Tractor Beams on Enterprise-D

[Enabran]

How many Tractor beams did the enterprise-d have? There is obviously the main one which was right down on deck 42, but it seems they added a couple as the show went on. Does anyone know where these were? (of course not including the shuttlebay ones and the ones on the thrusters since those were just for docking and mooring purposes)

 

[LeadHead]

There was one on the near the forward photon launcher that was seen in "The Host" and "The Game." Also, there was another somewhere near the aft of the saucer section that was used to lock onto the Class 8 probe in "Emissary."

Can't think of any others off the top of my head. I'm sure there's others that were never used on screen.

 

[Mytran]

There was also a tractor beam that came from somewhere on top of the saucer in Cause And Effect to try and divert the USS Bozeman.

I seem to remember reading that since tractor beams were used to tow things, the ship was originally designed with only one emitter, that being the big one on the lower secondary hull. However, as scripts called for the tractor beam to be used in more and more creative ways, the backstage team realised that the single emitter in its aft-facing location was insufficient. Consequently, more and more tractor beams were added throughout the ship with each passing season, even though there were no corresponding emitter greebles on the model.

 

[Enabran]

Thanks guys. Ill have to revisit those episodes and take a close look. Yes Mytran, the ship originally only had one emitter, which they explain in the tech manual, and can be seen by the Whitefire blueprints. I might also revisit the Sternbach blueprints and see if they have any of the other tractor beams in them...

 

[Marc]

There's also a tractor beam emitter near Shuttlebay 2 and the bay also has a smaller emitter inside.

Both featured in Time Squared and thus probably never mentioned again.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

In these first two shots, it seems to be the same location for the emitter.

In this image, there's clearly an emitter at the front bottom of the secondary hull

And here, there's an emitter up on the neck

Probably a lot more I couldn't find images of, I guess it makes sense to have them all over for different uses.

 

[MikeS]

I wonder if an "in-universe" explanation of the addition of so many more beams comes from Wesley having invented the repeler-beam in The Naked Now. Perhaps this invention convinced Starfleet that beams were useful for more than just towing. The Enterprise was recalled to spacedock in 11001001 for retro-fitting of beams aswell as Holodeck upgrades etc.

 

[Tosk]

There was also a tractor beam that came from somewhere on top of the saucer in Cause And Effect to try and divert the USS Bozeman.

That beam actually comes from the secondary hull.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

I need to pay more attention to this kind of stuff. I've seen these episodes many times and I never noticed any of it.

 

[Timo]

I don't think the great number of tractor beams really needs that much explaining. These things are the equivalent of tie-downs on today's ships: they are useful in attaching the ship to stuff, or stuff to the ship. A ship today might have a very strong fix point for towing another ship aft, but also dozens if not hundreds of lesser loops, hooks, chocks, cleats, eyes, bollards and other such fixtures somebody else is more qualified to name.

Now, the "attachment points" on something as huge as a Galaxy class starship would all be pretty strong. So even all those "lesser" mooring beams would be useful in manhandling other spacecraft, even if the thing at the bottom of the secondary hull (why not the stern?) is the strongest.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mytran]

There's also a tractor beam emitter near Shuttlebay 2 and the bay also has a smaller emitter inside.

Both featured in Time Squared and thus probably never mentioned again.

I didn't bother mentioning the internal one because it seems very local-range in affect. But you're right about the other one, it must have had a greater range in order to capture the shuttlecraft in the first place (unless Wesley carefully reversed the Enterprise into position) and what's more, the emitter must have been on some sort of extendable boom to appear from directly above in the way it it did!

 

[Timo]

It should be noted that the picture also shows a vertical outer wall where an acute slant should be observable.

Perhaps these smaller shuttlebays are actually tilted inside the ship so that the doorway is flush with the slanted outer surface?

At least it's not as bad as in "The Child", where a bay door also shows a distinct lack of hull either to the side or below. That one can't have been tilted in any direction, as we got orientation reference from a starship flying in parallel with the E-D...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

It should be noted that the picture also shows a vertical outer wall where an acute slant should be observable.

Perhaps these smaller shuttlebays are actually tilted inside the ship so that the doorway is flush with the slanted outer surface?

At least it's not as bad as in "The Child", where a bay door also shows a distinct lack of hull either to the side or below. That one can't have been tilted in any direction, as we got orientation reference from a starship flying in parallel with the E-D...

Timo Saloniemi

Are we sure that the tractor beam's... nozzle isn't designed to move on the hull, like a wagon on rails, and that we could be talking of the same beam only in a different position? I mean that would make more sense to have one source that moves from place to place than to have several, especially if you are going to use only one at a time, would it not?

