Trek Has Planetary Shields, Dammit

Eframepilot · Post by **Eframepilot** » 2002-09-06 12:28pm

I'm going to make a case that the Federation as of the 24th century has the technology to create functioning planetary shields. I will make no assertion about the strength of these hypothetical shields, or about which or how many planets actually have them.

The primary evidence is the TOS episode "Whom Gods Destroy". The planet of the week is a desolate planet with normal gravity, a toxic atmosphere and a single Federation installation: the last asylum in the galaxy, housing Garth of Izar. In the course of the episode, Garth captures Kirk and activates the installation's shield. In an attempt to rescue Kirk, the Enterprise flies to the far side of the planet and fires upon the shield opposite the asylum, where it would be weakest. The intention was to open a hole in the shield and pass a shuttle through, but the Enterprise fails to penetrate the shield.

The dialogue aboard the ship makes clear that the shield covers the entire planet; otherwise flying to the opposite side of the planet would be futile. What is especially interesting is that a planetary shield is employed to protect such a strategically worthless planet. There is just one Federation installation on it and nothing but toxic gases outside; a theater shield would have been sufficient protection. This indicates that the Feds of the 23rd century found the construction of planetary shields to be trivial.

Secondary evidence is the Voy. episode "Nightingale", where we see a planetary shield protecting the homeworld of a species under siege by another hostile species. The species in question has just developed a cloaking device to break the blockade of their homeworld, so their tech level is likely not significantly more advanced than the Federation. The shield definitely exists; we even see the flair in the atmosphere as Harry Kim's ship passes through. Kim expresses no astonishment when hearing of the shield's existence. This indicates that planetary shields do exist in the 24th century Trek galaxy.

These two pieces of evidence are enough to prove my assertion that the Federation has the technology to construct planetary shields. Clearly, if the technology existed in the 23rd century, it should exist in the 24th. There is no reason to assume that the technology has been "lost"; Garth's shield was not an experimental prototype and was never destroyed.

Whether or not Earth and other planets possess planetary shields in the 24th century is an unresolved question; however, considering the evidence of Garth's shield around a strategically insignificant installation, I propose that they most likely do have planetary shields around major worlds. We have never seen a planetary bombardment on a major Federation world in action. The Breen attack on Earth is NOT evidence of absence of a shield; the Breen may have overloaded the shield around San Francisco, or the very light (for at least kilo- or megaton-ranged weapons) damage may have been caused by bleed through the shield, or the Breen may have fired before the shield was raised. (They have cloaking devices, mentioned in TNG "Hero Worship") I do not claim that EVERY Federation planet has a shield; this is not even true of the Star Wars galaxy. Naboo, despite being the capital world of an entire sector, did not possess a shield until after TPM (evidence: Ep. II:ICS). But the Federation undeniably has the technology to construct planetary shields in the 24th century.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2002-09-06 12:49pm

Ahhh. A good debate that hasn't been done to death.

I point out the lack of surprise in Nightingale is from knowledge of the shield in The Last Outpost(TNG. Check Mike's canon database for some info on it), or simply from the phenomenon I call 'Voyager Jadism', which means the whole crew is so jaded by superbeings and supertech that nothing surprises them anymore.

As to the STRENGTHS of these shields, there is plenty of evidence they have shields that can prevent all transport and some scanning on their major worlds. As for strength against weapons fire, I'm not sure.

Eframepilot · Post by **Eframepilot** » 2002-09-06 01:05pm

SirNitram wrote:Ahhh. A good debate that hasn't been done to death.

All right!

I point out the lack of surprise in Nightingale is from knowledge of the shield in The Last Outpost(TNG. Check Mike's canon database for some info on it), or simply from the phenomenon I call 'Voyager Jadism', which means the whole crew is so jaded by superbeings and supertech that nothing surprises them anymore.

I disagree that Kim can be expected to know anything about the Tkon's capabilities and thus not be surprised to see another planetary shield elsewhere. Wouldn't he be astonished to see another Dyson sphere, despite "Relics"? However, you are right about his lack of surprise being weak evidence - that was mostly to counter Mike's database entry on Aldea, where IIRC he uses Picard's awe at Aldea's planetary cloak to argue that planetary shields would be similarly astounding.

As to the STRENGTHS of these shields, there is plenty of evidence they have shields that can prevent all transport and some scanning on their major worlds. As for strength against weapons fire, I'm not sure.

