The Enetrprise D's Record of Battles

[Mark_Nguyen]

I've been loading up on TNG episodes recently, and it occurred to me that the ship wasn't REALLY in that many ship to ship battles. Sure, she was bounced around in most episodes by a variety of anomalies, but I'm wondering just how much battle damage she took over her eight years. Chronologically speaking, and not including non-canon sources, I've sumarized the following:

Season 1:

The Last Outpost - zapped by Ferengi beam, no real damage
Arsenal of Freedom - trades fire with automated probe; various systems disabled, thermal damage from entering the atmosphere

Season 2:

Q Who - battle with the Borg, significant hull damage and shield loss
Peak Performance - disabled by Ferengi marauder with shields down

Season 3:

The Survivors - significant damage by imaginary Husnock warship
The Defector - fired upon by romulans, shield damage only
The Hunted - rammed by captured ship, bounced off of shields
Yesterday's Enterprise - disabled and about to be destroyed, doesn't count
Tin Man - took several shots from a Romulan warbird, damaged by Tin Man's "wave"
The Best of Both Worlds I and II - arguably the most damaged the Enterprise-D has ever been in battle, significant hull damage

Season 4

The Wounded - minor damage from a Cardassian Galor; the starboard power coupling went down


Season 5

Darmok - shield and system damage from the Tamarian ship
Unification Part I - same thing from pirate ship
Conundrum - very minor damage from Lysian patrol drones

Season 6

Rascals - Disabled by surplus Klingon warships (!)
The Chase - Minor damage from Yridian destroyer; minor (faked) damage from fleeing Cardassian ships
Timescape - Significant damage when fired upon unshielded by Romulan ship
Descent Parts I and II - Significant shield and thermal damage from Borg ship

Season 7

Gambit Parts I and II - Minor damage from priate ship (mostly faked)

I'm sure I missed a few from the later seasons - these are mostly off the top of my head. Anyone care to help fill out any other incidents of battle damage she took?

In any case, compared to the the other ships in the franchise except the TOS Enterprise, this ship was only in a few engagements with relatively little damage to her, being superficially disabled only a couple times. Granted, a lot of this is a factor of later series' using CGI to have more frequent combat and more obvious battle damage, but does this mean the E-D is less of a warship? I think not.

Mark


Rascals - Disabled by surplus Klingon ships

 

[Plecostomus]

I justify "Surplus Warships" disabling the E-D several ways... Maybe they used some kind of technobabble gimmick like we've seen the heroes use. Or maybe they were fit with massive bad-ass black-market weapons... or there could have been a traitor in the E-D's crew.

Or some combination of the above.

 

[Dayton3]

Enterprise-D.

Highly susceptible to plot driven battle damage.

By the way

"The Defector"- technically not a battle since the Enterprise never returned fire.

And you left out the one where all starships ended up limited to Warp 5.

In that one Enterprise was hit by two missiles fired by a Ferengi Marauder but then disabled the Marauders weapons with a single shot.

 

[Pikey]

I always thought, during 'Rascals' that Worf seemed hesitant and slow to fire on the ships, perhaps because they were Klingon design.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Well, just over a year previous, he was happily blasting away at Klingon ships during the civil war...

Mark

 

[Vanyel]

Would Parallels count? In one universe the 1701D was forced away by a Cardasian ship because Worf didn't recognize the weapons station set up. The Cardassians damage the 1701D heavily enough that it had to withdraw and let the Argus Array be destroyed. There was shield damage, and damage to Engineering and the plasma conduits. After a few more "jumps" between universes, the 1701D is attacked by a Bajoran warship causing an energy surge.

Datalore the Crystline entity does hit the shields, minor if any damage.

 

[Rarewolf]

Well, just over a year previous, he was happily blasting away at Klingon ships during the civil war...
Mark

Not from the Enterprise D though. Less honour in fighting from a bigger ship. He also knew why he was fighting his own kind in the civil war.

 

[Vanyel]

Clues - The shields are penetrated by the Paxans. No damage but the ship was in danger of being destroyed.

All Good Things... - The alternate future the über 1701D fights two Klingon Negh'Var Class ships. The ship loses her cloak. I think.

 

[Plecostomus]

Its interesting to see our heroes use exploits, gimmicks and technobabble to win fights, but when an old BOP does the same thing and knocks the D out of orbit everyone cries FOUL!

