What do you think the Tholian Web's Energy Filaments can be used for besides what we've seen?

[Kamen Rider Blade]

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Tholian_web

Assuming the Federation gets a hold of the Tholian Web "Energy Filament" and Spinner technology and can create it on their own and mass produce it.

What do you think you could do with that tech outside of making webs that we've seen?

I think a cutting filament between two drones used to slice vessels like a flying blade would be neat!

Drones can create small floating Shield Walls with these to protect Worm Holes.
Imagine if the Dominion or any other enemy ship ran into these suckers coming right out of the Worm Hole!

 

[Orac]

Spock's giant clone could use it as dental floss.

 

[Kemaiku]

Graviton-Nadion filaments made using a specific resonance only Tholians can master due to their crystalline nature.

 

[Christopher]

I always figured the web was some kind of tractor-beam system for cargo or something. I mean, it only works on a target that's sitting in place for hours and not fighting back. So it's useless as a weapon except against a ship that's already incapacitated, which makes me think it was never created as a weapon in the first place. I see it more as the Tholian equivalent of a tow truck. (Although ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly" retconned this by vastly speeding up the deployment time, but that was in an alternate universe.)

 

[Steven P Bastien]

You could make a cage around a planet so that no ships can leave. The ultimate technology to siege a planet or enable a blockade.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

You could make a cage around a planet so that no ships can leave. The ultimate technology to siege a planet or enable a blockade.

The Math between how many Spinner Ships you would need to make a web in reasonable time that doesn't get blasted apart would be crazy!

 

[Steven P Bastien]

The Math between how many Spinner Ships you would need to make a web in reasonable time that doesn't get blasted apart would be crazy!

I can't do the math because I don't know the size of the web made in that episode. Does anyone know?

 

[publiusr]

I have always liked the idea of cubic wormholes by Vissar--but those use cosmic strings
https://forum.cosmoquest.org/showth...-Like-*really*-big-ones&p=2102197#post2102197

 

[Timo]

I can't do the math because I don't know the size of the web made in that episode. Does anyone know?

It's too bad we can't even tell the shape of that thing, so that the two angles at which we witness the spinners spinning could tell us something...

I gather the Tholians would have access to classic tractor beams (we see those in the Mirror Universe at least), so using the web to snare and haul the ship while she's trapped in that rift sounds like a safety-conscious, standoffish approach. As for how far off, well, one criterion would be "just beyond phaser range", as this is where the two Tholian ships are said to be holding, for obvious reasons. But how much is that?

In most circumstances, I'd plead at least several lightseconds. But here the Tholians may know exactly how the hero ship is crippled, and her phasers may suffer from known range limitations...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

They can do whatever the plot needs them too.

Disable and/or ensnare a ship, tow cargo, used to boost structural integrity, harness energy from a spatial anomaly, act like a warning system (like vibrations on a spiders web), etc.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Do they not reference Tholian silk in DS9 I like to imagine it's literally their web in ultraminiature.

 

[Steven P Bastien]

... As for how far off, well, one criterion would be "just beyond phaser range" ... at least several lightseconds.

Based on this estimate, the idea of putting a cage around a planet like Earth would be feasible in a relatively short time frame. Phaser range or several light seconds are of the order that could even possibly contain the Earth-Moon system, which is much bigger than the Earth alone.

 

[publiusr]

That and the EDS from Gold Key

 

[Timo]

Based on this estimate, the idea of putting a cage around a planet like Earth would be feasible in a relatively short time frame. Phaser range or several light seconds are of the order that could even possibly contain the Earth-Moon system, which is much bigger than the Earth alone.

The one and only problem I would have with such range is the visuals showing both of the two spinner ships simultaneously, several times over. If they were spinning a more or less spherical web around Earth, how often would the two really get so close to each other? And if moving at the speeds so easily calculated from the observed relative movement and the presumed size of the vessels, how many millennia would it take for them to complete the project?

Then again, the latter aspect is not much alleviated by assuming a smaller web... Not until we get down to ridiculously small. That is, so small that phaser range is comparable to football pitch range, but also that the two ships most probably are well within the scary anomaly themselves!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[publiusr]

A question. Do you think that area of disturbed space is what allowed the Tholians to exist at all. Instability allows crystals to have life giving properties?

 

[Steven P Bastien]

A question. Do you think that area of disturbed space is what allowed the Tholians to exist at all. Instability allows crystals to have life giving properties?

But, they seemed to be mystified about the possibility of "disturbed space" when Spock tried to explain it to them. They seem to be technologically advanced enough to figure this out if it was critical to their own existence or evolution.

 

[Christopher]

A question. Do you think that area of disturbed space is what allowed the Tholians to exist at all. Instability allows crystals to have life giving properties?

No way. One: The interphase zone was in territory that the Federation considered free space, disputing the Tholians' claim to it. Two: Spock explicitly said that it was the Tholian ships' entry into the interphase space that had destabilized it. Three: as the previous poster said, Loskene didn't seem aware of the interphase properties of the region. Therefore, it was quite clear that the Tholians were not from the interphase zone.

 

[Kemaiku]

Do they not reference Tholian silk in DS9 I like to imagine it's literally their web in ultraminiature.

In the novels, it's a supermaterial with a gold thread like appearance that they can literally spin into clothing, for when they need to go offworld. It can trap their native 453? celcius gas inside without any heat transfer through the other side, or leakage. As long as it was far enough away from a hull breach not to get damaged at first, you could make paper thin screens from it instead of heavy bulkheads.

As clothes, they'd likely protect from minor phaser blasts. So I don't think they're selling it by the yard on random markets throughout the Alpha Quadrant.

And assuming it's made like spider silk, well...

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I wonder how much Thread does each ship carry, there must a finite amount.

 

[Christopher]

No, the energy web is not literally made from silk. It's just tractor/energy beams as designed by an insectlike species to mimic their silk-spinning instincts.