the shield effect from that episode courtesy of trekcore:
Picture 1
Picture 2

Here are 2 pictures of the glowing outline shield effect when the ship is hit by enemy weapons, from TAS episode "The Time Trap" for both the Enterprise and the Klingon Battlecruiser:

Enterprise
Klingon Battlecruiser

Personally, I prefer the bubble shield effect, that is what they (Interplay) used in the "Star Trek: Starfleet Command" 3-d simulation computer game (which is based on the old Star Fleet Battles table top board game).


Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
/\

 

[publiusr]

The first bubble shield I saw was some box art of the old D-7 model firing on the Enterprise. Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise talked about skni tight fields, and Dreadnaught talked about layered defenses. We saw some of this in the novelization of STTMP, where you had the deflectors, force fields and force shields all mentioned. In ST II we had the anti transporter field around the bridge, so layered defenses are canon, in that we see the bubble in TNG and surface strikes in TOS

 

[Lor'Vela]

Even in ENT's Mirror episode as the Defiant was under attack from Tholians, there was no clear shield bubble effect. There was no bubble effect in TUC either. I'm thinking that shields in Kirk's era operated in a very similar way as the Ent-E was in Nemesis, where the shield effect was very tightly wrapped around the hull.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Yeah, TUC just had some crackling or whatever where the weapons hits had occured (and damage?)

 

[Gagarin]

To be fair, we never saw directed energy weapons used against a movie-era starship with it's shields up (does the plasma probe thing from TMP count?). Those may have had a bubble effect, whereas torpedo's would impact near the hull surface - sometimes causing physical damage, if not scarring.

Weapons and shield technology would be a constant sea-saw.

We did see that NCC-2000 took a direct Klingon torpedo hit, with sheilds up, and it did not cause any damange or scarring to it's hull.

 

[I am not Spock]

I actually liked the 'Star Trek Nemesis' shield effect, with only the area being hit by the weapon fire being illuminated.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

We did see that NCC-2000 took a direct Klingon torpedo hit, with sheilds up, and it did not cause any damange or scarring to it's hull.

Maybe, just maybe, the Enterprise had the layered defenses alluded to in TMP, whilst the Excelsior had a single, all-encompassing system like in TNG. Perhaps Chang's ship was equipped with torpedoes designed to circumvent certain defensive measures (like the "defense fields" or "screens"), but didn't punch through Excelsior's new-fangled shield quite as easily.

 

[Gagarin]

We did see that NCC-2000 took a direct Klingon torpedo hit, with sheilds up, and it did not cause any damange or scarring to it's hull.

Maybe, just maybe, the Enterprise had the layered defenses alluded to in TMP, whilst the Excelsior had a single, all-encompassing system like in TNG. Perhaps Chang's ship was equipped with torpedoes designed to circumvent certain defensive measures (like the "defense fields" or "screens"), but didn't punch through Excelsior's new-fangled shield quite as easily.

My thoughts exactly. And maybe the Excelsior hadn't ever been fired upon before in battle, hence the reaction shots from everyone on the bridge --- how would it stand up?

 

[Lor'Vela]

^ Assuming Tuvok's memory was accurate in VOY's Flashback, the Excelsior received torpedo hits from Kang's warship. Seems that the skin-tight shield effect was also maintained in that episode.

 

[Gagarin]

^ Assuming Tuvok's memory was accurate in VOY's Flashback, the Excelsior received torpedo hits from Kang's warship. Seems that the skin-tight shield effect was also maintained in that episode.

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh................
=)

 

[Major Chord]

I've always been of the opinion that Excelsior received the same sort of damage Enterprise did from the torpedo hits (scorching of the hull), and that we did not see it because we never saw the ship from the angle it was hit at (ventral). The shields did their job, and prevented the torpedo from breaching the hull of either ship, but it makes sense that there's still be some superficial damage. I mean, you are facing a chunk of metal filled with explosives at warp speed. Even if the shields block out all the explosive force, there's still the possibility of the kinetic energy getting through.

 

[Gagarin]

I've always been of the opinion that Excelsior received the same sort of damage Enterprise did from the torpedo hits (scorching of the hull), and that we did not see it because we never saw the ship from the angle it was hit at (ventral). The shields did their job, and prevented the torpedo from breaching the hull of either ship, but it makes sense that there's still be some superficial damage. I mean, you are facing a chunk of metal filled with explosives at warp speed. Even if the shields block out all the explosive force, there's still the possibility of the kinetic energy getting through.

We do see the ship from the same angle it was hit, though.
It explodes. Cut to people flying around. Cut to people looking at view screen. Cut to viewscreen showing a few sparks and Excelsior shrugging off the torpedo like a champ - white hull intact.

 

[Arpy]

Great avatar too!

Seconded.