When separating the ship might have solved everything?

[Maurice]

Or separated the saucer and left it in the nebula thing and tried to run off with the stardrive. The Borg wanted Picard.

Then again that episode is so stupid because they leave the nebula by flying right past the Borg ship and opposed to coming out the opposite side and maybe not being spotted immediately.

 

[Finn]

I would think maybe a seperation when they were researching the Dyson Sphere was in order. One half goes in, one half stays out to trigger the doors.

That would work if they had known beforehand...

 

[Makarov]

I would think with the Dyson sphere it would be best to wait for a second ship for backup before going in. I forget why they went inside so quickly

I think Riker could have solved the illusion in Future Imperfect by asking the crew to do another manual saucer docking and the fake crew wouldn't be able to keep up

 

[Mojochi]

I would think with the Dyson sphere it would be best to wait for a second ship for backup before going in. I forget why they went inside so quickly

They we're forced in. They saw what looked like a communications array, & understandably hailed it, except it wasn't that at all. It was a trigger for the door which activated a programmed tractoring response, that directs vessels inside.

The same thing is what caused the Jenolan to crash, as they tried to prevent being pulled in

 

[JesterFace]

Then again that episode is so stupid because they leave the nebula by flying right past the Borg ship and opposed to coming out the opposite side and maybe not being spotted immediately.

Maybe the nebula Enterprise was in wasn't massive. Had they come out from the other side the Borg would have noticed it immediately and been hunting them very soon.

 

[Maurice]

Maybe the nebula Enterprise was in wasn't massive. Had they come out from the other side the Borg would have noticed it immediately and been hunting them very soon.

And that's still preferable to flying right past them as if they were on a 2-lane freeway.

 

[JesterFace]

And that's still preferable to flying right past them as if they were on a 2-lane freeway.

Picard did say something like "as long as they're looking for us they won't hurt anyone else".
Maybe Picard wanted the Borg to follow them. Maybe he thought they could get away.

Then there's the headcanon fanfiction way of looking at it. The lightning storm that the Borg caused to get the Enterprise out of the nebula might have been so severe in other parts of the nebula they used the only safe way out. And the only safe way was right next to the cube, intentionally by the Borg. Headcanon is fun.

 

[Maurice]

That's quite a contortionist act to rationalize something that's just dumb. And they know they can't outrun the Borg, they tried that in "Q Who" and it got them nowhere.

 

[JesterFace]

That's quite a contortionist act to rationalize something that's just dumb.

In the world of TV and scifi, sometimes it's necessary to contort with the plot.

 

[Makarov]

If they had enough budget every episode could be solved by separating the saucer, and then you simply have the saucer section get to a safe distance and invert the reverse chronolarity vector, resulting in a static chronolarity shell with a factor of 0.2 around the saucer. Then on the battle bridge they just fluctuate the inertial damper buffer bouncing the resulting chrono waves and the issue is resolved. It's not in the handbook but Geordi just might be able to pull it off

 

[Maurice]

In the world of TV and scifi, sometimes it's necessary to contort with the plot.

But it's demonstrably not the case in this instance. They just chose to have the ship zoom out right by the cube even thought it makes zero logical sense. Anyway, back on topic, ditching the saucer in the nebula to safeguard the civilians would have been the prudent thing to do.

 

[Mres_was_framed!]

Anyway, to me it looks like Junior was hugging both sections of the ship.

It looks like it is just barely touch above the line to me. But even so, it might have been deemed to much a risk. In TOS, there are only about three times that saucer separation is considered, because the ship is not able to reconnect without a spacedock, so the actual feature on the ship in TNG that is an update is not its ability to separate, but its ability to reconnect

Unless you believe that the saucer does have a small warp drive engine of it's own, as some fans do. I've read threads discussing this.

The TNG tech manual says that the impulse engines can generate a low-level warp field to sustain the saucer at warp for a time, but suggest that they cannot take the sauce to warp is if it's already a sublight speeds.

Because it's got all that room & facilities

See below for more on this

The downside there is, the Borg probably know the saucer section has no warp drive or photon torpedo launchers.

It has seemed to me like the photon tubes really ought to have been in the saucer on a ship that can separate frequently because after TMP it would seem that the phasers would be stronger if they were able to connect with the warp eninges. The stardrive section has its own phasers, but the saucer seems to be set up to steer plots to be having the saucer reatreat.

Actually I think that it why Riker's plan had the saucer fighting. It would surprise Locutus because that would have been not the procedure he expected. I realized it is also a plot element in Nemesis, because in the odd scene where Picard says of his clone, "He thinks he knows what I'm going to do," I think Picard means that his clone thought he was going to separate the ship and fight with two ships or have one retreat, but instead Picard decides to ram the other ship. It is still not clear if the Sovereign class could separate in onscreen canon, but since it does not contain families, I'm lean towards "no, the Sovereign class cannot."

 

[JesterFace]

But it's demonstrably not the case in this instance. They just chose to have the ship zoom out right by the cube even thought it makes zero logical sense.

Little bit more offtopic, sorry....
Other than keeping the plot exciting there might have been some reason to exit the nebula where they did, it's just not mentioned. I won't let that nebulathing ruin an amazing episode.

 

[Marc]

The TNG tech manual says that the impulse engines can generate a low-level warp field to sustain the saucer at warp for a time, but suggest that they cannot take the sauce to warp is if it's already a sublight speeds.

