Does Earth have a Planetary Shield?

Cabwi Desco · Post by **Cabwi Desco** » 2004-12-23 03:01pm

I was just going over something in my head. Coruscant has a planetary shield, there is gads of data (canon and non) supporting this. My question does the capital of the federation even have a defense of any kind minus the defensive capabilities of space dock and the orbiting (tiny) federation fleet?

Also another question. Knowing that most of the federation is a bunch of lilly livered saps, if a Executor class SSD appeared in orbit above earth and threatened to slag half the planet and boil off the oceans, wouldnt the federation give up like they always do? or are they going to hope for a truly divine Deus Ex Machina?

Lastly. What exactly are the defensive capabilities of Space Dock?

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-12-23 03:03pm

the federation period doesn't have planetary shields. it'd be surprising to see if they'd actually made a competent decision and put defense systems about the planet, but i don't recall ever seeing anything like that in the series.

Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba · Post by **Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba** » 2004-12-23 03:09pm

Never has there been any canon evidence of planetary denfenses of any kind around Earth except for some fleets. In FC, they needed to mobilize a fleet from another sector to defend Earth, but in Endgame, there were capable of mobilizing what looked like dozens, perhaps hundreds, of ships in a few minutes. Anyone have screenshits/caps?

Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba · Post by **Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba** » 2004-12-23 03:10pm

Err, screenshots.

Cabwi Desco · Post by **Cabwi Desco** » 2004-12-23 03:38pm

okay i just now pulled this data on the defensive capabilities of Space Dock
Armaments:
80+ Type XII Phasers
Defenses:
High Capacity Shields

sounds like one flashy little thing. Doubtful all those weapons could put a dent in an ISD...

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-12-23 03:39pm

Cabwi Desco wrote:okay i just now pulled this data on the defensive capabilities of Space Dock
Armaments:
80+ Type XII Phasers
Defenses:
High Capacity Shields

sounds like one flashy little thing. Doubtful all those weapons could put a dent in an ISD...

you obviously wouldn't mind quoting a source? keep in mind that none of the books are canon and fan sites are considerably less so.

Cabwi Desco · Post by **Cabwi Desco** » 2004-12-23 03:41pm

Wait NONE of the books? Including the Star Trek Enclyclopedia? thats where i got my data...

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-12-23 03:42pm

Cabwi Desco wrote:Wait NONE of the books? Including the Star Trek Enclyclopedia? thats where i got my data...

as per paramount's canon policy, only the live action shows and movies are canon. there's also one or two novels that somehow made it into canon, but that's it.

Cabwi Desco · Post by **Cabwi Desco** » 2004-12-23 03:46pm

why not i wonder.... I mean practically all of the EU is Canon. hell even the video games which for the most part are non-canon have bits and pieces that coincide, (ex. Rouge Squadron 1 the battle for mon calamari, The game with the Dark Troopers. etc...)

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-12-23 03:48pm

Cabwi Desco wrote:why not i wonder.... I mean practically all of the EU is Canon. hell even the video games which for the most part are non-canon have bits and pieces that coincide, (ex. Rouge Squadron 1 the battle for mon calamari, The game with the Dark Troopers. etc...)

*shrugs* so go complain to paramount. paramount and lucasfilms have different policies. simple fact. it's not as though they set their policies to screw over online debaters. though frankly it's a good thing. considering the sheer crap present in several star trek books.

Spiritbw · Post by **Spiritbw** » 2004-12-23 03:50pm

Darth_Zod wrote:
Cabwi Desco wrote:why not i wonder.... I mean practically all of the EU is Canon. hell even the video games which for the most part are non-canon have bits and pieces that coincide, (ex. Rouge Squadron 1 the battle for mon calamari, The game with the Dark Troopers. etc...)
*shrugs* so go complain to paramount. paramount and lucasfilms have different policies. simple fact. it's not as though they set their policies to screw over online debaters. though frankly it's a good thing. considering the sheer crap present in several star trek books.

Like there is one original series book for Star Trek that has the original Enterprise carrying a couple of small fighters?

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2004-12-23 03:59pm

Actually Star Trek: The Motion Picture both movie and novelization (Which IIRC is considered canon) mention planetary shields around Earth when V'ger arrives. And as to how would the Federation react to an Executor arriving I would recommend a little known fic called Starcrossed for one possible reaction.

Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba · Post by **Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba** » 2004-12-23 04:08pm

Stravo wrote:Actually Star Trek: The Motion Picture both movie and novelization (Which IIRC is considered canon) mention planetary shields around Earth when V'ger arrives. And as to how would the Federation react to an Executor arriving I would recommend a little known fic called Starcrossed for one possible reaction.

I don't remember that; And I'm the only one in my house who stayed interested in the movie for the whole thing, almost.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2004-12-23 04:37pm

Stravo wrote:Actually Star Trek: The Motion Picture both movie and novelization (Which IIRC is considered canon) mention planetary shields around Earth when V'ger arrives. And as to how would the Federation react to an Executor arriving I would recommend a little known fic called Starcrossed for one possible reaction.

