what if the Enterprise self-destructed in Star Trek II?

[Maurice]

In TMP DE/SLV there's no description of the self destruct mechanic other than:

"When that much matter and antimatter come together, aye, we will indeed."

 

[Marc]

Scotty in TMP was referring to the antimatter in the storage pods (iirc), in Generations it was the warp core and not necessarily the storage pods that exploded, the pods might have survived the explosion. The explosion in Generations was similar to the one in Timescape, which was also the warp core exploding.

The self-destruct in TSFS would seem to have been neither the reactor, nor the pods, rather a series of explosive charges spread through the primary hull, I don't recall any explosions in the secondary hull, or in the nacelles.

Given that the pods used magnetic fields i.e the containment fields to hold the anti-mattter, as soon as the field collapses such as the rest of the starship going kaboom you're going to have extra anti-matter in the mix.

Yes the destruction sequence in TSFS is consistent with scuttling charges, eventually the warp core and antimatter would have come into play and the destruction quicker and more violent.

But we wouldn't have gotten the "My God Bones, what have I done scene".

As for Star Drive section going bang in Generations, I'm not TNG got the destruction caused by a warp core breach right. More often it seemed the saucer section went first (definitely was the case in All Good Things).

 

[austen_pierce]

In TMP DE/SLV there's no description of the self destruct mechanic other than:

"When that much matter and antimatter come together, aye, we will indeed."

Immediately before this:

Engineer: “Why has the captain ordered self-destruct?”
Scotty: “I would say, lass, because he thinks…he hopes…that when we go up, we’ll take the intruder with us.”
Engineer: “Will we?”
Scotty: “When that much matter and anti-matter come together, oh yes, we will indeed!”

 

[Shat Happens]

Why didn't they blow up the ship in TFF? Ship seized by a hostile force, intent unknown, crew brainwashed and no longer loyal to the Federation. It would be the most logical option.

Because what you call ``ship seized by a hostile force, intent unknown, crew brainwashed and no longer loyal to the Federation'' is what Kirk calls ``Tuesday''.

A slow Tuesday.