I guess the bad-guys aren't permitted to adapt and change and pose a new and different sort of threat... rather they should remain cardboard parodies of something that we can beat up without guilt.

 

[Praetor]

Its interesting to see our heroes use exploits, gimmicks and technobabble to win fights, but when an old BOP does the same thing and knocks the D out of orbit everyone cries FOUL!

I guess the bad-guys aren't permitted to adapt and change and pose a new and different sort of threat... rather they should remain cardboard parodies of something that we can beat up without guilt.

Well, duh.

 

[ancient]

For the biggest ship in the fleet, the ENT-D did seem like a lemon sometimes.

Like in GEN, when the ship gets its ass handed to it by a 50 year old scout ship that Kirk's ship could've taken down. Though that's kind of Riker's fault.

It just seemed like the ship hardly ever shot its phasers. They usually shot ONE WHOLE beam at a time. Where were the 20-shot spreads?

Hey Worf WAKE UP!

 

[Dayton3]

I always hated the inconsistency of the Enterprise D's performance in battle myself.

On one hand, the ship takes on Borg cubes singlehandedly and survives, yet gets mauled by old ships that they should have no problem with.

The Enterprise didn't have to win all the time. All I wanted was for it to have taken a credible force to defeat it.

For example, if the Enterprise had been attacked by three or four Klingon Birds of Prey in "Rascals" or "Generations" and been disabled after destroying a couple, it would've made sense.

But you couldn't have that in an episode like Rascals because it was supposed to be comedic in tone. So you couldn't have Enterprise blowing up some ships full of Ferengi.

By the way, as storyboarded in "Generations", the reasons for the Enterprise destruction was far more detailed and believable.

Originally, the Enterprise torpedo spread was supposed to explode the BOP and break it in half. The forward half of the BOP was supposed to slam into the Enterprise engineering hull and explode. Causing the critical damage.

But David Carson apparently decided that reusing the Star Trek VI footage was better than anything he could afford to do brand new on Generations.

 

[ancient]

The whole 'Rascals' situation was pretty embarassing (Hi, Riker!). Where did the ship's internal security systems go? The transporter filters? forcefields? The hundreds of armed redshirts?

At least the kids were effectual.

Its interesting to see our heroes use exploits, gimmicks and technobabble to win fights, but when an old BOP does the same thing and knocks the D out of orbit everyone cries FOUL!

I guess the bad-guys aren't permitted to adapt and change and pose a new and different sort of threat... rather they should remain cardboard parodies of something that we can beat up without guilt.

I didn't have any trouble with the Visor plan, but it has several weaknesses.

First off, ever since BoBW it's been pretty common for them to switch shield frequencies to keep enemy fire from getting through. But in GEN Worf says "they've found a way to penetrate the shields" and then they...do nothing about it. They don't question it, and they certainly didn't try to counter the effect at all.

Secondly, they don't fight back. I think they fire one phaser blast during the entire battle. And one torp, after messing with some overly complicated technobabble thing that was really not needed. How about this, Riker: how about you stop trying to be McGyver and just shoot the f**king BOP.

And lastly, I guess Crusher, the transporter people, and Geordi didn't happen to notice a transmitter was built into Geordi's visor. You'd think they would run a scan or two...

It's just stupid on the part of the heroes. Having smart baddies is one thing, but they shouldn't make the heroes look like dummies.

Anyway, back on topic, the lack of shooting on the ENT-D is something that isn't just in GEN. I think it could be a result of Berman's bean counting of the phaser effects. It wasn't until NEM that we actually saw the ENT-E shoot several phasers at once.

 

[swaaye]

Nemesis was all CGI. Back in 1994, CGI was more expensive and limited. They went with at least half studio model shots. The battle was models, I believe. The only CGI shots I'm sure of are of the ship going to warp because on the series they had to do some crazy optical work with a 2 foot model of the D. On Gen they even recycled that stock model shot from the series of the E-D moving forward away from the cam. Seems to me that Generations was a victim of budget from what Dayton3 said above.

Nemesis may be pretty awful overall, but it had some of the best Trek space combat out there. Even though they obviously had a very limited budget again (awful sets), CGI was refined and capable of doing cheap, decent, and plentiful space combat.

I think the D's uneven combat effectiveness was mostly down to budget and effects limitations.... If TNG had started when CGI was available, things would have been different. I think I'd like to see TNG start in 2002 and have DS9 and Voyager follow on again. That would be neat.