 

[Mytran]

It should be noted that the picture also shows a vertical outer wall where an acute slant should be observable.

Perhaps these smaller shuttlebays are actually tilted inside the ship so that the doorway is flush with the slanted outer surface?

At least it's not as bad as in "The Child", where a bay door also shows a distinct lack of hull either to the side or below. That one can't have been tilted in any direction, as we got orientation reference from a starship flying in parallel with the E-D...

I'd not considered the idea of tilted shuttlebays before - true it would break with Starfleet's tradition of laying

Also, it's not just the Shuttlebays that have the flat/angled wall oddity - the cargo bay door in Disaster also opens to an apparent flat outer wall, where on the model is THAT supposed to be?

 

[Enabran]

Are we sure that the tractor beam's... nozzle isn't designed to move on the hull, like a wagon on rails, and that we could be talking of the same beam only in a different position? I mean that would make more sense to have one source that moves from place to place than to have several, especially if you are going to use only one at a time, would it not?

I doubt it since I assume it would require a substantial power source connected to it. Also there was no apparent way for something that big to move around on the hull.

 

[Enabran]

It should be noted that the picture also shows a vertical outer wall where an acute slant should be observable.

Perhaps these smaller shuttlebays are actually tilted inside the ship so that the doorway is flush with the slanted outer surface?

At least it's not as bad as in "The Child", where a bay door also shows a distinct lack of hull either to the side or below. That one can't have been tilted in any direction, as we got orientation reference from a starship flying in parallel with the E-D...

I'd not considered the idea of tilted shuttlebays before - true it would break with Starfleet's tradition of laying

Also, it's not just the Shuttlebays that have the flat/angled wall oddity - the cargo bay door in Disaster also opens to an apparent flat outer wall, where on the model is THAT supposed to be?

Possibly the cargo bay is one of the ones on deck 39? I feel like that one (at least according to blueprints) is the only one that has any semblance of shape and size and has a large opening on the side. Although it shouldn't have been exactly straight either.

 

[Mytran]

That's not a bad candidate. Of course, we'd have to ignore the fact that bits of the vessel's hull should be visible beyond the doors, but since we've doing that for years with the shuttlebays ( not to mention the observation lounge) I wouldn't have too much of a problem with that

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Are we sure that the tractor beam's... nozzle isn't designed to move on the hull, like a wagon on rails, and that we could be talking of the same beam only in a different position? I mean that would make more sense to have one source that moves from place to place than to have several, especially if you are going to use only one at a time, would it not?

I doubt it since I assume it would require a substantial power source connected to it. Also there was no apparent way for something that big to move around on the hull.

How big is it?

 

[Timo]

Indeed... I don't think these tractor beams are mighty pieces of hardware at all. They just achieve mighty things!

A tiny runabout was able to tractor the biggest Cardassian warship in "Emissary". So it's not the output power of the towing ship that matters, at least not much. The wimpy Wesley was able to lift a chair with his beam; his arms clearly didn't have to support the weight. So it's not the propulsive power of the towing ship that matters, either. Applying a tractor beam is halfway like lashing in a steel cable. Once it's done, it's done, and keeping the hold requires no application of power. But the other half is different: once you have the enemy attached to your cable, no amount of pulling will budge either him or you, and you don't have to apply any power to fight a tug-of-war.

It's basically a "paralysis beam" or "a pair of concrete boots" in that respect, solidly anchoring you both to "the fabric of spacetime" or something, not merely to each other. Except that it also allows you to tow the enemy along - but possibly this is effortless only when the enemy isn't resisting? The evidence of utterly effortless tractoring comes from standstill scenarios (standstill apparently being a meaningful concept in the Trek universe with its non-relativistic, non-Newtonian "subspace" underlying its seemingly Newtonian/relativistic normal space).

So again I'd say tractor beams are really mundane pieces of hardware, likely to be found on every ship in at least dozens if not hundreds of applications. That they aren't weaponized more is apparently because shields almost completely negate their grip... But the E-D having, say, a hundred and fifty emitters ranging from handheld to Stargazer-towing seems likely and logical.

It's not as if any Trek episode hinges on the heroes or the villains knocking out the one and only tractor beam emitter. They may knock out the beam that holds them captive, which is already plenty enough - other beams won't kick in quickly enough to matter. Or,. more commonly, they may overload the one beam holding them by overloading the enemy vessel's power systems, in which case she won't have enough oomph to fire up another beam even if there were sixty emitters remaining for the task.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[tharpdevenport]

I think I also recall aone of two tractor beams emmitting from the sides of the main shuttle bay, to bring a shuttle in.