What if Enterprise D never crashed?

[The Fatman]

Here's the "What If..." scenario I always wondered about. What if the Stardrive section blew up, but the saucer never crashed. Would Starfleet have built or given a new stardrive to Picard for the still space-worthy saucer? Would that be considered a whole new ship (i.e., would it still be the D, or would it get renamed to the E)? Conversely, would they have scrapped the saucer for parts and pushed out the Sovereign Ent-E anyways?

 

[CaptainStoner]

Wasn't the purpose of the crash to bring in the new Enterprise anyway? Like I said, things change... the E-D was a great ship, but it didn't seem suited for movie-story telling.

That's a telling statement which I think actually underscores a problem with all the Trek films from GEN-STXI, as well as a lot of other movies.
Why should "movie story-telling" be so different than traditional story-telling? Are movies really that different a medium, that for some reason, its better to have a lot of stuff not make sense? Because someone wanted to have X in the movie, just jam it in there because its kewl?
And this notion that the D was not suited to movies... what the hell does that even mean?
They wanted to use a new ship. That's nice. It also would have been nice to not crash the old ship in a scene that sucked and made no sense.

 

[Mr Troi]

The idea that the Enterprise D didn't look like a movie ship made absolutely no sense to me either. I think that losing the Enterprise was a genuine travesty. In Generations Kirk dies and the Enterprise D goes down and for what?

 

[Braxton]

The D should never have been destroyed in the first movie or at least destroyed in the way it was. They should have had it go up against an opponent that could actually challenge them, not a Bird of Prey that they should have been able to destroy easily. Seriously, there was so much time for Worf to lay down a torpedo spread and even some phaser fire (the models of the Galaxy-class indicate there were some small phaser banks on the stern of the ship between the nacelles.) That BoP should have been toast. I can't really buy the shield frequency thing either. They fought the Borg and had the ability to change the frequency ie the line "...modulate shield notation..." from First Contact. They should have immediately changed the shield frequency after the first hit. After the first movie, they could have done a major refit of the D, maybe not like All Good Things but make some changes to make it better and more of a 'fighter' as it were (if they needed to spruce it up a bit). I think it would have been awesome to see it in First Contact too.

 

[Withers]

Ummm, didn't we already see the destruction of 2 Galaxy class ships before the Enterprise-D was destroyed? Specifically the Yamato and the Odyssey?

In fact, I'm pretty sure I remember reading somewhere that they chose to make the Odyssey a Galaxy class in the episode for the explicit showing of how dangerous the Dominion was; i.e. saying to the viewers, "Yeah, you know the Enterprise-D? These guys would tear it to pieces like this" BAM! "...with only 3 ships. Prepare to shit yourselves, viewers

That's true enough. For some reason I thought that episode happened after Generations but it didn't. Since the class was open for service on screen in that case I don't really think there was a legitimate reason for blowing it up... other than that Generations would have been an even more inconsequential movie than it already was (with the exception of the Death of Kirk of course.)

Still, it was due a little more pomp and circumstance in being destroyed. We're talking about the Flagship... that faced down the Borg... and all that other stuff (heh.) At least make the thing that destroys it... reasonable.

-Withers-​

 

[SilentP]

Still, it was due a little more pomp and circumstance in being destroyed. We're talking about the Flagship... that faced down the Borg... and all that other stuff (heh.) At least make the thing that destroys it... reasonable.

Definitely agreed there.

 

[T'Girl]

If the Enterprise D had survived the battle with the bird of prey (no core breach) how would this have effected the plot? It wouldn't have. The Enterprise D could easily have been in all the next gen movies.

The only necessary re-fit required would have been LaForge's installation of the bottomless pit that Riker dropped the viceroy into.

 

[gianderosa1990]

Here's the "What If..." scenario I always wondered about. What if the Stardrive section blew up, but the saucer never crashed. Would Starfleet have built or given a new stardrive to Picard for the still space-worthy saucer? Would that be considered a whole new ship (i.e., would it still be the D, or would it get renamed to the E)? Conversely, would they have scrapped the saucer for parts and pushed out the Sovereign Ent-E anyways?

I read somewhere that they would have to completely redesign the saucer section in order to re create the drive section as any other random module would be incompatible. But I don't see why the saucer didn't survive really.

 

[bullethead]

Here's the "What If..." scenario I always wondered about. What if the Stardrive section blew up, but the saucer never crashed. Would Starfleet have built or given a new stardrive to Picard for the still space-worthy saucer? Would that be considered a whole new ship (i.e., would it still be the D, or would it get renamed to the E)? Conversely, would they have scrapped the saucer for parts and pushed out the Sovereign Ent-E anyways?