Unfortunatly that shield doesn't seem to be present in DS9 when the Breen slag San Fransisco.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2004-12-23 04:44pm

It is possible that, in reaction to the pressures rising during the TOS Movie Era, the shield was dismantled. However, if it was, someone was a retard and managed to forget how to build such, as it was not re-erected when Borg, Dominon, and similar forces all assaulted Earth. The shield over Earth shows all the signs of being a YATI.

Gustav32Vasa · Post by **Gustav32Vasa** » 2004-12-23 04:52pm

Cpl Kendall wrote:
Stravo wrote:Actually Star Trek: The Motion Picture both movie and novelization (Which IIRC is considered canon) mention planetary shields around Earth when V'ger arrives. And as to how would the Federation react to an Executor arriving I would recommend a little known fic called Starcrossed for one possible reaction.
Unfortunatly that shield doesn't seem to be present in DS9 when the Breen slag San Fransisco.

The Breen fleet was probably cloaked, decloaked and fired before the shield was raised.

DaveJB · Post by **DaveJB** » 2004-12-23 05:00pm

Trouble with the TMP novel is that it's only canon by Roddenberry's say-so. If we were to accept it as canon, we'd have to go by his "It ain't Star Trek until I say it's Star Trek" quote as well.

Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba · Post by **Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba** » 2004-12-23 05:30pm

DaveJB wrote:Trouble with the TMP novel is that it's only canon by Roddenberry's say-so. If we were to accept it as canon, we'd have to go by his "It ain't Star Trek until I say it's Star Trek" quote as well.

Which has nothing to do with anything.

DaveJB · Post by **DaveJB** » 2004-12-23 05:36pm

Sorry; forgot to state that planetary shields were definitely NOT in any of the film versions - just an extremely vague line by Chekov that V'Ger had disabled "all planetary defence systems".

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2004-12-23 08:33pm

Planetary defense systems /= planetary shields.

Ma Deuce · Post by **Ma Deuce** » 2004-12-23 08:51pm

Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba wrote:Never has there been any canon evidence of planetary denfenses of any kind around Earth except for some fleets. In FC, they needed to mobilize a fleet from another sector to defend Earth, but in Endgame, there were capable of mobilizing what looked like dozens, perhaps hundreds, of ships in a few minutes. Anyone have screenshits/caps?

In Endgame, one officer on Earth reported to Adm. Paris that they had 18 ships there with 9 more on the way. I don't know if that would match if I bothered to count the ships onscreen, but I remember that there wern't all that many ships: it could very well come out to 18...

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2004-12-23 09:12pm

Cabwi Desco wrote:why not i wonder.... I mean practically all of the EU is Canon. hell even the video games which for the most part are non-canon have bits and pieces that coincide, (ex. Rouge Squadron 1 the battle for mon calamari, The game with the Dark Troopers. etc...)

The easy answer is "it's their universe, they decide what's canon and what's not".

There's also another reason, and it's the stricter licensing policy of LucasFilm, trying to maintain some semblance of consistency. I've not read any Trek books, but I've heard that they fuck continuity even worse than the actual shows. (in one book a Galaxy can blow a star with a single phaser shot, in another they have trouble heating an asteroid fragment, some books try to adhere to known Warp speeds, while in others their Warp drives at warp 1 can cross from one galaxy to another in seconds, wank wank wank, etc.)

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2004-12-23 11:48pm

There's also the fact that, from the release of RotJ to TPM, the novels and games were the only new Star Wars things being written, so Lucasfilm could devote all their attention to making sure they were consistant with each other. Star Trek, on the other hand, has been producing hour-long, weekly episodes of the various series ever since TNG started in 1987, with two series running concurrently for much of that time, as well as a new movie every few years. It would be hard enough to keep all those things straight as it is, without adding the novels to the mix.

Although I think that it would be a good idea to make things like the Technical Manuals canon, and force the writers of the TV shows and movies to adhere to them.

Post by **Kuja** » 2004-12-23 11:54pm

Cabwi Desco wrote:Also another question. Knowing that most of the federation is a bunch of lilly livered saps, if a Executor class SSD appeared in orbit above earth and threatened to slag half the planet and boil off the oceans, wouldnt the federation give up like they always do? or are they going to hope for a truly divine Deus Ex Machina?

My guess is that a couple of ships would try to attack the SSD and end up getting blown away, followed by the destruction of one or two major cities. Once the Federation realizes that the SSD is completely capable of carrying out its threat, they'd likely capitulate.

SCVN 2812 · Post by **SCVN 2812** » 2004-12-23 11:55pm

There was a Federation prison colony in TOS with a planetary shield. It was one that the E-nil was theoretically capable of bringing down but the likelihood of killing Kirk who was on the planet at the time was high.

But no references to planetary scale shielding in TNG on. It really wouldn't be hard to build a planetary shield, just use overlapping theatre shields. From the lack of San Francisco being reduced to a radioactive cinder, that may well be what was done. Or the Breen, in spite of their reputation as cold blooded killers (no pun intended), decided not to vaporize a whole crapload of Starfleet brass, the President and various council members with WMDs.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Does Earth have a Planetary Shield?

Does Earth have a Planetary Shield?

Re: Does Earth have a Planetary Shield?