 

[Plecostomus]

Or a TNG remaster. I for one would orgasam several times while watching Yesterdays Enterprise with all new combat footage. In fact I might need a could of those ShamWow things.

 

[Praetor]

Its interesting to see our heroes use exploits, gimmicks and technobabble to win fights, but when an old BOP does the same thing and knocks the D out of orbit everyone cries FOUL!

I guess the bad-guys aren't permitted to adapt and change and pose a new and different sort of threat... rather they should remain cardboard parodies of something that we can beat up without guilt.

I didn't have any trouble with the Visor plan, but it has several weaknesses.

First off, ever since BoBW it's been pretty common for them to switch shield frequencies to keep enemy fire from getting through. But in GEN Worf says "they've found a way to penetrate the shields" and then they...do nothing about it. They don't question it, and they certainly didn't try to counter the effect at all.

Secondly, they don't fight back. I think they fire one phaser blast during the entire battle. And one torp, after messing with some overly complicated technobabble thing that was really not needed. How about this, Riker: how about you stop trying to be McGyver and just shoot the f**king BOP.

And lastly, I guess Crusher, the transporter people, and Geordi didn't happen to notice a transmitter was built into Geordi's visor. You'd think they would run a scan or two...

It's just stupid on the part of the heroes. Having smart baddies is one thing, but they shouldn't make the heroes look like dummies.

You've pretty accurately summed up my feelings about it, too.

Or a TNG remaster. I for one would orgasam several times while watching Yesterdays Enterprise with all new combat footage. In fact I might need a could of those ShamWow things.

Me too.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

I once storyboarded the "Yesterday's Enterprise" battle with what the CGI shots would look like if they'd replaced the original VFX. It was great! Somewhat fancier maneuvers, E-D damaged beyond repair with a nacelle blown off, the E-C returning fire while they ran to the timehole, "continual fire - all phasers" actually meaning MULTIPLE shots at once... I even wrote in Geordi's final scene as his death scene, replacing his rush into a smoke-filled engine room with the destruction of the whole section.

I should find those old papers.

Anyway, I figure that "Parallels" and "AGT" don't really count since they both depict alternate encounters that didn't really happen to "our" E-D. What I was trying to evaluate was how much pounding the Enterprise actually took over its seven years and whether or on it really conveyed a sense of being Starfleet's finest in a military sense. Compared most directly to Voyager, I'd say that they tended to take less battle damage from most enemies, showing little to no actual hull damage and calling out propotionately less system damage. It's a little like apples and oranges, but even though the E-D faced fewer enemies in battle, they seemed to walk out of their encounters with less scratches than other ships.

Mark

 

[EmperorTiberius]

I like the yesterday's ent battle the way it is.

The Nemesis definitely wasn't the best Trek battle. I actually got bored from 50 billion torpedos going everywhere and Enterprise flying around like F18 with the heavy Scimitar making F-22-like maneuvers. It was pathetic.

 

[Timo]

First off, ever since BoBW it's been pretty common for them to switch shield frequencies to keep enemy fire from getting through. But in GEN Worf says "they've found a way to penetrate the shields" and then they...do nothing about it. They don't question it, and they certainly didn't try to counter the effect at all.

Secondly, they don't fight back. I think they fire one phaser blast during the entire battle. And one torp, after messing with some overly complicated technobabble thing that was really not needed. How about this, Riker: how about you stop trying to be McGyver and just shoot the f**king BOP.

And lastly, I guess Crusher, the transporter people, and Geordi didn't happen to notice a transmitter was built into Geordi's visor. You'd think they would run a scan or two..

I never saw these as valid complaints.

We don't see our heroes "not doing anything" about the shield thing. We don't see our heroes, period. For all we know, LaForge could have been working his fingers to bleeding stubs trying to punch in new shield commands, all of them voided by the VISOR tap. The camera just didn't go there.

And we don't see our heroes "not fighting back", again because we don't see the fight. But we hear the fight: while the camera lingers on the bridge, the background is full of the sounds of the E-D phasers and torps firing.

As for scanning for Soran's VISOR tap, why should our heroes have been successful? Soran concealed the device. We could give him credit for doing it right - it took Data several days to figure out how Tal'Shiar did a similar thing in "Mind's Eye"!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Praetor]

In essence, I suppose that there's nothing that could have really been shown to make the forced destruction of the D less annoying than it was.