Spoilers Who was right? Picard or Riker? (episode 3 spoilers)

[Tuskin38]

I get the impression that its a science ship and has limited armaments. It was likely never meant to head outside of Federation space nor get into this type of combat and their armament wouldn't have even been impressive 20 years ago.

Shaw calls it a exploration ship.

 

[Deks]

I get the impression that its a science ship and has limited armaments. It was likely never meant to head outside of Federation space nor get into this type of combat and their armament wouldn't have even been impressive 20 years ago.

Even the Nova class (for planetary surveys) was seemingly better armed than the Titan-A and survived in the DQ for a long time... and in Endgame, we saw the Nova class got a pretty sizeable upgrade by 2404 (at least in the alternate timeline).

It seems to me that SF took a u-turn at some point.
Why would you want to be sent on a mission even inside UFP space when you know space is unpredictable and on more than one occasion we had very bad things happeneing near the outskirts of Federation space, and inside it.

Plus, this is the 25th century... you can't seriously tell me that SF would allow a vesself to continue functioning in the field for 20 years without getting any upgrades in the meantime.
VOY got a badly needed refit/repair in Season 7 (and that was only due to lack of accessibility to a decent port in the meantime - even Torres said that it was put off for too long).

For ships operating inside or near UFP space, they would be getting regular refits every 3 or 4 years. The Galaxy class was refitted after BoBw concluded (which was at the start of Season 4).
So, every 3 years or so, ships would get refits/upgrades most likely. Some might take longer to get their upgrades if they are on longer haul missions.

It seems someone just didn't bother with the Titan-A in that case? Even then, I doubt this oversight would have lasted THAT long. Somoene on the crew would have noticed that they are posted on an outdated tin-can (and don't get me wrong, even if the ship design isn't 'new' as such, that doesn't mean all of its internal tech wouldn't be modern - essentially making it modern through that)

 

[fireproof78]

I imagine Shaw went with a basic load out since the Titan was on an essential milk run, and not intended to see any combat. If they had been assigned to the border I would imagine they would be suitably equipped per the mission profile.

 

[valkyrie013]

Ship has Phasers and photon torpedoes. What more do you want? Transphasic Torpedoes?? Its not a warship.
Honestly, exploratory ships like this should have the best shield tech available, able to to take alot of damage as there Running Away!

 

[starburst]

I really don't think Titan is that under equipped - she's not a battleship like the Sovereign but she's hardly an Oberth.

As Shaw said before they even got an accurate read on her, the Shrike is "packing" - it doesn't matter whether we can nit pick apart the assortment of weapons the Titan Tactical Ofiicer read out - the fact that they all reacted like it was a big deal means its a big deal - lots of weapons, heavily shielded which combined means she's a threat to the Titans weight class.

Titans outgunned, she's not the Enterprise but then the Enterprise shields were only as powerful as the plot of the week needed them to be anyway.

 

[Gepard]

That he would immediately leap to an irrational belief that the Titan could militarily defeat the Shrike (when he has been in similar situations without that kind of hubris) in response to a situation that is emotionally stressful but hardly traumatic on the scale of facing the Borg again, stretches credibility in an otherwise-excellent episode.

On the other hand, we did see the increasing "actionization" of Picard throughout the movies. TV!Picard would never jump into a fight, but he also wouldn't joyride a dune buggy on an alien planet and get into a car chase and a gunfight with marauders. If one were so inclined -- and I do not believe this show is smart enough to it on purpose, but bear with me -- one could take the events of Seventeen Seconds as a deconstruction of Movie!Picard and his overall questionable decisions.

 

[Deks]

Why fire a phaser at the torpedo? Just detonate it.
When they first went into the Nebula, the titan did fire a full spread, and it did hit. and did NOTHING.. Another full spread would be useless. just run.

Detonating a torpedo might not have the same effec compared to destroying it with a tuned phaser.

If you recall, they did the same thing in VOY (season 7). The ECH and Kim fired a torpedo and destroyed it with a phaser beam to create a photonic shockwave and knock back pursuing ships.

Its possible that making a photonic shockwave is only doable when phasers (or disruptors) are tuned to a given frequency which then interacts with the antimatter explosion of the photon torpedo.
Otherwise, detonating the torpedo by itself might not have the same effect.

 

[Saul]

The Titan is clearly no match for the Shrike, even in the nebula. Titan fired on the Shrike before heading into the nebula and it had no effect. Inside the nebula the Shrike still had an advantage. It seems to be a better idea to play cat and mouse until there is another alternative, even if the ship is damaged by staying in the nebula.

 

[Brainsucker]

The Titan is clearly no match for the Shrike, even in the nebula. Titan fired on the Shrike before heading into the nebula and it had no effect. Inside the nebula the Shrike still had an advantage. It seems to be a better idea to play cat and mouse until there is another alternative, even if the ship is damaged by staying in the nebula.

If we want to be fair, we should also compare the USS Enterprise D to the Borg Cube that they faced in TNG Season 3, and USS Enterprise E to the Scimitar in Nemesis. This is not the first time where Picard and Riker have to face an enemy that way more superior than their ship. Specially when the Shrike is basically inferior, if compared to the Borg Cube and the Scimitar.

The problem is that long time ago, they had Data, who could think outside the box. While today, they're not. If they have Data in this journey, the Shrike won't be a problem to Titan-A.

 

[KamenRiderBlade]

Captain Riker was right and they would have got away had they put a security team on the engines. But Riker was out of line at the end as it was ultimately his decision to launch the torpedoes - although he was probably a bit stressed when he told Picard to bugger off.

Why didn't they use more proximity detonations, those at least connected with "The Shirke"

Far better than hitting them "Dead On" and protal-ing those Torpedoes back at you.