The asylum shield resisted the Enterprise's phaser fire even at the weakest point at the opposite side of the planet, so it was capable of temporarily deflecting the bombardment of one ship. Scotty claimed that the Enterprise could overwhelm the shield but not without killing the captain and every living thing on the planet. The "Nightingale" shield, though not Federation, kept a hostile species at bay for years at a minimum. No calculations are possible, but the shields are almost certainly proof against some degree of weapons fire.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2002-09-06 01:11pm

Quite. Phaser fire was deflected, but a full volley would overload the generator catastrophically? Hrm. Very confusing. I don't recall how they got through.. Didn't they wittle down the shield enough to send a shuttle through?

Eframepilot · Post by **Eframepilot** » 2002-09-06 01:25pm

SirNitram wrote:Quite. Phaser fire was deflected, but a full volley would overload the generator catastrophically? Hrm. Very confusing. I don't recall how they got through.. Didn't they wittle down the shield enough to send a shuttle through?

I have forgotten exactly how they got through as well. I'm pretty sure they failed to lower the shield by brute force. Wasn't Spock let in by Garth voluntarily or by trickery or something? Gah.

Eframepilot · Post by **Eframepilot** » 2002-09-06 01:37pm

Okay, I've found a summary on the Web and refreshed my memory. Scotty never got through the force field, and Spock was on the planet the entire time. Kirk and Spock overcame Garth without orbital help and lowered the shield themselves.

So we have Scotty's statement that they could overwhelm the shield (with mass destruction to the planet) and the actual fact that phasers failed to take down the force field. Either Scotty is wrong about the relative strength of the force field to phasers, phasers were not used for a long enough period, or phasers were used at too low levels out of caution (but no dialogue supports this last theory IIRC). I'd say that the episode proves that 23rd century Feds had weapon-resisting planetary forcefields; logically, shields would be much much stronger on heavily inhabited Class M planets than on the toxic planet with the galaxy's last loony bin, population half a dozen.

Eframepilot · Post by **Eframepilot** » 2002-09-06 01:53pm

Transcript can be found here: http://www.voyager.cz/tos/epizody/72who ... ytrans.htm

Apparently full power phasers were used on the far side of the planet, and the force field held for at least two volleys:

Ship's phasers to narrow beam.
- Ship's phasers ready, sir. - Let's punch a hole in it. Full power.
Another blast, full power.
Force field's still holding, sir.

(scene switch back to surface, where Kirk and Spock defeat Garth)

How long the shield would have continued to hold out is unknown.

Evil Jerk · Post by **Evil Jerk** » 2002-09-06 01:59pm

As far as I remember (that link is broken for me so I don't know what the transcript says), they talked about not being able to beam through the shield, but Scotty said they could beam a security team outside the shield and have them walk to the asylum, so it can't have covered the entire planet.

TheDarkling · Post by **TheDarkling** » 2002-09-06 02:10pm

Spock:It is of little consequence. Memory Alpha has no protective shields.
Kirk: - No shields? -
Spock:None, Captain.
When the library complex was assembled,
shielding was considered inappropriate to its totally academic purpose.
Since the information on the planet is available to everyone,

The Lights of Zetar. (Im guessing who said what but I just wanted the exact wording).

You will note that Kirk is shocked to learn that Memory Alpha has no shields however again this may not be a shield on the planetary scale it is note worthy that Kirk expected the place to have a shield at least covering the entire complex on the planet if not the planet itself.

Therefore at the very least key Federation places would have some short of shield protecting them (either on a planetary scale or a city by city arangement).

If a library is expected to have a shield SF HQ (at the very least if not every city or the entire planet) would have one thus explaining the light damage Earth took from the Breen.

Eframepilot · Post by **Eframepilot** » 2002-09-06 02:15pm

Evil Jerk wrote:As far as I remember (that link is broken for me so I don't know what the transcript says), they talked about not being able to beam through the shield, but Scotty said they could beam a security team outside the shield and have them walk to the asylum, so it can't have covered the entire planet.

Scotty never said that they could beam down. He DOES say:

The force field is weakest on the far side of the planet.
We can send down a shuttlecraft...
carrying a team in environmental suits.

