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the Voyager shuttle theroy

Posted: 2003-01-02 10:06pm
by FaxModem1
I have a theroy as to where they get all their shuttles, this is most likely wrong so correct me if I goof up.

What is they only have one or two shuttles, and once those were gone, they went to a planet or asteroid belt, gathered materials, and made more shuttles.

p.s. if this has been discussed before, I'm sorry, I think this is a new idea.
Also, this might be how they always fixed whatever damage they got from their frequent battles with the alien of the week.

Tell me what you think.

Posted: 2003-01-02 10:20pm
by jaeger115
Also, this might be how they always fixed whatever damage they got from their frequent battles with the alien of the week.
IIRC, even when the captain got reports of heavy damage throughout the ship, the show would switch to the outside, showing completely zero damage on the Voyager. :roll:

Posted: 2003-01-03 12:33am
by Darth Yoshi
Yes, but when did we ever hear that the hull had taken damage? :D

Posted: 2003-01-03 01:41am
by consequences
Since Starfleet hulls have zero durability, clearly attacks pass straight through them without affecting them at all, since zero durability means they are as solid as your average hard vacuum. It is only when a Star Trek ship's systems are directly hit that the ship is affected. :roll: [/i]

Posted: 2003-01-03 01:49am
by Darth Garden Gnome
It's he reset button. It can activate moments after a battle to erase all battle damage anywhere on the ship, at any time. How convinient eh? :lol:

Posted: 2003-01-03 01:53am
by Keevan_Colton
To paraphrase a wonderful piece on changing lightbulbs in Star Trek

"Chakotay : I could go charging off wildly in a shuttle against orders again....
Janeway : No! We'll be down to our last dozen any day now."

Perhaps they actually come with about 100 shuttles and keep them flat packed in some of those crates they like to duck behind.

Keevan.

Posted: 2003-01-03 02:11am
by Enlightenment
I'm fond of this shuttle theory: http://www.st-minutiae.com/humor/voyagercutaway.gif

:D

Posted: 2003-01-03 02:53am
by Yogi
Considering that Voyager was able to design and built the uber-shuttle "Delta Flyer" in around a week, building "normal" shuttles shouldn't be that big a deal for them.

Posted: 2003-01-03 04:32am
by Cpt_Frank
Yeah possibly half of the crew was constantly occupied building shuttles.

Posted: 2003-01-03 04:44am
by Darth Garden Gnome
And where the hell are they getting all these supplies for shuttles? Noteveryother planet Voyager ran into had the no doubt complex materials needed to build something like a shuttle! Let alone dozens of them!!!!

Posted: 2003-01-03 04:45am
by Vympel
Has anyone done a definitive count of shuttles lost during the series?

Posted: 2003-01-03 07:51am
by Warspite
There is a site that did the counting, I can't remmember it's URL, but it was posted around here in November, I think.

Anyway, how could they build the shuttles, even with raw materials you'll need heavy machinery for processing the minerals, building the structural components and equipment, in short, to manufacture a complex system like a shuttle. Engineers are trained for repair and maintenance of all systems, but not to build a system from scratch. They can only do so much.
Then there's the building process, and testing, since it would be a miracle if the shuttle would work at first try.
Basically, you'll need a shipyard facility, inside the Voyager, even with the magical replicators and transporters.
It would be easier to explain the shuttle magic, if they salvaged and cannabalized equipment, not manufacture from raw materials.

In conclusion, it's all a big red reset button, and lazy writing.

Posted: 2003-01-03 10:41am
by Stormbringer
Cpt_Frank wrote:Yeah possibly half of the crew was constantly occupied building shuttles.
Yup and the other half were busy working at the cloning vats to replace all the crewman Janeway got killed.

Posted: 2003-01-03 11:13am
by Cpt_Frank
Stormbringer wrote:
Cpt_Frank wrote:Yeah possibly half of the crew was constantly occupied building shuttles.
Yup and the other half were busy working at the cloning vats to replace all the crewman Janeway got killed.
"Send in the clones."
:mrgreen:

Posted: 2003-01-03 02:05pm
by jaeger115
I'm fond of this shuttle theory
:lol:

There's two shuttles in one warp nacelle! That's why they have so much problems with warp drive!