Well that would explain why it didn't take the Saucer several weeks to reach Farpoint (Enterprise was at warp when it separated).

 

[at Quark's]

They were sorely short on ships in Redemption to span their tachyon detection grid. Had the ent-D separated, they would have had at least one more ship , though perhaps there was a good reason not to do so (i.e. the need to fight, or to pursue at high warp, or perhaps the saucer section couldn't even generate /maintain the tachyon grid)

 

[Tenacity]

Stepping away from TNG.

In the TOS episode The Paradise Syndrome, Spock need to both search for Kirk lost on a planet's surface, and take the ship to intercept a approching asteroid.

If Spock had quickly decided to leave the saucer in the planet's orbit to conduct the search, and immediately taken the engineering section to deal with the asteroid, he would not have over tasked the warp drive to arrive at the intercept point, and could have returned to the planet with the warp drive in good order.

A variation of this could have worked in The Galileo Seven.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

from a tactical standpoint, I think they should have separated before leaving the nebula in BOBW part 1. Leave the Borg no way of knowing what part of the ship Picard was on.

Given that the stardrive section is the more powerful and would pose the greatest threat, Picard would command it and the Borg would know that--they've assimilated Starfleet personnel before and would know that he would be leading the charge.

 

[Tenacity]

It's not clear if Voyager could separate, but if it could.

In the pilot, Janeway could have left the "saucer section" with the Caretaker array, to investigate it and maybe (maybe not) figure a way to use it to return home. Then taking the stardrive section to the Ocampa planet.

Later use the stardrive section to keep the Kazon away from the array, continue the investigation, destroying the array if necassary.

 

[Orphalesion]

Stepping away from TNG.

In the TOS episode The Paradise Syndrome, Spock need to both search for Kirk lost on a planet's surface, and take the ship to intercept a approching asteroid.

If Spock had quickly decided to leave the saucer in the planet's orbit to conduct the search, and immediately taken the engineering section to deal with the asteroid, he would not have over tasked the warp drive to arrive at the intercept point, and could have returned to the planet with the warp drive in good order.

A variation of this could have worked in The Galileo Seven.

Was the TOS Enterprise capable of separating saucer and engineering section? It always seemed to me that the saucer separation was an innovation of Galaxy class ships/the 24th centuries (invented because of the presence of families and civilians on board) And wasn't the ship a bit small to have an additional impulse drive on the saucer section or a battle bridge on the engineering section?

 

[Marc]

Was the TOS Enterprise capable of separating saucer and engineering section? It always seemed to me that the saucer separation was an innovation of Galaxy class ships/the 24th centuries (invented because of the presence of families and civilians on board) And wasn't the ship a bit small to have an additional impulse drive on the saucer section or a battle bridge on the engineering section?

It was postulated at one point (possible during the films or it might have been during Phase II).

It was also mentioned in an ST non-fiction book but I'm not at home to confirm that it was in the Art of Star Trek or the The Continuing Mission.

 

[DonIago]

I believe the situation is that the TOS-E could separate in an emergency but wouldn't be putting itself back together without a drydock. Explosive bolts and such.

They kind of do it in Beyond, and the saucer might have escaped if Krall's swarm had given them any breathing room.

 

[Trekker4747]

...breathing room.

Earth, Hitler. 1938.

 

[Tenacity]

Was the TOS Enterprise capable of separating saucer and engineering section?

It was mentioned in the TMOST book. Whether it would be a one time separation or a procedure that was repeatable is unclear.

 

[Mres_was_framed!]

Stepping away from TNG.

In the TOS episode The Paradise Syndrome, Spock need to both search for Kirk lost on a planet's surface, and take the ship to intercept a approching asteroid.

If Spock had quickly decided to leave the saucer in the planet's orbit to conduct the search, and immediately taken the engineering section to deal with the asteroid, he would not have over tasked the warp drive to arrive at the intercept point, and could have returned to the planet with the warp drive in good order.

A variation of this could have worked in The Galileo Seven.

The points you mention are interesting because my mind immediately went to asking how the plot would have worked if they had separated and then needed a space dock to reconnect.

Was the TOS Enterprise capable of separating saucer and engineering section? It always seemed to me that the saucer separation was an innovation of Galaxy class ships/the 24th centuries (invented because of the presence of families and civilians on board) And wasn't the ship a bit small to have an additional impulse drive on the saucer section or a battle bridge on the engineering section?

The impulse drive IS on the saucer in TOS, at the aft, and may have been the location of one of the engine rooms, but which room we see in TOS is its own lengthy discussion

The "Battle Bridge" corresponds to the Auxiliary Control room, used this way most notably in "The Doomsday Machine" when the saucer is apparently uninhabitable.

On that note: Spock says the "entire bridge is damaged and uninhabitable," presumably meaning the saucer since the bridge is otherwise just one room. (This is also one of a VERY few TOS episodes that actually uses the term "nacelles.") With the Constellation's saucer-containing the impulse engines-uninhabitable, but the warp drive offline, we have an overlooked plot consideration of the episode that the ship could not be separated, and thereby avoided showing it onscreen even thought for the basic plot it could have made sense.

I believe the situation is that the TOS-E could separate in an emergency but wouldn't be putting itself back together without a drydock. Explosive bolts and such.

They kind of do it in Beyond, and the saucer might have escaped if Krall's swarm had given them any breathing room.

Either the TNG tech manual or one of the AMT model kit manuals said separationg was possible but reconnection required a spacedock for the original Enterprise.