Star Trek Shields and Weapon Fire

Enola Straight · Post by **Enola Straight** » 2003-01-07 11:20pm

Let's say the Enterprise enters into battle, and puts up shields.
How can she fire phasers or topedoes with the shields up?

I have three possibilities:

1- Enterprise blips off the shields for a split second while the bolt or torpedo transverses the shield perimeter.

2- Holes are opened up in the shields along the firing vector.

3- The phasers and torpedoes are keyed into the shield's frequency and thus "transparent" to the shields.

Something similar in other sci-fi shield technologies?

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2003-01-07 11:30pm

3.
2 would be best, then 1.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-01-08 10:24am

Given that we've got the most evidence for it, I think number 3 is the answer. Everything in Trek has a frequency, especially sheilds. This would give them some sort of reason for it.

And gun ports in the Honor-verse are a combination of ideas 1 and 2. They open a small section of the sidewall sheild up to allow beams and missles to pass through and then close them

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-01-08 11:02am

Number 3.

Given how they handle the Borg and how Generations showed how keyed in they are to frequencies...3 so far is the best unless Trek comes up with something more technobabblish.

Jetfire · Post by **Jetfire** » 2003-01-08 05:06pm

According to Generations, it is option #3. Remember the klingons had seen the shield frequency through Geordi's visor and used that to retune their weapons to ignore the shields.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-01-08 05:09pm

Blech. Kirk's 'command number' trick was no much better.

"We're losing shields!!"
"RAISE THEM!"
"We can't!"

Warspite · Post by **Warspite** » 2003-01-08 07:47pm

HemlockGrey wrote:Blech. Kirk's 'command number' trick was no much better.

"We're losing shields!!"
"RAISE THEM!"
"We can't!"

That is so Deus Ex Machina...

I usually switch off my brain in that whole scene (except for the space battle, of course... EHEHEH), couldn't the writers come up with something more inteligent? Sheesh!

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2003-01-08 07:48pm

It should be number 2, I think. If the weapons of a starship were keyed to their weapons, it should be easy to detect their shield frequencies in order to punch through for the bad guys. They would be able to detect the frequency, and then counter-attack.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2003-01-08 09:10pm

HemlockGrey wrote:Blech. Kirk's 'command number' trick was no much better.

"We're losing shields!!"
"RAISE THEM!"
"We can't!"

How would you have Kirk get out of that one?