Clearly the shield must cover the entire planet. This statement vaguely implies that a shuttle could penetrate the shield at its weakest point, but the idea is quickly dismissed. It is unclear whether the shuttle could penetrate the shield by itself or whether it would have to be penetrated via weapons first. In light of Scotty's later actions, the second theory is far more logical. It is definitely confirmed that the weakest point of the shield can repel a couple of maximum power phaser blasts.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2002-09-06 02:47pm

I remember someone mentioning that ST:TMP indicated a shield was part of Earth's defenses.

Singular Quartet · Post by **Singular Quartet** » 2002-09-06 03:15pm

Ender wrote:I remember someone mentioning that ST:TMP indicated a shield was part of Earth's defenses.

That was in Gene's novelisation of TMP, not in the movie.

Asdeed · Post by **Asdeed** » 2002-09-06 03:31pm

In the TNG episode Gambit, the Calder II outpost had a shield covering the entire archealogical site, which does at least show theatre shields were still in use during TNG.

Of course, one treknobble shot put it down, but it's still something

TheDarkling · Post by **TheDarkling** » 2002-09-06 03:38pm

Asdeed: It was said to be a weak shield though and it would have taken a few minutes to take down without Picards Lucky shot or whatever he did.

Asdeed · Post by **Asdeed** » 2002-09-06 04:07pm

Hey, I didn't suggest it was strong, I just wanted to cite one example of planetary installations using shields in the TNG era. Plus I did mention it was taken out with one shot, thanks to the infamous trek 'resonance frequencies'.

TheDarkling · Post by **TheDarkling** » 2002-09-06 04:35pm

I was taking a shot I was just adding info to make the situation clearer.

Ted C · Post by **Ted C** » 2002-09-06 06:34pm

SirNitram wrote:Quite. Phaser fire was deflected, but a full volley would overload the generator catastrophically? Hrm. Very confusing.

Not really. If they hit the shield hard enough to blow the generator at the asylum, they might well have caused a life support failure. The atmosphere on the planet being toxic, that would have killed every living thing (the residents of the asylum being the only living things there).

Grand Admiral Thrawn · Post by **Grand Admiral Thrawn** » 2002-09-06 06:50pm

Ah. Very well. ST has some sort of planetary shields above no transporter fields.

DarkStar · Post by **DarkStar** » 2002-09-06 09:09pm

Eframepilot, don't forget the shield over the Tantalus colony in "Dagger of the Mind"[TOS], or over the Calder II outpost in "Gambit"[TNG].

Granted, all we know of the Tantalus shield is that it readily prevented beaming and communications, but it was likely of the same calibre as the the "Whom Gods Destroy" shield, which despite only being necessary over a tiny part of the planet, actually covered the entire surface.

As for the Calder Two shield, all we know is that the mercenaries were unable to transport artifacts off of the surface while the outpost's shields were up, and Baran expected to be able to overwhelm the outpost shields. The script suggests that the shield covers the outpost and ruins.

However, just as a matter of principle, the fact that a science outpost has shields of such extent is rather telling.

TheDarkling · Post by **TheDarkling** » 2002-09-06 09:14pm

This evidence does seem to point to the Feds treating planetary shields as something that isnt differcult to build at all it also explains the low dmage on SF HQ.

This combined with federation planetary defenses (both ground bound and possibly orbital) actually means important worlds could put up a fight, not aganist current ISD figures of course but still.

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2002-09-07 07:07pm

Well, these planetary shields were probably made to withstand ardment from ships of strengths they've seen, not something far more powerful.

TheDarkling · Post by **TheDarkling** » 2002-09-07 07:46pm

Not everything is about Vs you know, its been stated that the strength of these shields is unknown but then again so is the exact particulars of almost everything trek wise.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2002-09-07 09:14pm

What I find odd is the fact that these shields do not prevent beaming (IE, When people beam from orbit to starfleet headquarters in the aloien parasies taking over starfleeet episode). This shows they are radically different from ship shields.

Why?

Grand Admiral Thrawn · Post by **Grand Admiral Thrawn** » 2002-09-07 09:16pm

Ender wrote:What I find odd is the fact that these shields do not prevent beaming (IE, When people beam from orbit to starfleet headquarters in the aloien parasies taking over starfleeet episode). This shows they are radically different from ship shields.

Why?

Perhaps there isn't any reason to keep shields up 24/7. In Peacetime.

TheDarkling · Post by **TheDarkling** » 2002-09-07 09:17pm

Ender: Its possible the shields were down.