I read somewhere that they would have to completely redesign the saucer section in order to re create the drive section as any other random module would be incompatible. But I don't see why the saucer didn't survive really.

That really makes no sense since Starfleet tends to crank out tons of ships to exact same specs. It would make more sense to have to do some major structural work on the saucer if it landed on a planet, since that kind of thing probably would have some adverse effects on the materials and framework of the saucer.

 

[gianderosa1990]

Here's the "What If..." scenario I always wondered about. What if the Stardrive section blew up, but the saucer never crashed. Would Starfleet have built or given a new stardrive to Picard for the still space-worthy saucer? Would that be considered a whole new ship (i.e., would it still be the D, or would it get renamed to the E)? Conversely, would they have scrapped the saucer for parts and pushed out the Sovereign Ent-E anyways?

I read somewhere that they would have to completely redesign the saucer section in order to re create the drive section as any other random module would be incompatible. But I don't see why the saucer didn't survive really.

That really makes no sense since Starfleet tends to crank out tons of ships to exact same specs. It would make more sense to have to do some major structural work on the saucer if it landed on a planet, since that kind of thing probably would have some adverse effects on the materials and framework of the saucer.

Lol, I was thinking that myself as soon as I wrote it.

 

[DonnyBaker]

I agree with the whole, they destroyed it so they could create a new kewl ship. And I can see why they did it. But its just how they did it that was so stupid. Something thats become a common theme with Star Trek.

 

[Shikarnov]

Didn't somebody have a thread (Warped9, I think) some time ago that had pics from First Contact with the Enterprise D? That was fantastic work that I'd love to see again (and which I'd love to see extended to the last three TNG films too). Too bad I can't find the original thread...

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

They fought the Borg and had the ability to change the frequency ie the line "...modulate shield notation..." from First Contact. They should have immediately changed the shield frequency after the first hit.

The Duras sisters were able to watch everytime the shield frequency changed - The display monitors in Engineering were in plain view of the VISOR.

Not that I disagree, just pointing that out.

 

[Lor'Vela]

^ Trouble with that line of thinking is that Geordi was co-ordinating repairs from all over Engineering attempting to stabilise critical systems. Shields could not have been his only concern.

 

[Shikarnov]

^ To say nothing of the fact that the computer ought to be remodulating the frequency randomly and rapidly to keep an enemy like the Borg from scanning the shield (or detecting the pattern) and adjusting their weapons accordingly.

 

[GalaxyX]

If the D never crashed then we would never have gotten the better looking E. I know many people like the D but it never looked believable to me.

I have no idea what looks so "real" about the E. To me it looks like it has insect like legs sticking out of the fuselage going to insect like heads and eyes where the nacelles are.

It's a decent design from the front, horrible at the back.

All the Enterprise D needed was to have a smaller saucer section.

 

[GalaxyX]

They fought the Borg and had the ability to change the frequency ie the line "...modulate shield notation..." from First Contact. They should have immediately changed the shield frequency after the first hit.

The Duras sisters were able to watch everytime the shield frequency changed - The display monitors in Engineering were in plain view of the VISOR.

Not that I disagree, just pointing that out.

What was that video on Youtube that said that after the first shot, the shields should have been remodulated, and then torpedoes and phasers should have been fired....repeteadly.....until the target was blown up.

I doubt an old Klingon Ship would have taken that pounding for long.

 

[Lor'Vela]

^ Anyone seen The Survivors recently? The Ent-D was vicious when it unloaded its arsenal during the battle. I guess the only difference between the episode and the movie was that in the episode, the Ent-D was prepared for battle. Come to think of it, the Ent-D was mostly lethargic whenever involved in a surprise attack, and lethal when expecting attack.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

What was that video on Youtube that said that after the first shot, the shields should have been remodulated, and then torpedoes and phasers should have been fired....repeteadly.....until the target was blown up.

I doubt an old Klingon Ship would have taken that pounding for long.

Yeah, like I said, not that I disagreed, I just pointed it out.

The later usage of Galaxy class ships on DS9 shows that Galaxies can be badass when they get the chance, which really shows how aggravating it is that a decommissioned Bird of Prey destroyed the D.

 

[Lateralus]

I think what made the rebirth of Star Trek through the original-cast's film run so successful was something really quite simple; Roddenberry understood that to anybody coming back to Star Trek for the first film after such a long pause, the Enterprise itself was as much of an attachment as any actor/character.

And after 7 years of television, the same was certainly true (if not more so) for anybody following the TNG cast into theatres. But somehow Berman was completely oblivious to this and I think his decision to trash the D served as a bad omen for the remainder of the TNG-film run.