(SPOILERs) the romulan weapon

Shrykull · Post by **Shrykull** » 2002-12-13 11:17pm

Not sure exactly who invented it, (I don't recall them saying who did in the movie) but the weapon is a special kind of radiation (biogenic, whatever that means) which effects living things on the subatomic level, and "petrifies" them. At the beginning of the movie, the whole romulan senate is killed when a device unleashes the radiation throughout the room, you see thier faces turn to stone, and one romulan falls down and shatters into pieces. As for this weapon being a threat to star wars, I don't think so, I think shields will stop it, they only plan to use it on the E-E AFTER they've lost thier shields (and some of their hull as well) If shields can stop it then we know the federation doesn't have any planetary shields, otherwise they'd just wouldn't be worried about it killing everyone on Earth.

Darik Sdair · Post by **Darik Sdair** » 2002-12-13 11:23pm

More to the point, it takes like 7 minutes to activate the weapon. In that time, HTLs will blast the Scimitar to bits =)

Still, the petrification of the Romulan senate was pretty damn cool

David · Post by **David** » 2002-12-13 11:34pm

I liked seeing a new class of romulan ship. Warbirds were getting old.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2002-12-14 01:43am

Does anyone see Star Trek as anything but a Star Wars opponent anymore?

Jesus Christ, drop the subject; Star Trek will never threaten Star Wars!

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2002-12-14 01:52am

Uraniun235 wrote:Does anyone see Star Trek as anything but a Star Wars opponent anymore?

Jesus Christ, drop the subject; Star Trek will never threaten Star Wars!

They're just forestalling the inevitable Trekkie fanboys, who WILL try to use it as some kind of proof of uberweapon technology. The fact that it's useless against inorganic materials will refuse that pretty quickly, but I still think we'll be hearing all about the latest Trek superweapons.

They did the same thing after Voyager EndGame: taking special-purpose weapons and pretending that they must have some gigantic super-yield to do what they did.

Kamakazie Sith · Post by **Kamakazie Sith** » 2002-12-14 03:09am

Darik Sdair wrote:More to the point, it takes like 7 minutes to activate the weapon. In that time, HTLs will blast the Scimitar to bits =)

Still, the petrification of the Romulan senate was pretty damn cool

That depends on whether it could fire that weapon through it's cloak or not. I'm assuming it can because you would think it would be pretty damm useless.

Also, I'm not saying it could threaten an ISD....just making a statement.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2002-12-14 03:19am

Pfft, if that weapon couldn't fire through cloak, the Scimitar wouldn't have had a chance against Earth.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2002-12-14 06:01am

They're just forestalling the inevitable Trekkie fanboys, who WILL try to use it as some kind of proof of uberweapon technology. The fact that it's useless against inorganic materials will refuse that pretty quickly, but I still think we'll be hearing all about the latest Trek superweapons.

Well it might not work on non biological materials but its still a clear superweapon. Unless of course you define superweapon as a weapon that causes a massive amount of damage to anything organic or inorganic. A weapon that can wipe out all life on a planet in a very short time while leaving the facilities intact is preaty impresive...

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2002-12-14 06:02am

Uraniun235 wrote:Pfft, if that weapon couldn't fire through cloak, the Scimitar wouldn't have had a chance against Earth.

Depends. Charge it up, uncloak before anyone can do anything, fire it, recloak and get away before your blown out of the sky.

SPOOFE · Post by **SPOOFE** » 2002-12-14 06:06am

Charge it up, uncloak before anyone can do anything

I thought the whole point of "can't fire while cloaked" was that the cloaking field took up too much energy to also power up weapons. But, considering that you can't shoot missiles either makes me think I'm probably not remembering something accurately...

Okay, now that I think about it, I can't think of ANY reason why a ST ship shouldn't be able to use weapons while cloaked.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2002-12-14 06:12am

SPOOFE wrote:
Charge it up, uncloak before anyone can do anything
I thought the whole point of "can't fire while cloaked" was that the cloaking field took up too much energy to also power up weapons. But, considering that you can't shoot missiles either makes me think I'm probably not remembering something accurately...

Okay, now that I think about it, I can't think of ANY reason why a ST ship shouldn't be able to use weapons while cloaked.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Star Trek logic. Where you can beam while cloaked, communicate while cloaked, use holodecks while cloaked but its IMPOSSIBLE for someone to simply push a damn missile out an airlock while cloaked....

Captain Kruger · Post by **Captain Kruger** » 2002-12-14 06:16am

Chris O'Farrell wrote:Welcome to the wonderful world of Star Trek logic. Where you can beam while cloaked, communicate while cloaked, use holodecks while cloaked but its IMPOSSIBLE for someone to simply push a damn missile out an airlock while cloaked....

Amen. You want a realistic cloak? Look to SW. As usual.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2002-12-14 06:30am

Captain Kruger wrote:
Chris O'Farrell wrote:Welcome to the wonderful world of Star Trek logic. Where you can beam while cloaked, communicate while cloaked, use holodecks while cloaked but its IMPOSSIBLE for someone to simply push a damn missile out an airlock while cloaked....
Amen. You want a realistic cloak? Look to SW. As usual.

You mean the cloak that apparently operated by using gravity to warp sensor readings and light totaly aronud itself but in fact would create such a massive gravitational field that it would be like a small black hole just jumped nextdoor.....

Uh huh.

The only "realistic" (and as its sci fi I use that world loosly) stealth system I have seen is the holographic system the UFP uses in its duckblinds that physicaly and visualy look like a hill or mountain or something. Though to advanced sensors they would show clearly, they work well enough for what they do.

Captain Kruger · Post by **Captain Kruger** » 2002-12-14 05:18pm

Chris O'Farrell wrote:You mean the cloak that apparently operated by using gravity to warp sensor readings and light totaly aronud itself but in fact would create such a massive gravitational field that it would be like a small black hole just jumped nextdoor.....

Uh huh.

The only "realistic" (and as its sci fi I use that world loosly) stealth system I have seen is the holographic system the UFP uses in its duckblinds that physicaly and visualy look like a hill or mountain or something. Though to advanced sensors they would show clearly, they work well enough for what they do.

I think the only realistic stealth system is one that is based on jamming/countermeasures/ECM, whatever you want to call it, not some half-assed attempt to make the ship invisible. I was just saying that the SW cloak is more realistic than ST's because it works both ways, inside and out. I don't think it would work well in real life.