Posted: 2003-01-03 02:47pm
by TheDarkling

Posted: 2003-01-03 05:10pm
by Vertigo1
My personal theory is that they fold up in to convenient travel size suitcases for storage. :mrgreen:

Janeway: Damn, there goes another shuttle.
Chakotay: Don't worry, I'll have Torres replicate another suitcase.
Janeway: I thought we had like fifty in storage as it is?
Chakotay: Yeah, but at the rate we loose them we'll be out before the next episode!
Janeway: Good point!


:D

Posted: 2003-01-05 10:45pm
by Silver
TheDarkling wrote:Here is the actual count http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies3.htm
:shock: That is a whole lot of shuttles... more than I'd even imagined! Ok... now for a show that supposedly put big emphasis on their "limited resources", that is one major foul-up.

Posted: 2003-01-05 10:53pm
by Silver
TheDarkling wrote:Here is the actual count http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies3.htm
:shock: That is a whole lot of shuttles... more than I'd even imagined! Ok... now for a show that supposedly put big emphasis on their "limited resources", that is one major foul-up.

Posted: 2003-01-09 11:30pm
by Patrick Degan
Maybe they were actually inflatable. 8)

Posted: 2003-01-09 11:42pm
by Enlightenment
Silver wrote: :shock: That is a whole lot of shuttles... more than I'd even imagined! Ok... now for a show that supposedly put big emphasis on their "limited resources", that is one major foul-up.
If we were to be fair to B&B (Knock it off. I can hear the laughter.) it could be argued that Voyager had such limited resources for things like replicators because it had to expend so many resources keeping its shuttle fleet in good order.

Posted: 2003-01-10 12:19am
by drifter god
well. they did say that they built the flyer in about a week, and i if i remember that episode right, most of it was fabricated on the ship, so whats to say they cant build shutlecraft left and right. now as far realistic, this is star trek, you cant really expect them to be very realistic. hell, half of the ship could get blow off, and it would be back in a week too, mabye that reset button really does exist............

captain! we're out of torpedos and phasers are down,.....hmm....raming speed!!, expendable crewman #516 get to the reset button fast, we shall soon be needing it!

Posted: 2003-01-10 09:08am
by Kurgan
Maybe they secretly stored them all in the transport buffer (that's where all of Neelix's awful cooking ended up, but nobody told him).

He may not be able to cook a decent steak, but his meat makes good hull plating!

Posted: 2003-01-11 06:37am
by Chris OFarrell
To be realistic (and not simply put it down to bad writing), its clear Voyager has shown an ability to sustain itself to a large degree over long periods of time. Its had massive damage at various times that was repared by the time of the next episode. They have lost god knows how many shuttles and replaced them. They were able to build the Mark 1 Delta Flyer in a week. Going from design stage to working prototype in that timeframe is rather fast.

I very much dobut they carried as many spare shuttles or hull plates as they did, especialy given that it looked like Voyager was only kitted out for a short term mission. It looks like they had to replicate all the replacement material. Of course this would be dependent on their energy reserves.

Posted: 2003-01-11 07:10am
by Tootootoo
It could be possible.. most of the time when they mention resources they mean food and organic matter and engine stuff. It would probably be easy enough to get the resources to replicate mundane things like sheets of hull or cables or cheesecake leftovers or whatever infact makes up your average Starfleet shuttlecraft. Most planets have minerals and resources that could be mined, and I bet Voyager came across a few with already processed chunks of metal readily waiting there to be beamed up and I dont know, fed into the replicator systems through some hole like a food processor?
Anyway, given the crappiness of the shuttles and how they crash every time the wind blows, they're probably rather simplified and easy to make. Basically a box with a panel control in the cockpit, a small engine and a transporter and blam, you have a new shuttle to crash and bash in the next episode where the command crew does something stupid like go out on away missions when really extras should be sent. I mean, what insane Captain or first officer would go on one of those cardboard cutouts and travel to a completely unknown planet where it's almost guarenteed something will go horribly wrong and they will be stranded in some jungle with a cave beast eating children and some crazy dragon flying through the air shooting flames at them? WHY!? There is no logic in this! NO LOGIC. WHY DO YOU LET THIS HAPPEN TUVOK!??!?!!